Now we have to worry about politicians messing with the internet via SOPA!

As if starting a new business or expanding an existing one were not difficult enough!

The following content is from Ann Sieg’s Renegade blog post on January 12, 2012 and is so timely that I wanted to forward it to you in it’s entirety.

“What do you think about mixing business and politics?
Question for you…
Should politics and business mix? And if so, how much and what is appropriate?

The other day I made a post about the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) that was passed on New Year’s Eve.

So now that Obama has officially signed into law the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the military to arrest, indefinitely detain and even torture or kill American citizens on U.S. soil with no due process or trial by jury, the only question left is…

What are all those other people who Obama beat out for the Nobel Peace Prize doing now to top him?

BTW, if you have a problem with this, don’t bother writing your congressman – they don’t care (why do you think they signed the bill in the first place?)

Do something useful and join/support/promote The Elevation Group:

{Here’s a link to Ann’s video and her take on politics and business}
Voting Ron Paul wouldn’t hurt either but even if he did get in, what happens after he leaves office?

We need a whole lot more people like him otherwise it’s right back to the same old. That’s why this is the only true, long term solution.

Some felt that this was inappropriate for Ann’s Facebook business fan page, or mine for that matter.

What do you think the role of politics in business (or vice versa) should be?

Not at all?

It’s our responsibility to be involved?

Don’t care?

Here are two examples of large (and small) businesses getting involved in politics and even incorporating it into their marketing

#1. There is another bill currently being worked on called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

SOPA, under the banner of protecting copyrighted material, is the most horrendous and all-out effort to control and censor the internet yet and if passed, could effectively destroy the internet as a business tool and free information source.

Here’s a great video about what exactly SOPA means for the internet (I don’t agree with everything these guys say on their channel but they do a good job reporting on issues the mainstream doesn’t)…

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, along with over 30,000 other websites, either un-registered or threatened to un-register their domains with GoDaddy.com because Godaddy initially showed support for SOPA (which they have since withdrawn).

While the mainstream media has given this virtually ZERO coverage (gee I wonder why?) many prominent internet bloggers and businesses have been in an uproar about it, like Seth Godin, etc.

More information about SOPA can be found here

In addition, a group of the biggest companies online including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Paypal, Amazon, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, etc are considering an internet-wide “blackout” where they would shut down their entire sites for a day in protest of the SOPA act. They’re calling it “the nuclear option.” (This happened today, January 18, 2012 in varying degrees.)

#2. A few months ago Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks wrote a letter to the employees of Starbucks and a list of the other companies on the NYSE and Nasdaq basically asking them to withhold any more political campaign contributions until Washington gets its act together and learns how to balance a checkbook.

Learn more about what Howard Schultz is doing here.

So what do you think about mixing business and politics?”

Whether or not you and I agree with everything Ann said, it’s important to consider where we stand and make intelligent choices to protect ourselves and our businesses.

Have you considered how current political events may affect you and your business?

Will SOPA be the end of your enterprise?

Please comment below….I’d love to hear from you.