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

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.

Comments

Wow

[Mister Transistor]

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

Re:Wow

[JoshuaZ]

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.

Re:Wow

[lister king of smeg]

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.

Re: Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re: Wow

[thomst]

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 ...

Okay, now they're just trolling us

[elrous0]

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

Follow the money

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Not The Onion?

[HangingChad]

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.

What does the NRA have to do with the FCC?

[Jeremi]

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.

Yes, stick to your purpose

[raymorris]

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.

Re:Yes, stick to your purpose

[ClickOnThis]

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.

Re: Yes, stick to your purpose

[ClickOnThis]

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.

Re:Yes, stick to your purpose

[LostInTaiwan]

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.

Re:Yes, stick to your purpose

[jodido]

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.

The New Brown Shirts

[DumbSwede]

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.

CPAC is a gun-free zone

[PopeRatzo]

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...

I just don't get it

[nospam007]

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.

NRA doesn't get the point of 2nd amendment

[Anonymous Coward]

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.