Internet Declared the Winner & U.S. Congress Big Fat Zero! Congressional Anti-Internet Move Spurs Action, Shows How Dangerous American Elected Officials Have Become:

Internet Declared the Winner & U.S. Congress Big Fat Zero! Congressional Anti-Internet Move Spurs Action, Shows How Dangerous American Elected Officials Have Become:

By Marc Chamot

"Some observers said the day of protest may come to represent a fundamental shift in the legislative landscape, a flexing of a newfound and untraditional source of political power in the Internet sector."

Never seen such horrendous and sorry displays favoring a small group of corporate special interests, over the majority, our U.S. congress was about to shut down our freedoms of speech over the Internet for these people.  

If our Congress hasn’t figured it out yet, they are getting their rear ends kicked by the Internet. Polls are showing that average American can’t stand U.S. congress as they are. Year after year, Americans have had to sit idly by and suffer after idiotic policy decisions being made, decisions altering American’s freedoms, and freedoms of speech.  

When U.S. congress tried to sell out to the music industry, pharmaceuticals, fashion industries, news publishers and other corporate entities, by pushing for drastic measures to shut down people’s websites, those who promote or copy their stuffs through the Internet, without notice, so, the firestorm ensued, and the web fired up, and got our congressmen scurrying for cover, hiding like cowards, or running like dogs with tails between their legs.

“The blackout represented a culmination of months of intensifying outcry over the bills, echoed and amplified by social media, blogs and tech publications, that drew more and more popular sites into the official day of protest, including Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Wired, Reddit, Boing Boing, Reporters Without Borders, Pressthink, Greenpeace and McSweeney's.

Their actions and the frenzy of media coverage in the buildup raised mainstream awareness of what, until recent days, had been a wonky set of proposals only lightly covered outside tech circles. Congressional phone lines were reportedly flooded Wednesday in what could begin the final unraveling of the already troubled measures.

The stated goal of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), is to confront the sale and distribution of pirated movies, drugs, music and consumer goods by rogue overseas sites. But in doing so, critics say the bills threaten crucial legal protections that foster online innovation while undermining due process and free speech.

"The Internet is having a big impact on the workaday politics on the Hill," said Peter Leyden, co-founder of Torchline.com, who has advised Democrats, including President Obama's campaign, on the use of social media. "I think the Web is politically coming of age. We're seeing a line being crossed, and I don't think it will be the same from now on."

"The reason everyone was so excited is that this is a piece of legislation that's only good for a tiny handful of corporations, and it's really bad for the rest of us," Falzone said.

For that reason, the media supporters of SOPA and PIPA won't be able to leverage their own considerable reach - through TV, movies, books and magazines - to enlist the support of their audience.

"You have to capture the hearts and minds - and an open, free, vital and vibrant Web is really what energizes people," Leyden said. "The idea of worrying about the profits of some media company isn't going to turn people on."

People, and Americans who were never politically engaged, or maybe never participated in politics before, are turning around, and they are becoming more engaged after this sorry display of congressional fiasco.

New breeds of voters are coming out of this, and it could spell doom for these current crops of corruptive D.C. elements we’ve elected. After the Arab Spring revolts, if our congress men still don’t believe that we can make a big difference on the Net over special interests, they are either arrogant or just dumb and dumber.