Pete Ashdown on his Run at the Hill 296
adamdrayer writes "Wired recently conducted an interview with Pete Ashdown, the tech-minded ISP owner who is hoping for a major upset in the race for Utah's Senate seat against long-time incumbent Orin Hatch. Ashdown hopes to help pave the way for better decision-making on the Hill regarding technology. Hatch is among the more conservative politicians on the issues of 'digital privacy' and 'fair use,' while one of Ashdown's main objectives is to reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Polls don't look so good for Ashdown (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseact
While I agree with Ashdown's position a lot more than Orrin's, the incumbent is looking pretty strong.
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At least if a chimp flips a coin,
they appear intelligent.
If a whole lot of chimps flip coins,
why, the voting pattern would actually
appear human-like.
At least in most races.
In this case, apparently 25% have a clue.
Do you know what the difference is between
a chimp voter and a human voter?
The chimp doesn't pay attention to TV.
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You might be trolling, but I'll bite.
According to http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0778562.html/ [factmonster.com] the UN ranks 9 other countries above the US on the livability scale. Although frankly for the most part I think that life is pretty much what you make of it. I've seen people living in what we would call bad or primitive conditions, and yet they didn't seem to fussed about it.
Those countries in the UN list from 1-9 are Norway, Iceland, Australia, Luxembourg, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium. Ex
Re:Polls don't look so good for Ashdown (Score:4, Insightful)
You also need to realize that simply by living a place you taint your ability to enjoy other places. It is found that some traditional tribal folks living in a stone age culture in the middle of nowhere tend rate themselves as happier then your average cosmopolitan Joe. That might be true, but I can promise you that your average cosmopolitan Joe would be murderous to get back to his "hellish" city after spending a couple of weeks without toilet paper, Starbucks, and dentist. So, maybe the people of Norway are happy being in Norway, but that doesn't mean that you would be.
I think the larger point is this; if you live in the US, you live in a damn good place. Maybe it is or is not the best for you, but chance are if I closed my eyes and pointed to another spot and sent you there, you would be miserable. Further, a lot of human misery comes from a loss of perspective. Nothing sends me into a murderous rage more then someone wallowing in their own self pity over the trite challenges that they face in their life. Yeah, your six grade girlfriend dumping you was traumatic and all, but get a grip and stop listening to whinny music reminding you of that black day. Better one girl in 3 billion dump you then living your life in what Americans would consider a glorified sewer, suffering war, experiencing violent cultural and political oppression, or any of the other horrors regularly visited upon many people in this world.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to change the place you live in for the better and looking to other cultures for examples of how to do this, but don't lose perspective. If you are reading this post, chances are you are living in some place that isn't so bad. The challenges and the trails that you face are unlikely to kill you, and even if they are (who knows, maybe you have cancer) you are probably in one of the better places of this world to face them.
Make the world a better place, but remember that the place you currently have is well worth appreciating despite whatever faults it might have.
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If your state has a powerful incumbent, it is in your best interest to keep him/her. Sure, you get fucked over and party-line voting, but that would happen no matter what. Dems and Repubs will *always* vote the party line on things like DMCA, USAPATRIOT, Mickey Mouse Copyright, etc. Just because you hire somebody new does not mean he'll abandon the line.
Powerful incumbents are good for your state. They have a name and can
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That is a bad idea. If they don't care enough to vote without being forced to, they shouldn't be voting anyway.
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The biggest problems Ashdown has are his stance on abortion (for it), the death penalty (against it), and term limits (against them). In Utah the first one is a significant deterrent, though many religious people will simply try and ignore it because they either hate Hatch or blindly vote a straight party ticket. The other two issues are not as "hot", though i
Re:Polls don't look so good for Ashdown (Score:5, Informative)
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Do you think the President should be allowed to run for 3+ terms?
If not, then why should you (or Hatch) be any different?
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> 3. Force people to vote.
is not the solution. The election system needs to be overhauled. My favourite idea is to use the skating system: voters rank the candidates, then 50%+1 first places mean victory; if no such candidate emerged, then consider the 1-2 rankings if that reaches 50%+1 etc.
A great advantage of the system is that if you rank a less favoured candidate first, it does not mean automatically that your vote is thrown away, since your second ch
Mandatory voting (Score:3, Interesting)
In Peru (my wife's native country) every legal adult is REQUIRED to vote. You have a "libreta electoral" card you carry with you and each election you get a foil stamp in it. If you get a traffic fine or such, the police can check your voting card and if you are missing the latest election's stamp you can get fined for missing that also.
When I l
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Presumably if he is advocating forcing people to vote, and giving the day off as a national holiday, he's supporting some kind of penalties for those who do not. I'm pretty sure that Australia, for example, hands out fines for those who do not vote.
You're right (and that's deliberate), but I think you overlooked the more simple point: Who is to bla
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Instead of offering to fund the campaign, do this instead:
1. Public airwaves should be free for campaigning. Every candidate gets a 60-second spot every night during prime time.
2. Cap the spending for campaigns at something like $100,000 for State and $1,000,000 for Federal.
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1st Amendment (Score:2)
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You see, Ashdown is Mormon as well, so it isn't about the religious persuasion of the candidate, its about forcing christian fundamentalism onto everyone else. Ashdown is a moderate when it comes to religion and unlike Hatch has no interest in forcing his religion on the rest of our nation. What Hatch means by "save the Constitution" is tha
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Utah has Moab and Zion. Everything north of freeway 70 should be sanitized and repopulated. :)
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Re:Mormons. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Mormons. (Score:5, Funny)
Speak for yourself, portforward.
I'm Mormon, and I'm out to get them. All of them.
BWAHAhahahahaaa!
Excuse me while I polish my horns.
Obligatory Cross Between Simpsons and South Park (Score:2)
"Ahem. Welcome to hell. Yes, you are in Hell." [arktimes.com]
"Hey, I was a good Protestant! Why am I not in heaven?"
"Umm, you chose the wrong answer. The correct answer was
(On YouTube [youtube.com] too)
Just remember. (Score:2)
Re:Polls don't look so good for Ashdown (Score:4, Informative)
Do you read the paper or watch TV? That's OK, you can catch up at my media page [peteashdown.org].
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Re:Polls don't look so good for Ashdown (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually Dean did do something. He shook my hand twice over the course of the past 18 months, then promptly forgot all about me.
Good on him (Score:2)
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Re:Good on him (Score:4, Interesting)
The status quo will remain status quo unless people work to change it.
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Putting up some videos on youtube or your website is a far cry from putting political ads on TV and radio.
The vast amount of money is mostly for advertising yourself and your stand on the issues, blasting other candidates, and mobilizing a campaign force to put yourself forward as a candidate. I'm sure that the cost of the actual production of those ads is cheap compared to actually getting those ads to potential constituents.
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He's the perfect candidate - for 2026 (Score:3, Insightful)
In politics, it never seems to pay to be a visionary
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Well, in some sense things are purposely set up this way. Perhaps to avoid the tyranny of the majority or whatever. I'd like to see more discussion in this rather than an implicit assumption that more people voting directly on more things is better. Of course, when the representative democracy of the US was set up, the states had more power and the feds had less. Now the federal government has grabbed everything important through the commerce clause and various strings attached money taken via taxation
His Wiki is locked - how collaborative is this? (Score:2)
However, on page after page after page, I continually received "this page is locked" warnings. I still e-mailed Pete, but even so
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How Do I Edit?
All are welcome to contribute to this Wiki. However, due to our inability to properly staff against vandalism, there is a registration process involved.
1. Register an account.
2. Respond to the registration email sent to your email address.
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2. ???
3. Profit!
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Understatement (Score:3, Funny)
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He already lost my vote (Score:2)
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good point (Score:2)
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I'm not trying to argue -- I'm genuinely interested in further support of your opinion. (Very un-Slashdot-like, eh?)
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Very true. Next time, try inserting the words "Crook" and "Traitor" instead of "Democrat" and "Republican". I think you'll find they're pretty much interchangeable at this point.
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You can call them all ignorant.
Reform? Try repeal. (Score:2)
Interesting... (Score:2)
Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)
An upset isnt gonna happen here... (Score:2)
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Democracy etc (Score:2)
Democracy's all very well and good, but it's often at odds with the idea of limited government, which (I would say) is the primary attribute of the great experiment of this country.
One doesn't hear much about it these days, from either party.
What's your take on reducing the role of the federal government in general? (I'm not in Utah, so you're under no obligation to answer. :-)
Re:Democracy etc (Score:4, Informative)
Education is one area where "No Child Left Behind" has put big government into the smallest classroom. In most cases regarding local issues, the feds should be cutting checks to local governments then getting out of the way. In non-interstate issues, the locals can always do it cheaper, better, and quicker than the feds.
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If I lived in Utah and not Australia, I would vote for this guy in a heartbeat (and not just because he posts to Slashdot, I actually aggree with the things he says).
Now if only we could find someone in australia willing to do the same (such as favoring the little guy instead of the big multinational, giving the iraqi people a say in who should control their country etc)
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Maybe that person using your keyboard?
what a campaign issue! (Score:2)
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Maybe your totem pole, but there's a huge chunk of our population that cares about gay marriage, one way or the other. I'm not among either group, but I know they exist, and many are single-issue about it.
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If you do not think gay marriage is an important issue to people, talk to some Republican strategists. Many of them were crediting the gay marriage issue almost single-handedly for galvanizing their base to go vote, and winning them the 2004 election. Do you think it was accidental that Bush tried to push a gay marriage ban through as a Constitutional amendment--doomed to fail--just before the election?
Just wond'ring... (Score:3, Insightful)
Is that good or bad? I.e., what is the writer's notion of what makes a 'conservative' position on those policies? (Is protecting fair use conservative or progressive?)
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All together now (Score:3, Funny)
Ashdown hopes to help pave the way for better decision-making on the Hill
You're new here, aren't you.
Sincerely,
Washington
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Small correction. (Score:2)
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His photographer should be shot (Score:3, Funny)
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Unclear Platform (Score:2)
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Find me another candidate anywhere who has as many stands on their web page or has openly discussed over 40 in some online form like I have on my Wiki.
Latin? (Score:2)
Why Latin? I could understand "I believe learning a second language is essential" and maybe even "learning a highly inflected language", but what is educationally magical about Latin?
(Not that I personally have anything against Latin.)
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Dumbocracy (Score:3)
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As far as I've seen, both parties seem to be tripping over themselves trying to legislate more and more restrictions. Democrats should be telling the content providers to "fuck off" and give th power to the people. Republicans should be getting the god damned government out of my living room and letting me do whatever I damned well please with my shit.
Personally, I think it's all Benjamin Franklin's fault. If it weren't for guys in s
Make your LAN party a write-your-Congressman party (Score:2)
Have everybody put the issue in their own words, don't go overboard defining "talking points". Be more polite than you would on Slashdot.
If the congressional staff is working at all, your letters will be counted, and a sudden jump
Re:Make your LAN party a write-your-Congressman pa (Score:2)
However, as a geek and Utah resident, I have to say I really don't think Hatch would listen on 'digital privacy' issues regardless of the format of the letter.
I'd rather have a loony liberal junior Senator than Hatch - issues don't matter any more. No junior Senator could do as much damage to this nation as Hatch is/will. Digital rights etc. are just a small part of that.
Re:maybe he should think a little more about the w (Score:2)
Re:maybe he should think a little more about the w (Score:2)
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Re:Unfortunately (Score:4, Informative)
Not Me, Man (Score:2)
My regime would ban all organized religion except for a state mandated one based on Smurfs. No one ever died in a war over Smurfs. Doing so would be un-smurfy. Unsmurfy behavior would be punishable by law (Generally, impaling.)
My regime would require a license to breed. If you need one to buy a gun and you need one to drive a car you damn well should need one to have a child. See also: Mandatory reversable sterilizati
A big reason Matheson was elected (Score:2)
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Yeah right, I doubt many in the linux community are that ignorant. Hatch doesn't have a twisted understanding of technology, he has NO understanding of technology. Hatch is a mere puppet of the real trouble makers, MPAA, RIAA, BSA, and hey, don't they all come from the west coast, Cal