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Mel Watt probably doesn't like that this picture of him is in the public domain
“In my experience there’s usually only one thing at stake when we have long lines outside a hearing as we do today, and when giant companies, like the ones opposing this bill, and their supporters start throwing around rhetoric like, ‘This bill will kill the Internet,’” said Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), glowering at Oyama. “That one thing is usually money.”
Ah, yes, money.
And how much money are you getting from the SOPA lobby, Mel Watt?
Among the 25 SOPA cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, here’s a breakdown of which legislators have brought in donations from big media in TV, music and movies during their careers in Congress.
[...]
Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., $130,100
Hmmm, looks like they gave you over $130,000, Mel. Care to explain that?
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I’ll bet there are a whole lot of people in DC that having the the internet permanently unplugged is a wet dream.
No kidding. It would make it a lot harder for folks to do what I just did, which was, upon reading that HuffPo piece, to fire up the old Google, type “mel watt sopa money donor”, and wait three seconds.
Hmm..25 cosponsers, but only 18 listed as having donations from Big Media.
So the other 7 either believe in the bill or are getting their money from somewhere else.
Boxturtle (I’ll go with “B” and wonder if the Tort lawyers are involved)
The funny thing is that, as large as $130,100 is in terms of monetary support, Representative Watt is actually on the lower end of Big Media’s largesse. Howard Berman, whose CD is Hollywood, has well over a million from the pro-SOPA lobby.
Study after study has shown that if you want to reduce prostitution, you have to target the johns rather than the prostitutes.
They were just “talking” with him in dollars, is all. Free speech isn’t free, you know.
Dean Baker is also on the case:
http://my.firedoglake.com/deanbaker/2011/12/15/sopa-will-cost-jobs-the-nyt-should-talk-to-an-economist-not-the-chamber-of-commerce/
http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2011/legacy-media-bankrolling-campaigns-of-SOPA-consponsors/ this is the website, we can’t afford these high class prostitutes. My senator Amy Klobuchar obviously is not as good as Al Franken, he got 600,000 more than she did.
The ruling class has a conundrum; they are making a fortune off internet sales. (I can tell you it has been an immeasurable help finding B2B technical services and components that would have been near impossible without it.)
But it is letting the serfs communicate without the controls of single media sources or in the past, church confessionals.