Microsoft’s MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN’s censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti. Now all you get when you attempt to visit his blog at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/mranti/ is the error message pictured above. (You can see the Google cache of his blog up until Dec.22nd here.)
Note, this blog was TAKEN DOWN by MSN people. Not blocked by the Chinese government.
Category: Politics
2006 Governor’s Race: Interview with Scott Walker
Colin Benedict interviews Republican Candidate for Governor Scott Walker:
He won by promising to be frugal and restoring ethics, a blueprint he’s following again.
“As Governor, right off the bat, that first day in office, I would call a special session to pass a true property tax freeze on all four years I’m in office,” said Walker. “On all levels of government.” Walker admits Gov.Doyle’s plan has helped some people but calls it a phony freeze because on average tax bills went up. He criticizes Doyle saying the governor essentially borrowed the money to pay for it instead of cutting programs.
Pay to Play at the Capitol
Steven Walters and Patrick Marley:
Asked why he made sure the Democratic senator from Madison personally got a $40,000 check from what was then called SBC/Ameritech for a shadowy campaign fund Chvala secretly controlled, Broydrick said: “It was very clear to me that, if you played ball, you got what you wanted.”
The regional phone company, one of Broydrick’s many clients, got what it wanted in the summer of 2001.
Before the $40,000 corporate check was written, the state budget contained a tax-code change that would have cost the telecommunications industry money. After the check was delivered, the provision was removed from the budget, which Chvala and Assembly Republicans wrote over the next two weeks.
Filling up my car recently, I stood next to a woman doing the same to her 3-Series. The trunk and bumper were filled with anti-national political figure stickers. I told her that I agreed with many of her concerns but simply asked that she put some energy into local issues such as public schools or city/county government.
I feel the same way about Paul Soglin’s daily national political blasts. In my view, the local scene could use much more attention. There’s no shortage of national political commentary and criticism.
I hope Paul turns his considerable talents back toward Madison.
Internet Gatekeepers
Like I said, this isn’t about having/not having a tiered Internet. It already is tiered. This is a battle over whether or not we have an OPEN Internet. The Ed Whitacre’s of the industry want it to be a RESTRICTED Internet. A restricted Internet where they not only hold the keys, but where they’re free to swing their swords as well.
I have many more posts and links on this issue here.
Lessons Learned from the American Expedition to Iraq
For what?
To establish some form of Kurdish state? The Turkish Government, among our stronger allies, will not thank us for this.
To establish Islamic State(s) in the Arab regions of Iraq? Probably difficult to sell this to the American people as “victory.” Certainly an odd aspect of our “War on Terror.”
To establish a Shiite State in southern Iraq? Good news for Iran, a charter member of the “Axis of Evil.” Bad news for Iraq’s southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, most of whose oil fields lie in Shiite tribal areas.
Perhaps we can redeem ourselves by learning lessons of sufficient value.
Conyers & Sensenbrenner’s World: Sticking it to us
David Berlind nicely summarizes the DRM (Digital Restrictions Morass) that plagues mainstream electronic media supported by big money politics and the likes of our own Jim Sensenbrenner and Michigan’s John Conyers.
Internet, Weblogs and Local Politics
Two articles on the rising influence of the net and blogs on local politics:
- Ron Fournier:
Frustrated by government and empowered by technology, Americans are filling needs and fighting causes through grass-roots organizations they built themselves – some sophisticated, others quaintly ad hoc. This is the era of people-driven politics.
People are just beginning to realize how much power they have,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic consultant who specializes in grass-roots organizing via the Internet.
- Greg Borowski:
Now, with Wisconsin on the eve of a major campaign year, state candidates will be confronted for the first time with a growing network of political blogs, many on the feisty side.
Even avid bloggers acknowledge that when it comes to reaching voters, particularly undecided ones, their power pales in comparison to newspapers and the rest of the mainstream media (The MSM in bloghand).
I think Borowski overstate’s the MSM’s influence. One must keep in mind the general population’s views of mainstream media (typically, not great, largely, I think due to the often cozy relationship between big media and big politics) and the small number of people who actually vote.
Change will occur, but it will be local and net driven. Perhaps in future decades, the grassroots activism will make a difference on the state and national scene.
Shaking Hands with Bill Proxmire
My one fleeting contact with Bill Proxmire occured many, many years ago (I was perhaps 10 years old). I recall walking around the Dodge County Fair (Beaver Dam) and my hand suddenly swung away. I looked up and a tall lanky guy shook it and said “Hi, I’m Bill Proxmire”. He was on the campaign trail, one handshake at a time.
We could use his “Golden Fleece Awards” today.
Richard Severo:
Another Golden Fleece Award went to the National Institute for Mental Health, which spent $97,000 to study, among other things, what went on in a Peruvian brothel. The researchers said they made repeated visits in the interests of accuracy.
The Federal Aviation Administration also felt Mr. Proxmire’s wrath, for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the “length of the buttocks” and how their knees were arranged when they were seated. Other Fleece recipients were the Justice Department, for spending $27,000 to determine why prisoners wanted to get out of jail, and the Pentagon, for a $3,000 study to determine if people in the military should carry umbrellas in the rain.
He returned to Harvard, earned a second master’s degree – this one in public administration – and moved to Wisconsin to be a reporter for The Capital Times in Madison.
“They fired me after I’d been there seven months, for labor activities and impertinence,” he once said, conceding that his dismissal was merited.
City of Madison Comprehensive Plan
A couple of hours before the council meeting in the same room, they attended a presentation about the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. This plan, mandated by state law, and a work in progress over the last couple of years, will serve as a long-term roadmap for the city’s infrastructural future. It is also up for a vote on Tuesday, Dec. 13 by the full council, though it is likely to be referred to a subsequent meeting in early January.
Ag Subsidies Revealed
For now, however, these subsidies are here — but who, exactly, gets them?
For that answer, I encourage you to check out the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database. Through many, many FOIA requests, they have produced. an interactive website chock full of interesting facts. For example:
Half of all subsidies go to only 5% of Congressional districts. Four commodities corn, wheat, rice and cotton account for 78 percent of all ag subsidies. EWG also has an interesting proposal to reallocate the ag money away from subsidies but towards rural areas where farmers actually generate high value-added goods already.