Comments (55)

• ConsideringWhatIf

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:05pm

  Suggest the article title be revised… 3 Candidates Sharply Critical of SOPA, 1 Candidate not so sharp, well…Mushy actually…( subtitle: I would not protest SOPA Sharply if it got voted through on a Midnight session and signed by the President late some Friday night.)

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• lembrandt

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 11:43am

  What’s with Glen and the really expensive, tailored, three piece suit and the multimillionaire cane? He loves to tell his radio audience all the time how rich he is now – what’s next? A suit made of hundred dollar bills?

  I expect him to show up wearing the “Mister Monopoly” Tuxedo any day now….

  We get it, Glen, you’re fabulously rich now…please tell us again.

  By the way, he’s right about PIPA and SOPA – dead right, but I also think he’s missed a huge point – I think these two bills are secretly intended to shut down public information sites like The Blaze, Drudge, World Net Daily, News Max, etc.

  The line of thought here is too long to post, but if you take it step by step, it is obvious.

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• BeHeardAmerica

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 6:41am

  Amen.. Stop the government regulation / intervention.

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  • Demaslut

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 11:16am

    Amen

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• Landfill

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 5:57am

  You strict constitutionalists love to refer to “first principles.” In Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, you will find reference to granting Congress the right to secure to authors their exclusive rights to their own creative work. To ignore the massive infringement of copyrights via the Internet is a violation of one of the most fundamental principles of the Founders. The importance of patent and copyright rights is listed in the Constitution even BEFORE the clauses relating to raising and funding of land and naval forces of the United States. Our country was founded upon the rock of liberty of free men to own and control their property – including intellectual property. All of you who decry enforcement of copyright law obviously have no creative work of your own being massively pirated on the Internet. The Internet is a very recent convenience but its existed does not negate the fundamental principles of owning private property. Communists want the community to own everything. Is it OK if I drive YOUR car whenever I want? Is it OK if I move my elderly mother into YOUR house? If everything belongs to all of us, COLLECTIVELY,…… WHY NOT?

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  • Obeckian1984

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 8:54am

    If you have a complaint then you can Sue in court as we have been doing
    all along.

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  • smithclar3nc3

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 8:57am

    Totally disagree, aquaintings a news report,a book,music,a movie or a video game to private property
    is BS. It stop being private property when they sell it to the public. And me sharing a movie,cd,book or anything else online is no different than letting my neighbor borrow a book,movie or whatever. Freedom of expression is absolute Now if I make copies of the books and sell them then there’s copy right issues But as far as online sharing it’s a world wide neighborhood. BUT THESE NAZI DEMOCRATIC BACKED LEGISLATIONS OUTLAW ME LETTING MY NEIGHBOR BARROW A MOVIE……BS.
    People look around at whose holding the chains and trying to place them on every aspect of your lives it the LIBERAL PROGRESSIVES. 21st century plantation owners

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  • George Patton

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 9:30am

    You are incompetent. No one is opposed to protecting copyrights. Those who oppose sopa and pipa are against the means used to protect copyrights. Do you enforce laws prohibiting theft of other property is the same way? If a man steals your car and tries to sell it on his front law, should the police go after the bank who holds the mortgage on his house and force them to evict him so he doesn’t have a lawn to sell the car on? Then perhaps the police should force the landscaper to stop mowing his lawn…they should then force Sharpie Inc. to stop selling him markers so he can’t make for sale signs….and they should hold cardboard companies responsible to screen people who buy cardboard in case they use it to make “for sale” signs to sell stolen goods.

    Or they could just uphold current laws against theft and go after the thief. The goal is obvious: prevent theft by preventing the selling of stolen goods. Sorry, you can’t prevent the selling of stolen goods without oppressing people who did not commit any crimes: Sharpie inc, landscapers, verizon, google, craigslist, etc.

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  • Pearsontech

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 9:54am

    @smith First off let me be perfectly clear on this. I do not agree with SOPA at all. It is a gross inflation of the governments already over inflated power. The act at it heart has absolutely nothing to do with stopping piracy. You can’ make laws that will stop criminals from committing crimes!!! When are people going to wake up to this. Criminals will continue to do what they want to do it doesn’t matter you are only putting chains on law abiding citizens. Now with all that said I have to call what you said (smith) complete bull. Don’t you dare sit there and say that you are “borrowing” or “lending” the movie or whatever. You know perfectly well that you aren’t getting it back. If you were lending something to someone you would expect to be getting it back and you wouldn’t have the privilege of continuing to have said movie or music yourself while you “lent” it out to someone. The person you are “sharing” the movie or whatever with gets to keep it for as long as they want as do you. This is NOT a borrowing or lending or sharing situation. And before you think I don’t understand this is coming from a former pirate so I very much do know the ins and outs of that world. Do sit there and try to claim it is all innocent because its not. I do think that the movie industry and the music industry are quite a bit melodramatic about the whole thing and hurt themselves more in the process, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong.

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  • Demaslut

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 11:15am

    you are boring

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  • JRook

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 11:16am

    Your point is well taken. However, what is occurring is an economic resetting based on a refusal to accept corporate manipulation of the free market in terms of supply and demand, and through anti-competitive influence on the distribution of content. The real supplier is the song writer, musician, script writer, actors, directors, etc. The producing companies are nothing more than investors that enable the artists. For that investment they should receive a reasonable ROI. When that ROI becomes unreasonable relative to what the artists receive and the value of the content the demand side of the market will respond. Clearly, mass privacy of material that is sold should be stopped and there are laws that provide remedies. The threatening thing for the established industries is that artists the suppliers of content and consumers the demand side of content will begin to connect in ways that weaken the market dominance and influence of established producers. My kids and most of their friends use ITunes and similar paid sites. This isn’t about file sharing on the Internet, it is about who will control the content. The artist and the consumer or the established publishing and distribution companies. Everyone loves the free market, until it threatens their economic position.

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  • Pearsontech

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:18pm

    @jrook You are talking about a completely different yet semi related issue. pay for services like iTunes don’t count in what I was saying my comment was in rebut to the lame attempt to equate piracy to borrowing and sharing or just lending out your movies to a “friend” because there is a huge difference. Now that being said I don’t fully believe the industries hipe that all of this “sharing” is really VASTLY effecting their bottom line but again beside the point. My point was don’t try to say that piracy on the internet is just a bunch of friends “borrowing” each others movies and such. This was outside of the SOPA issue which like I said SOPA is not about piracy on the internet. At its heart its about government getting more power to abuse.

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  • JRook

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:21pm

    @Pearsontech I agree. I was responding to Landfill. My point is this is an issue of control by the wealthy and large corporations through the instrument of government. My company has to deal with both the EPA and FDA depending on our product lines. People would be amazed on how many laws and regulations are lobbied for and even authored by large corporations to limit competition by creating barriers to entry. The last thing most established companies want is a truly free market.

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• lukerw

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 5:05am

  Ge-stopa!

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• dutchy

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 4:13am

  Kudos to all the GOP candidates that are against any internet censorship! Let’s get BHO out of office!!

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• A Conservatarian

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:05am

  There’s a pretty thought provoking article on DailyPaul.com on this topic: http://www.dailypaul.com/205980/the-real-reason-for-sopa-pipa-and-the-ndaa-provisions

  The Real Reason for SOPA, PIPA, and the NDAA Provisions

  By Revolution News Network – on Facebook Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:45pm

  There is a very simple, and we think overlooked, reason why the abominations of SOPA and PIPA have appeared like cancerous growths in the House and Senate, and it has more to do than just censoring the internet. It goes deeper than that. It hits a nerve. The very idea of a bottom-up, people driven internet clashes violently with the ideological and political worldview that surveillance should only exist in one direction: From the top down.

  You see, we’ve overlooked what it really means in terms of discomfort and career risk to those who normally bask and benefit from the art of statecraft.

  You see, the ordinary, unwashed masses – that would be you and me – are in possession of one of the most powerful forces the earth has ever seen.

  And you have learned to use it in a way that is indeed alarming.

  Ordinary people, with little or no political knowledge or even education, are using it to keep their elected employees under surveillance 24 hours a day, seven days a week – like real hiring managers should. (cont)

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:09am

    2) You see, you’re all figuring out that your computer desk at home is now headquarters – it’s now the head office – and you’re acting like the boss, and these employees don’t like it one bit.

    You’re calling them out for having a business on the side. For taking long lunches with your competitors. For using the company car and copy machine for their personal use without telling you. For improper conduct that would violate any employee ethics manual. For noticing that they exempt themselves from it, but not you, the boss.

    In other words, you are finally (as the founders intended, and would be ecstatic to see) holding your elected Federal and State employees accountable beyond their wildest imaginations.

    You’re watching “the help” like any good supervisor, manager or owner would and THEY DON’T LIKE IT.

    Why? You’re tirelessly performing hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual performance reviews. You are writing them letters of praise or reprimand. You are sending them the equivalent of performance improvement plans (“improve or remove” coaching letters). You are expressing your anger or disappointment for lying to you during presentations (i.e., debates on the floor of the House or Senate, during interviews with the press, or during campaign speeches) since you’re able to compare a report they delivered a year ago, or a month ago to one they gave today.

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:15am

    3) And you can even post a clip of them lying that they cannot deny or hide from. You’re catching them lying on or padding their expense reports or catching them investing or accepting rewards or favors where it’s a conflict of interest to you personally as the real CEO of this country.

    You have harnessed a resource at your fingertips – Google alone processes 24 petabytes of data alone per day – that you can use to micromanage them, in a way that they prefer to use instead to micro-manage you.

    In other words, you are doing things that they prefer TO DO TO YOU INSTEAD, AND TO YOU ONLY, AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

    SOPA and PIPA have been introduced (along with other abominable legislation of late) to keep you and the Constitution of the United States from activating at a level that they will never be able to suppress unless they act now. A tipping point in what they believe is the wrong direction is at hand. A tipping point that could restore the Republic to its original Constitutional form and end a 100 year reign of the kleptocracy.

    You and your use of the internet have inadvertently leveraged an 18th-century Constitution, a Bill of Rights, the Privileges and Immunities clause, and powers reserved to the States or the people themselves, and raised them all to an unprecedented, almost astronomical power.

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  • Twobyfour

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:20am

    A Conservatarian, quite well put. Kudos.

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:30am

    4) You have accidentally taken all the rights and powers in these old parchments to a level several orders of magnitude above the most basic objections against the divine rights of kings and despots that were so eloquently expressed, even in the Decl aration of Independence, to a dizzying height never thought possible by the Fou nders.

    You have arranged yourselves in direct competition to them, into virtual Senates, virtual Houses of Representatives, virtual Judic iaries, and virtual Insp ectors General, all in a manner that redefines what consent of the governed will mean from now on. You can all now deliberate every decision, every move, every dollar, every law, beyond the mere vehicle of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

    You have arranged yourselves into a neural net, or brain of the actual Republic, as originally intended, but never foreseen.

    And it is from that height, that the internet has allowed the US Constitution and you as the owner to, almost without being fully aware of it, decimate the worldview – the philosophy of empire – that to this day would prefer that the nuisance of the cult of liberty vanish from the face of the earth along with its insufferable US Constitution once and for all.

    You have it on the run.

    And there you have the real reason for SOPA, PIPA, and the NDAA provisions [There's another 2-3 sentences in the article but you get the gist!]

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:31am

    I keep getting tripped up trying to post part 4 – there’s some trigger censor word I’m not catching besides d o c u m e n t… so just click the link in the main comment and check it out!

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 3:34am

    Oook one doctored version of pt.4 finally worked!

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  • jespasinthru

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 6:29am

    And the best part about it is that most of the people sitting at their home computers are far more computer literate, and have much more knowledge about the inner workings of the internet than most of the tired old fossils on Capital Hill who tried to pass these toxic laws. They don’t even realize that SOPA and its companion bill would cause numerous “Anti-nets” to spring up all over the place. The hackers, techno-wizards and cyber-warriors would have a field day.

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  • Obeckian1984

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 8:58am

    Conservatarian Excellent post

    I just wish Ron Paul would have loudly Proclaimed
    and by the way I am also opposed to the Patriot act…..
    Like to see how the other NeoCons would have reacted to that.

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  • smithclar3nc3

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 9:07am

    Interesting that the internet is the new target after the NDAA was passed. So let see suspend all Constitutional rights then censor the only real means of getting the message out to the masses.
    Where I’m sure when this done CREATING CAMP FEMA will be next to house all the citizens of a free society that the progressives black bag. WAKE UP AMERICA
    ANYONE WILLING TO TRADE FREDDOM AND PERSONAL LIBERTY FOR SAFETY WILL ALWAYS END UP WITH NEITHER FREEDOM OR SAFETY.

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  • JRook

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 9:57am

    @A Conservatarian Well said although you left out the key link. That is who benefits most from the inability of the larger citizenry from being able to evaluate full information about the actors in Congress and within the government. When you see the revolving door between large corporations and the FDA, Energy Department, Agriculture Dept., Treasury, etc. you understand that it is not the group we can now watch that is at risk. It is the wealthy and large corporations who control and direct that group now which has the most to loose. But of course many of the simpletons here will swallow the left vs. right parlor game that is provide to the masses to keep them occupied while the federal government is used to transfer wealth. You can spot those as the individuals who think that food stamps, a program by the way that is heavily lobbied for by the food industry and farming associations, is the problem. Yea, no reason consider the $100s billion going out the door to military contractors, infrastructure contractors, big pharma, etc. etc. Have the proponents of free trade agreements, those who like to expound about how positive they are for the US, explain to you why if that is true would trade deficit continue to get worse.

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• run4thehills

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:33am

  If we could only stop online stupidity. Let’s enact the Stop Overall Public Ant stupidity Act. Severe penalties including death will be required.

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  • jespasinthru

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 6:36am

    But online stupidity is what amuses the rest of us.

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• Fella

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:13am

  I did not get the impression that Santorum was sharply critical as much as he begrudgingly agreed with the other three. I do not trust Santorum at all on this.

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  • the_ancient

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:15am

    and you should not, he does not care at all about “piracy” his end goal it to censor anything he deems “immoral” from the web

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  • texrubarts

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 2:12am

    Santorum is for SOPA / PIPPA. And I am not surprise S.E. Cupp is “mum” on this topic…..

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  • NancyBee

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 2:40am

    No…..I did not like Santorum’s answer at all….the laws are allready there

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  • jespasinthru

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 6:40am

    I agree. Listening to him just now made me lose a lot of respect for him. It’s not the “Wild West” out here. The Internet has done a very good job of policing itself all this time without the heavy hand of government intervention.

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  • JP16

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 8:22am

    Yeah, maybe the Blaze needs to review what Santorum said. He did not come out against it, if anything he was all for it. But maybe they think they can distort the truth and say that “all the candidates” came out sharply against it just to cover the fact that such support for a bill like this would make Santorum look like the big government politician he is.

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• The-Monk

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:06am

  Obama is the Food Stamp King…
  http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2011/09/29/obama-gives-oregon-5m-bonus-boosting-food-stamp-rolls

  http://michellemalkin.com/2011/09/29/oregon-food-stamp/

  http://sweetness-light.com/archive/or-got-5m-bonus-for-food-stamp-sign-ups

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• the_ancient

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:04am

  Santorum Used to Support SOPA, he only Changed his mind because he did not want to alienate Glenn Beck, because with out Glenn Beck he would still be at 3% of the vote

  It is SCARY that he is doing as well as he is…..

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  • piper60

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:52am

    Actually–he sounded in favor of the bill tonight to me. Lost my vote altogether. I took my email address off of his mailing list. What a tool.

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  • JP16

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 8:23am

    Definitely still supports it, until he gets on the radio with Beck and says that he doesn’t support it and that he just wasn’t clear enough.

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  • JP16

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 10:09am

    Oh, here he is on the Glenn Beck Radio Program…. Wow, is this a surprise?

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  • the_ancient

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:22pm

    @JP16 Until the Nomination (or Nov if god forbid Bibleman gets the nod) they should just rename the program to “The Rick Santorum Support Show, with your Host Pat Gray”

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• TeaPartyForRomney

  Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:31am

  Interesting how Santorum said that he liked freedom like everyone else and then attacked them for not saying there were things the government could do… they all agreed on this.

  There is way more than this in the debate. Watch the whole thing here: http://url2it.com/liee

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• ConservativeCharlie

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:50pm

  Actually as I remeber it, cause I watched the debate… Santorum actually was a little wishy washy on SOPA. Here is the biggest story of the Night… The People are standing up to the Media finally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llT5MA5pcIA

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  • Pearsontech

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 10:01am

    Yeah was really pretty disappointed with Santorums response to this question. At this point still plan to vote for him regardless of if he wins the nomination or not, but this did raise an eyebrow with me.

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• PJL

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:48pm

  Lets hope Washington is listening. SOPA has to be stopped.

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  • Joey8

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:19am

    Does anyone realize that Marco Rubio was the cosponsor if this bill with Harry Reid???

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  • slr4528

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:38am

    Joey8

    Yes, I read that too. That is what Ron Paul was talking about that there are many republicans supporting this bill. I did hear that Rubio withdrew his support for PIPA but I am not sure about SOPA. It concerns me that a Republican would even think of writing a bill to regulate or essentially censor the internet. The internet is fine the way it is. Let the private sector and our current patent and copywrite laws solve this problem.

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• ChooseSides

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:45pm

  SOPA NOPA…

  Can you say…rhymes with schrmuniversal schrmealth schrmare

  All need to link arms to defeat.

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• JENGA

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:43pm

  This is not about stopping online piracy, its all about the government wanting to control the internet, space is not the final frontier, the final frontier is the internet, at least for the government it is……

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  • Shasta

    Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:47pm

    And the government controlled all space activity and look at our space program now, DEAD. They need to leave the net alone.

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• A Conservatarian

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:39pm

  They didn’t all roundly condemn SOPA… again Tiffany, you’re too agenda driven. Three of those men said they want a piracy act, just not as intrusive as SOPA.

  One of them said they don’t want a new law and fought for legislation against anti-piracy laws, guess who?

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  • Shasta

    Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:45pm

    Close but no cigar. Ginrich said we already have patent and privacy laws and we don’t need more. Amazing how you Paulies hear what you want to hear. I will agree though that Romney’s and Sansorum’s answer on this was very sad. I think I need to admit that Sansorum is really a progressive. Still could never vote for Paul, unless it was against Obummer.

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  • slr4528

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:45am

    Romney does not want SOPA..I have seen him answer this same question multiple times. He is extremely opposed to regulations that are intrusive to the free enterprise system especially the internet. The internet business has been booming due to zero regulations.

    Santorum on the otherhand did waffle at the end of his question which made me nervous.

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  • A Conservatarian

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:49am

    Shasta… Gingrich saying he wants democratic community organizer boards to elect new citizens must’ve skewed that memory.

    Pretty sure Romney said a law was needed just not one as intrusive…. not really wanting to watch it again but ok.

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  • slr4528

    Jan. 20, 2012 at 1:09am

    Romney is opposed to SOPA and PIPA..He agreed with Gingrich about enforcing the current patent and copywrite laws. He said that many businesses have thrived on the internet and we do not need more regulations to hamper the growth of internet businesses. Again, I have seen him speak on this subject multiple times and if there is anyone against regulations that affect the growth of the free market that is Romney.

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• vampiric aristocracy

  Jan. 19, 2012 at 11:38pm

  SOPA-socialism,needs to be stopped,its a violation of a free trade capitalist market.

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