"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Outlandish Josh

Published on Mon, 2006-01-09 14:04

Decentralization

John Robb, who writes thinky things about Global Guerillas, also has a different site that's more random things he's watching. I've quickly become a fan. Here's a neat little post about how the creation of the EU meta-state is making the old countries sort of obsolete, and intersting things are happening. Particularly interesting given the feudal history of much of Europe as smaller political entities.

Perhaps when we've finished playing house with the Daddy State, we can get rolling on some of this decentralization and neo-regionalism here too. Strong metro/county/state government with a higher level Federal system to do some load-balancing, maintain national infrastructure, etc. It's all about the network. That kind of benevolent Federal system would really want to be hemispheric in its fullness. Not likely in my lifetime, but I think it might be nice.

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politics
Published on Mon, 2006-01-09 13:50

I'm Missing the Boat!

My pipe-dream blog service is whithering on the vine. New blogs this week:

Wes "Caddyshack" Connley:

nye24

Hello. Meet our gang, The Four Horsemen of Clamidia.

And via Wes's blogroll, a taste of the more literati Jeremy "Slarz" Slusarz:

Though the signs may have been there for some time (and, admittedly, they were) this weekend the evidence is simply incotrovertible, and I have had to well up the courage to admit to a serious problem. My building has a hippie.

The problem, I now believe, centers around the apartment directly under mine. A little while ago the quiet, keep-to-herself law student vacated one of the bedrooms (in hindsight, a regrettable loss, though I hardly knew her from Eve). Ever since, little shreds of evidence have been materializing and, in my horror, I think I may have slipped into a state of denial not unlike those that often accompany genocide. ("What? No. I not see. What? Paramilitaries? Groups of Serb soldiers wearing Adidas track pants shoot farmhouses weeth assault rifles? Me? No, I not see. You see, I just seemple farmer.") Denial, however, is no longer an option.

This past week has seen the appearance, in the bedroom window directly beneath mine, of a series of colorful, psychedelic, colorform-like decals, all depicting dancing bears, smiling skulls, psilocybic mushrooms, and the like; the type of nonsense that an 18 year old college freshman from Ohio might festoon the windows of her room in "the Towers" with in order to lend the place a more personalized air for her first year at "State." Later in the year she'll lie back, and, as some Abercrombie-ed human meatball with lingering acne and Natural Light breath paws her with all the grace and sensual dexterity of a sandhog, she'll gaze up at those stickers on the windowpane and think to herself, "My, what a long strange trip it's been..." Ugh.

While I'm excited to continue reading and enjoying both these fantastic efforts, I can't help but feel the same way about all my talented friends starting blogs as I do about any of the half-baked ideas I've spitballed which someone else has turned into a sizable chunk of Venture Captial. I'm simultaniously excited to see the ideas come to life, and yet I feel the need to boastfully claim some non-ownership ownership. I was there when...

But yeah, I bought Jeremy slarz.com back in 2002 as a christmas or birthday present. He'll be a fantastic blogger. My only question is, why you gotta bag on the sandhogs?

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Tags: 
culture
Published on Mon, 2006-01-09 13:50

I'm Missing the Boat!

My pipe-dream blog service is whithering on the vine. New blogs this week:

Wes "Caddyshack" Connley:

nye24

Hello. Meet our gang, The Four Horsemen of Clamidia.

And via Wes's blogroll, a taste of the more literati Jeremy "Slarz" Slusarz:

Though the signs may have been there for some time (and, admittedly, they were) this weekend the evidence is simply incotrovertible, and I have had to well up the courage to admit to a serious problem. My building has a hippie.

The problem, I now believe, centers around the apartment directly under mine. A little while ago the quiet, keep-to-herself law student vacated one of the bedrooms (in hindsight, a regrettable loss, though I hardly knew her from Eve). Ever since, little shreds of evidence have been materializing and, in my horror, I think I may have slipped into a state of denial not unlike those that often accompany genocide. ("What? No. I not see. What? Paramilitaries? Groups of Serb soldiers wearing Adidas track pants shoot farmhouses weeth assault rifles? Me? No, I not see. You see, I just seemple farmer.") Denial, however, is no longer an option.

This past week has seen the appearance, in the bedroom window directly beneath mine, of a series of colorful, psychedelic, colorform-like decals, all depicting dancing bears, smiling skulls, psilocybic mushrooms, and the like; the type of nonsense that an 18 year old college freshman from Ohio might festoon the windows of her room in "the Towers" with in order to lend the place a more personalized air for her first year at "State." Later in the year she'll lie back, and, as some Abercrombie-ed human meatball with lingering acne and Natural Light breath paws her with all the grace and sensual dexterity of a sandhog, she'll gaze up at those stickers on the windowpane and think to herself, "My, what a long strange trip it's been..." Ugh.

While I'm excited to continue reading and enjoying both these fantastic efforts, I can't help but feel the same way about all my talented friends starting blogs as I do about any of the half-baked ideas I've spitballed which someone else has turned into a sizable chunk of Venture Captial. I'm simultaniously excited to see the ideas come to life, and yet I feel the need to boastfully claim some non-ownership ownership. I was there when...

But yeah, I bought Jeremy slarz.com back in 2002 as a christmas or birthday present. He'll be a fantastic blogger. My only question is, why you gotta bag on the sandhogs?

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Tags: 
culture
Published on Mon, 2006-01-09 10:28

Free Advice for MoveOn

MoveOn needs to get better at messaging. Their ability to raise money and put ads out there makes them relevant, but their actual kung-fu is a little weak.

Here's what I think it boils down to:

  • He'll say anything to get a job: this is an important theme for framing the whole hearing process, but currently muddled in MoveOn's ad with the abortion bit. If there's a pivot from abortion it's:
  • Privacy. This has the advantage of being the constitutional issue, and having broader general support than "abortion" in particular. It also has strong resonance with the NSA scandal. It's also a decent pivot to:
  • Unchecked Presidential power. Why did Scalito get the nomination instead of any of the other fine conservative activists out there? Maybe because what Bush really wants is a justice who will swing the court to authorize his idea that the President is above the law.

Since the major cost here is airtime, not production, in the future it might be smart create a series of ads which share a common theme ("he plays one on TV" is ok, but not a home run) and address two or three points more directly. Not to provide more information, but to repeat the basic message more. People can find the facts online. On TV you want to repeat stuff that sticks, and then repeat it some more.

So if you were to do three ads, it might go:

  1. He'll do anything to get a job. Lied on resume. Lied about recusing himself from cases involving Vanguard. Lied about his membership in CAP. He'll say whatever he thinks people want to hear in an interview to get the job.
  2. He doesn't believe in a constitutional right to privacy. You can go to the point of saying his legal writing suggests women are the property of their husbands and fathers, but the essential legal point is whether or not a right to privacy exists. If this is what the debate is about, we win.
  3. He believes in unchecked Presidential power. Bush is trying to pack the court so he can remain above the law.

    4. Obviously as the hearings go on, the drama will shift and surge, but it's essential that these basic points be repeated by every advocacy group and political organization. Using literally the same language if possible, especially on TV.

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Tags: 
politics

Authentic Experience

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Nerding Out

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