Category: Politics

Here’s something I posted to Joi Ito’s site on this Emergent Democracy meme:

It’s not clear that hypermedia represent the kind of advance in human civilization that the printing press did. The printing press, after all, enabled the creation of mass media where none had existed before, and it enabled the creation of mass education where none had existed before, and spurred scientific and technical advances in a dramatic way. The printing press literally created mass culture out of nothing, while all that hypermedia have done is speed up the flow of information a bit. If printing is like the automobile, then hypermedia is like the Interstate highway system: a nice enhancement, but not really all that dramatic.

Hypermedia have already impacted politics at several levels; we now have legislative bills and history on-line, which enables smaller and less-well-funded advocacy groups to see what goes on in our legislatures without relying on the media, expensive legislative information services, or phone calls to legislators’ offices. This in turn has given rise to e-mail petitions and broader representation at legislative hearings, and increased voter feedback to legislators. I’ve been using web sites and blogs to help in lobbying the California legislature since 1995, and many lawmakers have told me that opening the process up to the Internet has changed the way they do things in subtle but noticeable ways.

But these changes have been much less dramatic than Emergent Democracy supposes, and the potential for improvement, while not trivial, doesn’t suggest that we’re going to be in a position to abolish legislatures any time soon, if ever. It still takes time to examine policy alternatives, and the weighing of factors is still subjective. Most of what legislatures do is technical and of very little interest to the average citizen, and it will always be so.

What we can expect from electronic activism is increased participation in the legislative process by experts and activists who are fundamentally outsiders, and this often does bring a fresh perspective. I have, on occasion, obtained amendments to bills by sending e-mail from the lab while running tests or long compiles. This wouldn’t have been quite so easy a few years ago, but it depends on my having established a reputation and personal relationships with lawmakers. I’ve also trained certain committee counsels to search my web sites for letters of support and opposition on bills, and have seen these letters make their way into the committee’s analysis of these bills without my even having to send in a letter, which is nice. It didn’t change the world, but it did save me some time and allow me to participate in the process while holding a day job.

But politics is ultimately a matter of direct, human interaction, and this is as it should be and as it will remain.
—

Incidentally, a good summary of the emergence notion can be cleaned from Steve Johnson’s discourse on the Well. Johnson is careful not to extend Emergence to the realm of politics, beyond some observations on the “swarming” behavior of WTO protesters.

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What’s the difference between a high-traffic warblogger and the new president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun? Roh knows HTML:

World’s first internet president logs on

Polls showed that the victory in December of Mr Roh – who claims to be the world’s first president to understand HTML website coding – came from a huge surge of support from twenty- and thirty-somethings. In South Korea, where elections are usually decided by regional rather than generational loyalties, this was a dramatic development.

I think we can expect great things from Korea, like Flash animations on the government’s web site.

Link via political theorist Joi Ito.

Carol Moseley-Braun, the one term former Senator from Illinois with a penchant for yucking it up with dictators who’s running for president in the Democratic Party,primaries doesn’t remember what her college major was. That’s pretty odd.

Of the five pundits on Fox News Sunday this week, two majored in Philosophy (Tony Snow and Juan Williams). So did I, and I remember it well.

It’s easy to laugh at the LA City Council for passing a resolution opposing a unilateral war against Iraq when nobody’s proposed such a thing, and the Angelenos invite this kind of ridicule routinely. But more interesting is looking at what the vote breakdown says about the perpetual war between the four leading Democratic Party machines who routinely compete for power in LA.

The largest and strongest machine is Berman/Waxman, funded by Hollywood and the rich Jewish business interests Warren Beaty’s Bulworth called “the big Jews.” In Congress, Berman, Waxman, and their boy Adam Schiff voted in favor of H J Res 114, Authorizing Use of Force in Iraq, while the Nate Holden/Maxine Waters machine voted against it, as did the Hispanic machines controlling Hilda Solis, Julie Roybal-Allard, and Xavier Becerra.

The protection of Israel from Iraq and other enemies has long been a wedge issue splitting the Jewish machine from the black and Hispanic machines, and this vote signalled the split is still there, and possibly growing larger. While Hollywood Jews aren’t yet ready to start voting Republican, don’t be surprised of the ethnic machines find fundraising harder in the next cycle.

Votes on H J Res 114

California Congressmembers

LA Times report of City Council vote supporting Saddam:

“Thank you!” screamed an elderly woman in a canary-yellow T-shirt as the audience erupted in wild cheers. Another demonstrator, sporting a “No Blood for Oil” message across her shirt, blew kisses at the council members.

“It’s very bold of the city to do this,” said Fred Greissing, 42, a music video director who had slashed holes in his clothes, roasted them on his barbecue and splattered them with fake blood for the occasion. “Local government is easy to reach, closer to the people. I mean, I don’t think we could have walked into the back of the White House and done this.”

“Are they Americans?” Cararie, 63, said incredulously. “These are a bunch of showboating infidels.”

The people of Orange County are not amused by West Wing’s attempts in recent weeks to stereotype them as fans of the loathsome Jed Bartlett, and they’re striking back in the letters column of the Orange County Register (scroll down):

‘West Wing’ fantasy is an insult to Orange County

Recently, in the TV show “West Wing,” President Bartlet’s press secretary said, “They love us in Orange County!” Then, during the next few minutes of this liberal propaganda, the politicos planned how Rob Lowe’s character would win the county’s 47th Congressional District. Martin Sheen, who plays Bartlet (and who actually thinks he is president), is one of the biggest anti-Bush activists in real life.

It makes me ill that the creator of the program, Aaron Sorkin, would for a moment think his Hollywood fictional characters and/or the real-life movie “stars” on the left wing are in anyway on a par with the honorable Chris Cox.
Larry M. Collins
Laguna Woods

He’s right about Sheen thinking he really is the president, but so do many in Hollywood. Unfortunately for Sheen, when he last tried to take his schtick to the world of real politics by taking a strong stand against the California proposition mandating treatment instead of jail for non-violent drug offenders, the people rebuffed him and passed the liberal initiative. Sheen believes in jail for drug users on the basis of his experience with one or more of his actor sons, which may have been Charlie.

Perhaps if he could see Saddam as an addict in need of tough love Sheen might see his way clear to imposing term limits on him.

Dear Senator Boxer,

As a sometime Sacramento lobbyist who’s been invited to testify at legislative hearings by members of both parties, I’m thoroughly familiar with your history, and the fact that you sit where you do as a result of the most amazing run of dumb luck in the history of California politics. Were it not for Phil Burton’s looking out for his little brother by creating a district a dead Democrat could win, and were it not for John’s cocaine problem, and were it not for Sonny Bono’s ambitions, and were it not for Matt Fong’s stupidity, you’d be hot-tubbing in Marin instead of embarrassing the people of California with your participation in the anti-democratic filibuster of Miguel Estrada.

The sad thing about this exercise, Mrs. Boxer, is that you’re obviously driven to it by your fanatical devotion to a single issue, abortion, which just happens to be completely unimportant to Californians. Not that we don’t care about abortion law, mind you, because we do, but the plain facts are that abortion was legal in California before Roe v. Wade, and if the courts reversed Roe tomorrow, abortion would still be legal here, so your single issue has no impact whatsoever on our lives.

Your Senate career, then, is of no importance whatsoever unless and until you can develop an interest in some other issue and leave this fanaticism behind you.

The voters of this country elected a Republican majority to the Senate, and a Republican president. It is the prerogative of the Senate majority to exercise their advise and consent capacity without a shrill and unprincipled minority gumming up the works with this narcissistic filibuster. If Democrats want to have the power of the majority, they’re obligated to convince the voters that they deserve it, and they’re not entitled to seize the majority power like a bunch of anarcho-terrorists and exploit an arcane Senate rule to frustrate democracy.

As a radical feminist, you’re obviously not interested in democracy, only in exercising power and control over the lives of decent, hard-working, moral Americans, so you aren’t going to change your ways. But please refrain from embarrassing Californians by adding racism to the list of your sins.

Sincerely,

Richard Bennett
—

Calling her a racist is certainly harsh, and some folks claim the Democratic filibuster isn’t about race, it’s about ideology. While it is on its face about ideology, it seems rather curious that Democrats seem to concentrate their ideological rage on conservatives of the minority persuasion, such as Clarence Thomas and Estrada. It’s not just a matter of ideology, it’s a question of punishing minorities who stray off the liberal plantation. Democrats understand that without 90% of the black vote and 70% of the Hispanic vote, their goose is cooked.

OpinionJournal – Best of the Web Today points out another unique employment opportunity:

Passionate Liberalism
Here’s a joke that writes itself: The Clinton Presidential Center is looking for interns. Atop the application brochure (link in PDF form) is a quote from a former intern–no, not the portly pepperpot but one Jean-Paul Tremblay, who boasts of his “passionate interest in making a difference.” The brochure also promises prospective interns “a unique opportunity for . . . meaningful service” and quotes the center’s director of operations, Hannah Richert, as saying: “In this environment, each intern is vitally important.”

And some people think I’m mean.

Justene Adamec’s Calblog is your definitive source for info on the Davis recall drive, which is gaining traction according to media sources.

This is a legit job open at UNMOVIC

Vacancy Announcement: UNMOVIC-FS-005
Post title and level: Chief Communication and Information Technology Section, FS-7
Duty Station: Baghdad, Iraq
Organizational Unit: Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)
Indicative minimum gross annual remuneration (including post adjustment): US$82,695.00gpa

The incumbent is responsible and manages all the Communications and Information Technology Networks located within the mission, including the supervision of a number of individual units, such as the Satellite, Microwave, Rural Telephone, VHF/UHF/ HF, Telephone PABX, Assets Management, Switchboard, Rigging, and the Office Equipment units, plus the IT Network Administration, Software Development, Systems Support, Hardware Support and Help Desk units respectively.

Apply now and avoid the rush.