Author Archives: Lisa

Rummy On Meet The Press This Morning — And Other Stuff

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No, I don’t have it up yet, but I did get it, and after I finish with the election stuff (things must happen in order, or they, like, don’t happen) I promise I’ll get the Rummy stuff up next.
I just want you to be sure it was in the kitty. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m assuming he is responding to “the memo.”…
Okay, so, I’m obviously back and about to go on a video rampage. I’ll have to get the Dean on 60 minutes up soon too. And, jeez, what else, just a stack of stuff…Last Saturday’s protest (Oct 25, 2003) still hasn’t gone up yet (it’s captured though…). There’s Dean in SF Wednesday (October 29, 2003) (also captured). There’s Laura Splan’s recent blood painting opening (just in time for halloween…doh!)…and I don’t know what else….but if it’s uploaded to the archive, it’s a-gettin-a-linked.
I’ve fallen into that stupid trap of not taking enough time to blog clips I’ve already crunched and uploaded — and that’s just plain stupid. So allow me to catch up a bit over the next day or two…

Why Vote For Tom Ammiano Instead Of Gavin Newsom?

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How I’m voting this Tuesday
This footage is from October 31, 2003.
Here’s
Tom Ammiano explaining why he’s a better choice for Mayor than Gavin Newsom. (Small – 4 MB)


Lisa:
What separates you from Gavin?
Tom:
Well, I think there’s a class background that can’t be discounted. And, as with Matt, the number of years of legislative history. He’s pretty skimpy. He’s been on about as long as Gonzales, but he hasn’t really accomplished very much.
Also, he doesn’t get along with any of the Board members. He’s at war with most of them. It’s one thing to fight with people. We all do that. You want that in a democracy. It’s not “the Stepford Supervisors” by any means. But then there’s a time to put it aside and work in a common way. And I don’t see that with Newsome in any way. So, he gets elected Mayor and we’re going to have that wide gap again between Supervisors, elected by neighborhoods by the way, and a Mayor who does not like District Elections and wants to go backwards.
He’s supported by Feinstein. Feinstein wants to end District Elections. She’s not supportive of comperable work. She’s not supportive of police reform. So he, really, for a younger person, really does not represent the future. He represents the past and going backwards, and I think that’s a big difference.

Why Vote For Tom Ammiano Instead Of Matt Gonzales?

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How I’m voting this Tuesday
This footage is from October 31, 2003.
Here’s
Tom Ammiano explaining why he’s a better choice for Mayor than Matt Gonzales. (Small – 5 MB)


Lisa:
What separates you from Matt Gonzales? A lot of people are on the fence about who they’re going to vote for, and I thought we could clear that up.
Tom:
Well, a lot more years of experience. And legislative history. I know that sometimes people think “gee, legislative history” is a little boring. However, I come from this activist background. And then, when I was about 49, I took all the social justice issues I knew about and all the populist issues I knew about and put them together and got elected, and I’ve been enacting those for years.
Living Wage, District Elections, Environmental Issues, and I think that that’s a big difference.
Also, I taught school for 25 years, and I think that taught be a lot about not only the economy, but about the diversity in San Francisco, and the job market in San Francisco, and I’m very very supportive of public schools, and I have that hands on experience. And I have a kid, and my kid went to public schools.
So, you know, I think someone like Gonzales is going to find out that there ain’t no free lunch for anybody, and you just can’t coast on rhetoric and verbage or personality. You’re really going to have to prove that you’ve produced something other than a different voice…
I think my legislative history — the length of it, the social justice ground, the comprehensive and very wide wide number of issues I’ve dealt with over the years — I think that’s what people would like to see in a Mayor.

Time To Get Ready For Tuesday’s Election!

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(Link to movie of Ammiano wearing button.)		 I’ve created a page detailing how I’m voting on Tuesday, along with another page (that’s not really complete yet) that will provide brief explanations about the reasoning behind my decisions.

I interviewed Tom Ammiano on Friday afternoon about why he’s the best choice for Mayor, and while I was at it, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him about the various propositions on the Ballot.

I’ll be putting up the video from this interview, complete with transcriptions, over the course of the day (with a little break from noon-3pm), but I wanted to get the ball rolling asap.

My Interview In Japan’s “Internet Magazine”

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This interview ran in the May 2003 issue of Japan’s
Internet Magazine. (The translation is a little choppy…)


 Title: XML Specialist Lisa Rein
CTO of Creative Commons who has another name as XML Queen – an interview with Lisa Rein
By Gohsuke Takama.
XML Specialist Lisa Rein is leading technical architect for Creative Commons, which Lawrence Lessig has introduced. We asked her about how she, a journalist/ musician/editor, became recognized by some as the ‘XML Queen.’

Q: What kind of work was that you did in the CreativeCommons project?
LR: My official title was ‘Techinical Architect.’ Basically I was the first CTO of CreativeCommons. I did basic reserach and designed architecture with development team. Larry (Lessig) already had an idea of building machine readable licenses, so my role there was to lead to accomplish (the project of) buiding XML licenses using RDF, that is based on right ideologies and is compatible and interoperable with many different systems.
Q: How did you get inerested in XML?
LR: It was in 1997. I was an editor of Netscape World magazine at that time. At a conference in April I met Chris Lilly of the W3C and asked him many questions. He happily answered me, and gave me the draft of XML standard, which was still under development. I had no idea what it was at the time, but got excited about the fact that a standard that everyone could use was getting realized.
Q: What was the situation surrounding XML?
LR: “The Web needs XML” was understood by everyone of the first XML WG, and they guided me. Tim Bray and the older generation who made HTML were very worried about the future of the web. But they also thought that if we can build a legitimate standard as quickly as possible, the web would keep going for a while.
Q: So are you self-taught in XML?
LR: No, not by myself. The whole world was a teacher to me. When I sent out questions in emails to experts all around the world for different themes, most of them replied to me with wonderful answers! I thougt that they felt happy to be asked by a person who really wants to learn that had a serious interest in the subject. Then, as I learned more about the subject more, I became more interested in getting actively involved.
Q: How did you start teaching XML?
LR: Since I was involved deeply, to spread XML to the world became my role. My teaching started in my local community college in Bellevue, WA, and then I also did consulting for corporations. But it wasn’t fun to teach students who were told to study by their bosses. Or, I should say, it sucked, and could not wait to go home every day. After that, I started teaching at UC Berkeley extension’s online seminars. In 2001, I had more teaching gigs as XML get into main stream, but several gigs were canceled in the middle of the course affected by ecconomic down turn.
Q: How did corporations and universities find you?
LR: UC Berkeley, via Craig’s List. Corporations, well, probably they searched on the web. They only wanted some big names. and around that time there were some people calling me the “XML Queen”. It was kind of like “hey everyone, here comes the queen to teach you XML” kind of thing…

Foo Camp Movies: Celebrity Death Aikido Match

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Foo Camp Movies: Celebrity Death Aikido Match
Here’s a celebrity death aikido match between Paul “Schmoo” Holman and Jeremy Borenstein.
This was shot on October 12, 2003.
Jeremy was nice enough to provide me with a little explanation:

“Pablos and I originally met because we were both training in the same
aikido dojo. This movie shows us, out of shape and out of practice
but still having fun trying to maul each other. There’s a variety of
aikido techniques more-or-less demonstrated there. Pablos takes some
nice high falls (when he leaves the ground completely for a time) and
doesn’t get hurt, which is a testament to his skill.”

Foo A-Z
Foo Aikido Match (Small – 6 MB)
After the Match (Small – 1 MB)
Foo Aikido Match – All (Small – 7 MB)

















Rob Courddry On The Shrub’s Blaming The Navy For “The Sign”

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This clip was shown after this clip on October 29, 2003.


In this clip, Rob Courddry probes further into the familiar pattern of the Shrub’s blaming his mistakes on other agencies he, theoretically, has complete control over as Commander In Chief.
For example, it was the CIA’s fault about the faulty WMD intelligence that was included in his State Of The Union Address. Now it’s the Navy’s fault for following orders and hanging up the “Mission Accomplished” sign at his May 1 press conference.

Rob Courddry On “The Sign” (Small – 6 MB)


(Below: What the sign said.)


(Below: What they meant for the sign to say.)





The Daily Show (The best news on television.)

Jon Stewart On The Shrub’s Blaming The Navy For “The Sign”

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This clip from the October 29, 2003 show has the Shrub answering questions at his latest press conference (Oct 28-29, 2003 or so), where he talks rather vaguely about “terrorists” who are responsible for the latest round of suicide bombings in Iraq.
(This clip goes with this clip.)
What the Shrub says, and what his press secretary clarifies later, is that it’s the Navy’s fault for misrepresenting that the war was over with the “Mission Accomplished” sign. (Despite the fact that all the Navy did was put up the sign that the White House printed up and brought to the event.)
Jon Stewart:

“The White House is basically saying they can’t be held responsible for what the Navy does with a sign that they made and brought to the ship.”

Here’s the little clip about “the sign”:
The Shrub Blaming the Navy for “The Sign” (Small – 4 MB)
Here’s the complete clip of this bit:

Jon Stewart On The President’s Latest Press Conference (Small – 11 MB)







The Daily Show (The best news on television.)

Hip Hop Record Label Owner Receives Strange Visit From Secret Service

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I’m going to be in a hip hop video being shot next week by Ryan Junell. The song is called Under Surveillence by the group Variable Unit.

By a strange coincidence, that very same day I was recruited for the video, Billy Jam sent me this story, which details a situation where Dave Paul, owner of San Francisco’s tiny Independent BOMB Hip Hop record label, was questioned by two Secret Service Agents who were responding to a tip from Cheaptickets.com, who claimed Paul had made threatening statements about the Shrub while purchasing tickets over the phone.

Check it out:


Hip Hop Record Label Owner Dave Paul Interrogated By Secret Service Under Suspicion Of Being Threat To President George W. Bush
by Billy Jam for HipHopSlam.com

“The Secret Service showed up at my door. I was not here. They had told my mom that I had said some stuff on the phone and that I needed to answer to it. So I called the agent on his phone and he claimed that cheaptickets.com had reported to them that I had said some things about George W. Bush when I was on the phone working on my flight. I assured them that I said absolutely nothing and they wanted to come over and interview me in person, which they did with two agents. And they even wanted to come in and take a look around my room to make sure that there were no photos of “so-called person” with a target drawn on it or something to that effect. I don’t know if it’s someone at cheaptickets lying or maybe the Secret Service just used that as an excuse to investigate since the name of the record company…. I even gave them a flyer for tonight’s show but they didn’t look like they were too interested. I invited them down. They were pretty nice about it. I think just because when you’re making flight reservations and the company name is what it is and that’s what on your credit card and it shows four people going to Oklahoma City that I’m sure someone at cheaptickets pulled a red flag on it.”

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