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Interactive Campaigning ala Wiki
brettlg writes to tell us LinuxInsider is reporting that Utah Democratic hopeful, Peter Ashdown, is hoping to leverage his knowledge of the internet and small business resourcefulness to take down the incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch next year. From the article: "Peter Ashdown is the founder of Xmission, Utah's oldest Internet service provider (ISP). His Web site includes a blog and a monthly live chat session. But Ashdown's site takes public participation on his campaign Web site one step further -- opening his platform to all. The site is based on the "Wiki" open-source model made famous by Wikipedia."
He is the guy behind a lot of the DRM bills like DMCA, TPM enforcment, extending copyrights etc.
I hope he gets choped.
Public debate doesn't belong in a wiki. That's what message boards are for. The wiki is for content and conclusions made from the end result of flame wars or debates. Controls need to be implemented so the content is of good quality (like a rating system). Its the same reason Wikipedia is not considered a legitimate source of info.
Ahh Orrin Hatch, who previously brought us gems like the Induce Act. I hope people will vote accross partisan lines in this election and get rid of clueless Senators like Hatch. Next up, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner's Digital Transition Content Security Act. Hold your politicians accountable!
(I'm sure to get modded a troll or something, but...) I have my share of dislike for Hatch too -- he led the charge to get Clinton impeached, while angrily dismissing all complaints about the ludicrious amounts of money being spent by the independent counsel (over $50 million by the end). He's the archtypical right-wing nutjob, BUT - read And the Band Played On. Hatch was personally responsible for getting the Senate to approve most of the AIDS funding during the early years of AIDS, when the Reagan administration was adamantly refusing to spend anything on AIDS (the administration claimed it was spending "$100 million for AIDS related research." But since even the common flu can kill you when you have AIDS, they were counting basically everything they were spending on any disease. In reality, the only agency doing any research on AIDS was the CDC - something they were not set up for.) Anyway, as the book says, Hatch was one of the few right-wingers who wasn't willing to play politics with health-related issues. So he (an extreme-right winger) was at the forefront of getting money for AIDS research at a time when it was primarily a "gay disease".
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
I too predict doom, but Tom Daschle would argue with you about ranking incumbents with important chairmanships.
Seniority...funny.
... You call him home!"
Orrin Hatch's original campaign slogan (the one that got him elected) was "What do you call a senator who's been in office for over 18 years?
Ironic now that nobody in Utah remembers it (well, all of his opponents remember it...)
Utah is the reddest of red states. Pete Ashdown is facing an uphill battle selling his party's platform of secular socialism, white flag diplomacy, and state sponsored infanticide to the Mormons.
This was legitimately modded flamebait, but I think it's worth responding to as though it were serious, because I think Ashdown is handling this very real problem very well.
I live in Utah, and Utah *is* the reddest of red states. Republicans hold more than 75% of both legislative houses, and it has been higher. The Republican party owns this state. It's so bad that my father in law, who is about as conservative as they come, is an active member of the Democratic party because he believes that we have to restore some balance and foster some debate.
Ashdown is handicapped by his party affiliation, but I think he's taken a very clever approach to managing it. If you read through his issues statements, in pretty much every case where the Democratic party's official position would sink him in Utah, he falls back on a States' Rights argument (which is a very popular position in Utah).
For example, on Abortion, he basically says that abortion is a terrible thing (which almost no one will deny), that we should focus on programs of education and prevention to avoid the need for abortions (again, hard to deny from either side), that the federal government shouldn't make decisions for women (make the Dems happy), that Roe v Wade was wrong (make the Reps happy) and that the legality of abortion should be left up to the states.
That's clever, because if you leave abortion rights up to the Utah state legislatures, legal abortions will be hard to get in Utah (though I doubt Utah would actually outlaw abortion). Further, Utahns have never been very happy about federal government interference, and States' Rights is a popular notion here. Utah didn't join the union to become a state, Utah joined to stop being a territory -- states have greater self-determination.
So by taking this position, Ashdown can simultaneously say that he agrees with the Democratic position that abortion should be safe and legal, and also say, effectively, that Utahns should have the right to restrict it, plus he can also get another boost from the popularity of States' Rights.
That's a formula that can work with all sorts of issues that are relatively unpopular in Utah, without completely alienating the Democratic base (which is also quite a bit more conservative than in most places). To do it he has to come out strongly in favor of States' Rights, and that's not a Democratic party position, but neither is it something the Democrats openly argue against.
He still doesn't have a chance in hell of winning against a well-connected political powerhouse like the 30-year incumbent Orrin Hatch, but it's a good strategy.
FWIW, I'm pretty conservative, but I just sent some money, ordered some bumper stickers and I'll put up an Ashdown sign in my yard after the snow melts. He deserves support, even if he is going to lose.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I found some data which compared Japan, Europe, and the US in patents.
The USPTO issues 53% of patents to Americans, 20% to japanese, and 17% to Europena.s
The European PTO issues 25% of patents to Americans, 19% to Japanese, and 53% to Europeans.
The Japanese PTO issues 5% of patents to Americans, 90% to Japanese, and 4% to Europeans.
So yeah, that's not much of an indicator.
Regarding patents granted per capita worldwide, Japan and South Korea are way ahead, followed by the US, Sweden, Germany, and France.
Still, as you look at your screen, keep in mind that Ethernet was developed in the U.S., the commercial Internet as we know it was developed mainly in the US (with US routers from Cisco), and your CPU was developed (mainly) in the US. My OS was developed mainly in the US, but I'm sure many others have an OS developed by a guy who lived overseas, but for some crazy reason decided to move to the US...
What about decoding the human genome (mostly done in the US)? GPS (first done by US)? Space Shuttle (first done by US)?
I am trying hard to think of an interesting recent technology not mainly developed in the US...can you think of one? Perhaps animal cloning, but that has been rapidly commercialized in the US.