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Politics, open government, and safe streets. And the constant incursion of cycling.

Month: January 2009 Page 4 of 10

COPA Dead: And It Only Took Ten Years!

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On January 21, 2009

In Distribution, Law, Policy, Society

I remember arguing about this in law school, over a decade ago:

A federal law intended to restrict children’s access to Internet pornography died quietly Wednesday at the Supreme Court, more than 10 years after Congress overwhelmingly approved it.

The Child Online Protection Act would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet. The law had been embroiled in challenges to its constitutionality since it passed in 1998 and never took effect.

COPA was a patently ridiculous law, the product of populist grandstanding more than anything else.  It put the onus on me, as publisher of this site, to make sure your little precious was unable to see something that you didn’t want her to see.   The law was challenged virtually the moment it was signed, and it’s amazing that it took 10 years to finally be done with it.   I do fear that now that it’s off the table, some enterprising congressman or senator is going to take up the cause of government content regulation (probably some young and ambitious Republican congressman plus Lieberman).

Not the Change We Need

By

On January 21, 2009

In Politics

Chris Bowers on the fate of the 50 State Strategy:

In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean’s tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012.

I would have been surprised by any other result, but this is still disappointing to hear.  Just as businesses ultimately do themselves a disservice by focusing on quarterly results, so do political parties, too.

Our City

By

On January 20, 2009

In DC, Personal

Well Look At That

By

On January 20, 2009

In Law, Politics, Society

Damn.

We Are One? Really?

By

On January 19, 2009

In DC, Policy, Politics, Society

This is a photograph of the the crowds at the We Are One concert this past Sunday:

All that space around either side and the end of the Reflecting Pool?  Space that “security” excluded the public from.  You know, the public – that giant blob of people at the bottom of the picture (who managed to get along just fine without the heel of the Secret Service and MPD bearing on them).  Worth contemplating, the mindset that makes it okay to exclude the public from what is perhaps the most public space in the country.

Photo Copyright Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

American History? Sorry, HBO Owns It

By

On January 19, 2009

In Distribution, Law, Society

I didn’t criticize the Presidential Inauguration Commission’s decision to sell HBO exclusive rights to broadcast the We Are One concert because I thought that was a reasonable compromise between free public access and the very high levels of private contributions that would otherwise be required.   But then HBO decided that they were going to use copyright law to make sure that most Americans couldn’t witness this piece of history without their permission.  That absolutely amazing moment on the Mall I posted about, led by Pete Seeger?  Sorry, no longer available to you.  HBO owns it.

Your history, copyright HBO.

Call Me a Traitor – I’m Pulling for France

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On January 19, 2009

In Policy

Superfrenchie alerts us to a truly appalling exit move by the Bush Admin:

Less than a week before it leaves office, the Bush administration has sparked anger across the Atlantic by tripling the import duty rate on roquefort cheese to 300%, a move which the US hopes will “shut down trade” in the sheep’s milk product by making it prohibitively expensive.

The decision, part of Washington’s attempts to force the EU into dropping its ban on hormone-treated beef, was greeted with disbelief by the French government and by farmers in the south-western Aveyron region who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.

I’ll be buying a half pound of Roquefort this week.

Don’t Push It, Rep. Frank

By

On January 19, 2009

In Policy, Politics

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Ma.) has been the Dems’ pointman on the bailout since last Sept.  While I was entirely unsurprised that he was carrying water for the financial industry, I didn’t think he’d say something as ridiculous as he did in this TPM interview. In this piece, he essentially says that “if ‘elites’ want the public to pony up their money in cases like this, they, the aforementioned ‘elites’ need to get serious about repairing and expanding the social safety net in the country …”, and then he goes on to suggest that the Federal gov’t should first pony up the money and then declare their expectations that the recipients will chip in to society.

Are you kidding me?

No, wait.

Are you fucking kidding me?

How many times can we get suckered like this?  Didn’t anyone else take the lessons from Lucy and Charlie and the football in Peanuts?   Thea Skocpol gets it right:

The idea that “elites” will “get serious about repairing the safety net” if they are FIRST given billions of dollars of payoffs to shareholders who made bad decisions is the height of naivete. There are no corporatist institutions in U.S. politics that can enforce this kind of bargain, that can corral all the interests and get them to carry through on mutual promises. That is why Obama and the Democrats will get for the people in general exactly what they push through right now and will squander opportunities if they give money and leverage to “elites” first!

And she notes that there are no “who could have known?!” excuses here:

This is what Ira Magaziner imagined with health care back in 1992 — that he could get up front understandings with powerful interests by giving them concessions in the Health Security proposals, and they would let it get through Congress later. (I remember sitting in his office as I took notes for BOOMERANG and having him complain to me that he could not understand why the business roundtable types “lied” to him about what they would do!) Of course, they turned on him the moment Congress got ahold of things.  Same thing will happen here.

No excuses, Rep. Frank.  Treat us like we’re stupid, and you’ll get treated in kind.

What Changed?

By

On January 19, 2009

In Personal, Society

It’s not a particularly well fleshed-out piece, but something about Matt Cooper’s thoughts on race in the late 80s/early 90s and now makes me want to recommend it to you.

Anyone Watching the Pardon Desk Today?

By

On January 19, 2009

In Law, Politics

Or do you think we’ll have to wait until Bush is safely back in Texas to find out about them?

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