Robert Herold of the Pacific Northwest Inlander has a good commentary on the semantics of “taxpayers” vs. “citizens.” An excerpt:

Taxpayers are just full of anxiety. Citizens seek to participate in a constructive manner. Taxpayers seek always to reduce public life to a balance sheet. Citizens seek ways of broadening and deepening public life. Taxpayers, by definition, live in a private world, and they don’t much like government penetrating that world. The word “taxes” symbolizes that penetration. Citizens seek life in the polis. Citizens live in a world of values, which, when agreed upon, determine how we will live.

(Thanks to Doug Hughes for the link.)

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…After all, both were born in the 20th Century.

I’m just trying to get into next year’s round up of liberal hate speech. Man, he has a thin skin!

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There’s a somewhat amusing quiz about 2003’s political events and statements over at Alternet.

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Suppose Gov. Dean were to record a message like the following and make it available for download on the campaign Web site:

Hello. You’ve reached the home of ____[suitably long pause]_____. I’m Governor Howard Dean and these good folks are supporting our campaign to take back our country. That’s why I approved this phone answering message. Now, here’s the beep.

Hello. ____[suitably long pause]_____ have agreed to let me answer their phone. I’m Howard Dean and if you elect me president, I’ll answer your phone, too. Now, here’s the beep.

Hello. This is Howard Dean. ____[suitably long pause]_____ have agreed to let me answer their phone because they’re busy on the Internet making new friends and building a grassroots organization that will take back our country in 2004. If you’re not too embarrassed to still be using telephones, feel free to leave a message after the beep.

Hello. This is Howard Dean. ____[suitably long pause]_____ have agreed to let me answer their phone in order to try out an experiment in post-hypnotic suggestion. When you hear the beep, you will send $77 to my campaign and think I’m 6’2″. Your eyes are getting tired … so tired … [beep]

How many FEC regulations would this break? How about canons of taste?

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Gary Wolf’s written a terrific article about the Nettiness of the Dean campaign. For example, he tells of a conversation with Joi Ito:

I contact him to ask if he thinks there’s a difference between an emergent leader and an old-fashioned political opportunist. What does it take to lead a smart mob? Ito emails back an odd metaphor: “You’re not a leader, you’re a place. You’re like a park or a garden. If it’s comfortable and cool, people are attracted. Deanspace is not really about Dean. It’s about us.”

You should probably pair this article with Ed Cone‘s. Gary’s is more concerned with the theoretical while Ed’s takes you right into the cubes in the Dean HQ. Add in the NY Times Magazine article on the ethos of the campaign, and you have a pretty damn good picture of what’s going on, what it feels like, and why it matters.

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O’Reilly has just announced its Emergent Democracy Forum, sorta kinda part of the Emerging Technology conference. Looks like it could be good. (Disclosure: I’m on the organizing committee.)

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From Slashdot:

tassii writes “Looks like Diebold is in yet more trouble. In this article from Wired.com, an audit of the Diebold E-Voting machines revealed that the company installed uncertified software in all 17 counties that use its electronic voting equipment. While 14 counties used software that had been qualified by federal authorities but not certified by state authorities, three counties, including Los Angeles, used software that had never been certified by the state or qualified by federal authorities for use in any election. And in this article, Wired.com is reporting that at least five convicted felons secured management positions at a Diebold, including one who served time in a Washington state correctional facility for stealing money and tampering with computer files in a scheme that ‘involved a high degree of sophistication and planning.'”

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David Isenberg and Bob Kopp of Scientists for Dean are looking for scientists who are ready to get behind the Governor. After all, this administration is bad news for science in this country. David and Bob are particularly searching for some scientifical leaders who would be willing to lend their credibility to the effort.

So, do you know a Nobel Prize winner — and not in one of them wussy humanities categories! — who’d be interested?

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The Daily Mislead reports that the Washington Post is reporting that the Administration is removing from its sites statements that have later turned out to be untrue.

Specifically, on April 23, 2003, the president sent his top international aid official on national television to reassure the public that the cost of war and reconstruction in Iraq would be modest… But instead of admitting that he misled the nation about the cost of war, the president has allowed the State Department “to purge the comments by Natsios from the State Department’s Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have vanished.”

A Bush spokesman said the administration was forced to remove the statements because, “there was going to be a cost” charged by ABC for keeping the transcript on the government’s site. But as the Post notes, “other government Web sites, including the State and Defense departments, routinely post interview transcripts, even from ‘Nightline,'” and according to ABC News, “there is no cost.”

All in good fun, I’m sure.

Dan Gillmor‘s got some excellent reportage that dives deep into this story.

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The fabulous Jay Rosen is doing his bit to pry open the narrative bear trap clamped around the legs of journalists — nine ways you could cover the election campaign without once using the language of sports or show biz. What a concept(s)!

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