Something bothers me about the accusation that Barack Obama has no significant legislation in the Senate to his credit. Actually what bothered me in the past is that this point is usually made by an Obama opponent asking, "Can you name one piece of legislation Obama got through the Senate?" And the TV host or pundit being questioned is too poorly informed to have an answer. So the implication is that Obama's done nothing.
This, of course, is not true. And beyond the weak preparation of the TV media, what's bothered me most is that I
can name one piece of legislation Obama's had a hand in and, at least on the Internet, it is part of a relatively famous story. What's more, it actually came up last night at the Republican National Convention, apparently completely unnoticed in the glare of Palin's performance:
The Coburn-Obama Transparency Bill a.k.a.
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 .
Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman and vociferous McCain advocate mentioned this in
her address to the convention : "In his first year in office, he [McCain] will subject every government agency to a top to bottom review and post the results on the Internet for all Americans to see."
That may be the easiest promise for McCain to keep from his whole campaign because to a large degree, it's already done. In 2006, Barack Obama and Republican Senator Tom Coburn introduced legislation to put the government's business in a free searchable public online database. The idea was that by granting the public access to how federal money is doled out, legislators would be loath to make secret sweetheart deals with lobbyists and local interests.
I'm not enough of a historian to know how connected associated events were at the time, but the again-famous "Bridge to Nowhere" story was still fresh in the headlines,
Lawrence Lessig was drawing a lot of attention to the idea of "open government," and bloggers were making history with the
collective research and
activism for which they're now so famous.
From my perspective as a Web observer, the way the story played out was that this bipartisan Coburn-Obama legislation, heralded by political bloggers as part of a public access revolution, was being blocked by one or more anonymous senators through a tactic called a "secret hold." (Apparently in the Senate it's possible to block legislation without having to reveal yourself as doing so.)
Bloggers wouldn't stand for that however, and launched a campaign to flush out the mystery bill blockers by calling their senators individually and getting them to declare publicly their position on the bill and whether they were responsible for the hold. As the
process eliminated suspects it was eventually revealed that
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd and
Republican Senator Ted Stevens (the man behind the Bridge to Nowhere) were responsible for the hold. Upon being exposed, the holds were lifted and President Bush
signed the bill into law . The result was
USASepnding.gov , "Where Americans can see where their money goes."
Senators Obama and Coburn have continued to work on the project,
introducing the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008 (
S. 3077 ). It isn't very pretty to read but looks to be mostly about improving the site's features and function. In my amateur reading it appears to set deadlines for compliance throughout 2009 or, as Ms. Fiorina puts it, the new president's first year in office.
I should point out that Fiorina is not wrong for describing the bill as a promise from John McCain. Not only is this a bipartisan project, but McCain's name is
mentioned prominently in the paperwork :
By Mr. COBURN (for himself, Mr. OBAMA, Mr. CARPER, and Mr. MCCAIN): S. 2590. A bill to require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Obama may have greater ownership of the bill (lengthy
audio here , brief
CNN interview here ), but given
McCain's history on Web issues , his involvement in something that casts the Web as a public utility is remarkable enough.
I don't know very much about Obama's activities in government. I only know this one small thing because it was part of a larger online drama, but that's all I need to know to suffer significant cognitive dissonance from the emphasis at the RNC that Obama has done nothing, has not reached across party lines and has no record as a reformer. In this one act he's done all three and with the cooperation of the Republican candidate to boot.
The Web is still awash in Palin discussion and parody. I can't even try to keep up with it (heck, I can't even muster the emotional strength to deal with comments in yesterday's post) but I have clicked a few noteworthy items -in no particular order or fairness:
Moving on...
"Enter the newest piece of Army gear: the Non–Line of Sight Launch System, already nicknamed '
missiles in a box .'” It's like calling in an air strike without needing to bother the Air Force. Point your laser and the missile comes at your command.
(Speaking of Popular Mechanics links, did you know that Popular Mechanics has an
online motorcycle riding club ?)
Speaking of motorcycles,
holy yes yes yes yes ! Is this really a wearable motorcycle or is it some kind of promo for that new Tron movie? This post has a
photo of the inventor .
As long as we're on two wheels,
unique bike photos .
The incredible tribal fashion show inspired by Mother Nature - Here's a
further gallery , though I can't figure out how to get there from the site's home page so I can't tell if there's more.
This is what they call the
"red band" trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Porno . In this case, the red band means it has (
NOTE )
unbleeped F-bombs and some sexual themes (but no actual nudity). I've noticed the movie generating a lot of hype but haven't paid very close attention. Now I see why it's expected to be such a funny hit.
Speaking of upcoming movies, did you see
Cher may play Catwoman ? Yes, I had the same reaction at first, but once I re-swallowed the vomit in my mouth I realized she could really be awesome in this role.
This
Flickr love connection is a little corny but makes more sense when you look at their photos.
His and
hers .
A relatively random Commuter Click:
George Orwell: Politics and the English Language - Even though he's speaking to a very different time, the things he says about writing and word selection are maybe more appropriate than ever. It's a little dense and not really a pleasure read so I wasn't going to mention it here but I'm amazed at how much it has stayed with me as I write and edit every day since I read it a week ago.
(After note: No one here in the cube farm caught the reference in my headline today. Anyone?)
The funny thing about the story of Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant is that the Web was full of Palin pregnancy rumors and that wasn't it. The actual rumor, sparked, as far as I can tell, by this now-deleted Daily Kos item had Sarah Palin faking her pregnancy to cover for her daughter's pregnancy. What's ironic is that the most objectionable part of the story - the bald accusation that a teen's belly is actually a baby bump - turned out to be nearly the only true thing about it.
To be clearer, the matter has been settled as false in the minds of everyone still paying attention.
Using the kind of reverse scientific method (a.k.a. utterly unscientific method) found often in Web conspiracies, the cover-up theorists were using photographic evidence to support their theory rather than looking at ALL of the photos and then drawing a conclusion. Ultimately the photos Palin actually looking pregnant did surface.
What's great about this story is that it's a case where using "how do you explain" as a reason to come up with your own explanation simply doesn't work. How do you explain that she's not showing in those pictures? How do you explain her taking an ill-advised plane flight when her water had broken? How do you explain that even her closest staff members didn't realize she was pregnant even at seven months?
It turns out the explanation for all of those is the simplest one: it happened.
What's more, not everyone was unable to notice her pregnant state, and said so at the time like the telephone kind ).MySpace photo captions suggest that Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter is already married to the father of her unborn son! Gasp!
I've seen a few people try out loud to remember who that guy was during Katrina who live streamed from downtown New Orleans, powered by a generator and defying calls for evacuation. The specifics are a little hazy in my memory but I'm pretty sure that was the Interdictor - and the live stream is back. Watching it now, it's basically two guys drinking and goofing around, occasionally remarking on changes in weather conditions. I think the idea is that we'll eventually start to see things get hairy. One of the guys, Greg Ledet is also updating a blog.
Speaking of remembering back to Katrina blogging, I was poking through the Clicked archives from then to see who else from those days might be blogging Gustav. GulfSails is sticking it out again. Eric Berger's SciGuy blog is storm tracking again with an eye for the folks in Houston.
And while I'm mentioning looking through the Katrina blogging greats, there was one single photoblog that stood out in my mind beyond the others: Operation Eden . I had to dig a while to find it in my post from September 28 but I'm glad I did because it lives up to my memory of it and frankly you'd be well advised to start with his September 2005 archive page and work your way through. The photographer is Clayton James Cubitt, and while his Operation Eden blog is pretty much idle (with the only recent new item being an anniversary post the other day), his Tumblr blog is rich with Gustav info and Twitter stream is rife with links and personal insights. Not as visually arresting as his photoblog but powerful in its immediacy none-the-less. NOTE: You may see other Cubitt links in his bio or elsewhere. Be aware that many of his professional and artistic photos are sexual in nature, or may contain some nudity. If you're a grown-up and can handle these things, his work is a valuable lesson in light and perspective.
During Katrina, so many people were displaced so quickly that finding anyone after the storm passed was sheer chaos. News sites, msnbc.com included, set up massive databases where people to log in and report there whereabouts or else post names of people they were looking for. I can tell you from experience it was a pain to police for bogus entries (if I had a nickel for every time I deleted George w. Bush from the missing persons list...) but so heavily trafficked that I'm confident it was a valuable resource to some people. So it's nice to see FEMA setting up an official such system on their own this time around, called the National Emergency Family Registry and Locator System.
The New Orleans Metblogs page has some reporting from hold-outs. It's funny to see how many media people are doing essentially the same thing I'm doing to score bookings for various talk shows:
" I’ll be doing Q-and-As this evening and early tomorrow morning with BBC-Ireland and with an Australian network (thanks Joe). I was also interviewed today by the Miami Herald and by Warren Levinson of the AP. Ari Shapiro of NPR also ate here (twice!) today."
Rick Sanchez over at CNN is feeling no shame about booking straight from his Twitter stream (nor should he feel any shame, that's the point of the thing.)
That link to Sanchez is him pitching to The Oil Drum blog, which is doing a fascinating job monitoring damage projections of the oil facilities in the Gulf . I imagine that'll transition to actual damage assessments once the storm passes.
First band of Gustav arrives in New Orleans and wow that is a really literal band.Craigslist feeds for Gustav housing and support . I haven't mentioned Pipes in a while but it's a really great way to build little Web apps if you don't have the time or ability to code it yourself.
BlogOfNewOrleans.com currently has a lot of accounts of evacuation gone wrong but there's at least one contributor still in New Orleans so it'll be good to check back with the new day's light to see how things look.
Weather Underground has this pretty wicked map .
Gustav resources online
"Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD."
(via this entry on the military/security support for the Gulf region)
I was trying to watch local video for a while but since I'm also surfing around I can't really watch so I switched to WWL radio which was listed as "news/talk" on this big list of New Orleans radio stations. (Note the lightning bolts mean they have online streams.)
Last one to leave, take the entire company with you :
Today, all of the company's approximately 50 PCs and servers are backed up to a main server, which is then backed up to a 1TB USB-connected drive that goes out the door with the last employee who is evacuating in the event of an emergency, he said. That employee also takes an "emergency box" that includes additional DVD backups.
Here's an amazing collection of Gustav tracking maps . Somewhere out there, someone whose job it is to design these just fell off his chair into a puddle of his own drool at the sight of such a thorough review.
On my "to read" list:
It turns out just a few days ago there was something called
The Rising Tide conference, a gathering of New Orleans bloggers.
Tangentially related, world-famous street artists Banksy recently visited New Orleans for the Katrina anniversary. Via this blog with its fascinating little story about the graffiti scene there . Meanwhile, Banksy is moving across the south I guess because it looks like he hit Birmingham, Alabama as well .
NOTE: Rather than change the headline here and get complicated with updates I wrote a second Gustav entry here .
When Katrina struck three years ago, the means of conveyance of choice for digital information was blogging and we used tools like Technorati to search for relevant material. With Gustav's arrival at hand, a new tool, Twitter, is helping spread important information and put people in touch. It'd be wrong to say that Twitter has replaced blogging - in fact I'm finding it's helping find relevant blogs - but it has certainly changed the online information landscape.TweetScan . Here we see that the small pieces of information that might be lost in the blogosphere fit in well with the stream to tid-bits. We can see everything from traffic tips to animal charities .gustav versus one for #gustav it looks like the #gustav takes some of the noise out of the channel and gives more useful results (by which I mean, there's less slogging through posts like "I hope Gustav doesn't do too much damage" that show up in a simple search for the storm name.Twitturls , a site that lists the most popular links being sent on Twitter is Katrina vet Andy Carvin 's Gustav Information Center . He's put together a feed of government alerts among other useful links.Brendan Loy should ring a bell if you spent a lot of time online through Katrina. He's weatherblogging Gustav as well. Don't miss that massive blogroll/linklist on the left.McCain's choice of VP drew discussion from Obama only to have Gustav take the discussion from McCain . Republican planners were probably right to think no one would be watching on Monday.Poynter has set up a site that is aggregating Gustav reports from the mainstream media and a variety of citizen sources.The GustavFeed is rounding up news coverage, citizen media (like YouTube clips and Flickr photos) and informational links . You could probably spend your whole time here and get all the coverage you need.liveblogging his experience . Lesser reports may come through his Twitter feed , which you can also see in the right margin of his blog.NOLA.com staff is staying. Their Katrina efforts were widely celebrated. It's hard to imagine them fleeing from Gustav.live video streams of five local TV stations in the New Orleans area . (I just saw one local weatherman point out the dangers of the post-hurricane tropical depression stalling slightly inland and dumping tons of rain, likely compounding any problems from the storm itself. See the 5-day track he's looking at on the National Hurricane Center site .)
I'm half way through my annual trip to the New Jersey shore to perform the ritual burning of the tops of my feet and center part of my back that I can't reach. As per tradition, Internet connectivity is not as abundant as I expected (that expectation having been based on nothing but forgetfulness of the last time I over-expected connectivity at the beach) and so it's the familiar realization that my vacation is not going to be super-productive-get-things-done time that prompts me to finally post here and report: I'm almost back.
Marc Ambinder wins the prize for most creative use of the Web for clues as to Obama's V.P. pick. He used
FlightAware to check for charter flights between Chicago and Biden's nearest airport in Delaware.
I guess because Roseanne Barr has decided to pick on Brangelina in her blog . Some gossip outlets have turned their attention to it, creating a cascade that has brought the link onto the Clicked radar.
The Britney mic feed video may be scandalous to some but it makes perfect sense to me and it's something I always wondered about those dancey singers with the headset mics. How do they exert themselves physically like that and still sing clearly? Hell, I can't even walk fast and talk without sounding winded. Of course the next question is why bother with the illusion if all they're really doing is gasping and croaking?
You may have read about the David Hasslehoff social network this week. Apparently the guy thinks that love for him can be a point of bonding and unity between strangers. On the one hand it may be the most absurd idea ever. On the other hand, doesn't it seem like people who are so fanatical about David Hasslehoff that they'd join his social network might actually share some hard-to-define commonality?
What's remarkable about this video of Tiger Woods walking on water isn't the video trick or even the naked blasphemy but that it is apparently a video reply from a massively popular and powerful video game company starring a massively popular and powerful athlete to an utterly unremarkable video game fan YouTube clip. Here's the original video . A new twist on the ancient lesson: You never know who's reading what you put online.It Ain't That Hard, Folks. Make Better Cars. He's not Michael Phelps but I guess being a tall white guy is close enough as far as some Chinese are concerned. (I should say, a tall white guy with a camera crew, which probably flags him as famous whether he's Phelps or not.)
And depending on whose campaign ads you believe, Obama may qualify for the celebrity list. He's now the most followed Twitter user . His Tweets are just announcements of where he is, usually with a link to watch him online. I confess I signed up for his vice presidential text message announcement. So far no spam but I find it hard to believe they're going to amass that database and not try to make use of it later.
Speaking of politics and celebrities, W. the film has a site now - and posters and new trailers and stuff.
Oh, and of celebrity Twitterers? How 'bout John Cleese ?
I actually heard about this one at the water cooler before I saw it online - which sort of makes sense since it's not really a Web video, it's from a local Miami news station.
Here's the original but I don't see a way to make the player bigger. The latest update on the guy's condition is that he was able to leave the hospital today.
Contrary to the IOC's conclusions about the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin and their belief that the matter will be "put to rest," the investigative work displayed on one blog and the magical "gotcha" authority that comes with the phrase "search engine cache" ensure that those who don't want to buy it don't have to.
