Reddit joins blackout in protest of SOPA/PIPA

post from Daily Kos on 18 January 2012 11:22:57 AM. © Daily Kos

Reddit goes down in protest of SOPAAnother major website participating in the blackout today against SOPA and PIPA is Reddit, whose community has been instrumental is whipping up opposition to these bills online.

The fruits of their labor are starting to show. Two hours ago, Sen. Marco Rubio withdrew his sponsorship for PIPA. This brings the total number of senators publicly opposing the bill to sixteen. One week ago, there were only five.

Keep sending emails to your senators, telling them to oppose PIPA. The dam is breaking.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/BxdEEe_500g/-Reddit-joins-blackout
-in-protest-of-SOPA-PIPA

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Limiting child farm labor promotes obesity, says
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley

post from Daily Kos on 18 January 2012 11:19:56 AM. © Daily Kos

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Hats off to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley for merging the Republican obsessions with child labor and Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign:

Concern was raised about the proposed Department of Labor's intent to greatly limit child labor on family farms.
"This farm bill will greatly affect our FFA and 4-H programs," said Grassley. "Kids won't be able to help on farms not owned by their parents.
"It's interesting that this child labor bill goes against Michelle Obama's anti-obesity initiative," said Grassley. "How can kids be active if they are limited by this law?"

Apparently the only way Grassley can think of for kids to be active enough to stave off obesity is ~~helping~~ doing hard labor on farms. And that is what we're talking about?not some idyllic play gardening, but work with heavy machinery and pesticides. Marie Diamond at Think Progress offers some background:

Under current law, 400,000 children working on farms are not protected from exploitation and dangerous labor. The proposed rules would forbid children younger than 16 from working with pesticides, timber operations, handling ?power-driven equipment, or contributing to the ?cultivation, harvesting and curing of tobacco.?
Contrary to Grassley?s suggestion, the physical activity children endure during farm labor is no picnic. The fatality rate for child farm workers is four times higher than that of nonagricultural child workers.

But if they'd been protected from working the farm jobs that killed them, maybe those kids would have been obese. Also, too, Michelle Obama!

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/BN_Mqp6YSDI/-Limiting-child-farm-l
abor-promotes-obesity,-says-Iowa-Sen-Chuck-Grassley-

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Why is Mitt Romney suddenly attacking Newt
Gingrich

post from Daily Kos on 18 January 2012 11:18:02 AM. © Daily Kos

Everybody knows Mitt Romney is inevitable, right? So why is his campaign releasing a new web ad and hosting a new conference call bashing Newt Gingrich in harsh, personal terms?

Mitt Romney seems worried he didn't complete nuke Newt Gingrich the first time aroundUnless Romney's campaign is going on the attack for the sheer sport of it, they must not be as convinced as everybody else that his nomination is in the bag. The question is: what has them so worried? From an outsider's perspective, they should be flying high: finally Romney has broken through his polling ceiling and established a significant lead over his rivals. So why are they risking going negative now?

Perhaps they are seeing evidence of a late-breaking surge for Newt Gingrich in South Carolina? Or maybe they are just trying to stamp out media analysis suggesting that a surge is possible?

The only sort of scenario that I could see seriously challenging Romney's inevitability would be if the Iowa Republican Party's final certification of their caucus results (due by Friday) shows Rick Santorum actually won and if Newt Gingrich manages to pull off a miracle victory in South Carolina. That would turn the Romney trifecta narrative (wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina) on its head (suddenly he'd be one for three, winning only in his backyard of New Hampshire). But even if that happens he still would have Florida as a backstop, right? Other than Romney, no other Republican campaign can afford to compete there, right?

And that brings me back to the question I'd like answered: why is the Romney campaign suddenly freaking out about Newt Gingrich?

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/n2A6xgpxqc8/-Why-is-Mitt-Romney-su
ddenly-attacking-Newt-Gingrich

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Fighting for the free internet

post from Where's the Outrage? on 18 January 2012 11:06:20 AM. © Where's the Outrage?

Congress is on the wrong path. Several major websites are standing up to tell congress NO. From[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WheresTheOutrage/~3/KRyCKP7V0pY/

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Kobach Back When

post from Talking Points Memo on 18 January 2012 11:00:41 AM. © Talking Points Memo

We noted yesterday that Mitt Romney was playing with fire by tying himself to Kris Kobach, the anti-immigration hardliner and Kansas Secretary of State who authored Arizona's extreme anti-immigration law. Well, it turns out he was Romney immigration[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/68GaomsnTV8/kobach_back_whe
n.php

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Dems to GOP: It's All on You, Guys

post from Talking Points Memo on 18 January 2012 11:00:41 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Top Democrat says House Republicans are going to have to cave big time in round two of payroll tax fight. [...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/dIR8N6rlUvc/dems_to_gop_its
_all_on_you_guys.php

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SOPA Strike: Thousands of Sites Go Dark to
Protest Anti-Piracy Legislation

post from Firedoglake on 18 January 2012 11:00:35 AM. © Firedoglake

Wired is censored today. So is TBogg's mini-site. The Google doodle is blacked out. And part of Daily Kos. And a lead story at The Huffington Post. And even right here. Sites like Wikipedia and Reddit and I Can Haz Cheezburger and Raw Story and Informed[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/azINpEnA1JY/

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SOPA to return in February

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 18 January 2012 11:00:23 AM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

It's zombie legislation, as TechDirt says. The wealthy powers behind this lousy legislation won't let it die. This fight is going to require more people getting outraged and force the political class to kill it.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/bP0mJJNDlkQ/sopa-to-return-in-febru
ary.html

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Ron Paul: Dept. of Transportation Only Needs 'One
Guy and a Computer'

Ron Paul: Dept. of Transportation Only Needs 'One Guy and a Computer'

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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul doesn't want to abolish the Department of Transportation, but he said on Tuesday that the agency really only needed "one guy and a computer."

During a town hall event in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Texas congressman made the case for "user fees" for national parks and the federal highway system.

"Ideally, you can come up with all sorts of schemes about private highways and all, but that's not going to happen," Paul explained. "But we do have a user fee with our gasoline tax. Trouble is, they take that money then they spend it on something else."

"If you had a user fee for our highway, what you could do is have one person in the office. Oh, we got umpteen billions of dollars in gasoline tax and all they have to do is divide up the people in each state or, you know, the size of the state and send the money back."

He added: "And you could do that with one guy and a computer. But instead, we have a Department of Transportation, probably has tens of thousands of people, you know, playing politics with it all."

Paul has said that he wants to abolish at least five federal agencies, a list that does not include the Department of Transportation.

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http://crooksandliars.com/david/ron-paul-dept-transportation-only-needs-one-

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Plurality Of Maryland Voters Support Marriage
Equality

According to a new poll from Gonzales Research & Marketing, 49 percent of Maryland voters favor legalizing same-sex marriage with 47 percent opposed. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who has taken the initiative to advance marriage equality this year, received 53 percent job approval rating. The bill has been introduced in two different House committees in hopes of boosting its chance of passage.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/01/18/405964/plurality-of-maryland-voters-supp
ort-marriage-equality/

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