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Rep. Mike Rogers Calls CISPA Opponents "14 Year Old Tweeters in Their Basement"
- sinak 14y agoDebate on CISPA is happening on the floor right now, you can watch online here: http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/ http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/ But most importantly, take 2 minutes and call your House Rep and tell them what you think about CISPA: https://eff.org/r.5bPw https://eff.org/r.5bPw
- CoughlinJ 14y agoI called my reps last week, but it also might not be a bad idea to drop Rogers a line on twitter, explaining who and what you are, and telling him that you oppose the bill. I found it quite cathartic.
- dylangs1030 14y agoI hope you didn't forget to mention that you're neither 14 nor residing in a basement.
- cs702 14y agoAs Senator Mark Hanna said in 1895 (118 years ago!): "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is."[1] If you want to understand why Representative Mike Rogers is mocking CISPA opponents as "14 Year Old Tweeters in Their Basement," just ask, who finances his political campaigns? I hate to be cynical, but calling your Representative may not be enough. Judging by Hanna's 118-year-old quote, it's never been enough. In the long run the solution might be campaign finance reform, but in the short run we may also want organizations like the EFF to raise money so they can finance political campaigns aligned with their values, gaining more influence over the political process. -- [1] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/405598-there-are-two-things-that-are-important-in-politics-the http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/405598-there-are-two-things-...
- Aloisius 14y agoIs there a good lobby to donate to that lobbies for EFF-like positions?
- tptacek 14y agoEFF is happy to take your money.
- pyre 14y agoDoes the EFF lobby though?
- u2328 14y agoYes, they do quite a bit of lobbying.
- toomuchtodo 14y agoThis makes me happy to continuing donating to the EFF every year.
- wmeredith 14y agoThe EFF and the ACLU defend personal freedom by lobby and direct litigation in court. They both been earning my money, someone who trades in information, for years.
- disposition2 14y agohttp://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2012&cid=N00009668&type=I http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=201...
- rwmj 14y agoWhat's scary is how cheap it is to buy politicians.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- nijiko 14y agoIt's being voted on today and tomorrow, make these days count.
- ryanmolden 14y agoAnytime someone's argument is the moral equivalent of 'my opponents are doodie-heads' I pretty much start ignoring them. It is a shame that an elected official, ostensibly 'leading' our country, is making such idiotic arguments and isn't more embarrassed about doing so.
- ryandvm 14y agoThe problem with ignoring politicians is that it just encourages them...
- ryanmolden 14y agoYes, when I said ignore I meant from an information gathering perspective. If I care about an issue enough I will actively donate to organizations representing my interests. It is really all I can do when <insert idiot politician> is from an area I have no vote in.
- johnbellone 14y agoOr if you ignore them they go along and do what the corporations want. What you need to do is vote out the incumbents during the next cycle. Irregardless of the party.
- dylangs1030 14y agoUnfortunately, you can ignore politicians, but they're not going to ignore you...insofar as your rights are concerned at least.
- PeterisP 14y agoIn some aspect he is exactly right - our CISPA fight needs support not only from tweeters, but from people like founders of Twitter who can speak in the language of money and campaign funds. The tech industry is so much bigger and more important to USA economy than the content industry that allowing them to dominate the lobbying discussion is just a 'tail wagging the dog' situation.
- Jach 14y agoCISPA has nothing to do with the content industry. You'll also find that the tech industry has plenty of lobbyists, and a few of them are supporting CISPA. (Ed: Ah, there's tptacek on this thread.)
- tptacek 14y agoMike Rogers is making it very hard to defend CISPA by saying things like this, but I'll point out that what Mike Rogers thinks about CISPA opponents is probably the least important thing to know about the bill. Something you might want to know is that "Fight For The Future" feels comfortable riling you up without telling you the full story about the bill. CISPA, according to FFTF, "lets the government spy on you without a warrant". In actual fact, CISPA is an opt-in measure that allows a company like Yahoo to share information about ongoing attacks --- which find a specific definition in the bill, more specific than any other cyber bill proposed --- with security providers and with law enforcement. It's been my experience that most people who oppose CISPA are not familiar with what the bill actually says, even though CISPA is a very short bill. There are principled opponents of CISPA with very strong arguments, but sites like FFTF are unprincipled in their opposition to the bill.
- ahallock 14y agoI'm not familiar with the bill, but based on your description, why does there need to be a bill to share information about attacks with law enforcement and security providers? Why couldn't this happen already? If Yahoo! were sharing data with a security agency about an attack, this would seem pretty reasonable.
- tptacek 14y agoWhy not just read the bill?
- ahallock 14y agoJust read it. Unless I'm mistaken there's a liability shield. If that's true, this bill is bullshit. Liability shields do not protect consumers. They use the force of the State to protect corporations, which is totally against the free market. "EXEMPTION FROM LIABILITY.—No civil or criminal cause of action shall lie or be maintained in Federal or State court against a protected entity, self-protected entity, cybersecurity provider, or an officer, employee, or agent of a protected entity, self- protected entity, or cybersecurity provider, acting in good faith"
- bbit 14y agoessentially he is right. I mean reddit is the "occupy" of the internet.
- hkmurakami 14y agoI find the choice of "14 year olds" quite fascinating, because 14 year olds don't have voting rights. If 14 is replaced with 18, then suddenly the phrase takes a completely different tone, since then it'd be disenfranchising a block of the population that has legitimate voting rights. I feel that 14 was chosen deliberately to give teh additional implication that CISPA opponents "don't have the right to oppose it" or something along those lines.
- fyi80 14y agoIt's also bizarrely tone-deaf metaphor-mixing. the pejorative "basement" refers to an adult who doesn't have their own residence, and so lives in extra space in (but near the edge of) their parent's home, while pretending it is a separate residence. It doesn't make any sense to call a 14-year old a "basement"-dweller, they would have a regular bedroom.
- johnbellone 14y agoDon't spend the energy debating this now. Wait until after you call your representatives and then comment.
- lutusp 14y ago> Rep. Mike Rogers Calls CISPA Opponents "14 Year Old Tweeters in Their Basement" Yes -- a bunch of people who are four years away from being able to vote Rogers out of office.
- zeruch 14y agoAnd I call Mike Rogers a 54(?) year old political hack without a actual argumentative leg to stand on. This would be just another trite case of legislators wearing their donation sources on their sleeve, but the truth is that these kinds of people are dangerous to not only the tech industry in general, but really more foundational elements (I hate to sound like a CATO-monkey, because that gets irksome, but guys like Rogers and Feinstein really do trammel on "freedoms" pretty rampantly). I've read through CISPA. It's got some very elegant wording, but its contemptible all the way around in what its going after.
- shapeofabox 14y ago/r/politics