The Coup in America

I am tentatively pleased that the attempted coup in the United States of America, the one that would install Hank Paulson as acting leader of the American Junta, is running into problems. The first laugh I’ve had from the whole situation came from the image attached to this NPR story. I’m very proud of Christopher Dodd for staring down the Bush Administration on this point. He is the hero of this Congress, and I wish he was the majority leader rather than Harry Reid. Every point where the Democrats looked like they’d do their standard act of caving in to threats and then ended up hanging tough and fighting, Christopher Dodd was involved, sometimes the only one standing up.

Here is a copy of Dodd’s proposed bailout legislation via the Sunlight Foundation. Compared to the original floated, which would have made any congressional or judicial oversight illegal, it is a damn sight better. You can annotate and leave your comments over there, which I encourage anyone to do who has the time to do. I just heard Larry Lessig’s talk about the Sunlight Foundation the other day, and it was fantastic. This is the first legislation that I’ve seen it in action, and this my friends is what democracy in the 21st century should look like.

Update: Whoops, didn’t actually include the link to Dodd’s marked up legislation. Thanks to Adam for pointing that out.

EGC Clambake for December 30, 2005

Here is the Bittorrent link and direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for December 30, 2005.

We say goodbye to our current sponsors; goodbye iPod Observer; I play a song by the Dresden Dolls; I discuss the change in the Creative Commons license on this show; I play a song by Lauren Hoffman; I talk about Lessig and how the high costs of music licensing will alter how music gets used in TV show and films; please use AmigoFish; I play a forthcoming song by Michelle Malone; should auld acquaintance be forgot, etc.

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This episode is sponsored in part — for the last time — by the fine folks at iPod Observer and Reel Reviews! To sponsor the show, contact BackBeat Media.

Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package. For the month of December, $25 of your purchase goes to the Mercy Corps.

This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5.

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Clambake Episode for July 24, 2005

Here is the Bittorrent link and direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for July 24, 2005.

Today is Rocket City Riot day, with our weekly interview and song from John Mark King; I talk about doing interviews via Skype; I play an out of context quote I find funny; I talk about and play a song by the Kropotkins, whilst pointing out how comforting I found it to live close to Mo Tucker from the Velvet Underground; Wired Jesus is responding to my show about god; I play competing clips from David Coursey and Lawrence Lessig; out of time, must go.

Once again, I didn’t quite complete one of the main thoughts. When I was saying that the big media guys make a big deal about how the amateurs aren’t as good as the pros (which I suggested be filed under “no shit Sherlock”), the conclusion that I didn’t say was “that the pros are relying on that fact for their livelihood, they should be frightened at how close the amateurs are to them in quality and the speed with which they are closing the gap.”

Don’t forget, you can fly your EGC flag by buying the stuff package.

This show as a whole is Creative Commons licensed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0.

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