As per the Senate Democratic Majority Leader’s official statement:
Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today on the Senate’s PROTECT I.P. Act:
“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act.
“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices. We live in a country where people rightfully expect to be fairly compensated for a day’s work, whether that person is a miner in the high desert of Nevada, an independent band in New York City, or a union worker on the back lots of a California movie studio.
“I admire the work that Chairman Leahy has put into this bill. I encourage him to continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance between protecting Americans’ intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the internet. We made good progress through the discussions we’ve held in recent days, and I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks.”
A “compromise.” That means “we only want to censor you a little. Or, we want to wait until the heat is off before we get back to screwing you. (Hat tip: Penny Arcade.)
Sadly, the Republican leadership isn’t sounding much better. My quick and dirty impression is that the rank-and-file Republican members of the House and Senate closest to the Tea Party have gotten the message, good and hard, but that the leadership is still putting their fingers in their ears and thinking they’ll be fine if they just keep humming until to furor dies down.
They must be disabused of this notion.
I would urge you to contact your representative and tell them you don’t want SOPA/PIPA “delayed” or “fixed,” you want it killed dead and a stake driven through it’s heart. Or, to quote Spinal Tap, “just crank that volume to the point of pain.” They must come to dread your wrath more than the thought of losing campaign contributions from the MPAA/RIAA.
You must teach them fear.
Tags: Democrats, Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy, PIPA, Regulation, Republicans, SOPA, Tea Party
When I moved to Texas last summer from Illinois I figured I was done with idiot congressmen; my congressman in Illinois was Phil Hare—the guy who said he didn’t “worry” about the constitutionality of Obamacare.
What a fool I was! My current Texas congressman is Lamar Smith, the primary sponsor in the House for SOPA—and he’s a Republican!
It seems clueless politicians are one of the few truly bipartisan features of government.
Well, now that the redistricting case has been decided, the filing period is going to open up again. San Antonio conservatives should get together and decide on at least one person to challenge Smith in the Republican primary. As the Tea Party has proven in other races, that tends to powerfully focus their minds on the errors of their ways…
It’s a pity election ballots don’t have “None of the above”.
I’m not fond of the idea – in general – of “if you vote for/against measure X” I’m not voting for you … but in this case I may be willing to make a Special One Time Exception.
Here, have some numbers: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus.ars
[…] initial 2009 Porkulus. Reid (like all Democrats) supported lots of horrible legislation (remember SOPA/PIPA, possibly the first and last time the Internet as a whole rose up to slap down bad legislation?), […]