'Son of ACTA' Worse Than Original 288
An anonymous reader writes "TechDirt has the latest on the leaked US proposals for the 'Son of ACTA' treaty and it looks worse than the original. It's practically a checklist for how to kill innovation while making lawyers rich. In particular, they call for expanding what's patentable, blocking people from buying copyrighted goods in other countries and taking them home, expanding liability for ISPs whose users commit acts of infringement, forcing ISPs to identify their users to anyone on demand, and getting rid of third-party patent review while expanding the presumption that they're valid. The only way it could get any worse would be if it were enacted in law."
good (Score:3, Insightful)
This is where capitalism takes you. By definition, a philosophy based on the rule of the most supremely selfishly rational is going to end up with these people trying to change the law to increase their wealth.
This is *NOT* capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
Having the government make laws to give privileges to a selected few is absolutely not what capitalism is about.
This is FEUDALISM.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is *NOT* capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
those peasants won't just go quietly starve to death.
No, but bread is cheap and so are circuses.
Negative income tax pretty much solves all of capitalism's problems. You set the lowest (negative) tax bracket such that no matter how little money you make, you can afford to eat and pay rent on a very small apartment. Then nobody needs to work to not starve, but you still need to work if you want a car or a house or to send your kids to a decent school.
And people want those things enough to work for them, but not enough to riot over not having them. So if you can find a job, good for you. And if you can't, enjoy your government cheese.
Tell that to the Arabs (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, bread and circusses are cheap and the oil rich nations of the world can certainly afford to spend plenty. So why exactly are the oil rich Arab nations on fire? Lack of money? Really? Libya should be rolling in it.
Greed is all consuming. Why settle for a mere 10 billion if you can have a hundred by bleeding the people just a bit more? If Ghadaffi or whatever he is called had spend most of his fortune on buying bread and circusses and maybe an industry or two he would still be filthy rich and far more popular. But he didn't. Squeezed the country to the max until it broke. People are fighting tanks with what they can get hold off. That means bread and circusses completely failed.
And you are a fool if you think this can't happen in the west. Just see how easily Greece and Ireland fell. See the riots in London by students. Gosh, students rebel in Egypt, the english government applauds. Students rebel in London, shame!
Do you think that when Antionette said "let them eat cake" she saw the true problems in society? You can't see a revolution brewing until it boils over. If you could, people would do more to stop them.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_guarantee
The math doesn't really work for extreme levels of unemployment, but it could delay the 'automation apocolypse' for a time and at least keep people out of poverty.
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Sure low income housing but, what happens when your government cheese runs out? The US gets it's "government cheese" in the form of Social Security and Medicare but the major funding for that relies on the working middle class. If the only industries left were jobs are obtainable disappear (like the grandparent post mentioned the service industry) there goes Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security was designed by a bunch of politicians (and I use that term as a pejorative) who were more concerned with doing what was politically necessary to get it passed, and then making it as difficult as possible to ever repeal, than actually doing something sensible or sustainable. The structure of social security tax is ridiculous and the idea that people who have more money should get bigger government checks is preposterous. They started out paying benefits to people who never paid in, meaning t
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The entire premise of capitalism is trading labor for capital but what happens when that labor is no longer valuable?
The technological singularity [wikipedia.org]?
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I know that at least one buggy whip manufacturer saw the writing on the wall and went into another braided-cord technology—high test fishing line. You know, for swordfish and other large sea game. They're still around, and tout this change on their website.
So technology gets rid of jobs and doesn't replace them? You say this on a website, created by people on software created by people on hardware designed and built by people. You do this with your computer which was designed by people and assembled b
Re:This is *NOT* capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Capitalism is not 'trading capital for labor', this is so silly.
Capitalism is saving and (re)investing. Exactly what is the money (re)invested into is irrelevant, as long as it's actual savings, and not some government subsidy.
Capitalism is of-course about organizing tools/labor/possibly land in order to make profit, but those things (tools/labor/land) can be used interchangeably, it doesn't really have to be labor, it doesn't have to be manual labor, it doesn't have to be human labor either.
As to 'what people will be doing' - I bet there were questions just like this one 200 years ago when first capitalists were organizing tools (steam engines, machines), land (factory floors) and labor (workers, engineers, management, etc.) in a way that allowed producing more machines, which eventually removed the need for 95% of human farmers, and only 5% of farmers were needed to feed 100% of population.
What would those 95% of people do?
Re:This is *NOT* capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
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Interesting how the students who went to school with that character described him as an "extreme leftist."
The notion that the fellow was a Ron Paul supporter was completely debunked mere minutes after Keith Olbermann and crew tried to tie him to it.
This is Slashdot. Stop trying to interject facts into the discussion.
Re:This is *NOT* capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Ron Paul has no new ideas. He just wants to take us on a trip down memory lane, back to the preconditions that got us here in the first place.
We need a Theodore Roosevelt (trust buster) not a Ron Paul. And as I put my hand to my face, shield it from the blinding Sun and scan the horizon of the Fruited Plain, I see no Rough Rider coming to save us.
We will have to do it ourselves, somehow.
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You're just trolling, right? Theodore Roosevelt [wikipedia.org] is not FDR. Note, he was a man of his time, and some of his words, particularly on race are abhorrent now. In the area to which I refered previously, he was spot-on and I believe he is turning in his grave.
"Ad Hominem" (Score:2)
Look, if you want to fight capitalism, you need to focus on the idea of capitalism, not on the people who you define as "capitalists".
Otherwise, you will fall into the "No True Scotsman" [wikipedia.org] logical fallacy.
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Ok (Score:4, Insightful)
Then let's hear your better system. I don't think anyone except for maybe crazy libertarians claim capitalism is perfect, or the be-all, end-all of economic systems. However so far nobody has come up with anything better. Communism sounds nice on paper but doesn't work in the real world.
You'll notice that capitalism underlies the economy of all successful, well off, countries in the world. Now that doesn't mean it can or should be implemented without any checks, clearly all capitalist nations have counterbalances to it but the fundamentals of capitalism are what underlie their systems because it works.
So, let's hear it then. You clearly think capitalism ought to go away right now which implies you have something better. Let's hear what that as, as we'd all be interested in a genuinely better economic system. Do your homework first though, because a lot of them have been tried and failed.
However I'm going to guess you do not in fact have a good answer since you clearly don't know what you are talking about. The reason is that these things being proposed are actually ANTI-capitalist. In a true free market, there are no artificial restrictions of any kinds. So buying goods over seas and selling them for a profit at home is 100% kosher (it's called arbitrage and is common). As such if you think these are bad, then really you are being pro-capitalist as it stands.
Re:Ok (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason is that these things being proposed are actually ANTI-capitalist.
You're thinking too idealistically. The capitalist philosophy inevitably leads to crony capitalism. You need a philosophy centred around something other than rational selfishness and regulated accordingly.
Social democracy is an obvious answer, and has worked quite well in Europe in the sense that it gives people a good quality of life rather than in the sense of economic summary statistics suggesting that a country is doing well.
Degrees of socialism - in the sense of worker control of the means of production managed by a sympathetic state - helped much of Europe emerge from WW2 on both sides of the Curtain. Soviet Russia was throroughly successful for most of its life, being America's only equal for most of the last century. The response to resource allocation difficulties which had emerged by the early '80s was to dismantle the socialist framework and waste money on Reagan's arms race - this wasn't the only option. The West has just had a far greater hit to its economy and we didn't respond by entirely abandoning free market principles: we have just temporarily "socialised" elements of banking and industry.
As for communism in the sense defined by Marx, it's never been reached. There are lots of successful independent worker cooperatives [uk.coop] - the John Lewis Partnership being one of the most famous in the UK - which give some idea of what worker control of the means of production without state management looks like.
The point being that there are lots of alternatives to a capitalist philosophy, many features of which are currently in use.
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Communism sounds nice on paper but doesn't work in the real world.
Or at least the ones that had been tried in the past.
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I wish I could find the original research done into these alternative systems, but I don't seem to be able to find the articles (and, well, don't care enough to try to find them).
My favorite concept from these was that as technology causes individual humans to be more efficient, there should be less labor requirement. For instance, if the use of a tractor makes a human 10 times as efficient in harvesting food, then you should need to employ 1/10th as many people. Ignoring the second-order correction from th
There is no better system (Score:5, Insightful)
Once you get a little bit older you might learn the secret of it all. It is that there is no perfect cure all system. The only thing that works long term, as in your life time, is to constantly find a balance while never actually achieving it.
This is not how people like to think, they want the hero to save the world at the end of the movie. Not spend infinity just avoiding total collapse.
In running a country, there is no end, no financial year, no last chapter. It is an ongoing concern that needs to readjust as the world changes.
Should high-tech firms receive a tax deduction to stimulate them? Yes... we need them to stimulate the economy.
Time passes...
Should high-tech firms receive a tax deduction to stimulate them? No... we got them, now their taxes can help to stimulate other sectors.
See what I did there? I changed a policy as the situation changed. How DARING of me!!! This is what most political parties with an ideology never do. Right - Left, it don't matter. Leave it to a republican and taxes for the rich would go to negative infinity. Leave it to Amnesty International and criminals would be out of jail before they commit the crime. Leave it to the green and humanity would be living on a very small isolated rock less it touch any piece of nature. Leave it to the Libertarians and we would have Somalia.
When you see Thatchet claim that the lady is not for turning, she shows just how bad a politician she was. Ruined the country.
Compromise? Yes, that is one word for it but really it is the realization that the needs of the country cannot be expressed by the needs of a singular group.
We need labour, we need high-tech, we need investors, we need rich people, we need poor people, we need unemployed...
Wait, what? We need unemployed? Yes, we do. Where else is a growing company going to get new people from? 0% unemployment is a nightmare for capitalists who know what they are talking about. Can you say salary inflation? Can you say stagnation?
So you might want to turn off the work stimulation projects BEFORE everyone actually got a job before you run out of people for the jobs. Immigration has proven to be less then an ideal method for solving this and once you got immigration going, it is hard to stop leading to masses of unemployed immigrants.
In politics you can never win because the game never ends. At best you can try to keep the ball somewhat under control. This means you got to shift back and forth on the same issue over and over. Do we build a nuclear plant? How about now? How about now? How about now? How about now? Yes, now it is a good idea.
ACTA seeks to create a cure all with no room for changes in the future. That is why it is bad. The patent system might need to be reformed now AND be reformed again in the future. And again. And again. The idea that you can draft a trade law NOW and be done with it forever and ever is just a silly idea that sadly seems ingrained in our conciousness. If only we did X all our problems would be solved forever. Nope.
Re:good (Score:4, Interesting)
"This is where it takes you" is an apt way to put it. I don't think capitalism was ever meant to be a final solution; it was meant to be a steppingstone, and it was far in advance of pre-capitalist systems in terms of the social change it's allowed.
Capitalist means the capital--means of production--are privately held and can be used for private profit. The alternative is capital being held by the state, which is amazingly good at keeping the status quo or responding to clear challenges (invasions, keeping up with the Jones, space race, energy race, etc) but is not nearly nimble enough to drive innovation by random, untested entrepreneurs. There's frankly no way that such people could have driven innovation unless they could could convince The Authority Figure with The Money to give it to them. Now, at worst, they have to convince An Authority figure with Money, but it could be one of hundreds (or maybe thousands or millions, depending on the startup costs).
But it ain't right, because in the end, what do you do when you've beaten the game (to put it in such terms)? If you've ever played a game like Civilization or even one more directly about Just Making Money, you know that eventually you've achieved every achievement and the game just ends. But if that game were your life, what do you do when you no longer have profit to make? Game over don't happen 'til you die.
If you ask me, the people who are doing this shit are (to extend the metaphor unduly) people who've completed the game and are going after every last achievement, even the ones the designers put in there just to be dicks. "Become the leading producers of entertainment worldwide--check. Pass legislation worldwide so that every poor sod worldwide is under your thumb--working on it. Wait... become a tyrant that's destroying the happiness of billions... why do I have this achievement?"
Seriously, they've lost their focus and their minds, and they ought to either be shot or stripped of all money and forbidden from ever engaging in capitalist endeavors again.
Kettle meet Pot (Score:3)
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If I had mod points, I'd mod you up. This is the absolute fucking truth. I'm so fucking tired of the anti-capitalists on slashdot. It's the most annoying aspect about the site.
I think you need to sit down with your neighbors in your building's common room, next to the "trouble bush" (fed by the spring) and have a discussion about this... remember the talking stick that we pass around. the more we share, the better our lives are. the more we rid our lives of the scramble for possessions and monetary wealth, the higher we become.
Peace & Love,
Thomas
Kill'em all (Score:3)
Can we just kill all of the IP lawyers now and be done with it?
Just say'in.
Re:Kill'em all (Score:4, Insightful)
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I say we take it one step further and kill all humans. Cleaner and simpler.
ha, nice try skynet...
Really? In my head that was Bender's voice.
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The Trial Lawyers are a major funding source for Democrats.
Big Corporations are a major funding source for Republicans
Both get what they want, and the Public gets screwed. No surprise there.
Soap boxes aren't working
Ballot boxes aren't working
Ammo boxes are illegal
Now what?
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Soap boxes aren't working
Ballot boxes aren't working
Ammo boxes are illegal
Now what?
You skipped one.
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I completely agree that juries have been effectively neutered. It takes no better example than the way that the jury selection process in the P2P file sharing trials managed to remove every juror who might have even the slightest disagreement with the ridiculousness of the laws in question, leading to what any objective observer can recognize as monstrous damage awards.
But don't concentrate so much on the word "jury" -- the judicial system is admittedly and beyond the shadow of a doubt stacked against anyon
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Kill them with fire!!!
You lack creativity and have too much compassion. The correct way to deal with the situation is to subject all RIAA/MPAA lawyers to a continual stream of the very movies and music they're responsible for 'protecting' via legislation.
Beware the simplified summary (Score:5, Informative)
While I hate all this ACTA and related types of laws (DMCA, etc) the summary for this article is not accurate, for example it says it would forbid third party opposition to patents, which it doesn't say, what it actually says is that it prohibits them prior to the grant of a patent. And as someone with a bunch of patents from little startups, thats a good thing actually, as it would be way to easy for big corporations to make small inventors and startups waste money by filling all sorts of third party opposition during the patent prosecution.
In any case, don't believe the summary article, if you care about a particular point follow the links to the full text and read it in the original.
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No, it will mean that when a big company gets a patent on basically the same damn thing as you, you after to fight it after the fact in court.
Re:Beware the simplified summary (Score:4, Informative)
Holy shit! That was a fucking mess. English translation follows;
No, it will mean that when a big company gets a patent on basically the same damn thing as you, you will be forced to fight about it after the fact in court. This is something most small businesses cannot afford.
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So an unopposed patent on 1-click shopping is OK as long as the little guy gets it?
Anyway, the mechanism could be set up so that the patent examiner is the only one involved in evaluating an objection, no courts, prior to patent issue. Require that all objections be limited to 1 page in pla
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The America Invents Act which has been passed by the Senate and being considered by the House of Representatives actually introduces a new post-grant opposition procedure to invalidate patents.
Definitely beware of the summary; it's wholly inaccurate. Unfortunately, that's usually the case when reporters report on legal statutes, bills, treaties, etc. Although, there are some good ones out there.
Everything can be copyrighted! (Score:4, Insightful)
blocking people from buying copyrighted goods in other countries and taking them home
Things that can be copyrighted: Books, nicknacks, travel brochures, the pattern on my boxers... Not only will you have to strip naked for the TSA, you'll have to remain naked while crossing national borders.
Re:Everything can be copyrighted! (Score:5, Funny)
Things that can be copyrighted: Books, nicknacks, travel brochures, the pattern on my boxers...
"Sir, this skidmark is clearly derivative."
"Um, Parody?"
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
they don't check to see if you have laptop us-can (Score:2)
they don't check to see if you have a laptop at the us can border. Much less have time to do any kind of scan.
Re:Everything can be copyrighted! (Score:5, Insightful)
Things that can be copyrighted: Books, nicknacks, travel brochures, the pattern on my boxers... Not only will you have to strip naked for the TSA, you'll have to remain naked while crossing national borders.
Forget about the logistics. That's just the collateral damage. The real issue is that it enables price discrimination. Which makes the US and other countries with a high standard of living even more uncompetitive by compounding the cost advantage of foreign countries: Foreign students will get our textbooks for 5% of the US price, which means they have even lower costs and can more easily undercut our wages. Corporations license software in foreign countries for 5% of the US price, making it more cost effective to set up shop Anywhere But Here. On and on.
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This comment incorrectly assumes the the US Trade Representative in any way gives a shit about the American people.
Quite right. And it is for this very reason that I would at this time like to formally request that the US Trade Representative die in a fire.
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What me worry... (Score:2)
Moral of this story (Score:2)
It's important to remember the moral of this story - never try. Good job guys.
Any ideas on how to finally stop this mess? (Score:2)
Any ideas on how to finally stop this mess completely? I bet the MBAs who were trained to control didn't help. Nor does "shareholder value". Any idea on how to finally fix all this?
What world do you live in? (Score:2, Insightful)
There is no "final" fix, and there can never be one. The wealthy and powerful *always* have incentives to exploit the majority for their personal gain, and *always* respond to those incentives with measures like this.
The right response is to forever fight.
DDoSing the system (Score:2)
Well, it can be called ar DDoS or carpet bombing...Whatever. It is the same strategy pro-softpatents lobbyists tried several years ago with software patent "harmonization" in ES. They are still trying to push it, but with much less success than before.
What can I say - journalists just should do their work, bring these things to the front and then we can hope that they will back off.
Thanks to everyone - FSF and EFF especially - who tries to stop these efforts.
Enforcing is suicide (Score:2)
[quote]blocking people from buying copyrighted goods in other countries and taking them home[\quote]
And just how are they planning to enforce this? I have a goddamn right to buy anything where I want it. If this is enacted, international commerce will fall apart, thanks to the US. A nation, I might add, that already imports more than it exports (1.280 trillion in exports VS 1.948 trillion in imports), and 30.4% of it is in capital goods, such as computers and telecomm equipment, from which areas we get most
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It doesn't have to be enforced to be "valuable" to the government or media companies. All this means is that everybody, everywhere, even more so if this passes, is always committing a crime, and therefore the .gov and private business have the right to all your info and can smash down on any individual they please, even/especially for unrelated "crimes".
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Well, most other countries have very strict laws about importation of goods. If you travel from France to New York City and buy a fake Louis Vutton purse there it may be confiscated when you re-enter France. Certainly if you were a merchant in France and tried to import 1000 fake Louis Vutton purses to sell in France you would be blocked from doing so.
Let's say you want to import some cheap, unlicensed DVD players into Holland (home of Philips, licensor of DVD players). Good luck with that - Holland has
Protectionism (Score:4, Informative)
No true free economy allows laws that protect certain markets and business models. Obama is up to his ears in jobs loss. As a consequence these MPAA/RIAA lobbyists go to him claiming that they are loosing billions and millions of jobs in an industry that "can't" be off-shored--nothing like American movies and music.
What's wrong is that he thinks that these efforts will result in recovery of lost jobs and income. In reality, when the economy recovers, if it ever does, these industries (with their protected and outdated business models) will be in control beyond what was intended, and it will have set a precedent for other industries to try the same thing, thus leaving America, and the world, with massive abusive businesses controlling ever more of Congress.
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No economy on the planet is as open as the US is to cheap cloned merchandise marketed as the original expensive stuff. And if you buy the fakes and have a problem you will likely as not complain to the original manufacturer - who, in their desire to have happy customers in the future just might fix things for you.
This isn't about protecting a market but protecting companies that are based in the US from extremely unfair competition from China and other East Asian countries with very low wages. Sure it is
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"As a consequence these MPAA/RIAA lobbyists go to him claiming that they are loosing billions and millions of jobs in an industry that "can't" be off-shored--nothing like American movies and music."
My prediction/satire from 2002 sent to the US DOJ: :-)
http://www.pdfernhout.net/microslaw.html [pdfernhout.net]
"My fellow Americans. There has been some recent talk of free law by the General Public Lawyers (the GPL) who we all know hold un-American views. I speak to you today from the Oval Office in the White Hous
while making lawyers rich (Score:3)
When you run the world, you craft everything to support your wealth.
Brasil, Russia, China doesnt give two shits (Score:3)
this entire piece of shit, is something the rich in usa is trying to push over entire world for their own benefit.
yet noone cares. yet, they still come yelping louder, after they have been openly refused.
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The people in Europe is against it but I can promise you that the so called "leaders" in EU will be in favor off this new ACTA.
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http://votewatch.eu/cx_vote_details.php?id_act=456&lang=en [votewatch.eu]
Stop trying to spread your s*t (Score:5, Insightful)
Could you Americans please stop trying to force us other in the world to accept your fascist corporations wishes?
Please continue to live in your corporate govern country that you believe is the worlds greatest democracy but STOP trying to force us other to obey your corporate overlords.
Thanks.
Re:Stop trying to spread your s*t (Score:5, Funny)
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Effective resistance never comes from within the empire.
scapegoats (Score:2)
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I wish we could. The fact of the matter is that large sections of our government are now out of the control of the citizenry. They do what the corporations tell them to with no regard for what the people say unless you can get truly massive protests mobilized. The problem is money. If a politician does what a corporation wants, he can count on them supporting him rather than his opponent in the next election. If they do what an individual voter wants, that individual might still vote for his opponent b
Re:Stop trying to spread your s*t (Score:5, Insightful)
> Could you Americans please stop trying to force us other in the world to accept your fascist corporations wishes?
With every fiber of my being I wish that what you are saying was rational. Unfortunately, we Americans are no longer represented by our government.
We decried the Bush / Neo-Con oligopoly, and forced its heir-apparent, John McCain, to try a crazy stunt called Sarah Palin as a mad grasp for electability.
We have used the soap box.
We voted for Obama, the one who promised change. Who promised net neutrality, the end of Gitmo, withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, public participation in the construction of the health care law, and a shift away from secret government in general.
We have used the ballot box.
We have brought lawsuits that have been quashed by secret national security objections. We have brandished the forces of the EFF and Groklaw to fight the courtroom battles, attempting to hold the line, in vain.
We have used the jury box.
I have deeply considered what the above statements imply. I have contemplated the LA, the Fruitvale riots, and the current events in Wisconsin. I have lay awake at night stunned at the implication of these things.
The path forward is a scary one. For me, I cannot accept it as it seems to be. I have chosen to believe that it is a failure to use the first three boxes sufficiently. Given that I cannot see how ballot or jury can overcome their state of decay, I am left with the soap box.
This post is an example. I have a lot to learn. The barriers ahead look insurmountable. And the only sure way to fail is not to try.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, and whose fault is that? I thought you had elections
I think the politicians have just run out of ideas (Score:2)
Ever notice how a politician will hardly ever take a specific stand on any issue and if they do they'll never follow through (e.g Obama)? It's like politicians don't want to lead anymore and they just let their handlers and lobbyists put laws in front of them to sign and they do it because they don't really give a crap and they've completely run out of ideas. If you get a guy like Ron Paul who actually has ideas and doesn't just talk in meaningless genralities, all you see is non-stop ridicule.
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Ross Perot had some good ideas too. He was kind of a nutjob, but at least he recognized we couldn't keep borrowing money from China forever...
the only way? (Score:2)
You go first (Score:2)
Kills right to resale? (Score:5, Interesting)
Article 4, paragraph 3:
Each Party shall provide to authors, performers, and producers of phonograms the right to authorize or prohibit the making available to the public of the original and copies of their works, performances, and phonograms through sale or other transfer of ownership.
I'm not sure what this means, exactly, but it sounds like they don't want to let you resale things? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Re:I know I'll get marked troll again... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, if they flip flop, like they did in the 1800s, switch sides. But RIGHT NOW Republican == BAD.
And there I was thinking that Democrats had run the US government for the last two years.
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its rep production.
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Perhaps you haven't seen the breakdown of seats in the US Congress lately?
Re:I know I'll get marked troll again... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they forget that the Trial Lawyers (wing of the D party) are also involved. This is not a (D) or (R) issue, this is a DC corrupt issue. Both (D) and (R) have the proverbial blood on their hands.
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For want of mod points... You beat me to that- and it's the truth of things.
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So, what you're saying is that in the last 5 years, the (D) party was completely helpless in drafting Legislation. How do you expect me to believe that when the rammed a turd of Health Care Reform through in just a few months?
Gaaahhhhhh
The sad thing is, you're so stupid that you think you're smart for saying it. Don't get me wrong, the (R) will screw things up when they get their chance. It just swings from (D) to (R) and few people see that both are ruining our country.
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The Democrats want to socialize health care in America. Just like every other first world nation on the planet.
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All that wheeling and dealing that destroyed any real semblance of a decent healthcare bill was done to get enough Democrats on board, not Republicans. Let me repeat.. only 1 republican voted for the healthcare bill.
It is no surprise why the Democrats want so desperately to blame the healthcare bill on the Republicans.. what is surprising is people like you, that believe them when they say it.
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Ah, but you see, this is the beauty of the U.S. Senate. Power is held not by the majority, but by the 51st person to declare whose side he is on. Everything can be sacrificed to the whim of the swing votes. And recently, that 51st has been Republican, or at least more Republican than we would have liked.
And secondly, the democrats are in bed with the IP lobby just as much if not more than republicans. It's hard to tell which is the lesser of two evils if they're both falling down a bottomless pit of ev
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find which one is all about religion.
then pick the other one.
sigh.
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Probably the current system, actually.
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They haven't (Score:2)
Even if that hadn't happened, the Republicans ran the country into the ground for 8 years using TERRIFYING TERRORISTS to get away with anything. It's a bit much to ask for 2 years of weakly supported Democratic rule to fix that. Maybe if you people would stop voting for Republicans. Obama had
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You know..I was laughing at all of this...till it dawned on me...you are really and truly serious and believe this, don't you?
I can't honestly think of a single thing that guy has done positive for the country...even when he had majority in BOTH houses...I'm just hoping that he's a one termer...before he can do more damage.
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Perhaps you haven't seen the breakdown of seats in the US Congress lately?
Hint: how long do you think this ACTA process has been going on for?
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The executive branch turns the crank on the treaty sausage grinder.
Incidentally, I blame Joe Biden.
Re:I know I'll get marked troll again... (Score:5, Informative)
Do you know much about how DC works? Seriously I lived there my whole life and I'm tied to the US Federal government closely. I think it's hilarious that people like yourself think there's a huge difference between the two parties. Guess the bullshit machines are working.
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How about not voting for either and instead voting for a third party?
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Face it, the political game in the US is rigged to only allow two parties to share power (primaries, fppt voting, yada yada), and the only ones who could change it are the two parties. On the outside chance that one of the major parties should commit electoral suicide, the "third party" seamlessly slips into the place of one of the big ones, and you're no better off.
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It hasn't worked yet. The solution isn't to give up and say "this will never work," however. The solution is to keep trying and to keep pressing the issue and telling others about it.
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The US doesn't make anything anymore. We depend on the export of agricultural goods and licensing intellection property to get any money into the country.
But if this should actually pass as a global treaty, no-one would be able to import copyrighted goods from America, so there goes that idea.
I can only imagine they're following the usual tactic of trying to come up with the most insane ideas they could so that when they relax it back to what they originally wanted people will say 'we'd better let them have this because look how bad it could be otherwise'.