Los Angeles

>> ^dag:

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.
This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.

>> ^dag:

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.
This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.


Sweden?

My hands are still down. Really, I have no idea where the servers are. >> ^dag:

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.
This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

You know, the thing that pisses me off the most about SOPA is that Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith is always quick to point out that this bill mainly targets "foreign websites" as if somehow that makes it all OK.

This shows a real lack of understanding of the way the Internet works - and the increasing irrelevance of national borders. Hands up if you know where VideoSift's servers are.

Some links:

Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Direct Link to the Text of the Bill: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf

Open Congress (Easy way to contact your Congressperson): http://www.opencongress.org/

I wrote to my Senator (Orrin Hatch-R., Utah, responsible for the Protect IP Act) about SOPA and its problems and gave them a rather "cool" scathing review about its faults and errors and the public demonstrations that have taken place like GoDaddy and the fact that three major companies had pulled out from the SOPA bill (although their political alliance group is still signed into SOPA--so they can still look good in the public eye and still, really, support the bill) and got the "printing press" release as follows (which has nothing to do with what I wrote, really--I know this bill is coming, but really, an auto-send out letter for pissed constituents?):

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act.

On May 12, 2011, Senator Patrick Leahy and I introduced the PROTECT IP Act. If enacted, S. 968 would provide law enforcement with important tools to stop foreign websites “dedicated to infringing activities.” In other words, the bill targets the most egregious offenders of online theft who profit from counterfeit products and pirated content. These goods can range from new movie and music releases to pharmaceuticals and consumer products. With this legislation, we send a strong message to those selling or distributing pirated content or counterfeit goods online that the United States will strongly protect intellectual property rights.

The bill authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file a civil action against the registrant or owner of a domain name that accesses a foreign infringing Internet site, or the foreign-registered domain name itself. However, DOJ officials must first seek approval from a federal court before taking any action. In determining whether an Internet site is “dedicated to infringing activities,” a federal judge must weigh all of the facts carefully in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – just like what happens today in shutting down an illegal bricks and mortar storefront.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a common assumption with some online users that illegal downloads and purchases online are free and harmless. This is far from true. Fake pharmaceuticals threaten people’s lives. Stolen movies, music, and other products threaten the jobs and livelihoods of many people, and drive up costs for other consumers. Every year, these online thieves are making hundreds of millions of dollars by stealing American intellectual property, and this undermines legitimate commerce.

This also has a direct impact on Utah. As you may know, Utah is considered a very popular state for film and television production activity. Nothing compares to the red rock of Southern Utah or the sweeping grandeur of the Wasatch Mountains. Utah’s workforce is also a draw to filmmakers who come for one of the most highly educated and hardworking workforces in our country. It is estimated that the motion picture and television industries are responsible for thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in wages in Utah. There is no doubt that intellectual property theft has a direct, negative impact on Utah’s economy and its workforce. This same impact can be seen nationwide.

On July 22, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported S. 968 by unanimous consent. While it is unclear when the bill will be considered by the full Senate, the legislation enjoys strong support with 39 bipartisan cosponsors to date. Please know that my Senate colleagues and I are committed to crafting consensus legislation and welcome suggestions on ways to improve the bill. Unfortunately there has been some misinformation circulated about what the PROTECT IP Act aims to accomplish. In an effort to be of assistance, I have enclosed “Fact vs. Fiction” information about the legislation. I hope this information will be helpful to you.

Again, thank you for writing. I welcome your continued input on issues of concern.



Complete BULLSHIT. I hate my politicians, they're fucking half-wits!

@quantumushroom If facts are so important to you, then why is it that you never employ them while making implausible comments like liberalism causes black people to have babies out of wedlock, or that gays don't want equal marriage rights, or that California is broke because of liberalism.

You proudly admit to getting your media from questionable, corporate funded sources that a) carry no credibility outside of hardcore sympathetic ideologues, and b) have been shown to be less effective at keeping you informed than no media at all. This should be a big red flag.

http://www.good.is/post/poll-finds-fox-news-is-worse-than-no-news-at-all/

Beyond all this, you support a political ideology that has been on the wrong side of history, from slavery to women's rights to civil rights, to labor rights, and continuing with campaigns against gays, Muslims and Mexicans, as well as a continuation of the prejudices of old.

Do you ever wonder how regular German citizens got sucked into supporting fascism? Well wonder no more.

Let's take a look at the 14 defining characteristics of fascism and see how you do....

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

CHECK

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

CHECK

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

CHECK

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

CHECK

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

CHECK

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

CHECK

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

CHECK

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

CHECK

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

CHECK

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

CHECK

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

CHECK

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

CHECK

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

CHECK

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

I've seen nothing to suggest you support fraudulent elections.

13 out of 14. NOT GOOD DUDE. NOT GOOD AT ALL. You are free to dispute which ever ones you like, but you've got years of incriminating comments on this site to back this up.

But of course if you could see it, then the Germans would have been able to see it too, and we wouldn't have had to fight that war.



In reply to this comment by quantumushroom:
My problem is only with intellectual dishonesty, whether it's via curable ignorance or deliberate deception is almost irrelevant.

I've been where you are now politically, only LONG ago. I worked my way UP from liberalism, wiped the slate clean with anarchism, aimed toward libertarianism and am now floating in the undefined, invisible world of 'conservatarianism'. I do not agree with liberal policies based on liberals' good intentions. As a taxpayer and citizen, I demand positive RESULTS, and anyone foisting social experiments on society better be ready to defend them when they fail. Do you know the stats on Black crime and births out of wedlock? "Racism" did not cause a 70% illegitimacy rate in the Black community, LIBERALISM did. Crazy Johnson's "Great Society" garbage. The results of holding Blacks to lower standards--including standards of behavior--is self-evident.

There is even a fair argument for gay marriage, but the gay "lifestyle" generally is a sad one, with rampant promiscuity and diseases. It's not established that most gays even want legal marriage. And though no one else cares to acknowledge it, AIDS is a behaviorally spread disease. Remember that the billions politically steered towards AIDS research could also have been spent on cancer research, and cancer affects FAR more people.

California is broke. It got that way due to liberalism. RESULTS. Not good intentions, RESULTS.

You have a right to your opinions, but no one has the right to their own facts. If I had to judge you, I would say you're highly intelligent but misguided, not because your political views don't mirror mine, but because you refuse to step back and view the entire picture.


>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

The bottom line is that your problem with gays, blacks and other minorities is just that: your problem. It's not their fault that they have ended up on the wrong side of your emotional development. It's something you need to come to terms with on your own.

@NetRunner
right on. true enough, it is certainly where we are at.
I'm not an obama hater. (dissapointed, yes!), but i spent many years as a lawyer, working inside the system, trotting on the hamster wheel and even spending some time in the fed judiciary. I could go on a long tirade about how things are done in the legal world, but i'll just say that i'm an ex-attorney for a reason. Obama, like all presidents before him, has gladfully continued executive power-grabs created by the prior presidents. Balance of power is a joke. And the people have been completely left out of the political process. Decisions are made, and then the propaganda machine goes to work.

There is really no doubt we are in violation of international laws. but we do it all the time, cause hey, we're america and we do whatever the fuck we want.
legalities.... meh. the law is for sale.

i'm looking more at the overall mindset and complacency of a populace that is arguing about the legal semantics of killing it's own citizens in sovereign nations, while the rulers of this country blatantly run it into the ground.

and doesn't anyone recall how our government lied its way into Iraq? Have things really changed?

thanks for the well thought and written posts.

Once again proving that the most dangerous thing about cannabis is being incarcerated for using it.


http://www.norml.org

sign a petition against republican representatives blocking hearings on HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011


;;

HR 2306 was assigned to both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill currently sits in legislative purgatory and how long it will stay there is entirely dependent on two men. The chairmen of these two committees have thus far refused to schedule the bill for a hearing. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has made it clear he has no intentions of hearing the bill. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has yet to take a strong public stance.

We had to go through a similar video at DirecTV.

IT was an Anti telecommunication workers of america union video where it talked about how evil unions were.

Then we had to sign a paper when hired promising we'd never join a union, and that if we did it would be grounds for immediate termination. And we had also signed over our rights for any lawsuits due to signing the Mediation clause most employers are now carrying.

those mediation clauses suck, the most famous mediation clause went before congress of a young girl went to Iraq for extra pay for Haliburton and was gang raped, then detained in a box for days she tried to sue but was never able to and courts/police/fbi all ignored her.

Senator Franken brought the matter before a judiciary committee trying to BAN mediation clauses for employers. Dunno where it went after that, but yea.

I worked there for 3 weeks at directv, we had solicitations to join the unions when we'd go to lunch people would walk up to us, eventually a bunch of us couldn't handle the stress and quit. Cause you never knew if it was directv employees testing you, cause even if you took pamphlets they'd fire you.

it was a mess....

Don't get me wrong, our system isn't perfect. We have developed methods of limiting the power of the majority (constitution, Bill of Rights, independent judiciary, etc.) so that simple majority rule doesn't rob the minority of rights but there are still issues.

That doesn't change the fact that something embraced by the majority isn't, ipso facto, correct. In this particular case, even if the majority voted for the measure, I think the checks and balances would ensure that people would not be forced to participate in the program.>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

>> ^Skeeve:
This lock box idea is disgusting and should be stopped.
That said, the video seems to be making a big deal about the representative's statement that "the merit of an idea does not depend on the number of people who hold that idea." That statement is completely accurate. Just because millions of people believed the world was flat did not make it so. Just because millions believed the sun orbited the earth did not make it so. The number of people who believe something has no bearing on its veracity.
Thankfully we have things like laws and constitutions which prevent people from imposing their will on us, whether they are the majority or the minority.

While I agree with the tone, candor and direction of this statement; doesn't our system of constitutional republic representative democracy have the same central guiding light? More to say, the wrongness of something isn't the first consideration, but the popularity of it. Take for instance, free speech. Congress shall pass no law, has turned into "Well, except for hate speech, and well, speech that might cause or a riot, o right, and well speech that could threaten national security." What I mean is, while the constitution is good as slowing the rate at which popularity overrides civil liberties, there is currently no real difference fundamentally with the fears you rise and our own system. Popularity still speaks louder than rightness. I, however, have failed to see a better system...but I am hopeful there is some evolution, or revolution in store for a system that values truth, or at very least, reason more than popularity.

@dag Dude, do you even know what they were protesting? They were protesting a lawsuit being dismissed.

There are a lot of legitimate questions to be asked about this stunt. If you haven't read the ruling, or can't discuss it intelligently, I'd rather not argue with another blind, knee-jerk, faith-based cheerleader.

Anything less shows a profound disrespect for the role of the judiciary in interpreting the law.

So what will it be? Got any arguments that don't amount to emotional appeals?

BTW, you might avoid mentioning dear leader given whom Kokesh works for.

Iran Confirms Arrest of 1500 Protesters

The Iranian judiciary today announced the names of 1,500 people arrested in yesterday's demonstrations and transferred to Evin Prison, the Human Rights Reporters Committee reports.

http://www.payvand.com/news/11/feb/1145.html

Have you tried explaining to her what fascism is?

Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3


Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.