Carl Setzer

Read " The man who drove us into our national ditch " this morning, by Michael Smerconish . Though focused upon a particular "shock-jock" (Morton Downey, Jr.), it touched on the whole spectrum of political rhetoric in the United States. And reminded me of recent thoughts about the current state of US public discourse. One of the points that Mr. Smerconish makes gave me deep pause: we are in uniquely extreme times in terms of political divide. First, I'm reminded of the long-standing uncivil thread within our political conversations. Consider the Jefferson/Adams campaign of 1800 and the Jackson/Adams campaign of 1824, amongst others. Political rhetoric and person invective have been part of our public banter as long as we've been, well, us. Also look to the uncivil history of English politics to get further context at our roots. Smerconish, though, points to research by the National Journal pointing to truly historical levels of division.  I feel this to...

We watched this TED Talk last night. Very powerful, especially if you care about North Korea. It's very helpful to remember that those North Koreans we're talking about are people, with families, with loved ones. The ideal regime change would factor those elements in. Sadly, I expect that freeing North Korea will involve a significant loss of life.

I am excited by this project: Mayday , creating a crowdsourced SuperPac to end all SuperPacs (SuperDuperPac?). I've long admired Larry's work , and also have been concerned by cash's influence in politics. For me, this has the potential to be a profound pivotal moment of the internet age and social media driven democracy. This coming Monday (June 16) at 8:00 pm EASTERN time, Mr. Lessig and Amanda Palmer will be hosting a video conversation that I expect will be very much worth your time. If I can at all make this work with my calendar, I will be online for this. Update: Here's some recommended "pre-reading":  1) http:// thebea.st/UhhBVV   2) http:// bit.ly/MD-TNR   3) http:// bit.ly/MD-Medium  

I was recently engaged in an online debate about sexual shaming  as a response to "disagreement", or a dislike for reporting. In the discussion, the focus, Amy Harmon with the NYTimes asked me to look at her GMO story with fresh eyes . And so I tired. A bit of background is important at this point. I have years of experience on the "con" side of this issue. I've worked in environmental affairs, been involved with myriad environmental action groups; hell, I drive a Prius. And I've read over the years the stories about increased cancer risk, Monstanto's seed police, contaminated soils, and myriad other concerns. Yet I also recognize science evolves, that what we understand about any particular subject gathers more information, different analyses; that the scientific consensus may change. Plus, I'm willing to admit that I am often within an political echo-chamber, where truly hearing other voices can be rather difficult. With that, I decided to re...

Years ago, I sat watching the tv, an early twenty-something sailor on leave in Oregon, sitting in the living-room of a shipmate's uncle. I'd lived some: spent some time in college before dropping out, studied music in college, managed a pizza place, went off to a vocational program on Oregon (I lived on the Oregon coast when I joined the Navy). Yet I was still quite naive in my world view. Through an odd series of fateful twists, I am now back in Oregon in this Portland suburb. On the television was Rush. I'd never seen nor heard of him to that point. Mesmerized, I digested the whole show. It resonated, but not uncertain exactly why. I had long felt a core of anger, perhaps he captured that. I knew there were problems in the world. Limbaugh pointed fault at "them"; whether those dreadful welfare moms, criminals or other nefarious destroyers of our way of life. Perhaps it was easy to follow along, these weren't people I knew. Or at least realized I did. It...

I just read a piece over at Cross-Cut about the Perugia Public Prosecutor's use of his office to harass members of the press . Let me start by stating, though I reside in Seattle, I have no skin the Amanda Know case. I don't know Ms. Knox or her family, and have no standing to offer any critique of the case, either pro or con (so please, I don't care to debate it...not my bailiwick, so to speak). So, this is not about the murder case. No, it's much bigger: freedom of the press. This cornerstone of democracy looks to be under serious threat in Italy. I find it particularly disturbing that Mr. Mignini, the aforementioned prosecutor, an agent of the government, is so aggressively seeking to undermine core democratic underpinnings. This is someone who has an inherent responsibility towards these principles. To see him trample upon them pains me deeply. The destructive impact of this in manifold, and not just in Italy. The Committee To Protect Journalists has written to...

I can't help being liberal, and wouldn't if I could. That's the heart I've been given. Compassion is my core directive. It's where I try to focus. I often fail, but the call remains. I'm weary, though, of those "conservatives" somehow deciding compassion is a moral weakness. That demanding equality for all is "ungodly". Expecting all people to be treated with dignity is evil. What is wrong with them?

I've spent part of the morning following the Twitter dialog (Twitterlog?) about the Iranian elections and the ensuing protests (I'm following two threads: #Iranelection and #Tehran . Even with the media black-out, these postings are coming with amazing speed. It, literally, is impossible to keep up. Hundreds of posts per minute, perhaps thousands. With this, certainly, will be a huge amount of bad information, as well as deliberate mis-information. However, within this will be solid pieces of truth. Powerful, indeed. And here lies how this medium has changed the world. A totalitarian regime can't suppress this much information. Thousands of voices, reaching out instantly. Pretty much a game of whack-a-mole on the government's end. Sadly, those "moles" who get whacked with get it hard, I'm certain. Besides Twitter, Flickr has an amazing stream of images, YouTube has videos, Digg is going crazy...so much, so very fast. Opposition now has a powerful, globa...

Every time I hear an anti-gay-marriage supporter ad, or read anything they've written, I become more puzzled by their "logic". I was hoping this was a farcical piece, but it appears not . I'm just stunned.

Last week, as many of you are aware, Obama gave a speech to which the Republican Governor of Louisiana gave the official reply. The statement which gives me the most consternation is his condemnation of $14 million (though he gives the amount as $140 million) for volcano monitoring. Now, perhaps if you live in a place without such, you might be inclined to view this as pork (however, if you live in a state that depends heavily on federal hurricane monitoring , you'd think you might be more sympathetic). However, as someone who lives nearby several , I'm not amused, but Krugman's response sums up my views nicely. Why is the Republican party so hell-bent on becoming the party of knee-jerk irrational though and stupid commentary? Time and time again Bush has worked hard to ensure any shred of respect I struggled to find was eroded. Then we had Palin, and now this (there are other pieces at play, too, but I don't want to get too long-winded). Once upon a time I was a Rep...

So, I just now read the NYTimes piece about McCain’s Convention speech . Sorry, but pretty much everything he is claiming here is nonsense. He’s going to end partisan rancor? I guess by that he means “after the election”. Or does he only mean that done by the nasty Democrats; Republican invective is not really partisan? It was HIS convention that was laden with partisan jibes, and his VP choice who was the second most rancorous in the parade of bitter characters ( Giuliani taking the gold in nasty, partisan invective. I suppose that his ridicule of “hope” shouldn’t surprise me, but the whole thing just saddened me). With this, why is Palin-as-VP some sort of consummation of his maverickness? Other than her gender, she offers nothing new, nothing mavericky. She is lock-step in line with her party, and loves the dirty tricks perfected by Delay and Gingrich. This pharasitical attitude about being a guardian of virtue who is somehow exempted from common decency is hardly innovativ...

Here’s my response to this article/survey ( online at the Seattle PI ). The Question: What's the best option for the viaduct? Gov. Gregoire seems to have resuscitated the possibility for a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Have you decided what transportation option you want on the waterfront? If not, what information do you need in order to come to a decision? Looking over the debate, the mayor only seems to be concerned about the beautification aspects of this whole debate. I'm bothered by the fact that few folks are mentioning the economic impact of tunnel construction, how we will mitigate the effects of this roadway being inaccessible for nearly a decade, or, of course, the justification of the extra expense. The tunnel hasn't been sold to me, at least. Personally, I’m worried that this project has not been thought through. The economic impacts for areas such as Ballard and immense, and haven’t been publicly addressed/discussed. May...