Back in 1997, I wrote an article for Time's The Netly News titled "Stupid Senate Tricks." Well, the ol'Netly News (complete with spinning cow and hand-crafted HTML) is no longer, but the article has managed to stay alive through untold AOL Time Warner corporate reshufflings: http://www.onmagazine.com/on-mag/reviews/article/0,9985,12500,00.html I wrote about the tech-impaired and otherwise clueless congresscritters who inhabit the place known as Washington, DC. An excerpt: When Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) was asked to define encryption, the results were horrific. "Well, I mean, to answer your question, I mean, encryption is -- the political equivalent of encryption is you ask me a question, I give you an answer and you don't understand it," he managed. "I mean, I intentionally garble the answer frequently. I intentionally garble the response so that you can't understand what I'm saying. And that's -- you notice that I've got the ability to do that." It's time to update that article (the crypto wars are, ah, over), so I'm asking for your help. If you've got verifiable stories about congressional inanities or bureaucratic stupidities, please send 'em along. Citations to news articles, links to transcripts, dates of hearings -- all these are great. Personal encounters with Hill denizens? sure. You've got a .gov address and want to vent? No prob. Confidentially guaranteed if you want it. Obviously any clue-impaired politico is a candidate for inclusion, with a focus on folks in Washington. One I caught recently was the esteemed Sen. Biden of Delaware, trying to explain peer-to-peer piracy and (according to the archived video file on senate.gov) stumbling over the unfamiliar technology so badly that he ended up complaining that illicit programs "were downloaded by websites" and confusing software "piracy" with "privacy." As I did before, I'll give a tip o'the hat to those folks who contributed stories and want to be named, and leave out those people who would rather remain anonymous and keep their jobs. :) Deadline is 5 pm ET next Thursday, August 1. Send 'em along! Thanks, Declan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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