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Rage Against the Ryan!

Last week, a New York Times profile revealed that Paul D. Ryan — a Republican representative of Wisconsin, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate, and the mastermind behind a new conservative budget — counts vehemently liberal hard rockers Rage Against the Machine among his favorite bands. As everyone likely presumed, this didn’t go over too well with members of the band, who had previously made a scene at the 2008 Republican National Convention, where they started a protest march.

Now Rage guitarist Tom Morello is joining other musicians who are decrying the Romney-Ryan campaign, responding to the Representative in an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone. In it, he says Ryan is “clueless” about the group’s music (after comparing Ryan’s love of Rage to Charles Manson’s love of the Beatles, of course). And over the course of the article, he defines Ryan as the “embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” and suggests, “Perhaps Paul Ryan was moshing when he should have been listening.”

“I wonder what Ryan’s favorite Rage song is,” Morello muses. “Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of ‘Fuck the Police’? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!”

He then goes on to define just what rages he suspects Ryan feels: “A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he’s not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.” He summarizes, “This unbridled rage against those who have the least is a cornerstone of the Romney-Ryan ticket.”

Morello closes the piece with some, albeit sarcastic, hope. “Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job,” he writes. “Maybe if elected, he’ll pardon [Native American activist] Leonard Peltier. Maybe he’ll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he’ll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign — and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That’s one possibility. But I’m not betting on it.”

Republican Obama

• Gordon: President Obama may be the most Republican politician in his field.
• World: What?
• Gordon: Think about it: Gitmo, still open.
• World: True.
• Gordon: Bush Tax cuts, still in play. Gun control in its saddest state on the heels of now two mass shootings, a healthcare 'overhaul' that mandates you buy insurance, a CBO finding that now shows that taxes are at their lowest rate in 35+ years--
• World: Okay, okay...
• Gordon: Oh, and drone strikes on foreign soil, hardly in league with Rules of Engagement war policy.
• World: Whoa...
• Gordon: Obama, Republican, and best in show at that.

P. Ryan and Tech

Technology issues might not be the most pressing topic facing Paul Ryan — Mitt Romney’s running mate — as he campaigns for the White House. In fact, given the state of the economy and the other high-level issues facing the country, it’s unlikely that Ryan or any of the other national candidates will be asked substantial questions about technology policy in the coming months.

However, even if Ryan doesn’t get asked a single question about technology or the Internet, it’s still possible to glean some of his positions from his voting record and prior interviews — and Mashable has done just that.

Stop Online Piracy Act & Internet Piracy

The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, was almost universally vilified by those in the tech community. Ryan never co-sponsored the bill, but that didn’t stop rumors from circulating that he supported it.

Eventually, Ryan was at least partially forced to make a statement on the bill by pressure from a group of anti-SOPA Reddit users who either found his stance vague or believed he supported the bill. That group began “Operation Pull Ryan,” a grassroots effort to support Ryan’s opponent in an upcoming Congressional race.

Soon after the Reddit group began gaining momentum, Ryan announced his opposition to SOPA, saying that it would create “the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse.” He added that the Internet is “one of the most magnificent expressions of freedom and free enterprise in history” and it should “stay that way.” He did, however, add that Internet piracy was a “legitimate problem.”

The opponent supported by the Redditors, Rob Zerban, declared his opposition to SOPA and did an “Ask Me Anything,” a form of crowdsourced interview for which Reddit has become famous. Later, Zerban credited the Redditor’s efforts to get Ryan to commit to an anti-SOPA stance.

“Reddit was able to force the House Budget Chair to reverse course — shock waves will be felt throughout the establishment in Washington today, and other lawmakers will take notice,” wrote Zerban.

Net Neutrality

Net neutrality, the idea that Internet networks shouldn’t distinguish between the types of traffic carried across them, is a contentious issue in Congress. Many liberals feel it would prevent Internet Service Providers from slowing the web services of competitors, while many conservatives believe it interferes with the free market by regulating private industry.

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(Source: Mashable)