February 2012
4 posts
On reading books in the eReader era
UPDATE #2: (Wonderfully) Byliner has decided to remove DRM from the book. If you get it after tomorrow, it should be DRM free.
UPDATE: A print on demand version of the book will be available Monday. Thanks to Byliner for working quickly with Blurb to make this happen.
My book, One Way Forward: The Outsiders Guide to Fixing the Republic, was published Tuesday by Byliner. The book is an ebook. I...
"Money is not speech"
I’m a critic of Citizens United. I’m a supporter of an amendment to reverse it (among other things). I’m even (sort of) a supporter of an amendment to declare “corporations are not persons.” But I am not a supporter of any amendment that purports to declare “Money is not speech.”
My former dean, Geof Stone, explains why in this piece in the Huffington...
"Campaign Contributions buy results in Congress"
I’ve referred a number of times to a survey that the Global Strategy Group did for us last year about the public’s perception of the role of money in politics. Seventy-five percent affirm that “campaign contributions buy results in Congress.” Here are the highlights of that survey. Here are the crosstabs.
The Article in Handelsblatt
I wrote a short reply piece to an essay by the German politician Ansgar Heveling about the SOPA/PIPA war. I hadn’t realized they would translate the piece. Here is the original.
The original version of this referred to Heveling as a “minister.” That was a misunderstanding of mine about the convention for referring to a member of the Parliament. Turns out that misunderstanding...
January 2012
3 posts
“I feel confident that sooner rather than later, the American people will come to...”
– Andrew Sullivan’s latest, a couple paragraphs after he calls liberals “deluded.”
Yet I remain less interested in us finishing what we started, and more interested in Obama beginning what he has yet to start. Or better, still less interested. From the Nation, two years ago:
Yet...
1 tag
An (Elihu) Root-striker
I’ve been pushing the Henry David Thoreau inspired vision of “rootstrikers”:
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Maggie McKinley reminds me of the other rootstriker inspiration — one pointed to by the Supreme Court in their McConnell v. FEC decision:
More than a century ago the “sober-minded Elihu Root”...
December 2011
8 posts
Credit Reports
So under the FACT Act, you get a free credit report each year from each of the major credit rating agencies. At AnnualCreditReport.Com you enter basic info, and then it gives you a link to each agency to get your report.
Cool. Except…
To verify identity, the report asks you a series of questions about things supposedly only you would know. And it also asks you things you don’t even...
The Grant and Franklin Project
In Republic, Lost and in the New York Times, I have described a version of small dollar funded elections that I have called “The Grant and Franklin Project.” Here’s a brief statement of the plan.
Assumption: Every voter pays at least $50 to the Federal Treasury in the form of taxes of some kind (income, payroll, etc.) (see, e.g., this JTC report).
The Plan:
The first $50 of...
A modification to the Proposed 28th Amendment
Consistent with the brilliant call by Rootstrikers.org, I have modified Publius’ proposed 28th Amendment to assure that at least the First Amendment would not be construed to grant to any non-natural person (i.e., a corporation) any “unalienable” (as the Declaration puts it) rights. The added text in ¶2 is as follows:
Nor shall the First Amendment be construed to vest in any...
WatchPart two of my interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
WatchPart one of my interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Notes on the Proposed 28th Amendment
The Amendment that Publius proposed has some thought behind it, not all of which is apparent on the surface. Here are some notes, tied to each paragraph.
For the purpose of securing the independence of the legislative and executive branches, Congress shall:
Preambles haven’t had much success in our constitutional tradition (see, for example, the Court’s complete failure to pay...
Proposed 28th Amendment beta v.9
I hear that Publius submitted this to Dylan Ratigan’s Great 28 Debate: (slight but important edits inspired by fantastic feedback from souls from #occupyDC) : 12/15/11) (for version history, see the protected version of this at the lessig-wiki).
For the purpose of securing the independence of the legislative and executive branches, Congress shall: (1) fund federal elections publicly,...
November 2011
13 posts
Hey App Stores, why isn't this obvious?
I’ve got three kids — two boys (8 and 5), and a girl (2). We regulate their access to technology (not sure why, or how best, but we try). And we want to find excellent Apps (in both Chrome and for iPad/Pods), appropriate to their ages.
So why isn’t it easy to filter based on age? It isn’t helpful to be told that there are tens of thousands of “education” apps. Why...
Dear Candidate for Congress ...
Thanks for your call, which I am sorry I was not able to accept. But after many too many contributions to candidates for Congress, I have adopted an absolute rule:
I will not consider making a contribution to your campaign for Congress unless you commit absolutely and prominently to support reforms to end the corrupting influence of money in Congress.
“Absolutely and prominently”...
Is there such a thing as a portable database?
I’m looking for an app that will take a bunch of files (ideally, html), index them, and then produce a cross-platform stand-alone database app, so I could distribute all the files and the app on a thumb drive, and someone could use it to search on the files. (And don’t ask why. It’s TOP SECRET.)
Is there such a thing? Kind of redundant with OS functionality, I realize, but the...
Signed books anyone?
So I’ve gotten a bunch of requests from people for signed copies of my books. (Seriously, like at least 14 million so far and counting). At first it seemed like a cumbersome thing to arrange, but we’ve figured out a relatively simple way to do this.
Here it is: If you’d like a signed copy of any of my books (but I’m hoping, especially, my new book, Republic, Lost: How...
Americans Elect
The world is underestimating the potential potential of Americans Elect. This project is building a virtual delegate base that will then select a presidential candidate who, I bet, will (because of the extraordinary work of the organization) be on every single state ballot.
There is real potential here. They are beginning to surface reform issues better — not perfectly, but better. And this could...
2 tags
WatchThis was a very fun interview with Brian Lamb on C-Span.
lazenby asked: Please tell me if you find it.
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
Me, MIA?: On the SOPA soap opera
So it’s flattering to be missed, @JeffRoberts. Thank you for that. You’re right, I am not at the center of the SOPA fight (though obviously a strong supporter). Here’s a couple sentences why.
First, and again, this is a critical battle to wage and win. SOPA is just the latest, but in many ways, the most absurd campaign in the endless saga of America’s copyright wars. It...
Ok, so f*ck it. I'm back.
Twenty-seven months ago, I announced the hibernation of my blog. It is with deep deep embarrassment that I confess that for about the last 24 of those 27 months, I have been trying to find a way back. The latest of these efforts has again failed, but I am not going to wait any more. I want a blog again. Someday I may get it back in a form and style that I like. Meanwhile, I will use the magic here...