McCain Releases Technology Platform

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "John McCain has finally released a technology platform. Most of it is the same old stuff; lower corporate taxes, protect children from porn, and avoid Internet regulation unless 'necessary.' Alas, in his view, helping the RIAA's War on Sharing is necessary to stop the 'global epidemic' of piracy, while Net Neutrality is something he 'does not believe in.' Ars Technica has a review of McCain's platform." A brief analysis is also available from Federal Computer Week. In addition to the technology policy, McCain has also released a paper describing his stance on security and privacy. We've previously contrasted his views with those of Barack Obama. Obama's technology policies are also available online.

Comments

John McCain on blogs

[jamie]

In 2006, John McCain gave the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, and took the opportunity to mock individual expression:

When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed, and wiser than anyone else I knew. It seemed I understood the world and the purpose of life so much more profoundly than most people. I believed that to be especially true with many of my elders, people whose only accomplishment, as far as I could tell, was that they had been born before me, and, consequently, had suffered some number of years deprived of my insights. I had opinions on everything, and I was always right. I loved to argue, and I could become understandably belligerent with people who lacked the grace and intelligence to agree with me. With my superior qualities so obvious, it was an intolerable hardship to have to suffer fools gladly. So I rarely did. All their resistance to my brilliantly conceived and cogently argued views proved was that they possessed an inferior intellect and a weaker character than God had blessed me with, and I felt it was my clear duty to so inform them. It's a pity that there wasn't a blogosphere then. I would have felt very much at home in the medium.

His contempt for citizens expressing their views is, presumably, why he introduced legislation that would basically have shut down comments on blogs and on sites like Slashdot. Under John McCain, if you are an individual blogger and you allow user comments or user profiles, you'd have to follow the same reporting rules as an ISP, but you'd be subject to even harsher penalties. The EFF called McCain's bill a "constitutionally dubious proposal ... made apparently mostly based on fear or political considerations."

Re:John McCain on blogs

[jamie]

Sorry, but you just quoted McCain being facetious as though he were serious, meaning you didn't get the joke. It's funny. Laugh.

McCain used exaggerated language to humorous effect. That part's hard to miss.

What I find more important is that the target of his humor is the ceaseless argumentation on all matters, political and otherwise, that the citizenry engages in when permitted freedom of speech. Contrary to what career politicians would have us believe, there are things worth discussing beyond the pronouncements of our daily papers. There are wrongs to be called out and acts of courage to be heralded. We dredge up our politicians' histories, we compare and contrast, we insult and mourn and challenge not only our opponents' beliefs but our own. We're not polite, because unlike the self-righteous papers' hallowed halls of pretend-land, we talk the way real people talk. Sometimes we persuade, often not, but in large ways or small, we do learn from each other.

The blogosphere is democracy at its most raw, a ceaseless conversation about the way things are and ought to be, led not from the "top" but by whatever ordinary people want to talk about each day. It's political conversation that, for the first time in thousands of years, actually comes from the people. That worries the entrenched media who for decades have built up undeserved reputations as the arbiters of the news cycle, and the politicians whose unspoken agreements with the media got them where they are.

I've been a programmer for Slashdot for eight years now. I've spent much of that time writing code to quash abuse without censoring contributions, and support thoughtful comments while discouraging "omg roftl," because goddammit I believe there's something vital and important about what ordinary people have to say. I want to give those people a soapbox, and give their readers the tools to find the most interesting and thought-provoking comments. People with something to say don't need a lecture on prudence and humility from their betters, they need to be encouraged to stand up and join the conversation.

And politicians like McCain mock them, and mock the way we argue. We're youngsters who show insufficient deference to the hard-won wisdom of our elders. Fuck that shit.

Re:John McCain on blogs

[bmajik]

Of Course. This _is_ the "McCain" in "McCain-Feingold" we're talking about, after all.

Surely you're familiar with the McCain-Feingold "incumbency protection act", who's aim is to create a dubious "protected class" of people for whom the 1st amendment (which protects _political speech_ and no other type) still actually applies.

For everyone else (people who aren't "real journalists") -- no more 1st amendment rights for you, anytime an election is 6 months (or wahtever the bill says) away.

McCain Feingold is one of these ridiculous laws that, when examined, seems totally ridiculous and unconstitutional. As a practical matter, I don't think it has had a chilling effect on much of anything. As a theoretical matter, it's one of the reasons why libertarians don't like McCain.

In many ways the '08 Election is a reverse of the '04 Election. In 04 the Democrats were running a "he's not Bush" candidate, and to be frank that was Kerry's only real qualification.

McCain is someone who is neither pleasing to conservative republicans nor to libertarians who normally grudgingly fall into the republican camp. He's the "not Obama & not Clinton" vote. Almost everyone I've spoken with is much more interested in "not Obama" than "McCain".

Oddly enough, the fact that McCain is not squarely in the conservative/republican camp may make him an acceptable president. He obviously doesn't care about pissing off other republicans, and he obviously jumps off traditional conservative/republican dogma when it suits him. The reality of the senate voting record is that McCain has jumped across the aisle to get something done with the Democrats far more often than Obama has broken rank with the progressive agenda to get some reasonably-centerist legislation done by cooperating with Republicans.

Protect children from porn

[4D6963]

I wonder how he'd go about doing that. Probably the same way they (most of the Republicans) go about protecting children from STDs, by preaching abstinence. Keeping children away from computers would probably work about as well.

That would be ironic if they preached using parental protection software, which by analogy could be compared to using a condom. Cue the "it's not the same thing" replies.

Just look at the URLs :)

[jopsen]

I took a look around the different campaign sites it's clear McCain is EVIL!
Links at McCain site:
johnmccain.com/Blog/Read.aspx?guid=3d8ee2ad-d7f2-4f3d-ad9f-ffe1b41ca178

Links a Obamas Site:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

Clearly, McCain is using a Microsoft server and Obama is using mod_rewrite or similar technology... Probably a rather none-evil technology...

Also at validator.w3.org:
McCain has: 124 Errors, 44 warning(s)
Obama has: 8 Errors
I'd say this proofs McCain is evil!

My Scorecard

[davide marney]

My scorecard for the McCain platform. Rated on a uninflated A-F grading scale, where a "C" means the norm.

John McCain Supports Risk Capital For Investment In American Innovation

Grade: C. OK; nothing specific to the tech sector, though.

John McCain Will Not Tax Innovation By Keeping Capital Gains Taxes Low.

Grade: C. A good idea in general, but not of particular help to technology.

John McCain Will Reform And Make Permanent The R&D Tax Credit.

Grade: B. Good idea.

John McCain Will Lower the Corporate Tax Rate To 25 Percent To Retain Investment In U.S. Technologies.

Grade: C. Again, a good idea for the economy in general, but doesn't do anything to specifically address technology.

John McCain Will Allow First-Year Expensing Of New Equipment And Technology.

Grade: B. Good idea.

John McCain Will Ensure Technology And Innovation Is Not Hampered By Taxes On Internet Users.

Grade: C. OK, fine, but I'm not buying the rationale at all here. I think this is code for "no government regulation". A vast amount of bricks-and-mortar commerce has been moved onto the Internet. If we accept taxation of commerce, we should have no problem accepting taxation of it on the Internet.

John McCain Opposes Higher Taxes On Wireless Services.

Grade: C. OK, lower taxes, yeah, but what we are buying with our taxes in the first place?

America Must Educate Its Workforce For The Innovation Age.

Grade: B. Grants for higher ed are a good bargain for taxpayers.

Fill Critical Shortages Of Skilled Workers To Remain Competitive.

Grade: B. Good idea. More flexibility on H-1B visas will help.

John McCain Has Been A Long And Ardent Supporter Of Fair And Open World Trade.

Grade: C. Nice to know.

Competition Has Been A Great Strength For America -- Offering Opportunity, Low Prices, And Increased Choice For Our Citizens. Markets work best when there is robust competition.

Grade: D. McCain had a chance to address the real problems of non-competitiveness that plague the technology sector, and ducked.

John McCain Will Protect The Creative Industries From Piracy.

Grade: D. Another disappointment. The "creative industries" already have plenty of money, lawyers, lobbyists, and memberships in the exclusive clubs needed to get the protection they need. Who's giving the people the protection they need? Not the government, apparently.

John McCain Will Push For Greater Resources For The Patent Office.

Grade: C. Obviously needed; basic good management.

John McCain Will Pursue Protection Of Intellectual Property Around The Globe.

Grade: C. OK, fine; more good management.

Provide Alternative Approaches To Resolving Patent Challenges.

Grade: B. Some innovation here is long overdue. Good idea.

John McCain Will Preserve Consumer Freedoms.

Grade: B. Freedom is good, and additional attention in this area is needed to keep a level playing field.

When Regulation Is Warranted, John McCain Acts.

Grade: C. OK, that's the right pattern, but McCain seems to not get the fact that the tech sector really needs some tough love from the government right now. If regulation is not warranted now, when would it be?

John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like "net-neutrality," but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices.

Grade: F. The telco marketplace is anything

Re:Worthless ...

[fugue]

Why is it not OK for a presidential candidate to admit that he doesn't know something? I'm sick to death of people who think they have to pretend to know everything all the time.

Not that McCain is worth the electrons I just encoded his name with, but in my book he scored one point for being aware of his ignorance. Seems a nice change from Republican policy. And Democratic policy, for that matter, although they are on average approximately 23% less ignorant than Republicans...

Re:Worthless ...

[Wildclaw]

There is a huge presence of people on slashdot who value personal freedom and expression. These range mostly from economical libertarians to free thinking liberals.

Slashdot libertarians will often find a very nice support when it comes to issues of personal freedom but will be surprised when they don't get the same support on their economical ideas.

Democrats can do fine as long as they stay away from authoritarian baby sitting. Sure, libertarians will call any income redistribution authoritarian, but you can't please everyone.

Republicans can do ok, as long as they actually strive for a smaller goverment and don't promote war and other actions that are seen as authoritarian.

You can probably even get modded up promoting far left economics as long as you actually talk intelligently, like including suggestions on how to exploit the best part of the free market (scarce resource distribution efficency). However, if you want to promote authoritarian ruling you will get modded down pretty quickly. Which is why neither communism nor facism is popular here as both have come to symbolise authoritarian rule.

Re:Worthless ...

[ScentCone]

leaving any kind of tactical decision to those with the experience to do so: the people serving in the armed forces

But there would BE no tactical decisions to make without strategic decisions about when, where, and why to get the military involved in the first place. Likewise, issues with strategic importance (such as the use of nukes) absolutely have to involve the specific command from the C-in-C. Obviously a smart president is going to defer to his commanders about what's possible, the best way to accomplish a given task, etc. But do you really want military people and only military people deciding when and how to escalate a conflict... when or whether to ship out a new carrier group from one ocean to another? The president would be a fool to ignore input from his commanders, but we'd all be crazy to allow the military to make all such decisions in a vacuum. And of course, you're not always going to be talking about a "declaring war" situation. The crazy jihaddist types have totally learned that lesson. One way to consternate your enemy is avoid giving them a geopolitically concentrated enemy that has any resemblance to historical nation-state foes. Those days are gone (Russia not withstanding).