Internet Tracking Bill Passes House Judiciary Committee

The members of Congress are currently working on a law that will significantly reduce the privacy of average innocent Americans. Sponsored by Lamar Smith of Texas, H.R.1981 passed the House Judiciary Committee on July 29, 2011 with supporting votes from the following Representatives.

Rep Adams, Sandy [FL-24] - Republican
Rep Berman, Howard [CA-28] - Democrat
Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] - Republican
Rep Coble, Howard [NC-6] - Republican
Rep Forbes, J. Randy [VA-4] - Republican
Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-2] - Republican
Rep Gallegly, Elton [CA-24] - Republican
Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6] - Republican
Rep Gowdy, Trey [SC-4] - Republican
Rep Griffin, Tim [AK-2] - Republican
Rep King, Steve [IA-5] - Republican
Rep Lungren, Daniel E. [CA-3] - Republican
Rep Marino, Tom [PA-10] - Republican
Rep Ross, Dennis [FL-12] - Republican
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] - Republican


This bill, mostly supported by Republicans, has a very deceptive name. It has been called the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, but the law will do little to stop child pornographers. What the law actually does is cast a broad net of data retention for every American who uses the Internet. This law will require all internet service providers in the United States to keep extensive records on the online activity of their subscribers. Some of the information to be tracked is customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.

If you use the Internet, regardless of whether your actions are legal or not, detailed records of who you are and what you do online will be stored for at least one year. These records may be used by law enforcement to investigate virtually any sort of crime. Do not be surprised if the reach of the law expands even further into civil uses in the future.

Here is a list of the sponsor and co-sponsors of H.R.1981

Sponsor
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21]

Co-Sponsors
Rep Calvert, Ken [CA-44]
Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1]
Rep Coble, Howard [NC-6]
Rep Critz, Mark S. [PA-12]
Rep Deutch, Theodore E. [FL-19]
Rep Emerson, Jo Ann [MO-8]
Rep Flores, Bill [TX-17]
Rep Forbes, J. Randy [VA-4]
Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-2]
Rep Gallegly, Elton [CA-24]
Rep Gowdy, Trey [SC-4]
Rep Jackson Lee, Sheila [TX-18]
Rep LaTourette, Steven C. [OH-14]
Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [WY]
Rep Lungren, Daniel E. [CA-3]
Rep Marino, Tom [PA-10]
Rep Pierluisi, Pedro R. [PR]
Rep Quigley, Mike [IL-5]
Rep Ruppersberger, C. A. Dutch [MD-2]
Rep Schiff, Adam B. [CA-29]
Rep Shuler, Heath [NC-11]
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13]
Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6]
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20]

John Boehner Wants Moderates in the Republican Party

Republican House Leader John Boehner's recent statement has summed up what is wrong with the Republican Party. On CNN's State of the Union, Boehner said, "We accept moderates in our party, and we want moderates in our party. We cover a wide range of Americans."

This is exactly what is wrong with the GOP. The last thing the GOP needs is more moderates. Conservative voters want to vote for conservatives. They do not want moderates, and they will not support them. As long as the GOP embraces moderates, they can be sure the GOP will continue to lose elections. Moderates got the GOP into their current mess and will continue to drag the party down until the GOP either becomes completely obsolete of rediscovers conservatism.

The GOP needs to move back toward conservatism, and they need to do it in a hurry. The GOP has about six more months to get their act together in time to charm voters for the 2010 Election. If John Boehner's idiotic comment is any indication of the GOP's plans for the next six months, they should just step aside and let a third party take the lead.

List of Republican Cowards Who Do Not Respect Contracts or Private Property

Once again, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have let down their party and the American people. In another act of cowardice, eighty-five Republicans (nearly half of House Republicans) voted with Democrats in their effort to use a 90% tax to seize bonuses paid to AIG employees. It should be pointed out these bonuses contractually had to be paid, and Congress along with Barack Obama had previously okayed these bonuses.

Today, Congress decided to seize legally obtained money from specific US citizens, and they did it with substantial Republican support. Here is a list of the Republican cowards who voted with the Democrats on this huge intrusion of government into the personal property of specific private individuals.

1. Aderholt
2. Alexander
3. Barton (TX)
4. Biggert
5. Bilbray
6. Bilirakis
7. Blunt
8. Bono Mack
9. Boozman
10. Brown (SC)
11. Brown-Waite, Ginny
12. Buchanan
13. Calvert
14. Camp
15. Cantor
16. Cao
17. Capito
18. Cassidy
19. Castle
20. Crenshaw
21. Davis (KY)
22. Dent
23. Diaz-Balart, L.
24. Diaz-Balart, M.
25. Duncan
26. Ehlers
27. Emerson
28. Fleming
29. Forbes
30. Fortenberry
31. Frelinghuysen
32. Gallegly
33. Gerlach
34. Goodlatte
35. Guthrie
36. Heller
37. Herger
38. Hoekstra
39. Johnson (IL)
40. Jones
41. Kirk
42. Lance
43. Latham
44. Lee (NY)
45. Lewis (CA)
46. LoBiondo
47. Manzullo
48. McCaul
49. McClintock
50. McHugh
51. McMorris Rodgers
52. Mica
53. Miller (MI)
54. Moran (KS)
55. Petri
56. Platts
57. Putnam
58. Rehberg
59. Reichert
60. Roe (TN)
61. Rogers (AL)
62. Rogers (KY)
63. Rogers (MI)
64. Rohrabacher
65. Rooney
66. Ros-Lehtinen
67. Roskam
68. Royce
69. Ryan (WI)
70. Schmidt
71. Schock
72. Shimkus
73. Smith (NJ)
74. Smith (TX)
75. Stearns
76. Tiberi
77. Turner
78. Upton
79. Walden
80. Wamp
81. Whitfield
82. Wittman
83. Wolf
84. Young (AK)
85. Young (FL)

Final Vote on Roll Call 143

Every Black Jimmy Carter Has a Silver Lining

Barack Obama will probably turn out to be the Black Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was elected after a very controversial administration as a liberal, family values, intellectual Democrat. Does this sound familiar? Of course, people soon realized how poorly suited Carter was for the job, but America was stuck with him for four years.

This four-year period was a time of tremendous inflation, rampant liberalism, foreign policy humiliations, and domestic despair. This period of suffering and malaise forced conservative Democrats to look outside of their party for relief. In 1980, Reagan soundly defeated Carter, ushered in one of the greatest times in American history, and created the gold standard of conservatism.

Since Obama is so much like Carter, one must wonder if Obama's administration will also be a tremendous failure. If it is, maybe Obama will pave the way for another great conservative. Right now, the only potential shinning candidate on a hill is Sarah Palin. If she doesn't rise to the occasion, maybe Jeb Bush can grow a beard, change his name to Jeb Shrubbery, and try to make it through the election before people figure out he has some famous relatives. Beyond that, it will have to be Joe the Plumber, Ted Nugent, or some sort of reanimated Thomas Jefferson zombie. (Great conservatives are hard to come by these days.)

The point is we had to suffer through four years of Carter to get eight years of Reagan and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Maybe Obama will wake up America (a nation which has been asleep since the fall of Baghdad), and we will get to see another great eight years and the fall of the Chinese Communist government and the Soviet Union II, which will probably be established by Vladimir Putin just after Obama takes the oath of office in January.

"Mr. Putin, tear down that wall again."

Time for Some Campaignin' by JibJab

JibJab has made a funny and smart video about the 2008 election to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'." See it here.

"Time for Some Campaignin'"

President Bush Defies the Fourth Amendment with Surveillance Bill Signature

President George W. Bush has once again struck another major blow to the Fourth Amendment by signing the Surveillance Bill. The Surveillance Bill gives greater power to the Federal government’s initiatives to spy on law-abiding Americans without court approval. It also grants protection to companies, which voluntarily comply with the Federal government in violating your rights. In short, the government wants to continue to spy on you, and give you little recourse, if any.

By signing the Surveillance Bill, President George W. Bush has extended a shameful era where you, as a private citizen, may be put under intrusive investigation without a warrant. And, by the way, the surveillance warrants are available. The Bush administration just does not want to be troubled with requesting them through proper channels. Apparently, convenience trumps your Fourth Amendment rights.