I may get around to blogging about Michelle Obama’s speech. I’m still floored.

You can see the entire speech here. [Tags: obama michelle_obama politics dnc08 ]

5 Comments »

Last night’s IRC chat party was fun. I’m going to set up a room again tonight, starting at 8pm EDT, so we can watch the Democratic convention together: irc://irc.freenode.net/#democonvo. (If that link doesn’t work for you, you’ll have to download an IRC client. I use Chatzilla, an add-on to Firefox. Once you’ve installed it, plugging the URL into Firefox’s address bar should launch Chatzilla automatically.) (Dave Winer also had a chat going, at #dnc08.)

See you then!

[Tags: dnc campaign chat irc obama dnc08 ]

1 Comment »

Declan McCullagh has the goods (apparently) on Biden’s tech and Net policy record. It totally sucks and is completely out of step with Obama’s. Thankfully, Obama’s not appointing Biden as head of the FCC.

I like Biden as a VP pick. He’s prepared in case the unthinkable happens. He’s got some real values as a person. And I think he brings not only foreign policy experience but also some bluntness to the campaign. But, have I mentioned that his Net policy sucks? (Apparently?)

[Tags: biden obama tech_policy net_neutrality ]

3 Comments »

If McCain hadn’t become Karl Rove’s sockpuppet, this is what he might have said in response to the selection of Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate:

I congratulate my friend and colleague Joe Biden on his being selected as a vice presidential candidate. Joe and I have disagreed frequently over the years, and we disagree now on many of the important issues facing this country. But I’ve also worked with him, count him as a friend, and respect him as a capable man who loves the country he’s served for so many years.

That said, I remain convinced that the solutions Joe and his running mate are proposing are dangerous, and dangerously out of step with the American people. We’re going to keep on making that case up and down this great land, offering our own practical, down-to-earth solutions that will make a real difference in the lives of hard-working Americans.

McCain’s actual response, in full, from his Web site:

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, McCain spokesman Ben Porritt issued the following statement on Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running mate:

“There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden. Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be President.”

[Tags: biden obama mccain politics democracy patriotism ]

3 Comments »

Chet Edwards is the rumor of the day for Obama’s vp. Here he talks about how Democrats can win. He is very close to Obama in his thinking on this:

[Tags: chet_edwards obama politics ]

1 Comment »

McCain has delivered his tech policy. And it’s clear: This election will determine whether America willfully becomes a third-world participant in the online economy and culture.

Much of the McCain policy is the expected stuff about public-private partnerships, educating the workforce, and providing incentives to reach under-served populations, etc. But he shows his hand on three issues:

1. He’s flat against Net neutrality.

2. He wants to see copyright extended and enforced more vigorously.

3. He thinks the current infrastructure only needs a couple of tweaks.

In sum, our Internet policy should be the same as our energy policy: Hand a key resource off to big corporations whose interests are fundamentally out of alignment with ours as citizens.

Let’s assume that this is not because McCain is a tool. Let’s assume he has the best intentions and that his policy accurately reflects how he thinks about the Internet.

To McCain, the Internet is all about business. It’s about people working and buying stuff. There is nothing — nothing — in his policy statement that acknowledges that maybe the Net is also a new way we citizens are connecting with one another. The phrase “free speech” does not show up in it. The term “democracy” does not show up in it. What’s the opposite of visionary?

Further, the Internet to McCain is a set of tubes for delivering content to an awaiting public. Jeez, does he not have anyone on staff under the age of 25 who could have clued him in on what the Net is about?

It gets worse. Even if we ignore the cultural, social, and democratic aspects of the Net, even if we consider the Net to be nothing but a way to move content to “consumers” (his word), McCain still gets it wrong. There’s nothing in his policy about encouraging the free flow of ideas. Instead, when McCain thinks about ideas, he thinks about how to increase the walls around them by cracking down on “pirates” and ensuring ” fair rewards to intellectual property” (which, technically speaking, I think isn’t even English). Ideas and culture are, to John McCain, business commodities. He totally misses the dramatic and startling success of the Web in generating new value via open access to ideas and cultural products.

The two candidates’ visions of the Internet could not be clearer. We can have a national LAN designed first and foremost to benefit business, and delivered to passive consumers for whom the Net is a type of cable TV. Or, we can have an Internet that is of the people, by the people, for the people.

Is it going to be our Internet or theirs?

Go Obama! [Tags: politics mccain technology_policy net_neutrality obama ]

Obama’s campaign’s response:

“Senator McCain’s technology plan doesn’t put Americans first—it is a rehash of tax breaks and giveaways to the big corporations and their lobbyists who advise the McCain campaign. This plan won’t do enough for hardworking Americans who are still waiting for competitive and affordable broadband service at their homes and businesses. It won’t do enough to ensure a free and open Internet that guarantees freedom of speech. It won’t do anything to ensure that we use technology to bring transparency to government and free Washington from the grip of lobbyists and special interests. Senator McCain’s plan would continue George Bush’s neglect of this critical sector and relegate America’s communications infrastructure to second-class status. That’s not acceptable,” said William Kennard, Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission.

Someone just pointed me to the back and forth between Kevin Werbach and Michael Powell. Powell (former FCC head) drafted McCain’s tech policy, and Kevin (former FCC person) is an Obama supporter: 1 2

Harry Lewis at BlownToBits points to some of the flat-out contradictions in the McCain policy statement.

27 Comments »

Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family says he was aiming at being “mildly humorous” in his video asking “lots of people” to pray for “torrential” rain two minutes before Obama gives his outdoor acceptance speech, an aim I think Shepard achieved:

Apparently, this video has gotten some people bent out of shape, but I think we ought to take Shepard up on it. He says that even though some other people will be praying that the weather be clear and mild, “it’s not a contest.” Well, why not? Let’s have a good old-fashioned Ba’al smackdown. Let’s all put on our prayer caps*, and if there isn’t a torrential rain exactly two minutes before Obama speaks, we’ll know which side G-d is on. Then, both sides can stop campaigning as the voters dutifully ratify G-d’s will.

So, no torrential rain two minutes before Obama speaks means the Republicans have to acknowledge that the Creator prefers the Democrat. I’m ready to take that bet!

*Attire may vary by religion. Consult your local priest, rabbi, imam, or Tom Cruise for details. Children of G-d are ineligible to enter. In case of dispute, whether the rain was “torrential” will be decided by an interfaith panel of meteorologists. “Two minutes before” will be interpreted as meaning two minutes before Obama is standing on his network-assigned mark. Given G-d’s well-known punctuality, but factoring in the time it takes for rain to descend, there will be a 3 second grace period given, so to speak. In case of tie, the winner will be decided by seeing whether the Republican convention is hit with a plague of lobbyists.

[Tags: politics obama prayer humor ]

11 Comments »

I choked up merely reading a transcript of it on my cellphone on a bus.

[Tags: obama berlin ]

Must-see photo, shared by Dave Winer. Click on the largest size your bandwidth allows…

8 Comments »

I’d like to throw a hat into Obama’s VP ring: Elizabeth Edwards.

She is so right for an administration that is promising fundamental change in the politics of governing. Edwards hears past differences to what is shared. She hears past anger to what is worth defending. She hears past fear to what is worth cherishing. If — as a defining phrase of Obama’s puts it — we are the ones we are waiting for, Elizabeth Edwards models who we need to become if we are to enable change to happen.

And is there a better model of the hope Obama stands for? With Elizabeth Edwards, no one can confuse hope with mere wishful thinking or weakness. Edwards faces her mortality with clarity, and seems strengthened by it. I’m sure she hopes that she will survive for many, many years. But she seems to embody a larger type of hope as well: The notion that our future doesn’t have to be like our present. That every moment is an opportunity to move that future closer to us. That we bring that future closer by relentlessly finding what is best in those we encounter. That we can change our world by giving in to our urge to connect with others, our urge to be better people than we are.

There are obvious negatives to an Edwards vice-presidency. She is not ready to step into the presidency if, G-d forbid, something should happen to Obama. True. We would have to rely on the machinery of the administration to carry us forward. And, of course, she has untreatable, fatal cancer. John Edwards could be prevailed upon to be, in effect, her co-VP.

She has political strengths. She’s a woman, a southerner, a speaker who connects with her audience, a military brat. Those strengths could help.

But most of all, Elizabeth Edwards is hope walking on two legs. [Tags: politics elizabeth_edwards obama vp ]

2 Comments »

Here’s McCain’s new ad:

I think this is a losing tactic for McCain. Of course, as an Obama supporter, I’m biased. But the do-er vs. hoper idea only works if the hopeful candidate has no actual policies to offer. Then the hoper looks like a vacuous dreamer. But, over the course of the campaign, we’re going to hear lots and lots about the specifics of Obama’s platform. In fact, we’ve been getting the details for months now. For example, because McCain focused on economics this week, we’ve gotten a spate of articles comparing the two candidates’ policies. You may agree or disagree with Obama on this topic, but you can’t say he’s less detailed than McCain is.

In short, you can’t do a “Where’s the beef?” campaign when your opponent is serving up as many patties as you are. [Tags: politics mccain obama ]

One further thought: Is the generational culture war really going to work here? Obama – born in 1961 -was 7 years old during the Summer of Love.

2 Comments »