Politics

Does Big Data threaten to play a Big Brother-like role in American electoral politics? Or are concerns about the micro-targeting of voters that arose during the 2012 campaign make a mountain out of a molehill - albeit a very busy and well-financed one? That was the stark range of opinion voiced Friday at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, where more than 30 data experts, scholars, and political operatives gathered to discuss the largely invisible ways Big Data tools are altering politics.

You do have to hand it to them. The chutzpah is breathtaking. Republican deliverers of The Message this week in Philadelphia have taken to weaving the phrase "the politics of personal destruction" into their patter. This, in their pitch, refers to the pugnacity of Al Gore, as typified by the Democrats' avid, immediate attacks on Dick Cheney's voting record. Rarely does hypocrisy reach such a distilled essence. Let's be clear about several things. Ad hominem venom is indeed a stubborn virus in our politics.

BLACKS ARE voting for Obama. Women for Clinton. Republicans would vote for a moose if it were a Republican. Does anyone vote with their heads? How stupid the public is. Take McCain. He plays on being a POW. That doesn't make him a hero. I was in Vietnam. I don't sit and preach about it. He wants us to stay in Iraq. Anyone who is still with Bush has to be an idiot. The talk-show guys are the best - what robots! Rich Colaianni, Blackwood, N.J.

Bowing to public outcry and the dictates of the state Constitution, Frank Serafini, convicted perjurer, will at long last resign from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. You'd like to think that makes the score: The People 1, Politics, 0. But he did hang around long enough to meet the Republican Party's tactical goal of delaying a special election until after the April 4 primary. So maybe the real score, sadly, remains: Politics 1, the Constitution 0.

Edgar C. Campbell, ward leader, clerk of Quarter Sessions Court and former city councilman who died Wednesday at 84, was known as the dean of black politics in Philadelphia. He was a soft-spoken man who lived and survived in the fickle world of politics in a career that spanned six decades by following a political philosophy that your word was your bond. He wore the mantle of dean easily and well. He was often sought out by party leaders and younger politicians of all races and ethnic origin who wanted his advice and support.

BARBRA STREISAND sang at the Wachovia Center the other night to a sellout crowd. Barbra also politicked, using an actor portraying the president, about her dislike for our president. She has the right to do that, but what strikes me is the fact that many, if not most, of our Hollywood types seem to think that, because they have our attention while on stage, that makes them smarter than the rest of us and gives them the mission of preaching their holier-than-thou politics to us. People spent a lot of money to attend Barbra's concert because Barbra is one of the finest singers on this earth.

In recent years many men have begun to realize that for them and their father's generation, the necessities of work and career and the rising divorce rate have eroded their relationship to family, community and the natural world. This frustration and alienation has led an increasing number of men to gather in a loosely organized men's movement. Most commentators don't seem to know how to react to this movement. The poet Robert Bly's best-selling book "Iron John" has encouraged thousands of men to venture into wilderness retreats to rediscover the mythic dimensions of masculinity.

WE NEED election reform, and we need it fast! Not tomorrow, not the next day, but right now. We need laws that have teeth. We want to know what you are going to do for us, not what the other guy did or didn't do. Talk about yourself, and your plans, not what your opponent does (or what you'd have us believe he or she did). Let him or her tell us what their plans are, not what you think they are. Tell us what your agenda is, and don't tell us what your opponent is going to do or not do. Anyone who talks trash about his or her opponent should be immediately banned from further campaigning.

So you're wondering, how can anybody argue for appointing judges when the mayor's wife - among a dozen politically connected lawyers and judges - is nominated for a seat on the federal court in Philadelphia? Fact is, the appointment of federal judges - while it often yields high- quality candidates (like corporate lawyer and, now, U.S. District Judge- nominee Marjorie O. Rendell) - is really a political selection process. A U.S. senator - in this case, Sen. Harris Wofford - names a committee to come up with names.

WOMEN IN POWER: THE SECRETS OF LEADERSHIP Nonfiction. By Dorothy W. Cantor and Toni Bernay with Jean Stoess Houghton Mifflin. $21.95 Women in Power, a revealing psychological portrait of how women have struggled to share the political spotlight in this country, could not have been written at a better time. Already, with Carol Moseley Braun's upset victory in last month's Democratic Senate primary in Illinois, 1992 is being proclaimed the Year of the Woman in national politics.

IN BETWEEN compiling a sizable rap sheet and murdering the mother of his 6-year-old daughter last weekend, Anthony Serody got appointed this year to the commission that oversees the testing of new police officers in Folcroft Borough after working for the Delaware County Democrats. Police say Serody, 38, forced his way into his ex-girlfriend's apartment in Prospect Park on Sunday and shot her in the face and chest. Jennifer Corrado, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene. Serody later shot himself in the head on Mario Lanza Boulevard in Southwest Philadelphia.

Global outsourcing, labor arbitrage, the HR of international economics - all important and controversial topics. Unfortunately, Some Other Kind of Person has little or nothing to say about any of them except the cliches that stopped being funny years ago; Eric Pfeffinger's flat farce traffics mostly in contempt. Here's the setup: Bill, a rumpled American (David Ingram), incompetent with people but great with numbers, has come to Cambodia on business with his crass colleague Lakshmi (the excellent speed-talker Nandita Shenoy)

Does Big Data threaten to play a Big Brother-like role in American electoral politics? Or are concerns about the micro-targeting of voters that arose during the 2012 campaign make a mountain out of a molehill - albeit a very busy and well-financed one? That was the stark range of opinion voiced Friday at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, where more than 30 data experts, scholars, and political operatives gathered to discuss the largely invisible ways Big Data tools are altering politics.

* FALLING SKIES. 9 p.m. Sunday, TNT.   IT'S BEEN only a few days since Philadelphia was apparently blown off the map by a self-styled "patriot" in the season finale of "Revolution," but TV is not done remaking the United States. TNT's "Falling Skies" returns for its third season Sunday, and though the enemies of the state may be very different - alien "skitters" instead of electricity-zapping conspirators - both shows deal with alternate realities in which embattled Americans might just get to create a more perfect union.

THE MEDIA was delighting last week in the antics of what a headline writer labeled "Jersey Boys II" - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and President Obama strolling the boardwalk, reassuring the public on the eve of summer that the Jersey Shore was open for business. Superstorm Sandy certainly has made Christie a rock star, with skyrocketing approval ratings and a public fascination that landed him on the cover of People magazine this week. It's safe to say, however, that environmentalists in his state aren't nearly as smitten with Christie as others seem to be. He may have handled the aftermath of Sandy magnificently, but his leadership on reducing the environmental problems that helped create Sandy in the first place has been unimpressive.

HONEA PATH, S.C. - Four years after the summer of rage that fueled the tea party movement, the political circuit is much quieter - even in Republican bastions like this. It's not clear whether conservatives who rallied against President Obama's health-care overhaul during raucous town hall meetings are tired, wary, complacent, or simply saving their strength for a big push in next year's elections. Whatever the reason, the more muted tone was palpable as conservative lawmakers in South Carolina fanned out across their state to meet with constituents last week during the first congressional break since the disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

JUST ANOTHER reason why Philadelphians get fed up with politics! On one hand we have Alan Butkovitz claiming that only 32 percent of surveillance cameras ("worse than useless" was his quote) are currently working to help Philadelphia Police (who have been under fire of late) fight crime - while Mayor Nutter says that 85 percent of the cameras are working and that the audit has "many inaccuracies. " So, what the *&*%$ is it - 32 or 85 ?! Somebody obviously is way off! That is a 53 percent difference- not 5 or 10 percent - so who is BS'ing us?

MARJORIE MARGOLIES re-entered the world of congressional campaigning yesterday with an act of political judo, converting an old weakness to a new strength. Margolies, 70, has seen a career spanning decades often reduced simply to "the vote," a decision in 1993 that cost her the suburban 13th Congressional District seat after just one term. That vote - Margolies switched sides after promising not to raise taxes and then casted the deciding vote to pass President Clinton 's tax-increasing budget - has followed her for 20 years.

STATE SEN. Dominic Pileggi 's campaign committee held a fundraiser last week in Philadelphia with nearly 200 people packed into a hotel conference room. One of them stood out. Developer Bart Blatstein roamed the event, held at the Hyatt at the Bellevue on South Broad Street, with well-connected local attorney Bill Sasso . Blatstein, one of six bidders for the city's remaining casino license, is prohibited by law from making campaign contributions. Sasso, who was listed in the "Leader's Circle" hosting the Pileggi fundraiser, is also registered with the state Gaming Control Board as a representative of Blatstein's casino application.

HARRISBURG - A group that aired a TV ad critical of Republican Gov. Corbett is the impetus for a planned hearing before the House State Government Committee, the panel's chairman said yesterday. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe said he believes the Pennsylvanians for Accountability group is required to register as a state political committee and disclose contributions and expenditures because it's trying to influence the outcome of an election. He said the committee plans an informational hearing June 5. "They appear to be a political committee more than anything else," the Butler County Republican said, also citing the group's ads last year that targeted four Republican candidates for the Legislature.