Stop Online Piracy Act

[Thief Silver]

He's a pretty bright guy, I watched a lot of his Blizzard stuff back in the day where I cared about that shit.

[Shin Johnpv]

The problem I have with term limits is that it almost feels like it is subverting the democratic process. If people want some dipshit to represent them his entire life, shouldn't they be able to do that?

I don't think they should. It was never meant to be a life long career. When the founding fathers set this shit up the concept was these farmers would come and serve their 2 years and then have to go back home and let the next person come in.

Even in a perfect world where you didn't have corporate corruption buying favors from these people, you'd still have folks completely disconnected with no idea about what they're voting on.

it is that there is too much money floating around. A campaign contribution really is just the present value of a future favor (at an extremely high ROI, buying a Congressman is really cheap), and the issue is that you need to make way too many favors just to get elected the first time. It just corrupts the whole process right at the foundation.

I absolutely agree that there is FAR FAR too much money floating around. I don't think corporations should be allowed to donate money to any elected official. That said though I still think, even if money was taken out of the equation, there needs to be term limits.

I do believe that for most people they reach a certain age and they loose touch with the current mind set of the people. No one should hold power indefinitely.

[Fe 26]

I do believe that for most people they reach a certain age and they loose touch with the current mind set of the people. No one should hold power indefinitely.

I think it is less an issue with age and more an issue with making a career out of politicking. I think the job itself would start to build a little bullshit bubble around you. These guys probably start approaching it like anyone does any job and stop growing. And they probably stop going back to their home state and meeting new people and learning about new stuff. They probably get up, go to work, etc. How can you govern new technologies when A. your educational background has nothing to do with it and B. You don't do hardly anything in your spare time learn about it?

It would be like me taking office and trying to legislate the beaches in California. Thats beyond my education level and I sure as fuck don't learn about it on my own time.

[gameoverDude]

What Shin Johnpv said makes sense: Senators and Representatives should be limited to a couple of terms in their respective office, just as the President is. After that, let them endorse a potential successor from their respective party if they like.

The problem with Strom Thurmond wasn't his age (I do support Ron Paul and will vote for him if he's in the 2012 Presidential Election), but rather that he made a career out of politics. I can see long term political careers being a breeding ground for corruption. One thing that really puts politicians out of touch with those they should be representing is corporate bribery.

[Diff-chan]

I do believe that for most people they reach a certain age and they loose touch with the current mind set of the people. No one should hold power indefinitely.

No, see, that's the thing. We already have a system that allows for people to remove politicians. It's called an election. If people think that a politician is out of touch then they can vote them out. Strom Thurmond stayed in office for 5000 years because his constituents wanted him to be there.

If you want to talk about what the founding fathers intended, they really intended for people to be vigilant and make good decisions for their country. Obviously things haven't gone that well, but still that's the point. I don't like the idea of term limits, some states do it and they are still political basket cases. I don't think they solve anything.

[sleeve]

Diff is correct.

Term limits are a bad idea for one simple reason: there are no term limits on lobbyists.

In states with term limited legislatures, legislators generally are clueless about legislative issues and procedure. They depend upon lobbyists (often former legislators themselves) to explain how the legislative process works, and to tell them what to vote for. Years ago, after finishing college, I worked tech support at the Arizona House of Representatives. Arizona has had term limits since the mid-90's. I saw legislators take orders from lobbyists from the floor of the House. I saw confused legislators struggle to understand basic legislative concepts while packs of lobbyists struggled mightily to explain why they needed to vote a particular way on a bill. Term limits make lobbyists much more powerful.

The problem with Strom Thurmond wasn't that he "made a career out of politics." His problem was that he was a racist hypocrite asshole. I want legislators to make a career out of legislating. I want them to be informed. I want them to know what the fuck they are doing. Term limits will not solve that problem.

I don't know if you guys realize this, but House and Senate members don't live in Washington and "stop going back to their home state." Your average legislator goes back to his home state every weekend, at minimum, mostly for fundraising purposes and to keep up with the 24/7 campaign cycle. (And guess who provides the airfare?) The constant need for legislators to return to their home state is a huge problem, occasionally a fatal one -- former Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash days before the 2002 election because he was madly campaigning across his home state.

We need federal public financing of elections.

[Fe 26]

I don't know if you guys realize this, but House and Senate members don't live in Washington and "stop going back to their home state." Your average legislator goes back to his home state every weekend, at minimum, mostly for fundraising purposes and to keep up with the 24/7 campaign cycle. (And guess who provides the airfare?) The constant need for legislators to return to their home state is a huge problem, occasionally a fatal one -- former Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash days before the 2002 election because he was madly campaigning across his home state.

This is news to me. I haven't heard of anyone from my state doing shit.

[Josh]

You've not heard of most things that actually happen.

[cka]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...-sopa-to-task/

yeah you know you kinda fucked up when these guys oppose the bill

[gameoverDude]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...-sopa-to-task/

yeah you know you kinda fucked up when these guys oppose the bill

Wow. The Heritage Foundation says "You lost us there" to these guys. Love it.
Kaspersky Lab has told the BSA goodbye over their support of SOPA. Yahoo also quit the US Chamber of Commerce (an organization I have zero respect for now).

Don't bother to amend SOPA. Just kill it.