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August 31, 2005

A Campaign Without the Internet?

Internet-Savvy candidates are hampered by Japan's archaic election laws.

Contributed by Steven Clift

When the head of Japan's top opposition party gave a heated speech in Tokyo this week, party officials did what seemed natural in one of the world's most technology-savvy countries -- they put a movie clip of the speech on the party Web site.

But only hours later, election officials called the Democratic Party of Japan to say the movie clip was in danger of violating the country's election laws. By Wednesday morning, the video was gone.

Candidates in Japan's Sept. 11 elections for the lower house of Parliament are finding their efforts to reach out to voters via the Internet hampered by the nation's 1950 election laws.

The regulations stipulate that each candidate can only distribute 35,000 postcards and 70,000 leaflets during the official election campaign period. TV and radio spots can be used by parties, but not individual candidates.

The law effectively bars all other media, preventing candidates from using the Internet and e-mail to disseminate images, and parties and candidates from updating their Web sites until after polls close.

Critics say it's time for an update.

"Until now, speeches on the street, as well as TV and newspapers, have been enough to reach out to voters during elections," said Chikako Aoki of Yes! Project, a group established by young business leaders last week to get more young people interested in politics.

"But times are changing, and media used in election campaigning also need to change," she said.

The restrictions are coming to the fore in this year's hotly contested race for the 480-seat lower house in which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and their coalition partners are pitted against the DPJ and other opposition parties.

The no-Internet policy could especially hinder Democrat candidates as they try to reach out to Web-savvy city voters, among whom they have made significant gains in the last two elections. The LDP's traditional power base, meanwhile, is in the countryside.

"The DPJ has repeatedly called for election laws to be reformed to allow for better use of the Internet, but for now we intend to abide by current regulations," said Katsuhiro Harada, an official in charge of the party's campaign.

"The feeling is that the laws are outdated," he added.

The clash between the 50-year-old campaign law and 21st century politics is not without a price for the LDP. The country's best-known Internet entrepreneur, Takafumi Horie, is running as an independent, but with the backing of the ruling party.

Horie has stopped updating his popular Internet blog -- which was registering over 50,000 hits a day -- since Aug. 18, the day before he announced his candidacy.

Livedoor, his Internet services company, has also stopped carrying news stories on its Web portal site that mention specific election candidates, spokesman Kazuyoshi Omura said. The site plans to run an election special as soon as the elections are over.

Although individual candidates also cannot use the radio or TV to call for votes, parties are allowed to run TV commercials, which began airing across the country on Tuesday.

Koizumi dissolved the lower house on Aug. 8 and called next month's elections after the upper house rejected his bid to split up and sell the postal delivery, savings and insurance services, creating the world's largest private bank.

Since then, he has ousted anti-reform lawmakers from his party and recruited celebrities like Horie to run against his former colleagues.

On Wednesday, the LDP ran a commercial with the silver-haired Koizumi -- who took office in 2001 -- looking serious in a crisp suit.

"Four years ago, I promised the public that I will pursue reforms, even if that meant breaking up the LDP. Postal privatization is a promise that I made to the Japanese people," he says.

In the DPJ ad, Katsuya Okada, head of the Democratic Party of Japan -- also in a suit against a pure white background -- calls out to voters for change.

"Change is definitely needed in politics," Okada says. "Don't give up on Japan -- the Democratic Party." (AP)

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20050831p2a00m0na026000c.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 30, 2005

CyberPorn on the Minds of Many Lawmakers

The internet is at the center of political debate again- this time over adult content websites. Find out what Washington is (or isn't) doing about online adult entertainment and the .xxx domain, reserved for "indecent" content.

Social conservatives helped to re-elect President Bush last year. Now his administration is returning the favor with a crackdown on sexually explicit material.

As usual, the Internet is in the political crosshairs. The Family Research Council recently demanded that the Bush administration do something about the .xxx domain--a zone reserved for adult content and set for final approval this month.

The administration was happy to oblige. Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, asked for .xxx to be put on hold. Now its future is uncertain.

The same pattern is repeating elsewhere in the administration. When Bush needed to appoint a successor to Michael Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the president could have chosen someone to relax Powell's "indecency" crackdown.

Instead, Bush chose Kevin Martin, who holds even more expansive views of what's indecent than his predecessor did.

Calling for a crackdown on sex sites through new taxes, regulations or prosecutions might make headlines--but it's just political posturing. Martin voted against airing "Saving Private Ryan" on broadcast TV, and his candidacy was embraced by the Parents Television Council. Now Martin has hired Penny Nance, an antiporn religious activist, to be his adviser. Until a few weeks ago, Nance was a board member of Concerned Women for America, which has a mission statement of bringing "Biblical principles into all levels of public policy."

Bush's Justice Department has not been idle. Bruce Taylor, the president of the National Law Center for Children and Families who claims to have been responsible for the most obscenity prosecutions in the history of the United States, has been hired to lend a hand.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft was the butt of jokes from late-night comedians for his morning prayer sessions and his staff's decision to cover the naked breasts of a statue in the Justice Department.

But it was Ashcroft's successor, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who targeted adult Web sites by burdening them with onerous record-keeping requirements. Those rules currently are being challenged in court. So is the Child Online Protection Act, defended by the Justice Department and opposed by mainstream publishers including Salon.com, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and News.com publisher CNET Networks.

Expanding 'indecency'
Congress is becoming just as censorial. One example is a proposed tax on adult Web sites. Another is a bill approved by the House of Representatives that would boost fines for broadcast "indecency" from $32,000 to $500,000 and punish stations with possible loss of their broadcast license.

Now the Senate is talking about expanding that idea to cable, satellite and the Internet. "We ought to find some way to say, 'Here is a block of channels, whether it's delivered by broadband, by VoIP, by whatever it is, to a home, that is clear of the stuff you don't want your children to see,'" Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told reporters in March. (VoIP stands for voice over Internet protocol.)

Even though cable channels currently are not covered by "indecency" restrictions, some have been self-censoring to avoid the ire of the self-appointed morality mavens in Washington.

John Landgraf, president of FX Networks, told a conference in Aspen, Colo., last week that his shows are "rated, they're V-chipped and there's a detailed graphical (warning)." FX's lineup includes "Rescue Me" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

"You'd really have to be blind and deaf to watch the shows and never know--we make it quite clear they're adult shows for adults," Landgraf said, adding that FX won't air racy shows earlier in the evening. "Even though technically we're not regulated and there's nothing the FCC could do, we feel that we have little choice right now."

Risk of collateral damage
The problems with Washington's new focus on pornography are twofold: It won't work, and it won't stop with adult sites.

Calling for a crackdown on sex sites through new taxes, regulations or prosecutions might make headlines--but it's just political posturing. Sexually explicit material isn't limited to the United States, and persuading the Dutch to pull the plug on sites based in Amsterdam is as likely as persuading France to endorse the invasion of Iraq.

Previous Next The second problem is that antiporn laws are touted as targeting smut, but they end up being used to suppress unpopular ideas.

Victims of obscenity law in the not-so-distant past include a literary review with works by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," the classic tale of "Fanny Hill," James Joyce's "Ulysses," and, in the last decade, comic book artist Mike Diana.

Indecency regulations are even broader. The FCC has ruled that utterances of four-letter words can be punished--a sweeping categorization that includes news articles, dictionaries, sex education sites, and transcripts of conversations between the vice president and a U.S. senator.

Technology including the V-Chip, white-listed Web sites in Apple Computer's Tiger operating system, and even the humble off switch are more effective ways to shield children from porn without collateral damage to free expression. But because politicians wouldn't be able to claim credit--or appease their social conservative supporters--we should expect more of the same.

http://news.com.com/The+Internet+again+in+the+political+crosshairs/2010-1071_3-5843843.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2005

Britain-Based Saudi Extremist Pulls Plug on Website

A Britain-based extremist web manager logged off for the last time leaving an "obituary" critical of  the British government's crackdown on extremists.

A BRITISH-based Saudi extremist has taken down a website on which he was displaying footage of three Black Watch soldiers being blown up by a suicide bomber in Iraq.

The website run by Mohammad al-Masari, who has lived in Britain since 1994, largely consisted of material supporting action by Al-Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents against westerners.

Now, anyone logging on is greeted by Masari’s “obituary” for his website, which he complains he has been forced to remove because of the recent government crackdown against militants. “Unfortunately we had to suspend big parts of our electronic site until this inquisition blows over or until I move to a country that allows an acceptable degree of free speech,” he writes.

When Masari’s hosting of videos showing the Black Watch killings was first reported in The Sunday Times in November 2004, he defended it by saying Iraqis had a “guaranteed” right to kill coalition soldiers.

Masari claims he has been a victim of the “murder of freedom of opinion and expression by the oppressive regime led by Tony Blair, the liar and well known war criminal”.

He is understood to be one of 50 “preachers of hate” facing expulsion from Britain on a list drawn up by MI5 under new anti-terror rules. Ten foreign nationals on the list have been detained pending deportation. MI5 has now passed a dossier to the government on other extremists considered a threat.

Under measures announced last week by Charles Clarke, the home secretary, foreign nationals may be deported if they create “fear, distrust or division” with the intention of encouraging terrorism.

The government also plans to return suspects to countries that are known to torture detainees — providing it obtains assurances that the deportees will be safe. Any expulsions are likely to face costly challenges funded by the taxpayer. Gareth Peirce, the human rights lawyer representing seven of the 10 detainees, said this weekend that any plans for immediate deportations would be challenged.

However, Clarke is drawing up plans to deport individuals before they lodge appeals. The move will mean suspects will have to fight legal cases from their home countries, although they are still likely to be eligible for legal aid.

Further measures to restrict the preaching of hardline foreign imams will include their vetting by a panel of Britain’s Islamic leaders.

A panel appointed by the Home Office and headed by Lord Ahmed is likely to recommend a standard qualification for all British-trained imams.

The names on the MI5 list, in addition to Masari, are understood to include Saad al-Fagih, a Saudi alleged to have links to Al-Qaeda, and Yasser al-Siri, an Egyptian dissident, both based in London.

The US Treasury has said the website of al-Fagih’s Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia has been used by Al-Qaeda for communications, although he strongly denies involvement in terrorism.

Al-Siri is a former leader of Islamic Jihad, the Egyptian fundamentalist group blamed for the assassination of Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s president, in 1981. He denies any links to terrorism.

Ministers are now obtaining “diplomatic assurances” from countries including Jordan and Egypt that those deported will be treated humanely.

Tony Blair is enthusiastic about the agreements. In past negotiations with Egypt to ensure it would refrain from torture he dismissed the idea of seeking too many commitments, writing: “This is a bit much. Why do we need all these things?”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1754372,00.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

Teacher's Union Gets Blog Rolling to Log Complaints Online

Educators in New York City have joined the growing number of activists who are taking their message to the blogosphere. Edwize.org was launched this weekend as a forum for teachers to voice their concerns and to get the attention of Mayor Bloomberg.

The city teachers union has taken its contract gripes into the blogosphere.

The United Federation of Teachers quietly unveiled a new Web site called Edwize over the weekend - joining the growing list of individuals and causes that use blogs to get out their messages.

The first few posts featured comments about salary disparities between teachers in the city and suburbs, and union President Randi Weingarten's comments from last week that the union and City Hall were unlikely to agree on a new contract before classes resume next month.

The blog suggested that Mayor Bloomberg was letting election year politics get in the way of negotiating a new contract for the city's 80,000 teachers.

"Politics and this year's election seem to be more important to Mayor Bloomberg than a contract for teachers," one post stated.

Bloomberg said last week that the city wanted to continue to negotiate with the union but claimed Weingarten had been hard to reach. Weingarten said she was on federal jury duty but had made herself available to the city's negotiating team.

A disclaimer billed the union blog as "a place where members, public education advocates and others can express opinions in an effort to establish an agora of informed commentary on public education and labor issues."

The blog, which can be found at www.edwize.org, does not represent the official views of the union, the disclaimer said, noting: "Anyone who claims otherwise is violating the spirit and purpose of this blog."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/339157p-289675c.html

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2005

Giving a Voice to Non-Voters in Germany

An innovative new website gives German citizens the chance to weigh in on why they won't be seen at the polls in September for the German parliamentary election.

The German website Ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de (translated literally "I do not go there", implying "I am not going to vote") is designed to give those who would rather keep their votes to themselves a chance to explain their absence at the German parliamentary elections in September. From "I'm not voting because I'm too young" to "I'm not voting so that later I can proclaim that I didn't vote for THAT!" non-voters are weighing in on why they won't cast their ballot in September. Already 2,182 entires and 5,861 commentaries on those entries have been submitted. The creators of ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de are not trying to encourage people not to vote, or encourage people to vote for that matter, they are simply collecting the voices of people who don't give their opinions at the polls.

http://www.ich-gehe-nicht-hin.de/  

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

Outlines Of A New Politics

Don't tell the folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the first primary in the 2008 presidential nomination race might occur on July 19, 2007, officially named "Blogosphere Day" by online activists. Call it the Netroots Primary. How influential will this unofficial preview of candidates' popularity be?

Don't tell the folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the first primary in the 2008 presidential nomination race might occur on July 19, 2007. Call it the Netroots Primary. July 19 has become "Blogosphere Day" for progressive online activists. In 2004, these partisans turned their attention to unknown Democratic congressional candidate Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, who was running in an impossibly Republican district. Two days later her campaign was $30,000 richer. (She lost.) This year, Paul Hackett, the underdog Democrat in an Ohio special election, benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (He lost.) If the netroots can flex like that in an off-off-year losing House race, what'll they do for the big race? "It'll be interesting to see Blogosphere Day in 2007," said Chris Bowers, a co-founder of MyDD.com. "It'll be interesting to see who gets the most." He added: "The candidate that will raise the most is the one that doesn't look at the blogosphere and the netroots as just another ATM machine." The experiences of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and now Hackett add up to dollar signs in politicos' eyes. But netroot activists have a grander view of their role. "Real political power and influence is now being wielded through online communities comprising millions of people," Bowers and Matthew Stoller wrote last week in a New Politics Institute report. "And trends suggest that this is only the beginning. Indeed, what we have seen to date are the outlines of a new politics." Online activists say that fundraising comes last, after organizing and message. "If you look at the Hackett stuff, some of the best work came in the form of the message machine," said Markos Moulitsas of dailykos.com, citing blogs that either drove stories or fact-checked GOP attacks. Many old-time operatives, perhaps wondering if the political dot-com bubble is as real as the financial one, remain less interested in new politics than in new dollars. "It seems that campaigns have learned the wrong lesson about the Hackett surprise, with a bunch of campaigns asking to (1) meet with me, and (2) help them raise money," Moulitsas posted last week. "That's a double insult. First of all, I'm not a gatekeeper. I don't decide who is 'in' and who is 'out.' All these campaigns profess love for the netroots, yet none of them seem to be doing anything more to 'reach out' to the netroots than sending me an e-mail." Bowers and Stoller made a number of outreach recommendations that range from commonsensical (hire a "Netroots Coordinator" whose job involves more than online fundraising) to the have-it-both-ways fudging that leaves old-school politicos and media either befuddled or bemused. ("It is important to remember at all times that bloggers are both campaign activists and a sort of journalist ... Treat bloggers like friends and allies, but also realize you are on the record.") And most importantly, stand up. "Our demands are fairly innocuous," Moulitsas told a New Politics Institute conference recently. "We don't care about ideology, we care that you stand together as a Democrat and don't run from the party and don't run scared." Does stout Democratic partisanship automatically mean hard-core liberalism? While conventional wisdom holds that netroot heat requires left-wing passion, Moulitsas pointed to candidates like Stephanie Herseth ("She was running a Republican-lite campaign") as evidence that they'll support any Democrat. "We're diluting the effect of a lot of the single-issue voters and single-issue groups," he said. "It doesn't matter what you believe in, what cause you think is important because if we don't have power your cause suffers." That's fine for House and Senate contests, but the presidency is a different animal - that's not about regaining a majority, it's about the whole leadership enchilada. Time will tell whether pragmatism or ideology triumphs on that level. Whatever the outcome, the campaign has already begun online, where Moulitsas takes monthly, 10,000-respondent straw polls to gauge the netroots. The 2008 election is "going to be ground zero for the activist base to find, choose and promote their favorite candidate," he said. Which brings us back to Blogosphere Day. We used to talk about the "money primary" as the first test of political credibility. But that was when fundraising was a slog to amass enough cash to endure the primaries. Now ephemeral momentum can quickly produce cash (and vice versa). Whichever Democrat gets the biggest funding bump on July 19, 2007, will have passed the new first test and be the frontrunner.

http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2005/08/16/opinion/politics/77politics16schlesinger.txt

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

The Crawford Update

Wonder what it would be like to sit  Camp Casey along with Cindy Sheehan as she stages her protest? This blog, updated hourly, keeps viewers posted on the conditions and developments at Camp Casey.

With all the talk about Cindy Sheehan's sit-in circulating on the blogosphere, why not let the event have its own blog? The Crawford update, a  blog updated hourly, keeps viewers posted on the conditions at Camp Casey where Cindy Sheehan is basing her sit-in. It is also a gathering place for links and interviews on Cindy Sheehan's protest. Check out this latest development in the Cindy Sheehan campaign at:

http://crawfordupdate.blogspot.com/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 15, 2005

Cindy Sheenan: Without Internet, U.S. Would Be a “Fascist State”

The Crawford protester talks with her blog supporters.

Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose soldier son was killed in Iraq and who is now camping by a road in Crawford, Texas demanding a meeting with President Bush, on Wednesday thanked a group of antiwar bloggers for supporting her, saying that without the Internet, America would be a "fascist state."

This is something that can't be ignored," Sheehan said during a conference call with bloggers representing sites like democrats.com, codepink4peace.org, and crooksandliars.com. "They can't ignore us, and they can't put us down. Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn't know anything, and we would already be a fascist state."

"Our government is run by one party, every level," Sheehan continued, "and the mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government." Sheehan also called the 2004 presidential election "the election, quote-unquote, that happened in November."

The conference call was moderated by Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who managed former Vermont governor Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2003 and 2004. It was also organized by another Democratic strategist, Bob Fertik of democrats.com. (During the conference, Fertik said that for the purposes of the call, he was representing yet another website, the antiwar site afterdowningstreet.com.) Finally, Jodie Evans of the anti-war group Code Pink also took part in running the sometimes-chaotic call. Trippi has posted a recording of the call on his own website, joetrippi.com

Also taking part in the call was Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a frequent participant in progressive political conferences and anti-war events. Schakowsky took part in an unofficial Democratic hearing on the Downing Street Memo conducted last June in Washington. Sheehan testified at that hearing, giving a painful and moving account of seeing her son in his coffin.

On the call, Sheehan complained that she was suffering from a sore throat and a fever after being doused by thunderstorms. But she vowed to stay in Texas. There are only three things that would prompt her to leave, she said: "a good meeting with the president, the end of August, or I get arrested."

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200508111811.asp

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 12, 2005

British MP Calls For Updated Laws To Fight Cyberjihadis

A recent BBC documentary on the New Al Qaeda illustrated the "urgency" of the need to help police to fight terrorist organisers on the net. Labour party MPs are responding to this with calls for new legislation to make fighting terror on the internet easier.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Special Report

PoliticsOnline presents "London Bombing and Citizen Journalist Response", featuring an exclusive from BBC's Kate Goldberg.

Last month, images and stories of the tragic London bombings pervaded television and Internet media around the globe, but remarkably professional journalists and photographers found themselves unable to take credit. July’s London bombings provided one of the first major examples of world news documented by unintentional journalists—bystanders and survivors who utilized camera phones and other wireless technology to document their experience.

This was only the latest and most vivid example of the global trend of ‘user generated content’ (UGC) that is beginning to have a radical impact with the news media worldwide. Now that a little time has passed, PoliticsOnline offers perspective on what happened. Read the whole report at http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/specialreports/2005/londonbombing/

Let us know what you think.

Phil Noble, Publisher

phil@politicsonline.com

Emily Miller, Editor

editor@politicsonline.com

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

Why Rove Must Kill The Internet

A Rove conspiracy theory?

Conspiracy theories are the hors d'oeuvres for small minds. You could ask Howard Dean, the Rev. Jesse Jackson or even Oliver Stone (if you knew his e-mail address). The usual cause of evil in the world, as Dean Rusk famously explained to John F. Kennedy, is that at any given time half the people in the world are awake.
    Nevertheless, sometimes. ...
    Why, for example, are we seeing a spike in the number of new studies purporting to show that nobody much reads Internet Web logs -- or "blogs" -- except the people who write them? Why are dark and sinister forces trying to persuade us that "blogs" are merely the work of unemployed geeks in pajamas (or worse, geeks in their BVDs), sitting around the house with nothing better to do than let fly into the cosmos half-baked opinions on everything they don't know anything about, which is a lot? Could this be the work of Karl Rove, who is trying to prevent the exposure of his nefarious deeds by public-spirited bloggers, who are (just ask any of them) the last barrier between us and ruin?
    Blogdom is big. This frightens evil-doers. The Blogosphere is so big, in fact, that it has even been noticed by the editorial page of the New York Times. By the estimate of Technorati, a Web site that keeps up with such things, there are already 14.2 million blogs, and 900,000 postings are put up every day. All but 11 of them are dedicated to exposing Karl Rove. (The other 11 are dedicated to outing Robert Novak as the outer of Valerie Plame, who baked the infamous yellow cake and blamed the indigestion on her husband.) By other estimates every person in America will have his/her own blog by Halloween, and some of us will have two, having accepted the invitation to "take two, and butter 'em while they're hot."
    So you can see why Mr. Rove is desperate to drop the big one on blogdom. Some of us, in fact, expected this to happen on Aug. 6 -- last Saturday -- since that was the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima's claim to fame. Not all coincidences are coincidental.
    One of the most effective of the Rove exposure blogs is written by one Greg Gutfeld on huffingtonpost.com, which is Arianna Huffington's summer-camp project this year. It's Gutfeld scoops like this one that, abetted by the heat of August, are driving the White House nuts:
    "Right from day one, Karl Rove cemented his link with the religious right, by being born on Dec. 25, 1950, a day many on the right refer to as 'Christmas,' a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (an influential leader worshipped by the religious right). It was no surprise that Dec. 25, 1950 was ALSO the EXACT day Communist forces recrossed the 38th parallel into South Korea. Clearly, Rove was making an [early] impact."
    Mr. Gutfeld follows Karl Rove's life closely, noting what less observant observers would dismiss as trivial coincidences. Wars happened. Rivers flooded. People died. Why? River Phoenix, the actor, died on Halloween. "Where did he die? You guessed it: Los Angeles. The VERY same Los Angeles that Rove had visited ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS." And what wonderful advocates for gay "marriage" Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche would have been if Miss Heche had not gone straight: "Only one person on the planet could have orchestrated this sequence of events."
    Sometimes the man once described as George W.'s brain was "conspicuous by his deliberate inconspicuousness." Proof: "In 1979, he did some work on George H.W. Bush's 1980 vice presidential bid. During Rove's involvement [in this campaign], there were EIGHT major plane crashes, including a Western Air Lines DC-10, which collided with a Dumpster truck, killing 72 people in Mexico City at Benito Juarez Airport. One can only wonder what Rove was having for lunch. A burrito? A sizzling plate of fajitas?" His fondness for Mexican food, after all, is well-known.
    The evidence of the Rove finger in assorted frijoles becomes irrefutable. Soon after Mr. Rove joined George W.'s gubernatorial campaign in Texas in 1993, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died. "Rove probably did a little Pirouette," writes our blogging scoopmeister, "not unlike something Rudolf Nureyev might have done, if he also had not died that year. Rove had already been [at work for George W.] for a year, and already a black and a Russian had died. Rove's favorite drink? You guessed it: a Black Russian."
    We could go on, and Mr. Gutman, in fact, does. But by now it's clear that Democrats and their allies are desperate to destroy Karl Rove -- and why Mr. Rove is desperate to stop them, even if he has to destroy the blogosphere to do it.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 09, 2005

Singapore's Coming-Of-Age Quandary

This tiger struggles to balance a looser internet censorship with its traditionally conservative social policy. 

SINGAPORE -- Singaporeans are seeing "Sex and the City" on TV. Actors may utter four-letter words on stage. Opposition parties can gather without police permission--as long as they do it indoors.

Tiny and famously disciplined Singapore is turning 40 on Tuesday, and continuing to lighten up. Gone are the days when chewing gum and long hair were banned. Singaporeans are even being allowed to bungee-jump and dance on bar tables.

In April, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explained: "We risk being relegated to the second league if we rely only on past achievements. We must continue to reinvent ourselves."

Political analyst Ho Khai Leong of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies says the ruling People's Action Party is being pragmatic without relaxing its grip on power over the island and its 4.2 million citizens.

"It can't remain authoritarian when globalization is on your doorstep," he said. "There is a dynamic to the desire to be more open."

In 40 years, Singapore has gone from malarial backwater of the British empire to gleaming financial center with one of Asia's most modern economies. It also is intent on social engineering, where homosexuality remains punishable by jail, and the citizenry, mostly ethnic Chinese, is regularly targeted in civic improvement campaigns--speak proper English! Get to weddings on time! Have more babies! Wave to your fellow motorists!

The unusual meld of capitalism, authoritarianism and state-encouraged behavior modification was perfected by Lee Kuan Yew, the British-educated father of the present prime minister, who led Singapore to independence in 1965 and ruled it for 25 years. At 81, he is regarded as an elder statesman of Asia, and remains a powerful influence on the Cabinet.

But while the economy has leaped forward, political reform has been glacial.

The People's Action Party has never lost an election, holds 82 of the 85 seats in parliament and is likely to trounce the ragtag opposition again in the next election. Its two most prominent opposition figures have been bankrupted by defamation suits won by ruling party members, and Singapore law disqualifies bankrupts from running for office.

Leading foreign newspapers also have been frequently sued by ruling party stalwarts, and the international media rights group Reporters Without Borders ranks Singapore 147th in press freedom. North Korea and Cuba rank 156 and 157.

State-linked broadcaster MediaCorp controls all free TV channels here, and Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.--its rarely deviates from the administration line--runs most newspapers.

The Internet puts the government in a quandary. It knows the future depends on an Internet-savvy public but recognizes the Web's power to bypass state-controlled media and foment its own kind of people power.

The Internet effect was evident in June, when an online petition became a driving force behind the ouster of the head of the largest government-backed charity, the National Kidney Foundation, for allegedly misusing funds.

"Rarely have Singaporeans showed such unanimous purpose in demanding change, and it worked--an undeniable plus for democracy," said political commentator Seah Chiang Nee.

Officials say they have eased up on social policies to satisfy a generation more exposed to overseas influences. But they also insist Singapore's generally conservative citizenry cherishes order and wants censorship and government involvement in social affairs to preserve it.

Prime Minister Lee spelled it out: "Social mores must not be corrupted and Singapore must remain a safe and wholesome society."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508080163aug08,1,7360678.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 08, 2005

From E-Government to E-Democracy : A New Society?

The Worldwide Forum on E-Democracy and PoliticsOnline present the 6th annual e-democracy conference in Paris, September 28-29.

Placed under the high patronage of the French President, Jacques Chirac, and on the initiative of Andre Santini, Member of Parliament and Mayor of the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris, France), the 6th Worldwide Forum on e-Democracy will have for honor guest Brazil, country whose efforts in e-democracy and e-government have to be underlined.

8 round tables and 5 plenary sessions will allow to talk about all the subjects which contribute to the development of the Information Society and to measure the impact of the Internet, the mobile phone or the electronic cards on the democratic and administrative practices.

Several tens of international and French speakers will present their projects and the programs that are already developed in their country. We will speak particularly on the way that e-government is taking, becoming a priority for the majority of the countries, and we will discuss its consequences on the improvement of the services brought to the citizens : the electronic indentity cards, the fight against the digital divide, or the defense of linguistic diversity on the networks...

During the Worldwide Forum on e-Democracy, we will also try to explain the moves which take place in the relationship between media, citizens and political leaders, confronted to the explosion of the blogs and of "citizen journalism". Those upheavals already modified the political scene of South Korea and constitute an important challenge for the democracies of the 21st century, democracies that have to exist with the growth of the E-participation and the e-voting in the world.

Special guest of this meeting, Brazil, first country in Latin America on the development of the Information Society, will give to the public the occasion to confront the experiences on the two sides of the Atlantic on these subjects.

The Worldwide Forum became, in five years, a real crossroads of international exchanges on the impact of ICTs on the democratic life. Whereas the ICT's integrate more and more largely the public sphere, the governments in France, in Europe and in the world, have engaged for several years a reflexion on the use of these tools to renovate the democratic practices and to transform the relations between public citizens and services.

Nearly 1.500 people, representing 39 nationalities, had come to attend the debates of the 5th Forum last September.

http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/2283

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 05, 2005

Daily ePolitics Buzz Brief

Internet English Lessons: BBC World Service is launching its first online educational soap opera. Online is a fantastic way of learning English because people can go at their own pace.

Also: The Top 10 Internet Buzzwords

The drama enables listeners to learn at their own pace. It is fun, informative and highly interactive, with learners voting to decide what happens next to the flatmates. "The Flatmates appeals to people who also want to learn English as it is lived and spoken, rather than as it is sometimes taught in more traditional text-books. It engages learners, enabling them to interact directly with the characters and to help shape the everyday life storylines through an online vote." http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/002783.php 

Check out "The Flatmates" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/

Top 10 Internet Buzzwords
Test your vocabulary: http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-6275610-1.html?tag=nl.e404

Other News:

China Signs Global Anti-Spam Accord
China committed to international efforts led by the UK and US to combat spam today. The country is thought to generate 20% of the world's spam, making it the second biggest source of unsolicited emails after the US.
http://www.out-law.com/page-5877

African Internet Profiles
The long awaited first part of Balancing Act's African Internet Country Market Profiles is now out and covers 22 countries in West Africa. It also contains a summary overview of the internet in these countries and a look at the coming legalisation of VoIP in West Africa: who will be the winners and losers?
http://www.balancingact-africa.com/profile1.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 04, 2005

Stop The Presses?

A new study by the Carnegie Corporation reveals that "there's a dramatic revolution taking place in the news business" as younger people increasingly turn on their computer instead of their TV.

Carnegie Corporation of New York has launched a major initiative on the future of news and commissioned this report, based on a survey of 18-to-34-year-olds to assess where 18-to-34-year-olds get their news today and how they think they'll access news in the future. According to the Magid survey, young news consumers say that the Internet, by a 41-to-15 percent margin over second ranked local TV, is “the most useful way to learn.” And 49 percent say the Internet provides news “only when I want it” (a critical factor to this age group) versus 15 percent for second-ranked local TV. This audience, the future news consumers and leaders of a complex, modern society, are abandoning the news as we've known it, and it's increasingly clear that a great number of them will never return to daily newspapers and the national broadcast news programs.

Other notable findings revealed by the survey: although ranked as the third most important news source, newspapers have no clear strengths and are the least preferred choice for local, national and international news. On the TV front, cable news is the fourth most valuable news source just ahead of national network programs. Those broadcast newscasts are, however, considered the number-one source for national news. Cable is considered up-to-date and accessible, but not as informative as the Internet.

To read the study, go to http://www.carnegie.org/reporter/10/news/

Also, in a related story a Forrester Research study revealed that Broadband Internet surfers in North America watch two fewer hours of television per week than do those without Internet access, while those using a dial-up connection watch 1.5 fewer hours of TV. http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/quickprint/print.asp?StoryID=154003

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

Cyber-Dissident Zhang Lin Gets Five Years In Prison

Zhang was convicted of posting reports and essays on the Internet which "jeopardised national unity, disturbed public order and social stability."

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the five-year prison sentence imposed by a court in Benghu (in Anhui province, west of Shanghai) on 28 July on cyber-dissident Zhang Lin for "violating national security." His lawyer was notified only today. Zhang intends to appeal.

"The Chinese judges were deaf to Zhang's plea of not guilty on the basis of the right to free expression because, in their view, expressing oneself on the Internet is a crime that deserves five years in prison," Reporters Without Borders said, calling for his release and the withdrawal of all charges against him.

"Coming after Shi Tao's 10-year prison sentence, this latest heavy sentence confirms that the justice system holds freedom of expression in complete contempt and that the crackdown on pro-democracy intellectuals begun by President Hu Jintao continues," the press freedom organisation added.

After Zhang's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, was notified today, his wife immediately went to the court to get a copy of the sentence. She said Zhang, who will also be deprived of his political rights for four years after completion of the prison term, was devastated by the severity of the sentence. He and his lawyer were determined to appeal, she added. They have 10 days starting tomorrow to file the appeal.

Zhang, who has been imprisoned since 29 January 2005, was convicted of posting reports and essays on the Internet which were "contrary to the bases of the constitution" and which "jeopardised national unity and territorial sovereignty, spread lies and disturbed public order and social stability." The sentence was imposed under article 105 of the criminal law on "subversion."

The indictment presented at his trial, held behind closed doors on 21 June, quoted one of his essays in which he used the words of a punk song. The prosecutor also made much of the fact that he gave an interview to a foreign news media.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14586

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 02, 2005

Daily ePolitics Buzz Brief

Online Gym Class?

The nation's public schools are rushing to reconfigure scores of traditional courses so students can take them via the Internet. One of the unlikely new offerings in this vast experiment is online gym.

Sound like an oxymoron? Not in Minneapolis, where a physical education course joined the school district's growing online catalog in the spring and already has a waiting list.

"I've never seen a response like this to any course," said Frank Goodrich, a veteran football coach who is one of two instructors teaching online physical education this summer to about 60 high school students.

The course allows students to meet requirements by exercising how they want, when they want. They are required to work out hard for 30 minutes four times a week and report to their teachers by e-mail. Parents must certify that the students did the workouts.

One recent day, after Dustin McEvoy lifted weights, Sasha Hulsey swam in a lake and Marc Sylvestre played hockey, they sent in reports with details on their warm-ups, cool-downs and how fast their hearts had beat. Mr. Goodrich, reviewing their e-mail messages on his laptop the next morning, said that although most students were sticking to their required routines, a few slackers were headed toward F's.

Physical education is one of 27 online courses now offered by the Minneapolis Public Schools, which had none four years ago. Thousands of other districts nationwide are adding online courses, said Susan Patrick, director of educational technology at the federal Department of Education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/education/02gym.html?th&emc=th

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daily ePolitics Buzz Brief--Online Gym Class?

The nation's public schools are rushing to reconfigure scores of traditional courses so students can take them via the Internet. One of the unlikely new offerings in this vast experiment is online gym.

 

Sound like an oxymoron? Not in Minneapolis, where a physical education course joined the school district's growing online catalog in the spring and already has a waiting list.

"I've never seen a response like this to any course," said Frank Goodrich, a veteran football coach who is one of two instructors teaching online physical education this summer to about 60 high school students.

The course allows students to meet requirements by exercising how they want, when they want. They are required to work out hard for 30 minutes four times a week and report to their teachers by e-mail. Parents must certify that the students did the workouts.

One recent day, after Dustin McEvoy lifted weights, Sasha Hulsey swam in a lake and Marc Sylvestre played hockey, they sent in reports with details on their warm-ups, cool-downs and how fast their hearts had beat. Mr. Goodrich, reviewing their e-mail messages on his laptop the next morning, said that although most students were sticking to their required routines, a few slackers were headed toward F's.

Physical education is one of 27 online courses now offered by the Minneapolis Public Schools, which had none four years ago. Thousands of other districts nationwide are adding online courses, said Susan Patrick, director of educational technology at the federal Department of Education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/education/02gym.html?th&emc=th

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 01, 2005

Online Shopping With A Conscience

Frustrated by the gap between western consumerism and developing countries,  Jonny Platt created Rectifi.org.uk to turn online shopping into international aid.

Rectifi provides search tools similar to those of Google and Yahoo, and more than 400 shops have signed up, including Apple, Sony and eBay. "There is no additional effort on the user's part and, with over half the world surviving on less than £1 a day, we all have a responsibility to make changes", says founder Jonny Platt. 

Mr Platt came up with the idea of harnessing the spending of money in the West to aid the poor of the developing world while travelling in India. He was shocked by the contrast between the hunger for materialism he had experienced in the UK and the hunger and desperation he found in India.  the money raised will initially go to Tourism Concern, a charity working with communities in tourist destinations to reduce social and environment problems. But as the site grows, eventually it may be possible for shoppers to choose where their money should go.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4701033.stm

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)