Corante references a Financial Times piece wherein James Boyle points out how the world would greet such an open technology today. He closes with:

Why might we not create the web today? The web became hugely popular too quickly to control. The lawyers and policymakers and copyright holders were not there at the time of its conception. What would they have said, had they been? What would a web designed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation or the Disney Corporation have looked like? It would have looked more like pay-television, or Minitel, the French computer network. Beforehand, the logic of control always makes sense.”Allow anyone to connect to the network? Anyone to decide what content to put up? That is a recipe for piracy and pornography.” And of course it is. But it is also much, much more. The lawyers have learnt their lesson now. The regulation of technological development proceeds apace. When the next disruptive communications technology — the next worldwide web — is thought up, the lawyers and the logic of control will be much more evident. That is not a happy thought.

New polls show Bush is at about 60% disapproval, his poorest approval rating yet — far lower, for example, than that Evil Pervert Clinton, who actually had high approval ratings the day he was impeached by a vengeful GOP.

This brings up a question, though: how low can Bush’s ratings really go? What percentage of people will approve of him no matter what? Slacktivist has some possible answers, but the one that sticks for me comes from Kung Fu Monkey:

John: Hey, Bush is now at 37 percent approval. I feel much less like Kevin McCarthy screaming in traffic. But I wonder what his base is — Tyrone: 27 percent. John: … you said that immmediately, and with some authority. Tyrone: Obama vs. Alan Keyes. Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27 percent of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. Hell, even like 5 percent of Democrats voted for him. That’s crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27 percent Crazification Factor in any population. John: Objectively crazy or crazy vis-a-vis my own inertial reference frame for rational behavior? I mean, are you creating the Theory of Special Crazification or General Crazification? Tyrone: Hadn’t thought about it. Let’s split the difference. Half just have worldviews which lead them to disagree with what you consider rationality even though they arrive at their positions through rational means, and the other half are the core of the Crazification — either genuinely crazy; or so woefully misinformed about how the world works, the bases for their decision making is so flawed they may as well be crazy. John: You realize this leads to there being over 30 million crazy people in the US? Tyrone: Does that seem wrong? John: … a bit low, actually. cite

Fred goes on to point out that Dick Cheney’s current approval rating is a stunning NINETEEN percent, i.e., well below the political Mendoza line reference above, which means that even the raving nutbird looneys who voted for Keyes can’t stomach him.

Harry Reid has forced the Senate into a closed session to discuss the manipulation of Iraqi war intelligence.

The GOP, of course, insists it’s a publicity stunt, and that the Democrats have “no convictions,” which is an odd choice of words considering the looming conviction of at least Scooter Libby on their side.

(Heh.)

Anyway, Pandagon has the text of the speech Reid gave as he called for said session.

Religious zealots are opposing the widespread use of a vaccine for HPV — which implies a widespread prevention of malignancies — on the grounds that it might make teens more promiscuous.

Clearly, they feel that cervical cancer is better than teen sex.