Government and Politics

I posted recently about the presidential candidates' usage of new tech, including twitter.

I'm still following both McCain & Obama (Clinton, too, but that's just because I haven't removed her yet). The stats in that previous post have continued along the same trajectories. McCain continues to tweet 2.5 times for each Obama tweet (M:343 , O:138; Obama still has about 29 times as many followers (M: 1,482, O:42,557).

I still can't decide who is using twitter to it's fullest potential. Obviously, Obama's tweets are spreading much faster than McCain's due to his overwhelming follower count, but McCain is using it more. Also, McCain will often reply to a direct message, showing that someone is actually reading the feed of people he's following. I haven't seen any replies from Obama, which indicates that he's using it more as a soapbox and less as an interactive communications medium. So, McCain probably wins on actually embracing twitter, while Obama is probably getting the most benefit from it.

While analyzing the statistics like this is interesting, it's obviously only a side note. What's far more important is the message that each candidate is putting out. To that end, here are a few recent tweets that I think are illustrative of each canidate's use of twitter. These are all pulled from the tweets currently showing on their twitter page, which shows the most recent twenty or so tweets. In case you think that my selections are biased, I invite you to visit either candiate's twitter page and see for yourself. I've linked them to their names in the second paragraph above. I'm certain that whenever you do this, even months from now, you'll see a similar tenor on each feed.

McCain:

New book "fleeced" by Dick Morris http://twurl.nl/iiayyc What would Obama do to country as President?

Obama with more endorsments: http://twurl.nl/vlexa4 from North Korean and Libyan Dictators, next Zimbabwe?

What do you think, has the surge worked? http://tinyurl.com/5vss6a

@MrBabyMan sorry I don't. Do you happen to know any dem leaders willing to help us lower oil prices by allowing drilling? Just looking

@MargaretSchaut Naw, that's not the case, ask average Joe who works all week to gain a Saturday with family, does he want Obama, nope

More hypocrisy http://twurl.nl/8y67d6 Obama manipulating patriotic images though he says there's too much manipulation of patriotism

Why are the Democrats working so hard to increase the price of gas?

Mitt Romney on Obama's problem http://tinyurl.com/6f7xsc

Israel taking precautions to protect themselves if Obama wins http://twurl.nl/1vsi3i and tries to force them to concede

Obama:

In Chicago,holding an economic discussion with the Democratic governors. Watch it live now at http://my.barackobama.com/l...

Made an important decision today and wanted to share it with you. Visit http://my.barackobama.com/m...

Honored to be endorsed by Al Gore in Michigan tonight. Watch live streaming video at 8:30pm EST at http://my.barackobama.com/l...

Wishing everyone a Happy Father's Day. Spoke today at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. Read remarks at http://my.barackobama.com/dad

Pleased with today's Supreme Court decision to bring terrorists to justice while also protecting our core values. http://www.barackobama.com

Kicking-off a two week tour focusing on the current economic crisis & the need for new economic policy: http://my.barackobama.com/N...

IN St Paul, MN speaking after securing the nomination. Watch the speech live on TV tonight or streamed http://my.barackobama.com/n...

In Middletown, CT. Pinch-hitting for Senator Kennedy and delivering the commencement address for Wesleyan University.

In MI, unveiling my manufacturing agenda. It's time to recapture the spirit of innovation that has always fueled America's economic success.

So, McCain is on the attack, while Obama is spreading ideas (wow, that doesn't sound at all like I'm drinking the Obama Kool-Aid, does it? ). Seriously, though, McCain's feed is filled with vitriol and sarcasm, while Obama is talking about his platform and campaign. You have to go back to April 3 to see a tweet that mentions McCain, and it's not the silly fear-mongering (next Zimbabwe?) coming from McCain:

Troubled by today's unemployment figures, the latest indicator of how badly America needs fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies.

While, the fact is that Obama will probably win due to Republican's current unpopularity (unless he royally screws something up, of course) this difference in attitude or strategy sure won't help McCain. It really shows him to be the same old politician that we all know and hate. It's really too bad, because for a long time, he was the only Republican a Democrat or left-leaning hater-of-all-parties like myself, could respect. But, just as Romney sold his previously-more-centrist political soul to the right-wing, so has McCain.

Update 6/23 2:00: Apparently, I'm not the only one thinking about politics & twitter: Twitter As a Campaigning Tool and How Twitter Can Change the Presidential Debate.

A while ago, security expert and all-around common sense advocate Bruce Schneier wrote the following essay. He posted it to his blog the day before Lori was born; thus the delay in my posting about it.

The War on Photography

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

It's quick and a must-read for anyone interested in photography or the erosion of our rights.

This brings to mind a couple of recent cases of security over-stepping their authority at DC's Union Station. First, was an NPR photographer who was testing some new equipment there when he was almost arrested. And then, while doing a report on photographers being hassled at Union Station, the camera crew of our local Fox affiliate was hassled by Union Station security.

I decided I needed to follow more people on twitter, so I added several people, including the three presidential candidates. Within minutes, Barack Obama started following me, too, although I'm not sure why.

Several years ago, Jason suggested that it would be interesting to compare the techno-friendliness of our politicians by looking at their sites and how they use various other online outlets like blogs and now flickr & twitter, etc. I'd imagine that sooner, rather than later, this will be a moot point as they're all starting to embrace these things. It'll probably just end up being a race to see who can adopt a particular tech first.

Although, maybe that's not so true. There's definitely levels of adoption, so to speak. I'm not going to dig into this right now, but let's just take twitter for sake of argument and for sake of easiness as I have all three candidates' twitter pages up already).

Stats in alphabetical order:

Clinton:

• Following 0
  
• Followers 4,165
  
• Favorites 0
  
• Updates 172
  
• Last 2 updates: 5 hours ago & 2 days ago
  

McCain:

• Following 1,470
  
• Followers 1,112
  
• Favorites 4
  
• Updates 324
  
• Last 2 updates: 5 days ago & 7 days ago
  

Obama:

• Following 35,978
  
• Followers 34,958
  
• Favorites 0
  
• Updates 128
  
• Last 2 updates: 21 minutes ago & 2 days ago

Now that I've got them all laid out, I'm not sure what they mean. They're certainly not what I was expecting. I assumed Obama would have the most people following him, which is true. But, I also assumed that he'd have the most posts, which isn't. So, what can we learn from the stats above?

...and why is Barack Obama following me?

I know it's passé and lame to make a whole post out of a Bushism...

...so, I guess I'm lame:

Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat.

—Washington D.C.; September 17, 2004

I've bene slowly reading the Federalist Papers over the past few months. In case you don't know what the Federalist Papers are, here's a short description from the linked page:

The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution.

They're basically an in-depth argument for the US system of government written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. As I read them, I find myself frequently thinking that it'd be a good idea if some of our current leaders would read them (they should probably check out the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence while they're at it, too).

Anyway, I'm going to start posting a blog entry when I come upon a section that really strikes me. Like I said, this has happened a couple of times, but I'm not going to bother going back and trying to find where they were. Also, I'm not planning to comment on them much, but may as my whims dictate.

The first one comes from Federalist #10, which continues #9's topic of The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection.

Here's the section that really struck me (with the preceding three paragraphs for context):

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.

There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.

I think the relevancy to today's environment of terrorism and the reactionary liberty-smothering of the government is obvious.