It's really easy to understand how something like this could happen. I'm sure it was a mistake by the web designer and not intentional however under SOPA he would be facing the same repercussions that everyone is worried about even though it was a mistake.
Prime example of why SOPA is so god awful.
When I was a teenager I participated in a program offered through 4H (4-h.org) every year where we would visit out State Capital and hold a mock legislative lesson over the corse of a week. Depending on what portion you had signed up for you might play the part of a Lobbyist, Legislator, Senator, Whip or even the Speaker of the House.
We would have the actual representatives and lobbyists there to give presentations and offer advice while we argued bills on the floor and made our back room dealings that would decide what bills would be killed or passed (Our advisers were not very happy when one year we legalized prostitution! LOL).
You could think of it as sort of a YCombinator of politics.
Once you understand exactly how the system works you realize why it seems that so many of our representatives seem to be absolutely clueless as to what the bills they are proposing actually do or what implications they may have.
The general gist is this:
Lobbyist: This is what I'm proposing <Insert> overly simplified explanation of the proposed legislation similar to how you would explain the inner-workings/programming of a software to your grandmother </Insert>
Lobbyist: We have a draft of the bill ready it's important to your constituents because <Insert> Three Points: from overly simplified explanation</Insert> do I have your support on this issue?
Representative: Sure send the draft to my office and I'll look it over (70% never actually will)
Rince and repeat for each representative until it has enough support to make it through committee and to the floor.
Result: 70% of the representatives only have a paragraph explanation of what they are voting on. The other 30% are the ones who actually understand the bill and will either fight for or against it.
Bill passes even if it's BAD, BAD, BAD for the State or in the case of Washington, The Country.
Prime example of why SOPA is so god awful.
When I was a teenager I participated in a program offered through 4H (4-h.org) every year where we would visit out State Capital and hold a mock legislative lesson over the corse of a week. Depending on what portion you had signed up for you might play the part of a Lobbyist, Legislator, Senator, Whip or even the Speaker of the House. We would have the actual representatives and lobbyists there to give presentations and offer advice while we argued bills on the floor and made our back room dealings that would decide what bills would be killed or passed (Our advisers were not very happy when one year we legalized prostitution! LOL).
You could think of it as sort of a YCombinator of politics.
Once you understand exactly how the system works you realize why it seems that so many of our representatives seem to be absolutely clueless as to what the bills they are proposing actually do or what implications they may have.
The general gist is this:
Lobbyist: This is what I'm proposing <Insert> overly simplified explanation of the proposed legislation similar to how you would explain the inner-workings/programming of a software to your grandmother </Insert>
Lobbyist: We have a draft of the bill ready it's important to your constituents because <Insert> Three Points: from overly simplified explanation</Insert> do I have your support on this issue?
Representative: Sure send the draft to my office and I'll look it over (70% never actually will)
Rince and repeat for each representative until it has enough support to make it through committee and to the floor.
Result: 70% of the representatives only have a paragraph explanation of what they are voting on. The other 30% are the ones who actually understand the bill and will either fight for or against it.
Bill passes even if it's BAD, BAD, BAD for the State or in the case of Washington, The Country.