Can we impeach the bastard yet?

rootz!

OT.

Those ingrates at Guantanimo get all of this plus that delcious rice pilaf. What are they bitching about?

Welcome to The New World Order.

(Snip)

Beating; punching with fists; use of truncheons; kicking; slamming against walls; stretching or suspension (to tear ligaments or muscles to cause asphyxia); external electric shocks; forcing prisoners to abase and to urinate on themselves; forced masturbation; forced renunciation of religion; false confessions or accusations; applying urine and feces to prisoners; making verbal threats to a prisoner and his family; denigration of a prisoner’s religion; force-feeding; induced hypothermia and exposure to extreme heat; dietary manipulation; use of sedatives; extreme sleep deprivation; mock executions; water immersion; “water-boarding”; obstruction of the prisoner’s airway; chest compression; thermal burning; rape; dog bites; sexual abuse; forcing a prisoner to watch the abuse or torture of a loved one.

-GSD

Woot! Gotcha Teddy.

Go Ogle!
~

1-888-355-3588 FREE call to congress… it works for your Senator and Representative.

fitz

The SF Chronicle had a front page article “Speed Bumps on the Information Highway” yesterday as the “First in an occasional series” on NN. It’s a pretty good piece for introducing folks to the debate.

Sadly, it’s coming as the debate has already come and gone in the House . . .

[Which prompts a big Q for any former or current MSM reporters around these parts: Why is it that the MSM generally reports on big debates AFTER the vote happens, rather than during committee hearings when concerned citizens can make their views known in time to influence the process? Just wondering.]

I couldn’t find a fax number for Barbara Boxer. If anyone has one, I’d be happy to put it up. Just post it here and I’ll find it. Thanks!

“Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”

Barbara Boxer fax

DC Fax: 202-228-2382

Call your favorite radio shows and write your local papers, too. We need as many people as possible on this.

I read this weekend that the LA Times has prevented at least one of their offices from being able to see the blog LA Observed, which often writes about their business dealings. Look at what the Tribune company owns in addition to the Times and consider the large number of people that get their information from one company — a company that is already demonstrating a propensity for censoring unfavorable information.

It’s not a hypothetical to say that companies will prevent people from getting information if they can. They already are in the limited ways they can.

Boxer’s district office fax #s here, nothing posted for DC

If I wanted service like AOL, that censors what sites can be access, I would have purchased their service. Since I didn’t, it means I want to be able to pick and choose where I go on the ‘net.

The telecos want everyone but themselves to pay for their mistakes in usage forcasts.

Forgot the link:

“Speed Bumps”

[Repeat after me: Preview is my friend. Preview is my friend. Preview is my friend. . . .]

egregious at 12 — thanks SO much! I knew I had one for her somewhere, but could not find it this morning to post for everyone. Really appreciate you posting it.

OT and don’t try this at home:

Juan Cole deep-fries a Snowball

(second thread down)

Net Neutrality: What Works For You? — By Dover Bitch

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..s-for-you/

Can we assemble another list of talking points? Can we identify issues that would play better with GOoPer Senators?

As in — Dear Senator Allard: A vote against Net Neutrality will destroy the American Economy. Sincerely, A Citizen.

Things like that — Dem Senators will be moved by fear of losing the netroots ATM; what will move the GOoPers?

Christy, sometimes I create problems *cough*hotheaded Iraq post*cough* and sometimes I solve problems.

Ideally leaning toward the latter….

punaise @ 10
We’re dating ourselves….
“Is this Nunzio Passanello?”

All sorts of businesses relying (increasingly) on the internet, not just for e-commerce interfaces with the public but for internal uses between offices, suppliers, vendors, etc.

Why haven’t they flexed their lobbying muscle in support of net neutrality? Or, would businesses internet related costs go down? I guess I’m not up to speed on the issue, but who (aside from telecoms and bloggers) are the winners and losers if net neutrality is abandoned?

Christy, thanks for starting the morning with laughs, and now moving into activism and information. Dorgan’s my senator and he’s a sponsor with Snowe for Net Neutrality, so I’ll send an enote thanking him, and save the phoning for an issue that needs advocacy toward his decision.

Caring thoughts to Jane and her family during these long, stress-full hours.

GSD

What is your source for the quote on Guantanamo torture? Thank you in advance.

BobbyG’s letter in the newspaper!

Yay for the good guys!

egregious at 20 — I think everyone has been edgy the last few weeks. We’re tried from the Vegas trip, we’re exhausted from the constant stream of crap news coming out of the Bush Administration and frustrated with the Dems not fighting back perhaps as hard as we would like. I know I’ve been feeling it, and I’m sure others are as well. But don’t worry about it — we’ll get through it together because that’s what we do. :) And in the meantime, there are some Senators in need of a nudge…

Right on BobbyG!!!!

egregious 25 -

Thanks. They got it close. Not quite the max effect. I’m sure my hardcore Reep former boss will be cursing my name if he sees it.

http://www.bgladd.com/Just_a_Number.jpg

aw-RIGHT, BobbyG!!!

Thanks so much for the link, egregious 25!

Wow, that’s good stuff.

There are two areas that business has not put in their two cents and am really suprised.
1. NSA Spying or the ATT tap into every communication
2. Net Neutrality

I work for a software company, but I could name hundreds of business types who would want their communications private and unimpeded. You deal with source code and database configurations, does that business wants that information viewable by a possible rival?

Just think of dealing with a legal issue, you are communicating with your attorney via email, sending and receiving documents. What if that is your legal defense against the goverment?

Business runs on Just in Time shipping and warehousing. What if Walmart gets the 11 lane super highway and Costco gets pushed into the dirt?

I just do not get it…

OT ..I know.

GSD your 3

would appreciate your input regarding our two recently captured…

If in fact they are in hand and not dead already do you think the insurgency might publicly declare them illegal combatants?

{{{{{{Applause}}}}}}}
BobbyG!

Bobby G!!!!!

Dover bitch,
This post by Lee really lays it all out there, I think. People will be steered to or away from political views, info, opinions based on who’s doing the deciding!
Aaargh!

glc

Lee said:
June 17th, 2006 at 4:19 pm

Competitive information: Without Net Neutrality, there’s no reason the companies controlling your web access won’t deny access to information they don’t like.

But why not come out and say that this can include POLITICAL information that they don’t like? Without net neutrality the telecom industry can control political speech on the internet every bit as much as they already control political speech on TV. Compared to this the fact that they’d also be charging us more is peanuts. The fact that they could be steering us to online retailer A rather than online retailer B also pales in comparison.

It is THIS danger, of corporations controlling the content that users can access (in practice, affordably, etc.) on the internet, that should form the core of the message.

ALL of the major analogies proffered thus far have merit; cable TV model, AOL Model, toll/private road model, etc. Use them all. “Representational Re-Distribution,” one of Gardner’s “7 Re’s” of persuasion.

My other graphic effort of the week (non-political):

http://photos1.blogger.com/blo…..Monday.jpg

The band for whom I do PR is not gigging tonight.

:(

http://santafeandthefatcityhorns.blogspot.com/

Does anybody have a good template for faxable verbage on this? thanks

Discovered something cool at the DNC blog over the weekend. They have a tool for people interested in writing letters to the editor http://www.democrats.org/page/…..stoeditors

Fill in your zip and it gives you the local and national papers you can write to. I didn’t fill one out all the way, so I don’t know if they keep a copy at the DNC.

One of my Senators is on record for Net Neutrality and the other is still fence sitting. None of them are on the committee, so I’ll wait to contact Mr. Wait and See because I swear the people in his office are going to start recognizing my voice (or name and email) and put me into a “malcontent voter” category and to not take seriously.

By the way, everyone keeps talking about a Preznit Pardon for Libby (how convenient to pardon your own lackey’s crimes). It’s probably a trial balloon. I wonder if ithe people have to shoot it down now.

Here’s one easy talking point: the internet backbone operators (”telco” has become a perjorative) already have two revenue streams. They are paid by content providers such as Google and Yahoo for providing them access to the internet, and they are paid by ISP’s for the right to provide service to us, the consumers. Both of these revenue streams are legitimate.

Removing the Net Neutrality protections, as this bill will, will allow companies to create a third revenue stream based based on type of service. What right do they have to create this third revenue stream?

g. leo criley,

Great. Say it’s political information. I fear that political information will be censored more than anything.

BUT… the point of my post is that we need everybody on our side in this. And that means calling into a radio program about fixing your car and explaining that you might not be able to find all the parts you need anymore. Or calling into a show about investing and explaining that you will be buying stocks online with a smaller selection of brokers and fewer places to research your investments — the information you’ll get is what your local telecom wants you to get.

We need more than the political junkies to get upset about what Mike McCurry is trying to do to the Internet. We need everybody.

Hey, BobbyG – way to go! Your original letter was so good, I never doubted they would publish it. Definitely packed more punch in the original version, but the edited one is still a knockout!

Agree totally with Christy. In addition to the post-YKos tiredness, there was the dispiriting Rove news and the realization that we still have 4 months to go until November elections and none of us is feeling like we can let up for a second. When you add the demands of work and family, it’s just plain daunting.

One day at a time seems like a good way to look at what lies ahead.

Here in Nevada we learned that Jon Porter is in favor of turning the ‘net over to the Suits. Prick. He’s hearing from me.

newtonusr says:
June 19th, 2006 at 9:40 am

punaise @ 10
We’re dating ourselves%u2026.
“Is this Nunzio Passanello?”

You guy’s forgot the classic Thomlin.
One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy.

Larry,

That is of course the question that no one has sought to ask that block-headed, weeping, talking point machine, Tony Snow.

This is exactly why the Crumbsfeld/Yoo/Cheney “sliding scale of torture and compliance with international law” is so damn reckless.

It will never be any of those pudwipes that will be abused as a result of the ill-will fomented by the shit pulled in Abu Ghraib or in Guantanimo.

Nope, it will be, surprise, surprise, the young, fresh faced troops in the field who will be shown the videos and pictures of US abuse towards Iraqis and others. They will then most likely then be treated much more harshly and most likely killed.

The US troops in custody are in much more jeopardy than if the US had maintained SOP from the previous 250 years or so.
But noooooo. The Bush/Rove/Cheney crowd know what is good for he us.

Hardly.

These two troops fates are directly tied to the abuse and torture that Bush machine created. They are in dire straits.

-GSD

Bustedknuckles 43 – impossible to capture that Tomlinesque “snort” via mere typed letters.

PRESIDENT BUSH SAYS FITZGERALD’S INVESTIGATION IS OVER

http://citizenspook.blogspot.c…..html#links

BobbyG – Awesome! Damned well done!

GSD at 44 — that is a HUGE worry, and you are absolutely right in saying that it needs to be brought up over and over — by press, by members of Congress, by military families, by all of us.

The danger is that we have breached the standard of conduct that we have held up for years as being unbreachable, so that now the gloves are off in terms of how our own soldiers will be treated in captivity. You might say that they were previously off in some quarters, and that’s unfortunately true, but the Rumsfeld/Yoo/Miller/whomever policies have only reinforced that and added fuel to the fire. I’m very, very worried about where this goes from here. And there is NO excuse for putting our soldiers at even more risk. None.

citizenspook: It’s not over until FITZGERALD says it’s over.

Spook — please don’t start spamming article links in the comments threads. I have enough to deal with today as it is.

GSD

Sadly, I must agree.

Thanks for your response.

L

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..chive.html

See YouTube for a cool Net Neutrality video PSA by Comitar Studios ( http://www.comitar.com/ ), this short explains why network neutrality is an important issue for internet users through a series of short comparisons to traditional utilities.

The music is by Jacques Grant (the song “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 license. Visit http://www.podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/bands/740/ for more of his music.

I thought the examples used in the debate were excellent – an HMO comparison was used, and everyone understands and hates that concept.

The simpler the better, I think, for most people. I was having this conversation at a Father’s Day gathering yesterday and used the HMO analogy. Said, “you know how you’d really like to go see Doctor X, and your HMO says you can’t because he’s not in the plan? Well, if the telecoms get their way, you might want to go to Amazon and get switched to Barnes & Noble, or want to check out Merrill Lynch and get switched to Charles Schwab. You might no longer have the same kind of choice about what sites are available to you. Or you could find that you can still get to all the sites you want, but some will load in an instant and others will take forever, so you’ll tend to go to the faster site. If Barnes & Noble loads faster than Amazon, you’ll probably go there, even if Amazon was your first choice, and if Barnes & Noble is paying more to be able to load quickly, it might be that you’ll be paying more for their books as a result. Great for Barnes & Noble, bad for Amazon and bad for you.”

It was like little light bulbs went on – “oh, I get it!”

Fax template make one, change only the name.

FAX
TO Senator I. M. Egregious
FROM [you, silly]
DATE 19 June 2006

Dear Senator:

I hope that you will support Net Neutrality.

Something here about free speech, equal access, internet as a public utility like electricity, small business growth to keep
us competitive internationally, phone company
shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate based
on who is calling etc etc. Go wild.

Thank you,
Sincerely,

you, address.

This is an excerpt from Dahr Jamail’s latest article wrt the issue of the captured US forces, et al.

>>>>>>>>>>

The evening of Day Three, two US soldiers were detained by resistance fighters just south of Baghdad. With a Bush administration that openly advocates the use of torture and props up a Shia Prime Minister in Iraq who says things like “there will be no mercy” when referencing his new “security operation,” their fate is indeed a dark one.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061906J.shtml

Slightly OT, but in the spirit of this week’s activism, a couple of pocketbook progressive opportunities:

Buy the Syriana DVD–out tomorrow. Was underplayed in initial release–too complicated for the pie-crowd of Faux?

And according to a piece at Huffington Post, Helen Thomas’ new book will be released this week. Buy one for yourself, another for your local library…or after you read, donate it.

I plan to buy both. As the Big Oil ratty bastards memed on MTP yesterday, let the marketplace speak.

The source for the quote came from a book by Stephen Miles.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ…..oding=UTF8

I was brought to the quote at AndrewSullivan.com.

Whatever problems I have with most of Sullivan’s poltical views, he has been very strong on condemning the US abuse and torture and has highlighted the stories over and over and has alienated much of the right wing because of his vigilence.

The pages of history are chasing Bush and Rove and that is why they have been running so fast.

The canard that these “men” care for the US troops wellbeing is abudantly clear to most sober people.

-GSD

egregious 53 – thanks. I’m off to fax the Honorable Babs.

I was reading Sterling N at tpmcafe re NN and he talked about the importance of free roadways to commerce (when they were first built)in an analogy of the importance of NN. I am sitting here at “The Crossroads of America” where, in order to go almost anywhere other here I have to fill up my tank with many $$$ worth of gas, and then pay a toll to drive west, many tolls (10?) to drive northwest, two mega tolls to drive north, and a toll that is probably going up now that the Indiana Toll Road has been leased to a private company, to drive east. That’s why net neutrality is important to me. Right now if I want to go anywhere, I pay and pay and pay. Oh, and btw, back when we were building the interstate system, Big Auto killed the wonderful streetcar system we had here that, while not free, was very cheap. I guess this should be an lte, bcse here at fdl I am just singin’ to the choir…

Anne 52 -

Yes, use every analogy possible to get the point across, HMO, AOL, Toll Road, Cable TV, Chinese Internet (overt content control)…

Point out that the Suits are out to etract MORE money from individuals AND e-commerce business, and will eventually be able to control and suppress political information.

Maria Cantwell still running and hiding on the NN vote.

Direct quotes from her staff person on the phone:
“She’s still studying the bill”,
“She hasn’t told us [who work for her] how she plans to vote”,
“We just don’t know anything”,
“We probably won’t know anything until the very last minute, like you”
“Well, the senator does believe in access to the internet. Would you like me to read from the prepared statement?”
“You’d like to speak with Michael Daum [tech issues aide]? Sure, let me connect you [3- minute wait] Oh gee, I guess he’s not here. Would you like his voice mail?”

It was practically word-for-word what they said last Thursday. Maria’s spinelessness is just getting boring, I’m afraid.

Time to hit up the other senators – thank you for the phone list!

*BobbyG rocks.

Mercenary Industrial Complex.

Deadeye Dick Cheney loves them big returns on his investments.

Rawstory to report:

“Halliburton government contracts rose
600 percent under Bush: Developing…”

-GSD

Okay, I sent my faxes

but hey, haven’t heard anything either way on this issue from goopers and fundies – considering how far out in front these folks were in using the internet as part of their organizing and noisemaking -

so I sent e mails to Webmaster(s) at

Joel Osteen’s Mega Church
TD Jakes Mega Church
Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum
Falwell
and whazisname @ Crystal Cathedral in SoCal

with a brief explanation and likely impact of non neutrality (folks being steered away from their sites to others paying premium, etc.)

I feel slimy as all hell, but thought it was worth a shot – it was fun to think of all those “righteous” boots on the ground helping us out

Today’s BushCo CODE BROWN word:

“Taepodong-2″

GSD 44 et al. — I just can’t fathom how the Joint Chiefs or any other generals could have saluted smartly when Rumsfeld’s shop cooked up these disastrous policies. They HAD TO KNOW what to expect!

[OT for you Katherine (”Alligator Bag”) Harris fans out there: I just added her latest staff escapade(s) to the Monday Funnies thread (at 155).]

I called the Newark [NJ] offices of my two senators, Lautenberg, who sits on the Commerce committee, and Menendez. Both offices took information from me, and I had my handy FDL crib sheet of talking points ready. I expressed my concern that neither of my senators had come out strongly in favor of Net Neutrality. When I called Menendez’s office, they transferred me to his DC office. Lautenberg’s Newark staffer took down information, and hadn’t heard that Stevens had scheduled the Commerce Committee vote.

Don’t forget to check Josh Marhsall’s Net Neutrality tally to see where your senator stands on this issue–for, against, or still with a finger checking to see where the prevailing winds are blowing.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/net-neutrality.php

lotus 64 -

Didja know I acquired a photo of Alligator Bag Harris’s tattoos?

http://www.bgladd.com/Katherine_Harris_tattoos.jpg

Are we urging them to support the Snowe-Dorgan bill? S-2917, I think?

The reason I bring this up is because it seems to me the telcos are trying to muddy up what the term net neutrality means, so it’s best we be specific.

apt vintage Ernestine -

“We’re the Phone Company, We Don’t Care, We Don’t Have To”

BobbyG – so proud to know ya

I e-mailed DiFi last week on this, with, IIRC, three analogies plus the they-want-to-charge-a-third-time bit. I specifically mentioned that it’s the Snowe-Dorgan bill, with the number, that she should vote for. (I didn’t think of the speech-control issue. Nice idea!)

Maybe she’ll do the right thing.

cbl 70

[blushes]

Likewise.

Over at ThinkProgress there is a post about Joke Line.

This was the funniest response in the posting section:

“Why does anyone listen to this prattling boob? His sphincter replaced his mouth years ago. Totally unplugged from anything but Joereality.
Comment by ProgressiveChristian %u2014 June 19, 2006 @ 1:07 pm”

Whoo…haaa..

-GSD

Lovely, BobbyG 67 — but YEEESH, cancha do sumpin’ about that smell!!!

If your going to have adds which are against Net Neutrality on your web site, can’t you put a warning saying something like, “FireDogLake is against this add”?

I think people who are new commers to this debate might get confused and tell their Senators the wrong thing.

Lotus your 64 and GSD etc,

Your point about the JCOS allowing this and in fact the rest of the senior command is what I have been unable to wrap my brain around since it first came out and evolved

L

Dover Bitch @ 9:56 am

Absolutely – We do need everybody!

Lee’s post from the other day sang to me today when I saw it.

I wanna be able to look at all sides of a political idea, not just the side my provider else decides I get to see.

I wanna be able to comparison shop and buy the car or computer parts that I need, not the ones my provider decides I get to choose from.

egregious @ 10:13 — template is lookin’ good. Thanks!

glc

cbl @ 10:18

Rev. Robert Schuller at the Crystal Cathedral is a televangelist, but he’s not a fundamentalist. He’s Reformed Church of America, same denomination as Norman Vincent Peale [power of positive thinking]. Did my master’s thesis on the Crystal Cathedral, designed by Philip Johnson, and got to meet Schuller a few years later.

Barry — Jane’s mom is in the hospital at the moment and I’m not sufficiently tech savvy to do anything beyond look at the ad that pops up through our ad software. It’s just going to have to wait — sorry, but there it is. I need remedial computer classes and, frankly, we’ve tried to have a very separate ad content versus actual content line on the blog. (And PS — thank you Mike McCurry for wasting your money here so that we can continue to post things like this article. *g*)

I misposted this to the earlier thread. I’ll catch on eventually LOL.
:::::::
When you write/call/fax, you might want to mention that Senator Ted Stevens’ so called “compromise” has no real consumer protection value whatsoever.

Let’s say VeriZomcast decides to route certain traffic (e.g., traffic to websites that tend to work against the political or financial interests of VeriZomcast) through the older/slower segments of their network. How would a consumer ever be able to provide evidence of such chicanery?

Lets say a media giant (e.g., Fox) procures a stake in VeriZomcast (or vice versa). Which local affiliate do you think will stream video of the local news the fastest?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1141

Christy 78

Mike gets a % of the ad buy so he really doesn’t care where its placed…typical DEM consultant.

njprogressive,

thanks for the clarification – (although I believe they did some work promoting that bigoted defense of marriage prop. in Calif several years back) I contacted them b/c I had the impression they were an ‘activist’ congregation and was merely trying to martial as many forces FOR net netrality as I could

And as if there weren’t enough mania goin’ on already . . .

National Guard Is Asked to Patrol New Orleans

HEADS UP: the Lamont campaign has a major endorsement announcement coming up around 2:00 pm — will update when I get more details.

Called the Senators closest to me Burns, Smith , & Ensign. Will call more later.

OT – But I received a great e-mail from a friend of mine after I sent her an excerpt for FDL. Here’s part of it, she should really start commenting here.

Thanks for the Firedoglake. I think it’s obvious that when it comes to playing with military toys, the Repubs somehow always muster the time, energy, and money needed to do so. Screw the public schools, Head Start programs, healthcare, afterschool programs, etc. Give everyone a “tax refund”, then turn around and spend $300 billion on an ill-conceived war that is really nothing more than a cowboy idiot trying to finish the job his dad started 15 years ago and couldn’t figure out then.

Yeah, cough up the billions for this shit, and for Halliburton to “rebuild” Iraq, while schools in your own country are literally falling down around the students, books are 20 years out of date and still have maps of Persia in them, so it’s no wonder American kids can’t find fucking Iraq on map. So. Screwy.

It’s terrible that the only time this country can cough up money for anything is when it involves bombing the shit out of another country while squawking about patriotism and democracy. Embarrassing, really. It’s going to be funny as hell in twenty years when the school system has collapsed and China and India are the new superpowers and we’re all trying to learn Mandarin and Hindi and wishing, sigh, that we had placed more importance on schools and education instead of lowering the education bar so low and requiring so little of ourselves in the way of intelligence. I like that, as a country, we like to talk about “the children” and how everything is for “the children”. We must protect the children. When it comes right down to it, however, we don’t do shit for the children. Here are your fucked up schools, here is your urban sprawl with miles and miles of nothing to do but sit inside and play with your electronic gadgetry, here are your parents working 80-hour weeks so they can buy more electronic gadgetry and cars and boats and bigger suburban houses and if you’re lucky a trampoline; here are your colleges and universities with reduced funding and rising tuitions and student loans that are increasingly difficult to obtain. Here is your fucking president who downplays the importance of education, wasted his own years as a legacy student at ivy league universities, and still can’t bring himself to admit that science is actually real. Here is the TV wasteland full of reality shows and sitcoms; here is our consumer and shopping culture and the increasing importance placed on the acquisition of “things” because you’re entitled and they make you happy and good people are good consumers. You’re welcome, kids!

[snip]

Okay. That was my rant for the day. So sorry. I got myself so worked up that the only way to calm down will be for me to go home and look at my Thomas Kinkade pictures.

Ooo, I wish we could clone that Ned!

In the Sentae Commerce Committee link which Christy provides above, we have Sen. Stevens addressing company representatives and state/regional cable association executives at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association’s Key Contacts Breakfast on June 6. Stevens says this about their chief lobbyist:

“He has appeared before our Committee so many times, he has a seat there with his name on it now.” Ouch!

He concludes the speech by giving a bit of (false?) hope. Committee co-chair is Daniel Inouye. Stevens and Inouye have been crafting compromises for years. Inouye is pro- nn, so:

“A new draft [of the legislation] will be circulated this week.  I can’t go into the details with you today because I’m still clearing it with Senator Inouye. He’s my partner, my brother, and we work closely together. He has views that aren’t quite mine, however, so we do have to find ways to come together, even the two of us who are Co-Chairmen of our Committee.”

I’ve e-mailed Sen. Murkowski, whose position isn’t yet known, and the local talk shows aren’t supporting Saint Ted.

Dead eye taking questions on cnn.

Cheney taking Qs live on CNN

Perdiddle, angie!

Ahhh, but Weeder 10:16 – don’t forget Sen. Stevens has made sure Alaska got a 200 million $ bridge.

Serious, Probably Stupid Question:

Do the offices/staffs of Senators and Reps listen to, take seriously, etc., messages from people NOT their constituents? If I live in CA, is it worth contacting anyone besides Boxer? eg, Cantwell, who I assumed would be a slam dunk in favor of NN? Thanks.

I HATE the spin job McMurry’s scurrilous “handsoff.org” is doing -

e.g., (paraphrasing) ‘who do you want controlling the internet? Entreprenurs, or THE GOVERNMENT???’

Sux.

BTW, good smackdown here: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/37781/#more

Didn’t get much from his drone, but Shooter sure seems to have cottonmouth today — two big slugs of water in as many minutes.

MrWonderful 91 -

No. I seriously doubt it.

Barry @ 75,
Regarding the ad that says “What is the future of the Internet? Want a Smart Network or Dumb Pipe?”
This is the way the “free market” works. I’ve been clicking on the ad all morning. You can also click on it at Digby’s Hullabaloo and Jesus’ General. I can’t seem to help myself. Just keep clicking away. Beginning to get Carpel Tunnel.
I believe that the way this works is every time I click on the ad the telecos pay my favorite blogs a chunk of change. I even listen to what they are saying (in the ad) from time to time because so far opposing points of view haven’t been harmful to my ability to support a position based on the merits of the argument.
On the negative side I have a suspicion that as a customer of my local teleco (ATT) I may be paying for these ads each time I send them a check for my telephone service.
:)

FYI– he never said he believes in the unitary executive. executive needs to be strong and cites war powers. they stop where the Constitution tells em to.

We have to have secrets… cites a couple of cases with no details where the media hurt national security… nothing specific just words.

yeah, lotus– he appeared a thirsty cur indeed.

Caption on CNN a few minutes ago…

CHENEY: I DON’T THINK ANYONE ANTICIPATED THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IN IRAQ.

Oh REALLY? Speak for yourself, idiot. Grrr…

Lotus,

Shooter is probably baked out of his fat mind.

Looks like the markets don’t like what the Deadeye Dickster is saying.

Dow 10,934.98
Down 79.57

-GSD

FAX: 202-228-2382
Date: June 19, 2006

The Honorable Barbara Boxer
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Boxer:

As your supportive constituent I hope that you will strongly support Net Neutrality by supporting the Snowe-Dorgan bill S-2917, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. This bill is meant to preserve the internet status quo, which is what has allowed the internet to be an open extension of our democracy.

It is vitally important to protect free speech and equal access to the marketplace of goods and ideas. I believe that the internet should be considered a public utility, and the phone companies should not be allowed to introduce a pricing scheme that discriminates against users or re-direct them to sites they did not request. As a small business owner I feel particularly threatened by this possibility.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

mr. punaise
Berkeley, CA etc.

Nifty, punaise!

Brownandserve @79 – thanks for the link. Short, sharp, shocked, as it were.

Mr. Wonderful – you don’t have to tell the staff person where you’re calling from, just act like a constituent. As for Maria, she’s doing a bang-up job of pissing off the base of the party and sending herself into retirement in November.

Hooray to BobbyG on getting his “Zero is also a number” letter published.

I personally think it might be a good idea to use the phrase “website impartiality” along with addition to “net neutrality” when we talk to others about this issue.

Mr. Wonderful – when it comes to committee votes, I would say that whether you are a constituent of a member is irrelevant, as they represent the entire legislative body. Once a matter is voted out of committee and onto the floor, that’s when homing in on your own legislators is most meaningful.

My daughter’s friend, who is interning this summer in Hillary’s D.C. office, told me that all mail gets opened and generally responded to by interns and staff assistants, and rarely does anything get directly to the Senator. Figured that was the case. He’s supposed to be getting me info on who the best person to direct info to would be, as at some point, someone has to be telling the Senator what kind of feedback they are getting.

She’s not our Senator, but I figure the more I can find out about the inner workings, the better.

Zero is what we’re all gonna have to retire on if these foo’s aren’t stopped soon.

Cheney – no one anticipated? Remember the CIA report that they got very upset about when it “hit the street”?

Hell, even people like me ranted about it online the whole of the months building up to the war.

Whenever the next state secrets case comes up, someone needs to take that clip and attach with an affidavit and ask the court to take judicial notice that the Executive is peopled with LIARS and lawyers who promote their lies.

Liars who destroy whistleblowers.

While they profit obscenely from OPM.

While they send OPC off risk everything and win nothing.

While they dig the torture hole so deep that they military and intell agencies and DOJ they pushed into it will never crawl back.

HmblDog,

I don’t mind, per say, the idea of taking an opponent’s add money. I think it’s pretty cool actually that those jag-offs are helping to pay for FDL.

It’s like I said, I worry that new people will get confused about our position and then tell their Congress-people to vote the wrong way.

I find it wildly coincidental ol Darth is making a very public appearance on the day the much hyped Frontline program is set to air

Some fun and wholesome pix of Brian Bilbray’s kids over at Wonkette. Just a bit of that old time Republican values thing in action.

http://www.wonkette.com/politi…..181733.php

Just called Sen. Smith’s DC office. His guy was much nicer then last week. Maybe because I started by saying I was an Independent OR voter. He says Smith has not made a decision on bill 2917 because he wants to make sure there are no hidden items that allow too much govt regulation, but that Smith is definitely for a free and open internet. Fwiw…

That’s tomorrow night for Frontline, cbl.

Barry – if the new people are here just to read the ads, not much we can do for them. Anyone who reads the content of the posts should have no trouble figuring out where FDL stands.

As your supportive constituent I hope that you will strongly support Net Neutrality by supporting the Snowe-Dorgan bill S-2917, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

oops, too many “supports”. proofreading skills lacking.

Mary @ 90,

Is it a toll bridge?

But seriously, and I know kinda OT, did he get the bridge after all? I remember how steamed he was on the Senate floor when they were threatening to remove funding for the bridge from the bill. Also remember reading that his daughter owned the land on the other end of said bridge. (May or may not be true since I can’t remember source.)

Zoellick: Will the last pragmatic and non-clinically insane person left in this Bush mis-administration please turn off the lights when leaving.

thanks lotus!
just reading that monster’s comments on line increases my bp

also don’t think I’m alone in my 100% distrust of all the reports about these 2 missing soldiers implying they are in the hands of AQ – how very convienent so soon after the “Zarqawi’s replacement” meme failed to launch

weeder,

stevens got his bridge $$$, but it was thrown in to some Stevens/Alaska kitty fund and no longer specifically targeted to the Bridge to Nowhere

ahhh…I always wondered…

Speaking of Ms Tomlin, saw “A Prairie Home Companion” Saturday. What a turd! I like the radio show and GK was pretty good but the rest? Wretched, just wretched. The worst part was the Virginia Madsen angel character that kept showing up. I know it’s sentimental and it’s been a long while since the show was at the Fitzgeral Theater but ohmigod (Gurfl). Now I gotta go brush my teeth.

On Political Wire’s Gore-won’t-endorse-Joe story, this:

“Update: Political Wire has learned that former Connecticut Democratic party chairman George Jepsen is endorsing Lieberman’s primary challenger, Ned Lamont, in a press conference this afternoon.”

http://politicalwire.com/archi…..erman.html

Bilbray’s kids…. too funny!

I think his kids live in Va., cause if this was in San Diego, there’d be a big fat bong somewhere in the pics.

kristinejoy:

I resemble that remark!

:-)

cbl– wrt to it’s an occupation not a war, ta-da!

>>>>>>>>

Every time the media – or a Democrat – uses the phrase “War in Iraq” they are promoting one of Karl Rove’s most potent Republican Party frames.

There is no longer a war against Iraq.

It ended in May of 2003, when George W. Bush stood below a “Mission Accomplished” sign aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and correctly declared that we had “victoriously” defeated the Iraqi army and overthrown their government.

Our military machine is tremendously good at fighting wars – blowing up infrastructure, killing opposing armies, and toppling governments. We did that successfully in Iraq, in a matter of a few weeks. We destroyed their army, wiped out their air defenses, devastated their Republican Guard, seized their capitol, arrested their leaders, and took control of their government. We won the war. It’s over.

What we have now is an occupation of Iraq.

The occupation began when the war ended, and continues to this day. According to our own Pentagon estimates, at least ninety five percent of those attacking our soldiers are Iraqi civilians who view themselves as anti-occupation fighters. And last week both the Defense Minister and the Vice President of Iraq asked us for a specific date on which the occupation would end.

The distinction between “war” and “occupation” is politically critical for 2006 because wars can be won or lost, but occupations most honorably end by redeployments.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0619-22.htm

Dr. Bong 123
I resemble that remark!

it was probably a tokin’ gesture

Barry @108,
I hear ya. If we expect people to vote intelligently we have to find a way for them to make decisions based on more than sound bites and pretty colors.
Our politics is nothing more than a sports contest anymore and we all know the WWF is the only honest sport left.

But Punaise, it’s just in your blood to be a very supportive guy.

Tritonesub – (Must admit, I’m partial to flat 5 subs, myself)
I’ve only seen the trailer for the pic, and you have confirmed for me what I thought it would be like. But this piece from a couple of weeks ago is a wonderful punch in the nose to the Bushies, and quite a bit more hardhitting than the G. Keillor we know from the radio show:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0608-23.htm

“Mommy, why is the vase smoking?”

Maybe the vase heard about this?

Federal contracts up 86% under Bush; Halliburton rises 600%

shoephone 127

…it’s just in your blood to be a very supportive guy.

good thing I’m a supporter of the SF Giants rather than the Oakland Athletics.

Punaise – the soul of Willie Mays!

BTW- for folks in Seattle area, Jason Leopold on the Dave Ross show now 710 KIRO-AM. Yeesh.

Dow down 66.50

Lockheed down .40

Halliburton down 3.14

new thread — new endorsement

Punaise – can you stand one more catname suggestion? Jazzpurr or Jazz for short.

mommybrain – Jazzpurr, quelle elegance!

I heartily agree. I pay not only for the weg hosting but to my cable provider for access for my clients. Why should I be “double-taxed” on the access.

oh Angie,

thanks for that ray of sunshine.

actually trotted it out for a test drive in the grocery store line yesterday -

sweet little church lady next to me reminding us all to pray for all involved in the “iraq War’

“with all due respect Mam, it’s not a war, it’s an occupation”

obligatory ditto head two down from me -

“It’s not an occupation, we’re in a war”

me: ” You don’t build bases large enough to need car dealerships and burger kings unless you plan on occupying a place indefinitely”

ditto head: ” what bases?”

me: “just b/c Rush & Sean don’t mention them, doesn’t mean we aren’t buidling three rather large bases there AND an embassy compound so large it can be seen from space”

church lady: “we’re building large bases ?, I didn’t know that”

2 middle aged TX men btw me and ditto head – chimed in -”definitely sounds like occupation”

handed out my usual contact your congresscritter bus. cards and admonished everyone to go home and google subject
and advised the ditto head to give his pals Rush & Sean a call today

thanks again Angie!

Weeder 115 – luckily, I was out of coffee *g*

OT – for someone who was asking about the wetlands case. ??

The Clean Water Act (CWA) that Congress passed waybackwhen makes it mandatory for landowners to get permits before they discharge fill materials (like sand, dirt, etc.) into “navigable waters.” Congress also provides a definition of “navigable waters” as “waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.”

Now, the problem is, no one is really sure what “waters of the United States” means. Congress defined a vague term with another vague term. [Detour - this is actually the kind of thing where a signing statement might make sense, with the Pres. indicating what he thinks his agencies should focus on re: “waters of the U.S]

Next step when you have that kind of Congressional Statute is that you get regulations made by the Exec. Branch to further provide for how they are going to handle the statue. For the CWA “waters of the US” issue, the Army Corps of Engineers created a defintion that included wetlands “adjacent” to other waters of the United States as “waters of the U.S.”

So the issue is really and administrative law issue as to whether an agency has acted within the typically broad discretion it has to regulate under a statutory grant, or whether the agency’s actions exceeded the authority given by Congress or is contrary to Congressional intent or some other pretty bad breach.

Two different cases went up where the issue was wetlands that were not right next to (did not “abut”)navigable waters. The 6th Cir. went along with the Army Corps definition and said that the navigable waters = waters of the US = wetlands “adjacent” to “waters of the US = wetlands that do not abut but are still deemed “adjacent” if there are “surface connections” to tributaries to traditional navigable waters.

The 6th cir held that the Corps’ determination could and should be upheld as long as it was governing lands that had a “significant nexus” to “waters of the United States.”

The Court split with the 4 “non-activist” *liberal* judges ;-) voting to uphold the Corps’ definitions. The 4 ACTIVIST judges, seeking to overthrow government regulation *g* thought that it went pretty far afield to go from legislation that initially says it is intended to apply to “navigable waters” and apply that through a series of every broadening definitions to the point where you are applying it to wetlands that do not even abut navigable waters.

Just those 8 generated several opinions though. Then came Justice Kennedy on a “more facts ma’am” approach. IOW, he wanted to send it back for a better determination of the “connections” between the particular wetlands at issue and the navigable waterways.

So there is no majority opinion, even the two “sides” are split, and Kennedy isn’t really clueing in on which way he will jump, except to say in passing that he thought Scalia’s opinion, which would limit the Corps ability to permit to a very narrow set of lands, is a bit ??harsh?? I think that’s the word he used, if not, something like that.

So its all still on wait and see until there are further findings presented to the court or (more likely) the parties involved work out something – in which case it won’t go back up and there will be some lingering doubts as to who is covered by the permit requirement.

Note that this is all under “navigable waters” type provisions of CWA and is not under wetlands legislation that applies more broadly to other kinds of wetlands on its face.

Cozumel @ 10:47 am (#98) – CHENEY: I DON’T THINK ANYONE ANTICIPATED THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IN IRAQ.

Apparently, to Ole’ Shotgun, “anyone” means “anyone we were willing to listen to”. Certainly, the State Department anticipated violence and anarchy.

angie @ 11:21 am (#124) – cbl – wrt to it’s an occupation not a war, ta-da!

I’ve been calling it an occupation for some time, but also labeling it the “war” in Iraq. I’ll have to look for oppurtunities to use the word “occupation”. Sadly, “war” is much less to type than “occupation”, so I may miss a few.

cbl and Cujo359– it’s a very good point and one I would hope the dems would adopt. I would add brutal to occupation and then I think the idea is complete, at least for me.

I would also advocate asking if the American people support the idea of a spreading American empire. This should be anathema to the heart and soul of most. By our occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and our numerous bases and facilities there, aren’t we doing just that?

I sent this letter to my senator Dianne Feinstein:
There is a light going on in our country when the Christian Coalition and MoveOn agree on something. That light deserves your attention.
We are on the cusp of losing our democracy. The big commercial ownership of the public media has dumbed down and eliminated intelligent content and diverse voices. In response the internet has grown to serve the diversity and intelligence of our culture.
Now, the dumb-down, money-for-me folks want to buy it and sell it.
Congress and the Senate, in their bubble, think that’s how to keep the money flowing to the politicians, and so therefore it must be what they are all there for.
You have a chance to save and re-invigorate democracy in the United States– or to vote to keep selling it off — really to kill it.
That’s you choice.
I ask you from the bottom of my heart to not only support net neutrality with your vote, but to join Barbara Boxer in fighting for it — in fighting for something that the left and the right in America agree upon.
The net neutrality issue could certainly be the beginning of a beautiful friendship …. all of us in America have many values in common. Often now more and more we are divided by the few who want to make all of the money, and keep us stupid, and limit our choices.
Don’t stay on their side, Dianne, help us to open up democracy in America, not kill it. Support net neutrality. Do it for all of us.

While I was making calls for Net Neutrality, I thought of a way to shoot down a telco talking point that should be comprehensible to non-technical people.

They’re always saying that while they’ll make new services work better, they won’t “downgrade” anything else.

The answer is, they don’t have to. Imagine if, when you got DSL or a cable modem, some sites continued to work at dialup speeds. That wouldn’t be a “downgrade,” but how long would it take for you to stop using them? This is no different.

Where in the hell are the OTHER LIBERAL BLOGS on this issue?? Write them and tell them to COVER IT! Write Raw Story, AmericaBlog, Daily Kos, all of them, NOW!

This issue has to be won. Free speech is on the line.

War or Occupation?

I think the meaning of war you’re using is armed conflict between the military of two states. By that definition, what is going on in Iraq is not a war.

But most people define war as any sort of military conflict, so your distinction, although it has content, might be confusing.

It is certainly an occupation for the reasons you mentioned, but it is a war because soldiers are dying in conflict with an indigenous force.

And what about the god damn telco sponsored ads I see on the Liberal sites?? Even if they need the advertising revenue can’t they write a story informing their readers to beware of them?

nostrafarious at 147 — Please watch your snotty tone. Jane does most of our tech stuff for the website. As I explained in a previous comment above, her mother is in the hospital and I have no earthly clue how to do anything with the ads that pop up via our ad software other than look at them just like you do. Since we are taking that ad revenue and channelling it right back into the fight — and everyone who reads here knows that — I’d appreciate a little patience and understanding. Thanks.

In an earlier thread, I promised to post Senator Mikulski’s response to my email regarding website impartiality. Here it is.

::::::::::::::::::
Thank you for contacting me in support of network neutrality and free and open access to the Internet. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue.

I understand your concern that the Internet should not favor certain content or services over others. I believe that the Internet is not only an important tool, but a vital resource. It has allowed millions of Americans to communicate instantly with people around the world. It has put access to libraries of information at everyone’s fingertips. The use of the Internet continues to grow, and the ways we use it continue to expand. I want everyone to have the opportunity to tap into this important resource, and do not want to stifle its development or use.

Your views on network neutrality will be very helpful to me as Congress considers this issue. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you again in the future.

I just called Hutchinson’s office… they say that she does not have a position on Net Neutrality and is waiting to hear from constituents…

Mikulski “I understand your concern”??

How about “I support net neutrality.”

Hey, I UNDERSTAND Bush’s concerns about Iraq
but don’t support them.

Internet fast lane plan worries small companies

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/n…..lity_x.htm

all the republicans do is place gatekeepers… o yeah its jobs right> Take the medicare drug program… gatekeepers. Now the net…. ya’ll tell me …. what else now has a gatekeeper? We have digressed into a gatekeeping society under King George…..

Deadeye blame ‘ bad intelligence’ yet?

Intresting that my comment on Fitz disappeard. Not that far off topic. What’s the matter, Christy, truth hurts?

skippy asks matt stoller of mydd how he, after leading the panel on net neutrality at ykos, justifies taking money from the telcos for the watertower ad on his blog.

matt responds, and a conversation almost ensues.

skippy refuses to take the ad on his his own blog.

sorry to beat this horse, but it ain’t dead yet.

call your senators (skippy did), tell them to support dorgan & snowe’s bipartisan bill s.2917 to preserve net neutrality.

also, steve gilliard and annatopia have pledged to donate the money they got from the telco ad to savetheinternet.com.

how about the other blogs?

to all of my fellow Californians keep calling Feinstein’s office and get her to commit!

I was told last week she hadn’t made up her mind yet- today she wasn’t “in” yet.

She has bowed to progressive pressure in the past. I really think with enough phone calls she can be pulled our way. With out them she could slime over to the telecoms- easily.

On a previous thread, I submitted my real-world example of having my Vonage service being subject to ISP bully tactics and degrading of service without net neutrality.

Well, here’s a post on MyDD showing that the game is now afoot.

I made an animated Net Neutrality music video. You can find the download link on this page:

http://www.spokenring.com/net-neutrality-video.php

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Senate will do the right thing and thank you for helping to get the word out.

Thanks,
Robert

Skippy,

Would be that all the blogs had your courage.

I wrote Americablog (which I like BTW) about their telco ad and Aravosis wrote a snotty reply saying that he had no problem with abandoning the ad as long as we with the big mouths would pony up the cash. I’m sorry but I find a reply like that a bit hypocritical.

This issue arguably is one the most important that we need to pay attention to at this time. The repugs and corporate pigs want to silence the left any way they can.

The clock ticks on.