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Tech at Night: Hacker threats and arrests, we must defeat Patent Reform and the Texas Amazon Tax, Sprint’s spending exposed

Tech at Night

The cyberterrorist groups Anonymous and its apparent splinter group Lulzsec are getting bold. The latter gang of criminals is attempting to blackmail the United States Government after attacking government networks, which is just insane and I hope will lead to mass arrests. While the former is attacking the Spanish government after arrests made there, and suffering further damage from mass arrests in Turkey.

I hope when the Lulzsec gang gets rolled up, just like Anonymous is getting slammed, that some of them resist. OK, that was a mean thing to say, but it’s how I feel.

Anonymous hub 4chan still refuses to take basic steps to mitigate the groups’ ability to propagandize and recruit, such as requiring account registration or closing down unmoderated sections of the site.

Oh yes, and despite all the above attacks plus one on the IMF, Mary Bono Mack’s answer is to blame the victims instead of rounding up and sending to Gitmo or Alcatraz the perpetrators.

In further news, lots going on at RedState today. Erick Erickson and Dana Rohrabacher are fighting the good fight on the America Invents Act, the Patrick Leahy giveaway that punishes inventors and favors lawyers and patent mills, in an attempt to make us more like Old Europe. I’ve been warning about this bill for a while, so I’m sure glad to see opposition growing.

In more big news, the Texas Amazon Tax is still a threat. Texans must defeat it despite the sneaky backdoor attempt to bypass the Governor’s veto. Alabama had a similar fight, but it’s time for Texas to lead the way toward smaller, Constitutional government, not follow Illinois and California.

In the world of wireless spectrum, IBM says its new invention may open up more spectrum for household gadgets, which would be handy. We still need spectrum reform, though, and I think it’s essential that we find good ways to transfer spectrum from broadcast television. Incentive auctions are likely a great way to get that done.

Remember Net Neutrality? New technology like Gigabit Internet access might just make it irrelevant. Already. Once again, government is slow and achieves only a power grab.

Which is why we need to avoid yet another FCC power grab with the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. We know opposition is politically motivated given the silence over the Google/Admeld deal. That’s why it’s so unfortunate that Sprint is turning into such a patsy on the matter, bankrolling the left in a short-run attempt to get government protection from stronger 4G wireless competition.

Don’t believe that the merger would help competition? Ask T-Mobile. It beats reading whatever script Free Press will write for Michael Copps.

COMMENTS

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    is that it’s a dogfight to keep retailers in your state. In their eyes, they’ve made commitments to grow and hire in your state, and you’re handing a tax advantage to a competitor, uh, just phoning it in.

  • Adjoran

    If they want to sell in Texas, they have to be there. It’s not like a car company which can just build the next plant elsewhere, it’s physical presence.

    The only real disadvantage is on web sales. The retailer must collect on his web sales to the state if he has a retail presence there. The website without a storefront does not.

    Amazon and other web sellers are already at a disadvantage against retailers like Wal-Mart because they either have to charge shipping or eat the cost, while Wal-Mart and others can “ship to store” on their regular deliveries for no delivery charge.

    This is about retailers seeking the advantage.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    If online only is just some easy advantage that comes purely from taxes, like the pro-tax people claim, those retailers could… go online only too.

    But they can’t. Because that’s not why Amazon is winning. Amazon is winning because Amazon is *Better*.