Compelling posts from elsewhere

George Clooney writes at The Huffington Post that he’s proud to be a liberal, gosh darn it! You know why? Because he’s such a brave, brave man and, these days, you have to be brave to proclaim yourself a liberal because us mean old conserva…

I thought this was a dead issue from last fall….

Mad ‘Still Kickin’ Mikey

To wit, take the 1st and a few other paragraphs of a paper I wrote back in ’97:

The history of the competition among service providers has been a history of struggle over customer satisfaction. As we face the dawning of the new millennia, we are witnessing the Götterdämmerung of the industrial era. The primary commodity of the 21st century will be information and the accessibility of information. Today, the introduction of new competition is primarily based on the question: Can rival service providers interconnect into an independent network of services? It is important to establish the various methods concerning who integrates with whom and under what circumstances or conditions, culminating in a defacto value added product.

SNIP

Adam Smith’s major contribution as a philosopher is perhaps the notion of an invisible hand mechanism, the concept that from multitudinous decentralized sub-optimizing actions, comes out, without any central direction, some serviceable equilibrium in its entirety. This synergy is more than just a matter of economics. Can service integration function in such a style, optimally arranging themselves in the absence of a central plan or direction?

This sentiment is almost incomprehensible to service traditionalists. Their argument is that the more complex the requirements, the more necessary it is to plan it in some centralized fashion. However, the more complex and advanced an economy becomes, the more difficult it is to guide it from ‘headquarters’. More often than not, a designed-by-committee (DBC) will fall far short of a customer’s complete satisfaction. Complexity is not justifiable grounds for centralized control. For example, NASA now has to rely on contractors to launch 74% of their missions.

Integration of services, on the other hand, radically changes the imbalance. Now service integrators, competing with each other for customers, act as their agent towards service providers. They can protect users from provider’s underperformance and limitations, and get them the best deal. This resolves the conventional enigma of price, quality, security and market power. Thus, assuming that consumers have a choice among service integrators and that service integrators have a choice among non colluding suppliers of underlying services, the need for centralized control declines in direct relation to inflated costs….

Now substitute MEDIA for “service” and the same argument can be made for bloggers and any outer source of news, commentary & punditry.

As far as Congress ought to be concerned, the free market of ideas is fundamental to our national character. If John McCain and others don’t like it, then either innovate or get out!!!

This is why on a personal level, I will never support him, even if it might mean cHillary might win by my abstaining to vote. My point would be that John is anathematic to the concepts of conservatism/free speech. I’d rather let cHillary ‘thrash’ us, at least we know what she is and she will only be able to go so far.

I also remain confident that the pendulum is swinging back in our favor. So if a liberal were to win in ’08, it only usher in the swan song of modern politics. The fat lady will sing not only for the Dean Machine, but the GOP as well, because the Republicans have failed to remain true to conservative values that our forefathers envisioned.

A liberal, it seems, is someone who will defend to the death your right to agree with them.

Just think of what we have to look forward to if the Democrats win the White House in ’08! Censorship (a.k.a. “campaign finance reform”), kangaroo courts (“fighting racism and homophobia”), and official media lies (“professional journalism”).

I think there is a market for liberal radio, I’m sure there is, but Airhead Amerika Radio certainly does not go about it the right way. They project their view of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaughs program and do what they think RW radio does.

They miss a couple of key things, first they aren’t entertaining, which is why I prefer Limbaugh, he keeps me laughing and informed.

The other, is that the don’t explain their view well enough, it usually sounds like extremism.

The McCain-Feingold “reform” bill neatly carved out a loophole for McCain and any other politician who can milk the Indian tribes. The whole relationship between the US Government and the “sovereign Indian tribes” is a mare’s nest with a long history of graft, corruption, abuse and down right evil.

The following is from The Hill, Feb 14, 2006: “Hans von Spakovsky, installed by President Bush on the Federal Election Commission last month in a controversial recess appointment, has waded into a heated debate by publicly calling for stricter regulations on the political contributions of Indian tribes.”

“In a statement for publication on the FEC’s website, von Spakovsky argues that tribes should have to adhere to the same contribution limits as individuals do…….”

“In his statement, von Spakovsky contends Congress should take one of two courses in regulating Indian tribes’ participation in the political process: either subject tribes to the aggregate contribution limits for “persons” mandated by the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) or require tribes to register and disclose political contributions by creating PACs.”

What does this have to do with bloggers? Incumbents writing laws about campaign finance are motivated to protect their cash flow while putting a tying a know in their opponent’s cash cow.

Incumbents do not see free political speech as words, they see it as money that is either going to them or against them.

The dreadful shame in McCain-Feingold is that it brings the cold hand of government enforced censorship of free speech down on the political process in the rough and tumble few weeks before an election.

If bloggers are included in this scheme, nothing will protect them. Overblown as this sounds, a fifteen year old blogger with a political agenda could find himself in the jaws of an FEC investigation with an arsenal that extends all the way to the RICO act.

This is hardball folks. To make a point, John McCain is fighting Hans von Spakovsky tooth and nail. Bush made the interim appointment, because Spakovsky’s nomination would have been defeated by McCain. When it comes to money and politicians, it is a very dirty business.

Should a blogger receiving something of monetary value(paid in one form or another) by a candidate be required to divulge it on their blog, or at least the candidate required to divulge it on theirs?

Just trying to understand where you’re coming from on opposition to McCain-Feingold.

Political bloggers may get federal protection

Bloggers would be largely immunized from hundreds of pages of confusing federal regulations dealing with election laws, according to a bill approved…