Watch out Sen. Bill Nelson. Republicans are pulling out the big guns to take your seat. That is right. I am talking about Pat Boone.
Boone made the ad for the 60 Plus Association. The organization was foolish enough to back SOPA. 60 Plus also backed President Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security. 60 Plus may bill itself as an advocacy group for senior citizens. Privatizing Social Security helps Wall Street; not American seniors. The idea that Wall Street can manage the retirement portfolios of seniors after the bailout is a laugh.
Boone attacks Nelson by stating that the Affordable Care Act would make patients lose their doctors. 60 Plus made the same attack against Democratic congressional candidates in 2010. FactCheck.org found the 60 Plus claim to be false.
Although the ads cite an April report from the office of the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as support for this claim, that report actually discusses cuts the law makes in payments to other providers, such as hospitals and nursing homes – not doctors. The required cuts could make it difficult for some such providers to stay in business, the report says, "possibly jeopardizing access to care" from those institutions for seniors.
But that report and another CMS document issued in August also note that Congress has a habit of negating such cuts. In fact, the August report says with respect to the legislated payment cuts to hospitals and other such non-physician providers, "Congress is very likely to legislatively override or otherwise modify the reductions in the future to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries continue to have access to health care services."
60 Plus contradicts itself, in the add, with lamenting that Medicare will be cut by $500 billion. Boone then makes this statement.
BOONE: Medicare will be bankrupt in nine years, but Washington politicians like Bill Nelson are ignoring the problem.
60 Plus can't seem to decide whether Medicare fundings needs to be cut or maintained. The people whom made this ad weren't interested in getting the wonky policy right. 60 Plus just wanted to use buzz words to scare seniors. Democrats have four effective words to do that. Those words are "the Paul Ryan plan."
"The blackout scared (legislators)," said Michael Hussey, editor of the Tampa Bay area political blog Pushing Rope, who paticipated in the protest. "It worked."
Marco Rubio didn't suddenly become a champion of the internet. Congress was flooded with angry emails and phone calls. Online web sites Google, Wikipedia and Facebook made people aware of the overreach of SOPA, and the Senate bill PIPA. Rubio and other Republicans weren't worried that web sites could be shut down for only providing a link to a web site that provided a link to pirated material. (Guilty by link assiociation.) Congress was worried about angry constiuents with pitchforks.
The internet is a powerful form of communication that the members of Congress have no understanding of. Billions of Americans use Google every day. The search engine reaches more people then a Republican talking to Rush Limbaugh on AM radio.
SOPA would require Facebook and Twitter to delete every questionable link that may lead to pirated material. Someone can just say that Twitter and Facebook lead to pirated material. No burden of proof is needed. It is literally impossible to go through the internet and delete every link. I have a hard enough time monitoring spam comments left on this blog. This just goes to show how clueless Congress is.
Rupert Murdoch hysterically attacked internet companies for lobbying Congress against SOPA and PIPA. Murdoch has given massive amounts of money to Republicans. Murdoch's hypocrisy is not surprising. If you don't think that Murdoch would not use SOPA to crush his internet competitors then you are in denial. Mudoch was just forced to pay 37 people for his company News of World hacking private phones. Murdoch uses technology in the most Orwellian of ways.
All five people who hit my website in a day probably won't be disappointed enough to call their Congressman," admitted Johnson, a software consultant for a Tampa firm. "But Wikipedia has enough clout that they can get everyone involved."
SOPA and PIPA is an government overreach of the internet supported by people like Ruport Murdoch. Media moguls such as Murdoch would benefit from the government. An internet provider could decide to take any web site off its search engine under the claim that site is hosting pirated content. No proof is needed on the part of Google. Fortunately, Google is against the current forms of the SOPA and PIPA bills.
The legislation is unenforcibly. I cannot image Twitter and Facebook going through millions of updates looking for pirated content to delete. It is not possible. This is legislation created by members of Congress who have no understanding of just how vast and complex the internet is.
I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act. Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the internet.
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) have dropped their support for SOPA.
When the going gets tough politicians fold. Rubio, Terry and Quayle have not suddenly become fans of free speech. They are scared of voter backlash against the bills. Politicians want campaign donations from movie and music corporations. Campaign dollars don't mean a thing if they cannot get re-elected.
Side note: Rubio, Terry and Quayle are suppose to be less government conservatives. Internet piracy is already illegal. How is it conservative to make unenforcable laws that could have a financially negative impact on Google, Pay Pal and MSN conservative? The answer is it isn't. The wise thing to do is hire more federal government employees to enforce the anti-piracy laws that are already in place.
Andrew Rasiej, chairman of the New York Tech Meetup, told the New York Daily News that not only would SOPA and PIPA open the door to censorship of the Internet, but the laws would also have negative effects on the ability of the U.S. to remain a leader in the global tech industry.
"Because a new innovation by a start-up could be interpreted by a judge unfamiliar with how the technology works as infringing on copyright, investors and entrepreneurs would be discouraged from moving forward with a start-up due to a significantly increased risk of legal entanglement," Rasiej told the New York Daily News. "This in turn would dampen job creation and future opportunities for New Yorkers and Americans as a whole."
Schumer and Gillibrand are the co-sponsors of PIPA.
The Young Turks on Ruport Murdoch's support of SOPA.
Update: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted why he is against SOPA and PIPA.
The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet. The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet. You can read more about our views here: https://www.facebook.com/FacebookDC?sk=app_329139750453932.
There are some people angry that Zuckerberg didn't shut down Facebook for the day like Wikipedia. However, that is an inside the internet story.
Obama campaign just sent out an anti-SOPA fundraising email. #bandwagoning
President Obama wouldn't send out that email unless it was safe to oppose SOPA. It's official. People hate SOPA and PIPA. Politicians are running away from this legislation.
Illegal piracy should be punished, but I have serious concerns with SOPA and PIPA. We need to deal with piracy without chilling the innovation, diversity, and free exchange of ideas that define the Internet and have shaped our increasingly interconnected world.
Update:Daily Kos has a SOPA petition you can send to your Senator.
On Saturday, the White House announced that the Obama administration will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.
As Congress works to address the very real issue of online piracy, we must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity—and we must not inhibit innovation by businesses large and small.
Online piracy hurts our economy, threatens middle-class jobs, and undermines the work of some of our most creative companies and entrepreneurs. The President has called on all parties to work together to find solutions that address the problem of online piracy while remaining true to our values.
Update Video of State of Sunshine blogger Jom Johnson being interviewed on Action News.
