Be sure to look at both bills that are relevant, SB 773 and SB 778. It isn't quite as innocent as one might want to believe and I believe definitely leaves room open for exploitation. Taken from a web site summarizing the pair of bills:

* First, the White House, through the national cybersecurity advisor, shall have the authority to disconnect "critical infrastructure" networks from the Internet - including private citizens' banks and health records, if Rockefeller's examples are accurate - if they are found to be at risk of cyber attack. The working copy of the bill, however, does not define what constitutes a cybersecurity emergency, and apparently leaves the question to the discretion of the president.
* Second, the bill establishes the Department of Commerce as "the clearinghouse of cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information," including the monitoring of private information networks deemed a part of the "critical infrastructure."
* Third, the legislation proposes implementation of a professional licensing program for certifying who can serve as a cybersecurity professional.

Really though, I would suggest moving voting day to the 16th of April. People might be a bit more critical of their options the day after they have had to pay taxes. Is it any mystery that voting day and tax day are at opposite sides of the calendar?

As I understand the whole licensing deal with FireWire, the 1 dollar per port charge is an isolated instance. The average license is quite a bit lower and in any case is determined by the intended use and volume.

Why is it everyone sees thing in pure black and white?

Very few things in the world are so cut and dried. Personally I think FireWire is a cool technology and over pricing it would hurt its acceptance. I don't see this happening though. Last I heard Sony, Texas Instruments, Fuji, Philips and Sun were plenty happy with the arrangement. In fact I believe Sony licensed the Apple patents for a flat $7,500. Somehow I doubt they've made only 7500 FireWire devices...