The Inquisitr » Politics

Illegal Alien Halloween costume: funny or mean?

Kim LaCapria — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:31:21 +0000

A new costume trend this year has some amused and some disgusted and calling racism.

To me it looked like a (somewhat not very clever) play on words. The obviously extraterrestrial alien is wearing an orange jumpsuit and border fences are irrelevant, because homeboy’s from outer space. Hardy har har. But many people are offended by the statement- I’m just not very sure there actually is a statement.

The only reviews for the costume on Amazon are somewhat unfavorable:

I had to see it for myself to believe that Amazon would support this blatantly racist COSTUME! Not only does it perpetuate xenophobic attitudes and judgments, it makes fun of such a sensitive issue in our IGNORANT country. SHAME on Amazon and I for one will be the first in line to boycott any future purchases from them. There’s a bunch of sick people out there with NO IMAGINATION, that’s for sure!!!

I am so disappointed in your business for selling such a racist, anti-immigrant, inhumane costume. This country has a serious problem with the level of discrimination and outright hatred expressed toward people who are in this country as economic refugees and exploited laborers. This costume is an example of the ignorance of so many. You should be ashamed, and people should boycott all corporations that promote this ridiculous costume.

So what do you think? Is this a harmless joke or a sad reflection on the way Americans view immigration? Granted, I can absolutely see a lot of anti-immigration types finding it funny in an offensive way, but I don’t think the nature of the costume itself is mean-spirited.

Wilson wasn’t the only one to diss the President during his speech

Steven Hodson — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:45:00 +0000

There has been a lot of furor over the insult shown to President Obama during his speech to Congress by Rep Joe Wilson’s outburst calling the president a liar during the speech.

However he wasn’t the only Republican to show disrespect to the president during the speech. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) walked out while Obama was giving his speech.

"Congressman Shimkus was frustrated that the president was not offering any new ground and left with just minutes remaining in the speech," spokesman Steven Tomaszewski said Thursday in response to a query from the Tribune.

I guess he’s kind of lucky that Wilson decided to open his mouth the way he did or people might be talking about Shimkus the same way.

Ashleigh Kenny sparks controversy over t-shirt

Duncan Riley — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:25:15 +0000

Meet Ashleigh Kenny, a Georgia College student that has sparked a debate in the United States over a slogan on a t-shirt.

The t-shirt, presented by Ashleigh to Rep. Jack Kingston, reads “R.I.P. The U.S. Constitution” on the front, and “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” on the back.

“Our government is getting too big. How big can be debated, but the truth is, the government is bigger than the people. Therefore, the constitution is under attack. No matter which way you look at it, it is” Ashleigh Kenny told local media.

Kenny has (naturally) polarized political blogs; left wing blogs are calling her a fringe activist, vs many on the right holding her up a a champion for the cause. A local TV report as follows:

Politics 101

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Because accidental gay poses are not just for footballers anymore.

[PunditKitchen]

How to Really Celebrate Independence Day

Kyle Brady — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:00:59 +0000

July 4th, also known as Independence Day in America, was this past Saturday, resulting in large quantities of grilled foods, fireworks, and alcohol consumption, much to the chagrin of history buffs and hardcore patriots. But most of the country missed a key component of the weekend: truly celebrating Independence Day. How do you really celebrate Independence Day?

Politics.

I’m not talking about politics at the local level, or even the state level, but politics in the national and international arenas that should be the focus of attention on July 4th. Most Americans are too self-absorbed and/or ignorant to know how good we truly have it – even if you don’t like our President, you think some of our laws are unjust, or you’re incarcerated, you’re still pretty well off. Americans as a people enjoy many freedoms that citizens of countries around the world will never have, and the day that is meant to evoke such reflections has turned into a bloated festival of food, booze, and shenanigans.

China imposes many restrictions on its citizens, not the least of which is internet censorship. Honduras, a South American country, is shadow-controlled by the military and staged a coup against the President. Many Mexicans live in fear of the continuing drug war violence. England is quickly becoming a high-surveillance, low public freedoms police state. Not to mention all the problems of Africa, India, the Middle East…

Yet many Americans don’t realize that our freedoms are so great, so large as to allow us to heavily criticize our own government, move freely throughout the country, or have “basic” services provided to us relatively cheaply and unaffected by government hands. We aren’t jailed for gathering in public groups or persecuted based on where within the United States we were born. We have running water, mostly-stable electricity, computers, cars, gadgets, and much more that large portions of the world will only ever dream of.

Rather than being concerned with how much wealth can be acquired (an activity that has largely resulted in widespread disaster as a country), American citizens should instead occasionally remember that we started out as a group of mostly-English exiles who were looking for something better. We should remember that our country was formed based on ideas of freedoms across-the-board, self governance, and a better life. We should remember that no matter how vitriolic the political rhetoric becomes, we are a single nation of free people seeking to hopefully achieve what is best for ourselves, the future, and the rest of the world.

Life is about much more than the latest episode of a TV program or stalking celebrities – attention needs to be given to the critical issues at hand, and consideration given to the proper place of the general public’s obsessions. This is why the way to truly celebrate the American Day of Independence, on July 4th, is to read, consider, and discuss politics. Real political issues, not merely the party favorite one-liners of menial consequence.

The Founding Fathers would be ashamed of Average John Q. Public today, so it is fitting on a day in memory of them that the public attention wanders across the plains of political enlightenment.

President Obama, it seems, understands this.

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction. He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

The BEST Twitter-Iran cartoon yet

Steven Hodson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:11:42 +0000

As Twitter gets proclaimed as the CNN of social media news reporting there are some things right now that old media does very well and one of those things is the political/social commentary cartoons. This one has to be among the best that I have seen yet for Twitter and the upheaval going on in Iran.

I ran across this via My Modern Metropolis – thanks guys.

Tech and Politics – a changing landscape

Steven Hodson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:14:46 +0000

Which ever way we turn we are seeing the hand of technology and the Web effecting change in ways we might not have considered even five years ago. Communities are being built on Facebook that have been responsible for both corporate and government policies. News as it is happening is coming at us as fast as Twitter or Friendfeed can get it to us – usually within seconds of it being written.

Technology is returning the power of information to the people rather than consolidated corporations, of government agencies is some restrictive countries, who have for many years claimed sole ownership. We are seeing a world where technology and the human based power of the Web are saying that we have a voice in how, where and when we chose to get our news and information.

Out on the fringes though we are seeing the beginnings of yet another change, and maybe an ever more powerful one. What we are seeing is a shift in the politics of government, not just in policies but in who is taking part in making those policies in the first place.

As with all major groundswells of change this one was laughed of as being just a silly idea that would go nowhere. Then the Swedish Pirate Party won 2 (second one will come after the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified) seats in the European Parliament, which for a party that was only found a short three years ago, 2006, is pretty incredible.

Now we see that Switzerland will also be fielding a Pirate Party (Parti Pirate Suisse) of their own in an upcoming election. These two countries are not alone as there are affiliate parties popping up all around the world.

Don’t mistake this just as a bunch of young rabble rousers looking to shake up their countries politics just so they can change the laws and keep getting copyrighted goods for free. At its root this “Pirate Party” movement is more about the equality of technology for everyone. It is about telling the old guard that technology is just the money making plaything of the rich and powerful in order to maintain their grip on that money and power.

As Rick Falkvinge, Sweden’s leader of the country’s Pirate Party, said when asked about the win

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

Source: Torrent Freak

We have a generation of young people very quickly coming up to the age where people start thinking about becoming politically active. These young people aren’t just happy with sticking with the old way of doing things, they want to make changes to how their world is governed and their place in that world.

Previously to the incredible rise of the Web and now Social Media it was difficult to become involved and actually see changes being made within one’s lifetime. Now though this is no longer the case. An example of this is that the Pirate Party has been active for less time that the Green Party (those government parties based around environmental issues) and yet has achieved more. In Sweden alone the party was responsible for an increase in voter turnout – something that no other party can claim.

The turnout at the elections is 43 percent, a little higher than the at the 2004 elections. This would mean that roughly 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party. This is a huge increase compared to the national elections of 2006 where the party got 34,918 votes.

Source: Torrent Freak

Just as the world of old media has, and continues to, change so will our governments. As our use of technology and everything Web related becomes more ingrained in our society the bigger the chance of the way we are governed. As our children grow and discover the power that they really have over their place in society and the growing power of their voices because of technology and the Web the bigger the change will be.

I would wager that even as soon as ten years from now a technology based government powered by the voices of our children will be more of the norm rather than just a one off called the Pirate Party. We’ll see who will be doing the laughing then.

[a big hat tip to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing]

Move over, Sarah Palin- Jon Voight woos GOP at shindig

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:47:59 +0000

Jon Voight emceed a fundraising dinner for the Republican House and Senate last night, eliciting GOP nods of approval for a series of biting critiques aimed at what he called the “Obama oppression.”

Republicans raised $14.5m at the dinner, to be split evenly between Congress and the Senate. Speakers at the dinner called GOP members to action to win back some legislative control in next year’s mid-term elections. Ever champions of the middle class, Republican Sen. Minority Leader John Boehner warned of plans by the ruling Dems “to bury our children and the middle class under a mountain of debt.” This statement was delivered non-ironically by the party who brought us the money-draining Iraq quagmire, on the credit card.

Keynote speaker Newt Gingrich was initially overshadowed by Sarah Palin’s diva-ish will she/won’t she (appear or speak) drama. Gingrich illicited praise and agreement for his sharp critique of Obama, claiming that the Commander in Chief “uses his rhetorical skills to hide from fundamental facts.”

Voight gave voice to Republicans who have felt disenfranchised in the grueling four months since the start of the new Democratic regime. Voight called President Obama a “false prophet” and warned that America was becoming a “weak nation.”

Voight gave the party hope for November 2010, in a few simple words- ”Do not tell me it cannot be done.”

No related posts.

Finding your tweeting US politicians in Congress

Steven Hodson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:47:23 +0000

Just about like everyone else these days more and more folks in Congress are hopping on the Twitter bandwagon. Now you could try and find out if your representative has hitched themselves to the Twitter Bird’s feathers or you could head over to Tweet Congress.

If you do the latter then it will be a simple matter of providing your zip code to find out who your representative is and if they are on Twitter. If they are you can then join them and if not you can sign a petition at Tweet Congress to encourage them to do so.

[hat tip to Treehugger]

Obama footing the bill for private residence make-over

Steven Hodson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:45:36 +0000

With every new president that comes into office there is the typical out with the old and in with the new and the private residence of the presidential family is no different. To help with this renovation the new president is allotted $100,000 to overhaul the Oval Office as well as the White House residence. As well they are allowed to accept donations of goods to help with the make-over.

The Obama’s have decided that in this time where people are having a hard time holding on to their homes, let alone renovate them that they will be absorbing the cost of the renovations rather than accepting money from the public purse. As well they will not be using any money from the White House Historical Association, a privately funded foundation who recently paid $74,000 for a set of china that Laura Bush ordered before leaving the White House.

Now mind you a family with a reported income of over $4 million probably won’t have too hard of a time paying the bills. That is as long as they don’t let Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith; who Michelle Obama has hired to to do the renovation, go too overboard.

[picture courtesy of Apartment Therapy / hat tip to New York Magazine]

Putting politicians back into the mould

Steven Hodson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:56:17 +0000

How does a journalist show to the world that they just don’t understand the Internet and Social Media?

Well if you are a Times journalist by the name of Rachel Sylvester you would talk about Twitter and use terms like Dad-on-the-dance-floor and quote a psychologist who suggests that Twitter users have no identity. Ms. Sylvester’s article while filled with the requisite anti-Twitter catch phrase only shows just how out of phase some people are with it comes to things like Twitter.

Now before you go thinking that another hard core social media maven is jumping to the defence of Twitter let me assure you I am not. Twitter is a handy communication tool but it is not the end all be all that many would like the world to believe. If it disappeared tomorrow there would be a lot of gnashing of the teeth but in a very short space of time something would come along to fill that vacuum. Twitter is just the pretty face; and occasional fail whale, of a mass communication platform that could be implemented by anyone if the need was there.

This is the part that Ms. Sylvester doesn’t get – the communication platform that let’s people reach out in real-time to other people. For politicians the world round one of their biggest problems – and for the most part a self-made one – is that the people who elect them have no connection with them past the election day ballot. That might have been acceptable for my generation; and most definitely our parents generation, but those times are gone. We are know seeing the rise of generations where accountability is a keyword as well as the desire to know that the people we elect to office understand that it is because of us that they are there in the first place.

A 140 characters might seem like nothing in the larger scheme of things but to generations where PR spin was a practiced art, the chance to have people we put into positions of power literally a shout away is pretty powerful. Look politicians are pretty astute people; or they wouldn’t have gotten where they are, and they know the voter landscape is changing and in some ways changing really quickly. While this type of open and human politics will be gamed by some there are those who do understand and for them what they are doing is as Neil Williams says a brave thing to be doing.

In this case the genie is out of the bottle and if the truth be known I have a lot more respect for politicians who uses these new tools the way they are meant to be used than I do for journalists like Rachel Sylvester. With every sentence in her article she shows the world just how myopic and backward thinking some people are. Of course it is easy to write a fluff piece slamming something you haven’t even taken the time to understand. At the same time it also shows the very thinking that is torpedoing the newspaper industry.

Oh and as for the psychologist, Oliver James, she quoted as saying

“Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”

I would dare you to say that to the faces of people like Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Robert Scoble, Stowe Boyd …. I could go on for another whole page listing people who could prove that most idiotic statement as being patently false. So I would in turn suggest to Mr. James that he head back to his closet of psychotropic drugs because he is obviously living in a fantasy world.

Twitter might not be changing the world but what it is doing is giving the people using it a way to maintain a form of contact with the people that they elect to political office. It might not seem like much but it is one more way to make sure that the politicians know that they are being held accountable for what they do. That genie is out of the bottle and nothing is going to put it back – not even stupid articles like the one Ms. Sylvester wrote.

One less U.S. State Department translator has a job now

Steven Hodson — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:34:18 +0000

It is always a good idea when trying to give someone who speaks a different language a cute little gift that has a saying in their language on it that you get the translation correct. It is especially important when you are dealing with international politics and how touchy politicians can be over something said incorrectly.

However it seems that someone in the U.S. State Department forgot to double check a recently translation that was used to engrave a special little gift Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: ‘We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together,’" Clinton said, presenting Lavrov with the red button.

What the foreign minister got, however, was a button that said "peregruzka," which translates into Russian as "overcharge" or "overload" (depending on the context). Oops…

"You got it wrong," Lavrov teased Clinton, but said he would put it on his desk anyway.

Source: ABC News – Political Radar Blog

As Zoli Erdos suggested on his blog maybe next time instead of using a human translator they just farm it out to Google Translate

[Clinton/Lavrov picture courtesy of ABC News / Google Translate graphic courtesy of Zoli Erdos]

OMG! Obama hypnotized us all into voting for him

Steven Hodson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:41:40 +0000

Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches

Sorry .. just couldn’t resist

No related posts.

National CTO a Good Idea But Please God Not Schmidt

Steven Hodson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:20:11 +0000

On our road forward technology has to be one of the most important cornerstones that we want to build any future society that for the first time could bring quality in participation of governing our country. The unfortunate part of this is that the US has been on a backslide for some time now to the point that it ranks 15th among all industrial nations for broadband penetration and it is still going down further. Already China is on the verge of surpassing the US; and just about all of the rest of the broadband countries combined, in people accessing the web at speeds on par or better than what we currently brag about.

Never before have we seen such a miss-mash of policies and directions on the road forward being dictated by corporations who actually control the very access to the Internet. Where once the US was the shining beacon of incredible innovations, unlimited access and capless downloading we are now seeing these corporate gatekeepers instituting data and speed caps with less money being spent on improving our Internet infrastructure than any other developed; and in some case underdeveloped, countries.

Into this confusing and corporate controlled Internet landscape Barack Obama is suggesting that if he is elected as the President of the United States one of the first things he will do is create a National Chief Technology Officer (CTO) that would be a cabinet level position and who would be there to advise the President on all things to do with technology. While McCain hasn’t jumped on board with the same idea the possibility of there being someone at the cabinet level who can influence the country’s technological future is making some people rather nervous.

Before going any further it is important that we understand exactly what a CTO is and what their typical duties are. Whether this would hold true given the influence such a person would have on a governmental level it is still important to have some background info. From the Wikipedia entry for Chief Technical Officer (CTO) we get the following explanation

A chief technical officer or chief technology officer (abbreviated as CTO) is an executive position whose holder is focused on scientific and technical issues within an organization. Often, the CTO will oversee technical staff at a company, particularly those building products or creating services that embody industry-specific technologies. In some cases the CTO will also oversee the work of the research and development organizations. There is currently no commonly shared definition of the CTO position or that person’s responsibilities. Young start-ups typically have a set of technically hands-on tasks for the CTO, while an international conglomerate may need the CTO to deal with the representatives of foreign governments and industry organizations

Again according to Wikipedia a CTO’s responsibilities are something like this

In practice, the CTO can have many more responsibilities than managing a portfolio of R&D or production projects. This person may report to the CEO and provide a technical voice in the strategic planning for a company. CTOs like Greg Papadopoulos at Sun Microsystems and Padmasree Warrior formerly at Motorola work closely with the CEO to help determine what types of products or services the company should focus on.

Now much of the talk currently about a National CTO is how that person would be tasked with developing a comprehensive plan for nationwide broadband access and if that is the case then I find myself much in agreement with Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins. In a post today on Mashable Mark questioned the idea behind needing a national CTO

So how much, exactly, got collected into the Universal Service Fund, and what did we get for that? An excellent question; one that Jeff Pulver’s guest blogger Daniel Berninger asked in the summer of 2006. You can read the whole answer over there, but the short version is not much (single digit increases in basic service penetration, and overall double-digit per customer increases in consumer costs).

Bringing this back around to the whole CTO thing…

This is what we want a CTO for? So that he or she can empower the major telcos to take and squander more of our money? This is the definition of intelligent change and hope?

In effect we already have the pieces in place; and have had for years, needed to fund a broadband plan that could make the United States the envy of the world when it comes to ubiquitous broadband access. However no amount of cajoling or threatening by our current political machinery has made even a single telco to live up to the obligations that they were required to fulfill. To think that having a national CTO would make any difference in this one specific area is stupid and extremely shortsighted.

Now on the other hand if an Obama led White House is serious about changing the rules of the game and truly interested in moving the country forward by laying a good rock solid foundation for a complete technology policy then yes I believe that having a national CTO is a good idea. However, like all good ideas this one is fraught with problems with the most obvious being who would be the person to take up this position.

Already names are being floated around with names like Eric Schmidt (Google), Vint Cerf (Google), Steve Ballmer (Microsoft), Jeffret Bezos (Amazon) along with Ed Felton and Larry Lessig. With the exception of one of those names the very possibility of people like Schmidt, Ballmer or Bezos would be enough to kill the new CTO position before it even got off the ground. The fact is that anyone looking to fill this ultimate CTO position should not have any association whatsoever with any tech related company as it would immediately call into question any decisions they make.

This is a position that in reality could be one of the most important cabinet position created in a very long time as it could have enormous impact on our country moving forward and whoever is in charge must be above reproach. And don’t give me that bit about how elected officials have to place all their stock holdings and business dealing in a blind trust. We have see how that has worked in the past an even now with people like Chaney you can bet because of his association with Halliburton that he doesn’t have a nice retirement fund waiting for him and / or a snazzy new position will open up for him the day he leaves offices.

The idea of a national CTO is a good one given that it isn’t just narrowly focused on enhancing telco profit margins by more boondoggle programs like the ones we have had in the past. Having soething like a national CTO executive could be a great thing as long as it was an all encompassing plan from the ground up with making easy and ubiquitous access for all people the cornerstone that the new infrastructure is built on.

Google In Quotes and Our Million Dollar Idea

JR — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:29:07 +0000

Google’s come up with a handy new tool to help you weigh various political figures’ stances (or at least what they’ve said in the media) on a variety of hot button topics. Google In Quotes pulls the latest direct quotes from news publications on any topic you want, for most any candidate you want. We’ve come up with our own million dollar idea for the technology — but first, a little about Google’s offering.

The default In Quotes choices, not surprisingly, are John McCain and Barack Obama. You can switch out with anyone from George Bush to Bill or Hillary Clinton, even Condoleeza Rice and Nancy Pelosi. And it’s not just limited to the U.S., either — a top-of-screen option lets you toggle over to an edition featuring British, Canadian, or Indian leaders.

In Quotes has a handful of obvious issues that you can click on — abortion, economy, health care — but it also lets you specify your own terms. You can then scroll through the list of quotes or hit the “spin” button to get a random one selected.

The site is a fun way to sift through political coverage specific to topics and candidates of your choosing. It doesn’t, of course, provide you a full spectrum of any person’s views, since you’re seeing only selected snippets from individual stories. A service such as The Boston Channel’s candidate comparison tool does a more all-encompassing job of laying out the candidates’ overall stances issue-by-issue (at least for the U.S. presidential campaign). As long as you use In Quotes with the understanding of what it can and cannot do, though, it’s an interesting tool that adds another layer to the political news experience.

Now, for our idea. The foundation is there. Next, we’d like to see the In Quotes Blogger Edition. Take the same concept, but switch out the players and the topics.

Just imagine the fun side-by-side comparisons could you drum up:

Here’s hoping Google decides to open source the code.

VP Hopefuls Call Senator Obama

Duncan Riley — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:14:18 +0000

Barley Political takes on VP season with the same zeal as it did with Obama Girl. Stick with the video, it improves as it goes along.