Tag: John Cornyn

The Masterminds Behind The IP Protect Act Bring You The “Ten Strikes Bill”; YouTube Will Be Illegal

Cross-posted to CandyBullets

Isn’t YouTube great? Better enjoy it while you can folks, because if this bill passes it won’t exist in any recognizable form. The same big business lobbyists who masterminded the Internet Blacklist Bill are back. To be exact this bill (S. 978) will make it a felony crime to stream copyrighted content, like music in the background of a YouTube video, or a news clip, TechDirt points out you could even go to jail for posting a video of your friends singing Karaoke:

The entertainment industry is freaking out about sites that embed and stream infringing content, and want law enforcement to put people in jail over it, rather than filing civil lawsuits…. We already pointed to one possibility: that people embedding YouTube videos could face five years in jail. Now, others are pointing out that it could also put kids who lip sync to popular songs, and post the resulting videos on YouTube, in jail as well.

And here’s the kicker, this new felony would hold criminal penalties worse than the crime of child molestation: 5-10 years in prison.

DREAM Now Recap: The Ghost of Virgil Goode Possesses the Republican Party

Originally posted on Citizen Orange.

The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service.  With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!

A lot has happened as we complete the third week of the DREAM Now Series.  The DREAM Act picked up two new co-sponsors in the U.S. House: Mike Thompson (D-CA-1) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1).  Two extremely important and influential organizations have also come out strongly in support of passing the DREAM Act as a downpayment on comprehensive immigration reform: the Center for American Progress and the AFL-CIO.  Finally, a major victory was won in Arizona where the deportation of Marlen Moreno was deferred.  Please express support for the above in anyway possible.  It has all helped build a lot of momentum for passing the DREAM Act, this year. 

Just was we have been busy moving the DREAM Act forward, though, nativists have been busy undermining it.

Empty Talking Points, Faux Outrage, and The Lie Factory — Exposed.

Ed Schultz: This wasn’t flippant, Grayson just took it to them ‘by the rules’. And he doesn’t have to apologize to nobody for anything. And you know what, there are a lot of Lefties around this Country, in their living rooms tonight saying, ‘YES! this is how you got to handle these folks!’

The Republicans are demanding an apology for the same reason they are offering Amendments about Czars — They have nothing to offer in the Health Care Debate!

[…]

Ed Schultz: Congressman Grayson do you take anything back?

Alan Grayson: Absolutely NOT!  — the people WHO should be apologizing are the Republicans — they’re the ones who should be apologize for dragging us all through the mud here, while we are just trying to improve Health Care in America.

Who will the Senate Finance Committee Listen to?

Have you met your Senate Finance Committee?

Give em a call because your Future Health Care, or lack thereof, is in their hands.

Senate Committee on Finance

Members

REPUBLICANS

CHUCK GRASSLEY, IA

ORRIN G. HATCH, UT

OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, ME

JON KYL, AZ

JIM BUNNING, KY

MIKE CRAPO, ID

PAT ROBERTS, KS

JOHN ENSIGN, NV

MIKE ENZI, WY

JOHN CORNYN, TX

DEMOCRATS

MAX BAUCUS, MT

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV

KENT CONRAD, ND

JEFF BINGAMAN, NM

JOHN F. KERRY, MA

BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR

RON WYDEN, OR

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY

DEBBIE STABENOW, MI

MARIA CANTWELL, WA

BILL NELSON, FL

ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ

THOMAS CARPER, DE

http://finance.senate.gov/site…

Chances are, these good Senators, while they hear us, have some other Constituents, always on their minds.

Calling out the dogs for Iraq Moratorium #6

Opponents of the Iraq war will ring church bells in Massachusetts, bring out their dogs in Texas, do “peace walking” in a Wisconsin shopping mall, challenge military recruiters in California, hold a peace concert in Connecticut, and take part in scores of vigils and other actions across the country on Friday, Feb. 15,  Iraq Moratorium #6.

The Iraq Moratorium is a loosely-knit nationwide grassroots movement that asks people to take some action, individually or in a group, on the third Friday of every month to call for an end to the war.  Those actions range from simple gestures like wearing a black armband or button to participating in a large-scale protest.

Since the Moratorium began in September, more than 600 events have been listed with the group’s website, IraqMoratorium.org, which highlights upcoming actions as well as reports, photos and videos from previous month’s events.  A full list of February 15 events, and ideas for individual actions, is available there.

Friday’s Austin, TX canine event is aimed at Sen. John Cornyn for “his tail-wagging support for the Bush administration’s policies on the war, torture, and civil liberties,” one of the sponsors, Movement for a Democratic Society, says.  “His dogged defense of President Bush’s veto of affordable health care to millions of needy children has helped to propel him to an approval rating lower than a weenie dog. “Corn Dog” – Bush’s own nickname for Texas’ junior senator! – is the president’s ever-obedient lap dog.”

“We are inviting progressive groups to develop – through canine-related costume, music, and street theater – their own distinctive messages about Cornyn’s flea-bitten record. We are asking people to bring their dogs and/or to come costumed as dogs. It will be lively and colorful, but the message will be as serious as a riled-up pit bull.”  The event will be outside Cornyn’s Senate office in Austin.

“The fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is a month away, and the death toll of American service members is nearing 4,000.  Two-thirds of the American people want this war to end, but there’s little or no movement from President Bush and not much more from Congress,” said Moratorium organizer Eric See.   “We must turn up the heat, and more people every month see the growing Iraq Moratorium movement as a way to do that.  This war’s got to stop, and we’ve got to stop it.”