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change congress
May 2009 
Change Congress: Lessig 2008
~C4Chaos
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
Previously, in response to the heated U.S. Presidential political campaigns, I said, "ignore the rhetorics and follow the money." In that post I featured a video of Lawrence Lessig's lecture on Corruption. Fast forward a couple of weeks later, the passing away of California Representative Tom Lantos made an opening for a seat in Congress resulting in a special election in to be held in April.
And the Draft Lessig movement was born -- a campaign to elect Lawrence Lessig in Congress.
It's still not clear whether Lessig would run, but it looks like he's seriously considering it. He has set up his own site with a video of his platform. Check out Lessig08.org.
"This site hosts this video to explain the launch of two exploratory projects — first, a Change Congress movement, and second, my own decision whether to run for Congress in the California 12th.
"I have decided I want to give as much energy as I can to the Change Congress movement. I will decide in the next week or so whether it makes sense to advance that movement by running for Congress.
"Many friends have weighed in on that decision — both strongly in favor and strongly opposed. Many more have joined draftlessig.org and a Facebook group asking me to consider it.
"Watch or listen and you will understand some of my reasoning."
I'm a big fan of Lawrence Lessig due to his efforts in raising consciousness on cyberspace laws and copyright. His passion led to the success of Creative Commons -- an organization I've supported since the early days of my blogging. With his latest project -- tackling corruption in Washington -- I think Lessig would be a much needed voice in Congress. So I fully support the Draft Lessig campaign.
For what it's worth, it would be cool to have someone in Congress who has in-depth understanding of technology, the internet, cyberspace laws, copyright, and knows how to make awesome Powerpoint Keynote presentations.
Access: Public
This is such an encouraging direction for our political system. Hope he actually does decide to run.
I like! :) Thanks for raising awareness about this guy- i had no idea who he was till i read this blog. :) He has my support…
The information regarding pharmaceutical control of diagnosis, and insurance control of the dialectic regarding 'mental illness', and the power of the AMA, APA and pharmaceutical bedfellows is a topic that has forced me to self-sabatoge 3 clinical positions I have held, as my questioning the 'power of definition' and exclusion of subjugated approaches from insurance payment has not really worked to my success. Thanks for providing a voice that lends himself to exposing and articulating the problem so well.