The ONLY respondents to my political commentary–even though these were Bay Area magazines with radical-left/technologically adept audiences–were several right-wing apologists for fascism from *Utah* foaming at the mouth about why I had it all wrong, why the NDAA wasn’t targeted toward Americans, who rationalized why it’s in the public interest to lock terrorists (read: anyone deemed a threat to the status quo, such as Occupy protesters) up without habeas corpus or a lawyer or time in court. Plus, these guys tried really hard to waste my time with endless challenges to debate them–I can’t be writing for publication if I’m engaged in email battles in loonies, can I? Just like you can’t be protesting at docks and causing tens of millions of dollars worth of logistical hassles if you’re held incommunicado at one of the many Federal prisons in the Bay Area.

But when SOPA began to loom large on the horizon of the political/technological noosphere, people started going haywire over how terrible it would be if it actually became law, how it was so important to protest it on grounds of potentially losing the right to freedom of information exchange, how the political process was stacked with lobbyists from the MPAA, etc.

I didn’t see or hear any uprising regarding the NDAA similar in intensity and popularity to the uproar over SOPA. Just the usual stuff from the ACLU, various fringe left-wing and right-wing groups, and some analysis of the bill in Huffington Post, NPR, etc.

Seems to me people, including those who know better, are a lot more concerned about the 5-year prison sentence and felony conviction for downloading a movie via BitTorrent and whether they will be unable to download warez if SOPA passes than they are about losing their basic civil liberties guaranteed to them by the Constitution and the general trend toward curtailing those liberties since 9/11. Yes, SOPA is also a threat to civil liberties, but it clearly is the lesser threat compared to the NDAA becoming the law of the land.

I didn’t see Google, eBay, Wikipedia, Reddit, or even the ACLU turning their home pages black when Obama signed the NDAA, not even for 5 minutes.

Hopefully, Pete, things will go (are going?) a little differently with you and your platform. I may not live in SLC any more, but I still have a vested interest in seeing you win in a Republican state and bring a little forward thinking to the American political process. Good luck with that.

– Kris Magnusson (@dadaGuerilla)

My recommendation is that I would just point out that NDAA is the same type of law making that was being used against Mormons in our past and a Mormon (Senator Hatch) sold us out. Before Islamists, we were considered terrorists with shoot to kill orders in Missouri.

Just bringing that up and pointing out how Senator Hatch has gone against the faith with his support of these illegal acts will override the seniority in the Senate ploy he will use.

I think you already have the Non-Mormon vote so I bring up this up to help solidify the two bases for your campaign. I would only hope that you continue to break with the current unethical Democrat party base as well as they continued the attack on our civil liberties that really began with Bush.

Let me know how I can help.

If your small business has a bad year, don’t you get to carry NOLs forward? That’s standard practice. I’ve never heard of a company not being able to do that. I wonder why NOL carryforwards would not apply to your business. NOLs are not tax credits. They are deductions.

If you favor repealing section 199 deductions for Exxon, do you favor that for ALL manufacturers, including those that manufacture windmills, solar panels, telecom hardware, etc?