6 ms·

If he was advocate for more open access to government records, why is it surprising that he would be concerned about the Aaron Swartz case? I agree that this le

by pemulis 14y ago

If he was advocate for more open access to government records, why is it surprising that he would be concerned about the Aaron Swartz case? I agree that this letter could be seen as part a larger battle between Republicans and the Obama DoJ, but does that mean that questions about Aaron Swartz' prosecution are only valid if they come from Democrats?

anigbrowl 14y ago
His point is that the Obama administration actually did revamp the federal FOIA policy and got no credit for it, I think. But that's kind of by-the-by.
- danso 14y ago
  That wasn't my point...and while Obama has opened some new doors, the thinking in the journalism community is that his administration is actually more closed when it comes to raw request numbers: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/156227/obama-administrations-foia-record-worse-than-bushs/ http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/156227/obama-ad... This is of course a quantitative measure...but given that Obama wrote a very direct order to officials to err on the side of openness, it's striking that that order is being ignored so casually...I don't think it's hard to make a case that the culture of the bureaucracy is not particularly mindful of openness.
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    In that case I can't figure out what your point was, but this is all sort of incidental anyway.
    - danso 14y ago
      Yeah, I was just meandering. The parent post had argued that this was little more than a hypocritical political ploy. I was saying, 'probably', because there's not much to politically gain from it other than to give the DOJ a black eye and because, I guess I just see Swartz as still being a "niche" issue to most people outside of the tech/academic senator. But I thought it was fair to point out that Cornyn is no fairweather public-records fan. But of course, Swartz's JSTOR incident was not just a case of open-access (as it was in the PACER case). There's enough nuance here that I would've just assumed that a senator of Conryn's level would leave it be as there are many other political shitstorms going on (gun control, debt ceiling, etc etc)
jacoblyles 14y ago
I think tptacek's point is that he hates Republicans.
- sophacles 14y ago
  This is silly and disingenuous partisanship. It isn't at all a "anti-republicans" thing in his comment. It is a "hey this guy may be doing this good thing, but don't go about declaring him 'a good guy strictly on our side' (for whatever side that happens to be), he's done these other things that a lot of people are against". Its a sanity check.
  - jacoblyles 14y ago
    Let's repost tptacek's comments, to see how partisan they are: >"Expect to see lots of superficial genuflection from Republicans towards the Swartz case; the GOP is in a constant low-grade conflict with the Democratic DoJ." Any show of support of the GOP for Aaron Swartz is "superficial genuflection" driven by partisan conflict. Doubtless, Democratic support would be considered genuine. >"Here, let me put it this way: what do you honestly think Aaron Swartz would think about this clown using his name to score political points?" A Senator with a history of support for Open Access is a "clown" that is so odious that Aaron would be upset to have his support. This is partisanship at its worst. tptacek is dehumanizing Republicans in a way that kills rational thought. A Republican can't even do something tptacek agrees with without receiving his scorn. Is that reasonable to you?
    - TheAmazingIdiot 14y ago
      Tptacek is pretty much a nutjob. He was going on and on against 1st sale doctrine about reimportation, how is it evil and such. He also despises republicans completely, given this thread alone. I'd set equal the anger in Tptacek to the craziness in sparrowos.
      - jhancock 14y ago
        Your post is very rude. I don't always agree with 'tptacek or anyone else, even some of my own past comments. However, I have seen enough of his comments to know I'd be happy to have a beer with the man. If Thomas is a nutjob in your mind and sparrows are crazy, I can't begin to imagine how you might describe some of my perspectives. It would be lovely if HN could be a place where people could express themselves civilly and not be attacked.

by pemulis 14y ago

anigbrowl 14y ago

His point is that the Obama administration actually did revamp the federal FOIA policy and got no credit for it, I think. But that's kind of by-the-by.

danso 14y ago
That wasn't my point...and while Obama has opened some new doors, the thinking in the journalism community is that his administration is actually more closed when it comes to raw request numbers: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/156227/obama-administrations-foia-record-worse-than-bushs/ http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/156227/obama-ad... This is of course a quantitative measure...but given that Obama wrote a very direct order to officials to err on the side of openness, it's striking that that order is being ignored so casually...I don't think it's hard to make a case that the culture of the bureaucracy is not particularly mindful of openness.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  In that case I can't figure out what your point was, but this is all sort of incidental anyway.
  - danso 14y ago
    Yeah, I was just meandering. The parent post had argued that this was little more than a hypocritical political ploy. I was saying, 'probably', because there's not much to politically gain from it other than to give the DOJ a black eye and because, I guess I just see Swartz as still being a "niche" issue to most people outside of the tech/academic senator. But I thought it was fair to point out that Cornyn is no fairweather public-records fan. But of course, Swartz's JSTOR incident was not just a case of open-access (as it was in the PACER case). There's enough nuance here that I would've just assumed that a senator of Conryn's level would leave it be as there are many other political shitstorms going on (gun control, debt ceiling, etc etc)

jacoblyles 14y ago

I think tptacek's point is that he hates Republicans.

sophacles 14y ago
This is silly and disingenuous partisanship. It isn't at all a "anti-republicans" thing in his comment. It is a "hey this guy may be doing this good thing, but don't go about declaring him 'a good guy strictly on our side' (for whatever side that happens to be), he's done these other things that a lot of people are against". Its a sanity check.
- jacoblyles 14y ago
  Let's repost tptacek's comments, to see how partisan they are: >"Expect to see lots of superficial genuflection from Republicans towards the Swartz case; the GOP is in a constant low-grade conflict with the Democratic DoJ." Any show of support of the GOP for Aaron Swartz is "superficial genuflection" driven by partisan conflict. Doubtless, Democratic support would be considered genuine. >"Here, let me put it this way: what do you honestly think Aaron Swartz would think about this clown using his name to score political points?" A Senator with a history of support for Open Access is a "clown" that is so odious that Aaron would be upset to have his support. This is partisanship at its worst. tptacek is dehumanizing Republicans in a way that kills rational thought. A Republican can't even do something tptacek agrees with without receiving his scorn. Is that reasonable to you?
  - TheAmazingIdiot 14y ago
    Tptacek is pretty much a nutjob. He was going on and on against 1st sale doctrine about reimportation, how is it evil and such. He also despises republicans completely, given this thread alone. I'd set equal the anger in Tptacek to the craziness in sparrowos.
    - jhancock 14y ago
      Your post is very rude. I don't always agree with 'tptacek or anyone else, even some of my own past comments. However, I have seen enough of his comments to know I'd be happy to have a beer with the man. If Thomas is a nutjob in your mind and sparrows are crazy, I can't begin to imagine how you might describe some of my perspectives. It would be lovely if HN could be a place where people could express themselves civilly and not be attacked.