In Memoriam

Thank you bartcop.com for this graphic. Please visit Bartcop to see the names of our fallen soldiers more clearly.

Did the FBI raid Jefferson's office and seize evidence to protect Cheney?

I have my suspicions as to why the FBI targeted Representative Jefferson's office to raid and yet never raided and siezed documents from Tom Delay's office, or Duke Cunningham's office. However, there may be a more sinister reason as suggested by the Wayne Madsen Report:

Nigerian connections to political bribes ultimately linked to U.S. oil industry. According to informed sources, the $90,000 found in Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson's freezer by the FBI had its origins with Nigerian politicians who include two 2007 presidential hopefuls, current Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former President Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, as well as former Nigerian President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is looking at the three politicians and evidence that they have been used by foreign oil companies to launder money into the coffers of Nigerian and foreign politicians, including Jefferson. The Louisiana congressman is being investigated for receiving over a half million dollars in bribes from iGate, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky-based company that was using Jefferson to promote its Internet and wireless business in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. In the case of Nigeria.

Jefferson allegedly attempted to double dip by receiving a finder's fee from iGate for an introduction to Nigerian political leaders and company officials of Nigeria's Netlink Digital Television of Nigeria and also receive direct sales commissions from Netlink. Netlink's lawyers blew the whistle on Jefferson's illegal gambit.

The Nigerian bribery scandal involving Jefferson is also linked to previous bribes paid to Nigerian politicians by U.S. oil companies, including $180 million in bribes paid by Halliburton, while Dick Cheney was its chairman, to Nigerian officials in return for a gas liquefaction plant contract in Nigeria.

The FBI's raid on Jefferson's office may have had more to do with eliminating evidence involving U.S. oil companies in Nigerian bribery schemes (and, therefore, protect Cheney) than in nailing Jefferson. >>>More

Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional

The Hill reports:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.

Hastert raised concerns that the FBI’s unannounced seizure of congressional documents during a raid of Jefferson’s Rayburn office Saturday night violated the separation of powers between the two branches of government as they are defined by the Constitution.

“The Speaker spoke candidly with the president about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid over the weekend,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday in confirming his boss’s remarks.

Hastert told reporters yesterday that he understands the reasons for the investigation but objected to the manner in which the raid was conducted. >>>More

I have questions for Hastert, who is so upset aboutthe infringement of Congress' right to a "co-equal" status with the Executive Branch who launched the raid. (Thank you Thom Hartmann for asking these questions Thursday on Randi Rhodes' show):

Where were you when we lost the liberty of the separation of powers on Sept. 15, 2001, when congress abdicated its oversight responsibilities of the President of the United States giving Bush carte blanche to declare war on anybody anywhere?

Where were you on Sept 21, 2001 when the rights of immigrants in an open democracy where slammed shut because the chief immigration judge ordered deportation proceedings closed? No more open trials.

Where were you when October 11, 2002 when John Ashcroft generated a memo reducing government compliance with freedom of information requests...simply just ignoring the law...?

Where were you on October 26, 2001 when the Patriot's Act was passed?

Thom Hatrmann also asks:

"Where was Denny Hastert with his overblown concerns about separation of powers when our privacy rights were knocked out with the Patriot Act? Expanding wiretap provisions, reducing judicial review, allowing law enforcement to indefinately detain non-citizens based on SUSPICION of terrorism. Authorizing "sneak and peek" searches without a warrant; defining domestic terrorism as something that allows them to bust people who are protesting outside a local fur shop; and sharing information with intelligence agencies that can conceivably lead to a coup within the United States."

Congress and The Justice Department At Odds

As I read more and more about the FBI raid on Representative William Jefferson's office, due to an FBI sting where Jefferson reportedly was caught red handed with the FBI sting cash, I can't help but express my disbelief at the executive branch's arrogant show of bullying and disregard for the separation of powers in this matter. (Side note: I know Jefferson is a Democrat and Black...could that be the reason the FBI and Gonzalez chose HIS office to raid and not Delay, or Cunningham or Abramoff's?) Yet, how ironic that now GOP Congressmen are upset that THEIR (collective) Constitutional rights have been abridged.

Those Congressmen yelling the loudest are the same men that gave this president carte blanche to slowly eviscerate the rights of the average American citizen when they approved the Patriot Act (who's name, by the way, implies that if you disagree with the Act you are NOT a patriot)...how Orwellean is that? Not to mention the wiretapping; data-mining; voting rights infringements brought on by voting machines that clearly work in favor of Bushco; detention camps; etc.

NOW Hastert, et al are screaming that THEIR rights have been violated, meanwhile, attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday. >>>More

This should be an interesting development. Stay tuned...

Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State

In the last five years, we, the citizens of the United States of America have watched this country slide down a very dangerous and slippery slope toward a fascist society.

ALTERNET has an article in their "Rights and Liberty" section by By Allan Uthman, Buffalo Beast entitled: Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State.

1. The Internet Clampdown
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. >>>More

2. "The Long War"
This little piece of clumsy marketing died off quickly, but it gave away what many already suspected: the War on Terror will never end, nor is it meant to end. It is designed to be perpetual. >>>More

3. The USA PATRIOT Act
Did anyone really think this was going to be temporary? Yes, this disgusting power grab gives the government the right to sneak into your house, look through all your stuff and not tell you about it for weeks on a rubber stamp warrant. >>>More

4. Prison Camps
This last January the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root nearly $400 million to build detention centers in the United States, for the purpose of unspecified "new programs." >>>More

5. Touchscreen Voting Machines
Despite clear, copious evidence that these nefarious contraptions are built to be tampered with, they continue to spread and dominate the voting landscape, thanks to Bush's "Help America Vote Act," the exploitation of corrupt elections officials, and the general public's enduring cluelessness. >>>More

6. Signing Statements
Bush has famously never vetoed a bill. This is because he prefers to simply nullify laws he doesn't like with "signing statements." Bush has issued over 700 such statements, twice as many as all previous presidents combined. >>>More

7. Warrantless Wiretapping
Amazingly, the GOP sees this issue as a plus for them. How can this be? What are you, stupid? You find out the government is listening to the phone calls of US citizens, without even the weakest of judicial oversight and you think that's okay? Come on -- if you know anything about history, you know that no government can be trusted to handle something like this responsibly. One day they're listening for Osama, and the next they're listening in on Howard Dean. >>>More

8. Free Speech Zones
The authors of this article write: I know it's old news, but... come on, are they fucking serious?

9. High-ranking Whistleblowers
Army Generals. Top-level CIA officials. NSA operatives. White House cabinet members. These are the kind of people that Republicans fantasize about being, and whose judgment they usually respect. But for some reason, when these people resign in protest and criticize the Bush administration en masse, they are cast as traitorous, anti-American publicity hounds. >>>More

10. The CIA Shakeup Was Porter Goss fired because he was resisting the efforts of Rumsfeld or Negroponte? No. These appointments all come from the same guys, and they wouldn't be nominated if they weren't on board all the way. Goss was probably canned so abruptly due to a scandal involving a crooked defense contractor, his hand-picked third-in-command, the Watergate hotel and some hookers. >>>More

Just a heads up...this administration started its "master plan" to quash the Constitution of the United States for some time prior to Bush's "selection". Look at this video called "Unconstitutional - The War On Our Civil Liberties". How the "Patriot Act" became law.

More on the Patriot Act in a later post.

NFL or NBA?

Are these stats from the NFL or NBA?

1. 36 have been accused of spousal abuse
2. 7 have been arrested for fraud
3. 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
4. 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
5. 3 have done time for assault
6. 71, repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
7. 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8. 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
9. 21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and...
10. 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

So, are these stats from the NBA or NFL?

Neither, it's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

(See earlier posts of: GOP Docket and GOP perverts and criminals.)

Murtha on Iraq: ‘There’s Not Only No Progress, It’s Worse Than It Was Prewar’

This morning, Jack Murtha appeared on CBS’ The Early Show to talk about the Iraq war. Murtha offered a sobering assessment:
[T]here’s not only no progress, it’s worse than it was prewar. this thing has been mishandled so badly. The American people needed to hear. we’re spending $450 billion on this war by the end of the year, $9 billion a month, and so we need to change course. >>> More at TP

Negroponte Granted Presidential Powers

On May 5, 2006, a presidential memo was issued and published in the Federal Register on page 27941. This memo provides John Negroponte, The Director of The National Intelligence Service, with the authority to act as if he were the president with regard to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The memo states:

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby assign to you the function of the President under section 13(b)(3)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (15 U.S.C. 78m(b)(3)(A)). In performing such function, you should consult the heads of departments and agencies, as appropriate.

This SEC regulation states that publicly traded companies are in violation of the law if they conceal transactions and activities from the public. In other words these companies MUST act with "relative transparency".

Negroponte now has the authority to waive the rules of the SEC and authorize companies like Bellsouth, AT&T and Verizon to ignore the SEC rules and not be prosecuted for violations of the SEC rules. Hence, the denials from these companies. Has he utilized the memo? We don't know, but even if he did...we weill NEVER know.

Thanks Thom Hartmann for your clear and concise explanation of the above events.

Is Congress Aiding And Abetting The Creation Of A Police State?

Bowing To The Police State ~ By Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).


Is Congress aiding and abetting the creation of a police state? Recently, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., helped to give the CIA and NSA unprecedented police powers. By inserting a provision in the FY07 Intelligence Authorization Act, Hoekstra has undermined the existing statutory limits on involvement in domestic law enforcement. This comes after revelations in January of direct NSA involvement with the Baltimore police in order to "protect" the NSA Headquarters from Quaker protesters.

Add to this, the disquieting news that the White House has been barraging the CIA with totally improper questions about the political affiliation of some of its senior intelligence officers, the ever widening use of polygraph examinations, and the FBI’s admission that it acquires phone records of broadcast and print media to investigate leaks at the CIA. I, for one, am reminded of my service in the police state of the U.S.S.R., where there were no First or Fourth Amendments.

More>>>

ChoicePoint, Inc.

Greg Palast and Randi Rhodes are the ONLY voices speaking up against this inept company, ChoicePoint, Inc. the leading company in data-mining. The NSA data-mining program that USA Today revealed last week, is being conducted by ChoicePoint, Inc. How many people have publicly asked WHY is this being done?

Palast breaks it down in this article: Here is a snippet:

I know you're shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that George Bush is listening in on all your phone calls. Without a warrant. That's nothing. And it's not news.

This is: the snooping into your phone bill is just the snout of the pig of a strange, lucrative link-up between the Administration's Homeland Security spy network and private companies operating beyond the reach of the laws meant to protect us from our government. You can call it the privatization of the FBI -- though it is better described as the creation of a private KGB.

(snip)

I first ran across these guys in 2000 in Florida when our Guardian/BBC team discovered the list of 94,000 "felons" that Katherine Harris had ordered removed from Florida's voter rolls before the election.

Virtually every voter purged was innocent of any crime except, in most cases, Voting While Black.

Who came up with this electoral hit list that gave Bush the White House? ChoicePoint, Inc.And worse, they KNEW the racially-tainted list of felons was bogus. And when we caught them, they lied about it. While they've since apologized to the NAACP, ChoicePoint's ethnic cleansing of voter rolls has been amply rewarded by the man the company elected.
More>>>

ChoicePoint was given millions to search for "felons" on the voting rolls and came up with 94,000 BOGUS NAMES. They were then given a no bid contract worth BILLIONS to data-mine more information about American Citizens. Now this is the kicker, its bad enough to know that our privacy is being sold to the government for millions (the government is not allowed to collect this info...but they can purchase it)...the kicker is that they are in the process of making a NATIONAL DNA DATABASE of all Americans!! Can anyone say FOURTH AMENDMENT?

Former Mayor Rudy Guilianni gave ChoicePoint a No bid contract to get DNA info on the victims of 911 in NYC. That process of extracting DNA gave Choicepoint the opportunity to see just how far they could go in terms of collecting DNA on every American Citizen.

Palast explains it this way:

And now ChoicePoint and George Bush want your blood. Forget your phone bill. ChoicePoint, a sickened executive of the company told us in confidence, "hope[s] to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States …linked to all the other information held by CP [ChoicePoint]" from medical to voting records. And ChoicePoint lied about that too. The company publicly denied they gave DNA to the Feds -- but then told our investigator, pretending to seek work, that ChoicePoint was "the number one" provider of DNA info to the FBI. More>>>

This is MY question about all of this. Why do WE have to be submitted to all of this if this effort is to combat the abstract concept of a "War On terror"? I would submit to you that this is NOT about terror...it is about POLITICS AND CONTROL.

Mentally Ill Soldiers Forced Into Combat

The picture on the left is Army Spec. Jeffrey Henthorn, 25, a young father and third-generation soldier who committed suicide last year while on his second tour of duty in Iraq. His superiors “knew he was unstable and had threatened suicide at least twice, according to Army investigative reports and interviews,” reports the Hartford Courant. Henthorn is shown here in Iraq with a young girl he befriended. He told family members he was tormented by memories of having shoved a boy off a moving tank and watching the boy’s limp body slip under the wheels. (Hat Tip to TruthDig and the Hartford Courant for the picture and caption. More info at both sites.)

There is something very cynical going on in this government when the Department of Defense, force mentally ill soldiers into combat. The difficulty in recruiting military personnel has forced the DOD to take increasingly reckless and questionable steps to maintain a certain number of troops for the perpetual war in Iraq.

In an article written last year, Jamie Wilson in wrote on June 4, 2005 in The Guardian:

The US military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy in an attempt to halt the rising attrition rate in an army under growing strain as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More>>>


By Stephen Soldz wrote this piece at Information Clearing House. Stephen Soldz is psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Institute for the Study of Violence of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.

03/27/06 "ICH" -- -- As the US military has difficulties recruiting and retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping. The Stop-Loss option in soldiers’ contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired. The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy, and poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits.

Now word comes that “mentally ill” troops are being sent back to Iraq. See: Some troops headed back to Iraq are mentally ill This article refers to “a little-discussed truth fraught with implications,” but the implications discussed all have to do with the effects on the soldiers being returned, and these soldiers’ “effectiveness in combat.” In many instances, being returned to combat, and to a state of constant tension, will exacerbate the soldier’s problems, the article -- correctly -- suggests.

The article indicates that the military is putting pressure on mental health professionals treating these soldiers to minimize the extent of their problems and to declare them fit for return to Iraq and combat. For example, some Army doctors are reporting that they are being told to diagnose combat-stress reaction instead of the more serious post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, the article reports that professionals treating emotionally disturbed soldiers “are under pressure” to approve their redeployment to Iraq. I have written about the moral issues involved in mental health treatment of soldiers in Iraq To Heal or To Patch: Military Mental Health Workers in Iraq. More>>>

Bottom Line: Dr. Soldz makes the point that the policy of sending mentally ill troops into combat, and in some instances RE-DEPLOYING the mentally ill BACK into combat shows the reckless disregard this administration has for both our soldiers and the Iraqi people. He also claims, and I agree that this policy, because of the disregard for human lives, is tantamount to one more act of War Crimes being committed by this administration.

The Preservation of The "Master Race" According To Herr John Gibson

So, once again Faux News has advocated, blatant and uninhibited racism by way of their on air news personalities. Xenophobic John Gibson, told his audience to "Make More Babies, because in 25 years, the majority of the population of the United States will be made up of minorities, mostly Hispanic.

Well this adds a little flavor to the immigration debate. Gibson, in my opinion is no different from those who demanded that Germans "make more babies" to assure and preserve the "master race" some 70 odd years ago... Perhaps next week john will wear his brown Shirt and Storm Trooper Boots on his show. Media Matters has the video about Gibson.

Fake News v REAL News and Kudos to The Blogosphere

Right after the 2004 Presidential Election, I made a determination that I was no longer going to watch television news. That meant ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. I caught on to FOX news years before so they were already excluded. Of course being the political junkie that I am, I still needed to find REAL news, so I turned to the internet. I turned to Reuters, and Christian Science Monitor, Yahoo and Google News, to name a few. I also rely on left leaning bloggers as well.

The point is Television News has lost its credibility. When I'm channel surfing I notice that sensationalism (mostly non-political) is what these networks want to feed their audiences. Runaway Brides; Missing American Beauties in Aruba; Lacrosse Teams and Hookers; Powerful Political Poker Players and male or female hookers; Another Kennedy in trouble (overlooking Rush Limbaugh and his similar drug related problem); and it goes on and on.

We wonder why the majority of our citizens are so uninformed. What passes for "news" on TV is essentially "entertainment". Most of these shows' viewers would rather know about what Michael Jackson, Brittany Spears, J-Lo, Tom Cruise, Brad and Angelina are doing rather than how many soldiers or Iraqis died today or in total since the war; or the fact that we were lied to so that Bushco could have their war; or that thousands of our children were killed or maimed for life because of that lie; or the massive mismanagement corruption and expansion of government under the present administraton; not to mention outting a covert CIA agent for vindictive reasons, or perhaps something even more sinister; Jeff Gannon's access to the White House for more than two years in a post 911 world; the de facto and de jure systematic shredding of our Constitution; NSA spying on Americans; CIA and DOD problems, and the list goes on and on.

Lamestream media has chosen to keep Americans in the blind or at least contribute to the "dumbing down" of our citizenry. To paraphrase from Dr. Rice and Mr. Bush: "Who could have anticipated the power of the blogosphere?"

It is here that the best investigative political/news reporting that I have seen since the 70's takes place. It is the blogosphere and the legitimate news services online that keeps the REAL information flowing. I'm happy to be a fledgling member of such a great group of people.

NSA - Data Mining - Poindexter's Information Awareness Redux?

Wikipedia on the public opposition of John Poindexter's now defunct Total Information Awareness program:

Extensive criticism of the IAO in the traditional media and on the Internet has come from both the left and the right -- from civil libertarians and libertarians -- who believe that massive information aggregation and analysis technologies lead to a form of dataveillance that can threaten individual liberties. To some, these developments are seen as another step down the slippery slope to a totalitarian state. (Emphasis added). Others believe that development of these technologies is inevitable and that designing systems and policies to control their use is a more effective strategy than simple opposition that has resulted in research and development projects migrating into classified programs.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews. Sound familiar?

The point is this: The Defense Department’s Total Information Awareness Program, sought to gather a “lifetime paper trail” of all citizens and centralize the information on a giant database. Although Congress stopped funding for this program in 2003, the signature of Poindexter's TIAO is on this latest NSA revelation. We all know that Poindexter has been creative in the past in funding projects that Congress rejected (Iran-Contra for example). The former National Security Advisor under Ronald Reagan was convicted of conspiracy, lying to congress, destroying evidence in the Iran Contra scandal, and defrauding America.


The revelation by USA Today regarding the NSA secretly collecting the phone call records of MILLIONS of American citizens has once again brought the NSA Wiretapping issue to the forefront. President Bush rushed to quell any furor over this supposed "leak", today. He claims that everything the NSA is doing is legal. That in fact the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. he also said that no data mining was taking place. My first question is this: Why the heck should we believe the President NOW? When has he ever been truthful with the American People?

I have no doubt that convicted felon, John Poindexter is behind the scenes conducting these clandestine NSA spying operations. It seems the Bush Administration is very comfortable with convicted felons in their midst. The last five and a half years have given us a clearer picture as to WHY they are there.

Republicans Set Aside Middle-Income Tax Cuts to Focus on Rich

Is anyone REALLY suprised at the following Bloomberg Report? For years we have seen the GOP agenda slowly eradicate the middle class in favor of the "uber rich". No mainstream media outlet would write about this issue, but finally one has....read on:

By Ryan J. Donmoyer

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Republican lawmakers, facing the prospect that their power to cut taxes may soon be curbed, plan to extend breaks that mostly benefit the wealthy and Wall Street at the expense of reductions for middle-income households.

Six months before elections that may return a Democratic majority in at least one house of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois are focusing on extending the 15 percent rate on investments and repealing the estate tax. They won't push extensions of lower rates for all taxpayers and expanded breaks for married couples and families with children, which expire after 2010. More>>>

The Colbert Factor

The brouhaha about Stephen Colbert's satirical skit at the Washington Correspondance Dinner this past weekend is just that...a lot of hot air. The fact is, the right wing pundits who continue to shoot Colbert down for his "disrespect" of the President simply are angry at the fact that Colbert spoke the truth. The irony is, his character supports the Bush Adminsitration. He is really satirizing the clueless media water carriers like Stone Phillips, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, et al.

The wingnuts are very particular about someone airing their dirty laundry. Remember these are the people, especially the ones in the media, who coddle and protect this administrations faux pas, lies and secrecy, at all cost.

They are upset because Colbert, although in his "right wing character", had no problem in speaking "truth to power" by satirizing this administration and its subservient media. These are the people who are accustomed to House Dems and others who oppose this administration's agenda and policies, running for cover or cowering in terror and silence. for fear of some sort of Rovian Retaliation if they spoke out.

Here is what Jesse Kornbluth of HuffPo had to say about Colbert's performance:

If there was any doubt about Stephen Colbert's genius, it evaporated at the White House Correspondents dinner.

Jon Stewart, God bless him, serves up the clip that shows you the President is an idiot. He works in the noble tradition of satire, and he can do it for years and years so long as there are white men in brogues who are stupid and powerful.

Colbert, God love him, goes much further. His is a high-wire act that could go down in flames at any moment. For he doesn't satirize our idiot government and gutless media, he becomes the biggest idiot of all. He's the true believer, the guy totally on message, the loyalist who would give his all for the Commander-in-Chief.

In my opinion, Colbert is nothing short of genius. His character portrayal at the event last weekend was perfect from beginning to end. Kudos, Stephen Colbert. Video

Net Neutrality 101

If the telecommunications companies have their way, in just a few short years, the Internet as we know it will no longer exist. THEY want to privatize the Internet.

The New York Times writes:

"Net neutrality" is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause. More>>>

This short clip is for those of us who comprehend concepts better with visual aids. It gives a good explanation of what Net Neutrality means to the consumer (thats us).

Christopher Stern of North New Jersey.com writes:

For more than a year, public interest groups, including the Consumer Federation and Consumers Union, have been lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to write the concept called "network neutrality" into law and regulation. Google and Yahoo have joined their lobbying efforts. And online retailers, Internet travel services, news media and hundreds of other companies that do business on the Web also have a lot at stake.

Meanwhile, on the other side, companies like AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth are lobbying just as hard, saying that they need to find new ways to pay for the expense of building faster, better communication networks. And, they add, because these new networks will compete with those belonging to Comcast, Time Warner and other cable companies -- which currently have about 55 percent of the residential broadband market -- this will eventually bring down the price of your high-speed Internet service and television access. MORE>>>

Thank you My DD for the following Info:

Sign a Neutrality Petition to Congress

Call Congress now

Write a letter to Congress

Go to My DD for more options