Slashdot Mirror

who voted what ... http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll192.xml

... and then tell me "there's no difference" between Democrats and Republicans.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll192.xml

Roll call here. He was among the 15 who did not cast a vote. Thanks, Ron.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll192.xml Handy list of the reps who voted for this turd.

Yes, please do call your reps. If if you're like me and "bipartisan" isn't granular enough, here's the break down so we know who to blame:

The Patriot Act - 2001 (Yeas / Nays / Not Voting):
House of Representatives:
Republicans: 211 / 3 / 5 (96%)
Democrats: 145 / 62 / 4 (68%)
Independents: 1 / 1 / 0 (50%)
Senate:
Republicans: 49 / 49 / 0 (100%)
Democrats: 48 / 1 / 1 (96%) - Hooray for Russ Feingold
Independents: 1 / 0 / 0 (100%)

CISPA cosponsors (from your link):
Republicans: 86 (out of 242, 35%)
Democrats: 26 (out of 190, 13%)

SOPA had 16 of each on the list, but had various joining dates and withdrawals. I'd like to see the data for the Patriot reauthorization votes, but don't have time right now.

Of course, here is his official contact info: http://mikerogers.house.gov/Contact/

start making "concerned citizen" phone calls. Remember to be assertive, but polite. Just remember, his PRIVILEGE of being on congressman is dependent on your RIGHT to vote.

I find the House and Senate roll calls for the "Patriot" Act to be most useful in judging whether I would consider voting for someone, instead of against the other guy. They're also why I vote Democrat by default (well, one of the top two reasons), and why I seriously gave up on both major parties in 2001 and then the American people in 2002 and 2004.

Ron Paul voted against. It took real balls to do that in 2001.

http://intelligence.house.gov/bill/cyber-intelligence-sharing-and-protection-act-2011

AT&T
Boeing
BSA
Business Roundtable
CSC
COMPTEL
CTIA - The Wireless Association
Cyber, Space & Intelligence Association
Edison Electric
EMC
Exelon
Facebook
The Financial Services Roundtable
IBM
Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance
Information Technology Industry Council
Intel
Internet Security Alliance
Lockheed Martin
Microsoft
National Cable & Telecommunications Association
NDIA
Oracle
Symantec
TechAmerica
US Chamber of Commerce
US Telecom - The Broadband Association
Verizon

The only "energy scarcity" is that caused by the government getting in the way of the Energy producers.

We now know that Obama's infamous shut down of Gulf Drilling, which he claimed was supported by a report from a panel of experts, was instead the product of political appointees who inserted the rational for such a shut down into the report without the knowledge of the experts they cite. Those same experts later disavowed the supporting statements.

In short, the Administration lied.

Some stores/gas stations give a 5 or 10 cent discount if you pay with cash (instead of credit). I wish more stores would do that.
http://financialservices.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=252291

âOverall budget cost of Dodd-Frank through FY 2012: $1,251,578,000
âNumber of government positions created (projected for 2012): 2,849
âAnnual labor hours required to comply with just the 10% of Dodd-Frank rules that have been issued so far: 2,260,631
âNumber of Americans who will have to work all year, every year solely on complying with all of Dodd-Frankâ(TM)s rules: Over 10,000

âThe largest financial institutions in America remain "too big to fail"; in fact, they are even bigger now than they were before Dodd-Frankâ(TM)s passage. In its section of the report on too big to fail, Republicans note that even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged the Dodd-Frank Act does not end too big to fail.

âBy institutionalizing a government policy of too big to fail, Dodd-Frank further skews the competitive landscape in favor of large, complex financial institutions at the expense of smaller institutions and community banks.

âThe Dodd-Frank Act failed to address the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which helped spark the financial crisis in 2008, and hobbles the private mortgage market through onerous regulations. This will ensure "that housing will remain in limbo for some time to come, as investors, securitizers, and lenders try to navigate its cumbersome and unworkable rules."

The Republicans want to repeal the bill because it IS bad. It may have one part that is good in there but mostly it just benefits really big banks or companies, and imposes WAY too many regulations on businesses (that again benefit larger companies because they have staff that can handle stupid overhead like that).

I mean, if you are all for benefitting large companies that is fine, but most people would like to see government support for them reduced and Dodd/Frank are KINGS of supporting large companies through government graft.

Caspian Sea oil and gas unrecovered reserves are enormous, valued at over $10 trillion. Iran is currently a transit country for this, but the aim is to use Afghanistan instead. The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is a big part of this. Plans for an Afghan pipeline have been in the making for a long time, U.S. Congress testimony in 1998:

Mr. MARESCA. It's not going to be built until there is a single Afghan Government. That's the simple answer. We would not want to be in the situation where we became the target of the other faction. In any case, because of the financing situation, credits are not going to be available until there is a recognized government of Afghanistan.
Mr. BEREUTER. So you are not making any suggestions about the prospects of that or timing of that. It's just you are not going to move or it's not going to be moved from another source until that happens. That would be your judgment?
Mr. MARESCA. That's my judgment. We do of course follow very closely the negotiations which have been going on. We are hopeful that they will lead somewhere. All wars end. I think that's a universal rule. So one of these days this war too will end. Then I believe the pipeline will be secure.

That war (officially) ended thanks to the U.S. military, Afghanistan was (officially) unified under the Karzai government, and in 2002 Karzai signed the TAPI pipeline deal. Very fast given the complexity of such a deal. The U.S. has invested $0.5 trillion in the Afghan War so far, that's quite a lot just to bring bin Laden to justice. That $0.5 trillion didn't magically disappear - it was given to corporations which have profited handsomely from this war. Some stand to profit even more in the future from the ability to export Caspian Sea oil and gas through Afghanistan. And it also isolates Iran further.

Is it all a coincidence? It does seem awfully convenient...

Have you seen the size of the current US code. I wouldn't be surprised by that number.

In you case you want to send any of these weasels a note about their questionable behavior. Here is the list of members:

http://oversight.house.gov/committee-members/
http://transportation.house.gov/singlepages.aspx/763

It is painfully obvious the TSA security is smoke and mirrors. They are extremely reactive and rarely if ever have thought ahead of issues that have come up. Think about all the "rules" they have now that only surfaced after a breech or near breech.

In you case you want to send any of these weasels a note about their questionable behavior. Here is the list of members:

http://oversight.house.gov/committee-members/
http://transportation.house.gov/singlepages.aspx/763

It is painfully obvious the TSA security is smoke and mirrors. They are extremely reactive and rarely if ever have thought ahead of issues that have come up. Think about all the "rules" they have now that only surfaced after a breech or near breech.

Here's the committee, see any of yours on there? Send 'em an angrygram.
http://oversight.house.gov/committee-members/

specifically, ask them who they'll be inviting instead to provide counterpoint, if not Mr. Schneier.
Ask them how they can assume the TSA, which must provide a biased story to (1) avoid contradicting previous statements, (2) to protect their future budget and (3) to successfully defend the lawsuit for which Mr. Schneier was removed, can be considered an unbiased source of information. (Oh wait, they're federal employees, altruism must be taken for granted)

They have no obligation at all; the letters are requests. However... if they don't reply, the committee will likely assume the worst about their privacy practices. It's probably in the developers' collective best interests to convince Congress that some amount of self-regulation is occurring. (The last question is even "(9) Please list all industry self-regulatory organizations to which you belong.")

http://issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=581&Itemid=70

Be careful.

From: http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C110.txt

-HEAD-

        Sec. 2258. Failure to report child abuse

-STATUTE-
A person who, while engaged in a professional capacity or activity described in subsection (b) of section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 on Federal land or in a federally operated (or contracted) facility, learns of facts that give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, as defined in subsection (c) of that section, and fails to make a timely report as required by subsection (a) of that section, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year or both.

So if you're working on a machine, see CP and don't report it, you are on the hook.

The Los Angeles School District will be a good test of this statute. It's coming out that numerous parents of children in the Miramonte Elementary School reported highly questionable behavior on the part of some teachers and were waved off with no investigation being conducted. Then it turns out years later that those teachers are pervy child abusers. Whoever ignored those reports SHOULD be going to prison. Let's see if that happens.

Be careful.

From: http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C110.txt

-HEAD- Sec. 2258. Failure to report child abuse

-STATUTE- A person who, while engaged in a professional capacity or activity described in subsection (b) of section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 on Federal land or in a federally operated (or contracted) facility, learns of facts that give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, as defined in subsection (c) of that section, and fails to make a timely report as required by subsection (a) of that section, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year or both.

So if you're working on a machine, see CP and don't report it, you are on the hook.

From the snippet it looks like this statute applies to employees or contractors working on federal land, not individuals. Of course, if you get child porn on your computer 'accidentally' and the police find you before you report it, you'll still be in a world of hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if the government has some way of tracking traffic from known sites hosting child porn and those downloading it.

Be careful.

From: http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C110.txt

-HEAD-
        Sec. 2258. Failure to report child abuse

-STATUTE-
A person who, while engaged in a professional capacity or activity described in subsection (b) of section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 on Federal land or in a federally operated (or contracted) facility, learns of facts that give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, as defined in subsection (c) of that section, and fails to make a timely report as required by subsection (a) of that section, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year or both.

So if you're working on a machine, see CP and don't report it, you are on the hook.

Everything going on in that region can be traced back to the pipelines. There is billions of dollars to be made. Natural gas is really cheap right now, there is lots of it, so the strategy is to destroy everybody else's pipeline so you can charge monopoly prices for transmission in yours. The US military is used for these energy companies. They are still in Afghanistan because it's an important transmission route for gas and oil. There is bombing and fighting is Homs Syria because that's where the construction of the Arab pipeline is stalled. The US is now supporting the TIPA pipeline, which will go through Afghanistan. The competition would be the TI pipeline, which is the real reason for all the saber rattled over Iran.

Here's a clue: Why is Gohmert trying to carve out an independent province in Pakistan? Because that's where the TAPI pipeline would be built through. The Pakistanis are rightfully pissed about it.

The fact that it also covers up government wrong-doing, like spying on American citizens

It is hard to understand why the government would ever engage in surveillance of American citizens, isn't it? You've got to wonder, what are they thinking? Are they stepping over the line?

And that's not all - at times it's almost like they are guided and operating according to something other than criminal law, almost as if they had a body of law that nobody else knows about that lets them do things like shoot dead large numbers of people, en masse, legally, with neither trial nor warrant. How could that be? Does Congress know about this? Does Congress approve?

The recruiter: Anwar al-Awlaki, portrait of an American jihadist CNN: Al-Awlaki threatens Americans
40 Americans Have Joined Al Qaeda Group
U.S.-educated Misunderstander of Islam pleads guilty to jihad war crimes, turns government witness

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization. Full Story

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland. Full Story

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010, and to attempting to damage veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery. Full Story

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012

1.Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa

A 25-year-old resident of Pinellas Park, Florida was charged in connection with an alleged plot to attack locations in Tampa with a vehicle bomb, assault rifle, and other explosives. Full Story

2.Baltimore: Former Army Solider Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to al Shabaab

A man who secretly converted to Islam days before he separated from the Army was charged with attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization, and was arrested upon his return to Maryland after traveling to Africa. Full Story

Wait, you want to build a pipeline in the mid-west? No way! And don't try and argue that it would be 100% privately funded or create thousands of jobs - been thee, done that.

Except that that is not the bill being talked about in this article. The bill being talked about in the article is in the Senate, not the House.

That is all well and good, but it does not excuse the poster I was responding to for stating that the list of sponsors he gave were the sponsors of this bill, since they are not.

The poster linked to opencongress.org
http://homeland.house.gov/bill/hr-3674-promoting-and-enhancing-cybersecurity-and-information-sharing-effectiveness-act-2011 confirms what the poster shared, including the complete list of sponsors.

If the bill being talked about was in the Senate, not the House, it would start with "S", not "H.R."

So I have to ask, where did you get your information, and why should I believe you?

Go here

http://homeland.house.gov/markup/subcommittee-markup-hr-3674

look at the seal in the upper left hand corner that says U.S. House of Representatives.

Go here

http://blogs.cio.com/security/16787/law-would-put-homeland-security-charge-business-it-security

look in the upper left hand part of the page at the picture of an idiot columnist who can't tell the House from the Senate.

If the bill says HR, that means House of Representatives.

Senate bills are S-insertnumberhere

Seriously, the guy who introduced the bill is in the GOP. Give me a break slashdot.

http://lamarsmith.house.gov/

Impeachment is not available as a remedy against Article 1 elected officials. Impeachment is a power granted to Article 1 as a tool to be used against Article 2 and Article 3.

See Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 and Article 1, Section 3, Clauses 6 and 7.

Article 1 gives both houses of Congress the power to police and sanction their own members, but good luck getting them to use it.

I like that people get paid to be creative and provide me with entertainment.

The problem is the 20 industry goons standing in between you and the content creator taking their cut.

As for the lawmakers, they're not really convinced of the shit they say as regards copyright and IP laws. For the most part they're just reading off of a script that comes with a 6 figure check stapled to it. It wasn't until massive opposition by their constituents and the threat of repercussion that they started backing away from it, and that was political self-preservation, not any belief that the people were right. How many legislators have even come out and said "The people don't want this, and they are justified"? No, it's all "We must reexamine this bill" or "We must craft it in a way that protects copyright blah blah", never "Yeah, you're right, on closer inspection the bill was a fucking joke." They're stuck between a rock and a hard place because on one hand you've got people like Chris Dodd saying "Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake" while their constituents are threatening to kick their ass out of office in the next election cycle if they jump on board with SOPA/PIPA.

Hell, Steve King (R-Iowa) was sitting in a SOPA hearing and tweets "We are debating the Stop Online Piracy Act and Shiela Jackson has so bored me that I'm killing time by surfing the Internet." What did he find boring? From her remarks:

But there are sufficient loopholes here that would allow innocent sites to be shut down, thereby a loss of jobs. Have we answered the question dealing with national security? And as well are we recognizing the value of the First Amendment?"

Those are the remarks he was so "bored" by. Given that, how the hell can we reasonably expect that these people have even thought about the shit they are doing? The few people actually doing real thinking in the comedy of errors we call congress get routinely ignored and dismissed. They've already decided how they're going to vote before the bill even gets entered. They've been paid to vote a certain way by the same fucking people writing these damn bills. They don't even want expert testimony, they didn't even want to allow anyone in the way of an expert to speak in opposition at the damn hearing. Google gave great testimony as to the problems with SOPA and were themselves dismissed, just as any opposing lawmaker was. I can't find the link to the exact quote, but one of them (I think it was Mike Leahy (D-Vermont) said something along the lines of "I don't see how this will break DNS and I don't believe any expert that says it will". This is what they're being paid for by the pro-SOPA groups, after all.

The only other thing I can think of, that maybe they have thought about it and are just too fucking stupid to see the problems with what they were proposing horrifies me even more.

All in all, I think convincing lawmakers is a fools errand. There are some people trying to pool money to lobby against the media cartels, but fighting bribery with bribery doesn't seem prudent to me. Better to just make their stupid laws as ineffectual as possible. Eventually they're going to get to the point where we really are living in an honest to god Orwellian Police State and the people are just going to overthrow the government entirely. I'm not entirely convinced that we could even prevent it at this point.

I LOVE IT! Not only is a nutjob getting harassed, but they finally decided to harass someone that can do something to shut their asses down.

Both Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul have been very vocal opponents of the TSA (I'm pretty sure Ron Paul is running on a platform to completely dissolve the TSA as well as a number of other agencies and departments of the federal government -- although that depends on where he's speaking and to whom). Even if you don't believe he would go that far, Ron Paul has introduced the American Traveler's Dignity Act which specifically addresses being treated like cattle. I would wager most of this was coolly calculated by his son as beneficial to Ron Paul's campaign efforts -- bringing attention to such policies and putting them on the debate table.

Give me a break.

Glass-Steagall was repealed when Dodd and Frank were in the minority party. I'll give you that Dodd voted yes for that, but Barney Frank voted no.

The Dodd-Frank bill is not perfect, but it is the best attempt so far made to rectify the situation that created the crisis. Oh no, wait, I'm mistaken. If I'm to believe your side on this, it's the President's skin tone that caused the crisis. Better solve it quick with a tax cut for billionaires and make every state a right to work state.

The next version of the bill is already under way...

http://judiciary.house.gov/news/01172012.html

Yeah, yeah, I know. Facebook sucks and all that. But - if you do have a Facebook account, posting a little blurb that tells your friends in your own words why SOPA/PIPA are evil, then letting them know that even a few sentence email to their congress critters goes into the balance and counts, along with the links to get hold of them helps.

To contact your representative:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

To contact your senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

It's going to resume in February. http://judiciary.house.gov/news/01172012.html

as of yesterday SOPA was resurrected in the House

This is the story on the House Oversight Committee website that announces that work on SOPA has been postponed (not canceled or killed yet) and the first link in the story is an Outlook Web Access redirect link. So you have to sign into the house.gov OWA server to get to it. Yep, these guys should be figuring it all out for us.

Official listing of contact info (mailing address, phone numbers, and web e-mail) for US Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Since any bill would have to pass both houses, and since the Representatives from your state should also have some influence on the Senators from your state you may want to contact them too:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Given that Comcast has been more proactive about implementing DNSSEC than all the other major ISPs, I was very surprised to learn that they support SOPA, which will make it impossible to for ISPs to implement DNSSEC. I assume that their stance is motivated by the fact that they own half of NBC, and I wonder how their engineering staff plans on handling this situation if the bill is passed.

DNSSEC might make SOPA easier but would require the cert signing party to participate as well to do so...then you just get Microsoft to require valid DNSSEC signatures on all DNS lookups and most of the world will have an issue when the cert is revoked. Of course, the hard core folks will simply move off of Windows as a result...but they probably aren't using Windows already...

Second, if you are referring to the 'newsletters', well, we know who wrote them, and it wasn't Paul.

You mean all those people who were employed by Ron Paul to write things in his name and run his newsletter, people who were so close to Paul that it's completely implausible he never knew what they were doing? Some of them were close relatives, including his own wife! Another (one of those thought to have directly authored some of the virulent racism) still works for Paul, in a prominent position in Paul's current campaign.

Time to drop the Paulbomb, because you can't deny all the terrible things Paul has repeatedly supported in his time as a politician:

Ron Paul wants to define life as starting at conception, build a fence along the US-Mexico border, prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases on the Establishment Clause or the right to privacy, permitting the return of sodomy laws and the like (a bill which he has repeatedly re-introduced), pull out of the UN, disband NATO, end birthright citizenship, deny federal funding to any organisation which "which presents male or female homosexuality as an acceptable alternative life style or which suggest that it can be an acceptable life style" along with destroying public education and social security,, and abolish the Federal Reserve in order to put America back on the gold standard. He was also the sole vote against divesting US federal government investments in corporations doing business with the genocidal government of the Sudan.

Oh, and he believes that the Left is waging a war on religion and Christmas, he's against gay marriage, is against the popular vote, opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, wants the estate tax repealed, is STILL making racist remarks, believes that the Panama Canal should be the property of the United States, and believes in New World Order conspiracy theories, not to mention his belief that the International Baccalaureate program is UN mind control..

Second, if you are referring to the 'newsletters', well, we know who wrote them, and it wasn't Paul.

You mean all those people who were employed by Ron Paul to write things in his name and run his newsletter, people who were so close to Paul that it's completely implausible he never knew what they were doing? Some of them were close relatives, including his own wife! Another (one of those thought to have directly authored some of the virulent racism) still works for Paul, in a prominent position in Paul's current campaign.

Time to drop the Paulbomb, because you can't deny all the terrible things Paul has repeatedly supported in his time as a politician:

Ron Paul wants to define life as starting at conception, build a fence along the US-Mexico border, prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases on the Establishment Clause or the right to privacy, permitting the return of sodomy laws and the like (a bill which he has repeatedly re-introduced), pull out of the UN, disband NATO, end birthright citizenship, deny federal funding to any organisation which "which presents male or female homosexuality as an acceptable alternative life style or which suggest that it can be an acceptable life style" along with destroying public education and social security,, and abolish the Federal Reserve in order to put America back on the gold standard. He was also the sole vote against divesting US federal government investments in corporations doing business with the genocidal government of the Sudan.

Oh, and he believes that the Left is waging a war on religion and Christmas, he's against gay marriage, is against the popular vote, opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, wants the estate tax repealed, is STILL making racist remarks, believes that the Panama Canal should be the property of the United States, and believes in New World Order conspiracy theories, not to mention his belief that the International Baccalaureate program is UN mind control..

Second, if you are referring to the 'newsletters', well, we know who wrote them, and it wasn't Paul.

You mean all those people who were employed by Ron Paul to write things in his name and run his newsletter, people who were so close to Paul that it's completely implausible he never knew what they were doing? Some of them were close relatives, including his own wife! Another (one of those thought to have directly authored some of the virulent racism) still works for Paul, in a prominent position in Paul's current campaign.

Time to drop the Paulbomb, because you can't deny all the terrible things Paul has repeatedly supported in his time as a politician:

Ron Paul wants to define life as starting at conception, build a fence along the US-Mexico border, prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases on the Establishment Clause or the right to privacy, permitting the return of sodomy laws and the like (a bill which he has repeatedly re-introduced), pull out of the UN, disband NATO, end birthright citizenship, deny federal funding to any organisation which "which presents male or female homosexuality as an acceptable alternative life style or which suggest that it can be an acceptable life style" along with destroying public education and social security,, and abolish the Federal Reserve in order to put America back on the gold standard. He was also the sole vote against divesting US federal government investments in corporations doing business with the genocidal government of the Sudan.

Oh, and he believes that the Left is waging a war on religion and Christmas, he's against gay marriage, is against the popular vote, opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, wants the estate tax repealed, is STILL making racist remarks, believes that the Panama Canal should be the property of the United States, and believes in New World Order conspiracy theories, not to mention his belief that the International Baccalaureate program is UN mind control..

Given that Comcast has been more proactive about implementing DNSSEC than all the other major ISPs, I was very surprised to learn that they support SOPA, which will make it impossible to for ISPs to implement DNSSEC. I assume that their stance is motivated by the fact that they own half of NBC, and I wonder how their engineering staff plans on handling this situation if the bill is passed.

Clinton had a budget surplus.

If you want to give credit to government figures for the nearly balanced budget, then you have to give it to the Republicans.

One of the first things the House did in 1995 was to vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment. The bill passed the House 300 to 132. 98% of the representatives that voted against it in the House were Democrats.

The Senate picked up the bill but their 65 to 35 vote failed the 2/3rd majority needed. 94% of the representatives that voted against it in the Senate were Democrats.

The Republicans no longer take balancing the budge seriously, but back then they did. They controlled House and Senate at the time, so it was Republican budgets that were passed all through the Clinton years.

Stop listening to what the politicians are saying, and start watching what they are doing. And for fucks sakes if you are a liberal and you arent armed with stuff that you know are facts.. just shut the fuck up, because you guys are notorious for Big Lies.. for example, the guy I replied to and the army of liberals that say the exact same thing.

Actually it is up to 750 different chemicals rather than list them all read the report http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf.

Of course the biggest problem with fracking and earthquakes is, you are creating new fractures and obviously new avenues for the under pressure fracking liquids and the targeted fossil fuel gasses to mix with the ground water as well as leaking to atmosphere.

Keep in mind those escaping fracking fluids will also pick up any other contaminant material as they migrate to the aquifers people are targeting for fresh water sources. It is easy to see now why Darth Cheney gave the fracking industry a blanket poison everyone you wish escape clause, the sick bastard.

The article itself notes that earthquakes have occurred in that part of Ohio for nearly two centuries, and its size was well beyond the quite small theoretical maximum that could be induced by fracking. Extensive studies of fracking have shown no evidence of the contamination scare stories environmentalists have been pushing.

The people opposing fracking are the same people opposed to all uses of oil and as power sources.

Here's the Boycott list.

http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rogue%20Websites/List%20of%20SOPA%20Supporters.pdf

If the government is publishing the list of supporters, shouldn't they publish the list of people who have objected?

the government site is here:
http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/issues_RogueWebsites.html

perhaps nobody has objected?

One party fought for public option health care.

In the House, 100% of the Aye votes for the health care bill that passed were Democrats.

If you want to blame the Republicans for something, at least have the fucking decency and intellectual honesty of finding one of the many things that they are actually guilty of. All those back room deals over the health care bill that completely castrated it and sold us all out, that wasn't to get enough Republicans on board, that was to get enough Democrats on board. You shouldnt need a citation since I just gave it.

Then you have the balls to call out the Republicans on the Iraq war when more Republicans voted against that than had voted for that pig of a health care bill you just fucking complained about?

This year they were overwhelmingly in favor of pushing 'In God We Trust' on school children. Thats both Democrats and Republicans.. yet you are going on about how the Democrats were against teaching creationism which wasnt even a matter in front of either House or Senate? ..that maybe in two states total some single politician floated a bill that had zero chance of passing? Really?

Your problem is that you listen to what the Democrats say, but never bother to pay attention to what they actually do. Your priorities are fucked up. You care about what the media is talking about, rather than what the politicians are passing into law. That makes you the problem.

One party fought for public option health care.

In the House, 100% of the Aye votes for the health care bill that passed were Democrats.

If you want to blame the Republicans for something, at least have the fucking decency and intellectual honesty of finding one of the many things that they are actually guilty of. All those back room deals over the health care bill that completely castrated it and sold us all out, that wasn't to get enough Republicans on board, that was to get enough Democrats on board. You shouldnt need a citation since I just gave it.

Then you have the balls to call out the Republicans on the Iraq war when more Republicans voted against that than had voted for that pig of a health care bill you just fucking complained about?

This year they were overwhelmingly in favor of pushing 'In God We Trust' on school children. Thats both Democrats and Republicans.. yet you are going on about how the Democrats were against teaching creationism which wasnt even a matter in front of either House or Senate? ..that maybe in two states total some single politician floated a bill that had zero chance of passing? Really?

Your problem is that you listen to what the Democrats say, but never bother to pay attention to what they actually do. Your priorities are fucked up. You care about what the media is talking about, rather than what the politicians are passing into law. That makes you the problem.

Thank you. I have actually read the entire bill and I really fail to see what all the hatred is about. That said, I tend to agree partially with Rackspace in that I don't believe the bill will actually be very effective to the end of Stopping Online Piracy but it could provide some modicum of relief for copyright holders, e.g. shutting down access to allofmp3 clones, etc. I would invite everyone to actually read the entire bill for themselves.

But this is Slashdot. So, barring that I would invite everyone to at least assume that laws are not generally drafted by the specifically and only evil and stupid for a negative end. They are likewise not generally passed by the specifically and only evil and stupid for a negative end. And they are not generally to be enforced by the specifically and only evil and stupid for a negative end. That kind of shrill dialog only serves to dumb down any discussion.