What is Digg?88 Comments
- DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5DIGG THIS! from TFA:
"The vandalism is just plain childish," Bowker said. "The term-limit pledge (that was changed by Meehan's staff) is a much more serious case. That's someone trying to alter the public record.
"To knowingly remove a truthful statement is just wrong," he added. "It's not the place of any special-interest group to tamper with the facts available to the public." - eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Wikipedia HAS NOT permanently blocked that I.P. after countless warnings and threats to do so.
That I.P. needs to be blacklisted and those people need to get the crap back to work. This is such a no-brainer.
Get some balls wikipedia. - arkan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It seems like at least once a week there's an article that makes the whole digg community look like a bunch of mob-crazed idiots who just love to jump to conclusions and make wild accusations. The only good thing this time is that you're finally doing it to a liberal.
Nowhere in the article does it say that Rep. Meehan directed, authorized, or even knew that the edits were happening. Its entirely possible that all this went on entirely without his knowledge... heck, I would even say that it was likely the case. While he bears ultimate responsibility for the actions of his staffers, it would be unfair at this point to say at this point that he knew and approved of the wayward staffers' actions. - userundefine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Interesting story. This isn't a flaw in Wikipedia, IMO. Its self-regulation is what caught this nonsense. Because of it, those who would ordinarily write history can no longer control how it's written.
- Bostonsox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I live in the district this guy represents. Seems like your average politician, he is clearly a liar of sorts, which I am pretty sure is a requirement to be a politician, and you wonder why so many people hate politicians.
- DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2heres the reps site:
http://www.house.gov/meehan/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3> "and you wonder why so many people hate politicians."
The remarkable thing about folks who wrote the constitution was that they envisioned a day when the whole damned thing would need to disassembled by bloody revolution. Of course, the first thing the federalists did once a relative status quo had been established was bandy around phrases like "against enemies foreign and domestic" and "advocate the violent overthrow of the US government" to describe those who were politically incompatible with the particular brand of "democracy" found within the boarders of the United States of America.
Make no mistake about it... that is exactly where we are headed unless there are some fundamental changes. "Representative democracy", as currently practiced by US politicians, is incapable of representing anything that can't directly hand them money. When the disconnect between the people and those "elected" to "represent" them becomes large enough, there *will* be fireworks... or maybe not; perhaps, perhaps the character of the American people has changed and perhaps they can be effectively managed by a combination of revisionist history and dependency on the government.
Personally, my biggest gripe with the US political system is the electoral college. That damned institution is just incapable of handling close elections and on more than one occasion has voted against the will of the people is supposedly represents. People wonder why voter turnout is low; any given voter can look directly at the electoral college's past performance and say "that is the reason the my vote does not matter".... that and the strangle hold that the two party system has on American politics will be the death of freedom and liberty in this country. - teece, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Bad Congressman, no doughnut!
Ironically, there's a picture of him on his web page next to a sign talking about ethics. Yes sir, tell us about the ethics of this, Congressman ... - SyDIGG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Marty Meehan is a well known Democrat in the House of Representive who always speaks out against Republicans for their lack of honesty and corruption. Hah!
- bcnewman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Personally, my biggest gripe with the US political system is the electoral college. That damned institution is just incapable of handling close elections and on more than one occasion has voted against the will of the people is supposedly represents. People wonder why voter turnout is low; any given voter can look directly at the electoral college's past performance and say "that is the reason the my vote does not matter".... that and the strangle hold that the two party system has on American politics will be the death of freedom and liberty in this country."
Just in case you don't know... The United States is comprised of 50 states. Without the electoral college the course of the nation would be dictated by 2 of those states. And God help this country should it ever be governed solely by California and New York.
Of course I'm sure that if in 2004 John Kerry would have won the electoral college but lost the popular vote you wouldn't have the same "gripe".
Here's an idea, try getting your information from sources besides a bumper sticker... - JulianMorrison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Here's the difference. Staffers do edits in Wiki, they get caught and the changes cleaned up. Staffers pressure for edits in textbooks or documentary films, and you'll never know.
- geomon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Representative democracy", as currently practiced by US politicians, is incapable of representing anything that can't directly hand them money."
You get the government you pay attention to. If the electorate paid attention to their government, then this type of disgraceful action wouldn't be possible.
The problem begins at each and every one of *our* keyboards. When was the last time you participated in a campagin? How many of us have dragged our fuzzy asses out from behind our monitors to work *for* a candidate rather than sit back and bitch about how the activists STOLE the election.
The reason people like this guy get elected is because the people backing him care more about the election than most of the people he represents.
Pure and simple. - bash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1cue andrew orlowski to feature this in his next anti-wikipedia register column
- xofc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The remarkable thing about folks who wrote the constitution was that they envisioned a day when the whole damned thing would need to disassembled by bloody revolution. Of course, the first thing the federalists did once a relative status quo had been established was bandy around phrases like "against enemies foreign and domestic" and "advocate the violent overthrow of the US government" to describe those who were politically incompatible with the particular brand of "democracy" found within the boarders of the United States of America."
This is exactly why the second amendment remains important. I hope things never get to the level where an armed protection of other rights, such as free speech or universal suffrage, becomes necessary. If it ever gets that far, I hope we still have an armed populace that is capable of overthrowing a government that might usurp such inherent rights.
"its the conservatives"
um, actually the politician in question is a democrat. I'm sure each party is capable of the same thing. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"Politics is how we manage conflict without gunfire."
Exactly. We need more gunfire. - vodkamattvt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1While its almost always useless to get into a political debate over the internet, I will say that our system breeds this kind of abuse. You think all politicians are crooks? Thats a ridiculous statement, the fact is it takes a certain amount of money and talk to woo the masses.
Until the masses (Im not talking about people who write political blogs, anyone who will reply to this, or anyone else otherwise involved in political discourse) get wise to what the flaws of our system are, these things will continue. Knowledge is power, and most people have the knowledge of going to work everyday, and bleeding away the weekends and nights doing whatever floats their boat. They could give a rats ass about anything else, as long as they get their $$, their entertainment, and their jollies. Even worse are the ***** who spread misinformation around with political agendas. Dont get me started, I would rather have an ignorant ass who says he doesnt know anything than a jerkoff who spreads BS around.
And the news media! ... nevermind. I think we all know where this is heading. - geomon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@Seumas
"Just wait until the politicians find out about myspace."
I think they have already figured out the binge drinking part. I'm not sure I want to see them having sex. - geomon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@Bostonsox
"and you wonder why so many people hate politicians."
Unless you are in civil conflict. Then everyone witnessing the bloodshed and carnage on the sidelines will wonder "Can a political solution be reached?"
Politics is how we manage conflict without gunfire. - wolfkeeper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Rather than shooting people, I think just putting the whole sordid mess on the front page of the wikipedia so that it is likely to get picked up on by the media would be far funnier. Political death is much the same as actual death for a politician. :-)
- GhostFreeman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wikipedia is slowly becoming gated. I guess its up to the editors to decide how gated it'll become.
Segenthaller saw this coming from miles away, and Jimmy refused to accept it. - DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1links to the wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Meehan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marty_Meehan
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marty_Meehan&limit=500&action=history
Last Edit from 143.231.249.141 on Dec 27, 2005
http://www.whois.sc/143.231.249.141 confirms House of Rep. - mike_p, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"its the conservatives"
No, if you looked him up you would see that he's a democrat... still has nothing to prove wrong the fact that all politicians lie, cheat and steal...
... an honest politician, HAH oxymorons crack me up =P - cbackert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1After seeing the article running in The Lowell Sun, I combed through the entire history of wikipedia contributions . I was surprised to see that there were hundreds (pretty close to 1000 entries).
Though I was pleased to see that there were a fair amount of edits updating dates and facts to be current (everyone switching from the 108th to the 109th Congress), I was shocked to see that there was a large propaganda and misinformation campaign as well.
Some were personal attacks saying things like "He is generally not a good person," and childish things like adding Scott Mclellan (Bush's press secretary) to the entry for Douche; other were of a much more serious nature. The entry for Ralph Neas (Director of a the liberal People for the American Way) was edited to say he was a Socialist, and the more subtle but equally effective changing the description of MoveOn (a progressive political organization) to be categorized as "left-wing."
Many Congressional offices were removing any negative information or simply replacing the entire article with their official House bio. Emily Lawrimore (Communications Director Congressman Joe Wilson, emily.lawrimore@mail.house.gov) posted, on the discussion page for her boss "I work for Congressman Joe Wilson (listed as Addison Graves Wilson). Could you update his bio with information from the following official bio too?"
Some political officials like Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN 3rd) just wanted to remove any references to the word "liberal". The articles for Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ 2nd), and Rick Renzi (R-AZ 1st) were completely erased and replaced with official House biographies.
Getting even worse Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA 11th) and Governor Bob Taft (R-OH) removed references to their ties with Jack Abramoff (who in a recent Washington scandal pled guilty to three felony counts, conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion). Congressman Mark Green (R-WI 8th) removed any mention of his ties with the recently indicted Tom DeLay and generally removed any unflattering or scandal related information. A full list of the effected articles is available.
The possible most egregious entry was editing the article "2003 Invasion of Iraq." Erasing legitimate information, adding knowingly false information and generally purporting that there were links between Iraq and al Qaeda.
This appears to be a somewhat serious problem as this is one IP address of who knows how many. See the discussion page for this IP address at Wikipedia to see some of the known staffers who have been editing articles. - DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1link to history page of one of his edits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marty_Meehan&diff=prev&oldid=32874128 - Bigbro69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just wait until politicians find out how to use a PROXY. ;)
- Mirag3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0lets face it guys, most senators are cockwhores - republican or democrat.
Also, @dbooster, you said that the electoral system is fair and that voting against your state's party makes a difference - you say you understand the electoral system, but you really don't. Say I'm a democrat, but I live in a highly republican state (Texas). I go vote, but there are so many republicans the state goes to the republicans. In this example, the republicans get the electoral votes, and the democrats get NOTHING, even though i voted for them. If it was a popular system, everyone would get to vote, and the republicans would vote their own way, but now the democrats get my vote counted too. This also works for the republicans in liberal states, so that the votes are more equal (every vote counts towards your party, whether or not your state votes with you). Basically, if you weren't a retard you would have understood what your 9th grade teacher was saying and wouldn't have attacked the other guy who made a good point, but whatever... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oo wow wikipedias editable never would have thought
- Niloy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is EXACTLY why I don't think letting anyone edit the encyclopedia is a bad idea. At least have some registration requirements! (Well, they're doing that now...)
Still... letting anyone edit anything just isn't right! - phobos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0im sure he would love to hear what the voters think about all of this.
martin.meehan@mail.house.gov - MrShoop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think it is time for a wiki entry on his page noting the controversy of his staff having edited it.
- SirNuke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"In 1984 the government had the power to rewrite history to match the currently accepted doctrine. If the wikipedia is the all pervasive source of information that it claims to be, and politicians can come back and revise history, does that mean Orwell was only about 20 years off in his predictions?"
Obviously, this shows that they can try, but won't necessarily succeed :) - madmathmatician, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0guys like these (politians etc.) are a bunch o' crooks! there, i was polite.
DUGG - SergeantPepper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This information is nearly sickening. There have been a few stories about the acts of certain individuals on Wikipedia but the fact that members of the US Congress do it is pathetic. They not only do it, but see it as normal. They use childish tactics along with obfuscating the truth. Sad.
- chodesweat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia.
In all aspects it is nothing more than a messageboard.
Why is anyone suprised? - steve693, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The Ministry of Truth ftl =(
- multifaceted, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The only thing I use wiki for is to look up acronyms.
- FoneJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> If you want lower pay, less job security, and no heath benefits vote republican. Just a fact.
> Unless you are a CEO - in that case you'd get everything you want and a lot more.
And the dems will give you NO national security, and all the terrorism you can handle... and if you're lucky, you, too can get a billy boy job while you're "at work"... - Mirag3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0edit: sorry, its bcnewman was who i was talking to, dbooster, you were right on
- Allanon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The funny thing about this and the other cases of people changing the Wikipedia to hide information is that a lot more attention and debate about what is being changed takes place opposed to if they just left the Wikipedia alone.
- bradstuff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0HEY EVERYONE
i just emailed him and suggested that HE MUST POST AN APOLOGY ON WIKIPEDIA, and leave it there as a monument to the power that diggers, and all of our forefathers are now beginning to become aware of...
oh, on a separate note, his email is a couple posts above this.
b - toadslick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0vote third party!! ;D
- paulblack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Similar thing happened on the Alan Dershowitz article
- cbackert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Links to go with my comment:
Full list of Contributions by offending IP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/143.231.249.141
Congressional Staffer Posting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Joe_Wilson_(U.S._politician)&diff=prev&oldid=36989263%7C
Full list of effected articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:143.231.249.141#Congressional_edits.3F
Editing of Iraq Invasion article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2003_Invasion_of_Iraq&diff=prev&oldid=20867043
Discussion Page at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:143.231.249.141#Congressional_edits.3F - Deguello, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0WHAT???!?!?!
Politicians are not being honest? OMGHAX!.... - triad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No where does it mention the fact that he is a Democrat, the party that supposedly is all about freedom of speech, that is unless it portrays them in a bad light.
- einsfahrt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well I saw this article and the amount of 'diggs' it's received and I thought 'well they just don't know that he is a democrat.' Then I start to read the comments and although I was partly right, the majority of you do know that he is a democrat. There is hope for this community yet. *tear* (OO;)
- FoneJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> Tear it down and start over? Well... sure... but who's got the time... I'm playing WoW tonight...
No THERE'S a useful activity... fantasy war games... no wonder this country is heading into the crapper... - operativeweb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This story proves again the value of digg. I never would have read this but thanks to you all I digg it. It also proves the value and danger of wiki's like wikipedia. Now we know what the spin masters want us to believe and can keep each other informed of the truth.
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Did anyone notice the disclaimer on disputed pages they're putting up now? That's good enough for sensible human beings, isn't it?
Or do you blindly obey everything you read on an internet site or hear in the newsmedia? - musicbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> Wow whatchamcallit. Your comment is completely relevant. Wait... not it isn't.
> Actually it's spot-on
No it's not. It's another pointless rant which is where discussion like this always lead. Next we compare Jesus and Spider-man and the rest of those liberal hacks taking down our country! Staffers and political folk do this kind of stuff all the time. The finger pointing goes to every American who believes CNN and Fox news actually report real news and to every American who picks up a Star or US Weekly magazine as their social compass. You get what you vote for and you get the government you participate in... whether it's local zoning issues or candidates for the presidency. Tear it down and start over? Well... sure... but who's got the time... I'm playing WoW tonight... -
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