Media Roots Radio: Video Game Warfare, Covert War in Iran, SOPA & Fair Use
Via Media Roots:
Abby and Robbie discuss the reality of war: the pre-propaganda that has manufactured consent for the illegal occupations, video game warfare and cognitive dissonance in combat, the Marine urination scandal; Martin Luther King Jr. and historical revisionism minimizing how anti-imperialism was the main pillar of his philosophical platform; the CIA and the US covert war in Iran; SOPA, PIPA breakdown, the difference between copyright and fair use, the threat to net neutrality and websites like Media Roots under this overarching legislation.
FCC OK’s Net Neutrality Rules
Our beloved Federal Communications Commission has approved the highly controversial net neutrality rules, albeit in slightly watered-down form from those originally proposed.
In case you need a reminder as to why this is NOT a good thing, Al Franken lays it out for you:
FCC Commissioner Blasts “Bloated Profits” of Verizon/Google Internet Plan
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps just announced that the public shouldn’t stand for deals “that exchange Internet freedom for bloated profits. And he forcefully mocked the tiered-data plans of the “Verizon-Google gaggle,” accusing them of wanting “gated communities for the affluent.”
Instead of letting Verizon create a ghetto of reduced-quality internet service, the commissioner warns the audience against proposals that would “vastly diminish” the internet’s importance, blasting “special interests and gatekeepers and toll-booth collectors who will short-circuit what this great new technology can do for our country.” He concludes by acknowledging that “you can’t blame companies for seeking to protect their own interests. But you can blame policy-makers if we let them get away with it!””
All 95 Pro-Net Neutrality Candidates Lost On Tuesday
Prior to this week’s election, 95 candidates running for the House and Senate had taken a pledge promising support of Net neutrality. On Tuesday, all 95 candidates lost. That’s right, every single one. Is that dismal result the “final nail in the coffin for Net neutrality” as CNN claims?
Before Tuesday’s midterm elections, there were 95 House and Senate candidates who pledged support for Net neutrality, a bill that would force Internet providers to not charge users more for certain kinds of Web content.
All of them lost — and that could mean the contentious proposal may now be all but dead.
The Federal Communications Commission tried to implement Net neutrality rules but got smacked down in April by a court ruling saying it did not have the authority to do so. As a result, it is preparing a proposal asking Congress to give it new authority to regulate broadband Internet service.
If passed, the…
Democrats’ Bill May Kill Net Neutrality
What a disappointment — did you ever think that the guillotine stroke for net neutrality would come from the left side of the Congressional aisle? Firedoglake discusses a clueless bill, proposed by California Democrat Henry Waxman — it’s a compromise which allows the FCC to dispense fines of up to $2 million to punish rule-breaking broadband providers. The problem is, that’s far too small a sum to actually matter:
Henry Waxman has been trying to enshrine the terrible compromise promulgated by Google and Verizon into law, by pushing a truly terrible bill on broadband that strips the FCC of rulemaking and classification ability, and gives wireless Internet providers carte blanche to discriminate in favor of their products.
The FCC would not be able to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, which three commissioners on the five-member panel have publicly expressed a preference for in the past. The FCC would get to…
Google’s Plans to Take Over The Internet Exposed!
From Alex Jones/InfoWars:
Google’s agreement with Verizon to speed certain Internet content to users opens the door to the complete sterilization of the world wide web as a force for political change. Under Google’s takeover plan, the Internet will closely resemble cable TV, independent voices will be silenced and the entire Internet will be bought up by transnational media giants.
Tea Party Groups Out AGAINST Net Neutrality
From Huffington Post:
Following the release of Google and Verizon’s controversial proposal on managing Internet traffic, which comes less than a week after the FCC abandoned efforts at a hammering out a compromise, Tea Party groups have taken a strong stance on the issue of net neutrality.
Specifically, they’re against it. The head of one Tea Party organization says she is concerned that the policy would increase government regulation and power, calling net neutrality one of many “assaults on individual liberties.”
As The Hill reports, “[a] coalition that included 35 Tea Party groups sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday urging the agency not to boost its authority over broadband providers through a controversial process known as reclassification.”…
[continues at Huffington Post]
Al Franken, Senator, On Dangers Of Corporate Control Of Media (Video)
Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) told more than 2,000 bloggers and organizers attending the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas on July 24, 2010, that our media system is at risk everywhere we turn – from our free speech online to the growing power of companies who own a massive number of media outlets.
4chan Being Blocked Again, This Time It’s Verizon
Ken Eakins writes via Sittingnow.co.uk:
DO WANT … on Verizon!
4chan site owner m00t has posted to the 4chan blog, and Twitter, that Verizon wireless, are blocking both in and outbound web-traffic to 4chan.
Unlike a recent scare involving AT&T last year, m00t believes that this time it’s for realsies, from the 4chan blog:
Over the past 72 hours, we’ve been receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers having difficulty accessing the image boards. After investigating, we found that Verizon is dropping traffic to/from boards.4chan.org, only on port 80 (HTTP). No other subdomain/IP/port is affected, which leads us to believe this block is intentional. A call was placed to their support staff last night, and we were told that the ticket would not be looked at until Monday at the earliest, and: “You’ll need the customer to call to request it be unblocked…”
If you’ve been affected by this block, please contact Verizon Wireless customer support.…
