As I write this, Lawrence Lessig is giving his talk at Netroots Nation.  As usual, it is extraordinary.  If you didn't get a chance to see it in person or online live (as I am from San Francisco), it will be archived (and I'll update this with a link).

But even before he started speaking, I got the email I'll post in full after the jump from Japhet Els (who is also at Netroots Nation).

 Change Congress has an Act Blue page and Lessig wants at least 500 of us to give contributions ending in .09 (the current approval rating of congress) to at least one of these candidates

http://www.actblue.com/...

Update: Right after I posted this, Lessig used a photo I took in his presentation.

    Not the engineer of the Enterprise; he doesn't exist. The other one.

    Yeah, I know, DKos frontpagers hate him, he wants to sell his book, he should have told us this stuff years earlier, bla bla. But if even Darth Vader can get redeemed at the end, I don't know why Scott McClellan can't.
    I suppose El Lessig will be of some interest as an NN speaker, but the Scott would likely be even more interesting: people turning from the "Dark Side", even with mixed motives, make for pretty good drama.
    And Rove-ocop said ScMcC was like a left wing blogger! Well well! Why not make the joke into the truth? !

    See you in Austin-sounds-like-Boston, Mr. "What Happened"! No one can say NN isn't bipartisan once in a while...

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.

We couldn't be happier to have one of our heroes join us down in Austin.

The conference is July 17-20. If you haven't registered yet, now's the time...

We just sent out the email below:

-------------

Lawrence Lessig to Deliver Netroots Nation Keynote

Great news! Netroots Nation is proud to announce Lawrence Lessig as
one of our keynote speakers for this year's conference.

Professor Lessig, who has been called one of the "leading minds in
tech" and open-source democracy by the American Prospect, is the
founder of Creative Commons, and spent years working to make sure that
as the rules of the Internet got written, they were written in a way
that put power in the hands of regular people. He advanced his ideas
through numerous books, articles and blog posts. Respected worldwide,
he is one of the true luminaries of the Internet.

The Republicans do not have a plan for the economy, for the collapsing credit market, for the weak dollar, for healthcare, for the housing market, or for the constant export of jobs by Walmart and Corporate America. The plans they do have are akin to Herbert Hoover's "volunteerism" plan to end the Great Depression.  

The Republican's do not want to end the War in Iraq and in fact want to start a war with Iran.

The Republican Party and the Conservative Movement is dead wrong on the issues. They know it and know that on the merits they can't win.

So how do you win a Presidential Campaign when you are wrong on the issues? Smear. Dredge up tenuous associations with dubious figures and try to imply some sort of mutual congruence between those people and Barack Obama. We've seen it with Reverend Wright, we've seen it with William Ayers, and we are about to see another decent person dragged through the mud and then nailed to Obama's Campaign bus.

Meet Larry Lessig.

I've seen some ignorant RedState.com alerts before, but the following one takes the cake.

Dear Friend,

A friend and adviser to Barack Obama, Larry Lessig, is going to testify before Congress on Tuesday to advocate for "net neutrality," a position strongly supported by Google,Inc.

Google, recently allowed Larry Lessig to talk to Google employees.  During his talk, Lessig showed a video of Jesus, depicted as gay and wearing a diaper singing the song "I Will Survivor" until Christ is run over by a bus.  You can see for yourself here.

Watch this "Letter to a Superdelegate" that is addressed to all the voters of PA. Lawrence Lessig has made a very compelling view that should be convincing to all Democrats.

From SaveTheInternet.com:
... It is rare for all five members of the Federal Communications Commission to leave Washington, D.C., and they want to hear from you. There will be a public comment period* - come speak up to save the Internet!

WHAT: Public Hearing on the Future of the Internet
WHEN: Thursday, April 17th
TIME: 12:00pm to 7:00pm
WHERE: Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University
             (471 Lagunita Drive, Palo Alto, CA)

*The press about this meeting says no onsite public comments, not sure which is which here... but you can submit comments prior to the meeting to be considered--instructions below.

(Crossposted at Veritosity.com)

NOTE: For an explanation of what Blogrolling for Change is and how to get involved, click here.

When I was a senior in high school, The Nation had a contest where they asked high school and college students across the country what the most important issue facing young people was. In writing my response I deliberately chose to misread the question - rather than telling The Nation what I thought young people cared about the most, I decided to tell them what I thought the most important issue was, period. The answer? Undue corporate power and influence, particularly when it comes to the American political process.

The Clinton campaign, embarrassed by its own misstatements about Bosnia and Ireland, tried to deflect some of the criticism this week by attacking Obama with a press release and a conference call by trying to cite Obama's own exaggerations.

The very first claim was that Obama had falsely used the "law professor" to describe himself.  The Clinton campaign first cites an RNC press release and then a 2004 article from Lynn Sweet, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist who for years has made it her career to try to catch Obama:

Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter.

I want to amplify clammyc's remarks from yesterday about the tension and over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized the online version of this primary race.  It hasn't characterized the offline version of this race, by the way; in the election of 1800 Thomas Jefferson was called an "atheist," "rapist," and "infidel," and I don't think any Federalist was denounced, rejected or repudiated.  But I want to take a look at why this race has become so hotly contested, practically to the exclusion of all else, and not just in the traditional media where that's expected, but pretty much everywhere.  I have a somewhat novel interpretation.

This is George Bush's fault.

Since posting a couple of YouTube videos spelling-out his support for the "Change" candidacy of Barack Obama, Stanford Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig now publishes "a video announcing the 'Change Congress' movement, and exploring the idea of Lessig running for Congress in CA12" --

10 minutes to announce two ideas

Welcome to my diary, I'd like to state right away that I am not working for or on behalf of anyone involved with the Lessig exploratory committee or campaign.  I am a blogger/netizen, like you, who is hoping to help push a man of integrity and intellect into an institution that is in dire need of both.  That being said, I hope the Kos community will see that the values of Mr. Lessig are our own.

A long time ago, before Daily Kos had scoop, or frontpagers, or widespread renown, Markos needed to take a break from the site for a few days. There was no one but Kos posting on the front page, so he needed a guest host to fill in while he was away.

Markos asked Larry Lessig, an amazing and hugely influential Stanford Law professor and activist. This was my introduction to Larry Lessig, and he was incredible... he was knowledgable, readable, funny, and very, very smart.

Lessig lives in Tom Lantos’ district, and since Lantos’ unfortunate death, has decided to explore running for congress.

This will be a brief diary but the prospects are AWESOME.

IMHO.

Link

At lessig08.org, you can watch a 10 minute video explaining the launching of a Change Congress movement, and the decision I am trying to make about whether to run for Congress. That decision will be made soon. I've been spurred to consider it seriously by the enormous support of many at draftlessig.org and facebook (and by the cool swag at zazzle). Those three I had nothing to do with. But this I do.

UPDATE: It appears he lives in Tom Lantos district

Lawrence Lessig, the brilliant Stanford lawyer, famous for his work on IP issues, most notably for the Eldred v. Ashcroft suit, which attempted to overthrow the most recent retroactive copyright extension, has endorsed Barack Obama.  There have been plenty of endorsements on both sides, but his reasons, copied here (Lessig also invented Creative Commons licenses), are elegant, strong, and beautiful.

It's well worth a read if you've got a few minutes and enjoy reading well-phrased, solid arguments.

Lessig's blog (w/ video):
http://lessig.org/...
Original transcript I cribbed from:
http://blog.printf.net/...

This has already been blogged, but it keeps falling off the list because the diaries are coming fast and furious today.

zzmarkzz's diary on this is here hannah's diary is here.

Who is Lawrence Lessig? Quick Bio -

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Chicago.

...

Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired.

He is also a very important writer....in my opinion.

H/T to Mike Hoefer on Bluehampshire

Lawrence Lessig has produced a 21 minute screen-cast explaining his support of Barack Obama. While not as emotionally powerful as the recent Will.i.am effort, it none the less lays out a strong case for a Obama presidency based on Character, Integrity and Do.

I diary about piece this for a few reasons: - 1. It is an out of the way source that many are not likely to come across on the TPM, dKos, Politico circuit - 2. It provides evidence, as one would expect from a Law Professor - 3. Like the Will.i.am piece it demonstrates the power of rich, user generated content which will be one of the major stories of this primary cycle - 4. Lessig has a presentation style that can be appreciated by anyone who has sat through a "Death by Powerpoint" presentation and he raises the bar for those of us who give presentations