"Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people."
Posted on 03/13/2012 8:08:37 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Gore: 'Our democracy has been hacked' By Daniel Strauss - 03/13/12 10:18 AM ET
Al Gore said on Tuesday that America's democracy "has been hacked" and advocated for the use of digital tools to improve the government.
Speaking to the high-tech crowd at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, the former vice president said that social media and digital technology should be used to "change the democratic conversation."
"Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people."
He also urged the audience to begin a new, online "Occupy Democracy" movement, according to The Associated Press.
Gore went on to describe his vision for a "wiki-democracy" of "digital flash mobs calling out the truth" and "a government square that holds people accountable."
His comments came during a panel with Sean Parker, who founded Napster and helped start Facebook.
Both men said that digital tools and social media could be used to counteract the influence of money in politics, urging people to do more than "like" something on Facebook.
"It's not enough to take that small action online," said Parker, who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the move "The Social Network." "A referral or notification is not really the same thing as showing up at a protest or actually opening up your wallet."
Gore also criticized the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case, which helped increase the influence of super-PACs in elections.
"When we win the conversation, then the pressure can be put on the politicians and elected officials to do the right thing," Gore said.
1%’er...
Sean Parker (born 1979) is an American technology businessman and entrepreneur. He co-founded Napster, Plaxo, Causes, and Airtime. He was Facebook’s founding president. As of the third quarter of 2011, Parker’s net worth was estimated to be $2.1 billion
When Parker was 15, he met 14 year-old Shawn Fanning over the internet, where the two bonded over topics like theoretical physics and hacking.
As a teenager, Parker’s hobbies were hacking and programming. One night, while hacking into the network of a Fortune 500 company, Parker was unable to logout after his father unplugged his computer. Because his IP address was exposed, F.B.I. agents tracked down the 16-year-old. Since Parker was a minor, he was sentenced to community service.
Parker was born in Herndon, Virginia to Diane Parker, a TV advertising broker, and Bruce Parker, a U.S. government oceanographer.
Parker now serves on the board of directors for Votizen and he believes “Politics for me is the most obvious area [to be disrupted by the Web]”.
He has spoken out in favor of higher taxes, particularly for the “wealthy and super wealthy,” and in favor of higher capital gains taxes.
Parker is primarily based in New York City although he frequently travels to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockholm, and London for Spotify, Airtime, and the Founders Fund.
His $20 million townhouse in Manhattan includes an indoor pool, 30-foot bamboo trees, and an entrance hall adorned with actual subway cars. He is engaged to Alexandra Lenas, a singer-songwriter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker
The Adventures of NYC’s Billionaire Playboy
Ever since Parker set up a part-time home in New York in 2005, the former high school hacker has taken to the city’s party scene with a zeal that’s left even some of his closest friends agog. Police busts, drug-fueled parties, hugging horses—you name it, Parker’s bought the (designer) T-shirt.
Parker shelled out $20 million for a six-story, five-floor, 8,500-square-foot West Village townhouse last January. He boasts three assistants, a driver and private-jet jaunts. He brags on Facebook about his exploits, like smoking a laced joint with rapper Snoop Dogg during a lavish “Celebration of Music” party the mogul threw in September.
http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20111201/Adventures+NYCs+Billionaire+Playboy
Seriously, I think he snapped after 2000.
He’d probably spent half his life looking in the mirror and saying “good morning Mr. President”.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120313010515-gore-parker-sxsw-story-top.jpg
“The Internet is incredibly good at taking money out of existing industries,” he told the capacity audience of more than 3,000. “My hope is that the Internet can do for the political process what it did for the copyright industries.”
Parker is a backer and board member of Votizen, a site started in 2010 to help users parlay their social networks into political activism.
“There are a lot of really smart hackers in this audience,” Parker said. “We need to put our heads together and take control of this system ... before the slow-thinking incumbents ... know what’s happening.”
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/12/tech/web/gore-parker-sxsw/
The two men discussed what they said was the intrusion of big business into the democratic process, and their hopes for the Internet to take power away from the political industry.
“The Internet is incredibly good at taking money out of other industries,” Parker said, referring in part to the music industry whose sales have plummeted over the past decade, in part because of music sites such as Parker’s Napster. “My hope is the Internet can do for the political process what it did for the copyright industries.”
Parker is working with three companies — Causes, NationBuilder and Votizen — that he said are just the first online tools to help connect voters and political candidates without the interference of money.
Votizen works to identify politically active voters to provide candidates a way to “harvest” voters without having to spend billions of dollars on television advertising, Parker said.
David Binetti, the founder of Votizen, watched the talk from the front row of a crowded auditorium. “The political industry is a $10-billion-a-year industry,” he said shortly after the panel. “It has grown 25 percent year after year for the past 50 years. [Political spending] never goes down. It always goes up. ... The money needs to be taken out of it.”
To a socialist, democracy only “works” if it advances socialism. If democracy seems poised to reject socialism, then it has stopped working, and must be overthrown.
People that want to look smart use common terms of the day.
Those that understand those terms will see thru.
What Al misses is that the occupy he talks of is what brought him down in 2000. It started with him.
No President will be elected unless Americans on the web allow him.
I think that these used to be called 'lynch mobs'.
It is the socialism and statism mentality of libtards that has given us the mixed economy that we now have. It is the mixed economy that causes the current conditions of crony capitalism, corruption, and pressure group and special interest group warfare. The cure for too much money in politics is smaller government with less government interventionism, central planning, violation of rights, and more freedom.
Since his failed attempt to “occupy Whitehouse” he drifts further and further from planet earth.
These days, Gore is wearing a lot of hats (including “Corporate interest” = hypocrite). He’s chairman of Current TV, on Apple’s board, advises Google, is a senior partner at A-list VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, co-heads Generation Investment Management, and spends most of his time on the Climate Reality Project (Jakarta, Indonesia).
http://climaterealityproject.org/2012/03/12/meet-the-presenter-abdurrahman-alfarizi/
For his part, Parker, who in addition to his founding president role with Facebook co-founded Napster and Plaxo, is now putting much of his energy behind several online voting organizations including Causes and Votizen.
He lumped himself among those who have not leveraged their power as much as they could.
Both Gore and Parker asserted that one of the biggest dangers facing democracy today is the influence of corporate money in politics.
Added Gore, “We have to have a lot of emergent efforts to create new online tools to bring people together so there can be digital smart mobs, flash mobs, calling out the truth when these special interests try to stampede elected representatives to do what they want.”
And Parker urged the audience on hand at SXSW to help lead the charge. “We have a lot of smart hackers here,” Parker said. “We need to put our heads together and seize control over this system, quickly and stealthily before incumbent players wake up to what’s happening. We will have a moment of opportunity...if we do it successfully, to reform the system.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57395936-52/al-gore-with-sean-parker-at-sxsw-occupy-democracy/
Let him keep talking.....as you both said....we do NOT live in a “democracy”....ours is a Republic....he, and his marxist pals just WISH and WANT a “democracy.”
I liked it better when this nitwit was talking to a masseuse about his “chakra”.
That's true, Laz. We can't surrender this to the libs. We need to become as aware of the possibilities of the 'social media' as they, and use them!
“What a #ing thug communist.”
.... under the perverse impression that he’s still important.
The Republic got hacked by liberals long before I was born.
er we’re a republic , something these idiots seem unable to comprehend or just ignore.
That pesky pesky pesky constitution, it certainly slows down their agenda
Hi, hope all is well with you and the family up there.
I’m sick and tired of reminding people, especially teens that we are a republic not a frigging democracy.
"Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people."
And who will “own” this “occupy democracy” website? Could it be Gore?
And how much more money will FB make if more people “like” something?
And how many left wing sheeple will do what these two suggest?
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