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POPSThe Ongoing Battle Over How the Web is Run There is a sinister side to ISPs having this kind of power. Proponents of net-neutrality"people who believe that everyone should be free to do whatever they please on the Internet without interference or limitation so long as they pay their monthly bill"forsee a future where ISPs will milk money out of their subscribers by instituting a tiered system of Intenet provision. People would only be able to access more bandwidth by paying more money. Even worse, they could “throttle,” or choke out the connection, of anyone found doing anything with their connection that they didn’t approve of, controlling the sites you were able to visit.
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POPSApproved by White House ~ Reform Media.Transform Democracy
Is Dissent ‘Legitimate’? Not According to Campaign Finance Laws by Bert Gall and Robert Frommer -- Pajamas Media After the administration decreed that Fox is not a “legitimate news organization” and that people shouldn’t watch it, more people than ever are tuning in to see Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly fight back. Fundamentally, it’s because the administration’s media war against Fox is but a minor display of the tremendous power the government has to stifle speech it views as illegitimate. Much of this power is the result of long-standing “campaign finance” laws. These laws impose all sorts of restrictions on political speech, and it’s no coincidence that the most draconian of these restrictions are targeted at those who can speak the most effectively against a politician’s reelection. The most effective speakers tend to be those who can spend the most money. Corporations, many of which have lots of money, receive particularly harsh treatment under
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POPSBeck says Net Neutrality would 'destroy the free market that created the Internet'. Oh really? 
The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. Meanwhile, Beck has yet to explain how regulations constraining the mega-corporations that provide our Internet infrastructure from deciding what content we can and can't access would actually take the system "out of the private hands of private business". Maybe Beck can explain to us why Comcast was attacking peer-to-peer file sharing on its network system.
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POPSObama’s Media Control Strategy The new plan: federal government would define a “new public square” with a “common space with shared facts.” The only reason I can see why the federal government wants to “define a new public square” is so it can have some control over the flow of information. Am I being too paranoid? If the internet is to remain a truly free-flow of information, we need to keep it free from any type of control. Sure, there will always be misinformation, but having multiple sources of info is the checks-and-balances system to identify that misinformation as bogus. This new system sounds suspiciously like the “new public square” is the “public option” for the media and this extreme makeover is not only for media but our system of government.
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POPSGuess Who Wants to Control the Internet? On last night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart took up the issue of "net neutrality" and Senator John McCain's efforts to create one of those ironically named pieces of legislation that sounds like it is going to deliver something good -- in this case "Internet Freedom" -- but would actually make the Internet suck out loud, forever and ever. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/jon-stewart-takes-on-net_n_335517.html
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POPS Attack of the Living Front Groups
A front group typically has some, but not necessarily all, of the following characteristics: Avoids mentioning its main sources of funding. Note that this does not necessarily mean absolute concealment of sponsorship. Some front groups go to great lengths to conceal their origins, funders and personnel links to sponsors. Has a misleading, feel-good name that disguises its real agenda, such as the National Wetlands Coalition, which opposed policies to protect U.S. wetlands, or Citizens for a Free Kuwait, which purported to represent U.S. citizens but was actually funded almost entirely by the royal family of Kuwait. Sometimes the name of a front group might seem to suggest academic or political neutrality ("Consumers' Research," "American Policy Center"), while in fact it consistently turns out opinions, research, surveys, reports, polls and other declarations that benefit the interests of a company, industry or political candidate. Learn more at source...
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POPSFCC Backs Google/Soros ‘Net Neutrality’ Internet providers in the past have rejected what they see as government interference in their networks and how they manage traffic. The US Congress has also been looking into the issue and a net neutrality bill is expected to be introduced shortly in the House of Representatives. From the Agence France-Presse: Related Articles: Soros: Obama Improves Openness Dems Block ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Ban Minority Broadcasters Ask For Bailout Soros: Crisis Is Culmination Of Life’s Work Waxman Wants ‘Fairness,’ The Internet Reposting Obama's 'Disappeared' Agenda Schumer Compares 'Talk Radio' To Porn Behold ACORN's 'Communist Manifesto' Who Is In The Soros 'Democracy Alliance' Democrats Work To Silence Limbaugh MoveOn, Google Seek To Control Internet http://sweetness-light.com/archive/fcc-backs-googlesoros-net-neutrality
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POPSInternet Providers Push Back Against 'Net Neutrality' Proposal expanding the rules to cover wireless networks. The company would be "very disappointed if has already drawn a conclusion to regulate wireless services despite the absence of any compelling evidence of problems or abuse that would warrant government intervention," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs. FCC officials said they would work with phone companies to develop rules that wouldn't create problems for wireless networks. "I am convinced that there are few goals more essential in the communications landscape than preserving and maintaining an open and robust Internet," Mr. Genachowski said in his speech Monday at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Strengthening FCC rules on Web traffic is a top priority of consumer groups and Internet advocates who supported President Barack Obama in his run for the White House.
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POPSGlenn Beck and Sarah Palin Make sure you understand what they are talking about......it is critical to the country to be aware of the possibilities inherent in these symbols and this ideology. It's no longer just a couple of wing-nuts. It's an army of the most despicable characters than one might imagine to have any kind of voice in legitimate political discourse. This is all being brought to you by the so-called "fair & balanced" Fox News (aka Faux News, and FoxPac). If you like listening to: Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Savage,....etc. then stay tuned to FoxPac cable network, and the Wing-Nut radio stations. You need to make sure that you are throughly brainwashed, so that you can get out them guns and overthrow the government, and be a member of the group that calls themselves PATRIOTS! Thanks Fox News for taking such a big part in this Anti-American shameful show of hysterical, bigotry!
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POPSDump the Incumbents 4. It is partisanship over constituents-Each party's focus is on defeating and sabotaging each other. 5. Both parties love voter apathy and take the necessary steps to ensure a low voter turnout. 6. They have created an incumbency protection racket and called it campaign finance reform. 7. They have created a system where the truth is so hidden that they have to hire a staff that is skilled at cover ups, evasion, spin, lies, disinformation, half-truths, feigned ignorance, sudden memory loss, manipulation of facts, distortions, controlled polling, double standards, and blame-shifting.
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POPSGreen Jobs! Net Neutrality! Reinvestigate 9/11! For a taste of Jones's politics (spoiler: not a fan of capitalism, but a huge fan of net neutrality), check out this speech from 2007. Van Jones at the NCMR (National Conference for Media Reform) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2z6nOOO-2Y
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POPSThin green line is bad science "On Tuesday, Inhofe issued a statement from Capitol Hill that noted how scientists with independent views don't get on too well with the IPCC. Witness Chris Landsea of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who resigned from the IPCC this year because He believed an IPCC top hurricane scientist wrongly linked severe hurricanes to global warming; as a result, He wrote, "the IPCC process has been subverted and compromised, its neutrality lost." "
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POPSWannabe-Look Good, All Show, No Go Green Colleges
If after the headline, the story said 650 universities and colleges to offer 50% of their classes online and limit their sports programs to competing with institutions within 50 miles from each other, I might believe they were serious and you would probably agree. But since colleges and universities are businesses first, their signing letters of good intention are just about as effective as business and governments doing the same. And I should add, most of us just sign on as well and do noting to change our I'll-use-all-the-energy-I-can-afford life style. Example: A local USEPA office built next to the University of Cincinnati has no sidewalk access directly into its property. I have to walk in the driveway in competition with vehicles. They assume everyone will drive there, then park and walk. Grin. And Kroger Foods, assumes you will drive in park,walk a little way then ride around in a cart that makes it look like they are being nice to disabled people.
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POPSThe emergent danger to personal liberty More: (Unfortunately, the use of government as a tool to enhance liberty is anathema to conservatives, focused as they are on the eighteenth-century threat alone.) If we lose this health insurance battle—or even if we win it—I’m still a progressive. I’ll still be pushing to right the balance. I expect to work on it all my life. …3. I worked for a while with a sister of one of the McLibel defendants. I know how bad it can get. Click through to read the whole thing, including footnotes 1 & 2.
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