Goldy

I’ve struggled at times to explain exactly what “net neutrality” is, and why it is so important to the future of the Internet. But Damian Kulash Jr., the lead singer for the band OK Go, has no such problem; read his op-ed in today’s NY Times: “Beware the New New Thing.”

Most people assume that the Internet is a democratic free-for-all by nature — that it could be no other way. But the openness of the Internet as we know it is a byproduct of the fact that the network was started on phone lines. The phone system is subject to “common carriage” laws, which require phone companies to treat all calls and customers equally. They can’t offer tiered service in which higher-paying customers get their calls through faster or clearer, or calls originating on a competitor’s network are blocked or slowed.

These laws have been on the books for about as long as telephones have been ringing, and were meant to keep Bell from using its elephantine market share to squash everyone else. And because of common carriage, digital data running over the phone lines has essentially been off limits to the people who laid the lines. But in the last decade, the network providers have argued that since the Internet is no longer primarily run on phone lines, the laws of data equality no longer apply. They reason that they own the fiber optic and coaxial lines, so they should be able to do whatever they want with the information crossing them.

[… O]utright censorship and obstruction of access are only one part of the issue, and they represent the lesser threat, in the long run. What we should worry about more is not what’s kept from us today, but what will be built (or not built) in the years to come.

We hate when things are taken from us (so we rage at censorship), but we also love to get new things. And the providers are chomping at the bit to offer them to us: new high-bandwidth treats like superfast high-definition video and quick movie downloads. They can make it sound great: newer, bigger, faster, better! But the new fast lanes they propose will be theirs to control and exploit and sell access to, without the level playing field that common carriage built into today’s network.

They won’t be blocking anything per se — we’ll never know what we’re not getting — they’ll just be leapfrogging today’s technology with a new, higher-bandwidth network where they get to be the gatekeepers and toll collectors. The superlative new video on offer will be available from (surprise, surprise) them, or companies who’ve paid them for the privilege of access to their customers. If this model sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s how cable TV operates.

That’s net neutrality in a nutshell: do you want an Internet that operates like the one we have today, or one that operates like cable TV, where Comcast decides which content to carry, and offers it to you only in bundles of its own devising? Most folks simply aren’t going to subscribe to two internets, and those who choose the one with the high definition video on demand, very well may not have access to voices like mine. (Or for those on the other side of the ideological divide, voices like yours.)

You would think this is one issue on which we could all agree.

AND WHAT’S MORE:

Damian Kulash knows ping-pong, too:

From the Seattle Times: “Home prices declining, inventory building around Puget Sound.”

From the Seattle P-I: “Seattle single-family homes prices stay steady in March.”

I’m so confused.

US House minority leader Rep. John Boehner sees a ray of hope in the ongoing nomination fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton:

“When you start to look at the fallout from the Democratic nomination process – the Democrats not showing up to vote – you are starting to create a scenario where we are in better shape than people think,” said Mr. Boehner. “You are going to have people voting for McCain or not voting at all. The picture is not as bleak as people want to paint it.”

That’s right, the House Republicans’ only hope to avoid disaster at the polls in November is for voters not to show up. I guess you gotta appreciate his honesty, though it doesn’t really say much his party when the opposite of “bleak” is low voter turnout.

Um, not really political news here, but I just really loved the headline: “Clue to early Americans lies in origin of the feces.” (Not to mention the slug in the URL: “oldpoop04m.html”. And to think… they criticize me for my potty mouth.)

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens gives us a little historical perspective on the much maligned practice of “earmarking”:

[audio:https://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/stevensearmarks.mp3]

Again, you can listen to the whole interview, unedited and in context, here.

I’ll be a guest on KUOW’s Weekday Conversation today, sometime between 1:20 and 1:40PM, talking about taxes. Just thought you might want to know.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens recently gave an extended interview to public radio station KDLG in Dillingham Alaska, and I thought you might enjoy his unique take on the subject of net neutrality:

[audio:https://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/stevensnetneutrality.mp3]

See, that’s what happens when you have an 85-year-old man attempting to dictate the future of the Internet. You can listen to the whole interview, unedited and in context, here.

I can’t take credit for the observation, but that won’t stop me from being the first to post on it.

We’ve all enjoyed poking fun at Dave Reichert’s ranking as the 401st most powerful member of the US House (though a respectable 73rd in earmarks), but we bloggers are a geeky breed, and HA regular “N in Seattle” (who blogs at Peace Tree Farm) recently observed how apt a metaphor Reichert’s rank rank turns out to be… at least in the parlance of HTTP status codes. For who amongst us (other than John McCain) is not familiar with following common error message…?

The request failed with HTTP status 401: Access Denied.

“Access Denied.” What better way to describe Reichert’s status in the corridors of power?

If there’s one thing Darcy Burner has proven over the past few weeks with her astounding success building consensus around the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq, it’s that she knows the password to getting things done. (And, I’m betting, she also knows her HTTP status codes inside out.)

It was a Beer Hall Putsch at Drinking Liberally Tuesday night, as us enviro-Nazis plotted the extermination of the BIAW.

Joining me (Goldy) in our communo-fascist treachery were Will, Carl, Lee and Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly. Topics of discussion include the BIAW’s bizarre hate speech and the consequences it might have for the candidates they support, Rick Steves’ reefer decriminalization crusade, and an update on Darcy Burner’s "Responsible Plan" to end the war in Iraq.

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_april_1_2008.mp3]

The show is 47:18, and can be downloaded here as a 43.4 MB MP3.

[Podcasting Liberally is recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Darryl for producing the show, and Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the site.]

BONUS PODCAST!!!
Last week’s podcast had some technical problems, and only through Darryl’s heroic editing was kinda-sorta recovered. And then I just plum forgot to post it. But now I have. So you can listen to it here.

The latest installment in the ongoing saga of the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus (popularly known as “The Great Unraveling”), involves Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-Delusional) who observers have described as increasingly erratic since her divorce… even for a Republican. I’d ask her legislative assistant about it, but apparently she’s no longer on the job.

Rumors are flying that Pflug’s assistant is enjoying paid administrative leave after enduring sustained “verbal abuse” during the recent legislative session, while others say that Pflug has outright fired her LA. I guess the only thing tougher than being a Republican state senator these days is working for one.

Just out from Congressional Quarterly:

Democrats in the state of Washington are increasingly better positioned to keep the Governor’s mansion and to take over a key House district in the state’s most competitive contests this election cycle.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and 8th District candidate Darcy Burner came within a razor‑thin edge of their opponents in their last contests. But analysts now say that the Democrats have upped their chancing of winning as the state GOP party faces structural problems and GOP efforts to appeal to the state’s large number of moderate voters has been hampered by their strong conservative base.

CQ Politics is now changing its rating of the Washington state Governor’s race from No Clear Favorite to Leans Democrat and Washington’s 8th District rating from Leans Republican to No Clear Favorite.

And how has Darcy Burner done it?

In the 8th District, which encompasses the Eastern suburbs of Seattle, analysts say former Microsoft executive Burner’s organization, fundraising, and her views on the Iraq war have boosted her campaign. […] Burner has made the Iraq war, which is highly unpopular in the district, a centerpiece of her 2008 campaign. She initiated an effort to create a plan to end the war. After six months of consultation with retired generals and national security experts, she was joined by nine Democratic challengers in the release of a formal plan March 17. It reiterates many of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and calls for removing all U.S. troops from Iraq (without proposing a specific timeline), enlisting allies to help stabilize Iraq, and improving America’s international reputation.

Dave Reichert is now one of only three Republican incumbents whose race is rated a toss-up, and a lot of the credit goes to Darcy’s leadership in creating a consensus behind the Responsible Plan.

And how’s that plan progressing these days? The Politico devotes a ton of space to it today, reporting:

As congressional Democrats plot strategy for next week’s Petraeus-Crocker appearances, a growing number of Democratic congressional challengers are coming together around something called the “Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.”

The plan’s author, Washington House candidate Darcy Burner, said that her original goal had been to have 50 candidates sign on to the plan by September. Just 2½ weeks into its life, the plan has nearly that many, picking up six more in the past few days to bring to the total to 48.

Um… as of 1PM today, 52 Democratic challengers had now signed on to the Plan. And counting.

MEDIA ALERT:
Darcy taped an interview with Rachel Maddow today, which will be aired on her show at either 3:30 or 4:30 PM Pacific. Tune in to AM-1090 or stream the audio live from their website.

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.”

Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence… to pass the U.S. message. In this way, the U.S. can overleap the entrenched inequalities and make use of preexisting intellectual and social capital. Sometimes numbers can be effective; hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering.

Jesus… sometimes it seems that everybody is making money off of blogging except me.

One of these days I suppose we’ll read something negative in the national media about the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq, but this piece in The New Republic sure ain’t it:

What–a thoughtful plan for Iraq? Written by aspiring Democratic House members? Campaigning in highly competitive districts? Believe it.

Led by Darcy Burner, who’s gunning to represent Washington’s eighth district, ten Congressional challengers recently released a 36-page proposal called, simply, “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.” More than 40 candidates have now signed on to the document, which is a cross between a think tank report and a political platform.

On the face of it, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. For the past two years, Democrats have been offering plan after plan to end the war in Iraq. But this one is different.

[…] Beyond just being good policy, though, the plan exhibits a unique understanding of the legislative branch’s role in foreign policy. Too often, candidates running for Congress make very specific proposals about foreign policy that are far outside of their purview. […] “A Responsible Plan” would instead serve as the congressional corollary to a Democratic presidency. It doesn’t include elements over which Congress has little control, but it does push for 15 pieces of existing legislation, which focus on issues such as improving healthcare for a new generation of veterans and phasing out our reliance on military contractors such as Blackwater. Only the president can end the war in Iraq, but Congress can do its share by focusing on institutional repair and funding the right programs.

[…] In the end, the “Responsible Plan” is just a plan. It isn’t going to solve the slew of problems the United States will face over the next few years, as it begins to dig itself out of Iraq. But it is a good first step. And the fact that 48 Democratic challengers are willing to sign on to something this detailed, without the DCCC jumping up and down and telling them to stop, is a good sign that a consensus seems to be building in the Democratic party around a set of specific national security ideas.

I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but something special is happening here. “Consensus seems to be building,” and around a plan created by Darcy Burner. That’s the kind of creativity and leadership 8th CD voters deserve, and that’s the kind of creativity and leadership they’ll get by electing Darcy to Congress.

Gov. Gregoire has signed the Working Families Credit, perhaps the most significant piece of legislation passed this session in terms of its real world impact on the 350,000 Washington families who will qualify for this tax break.

A national study released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that Washingtonians with the lowest income pay five times as much as the wealthiest in taxes, as a share of their income.

“The Washington state tax structure is singularly regressive. It is unacceptable for the poor to pay a significantly higher proportion of their income in taxes than the wealthy,” said William H. Gates, Sr., Chair of the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee. “The Working Families Credit will help bring equity to our state tax system. It’s an investment we really need to make.”

How about that, a tax break for working families for a change, instead of wealthy special interests with high priced lobbyists. It’s a small step toward addressing the most regressive tax structure in the nation… but a step in the right direction.