Category: Politics

Down the Memory Hole

My favorite thing about the Internet is how well it has eliminated the political memory hole. Nothing can be posted online and then fully removed. Unfortunately it seems some of the politicians haven’t come to realization yet and continue to make stupid comments and then try to have them removed through legal threats:

The Polk County Republicans in Wisconsin are now trying to cover up a video of one of their own elected representatives that they released via YouTube. The video in question shows United States Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) complaining about how he is “struggling” to get by on his $174,000 salary.

Bitching about how hard life is when you make $174,000 a year isn’t going to win much sympathy in Wisconsin where the average yearly income is notably lower. What it will do is give your political opponents artillery to send your way next campaign season.

A copy of a take down notice for this video can be found here. The person who made the film is claiming copyright violation which legally is true since he did make the video. It’s also a great way to arm the Democrats with more artillery next season when they can not only say Mr. Duffy was whining about only making $174,000 a year but also tried to cover up the mess later. In these cases it’s just best to leave it alone and let people forget about it (it doesn’t take long, the average American attention span is two weeks).

I Love Watching Evil Plans Fail

If you haven’t heard of Righthaven I’ll give you a quick summary of the law firm. They’re scum. Seriously. What Righthaven does is buy up newspapers and then sue very site that has ever linked to the online sight of the purchased newspaper. Additionally newspapers can come on board without being purchased and use Righthaven’s “protection” services. Well it seems they just had their ass handed to them:

Last Friday, a judge in the Nevada federal district court patiently explained why fair use disposes of Righthaven’s copyright claim arising from the republication of an entire news article by a nonprofit organization. The hearing was in one of the now-250 Righthaven copyright cases. A written order, which will help set a persuasive precedent for other copyright troll cases, will be issued later.

Burn you sons of bitches.

Rough Road for AT&T and T-Mobile

It seems some anonymous goon at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave his professional opinion on the AT&T and T-Mobile merger. Needless to say he doesn’t think it’s going to fly without the FCC getting a couple pounds of flesh:

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, an anonymous Federal Communications Commission official said “there’s no way the chairman’s office [will] rubber-stamp” AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition of Deutsche Telecom-owned T-Mobile USA, and that the approval process will be “a steep climb at least.”

This could be taken as the FCC will likely block the merger. Personally I bet the FCC puts on a huge dog and pony show to demonstrate that they have the “best interests of consumers in mind” but will ultimately determine this merger good to go. Ma Bell is coming back baby!

Can Anybody Say Conflict of Interest

There has been a lawsuit going on between i4i and Microsoft over a claimed patent involving XML editing. Microsoft started using XML as the basis for their Office document file formats partially due to urges by world governments for a more open format. That last sentence has no bearing on this story, I just like pointing out irony.

The lawsuit has finally reached the Supreme Court where Microsoft will argue to the federal court against i4i. Unfortunately for Microsoft the government has failed an amicus brief against them:

The U.S. government is backing i4i in its case against Microsoft that the Supreme Court is expected to hear in April.

Acting Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal filed an amicus brief supporting a U.S. Court of Appeal decision and i4i’s position on Friday. The brief represents the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

This is a major argument I have against the court systems in this country, they are loaded with conflict of interest. Ultimately the Supreme Court represents the federal government thus having other agencies of the federal government file amicus briefs creates a conflict of interest. That’s not to say the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled against federal legislation in the past, they certainly have, but the potential exists.

The Supreme Court shouldn’t have been made as an arm of the federal government but instead as a completely separate entity. If i4i wins this case a claim of conflict of interest would be valid but alas could not be appealed. It certainly becomes an interesting scenario when you think about it.

Priorities

With the spiraling deficit looking to cause a massive economic catastrophe it’s nice to see our “representatives” can find time out of their busy schedule to deal with the most important issues:

Four U.S. senators Tuesday called on Apple to yank iPhone and iPad apps that help drunken drivers evade police, saying the programs are “harmful to public safety.”

Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Tom Udall (D-NM) asked Scott Forstall, the head of Apple’s iPhone software group, to pull an unspecified number of apps from the company’s App Store. The senators also made similar requests of Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and Research in Motion’s (RIM) co-CEOs, James Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis.

Yup instead of dealing with real issues they’re taking time whining about applications available for phones. Do we even know if these applications work? Has a drunk driver been able to evade arrest because of this application? These things should be answered before time paid for by tax payers is taken up by “representatives” to bitch about such applications.

I guess these “representatives” will also have to go after the police as they often advertise these checkpoints:

“Many police departments promote or advertise DUI [driving under the influence] crackdowns through the media as PSAs or through PR,” Scott said. “We are just taking it a bit further and pushing the info to drivers through GPS and smart phone technology. The idea is to deter drivers from drinking and driving. When drivers get alerts for DUI checkpoints on their smart phones and GPS, they will think twice about drinking and driving.”

For Those of You Who Say Paying Taxes is Patriotic

I bitch about paying taxes as I don’t like money being stolen from me by the state. On the opposite side of the field there are people who say they will gladly pay more taxes and that paying taxes is patriotic (obviously it is as this country was founded on the idea that paying taxes is… a bad thing). Well for those of you who think paying taxes is a good thing you can finally put your money where your mouth is:

Last month, a check for $1,677.97 was sent to Gov. Mark Dayton’s office with instructions to pay down the budget deficit.

Roughly a year before, two checks totaling $136.42 landed at the state treasury with notes saying the same. Some real cash rolled in back in 2008, when a check for $22,685 landed at the state treasury “to help the needy and sick.”

You can give more money to the state if you want to. Of course when people say paying taxes is patriotic or they would gladly pay more taxes what they usually mean is other people paying taxes is patriotic and they are will gladly have anybody who makes more than themselves pay more taxes. Needless to say everybody who has been proclaiming paying taxes as being a great thing generally won’t put up when the opportunity arises.

Thus if you’re advocating for an increase in taxes and you’re not sending money to the state your argument is officially null and void. In other words shut the fuck up.

The Raw Milk Battle Wages On

There has been a rather interesting although little know battle taking place in the state of Minnesota. The battle is over raw milk which is legal to sell in this state so long as some guidelines are followed. One of the problems, as pointed out by Nathan Hansen, is the fact the guidelines are fucking ridiculous. I think the most messed up one is the following:

4) Consumer must bring their own bottling materials. Forget about buying a nice jug of milk from an already inspected bottling facility. Bring your own jug, bring a bucket, bring your oil pan, bring your cat litter pan, all of these are acceptable over the dreaded farmer bottling the milk.

I’ve never understood what right a state has to tell you what you can and can’t put into your body. When somebody else is able to determine what you do with yourself you can no longer lay claim to self-ownership. If I wish to consume raw milk that’s my business, if I choose not to that is also my business. By coming in and trying to do everything by ban the sale of raw milk the state is laying claim to you as a consumer. They are claiming that you’re too stupid to make your own decisions and thus need somebody to step in on your behalf and tell you what you can and can’t do.

If a farmer wants to sell raw milk they should be allowed to. If you want to consume raw milk you should be allowed to. If you want to consume raw milk and a farmer wants to sell it the two of you should be allowed to make a voluntary transaction that is mutually beneficial.

If You Don’t Like the Law Just Reinterpret It

Oh look yet another instance of a government department not liking the power granted to it and thus have reinterpreted a law to give themselves more power:

The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb “harassment” of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation among a few youths.

Now civil action can be taken against school principals if they fail to stop physical attacks and monitor the actions of every student even when they’re not at school:

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

Freedom of speech has been dead in public schools since… well since I was going to one. Will the Education Department soon require two way viewers in every home to monitor students just in case they’re “bullying” somebody online?

Not only do rulings like this destroy the concept of free speech but they also cause students to depend on outside help for everything. If somebody is bullying a student that student should have the right to fight back. Instead they are told to basically shut up and take it and after they’ve gotten their ass kicked they’re suppose to go talk to somebody in “authority.” Strangely enough the school is a government entity and acts as such because when a student reports a bully nothing is likely to happen. OK maybe the bully will get detention for a couple of days but they certainly aren’t going to learn a lesson.

Now that I’m thinking about it public schools works very much like the rest of our society. We’re told to depend on the state for protection and the state fails to offer protection. If somebody does something wrong they’re isolated for others for a short period of time with no other form of punishment. Should one of us defend ourselves we potentially get into trouble. Fuck, now I see where the victim mentality comes from in our society.

Here’s the thing if you’re a student at a school and somebody wants to beat the shit out of you fight back. Self-defense is a natural right afforded all human beings. If the bully is larger balance out the disparity of force with a good old threat-based weapon (for instance smashing somebody in the fact with a text book does some good damage). Nobody needs to submit to the violence of another regardless of what is taught in schools.

I’ll also say if you are cause true psychological trauma by things posted about you online man the fuck up. Words are words and can only cause the amount of harm you allow them. When somebody says something hurtful to you then it’s time for a witty comeback. I usually challenge a person’s cognitive capabilities myself and try to do so using old English but there are many means of doing this. Either way words can’t hurt you. If somebody is spreading lies or slander about you then it’s time to look into civil action. But asking the school officials for help isn’t going to accomplish anything because they’re in the interesting position of being unable to discipline unruly children while being tasked with disciplining unruly children.

Wisconsin Budget Bill Vote

In news certain to piss off a lot of people the Senate Republicans in Wisconsin voted on the controversial budget bill last night. Needless to say protesters were pissed and those of us who find granted monopoly coercion distressing are kind of happy.

What I don’t understand is why the protesters aren’t pissed at the Democratic “representatives” who left the pro-union people high and dry by fleeing to Illinois. If you are protesting on the side of the public union you were abandoned by the Democrats. The supposed reason we elect “representatives” is to advance our agendas at the capital. Advancing an agenda requires debate and that requires actually being present. That’s not when the Democratic “representatives” did, instead of facing hard work they ran away like cowards in the hope to gain martyrdom. Were I protesting on the side of the public unions I’d be fucking pissed and would have pushed for recall elections the second they left the state.

Although I’m in disagreement with the protesters I still absolutely love the civil disobedience going on.