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The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2060) and Senate (S. 1353) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your senators and your representative to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act by clicking here.
This is from SaveTheInternet.com…
AT&T chief Ed Whitacre handed the keys over to his replacement Randall Stephenson yesterday, but not before giving a rousing pep talk to fellow executives in the company’s San Antonio board room.
There’s a problem. It’s called Net Neutrality…. Well, frankly, we say to hell with that. We’re gonna put up some toll booths and start charging admission…. Will Congress let us do it? You bet they will — cuz we don’t call it cashin’ in. We call it ‘deregulation.’
This is regarding the Net Neutrality issue.
Don’t let the FCC turn over control of the Internet to the phone and cable companies. Next thing you know there will be a tiered system of available packages. For just $7.99 a month extra you can have the “Search Package” where you will have access to Google and Alta Vista (when was the last time you used Alta Vista?). No access to Yahoo search though. That’s a different package. Yahoo will cost you extra.
That doesn’t sound too cool to me. Speak up. Save your money for self-medicating. Sign the petition here. And ask your friends to do the same.
The argument about high gas prices often comes down to the excuse that enviromentalists and/or liberals block the oil companies from building new refineries. It has also been noted that “CEOs for BP, Shell and Conoco all testified to Congress last year that environmental requirements have not blocked a single planned refinery expansion.”
John Van Doorn talks about the old refinery dodge here.
If it’s so hard to get permits to build a new refinery how did the people at Arizona Clean Fuels manage to do it? I call bullshit.
When he announced the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security in 2002, President Bush invoked the fight against “terror” or “terrorists” 19 times in a single speech.
That’s more mentions than there have been terrorism charges brought by the department in the last three years. That said, the terrorists are still after reporters children.
Jon Stewart does a great job of laying out the contradictions of Goodling, Sampson and Gonzales. Raw Story has the video.
How exactly did these fuck ups come to be the top lawyers in the country?
Maplight.org is a website that connects the dots between lawmakers voting records and the money they’ve recieved from special interest groups. Check out David Pogue’s post on the NY Times site. You can view a video tour for Maplight.org here.
How about using the felony act of “caging”? It’s worked for every election that Karl Rove has been involved with. Don’t buy into the claim that “caging” is just a direct-marketing technique. “Caging” in regards to voting is a felony. I know what you’re saying, ‘Karl would never be involved in anything so underhanded.’ I hear you. I can’t believe it either. He seems like such a stand up guy.
Anyway, “caging” is when someone sends registered mail to an address of a registered voter. If and when that letter is returned as undeliverable because either the occupant wasn’t home, was serving in the military or just did not want to sign for the letter that registered voter is put on a “caging” list. To be on this list means that one would have to prove at the polling place that their voter registration is valid. Voters targeted by caging are often the most vulnerable: those who are unfamiliar with their rights under the law, and those who cannot spare the time, effort, and expense of proving that their registration is valid.
Usually these registered letters are sent to predominantly ethnic and Democratic neighborhoods. Weird huh?
There’s a great post over at the BradBlog by Greg Palast on “caging”, Goodling, Rove and the rest.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) presses Monica Goodling about taking of political considerations into account, and gets her to admit that she “crossed the line” of the law. Crooks and Liars has the video.
Former Deputy Attorney General Comey testified that he and then-AG Ashcroft reviewed the NSA warrantless wiretapping program and determined it to be illegal. Comey rushed to the hospital bedside of the barely-conscious Ashcroft to prevent Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales from strong-arming approval for the program. It looks like ABC and CBS didn’t feel it was newsworthy. Maybe if it was Anna Nicole’s hospital bedside it would be.
Future Humans 