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PROTECT-IP Makes Its Way To the Floors of Congress
New submitter trunicated writes "Everyone on Slashdot seems to know about PROTECT-IP Act — how it will push responsibility for the contents of the internet onto the search engines that index it, how it will give even more power to the *IAA industries, and, worst of all, how it will provide the U.S. government with a kill switch they can use at their discretion. However, this write up may provide you with a bit more information and help you explain the issues to those that won't be able to get around the poisoned DNS entries that this bill will allow."
It was fun for a while. Too bad they've decided to kill it.
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. ~P.J. O'Rourke
Texas was closer to bankruptcy than Illinois before they used all that Federal stimulus money to buy their way out of debt.
Maybe those states are near bankruptcy because corporations that make all the money in those states aren't paying taxes. Here in Chicago, every big box store that opens up does so thanks to a tax abatement in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Koch Brothers only decided to do business in Wisconsin when Scott Walker pushed through his big tax giveaway to them.
Again, what I'm saying, that corporate lobbyists are currently in charge of at least two of the three branches of the US government, is not really disputable. Most new legislation is literally written by lobbyists. Every single new regulation is written by lobbyists. Every change to the tax code, without exception, is written by lobbyists.
Just by promising fat paydays to congressional staffers, they control more than 80% of all legislators. If you're a congressional staffer right now, your average salary on the day you leave congress is more than a half-million dollars. If your congressman is a member of a powerful committee, you're guaranteed seven figures. The first thing every single elected official does when leaving office is become a lobbyist. It's a big club and it has replaced our constitutional representative government in a silent coup which started in earnest in January of 1981 when Ronald Reagan declared the US government for sale to the highest bidder.
You are welcome on my lawn.