Coyote Gulch

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Coyote Gulch - Outage
Happy Holidays to y'all. I'll see ya on Friday.
7:12:31 AM

2004 Presidential Election
Wired is running an article about the Wesley Clark's Tech Corps today. From the article, "Clark's effort is similar to an initiative by rival Howard Dean's campaign, which has operated an open-source software community called DeanSpace since late May. Dean technology staffers said they welcomed Clark's open-source initiative. 'We both have the same exact problem: We need to mobilize our grass-roots base. There are vendors who have tools that help, but the complete toolkit doesn't exist. The pieces are out there, but there's no solution,' said Zack Rosen, a Dean technology developer involved with DeanSpace." I don't like the miliataristic sound of "Tech Corps" but ... I think both campaigns are correct about Open Source software being their answer. Dave Winer disagrees with both campaigns and the 'Ol Coyote. Mr. Winer is someone you should listen to whether or not you agree with him. If it's any consolation Dave I run Radio for this weblog and we use Manilla internally at the City and County of Denver (Public Works - Wastewater Management).
Gary Wolfe tells us How the Internet Invented Howard Dean in another Wired article. From the article, "It is 83 days before the Iowa caucuses, and I'm sitting at a small table on a private jet above Colorado getting a pure dose of Internet religion from Howard Dean. 'The Internet community is wondering what its place in the world of politics is,' Dean says. 'Along comes this campaign to take back the country for ordinary human beings, and the best way you can do that is through the Net. We listen. We pay attention. If I give a speech and the blog people don't like it, next time I change the speech.'"
Wolfe lays out several patterns of the modern campaign network: Make the network stupid, Let the ants do the work, Leaders are places, Links attract links, and Allow the ends to connect.
Are you candidates listening and learning?
Update: Here's some Christmas Eve polling info from the Daily Kos.
6:56:18 AM

Denver 2004 November Election
The League of Women Voters and Colorado Common Cause think that it's a good idea to take congressional redistricting out of the hands of state legislators, according to the Rocky Mountain News [December 24, 2003, "Papers filed for commission initiative"]. The groups have filed the paperwork for a citizen initiative. They don't think that the state legislature will pass the amendment since it'll require a two thirds vote. From the article, " The plan calls for creation of a Fair Redistricting Commission, which would include two people from each of the major political parties and three unaffiliated or minor party voters. Elected officials or registered paid lobbyists could not serve on the commission. The commission would be charged with creating competitive districts to the greatest extent possible. It also would be 'incumbent blind' - it couldn't take into account where existing congress members lived. It also would take over the task of legislative reapportionment, a job now carried out by an 11-member commission made up of four lawmakers, three appointees of the governor and four members appointed by the Colorado Supreme Court chief justice. It just made sense for one commission to do both jobs, Mayfield said."
Columnist Peter Blake has some advice for Common Cause and the League in his column in today's Rocky [December 24, 2003, "Blake: Lobbyists used, abused"].
The State Democratic party is scrambling to find a strong candidate to run agains Ben Nighthorse Campbell now that Mark Udall has dropped out, according to the Denver Post [December 24, 2003, "Udall decision restarts Dems' Senate search"]. From the article, "'We've got a bunch of people looking at it, from former presidential candidates like Gary Hart to grassroots activists like Mike Miles,' said Colorado Democratic Party chairman Christopher Gates. 'This race is still in play and we shouldn't declare it over 11 months early.'"
6:29:25 AM

e-mail John: