Old Tricks at Camel Cult

Another year, another E-Tech Conference from Bill O’Reilly’s evil twin, and once more technology’s being co-opted to seduce gullible young people into a political movement somewhere to the left of Kucinich. It’s particularly amusing that the Cult of the Sacred Camel had a special “Digital Democracy teach-in” without anybody who actually believes in democracy and understands digital technology, with the exception of Jeff Jarvis, and nobody at all to speak from the center or the right of the political spectrum. They pulled a similar stunt last year with a panel on Warblogging that was devoid of actual warbloggers. I complained to Doc Searls and Dan Gillmor about that panel, but by now it’s obvious what the scam is so no fuss from me — O’Reilly is obviously trying to pick up where L. Ron Hubbard left off when he died. O’Reilly’s pricey conferences are the birthplace of the bubble that ate the Dean campaign, so it’s a natural that flim-flam Joe Trippi was a featured speaker.