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Understand Net Neutrality

Understand that the Internet you know and love is being threaten. Take 6.5 minutes to watch this video to better understand net neutrality and why you should be in touch with your representative in Washington.

UPDATE: Be sure to watch this one also which presents the other side of the debate. Here’s a comment I just made at Say Uncle:

I think that link should be balanced with the other side.

Knowing the Internet on the technical side as intimately as I do, I think both videos leave out critical information. I’m still weighing my thoughts on the issue. Right now I think the 6.5 minute video in favor of regulation presents better arguments. The hands off video is more strongly deceptive in making people think that Google and the giants are getting a free ride which they aren’t. They have to pay for connectivity just like the rest of us and bandwidth at their magnitude can get expensive. Any small time publisher that has found the front page of Instapundit, Digg, Slashdot, BoingBoing or the rest knows the pain.

I still have to think this one over.

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Save the Internet – MoveOn’s Petition

Everyone should have heard about the Save The Internet movement and the proposed law that has all technologists in fear.

Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet’s First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Many members of Congress take campaign contributions from these companies, and they don’t think the public are paying attention to this issue. Let’s show them we care – please sign this petition today.

MoveOn.org has put up an online petition. Here is MoveOn’s privacy policy:

Privacy Policy

We do not share the information you’ve given us with unaffiliated groups without your explicit permission.
Petitions and Surveys

For petitions and surveys you’ve signed or completed, we treat your name, city, state, and comments as public information—for example, we may provide compilations of petitions, with your comments, to the President and legislators, other targets, or to the press. We will not make your street address publicly available, but we may transmit it to members of Congress and to the President as part of a petition. This is a standard industry practice in such situations. In no such case will we disclose your email address or phone number, without your permission. We may also make your comments, along with your first name, city and state available to the press and public online.
Sending Emails Via MoveOn.org Civic Action

In certain cases, we enable you to send individual e-mails to the President, legislators, and other targets as well as Letters-to-the-Editor to various news publications, through our website. These messages are sent in your name, with your e-mail address as the return address and your full name and contact information is provided as part of the submission. These messages will only be sent out under your name as you approve them on an individual basis using our email tool. You are solely responsible for the specific message(s) you send using our email tool.
Email from MoveOn.org Civic Action

MoveOn will send you updates on this and other important campaigns by email. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, you may do so by completing this form.

For our complete privacy policy, click here.

FreePress.net also has a petition.

I’d like to emphasize that these petitions are great but nothing communicates to a politican as much as a handwritten letter, email, fax or phone call directly from you! Contact your representative today!

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Here comes impeachment!

You know, I get the impression the new trend is going to be to impeach every president. I read an interesting comment over the weekend that the state of affairs with our government at this moment is similar (albeit worse) than just before Nixon’s leaving the office. Now, the Illinois State Legislature is preparing to impeach Bush and California is right on their tail.

a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.

…five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony…

Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.

An ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate investigation.

And California:

Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well.

Koretz said, “we will be paying for the Bush Administration’s illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades—not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion—we can’t afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it.”

Expect to see Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina be next to follow suit.

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The Presidency, Representing the People

I came into this world shortly after Richard Nixon took office. I can’t say much on his presidency but he proved to be a fantastic politican in his post-presidency.

Of Gerald Ford, what can I say other than Chevy Chase. Of his presidency, I knew only that one day I could grow up to be president, and that meant something.

I understand the distaste some people have for Jimmy Carter. I’ve read the information that relates today’s Iranian issues to his presidency while others say he laid ground work to avoid today’s problems; let’s not forget the 1953 CIA-engineered coup to oust Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. We have fiddled with Iran for a long time but the U.S. betrayal of the shah in 1978 was bad. I liked Carter as a president. I think his post-presidency has been amongst the best with his involvement in human rights and Habitat for Humanity.

Personally, Ronald Reagan has been a favorite of mine. I don’t understand why some people still talk down of his 8 years but that could simply be my ignorance of politics. And, if anything, we got the pleasure of Land of Confusion from his presidency!

George Bush, Sr. I liked, had respect for, and trusted as a president.

Bill Clinton comes in second as my favorite president during my lifetime (pre-me I like the Roosevelts quite a bit). Clinton made a huge mistake with the sex scandal. We as a society made a larger mistake by making an issue of the sex scandal instead of letting it quietly go away. Politically, he did great things!

George W Bush, Jr remains the only president I cannot respect. I feel he represents his own interests and not those of the people. I feel he has worked to damage democracy and has laid the groundwork to see the United States as a facist government. Although I support my president, despite these views, I cannot wait to see him leave office.

The following video is an artistic and well edited depiction of George W Bush, Jr that captures his attitudes and pompousness that so rubs me wrong. Nice work D. Ledonne! Warning! The video contains imagery that some may find upsetting or disturbing. Also, the word "nigga" is repeated frequently.

Music video of DJ RX’s “Who’s the Nigga” from his album ‘The Party Party.’ President George W. Bush shares his grand vision for the future for the USA–creating a united America with justice and democratic representation for all.

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Rice on Iran: ‘We can’t let this continue’

The countdown is on! Anyone want to place bets on when we go in? I’m betting within 30 days we have bombers in the air and troops moving across the border.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that it is “time for action” on the international demands for Iran to cease its uranium enrichment activities.

[Source]

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US to nuke Iran

So, did anyone not see this one coming?

US considers use of nuclear weapons against Iran
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The administration of
President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against
Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue.

One former defense official said the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government,”

the possible use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, to insure the destruction of Iran’s main centrifuge plant at Natanz

“There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries,” the magazine quotes the Pentagon adviser as saying.

The adviser warned that bombing Iran could provoke “a chain reaction” of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world and might also reignite Hezbollah.

“If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle,”

[Source]

Which of course is one reason we are in Iraq. (in my opinion)

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Bush Gets Scolded

A member of GW’s audience in NC gave him his mind.

“While I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water,” real estate broker Harry Taylor told Bush at a town hall meeting. “I have never felt more ashamed of nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington.”

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The New FU Government

Anyone remember GW’s finger flipping video?

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics. …making the obscene gesture and explaining “That’s Sicilian.”

Sicilian for what? "I have no sense of propriety"?! [Source]

And I’m reminded that Cheney told a senator to "F*&k yourself."

Our current administration gives me the feeling that our forefathers worked hard to establish this country and now its just the polticians playground…not very different than a man working hard to build wealth for his family only to have his children squander and not appreciate the wealth.

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Saving the Internet

Alright! Let’s hear it for Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.)! A politician that understands with the telcos are doing. Earlier I posted "Large Telcos Want To Kill The Internet". Rep. Rick Boucher explains:

Essentially, what these executives are proposing is the creation of a two-lane Internet where larger, more established websites with financial resources could squeeze out smaller, emerging websites. …

Internet2, a nonprofit partnership of universities, companies and affiliate organizations, including federal agencies and laboratories, has been studying this matter and has demonstrated that a multitrack Internet model is unnecessary to assure quality of service. Internet2 has for the past seven years deployed an advanced broadband network to more than 5 million users and has learned that in a network with enough bandwidth there is no congestion and no bits need preferential treatment because all of them arrive quickly enough to assure excellent quality, even if intermingled.

I find it somewhat sad that our speed over the last mile, that is from the switch to the house, is so slow.

In countries such as Japan and Korea, network speeds over the last mile of 100 megabits per second (mbps) are common. In the United States, our typical speed is less than 1 mbps.

Special thanks to Tom Maszerowski of My Likes and Dislikes for pointing out Rep. Rick Boucher!

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House of Reps Banned from Wikipedia

Looks like the House overstepped its bounds.

The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on [Wikipedia]…

Matt Vogel, Meehan’s chief of staff, said he authorized an intern in July to replace existing Wikipedia content with a staff-written biography of the lawmaker.

Looks like it becomes a question of ethics particularly considering that the logs show vandalic changes to other political profiles coming from the House ip addresses.

the sheer breadth of changes emanating from the House reflects an abuse of public time and equipment, said Stephen Potts, former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, now chairman of the Ethics Resource Center.

When will integrity return to politics?