January 5, 2012

There were 5 posts published on January 5, 2012 (this is page 1 of 1).

Highlights of 2011: Adventures at the NCGA

How does this get me a job?

Y’all knew it wouldn’t take long for me to bring up politics in my Highlights list, didn’t y’all? This year had me doing more at the General Assembly, mostly fighting an old battle but also jumping into a new one.

My long-running efforts to protect broadband competition continued in 2011, though this time my luck ran out when the NCGA (with Perdue’s help) passed a law to block other municipalities from providing their own Internet services to their citizens. Some otherwise good legislators like Sen. Josh Stein and Rep. Rosa Gill bought into the pro-business hype and voted for the ban, to my disappointment. I think many supporters of the ban simply didn’t realize what was at stake, in spite of the opinion piece I got published in the News and Observer. (Note: I neglected to add my op-ed to my blog until now).
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Cheap Thoughts: virtual citizenship

My Dutch friend and former coworker Guus Bosman was quoted in this Economist article about dual citizenship.

It made me think again that, in such an interconnected world, we may one day choose our citizenship by the way we now choose hotel and airfare rates on sites like Priceline.com: by comparison shopping online. Citizenship will become like today’s flags of convenience. Borders are becoming less important, are they not?

It’s not something I expect to live to see, of course, but it does make an interesting thought experiment!

AT THE height of the Dutch golden age, merchants exported their goods and their families to colonies on four continents. Four centuries later their descendants are less impressed by such adventuring. A new law proposed by the Dutch government aims not only to limit dual nationality among immigrants (in 2011 around 20,000 people gained Dutch nationality through naturalisation) but also to make it easier for the authorities to strip members of the 850,000-plus Dutch diaspora of their nationality, should they secure a second citizenship abroad.

Guus Bosman, a Dutchman living in Washington, DC, calls the proposal “mean-spirited”. Eelco Keij, a Dutch citizen in New York and one of the loudest critics of his government’s proposals, thinks that these days dual nationality is no more than “a harmless side-effect of globalisation”.

via Dual citizenship: Dutchmen grounded | The Economist.

Rick Santorum’s foggy thinking

Politico is taking a look at Republican Presidential nominee Rick Santorum’s past push to restrict the National Weather Service’s ability to get its data to the public.

Weather doesn’t show up as a top issue on Santorum’s presidential campaign website, and AccuWeather doesn’t appear in his 2012 campaign donations. But some of his opponents, such as the liberal website Daily Kos, have tried to revive memories of the 2005 legislation this week — including with headlines claiming inaccurately that Santorum had tried to “abolish” the weather service.

In fact, Santorum’s failed legislation would have left the weather service intact, although with significantly reduced ability to distribute its information directly to the public.

Critics of the bill say the legislation reflects an outdated worldview — one that says government data should flow through profit-making middlemen, rather than being released freely to one and all.

I used to work at a commercial weather forecasting company, so I’m aware of the commercial value of weather data. That said, I thought in 2005 that it was stupid to make the public buy data that it’s already paid for through its taxes and I still feel that way today. Santorum’s bill was about as dumb as they come, and the fact that he didn’t see any harm in hobbling one of the most valuable government services speaks volumes about him and the type of leader he is.

via Rick Santorum’s campaign could be clouded by 7-year-old attack on National Weather Service – Bob King – POLITICO.com.

Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually – Forbes

Larry Downes of Fortune skewers Best Buy. And he’s right on every point.

Going to Best Buy has turned into a chore. It’s just a matter of time before it goes bankrupt and joins the list of former retailers.

Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.

But the numbers only scratch the surface. To discover the real reasons behind the company’s decline, just take this simple test. Walk into one of the company’s retail locations or shop online. And try, really try, not to lose your temper.

via Why Best Buy is Going out of Business…Gradually – Forbes.

The newly revealed arrogance

Shameful indeed. If there was any question before, it’s obvious now that cooperation and bipartisanship in the North Carolina General Assembly ain’t gonna happen as long as Thom Tillis and Phil Berger are in charge. Time to call these guys out for being the morally-bankrupt assholes they are.

It is hard to know where to start in describing the fiasco that was the North Carolina General Assembly Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

The word that comes quickly to mind is arrogance. And not just because the Republican leadership abused their power, went back on their word, cut off debate, and refused to disclose what would be discussed at a special session held at 12:45 in the morning when they announced it just 90 minutes before.

And it is not just because they physically blocked a reporter from asking questions about their ridiculous manipulation of the legislative process or used irrelevant examples of past legislative actions to defend the way they held the General Assembly hostage to their partisan whims, at one point even showing a college football game on the voting board in the House during the recess, while legislative leaders hatched their schemes in their corner offices.

via The newly revealed arrogance | NC Policy Watch.