Yesterday, Master Kos charted a course to the Promised Land, laying down a gauntlet to the Establishment in an inspiring diary entitled "2010 will be primary season". He advocated planning now to launch primary challenges against incumbent Democrats in the House who were unable to distinguish the Constitutional issues behind the FISA 'Compromise'.
After Sen. Dodd's awesome speech the other night on FISA, CSPAN-2 covered a hearing by some congressional committee which touched on the Universal Service Fund, Net Neutrality, and other wonky arcana having to do with telecommunications, the internet, and our digital environment. Watching the old guys on the committee (and a 'mature' woman I didnt recognize) struggling to understand the technological issues involved (she said to a witness "I'm sure my 14 year old would understand what you're saying better than I do..."), I realized just where the FISA problem really derives from.
Kos is absolutely right. There needs to be a slate of strong, netrooted primary challengers in 2010, from Speaker Pelosi on down, and I believe that he needs to be one of them...
Below the fold, "The Case for Kos":
We are saddled with a predominantly 20th Century, "pre-digital" Congress and expecting them to cope with the emerging digital environment of the 21st Century; and many, even some elected since the millenium, are too old to have adopted to the digital age. It is not the Constitutional issues they are failing to grasp, its how the technology even plays into them that they are actually most clueless about.
In seeing Kos represent the netroots as to this issue on the news channels recently, and reading his spirited FISA leadership online, it is obvious to me that the future needs a civil liberties champion in Congress, one who actually understands how the toobs work.
Commenting to Kos on his diary, I addressed him directly:
Kos, you should be one of the candidates!
"If you have to move between now and 2010 to be in the right district, then 'Move on'!
You are a perfect example of the technology savvy, Progressive netroots candidate that can help drag Congress, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.
You already have a nationwide constituency here that is as large as a Congressional District; it contains many campaign professionals and legions of volunteers who would come to your aid in a heartbeat. You understand the numbers, you can raise money, you have the digital infrastructure already in place.
Pick the most reprehensible primary target in California (or in the National Capital Region, or Boston) where the technology community rules, and live there. You're a digital creature; you live online, spatial location and geography are a GoogleEarth tool to you, not an important part of your environment. Where you live physically does not affect your livelihood, and would even less so as a Member of Congress.
For the price of the moving van, you could be prepared to take on any one of a number of ossified incumbent Representatives who need to be replaced. Find some Grampy Old Fart, and tie him to John McCain, and we'll net-bomb his ass back to the farm on your behalf.
Last night, after Sen. Dodd's [Awesome!] FISA speech, CSPAN-2 went to coverage of committee hearings on the Universal Service Fund; an issue of telecom arcana (like "Net Neutrality") that a bunch of clueless luddites on the committee just cant get their analog brains around. To cope with the emerging trancendental digital environment, America needs internet pioneers in Congress, its that simple.
Kos, you, yourself, are as attractive, personable, articulate, intelligent, and charismatic as anyone else you might "recruit" to run for Congress instead. Take the plunge. We've got your back."
Half of Congress 'blogs', and I'm sure Kos has got his own geek squad to manage the guts of this site. So, spending two years running for Congress - and then serving there - need not spell doom for the DKos community.
But: imagine what a renegade congressman's staff political director could do with this machinery at his disposal, in relation to pushing progressive legislation through with nationwide support. A freshman Congressman Moulitsas would, overnight, become one of the most powerful leaders on the Hill. His digital clout would overpower decades of seniority, by legacy 20th Century pols who are - lets face it - obsolete.
A major villian in all thats wrong with the 110th Congress is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA08). From FISA, to the protracted superdelegate debacle, to war funding, to CAFE & RE Portfolio standards, to the wasted 2006 mandate and lack of leadership generally, Speaker Pelosi has disappointed on too many different issues. Cindy Sheehan is taking on Rep. Pelosi this year, but, lets face it, Cindy is a flake (or, if she isnt, she strives mightily to come across as such). In any event, Sheehan is running a write-in campaign; Speaker Pelosi will most likely be reelected by California's 8th Congressional District in November.
According to Wiki:
"The 8th district is one of the most reliably Democratic districts in the country, though progressive third parties like the Green Party often poll well in the district. It is geographically the smallest congressional district in the nation outside of New York City. Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader from 2002 to 2007, and the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, has represented the district since 1993, when the area was redistricted from the 5th district."
Pelosi comes from back in the 20th Century, in 1993, before the digital revolution prevailed. America needs a post-digital mindset in the halls of government. Fortunately, we're about to elect the first President who is deeply embedded in the digital environment. In 2010, Congress must be upgraded to a new version as well.
My personal concern with FISA has to do with the future. Originally enacted 30 years ago, in 1978, it never envisioned the digital environment. The idea that everyone would be walking around, with a powerful phone/computer in their hip pockets, "always on", with them everywhere, 24/7, was never anticipated in the statute. Nor was an NSA/AT&T "IP Vacuum Cleaner", able to suck up all of our digital communications to enable the 'data mining' of Americans' privacy, by the millions. By 1978, telecom technology had already enabled eavesdroppers to turn any phone into an active mic, even as it rested on the hook. Todays phones have cameras and can be tracked remotely, even when not in use, to a very precise location. My concern is with the digital universe of 2038, another 30 years hence, since what we already know is coming will make our 'personal electronics' a great deal more personal to us by then.
Without going into existing implantable RFID chips, emerging Brain/Computer Interface technology, and the inevitable technological Singularity, it is a certainty that the Obama Administration and his Congresses will have to deal with Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Nanotechnology (collectively, the "GRAIN" technologies). Each of these will change everyday life in America over the next decade as much as the Internet has over the past decade, but the really woolly part is how these technologies and the changes they bring will accelerate and interact with one another. The future that we face - Singularity or no - is unlike anything that Grampy Old Fart (McCain), Ms. Pelosi, or any of those who failed to grasp FISA stand any chance of coping with at all.
This second 'digital convergence' will have much grander implications than the first; 'having your phone, internet, and television together on one wire and one bill' is nothing compared to 'designer pets', molecular manufacturing, androids, and the internet achieving sentience. All I know is that we are safer in this future with a few Silicon Valley hotshots and netroots entrepreneurs in Congress dealing with these issues than the schmucks we have been sending there, in both parties. If they cant deal with illegal wiretapping today, after 30 years of retrospective on the subject, how do you expect them to confront artificial life, cognitive prostheses, and genetic immortality over the next 30 years?
In the world of the next decade, "Ooops!" is an unacceptable - and, potentially catastrophic - response from Congress to the sudden, profound technological issues that will confront the United States and the planet. I believe that in his experience and intellect, our own Markos Moulitsas ("Kos") is qualified to move into a greater leadership role than he may yet realize. I believe that he can win the votes of Democrats in metro San Francisco, the most progressive major city in the United States, and replace an 18 year incumbent who is exhibiting some serious signs of disconnect with the progressive constituency.
While I am sure that I may disagree with Kos on many issues, his background, accomplishments, knowledgebase, principled courage, and situational awareness make him an excellent prospect, as the first and leading primary challenger of the 2010 campaign. While, unbeknownst to many, he holds a Juris Doctorate, we'll try not to hold that against him; he's also a U.S. Army veteran. As would many others here, I would move to the SF Bay Area, and spend a protracted period helping to organize such an effort. The future is that important.
Is it possible to elect leaders who dont "Cave" on Constitutional Rights and are yet flexible enough to adapt to our changing digital environment?
I can see it all now,
Little bags of all-blue M&Ms ("Markos Moulitsas") with his picture and slogan on the package, "Melts in your Modem, not on the Hill"...