a curious Yankee in Europe's court » U.S. Congress

We need good souls: Lawrence Lessig

rebecca — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:06:53 +0000

Lawrence Lessig brilliantly explains once again how there’s serious trouble in river city — the river being the Potomac and the city, Washington D.C.

To learn more about Lessig and the campaign to reform Congress, go to Fix Congress First!

Money, money, money and the system: Lawrence Lessig

rebecca — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:27:49 +0000

Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig gave a talk last week at the Yahoo! campus (“Innovation Corruption” May 20, 2010). He spoke about how corruption in government and business are blocking innovation in the U.S.

In case you think this has always been the case and isn’t getting much worse, Lessig explains how this isn’t so. The details he provides are more than a little disheartening to hear. But…

His plea to the audience was to not be passive – that the public is very much a part of the problem when clearly there are patterns but no one does anything about it. As a major player in the Internet world, he’d like to see Yahoo! pushing for competition in the IP world. As far as the government is concerned, Lessig would like to see a return to citizen-funded elections – a concept born during Teddy Roosevelt’s term in office. Such a system would eliminate money from the economy of influence – the underlying cause of corruption and ultimate roadblock to innovation.

If you really want to understand precisely how the system goes so incredibly awry, you will learn here.

And if you agree with Lessig, you can go to his website, ChangeCongress.org, and sign up to participate in helping him bring our political leaders back to serving the common good. Lessig’s organization is non-partisan — its sole bias is for the good of “we the people.” I think Lessig has a great idea here.

Is the U.S. Congress really reforming Wall Street?

rebecca — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:37:13 +0000

Must read investigative journalist Matt Taibbi provides an unvarnished play-by-play of what (and how) the U.S.Congress is and is not doing to reform the country’s financial practices (“Wall Street’s War” Rolling Stone, May 26, 2010).

Congress looked serious about finance reform – until America’s biggest banks unleashed an army of 2,000 paid lobbyists.

Teddy Roosevelt was right

rebecca — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:14:13 +0000

From Lawrence Lessig today:

Who’s to blame for the Democratic loss in Massachusetts?

rebecca — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:22:06 +0000

A lot of fingers are pointing toward President Obama today, as the primary cause for the stunning upset victory of the Republican candidate in the Senate race in Massachusetts yesterday. But Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig says the culprit is elsewhere: