shelbinator.com

Still too brain-fried to write, but at least I have that spiffy camera-phone. Here’s just a bit of my Thanksgiving dinner. (Next year, I hope to be shooting widescreen video of Thanksgiving on the new OMGEATITiPhone Nokia N97. But for now, nice pictures.)

My phone will not be broadcasting to my usual Flixwagon account today; for ease of production I’ll be publishing to a parallel server for MTV, and clips will show up in the player below (UPDATED/FIXED):
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I should’ve done this for my colleagues covering Denver, but I didn’t. Get over it, I was busy, and frankly most of the interesting stuff for the DNC was on C-SPAN. So far this Republican convention is a real snoozer, and it’s the protests and such outside that make it exciting. There are five or six Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08 types running amok in Minneapolis with Nokia N95s doing the live-streaming thing like we did on Super Tuesday — now joined by the impressive ranks of TheUptake.org (using Qik, not Flixwagon) and even good old C-SPAN themselves, going the mojo route.

Unfortunately there’s no handy “group” feature for the Flixwagon coverage like the Qikkers have, so to see if any of the five streamers have new content, you have to visit all five of their pages individually (direct links to the videos have been disabled by Flixwagon for MTV’s purposes so auto-tweeting won’t work {they figured it out, even though the vids are on a separate subdomain}), and on a Flux-built site that takes way too long. So, for my own purposes and maybe even yours, I’m embedding all five (well, four, till Erica America gets her N95) Flixee widgets on a single page over here.

Where else to be for a speech this big but Manuel’s Tavern? After a quick stop a Verve Lounge to verify there was indeed not enough light (or quiet) to shoot satisfactory video, I headed to Manuel’s in time to wedge myself into a corner between a couple tables and ration my oxygen. Thirty-four Street Team ‘08 punks were at watch parties across the country to collect the ever-prized “youth reaction” on video, turn it around overnight on the Viacom servers and hope for inclusion on Friday night’s MTV News special, Choose or Lose: Obama Decoded.

I have no idea what “decoded” is supposed to mean. If you needed a lot of help breaking down the messages in the speech, perhaps a federal ballot is a bit dangerous of a weapon in your hands. And strictly speaking, in data terms, it was encoded and compressed, but now I’m just being nitpicky. The point is, out of something like 115 choice snippets of interviews, two got chosen and the rest of us are losers in the game of life. About 13 other interviews (if three instances of giving one’s name and age count) were provided by the “real” reporters from Denver, while political expert WaPo reporter Chris Cillizza (who thinks I live in my parents’ basement^*) got four 15-second clips to explain complex politics to the yout’s.

Anyway, rather than let all this footage rot in the trash, here’s what I got (including some of the famous Qik footage mentioned below), with apologies to my interviewees for the trouble.

(Quicktime format)

* Technically I don’t, but apparently that’s the best place for me to dissertate, sadly enough.

Back on Super Tuesday, our intrepid Alaska Street Team ‘08 reporter Dani Carlson was one of the 22 Flixwagon-enabled mobile reporters. Well trekking around on the tundra, she got some sit-down time with our latest vice presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin:

The MTV News reprise highlights one of the more fun moments of the interview:

In this interview, Palin calls controversial Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul “cool.” “He’s a good guy,” she added. “He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I.’ ”

That occurs around the 3:00 mark of the video clip. She also praised Romney (apparently for wanting to drill in ANWR) and had nothing to say about McCain (who back then was against it).

Apparently CNN’s internet reporter found my cellphone coverage of the hearty crowd reactions from the overflowing Manuel’s Tavern interesting enough to put on her big shiny screen. Bhaskar Roy, co-founder of Qik — whose software I used to stream video from Manuel’s (because frankly I wasn’t all that caught up in the speech) — sent me a couple snapshots of someone’s TV after he, and a number of local tweeple, were all a-twitter about the segment. I was totally oblivious (no one in Manuel’s noticed and said “Hey, that’s us! And that’s that guy!”).

That’s fellow YDAtlien Justi in the corner of the second pic.

They must’ve had slim pickin’s in the blogosphere at 11:42 p.m. (judging by the sudden simultaneous influx to the blog of people googling “shelbinator”), because the video ain’t all that interesting. But for posterity, here it is:

There’s a view from the back bar here, too.

Good place to kinda sorta write a dissertation, no? Reminds you what an insignificant blip your sorry-ass research is.

I’ve been meaning to write over on Blog for Democracy about a certain Republican Congressman who is really showing us up on the new media front, using Twitter and Qik — personally, not just via a younger, hipper staffer — to communicate with his constituents (okay, let’s get real about TX-7; with the national cadre of poligeeks) in ridiculously real time.

And then Rep. John Culberson had to go and screw it up by being hysterically partisan, in 140 characters or less at a time.

Yesterday Rep. Culberson began some Chicken Little tweeting about the sky falling, claiming “I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them.” The problem is, he was basing this on a memo he saw from — and a conversation he may have had with — Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA) about some proposed updates to the antiquated rules governing “official” House communications. These updates Capuano was proposing were intended to expand the ability of Representatives to use external social networking sites (specifically video hosts like YouTube) and not to restrict the use of Twitter et al any more than they were already being restricted by rules written by people whom my mom could out-internet blindfolded with a gimpy mouse.

As “evidence” of this Dem conspiracy to choke off free speech, all Rep. Culberson could produce was this memo (excerpted below) of 6/24/08 from Rep. Capuano to the Committee on House Administration. Capuano’s intent was basically to say, 1. The current House system for hosting and playing official videos on house.gov websites sucks, hardcore. 2. Current House rules of official communication prohibit Representatives from using sites like YouTube for better hosting of such videos. (Capuano apparently told Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-IN, in conversation that scores of Representatives do it anyway with a wink and a nod, and it’s just time to update the rules to reflect that.) 3. The House really ought to let Representatives use external hosting sites for videos, because these communications are a good thing. And 4. In order to keep up with the “decorum” of the House, they ought to find a way to do so that doesn’t get too tangled up in commerce or political campaigning due to free market forces (i.e., if you watch a Representative’s “official” YouTube video, it might be unbecoming if the three “related” videos that pop up in the YouTube player after it’s over were a racist anti-Obama ad, a pitch for Viagra, or candid footage of Britney Spears’ crotch). Not unreasonable suggestions, I think.

Apparently the guv’mint was already talking to YouTube about finding a way to do this, and YouTube was willing to create a “clean space” for official civic communication, according to this WaPo article. But Rep. Culberson grabbed Rep. Capuano’s language about how the updated rules should handle the hosting of video content — including a “this is official House bizniss” type notice at the front and the non-commercial entanglement concerns — and ran with it, screaming bloody murder, as if House Democrats woke up one recent morning and decided to enact a “rules change” to crack down on his Twittering and any other innovative use of new media.

But again, the problem with Congressional use of new media is that the rules already don’t allow for the use of commercial third party sites that might commingle the official with the unseemly. Rep. Capuano’s attempt to expand the ability of our Representatives to use the YouTube might be, at worst, a rather narrow-minded and poorly-worded proposed change to the rules that would create no extra wiggle room for people like Rep. Culberson to do things like Twitter (which are already against the rules as they stand anyway). But hey, I guess it’s not as easy to say, in 140 characters or less, that “ZOMG! House Dems are going to update the rules to expand Congressional use of social media in a very limited and non-forward-looking fashion, but still an update that House Repubs never got around to considering in 2006!” than it is to claim the House Democrats are taking away your Twitter because they hate free speech. (Sure enough, the right-wing screed blog Hot Air ran with the headline for Rep. Culberson’s plight, “Why do Congressional Democrats fear free speech?”) But even that kind of “non-forward-looking” allegation wouldn’t have been fair to Rep. Capuano, given this particular chunk of his letter:

While the above recommendations will help CHA as it seeks to provide House Members with the ability to post official video materials on the Web in an efficient and economical way, further changes to CHA regulations and practice may be necessary to account for the continual emergence of new technologies. I encourage CHA to view these recommendations as the first step in a process towards modernizing the regulations that govern communications of Members.

This post at TechDirt nails the analysis on the head, as far as I’m concerned. The right-wing bloggers parroted Rep. Culberson’s rather hysterical partisan interpretation. Even the social media powerhouse blog, under the steady hand of Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins (whom I’m biased against anyway after he blew off our Street Team ‘08 Super Tuesday stunt), put the disclaimer “This isn’t a knee-jerk post” at the top of a knee-jerk post that used its headline to perpetuate Rep. Culberson’s partisan myth. And to think I was intrigued when my Twitterrific feed asked me, “Why are the only people spun up about House Net rules on the right? I’ve seen nothing from lefty friends? Where’s the transparency crowd?” But I quickly realized that the answer was, “We aren’t sucking down your spin because the story has no merit.”

It’s even funnier when you put Democratic and Republican memos right next to each other for comparison, as TechnoSailor does. First he presents Capuano’s “letter sent to the Democratic House majority leadership to silence [social media like Twitter and Qik.” He, too, parrots the Culberson mythology at first, calling Capuano’s memo “ridiculous.” He later posts “the GOP response to the [Capuano] letter,” from Reps. Ehler, McCarthy, and Price, which in itself contains language that totally highlights Rep. Culberson’s Twitterspasm for the partisan smokescreen it is.

Committee rules that apply to these [web-based] services and technologies, however, significantly pre-date their invention. In some cases, Members have begun using these services and technologies despite being in violation of existing rules.

Despite being in violation of existing rules. So sayeth the Republicans themselves. And yet Rep. Culberson has stirred up this tempest in a teapot (via Twitter! against the existing rules!) suggesting that somehow the Democrats are suddenly out to censor him with new rules.

The Republican letter goes on to suggest updated language that highlights another inconsistency on Rep. Culberson’s part.

Toward that end, we request that the Committee consider adopting the following updated policy language.

With regard to the Internet
Members may use technologies, websites and services (paid or unpaid) to communicate with their constituents via text, video, or audio so long as the content posted by the Member complies with House rules and Franking content regulations.

(Emphasis mine.)

And yet, one of the particular things that had Rep. Culberson all up in arms was his interpretation of Rep. Capuano’s language here, which is hardly different:

Official content posted on an external domain must be clearly identified as produced by a House office for official purposes, and meet existing content rules and regulations;

As for what “clearly identified” entails, there is nothing in the letter to suggest that Rep. Capuano and the CHA wouldn’t be satisfied with some language on the main Twitter profile page of any Representative using Twitter. It’s a stretch to suggest, as Rep. Culberson does, that they would be forced to include a “disclaimer” in each single tweet that would exceed the 140 character limit by default, because in the memo Rep. Capuano is talking about video content only. But Rep. Culberson also zeroed in on the “existing content rules and regulations” phrase in a response he tweeted to all of us who questioned his allegations:

@shelbinator Look at page two - note each Twitter etc must meet “existing content rules and regulations” that means prior approval/rewrite 05:41 PM July 08, 2008 from web in reply to shelbinator

Huh. If it’s the House Democrats who are “trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter” because of the “existing content rules and regulations” suggested in Rep. Capuano’s letter, then what the heck are the House Republicans doing so much better by recommending that “the content posted by the Member complies with House rules and Franking content regulations?”

Oh. Right. Absolutely nothing. Rep. Culberson is just acting like another extreme partisan trying to fan the flames of a fake fire so he can pretend to be the guy fighting the good fight. On his House.gov website — which apparently is unencumbered by any Franking Commission rules that might prohibit lies and bullshit malarkey^* — he alleges,

Democrats are looking at restricting Member content on websites outside the house.gov domain. Websites such as Youtube and other social networks would have to comply with government regulations before Members of Congress could post content on them.

He claims this despite the fact that (1) Democrats are looking at removing restrictions, as I detailed with self-admitted neophyte Capuano’s own language above (indicating that more evolution of standards will be necessary), and (2) the Republican letter to the CHA recommends the exact same compliance with regulations that Capuano’s does.

Yeah. I think bullshit is being too forgiving, even of a Congressman from Texas.

And that’s so, so very disappointing from somebody who really displayed a lot of initiative and openness by embracing these emerging technologies to open Congress up to the world. Too bad he thought it was just another medium he could use to pull the standard Republican playbook move: make up a lie, then repeat it as loudly and as frequently as possible until people dumb enough to fall for it start repeating it for you.

* Hat tip to my boy Joey B.

UPDATES:
1. Rep. Capuano brought the smackdown too.
2. ZOMG someone in Speaker Pelosi’s office apparently read this blog and got her to link to it (fourth paragraph) in a response to Leader Boehner! Leader Boehner!
3. I think we’re all going to put down our partisan guns and get behind the Sunlight Foundation’s Let Our Congress Tweet push. I’ll defend Democrats against exaggerated partisan claims, but I’m not going to let them have the dumb if they can’t brain the internet.

UPDATE: Go join in the fracas over at iReport.com, where this video has gotten over 48,000 61,000 107,000 121,900 views since posting on CNN.com’s front page Saturday afternoon. Clearly there is not enough real news being iReported.

If you were robbed, mugged, or otherwise assaulted or injured in the downtown Atlanta area between 6:45 and 8:00pm on Friday, we bicyclists do apologize for your lack of police protection. You see, we were busy occupying about a dozen motorcycle cops and several police cruisers with our monthly bike ride.

Two months ago when I filed my Choose or Lose story on Critical Mass, I made a specific point to mention that our local police force was actually rather cooperative with us cyclists compared to other cities. I had seen numerous videos before of uncomfortably hostile encounters between cops and Massers in San Francisco (the city of origin), Chicago, and New York, and I had had numerous conversations with Atlanta riders about how nice our local PD was to us. In the downtown area, where police were frequently out on the street directing traffic for tourist destinations, conference attendees, and sports fans, they often stopped cross traffic long enough to get the whole Mass through (and, blessedly, out of their way).

That warm and fuzzy relationship is apparently over. Last month, reporter Stacy Shelton wrote up Critical Mass in the AJC, and apparently someone at City Hall knows how to read. Whoever this literate person is wasn’t about to tolerate any civil disobedience in their fair city, and they ordered the police force into action. Here you go, in video form:

MP4 video enclosure

Before we had even gotten past Centennial Olympic Park — maybe half a mile from our starting point downtown — we were intercepted. A phalanx of motorcycle cops was poised on the sidewalk, ready to disrupt the ride. Apparently, only one of them had any cojones, because only a single cyclist was pulled over and ticketed for running a red light. The rest of them must have been too busy oogling the cleavage on wheels or something.

Once we had ridden past, the blood returned to their heads and they managed to figure out where we were going. We saw a few of our law enforcement friends again in Midtown, but things were pretty hunky dory until we crossed over into Virginia Highland and headed south toward Little Five Points. As we approached North Avenue heading south on Highland, the phalanx reappeared out of nowhere, cutting the Mass in half at Manuel’s Tavern and giving pursuit to the front half, which went another quarter of a mile before turning east on Freedom Parkway. By the time the rest of us caught up, the bikes were dismounting the pavement and running up the grass onto the pedestrian path along the Parkway; the motorcycle phalanx and a few cruisers had stationed themselves along the roadway leading up to Moreland.

And then they stood there. (See video.) Some of the braver and/or more confrontational cyclists kept on riding down Freedom Parkway while the rest of us rode in parallel on the walkway, watching (and in several cases, filming). The cops just stood there on their bikes, glaring, like it was some kind of staring contest (or perhaps a who’s-got-the-bigger-wang testosto-fest). They didn’t leap into action as we began to spill back onto Moreland heading south, but perhaps that’s because we came to a stop and in many cases signaled our turns. Or maybe we were in West Side Story, who knows.

Another motorcycle cop was waiting for us a quarter mile later in Little Five Points, as if expecting orders from his Parkway brethren on which one to pull over and ticket. We stopped at the light and then turned right/west into the residential neighborhood to get out of their sight. A much thinner, slower, more fragmented Mass headed down Sinclair for Inman Park.

We didn’t get far. The Freedom Parkway boys found us again at Austin and Elizabeth, and they did a pretty good job of clusterfracking the intersection of Highland and Elizabeth up themselves in an effort to make sure we all observed the stop sign.

Here’s the thing: when you have 400 cyclists out at one time all deciding to take the same route, it’s really in your best interest to let them all pass at once, sacrificing a red light or two if you must, rather than demanding we all stop and look left, right, and left again. Instead of almost a half a mile of solid bikes on the road, you’ll have three miles of two abreast. You want really that?

We made it several more blocks down Highland before the motorbikes raced ahead of us and basically formed a roadblock at Highland and Randolph. So we stopped — losing a number of us to Johnny’s Pizza — and turned left/south on Samson. By the time I caught up with what was left of the Mass at Samson and Irwin, there were a handful of cops there making sure we came to a complete stop and looked both ways before crossing.

The group finally built up some momentum again on Edgewood, but not as much momentum as a dozen or so police officers who just realized how much fun it is stalking and hassling bicyclists. A couple of their motorbikes came whipping past us again and managed to get to the front of the group in time to pull another cyclist over to ticket him for a traffic violation. The rest of the hundred and change cyclists left erupted into whoops and applause as these two brave officers were reinforced by one, two, three, four more motorcycle cops in order to enforce the law on this dangerous commuter-terrorist. A couple of police cruisers pulled up behind and alongside us, so that when the light — keeping us frozen in law abiding stillness while red — turned green, they could use their fancy loudspeakers and bark, “Move along! Move along!” And as it turned yellow again a couple of siren-whoops reminded the eager to stop at the broad white line.

I don’t know if the cops pursued what was left of the Mass all the way back downtown; I turned back at that point to get a beer with friends who had peeled off in Cabbagetown, not wanting their first Critical Mass to result in legal action. But this was definitely a strategic prerogative from on high. In all of my rides with the group, I have never seen such prominent police interference, and in all of my life in Atlanta, I have never seen such police organization, never seen so many cops in one place at one time with such well-timed serendipity. They were all out there just to pursue us and hassle at opportunity. They were reasserting the city’s power after Shelton’s article had made so public how intolerably open-minded they had been to people who actually wanted to do something about our oil addiction. Boy oh boy, did those big mens with their bikes and guns show us.

So, yeah, sorry if you actually needed a cop while we were out riding bikes. They were too busy keeping you safe from the Monkeywrench Gang.