Stories to Watch: 12/13/11

Still waiting for snow here. Things are getting desperate. Now here's the news...


Lowe's decision to pull their ads from All-American Muslim is quickly turning into a PR disaster. I have to admit some personal fascination with this story. Somewhere, some Lowe's suit or roomful of suits said, "Yup, this is a good idea!" Who could possibly have come to that conclusion? That's what fascinates me. Whenever I see a story about some crazy thing someone has done, I always want to ask them, "At what point did any of this seem like a good idea?" Not in a smart-alecky way, but because I really want to know -- what makes obviously lousy ideas seem rational?


Does a strong showing in Iowa polling mean that it's Ron Paul's turn to be the not-Romney? I kind of doubt it. Paul's made a huge effort to get votes in Iowa and I think it's paying off. According to ABC News, Paul's "ground game hasn’t gone unnoticed by Iowa’s Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who called Paul’s operation the best of any of the Republican candidates in the state." Outside Iowa, Gingrich's lead widens.


Donald Trump pulls out of moderating the all but dead Newsmax debate. In doing so, he manages to blame the GOP candidates and basically says they're afraid of him. What a massive ego.


Gallup polling indicates some trouble for Obama in swing states, but things are still pretty unpredictable right now. I think this is a pretty good, if brief, analysis.


Harry Reid hopes to head off GOP gamesmanship on a payroll tax-cut extension.


The National Transportation Safety Board calls for a national ban on the use of cell phones while driving. I'm waiting for some wingnut blogger to show how this is exactly like Nazi Germany.


James Murdoch knew phone hacking was going on.


Finally, Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS PAC is a bullshit factory. Try to act surprised.

Related articles

• Trump Steps Down As Moderator Of Ridiculed Debate (huffingtonpost.com)
• Paul Surges in Iowa (politicalwire.com)
• Poll: Newt Gingrich Continues to Lead GOP Field in Iowa (usnews.com)
• Simmons Buys Ads for 'All-American Muslim' (theroot.com)

News Roundup for 12/12/11

YouTube's logo?

-Headline of the Day-
"Legal expert says online piracy bill is unconstitutional."

Imagine a law so broadly and stupidly written that a couple of kids singing Birthday by The Beatles could get YouTube shut down. Now stop imagining it, because it's not an entirely imaginary scenario. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is currently being bounced around in congress and would do just that. According to the report, "The bill would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines, Internet providers and payment processors cut ties with websites 'dedicated' to copyright infringement." What does it mean to be "'dedicated' to copyright infringement?" Who knows? It's not defined, but since YouTube probably gets hundreds of copyright infringement notices a day, you could easily argue that it's a piracy site by SOPA's standards.

Like I said, broadly and stupidly written.

But Lawrence Tribe, a legal scholar with the Harvard Law School says that the very basis of the law is unconstitutional, since it calls for "prior restraint" -- the suppression of speech before a case goes to court. In other words, the punishment is handed down before the trial -- which is bad. And, of course, there's that whole "broadly and stupidly written" thing.

"Conceivably, an entire website containing tens of thousands of pages could be targeted if only a single page were accused of infringement," Tribe says. "Such an approach would create severe practical problems for sites with substantial user-generated content, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and for blogs that allow users to post videos, photos, and other materials."

You know, sites like the one you're looking at right now. Real terrible piratey stuff.

And, of course, there's the whole question of whether law enforcement should be involved in copyright policing at all. Copyright infringement has traditionally been a civil crime, policed by lawsuits. Changing it to a criminal offense and having law enforcement police it would save media companies a lot of money, while shifting that cost to the taxpayers. In short, it's a permanent bailout for people who don't even need a temporary one -- seen a lot of starving media execs lately? Me neither, so what problem is it that we're solving here again?

But hey, it's already passed the House, which is run by Republicans who oppose burdensome, big-government regulations and corporate bailouts -- right up until the point that they don't. It's the Senate, run by supposedly big-government regulatin', baily-outy Democrats, that's holding things up here.

Here's hoping they hold it up forever. (The Hill)


-Merry Christmas to some!-


Click to embiggen

To the rest, good luck. (MSNBC)


-Bonus HotD-
"Crappy Retail Chain Lowe’s Sorry If Anyone Is Upset They Hate Muslims."

Bigots were unhappy that Lowe's advertised on a show that portrayed American Muslims as not-insane. So Lowe's pulled the ads. Now they're in trouble with the not-insane -- who are most people.

The moral of this story: always tell bigots to fuck off. Every time. (Wonkette)