CDR: RE: Wired News tech scorecard for U.S. House of Representatives

[Declan McCullagh]

Rush,

This is a useful analysis. Thank you. I was considering doing one myself.

Let me try to answer your question about how a Libertarian rep would rank.
Our rankings were explictly designed to reward "hands-off" votes, so it's a 
reasonable assumption that one would score highly.

But small-l and large-L libertarians disagree among themselves on what the 
proper role of government should be on tech issues. Consider Ron Paul of 
Texas. He has been the Libertarian candidate for president and has 
reportedly never renounced his life membership in the party.

Yet he scored just 71 percent, or 5 of 7 votes. That's because he voted 
against banning states from taxing the Net (probably on federalism 
grounds), even though libertarian groups such as Cato and Pacific Research 
Institute liked that tax-ban. (His other negatively-scored vote was an 
electronic signature law.)

This scorecard is by nature brittle. If we had included more votes, it's a 
near certainty that our two 100-scorers would not have perfect votes. One 
is anti-porn; we (unfortunately) didn't have any Net-porn votes to include. 
Neither CDA nor COPA was this session. Adding more votes would have boosted 
other rankings.

Also, the scorecard was designed to focus as closely as possible on votes 
that only dealt with a narrow issue. We could have included ones such as 
HR1501, but then we couldn't have figured out whether reps voted for it 
based on their support of filtering software or firearm restrictions.

-Declan



At 15:58 10/24/2000 -0500, Carskadden, Rush wrote:

>Everyone,
>      Just a quick observation here. According to the Wired chart, it 
> appears that the Republicans average roughly 49.85058296 and the 
> Democrats average roughly 47.27853081 on the Wired News scale, with one 
> representative being independent (Bernard Sanders), and one 
> representative with an "A" for their party designation (Spencer Bachus). 
> Here's my Republicans vs. Democrats breakdown of the Wired News chart:
>
>Party  | Republican  | Democrat    |
>-----------------------------------
>HR2301 | 0.181818182 | 0.343137255 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3615 | 0.153846154 | 0.024509804 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3709 | 0.958715596 | 0.697115385 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3125 | 0.218009479 | 0.575129534 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1501 | 0.440909091 | 0.908653846 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR10   | 0.522522523 | 0.058252427 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1714 | 0.986175115 | 0.695652174 |
>-----------------------------------
>total  | 3.381165919 | 3.203791469 |
>-----------------------------------
>votes  | 6.798206278 | 6.777251185 |
>-----------------------------------
>score  | 49.85058296 | 47.27853081 |
>-----------------------------------
>
>These are all just averages, and I omitted the "A" and "I" designated 
>representatives. In regards to the "A" designated representative, Spencer 
>Bachus, I think the "A" is an error. I was under the impression that he 
>was a Republican. If he is, in fact, a Republican, then that changes our 
>averages slightly:
>
>Party  | Republican  | Democrat    |
>-----------------------------------
>HR2301 | 0.180995475 | 0.343137255 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3615 | 0.153110048 | 0.024509804 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3709 | 0.95890411 | 0.697115385 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3125 | 0.216981132 | 0.575129534 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1501 | 0.438914027 | 0.908653846 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR10   | 0.520179372 | 0.058252427 |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1714 | 0.986238532 | 0.695652174 |
>-----------------------------------
>total  | 3.375       | 3.203791469 |
>-----------------------------------
>votes  | 6.799107143 | 6.777251185 |
>-----------------------------------
>score  | 49.75558036 | 47.27853081 |
>-----------------------------------
>
>      Which still puts Republicans in more of a hands-off strategy for 
> technology, according to voting history. If Spencer Bachus is not a 
> Republican, then please tell me what the hell an "A" party designation 
> stands for.
>
>      If you are interested in seeing TOTALS as opposed to AVERAGES, here 
> is your chart:
>
>Party  | Republican  | Democrat    |
>-----------------------------------
>HR2301 | 40          | 70          |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3615 | 32          | 5           |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3709 | 210         | 145         |
>-----------------------------------
>HR3125 | 46          | 111         |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1501 | 97          | 189         |
>-----------------------------------
>HR10   | 116         | 12          |
>-----------------------------------
>HR1714 | 215         | 144         |
>-----------------------------------
>total  | 756         | 676         |
>-----------------------------------
>votes  | 1523        | 1430        |
>-----------------------------------
>
>      Again, it is entirely possible that my information is incorrect. I 
> do recommend that you do the research yourself, as relying too much on 
> these numbers means relying on numbers collected by a media source and in 
> turn sorted and re-calculated by some punk-ass on the cypherpunks mailing list.
>
>      To the best of my knowledge, however, this looks right. What alarms 
> me is that though there is a slight difference in the overall score 
> between Republicans and Democrats, neither party has a very strong 
> leaning one way or the other, which illustrates the frustrations that a 
> two-party system creates for those of us who would like to see a strong 
> stance (either way) on the issue of government regulation of technology. 
> I anxiously await any speculation that might take place on this list 
> regarding how Libertarian representatives might have voted had they been 
> in there, but the fact is that we live in a two-party system for the time 
> being, and if we feel strongly about these issues, we need to accept that 
> our representation may not be hearing us. Is it because we aren't 
> speaking loudly enough on these issues?
>
>ok,
>Rush Carskadden
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Declan McCullagh [<mailto:declan at well.com>mailto:declan at well.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 11:15 AM
>To: Cypherpunks Mailing List
>Cc: fight-censorship at vorlon.mit.edu
>Subject: Wired News tech scorecard for U.S. House of Representatives
>
>At Wired News, we've compiled a list of the technology voting records of
>each member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
>
>That meant picking seven tech bills and grading all 435 legislators -- at
>least the ones who showed up those days -- on their floor votes. If they
>chose to take a hands-off approach, they got a "1", while regulatory votes
>got a "0." (If you disagree with us, flip the scale around.)
>
>Here's the list sorted by last name (scoll down to find your legislator):
> 
><http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,39637,00.html>http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,39637,00.html 
>
>Sorted by score, with the two California reps with 100 percent at the top:
> 
><http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,39636,00.html>http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,39636,00.html 
>
>
>And a summary of the results, with some methodology:
> 
><http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39625,00.html>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39625,00.html 
>
>
>Some interesting results: Purported privacy advocates like Democrat Ed
>Markey didn't score well, getting a 33% of 100%, in part because of his
>opposition to financial privacy legislation. Republican Bob Goodlatte,
>Internet caucus co-chair, got just 43% because of his support for speech
>and gambling restrictions.
>
>-Declan
>
>
>The floor votes scored:
>
>HR2031: A vote to restrict online sales of alcohol. (No is 1)
>HR3615: A vote to create a new federal agency to spend $1.25 billion on
>rural TV service. (No is 1)
>HR3709: A vote to extend a temporary federal ban on Internet taxes. (Yes 
>is 1)
>HR3125: A vote to prohibit Internet gambling. (No is 1)
>HR1501: A vote on an amendment to restrict the sale of violent material
>such as videogames to anyone under the age of 18. (No is 1)
>HR10: A vote on an amendment to protect financial privacy by restricting
>government monitoring of bank accounts. (Yes is 1)
>HR1714: A vote to allow the use of electronic signatures. (Yes is 1)