Note that Rep. Ron Paul is the only current Presidential candidate that opposes SOPA.
List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
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Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Al Franken is totally owned by Hollywood and the music industry. The RIAA loves Al Franken. He's a complete hypocrite. Mr. "Net Neutrality" my ass.
Al Franken is a joke. Initially I thought he had good intent, but then I realized he's just another shit "actor" turned "politician". Unfortunately those words are more interchangeable than ever and reflects the current state of dismal affairs that is the United States government as a whole.
Actors possess most of the skills required to get elected. A successful actor starts out being well-liked, well-known and rich. They also have an easy time getting press and experience dealing with them.
Knowing what the hell you're doing is, sadly, not required.
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#53This might be a stupid question, but as a European not all too familiar with US political laws I have to ask: How is it not corruption when senators and congressmens votes can be bought by companies or whole industries?
In order to understand this you have to understand that in American corporations are persons. When Mitt Romney said, "Corporations are people too" at the Iowa State Fair he wasn't sharing his own personal beliefs. Instead he was telling the truth. See Corporate Personhood[1] for more.
From this it follows that Corporations have the right to free speech. This is where the supreme court ruled[2] that it is unconstitutional to deny corporations the right to political speech.
The legal requirements are disclosures and that's why you hear "paid for by Americans for a better tomorrow" or something like that. Corporations don't directly give to campaign coffers, but through a series of transactions often via PACs (political action committees) it eventually gets to where it's going. It is illegal for PAC's to coordinate with the campaign, but this does happen in subtle and less than subtle ways.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Elec...
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#54Wish there was a way to view who funded them more, basically ($TV|Movie) - ($Online|Internet)
Isn't that what the "$ Difference" sort shows? Or did they just add that?
Just added
EDIT: This shows as a ratio (+$ from internet : no difference : +$ from movie).
For - 23 : 3 : 55 0.28 : 0.04 : 0.67
Against - 15 : 0 : 6 0.71 : 0 : 0.28
So ~70% of people who received more funding from one party support the bill accordingly.
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#55Note that Rep. Ron Paul is the only current Presidential candidate that opposes SOPA.
Yes, but many are not members of congress currently - Romney and Gingrich being 2 specifically.
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#56This might be a stupid question, but as a European not all too familiar with US political laws I have to ask: How is it not corruption when senators and congressmens votes can be bought by companies or whole industries?
In order to understand this you have to understand that in American corporations are persons. When Mitt Romney said, "Corporations are people too" at the Iowa State Fair he wasn't sharing his own personal beliefs. Instead he was telling the truth. See Corporate Personhood[1] for more. From this it follows that Corporations have the right to free speech. This is where the supreme court ruled[2] that it is unconstituti…
While this has been true for the past year, the linked page gets its data from OpenSecrets which tracks only hard money donations to campaigns. It's tracking almost entirely donations from people who work in the given industries, so I think it's misleading to bring up corporate personhood here.
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#57This might be a stupid question, but as a European not all too familiar with US political laws I have to ask: How is it not corruption when senators and congressmens votes can be bought by companies or whole industries?
When they say "Time Warner gave $50,0000 to Senator So-and-So," that actually means "People who work for Time Warner gave a total of $50,000 to Senator So-and-So's campaign in donations of no more than $5000 each." It's illegal for a company to donate to a candidate. I think many Americans don't understand that either. Also, surveys have shown that all those donors are giving because they already agree with the senat…
Right, except that Citizens United ruling by the supreme court allows corporations to spend unlimited funds on 'electioneering communications' (which was previously illegal under the McCain–Feingold Act). Steven Colbert has a 'super pac' which satirizes this state of affairs.
To answer the question, there is a grey area between bribery and lobbying. As long as the lobbyist does not violate the law by giving more money than is allowed to a member of congress, and by not explicitly saying that the money is for a vote (one way or another on a particular piece of legislation), it is not considered bribery.
Lobbyists will often take legislators on really fancy vacations that are called 'fact finding missions', where everyone stays at a really nice golf resort or something and the lobbyist hasn't actually given the legislator any money, so no laws have been broken. At the end of the day, the legislator can decide to vote however he/she wants, so again, they don't consider it bribery.
So, what is bribery of a legislator in the U.S.? You'd probably need someone on tape saying, "I'll vote yes if you give me 200 grand in this swiss bank account". (Or, more simply, see: Rod Blagojevich.)
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#58Note that Rep. Ron Paul is the only current Presidential candidate that opposes SOPA.
Yes, but many are not members of congress currently - Romney and Gingrich being 2 specifically.
Opposing SOPA with a vote in Congress isn't the only way for real leaders to register dissent. There's no excuse for Romney or any other candidate to avoid informing the American public that as President, they would veto any future SOPA-like legislation restricting Internet freedom.
Re: List of every member of congress who supports SOPA, sortable by donations
#59Note that Rep. Ron Paul is the only current Presidential candidate that opposes SOPA.
also thinks AIDS is the sufferer's fault :( In the end his internet might not be much better.