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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.
"Any legitimate purchaser of media or technology should be able to use their property as they see fit without government intervention. Technology progresses rapidly and we need technologically savvy lawmakers who can lead us in sound policy making. Currently, there are legislators who repeatedly attempt to pass laws reigning in the Internet and other technologies. They do this at the beck and call of multibillion dollar industries by expanding the definition of copyright. Industry which refuses to adapt to technology should not be protected by making that technology illegal. Smaller music and film companies use the Internet to their benefit and should not be penalized by the behemoths' refusal of progress. Lawmakers tilting the playing field do not encourage small business and home innovators to take risks, and thus hold back our economy." from http://vote.peteashdown.org/bio/
:)
He gets my Vote... if I lived in Utah, also one of his previous jobs was a Computer Tech, which makes him over qualified for Politics... but oh well
"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried"
At Pete Ashdown's site page on economic issues, he claims "The United States of America has historically been an economic superpower and an innovator of technology. We harnessed electricity, invented the light-bulb and the television, but what have we produced lately?"
Let's see: The iPod, the SonicCare toothbrush, the Tivo, the E-Z pass, and there are these little things called CPUs produced by Intel and AMD.
U.S. resident inventors received 85,238 out of 165,485 U.S. patents in fiscal year 2005, which isn't too bad for a country that has only 6% of global population.
He then goes on to add: "Meanwhile the international community is closing in on energy production through fusion, and guess where the first operating plant is being built -- not in the U.S.A." Despite the fact that the plant in question, ITER, is a multinational project with partial American funding and scientific support! Moreover, ITER is not going to be an "operating plant," it will be a "fusion experiment" and is in no way a real prototype of a fusion plant.
Furthermore, he states "The Chinese are gearing up to clean our clock economically with no oil dependence at all." Based on empirical evidence, Chinese economic growth is compatible with US economic growth. Moreover, while the Chinese are beginning to investigate nuclear fission, and they have plans to build huge numbers of coal-burning electic power plants, they have no plans to eradicate their oil usage.
Mr. Ashdown appears to be AN ECONOMIC IDIOT.
Where is that Wiki...