Friday, November 7, 2003

Al Gore Broadcast / Webcast on Sunday (Via MoveOn.org) Dear MoveOn Member, In June, twenty thousand MoveOn members interviewed each other by phone to help us explore the values underlying our work together. One striking theme emerged: the deep concern Americans have with the Bush administration's attacks on our cherished liberties, in the name of security. Since June, we've been looking for a powerful way to respond to this clear mandate, and when former Vice President Gore asked us to co-host a policy address on Freedom and Security, we jumped at the chance. You are invited to view this important speech on Sunday, November 9 at 2pm EASTERN by web cast, or on Link TV. In Washington DC, this event will be attended by local MoveOn members and by members of our partner in this effort, the American Constitution Society. Unfortunately, all seats for the event are filled. But we encourage you to tune in this Sunday, at 2pm Eastern, by going to: http://www.moveon.org/gore/webcast.html The program will be broadcast live on Link TV, the national television network available on DIRECTV (channel 375) and DISH Network (channel 9410). C-SPAN will likely broadcast the speech as well, as long as another news event doesn?t supercede the speech on Sunday. In this, his third major speech on the Administration's response to terrorism, Mr. Gore will describe the Administration's assault on our civil liberties as un-American and will charge that the Bush/Ashcroft attack on the Constitution is actually a smokescreen that obscures the Administration?s fundamental failure to meaningfully protect our national security, and that their efforts have weakened rather than strengthened America. In August, Mr. Gore delivered a speech sponsored by MoveOn that opened a space for other leaders to speak out against the Bush Administration's deliberate use of false impressions to mislead the nation on war, taxes, the economy and the environment. That speech did nothing less than shift the terms of the national debate, and we expect this speech to have as big an impact. Again, here are the details: Al Gore Speaks on Freedom and Security Sunday, November 9, 2:00 pm Eastern Webcast: http://www.moveon.org/gore/webcast.html Broadcast: Link TV and possibly C-SPAN See you there. Sincerely, --Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack The MoveOn.org Team November 7th, 2003 PS: We're cosponsoring this event with the American Constitution Society. ACS is a national organization of law students, lawyers, academics, judges, and policymakers committed to restoring the values of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, equality, and access to justice to their rightful, central place in American law. ACS is leading a rapidly growing movement to counter the Federalist Society and other promoters of today's dominant conservative vision of American law and public policy. Visit ACS at: http://www.acslaw.org Link TV broadcasts to more than 21 million US homes a 24-hour mix of documentaries, international news and critical issues not covered by mainstream media. For more information on rebroadcast times go to http://www.linktv.org. 9:20:46 PM

How Beautiful is the Moon Like a Big Pizza Pie. The moon as it was rising tonight. [Antipixel - Excerpts] 3:50:30 PM

Dean For America New Mexico Events Join the Drive for Democracy!. We're standing here in the wind outside of the University of New Mexico book store, barely keeping all the Dean lit down with rocks from the nearby construction. Page "Chemgirl" Sebring (Page in Albuquerque) and Tom of Foodies for Dean ("Tom and Meredith Hughes") are here signing people up. Here's Tom: Zephyr and Ryan were so great with my native american students today at Isleta Pueblo south of ABQ. They took over the computer lab for a lesson on how they are using the internet for politidal organizing. The kids loved their first introduction to blogging. I sub teach there, when not doing Foodies for Dean with my wife ...we also run the Food Museum...which grew out of the Potato Museum. Here's Page: Yes, it's WINDY. And cool. And this is AMAZING! So far, we've talked to so many students, and they're all very interested in learning more about Howard. This has made my day (which started with a horrible exam). At least I know that I'll have a job when I graduate, because Dean will be president! Here's Ryan: Page Rocks!!! She has promised to table every Friday, so keep her honest-- go by UNM every Friday and say "Hello." ---- Join us on the Drive for Democracy. We’re looking for help planning open events to meet with grassroots organizers – every place I write TBD, that stands for “the remarkable David Welch is working on it – please email David at dwelch@deanforamerica.com if you have a suggestion or are willing to plan an event.” Here's the current schedule for the next week: Nov. 7 1:00- 3:00 PM Flyering & Tabling at University of New Mexico Campus 7:00 PM Potluck with local organizers at 7 PM, Nov. 8 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Flyering Festival 3:00 PM Opening of Santa Fe Office November 9 4:00 - 6:00 PM Flyering in Amarillo on Route 66 (If you live near Amarillo, and have ideas, please contact dwelch@deanforamerica.com). Thanks! [Blog for America] 3:46:49 PM

Mediaburn Special Mention: Get Ready For Grid Blogging Grid blogging (an invitation). I've been thinking of ways of developing distributed collaborative projects and came up with the following idea: grid blogging - which I imagine as being a group of bloggers tackling a specific topic on a specific day/time. Here's a mini-manifesto... [notes from somewhere bizzare] 1:24:56 PM

Review from Off On a Tangent The Jethro Tull Christmas Album - The Official J.... The Jethro Tull Christmas Album - The Official Jethro Tull Website. Brett Milano review.The Christmas album is a bigger surprise, coming as it does from a band who remain best known for an album-length attack on organized religion, 1971â??s Aqualung . [Off On A Tangent] 1:21:17 PM

Sir William Fettes Douglas Is true transformation possible?. (The alchemist by Sir William Fettes Douglas)... [notes from somewhere bizzare] 12:20:53 PM

The Computer and the Skateboard Limited rights. Questo a mio avviso è un bellissimo post. Complimenti a Dana. Spiega con chiarezza, sulla base di un caso piuttosto eclatante, che cosa dovrebbe essere una legislazione decente sui brevetti e sulla proprietà intellettuale. Che oggi assomiglia a quel filo spinato che dalla fine dell'800 percorse le praterie americane, messo dai grandi latifondisti allevatori (che però ebbero la concessione delle terre dal Governo...). Mauchly's Story. Mauchly's Story The grandson of ENIAC co-creator John Mauchly was whining to Wired the other day. He was whining to good purpose. Jim Reed has helped create a great documentary on computing's earliest days, called "The Computer and the Skateboard." The grandson remember that his grandfather was "depressed, harassed by a series of legal struggles concerning patent claims, and plagued by giant government corporate interests who stood to lose billions of dollars if a physicist and engineer in their mid-20s were to hold the patent on computers." It sounds like a terribly sad story until you consider the implications. What if American law in 1946 were like it is today, with patent holders sitting on inventions, or selling them to lawyers who them embezzle billions from entire industries? Would computing have even progressed had IBM been unable to proceed, creating new inventions based on what ENIAC had done before? Which brings us back to the original purpose of patents, and copyright. These are limited rights, granted for a limited time, aimed at creating incentives for people to create more. They are not property rights. They cannot be used to halt progress. They are not a license to print money at someone else's expense. They do not let you embezzle, as lawyers constantly embezzle in our time. In Mauchly's case, the ENIAC patent was invalidated by prior art in a 1971 decision (a quarter century after the invention), by which time Mauchly himself was really more interested in history's glory than in big bucks -- which he had anyway. Mauchly died in 1980, aged 72. No one seriously questions that he and Presper Eckert created the first working electronic computer, and that's what should count. Oh, and what does the grandson of computing's co-creator think of modern PCs? "I feel today's PC is still a hobbyist tool, not yet fit for the general public." Right. Dana Blankenhorn [Corante: Moore's Lore] [Network Games] 1:12:55 AM