get my country back

With the deposing of the neo-cons from power we have taken the first step to reclaiming the country. Now the hard work begins, its time to hold our newly elected officials accountable for reclaiming the American dream. Holding them accountable for ending our illegal war in Iraq. Holding them accountable for ending the neo-con lead era of “Borrow and Spend” and takes to a time when we quit mortgaging the future to pay for today’s wealth transfer to the already rich.

The great myth of “trickle-down economics” has been dispelled by the realities of an economic meltdown. It showed that the only thing trickling down on the working people of America was a liquid of yellow color.

Now is the time to rejoice at the success and then prepare for the long haul of making sure that those we elected deliver.

Well, apparently our president knew this… since he stated so on 9/18/2003. He said, “No, we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.” ( Seattle PI )

That’s right… Iraq has nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks… Bush went on to say that Saddam was involved with Al-Qaida based on al-Zarqawi having visited Iraq. (The evidence indicates he was there for medical reasons… and that he actually met with people interested in replacing Saddam’s secular government with a religious run Islamic state.)

Yes… Our president can’t actually be accused of actually lying since it wasn’t technically a lie… However, he and his administration clearly clouded the facts to allow people to believe that the invasion of Iraq was about the 9/11 attacks.

Its time to put a stop to this… its time to stand up and recognize that Bush has actually committed war crimes and should be held accountable. Its time to hold his whole administration accountable for the War from Bush to is Cabinet. (Frankly most of the folks in Congress are complicit as well.) Its time to send a message to the leaders of the US Government that we will no longer tolerate such abuse of power. Its time to stand up and call an end to the unjustified and illegal war in Iraq. Its time to impeach President Bush and Dick Cheney for lying to the American public and then try them for Crimes Against Humanity for their unjustified war with Iraq. We need to do this to protect Freedom in America.

Remember, Clinton went before an impeachment proceeding for lying to the American public and no one died, not one person died because of the lie Clinton told. However, Bush lied and 10,000’s have died! and over 30,000 US solders have been wounded. Its time, write your Senators… Write you Congress person… ask them to impeach Bush.

Since we have not quite gotten our country back from the Corporate interests, its Neo-conservative policy makers, and those who seek to create an Evangelical Christian Church-State out of the US Government I post again on the topic.

I ran across this website today on a listserv I am a member of… The page presents an interesting way of looking at how American culture has evolved over the last 40/50 years.

My favorite line from the page is this one:

Your opinion matters as much as anyone else’s – When a person has studied a topic, he has no more real knowledge than you do, just a hidden agenda.

American Cargo Cult

So, our Repbulican Congressional leaders (not having anything meaningful to do to help the country like balance the Budget or help working Americans) has determined that there is a need in this country for a set of laws that prevent the collection of legal fees and costs in Lawsuits that are trying to maintain Separation of Church and State. Seems that all these lawsuits to try to force governments to actually abide by the Constitution have had an impact and our friends in the Religious Right are trying to make and end-run around the Constitution.

So, what’s the deal here, why should I care?

Well, what the law does is to make it very very expensive to sue the government (at any level) to force the government to comply with the Law in the case of Religious topics. So, say your local town is dominated by folks of one religious sect and they decided to use the town’s money and facilities to promote their particular faith. In order to prevent your tax money being used to promote their faith you would have to sue them in court. Right now the law allows you to recover your costs and seek penalties. However, PERA would force you to bear the full burden of cost of such litigation.

The result of PERA (should it pass) is to remove the ability to enforce the First Amendment. The deep pockets of the Government against the shallow pockets of the private citizen or advocacy group. Now, imagine… if this law gets passed all the other things such laws could protect government or business from being forced to comply with. The Religious Right is not satisfied with Religious Freedom… They want to save everyone for Jesus… whether you want to be saved or not.

So, you need to stand up for true Religious Freedom by supporting a government that is Free From Religion. Write your Representatives in Washington DC, Call them, or send them Email… But make it known that you support Government Free from Religious Influence… You support True Religious Freedom by keeping government Free From Religion.

Its time… its time to stand up and let your feelings be known. Its time to write your Senators and tell them that YOU expect them to stand up for a “Free and Open Internet” that you expect them to vote for the interests of Consumer/Citizens whose trust they have been granted.

You say its difficult… You say you can’t afford the time or the stamp. I say… its pay now or pay a lot later. But, I will help make it cheaper and easier… User this link to find your Senators and go to their email page and email them. Its only cost is a few minutes of your time.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The issue of Cable/Telecom control and the Internet is critical to an open democracy… Its critical to maintaining a healthy Internet full of innovation and opportunity.

Financial Times Article copied on freepress.net warns of the threats to US Democracy and makes a call to action to protect that Democracy.

The Media Corporations are gaining control over everything you see, read, and hear… Soon they will feed you what they want you to see and hear… News will be like the Orwellian 1984 Ministry of Truth where history and the news were flexible and plastic things to be molded and shaped to serve the ends of the power elite. Hey, we’re already fighting a war in Eurasia… next month… who knows… we might have always been fighting a war with East Asia.

• Politically Sensitive Websites
• They would be allowed to create bundled content and block competing content (like deciding that they only wanted to offer Fox News on your Cable Service and block everyone else.)
• Stop carrying Public Access channels
• Block your access to iTunes Music Store because Microsoft contracted to offer Music services through your ISP.
• Block access to Craig’s List because they have their own “pay for” classified ads system.

This is about so much more than charging for tiered service… its about dramatically increasing the profits of the massive Telecoms so that the Execs get bigger bonuses.

One must understand this is a direct challenge on Freedom and Democracy that gives the Telco/Cable giants the power and permission to control what you can see, read, hear, and do.

My Congress man (Dave Reichert) appears to think that he can obsfuscate his position on Network Neutrality… I thought you folks would like to see how our representitives try to portray their positions…

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns regarding telecommunications regulations. I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, on June 8, 2006, the House approved H.R.5252, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act by a bipartisan vote of 321 – 101. I supported this bill because it allows consumers more choice and competition to television and the Internet and also encourages investment in next generation broadband networks. H.R.5252 will reduce regulatory barriers allowing local telephone companies to enter and compete with the cable television market. The COPE Act promotes needed competition in video, bringing more choices, lower prices, and better services to consumers.

I find this an interesting perspective to offer. He says he’s supporting choice and competition by allowing the Cable/Telecom companies un control monopoly positions. (Since, there is a duopoly of control in the delivery of broadband connections to people’s homes in the US. You can choose the phone company or the Cable company… That’s not competition when you give them the right to control who has access and who does not.) Further, this will cause a direct increase in your cost to use the internet and to buy items from the internet. As charges passed to the content providers simply gets passed along to consumers.

During consideration of the COPE Act, there was an open debate on “net neutrality”. Net neutrality is the term used to describe the concept of keeping the Internet open to all lawful content, application and services. There has been increasing concern that owners of local broadband connections (cable or telephone companies) may block or discriminate against certain Internet users and/or sites and give advantage to their own services and/or Internet sites.

You may be interested to know I supported an amendment to the COPE Act offered by Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) that would add stronger net neutrality language to ensure the preservation of the Internet as a free market, preventing any discriminatory nature of the Internet. This amendment would have ensured that consumers continue to access any lawful Internet site, content, services and applications without the interference from network operators. Unfortunately, the Markey amendment failed by a vote of 152 – 269. The COPE Act has been referred to the Senate and no further action has taken place at this time.

Interesting… I do note that he supported the amendment… but apparently not with enough conviction to actually stand up and vote against a Cope act without Neutrality Protections. Seems to me he needed an out to “look like a nice guy on the subject”.

Please be assured I understand your concerns about the COPE Act. As Congress continues to consider telecommunications legislation, I will maintain my support for the continued growth of the Internet as an open, non-discriminatory platform for communication and innovation. I do not believe in blocking, degrading or impairing consumer access to the Internet and its content.

Really Some how I’m just not getting that he understands my concerns… Seems to me if he understood… he would have voted against the bill!!!!

I appreciate hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any other concerns or questions. It is important to note, due to heightened security procedures resulting from Anthrax and Ricin incidents, mail to my U.S. Capitol office is significantly delayed. I encourage you to contact me via my website at http://www.house.gov/reichert/ to expedite your thoughts and I apologize for any inconvenience.

Already done… I’ve posted my concerns to his website and email. He doesn’t get it… I’m going to work to help him understand…

The following link is an article from the New York times titled: “Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End”

http://www.freepress.net/news/15726

There is this extract from the article that tells what the real battle is about:

”... Last year, the chief executive of what is now AT&T sent shock waves through cyberspace when he asked why Web sites should be able to “use my pipes free.” Internet service providers would like to be able to charge Web sites for access to their customers. Web sites that could not pay the new fees would be accessible at a slower speed, or perhaps not be accessible at all. ...”

• We pay for them in our monthly service fees.
• We pay for them with our tax subsidies to Telecom companies
• We pay for them by the Free use of public rights-of-way for their cables and wires
• We pay for them through sanctioned monopolies and duopolies that control price and restrict competition.

The issue is not that it costs to build out the internet… the issue is that the Cable and Telecom providers want a share of the revenue stream generated by business that use the wires you already pay them for… and guaranty them a profit for. The Telcom/Cable industry wishes to make money from both sides of the equation.

It must be understood… that the likes of MSN and eBay already pay to connect to the internet. They pay large fees each month for large pipes… they don’t receive their connections for free. You also pay for your connections… What is at stake here is the question of “can acces be charged for twice?” You pay your provider for bandwith to your home. eBay pays its provider for access to its data centers. Each of us pay right now. What the Cable/Telcom companies want to to charge twice for access to your home. They want you to pay for your pipe (your bandwidth allocation) and they want the like of eBay to pay for the same bandwidth you’ve already paid for.

It time you make your voices heard… its time to tell Congress to quit caving into the Telcom/Cable lobby and protect an open internet where monopolies and duopolies are not handed protection to raise their prices at will with no where for you to go to find competition.

For those who don’t know… The freedoms we have come to expect of the Internet are under assault by the Telecoms and Cable companies. They seek to take their controlling position at the “last mile” of the Internet (between the net and you, the consumer) and exploit it to charge extra for “preferred bandwidth”. ( article )

The Issue at hand is not the Bandwidth but that they do not want any protections written into law to protect “neutrality” or “equal access”. The Telecoms/Cable companies have a near monopoly on the “last mile” in this country. Most consumers have few if any choices in who their broadband provider is and most of these carriers run their wires or lines across public lands and through publically owned facilities without rent, lease, or royalty for such use. And, now they want the right to charge others for “priority” and the right to choose who to sell such priority to.

The Telecom/Cable companies argue that they are merely asking for a “free market” and under such a free market the Internet with “thrive”. The problem with this arguement is history speaks differently of such things.

First, the internet has always been regulated (until lately), requiring “Neutrality” of access. In such a “neutral” environment the internet has boomed and exploded in its range of services and its place in the ecconomy. It was because of the regulation that the Internet is as useful as it is.

Second, history has shown that when market access is controlled by a few companies that operate without regulation or public oversight, those companies act to contrain and control that access. They increase prices, they block competition, they control the flow of information. One could see this in the “factory towns” of the 19th and 20th century. Once can see this in the actions of companies like Standard Oil before the “trust busting” days.

Its time to let your Representitives in Washington DC that “Network Neutrality” is important to you. That maintaining an Internet with equality of access and neutrality of service providers is an issue that you care about. Its time to join the fight to protect yourself from the monopolies of the Media Companies in cooperation with the Telecom and Cable companies.

(Imagine a world of the internet where Disney controlled your content. That’s what could happen here.)

For more information… go to:
http://www.freepress.net/