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Experiences w/ Tech-Savvy Politicians? 109

Posted by Cliff from the which-ones-get-it dept.
leperjuice asks: "I recently had the pleasure of speaking with John Podesta (Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, now a visiting professor at Georgetown ) about tech issues and was pleasantly surprised: not only did he know of the DeCSS case but he knew of Jon Johansen and actually quoted an interview with him. This got me thinking; which politicos out there actually understand tech issues (rather than just have a staffer who occasionally reads Wired)? Which ones don't? What have been your experiences?"
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Experiences w/ Tech-Savvy Politicians? More

Experiences w/ Tech-Savvy Politicians?

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  • NC Senator Eric Reeves (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've had the pleasure of working some with Senator Eric Reeves, of the North Carolina General Assembly, who is quite up on things technically, especially when it comes to education and public schools and whatnot.

    Although he's only in North Carolina's General Assembly at this point, the techies are very glad to have him.

    BTW, his website is here [state.nc.us], or at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/sena te/senator.pl?nUserID=15 for those of you that don't use a real browser (real browsers show you the URL when hovering over the link).

  • Gore "got it" anyway (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You know, I had the pleasure, being from Tenn. to interact with Gore on several occasions when I was younger. Granted this was the primordial days of what we call the Internet now, but I think he does understand the good that a true Jeffersonian knowledge network gives to everyone. If you get a chance to visit your dead-tree library, check out his article in the 1984 SciAm special on computers and networks. The problem with all the politico's though, is they have too much vested in the current oligopolies in media, energy and the like. None of them are going to give us the patent/copyright reform we really need.

  • Re:Orrin Hatch (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Anti-RIAA or Anti-Napster?

    click here and listen [mp3.com] to Senators Hatch, Leahy, Feinstein, Schumer and Cantwell at the latest Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and decide for yourself

  • Re:My Experience with Al Gore (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I worked at Thinking Machines when Al Gore spoke there during the first Clinton/Gore election. He was very impressive -- he walked around a floor of workstations running various scientific supercomputing demo applications (air flow over an airplane, molecular modeling, etc.), and at each one a scientist would explain the application, and then Senator Gore would turn around and "translate" for the horde of reporters who were following him. Without having been given notes in advance, he gave detailed talks on (for example) how lift is generated by a wing's curve, and then how supercomputers enable modeling of the flow over a complete airplane, and then how this matters to normal people: airplanes are faster/more efficient, produced at lower cost than building test planes (i.e. american airospace companies are more competitive, thus more US jobs), and saves the lives of test pilots. Repeat for 15-20 demo stations.

    Then he gave a speech on how parallel computing was the future because it distributed processing out with the data, in the same way that localized democracy is more effective than centralized government because it puts decision-making close to the people. And he's a very good speaker in person. And Tipper stayed out of the way...

    Of course, when they showed the coverage on the evening news, (1) he looked wooden, and (2) they only showed trivia such as an instant when he tripped over a cable. It's a shame that TV "news" programs are all abbout entertainment/ratings rather than information.
  • NSA is a DoD agency and has always been one. The standard "place of employment" spiel before they put up the signs along Rt. 295 and admitted the place existed was, "I work for the department of defense at Ft. Meade."

    I don't know about now, but NSA paychecks and direct deposit paystubs used to be written by the Department of Agriculture, which confused many people. This was not because of any nefarious intent, but because USDA had a huge payroll system and did the payroll & checkwriting for a lot of other agencies in the DC area.

    Intelligence people from all agencies who work "openly" outside the U.S. are typically attached to the local U.S. emabassy or consulate and are usually identified as State Department employees (and are often on "temporary duty" with State) so they can claim diplomatic immunity.

    - Robin

  • I think you have the wrong idea about what politicians do. They're not technicians, working out the optimum solutions to problems. They're negotiators (or they're supposed to be), trying to keep parties with often diametrically opposed interests working together and reaching compromises.

    Some expertise in whatever issue is at hand certainly helps, but their main skill is usally people. Hence, you don't usually find a lot of techies in politics.
  • Orrin Hatch has been attacking the Music and Movie industry for one reason and one reason only...

    They predominantly give money to the Democrats.

    Hatch could care less about Napster, or any of the ideals or philosophy of copyright.

    He is only concerned with hurting funding sources for his competition.

    That's it. If the MPAA and RIAA was giving him millions for his campaign, he'd be doing his best to protect the interests of that funding.

    He's like most all politicians... completely transparent.
  • Having discussed his RIAA/Napster stance with Senator Hatch (at a Christian Coalition event, i might add) shortly after his hearings on the matter, i can tell you with absolute certainty that his beef with the record companies and RIAA is the artistic/ethical reasons mentioned above.

    We had a very cordial conversation over coffee and jalepeno poppers where i thanked him for his enlightened stance and his work on the matter. This is when he told me how much he hated how record companies screw with artists and their rights.

    So, VAXman, you're just plain wrong.

    Also, on a side note, Senator Hatch HAS heard of /.
  • Well, searching the site would be a start. [slashdot.org]

    --

  • a reply to all the threads below....

    While most of us may disagree with Hatch's opinions on tech, the fact of the matter is, he has opinions, and they're based on some knowledge of the actual tech involved. Even if he doesn't go the same way we do, at least he knows enough to go some way on his own accord, as opposed to being pulled along with the rest of the House and Senate that have no idea what's going on.

  • Number One reason -- he's a Mormon

    Oh, right. My bad. :)
  • And I don't go around labeling people "religious right" for no good reason, but Orrin Hatch has given me a few good reasons. :)

  • You know why? (Score:3)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @02:29PM (#225182) Homepage
    I've heard that he writes gospel music, and he likes the idea of being able to distribute it sans Mega-Corporations.

    Interesting intersection between the religious right and the hackers, eh?

    At the same time, while I feel that the Right (hell, the Left too) has forsaken the normal citizen for corporate interests, it's interesting to see that when a legislator is directly, adversely affected by a corporate interest, all of a sudden they sing a different tune. So to speak. :)

    I mean, if you told me that Orrin Hatch was on the Napster side of the online music distribution argument, I'd think you were nuts - if I didn't know that he had personal reasons to snub the RIAA.
  • With the way you worded it, you made it sound as if Bush thought having the computer on (and sitting there), did not use as much power as having the computer on AND sending email.


    So what if he did? It's true.

    -
  • Bay Area -- Feinstein, despite being a local hero, is absolutely not a friend to the local tech industry. Time after time, she has sided with law enforcement and hollywood factions against a rational encryption policy, and appears to get most of her money from down south. I have no idea what Boxer is up to, but I take it that she's there because people believe her heart's in the right place.

    The guy who ran against Feinstein, Tom Campbell, (he was too much of a maverick to have any chance of winning) was pretty sharp. Stanford prof and congressman from the SV area, and very up on the anti-trust issues with Microsoft and encryption policy. Too bad he's out of government now. There's various other industry functionaries that have been elected to certain posts, but I would say that's more "chamber of commerce" than "technically saavy".
    --
  • (although Cheney seems to act like a Chief of Staff at times...)
    That's because Cheney was the Chief of Staff for the Ford administration.
  • Gee, never heard that one before.
  • This AntiBasic is making some serious and dubious allegations against Mr. Podesta. He does this without giving us a single reference or link to support his claims.
    And yet, this post has a score of 5, and is rated as informative! You people have a strange idea of what is "information".

    Please think twice before moderating dubious posts in the future!

  • Sens. Russ Feingold D-WI & Pat Leahy D-VT (Score:4)

    by DHartung ( 13689 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @08:15PM (#225188) Homepage
    One politician who deserves to be recognized is Russ Feingold [senate.gov], the idiosyncratic senator from Wisconsin. Best known for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill (and one of the few politicians to refuse PAC money in a campaign for national office), Feingold has also long been one of the few tech-savvy people in a notoriously over-age [senate.gov], anti-tech [wired.com] government body. His finest hour in this regard was the Leahy-Feingold bill to overturn the Communications Decency Act [venona.com], which was left to the courts to litigate; but he's often spoken out on issues near and dear to the EFF, with support for encryption freedoms [cio.com] and online privacy.

    The only Senator who really outstrips him in this area is Patrick Leahy, D-VT, who takes the lead on more tech issues (Feingold often being a co-sponsor), especially since Feingold has put so much effort into the campaign finance issue.

    But especially in those early days around 1995, when hardly anyone really knew what the internet was, Feingold said on the Senate floor [sandwich.net],

    Guaranteeing the Internet is free of speech restrictions, other than the statutory restrictions on obscenity and pornography which already exist, should be of concern to all Americans who want to be able to freely discuss issues of importance to them regardless of whether others might view those statements as offensive or distasteful. Shifting political views about what types of speech are unsuitable should not be allowed to determine what is or is not an appropriate use of electronic communications. While the current target of our political climate is indecent speech (the so-called "seven dirty words"), a weakening of First Amendment protections could lead to the censorship of other crucial types of speech, including religious expression and political dissent. I believe the censorship of the Internet is a perilous road for the Congress to walk down. It sets a dangerous precedent for First Amendment protections and it is unclear where that road will end.

    Very impressive. Remember, this was nineteen-ninety-five, TIME magazine was running cover stories suggesting the internet was some sinister force creeping into our homes, and most people still had to have the word explained to them. In those days [mit.edu], it was difficult to find anyone who would stand up for the rights of internet users, who were seen as a fringe group of suspicious characters, hackers, pornographers, terrorists and worse -- rather than today's view that the internet is a basic utility to be enjoyed by all citizens. Fortunately, shortly after this I attended a Rotary Club meeting where he spoke (we are from the same home town), and in the Q&A time I stood up and let him know that a lot of people online considered him a hero.
    ----
    lake effect [lakefx.nu] weblog
  • (of Sweden in the early 90's), mr Carl Bildt, (later on appointed High Representative of the European Union in during the first time after the Balkan war, currently the chief advisor of UN President Kofi Anan in Balkan matters or something like that)...

    ... had some problems being allowed to use a portable computer in the parliament chamber back in the '80s at the time he was an MP. Not surprisingly, considering the size and weight of "portables" at that time.

    During his time as Swedish Prime Minister, the Swedish Government opened their first version of their website (I can't remember what year, but it was when Lynx and Mosaic were the only browsers available), and his party were very early using BBSes to distribute information throughout the organization.

    He was the first swedish politician to start an on-line diary (an e-mail list), which he has (personally, actually - fairly unusual for such a high-ranking politician) updated once a week ever since '95. It was then written mostly on European airports inbetween flights and uploaded to the net using a GSM cellular phone.

    I remember an interview he attended (with Stina Dabrowski if any Swede out there wonders), where he was asked about his interest for technology, and he claimed that he wasn't a tech nerd, but liked using new technology if it was better than old technology, and he had a positive attidute towards what new technology would be able to do in the future.

    It is claimed in Sweden that he was the first prime minister of the world to communicate using e-mail with the US President - even if I guess it's mostly been used as a PR stunt.

    It's fairly easy to sigh when comparing him with our current minister of communication and infrastructure who just a few years ago stated that "The Internet is just something that will pass by unnoticed and then being forgotten" (swedish: min tolkning av 'internet är bara en fluga').

    /Flu

  • It's easy to say "Get Rid of the Greybeards" when your the young guy. Do you plan on being out of touch with tech when your older? Interesting...because I sure as hell don't.

    This is a really interesting post...I really can't tell if you are serious or just a very slick troll.
  • I'll just drop one acronym: EEFI. Essential Elements of Friendly Information.

    And remind you that when Tom Clancy originally wrote "The Hunt for Red October", Senior Navy people freaked. They figured that he HAD to have somebody who leaked intel to him. You CAN piece a lot of classified data together from unclassified sources, if you know your subject.

    I remember, unpleasantly, the grilling **I** got as a young 2nd Lieutenant, I was briefed on the deployment, ranges and capabilities of and its' fighter aircraft. I flew B-52's at the time. 5 minutes with a map, and I pronounced them not a threat in a WWIII/nuclear secnario ?

    Let's see, max range and max endurance from closest base put them in operations circle "a". We put maximum speed on, and in same time, can operate in maximum circle "b". Circles did not intersect. Hence, no threat. But until I showed them that on paper, I was in big trouble for about 30 minutes. Soon thereafter, I had additional duties in the intelligence shop (g)

  • Ever been to military flight school ? Trust me, idiots wash out FAST. No, I'm not a pilot. I was a USAF navigator, electronic warfare officer, and later a staff officer, before I argued with an ejection seat, and lost...

    Remember your first day in college ?? Remember how the pace seemed like drinking from a fire hose, compared to high school (mind you, this was 22 years ago...). Well, Military Flight School is the same experience, just turned up a few notches. The academic and mental pressure is intense, and on purpose. Yes, nearly anyone with a full set of basic human capacities can pilot a plane. The military needs quite a bit more. Try flying at 450 knots, 300 feet off the ground, in total darkness. Or keeping your situational awareness in a many-on-many furball. And then, delivering weapons onto a 4 foot bullseye. Those are just SOME of the capabilities a military pilot needs to have.

    Pilots redundant ?? They're getting to that point now. In another 20 years, they will be. But we're not talking now, or 20 years ago: we're talking the early 1970s, where man HAD to be in the loop, at the controls.

    And I suspect, the graduates of Wharton, Harvard Business, Stanford Business, etc, would take umbrage at your calling them a trade school. Those graduates have, in aggregate, been responsible for the generation of trillions of dollars in wealth. I hate to flame, but where's your equivalent achievement???

    If you don't like Dubya, fine. But underestimate him only at your peril. . .

  • That may well currently be the case. It wasn't, when I went through in 1984-85. And I doubt it was true in the early 1970's. I know it's changed significantly in the late 1980s, but when I was there, you needed a 3.0 average and 2 or more semesters of Calculus to even qualify. . .
  • Apparently you can tell which politicians have tech-savvy aides by how many aides have registered the copyright to the bills in their own names.
  • Her name is Charlotte Blackwood. I knew here back when she worked at the Navy Fighter Weapons School when it was at Mirimar. When Top Gun moved to that $hithole NAS Fallon, Charlie took the east coast gig with asymmetric warfare.
  • Let's see:

    Scored higher on his SAT than former Senator Bill Bradley, and by some reports Al Gore as well ...

    Graduated Yale with a Bachlor's degree and a higher GPA than Al Gore's Harvard undergraduate GPA ...

    Graduated from the U.S. Air Force's Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and flew supersonic jet fighters ...

    Graduated Harvard Business with an MBA (that's a Masters of Business Adminstration for you folks in Palm Beach County Florida) ...

    Yeah, a real idiot. Let's compare to Al Gore:

    Graduated from Harvard with a lower GPA than Bush's Yale GPA ...

    Flunked out of Divinity School ...

    Flunked out of Law School ...

    And Al Gore is considered a Genious and Bush the idiot? Whatever!
  • NSA folks don't claim to work for the DOD, they say they work for the State Department which is true, NSA is not military. As far as protocol goes if they get nailed down they can go ahead and say they work for the NSA. It's not that critical.
  • For those out there who would like to know the answer to this and also help an organization that is doing more for "our" rights than the ACLU and EFF combined go to the US Internet Industry Association [usiia.org] web site and get more information. Not that those organizations aren't doing great things; just that the USIIA is doing much more. This is an organization that everyone in the tech community really needs to get behind. I personally know for a fact that they have a much better rapore with those who make the laws than anyone. (Living here in the Washington DC Metro area has some benifits, though now many).

    ---

  • Here in Kansas (Score:3)

    by macdaddy ( 38372 ) on Monday May 14, 2001 @07:03AM (#225199) Homepage Journal
    One of our state reps (I'm not sure the title or anything like that) is the Networking God from Wichita State University. He's a great guy. We're looking at a state-wide educational network that would cover all schools, libraries, hospitals, and a few others things and he's got a big hand in that. It's a good thing to because he's probably the only knowledgeable voice there who can tell them if something is technically possible or is worth doing at all. He is a great guy. I work at a peer state university and have had to call him in the past for assistance.

    --

  • Check out the Scientific American Article (Score:3)

    by werdna ( 39029 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @03:27PM (#225200) Journal
    in which he discussed, perhaps for the first time for many Americans, including techies, the socio-economic importance of the "Information Highway."

    He got it. And he got it years before many of you youngun's first heard of the internet.
  • A lot of people condemn Iowa as being a tech backwater. And, well, really, it is. I speak with authority, since I grew up there and fled Iowa after getting my CompSci degree; there just weren't any tech jobs there that I thought were worth having.

    But there are some surprisingly clued-in politicians in Iowa when it comes to tech matters. Iowa attorney general Tom Miller is, IMO, one of the finest state AGs in the nation on tech issues. When UCITA had a full-court press going on it, Tom Miller advised the Iowa legislature that UCITA would ultimately be bad for customers; and, taking Miller's advice, the Iowa legislature passed an anti-UCITA law, making it very clear that Iowa not only does not have anything to do with UCITA, but has passed safe-harbor statutes specifying that Iowa consumers cannot be bound by UCITA.

    Yes, that's right, you heard me. If you live in Iowa, you cannot be held accountable to UCITA, even if the EULA specifies that the license is enforced in a UCITA state.

    The reasoning behind this is clear: no consumer contract can supersede State consumer protections. Since the State of Iowa has deemed UCITA to be dangerous, the Legislature has passed laws specifically to protect Iowans from UCITA.

    Those laws wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Tom Miller pushing for them, hard, and educating a lot of the Legislature on the technical and legal implications of UCITA.
  • What the politician knows. What is important is whether they have any aids who do. Most bills are not written by the sponsoring rep -- they are written by the rep's legislative aids. The question is what politicians have tech savy LAs.
  • I think that Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is rather tech savvy. He has held several debates and forums about the Napster case and is definately vocal against the RIAA's case against Napster. But besides the Napster deal, I still feel that all around he is pretty tech savvy (even if he is rather old).
  • Not true. Go read the New Yorker interview with
    Al Gore from about a year ago.

  • Do a quick Google search for "Podesta" and "EFF" [google.com]. The EFF [eff.org]'s Washington, DC office (back when EFF HQ was still in Cambridge) originally shared space with Podesta & Associates, and he did some legal consulting for the EFF, including helping to fight an early FBI data access plan [eff.org] (which sure sounds like what became Carnivore).

    Of course, then he went to work for Bill & the Gang and was the person who answered EFF's questions about the good ol' Clipper Chip, with wording that amounted to "Yes, it's really secure. Trust us."

  • I had short hair back then, doing the techno-grassroots rag [geocities.com] -- suit and noose. The technolibertarianesque Dana Rohrabacher [house.gov] was supportive of our legislation (now Public Law 101-611) requiring NASA to follow existing presidential policy in procuring commercial launch services -- reserving Shuttle (is that anything like Joe?) for flights where orbital return was required. At the time, Bob Truax [rctruax.com] was flying his homebuilt out of the airport across the street from the office of our bill's sponsor, Ron Packard (a Mormon dentist who became Orange County, CA US Representative on a write-in ballot, campaigning as a Republican -- go figure) [meridianmagazine.com] and his rocket shop was in one of the nearby facilities. Bob was a fantastic resource in helping Rep. Packard take our little grassroots group (San Diego L5) seriously because Truax had been a leading figure in the astoundingly successful (for the time) development of the Posiden missile (first ICBM to be launched from a submarine). Like most rocket guys, Bob didn't necessarily want to blow stuff to smithereens, he just wanted to do neat stuff with lots of energetic mass flow because, well, you have to admit, it's just so cool. Bob's current mission was to keep doing the work he loved by flying fast-turn-around reusable rockets. He hoped the earliest money-maker would be suborbital Fedex type services for high-value cargo and, true to his Posiden pedigree, he had a sea-launch rocket of exquisitely simple operation which could be rapidly shuttled between high value ports. Profits looked high.

    So, while in Washington, D.C., I shared with Rep. Rohrabacher, Truax's vision of a rapid-turn-around reusable system and how additional legislation we were proposing, such as giving tax incentives for capitalization of commercial space transport systems, would help guys like Truax get people to plop down their own cash to help him get started.

    I was pretty exhausted both physically and financially from all the political activism, so I took a position as VP of Public Affairs with E'Prime Aerospace Corporation [eprimeaerospace.com], initially to acquire the first Ka-band orbital slot from the FCC. It was for Norris Communications' geostationary "Norstar" satellite -- one of E'Prime's potential customers. This was all keeping an eye to attract capital for both E'Prime and Norris Communications. As part of that work, I ended up in Los Angeles. There, cable companies were interested in the high-frequency of Ka-band (and consequently smaller dishes for direct-broadcast media services). We had some potential investors interested. In the middle of the day of meetings with our potential investors, they disappeared. When we investigated, it turned out that McDonnell-Douglas had just (and I mean that day) held a press conference announcing they were going into a "public private partnership" to develop what would come to be known as the DC-X for "Delta Clipper-Experimental" [nasa.gov]. In addition to satellite launching, one of the early applications touted for this vehicle was to be commercial transportation services shuttling cargo between ports on earth.

    McDonnell-Douglas's headquarters were located in Long Beach, CA just a few miles from our meeting place. Long Beach, CA was Rep. Rohrabacher's district.

  • Not a problem. How about one of his involvements in selling the presidency to business [worldnetdaily.com]?

    Or how about one of him and Herr Reno covering up federal racketeering [worldnetdaily.com] charges against Fuhr Clinton.

    What about when he was a huge proponent of Carnivore and how he urged Congress to further wiretapping legislation? I wish I could find a URL for it though, specifically of him at the National Press Club. Stop being a CommiCrat and show some coherency.

  • Podesta is a criminal & threat to the Republic (Score:5)

    by AntiBasic ( 83586 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @05:05PM (#225208)
    The story starts in 1992 when AT&T developed secure telephones untappable by the federal government. The company planned to make them available to the American public. Instead, the Clinton administration interceded and bought up all the phones with a secret slush fund. The plan also involved refitting the phones with a new chip called "Clipper," which would permit the government to tap the phones easily once they found their way back into the hands of American consumers.

    By 1994, White House aide John Podesta had been called into the inner circle of the Clipper project. Meanwhile, Podesta's brother, Tony, a lobbyist and fund-raiser was representing AT&T. His donors and clients, including AT&T, were invited to participate in trade trips to China and obtain valuable export deals with Beijing. Only a year earlier, John Podesta had signed a legal statement promising not to engage in any conflicts of interest involving his brother.

  • I understand the reasons for DVD region coding.
    Can you explain them to me then please? Why can't I buy DVDs from the US in the same way I can buy books CDs and the like?
    The only way around CSS is to either crack the coding (against your rules) or fix my DVD player and invalidate the warranty.
  • (If anybody can corroborate or deny this about Podesta, I think it'd be worth hearing. A google search for "John Podesta gospel music" returned nothing.)

    But it's a mistake to assume that just because somebody writes gospel music that he's part of the religious right. Christians have, historically, been involved in all kinds of liberal crusades -- just look at all the pictures of Catholic priests in anti-war protests in the '60s. Even today, there are plenty of religious moderates -- they just don't get all the attention that the bible-thumping homophobes do.

    Why do I say this? Not because I'm a Christian. In fact, I'm an atheist. But my mother is a Christian with a pretty strong faith, and our relationship is built on non-denominational stuff like mutual respect and consideration. And that includes not assuming that the most extremist members of your faith speak for you.

  • It's funny how pro-Napster == tech-savvy. There are lots of tech-ignorant people who are pro-Napster (do you think Chuck D. could explain how the memory ordering pipeline works in an OOO microprocessor?), and there are plenty of tech-savvy people who are anti-Napster (myself, for example).

    AFAICT, the only reason Orrin Hatch is pro-Napster is because he is against the record companies. Not for artistic/ethical reasons, but because he thinks they should clean up the explicit lyrics, since he is part of the Christian Coalition, and thinks any music which doesn't praise God should be banned (you will recall that the RIAA is militantly against music labelling, censorship, and banning. Hilary Rosen herself won an award from the ALCU for her exemplary work in fighting for the First Amendment - against the PMRC, headed by none other than Tipper Gore).

    Siding with someone just because they came to the "correct" view (in this case, pro-Napster) is extremely dangerous when you had wildly different means of getting to that view (for you, probably "information wants to be free"; for Hatch, the Christian Coalition's hatred of the RIAA). If you follow Hatch's reasoning, you will also think that prayer should be mandatory in school and evolution should be banned from biology class.

    Hatch, of course, is also anti-Microsoft (which itself is neither a tech-savvy or tech-ignorant stance), and in fact was the principle instigator of the federal anti-trust suit. I believe the main reason for this is because Caldera is based in his home state (who, you will recall, launched their own anti-trust suit against MS nearly five years ago).
  • I agree -- those two stand out. Of course, my Wisconsin nativism may play some small role in that opinion. :)

    I also recommend looking at the bipartisan leadership of the Congressional Internet Caucus: www.netcaucus.org

    Liza

  • Not a great example... (Score:3)

    by alexhmit01 ( 104757 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @02:11PM (#225213)
    John Podesta WAS a staffer. Chief of Staff is an employee of the White House, not an appointed office. Appointees must be confirmed by the Senate. Staff refers to the people within a politicians team that are paid for as part of their office expenses. This is quite ironic, given the power and influence of staff members and their role in legislation. One key difference is that they have no authority in themselves, merely acting on behalf of their poss.

    For example, Ashcroft has powers granted by the legislature and the head of the DoJ. He is therefore confirmed by the Senate.

    When the President hires an aide (normally done by someone assigned to this task by the Chief of Staff, who is responsible for overseeing the staff), they are not approved by the Senate.

    Staff members extend the policians range by acting on their behalf.

    However, in the article you state, "This got me thinking; which politicos out there actually understand tech issues (rather than just have a staffer who occasionally reads Wired)?" This is an ironic question to ask when you are excited about a Staffer understanding tech...

    Alex

  • Perhaps I was unclear... (Score:3)

    by alexhmit01 ( 104757 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @03:39PM (#225214)
    I wasn't doubting the power of the CoS, that's an incredibly powerful position. Nor are White House aides all minor positions... Remember Iran-Contra... The White House established a private military, multiple corporations to launder the funds, etc., all under the White House aides. They do quite a bit.

    however, the Chief of Staff is NOT the same as a politician. In the cabinet, people are normally accomplished politicians... i.e. popular Senators, Governors, or the occaisional undersecretary from the last White House of that party.

    When picking Cabinet members, the President has to make certain that the Senate will go along. For this reason, the people in the "official" capacity are choosen for their political skills to influence people, etc. They are done to "appease a constituency", "secure a state" for the next election, etc. Rarely are they chosen for their ability to manage the organization that they head. Bush's shortened transistion may have helped in this regard, because he plucked a LOT of No. 2s from the last GOP administration, his father's.

    The Chief of Staff is choosen to get the job done. As a result, they are chosen for their political sense and administrative efficiency. Most of the Chiefs of Staff could never have been elected President or Vice President (although Cheney seems to act like a Chief of Staff at times...), but they can run the White House like nobody's business.

    They are NOT a politician in the regards that Slashdotters think, but they are not an aide as you suggested that I implied. Senior level White House staff are a unique breed... influential, powerful, and significant.

    Alex
  • <p>Here's some interesting info on Bush's military effort.

    <a href="http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm">
    http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm
    </a>

    <p>Note that Bush got 25% on his flight aptitude test. This was the minimum allowed at the time, so it was probably bumped upward. Despite this horrible score, he was allowed a "direct appointment" as a second lieutenant. This meant he completely avoided officer school, where he might have actually had to work to get by.

    <p>Further, he lost his flight privileges after refusing to take any more medical exams in May 1972. Why? Because the army started adding drug tests to their medical exams in April 1972. Connect the dots, friend.

    <p>P.S. I didn't even mention his military desertion, when he was supposed to be in the Alabama reserve but never showed up for a year.
  • This would probably apply only to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, a.k.a. the First World Countries grouping) citizens. Having lived in Indonesia, Singapore and UK I would say the Singapore leaders are really serious about IT, the latter to a lesser extent and the former completely hopeless... that is, apart for this scheme back in 1996 of outsourcing driver license production to a company controlled by the President's daughter that charges exorbitant fees. And, oh, we have our own satellites too. And an aerospace industry employing foreigners to build expensive planes nobody want to buy we have to swap them for rice and palm oil. Which we do produce ourselves too. Sigh.
  • How much time does the average person spend writing/checking email per day? Each of their computers is using several hundred watts of power, now that adds up pretty quickly.

  • my representative (state or federal) I always get a snail reply. Take that to mean whatever you like. In addition, I've chatted with my state representatives and I *know* that they don't really have an idea of what's going on. Of course, here in ol' Virginia one thing the politicians do know is that anything that keeps the tech companies (AOL, etc) happy must be good for the state....
  • Not that I'm a raving GB supporter but I heard his explanation for that and it seemed reasonable to me. In short, he indicated that he had used email extensively in the past to communicate with family and friends but now that he was president, all of that email (private or no) winds up in the public record. Personally, with all the shit that goes on in Washington, I don't blame him. Anyways, he couldnt email that one daughter very often as she seems to be getting locked up alot of late....:)

  • Re:Dubya is Tech-Savvy (Score:3)

    by bkirkby ( 133683 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @05:48PM (#225220) Homepage

    The Yahoo News story [yahoo.com] actually says that Bush asked federal employees to "cut back" on email, not to "send less" email. Two very different things.

    With the way you worded it, you made it sound as if Bush thought having the computer on (and sitting there), did not use as much power as having the computer on AND sending email.

    The actual wording [yahoo.com] indicates that Bush wanted people to use their computers less by cutting back on the time they spend in email. Seems reasonable to me.

    I also suspect that Bush has a fairly good idea as to how much time an average person could waste reading non-essential email from friends/family [applesforhealth.com].

  • But then, we've got to remember that Leahy is also apparently on the wrong side of the fence on copyright law. I am remiss in my duty as a citizen for not writing to one of the senators of the state I live in about this. It's on my list of things to do, but I know it needs to be done well, or not at all.
  • This man is a professor of law, who even teaches courses on copyright law. Wouldn't you find it slightly absurd if he had somehow managed to miss the DeCSS-case? I don't really see the point of using him as an example. It is obvious that Mr Podesta must know more about these kind of issues than the average politician.

  • My experience with James Barcia (Score:4)

    by spoonboy42 ( 146048 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @04:09PM (#225223)
    I'm a constituent of Michigan's 5th congressional district (and a minor, by the way, so no vote for me). I've been pleasantly surprised when talking to Democratic Rep. Jim Barcia. I first met Jim as a result of attending a candidate forum held a few days before the 2000 election in my home town. Jim had legislative business in Washington, and as such, couldn't make it, but was represented by a campaign worker.

    During the forum, I had a chance to ask a question about whether the congressional candidates had supported the DMCA, and what they thought of its potential ramifications for independent computer scientists. While the worker couldn't provide an answer, she did take my name and phone number, and a few days later, Rep. Barcia called me at my home.

    While he was be no means a geek, Jim seemed to have a very good grasp of many issues relating to technology and society (he serves on the house Science and Technology committee). We spoke about DeCSS and Napster in particular. He mentioned that his son is a Napster user, and agreed that modern record contracts are unfair to artists, relating a story about some high school friends of his who sold the rights to a rather popular song of theirs for the price of a new amp.

    So, in short, I found Mr. Barcia to be very open-minded and well informed, as far as politicians go. If only the rest of the congress could be as cluefull as reps Boucher and Barcia...

    Anonymous Luddite: "What do you think of the dehumanizing effects of the Internet?"
  • I used to work for an internet service provider a few years ago and we decided to provide the governor with free service, as a kind of publicity thing. Well, since I was the head network/router guy they sent me out to his house to install an ISDN router. It was a great experience. I got to meet the governor in person; he was wearing levis and a t-shirt, not what I expected, but he is a down-to-earth guy. His house is normal sized (probably 2500 sq. feet) but there are security cameras all around it and a 100 ft. tall microwave tower that beams the signals from the cameras down to the capitol building so his staff can watch out for him.

    Anyways, a lot of politicians know the concepts behind technology, but not very many of them actually use it hands on. You'd be surprised how many have staffers that read their email for them. Governor Leavitt is not one of those. He had a nice computer, a PDA, a Nokia flip/phone/computer like in that James Bond movie. He really gets into technology, even the geeky side of it. He asked me what I studied in school, I said "Computer Science", and we immediately began a discussion about distance learning. Keep in mind this is back in 1997. He told me about the distance learning initiatives that he is sponsoring with the University of Utah. Some of the things they are doing are years ahead of any other state in the country. I was personally surprised, but his basic philosophy is that technology will make the world a better place to live and I was very impressed.

    After spending about a half hour setting up his ISDN router, I spent a couple of hours just surfing the web with him and showing him sites that had broadband content. I was thoroughly impressed.

  • Representative David Wu, the congressman for certain areas of Portland, OR, and outlying areas, has a reputation for being techincally minded. He was put on the congressional comittee on science and technology during his first term.

    On the other hand, I have never heard him make a statement on any type of particular technology. Maybe people just assume he is scientifically minded because he is Asian (and no, that is not a flame...)

  • Uh . . . BILLY Carter? No, that was Jimmy's embarassing redneck brother.
  • You may find this surprising, but GW Bush is the most tech-savvy president we've had to date. Basically, up until he became president, I believe, he always built and maintained his own computers.

    You're right. I *do* find it surprising. Now, if Uncle Dick were building machines for him, I might believe that. I have heard, however, that he changes the oil on Air Force One himself.

    I have to thank you for the wonderful thought of a true Dunce like W. mastering the finer points of LUNs and IRQs. Maybe the acid test for mainstreaming Linux should be that it's ready for prime time when W. can install it unassisted?
  • the DoD advisor I mentioned previously is also an aerospace engineer, an accomplished economist, and an occasional instructor at Yale. These people know the story, and they know it well.

    Thanks for narrowing it down. They should now be able to pick her up up by tomorrow at the latest.
  • She's civilian, thus there is no *legal* way to find out who she is.

    FOIA? Private detective? Journalism? Or do you mean there's no legal way for *me* to find out? I am glad you asked her about this, but I still think it's ill-advised to describe anyone involved in that sort of work in a public forum with a degree of specificity that would allow anyone determined enough to figure out who you're referring to. I know I wouldn't want myself described in such detail. Would you?
  • Your remark about wondering how much you were supposed to hear (in your original post) piqued my curiousity. Go back and read it as if someone else had posted it. If you wonder whether you're being told things you shouldn't be told, I wonder if the person who's telling you could have exposed themselves in some way (legal, professional, etc.) If I were acquainted with anyone such as your friend, I do not think I would refer to their line of work in any manner but that which is elliptical enough to obscure, but not so much as to draw interest. Besides, you know who tells their employees to refer to themselves as DoD employees, don't you? ;-)
  • NSA, from what I've read, but I can't dig up a link right now. Also, I'm a big fan of the FAS. I think more transparency is good thing in most cases.
  • You may be right about who they claim as an employer, but this [fas.org] makes me think they are at least partially under the DoD. This [odci.gov] makes me think that State has some control, but the whole thing looks like a civilian/military compromise over who gets the goodies.
  • Scored higher on his SAT than former Senator Bill Bradley, and by some reports Al Gore as well ... Graduated Yale with a Bachlor's degree and a higher GPA than Al Gore's Harvard undergraduate GPA ...

    Neither Albert Einstein nor Rush Limbaugh finished high school. So we should think stepping through any 4-year program is a reliable indicator of someone's future intellectual contributions to civilization? For that matter, I can think of an Ivy-league dropout who is reviled on /. far more regularly than either Bush or Gore...


    Graduated from the U.S. Air Force's Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and flew supersonic jet fighters ...

    Yes, defending Texas from Oklahoma, we know all about that. I suggest that learning to fly a plane is not all that difficult, and the skills required to do so are not the same as those needed to run a nation. Besides, pilots are becoming extraneous and unnecessary [slashdot.org].


    Graduated Harvard Business with an MBA (that's a Masters of Business Adminstration for you folks in Palm Beach County Florida) ...

    Remember, having an MBA just means that an accredited institution has confirmed what everyone knew all along: you (the MBA) are an idiot and a useless piece of shit to boot. In fact, the only people who sing the praises of the MBA are those who went through such a program and those who administer such a program. Everyone else knows they're worse than useless. MBA programs belong at trade schools, along with things like auto repair and industrial refrigeration.

    As for Gore, I'm not claiming genius status for him, but I will say someone who didn't become a lawyer or a clergyman did society a favor.

    What's your point here? Hitler was kind to puppies. McVeigh is a decorated Gulf War veteran. Bush is a King-Hell Fucking Moron [msn.com]. It's not enough your guy won, you have to pretend he's actually smart, too.
  • I don't know about now, but NSA paychecks and direct deposit paystubs used to be written by the Department of Agriculture, which confused many people. This was not because of any nefarious intent, but because USDA had a huge payroll system and did the payroll & checkwriting for a lot of other agencies in the DC area.

    I don't know. It could have killed two birds with one stone. I sure the conspiracy crowd made major hay out of that one when it became known. OTOH, there's the whole Forest Service/CIA C-130 thing. Do a google on Gary Eitel [google.com] if you're interested.
  • Assuming that you're telling the truth:

    There can't be that many "female DoD asymmetrical warfare specialists" running around in D.C. So, do you think maybe you've hurt your "friend" by posting here? It can't be that hard to draw up a list and start excluding people. Maybe she'll have a polygraph session bacause of you. Maybe she'll be followed. Maybe her conversations will be recorded. Oh, and did you have a Win2K license for that dual-boot you set up for her?

    Between the cries of "National Security!" and "Software Piracy!" you could potentially be in a great deal of trouble, along with your friend.

    Unless she's been directed to feed you exactly what they want to disseminate "from the ground up." Even then, I hope you gave her the Win2K license.
  • I flunked out of college, I guess that makes me dumber than GWB. By your logic are you as smart as smart?
  • Corrected Link [starbridgesystems.com]

  • It's more than Tech knowledge! (Score:3)

    by olafva ( 188481 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @05:14PM (#225238) Homepage
    Tech changes so fast, we can't expect our politicians or their aides to keep up with the latest nuance such as whether the rapid growth of FPGAs is likely impact traditional hardware and software. Orin Hatch is to be commended for keeping abreast with new developments [starrbridgesystems.com] in his state as does Wu in Oregon and others.

    However, we elect our representatives primarily for their integrity and political acumen. Their knowledge of technical issues is a pleasant plus, but even more important is if they have an open mind and keen interest in adressing technical issues such as our Virginia freshman congressman, Bob Schrock who is already on key technical committees. Senator Warner can also be trusted to study, consult with aides and vote meaningfully on technical issues.

    The two engineers we elected as President, Herbert Hoover and Billy Carter, were voted out of office after leading our nation to undesireable economic states, despite their strong technical background.

  • > The AC's I can see, of course.

    Indeed. Do you have *any* idea how much power
    an Anonymous Coward uses?

    Chris Mattern
  • I worked on NAS Pensacola with Training Wing 6.

    I had to deal with Pilot Trainees. They couldn't understand why their computer stopped working after they left it turned on, in a thunderstorm, under an open window, on the windward side of the building. The big puddle of water didn't even clue them in. These same trainees, are now pilots in the USN.

    They are living proof idiots can graduate flight school in the military.

    Dave
  • Here's [patentlawyer.com] an article from "Patent Lawyer" calling Rohrabacher a "hero" for fighting in favor of submarine patents. And here's Rohrabacher in his own words [reagan.com] on get this, the Reagan.com site. This NAWBO [nawbo-fl.org] page is also interesting: "Co-sponsorship [of HR 1907] by Rohrabacher and Campbell is quite a coup for the proponents of patent reform legislation given Rohrabacher's four year campaign to obstruct any reform of the U.S. patent system."

    Typing "rohrabacher patent" into Google finds any amount of other creepy stuff.

  • We should know by now that the more politicians know about technology, the more ways they can figure out to screw it up. Gore and Clinton were quite tech-literate, and as a result we got the CDA, DMCA, and almost got the Clipper chip. I'd rather have had them asleep at the wheel.
  • Senator Maria Cantwell [senate.gov]D-WA is my home Senator. If you read Steven Levy's Crypto [slashdot.org], you'll remember she fought hard for Crypto companies to overcome draconian government regulations and help get strong crypto to us common folk. She has been supporting tech companies in the Senate.

    Now, is this because her constituents are big corporations like Microsoft, or is she genuinely interested in the tech world? Who knows, but she's a million times more likey to help us geeks out than G.W. "I'm not gonna use E-mail" Bush.

  • My Experience with Al Gore (Score:3)

    by s1r_m1xalot ( 218277 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @04:18PM (#225244)
    I couldn't figure out where goatse.cx was based. (Who's ever heard of the .cx suffix?) So I emailed Al Gore to see if he knew. This was back in the days when he was still VP. I expected a quick response, I mean, the man DID invent the internet, but what I got blew me away.

    Within 15 minutes I recieved a reply message with my answer: Christmas Islands. I'm telling you, this guy is GOOD. You'd think the founder of the Internet would be working on implementing IPv6 or something lofty like that, but good ol' Al never loses his touch with the common people. It's really a shame that he didn't win the election. A President with a command of his essentials like that would be a credit to the nation. I know you're all thinking one of his staffers wrote it, but you're wrong. If anyone else has had any other positive experiences with Al Gore or goatse.cx, please reply below.

  • Actually, a simple one page letter is about all they're going to read, and most Representatives & Senators prefer faxes. So once you write a simple one-page letter, you can fax it & mail it (for redundancy), and you're set. Of course, it'd be great if they liked e-mail, but I can understand since it hinders the ½ of the US population that doesn't have convenient Internet access.

    You're going to reap just what you sow.
    Lou Reed, "Perfect Day" from Transformer

  • I just read (seven months too late!) a pre-election article in that sh!tfest FastCompany interviewing Al Gore and G. W. Bush, and it actually gave some insight into them. Al Gore sounded like an OSS freak, giving an analogy between the Constitution and an OS. G. W. Bush came across as being saavy about the tech industry, and his answers sounded like statements he'd used to sweet-talk companies into moving to Texas (as many have, God forbid).
  • I really don't get it when people think that Senator Hatch is representing the public interest when it comes to tech issues. It's irrelevant whether Senator Hatch is tech savvy, because he sure is special interest savvy. The reality is he sides with special interests (including the RIAA) where it matters - legislation. But he blows a lot of worthless hot air at PR stunts (like when he invites Napster's Shawn Fanning to testify at hearings) to throw people off track and make it sound like he is doing a grand ol' job. Actions really do speaak louder than words though;

    He is responsible for the copyright tem extionsion act or CTEA (written by Hatch). More here [eagleforum.org].

    He co-authored the DMCA. More here [theregister.co.uk].

    He got caught [go.com] trying to extend the patent on Claritin for the drug maker Schering-Plough, whose private jet he used when running for president.

    He's also responsible for this juicy piece [slashdot.org]

    This is not a Republican vs. Demoocrat issue either. What it is though is one congressman who has managed to single-handedly rape the public interest on tech issues. The public needs to be made aware of Senator Hatch's dismal record and he needs to be held accountable for his loathsome representation of the public interest.

  • Actually, I don't remember Iran-Contra. I was less than 10 years old :)

    I still have to respectfully disagree and say that the CoS is a politician. At least to the extent that Condaleza Rice or many other cabinet members are - many cabinet members come from acadamia and not politics. Then again, judging by the political in-fighting at my future college, they might have more experience than most. I guess I just take a broader view of the word "politician" to include not just elected/confirmed officials, but also lobbyists, senior staff, etc.

    By the way, thanks for helping me brush up on white house staff information for my AP Gov test Tuesday morning. It's all coming back to me now - Reagan's triangle of power (later to be modified), Carter's hands-on approach... excellent.

  • Re:Not a great example... (Score:5)

    by zhensel ( 228891 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @03:23PM (#225249) Homepage Journal
    Your average staffer may not have that much power, but the chief of staff is one of the most powerful people in Washington. To say that they aren't a politician just because they weren't confirmed or elected is a joke. If you say that, you are missing 99% of the politicians in Washington. Hell, I bet Bush's CoS has more power than he does :)

    Your average college intern staffer (like those found in congressional offices, white house mail guys/tour guides, whatever) may not have much power, but don't think that the Chief of Staff is a peon just because the people's opinion doesn't give him/her authority.

    It's nice that you can point out irony, but the poster wasn't wrong in the slightest. The Chief of Staff is a politician to the same level that a cabinet member / Judicial apointee / etc is. (H/Sh)e probably has more power than either during the time of their appointment as well. The Chief of Staff is responsible for more than the White House aides. The CoS also must arrange for the thousands of other executive branch run departments. Some of these jobs need Senate approval, some don't. Suffice to say, it's a demanding job and provides one with more power than almost any other in Washington.
  • And no, I don't know who tells their employees to claim DoD
    I think he means Microsoft.

  • Re:Not a great example... (Score:3)

    by hillct ( 230132 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @03:57PM (#225251) Homepage Journal
    You're right that Podesta is a staffer and it's disappointing that you'll generally find staffers are more knowlegable in specific areas - such as tech issues - than the politicians they work for.

    More disturbing than this, is the fact that the lobyists I've had the misfortune to talk to are even more knowlegable. This of course, shouldn't suprise anyone. The problem is, in the tech arena, more so than in others, knowlegable indeviduals exert far greater influence, than someone who might be speaking authoritatively on something like enviromental issues. This is a function of the technology industry's extensive use of jargon (which is a whole othrt discussion), but this use of jargon makes the technology insustry especially ceceptable to allowing marginally knowlegable indeviduals, masquerade as experts (also not an infrequent occurance) and due to the extensive use of jargon in the industry, come off more easily as expert than would be possible in industries in which a less extensive jargon vocabulary exists.

    --CTH

    --
  • one could say he promoted it heavily, and that would be more truthful than saying he invented it. but he did certainly play an important part in its rise.
  • Techonolgy is a growing part of our society... PDAs, PCs, email...

    You think politicians use these things but have absolutely no clue how they work?

    Also, politicians get asked question on all aspects of life as we know it- remember "Mr. Bush, what's the price of milk?"- if a reporter asks Politician X what his opinion is on the integration P2P file-sharing with copyright laws he better say "I don't know". Words of death.

    This means that as time goes on more and more politicans will "speak the language" to a certain extent. Heck, kids know more about computers then many adults, and as they grow up and become politicans then we will have MANY tech-savvy reps running around on Capitol Hill.
    --------------------------------------
  • about a lot. Bear in mind that that's their job. They have to help draft laws about all variety of topics. Now, when a politician has a meeting about, say, softwood tree exports, they almost always get briefings, prepared by staffers, to give them all they need to know for situations they may encounter. If they can't answer a question or deal with an issue, they give a fluffy political answer. Remember, in general, there people aren't experts on anything. They simply know enough to get by.

    -MR
  • "but law enforcement needs a way to tap into criminals' Internet traffic" And let's remind ourselves that not everyone that uses encryption is a criminal. Personally, I think the government has no right to interfere with cryptology (considering most of the latest and greatest algos are from out of the US). And if the government wants to sniff something, they can sniff my hairy white ass.

    ___________
    I don't care what it looks like, it WORKS doesn't it!?!
  • Oh please.
    Just in CASE someone's still tracking this damn thread, here's [imdb.com] some more information about Charlotte Blackwood and her stint at Miramar.
    And I can't believe nobody caught it.

  • Nevermind Politicians (Score:3)

    by daniel_isaacs ( 249732 ) on Monday May 14, 2001 @05:26AM (#225258) Homepage
    I'm still trying to find a tech-savy IT manager.

  • ...so we can actually go there and smash it into little bitty bits and laugh as the remains tumble into the Pacific Ocean?

    Or is it redirected, possibly to some place in Louisiana like in David Brin's Earth?

  • I'm pretty sure Gore did not code one line of HTML in the White House website. Al Gore probably has never heard of Linux, ever programmed anything, or knows what is going on in the computer world right now. Sure, he may know stuff about Napster, being that it's on the news everyday, but do you think he's heard of SubSeven? Probably NOT.
  • And like any good politician, he immediately began decrying a "widening gap" between "haves and have-nots", with, wait for it...

    ...wait...

    TA DA! Government to the rescue with free computers for the poor.

    Like all politicians, he buys votes with other peoples' money on conjured "emergencies." The Health Care "emergency" was already taken, see?

    And why is it "Health Care"? I guess politicians decrying a "Medical Emergency" sounded too idiotic, so conjur up a new name...
  • > Hatch could care less about Napster, or any of
    > the ideals or philosophy of copyright.
    >
    > He is only concerned with hurting funding
    > sources for his competition.

    It's called Playing The Game for $$$. You don't think Clinton had Barbara Streisand over to the White House because he valued her razor mind and keen political analyses, do you?

  • Geography is a good guide (Score:3)

    by inonit ( 309889 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @02:26PM (#225263)
    All of the congresspeople in Western Washington, particularly Jay Inslee [inslee4congress.com] -- are pretty tech-savvy, for obvious reasons. (And of course, there's Senator Maria Cantwell [senate.gov], also of Washington state, who worked for RealNetworks and got rich before running for the Senate (though she was a congressperson before that). Though I don't know much about the Bay Area, I'd imagine the same is true there.

    Senator Orrin Hatch [senate.gov] (see a statement about Napster [senate.gov]) has always seemed to have a clue (and an anti-Microsoft one) about these matters. This seems to be because of geography as well -- he's served in the Senate with Novell located in his state.

  • I've heard that he writes gospel music, and he likes the idea of being able to distribute it sans Mega-Corporations.

    This is true, and is why he supported recent copyright extensions. It has nothing to do with being tech-savvy, and everything to do with serving his own interests.

    Ryan T. Sammartino

  • Barry Jones of the ALP (Score:3)

    by triplej ( 413525 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @04:48PM (#225268)
    When I was studying in the University of NSW, the Minister for Science was a Barry Jones, secretary of the Australian Labor Party, and someone who understood the role and need for technology.

    Currently Australia doesn't have someone quite of that calibre. There are no more tax breaks for corporate R&D, professors in Australian Universities are stuck with declining pay rates compared to their overseas equivalents and it seems that all the worthwhile Australian inventions are being brought to market by non-Australian companies.

    All of which might explain why half of the bright people I know have left to work in London, San Francisco, New York and Boston.

  • How much or how little a politician knows or understands about technical issues is irrelevant.

    Where they stand on those issues is the key.

    Case in Point

    Dick Cheney, our VP for those of you who missed the coup, is very tech saavy. He understands the technical issues surrounding cryptography so well that as Bush Senior's Secretary of Defense he lobbied the congress to outlaw any computer cryptography to which the government did not have a key. This was in the very early 90's before most politicians had even used a computer.

    I'd say that puts Dick in the head of the class when it comes to knowledge about technical issues. I'd also say that he is no friend to Slashdotters!

  • Re:Dubya is Tech-Savvy (Score:3)

    by Yahnz ( 443775 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @04:19PM (#225270)
    This is the same guy who a few weeks ago (see Yahoo news) ordered the federal agencies in California to cut down on electricity usage (and now, get this!) by sending fewer emails and turning off their AC's.

    The AC's I can see, of course. But to put them in the same sentence with "sending email"?

    My personal guess is that they have him running an Etch-A-Sketch.

  • Re:Barry Jones of the ALP (Score:3)

    by snapfrozen ( 444137 ) on Sunday May 13, 2001 @08:18PM (#225271) Homepage
    We really have it made here in Australia.. Our Politicans are so tech savvy that they reduce education funding, and fight for internet censorship. The actually got the net censorship by getting votes from those in the outback who had never used or seen the internet. In addition to this, our tech minister is about 60 and cant use a mouse :-) The frightening thing is that they got the net censorship through, but had not idea on how to implement it.. what a joke.. looks like our pollies want a cole mining country for ever...
  • You may find this surprising, but GW Bush is the most tech-savvy president we've had to date. Basically, up until he became president, I believe, he always built and maintained his own computers.

    He also used email extensively, at least until privacy concerns caused him to stop recently.
    KTS:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Utensil.

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