It is a great and delicious irony that the tax cuts Bush rammed through in his first term, for the benefit his wealthy benefactors and corporate sponsors, are one of the key driving forces behind the municipal wireless IPcom movement that is about to gore the protected oxen of the telecom incumbents. The unintended consequences will be revolutionary in ways none of us can yet imagine. How so, you ask?

Consider that the tax cuts for the top 5% of the population and the mega corporations, combined with other budget recklessness, have slashed the flow of federal dollars to the states and then from the states to their respective cities and towns. As a result, the budgets of a great many cities and towns, with their increasing expenses and falling revenues, are in dire straights. And they are finding it almost impossible to raise real estate taxes to bridge the gap. So what do do to escape from this trap between a rock and a hard place?

Now consider the Chambers of Commerce that are very unhappy at they way the telecom giants have been exploiting them while taking them for granted.

As much as I dislike thinking about political campaigns in terms of advertising, marketing, public relations and all that stuff, the P.R. aspect remains very important. Two recent blog entries have helped me rethink my relation to P.R. as it relates to political campaigns. [Read More]

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about Sony’s ‘rootkit’ that they had secretly been installing on computers around the world and the security issues it has raised.

As I read this, I felt compelled to write the following letter to my Congressperson, Chris Shays, who is chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, I wish to bring your attention to a recent threat to our National Security. (read more)

After watching the films Connections [James Burke], Pandora’s Box and The power of Nightmares [both by Curtis Adams for the BBC], as well as The Fog of War [Errol Morris], I have this strange feeling that what we are experiencing today in American politics is a deep and angry backlash at the failures and bill of goods sold to us by techno utopians who had the unbridled hubris to think they could be Masters of the Universe. It does not matter if they worked at Gosplan in the USSR or for RAND in the USA. Fundamentally they were all techno utopians who got it wrong at great cost.

As Irving Kristol says in Power of Nightmares, the Liberals have no explanation as to why President Johnson and RAND did not produce a Great Society and End Poverty. They also have no apologies for their failures.

Of course it should be noted that today’s Neoconservatives, who also can never be wrong and thus must presume that their knowledge is perfect, are making the exact same mistake. It is certain that they will reap the same whirlwind.

By: Dana Blankenhorn

This is another one of my political analyses. Please go elsewhere for tech bloggie goodness.

Clueless Washington analysts feel that the Bush Administration’s fall from grace means we have to sit through years before we’re delivered anything interesting.

The real battle, in fact, starts now.

Democrats today are split much as Republicans were 40 years ago. Back then the split was between the “establishment” party which had fought a rear-guard action against the New Deal for a generation, and a new more aggressive “conservative movement,” symbolized first by Barry Goldwater and, after his defeat, by the actor Ronald Reagan, who had placed him in nomination. (Note that the movement was so far down in 1965 its spokesman wasn’t even an office-holder.)

But the fight on the right was really about money, and how to get it. The “establishment” got its money from Wall Street, and the Fortune 500. The “movement” got its money from individuals – some rich, some more Justin Dart and John Olin, the “New Right” leaned on a new technology, direct mail, and on direct mail’s black magician, Richard Viguerie.

Professor Dr. Farooq Hassan [1]

(Synopsis of address given at The Taj to SAPRA Delhi, 22 October, 2005)

I feel very privileged to address today this exclusive gathering of Indian intellectuals in this renowned center of thinking SPARA, India Foundation. It is an honor indeed to be invited by your renowned Center of advanced studies dealing with research on the countries of Asia. I thank you Sir and am most grateful for your gracious hospitality extended to me since my arrival in Delhi. I wish to particularly thank Indranil Banerjie who has kindly coordinated this visit and is also extended my deepest appreciation.

I will be talking today on the status and nature of the current state of détente in India –Pakistan relations and the possible consequences of the US foreign policy on this process. The Sub-Continental politics for half a century has been such that it has demoralized the expectations of many who have hoped for peace while unfolding often serious events of far reaching military and strategic implications. However, since the last year, on account of the analysis given hereinafter, a dynamics has been placed in motion which is headed hopefully towards a more predictable and stable period of friendly relations between the two bigger countries of this region, India and Pakistan.

But the period of the current state of optimism, if not euphoria, is geared towards a time frame which may be not indefinite and circumscribed by eventualities of a political nature from abroad or regional in character from factors within South Asia. From amongst the possibilities that can impact upon this evolution are primarily, though not exclusively, connected with the US foreign policy towards this region. From within the South Asian context itself, the matters to be considered are more complex and are directly relatable to the domestic’s politics of these two countries; these factors are later analyzed in this presentation today. First of all, it would be helpful to focus our attention to the relevant issues connected with the present state of this détente in South Asia. After this matter has been briefly examined we will the look at the prospects of the US political developments connected with this region and their possible impact on the current South Asian political scene.

Today, I received an email from Mike Lidell, the director of Online Communications for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asking me to join in a blogger’s conference call with Senator Chuck Schumer, DSCC Chair.

In contrast, I received a bulk email from Howard Dean entitled “Investments pay off”. It asked for a $25 contribution. Rahm Emanuel, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent a bulk email entitled, “Democratic Vision Wins Out” asking for a contribution. Emily’s list sent a bulk email “Insider News – Setting the stage for 2006” asking for a contribution. The bulk email from Eli Pariser of MoveOn was entitled “Good election news! Now let’s win big in 2006” and asked me to donate now. Jim Dean, of Democracy for America entitled his bulk email, “…And We’re Only Getting Started”. It also asked for a contribution. John Kerry’s bulk email was entitled, “Reality 2, Bush 0” and asked me to click on an online petition calling to withdraw 20,000 troops over the holidays and asking for a contribution.

I didn’t send in a check to anyone or click on any petition. However, I did spend an hour of my time listening to Senator Schumer. I’m glad I did. He spoke frankly and openly about what is going on with the DSCC. He frequently spoke about Senators being out of touch with their constituents and how he wanted to change that.

(more)

Back in August, I wrote about Political Network Topologies, drawing a distinction between two models of politics, one in terms of social networks and the other in terms of citizens as consumers. Jock added a comment pointing me to the work of Anna Nagurney from Umass on supernetworks.

I listened her keynote at MeshForum 2005 and started thinking in different ways about networks. Usually, when I think about networks, I think about nodes and links. However, she points out the importance of the flow on the network as well.

Yesterday, Grant McCracken wrote about brands as a new content provider. He focuses on the ‘flow’ aspects of social networks and how this flow is essential to sustaining social networks. He goes on to suggest that brands may be an important source of ‘flow’ for social networks, thus bringing together ideas of politics as a social network and politics as a group of citizens as consumers.

Over on Full Circle Online Interaction Blog, Nancy White asks, “How should we select our Keynote speakers?” She points to this blog post where Andrew observes, “Sitting in conferences I have often looked around at the audience and thought about the incredible opportunity for discovery which lies within”. When I first read these posts, I [...]

On his excellent site, Robert Steele has a PORTAL: Collective Intelligence

Here is his COMMENT of 3 Nov 05.

Two forces have come together in our mind in the past week, and today we acknowledge both. On the one hand, as we further our strategy of Googlizing intelligence (Google still cannot data mine, visualize, game, translate, or connect people quickly with one another and with relevant information, but that is coming), we have realized this week that the pathologies of the secret intelligence community are what enabled the pathologies of the neo-conservatives, aided by the dishonest vapidity of most Members of the Senate and the House–the Republicans cravenly took orders from the White House (Dick Cheney specifically, as President Pro Tem of the Senate), and the Democrats cravenly let themselves get steam-rolled and sold out their constituencies as the extremeist Republicans sold out their country.

Secret intelligence is for all practical purposes dead as a force for good. At this time, with the $9 billiion satellite as the poster child of classified idiocy, the US Intelligence Community is a sucking chest wound in the Executive Branch, and unlikely to be operated on in a meanigful way anytime soon. However, and we are moved with admiration for Ambassador Joseph Wilson, this week we also saw the power of truth and openness.