Another silly proposal from Congress
Are the representatives we send to Washington really as dumb as they often seem? It is beyond the scope of this blog to speculate on why “We the People” keep electing the sort that make silly proposals like this one (P2P Networks Harm National Security) from Henry Waxman of California but here we have another example of harmful headline-seeking. As far as I can tell, Waxman isn’t stupid but he obviously can’t resist getting on TV and in the paper by proposing a law that is not only useless for achieving its stated purpose but also would probably have unfortunate results. Sadly, this is the type of “leadership” that is so rampant in Washington. George Ou comments:
Every once in a while you’ll get a political hearing on capitol hill where elected Government officials will grand stand and politicize issues that should have nothing to do with politics. This time it’s Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman who says he is considering new laws against P2P (Peer to Peer) software citing the possibility that P2P software may compromise National Security and can be used by organized crime. The problem is that Mr. Waxman hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about and this new round of political grandstanding is absurd.
Update: Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid is contributing to the silliness with his own plan to prevent (gasp!) file sharing by students. Some details are at Inside Higher Ed.
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