Republican Staffer Khanna Axed Over Copyright Memo 506
Bob9113 writes "Ars Technica reports that Derek Khanna is getting axed over his memo detailing the conflict between laissez-faire-oriented free market ideals and the regulatory monopoly that is copyright. 'The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives, has told staffer Derek Khanna that he will be out of a job when Congress re-convenes in January. The incoming chairman of the RSC, Steve Scalise (R-LA) was approached by several Republican members of Congress who were upset about a memo Khanna wrote advocating reform of copyright law. They asked that Khanna not be retained, and Scalise agreed to their request.'"
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
Principled conservatism (Score:5, Insightful)
You younger Slashdotters may not believe this, but at one time we had conservatives (and Republicans) with principles.
(Not that the Democrats are all that great.)
Money wins, real analysis loses (Score:1, Insightful)
Anyone wonder why the political process does not serve the people?
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Points to consider (Score:5, Insightful)
There are at least two important points we can take away from this:
1. The republican party lies about having free market ideals.
2. The current IP regime is NOT an example of free market economics, even though it is widely touted as so.
Re:Points to consider (Score:2, Insightful)
1. The republican party lies about having free market ideals.
You just realized that politicians lie?
Another Young Idealist Casualty (Score:5, Insightful)
He had to know this would cost him his job.
He could not have expected anything else.
He's 24 and probably still believes that United States politics offer an open and free forum where you can put forth ideas no matter what side you're on and the change that follows can be a good thing if the logic behind it is sound. Surely the worst that could happen is that your party would have to explain again logically why your brief was incorrect and unsound?
Boy it sure was hard typing that with a straight face.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know what he was thinking, but I think we all can correctly guess what he learned about Washington and politics in general.
It's an old boys' club, the yes man gets ahead, and messengers get shot when exposing contradictions.
Continuing trend... (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
Many things the Republican Party is doing are surprising moves, for a party that is looking for ways to attract...well, anyone. It almost seems like the party forgot that the point of democracy is to represent your own people, not try to tell them that you know better than they do what would be good for them.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
Scalise is one of my representatives, I actually kinda know the guy.
Dunno if a letter will help...but, I'll sure send one...this move sucks.
I don't think this is just a R problem...I think both R's and D's up there are so bought and paid for that no reform will likely happen that will benefit you and I, but I'll certainly send a letter about this....
Re:Principled conservatism (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh...Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower were both after Lincoln and both principled conservatives.
Re:This is why the Republicans lost the election (Score:5, Insightful)
Your on the right track, the Tea Party led a purge of the moderates from the party a couple years back. The result was that the shifted even further to the right and lost a bunch of moderates in the middle of the political spectrum. The result was to also chase away a lot of the moderates / independent voters as well.
Since there are more independents in the US than there are Democrats or Republicans this is what cost them the election. Independents /always/ decide the winner of the presidential election.
They need to have a hard look at their internal hard line on political issues. Even Reagan would fail to meet most of the current Republican agenda and would be cast out (as would a number of other historically significant Republicans). The net effect is to ostracize younger voters and the result is costing them future voters. It's not that moderates were voting for Obama and the Democrats nearly as much as they were voting against Romney and the Republicans.
The Republicans need to go back to giving the general population something to believe in. Study Reagan and you will see that he did that so well the term "Reagan Democrats" was coined to describe the effect. People can't believe in tax cuts for corporates and the rich, it's too abstract for their day to day life. Unless they regain the moderates and start giving people something to believe they will continue to lose more and more voters.
Re:He Should Be (Score:0, Insightful)
I was with you until the loud "WOOOOOOOSH" drowned out what you were saying.
The real problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Politicians are not just corrupt, politicians have been raised, grown up, got their experience in a system where the truth is told, more or less. In the real world, we know evil exist but politicians are shielded from the real world pretty early on. They are in a rare world where meetings and negotiation "work". As you learn the world of politics in high school and university were your adversary are at worst teachers or fellow students and then ONLY those students who are interested in politics. They are surrounded and protected by people who share the same world view, not just left or right wing but the idea and knowledge that money is never an issue, you can always find another job, multiple at the same time, hard work is having a long meeting and there is always a deal to be made with the other side and the other side is never ever really just out to screw you over.
In Holland, when the rail system was privatized, a contract was drawn up that allowed the rail company to do its own customer survey reports and ignore user reviews that scored to low. Choose its own lines to ignore for judging its punctuality, not have to count canceled trains as delayed and a lot more stuff that any sane person would NEVER have allowed in a performance contract. So... were the people who signed it bought off? To stupid to be allowed to live?
Yes... and not exactly. The parties responsible BELIEVE in privatization, all their models, all their advisers say it must work and surely business wouldn't lie to them because they don't lie, they just present facts that exist in their mind and not in the real world. Their was a parliamentary investigation on whether privatization in the last two decades had a positive effect and the answer was NO and the two parties (CDA VVD) STILL said what was needed was MORE privatization.
They can't do anything else because it has become their identity, it is what they are, their faith, their gospel. And any evidence to the contrary isn't going to shake a faith they grew up on. The left isn't much better, the multi cultural society is falling apart and the best the left can manage is "we shouldn't want that"... Groen Links (Green Left) was decimated in Holland when it became clear the party had lost all touch with reality in supporting several right wing measures, forgettin they were supposed to be a LEFT wing party. CDA has been recudeced to a fraction of itself and still doesn't know why. SP scored big in the polls but lost it all during the actual election and still is wondering what happened.
The arstechnica article expresses suprise at this move because it thought the republican party was trying to appeal young voters. WRONG. Oh it wants to attract more voters but it is NOT going to change itself, it can't. It is what it is. To change itself, it would first have to admit it was wrong, ALL if it, ALL of them, ALL they ever believed to be true. WRONG. People don't do that. Especially people who live in an ivory towers removed from all reality. Romney wasn't a particular evil guy, he just really believed his fantasy land, the made up world of Fox News.
And people living in made up worlds are easily manipulated by people good at telling stories. The Lobbyist know how to bend the world of make believe to reflect their wishes. The ordinary voter doesn't. Not only is the average voter barely coherent but everyone one of them has an endless amount of conflicting wishes so any politician who tries to actually listen will quickly realise that if you can't please them all, why bother. In the mean time, the lobbyist gives a clear simple and therefor sensible and achievable story.
Basically, we are screwed. We need more REAL people in politics but the only way to get anywhere in politics is to grow up in it and become part of the system. Any real person will either quit in disgust, be torn apart by the pack for daring to rock the boat (any outcast public figure like Assange) or become part of the system.
You could try an experiment if you got the time. Write down your
Re:Fear Will Keep Them in Line! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another Young Idealist Casualty (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:He Should Be (Score:2, Insightful)
You have too much faith in humanity. He wasn't making a joke.
Re:Another Young Idealist Casualty (Score:0, Insightful)
Especially a 24 year old working in politics. I spent time working on a state level campaigns. It took a day to realize I was amongst the animal filth of humanity, people who will rape your children with a serrated kitchen knife until they bleed out if they thought it would gain them some money or power without getting caught. The complete and utter scum of the planet, and they are in control. Republican or Democrat, the candidates or their sycophants- all the same. Absolute monsters.
Open Comment to Derek Khanna (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear Derek Khanna,
You have made more friends than enemies. You may have been canned today, but you could easily replace your boss. RUN FOR OFFICE!
Sincerely,
Someone who actually votes.
"Pro-business" = Pro-Already-Rich-People (Score:5, Insightful)
I think most of us realized long ago that when politicians claim to be "pro-business" they are referring not to some abstract ideal of free markets, but rather to being in favor of the incumbent players getting richer and more powerful. But just in case anyone on Slashdot hadn't figured this out yet, hopefully after this event they will have.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
No, this is not a party line problem at all. Both R's and D's voted for copyright extension, and I know the D's are at least as bad as the R's because so many of them also supported crap like SOPA.
Basically, it's whoever takes money from the [MP|RI|MAFI]AA is who votes in favor of copyright extension.
Republican vs. Conservative (Score:4, Insightful)
Copyright reform should be the conservative position since our current state of copyright is so far out of line with the original constitutional text and intent. Conservatives rightly complain when we use foreign law to influence interpretation of the Constitution, yet our copyright has been warped to follow the copyright schemes of most foreign countries, not ours, and that's somehow considered constitutional.
Abandoning their principles, the basic reason the Republicans lost, and will keep losing. All the Democrats have to do is not screw up too badly.
Re:He Should Be (Score:0, Insightful)
This comment is in no way insightful. It is the very definition of flamebait, according to the slashdot FAQ.
Why this comment is not -1 is baffling.
The moderators who modded this up are abusing their points and I shall report them to the proper authorities to have their privileges revoked for this vile and sick abuse of power.
Re:This is why the Republicans lost the election (Score:4, Insightful)
But they didn't lose, they were just given 4 more years of control of one house of congress, a mandate by the people to prove how bad obama is for america!
Except more people voted for Democrat representatives than for Republicans. The Republicans only won more seats due to Gerrymandering [wikipedia.org]. That is hardly a mandate.
Gerrymandering is easier for Republicans because Democrats tend to be concentrated in urban areas. It is easy to set up reasonable congressional districts that are 80-90% Democrats, leaving Republicans to sweep the rest. But even when the Democrats control the redistricting process, it is hard to find anyplace that is more than about 60-70% Republican.
But there isn't much of mandate for the Dems either. Polls showed that more voters agreed with Republican views of smaller government, but were turned off by their social policies. Single young women voted for Obama by two to one over Romney, not because of economic policy, but because they don't accept that rapists have a God-given right to father children.
What if this happened in the Democratic party (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't mean this to stick up for the Republican party at all but does anybody really believe that the Democratic party would welcome this report any more than the Republicans? Would a Democrat who wrote this report still have a job afterwards? I doubt it. Both sides are in bed with corporations and especially the media ones.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
It's more of an R problem
Wow, somebody's not paying attention. Look, I know that on Slashdot it's hip to bash Republicans at every turn, but this is so wrong it's not even funny. Insane copyright laws is a bipartisan problem, but Democrats lead the charge. They're all in the pocket of Big Media in places like California and New York that lean heavily Democratic. Chris freaking DODD is running the MPAA now.
There are plenty of valid criticisms of the Republican party, and they're certainly not clean on this issue. But to say that they're worse than Democrats on copyright just sounds like uninformed Republican bashing.
Re:Another Young Idealist Casualty (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't believe anyone goes into politics with that attitude. I think people get into politics because they want to make a real positive change.
But once they get into office, they discover that the only way they can get anything at all is to strike a deal with an existing Devil, which earns them their junior grade horns. From there, it's not far down the slope to the pit of lying to anyone for a few reelection dollars - and there's no climbing out of that pit. So they grab a pitchfork and become a fully licensed devil, striking "deals" with the next crop of new guys.
Re:Points to consider (Score:5, Insightful)
Republicans are in favor of big business running your life. Democrats are in favor of big government running your life.
Neither major party is in favor of you running your life.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't about the old boys club. If this had been just-another-report, they would not even have known he was involved. You can be 100% guaranteed that the 'representatives' who complained were NOT representing us. They were representing the RIAA. You can be sure that the RIAA gave these guys a call and explained in no uncertain terms that campaign contributions and getting re-elected hinged on certain.... favors.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, just keeping track of who voted for bad things is hard enough. Keeping track of who is being hypocritical in Congress is a full-time job, best left to late-night-comedian-staff-writers. And it turns out that is pretty much non-partisan. The harder task is keeping track of those who occasionally aren't being disingenuous.
Fundamentalist Christian paternalism (Score:3, Insightful)
From the article:
Many things the Republican Party is doing are surprising moves, for a party that is looking for ways to attract...well, anyone. It almost seems like the party forgot that the point of democracy is to represent your own people, not try to tell them that you know better than they do what would be good for them.
Actually, that attitude is very much in line with what large chunks of the hard-right fundamentalist Christian faction believe. They want someone with greater authority to tell them what to believe, what to do and think.
Dan Aris
No contradiction. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really think this is a contradiction. I think the reality of the party line is more "Corporations are people .. the only people." Less government, less taxes, less regulation, more rights. These apply to real people: corporations, not you or me.
Re:He Should Be (Score:0, Insightful)
It's an old white boys' club, and Derek is a brown (Indian) guy with a brain...
Yup, just look at our shiny new white president...
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the D's say business is evil and go around forcing government on everyone. Safe effect, though.
What I can't figure out is why no one seems to understand that big government at least as bad as big business, except it makes the rules and doesn't need to make money. They are both destroying the country.
Meanwhile, the D's are big friends with Hollywood, so I doubt they would take advantage of this issue. They don't want copyright reform any more than the R's do. The only people who do want it are non-politicians who actually understand what essentially-infinite copyright does.
Re:He Should Be (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think this is just a R problem...I think both R's and D's up there are so bought and paid for that no reform will likely happen that will benefit you...
I don't see that. Saying both sides are equally bad is an intellectual cop out that let's one side keep moving the corruption goal post.
Once we deal with the side openly on the side of the wealthy and big money interests, we can start picking through the exceptions in the other side.
The Most Probable Reason (Score:5, Insightful)
While I hate to see them distance themselves from a sane and rational argument for copyright reform, I can't help but think that any other organization would do the same thing when one of their employees decides to go all "cowboy" and fire off memos and reports without organizational consent.
Re:He Should Be .. .NOT (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:He Should Be (Score:4, Insightful)
So the GoP is coming across as being in favor of regulation that supports industry against citizens, but not regulation that supports citizens against industry.
The GOP is in favor of regulation that supports businesses against the citizen and
The GOP is in favor of deregulation that supports businesses against the citizen.
When GOP interests and the Democratic Party's interests align, the citizens generally get the short end of the stick.
Re:Points to consider (Score:5, Insightful)
This is actually quite...funny, because it's got truth in it.
But the real beef is the axing of a grunt soldier because he has voiced an opinion not necessarily accepted in the mainstream party line. And that is what is sad, and this is happening everywhere, but it does not get in to headlines that often. Staffers are shown the door all the time if they happen to write proposals that are not on the accepted agenda. Career in politics as a non-elected staffer is very windy one, even more than elected ones (at least they have their seat until the next election). Seen that, not been there but followed closely. It is quite sad really, because only the very strong ones can voice fresh, conflicting views, and to get to that position (as a non-elected official) usually requires years of ass-kissing and selling yourself out before you have strong enough position to speak freely.
Re:No contradiction. (Score:5, Insightful)
Real people to them are corporations and those stealing... Sorry. Making more than 250k/year are also people. Everyone else is a leach, even if they pay more in taxes than the so called real people.
There are people making multiple millions who pay exactly 0% in taxes. These are "job creators" but the numbers show that job creation is at an all time high when we tax these so called job creators significantly.
We need to stop letting them use the American population as a slave labor force, and stop letting them use the American wealth as their personal score cards between them. They create nothing, they provide nothing, they contribute nothing, we shouldn't give them such a disproportionately high percentage of the nations economic power.
I say we eat the rich and give the things they stole back to the people they stole it from.
Re:He Should Be (Score:2, Insightful)
When it comes to copyright, it's mainly a D problem. For the most part, they're the ones bought and paid for by the entertainment industry. Think of it logically, who does Hollywood support? Who do you see musicians and actors supporting? Who do you see entertainment industry doing fundraisers for? Democrats, almost all the time. And the Democrats pay them back.
There are a few Republicans that are also hard-core entertainment industry reporters. Coble comes to mind. I'd bet he's behind this firing. Few others probably wanted to do this, but they weren't willing to risk their positions defending a mere staffer, so Coble's will happened.
Re:No contradiction. (Score:2, Insightful)
Man, this is what I keep SAYING, but for some reason it's not sticking even within Slashdot. And I don't post anonymously when I'm at home.
People (humans) have one purpose in today's society. To be used like a regular office consumable, and thrown out when we aren't useful any more.
Serious to god, the entire goddamn North America is like this (and quite likely massive swaths of the rest of the planet), and for some reason people just don't seem to catch on. You can try to "fight against it", and try to make things better... BUT THIS IS ALREADY HOW IT IS! You can't fight against something that's been in effect, obviously without most people (even on Slashdot apparently) noticing, for a long, long time.
YOU! YES, YOU, READING THIS SENTENCE. You are a meaningless consumable. The absolute second you aren't deemed useful by the Real People (tm), your life is forfeit. The Real People (tm) are the megacorporations, and the 1% that run them. The sooner you realize this, the better. The absolute, 100% only thing you can do is pray that you keep coasting under the radar.
The sooner you realize this... yes you, reading this... the better you can accept it and work around it instead of beating your head against a wall trying to figure out why the world isn't getting better, even with soooooo many people "fighting the good fight".
WE LIVE IN A CASTE SOCIETY! GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD! We are the lower caste. We have no say, no matter how much you think otherwise, on what the upper caste do. The only changes that benefit the expendable commodity that is people (humans) are the ones that will avoid an outright revolt... and North America has a looooooooong way to go downhill before it even remotely thinks about getting close to that.
I honestly believe that taxes would have to reach at LEAST 80% of our paycheque (naturally, this only applies to the lower caste) before there's even the slightest HINT of talking about the start of a revolution. Maybe.
Re:He Should Be (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly this lays bare the fact that there is now only one party in Washington D.C. and it suckles the teat of the highest bidder. Contrary to Rush Limbaugh and the bloated talking heads on either side of the aisle, there is no fundamental difference save the verbs in their patter. I'm betting you get the majority and minority whips to perform a live sex show on the Senate Floor if only Monsanto would sponsor it, and at least that would be an honest day's work for a whore. The Republicrats are for sale, and as such so is our Constitution, Civil Rights, Juris Prudence and the security of the Middle Class. Any sane act of remediation regarding our failing system of government or economics must first pass the test of whether or not its inconvenient to the wealthy and powerful. Which is why we have the best government money can buy,
Re:No contradiction. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is not that America is bad at picking leaders... its that you have some strange illusion that you are picking a leader. The system is precisely designed to select someone who is capable of taking 'X' dollars to represent the person who gave him 'X' dollars. That would be by definition a political whore. The folks who applied for the job because they were intelligent, knowledgeable, skilled and passionate, got passed over for the one who knew when to bend over. So I'm saying that the vast majority of American's wouldn't know a great candidate if one fell of the sky and landed on them... but you can't blame them, most folks under 50 have never seen a great candidate and under the current systems, its no surprise.