Month: August 2002

Get your red-hot World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002 materials from the US State Department web site:

Secretary Powell leads a high-level, inter-agency, U.S. delegation to the summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The summit is being held August 26-September 4, 2002. The following provides reference information on U.S. initiatives, programs, and policies relevant to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It will be updated regularly to include official statements, interventions and additional fact sheets and official texts.

Under Secretary Dobriansky explained to the anti-
American delegates today that the US is the world leader in sustainable development, thank you very much. It’s not clear that delegates were paying attention, however, as so many have over-eaten on steak, lobster, and caviar, not to mention hookers.

The discussion on the Berman/Coble P2P Hacking Bill and how to stop it is heating up, with posts from Doc Searls, Winer, Ed Cone, and John Adams.

Winer claims he’s not actually endorsed Grubb, but is interested in her campaign only to the extent that it might illustrate something about weblogs and politics:

I have never endorsed Tara as a candidate, and of course since I live in Calif I can’t vote for her, but so many people have inferred that I have endorsed her candidacy.

Basically, I am curious to see what she will do with the medium, and so far I am totally not disappointed.

Fair enough, but he’s tap-dancing.

Doc believes I was too cynical about the born-to-lose campaign of Tara Sue Grubb when I said:

Almost invariably, the tech people who wanted to get involved in my cause thought they could accomplish the task by writing e-mail to lawmakers and to each other, mainly the latter. So they spent their time creating web sites, model laws and mailing lists instead of doing real work. Promoting a Libertarian Party member for Congress does exactly what Knauss says it does — drains off resources of time and money that could be spent doing something real.

Rather than burning resources, he believes the Grubb campaign will energize the masses of Geekdom:

Howard Coble was running unopposed until Tara showed up. Sure she’ll lose, but in the process a lot more geeks will get involved in politics. At the very least they’ll fund and support what we hope will be exactly the kind of hard work Richard talks about.

Weblogs are sowing the seeds of countless grass roots movements. At least a few are bound to grow. Just watch.

John Adams has the same experience I do with losing campaigns, that they dishearten rather than energize, and he quotes from former Chicago Alderman Dick Simpson on this point (JZip):

“A final warning. Some people will encourage you, because you are an independent, to run an ‘educational campaign’. By this slogan they mean that you should find a candidate who will take strong stands on issues–one who has never been involved in politics, at least with any winning campaigns–and back him even though you know he will lose heavily. In theory, this candidate will make beautiful speeches [editor’s note: read here “write beautiful weblogs”] and slowly begin the political education process in your district. The sad thing is that education campaign enthusiasts are right about the campaign being educational, but fail to understand what it teaches. When a candidate gets only five or ten or twenty percent of the vote, the electorate concludes that it is stupid ever to back an independent candidate because it would just be throwing away votes.

“When politicians see such a result, far from being convinced to take a more courageous stand, it reconfirms their belief that they should not heed such radicals since they have no support in the community. Never run a campaign with the intent of losing. Run to win, thereby educating the electorate to the fact that good people can be elected and teaching officeholders to mend their ways. If you have a good candidate, organize well, and work hard, it should be possible to win. You won’t win every election, but you must make a creditable try. A winning campaign, to a much greater extent than any ‘educational campaign,’ will convince more people to pay attention to issues, lead more people to join in the political process, and help bring about desired policy changes.”

Voting is obviously a part of the political process, but it’s a small part, and one that doesn’t convey messages to candidates very well. Votes for a Libertarian are going to be interpreted mainly as protest votes against the Drug War, fine and dandy but not on point as far as vigilante action on the Internet and overly-broad copyright law is concerned. You make your message clear on the issues by writing it out and getting it in front of the lawmaker, either by writing directly to him, by publishing letters and op-eds in his local paper, or by writing for an audience that can relay your message to the candidate. Those seeking to change Coble’s mind would probably find they have better access and a better chance to make their case by working for the Coble campaign rather than against it. Try that one on for size.

The point is to treat Howard Coble as a human being who can be educated, and not simply as a fire-breathing monster who must be defeated at all costs; the latter position would be OK if there was a candidate with a realistic chance, but since there’s not, it’s not. Be reasonable.

Incidentally, the Ed Cone blog is trying to be reasonable, mainly. He’s a journalist writing for Howard Coble’s local paper, and he’s opened the public dialog on the P2P Hacking Bill in the district. He’s starry eyed about Grubb, and understates his own importance in all of this (isn’t that refreshing?), but he’s a journo with a blog on a mission. Cool.

The worst legislative acts generally come from an infrequently-formed coalition of religious conservatives and ultra-liberals. Since the only thing these groups have in common is a desire to get re-elected, the bills produced by their coalition can generally be counted on to protect the incumbency, to demagogue an issue pertaining to women and children, or to feather the bed of a special interest who contributes to both. The latest example is a bill allowing casino-owning Indian tribes to block development bordering their property. Here’s a story from the San Diego Union Trib: Sacred-sites bill passes Assembly

SACRAMENTO — In a decisive vote that appears to assure final passage, the Assembly yesterday approved a measure to give Indian tribes broad new discretion over sacred sites anywhere in the state.

The contentious legislation was amended substantially on Monday to address what most agreed was express tribal veto power over projects that threatened sites considered spiritually or religiously significant.

Whether the state’s more than 100 tribes retained an indirect veto spurred a fiery debate before the Assembly passed the bill on a 53-12 vote that split party ranks and reflected tribes’ growing political clout.

The only opposition to this bill came from the small number of moderate Republicans in the Assembly, folks like Charlene Zettel and Jay La Seur. The impact of the bill comes from the fact that “sacred site” is undefined.

The governor is reported not to like the bill, and he may veto it. I doubt Simon would have the balls to oppose the Religious Right part of this coalition, personally, so sometimes it’s good to have a venal, pro-business hardass in the corner office.

Via Rough&Tumble, a new PPIC poll shows Davis widening his lead:

When Davis outpolls Simon on ethics, you know GOP is in a jam — Score the summer round for Gov. Gray Davis. A new poll shows just how one-sided this contest has been. It’s not merely that Davis leads Bill Simon by 11 percentage points among likely voters, 41% to 30%, in the survey by pollster Mark Baldassare for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. It’s worse than that for Simon: Voters think Davis is the more ethical. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times — 8/29/02 Link to the poll here

Remember the folks who said they had to vote for Simon over Riordan because Simon was the Man of Principle? Ha.

Internet provider and mega-telecom company Verizon goes toe-to-toe with Hollywood. Read an interview with chief counsel Sarah Deutsch in Tech News – CNET.com

Now consumers have a powerful new ally. Verizon and other telecommunications giants have ordered their phalanx of lobbyists to oppose the entertainment industry’s demands for new copyright laws. The company is also fighting the Recording Industry Association of America’s request for information about a subscriber.

Linked, oddly enough, by Dave Winer.

Greg Knauss isn’t impressed with Dave Winer’s blog campaign to elect Libertarian Party candidate Tara Sue Grubb to Congress:

All this means that Tara Sue Grubb really is the “weblog candidate.” She’s an empty page, capable of being filled in with whatever people like Dave Winer and his philosophical bedmates want to see. He can think that supporting a losing cause is action against the disappearance of his rights, he can think that dismissing Lessig and the EFF strikes a blow for consumers and artists, he can think that the calcified institutions of the US political system will crumble to dust in the face of a few thousand people posting messages on the Internet. He can think whatever he wants, but it all ends up meaningless, pointless, useless talk. And very little action.

Knauss’ larger point is that tech people don’t understand politics, aren’t active in it, and are seemingly incapable of doing the things you have to do in order to be effective in politics. He’s right, of course. I personally spent five years lobbying my state legislature on a regular basis, so I know something about how the game is played: you show up in person at the Capitol, get meetings with lawmakers, press your case, and then work it in the media.

You show up at hearings and testify on bills, and then you plead with every member for their vote. When the other side has the votes, you seek amendments that will blunt the effect of their victory. And you put your own bills together to protect your position and to repeal any gains made by the other side. Playing the game like this for years, you begin getting invited to testify at special hearings, and you’re invited to serve on panels, boards, and commissions. More important, your name gets around the Capitol, so that media folks interview you when they’re spilling major ink, deep-pockets donors seek your advice about where to spend their money, and you get connected to people with real access who operate behind the scenes. In time, you win some victories, many of them unnoticed by the media but important in the aggregate.

Almost invariably, the tech people who wanted to get involved in my cause thought they could accomplish the task by writing e-mail to lawmakers and to each other, mainly the latter. So they spent their time creating web sites, model laws and mailing lists instead of doing real work. Promoting a Libertarian Party member for Congress does exactly what Knauss says it does — drains off resources of time and money that could be spent doing something real. It’s a sad way to go. (via Matt Welch)

Simon May Be Making History, but for All the Wrong Reasons

The question political junkies are asking is: Has there ever been a worse campaign for governor of California than Bill Simon’s?

Has there ever been a worse candidate?

That is, a sorrier gubernatorial nominee of either the Republican or Democratic party?

Can’t think of any, is the consensus of political pros I’ve talked to in both parties. Not at this point anyway–this close to Labor Day, the traditional kickoff of the November race.

My, that was mean. But like a Simon Cowell critique, it was spot on as well, old chap.

The Georgia primaries couldn’t have turned out much better, with nutcases Cynthia McKinney and Bob Barr going down decisively to more moderate opponents. PhotoDude’s Web Log: Brain Dump & Pixel Pile has a great blow-by-blow of early returns in the McKinney-Majette race, for his own personal district:

Denise Majette, a virtually unknown local judge when she declared her candidacy a mere 6 months ago, tonight knocked off a 5 term incumbent in her own party primary, defeating Cynthia McKinney by nearly 20,000 votes, with 59% of those cast.

So it was 60/40 for Majette, and the Linder/Barr race was even more of a landslide, 67/33. If your faith in the democratic process was harmed by Barbara Lee’s winning the nomination for her seat in Berkeley, this should restore it.

Bill Simon speechwriter Jonathan Wilcox urges Californians not to give up on Bill Simon yet:

Not for the first time, the liberal media has California all wrong. And for the umpteenth time, California Republicans seem prepared to believe it.

In reality, the California governor’s race remains Bill Simon’s to lose, and absent major mistakes, he will win.

Unfortunately, Wilcox offers no concrete evidence that his boss still has a chance: no poll numbers, no voter remarks, nothing. He simply says it’s early, and the people don’t like Gray. It’s not that early, with the election 10 weeks away, and Simon still doesn’t have the money to answer Gray’s attacks and shift the spotlight back on him. Given the choice between the same venal crook we’ve had for the last 4 years or a bumbling idiot with a directionless campaign, voters will go for the crook simply out of familiarity.

Republicans may as well vote Green, since the growth in that party’s strength is the only thing that stands to weaken the Democratic Party in California.

Virginia Postrel has a cool column in the NY Times titled The Rich Get Rich and Poor Get Poorer. Or Do They? that takes apart the anti-capitalist claim about globalization ransacking the Third World. It’s not really so:

In 1970, global income distribution peaked at about $1,000 in today’s dollars, a common measure of poverty ($2 a day in 1985 dollars). In 1998, by contrast, the largest number of people earned about $8,000 — a standard of living equivalent to Portugal’s.

The biggest change in the picture of global poverty has come from India and China, where a genuine middle class has developed.

Postrel draws from the work of brilliant economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin. His web site is worth a visit.

Story courtesy of Glenn Reynolds.