Maybe they will listen this time?

FCC forced by court to ask the public (again) if they think tearing up net neutrality was a really good idea or not

Don't panic quite yet...Devin Coldewey writes an article telling us what comes next.

The FCC just repealed net neutrality. What happens next?

Whales, net neutrality, Mr. Rogers, and irradiated green tea.

Pacific whales are moving to the Atlantic. Climate change is slowing ocean currents.  An excellent discussion with megadrought scientists.  Costa Rica shows us how to do it.

Kochs buying the ability to pollute the planet at will.

Net Neutrality is still under attack.

How other countries view the US gun laws.

Why does the GOP want a war with Iran?

Radiation found in Japanese green tea.

Proof that playing D&D is not the cause of modern juvenile delinquency.

The wonderful Mr. Rogers.

Manly methods of dealing with bears, lightning, ice, and other manly threats.

Net Neutrality explained

By Oatmeal to educate Ted Cruz.

As goes California, so goes the nation....

California oil companies are poisoning our drinking water. But wait, Obama made some of the San Gabriel Mountains a National Monument!  Yet we need to watch the Pacific Ocean carefully because of Fukushima.

Global warming underestimated ... To music.  The melting of Greenland.  The tipping points.

For profit 'schools' getting taxpayer money.

Noah's Ark Theme Park Loses $18M In Tax Breaks Unless They Hire Atheists

Killer BBEEeeeeEEeeeessss!!  (Eddie Izzard's bees.)

President Obama wants the FCC to abandon plans for tiered 'net neutrality'

Science fiction or fantasy?

September 10: Internet Slowdown

Urgent action alert: September 10th is the Internet Slowdown, a creative online action to defend net neutrality. This is our moment to get everyone to understand what’s at stake.

Got a website, blog, app, or Tumblr? Click here to get the code to participate.

Everyone else, we need you to help make this huge! Click here and share this image on social media. Then forward this to everyone you can think of.

Now read on -- this email is important. <3 span="">

-Evan at FFTF

Dear Fight for the Future member,

If you woke up tomorrow, and your internet looked like this, what would you do?

Imagine all your favorite websites taking forever to load, while you get annoying notifications from your ISP suggesting you switch to one of their approved “Fast Lane” sites.

Think about what we would lose: all the weird, alternative, interesting, and enlightening stuff that makes the Internet so much cooler than mainstream Cable TV. What if the only news sites you could reliably connect to were the ones that had deals with companies like Comcast and Verizon?

How would your worldview be different? Do you think you’d have found Fight for the Future or other causes you care about? Would you be getting this email?

On September 10th, just a few days before the FCC’s comment deadline, public interest organizations are issuing an open, international call for websites and internet users to unite for an “Internet Slowdown” to show the world what the web would be like if Team Cable gets their way and trashes net neutrality.

We need everyone on board for this. Got a website or blog? Find out how the slowdown works and how you can join here: https://battleforthenet.com/sept10th

If you don’t have a website, you are still part of this! Here’s a quick list of things you can do to help in the Battle for the Net.

This isn’t about how quickly our cat videos load, it’s about the future of our ability to communicate, to learn, to create, and to rebel. It’s about the future of humanity.

The SOPA blackout proved that even concentrated monopoly and government power is no match for the power of people’s voices connected and amplified by the free and open web.

That power is one of the few things we have in this fight for the future. This could be one of our last chances to defend it. If we lose it, we lose a lot more than just the Internet. If we win, we win a lot more than just streaming video. The stakes are high and we should be acting like it.

The Internet is counting on each and every one of us to act. Let’s not let ourselves down. See you on the net September 10th!

For the future,

-Evan, Tiffiniy, Holmes, and the FFTF team

P.S. We need to make the movement for net neutrality feel like it’s EVERYWHERE. Want to proudly display your love for the free and open web at all times? Get your very own Team Internet t-shirt: http://teespring.com/stores/team-internet and tweet a photo of yourself wearing it to #TeamInternet!

Beware the Dangers of Congress’ Latest Cybersecurity Bill

A new cybersecurity bill poses serious threats to our privacy, gives the government extraordinary powers to silence potential whistleblowers, and exempts these dangerous new powers from transparency laws.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 ("CISA") was scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday but has been delayed until after next week's congressional recess. The response to the proposed legislation from the privacy, civil liberties, tech, and open government communities was quick and unequivocal – this bill must not go through.

The bill would create a massive loophole in our existing privacy laws by allowing the government to ask companies for "voluntary" cooperation in sharing information, including the content of our communications, for cybersecurity purposes. But the definition they are using for the so-called "cybersecurity information" is so broad it could sweep up huge amounts of innocent Americans' personal data.

Net Neutrality

Censored

What the net could look like if corporations get between you and what you want, big blocks of black.... Who is saying no to SOPA and PIPA.

The tide comes in, the tide goes out....

We all came from primordial ooze.... Which might explain the Republicans' desire to return to simpler times...

"In the race to take on Obama, playing dumb about foreign affairs is the politically clever thing to do"

How Newt is channeling “The Producers”

One who takes issue with Naomi Wolf's article about the DHS and the mayors involved with a nation-wide crackdown of the OWS.

I think I like this new generation... teen tweeter won't apologize to Brownback.  Update:  Brownback backs down.

The NYTimes and LATimes both came out against SOPA and PIPA.

The GOP War on Everybody

War on Women.

War on Social Security: (via Steve Bates)



On workers.

On the economy.

On scientists. And global warming/ climate change.

On net neutrality. And healthy business competition.

On Democrats.

On anyone in the GOP who dares to stray or to think for themselves.

Republicans on the loose...

South Dakota teeters on the edge of an actual theocracy.

Doubting Clarence Thomas.

How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us

Scott Walker is a Kochhead.... And more from Jim Hightower:

The Birchite billionaire Koch brothers and Walker, their gubernatorial hatchet man in the Badger State, have unwittingly done a tremendous favor for our country's progressive movement. Thanks to them, America's workaday majority has been awakened. With eyes wide open, middle-class working folks everywhere now have their attention riveted on Wisconsin, where a plutocratic, autocratic conspiracy between uber-wealthy corporate elites and obsequious GOP politicos has raised its ugly head for all to see.

Boehner is against net neutrality. Is the man 'for' anything ... besides cutting taxes?

This answers that question...

Just a reminder

Net neutrality = freedom of speech.

Tell the FCC....

Incessant barking might work better (Steve Bates in comments :D ) but sign the petition anyway:

Tell the FCC: It's up to you, not Google and Verizon, to regulate the Internet: "Chairman Genachowski: The FCC, not big corporations, should make important decisions about the future of the Internet. Stop delaying and use your powers to enact strong net neutrality provisions immediately."

Don't be evil

The petition reads:

"As a Google user, I am telling you, 'Don't be evil.' The deal between Google and Verizon as reported by the New York Times is evil because it undermines the open Internet upon which hundreds of millions of people rely. Live up to your founding motto, walk away from this deal and save the Internet."

Tell Google what you think.

Support Marxist utopias!

Thursday deadline: Protect net neutrality

One of Glenn Beck's latest conspiracies involves a "gang of communists" who want to turn the Internet into a "Marxist utopia." That dangerous gang of communists he's warning Fox News viewers against? They're net neutrality supporters.

Glenn Beck has it all wrong: Net neutrality protects -- not threatens -- free speech online. Net neutrality is the principle that Internet users, not Internet service providers, should be in control. It ensures that Internet service providers can't speed up, slow down, or block Web content based on its source, ownership, or destination.

The FCC is accepting public comments until Thursday on a proposed regulation that would protect net neutrality. Will you say that you won't be fooled by scare tactics and that you support an open Internet?

We've made it easy to submit a public comment in support of net neutrality. Just use the sample comment at right to craft your own personal comment.

When the FCC initially took comments in January, pro-net neutrality submissions vastly outweighed comments from opponents of Internet freedom. As a result, big telecom companies are running scared. They're worried that the FCC might agree with us and prohibit them from inspecting and filtering the Internet content you access, blocking Web sites and applications they don't like, and overcharging you for using the Web. Out of the 120,000 comments submitted, 98,000 of them - a whopping 74 percent - were from CREDO Action members like you.

The FCC has opened a second round in the comment period. So we need to repeat that performance and beat back the media monopolists once again.

You can help us dominate the second round, too. Submit your comment today!

The big telecom companies have deployed hundreds of lobbyists and pushed outrageous lies. Their goal? Overcome our voices by duping the public into believing their net neutrality myths.

We have only two days to debunk these lies and protect the free-flowing Web, as the FCC is only accepting the second round of comments until April 8. We've made it easy for you to submit your comment on our site -- but we'll need it by 10 a.m. Pacific time on April 8 in order to get it into the docket by the deadline.

Without strong net neutrality rules, we might have to rely upon the good will of large telecoms to protect our access to the diversity of political perspectives. We might have to trust companies like Comcast, which actively and secretly interfered with users' ability to access popular video, photo and music sharing applications; AT&T, which censored anti-Bush comments made by Pearl Jam's lead singer during a concert; and Verizon Wireless, which interfered with NARAL Pro-Choice America's ability to send text messages to its members.

Without net neutrality, the Internet would cease to be a public platform for free speech, political organizing, and equal opportunity.

Speak out against the corporate lies. Submit your public comment today.

Tell the FCC to protect net neutrality

A Credo petition:

Big telecoms would like to inspect and filter the Internet content you access, block Web sites and applications they don't like, and overcharge you for using the Web. But the net neutrality rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission would prevent them from doing that.

The public comment period for these rules ends on Thursday, and the phone and cable companies and their phony front groups have already flooded the FCC with comments objecting to net neutrality.

Can you write a quick letter to the FCC in support of net neutrality before the Thursday deadline?

We need you to speak up because there has been an all-out lobbying effort by the telecommunications industry to kill net neutrality. Even before the FCC proposed their rules, 18 Senators (all Republicans) sent a letter to the FCC opposing net neutrality. One Republican senator even announced an effort to prevent the FCC from spending funds to enforce the new rules once they go into effect. Separately, 72 House Democrats sent their own letter to the FCC opposing net neutrality rules.

This type of pressure from Congress hasn't go unnoticed at the FCC, but personal comments from members of the public can provide a strong counterbalance to the efforts of the telecom industry. Now's the time for citizens like you to speak out and fight back.

Without strong net neutrality rules, we might have to rely upon the good will of large telecoms to protect our access to the diversity of political perspectives. We might have to trust companies like Comcast, which actively and secretly interfered with users' ability to access popular video, photo and music sharing applications; AT&T, which censored anti-Bush comments made by Pearl Jam's lead singer during a concert; and Verizon Wireless, which interfered with NARAL Pro-Choice America's ability to send text messages to its members.

We can't let the corporate lobbyists win. What good is free speech if powerful corporations have the power to stifle communications they find objectionable?

Tell the FCC: Save net neutrality. Submit your comment before the comment period closes on January 14.

Net neutrality means no discrimination: It prevents Internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down or blocking Web content based on its source, ownership or destination. It's time to make net neutrality the law once and for all.

With your help, we can make it happen!

Net Neutrality

Sign the petition:

Net neutrality is the cornerstone of innovation, free speech and democracy on the Internet. Please propose and enact strong net neutrality rules to ensure that the Internet is free from blocking, censorship and discrimination.

Uh huh. Try another excuse, AT and T.

We are massively unimpressed:

Oops, they did it before.

A day after AT&T apologized to Pearl Jam, Lollapalooza organizers and music fans for deleting a snippet of the band's performance last weekend in Chicago during which Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush, the company offered up another mea culpa Friday for tinkering with other performers' webcasts.

In response to fans who claimed that the audio silencing of Vedder's sung remarks about Bush at Lollapalooza were not unique in the history of AT&T's Blue Room live webcasts, an AT&T spokeswoman on Friday said: "It's not our intent to edit political comments in webcasts on the attblueroom.com. Unfortunately, it has happened in the past in a handful of cases. We have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again."

Censoring the Net? Who us?

Via Susie of Suburban Guerilla, Kargo X at Daily Kos:

According to the band's web site, Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza webcast was censored by sponsor/webcaster AT&T:

When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.

During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast:

• "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and
• "George Bush find yourself another home."