Politics
Entries related to things political.
Statewide wireless
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/20/2007 - 12:18Over on MyLeftNutmg, MattW points out Rep. Tom Drew’s proposed bill, Proposed Bill No. 6502, AN ACT CONCERNING WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS.
That the general statutes be amended to establish a working group to make recommendations for creating incentives to expand or maximize wireless Internet access in the state.
On initial reading, this sounds like a great idea. Statewide WiFi. As I commented on MyLeftNutmeg:
As a starting point, every public building ought to have WiFi. Schools, libraries, town halls, court houses, police stations, etc. Some already do, and many others can without much work.
Getting WiFi at parks and Community Technology Centers probably brings even more bang for the buck, but is harder get through.
Yet the devil is always in the details. Who will be in the working group? What will happen to the recommendations? What sort of incentives are being considered? Will the group be made up of industry executives pushing for proposals for large corporate giveaways to get the corporations to make $30/month WiFi access more ubiquitous? Will the group be made up of technogeeks pushing for some wonderful but arcane and unusable solution? Will the recommendations end up being one more set of recommendations that get added to a library somewhere and not acted upon? We shall see.
How will this “maximize economic and other development” in our State? Will it be done in such a way that helps alleviate the digital divide, or will it compound the digital divide with policies that make it useful only to people that already have WiFi enabled laptops and the knowledge of how to use them.
I hope that we get a lot of people working together to make sure that this bill does bring about greater Internet access for a wide spectrum of citizens.
"The War on Journalism" - Updated
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 01/18/2007 - 11:36This morning, I received a phone call from Sergeant Hanlon of Group 12, the internal affairs bureau of the New York City Police Department. My wife was a little concerned about why a Sergeant from the New York City Police was calling me, but when she understood the details, she handed the phone over to me. He was calling in regards to the email I had sent about "The War on Journalism".
Sergeant Hanlon said that the Police Department and received several emails about the event at the Mexican Consulate and that many videos had emerged online. The Police Department’s Video Unit is reviewing the online videos and will be providing information to Sergeant Hanlon. He will be handling the investigation from there.
If any people have additional information they should contact Sergeant Hanlon at 212 694 3115. Sergeant Hanlon was very helpful in providing information and hopefully will conduct a thorough investigation into what happened.
The Dream Deficit
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/15/2007 - 08:57(Cross posted at Gather.com)
We hear a lot of stories in the news about the budget deficit, or the trade deficit. If we are reading alternative news sources, we may hear about the deficit of compassion in helping with the reconstruction of the gulf coast, or we may hear something about imbalances in our use of energy and the excessive amount of carbon dioxide we are pushing into the air. Yet on this day where we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., a different deficit becomes apparent. We have a dream deficit.
As the final keynote speaker at the National Conference on Media Reform noted, Dr. King is remember not for saying, “I have a complaint” or “I have a long list of things that are really upsetting me”. No, Dr. King is remembered for talking about his dream.
Where are our dreams for a better America, for a country that leads the world with innovative ideas and compassion instead of pre-emptive wars? Where are our dreams for what a rebuilt gulf coast could look like? Where are our dreams for a new media landscape that encourages critical thinking and civic participation?
Okay, Aldon, what is your dream, you might ask. Well, let me start off by being a bit meta. My dream is that we as individuals and we as a nation relearn how do dream, how to have hope and how to return this country to the land of dreams, the land of opportunity.
Freelance Journalist Arrested, will the Judiciary committee investigate?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/06/2007 - 10:56(Below is the email I have sent to Sen. Andrew McDonald, chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, concerning the arrest of Ken Krayeske.)
Sen. McDonald,
I am not sure if you are aware of the issue surrounding the arrest of Ken Krayeske, a freelance journalist who was photographing the inauguration parade of Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
The arrest raises many important questions concerning our freedoms of press. Perhaps the most important are concerning the Connecticut Intelligence Center. Does the Judicial Committee conduct oversight of this center? Is the center properly protecting us from terrorism, or is it squandering resources by thwarting legitimate political dissent? Who is on the list of possible threats? Does it include other journalists or political activists? Is the list being properly reviewed by an oversight committee?
Another important issue is why was bail set excessively high? Why was he released at 1 AM? Was the fact that the inauguration ball was over make Ken some how less of a threat of not showing up for his hearing?
I do hope that the Senate Judiciary committee conducts a review of this affair. For additional information, I am including pointers to articles in the traditional and new media.
Aldon Hynes
247 Old Long Ridge Road
Stamford, CT 06930
It is currently begin covered in the traditional media at sites like CT News Junkie, The Hartford Courant, The Associated Press and WTIC:
http://ctnewsjunkie.com/index.php/2007/01/05/reporter_arrested_for_polit...
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-ctthreat0106.artjan06,0,6152580....
http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-05184729.apds.m0824.bc-ct...
http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/2007/01/m_augusto_rell.html
http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/2007/01/the_arrest.html
http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/2007/01/daylight_wanted.html
http://podcast.wtic.com/wtic/91721.mp3
It is also getting considerable coverage in the Connecticut blogs:
http://connecticutlocalpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/01/open-forum_05.html
http://connecticutlocalpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/01/more-on-activist-ar...
http://connecticutblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/freelance-journalist-arreste...
http://ctbob.blogspot.com/2007/01/grandma-throws-down.html
http://ctbob.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-become-security-threat.html
http://www.spazeboy.net/2007/01/rells-world/
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5198
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5202
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5209
http://www.orient-lodge.com/node/2120
http://www.the40yearplan.com/article_010607_Gov_Rell_Caption_Contest.php
A big day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/05/2007 - 11:17(Cross-posted at Greater Democracy)
Yesterday was a big day for the future of Democratic Politics. Yes, we all know about the importance of the first woman Speaker of the House. I hope many of us were touched by her reaching out to a new generation and inviting children up to the speaker’s chair to touch the gavel. So, instead of talking about that, I want to talk about a different aspect of it being a big day.
Representative George Miller stopped by in Second Life at Capitol Hill in Second Life. For more information about the space, check out Rocketboom’s Wiki entry about the space.
You can read about it on the New York Times’ blog and Beth Kanter’s blog. I recorded various parts of the event using Fraps. Unfortunately, the format that Fraps saves is a bit strange and I haven’t had a chance to edit my two gigs of clips. I did put a couple of them up on blip.tv if anyone wants to grab some raw footage. Also, drop me a note if you want some of my other raw footage.
During the event, we watched the opening of Congress on a C-Span feed streaming in and talked about a lot of different things. Folks from Sun Microsystems and Clearink were there. They had helped a lot with the building of Capitol Hill in Second Space and had some interesting things to talk about.
In particular, they mentioned Edutopia, a project of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It looks like Edutopia is project that should be looked at more closely.
One of the interesting features of Capitol Hill in Second Life was that the roof was transparent. There were various jokes about promoting transparency in Washington, and Rep. Miller talked a bit about transparency. I asked a question about the Punch Clock Campaign and Read the Bill. He spoke generally about his support of such efforts, and I hope that people stay on top of this.
Also, during a hiatus, I had a great discussion with Katt Kongo. Katt is the editor of The Metaverse Messenger. She claims it is the largest newspaper in SecondLife, with a circulation of around twenty thousand. I was struck by it being a PDF, as opposed to some sort of blog feed with RSS etc. She claimed that she got better advertising rates that way and that M2, as it is known, is self supporting and she is actually managing to earn her living reporting on Second Life.
We talked about what role Capitol Hill in Second Life could pay, and I spoke about how I hoped that it would encourage people not traditionally involved with politics and governance to become more connected with the political process.
Other reporters there included Adam Reuters who runs Reuters bureau in Second Life, as well as a reporter for GQ, who was wearing a tux that did not live up to his GQ billing. There were various discussions about how hard it is to find good men’s clothes in Second Life.
So, while Nancy Pelosi was making history in real life Capitol Hill, Rep. George Miller and a bunch of reporters and Second Life enthusiasts made there own little bit of history. Will Second Life become a tool that will help make our government more transparent.
