Day one of Gnomedex! I’ll be periodically blogging today … depends in no small part on connectivity. :)
First update:
Robert Steele, oss.net, kicks off the conference with a direct tie to Benkler’s Wealth of Networks. He wants to take “intelligence” (think CIA) “open” … money … government … education: OPEN. This is one of the most socially (and politically) disruptive talks I think I have ever heard.
Steele calls himself a moderate Republican with Libertarian leanings. And his focus on limiting government (he says we spend “$1.2 billion a week to produce the president’s daily brief … for a guy who can’t read” but that he can produce the same document from open source intel for $1K a week … and 96% of the content is coming from open data anyway) reflects those Libertarian leanings.
But his focus on totally changing government is advocating disruptive change: not something someone associates with “conservative” (root: conserve).
He challenged the group to blog for electoral reform. He suggested eliminating the federal income tax — instead, tax federal reserve at (I think) .006 percent.
Steele is a (former) Marine and ex-spy. Several times he said something like this: “our military industrial complex profits from secrecy and war, and it does not profit from peace.”
Again. This isn’t “conservation” it’s “radical change.”
Steele is Amazon’s most prolific book reviewer. In his talk — and in his answers to questions — he routinely quoted book-and-author when sharing fact, data or frame. Wow! I wish I could do that. I’m lucky to remember either the name of the book or the author. And he read two books on the flight out from the east coast. [He must be a speed reader and have a photographic memory!]
Second Update:
Tidbits he tossed out that I need to follow up on:
- Kissinger cannot travel outside of the country anymore.
- That we could balance the budget if we taxed the federal reserve at .006 (and end income tax to boot).
- Newt and other Republicans figured out that they could buy the government for $300 million a year – and they did.
- Did the League of Women Voters sponsor only presidential debates or did they also sponsor primary debates? When did they get displaced by the parties?
- When we bombed Afghanistan, “we gifted binLaden with an unexploded Tomahawk missile that he sold to China for $10 million.”
- Re energy/environment: exxon is publishing two page ads around the world that are lies.
- There are 27 secessionist movements in the US.
