It appears they are at it again

Story: Expert: New CISPA Bill Isn't SOPA, But Still Attacks Constitutional RightsTotal Replies: 12
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tracyanne

Apr 15, 2012
9:02 AM EDT
It appears they are at it again
montezuma

Apr 15, 2012
11:11 AM EDT
Congress: The best representatives money can buy.

No wonder their approval rating is around 10%
Khamul

Apr 15, 2012
12:22 PM EDT
I think those Congressional approval ratings are BS, personally. If people didn't approve of Congress, they wouldn't keep voting the same people in, over and over and over again. What these polls show is that people don't approve of the other Congresspeople, the ones in other states that they don't vote for. They're perfectly happy with their own states' Congresspeople.

Stopping now before I step over any lines.
Fettoosh

Apr 15, 2012
2:01 PM EDT
Quoting:Stopping now before I step over any lines.


Some times I wonder whether discussing such issues is truly violating theTOS.

From the TOS, the highlighting is mine

Quoting: 6. Do not place any material on our service that could be considered offensive, indecent, abusive, hateful, harassing, libelous, profane, vulgar or unlawful. Our audience tends to be professional in nature, and we have the right, but not the obligation, to remove, edit, or relocate any content that we feel violates the standards of our site. Because of the real-time nature of our forums, it is not always possible for us to remove offensive material immediately.

Discussion and debate of a political or religious nature is not allowed on the site.


Does that really include economic & governmental issues, especially when the comments don't include any of what is outlined at the beginning of item 6?

Just asking

jhansonxi

Apr 15, 2012
2:44 PM EDT
@montezuma

It's the 10% that are paying their campaign bills that count. They're just focusing on their primary supporters. Don't worry, eventually everyone will only exist on the Internet and these old geographically-bounded points of control will cease to matter.
Fettoosh

Apr 15, 2012
3:38 PM EDT
Quoting:I think those Congressional approval ratings are BS, personally.


I don't. I think they are reasonable accurate within a +/- error factor. They reflect the opinion of the whole nation in general on the bills submitted, laws passed, & silly behavior of both congress as a whole.

In terms of keep electing the same people, it is actually not really that hard to explain. Two factors, how clever the members are in manipulating and how naive and trusting the people who elect them are. Of course, there are only a few who are decent and sincere but can't deliver on what they promise because majority rules.

dinotrac

Apr 15, 2012
4:31 PM EDT
@khamul --

Actually, if you'll got back and look, you'll see that the number incumbents losing their seats has increased dramatically in the last couple of elections.

In the 2010 elections, 54 incumbents lost their seats in the general elections, and that doesn't include those who lost in primaries or those who decided not to run.

12.4% might not seem like much, but that represents a complete turnover every 8 elections. Add in the 37 members who retired for various reasons, and you've got 91 seats that changed hands, or 20.9%, or a whole new Congress every 5 elections.

Not so bad when you remember that an incumbent is somebody who convinced people to vote for him/her in the first place.

gus3

Apr 15, 2012
4:35 PM EDT
@dinotrac, it could represent a full turnover in 8 elections, or it could represent a constant 12.4% turnover if it's always the same seats.
BernardSwiss

Apr 15, 2012
6:25 PM EDT
@Fettoosh

in such statements, I generally interpret "political" as "partisan", and "religious" as "proselytizing" or "sectarian".

In short, the inherently divisively contentious stuff.

Of course, a Naval Officers' Mess may hold to a rather stricter interpretation -- and with good reason. But the standard for LXer's comment boards can be somewhat looser, without significant harm, and (I believe) probably with significant benefit, as long as we can be reasonably mature about it.
dinotrac

Apr 15, 2012
8:14 PM EDT
@gus3 --

It's not.

Khamul

Apr 15, 2012
10:39 PM EDT
in such statements, I generally interpret "political" as "partisan", and "religious" as "proselytizing" or "sectarian".

I agree. After all, what would happen if there were a story about some country's government migrating all their computers to Linux? Will the site not feature that story? Will it not allow comments? How exactly do you discuss a government (e.g., the German government, which I believe did this, or maybe it was certain cities there) migrating to Linux without it being "political"? It concerns a political entity, so at some level it's "political". Is discussing the City of Largo (Florida) against the rules? They're famous for switching to Linux years ago. There's an ocean of difference between discussing some city government somewhere switching to Linux, and getting into a discussion (argument) over political party X vs. political party Y, or political candidate/officeholder Z.

But what if there's a big article about some country passing a law requiring its government to give preference to FOSS? How on earth do you discuss that without it being "political"? Especially if politicians in party X are railing against it, and politicians in party Y are for it? I guess they'd have to shut down comments on that article. But it seems to me that as long as the discussion doesn't become partisan in nature, and just discusses more mundane aspects of government (e.g. some random city government switching to Linux) and doesn't get into discussing particular candidates ("Kang sucks! Vote for Kodos!") or hot-button political issues, I can't imagine why there'd be a problem with that.

djohnston

Apr 15, 2012
10:39 PM EDT
Quoting:I think those Congressional approval ratings are BS, personally. If people didn't approve of Congress, they wouldn't keep voting the same people in, over and over and over again.


Khamul, just do a search for voting machine tampering. There's enough info to keep one occupied for months.

EDIT: But Kang still sucks. Just sayin'. ;-D
tracyanne

Apr 15, 2012
11:21 PM EDT
So long as the anti SOPA protests aren't an anomaly, I really don't care what the congressional approval ratings are.

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