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Judicial Nominations In the Internet Age
Hugh Pickens writes "Chris Good writes in the Atlantic that nominees to the Supreme Court and other high-profile positions are required to provide the Judiciary Committee with everything they've ever written or said publicly, to the best of their abilities within reason. Thanks to the Internet, the last major judicial nominee reported out by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ninth Circuit nominee Goodwin Liu, included links to YouTube videos of lectures and talks he gave, 573 pages of public writings, news articles about him, syllabi from courses he taught, and statements about legal issues. Even so, Liu was admonished for failing to fully disclose his writings and public speeches to senators, including appearances at such occasions as brown bag lunches and alumni gatherings. 'In preparing my original submission, I made a good-faith effort to track down all of my publications and speeches over the years,' wrote Liu. 'I checked my personal calendar, I performed a variety of electronic searches, and I searched my memory to produce the original list. But I have since realized that those efforts were not sufficient.' Not so long ago, entire news articles in local papers could go wholly unnoticed, by both the nominee and committee members and staff, but not so in the era of the Internet. 'Imagine what will happen when, decades from now, a president nominates someone to the Supreme Court who had access to Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook at the age of 15.'"
Whenever you post anything publicly online, assume Congress will see it 20 years from now.
That's my attitude anyway. (Except when I post as an Anonymous Coward.)
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Whatever it takes to bring transparency to authority. It helps to assure that those who want it are better qualified. It can shame the authorities to be more just in judging the faults of others.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Not really. You still need to have Jobless or underpaid Walmart "victims" to whom your redistribute your socialist wealth (and buy votes). So no, not "everyone" would be working for the government.
Socialism:
- You work your ass off trying to earn money.
- I sit and watch TV or internet all day, and then I suck the cash out of your wallet to pay my bills (food stamps, housing, doctors' bills, welfare, and other free stuff).
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I've been very interested in politics since I was 15 or 16 or so (23 now). Around the same point, I realised that, while not likely, it was still entirely possible that I might end up in a position where something I wrote on the internet will bite me in the arse 10+ years later. Since that realisation, I've been generally trying to keep myself from writing anything too embarrassing, or political on the internet. Still, I find it amusing, in the theoretically incredibly unlikely event I end up as Prime Minister or something important, people combing over posts I made on a Pokemon message board when I was 12. Or protesting that I supported something silly when I was 14. (OMG, look at this, the PM posted some weird pro-British Empire stuff when he was 14, he must be a closet racist!)
So yeah, for the past 6 or 7 years, most of the stuff I've posted has been gaming related, or generally politically neutral. There are a few wild things from when I was 12-15, and I'm sure I've slipped up and posted something stupid since then.