75368883
submission
Funksaw writes:
New York – Wikipedia founder and Internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales is the new Committee Chairman for Larry Lessig’s campaign to be the Democratic nominee for President.
“Larry’s run for President is different,” said Wales, who founded the free-access, free-content encyclopedia in the early 2000s. “He’s crowdfunding his campaign instead of seeking out rich donors. He’s showing people that we can change the rigged political system.”
Both long-time supporters of Internet freedom, Wales and Lessig have stood side by side on previous issues, most notably in opposing the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2012. Wales’ day-long Wikipedia blackout protesting SOPA influenced other major Internet players to follow suit and is credited with helping to sink the legislation.
74450521
submission
Funksaw writes:
An article in "Equal Citizens," Lawrence Lessig's Medium-based blog dealing with issues of institutional corruption in democratic politics, explains why, specifically, the reform movement needs (more) people with technical minds and technical skills.
FTA: "What we need are more people willing to look at the laws of this country based on their function. And when I use the word “function,” I mean very specifically the same sense that a computer programmer means it. (Because lord knows, government isn’t functioning by any other definition.)...
It’s not just that big money politics is being injected [like a code injection] into the function of democracy. It’s also that the function of democracy can be warped by an injection. Stopping the injection of money into our democratic function still leaves the function vulnerable to the same—or similar—injection attack.... We need people who can solve the problems of politics like a programmer solves problems in computer code, because a democratic system with vulnerabilities is a democratic system that can fail or be made to fail."
The article was authored by the technical adviser to the New Hampshire Rebellion and Mayday.US, two of Lessig's major reform projects.
61338595
submission
Funksaw writes:
Steve Wozniak, co-found of Apple computer, has come out to endorse Lawrence Lessig's MAYDAY PAC in an animated audio recording.
Mayday.US, formerly "MayOne.US," is Lessig's crowd-funded (citizen-funded!), kick-started Super PAC to end all Super PACs.
In the video, Wozniak points out that we're never going to get anywhere on issues important to the Internet community and technology advocates if we don't fix the root cause of corruption. The video can be found at the Mayday PAC's new landing page, "theInternetHasASuperPAC.com"
50932811
submission
Funksaw writes:
An Op-Ed by first-time politician, long-time Slashdotter Brian Boyko, where he talks about his experiences testifying at the Texas Board of Education in favor of actually having real science in science textbooks. But beyond that, he also tries to examine, philosophically, why there is such hardened resistance to the idea of evolution in Texas.
From the article:
[W]hat is true is that evolution tests faith. The fact of evolution is incontrovertible and supported by mounds of empirical evidence. Faith, on the other hand, is fragile. It is supported only by the strength of human will. And this is where it gets tricky. Because to many believers, faith, not works, is the only guarantee that one can pass God’s litmus test and gain access to His divine kingdom. To lose one’s faith is to literally damn oneself. So tests to that faith must be avoided at all costs. Better to be a philosophical coward than a theological failure.
50493603
submission
Funksaw writes:
In a political op-ed on his blog, long time Slashdot reader and contributor Brian Boyko (the guy who did that animated Windows 8 video) — now a candidate for state representative — explains how lobbyists from car dealerships successfully banned Tesla Motors from selling cars in Texas.
From the Article:
Tesla Motors doesn't just present a case study of why a lack of campaign finance reform blocks meaningful reform on the issues that Democrats care about, like climate change and health care. A lack of campaign finance reform blocks reforms on both the Left and the Right.
Here’s the big elephant in the room I'd like to point out to all the “elephants” in the room: With a Republican-controlled legislature, a Republican executive, and many conservatives in our judiciary, why the hell don’t we have free markets in Texas? Isn't it the very core of economic-conservative theory that the invisible hand of the free market determines who gets what resources? Doesn't the free market have the ability to direct resources to where they can most efficiently be used?
I’m not saying the conservatives are right in these assumptions; but I am saying that our broken campaign finance system makes a mockery of them.
