Category: Politics

Baldwin Votes Against Internet Free Speech

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Tammy Baldwin voted against internet free speech yesterday [The House voted 225 to 182 on the Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606) — a majority but less than the two-thirds required for a “suspension” bill to clear the House. via instapundit]. An explanation would be useful. Jim Abrams has more. There’s certainly growing activism online. Adding complexity via more and more laws will be a loss for everyone (which is, perhaps one perspective of Baldwin and others who voted against H.R. 1606). Google News has more. As is typical, the small players get screwed in these deals, while the special interests on both sides spend money to get around the legal spaghetti, as we saw in the last national elections.

Ed Cone says “Email your congressman and tell him you want to blog without Federal regulation.”

Wisconsin’s House delegation voted as follows: Mark Green (R) voted Yes along with Ron Kind (D), Jim Sensenbrenner (R) – (I agree on something with Sensenbrenner???) and Mark Ryan (R).

Voting No with Baldwin (D) were Petri (R), Obey (D) and Moore (D).

Send Tammy Baldwin a note with your views on this important, local issue.

California Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s supportive comments on this bill. Slashdot and Declan have more.

Gingrich on WWII vs the Four Years since 9/11

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Newt Gingrich raises some useful points in comparing WWII’s four years vs. the four since 9/11 [pdf]:

I appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the nation’s intelligence system and the absolute imperative for effective ongoing reform.

It is now four years and one month since the 9/11 attack on America.

The comparable date for World War II would have been January 19, 1946. By that point the United States was largely demobilizing its forces after a victorious global war.
During the comparable length of time that we have been responding to the 9/11 attacks on America, the World War II generation of Americans had rebounded from the attack on Pearl Harbor and defeated Germany, Japan and Italy, built a worldwide military and intelligence capability, built the atomic bomb, massed and organized industrial power, and laid the foundation for the worldwide network of alliances that has stabilized the world for the last sixty years.

This difference in energy, intensity, and resolve should worry all of us.

This is a fascinating topic. One thing that strikes me is how different our national awareness of the globe must have been in 1946, given millions of Americans stationed overseas. This is much different, today, I think.

Our Tax Dollars at Work: Hollywood Lobbyists’ Halloween Work

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Slashdot:

BoingBoing has an interesting article about a joint RIAA/MPAA move started yesterday on Capitol Hill. From the article: ‘Hollywood has fielded a shockingly ambitious piece of Analog Hole legislation while everyone was out partying in costume. Under a new proposed Analog Hole bill, it will be illegal to make anything capable of digitizing video unless it either has all its outputs approved by the Hollywood studios, or is closed-source, proprietary and tamper-resistant. The idea is to make it impossible to create an MPEG from a video signal unless Hollywood approves it.

SBC’s Whitacre on “His Pipes”

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SBC, Wisconsin’s largest incumbent telco, evidently does not believe in the open internet. Chairman Ed Whitacre expects internet firms to pay to send content to local customer’s homes (that TV thinking again). Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’ve not seen any SBC Fibre deployed to the home. We’re still using the copper networks, paid for by all of us, during the regulated telecommunications era. Fortunately, I think by the time SBC gets around to fibre (will they?), wireless will perhaps, be pervasive.

The telcos should be investing in personal web services to use these pipes.

Bob Berger has more.

Ireland’s John Bruton Interview

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SF Chronicle:

Q: Last week, we had as our guest Stanford Professor Michael Boskin, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors to the first President Bush. Boskin invoked an image of Europe of high taxes, high spending, overly generous social welfare networks, high unemployment and stagnant growth as something the United States must avoid at all costs. What is the European view of that critique?

A: If you took each of the 50 states in the U.S., you would find quite different economic performance as between Mississippi and California or as between Washington state or West Virginia. There are varieties in Europe, just as there are varieties here in the United States.

On average, productivity per hour worked is as high in Europe as it is in the United States, right across the board. In some countries like Ireland and the Netherlands, it is higher. However, Europeans work fewer hours. They work fewer hours per year, per week and per lifetime. They retire earlier.

Bruton was formerly Prime Minister of Ireland in the 1990’s.

Monroe’s Ethanol (E85) for $1.96/Gallon

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Channel3000:

he price won’t stay under a dollar, but even at $1.96 a gallon, drivers will be smiling.
Cory said the corn-based fuel gives him fewer miles per gallon, but he figures he’s still 4 to 5 cents per gallon ahead with the savings at the pump.
He also likes the fact that he’s helping local farmers.
“I think anything we can do to help our own markets and build up our own economy is a lot better off and this is really clean burning fuel,” he said.

A Basic Right to Broadband?

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Charles Cooper:

We won’t stop until every San Franciscan has broadband access,” says Chris Vein, the senior technology advisor to San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom. It’s not only rhetoric. His boss is one of the nation’s most visible proponents of so-called muni Wi-Fi. Because he runs San Francisco, Newsom probably gets more than his fair share of ink. Some think that he also harbors ambitions to one day run for U.S. president–and nothing would look better on his resume than a line about how the city extended affordable broadband access to all its residents.

But Newsom is only picking up on a theme increasingly sounded by politicians elsewhere. The city of Philadelphia has also announced a high-profile plan to provide Internet access to its citizens. From its point of view, broadband is a necessity, not a luxury. With the United States’ ranking for broadband penetration plummeting from third place to 16th in just four years, this is more than an academic concern. The fear is this will translate into massive job losses to other nations.

Number of Pork Projects in Federal Spending Bills

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Andrew Roth:

From Chris Edwards’ new book, Downsizing the Federal Government (which cited CAGW):

2005 – 13,997
2004 – 10,656
2003 – 9,362
2002 – 8,341
2001 – 6,333
2000 – 4,326
1999 – 2,838
1998 – 2100
1997 – 1,596
1996 – 958
1995 – 1439

Using 2005 numbers, by voting down the “Bridges” amendment, the Senate let the country know that it was unwilling to defund 2 out of 13,997 pork projects today. That’s 0.0142887762 percent.