We didn’t all jump on the idea that the popular vote was why Bush was illegitimate. Maybe you did; maybe you thought the only valid reason had to be that. But that wasn’t it. Making an argument against the electoral college is not the key.

This is the key reason for what was wrong: it was close and questionable, hence a recount was called for.

When James Baker went down to Florida in 2000 and ranted that computers were more accurate, he was conning us all. In the field of information quality, the principle is that you can’t assess or assure accuracy through automation — only people comparing a recording against a real world entity or an event in real time, can assure accuracy.

It’s still the same BS, on a massive scale now, with election boards across the country insisting on non-verifiable voting machines. In Florida, they are now in the position of not being able to obey their own laws for recounts.

Privately controlled black boxes have been implemented across the country, and the patterns showing up are suggesting systematic gaming towards Republican candidates.

See the following: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

“Is USA the country of freedom, like free in free speech or free beer ?”

No, never was.. Especially in the FantasyWorld called “Blogaria”. There is no free lunch applies, but Dr. Lessig refuses to see Reality… Doc Searls knows that much, it is NOT free as in free beer. Linux, for example, is quite expensive.

And the “free as in speech” was a scam designed to create a quasi-legal monopoly for “free” and “free”-this and “free”-that. Which is part of the now-debunked (to some) social-philosophy-movement-cult of “free love”, still hanging around, btw..). And this “free”-everthing movement sells well, obviously, which I presume is why Dr. Lessig and many others continue to collect social-capital (iow, POWER) by continuing to support the movement, btw. But it is YAM (yet another monopoly).. and even more expand it to “free culture”..? Why is the funding for arts in K-12 getting cut, if it’s “free”…??

THESE MEME’S FLOATING ARE BULL MANURE, as you would expect, as IT (Info Tech) FLOATS ON WATER these days.

Call it a troll, or call it the facts… PLEASE do not call this an opinion.

“The 9/11 was a second Pearl Harbour. You were shocked and we too, but not in the same way. It was really a tragic-human-tragedy. But no, US people is not invicible, so sorry.”

My first word on this subject has to do with the lame technique to fight comment spam bots (the pros just shift the page over to someplace off-shore for somebody to key in the keyword, is my understanding)… As well as this comment.

Dr. Lessig, these are the guys you Dems have been and are (and presumably will continue to be) supporting.

Um, yeah Americans always knew they weren’t invincible, and didn’t need 9-11 to point that out, “thank you”… Yup, “thank you very much” for this insight…)-;

That would be YOU placing Americans on a pedestal, JUST so you can FEEL GOOD about knocking down one-a the mean-ole bad authoritarian-archetypes that’s a bother to you (in fact) and your comfortable lifestyle (presumably, if you live in G-8 and have the time to float around the “Blogosphere”.. some of “us” living more comfortably than others, I’d note..).

Yup, you Dems crack me up, and I couldn’t read the rest of the comments. Just sick to my stomach to think that we’ll have to wait 4 more years to kick the crap outta some-a this nonsense.

And probably 4 more years after that to kick the crap outta the most-a the rest of the nonsense.

Dr. Lessig you quoted “adamsj” but you quoted the feel-good (as if I would expect anything left outta you leftist pretend-feel-goods, btw…)-;, but didn’t quote the main points that ACTUALLY signify:

“I don’t know.”

“Kerry needs to fight this out, on grounds both of principle and of pragmatism.”

In actual fact, Mr. Kerry took the pragmatic course which was conceed. Why was he supposed to follow the role of Joan d’Arc, just to fight YOUR ALL’S Freudian battles?!? Even in RETROspect a LOTTA people have essentially “no clue” but a WHOLE LOTTA “ClueTrain”, while they imply that the pretty-vast majority ..(you say (approx) first time re-elected Prez gained seats in Congress in 68 years?)..

Well, you’ve probably seen the implications that the wrong result took place, more times than not.

Called “selective (cough) ‘vision'” is what that’s called. AKA blogomania.

Dr. Lessig, mebbe somebody pointed out the ENTIRE ERROR IN “adamsj” in these comments, but you didn’t in your quote, not one bit:

There were many.. (2many..;-)… (Mr. Gore?, gimme a break.. Backed Dean, if you recall, and Dean was a BIGGER LOSER (voting-wise and wisdom-wise, both).. You think he helped the Dems, in the polls?!? Besides, if he’d had the guts to run, there was 200 years of Electoral College History that “guaranteed” he’d-a won, which is what I was waiting for for 4 years, btw, but ended up voting for Mr. Bush… But then that same “guarantee” WAS in place for Mr. Kerry’s campaign and the ACTUAL RESULT was Rather astounding, if you observe…)-; MAIN Point of this paragraph is this:

“I lied to her.”

Only if you presumed you were omniscent, which seems to be a character flaw inherent in Libertarians and the Libbers who have taken over the Democratic Party.

Btw, you gonna delete this post Dr. Lessig *AND then ban me like most-all your buddies in the blogosphere?

Jes wondering, and wondering how that is..

..you know….
….given the pretenses you hide behind, like liberty and truth and freedom of speech and freedom of religion and all that.

You DON’T wonder about these things, I’m guessing, Dr. Lessing?

~~

(Btw, OT: What I also wonder is DID YOU post anything remotely resembling what has been ascribed in your name, over at Dan Gillmor’s pseudo-“place”-actual-website?)

~~

PS You have my email Dr. Lessig, if you choose to explain why you are deleting my post and/or banning me and/or supporting those who do, btw.

PPS Why does it say, BOTH, you have to type “human” and now it says you have to type “agree”.. all caps just to be cute no less so get another error…? Is this “Open” Source “soft”ware by any chance?

It was obvious for me from the beginning that Kerry is not a leader. I used to stick “engineer” label to him. Leader can lead – but it would take hell a lot of time of good engineer to repair country after that kind of leadership.

Kerry is quiet – he is using words only when needed. He knows the value of words. Bush on contrary speaks a lot and speaks in language close to many. Bush is exactly who can become popular. On contrary I bet some people were afraid of Kerry coming since he will put them from their rests into hard work.

You can try to focus on policies – but you will lose popularity contest all the time. It is not policies which made this elections. You americans still cannot learn from your mistakes of wars you are fighting all the time. For me it is old clear philosophical paradigm: to strengthen community from inside, it need enemies outside. Best times of US were when it has large enough enemy – USSR. And believe me (as to someone who have been born, grown and lived in USSR) USSR had gain much of its power from opposition of US and Western Europe. Not that people truly believed in all that communism crap or feared capitalism. But it just makes you to truly value friends and relatives, And it gives you The Goal. USSR is no more. US needs urgently new enemies. Make other conclusions by yourselves.

I can add only, that it occurs to me that compared to totalitarism of USSR, under western democracies including US people have not much more freedom. (I’m living in Germany now – so that my own feeling and experience). The difference is that you are made to believe that you have traded willingly your freedom for security. While back then behind “Iron Curtain” in USSR few have had such illusions.

The President’s recent comments regarding political capital should motivate us to never “let it go” while he is in office. That is exactly what they want. President Bush and his administration are cold, calculating individuals whose motivations are self-serving. I personally believe they would stop at nothing to attain what they want (they have shown that in many ways) and wouldn’t be surprised if this election was somehow engineered to their desired results. This man and his followers can not be trusted.

It’s going to be very hard to win if the other guy claims he’s more moral, and you don’t do anything about it.

For instance, under a pro-choice president, Bill Clinton, number of abortions per year declined in U.S. Under an anti-abortion president, George W. Bush, number of abortions performed actually increased considerably.

And of course, ‘socially deviant’ Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. Texas, and most of the bible belt, ranks rather poorly.

As for Kerry, we can say a lot of things about him. But he was neither articulate nor clear on many issues. With Bush, you had the illusion that you were being told exactly what you were getting.

“The conservative answer was: small government, a strong military, and strong communities. Sounds pretty good to me. Is there anyone who doesn�t want those things? As long as Democrats are seen as the party of big government, wimpy defense, and fractured families, they will lose every single time. ” –Katherine

That may have been the conservative “MARKETING”, dear, but that has not been the conservative “answer”, if you look at the stats. Under Bush, these past four years, our national debt has snowballed and so has the size of the government. The money poured into contracters has increased (trust me, I know all about this one, Brown & Root was a client of mine), but our defense has been used as target practice. They have not been given a decent strategy in the Middle East and we are actually pulling defense resources away from areas which are much scarier than Iraq could ever be. I’m a Christian and in pastoral care, so I happen to know that fractured familes are EVERYWHERE…no matter the political party. Families thrive when they are in well-paying jobs, which they got from competing on a level playing field with the best of education for everyone, when basic needs such as shelter and healthcare are taken care of, and neighborhoods are made safer. This administration has done as much as it can to concentrate these basic resources for a few people, not the most people. If you want to begin living some real family values within a faith, pick up a copy of Sojourners and begin teaching that lying, negative ads and hiding information to protect yourself is not okay. And that using religion has an advertising tagline makes you a Pharisee, not Christ-like.

Dr. Albert Piacente addresses these issues in his new book “Complete The American Revolution!: What 9-11, Corporate Scandal And The 2000 Presidential Election Have In Common And What We Can Do About It”

I would like to recommend here that the Democrat party take a look at this book and find an entirely new approach to their platform. Offer America something distinguishable and different that is grounded in the democratic ideals of our founders. Kick-start progress in political thinking globally that will empower and improve.

All who seem to support Kerry, but dislike the electoral college, you should think of it as collective-bargaining for voters. Forcing workers to join a union to transact business with a certain employer is no different than forcing all the votes of one state to swing for one candidate. Both are destructive of liberty, compulsory unionism and democracy, and both will be with us for a long time.