U.S. Senator Questions Attorney General about Aaron Swartz • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. Senator Questions Attorney General about Aaron Swartz

#141

Post by newbie12 » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 7:40 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #87

newbie12 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sen. Cornyn is also the former Attorney General for Texas and a former judge. He's a serious guy on these issues and one of the top thinkers on judiciary issues for the GOP.

Speaking as a Texan, I do not recall seeing any evidence that, in his former role as Attorney General for Texas, he was serious about reigning in prosecutorial abuse. He didn't really make any effort to reduce the prosecutorial overreach and over-imprisonment perpetrated by his own office when he had that opportunity, and he hasn't made any effort at reform in the Senate, either. If anything, his main efforts over th…

You weren't paying attention. Cornyn was a judicial system reformer in Texas as both a judge and as AG. Open government and fighting good ol' boy corruption were his beat.

Re: U.S. Senator Questions Attorney General about Aaron Swartz

#142

Post by sophacles » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 7:52 PM UTC

jacoblyles wrote: post #131

sophacles wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's reasonable to me is: not putting any politician on a pedestal. They all suck for a lot of reasons. Unfortunately, you see it on web forums all the time that people have no medium or long term memories: basically they see some politician agreeing with them on some topic and there is much raving about how awesome that person is. Two weeks later, the same politician is against the prevalent view on some other top…

I'm an issues guy, not a party guy. When a politician does something good, I like that. Even if I don't normally agree with them, that means I have the opportunity to build a larger, more effective coalition towards my goal. For you and tptacek, when a politician does something good, that's a bad thing because they are trying to dupe us. I'm not a Chomskyite, so I can't twist my brain in those kind of knots.

I never said I was a Chomskyite. Nor did I say it was a bad thing. You are being disingenuous. I was merely supporting the idea of being an issues person, not lionizing any politician on a single stance of theirs. But whatever, you would rather see me and apparently tptacek (although we are not on the same side about a lot of things either, I've gone toe-to-toe with him on this forum before), as enemies rather than people who support an issue you also support. It's actually funny how hypocritical your statement is - you say you're an issues guy, but then demonize people who are saying "yeah support this politician on this issue, but be careful of their stance on other issues, and notice their general behavior in case they do the politician thing and subtly change what they say".

Basically, I have no idea how you can claim to be an issues guy, but attack people for being partisan when they warn people to be cognizant of all issues when supporting a single politician. To build a coalition you need to be careful that side effects of the "pro my issue" people aren't "against my other issues".

Re: U.S. Senator Questions Attorney General about Aaron Swartz

#143

Post by _delirium » Sat, Jan 19, 2013, 8:01 PM UTC

newbie12 wrote: post #141

_delirium wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a Texan, I do not recall seeing any evidence that, in his former role as Attorney General for Texas, he was serious about reigning in prosecutorial abuse. He didn't really make any effort to reduce the prosecutorial overreach and over-imprisonment perpetrated by his own office when he had that opportunity, and he hasn't made any effort at reform in the Senate, either. If anything, his main efforts over th…

You weren't paying attention. Cornyn was a judicial system reformer in Texas as both a judge and as AG. Open government and fighting good ol' boy corruption were his beat.

By judicial system reform, I mean reducing the US's fetish for throwing too many people in jail for too-long sentences, which is what's relevant to the present case. I don't see any evidence that Cornyn did anything to reduce Texas prison populations or direct his office to stop intimidating defendants into accepting plea-bargains, or to stop seeking excessive sentences.

Re: U.S. Senator Questions Attorney General about Aaron Swartz

#144

Post by spinlocked » Sun, Jan 20, 2013, 12:19 AM UTC

jhancock wrote: post #133

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tptacek is pretty much a nutjob. He was going on and on against 1st sale doctrine about reimportation, how is it evil and such. He also despises republicans completely, given this thread alone. I'd set equal the anger in Tptacek to the craziness in sparrowos.

Your post is very rude. I don't always agree with 'tptacek or anyone else, even some of my own past comments. However, I have seen enough of his comments to know I'd be happy to have a beer with the man. If Thomas is a nutjob in your mind and sparrows are crazy, I can't begin to imagine how you might describe some of my perspectives. It would be lovely if HN could be a place where people could express themselves civi…

It would be lovely if HN could be a place where people could rise above their petty self interests and help the community move forward. Thomas is at the wrong end of this spectrum.

TheAmazingIdiot is correct BTW. Its hard to imagine Thomas posting his ridiculous views unless he is a paid shill. Probably on your team.