The only chance we have of fixing any of this and the rest of the police state BS thats smothering our constitution is to start by reigning in congress. Here's an interesting item I got in an Email the other day........
*Congressional Reform Act of 2013
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they're out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system
and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for
any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans
do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay
will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American
people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with
Congressmen/women.
Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen
legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
When I got done reading this I wanted to make a thousand copies and plaster them all over town
I'm wondering if anyone else sees the pattern that I think is there:
The Government gets called out for lying about Iran having nukes, We get 9/11, now we conceed
The government wants our guns, We get the Boston Marathon Fiasco, will we conceed???
Manning/Assange/Snowden et all. Lets see..hmm what was this BS that flew around last week about our embassies shutting
down because the Gov had good info that a plot was in the works, with the inferrance that it was the great and observant NSA that would save us from this threat...
It makes me afraid to wonder what kind of things they might come up with next, something to convince the people that these intrusions into our private lives are necessary for our safety.
Should we be thinking of how to go about monitering them before they make a plan to sacrafice another large number of us in the name of safety...Jesus who are these people
and what made them think that they have the right to play "Gods"
And we know why, because now the artists and actors, musicians and writers, and all the real creative folk, have a medium to be heard and seen, with out the help {if you can call it that..}of the fat and thirsty corporations that have sucked them dry for years.They no longer have to sell their literal soul to the devils that be. Those that are talented
and motivated and ambitious enough to be recognized can flourish thru their own efforts, and along with them will come all those who help and facilitate them. Our community appreciates talent and entertainment and we will support those who supply those thing to us because we want them.
If Joe blow posts that he needs a new guitar or a car to have transportation, We as a community, will do what we can to help and support, why because we like it. The Internet is our connection to one another near and far. It has given us the ability to stay connected now that the human family has grown. The powers that be have no right to take this away...we will fight....
I come from that ever growing community of "Chocolate Lovers"
and I definitely know the difference between a Hershey product and a Dove/Mars. With all the damn consumer surveys they do for everything else, you think that Hershey would spend a little money doing one of those on the subject instead of a lot more on litigation.....Every time I have to spend a $1.50 on something that used to cost .50 cents, I see the day coming that I can no longer afford to indulge. Why can't big companies like these take note of consumer popularity and loyalty and pass down the perks by spending less on advertisement (*which they hardly need now) and stupid litigation like this one.
So if Cal Trans builds a freeway and Drunk drivers kill people on it then it's only logical to sue the state cuz they didn't employ enough policemen....How many people drive the roads? as many that watch you-tube? Or maybe they should sue us the, taxpayers, for providing the funds, or how about our employers, they paid us..Well as far as emb. videos, don't forget our INTERNET providers, they give these criminals the means to distribute, view, the content performed by these poor destitute entertainers and their corporate buddies...
Jesus, They gotta quit with all this mind boggling,"I have nothing better to do" bullshit!
It amazes me when I think about all the righteous and upstanding "Cowards" that support the illegal actions of a government agency . Why are they afraid to identify themselves............
I just read this comment by Paul Harris of the Observer (UK)and just about fell off my chair..
It is one of the most irritating and ubiquitous annoyances of the internet age: the anonymous commenter. Hiding behind a made-up moniker, anonymous commenters surface on virtually every blog or news website, posting bile, insults, prejudice and ignorance, often for the sheer hell of it.
In the free for all that has so far marked internet-based publishing, there seems to be no recourse for those targeted by the so-called "trolls". Certainly not of the sort they would have if such comments were published in hard copy on the letters pages of old media newspapers and magazines, where the threat of libel has kept up standards. But, perhaps, no longer.
A law suit filed last week in New York has threatened to hold some of the internet's more unpleasant denizens to account: a rare example of old media rules starting to be applied online.
The heroine of the tale is Carla Franklin, a former model and graduate of Columbia Business School. She is taking Google to court over anonymous comments that called her a "whore" on the firm's YouTube website. She is seeking a court order to force Google to identify the person behind the insult. According to her lawyer, Franklin already suspects a certain individual of posting the comments, but needs concrete confirmation before she can go after them in a court of law. She is claiming the insult, which was posted several times by the same YouTube user, was "… made with the intention to harm Ms Franklin's reputation and interfere with her relationships, employment and livelihood".
It is hard not to cheer Franklin's cause. Anonymous commenters claim that the cloak of secrecy allows greater frankness and honesty and means whistleblowers and others perhaps hampered by their jobs can post things online with greater safety. But in reality it is all too often just a handy excuse to be rude, juvenile or racist. Franklin is also riding a growing wave against anonymity online. Several American news websites, including the Buffalo News newspaper, have recently forced commenters to use their real names when posting their opinions on stories
After a few idiots posted supportting comments, raising my hair even more a breath of fresh air revived me
SergioBlumenfeld
22 August 2010 5:29AM
..........I chose to post this comment under my real name; otherwise Paul Harris (and others like him) would imagine that they can automatically dismiss it as some "ignorant troll"'s annoying blabbering.
This article is beyond bad, it's outrageous. The author believes he can lump together all the anonymous commenters on all subjects on the Web, be equally derogatory of all of them, and then proceed to recommend an end to publishing any anonymous comments. You are so wrong in your pompous arrogance, Mr. Harris!
Having read huge numbers of comments on a wide variety of subjects, I can tell that you find a whole gamut of them - ranging from juvenile inanities and nonsensical rudeness, to many intelligent and well-informed comments. It's not so hard to tell which ones come from a silly and ignorant kid having great fun with his computer keyboard, and which ones come from serious people, many of them with academic degrees. Hey, I'm not prejudiced, many good comments come from smart people without college degrees, but with plenty of common sense.
As a matter of fact, it's a rather common occurrence to find several comments on an article which are more intelligent than the article they criticize. An example: this article. I don't need to know the real names of Volucre, anon102, ashiraz, stenchofpc, etc. (and I apologize to other good commenters whose monikers I left out) to tell that they are making better points than Mr. Harris. Just the fact of signing your name doesn't add any value to your writing, Paul H.
People's ability to publish their thoughts under a chosen moniker is a huge asset of the Internet age, it is a huge enhancement of people's freedom of speech. It allows people to feel free and safe to make an honest statement of their real thoughts. Particularly in these days of political correctness gone to endless extremes, taking control of much of the media, and not tolerating dissent, publishing under a moniker is a shelter and a refuge for free speech. Professional journalists are mercenaries, trading their freedom of speech for a good salary - paid to those who write what their publisher wants them to write. By contrast, the anonymous commenters care only about making a true statement of their thoughts and feelings, while getting no pay for their time and effort. As I explained above, the better among these comments provide a genuine enrichment of the sites publishing them - even though, inevitably, you have to make allowance for the publication of the lowly ones as well.
The strongest impression I'm left with from Harris's article above is that he took an opportunity to vent out his frustration with the many critical comments that he and his colleagues had to endure countless times. Oh, if only we could have a strong-handed censorship, or at least, not allow publishing one's opinions under pseudonyms!. Then, we'll see a lot less unwanted criticism, and life will be easier for the mercenary journalist; then, he could sing happily the praises of Freedom of Speech - as long as it's firmly kept under control!
Thank you for your attention,
Sergio Blumenfeld
Raleigh, NC (USA)
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by pesti.
Re:
*Congressional Reform Act of 2013
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay
when they're out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system
and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for
any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans
do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay
will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American
people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void
effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with
Congressmen/women.
Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in
Congress is an honor not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen
legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
When I got done reading this I wanted to make a thousand copies and plaster them all over town
Scared
The Government gets called out for lying about Iran having nukes, We get 9/11, now we conceed
The government wants our guns, We get the Boston Marathon Fiasco, will we conceed???
Manning/Assange/Snowden et all. Lets see..hmm what was this BS that flew around last week about our embassies shutting
down because the Gov had good info that a plot was in the works, with the inferrance that it was the great and observant NSA that would save us from this threat...
It makes me afraid to wonder what kind of things they might come up with next, something to convince the people that these intrusions into our private lives are necessary for our safety.
Should we be thinking of how to go about monitering them before they make a plan to sacrafice another large number of us in the name of safety...Jesus who are these people
and what made them think that they have the right to play "Gods"
The most committed crime on the internet.....
Unrelated but ....not
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/04/national-liberty-counter-terrori sm-secret-courts
Their afraid, very afraid...
and motivated and ambitious enough to be recognized can flourish thru their own efforts, and along with them will come all those who help and facilitate them. Our community appreciates talent and entertainment and we will support those who supply those thing to us because we want them.
If Joe blow posts that he needs a new guitar or a car to have transportation, We as a community, will do what we can to help and support, why because we like it. The Internet is our connection to one another near and far. It has given us the ability to stay connected now that the human family has grown. The powers that be have no right to take this away...we will fight....
Chocolate Lovers
and I definitely know the difference between a Hershey product and a Dove/Mars. With all the damn consumer surveys they do for everything else, you think that Hershey would spend a little money doing one of those on the subject instead of a lot more on litigation.....Every time I have to spend a $1.50 on something that used to cost .50 cents, I see the day coming that I can no longer afford to indulge. Why can't big companies like these take note of consumer popularity and loyalty and pass down the perks by spending less on advertisement (*which they hardly need now) and stupid litigation like this one.
So if Cal Trans builds a freeway...
Jesus, They gotta quit with all this mind boggling,"I have nothing better to do" bullshit!
Anonymous Cowards
(untitled comment)
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