Dec 29, 2011

How to STOP SOPA


Marsha Blackburn needs to go.

So does Debbie Wasserman Schultz. 

How come? One's a conservative and one is a liberal. Hey Cap - make up your mind, right? See, both Marsha Blackburn and Debbie Wasserman Schults, the head of the Democratic National Committee and a Congresswoman from Florida, are cosponsors of 
the Stop Online Piracy Act.
In case you've missed this one (which seems designed) the Act intends to stop online piracy. The way the Act goes about doing this is, in large part, allowing incompetent Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder to take control of the internet and shut down websites he doesn't like. It is a totalitarian response from a bipartisan coalition of Congresspersons who don't even know what the internet is, let alone how it works.

In a committee hearing on SOPA, co-sponsor Mel Watts (D-NC) 
was really open about it saying, “I’m not a nerd” before proceeding to admit he understood nothing about the law, how the internet worked, or pretty much anything else related to it. Your government in action, folks.

The legislation originated with Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX). As 
Neil Stevens explained in detail here the legislation will wreck terrible havoc on the internet. There is an alternative called the OPEN Act, which stands for Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act. The OPEN Act accomplishes what SOPA intends to accomplish without handing Eric Holder the power to shut down websites that make him unhappy. Another big difference is that SOPA is backed by Hollywood and the OPEN Act is backed by people who actually, you know, know how to use the internet.

What's odd here, is that the typically gridlocked Congress actually has the left and right - so the only course of action here is for the left and right 'real people' defeat anyone who supports this crap in the primaries. ANYONE, every single person named as a sponsor on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Erick Erickson had a pretty good idea:

Everyone on the left and right who is interested, should pledge $10.00 per candidate, or $321.00. If that’s too much, just pledge $10.00.

A fund should be created and the left should go out and find candidates to take on the Democrat sponsors. The right should go out and find candidates to take on the Republican sponsors. Heck, maybe 
Act Blue would let us on the right come by and we can all use their pre-existing platform.

The money should then be used to fund the primary challenges against the incumbent sponsors of SOPA. Let the right vet and direct the funding on the right so no one thinks the left is trying to pick the challenger and vice-versa on the left.

This might mean some allies are taken out. It might mean we take out Marsha Blackburn on the right and Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the left.


But sometimes a fight is that important. Killing SOPA is that important. Letting the Attorney General of the United States shut down the internet as he wants, whether it be Eric Holder or a future John Ashcroft, should scare the mess out of every American.

Congress has proven it does not understand the internet. Perhaps they will understand brute strength against them at the ballot box.


If members of Congress do not pull their name from co-sponsorship of SOPA, the left and right should pledge to defeat each and every one of them.

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