Kaboom!

December 1, 2005 9:30 AM

Pete Ashdown, the founder of Utah's oldest ISP, is apparently crazy enough to challenge Orrin Hatch's reelection. Ashdown descided to run when he heard Hatch propose that p2p user's computers should be required to explode (see also the INDUCE Act). Ashdown's campaign is the first to wikify its platform & strategy. Boing boing has endorsed him.
posted by jeffburdges (40 comments total)

It seems Orrin Hatch had originally supported P2P networks, but was later bought by the RIAA & MPAA.

Hatch won his original congressional seat in the U.S. Senate in 1977, campaigning for Senate term limits. The incumbent Sen. Frank Moss had two term, Hatch is seeking a 6th.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:32 AM on December 1, 2005

Sounds good and all, but doesn't Hatch pretty much own the state's votes?

I'd like nothing more than to see Hatch go down in a flaming heap. Maybe I'll move to Utah so I can not vote for him.
posted by Item at 9:37 AM on December 1, 2005

Good for him. I wish more people would run for office. That being said, he needs to work on his policy statements. The Economy tends to be more important thing to Americans. Here is his statement on what his policy with regards to the Economy is:

The United States of America has historically been an economic superpower and an innovator of technology. We harnessed electricity, invented the light-bulb and the television, but what have we produced lately?

The United States is in dire danger as we are being surpassed by other countries on the industrial front. We developed the first railroad system, but China, Germany, and Japan are developing trains that float with no moving parts. We industrialized around the steam and internal combustion engines, but remain stuck in high gear on fossil fuels. Meanwhile the international community is closing in on energy production through fusion, and guess where the first operating plant is being built -- not in the U.S.A. The Chinese are gearing up to clean our clock economically with no oil dependence at all.

Other countries are now surpassing the United States with innovation. We need to have the courage to reverse this trend.

Not exactly a nuanced position. All he is saying is that we need innovate more without telling us how and why. Not mention of tax or monetary policy or trade. And why does he seem to suggest fusion technology is an example of something the US should be leading on, when his other positions make it clear he is against nuclear power? I don't really understand that difference of opinion.
posted by dios at 9:38 AM on December 1, 2005

Well, fusion power does not use plutonium or other heavy, radioactive metals, and it dosn't produce nearly as much radioactive waste (what does exist is caused by reactor parts being made radioactive).

That said, fear of nuclear power is mostly irrational from my pserspective.
posted by delmoi at 9:43 AM on December 1, 2005

dios writes "And why does he seem to suggest fusion technology is an example of something the US should be leading on, when his other positions make it clear he is against nuclear power?"

Yeah, fusion and fission are completely different in terms of the risks involved in obtaining fuel and disposing of waste: fusion is much, much cleaner.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:47 AM on December 1, 2005

Actually, if you'd read further down, you'd see that he says plenty about taxation, trade, and technology.

This is nice to see, but I'm turned off by the fact that he's for a flat-tax.

Still, a nice model of how the net can be used to provide a clear message. People can read for themselves rather than wait for scripted policy speeches.
posted by bardic at 9:50 AM on December 1, 2005

Well, that makes sense then. I admit woefully ignorant on the specifics of nuclear power with respect to fusion vs. fission, so thanks for giving me the brief explanation of the difference.
posted by dios at 9:51 AM on December 1, 2005

Actually, if you'd read further down, you'd see that he says plenty about taxation, trade, and technology.

Ahh...

I was looking here: http://vote.peteashdown.org/issues/

But now I see more policy statements on the wiki. I still don't see much on fiscal and monetary policy and think his policies need to show more nuance. I think that is unfortunate because running for senate as a younger person with no political experience, one has to show some serious chops on policy. But I do like the fact that he is showing the potential for running for office by utilizing compartively costless campaign. Hopefully more people will do this, even though I doubt the people who do will have any chance of winning for awhile.
posted by dios at 9:59 AM on December 1, 2005

I think Pete is a great guy, but nobody's going to beat Orrin Hatch (even though he's a pompous carpetbagging swine who reportedly enjoys bondage sessions featuring hot wax being dripped ontp his scrotum).
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:00 AM on December 1, 2005

"Hatch let France out bid the U.S. to host ITER" seems like a pretty smart campaign move. Hatch's republican may campaign on "Hatch let them truck nuclear waste through Utah," so being anti-classical-nuke might be profitable too.

bardic, A lot of people support flat-tax simply out of opposition to the current beurocrasy, and as a way to prevent the wealthy from finding loopholes. You might also check out the proposal for "progressive corporate taxes" on his Talk:Taxation page. If bigger companies paid a higher precentage, it would be harder to be a monopoly.
posted by jeffburdges at 10:00 AM on December 1, 2005

ontp onto
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:00 AM on December 1, 2005

The other key diference is of course that fusion doesn't work. It's been fifty years away for quite a while.
posted by biffa at 10:01 AM on December 1, 2005

The other key diference is of course that fusion doesn't work. It's been fifty years away for quite a while.

It depends on what you mean by "dosn't work". It works great for bombs, now we just need to figure out how to get a controlled reaction.

Or we could build a giant, hydrogen bomb powered piston engine. How cool would that be?
posted by delmoi at 10:05 AM on December 1, 2005

(even though he... enjoys bondage sessions featuring hot wax being dripped ontp his scrotum).
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:00 PM CST on December 1

Who doesn't?
posted by dios at 10:09 AM on December 1, 2005

delmoi : Or we could build a giant, hydrogen bomb powered piston engine. How cool would that be?

Er, very very warm in fact.
posted by ny_scotsman at 10:25 AM on December 1, 2005

Or we could build a giant, hydrogen bomb powered piston engine. How cool would that be?

Not unlike Project Orion.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:29 AM on December 1, 2005

But now I see more policy statements on the wiki.

From the front page of the wiki:

This site is not intended to be an official pronouncement of policy endorsed by Pete Ashdown. Instead, it is public forum where we, the public, can create what we feel is good policy. Each page can be edited by you or anyone else, and each edit is tracked, so Pete and anyone else can view all changes and input to each discussion, no matter what content gets changed or overwritten. Pete (and his campaign staff) monitor these pages to help keep vandalism out, and Pete uses the input from these pages to form his official policy, which can be found on his official campaign web site at http://pashdown.org/issues.

posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:34 AM on December 1, 2005

nobody's going to beat Orrin Hatch (even though he... reportedly enjoys bondage sessions featuring hot wax being dripped ontp his scrotum).

Sounds like boingboing is going to be a house divided. Cory is for Ashdown, while Xeni is for Hatch.
posted by crunchland at 10:40 AM on December 1, 2005

Re: Nuance.

I think "I want your computer to be exploded if you use p2p"

Vs.

"I do not want your computer to be exploded if you use p2p"

Is enough nuance for me.
posted by Lord_Pall at 10:53 AM on December 1, 2005

Anything that has BoingBoing's approval can't be good. I wish I lived in Utah so I could vote for Hatch.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 11:14 AM on December 1, 2005

Cory is for Ashdown, while Xeni is for Hatch.

Like me, Cory is Canadian. While I agree wholeheartedly with the vast majority of his opinions regarding IP, the creative commons, and so forth, I wish that he and other fellow citizens would shut the fuck up and quit endorsing candidates in foreign nations. It never helps.

If Xeni supports Hatch and Cory wants to support Ashdown, he'll simply delete any post or link of Xeni's that supports Hatch. Better still, he'll just drop her from the editorial board like a hot rock as she hasn't contributed anything useful or interesting to BB for as long as I can remember.
posted by solid-one-love at 11:28 AM on December 1, 2005

I think the Xeni supporting Hatch was a joke, solid. It was claimed Xeni was supporting him because of the Hatch sex quote, which came from The Onion. Ergo, joke.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 11:39 AM on December 1, 2005

According to daily kos hatch isn't as safe as some people think.

That said, someone with a name so close to "ass clown" is not going to get elected...
posted by delmoi at 11:43 AM on December 1, 2005

That said, someone with a name so close to "ass clown" is not going to get elected...

Maybe he could be appointed, then?
posted by afroblanca at 11:55 AM on December 1, 2005

... it's a bit of a nit, but tell me again why we care whether some Californians have endorsed a candidate for the Utah Senate seat?
posted by lodurr at 12:02 PM on December 1, 2005

I wish I lived in Utah so I could vote for Hatch.

Don't worry about it. There are plenty of people who'll do it for you. The conventional wisdom is that it'd take Steve Young or a similar celebrity to replace Hatch, here.

I don't know much about Boing Boing, but I do know a bit about Xmission. Starting an ISP in 1993 was not a bandwagon thing to do, and they've generally been quite well regarded here in Utah. Ashdown's candidacy is interesting to me. He's got a demonstrable business success to point to with Xmission, competing well in a field that got crowded and against some big players. He appears to be very commited to the local community, and he's somewhat connected and well-off.

And even a number of my more conservative acquaintances are starting to dislike Hatch, and I think as the Napster generation grows up and starts voting more, it's possible that will increase.

But it will be all over if Hatch can make the conservative/liberal dichotomy stick in any way. And aligning himself with the Democratic party may have already done it. The governor's race here last year is instructive: Scott Matheson Jr. was an very competetive candidate, articulate, stately, son of a former governor, picture of family values. He and the Republican candidate Jon Huntsman Jr ran a very polite race that was a bizarrely positive opposite of the presidential campaign, focused on positions instead of partisan venom. If I recall correctly, Matheson lost by a 20% spread anyway.
posted by weston at 12:09 PM on December 1, 2005

Orrin Hatch is probably safe, he has money & power. But supporting Ashdown helps put copyright reform more firmly on the political map; making life much more espensive for the RIAA & MPAA.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:09 PM on December 1, 2005

I forgot about the exploding pc's lol. But Hatch stood down the FDA when it tried to make a power grab to regulate all over-the-counter herbs & supplements.
posted by beautifulatrocities at 12:10 PM on December 1, 2005

And aligning himself with the Democratic party may have already done it.

Ashdown aligning himself with the Democratic party, that is.
posted by weston at 12:12 PM on December 1, 2005

But Hatch stood down the FDA when it tried to make a power grab to regulate all over-the-counter herbs & supplements.

<cynic>
Could it have had anything to do with influence from Utah's burgeoning combo herbal-MLM sector?

(NuSkin, Usana, 4Life, Noni, and probably half a dozen others I don't know about)
</cynic>
posted by weston at 12:14 PM on December 1, 2005

To clarify, the MPAA & RIAA have painted a big red bulls-eye on their foreheads with all the lawsuits against kids & grandmothers. If Ashdown can make this stick to Hatch, even without winning himself, then the MPAA & RIAA will eventually have to start paying out considerably more just to keep their current congressional support.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:24 PM on December 1, 2005

Re: Hatch vs the FDA - I'm happy any time a federal bureaucracy is stymied in grabbing more power. OSHA began as a good idea, but morphed into a Soviet horror with a bunch of commissars issuing directives on how to load toner in printers, unload trucks, & what width screw to use. In 2000, it was only after a public outcry that OSHA backed down on its stated intent to apply its 300-pg ergonomic rules (invented out of wholecloth) to people who work in the home. They were actually going to send inspectors into your home! Once these agencies get started, they create work to justify their existence
posted by beautifulatrocities at 12:47 PM on December 1, 2005

Pete Ashdown noticed our thread! Hey (Senator)!

* smiles, waves *
posted by silusGROK at 2:09 PM on December 1, 2005

... morphed into a Soviet horror ...

Clearly I spoke too soon; you definitely deserve the Hyperbole Award much more than John Perry Barlow.
posted by lodurr at 2:27 PM on December 1, 2005

Thanks, but you do have any response to the substance of my comment beside ad hominens? Take your time
posted by beautifulatrocities at 2:40 PM on December 1, 2005

If it's any help, Soviet horror is ironic figure of speech about overregulation. I didn't actually mean that OSHA was a literal part of Stalin's gulag. FYI
posted by beautifulatrocities at 2:48 PM on December 1, 2005

fusion doesn't work.

Really? Then how does the Sun work?
posted by rough ashlar at 4:06 PM on December 1, 2005

Orrin Hatch. Always the neanderthal. But hey, he's gonna rule a planet someday, right? Must make him feel important.
posted by telstar at 6:04 PM on December 1, 2005

Wait, is that that Pete Ashdown? Why yes it is.
posted by nev at 8:34 PM on December 1, 2005

beuatifulatrocities: You do understand what the term 'ad hominem' means, don't you? Or are you just trying to bury my attempts at indirection in wit beneath a stultified and obviously unecessary clarification -- i.e., that your statement made you eligible for that award, not your nature?

Yes, I was aware that you were being 'ironic'. (As was I, of course, though you seem a bit reluctant to extend the same credit you demand from me.)

You were also exaggerating to the point of (unintentional) comedy. Calling OSHA a "soviet horror" is a bit like describing the Three Stooges as "worse than Stalin."
posted by lodurr at 7:31 AM on December 2, 2005