Watershed

Ah, voting

That was a nice Tuesday result, if you're a Democrat.

A Worthwhile Water Board

It is a depressinf indicator that I read over this headline four or five times before I realized it was about local politics, not Dick Cheney's plan for everyone who opposes his incompetent insanity.

Water board seats on the line

Central Broward panel has 4 vying for 2 spots

 

By Thomas Monnay
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted November 5 2006

The election to fill two seats on the Central Broward Water Control District Board of Commissioners is as quiet as the district itself, which levies taxes on landowners but is unknown to many voters.
 
The election features Casey Kiar Lee, who is defending her Zone 1 seat against challenger Judy Ann Bunce; and incumbent Tom Green, who is being challenged by Ron Robinson, a former commissioner, for the Zone 2 seat. Candidates are chosen by voters in that zone.
...
The district, which maintains 100 miles of secondary canals, has 11 employees and operates on a $4.73 million annual budget, which includes $2.9 million for capital projects, said Mike Crowley, Davie's vice mayor and the district's manager.
...
He said commissioners review engineering and site plans to ensure enough drainage is provided and prevent flooding on nearby properties as a result of overdevelopment.

Free Speech and the Commons

So, there's a bit of a sturm and drang going on in some of the liberal (specifically feminist) blogs about the blogger Ampersand who sold the amptoons domain to a Search Engine Optimizer who is now using the domain to direct traffic to porn sites.  The Ammpersand blog pages are untouched, but the domain and server is now out of Amersand's control.

So, a reasonably typical free speech thrash sprouted up, because many of the regular readers and commenters at amptoons are unhappy at now being connected to porn links.  And that the sale was done without their knowledge.  And also, the porn.

I actually read about this second hand, at Chric Clark's Creek Running North, where it was menitoned in the context of Clarke declaring his site to be personal property, which he can pretty much do with as he pleases.  He would try to be polite, if he were going to delete everything, but the obligations he felt to his community of commenters were basically of politeness, nothing more.  (Not that politeness is to be underrated!)

I think I've participated in some variation of the "it's not your free speech, it's my private (online) property" about four times over the last 15 years or so.  I personally feel that it's another example of how private property rights in the States are often seen to outweigh community concerns (including speech and copyright).  I don't think it's a left or right thing; it's almost not political, except in the sense that the politics tinge any discussion like this.  But flaming left wingers are just as likely to say, "It's her site, she can do what she wants with it" as rabid right wingers are to demand that "our contributions to this community should give us some say in how the community changes".

In the offline world, the best comparison I know of is the 50 year court history determining the scope of free speech rights in shopping malls.  Dahlia Lithwick wrote about it back in 2003 for Slate:  Why Can Shopping Malls Limit Free Speech?

In the online space, the usual response is that anyone can open their own blog, and so on.  But it's not the tools argument that interests me anymore, it's the idea that in the States the idea of "personal property" so outweighs the idea of communal ownership that even for left-leaning folks, it's the dominant paradigm.  The few exceptions, like in trademark law, are so unique as to stand out.

Hail, Columbia

So my alma mater made the news these past few days.  Rushing a stage full of Minutemen stupidity.  And there's been mixed reactions in the media, but mostly along the lines of "free speech" blah blah blah.

And I think the emails exchanges among my fellow graduates has been pretty consistent.  And I will resort to pop reference to describe that reaction.

On one side, in the audience, you got the Blues Brothers.

On the other side, on the stage, you got Illinois Nazis.

"I hate Illinois Nazis."

Political Spam

So, last week, I sent off emails to both Florida Senators, Martinez and Nelson, asking them to vote against the "Torture Is American Now" Law.  Even though I specified I didn;t really want or need a response, they both sent responses.  Martinez's office the next day, Nelson's a number of days later.   Both repsonses were canned junk, basically.

So today, I discover I've been added to the Martinez junk mail newsletter list.

Did I want it?  No.  Did I sign up for it?  No.  Was it even presented as an opt-ouit option?  No.

Nothing like showing off your crappy attitude toward your constituents by signing them up for your spam without their consent.  Only second-rate companies and marketing groups would do somehting like that.  And most marketers who care about their users make mailings opt-in instead of opt-out.

Oh, and sending email to their unsubscribe address produces an error.  I suspect I'll be getting this POS newsletter on a regular basis from the Martinez office. 

I've sent emails to other reps of mine, and this has never happened before.  Even the campaigns I've donated money to didn't sign me up for a newletter without my opt-in.  Of course, that was in Indiana, where there are rigourous laws against spam activity, even for politicos.

I guess if you're a Senator from Florida, you follow different, inconsiderate and rude, rules.  Good to know.  I'll be curious to see if anything comes in unasked for from the Nelson office.

Oh, and of course, both of 'em voted to give George Bush the ability to skip out on the treaty obligations of the Geneva Convention.  Building a bridge to the 10th Century.  I suspect they'll tear it down behind us, too.

Lieberman and the Echo Chamber

I suddenly realized why the political blogs' obsession with Joe Lieberman is boring the hell out of me.  It's more NYC-area inside baseball, and matters to me much less than the fact that Bill Nelson appears to be a bit of a twerp, or that Baron Hill may reclaim his congressional seat from a horrible tool like Mike Sodrel; or that Joe Donnelly has a good chance to unseat a smirking twerp like Chris Chocola (in my old district).

In my own district (Fla. 22nd), I would like Clay Shaw to go away, but it doesn't seem like Ron Klein is going to do it.  State Sen. Jeff Atwater:  oh boy.  There might be an interesting race between Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Republican who focuses on child welfare issues, and Christian Chiari, the Democrat who has lots of experiencw with environmental issues.  But we'll see.

But read yet another screed about Joe Lieberman?  I'd rather read about paint drying, let alon watch it.

Water Wars

Someone on Metafilter just started the following discussion.  Might be of interest, though who knows how much light versus heat will be generated.  Early indicaitons are, um, mixed.

Water wars
August 13, 2006 5:04 PMLots of people seem to think that the biggest conflicts of the 21st century will be over water. So, putting on the futurist glasses for a moment, in the next two decades, say, where will those battles be fought - who will be on either side - and how will they play out?
posted by gottabefunky to society & culture (25 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

 

Broward Water Restrictions Considered in Broward

I've been waiting for this one for a while now.  Just like in drought-ridden Australia, alternate ways of conserving and re-using water are on the agenda.

Broward officials consider permanent restrictions on water lawns, washing cars
By Scott Wyman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted June 15 2006

Residents across Broward County may face permanent limits on when they can water lawns and wash cars, while cities could be forced to reuse wastewater rather than just dispose of it.

It's all because South Florida is rapidly running out of a ready source of water.

Managers of the South Florida Water Management District told county commissioners during a meeting Wednesday that the era of a cheap and convenient water supply is at an end. The area's explosive growth and the ongoing restoration of the Everglades will require communities to conserve more and find alternative sources of water, district officials said.

"There is no more free water," district board member Malcolm "Bubba" Wade said. "It's not out there anymore."

Corruption

Here's something I've never understood.  Why is it that Democratic corruption, like with the Daley Machine, usually reaches some basic level of competence in municipal service.  (Not always, known as the "Bilandic Exception".)  And when the Democratic corruption leads to unacceptable levels of incompetence, people get fired, go to jail, get kicked out of office.  But Republican incompetence and corruption usually gets ignored or rewarded.

OK, wait, there's the George Ryan Exception.

Buildings

So, I saw this image in the papers this morning.  Cranes, cranes, cranes, but much less attractive buildings.

Turns out that some of these tall construction cranes in the world are in Iraq, building a massive US compound.  Leaving aside every other aspect of that story, I wish the buildings were at least interesting-looking.  Why can't US Government builders hire crazy architects to build unique buildings instead of slabs of concrete?  If your ambition is to be Rome, then you should build something that people will be interested in touring 2000 years from now.