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Today is a good day: Lamar Smith announces he will retire at the end of his term

snapcracken

snapcracken

Member
Oct 25, 2017
619
Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today acknowledged he is retiring at the end of his current term. Smith was one of the key sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which attracted widespread criticism for the powers it would grant companies going after copyright infringement. For the past five years, he has been chair of the House Science Committee, where he has intruded on peer review at the National Science Foundation and gotten into fights with NOAA because he refuses to accept the evidence for climate change.
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At the same time, Smith targeted the review process that approved the grants he didn't like. Grant reviewing is provided anonymously by researchers considered experts in the relevant fields. Smith demanded that the NSF hand over all documents related to the NSF's decision to fund specific grants, including "paper copies of the following public records: every e-mail, letter, memorandum, record, note, text message, all peer reviews considered for selection and recommendations made by the research panel to the National Science Foundation (NSF) or document of any kind that pertains to the NSF's consideration and approval of the grants listed below, including any approved amendments to the grants." This would end the anonymity of the peer reviewers, which the NSF objected to.
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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-sopa-and-antagonist-of-scientists-to-retire/

Basically he's a climate change denier who was made head of the House Science Committee, and then abused his power in order to uncover evidence of a fictional conspiracy that he invented in his head as the only reason federal agencies would ever put out reports showing climate change. This is in addition to him being a cosponsor of SOPA.

Pardon my langauge, but: fuck this dude.
 
Beartruck

Beartruck

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,939
There has to be some damning shit coming. Ive never seen so many career republicans up and throw in the towel at once.
 
OP
OP
snapcracken

snapcracken

Member
Oct 25, 2017
619
The Maverick said:
Is it just me, or has there been a higher than usual number of politicians retiring before 2018?
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It's a combination of R's angry with their party for allowing the Trump crazies into the fold/not getting anything done and those up for re-election who don't think they can survive a primary challenge from someone on the right of them, so they're "retiring" to save face.
 
SolarPowered

SolarPowered

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,211
Beartruck said:
There has to be some damning shit coming. Ive never seen so many career republicans up and throw in the towel at once.
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The Russia scandal will likely go down as one of the biggest political events of the century if it's as bad as people think it is. We're talking about the highest office of the world's sole superpower being infiltrated by an enemy state. This is the sort of stuff that can't even pass for bad fiction.
 
miscellaneous houseplant

miscellaneous houseplant

self-requsted ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
306
EternalWinter said:
From the article:


Why do we still allow this? Seems crazy to me.
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Allows buildup of institutional knowledge and networks. Rapid turnover in the house and/or senate would increase the power of special interests and lobbyists since they would know more about how government runs than the actual government. Would also promote former representatives moving into lobbying even more readily.
 
ahoyhoy

ahoyhoy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,319
His combover will not be missed.

I guess he figures his work is done since SOPA is irrelevant with Net Neutrality circling the drain.
 
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