"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Outlandish Josh

Published on Mon, 2006-03-13 18:47

AMERICA!

Fuck Yeah.

For what it's worth, this is something we've got over the Europeans: the ability to organize a friendly outing of shooting rifles at targets packed with home-made explosives out in rural Idaho is our birthright.

On the other hand, in Cambodia, for the right fee, you can shoot an RPG at a live cow. So there's that to consider.

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General
Published on Mon, 2006-03-13 13:37

A Moral Economy

Breaking away from Market Fundimentalism, embracing the concept of a Moral Economy:

With the construction of a moral economy as the frame, Reich's other stories fall into place. The "rot at the top" has never smelled so putrid; the decay comes from the obscenely wealthy who have abandoned real enterprise for paper manipulations that generate outlandish returns. The "mob at the gates" continues to be those committed to jihad against the West. But the Bush Administration's response to this threat has been completely self-defeating. We need, instead, greater international cooperation to combat terrorism and concerted efforts to build a moral economy at the global level. Creating a world in which children born in the slums of Cairo, Islamabad and Lagos have real opportunities for meaningful employment and political participation is the only way to isolate the jihadists.

The triumphant individuals in this narrative are people of different ethnicities, immigrants and native born, both women and men, gay and straight, rural, suburban and urban, for whom the doors of opportunity would be reopened by the project of building a moral economy. With such an economy, our nation would become a "benevolent community" in which each individual is able to reach his or her full potential.

To be sure, stories are not enough. We also need bold policy ideas that would implement the principles of a moral economy. But the stories have to come first, and those stories must connect us to our nation's richest traditions. The great popular movements of our nation's history--against the slave trade, for the abolition of slavery, for women's suffrage, for trade union rights, for restraints on the power of big business in the Progressive Era, and extending to the civil rights movement, the New Left and the environmental movement--can all be understood as efforts to align our economic and political institutions with our deepest moral commitments. We will be honoring their legacy when we present a vision of a moral economy as an alternative to the failed claims of Market Fundamentalism.

There are plenty of linguistic games to play around with -- like "Free Trade" vs. "Fair Trade" -- but the wind up is that progressives have a chance to rightfully take a position as the champions of real enterprise against corrupt croneys who seek to perpetuate an inequitable status quo.

Politically, this is what we're talking about when we say "It's the economy, stupid." It's not enough that people are having hard times (as they are outside the upper class). There has to be a narrative of why this is happening, and how things can be different.

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politics
Published on Sun, 2006-03-12 23:16

Secrets

The State is keeping more secrets. Really, the opposite should be happening. Government should be opening up, bringing services, data and forums for public comment online.

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politics
Published on Sun, 2006-03-12 19:55

The Lonely Island - The 'Bu

VIDEO FUNNY: The Lonely Island - The 'Bu

This shit is going to get better and better. Gotta keep it Free. (clicky clicky on those devils if you haven't)

Oh, and on that tip, I saw via the Common Cause blog that Marc Cuban is complaining about the form-letters being forwarded., saying it's spam. He also links to a post calling for tiered internet service so that fantasy applications like remote medical diagnostics can emerge.

My response:

It's the beauty of the marketplace, man. You speak with the voice of a billionare investor. That's a loud voice. Sometimes you get spoken back to by a few thousand of us little people. Welcome to parity.

The problem with teiring service is not that the principle of Network Neutrality is involuble. The poster above who suggested home-alarm data as that which could be "privileged" is correct. There are already laws around this that impact things like 9-1-1 service.

But if you really think BellSouth wants to tier internet service so grandma can get a video checkup, I've got a bridge here in Brooklyn you've just got to see. We don't have technology or trained personnel to even begin to imagine that as a reality. It's pure vaporware spin.

On the other hand, you're a founder of HDnet, a company that produces video entertainment of the highest-bandwidth that conumers can currently recieve. It's pretty easy to imagine real ways in which tiered service might be of use there.

Here's what I believe: If large corporations determine how internet traffic will be teired, it will almost certainly not be done in the public interest, or in the interest of creating a vital market for service and data online. It will almost certainly be a move to consolidate the existing marketplace, to commoditize and productize the network, to turn the internet into a consumer medium.

This will raise higher barriers to entry. It will stifle innovation. It also threatens the principles of standardization and interoperability: a "market driven" tiering structure would likely lean towards propritary technologies and business practices, creating corporate/national vertical silos which may impair global connectivity.

The great pracitcal benefit of the internet has been the decentralization/re-distribution of the means of communication. That's what makes all this cool, really. Incidentally, is also the phenomena which enabled your fantastic personal wealth. (Yahoo made you a billionare. Their money comes from harnassing online communication.)

Color me cynical, but I'm unconvinced that your support for net teiring is motivated by a desire to "keep the net healthy." I suspect it's about maximizing shareholder value.

I don't know if the comment was accepted or not. There seems to be some moderation happening. Ah, email verification. There it is. Anyway, it's interesting how billionare blogging works. I suspect in todays business culture it's nearly impossible to be very honest.

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General

Authentic Experience

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