Category: Politics

Election Day Essay

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Michael Kinsley:

In politics the stakes are not small, except in the sense that the arguments exceed by far any differences in what the two established parties actually do when they have the opportunity to govern. Republicans, as Evelyn Waugh is said to have complained about the British Tories, don’t seem to turn back the clock by a single minute. But Democrats don’t seem to push it forward either.

Recent elections have seen the rise of self-styled militant moderates, following the flag of white-horse candidates starting with the businessman Ross Perot and continuing, so far, through Gen. Wesley K. Clark. Business and the military are two fertile breeders of excessive self-confidence, but the only essential qualification for a white-horse candidate is a total lack of experience in running for or holding elective office. And the only essential requirement for white-horse voters is to be, like Howard Beale in Paddy Chayefsky’s movie “Network,” “mad as hell” and “not going to take this anymore.” It is not essential to know why you are so mad, or what exactly you’re not going to take.

Kinsley is correct on governing practices.

Franklin’s Latest Poll Summaries: “Dem Wave Crested, Advantage Shrinks”

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UW’s Charles Franklin:

Across the board, in Senate, House and Governor’s races, the wave boosting the Democrats crested about 10 days ago. Since then the advantage Democrats have built throughout the year has been reduced by from 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points. While forces are still a net positive to the Democrats, these forces are weaker than they were during the week before Halloween. This implies that the most competitive races will now be harder for Democrats to win and easier for Republicans to hold. This implies that the anticipation of a major surge to Democrats now needs to be reconsidered. While race-by-race estimates still show an 18 seat Democratic gain, and 27 seats as tossups (see our scorecard at Pollster.com here), this reduction in national forces makes it less likely the Democrats sweep the large majority of the tossup seats and could result in total gains in the 20s rather than the 30s or even 40s that looked plausible 10 days ago.

Rhetoric & Reality: Mapping Congress’ Voting Records on Technology

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Declan McCullough:

Ever since the mid-1990s, politicians have grown fond of peppering their speeches with buzzwords like broadband, innovation and technology.

John Kerry, Al Gore and George W. Bush have made fundraising pilgrimages to Silicon Valley to ritually pledge their support for a digital economy.

But do politicos’ voting records match their rhetoric? To rate who’s best and who’s worst on technology topics before the Nov. 7 election, CNET News.com has compiled a voter’s guide, grading how representatives in the U.S. Congress have voted over the last decade.

While many of the scored votes centered on Internet policy, others covered computer export restrictions, H-1B visas, free trade, research and development, electronic passports and class action lawsuits. We excluded the hot-button issue of Net neutrality, which has gone only to a recorded floor vote in the House of Representatives so far, because that legislation has generated sufficient division among high-tech companies and users to render it too difficult to pick a clear winner or loser.

The results were surprisingly mixed: In the Senate, Republicans easily bested Democrats by an average of 10 percent. In the House of Representatives, however, Democrats claimed a narrow but visible advantage on technology-related votes.

John Kerry finished second last in the Senate. Locally, Ron Kind, Mark Green and Tom Petri “scored” above 50%. Senate / House scoring methodology. For example, both Senators Feingold and Kohl voted for the National ID card and linking databases while Representative Baldwin voted against it.

State by State Voting Technology Roundup

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Computerworld:

State contracted with Accenture in 2004 and launched its database before the September 2006 primary; legality of contract was challenged in court and company was forced to expand state access to proprietary database software. Wisconsin law previously required voter registration only in municipalities with a population over 5,000, which works out to about one-sixth of them; as of January 2006, state law required that all voters register. (Election Day registration is available.) The Century Foundation characterizes Wisconsin’s poll-worker training efforts as unsatisfactory [TCF State report PDF]; those working with the system, in turn, say the new software is slower and harder to use than the old software.

This is Baghdad. What Could be Worse?

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UW-Madison Grad Anthony Shadid:

It had been almost a year since I was in the Iraqi capital, where I worked as a reporter in the days of Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and the occupation, guerrilla war and religious resurgence that followed. On my return, it was difficult to grasp how atomized and violent the 1,250-year-old city has become. Even on the worst days, I had always found Baghdad’s most redeeming quality to be its resilience, a tenacious refusal among people I met over three years to surrender to the chaos unleashed when the Americans arrived. That resilience is gone, overwhelmed by civil war, anarchy or whatever term could possibly fit. Baghdad now is convulsed by hatred, paralyzed by suspicion; fear has forced many to leave. Carnage its rhythm and despair its mantra, the capital, it seems, no longer embraces life.

“A city of ghosts,” a friend told me, her tone almost funereal.

More on Yahoo’s Cooperation with the Chinese Government

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Tom Foremski:

hi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison after “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities”.

His crime was to have e-mailed details of the Chinese government’s plans to handle news coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004. Yahoo! provided crucial information in the case, linking the message and e-mail account with Shi ‘s computer. Reporters Without Borders accused Yahoo! of acting as a “police informant”.

Schwarzenegger’s campaign Combines Shopping & Voting Databases

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AP:

Gin or vodka? Ford or BMW? Perrier or Fiji water? Does the car you buy or what’s in your fridge say anything about how you’ll vote?


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign thinks so.


Employing technology honed in President Bush’s 2004 victory, the Republican governor’s re-election team has created a vast computer storehouse of data on personal buying habits and voter records to identify likely supporters. Campaign officials say the operation is the largest of its kind in any state, at any time.


Some strategists believe consumer information can reveal a voter’s politics even better than a party label can.


“It’s not where they live, it’s how they live,” said Josh Ginsberg, the Schwarzenegger campaign’s deputy political director.

SAIC’S Robert Hirsch on Peak Oil

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Defense & The National Interest:

10/24/06 Peaking of world oil production, an update by Robert Hirsch, Senior Energy Advisor, SAIC:

Political MoneyLine: Congressional & Senator’s Private Gifts of Travel

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Interesting data compiled by Congressional Quarterly’s Political Moneyline. As always, paper heir Jim Sensenbrenner is #1 in these goodies receiving $203,175 in travel over the past six years. David Obey escaped Wisconsin Winters a number of times, coming in 70th at $79,153. Tammy Baldwin was #147 @ $48,173 while Paul Ryan was #142 @ $48,866. Ryan and Baldwin both travelled to Israel and Jordan courtesy of the American Israel Education Foundation. Russ Feingold was #597 @ $1,078. Scot Paltrow has more.

Tammy Baldwin on Earmarks

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I received an email recently from Tammy Baldwin regarding my post on the excesses of congressional earmarks – using our checkbooks:

Dear Mr. Zellmer,

Thank you for contacting me regarding earmark reform. It is good
to hear from you, and I apologize for the delay in my response.

Like you, I am concerned about unnecessary government spending.
In recent years, government spending has increased dramatically,
creating unprecedented national debt. Continued, large-scale
deficit spending is unquestionably poor public policy. Many have
suggested that one of the ways to cut spending is to reform the
practice of “earmarks”, which are appropriation amendments that
fund specific projects. In the current climate of excessive
spending, reforming this amendment process will not go far
enough. The government is spending billions of dollars a day on
the Iraq War while simultaneously lowering tax revenue by cutting
taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. This shifts the
burden onto the middle and lower-income earners who are unable
to support such extensive spending.

At the current rate, the United States is adding one trillion dollars
to our national debt every eighteen months. According to the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if the President’s current tax
and spending polices are continued over the next ten years, the
yearly deficit will increase to $439 billion as soon as 2014. The
national debt will skyrocket to $14.5 trillion, almost double today’s
level. Clearly, this course of fiscal irresponsibility cannot be
sustained. I believe Congress must return to fiscal discipline, such
as in the late 1990s when we turned annual federal deficits into
surpluses. Rest assured that I will keep your views in mind
regarding earmark reform as the debate over fiscal responsibility
and the federal budget continues.

Again, thank you for sharing your views. Your opinion matters to
me. If I can be of service to you in any other way, please do not
hesitate to let me know. As a result of the anthrax incidents, all
mail sent to Congress is first irradiated. This process causes
significant delays. To ensure the fastest response, I encourage all
constituents who have access to the internet to contact me through
my website at http://tammybaldwin.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Tammy Baldwin
Member of Congress

I appreciate the email. Baldwin gets points (or her office) for emailing responses whereas our Senators continue to send dead tree responses to electronic inquiries. Tammy’s House & Campaign websites. Her opponent in this falls race is Dave Magnum.