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[arete]

I wonder if Obama would physically survive trying some sort of lobbying reform. It's depressing.

If a law is unconstitutional, how do they think they'll pass it? They make use of freedom of speech to push their consistently creepier pron empires, but try to quash actual political debate and information sharing because Australia raped Sweden!!! Good grief. Occupy movements should arm themselves with bullshit detectors and surround Congress with their beeping.

[Expack2]

Originally Posted by arete

Occupy movements should arm themselves with bullshit detectors and surround Congress with their beeping.

Hmm...that sounds like an interesting proposition. Get Penn & Teller behind it and you've got it made! (In case you're puzzled why I said Penn & Teller should be backing this odd but potentially-effective protest, they once had a show on TV called Penn & Teller's Bullshit where they go after bull&^*$ claims and stuff.)

[Fruit Pie Jones]

Originally Posted by arete

Occupy movements should arm themselves with bullshit detectors and surround Congress with their beeping.

The only problem with that is that the Occupants themselves would set off the detectors as much as Congress would. I'm really getting tired of our legislators over here, though. They talk and talk and talk and never seem to accomplish one damn thing. Then they talk about whose fault it was that nothing was accomplished. For this reason alone I don't think SOPA has a chance of being passed, and I hope I'm right. I'm no fan of outright piracy, but legislation like SOPA isn't a reasonable way to combat it.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about America controlling DNS. It appears that Europe controls significantly more of the root servers than the US does. Heck, even Iceland gets one!

[hiraghm]

Why would Obama even try any form of lobbying reform? He's one of the biggest 'crony capitalists' out there. Someone said this stuff has been around for about 2 years... the Democrats controlled Congress from 2007-2011; they still control the Senate and have had the White House since 2009. It's not the eeevil corporations that are to blame. It's people who go into government with a desire to social engineer who are to blame.
Look at the Solyndra debacle, the Chevy Volt (a $250k car you can get for only $40k of your own money). The ban on normal lightbulbs. Obamacare's health insurance mandate. The newly formed Consumer Financial Protection agency. It isn't eeevil corporations who want to social engineer the world; it's the corruptocrats and socialists in government who do.

The Congress can pass all kinds of unConstitutional bills; it's up to the Supreme Court to knock them down. I don't like it either; I think the Supremes should have to review every law for Constitutionality, before it becomes law.

But, the Obama administration circumvents even this, by granting legislative power to regulatory agencies. He just made a recess appointment to that abomination of an agency... when Congress was not in recess. And his own party controls the Senate that would have to "advise and consent" on the appointment!

Lobbyists aren't the problem. Corrupt politicians (like Obama and too many lifetime Congresscritters) are. You want to fight this kind of thing? Vote against incumbents in Congress. Don't support the party favorites (like, in the current Presidential election, Romney or Gingrich). Nobody needs to hold office for the lifetimes these people do, and lifetime positions were not what the Founding Fathers had in mind for them.

Originally Posted by arete

I wonder if Obama would physically survive trying some sort of lobbying reform. It's depressing.

If a law is unconstitutional, how do they think they'll pass it? They make use of freedom of speech to push their consistently creepier pron empires, but try to quash actual political debate and information sharing because Australia raped Sweden!!! Good grief. Occupy movements should arm themselves with bullshit detectors and surround Congress with their beeping.

[catchaserguns]

I saw a video on Youtube saying the companies that support SOPA were the same technologies who invented the file-sharing programs. Here is the link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuY...fcFOAAAAAAAGAA. You might want to check it out.

[arete]

...You shouldn't believe everything you see on the internets.

Also, read more books. Like Homer's Odyssey maybe, or Isaac Asimov. Kids today.

*distant scream of Get Off My Lawn!!! fading into the distance*