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NRA Gives Ajit Pai 'Courage Award' and Gun For 'Saving the Internet' (arstechnica.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the political-action dept.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) today gave its Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award to Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. "Pai was about to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland when the award presentation seemed to catch him by surprise," reports Ars Technica. "The award is a handmade long gun that could not be brought on stage, so it will be housed in the NRA museum until Pai can receive it." From the report: "Ajit Pai, as you probably already know, saved the Internet," American Conservative Union (ACU) Executive Director Dan Schneider told the audience. The ACU is the host of CPAC; Schneider made a few more remarks praising Pai before handing the award presentation over to NRA board member Carolyn Meadows. Pai "fought to preserve your free speech rights" as a member of the FCC's Republican minority during the Obama administration, Schneider said. Pai "fought and won against all odds, but the Obama administration had some curveballs and they implemented these regulations to take over the Internet." "As soon as President Trump came into office, President Trump asked Ajit Pai to liberate the Internet and give it back to you," Schneider added. "Ajit Pai is the most courageous, heroic person that I know."

The signature achievement that helped Pai win the NRA courage award came in December when the FCC voted to eliminate net neutrality rules. The rules, which are technically still on the books for a while longer, prohibited Internet service providers from blocking and throttling lawful Internet traffic and from charging online services for prioritization. Schneider did not explain how eliminating net neutrality rules preserved anyone's "free speech rights." Right Wing Watch posted a video of the ceremony.

33 of 563 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just wow. I really hope these motherfuckers have a good view of each other when they're burning in hell.

    --
    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
    1. Re:Wow by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is no justice but what we make. Instead of wishing for some deity that likely doesn't exist, or is at best indifferent, work to turn them out of power. Donate to the groups that support net neutrality like the Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/, and support candidates who will work on net neutrality and sane gun laws. Right now, approximately most Americans support background checks for buying guns http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/374692-poll-97-percent-support-background-checks-for-all-gun-buyers. You can help out with both these issues by donating to Conor Lamb's election https://conorlamb.com/. Lamb is running as the Democrat in Pennsylvania's 18th district for the upcoming special election to replace Tim Murphy. Lamb is in favor of net neutrality and is in favor sensible gun restrictions. He's a former Marine, and a former prosecutor, which gives him a healthy appreciation for guns (and let's be honest many Dems probably can't tell the difference between different guns other than that if they look scary they must be an "assault weapon"). He's a reasonable moderate and is running in a close election. Don't hope for hell, work to put better people in charge.

    2. Re:Wow by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know 1984 was about the extreme left, but these days the Newspeak seems to be coming from the other side (saving the internet, fake news, alternative facts, clean coal, ... the list grows every day).

      Curious, I always thought it was a parable of the resurrection of ultra right-wing Nazism..

      It wasn't about the left or the right it was about extreme authoritarianism.

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    3. Re:Wow by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What happened to that wounded security guard who was first to confront the gunman in Las Vegas? Shouldn't he be the one getting the 'courage award' from the NRA?

      Aji Pai will be getting millions for fucking over the American people. And now, he's getting around the clock protection from the Secret Service. What he did doesn't require courage.

      That security guard in Vegas, on the other hand, was probably getting paid barely above minimum wage for confronting a gunman with multiple assault weapons.

    4. Re:Wow by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The NRA award is stupid because what Ajit Pai did was harming the Internet rather than saving it.

      Anyway, the most ridiculous thing about this is that the Internet is a world-wide network that Pai or even the whole FCC couldn't possibly either save or destroy, whichever they decide to prefer. They simply can't do any of that. All they can do is to screw up the Internet for Americans.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re: Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not civil war over the internet, it's guns, it's the environment, increasing the debt to give money to rich people, it's the fact that medicine and education, which are necessary to live, are becoming too expensive to have. The theme is to take everything to give to one group and leave scorched earth behind. It isn't just greed, it's unsustainable absorbing of everything from everywhere. Mosquitoes bite and have a meal, these suck until the corpse is bone dry.

      I am sorry, but I don't want a mad max future for our schools where everyone is armed. You know they already had school drills for shootings in florida and still people died, right? And with net neutrality gone, you get whatever content your internet provider lets you have, like the cable company. Sorry, you didn't buy the youtube/facebook package, just the wikipedia one. That's another $29.95 per month.

      And sure, let's do more offshore drilling and slick our beaches with oil and either kill or make inedible our remaining fish. Great idea! And while we are at it, we can forcibly export a third of my classmates to Mexico. They may have lived here for as long as they can remember, but whatever. At least they won't get shot in their new Mexican school.

      This gift of a gun from one group actively destroying our country to another actively destroying and then a speech by consevatives praising their destruction shows they all sip drinks down at the local country club together. They are actively plotting the destruction of our country. If that is not a reason for civil war, I don't know what is.

      But let's try voting these assholes out first. Internet shame them for their positions. Call out the lies and double speak. They say they are making things better, or "great again". But these are crimes and they need to be documented and prosecuted. And if that doesn't work, the guns will follow.

    6. Re: Wow by thomst · · Score: 5, Informative

      Speaking of George Orwell's novel1984, Teun stated:

      Curious, I always thought it was a parable of the resurrection of ultra right-wing Nazism...

      Prompting Z00L00K to sneer:

      Hello Godwin's law.

      Fail. Hard, hard fail.

      In a discussion about a famous literary work the setting and premise of which is the soul-crushing effect on individuals of life in a totalitarian state which exercises uncompromising control over every aspect of its citizens' lives to the degree that it dictates their employment of vocabulary specifically designed to obfuscate and reverse the meaning of established words, it is entirely appropriate for a participant to state that he or she believed that the book itself was about Nazism.

      Godwin's Law does not apply here, in any way, shape, or form.

      Had Teun said something like, "Ajit Pai is a Nazi," or, "CPAQ is just a bunch of Nazis," or even, "You must be a Nazi sympathizer," then Godwin's Law would, indeed, have been invoked. In the above case, which is absent of any trace of ad hominem, it absolutely does not ...

      --
      Check out my novel.
    7. Re: Wow by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That was the name they gave themselves, yes. Can't recall a whole lot of socialist policies though. Any more than the "communist" regimes in China and the Soviet union showed any trace of actual communism. ("Workers own the means of production" is not compatible with "Government owns the means of production, and workers have no voice" - that's Fascism, plain and simple.)

      Authoritarian governments will march under whatever flag will raise the rabble to put them in power - Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, doesn't matter which -ism is on the flag, it's just a flag. The truth is in the actual government policy.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    8. Re:Wow by Rob+Y. · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, this just clinches it. Apparently there is no principle behind 'conservative' positions today other than "we've decided where the lines are, and we stand on the opposite side from the people we don't like - no matter the issue or the practical implications". It's all - and only - about tribalism. And the tribes are being organized and defined by moneyed interests who know how to manipulate them. Congratulations, America.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    9. Re: Wow by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Authoritarian governments will march under whatever flag

      This. Although, just to note,

      It wasn't about the left or the right it was about extreme authoritarianism.

      The only numbers I've seen show that the last 20 years, the Republicans have officially put their hat in the ring for title 'the authoritarian party'. https://www.washingtonpost.com...

      Donald "I can shoot someone in Manhattan" Trump did after all win bigly with the R's.

      I know I'll get downvotes for "bias", but I'm sorry, these are just facts. I'm willing to be convinced with opposing numbers, please show them.

  2. I'm sorry to say, by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    that I honestly laughed at this. It came across so powerfully as a funny parody, and I found myself laughing both before and after I realized that they're actually fucking serious. There are no words. Stick a fork in the ass of American social discourse and turn it over, because it is well and truly done.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  3. Okay, now they're just trolling us by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's next, a lifetime achievement award for Harvey Weinstein?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Follow the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sadly this is not off topic:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/18/trump-nra-fbi-alexander-torshin-russia-investigation

    The FBI is investigating whether a Russian banker with close ties to Vladimir Putin funneled money through the National Rifle Association to support Donald Trumpâ(TM)s presidential campaign....The NRA spent at least $30m to back Trumpâ(TM)s 2016 campaign for president...News outlets have been examining ties and meetings between NRA leaders and Russia for months, including a 2015 NRA delegation to Moscow that included meetings with influential Putin allies....

    You get the picture?

  5. Not The Onion? by HangingChad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At first I thought this had to be an Onion piece. The two most corrupt dirtbags, in the most corrupt political system outside a third world dictatorship, giving each other a hand job at CPAC.

    This is the pathetic level to which conservatives have sunk.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  6. Guns, the obvious solution by burtosis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It should be obvious by now that guns didn't save our net neutrality, nor have they been saving us from a steady erosion of rights and freedom. Unfortunately, the fact this isn't obvious to many is the reason we have the problem. If things keep going this way, in 50 years autonomous weapon systems will render guns completely worthless with respect to resisting the government which was supposed to be the point.

  7. What does the NRA have to do with the FCC? by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    AFACT, absolutely nothing, other than that they both hold policy positions that antagonize liberals.

    The fact that they are giving each other awards suggests to me that the only thing holding the Republican Party together these days is their collective urge to "piss on the other team".

    Fun, in a sort of Lord-of-the-Flies, junior-high-locker-room-towel-snapping sort of way, but not exactly a viable long-term philosophy for running a first-world country. Hopefully when the Republicans get their asses handed to them by voters this fall they will remember that they are expected to serve the country's interests, not just snap towels at the nerds.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  8. Yes, stick to your purpose by raymorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't imagine why the NRA would do this. The NRA has a very specific purpose. Well actually there are two NRA groups, each with a specific purpose. One does gun-related safety training and such, the other defends the second amendment in the political arena. Neither has any business taking a stand on any particular regulations related to things around principles of network neutrality. It's not what they were created and funded to do.

    1. Re:Yes, stick to your purpose by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

      The NRA is pretty much the only organization left sticking up for the Constitution, and I don't see anything in the Constitution giving an unelected body the power to regulate speech just because it's on computers.

      Pai deserves a reward for sticking up for the Constitution and removing burdensome government regulation from the Internet.

      Net Neutrality did not regulate speech. It stipulated rules that prevented internet providers from regulating it.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    2. Re: Yes, stick to your purpose by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Informative

      The NRA is the lobby for gun manufacturers. Nothing more nothing less

      No, they're more than that. They're a heat shield for gun manufacturers. NRA VP Wayne LaPierre acts like a rodeo clown to distract public sentiment away from them.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    3. Re:Yes, stick to your purpose by LostInTaiwan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In the last couple decades, I've witnessed the transformation of the NRA from a firearm advocacy group into the armed wing of a very specific type of social conservatives, the Fox News social conservatives that worship Trump as their messiah. I don't know how their "Christian Values" can reconcile with their moral dexterity in accepting an serial sexual predator.

      NRA has no business giving awards to a telecommunication lobbyist that has done little to advocate for firearm owners, except as a swampy favor to its new buddy Trump. This is the type of crony capitalism NRA used to nuts over during the Clinton years.

      I used to enjoy reading American Rifleman but I started to question NRA's political stance during the GWB years when our Constitution was tramped by the Patriot Acts. By the Obama years, I skip all the political articles and stopped all donations. These days, I don't even bother reading the American Rifleman. The only reason I didn't cancel the subscription is because I don't feel like saving the NRA any money.

      It doesn't take a genius to figure out that unchecked proliferation of high capacity magazine fed semi automatic rifles in a polarized society with limited social safety net will eventually lead to the carnage we are witnessing today. We keep this up, in a few years we'll have open street warfare between the various armed militias, all vying to protect their own interpretation our Constitution from each other.

    4. Re:Yes, stick to your purpose by jodido · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The NRA doesn't "Stick up for the Constitution". It sticks up for part of the second part of the 2nd Amendment. If the NRA "defended the Constitution" they'd be demanding a "well-regulated militia." Which appears to have been more important to the people who approved the Constitution than "the right of the people to bear arms." Because they put it first.

    5. Re:Yes, stick to your purpose by Freischutz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Net Neutrality did not regulate speech. It stipulated rules that prevented internet providers from regulating it.

      That's funny, because I'm pretty sure the social media giants - and even wikipedia - were doing a pretty decent job of regulating speech with these magical rules in place.

      If that is true and if that pisses you off you are perfectly free to set up your own platform on a free internet. On an internet where internet providers have total freedom able to throttle the traffic to and from sites for whatever reason they see fit to do so they'd be free to throttle your new alternative platform into oblivion. That is the difference between a world with net neutrality and a world where corporate oligarchs have a carte blanche on muzzling you without having to justify why they chose to do so and apparently the NRA thinks we are better off with this latter option. Net neutrality is not a right/left issue, it should be of paramount concern to everybody across the political spectrum.

  9. The New Brown Shirts by DumbSwede · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Listening to CPAC on CSPAN today I couldn’t believe how deranged these people all seem. I really feel like the NRA was threatening armed insurrection if Donald Trump is removed from office. Core beliefs: there is no Global Warming (or doesn’t matter much); Democrats and liberals are part of a Socialist plot to take all our rights away; immigrants are destroying our culture; everyone who needs (deserves) healthcare will have it (only lucky well-paid working people deserve it); luck and privilege are not factors in obtaining wealth, only hard work is.

    When Trump goes down (and he will) I fear what these groups will do. They’ve made it clear what their guns are for when push comes to shove.

    --
    Letter To Iran
  10. Fascism at work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here you have it folks, a perfect example of fascism at work. Corporations slowly but surely establishing their power over governement and the people. Legislators, media, weapons, etc. All the tools necessary to enforce totalitarism.

    And they'll succeed, too, because a little more than half of the population are too ignorant, clueless and gullible to see what's going on.

    "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing". And these days, I see a hell of a lot of good men doing a hell of a lot of nothing.

  11. The NRA is overstepping its bounds. by RPI+Geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I shot competitively for a few years and I was a member of the NRA to keep track of my progress. I didn't agree with them 100%, but I supported their defense of the 2nd amendment in principle - and on a number of their talking points - so I was fine with paying for membership. Then they started going in the direction of being a mouthpiece for the far right with shit like this.

    There are many moderates and even *gasp* liberals who like guns! If my experience is an indication of the rest of the country's gun-owning-but-not-far-right population, the NRA is going to continue losing membership and support. I may consider renewing my membership if they ever go back to what they used to be, but in the meanwhile I'll direct my money and energies elsewhere.

    --

    - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
  12. They do not need any of you. by bussdriver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The NRA is owned by industry, the issue group front is just to make them more powerful lobbyist. The drug industry would love to hijack the AARP like the NRA has been.

    They want you for the influence you can give them and nothing more.

    --
    Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
  13. CPAC is a gun-free zone by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    They really buried the lede in this story. See that part where it says the NRA gave Pai the rifle, but he couldn't bring it on stage with him at CPAC? Do you know why Pai couldn't bring his prize with him on stage at CPAC? Because CPAC, with all it's gunhumping and masturbatory 2nd Amendment cosplay is a gun-free zone.

    Got that? The "Conservative Political Action Conference" with its keynote from Wayne LaPierre and wild cheering for the notion of giving schoolteachers guns and for watering the tree of liberty, and a good-guy with a gun horseshit does not allow guns at its conference.

    Conservatives - there is just no bottom to their hypocrisy.

    https://i.redditmedia.com/vzdl...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  14. I just don't get it by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They condemn the school guard who waited 4 minutes (sic) with his pistol outside.

    When 2 patrolmen see 1 guy wielding a revolver in a bank full of people, the call for reinforcement, block the streets, call SWAT, FBI and whatnot... and those guys have bulletproof vests, shotguns ...

    And this single guy was supposed to go against an unknown number of killing, suicidal shooters on speed, with armor, assault guns, large mags with armor-penetrating ammo with his pistol alone?
    And he didn't even know where in the building they were.

    Are they crazy?

    Same thing for arming teachers, what are they going to do?

    They will sit in a wardrobe with their .38 in hand shitting their pants and then accidentally kill the student who wants to seek refuge in the same wardrobe.

  15. Correction Needed by blavallee · · Score: 4, Informative

    Carolyn Meadows of the National Rifle Association (NRA), who is also and member of the American Conservative Union (ACU), gave the ACU's Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award to Ajit Pai.

  16. NRA doesn't get the point of 2nd amendment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Posting anon on purpose.
    NRA doesn't seem to grasp the purpose of the second amendment, IMHO.

    The sole purpose of keeping and bearing arms for the public is so they can overturn a government that doesn't serve the people.

    That was fine at the time the constitution was written, but now it's not enough to own a rifle if you want to make sure the government doesn't oppress it's people.
    Internet, social media and mobile phones has made mass surveillance and profiling of the entire population almost a trivial task.
    Want to know who has opposing political views? Want to know who their friends are?
    Want to know who they meet?
    It's just a query away.

    Mass surveillance is now a much more dangerous tool for those wanting to oppress a population than guns ever was. And having one yourself doesn't help at all. The Arab-spring let people to believe that social media empowered people, but that is only true if the ones that oppress do not control all platforms. Turned against the people it's a scary tool.

    The NRA should not get involved on the corporate side of regulating the internet. If they want to protect the 2nd amendment and it's true purpose then they should consider who they publicly support. A guy who wants to take away the right for people to use the internet outside of the walled gardens of corporations does not have the people best internest at heart.

  17. Re:Double whammy. by DamnOregonian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The Left" is the specter named by the Fox News talking heads, and Limbaugh and Jones' two minutes of hate radio shows. It doesn't matter what's really left or right anymore- they just need a bad guy.
    No idea if the corresponding media sources on "the left" are as bad about calling things "The Right", because I don't really watch that shit.. I have a nausea-inducing aversion to feeling like I'm standing in an echo chamber, and I don't really need to hear Rachel Maddow drum up stupid fucking reasons for me to be liberal, or construct dumb ass arguments for why that's better than conservative.

    All I know is I don't even know if it's politics anymore... It's something sicker than that.
    America has never really had a left-wing, and these guys aren't quite Nazis, yet. But they're talking more and more like them.

  18. Axis of Fuckwittery by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 4, Funny

    I believe an Axis of Fuckwittery is emerging.

  19. Remove him then by sjbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Roger Stone, Trumpy advisor, already warned that getting rid of The Donald would result in Civil War.

    I'm happy to call his bluff and take the chance.