Lessig's "Change Congress" Campaign -- Just Might Work

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Tuesday May 13, 2008 · 11:44 PM PDT

2008/05/13 · 23:44

Special interest money is one of the most significant challenges facing American democracy today. Money is funneled into our system by lobbyists and Political Action Committees (PACs) who finance and help to elect those candidates friendly to their agendas. In return they expect access, influence, and sometimes they expect kickbacks in the form of earmarks for pet projects. While politicians, lobbyists, and PAC members often deny that there is any quid pro quo in their relationships, it’s evident that the specter of special interest influence in and of itself has damaged the credibility of our process and we would all benefit from a system that engendered a sense of trust and credibility.

humblecritic

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Saturday May 10, 2008 · 1:22 AM PDT

2008/05/10 · 01:22

Let’s face it, most of what’s been politely referred to as "broadcast journalism" has for the past decade or so been an insult to our collective intelligence, an abandonment of democratic principle, and the overt public corruption of a civic ideal.

humblecritic

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Friday May 09, 2008 · 2:01 PM PDT

2008/05/09 · 14:01

It’s been more than two weeks now since The New York Times revealed that corporate network news had played willing partners in a government propaganda campaign directed by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the American people. Retired military brass were used as "message force multipliers," briefed by Rumsfeld himself and expected to carry the administration’s pro-war ideology into network newsrooms where they were paid as expert analysts to repeat administration talking points as if they were their own obective opinions.

humblecritic

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Friday April 18, 2008 · 7:34 PM PDT

2008/04/18 · 19:34

The ABC debate debacle between Senators Clinton and Obama was simply the latest unfortunate consequence of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which enabled massive and historic media consolidation under the guise of increased benefit to the American people. Of course, we can debate whether narrowing the spectrum of news, fact and opinion available to the electorate is really all that beneficial.

humblecritic

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Tuesday April 08, 2008 · 1:26 PM PDT

2008/04/08 · 13:26

Mr. Yoo’s 2001 legal opinion was revealed last week thanks to a 2003 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the ACLU. The full memo, to which this is literally a footnote, is 81 pages in length and provides information on the detention and interrogation of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas. This footnote references a separate and still secret memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States." Read more about this little gem over at TPM and the Washington Post.

humblecritic

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Tuesday March 11, 2008 · 5:17 AM PDT

2008/03/11 · 05:17

"Watergate and a lot of things around Watergate and Vietnam... served, I think, to erode the authority ... the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area" – Vice President and Former Nixon Staffer Dick Cheney

Imagine White House operatives were caught illegally wiretapping Democratic National Committee headquarters during the coming Presidential election. That according to the head of the DNC, those listening in had overheard the conversations of what the Chairman speculated to be "perhaps every prominent Democrat in America." Imagine senior White House staff with the help of current and former U.S. intelligence agency personnel conducted illegal break-ins, wiretapping, and espionage against ordinary citizens, journalists, Democratic Party candidates, and even members of its own administration for the purposes of political dominance and electoral victory. Now imagine the President justified it all and sought to conceal its existence with a claim of national security and executive privilege.

humblecritic

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Thursday February 28, 2008 · 5:12 AM PST

2008/02/28 · 05:12

I am an Independent. I observe the world around me and recognize a complexity that is too great to be represented in just two colors. I hold that any system which effectively bars non-affiliated candidates from its political process can not rightly be called democratic and is not only unfair, but unwise. A robust and representative government is one in which candidates compete unfettered by party affiliation, where ideas compete on the basis of their merits and not their party of origin. True democracy elevates the strongest candidates without extorting political loyalties.

humblecritic

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Saturday February 23, 2008 · 4:30 PM PST

2008/02/23 · 16:30

I'd never been much into politics. When I was a kid, it all seemed pretty mundane: A bunch of identical looking guys and their identical looking haircuts running on about bombing and/or saving far off lands, spending and/or saving billions of dollars, and jawing words like "freedom" and "democracy" as if their utterance would somehow make them more credible. I didn't care for their haircuts, and I didn't understand why these two words were so important to the political class. For two opposing teams, they always seemed to look and sound mostly the same.

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Lessig's "Change Congress" Campaign -- Just Might Work

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