rolanni | Entries tagged with stoopid gummint tricks

This is me eating crow.

I have taken down my previous blog post regarding the proposed new copyright regulations, and I apologize for not digging deeper into this myself. Rob Balder was kind enough to provide me with the following links to:

A summary discussion the Copyright Office's new proposals, including a call for questions, with a deadline of August 10

The actual report from the Copyright Office. Note: This is a pdf.

My apologies to the internets for dispensing misinformation.

(Rowena, you might want to avert your eyes)

From MoveOn.org:

This week Congress is debating whether to grant themselves the power to turn off parts of the Internet. Fun sites you YouTube. Informative sites like Wikipedia. Political sites like MoveOn.org.

If enacted, new laws would force Internet Service Providers to block websites that any corporation suspects violates a copyright or suspects doesn't monitor it's users' content close enough for copyrighted materials. That means that any website, foreign or based in the U.S., could be wiped out on suspicion and made unavailable to everyone in the world.

This week there will be a historic filibuster of the Internet Censorship Act where the names of every person that signs a petition against Internet censorship will be read. I added my name. Please add yours too.

http://pol.moveon.org/nointernetcensorship/?r_by=33343-18372597-%3DOJDQBx&rc=pac_nointernetcensorship_letter.email.g0

Thanks!

A colleague sends me the following link to the Copyright Alliance Blog, which argues that SOPA is good for copyright holders and those opposing are distorting the facts.

Blog entry here

Originally posted by

write_light at BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

From the flist:

Spread the word, even you're not a US citizen, it is important for everyone!! It easy to do and it can change everything. More info by clicking on the banner.

Website Blocking

The government can order service providers to block websites for infringing links posted by any users.

Risk of Jail for Ordinary Users

It becomes a felony with a potential 5 year sentence to stream a copyrighted work that would cost more than $2,500 to license, even if you are a totally noncommercial user, e.g. singing a pop song on Facebook.

Chaos for the Internet

Thousands of sites that are legal under the DMCA would face new legal threats. People trying to keep the internet more secure wouldn't be able to rely on the integrity of the DNS system.

Read this analysis from boing-boing.net

Get on the phone and call your representative. Express your disapproval. Tell him or her exactly how you feel, and that you don't support this. Tell your friends to call their representatives, their Congressperson, and complain. Mention that you are a registered voter that takes your civic responsibility seriously and that you will use that vote to express your feelings about this.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_60/Internet-Companies-Boost-Hill-Lobbying-210345-1.html?pos=olobh

“We support the bill’s stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting,” the Internet companies wrote in Tuesday’s letter. “Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.” The chamber-led coalition in support of the bill includes Walmart, Eli Lilly & Co. and Netflix.

Google and other opponents of the legislation argue that restricting the Internet in the U.S. sets a bad international precedent and that the language defines infringing too broadly.

...how is Mississippi going to afford to enforce this amendment? I mean, Topeka, Kansas just voted to stop prosecuting domestic violence cases 'cause there isn't enough money in the budget and something had to get cut. Last I looked, Kansas was right there at 28 or 29 in state wealth and Mississippi? Was dead last.

Current Mood: yep, still mad

Originally posted by

gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting ~~very little~~ no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

Current Mood: angry

...and then the City of Baltimore saw the angle for cash, and demanded that it acquire a "minor privilege permit" at a cost of $800. One assumes this would be an annual fee, though it doesn't say so in the article.

No joy in Mudville. Boo. Boo.

Hiss.

Read about the flamingo

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: sshhh...

1. We were Evil People because we didn't know that we were going to have a large payment at the end of 2008 which was going to kick us into Tax Liability Overdrive.

1a. When we Realized the Depth of Our Evil, we should have immediately repaired to the time machine so that we could file proper quarterly taxes to the state. We are Doubly Evil for not taking this chance to redeem Honor.

2. Having been discovered in our Evilness, we have been fined, and we are Duly Chastised.

3. However, now that we are known to be Evil, we need to file quarterly state taxes.

3a. The quarterlies must
(a) cover 90% of what we owed this year, even though we're no way going to earn as much money this year as earned last
(b) be exactly the same payment every quarter, but --
(b1) if we overpay the quarterlies, we'll be fined
(b2) if we don't pay the same amount each quarter (which is unlikely in the extreme, given how money flows into this household), we'll be fined, except!
(b2b) if we file an Annualized 2210 with our income tax, explaining in detail when we got which bit of money

...and they say Maine is unfriendly to small business.

I started feeling Not All That Well at work. Turns out it was over 80 in my little attic room and I'd been so busy, I hadn't actually noticed. Opened the window as wide as I could, and turned off the lights, but was still feeling headachy and stomachachy when I met Steve at the credit union to take charge of my advance check for Carousel Tides and deposit it to the foundering household checkbook.

You know you're not feeling well when your only thought upon receiving the advance check for a book of which you are very fond is, "Cool. We can pay the bills for a couple months."

At home, we had a notice from the State of Maine, which has fined us for not having guessed that we were going to owe them money at the end of the year, and thus failing to pay estimated taxes. WTF? I mean, seriously. We're freelancers. We always owe taxes at the end of the year. Granted, I do Federal quarterlies, which are based on the casting of the bones, for lack of a better system, but I have never once done state quarterlies. And now we're being fined.

Guess Gov. Baldacci needs money.

Where was I? Oh, after the Great Depositing, Steve and I went by our separate ways to the salon, where we indulged in Much Needed haircuts. Thereafter, I went home and collapsed upon my couch, with Scrabble overseeing, while Steve went to the grocery store.

Since arising, I have washed the dishes and printed out the bar-code sheets for the transmittal of the books to be registered with the copyright office. Before I leave this desk, I will pair the bar-codes with the books, then I will join mine spouse for the evening meal before once again retiring to my couch.

No writing tonight, no brain. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a brain.

Three cases of swine flu in Maine; two in Kennebec County. Just sayin'.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: no music pls, headache

After eight years that nobody would call easy, it's nice to see that Mr. Bush is still willing to break up a little more furniture for the cause.

Excerpted from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

. . .

Mr. Ishimaru and senior members of the commission staff said that neither the Department of Health and Human Services nor the White House had consulted their agency before issuing the proposed rule. The White House Office of Management and Budget received the proposal on Aug. 21 and cleared it on the same day, according to a government Web site that keeps track of the rule-making process.

Here's the rest of the story

Current Mood: is it 1/20/09 yet?

This article asks why we now have a standing army inside of US borders, in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

It's a good question. Anybody have a good answer?

Link from

bifemmefatale, who also has a couple of things to say here

jaylake was diagnosed with cancer last week; the outlook is good (or as good as it can be with word "cancer" in play) he'll be undergoing surgery and various other unpleasantries in the next few weeks. Pull for him in spare minutes, right? Good thoughts do count.

The Instant Re-fi is on its way to becoming a reality. We're closing on Thursday morning at the credit union, and we'll even get a break on the monthly mortgage payment -- so, hey, we can budget in a breakfast out once every couple months on the savings.

I have updated the subscriptions for Saltation. Six hundred and twelve of the eventual hard copies have found homes -- only 588 to go!

In related news, as people realize that they ordered a copy of Fledgling and their wife/mother/boyfriend/SO/hamster also ordered a copy and really they only want one -- there are a few Fledglings available for adoption. If you missed subscribing and would like to, drop me a note at fledglingATkorval.com (where @ replaces AT). There are only a few of these, so do write first to make sure they haven't been Snapped Up(tm).

I see another buncha new names on the flist! Welcome! Pull up a chair, grab a drink, tell me a little bit about yourself and how you happened by, if the mood is on you. If not, that's cool, too.

I'm sporadically present here on LJ now and for the foreseeable future. The book that had gotten stuck has finally come unstuck, but I'm very close to deadline, and words to write before I sleep.

For those playing along at home...

Progress on Longeye

44,942 / 100,000
(44.9%)

As you know, Bob, the Federal Government is working like a lunatic thing to shore up the mortgage industry. You may have asked yourself, as I have, where they're coming up with the money in these lean times, having already spent every dime in the treasury.

Well.

Let me tell you a story.

Eighteen years ago, Steve and I "bought a house" as the saying goes. What we actually did, of course, was Acquire a Mortgage. Because we live 'way out in the country, we got ours with what was then called the Rural Housing Service of the federal government.

This mortgage has many idiosyncracies, as you might expect from a government program. For instance, payments are tied directly to income-before-expenses, reviewed annually. Every year, I get to educate a new "counselor" on the realities of freelance incomes. Also, because of the income-before-expenses side of things, it's a little hard to, how shall I say this, save money. But, hey, it's our mortgage, and no one else was stoopid enough to take on a couple of freelancers, so we love it for the ugly child it is.

Yesterday, we got a letter in the mail from Rural Housing, which now sports some highfalutin alphabetsoup name. We have...

...wait for it...

We have...

90 days (from the date of the letter) to refinance our house

Yes! On top of everydamnotherthing we have to do before June 1, now we have to figure out how to refinance an elderly raised ranch located in the heart of Central Maine in the middle of a housing slump.

Because, yanno, the government needs money. NOW.

...if you want me for any little thing, I'll be hiding under the bed.

If members of the House Judiciary Committee have their way, there will be far fewer vendors hawking illegal copies of your favorite holiday blockbusters in Times Square this time next year.

Several members from both sides of the aisle – including Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and ranking member Lamar Smith of Texas – on Tuesday introduced a bill, H.R. 4279, that would further crack down on intellectual property violations, and create several new government positions with the power to enforce the new law.

Here's the rest of the story, including such gems as:

A provision in the bill allows the government to seize "any property used, or intended to be used, to commit or facilitate the commission of a violation … that is owned or predominantly controlled by the violator or by a person conspiring with or aiding and abetting the violator in committing the violation."

A spokeswoman for the Judiciary Committee said she was looking into whether that would allow authorities to seize a family's computer in a download case.

But, hey, the RIAA loves this thing, so it must be Good, right?

Right?

June 2025

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Entries tagged with stoopid gummint tricks

Proposed new copyright laws CORREX

Petition to Congress re SOPA

More regarding SOPA

BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

Website Blocking

Risk of Jail for Ordinary Users

Chaos for the Internet

Just wondering...

Mississippi Personhood Amendment

For Seven Years Was the Great Bird Ignored

OK, let me see if I've got this straight

Hot at the top

I thought the deadline was November 1

Looking away from the financial train wreck for a moment

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So the Feds Are Bailing Out the Banks

How do I get the government to stop helping me?

June 2025

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