The Senate Judiciary Committee won't be considering the dangerously flawed "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act" (COICA) bill until after the midterm elections, at least.

Make no mistake, though: this bill will be back soon enough...

Victory: Internet Censorship Bill is Delayed, For Now | Electronic Frontier Foundation

I'm kind of dreading this movie. I suppose it could be worse in that I could actually be a part of that circle of people, but its sort of like watching an alternate universe in which my life worked out differently. I know just exactly why they would have picked Reznor to do the soundtrack.

Nevertheless, they picked Reznor to do the soundtrack, and it is pretty awesome, at least the parts that I've heard so far.

The Social Network Soundtrack

Since software patents are no different from hardware patents, people who say "software patents are evil" are saying simply "patents are evil." So why do so many people complain about software patents specifically?

I think the problem is more with the patent office than the concept of software patents. Whenever software meets government, bad things happen, because software changes fast and government changes slow. The patent office has been overwhelmed by both the volume and the novelty of applications for software patents, and as a result they've made a lot of mistakes.

Paul Graham: Are Software Patents Evil?

San Francisco’s EFF, which has been shopping for one of the cases to take, has agreed to defend user-generated Democratic Underground, a site that says it provides “political satire and commentary for Democrats.”

It’s also filed a countersuit claiming Monday that Righthaven is a “front and sham representative” of Stephens Media with a sole mission “to seek windfall recoveries of statutory damages and to exact nuisance settlements.”

EFF Sues Newspaper Chain’s Copyright Troll | Threat Level | Wired.com

For Barack Obama to cite "civil liberties" as a reason why Democratic apathy is "just irresponsible," and to claim with a straight face that this election will determine whether we're "the kind of country that respects" them, is so detached from basic reality that I actually had to read this three or four times to make certain I hadn't misunderstood it.

This post and some of the posts it links provide some interesting perspective on Biden's whine. I found this observation particularly interesting:

So when people scratch their heads and wonder how a campaign based on hectoring the “professional left” expects to turn out voters, the answer is, it doesn’t. And you don’t see anyone who’s actually running for office this November engaging in it...

This isn’t about GOTV. It’s about setting up a fall guy for November. The headline should really read:

Obama Distances Himself From Democratic Voters

The liberal left is being thrown in front of a bus. They have no representatives. The Dems represent an odd coalition of centrist conservatives who don't like the tea party and the authoritarian left. Remember, Palin was hauled out to discredit the Republicans so the Dems could sail into power. I said the day she was announced that the election was over. She was never a serious candidate. They needed the Dems back in power mostly for reasons related to international relations, as well as for the healthcare plan. They now require a Republican congress, probably so they can raise the minimum age for social security. However, the number of actual tea party primary victories was probably a bit of a miscalculation that will limit the intended Republican victories, so the left wing has to be deliberately squelched to restore the balance.

We are very much not in control here.

Faith Collapsing

Replacing the Comcast webpage with a shout out to other hackers was a stupid, immature prank that could be performed with a relatively small amount of technical skill in a relatively short period of time.

Stupid pranks that have a significant negative impact on people's lives should have serious consequences associated with them.

However, immature pranks have an entirely different character than actions taken through malice or greed, and Justice requires that we recognize the difference between those categories of behavior. Furthermore, computers, internet connections and websites go down, on their own, all the time. A 90 minute outage for Comcast's website is not something either they or their customers should ever have to endure as a consequence of someone else's irresponsible behavior, but it is something that they and their customers do, in fact, endure on a regular basis. All the time.

Given these facts, a year and half in prison is way outside the scope of what justice requires in this case. Its a sentence that is so far outside the scope of what is objectively reasonable that it shocks the conscience. It seems an obvious consequence of technical ignorance on the part of the decision makers as to the actual mechanism through which this outage was created and to its actual impact on users of the network. This sentence is a far greater evil than the act it seeks to rectify and it should not pass without remark.

Comcast.net Hijackers Sentenced to 18 Months | Threat Level | Wired.com

"Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted. It's an indication that texting band might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws," commented IIHS and HLDI president Adrian Lund.

Lund said that these findings "call into question the way policymakers are trying to address the problem of distracted driving crashes."

Research: Could Texting Laws Be Increasing Crashes? - The Car Connection

Iranian-Canadian Hossein Derakhshan, 35, was a controversial figure among Iran's blogging community. Writing his blog from Canada, he was initially a critic of Iran's clerical leadership, and in 2006 he visited Israel - Iran's archenemy - saying he wanted to act as a bridge between the two countries' peoples.

But he later became a vocal supporter of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising him for standing up to the West and criticizing regime opponents. Derakhshan then visited Iran in 2008 and was arrested. Over the next two years, he was often held without communication with family or lawyers, according to rights groups.

The court sentenced him to 19 1/2 years in prison, the report said, adding that Derakhshan can appeal. It was unclear if he would benefit from time served.

Derakhshan helped ignite blogging in Iran by posting simple instructions online on how to create sites in Farsi in 2001. The flourishing of blogs by Iranians at home and abroad that resulted gave the country's reform movement an online platform that has helped it survive heavy crackdowns at home - though authorities tried to block many, including Derakhshan's.

His later embrace of Ahmadinejad angered many reform bloggers. Before returning to Iran, Derakhshan on his blog dismissed worries he could be arrested for his previous writings.

Rattle writes:

Decius and I sat on a panel with Hoder several years ago. To say some of his positions angered people would be putting it lightly. However, I was still quite dismayed when he was arrested.

19 1/2 years in jail is definitely excessive, but it's way better than the death sentence the prosecution was pushing for. Hopefully the political climate in Iran changes, and he can be freed...

Agree or disagree with Hoder's opinions - the idea that he faced death for expressing them, and that he has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for expressing them, is horrific.

Hoder sentenced to 19 years prison

As a resident of Georgia, this is my libertarian candidate for the upcoming senate race. While I disagree with him on the idea that fiscal austerity is prudent in the midst of a financial crisis, I cannot vote for Democrats until they stop lying about civil liberties.

Chuck Donovan for U.S. Senate | Official Website of Chuck Donovan for U.S. Senate from Georgia

The vice president didn't back off the notion that disillusioned supporters should "stop whining," a sentiment he uttered on Monday in New Hampshire, and which drew heavy criticism from liberals in the party.

"And so those who -- didn't get everything they wanted, it's time to just buck up here, understand that we can make things better, continue to move forward," Biden said during an appearance on MSNBC, "but not yield the playing field to those folks who are against everything that we stand for in terms of the initiatives we put forward."

What are the things that liberals wanted that they didn't get? What are liberals whining about? I have the impression that the liberal base pretty much got want it wanted, with the sole exception of civil liberties. They got healthcare. They are pulling out of Iraq. But Obama, frankly, made a lot of promises regarding civil liberties. He has not kept those promises, and people on the left are annoyed about that.

Is there something else here, or was this comment primarily about civil liberties issues? I don't consider myself part of the left's "base" so I don't have the perspective to see what other issues the left might be concerned with.

Obama has contradicted himself quite directly on civil liberties and this comment, if I ought to be taking it the way that I am taking it, goes to show you that the Administration does not, in any way, take the civil liberties issues seriously. I am therefore utterly disinclined to vote for them.

Biden, I want to make it clear that this comment is pretty much the last nail in the coffin of the idea that your party is going to get support from me.

"These guys, if they win, the other team, they're going to repeal health care and I I want them to tell me why what we did wasn't an incredibly significant move that's progressive and helping people?"

Its totally unclear. Is it helping people? It certainly hasn't helped anyone that I know. Most of the provisions don't actually start functioning for years, and only then do we get to find out whether or not they were well designed. I'm not unhappy that it was passed, nor do I want it repealed, but I not sure I take Republican threats to repeal it seriously. Its just lip service. That debate is over. They lost. If they repeal it they will loose another election and it will get unrepealed for them. Thats not useful and they know it.

I am unhappy that I get to choose between a party that openly violates wiretapping statues and thumbs their nose at ancient principals like Habeas or a party that wants to build wiretapping facilities into every single website and software product in the world and thinks that this isn't going to end up causing security problems. At least the Republicans aren't lying about their stance on Civil Liberties. Voting for them, at least I know what I'm voting for.

"You're welcome, Joe Biden, for helping to get the more electable Democrat who actually excites voters to be the Democratic nominee -- instead of a lame corporate stooge," said Adam Green, of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, of Biden's remarks.

I guess I know what it feels like to be a part of the tea party. Sure it means aligning yourself with a bunch of nut jobs and morons, but sometimes, nut jobs and morons are better than crooked corporate shills.

What are liberals whining about?