Tag: pipa

#rsrh *Question*otD, We Were Wondering That Ourselves Edition.

Steve Sugarman, while writing on how Hollywood got stop-thrusted on SOPA/PIPA, noted the same thing that the rest of us did: while both the Online Right and the Online Left generally came down hard against the two bills, when Democrats had to choose between their online allies and Hollywood they went with Hollywood.  Republicans, on the other hand…

They began to ask why they should risk the ire of their Internet supporters to rescue an industry that was happily advertising how much it hated them.

Why, indeed.  I certainly hope that entertainment executives are taking one particular lesson to heart: to wit, get your danged stables of talent under better control.  Allowing them to say any fool thing that comes into their largely vacant heads has put the studios and entertainment conglomerates into a rather sticky situation with regard to Hollywod’s influence with the government; worse, the politicians all know it…

#rsrh QotD, Nice Of Them To Notice edition.

And, hey, they even linked to RedState!

The Tea Party movement scared Republican members of Congress in 2010 when they mounted primary challenges to several Republican incumbents. The defeat of incumbents like Bob Bennett lent credibility to [RedState’s Erick] Erickson’s threat to recruit primary challengers for Republicans who supported SOPA.

…(Via Instapundit) Admittedly, they don’t mention the site by name, but at least they linked, right?

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh QotD, Nice Of Them To Notice edition.

Penny Arcade & SOPA/PIPA.

As in, they’ve noted it today.  Interesting take on the whole thing, as seen through the lens of video gamers: more specifically, on how “odd” it was that the Entertainment Software Association managed to support a bill that its individual member companies all opposed.  Funny how that seems to happen a lot?

Now, I like PA quite well – more to the point, I have a healthy, perfectly reasonable fear of their wrath – so I am just going to note that there is in fact a reason why it seems like every politician who is explicitly disavowing this legislation has an R after their name, while pretty much all of the ones weaseling about it have Ds after theirs. It’s because blackouts are fine, but threatening primary challenges works a heck of a lot better.  Assuming, of course, that you have the reputation of following through on that sort of thing.  Which, well, the VRWC does.  And the netroots does not.  Something for the digital folks to think about, the next time that they need reliable allies for something.

Here endeth the lesson.

Moe Lane

#rsrh QotD, I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE! Edition.

I should watch that movie at some point.

Anyway, via @Yousefzadeh here’s a tasty, tasty bit of pain from FireDogLake to feast upon.  The topic of discussion: SOPA/PIPA, and why it is that pretty much all of the politicians that unambiguously confirmed that they were abandoning their support of either were Republicans. Continue reading #rsrh QotD, I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE! Edition.

#rsrh Scorecard of Senators coming to their senses on PIPA.

Three Four Five Six and a half so far.  List via here: note that I only have Republican cosponsors listed, largely because the Democratic ones don’t listen to Republicans and the netroots won’t dare push their own side to do anything meaningful.  I’ll link to retractions as I go along.

Sen Alexander, Lamar [TN] – 5/25/2011
Sen Ayotte, Kelly [NH] – 6/27/2011 [link] (via FireAndreaMitchell)
Sen Blunt, Roy [MO] – 5/23/2011 [link]
Sen Boozman, John [AR] – 6/15/2011 [link]
Sen Chambliss, Saxby [GA] – 11/2/2011
Sen Cochran, Thad [MS] – 6/23/2011
Sen Corker, Bob [TN] – 6/9/2011
Sen Enzi, Michael B. [WY] – 9/7/2011
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC] – 5/12/2011
Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] – 5/12/2011 [link] (Grassley has not yet formally repudiated PIPA)
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] – 5/12/2011 [link]
Sen Isakson, Johnny [GA] – 11/2/2011
Sen McCain, John [AZ] – 7/26/2011
Sen Risch, James E. [ID] – 11/7/2011
Sen Rubio, Marco [FL] – 5/26/2011 [link]
Sen Vitter, David [LA] – 11/7/2011  [link]

Marco Rubio withdraws support for PIPA!

It has just been announced that the good Senator from Florida has listened to the concerns of the Online Right and has decided to stop being a cosponsor for PIPA, which is of course the Senate counterpart to the Hollywood-sponsored Internet-censoring SOPA bill.  This is frankly a relief: Senator Rubio has long been a friend to sites like, say, RedState, and it would have been absolutely painful to encourage a primary challenge to him in 2016 over this issue.

I encourage everyone reading this to, again, contact your Senators and Congressman to tell them to follow Sen. Rubio’s lead and reaffirm their stance against censorship.  Especially if your Senators and/or Congressman is a Democrat: the Online Right has to do the heavy lifting on this one, as the netroots find it institutionally, ah,  problematic to challenge its leadership*. Continue reading Marco Rubio withdraws support for PIPA!

Today is the day a lot of sites go dark.

Over the dangerous SOPA/PIPA bills.

I’m personally – surprise, surprise! – more in line with RedState’s main position, which is that when you set out to train a mule you first must get the mule’s attention.  Or, in this case, an elephant’s.  That means threatening primary challenges… which is something that, by and large, the Online Left opposing SOPA/PIPA will not do.

Speaking purely objectively: they should start, frankly.  The Right has gotten a lot of bills killed over the years with a well-placed growl at just the right moment…

Moe Lane

PS: Call your Congressman.