Amish Tech Support has the goods on Orrin Hatch’s copyright abuse.
(via the Blogfather)
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
Amish Tech Support has the goods on Orrin Hatch’s copyright abuse.
(via the Blogfather)
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Does anyone know if this 400 billion dollar vote-buying scheme known as the prescription drug benefit is going to be means tested?
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
Via Matthew Yglesias, we see this tibit of idiocy:
The Bush administration ruled today that United States computer chip makers and catfish farmers were subjected to unfair foreign competition and ordered stiff tariffs on imports of South Korean computer chips and Vietnamese catfish.
The Commerce Department rulings upheld, with minor adjustments, preliminary tariff determinations that the agency issued earlier in the year.
In the computer chip case, the department ruled that the South Korean government unfairly subsidized two big South Korean manufacturers. The department ordered tariffs as high as 44.71 percent.
In the catfish case, the department determined that Vietnam had dumped catfish on the American market at unfairly low prices. It said that catfish imports from Vietnam would be subject to anti-dumping tariffs ranging from 44.66 percent to 63.88 percent.
I have mentioned how much I hate tariffs, haven’t I?
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
I am about a step away from moving to Montana and living in a shack in the woods. I can no longer take the incessant stupidity emanating from both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate. We don’t deserve to have these people as leaders. How did this happen? At any rate, here is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that he is in favor of allowing the RIAA and Hollywood to become the judge, jury, and executioner in regards to copyright laws:
No one is interested in destroying anyone’s computer,” replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles company that builds technology to disrupt music downloads. One technique deliberately downloads pirated material very slowly so other users can’t.
“I’m interested,” Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone’s computer “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights.”
The senator acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, “then destroy their computer.”
“If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that,” Hatch said. “If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize” the seriousness of their actions, he said.
“There’s no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws,” Hatch said.
There is no excuse for being an asshole, either, Orrin.
(via Drudge)
This post is in: Domestic Politics
TalkLeft discussed a proposed constitutional amendment that you should be against:
This should be getting more attention. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and r Jon Kyl (D-AZ) have successfully pushed their proposed Victim’s Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution through a Senate Panel vote. But the bill has many detractors in Congress.
Every Democrat on the panel voted against her. Think about it for a moment. A constititutional amendment? Why? Wouldn’t a federal law do, if that’s what Congress wants to pass?
Jeralynn has a detailed article here.
This post is in: Domestic Politics
This is rather disturbing:
The economy has been cool, and so has the spring in much of the country. Nonetheless, the United States is facing its most severe shortage of natural gas in a quarter-century.
More good news. Yippee!
With natural gas promoted as a cleaner-burning fuel than oil or coal, nearly all the electric plants built since 1998 are designed to be fired mainly by gas. So demand is up. And while drilling has increased about 25 percent in the last year, much of it has been confined to old, overworked basins that are not as productive as they once were. Supplies, therefore, have not kept up.
So expand the drilling, guys.
The United States is a large producer of natural gas, second to Russia, and 85 percent of the gas used here comes from domestic wells. But many parts of the country remain off-limits for drilling for environmental reasons.
Gaining access to these areas is a top priority of the energy industry, foreshadowing a more intense struggle between conservationists and natural gas companies. “The sorry thing is that there is gas to be found in this country but we can’t get to it,” said Mr. Allison of Anadarko, the nation’s most active natural gas driller.
Oh yeah- we aren’t allowed to drill anywhere at home. That might ruin views for some mountain bikers or backpackers. Forgot about that.
In the meantime, about the only beneficiaries of the natural gas shortage are companies that can profit from the high prices for the fuel by producing or transporting it in North America. These include huge energy companies like BP, which are considerable gas producers, and a coterie of smaller companies that made a prescient bet on strong demand for natural gas.
Environmentalists- Big Oil’s best friend. Don’t you love the irony? You do have to wonder how they are going to blame this one on Bush, though.
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
The New York Times, doing their best to revive the meme that will not quit, spends an extraordinary 1,770 words describing the trials and tribulations of being a Holy Warrior in Guantanamo Bay:
Afghans and Pakistanis who were detained for many months by the American military at Guant