State of the Union

‘Beyond Sputnik’ author responds to Obama’s State of the Union Address

by University of Michigan Press January 28, 2011

Tobin L. Smith, coauthor of Beyond Sputnik: U.S. Science Policy in the 21st Century, was on The Takeaway national radio program this week to comment on President Obama’s State of the Union Address, which called this “our generation’s Sputnik moment.” Smith commented on what happened in 1958 in response to Sputnik, and compared it to current day events. Sputnik was directly responsible for increasing investment in science and defense in this country, he said, leading to the present-day version of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the agency that set up the foundations […]

President Barack Obama to Deliver University of Michigan 2010 Commencement Address

by kris bishop February 12, 2010

by Laura Lessnau, UM News Service. To check out University of Michigan Press new release Barack Obama’s America, by John Kenneth White, click on the cover image below. President Barack Obama will deliver the spring 2010 commencement address at U-M, President Mary Sue Coleman announced Thursday. Obama will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. “President Obama has captured the imagination and enthusiasm of many students with his inspiring words of hope and change. We are honored to welcome a leader of his distinction and look forward to his message,” Coleman said. “We could not be happier for the graduates […]

“Money Isn’t Speech and Corporations Aren’t People” by David Kairys, on Slate

by kris bishop January 29, 2010

David Kairys, the author of Philadelphia Freedom: Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer, published an op-ed last Friday on Slate.com: “Money Isn’t Speech and Corporations Aren’t People: The misguided theories behind the Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign finance reform“. A couple days after the President’s State of the Union, in which Obama pointedly disagreed with the recent Supreme Court ruling while the Justices sat directly in front of him, we’ll give David the floor: __________________________________________ “Go back almost a century, to the time when the modern corporation was created, and you’ll find laws that prohibit or limit the use of […]