Rocco Maglio 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (72) comment rss

  • On the post: Chicago's Secret Homan Square Detention Facility Way Worse Than Anyone Thought

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2015 @ 06:10am

    Re: IRS Targeting

    If you look at the numbers you will see that it was conservative groups that received the harder scrutiny. NPR provided a table of the numbers http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/07/30/207080580/report-irs-scrutiny-worse-for-conservatives. If you look conservative groups that were target there were 104 groups, they were asked 1552 questions in total, and 46% of the groups were approved. The progressive groups target were 7 in total, they were asked 33 questions in total and 100% were approved.

  • On the post: Charter Acquires Time Warner Cable, Promises It Will Suck Less Than Blocked Comcast Merger

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 27 May, 2015 @ 05:24am

    Re: Bright House?

    My understanding is Brighthouse was spun out of Time Warner when they merged with AOL. The Newhouse family had a large investment with Time Warner and were allowed to take several Time Warner markets and form a new company, since they opposed the merger. Brighthouse still relies on Time Warner for infrastructure, so I makes sense for them to be sold together.

  • On the post: Showtime, HBO Working With ISPs To Make Their Streaming Services Cap Exempt

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2015 @ 09:33am

    FCC misses the entire point of Net Neutrality

    The entire point of Net Neutrality was missed by the FCC's massive changes. So the changes which may result in all sorts of new regulations of the Internet don't even fix the major issue of net neutrality. Net neutrality became a major issue because Edward Whitacre, Jr said on NPR that Bellsouth wanted a piece of the action from all the internet companies making money off his customers. He was going to do this by charging internet companies for access to his customers. After the FCCS massive changes the ISP are still allowed to double dip by charging for access to their customers. Great job everyone we were screwed.

  • On the post: New York Times Turns Ads Off On 'Sensitive' Stories

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2015 @ 07:56am

    This is standard practice

    Turning off ads and/or comments on sensitive stories is common in the industry. Usually this is done by not printing the ad server javascript when the story is sensitive. Advertisers would be very annoyed if their hotel ad ran on a bed bugs story or any ad on a gruesome tragedy. I don't think I would trust the meta tag and continue to not print the javascript.

  • On the post: The FCC's Historic Day: Voting Yes For Net Neutrality, Voting No On Protectionist State Telecom Law

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2015 @ 10:52am

    Don't cheer just yet

    We don't know what passed. I would wait to see what the rules are before I cheer. It could be great, terrible, or something in between.

  • On the post: As Expected: Trial Lawyers Made A Huge Miscalculation In Killing Recent Patent Reform

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 21 Nov, 2014 @ 12:13pm

    Trail Lawyers are the Market solution

    I find it interesting that many Republicans are against trial lawyers. Trial lawyers allow the market to punish badly behaving individuals and companies. If you remove this market, you have to add regulators to make sure that individuals and companies are punished and removed from the market. In thiis instance the Democrats are generally pro market and the Republicans are pro regulators.

    For instance, say a doctor rapes some of his patients while working at a clinic. The clinic had several reports of this and did nothing. Currently that would be settled by suing the clinic. If that option is removed, there would have to be more regulation to stop the clinic from acting in this manner. Regulators would be needed to shutdown the clinic if it continued to allow this behavior.

  • On the post: Yet Another Study Shows US Satire Programs Do A Better Job Informing Viewers Than Actual News Outlets

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2014 @ 07:57am

    Comedy News is problematic

    There is a problem with comedy news and that is that they have no accountability. If they make false statements they just say that are a comedy program. If they are news they should be held to account like everyone else or they are not held to account and everyone should know they are not news. I remember when Jon Stewart claimed that the picture was not Anthony Wiener, since he had seen his junk and it was not that big. That turned out to be false and I did not hear Jon make an apology. It was a big story since it ended the political career of a rising star and member of Congress. Jon Stewart made several false claims to try to help his friend.

  • On the post: Surprise: President Obama Calls For Real Net Neutrality

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2014 @ 08:37am

    Re: Re:

    Sounds good so far, but we better stay vigilant. I remember when Obama was elected the Net Neutrality group I joined disbanded because their job was done. That has not worked out so far. We will need to pay close attention to final rules.

  • On the post: Broadband Industry: Title II Is Bad Because Only A Broken Congress Awash In Our Lobbying Cash Should Guide Net Neutrality

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2014 @ 01:45pm

    Obama awash in telecom money too

    Obama received quite a bit of money from telecom industry, Including fundraisers at the Comcast/NBC chairman's home. I would say the President is also awash in this money. The chairman of the FCC we are turning this over to regulate is a former telecom lobbyist. If President Obama does a good job with net neutrality I will be impressed, but he has been better with words than actions.

  • On the post: You Know Who Else Hates Everyone In Congress? Congress!

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2014 @ 06:39am

    Maybe Ted Cruz is our friend

    If we hate them and they hate Ted Cruz then maybe Ted Cruz is our friend. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

  • On the post: American Spectator Magazine Deletes All Mentions Of Brett Kimberlin Following Apparent Settlement

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2014 @ 04:22pm

    Re: Re: ACA Obamacare passed filibuster by one vote

    ACA (Obamacare) passed the Senate filibuster (60) by one vote in the Senate on a party line vote. This is why when Scott Brown won they had to use the once a year budgetary exception on the bill in conference. The Senator he is referring to is Ted Stevens, apparently there was issue with the prosecution coaching one witness and hiding another witness. The judge at the time said it was some of the most egregious behavior he had ever seen by a prosecutor.

  • On the post: DOJ Inspector General Says FBI Actively Preventing Him From Doing His Job

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2014 @ 05:21am

    Attorney General Holder does not believe in oversight

    Holder has made three statements to congress that were not true. There was a statement on the new black panthers, fast and the furious, and in regard to criminally investigating journalist. He did this because he does not believe he should have any oversight. He is a political hack and uses his office to further political ends. If you expect anything for the AG office you have not been paying attention.

  • On the post: Ferguson Debacle Results In Armored Vehicles Being Removed From Two California Police Departments

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2014 @ 10:38am

    Need to use the equipment

    If the police department has this equipment it is going to feel the need to use it. I was amused when the Brevard Sheriff used their armored personnel carrier in a hostage situation that involved a knife. I am sure this equipment requires expensive maintenance and it needs to justified in the budget, so it will be necessary to use it periodically.

  • On the post: Can We Create A Public Internet Space Where The First Amendment, Not Private Terms Of Service, Rules?

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2014 @ 11:02am

    Re: The Law

    I need a citation for this claim the corporations are required to maximize share holder value. Here is the wikipedia for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_value. Are you claiming there requirement is for short term or long term share holder value. If we are talking long term, if your users leave how much is your site worth. An internet companies value is closely related to the number and enthusiasm of their users, so we are definitely not discussing long term value.

  • On the post: Two SuperPACs Focused On Ending SuperPACs Release New TV Commercials

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2014 @ 01:02pm

    Looks like just a Democrat ad attacking Scott Brown

    It looks to me to just be a Democrat ad attacking Scott Brown. These super PACs to end all super pacs ends up being another left leaning PAC. I guess I saw that coming when it was named the MayDay PAC. A pro union holiday is what the PAC is named after makes sense it is supporting the Union candidate.

  • On the post: Real Reporting Is About Revealing Truth; Not Granting 'Equal Weight' To Bogus Arguments

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2014 @ 06:35am

    Well meaning censorship is still wrong

    It would seem to me that Mr. Rosen is calling for censorship. He believes that only one view point should be presented. This causes people to not understand how anyone could possibly have a different view, so they demonize people who do not agree with them. You expose people to the facts for and against something. If a fact does not fit the narrative you should not ignore it. This is exactly what is wrong with journalism today.

  • On the post: Turns Out When Police Act Cordial, Rather Than As An Oppressive Military Force, Things Work Out Better

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2014 @ 11:36am

    Overcome by events

    This post has been overcome by events. It was too early to give Captain Johnson his victory lap. After this day of little violence there were a number of days with rioting and looting. The national guard was called in to try to restore peace. A number of business were looted and will not recover.

  • On the post: Administration Proudly Announces That If Your 'We The People' Petition Aligns With Its Priorities, Something Might Actually Happen

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2014 @ 09:30am

    The library of congress is part of the Administration

    Another amusing fact about all this is that the Library of Congress reports to the President not Congress. The Obama PR campaign knew that few people would know this so they could blame the whole thing on congress. A member of the Obama Administration (the head of the Library of Congress) changed the rules. All they needed to do was replace this over reaching person with someone who would follow the past precedent and the problem would have been solved. Alternately they could have used the name of the institution to score cheap political points and do very little to solve the issue.

  • On the post: President Obama Says He's Against Fast Lanes On The Internet, But FCC Proposal Would Allow Them

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 06 Aug, 2014 @ 06:46am

    Obama does not do difficult decisions

    Obama does not do difficult decisions. He answers yes and no. He takes action, but is not responsible for the action since he was forced to do it, because of some other circumstances. He doesn't take action, but that is because it was someone else's fault. He is not into solutions since there is responsibility associated with that. He prefers to play the blame game. He would not be a great person to work with.

  • On the post: President Obama Claims CIA Torture Was Okay Because People Were Scared And The CIA Is A 'Tough Job'

    Rocco Maglio ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2014 @ 02:01pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Torture never works

    I used the example because the guy who got this information out of the guy (He was a deputy of Saddam) was on TV for a while talking about how he did it without torture. Saddam deputy's relatives were arrested and placed in Iraqi prisons where some of them were raped and killed. The guy talked to have the rest of his relatives released.

    We did not torture the guy or his relatives. We just set up circumstances where this would happen.

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