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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Ms. Terkel's article suffers from the fallacy of composition.
Look, I know computing inside and out. I know the Internet from countless hours spent online.
And guess what, any president who does what I do would be a disaster. If Jimmy Carter were in the White House today, you can bet he would be wasting time online, too. And producing an even worse result than his late 70s presidency.
The president should be a Great Generalist. He is paid to choose good people, set policy, make critical decisions. He is supposed to macro-manage, not micro-manage.
Meanwhile, the writer has forgotten that McCain was a naval aviator. Flying off of and landing on an aircraft carrier, and doing everything in between to drop bombs on a target, required tin McCain's day and requires now, high technical skills, along with skill and courage.
Techno-dumbies don't make it as Navy carrier pilots. It is far more demanding and character building sort of techno-skill than anything the Internet is going to throw at you.
As both a cyber-geek and a commercially rated pilot of many years, I know of what I speak.
I'll wager you guys trust a doctor who can't text with your life. Why not a president? Me, I don't want the president My Facey Spacing with movie stars during working hrs.
McCain is not even a 'generalist' when it comes to the internet. He'll be asking advice of the many telecom industry lobbyists on his staff, as he knows nothing.
Databases in government and on Americans? E-mail surveillance systems in the White House? Internet neutrality? McCain admits he doesn't know much about economics; his constant fumbling over foreign policy facts indicate he's understanding of the world is hazy - and the main communications and perhaps commercial engine in the U.S. is a personal blank. Like when he repeats talking points from eBay's owners about an "eBay economy."
He is not running for "President of the Fighter Pilots of America." He's running as the civilian commander of the military. Even with his bad temper. A military unfortunately which is the ONLY thing he understands. His election will lead to the further militarization of the U.S.
he has Karl Rove to do all his googling, etc. for him.
..to witness the defense of ignorance.
Nobody cares if McCain actually spends time surfing, and nobody expects (and few would want) a President Obama to spend any time surfing, pounding out emails, texting, or whatever.
I expect the next president to understand how devasting nuclear bombs can be, but that doesn't mean I expect him to spend all day dropping nukes. Understanding the logic and potential impact of technology or nukes does not imply constantly using that technology, or nukes. To suggest otherwise is silly.
Let's try an admittedly strained analogy:
McCain uses the post office, Obama the internet. (Let's assume that both are communicating with the DCI and/or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs).
The post office is a centralized, bureaucracy that can be easily targetted for cuts, job loses, etc. to achieve a policy goal.
The internet is a distributed network that resists traditional attempts to govern it (or influence it). Bringing post office management/governance strategies to the internet would be silly. One has to understand and adapt to the underlying logic of the internet in order to get from it what you want (e.g., in the case of the president, let's say what he will want is security and prosperity).
Still with me?
OK.
The post office is a traditional nation-state with an identifiable head and infrastructure that can be targetted, and even attacked, to protect the US national interest.
Al Qaeda is a distributed network of semi-autonomous cells that can't be targetted in the traditional way. (I can't imagine how this can be disputed, as even President Bush has said this, and military experts tend to agree.)
Put simply, McCain's technological shortcomings have less to do with Google, texting, and banging out emails than it does with a serious, and dangerous, failure to appreciate the nature of the challenges in the 21st century. McCain is 20 years behind the low-level operatives of "America's enemies." Is that a good idea. Would you want a Commander-in-Chief who relied on single shot rifles 20 years about his enemies started using machine guns? I'll admit that I never went to West Point (I wish I did!), but I do understand that "Know your enemy" is one of the ironclad rules of war. If I am mistaken about this, and "Be ignorant of your enemies" is actually a better strategy, I would be happy to be corrected by a military strategist.
To make clear how important this is for national security, and how weak McCain really is on this, the Obama campaign could just check off all of the "geeky" technology used by the 9/11 hijackers (e.g., internet, cell phones, texts, etc.).
Didn't the 9/11 commission say that part of the failure of the US intelligence community was "a failure of imagination." McCain proudly admits that he has no interest in avoiding this particular danger (i.e., lack of imagination and understanding), thus proving that when he declares that he knows how to win wars he means wars of the pre- 9/11 world.
McCain will make us less safe. Some Dems need to put it that plainly.
Barring elite old school Bush I, the last two Republican presidents and the present 'contender' all share a quite astonishing ignorance of many issues. Reagan was an old man who's speeches were put in his hands by his handlers - oblivious to IranGate/Contragate et al. Bush was run by Cheney, another puppet, and a person uninterested in the facts. And McCain? He's following in the oblivious footsteps of Reagan and Bush.
What is it about the Republican Party that they cannot choose people who are somewhat compentent at something? Why has the presidency been dumbed down to such an astonishing degree? The better that corporate America can pull all the strings!
They are the wizened of Oz.
Whether or not Senator McCain chooses to use the internet is really inconsequential. We wouldn't want a president who relies on the internet for direction. This is a non-issue.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
