Thanks for the info David, its a lot worse than I thought... and I forgot about Harper and his ilk.

Aye. I realize I'm kinda rambling, all over the place, but it would take pages to really critique the problems with these bills. The NDAA is by far the scariest of the bunch, allowing the U.S. government to imprison anyone they deem a "terrorist" permanently and without charge or trial, without access to counsel. Obama stopped opposing this bill when republicans tacked on riders regarding provision of funding for veterans and such. This way, if Obama (or anyone) continued to oppose it, the media could scream about them "denying funding to veterans". It's the perfect example of just how broken the U.S. is.

You are absolutely right on all counts, MC! It's pretty scary all the stuff that is going on down here, and there are a lot of us that have our eyes open and are watching this steamroller coming toward us... and there's nothing we can do. They don't listen to us. We elect new people to change it, and they do the same thing, with very few exceptions.

We can't stop it, we can't even slow it down, and it's scary. The combination of insane debt and spending, and all these new laws...

Homeland Security has already seized domains without due process. Remember when they seized all of WordPress, MC, because of a couple of piracy sites? They don't even have SOPA yet, and they've done it anyway.

The bit about them being able to imprison anyone they deem a terrorist without counsel or due process... we've seen who they consider potential terrorists -- people with more than a week's worth of food, people who own firearms, people who have "don't tread on me" flags or bumper stickers, people who are against the TSA, people who are against the Patriot Act, even people who are against abortion.

This is in no way meant to be political, but as a whole on just about anything, less regulation is better. In this case it is pretty easy to see why. The music and film industry feel they are losing billions every year on copy right infringement, perhaps they are, but there is more targeted ways of solving that problem, than what has so far been offered.
They need to go after the people looking to make a profit as thieves. There are laws on the books now for that, let them go to it.
As they say, don't throw the baby out with the bath water...

Well, I am a member of a FB group that is being monitored--kinda freaky feeling, really--but that Fb group has provided so many links to stuff I want/need in order to make my voting decision before the election-- And lets face it-- if one person is the 'clear winner' after the Iowa caucasus', yet 8 counties are not reported, and another candidate actually is now the candidate of choice for the state-- what does that say? Does anyone smell something rotten coming from Denmark?

Oh, that's just they guy 'who isn't in the room' taking off his shoes, must be getting comfortable.

Say, MidnightCoder, I just read that y'all are dealing with a SOPA/PIPA style bill up there now. I know I'm hearing of it some three weeks late, but wow.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right-cl ... 48003.html