The Internets

Bush got made fun of endlessly for his coinage of a new word, the "Internets," during the second 2004 Presidential Debate (transcript [washingtonpost.com]):

I hear there's rumors on the Internets (sic) that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period.

Most people assumed that this was an innocent slip-up, one of many cute and funny Bushisms. However, I propose an alternative theory: this was an extremely subtle and prescient expression of policy regarding control of the Internet root servers.

You may have heard of recent talk [yahoo.com] about the UN Working Group on Internet Governance seeking to take control of the DNS root servers from the US. Actually, most countries already have their own DNS servers for their top level domains (e.g. .au for Australia). If any country or group of countries is concerned about US control, they could simply use these as the root servers (.com.au becomes .com, in Australia). At that point, we really would have multiple internets.

Was Bush subtly inculcating the idea of an American internet, along with internets of other countries should they so choose, as opposed to a global, unified internet? I think the evidence speaks for itself.

Africa: Sink or Swim?

A kind of depressing post about Africa from Kim du Toit. Basic thesis: we can't do anything for Africa that hasn't already been tried, and failed, so we should just leave it alone. Depressing.

Democrats' political strategy

Blame Bush, push Plame.