Lamar Smith is to the internet what Jumanji is to a quaint suburban home. He really just wants to be let loose so he can fuck it up. Smith, the author of such classics as the Stop Online Piracy Act is hell bend on catching pirates. It’s like he was promised a role in The Black Pearl but they passed on him because his smile was too tight. Either way he has a vendetta against file sharing. This is probably because of the massive contributions to his campaign from the entertainment industry. Anyway, I wanted to see how far he was taking this piracy thing…
Now, I have nothing against Rich. I mean his voting record is a little spotty but who’s isn’t nowadays? We have an issue though. The issue is money in politics. After the Citizens United case, corporations are now protected by the first amendment.
They have free speech?
Yea.
That’s good right?
Nope. They speak with money. Try talking to a police officer with money next time you get pulled over. See how much protection you have. They like to call that a bribe.
I think it’s about time we get something changed here. This is why I will be writing more letters on the same subject in the future. This round of letters is more about getting politicians involved in making GOOD laws rather than lambasting them for past behavior. Please check out the following links to learn more about the problems surrounding this issue and how you can help:
In it’s most basic explanation, The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is an act aimed to thwart online piracy. Like most attempts at this, it will do nothing to thwart pirates… but it will give the government more control of what is allowed to exist on the internet. All in the name of “Copyright Protection”. The laws surrounding intellectual property are seriously screwed up.
The reason that stupid bills like this are passed is mainly due to the fact that our congress is bought and sold by major corporations. Lobbyists spend millions per issue in what anyone with even the most mundane of observation skills would call a bribe. So instead of illustrating the envelope of my letter, I decided to do something a little different. I decided to draw them up a flow chart on how to vote for this issue. It mainly centers around receiving money to vote a certain way…
The following people are cosponsors and will be receiving a copy of the flowchart. They love receiving mail! Especially mail with pictures so they don’t have to read much! It would really make their day if you printed this off and sent it to them. Even just one of them. Don’t have stamps? Email them the flowchart! Easy peasy.
So this is a letter to Rep. Cliff Stearns. He thinks that terrorists are trying to receive free healthcare by acting as 9/11 first responders. He passed this amendment which basically means that any 9/11 first responder who will receive healthcare as a result of the new 9/11 Health Bill must first have their name checked against the terrorist watch list. I think that is just crazy. I let him know.
P.s. – I wonder how many first responders are actually ON that list as a result of them asking for a re-investigation of 9/11? Just something to think about…
Did you know that cemetery companies are tax exempt? Us extreme pro-lifers do. We don’t like our tax money going towards the anti-life agenda. So I wrote a letter…
Front
Back
The Letter
I want to thank Bill Hicks for a little inspiration
Michelle Rhee wants to save the education system. Great! She wants to do it by holding teachers accountable for their student’s performance. Great!
Wait, how do you determine a student’s performance (and thus a teacher’s teaching ability) according to Rhee? Answer:Standardized testing.
So if you’re a teacher at risk of losing your job and you want your students to perform better what do you do? Answer: Teach them how to take a test.
How do you do that AND teach real life stuff that actually helps kids in their lives? You don’t. That’s the problem.
They need to start funding education correctly, stop tying the hands of the teachers and find another way to gauge a teachers teaching ability. How about instead of trying to figure out who can create the most “top test takers per dollar”, you give teachers the tools they need to create a REAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.
A Letter to Gov. Scott Walker: Unless you are living under a rock, you probably know what Scott is up to in WI. He’s trying to break the unions down to further his Republican agenda. I’m not a Republican nor am I a Democrat, I just hate it when elected officials act on behalf of billionaires instead of helping out the people they were elected to represent.
The Reason: She pretty much sums it up nicely here:
Keep enforcing that dogmatic two-party system guys. It’s really working out well for everyone.
I wish I knew some billionaires, I want to play too…
A Letter to Joe Lieberman: Well, I don’t know if you have heard about this crazy new website that has been trolling around the internet stirring up debate here and there. It’s called Wikileaks. What it does is essentially provide a secure platform for people to leak out information. The site’s figurehead and all around super-suave lookin’ dude is Julian Assange. Google image him. He looks like he may just steal your girlfriend and then leak everything she tells him about you on the internet. Because that’s what he does. He is a journalist. So how does that effect Joe? Well Joe over here is angry about something that good ol’ Julian did. He released a massive dump of confidential info which has since been deemed “Cablegate”. Wikileaks revealed some pretty nasty stuff that not only the US was involved in, but major players all over the world. You could see how this would make government angry right?
The Reason: Joe is angry. He doesn’t like the idea of Wikileaks. I can see why. If government is up to shady business, why would they want someone around who’s sole purpose is to out them? Good thing there is such thing as freedom of speech in this country. But good ol’ Joe wants to bring Julian up on breaking US espionage laws. C’mon Joe. First, Wikileaks was GIVEN the information, they just published it. That is what a journalist does. Second but maybe the most important thing… Why aren’t you more worried about what the leaked information actually said and why it was kept from the public?
Joe wants to protect us from the internet. I am more afraid of the government. Not sure if Joe know’s this, but the internet can actually be used as a tool for good. It also provides funny videos of kittens. Why are you trying to ruin that? Step it up Joe. Protect your people… or at least come clean with who you are trying to protect.
