July 2003 – Page 2 – Richard Bennett

Mark your calendars

The Mercury News reports: The election to recall Gov. Gray Davis will be held on Oct. 7, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced at a Sacramento press conference Thursday morning. Bustamante also said voters will get the opportunity to select a new governor from a slate of candidates at the same time, should Davis lose the … Continue reading “Mark your calendars”

The Mercury News reports:

The election to recall Gov. Gray Davis will be held on Oct. 7, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced at a Sacramento press conference Thursday morning.

Bustamante also said voters will get the opportunity to select a new governor from a slate of candidates at the same time, should Davis lose the recall election.

So there you are, California voter, able to recall the governor you just elected nine short months ago. Will you? I don’t know. Should you? Of course, and here’s why:

Davis is an absentee governor who’s failed to live up to the duties of the office because he’s been too busy fundraising. He’s failed to make the appointments necessary to fill open slots on boards and commissions, he’s failed to engage the legislature — where he’s widely hated, even by members of his own party — around a common agenda, and he’s failed to use this line-item veto to keep the budget under control.

Davis is a quirk of the political process, a candidate who’s great at campaigning, where his primary technique is sliming his opponent, but bad at actually doing the job he was hired to do.

Davis doesn’t stand for anything, relying on polls and fundraising numbers to arrive at policy positions.

A caretaker governor simply filling the chair until the next regular election would be an improvement.

With all that going against him, Davis could very well survive the recall and emerge stronger, because the California Republican Party has such a strong death wish. Their best shot at removing Davis is to have Dick Riordan in the race rather than Arnie Schwarzenegger, but the Hollywood charm factor may prevent that.

Davis’ biggest challenge is that his well-honed campaign technique — sliming the opponent — really only works in a head-to-head contest. With a number of Republicans and Greens in the race, Davis would have to tout his own accomplishments, which are meager to say the least. So sign up Dick Riordan, Darrell Issa, Bill Jones, Tom McClintock, and Peter Camejo and lets see the fur fly.

If nothing else, it should be entertaining.

Symmetry, Control, and Progress

A friend asked me what I thought about Doc Searls’ latest essay on the evolution of the Internet and as I happened to be reading it already, I’ve written a few disjointed notes. The short version of my reaction is that it’s sad that everybody with an axe to grind about technology, politics, or business these days seems to think that the Internet has an immutable, Platonic form that’s somehow mystically responsible for all that’s good in the technology business for the past twenty years, and any alteration of this form will screw it up. According to this way of thinking, stuff like Napster that exists solely for the purpose of illegal activity is good (even though new), but DRM (which isn’t really a Net deal anyhow) would be inscrutably bad.

This is sort of a “natural law” argument that’s supposed to persuade business and government to turn a blind eye to abuses of the Net, leaving its regulation to self-appointed do-gooders free of commercial interest. It’s a flawed argument that ignores the fact that the Internet is actually a tool and not a spiritual essence from a higher reality, which like all tools adapts to human needs or is discarded. The strongest proponent of this view is Larry Lessig, whose book “The Future of Ideas” I’ve just read, and the others who argue this line (Searls, Weinberger, Gillmor) take their lead from him. I’ll write a review of Lessig’s book in the next few days, and it’s not going to be pretty. But back to Searls, and the theory of immaculate conception:

The Internet is not simply a network, it’s a means of interconnecting networks. It won out over competing technologies because it was heavily subsidized by the government and more simple than the alternative, the ISO/OSI protocol suite. OSI was a complicated set of international standards devised by committees with membership as diverse as the UN but in some ways even less rational. It contains a myriad of options, many non-usable, and is hard to understand, let alone to implement. In the heyday of OSI, we had a series of “OSI Implementors’ Workshops” to hash out subsets of the protocols to implement for purposes of demonstration, and even that was very painful. Internet protocols weren’t designed by committees, but by individuals paid by ARPA to keep things simple. OSI was intended to take the place of proprietary protocols from IBM, Xerox, and DEC, providing end-to-end applications, whereas the Internet was simply intended to interconnect diverse networks with a basic level of end-to-end capability.

Make a side-by-side comparison of any early Internet protocol with the competing ISO candidate and you see that the Internet offering can be implemented in tinier memory and fewer CPU cycles and with less man-hours of programming effort than the alternative. As if that weren’t enough to ensure victory, the government paid contractors to write reference implementations of Internet protocols and then gave them away for free.
Continue reading “Symmetry, Control, and Progress”

Thug deaths anger Howard Dean

Expressing dismay about falling contributions, Howard Dean shrugged-off the deaths of Qusay and Uday: Questioned about the deaths of Saddam’s sons, Odai and Qusai, in Iraq, Dean dismissed suggestions that it was a victory for the Bush administration. “It’s a victory for the Iraqi people … but it doesn’t have any effect on whether we … Continue reading “Thug deaths anger Howard Dean”

Expressing dismay about falling contributions, Howard Dean shrugged-off the deaths of Qusay and Uday:

Questioned about the deaths of Saddam’s sons, Odai and Qusai, in Iraq, Dean dismissed suggestions that it was a victory for the Bush administration.

“It’s a victory for the Iraqi people … but it doesn’t have any effect on whether we should or shouldn’t have had a war,” Dean said. “I think in general the ends do not justify the means.”

As we all know, Howard Dean is a man with great compassion for the downtrodden masses. OK, maybe not for those in who don’t vote because they’re foreign, or, maybe, dead, at the hands of a couple of torturing butchers, but for everybody else, certainly. Except all Republicans and those Democrats who approved of the liberation of Iraq, and his rivals for the nomination, and members of Congress, and a few million others, but he’s still a great guy, for sure.

Hussein boys die, markets rally, Iraqis rejoice

According to Yahoo finance, markets rallied on news of that the pig-latin boys, Uday and Qusay, are toast: Close Dow 61.76 at 9,158.45, S&P 9.31 at 988.11, Nasdaq 24.61 at 1,706.02: The death of Saddam Hussein’s two sons helped the stock indices post gains across the board…a modest up open quickly gave way to continued … Continue reading “Hussein boys die, markets rally, Iraqis rejoice”

According to Yahoo finance, markets rallied on news of that the pig-latin boys, Uday and Qusay, are toast:

Close Dow 61.76 at 9,158.45, S&P 9.31 at 988.11, Nasdaq 24.61 at 1,706.02: The death of Saddam Hussein’s two sons helped the stock indices post gains across the board…a modest up open quickly gave way to continued profit-taking such as occurred yesterday…the Dow and S&P quickly sank into the red…the Nasdaq held up better, helped by an upgrade to the semiconductor equipment maker sector by Lehman…then came word from Iraq that Saddam’s sons were probably either captured or killed…that proved the stimulus stocks needed to break the lethargy that had set in and the indices all went solidly positive…

In related news, Howard Dean’s fundraising numbers are likely to decline, for two reasons: an improving economy is bad for Democrats, as is improving cooperation between Iraqi civilians and the Coalition. The pig-latin boys were knocked off on a walk-in tip.

Do the math, you can bet Saddam’s done it, as have the celebrating Iraqis:

Baghdad, Iraq — Red and yellow tracer bullets scythed through Baghdad’s sky in celebration Tuesday night when U.S. officials announced that Uday and Qusay Hussein were dead.

Two down, one to go.

The Prize

California Insider Daniel Weintraub points to a remark by Gray Davis’ creator, DemOp Garry South, on Total Recall, the Election: Let’s say you run and you win: what have you won? You get no transition period. You take over a staff appointed by Gray Davis. There are seven constitutional officers who are Democratic — all … Continue reading “The Prize”

California Insider Daniel Weintraub points to a remark by Gray Davis’ creator, DemOp Garry South, on Total Recall, the Election:

Let’s say you run and you win: what have you won? You get no transition period. You take over a staff appointed by Gray Davis. There are seven constitutional officers who are Democratic — all of whom can investigate you, audit you and have press conferences on the steps of the Capitol against you. The budget deficit doesn’t go away. Not one more job is created. It doesn’t bring the economy back. It doesn’t pay back the millions you’ve lost in homeland security. Except now the gum isn’t on Gray Davis’ shoes — it’s on yours. The highlight of your career will be the day you are elected. It will be all downhill from there.

Let’s look at it another way: the economy is improving, tech companies are starting to hire again (I’m getting a face-to-face interview every week now), everybody knows the Dems are responsible for the budget mess, and a smoking gun shows they’re doing their best to make it worse instead of better. You have line-item veto power over the budget, and you can therefore shape the direction of state government in some very significant ways, while credibly being able to blame all the problems you face on your predecessor. So what do you have to lose?

Sinking ships

Michael J. Totten surveys a number of classical liberal blogs, and finds a mass exodus from the Democratic Party. The issues: national defense, free speech, and the failure of Democratic Party leaders to grow up. It’s a good survey, check it out.

Sauce for the goose

Re: the following story on Sacramento shenanigans by far-left Dems, see Dan Walters on the locational element to super-majority vote requirements: It is, proponents of the change argue, inherently undemocratic to allow a legislative minority to dictate fiscal policy for the state, noting that California is one of just a handful of states requiring supermajority … Continue reading “Sauce for the goose”

Re: the following story on Sacramento shenanigans by far-left Dems, see Dan Walters on the locational element to super-majority vote requirements:

It is, proponents of the change argue, inherently undemocratic to allow a legislative minority to dictate fiscal policy for the state, noting that California is one of just a handful of states requiring supermajority votes on budgetary matters.

The argument may be valid, but it is more than a bit ironic that the same political interests that want to eliminate supermajority votes on budgets in California are very supportive of the Democratic filibusters on President Bush’s judicial appointments in the U.S. Senate. It takes a supermajority vote of 60 senators to break a filibuster (ending otherwise unlimited debate), so on highly controversial matters of any kind, 60 votes become the threshold in the Senate.

What’s undemocratic in Sacramento, those on the political left seem to be saying, is quite appropriate in Washington. And with a vote in the state Assembly on Monday, they seem to be saying that undemocratic supermajority vote requirements should become a legal mandate in local government, at least when it pertains to police and fire labor contracts.

Dan Walters is always worth reading, of course.

Oh shit! I’m busted!

Ever wonder what the legislators say when they have those little closed-door meetings to discuss tactics in the middle of a bill fight? OK, you probably haven’t, but this is the stuff that fascinates me, and we have a good example on Rough and Tumble today, thanks to a little Progressive Study Group faux pas … Continue reading “Oh shit! I’m busted!”

California law requires a two-thirds majority to pass a budget, and Dems would like to lower the threshold to 55% in order to free themselves of a reliance on Republican votes. In order to amend the constitution, they’re willing to extend the budget crisis indefinitely. This whole discussion, which they thought was secret, was broadcast throughout the Capital yesterday, thanks to a hot microphone in the hearing room they used for their plotting.

The best accounts are in the L. A. Times and in the Frisco Chronicle:

Members of the Assembly Democrats’ progressive caucus were heard making candid, if not intemperate, statements such as one by Los Angeles Assemblyman Fabian Nunez that they may want to “precipitate a crisis” over the budget this year. That might persuade voters to lower the two-thirds vote threshold needed to pass a spending plan, he reasoned.

“It seems to me if there’s going to be a crisis, the crisis should be this year,” Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said during the meeting. “What you do is you show people that you can’t get to this without a 55 percent vote.”

The unintentional broadcast was interrupted when someone informed the group that a microphone was on. “Oh s–,” Goldberg said as the sound was cut.

The Mercury News’ coverage of the hot mike fiasco was bizarre, blaming it on unscrupulous Republicans:

Goldberg criticized Republicans for recording the session and alerting reporters. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes you think there are no ethics in this place,” she said.

See also: Evan Halper and Nancy Vogel in the Los Angeles Times Alexa H. Bluth in the Sacramento Bee David M. Drucker in the Los Angeles Daily News.

Broadband hearings

The House Energy and Commerce committee is holding hearings today on broadband regulation aimed at harmonizing DSL and cable access policies: While these two forms of broadband directly compete in many cities, they are currently regulated in different ways. Phone companies are required to provide Internet service providers non-discriminatory access to their networks, while cable … Continue reading “Broadband hearings”

The House Energy and Commerce committee is holding hearings today on broadband regulation aimed at harmonizing DSL and cable access policies:

While these two forms of broadband directly compete in many cities, they are currently regulated in different ways. Phone companies are required to provide Internet service providers non-discriminatory access to their networks, while cable companies can pick and choose among ISPs.

There is an urban legend that these regulations have something to do with a nefarious plot by the cablecos and telcos to highjack Google results and steer customers to the provider’s preferred sites. This is not true, of course, and the issue is under what conditions independent ISPs can use DSL and cable plants to reach new customers.

Independent ISPs, of course, want to be able to serve customers across the cable company’s lines for a minimal price, but cable companies want to be able to continue dictating terms of such access as they see fit. Telcos would like the same degree of flexibility in their business models that cable companies have.

The public has two interests here, and they don’t necessarily harmonize all that well. On the one hand, we want the choice between DSL and cable Internet to as many homes as possible, which is to say, all of them. We want these services to continue improving over time, which would require the companies to buy more gear from Cisco and friends. And we want the prices low.

At the same time, we want to be able to use ISPs that are more competent and less restrictive than SBC and Comcast, and we want to be able to do that for a reasonable price.

So if we set public policy that cablecos and telcos are only allowed to sell use of their lines for basic packet switching, and that all ISP functions (assigning IP addresses, handling e-mail and Usenet, and providing DNS) have to be unbundled, their profit margin may not be enough to encourage them to buy lots of gear.

On the other hand, how much does it take?

Where the beef is

There’s an interesing article in the Mercury News today on the Argentine obsession with beef: Argentines so revere their country’s 11th Commandment — Thou Shalt Eat Beef — that babies are weaned on steak juice. A curvaceous woman is whistled at and called “a great steak.” Despite recent decades of economic woe, the average Argentine … Continue reading “Where the beef is”

There’s an interesing article in the Mercury News today on the Argentine obsession with beef:

Argentines so revere their country’s 11th Commandment — Thou Shalt Eat Beef — that babies are weaned on steak juice. A curvaceous woman is whistled at and called “a great steak.” Despite recent decades of economic woe, the average Argentine still consumes more than twice as much beef as an American.

Argentina exported so much beef in the early twentieth century that it was one of the world’s ten richest countries, ahead of France even. So if you’d like to help Latin America get its economy back in order, eat more beef.