With SOPA and PIPA being imminent and the NDAA 2012. Do you think America has gone down the tubes? Do you think all the 2012 candidates are all malevolent?

"Gone" suggests something's changed.

We've been heading down this path for the last half century at least.

I wouldn't expect it to continue much longer with nearly 1/2 of the public living in poverty and most of the rest not doing so well, it's only a matter of time before a revolution of sorts overthrows the oligarchy.

The SOPA thing has legitimately bothered me more then anything I've experienced in many years. Including close personal deaths.

I grew up on the internet. From the age of ten on, I had a computer with internet access. And now I'm watching the very foundations of an aspect of my life that I hold precious being torn down. And why? Because the RIAA and MPAA think that even though they've posted record sells and profits in the last few years, they can get more if they regulate the internet. Teh rights and privileges of the many are being taken away and spit upon for the profits of the few.

And what really bugs me is that your average person doesn't care. But they will care when this gets passed and suddenly many of the basic frameworks of the modern internet age begin vanishing. I expect a backlash from the internet unlike ever seen before when the shit hits the fan.

God help us that it does. Because if the average person doesn't rise up, this is just going to embolden them further, and give them more power to decide what type of content is acceptable over the internet. What right now is "Block the Pirates Bay" will become a systematic elimination of information and material that is contrary to what our real overlords actually want us to think or say.

Yeah, I'm a little pissed.

I think if the shit hits the fan the way tech sites seem to assume it will then that is the likely outcome, but I see that as a good thing and not a bad one. One thing I will admit about Americans is that we are lazy on average and it takes real impact for us to get up off our asses, but when we do we really do. Also I think the courts might preempt that and make the whole thing moot pretty quickly anyway. We shall see.

On the NDAA I actually see both sides. If you join a foreign military unit to wage war against America I have no problem with you losing your rights granted by citizenship. I also have very little problem with considering proper terrorist cells as foreign enemy military units. My main issue with the NDAA is how that guilt/membership is assessed. If someone wants to comment on that I would love to read about it.

I'm hoping that if this does pass (and it looks likely to), Obama will do his damn job and veto it. Or worst case scenario, the SC will overview it and declare it unconstitutional.

But that's putting an awful lot of faith in a government system that's done nothing but expose their own greed, corruption, and whore tendencies to the highest bidder of late.

Nah most debt is to the world bank whats happening with china is they have been buying stupid amounts of USD's they probably own about half the USD that physically exist right now

You guys already have internet censorship and have banned games, so I wouldn't go around mocking us TOO much ;)

Obama is for SOPA and PIPA, by the way.

The problem is we used to call rights "inalienable", now they only seem to belong to Americans. If they're so important, why don't they belong to everyone?

We're not talking big things here, it's hard to prove your innocence when you don't have right to habeus corpus or anything of that nature. It's basically once you're on the list you're screwed. I'm not sure how that's different from the Russian gulags that people used to talk about when I was growing up. When you default on debt the debt becomes "no good" that's he opposite of being owned by someone. You can't repossess a country, there was no collateral, the debt was a signature loan.

The NDAA will allow the military to imprison anyone without judicial oversight, and SOPA and PIPA will allow the government and corporations censor anything without judicial oversight. The candidates all have the same agenda and it does not matter who we vote for. The Constitution is used as toilet paper by politicians and they don't give a damn about individual freedoms.

War laws are not domestic laws though, your comment doesn't really address my concern or point. There was no investigations about people shooting Nazis in 1943. You can argue terrorism does not qualify as a military or war, but I would disagree with you and so would 95% of the federal government.

My question is specifics: how does one get deemed a member of a terrorist organization? I assume it is a military judge who makes that call.

The wealthy criminal class owns all our corrupt politicians and they make policies to enrich themselves while destroying the American middle class. The American Dream is dead and buried for most of us. Until these people are made to feel pain like the rest of us, then nothing will change. Peaceful OWS has failed because these crooks owns the media, government, police and military. They control everything and have enslaved us all to a life of constant struggle just for basic survival. The game is rigged so that heads they win and tails we lose.