Congressional Elections - Who's Good for IT Folks? 117
rlp asks: "Most of the articles appearing in Slashdot's new political section pertain to the U.S. Presidential election. However, most of the political issues facing American IT people are issues that are dealt with (or more often caused by) Congress. Therefore, my question is: who are the heroes and villains (for U.S. IT people) in Congress that are running for office this year? How does your local Congresscritter (or the person running against them) feel about copyrights, privacy, data security, H1-B, outsourcing, software patents, Open Source, tech education, R&D funding, anti-trust, etc?"
There isn't a pro or anti IT party (Score:5, Interesting)
property rights? (Score:3, Interesting)
Liberals tend to value the needs of society above those of the individual, and hence, sacrifice property rights for environmental protection. (Often this is good; sometimes it goes too far without compensation for property owners, but that's another debate.) Perhaps that's an angle that we can use in lobbying our Congressmen on the Democratic side--emphasize the societal benefit of looser IP laws.
I have the honor (Score:3, Interesting)
It feels odd to have to feel "lucky" that my congressional representative's The Real Thing. Frankly, I don't like guys that run for congress because they think it's a good gig.
It doesn't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
Thanks to a combination of Gerrymandering, Entrenched incumbents, and the McCain-Feingold legislation (which prevents parties from using soft money to neutralize the advantage of entrenched incumbents) congressional races are entirely uncompetitive. Charlie Cook today says that there is virtually no chance of the house changing hands.
So who cares where the candidates stand on the issues when only a very few people actually have the oppotunity to cast a meaningful vote.
Russ Feingold for WI (Score:5, Interesting)
Gerrymandering (Score:2, Interesting)
It would be really fun to look at some Congressional districts and find their Gerrymander-Factor=perimeter/sqrt(area).
Naturalized Citizens are not the problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
Either way we shouldn't be robbing the world of valued labor to feed our greedy corporations. How bout we(USA) stop supporting dictators that run their countries so bad that the people flee them.
Or how bout we stop raising our National Debt so freeking high that our Dollar has more buying power overseas then it has here.
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
G*d I am so sick of people saying that.
1) we dont have a democracy, we have a Federal Republic which elects its leaders
2) Just because people dont vote the way you would like (high turnover) does not mean the power does not reside in tehir hands.
3) In 1994 The republicans shocked everyon by capturing a huge number of seats from incumbant democrats in the house, and a decent number in the senate. So yes people can and have made major changes in the seating arrangements for members of congress.
Re:There isn't a pro or anti IT party (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:There isn't a pro or anti IT party (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you missed my point, friend.
I'm not scapegoating the Indian worker: he's making a rational decision to take a better job so he can better feed his family, and you or I would do the same in his place.
My point was to demonstrate that -- whether the issue is outsourcing of the IT sector, or John Ashcroft's cavalier (roundhead?) attitude toward civil liberties, or the DMCA, or anything else -- those who blithely ignore politics quickly sooner or later find themselves at the mercy of those who do pay attention.
Many of us in the "tech sector" pretend to disdain politics -- it's a luxury when can just barely afford to get away with as the "American Century" draws to a close.
But one way or another, the butcher's bill comes due, either at Omaha Beach or at Tarawa or Concord or Lexington, or to mix metaphors, in a bread line.
Re:There isn't a pro or anti IT party (Score:3, Interesting)
Duh.
Re:property rights? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently not when it comes to pushing legislation in exchange for campaign contributions.
It was senior Democrats like Diane Feinstein who helped pass the DMCA. During the period the DMCA was up for debate, the Democtrats actually received more financial contributions from the entertainment industry than the Republicans. Checkout open secrets [opensecrets.org] for details.
I think it mostly comes down to who contributes the gratest amount gets their pet legislation favored more.