Fighting The Man

Hey everyone, I’m sure you all are well aware of the NDAA, SOPA, PIPA, and various other ways the government keeps screwing up.  If you are, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs; if you’re not familiar with those things, here’s a bit of background info:

NDAA stands for “National Defense Authorization Act”.  It is a bill that takes care of the budget of the Department of Defense, and it’s been enacted for the last several decades.  The problem with this year’s version of the NDAA is that it includes a section allowing for the indefinite detention, without due process of the law, of anyone suspected of terrorist affiliation or of committing a “belligerent act” against the US or its allies. Two huge problems with this: 1) even US citizens can be held indefinitely without trial, which directly violates the Bill of Rights, 2) the criteria for determining whether someone is a terrorist or is affiliated with terrorists is extremely vague, which is extremely worrying because this bill removes due process of the law, so suspicion alone of vague terrorist affiliation is enough to throw a person away indefinitely.  It was signed into law by President Obama on New Years Eve.

SOPA stands for “Stop Online Piracy Act” .  It’s a bill introduced to the House of Representatives, and it would essentially allow copyright holding companies to cause blackouts of websites which infringe their copyrights.  Internet Service Providers could be required to block websites which post copyrighted material (even if it’s just a link on a forum from a user otherwise unaffiliated with the website).  Again, due process of the law is thrown out the window, and all for the benefit of media corporations which have refused to modernize, and which cite bogus “losses” to get the politicians riled up over copyright infringement (source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120104/04545217274/cato-institute-digs-into-mpaas-own-research-to-show-that-sopa-wouldnt-save-single-net-job.shtml).  PIPA stands for “Protect IP Act”, and it’s pretty much the Senate version of SOPA.  Same misguided goals and same draconian, unconstitutional methods for preventing piracy.

Anyways, I shouldn’t have to tell you that these are Very Bad Things.  So, what can we do about them?

NDAA: Well, I’m personally in favor of recalling the Congressmen who voted for the NDAA.  It’s an unconstitutional bill, plain and simple.  It’s the job of our government to uphold the Constitution, yet clearly unconstitutional legislation has been passed under the guise of “protecting citizens from terrorism”.  Seriously, pretty much all of our previous efforts to protect citizens from terrorism (TSA, for example), have been ineffective and rights-violating.  I don’t trust a bunch of career politicians (mostly old white men who hold public office because it’s lucrative rather than because they want to serve the public good) with the power of indefinite detention.  So, without further ado, here’s the list of politicians who support NDAA: http://www.waitingforthestorm.com/indefinite-detention-law-hall-of-shame-list-of-senators-who-voted-yes-on-the-ndaa-bill  Write to them, flood their Twitter accounts.  Figure out if your state has legislation to allow for the recall of public officials.  Montana is already kicking things off: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/montana-recall-ndaa-indefinite-detention_n_1171044.html.  Even if your state has no legislation allowing for the recall of Senators, you could probably cite the 10th Amendment to create such a law (any law students, help me out).

SOPA and PIPA: Well, boycott the companies which support these bills, for starters.  After all, corporations tend to respond to money (or lack thereof).  This OpenCongress page has a list of companies which support PIPA, as well as how much money some politicians have received from those companies: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/money.  Same thing for SOPA: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/money.  There is also a handy Android App that allows you to scan barcodes and determine whether the company that makes or carries the product is a SOPA supporter: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.boycottsopa.android. There’s also a Chrome Extension which alerts you when you’re on a SOPA-supporting website: https://tonywebster.com/2012/01/no-sopa-chrome-extension/.

In addition to boycotts, let your representatives know how you feel about these bills.  I mean…that may not count for much, but it’s something…Basically, show them the fuzzy math that the entertainment industry has been using (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/truth-about-economics-behind-blacklist-bills), and show them also that this bill is effectively censorship and is unconstitutional.  Other countries have already enacted forms of internet censorship by using similar means (though they crusade instead for the more noble cause of fighting sexual exploitation of children).  However, already those countries are blocking websites which have nothing to do with child pornography: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/only_child_porn_lovers_want_to_fight_internet_censorship/).  I don’t have too much faith that our government would do a better job than those of Denmark and Finland, especially with media corporations whispering in our politicians ears and waving money at them.  But still…maybe we can get them to vote against the bill in the first place.  After all, politicians already have enough reasons to fear they won’t get reelected, they can easily avoid yet another reason by voting “no”.  Worst comes to worst, we can just support some random hackers in their quest to build and launch a satellite to provide censorship-free internet… http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-01/german-hackers-are-building-diy-space-program-put-their-own-uncensored-internet-space

I encourage you all to share with your friends, get them talking, raise awareness of how our rights are being pulled from under our feet…If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to comment.  Also, check out Oath Keepers http://oathkeepers.org/oath/.  One of their founder, Stewart Rhodes, is also spearheading the Montana efforts to recall the Congressmen who voted for NDAA.  There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the fiercely libertarian group, and they tend to get support from groups I’m generally wary of.  However, their goal as it is written seems admirable…to simply uphold the Constitution and refuse to obey orders which would violate some Constitutional right.

Anyways, let me know what you all think.

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