Archive for category the Internet
WordCamp!
Posted by Glenden Brown in the Internet on January 11th, 2010
Okay, so I’m back from Atlanta WordCamp.
A couple points:
- WordPress is coming out with version 3.0 in not too long and it’s gonna rock our worlds – or maybe not but it’s going to have many many improvements.
- The whole issue of PlugIns is a really big deal and the consistent answer from folks is “You have to figure out that one’s you want.” And, interestingly, many of the speakers said, “I just write my own.” However, the whole plugin thing is a big deal because they add functionality and customizability to sites.
- WordPress was originally a blog program and is increasingly being used to create and host websites that are used for far more than blogging – many members of Congress and many nonprofits and businesses use it for their sites.
- Many of the campers were there because they’ve been occupationally displaced and are looking for ways to leverage their connections and knowledge of WordPress to become freelancers and make a living. It can be done and the living can be quite nice but it requires a very different mindset than having a job.
- The term “social media” a popular and current buzzword and is ridiculously overused in some circles but social media is here to stay – the specific forms may change – myspace, meetup, twitter, facebook, and so on may come and go but they are only the specific brands of tools; the basic tool itself is not going anywhere anytime soon.
- We’re only beginning to tap into the real power of the internet to trasnform our lives.
- What used to be the province of the nerds has become the province of hipsters and its a good thing.
The challenge at any conference like this is the vast disparity in technical abilities. For someone like me, I don’t really know and probably won’t ever master the technology that’s under the hood. I expect it to run smoothly and I expect some fundamental mastery from the user side, but I’m not a programmer and won’t become one any time soon. From my perspective, I want to be able to make the site do what I want it to do. At WordCamp, there were folks who literally are writing code to support WordPress.
I think what we’re seeing is nothing new – users like me want to develop a greater mastery of the tool without having to learn code. The programmers and developers, by contrast, want to get into the technical wonky side of things – they want to talk about and alter plugins and other things.
The other challenge is that the “basics” workshops were too basic. The intermediate workshops were too highly specific. I don’t know and won’t pretend to have a solution but I know there’s one out there.
I met one presenter who really impressed me – Adria Richards. She is very sharp. I like her observation that WordCamp Atlanta was more diverse than most such gatherings, but I have to admit I was hoping for a far more diverse crowd – hell I flew to Atlanta and it wasn’t much more diverse than what I often see here.
Utlimately, however, our technology is only as good as we are. Douchebags in real live are douchebags on the internet – doesn’t matter if they’re tweeting or facebooking or blogging, they’re still douchebags. People who are amazing in real life are amazong online.
GOP: Let’s Blame the Dems for Bush’s Multiple Catastrophes
Posted by Richard Warnick in Bush Failures, Democrats, Disaster, Economy, Elections, Federal Budget, Health Care, Hypocrisy, Liars (politics), National Politics, Party Politics, Republicans, This Blog, congress, the Internet on January 7th, 2010
The right-wingers love this YouTube by an anonymous Republican flack who claims to represent “blue collar democrats, independents, and conservatives.”
Oh, the outrage. In short sentences. For the dimwitted.
DEMOCRATS are a threat to the economy? Which party lost jobs (first time since Herbert Hoover)? Which party left us with a negative GDP (minus 3.5 percent)? Which party came in with a budget surplus, then doubled the National Debt to $11 trillion and saddled the next administration with a record deficit?
DEMOCRATS are a threat to health care? Which party enacted Medicare Part D without paying for it? Which party did nothing while 45,000 Americans died every year due to lack of access to preventive care?
DEMOCRATS are a threat to individual liberties? Which party passed the USA PATRIOT Act, initiated warrantless surveillance of Americans, suspended the right of habeas corpus, imprisoned U.S. citizens without charges, and resorted to torture?
DEMOCRATS are to blame for the Wall Street billionaire bailout? That was the Bush administration. But the billionaires took all the money, gave themselves bonuses, and did nothing to save the real economy. Now the Obama administration is struggling to do that– while the Republicans vote NO on everything.
DEMOCRATS are corrupt? Ever hear of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Mitch McConnell, Don Young, John Ensign? Do we have to list all the crooked Republicans? The Bush administration was bought and paid for by special interests from day one.
It’s like the aftermath of the Reagan and Bush I years, but worse. The Republican wrecking crew did their worst, and charged it all to the national credit card. This time they almost plunged us into Great Depression 2.0, and literally left parts of America in ruins. It’s going to take many years to rebuild after Bush’s multiple fiascoes.
Let’s not forget foreign policy, two unwinnable wars, America’s newfound world reputation for war crimes and torturing detainees. Let’s not forget the crises the Republicans steadfastly ignored, like the urgent needs for a new energy policy and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and fixing neglected infrastructure (remember the I-35W bridge?).
President Obama and the Democrats in Congress can get away with blatantly corporatist policies for one reason only– coming after the Republican catastrophes of 2001-2008, everything they do looks better by comparison. Oh, and Republicans, if you’re in the top two percent I hope you enjoy the Bush tax hike that’s coming a year from now.
Another Smart and Funny Video Concerning Heath Care
Posted by Larry Bergan in American People, Health Care, Laugh, the Internet on November 10th, 2009
I previously posted a great video which I believe condensed the health care debate to simple terms. I found this additional video by the same young men.
I have nothing to add here except the fact that these young men did NOT impugn the police department in any way.
FBI Arrests Hal Turner for Threats Against 7th Circuit Court Judges
Posted by Richard Warnick in Bigotry, Gun Control, National Politics, Racism, Republicans, Sean Hannity, Terrorism, White Supremacy, the Internet on June 24th, 2009
Today, FBI agents went to the New Jersey home of white supremacist blogger/radio host Hal Turner and arrested him “on a federal complaint filed in Chicago alleging that he made Internet postings threatening to assault and murder three federal appeals court judges in Chicago in retaliation for their recent ruling upholding handgun bans in Chicago and a suburb,” according to a statement released by the Justice Department. A summary of Turner’s dangerous tirade against the judges:
Internet postings on June 2 and 3 proclaimed “outrage” over the June 2, 2009, handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer, of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, further stating, among other things: “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed.” The postings included photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.
Turner is a friend of Sean Hannity and a frequent guest on his radio show, and also ran for Congress as a Republican in 2000. In recent years, his rhetoric has become more and more violent. He was especially enraged at proposals for immigration reform. Before the 2006 election, Turner announced on his website:
We may have to ASSASSINATE some of the people you elect on Nov. 7! This could be your LAST ELECTION CHANCE, to save this Republic… Sorry to have to be so blunt, but the country is in mortal danger from our present government and our liberty is already near dead because of this government. If you are too stupid to turn things around with your vote, there are people out here like me who are willing to turn things around with guns, force and violence. We hope our method does not become necessary.
On June 3, 2009, Turner was arrested and charged with inciting injury to two politicians in Connecticut and a state ethics official. The warrant issued was for inciting his website’s readers to “take up arms” against the officials.
This case may be of interest to us all because it’s about: (1) what you can get away with saying on a blog without the FBI knocking on your door, and (2) the 7th Circuit Court ruling that Chicago’s gun ban is not prohibited by the Second Amendment.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Goes Online
Posted by Richard Warnick in Barack Obama, Democracy, Economy, Jobs, National Politics, Rush Limbaugh, This Blog, the Internet on February 17th, 2009
Today, recovery.gov went live. It provides full transparency and accountability regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This site is so user-friendly, even Rush Limbaugh could probably figure out how to search it.
UPDATE: President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act today in Denver. Tomorrow in Arizona, Obama will unveil another part of his economic recovery effort — a plan to help millions of homeowners fend off foreclosure.
What I am signing… is a balanced plan with a mix of tax cuts and investments. It is a plan that’s been put together without earmarks or the usual pork barrel spending. And it is a plan that will be implemented with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.
Day One
Posted by Richard Warnick in American History, Barack Obama, Democracy, Economy, This Blog, War, the Internet on January 21st, 2009
Accomplishments so far include:
- New WhiteHouse.gov website up with all policy proposals… and a blog.
- On Tuesday afternoon, ordered federal agencies to halt all pending regulations from the Bush administration.
- Suspended special military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.
- Today, ordered new ethics rules for “a clean break from business as usual.”
- Announced a change in policy that will require each federal agency and department to give full attention to Freedom of Information requests, potentially revealing secrets hidden by the Bush administration.
- “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this administration,” Obama said in a statement to reporters.
- Circulated a draft executive order to end CIA secret “black sites,” and close the extra-legal prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year.
- Made phone calls to Mahmoud Abbas and other Middle East leaders.
- Met with economic advisers in the Roosevelt Room.
- Held a meeting to discuss Iraq withdrawal plans with the National Security Advisor, SecDef, Chairman of the JCS and top commanders in the Situation Room.
- Decided to appoint George Mitchell as a special Middle East envoy.
- Oh, and the President attended a nice White House Open House today.
Slaying the Slime. Death by Blogosphere: A Day in The Life
Posted by Cliff Lyon in John McCain, Republicans, This Blog, the Internet on October 24th, 2008
Update: “(CNN) — Bail was set at $50,000 Friday night for a GOP campaign worker who made up a story about being attacked by a man angered by a John McCain bumper sticker on her car.”
I’ve decided to try to write more commentary that documents the role of The Internets in destroying the right-wing slime machine and the pond scum that help smear it. Not only is it an important anthropological learning opportunity, but OneUtah is an especially fermented petridish of case studies.
Thanks to our unusually high number of prolific propaganda agents (slime spreaders) OneUtah has long been on the bleeding edge of breaking slime.
Todays episode brought to us by one of our beloved ’smearing agents’ (lets call him Bob to out of respect for his anonymity) Bob wrote about a Texas woman named Ashley Todd who claimed she was robbed then beaten when the attacker discovered she was a McCain supporter. Today, she is claiming she was also sexually assaulted.
This one is so ridiculous, our favorite Lime Queen Michelle Malkin was the first to throw her fellow College Republican, Ashley Todd under the bus as a sort of ‘gimme’ to her critics, since she too is headed the way of most Internet slimers (oblivion).
So within 3 minutes of the stories break by a news station (4:03pm EDT) , Our ‘Bob’ posts it on OneUtah (2:06pm MDT)., and by the next morning we learn that she is just an earnest young Republican who got creative in the bathroom and painted a ‘B’ on her face (forgetting that the mirror reverses things) and that she was Twittering about it the whole time.
Another ‘Day in The Life of Slaying the Slime. Death by Blogosphere.
Update II:
The Internet and the Death of Rovian Politics
Posted by Cliff Lyon in American People, John McCain, This Blog, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority, the Internet on October 23rd, 2008
I’m posting this article because it speaks well to one of the overriding purposes for starting this blog in January of 2006. John Dean had already demonstrated the power of the Internet by raising some $48 million.
I started blogging at on Slate’s Fray when it looked like Bush might actually get re-elected. I couldn’t figure out how people could be so blind to this idiot. Half of America already considered him the worse president in modern times. My engagement in the arguments with right-wingers brought home in the most visceral way, the notion that the intellectual objectivity across our species varied dramatically.
And this began my search for an answer. As many of you know, I found it. Altemeyer and this interview express it best.
The Internet bubble had burst, The DailyKos was soaring, and the web had begun to flex its muscle as an unstoppable, horizontal, democratic vehicle for human interaction. I believe we are still at the beginning.
This article describes the power of blogs like this one, to counter the corrupt, tribal character that has been so destructive throughout our civilization.
McCain is running a textbook Rovian race: fear-based, smear-based, anything goes. But it isn’t working. The glitch in the well-oiled machine? The Internet.
“We are witnessing the end of Rovian politics,” Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google told me. And YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.65 billion, is one of the causes of its demise.
How fast things are changing…
Back in the Dark Ages of 2004, when YouTube (and HuffPost, for that matter) didn’t exist, a campaign could tell a brazen lie, and the media might call them on it. But if they kept repeating the lie again and again and again, the media would eventually let it go (see the Swiftboating of John Kerry). Traditional media like moving on to the next shiny thing. But bloggers love revisiting a story. So when Palin kept repeating her bridge to nowhere lie, bloggers kept calling her on it. Andrew Sullivan, for one, has made a cottage industry of calling Palin on her lies. And eventually, the truth filtered up and cost McCain credibility with his true base: journalists.
The Internet may make it easier to disseminate character smears, but it also makes it much less likely that these smears will stick. Read on…
Only a year ago, I might have bothered to argue stupid comments like;
Richard Okelberry: Cliff, The very fact that you called CNN right wing shows that you really need to talk to your doctor…
The few remaining Okelberries out there still banging away, have been marginalized. Just in the past year, we have seen them lose their ’swift boat’, ‘mob’ power. And I know this viscerally. People like Ken, Richard Okelberries, Bob S, JD etc, have been reduced to an embarrassment to a thinking, progressive America.
They have helped destroy the ‘other party’ for the next decade.
McCain and his strategists missed this transition. So did the corrupt corporate media. I think Rove tried to warn them, but they suffer from terminal ’sheeple’ effect – that terrible disease that so plagues our planet.
God bless the Internet and the millions of thoughtful people around the world standing tall upon it.
Note: I also believe the Internet is ready for a serious, next generation, publishing platform like the one being build by ManyOne.
Joe The Terrorist Backs McCain
Posted by Richard Warnick in 2008 Election, John McCain, National Politics, Terrorism, the Internet on October 22nd, 2008
Not really a picture of “Joe The Terrorist”
Via Talking Points Memo…
OK, his name isn’t really Joe and he may not even be a licensed terrorist. According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors al-Qaeda communications, a Web site message this week said they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency. The message is credited to a frequent and apparently respected contributor named Muhammad Haafid. However, Haafid is not believed to have a direct affiliation with al-Qaeda plans or knowledge of its operations, according to SITE.
The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaeda wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier,” the message said. “Then, al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush.”
UPDATE: WaPo quotes Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the SITE Intelligence Group:
“The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful ’son of Bush’ — someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk… They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain.”
UPDATE: In a conference call, McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann says no, no, noo– the terrorists are really rooting for Obama. Spencer Ackerman writes: “To describe the call as panicked would be an understatement.”
UPDATE: Unlike the panicky McCain advisers, the Obama spokespeople have nothing they want to say about Joe The Terrorist. When your opponent’s campaign is shooting itself in the foot, why not just quietly enjoy the moment?
UPDATE: Writing in Mother Jones, Tom Engelhardt grades Bush’s so-called “Global War on Terror.” It failed, in a series of humiliating defeats.
Previous One Utah posts:
McCain’s Secret Plan to Capture Osama bin Laden (October 10)
Richard Clarke: al-Qaeda May Try to Help McCain (October 6)
Al-Qaeda (The Real One) Is a Bigger Threat Than Last Year (August 13)
15 Senators Support The Fourth Amendment
Posted by Richard Warnick in 9/11, Civil liberties Infringement, Democrats, George W. Bush, National Politics, Terrorism, The Constitution, This Blog, Wiretapping, the Internet on June 26th, 2008
Only 15 senators voted to block the FISA bill: Biden (D-DE) – Boxer (D-CA) – Brown (D-OH) – Cantwell (D-WA) – Dodd (D-CT) – Durbin (D-IL) – Feingold (D-WI) – Harkin (D-IA) – Kerry (D-MA) – Lautenberg (D-NJ) – Leahy (D-VT) – Menendez (D-NJ) – Sanders (I-VT) – Schumer (D-NY) – Wyden (D-OR). Senators Clinton, Obama, Kennedy, Byrd and McCain were all absent.
The bill legalizes the warrantless surveillance activities George Bush secretly ordered in 2001 (even before the 9/11 attacks), and conducted in defiance of the law ever since. Those warrantless searches violate core Fourth Amendment protections.
However, Senator Feingold (D-WI) has prevented a final vote until after the July recess.
Said Senator Chris Dodd: “We’re closing the door, never to know why this happened, who ordered it, why did they avoid [the courts], what was behind their thinking… And that is a dangerous step for us.”
Senator Russ Feingold had some choice words for his colleagues:
“It’s the latest chapter of running for cover when the Administration tries to intimidate Democrats on national security issues. It’s the most embarrassing failure of the Democrats I’ve seen since 2006, other than the failure to vote to end the Iraq War. . . . It’s letting George Bush and Dick Cheney have their way even though they’re that unpopular and on their way out. It’s really incredible.”
Utah’s own Senator Orrin Hatch had a different take:
Hatch mocked the what he called “onerous oversight provisions” included in the bill, and said those who raise the specter of unchecked executive wiretapping power “feed the delusions of those who wear tin foil hats around their house and think that 9/11 was an inside job.”
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