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For at least six years, President Bush has authorized the
National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct dragnet
surveillance on our domestic telecommunications networks,
vacuuming up the private communications of millions of
ordinary Americans with no warrants or other meaningful
oversight.

Yet instead of reining in this intolerable attack on your
Constitutional rights, the Democratic leadership caved to
the president's demands for even more spying authority by
passing the so-called "Protect America Act" in August. Now
the Administration wants to make its power grab permanent,
prevent any court from stopping the illegal spying, and
give companies like AT&T a "get-out-of-jail-free" card.

It's going to take massive public outrage to make Congress
grow a backbone and check the president's abuse of power.
The first step is to demand a strong, clear commitment from
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid to protect your rights.

Legislation could be considered this month (September 2007), so please don't
wait before picking up the phone and making your voice
heard. You can get contact information and talking points
at www.StopTheSpying.com   Source: www.eff.org newsletter

Background & Source: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/NSA/

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/

Welcome to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Action Center! Here you can contact your representatives on impending legislation that will have a direct effect on your civil liberties online. You can also subscribe to our action alerts as an RSS feed, or

sign up to receive EFFector, our regular e-mail newsletter. 

EFF Main Website: www.eff.org/

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Repeal the REAL ID Act!
The REAL ID Act would essentially for the states to create -- and pay for -- a privacy-invasive, national ID system.

Help fight back against this burdensome federal mandate now:
 

Tell Congress to Repeal REAL ID!
 

California Alert - Tell the Governor to Reject REAL ID!

 

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Reform the PATRIOT Act!
The Administration's laundry list of privacy invasions keeps getting longer -- a recent report documents

how the FBI has blatantly abused a key PATRIOT Act power and violated the law. Tell Congress to launch thorough and immediate hearings.
 

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Support the FAIR USE Act!
The FAIR USE Act would remove some of the entertainment industry's most draconian anti-innovation weapons and

chip away at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's broad restrictions on fair use. Take action to help restore balance in copyright now.

 

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Fight the Justice Department's Copycrime Proposal
Should ordinary Americans face jail time for attempted copyright infringement? Should the sort of property forfeiture

penalties applied in drug busts also threaten P2P users, mixtape makers, and mash-up artists? Of course not, but the Department of Justice has drafted an outrageous legislative proposal that that applies these severe penalties and much

more. Tell your representatives to reject it now.

 

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Stop the SPY Act!
The SPY Act is supposed to help stop spyware, deceptive adware, and other malicious software, but it is unlikely to do

any good and could actually make things worse. Tell Congress to go back to the drawing board and draft a more

sensible law.
 

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Stop the Broadcasting Treaty Flip-Flop!
EFF and others have worked hard to fix the proposed Broadcasting Treaty from endangering innovators' and users'

rights - and last year many countries, including the United States, said they would support a better treaty. Now a new

WIPO draft once again endangers innovators' and users' rights. If one of your senators is on the key Judiciary committee,

write to him or her now and stop the U.S. from supporting WIPO's damaging new proposals.
 

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CA Alert - Keep RFIDs out of State IDs!
A landmark bill that would require tough privacy and security safeguards for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

tags in state-issued IDs sailed through the California Senate recently on a broad bipartisan vote. It's moving forward in

the Assembly now, and we need your help to push it through.

 

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Don't Let Congress Shackle Digital Music!
The PERFORM Act is a backdoor assault on your right to record off the satellite or digital radio and would force

Internet webcasters to use DRM-laden formats rather than MP3. Take action to block this bill now!
 

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Tell Congress to Support E-Voting Reform!
In Election 2006, electronic voting machines caused myriad problems and precluded full and thorough recounts in tight

races. Tell Congress to stand up for election reform and make sure every counts!
 

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Improve the Freedom of Information Act!
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) helps protect the public's right to know, and new legislation would provide some much-needed updates to this crucial law. One open government bill has already passed the House -- make sure a similar

one passes in the Senate.

 

Key Issues: ALERTS

Pull Congress Back Into the Wiretapping Fight! In August, Congress passed legislation that broadly expands the National Security Agency's authority to spy on Americans without warrants. Now Congress needs to undo the damage as soon as possible,

and to do that, it needs to hear from you.
 

 

 

   Save the Internet   Key Issue: Net Neutrality FAQs

 

Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that

preserves the free and open Internet.

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership

or destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data —

not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

Learn more in Net Neutrality 101. Source: www.SaveTheInternet.com

 

 

 

 

 

News Alert Update from www.freepress.net

Tell the FCC: Use Our Airwaves for the Public Good

Broadcast television channels will soon vacate these airwaves when they go digital by 2009. If used right, these public airways will revolutionize the ways we connect to laptops, cell phones, PDAs, music players and other mobile Internet devices. They can deliver

an open Internet into your house without the need for a telephone wire or cable modem.

Phone and cable lobbyists are pressuring the FCC to sell companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast our airwaves so they can

in the world in high-speed Internet rankings, with few choices and some of the highest prices for the slowest speeds in the world.

We will continue this decline as long as we let AT&T, Verizon and Comcast dictate the terms of Internet access for the majority of Americans.

These phone and cable giants refuse to open their networks to competitive applications and services. They lobby Washington to

Tell the FCC: Keep the New Internet Open to All

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

After you send your comment to the FCC, tell at least five friends to take action.

2. For more information about what's at stake with our public airwaves, read these recent articles in Wired Magazine, the

Los Angeles Times, Forbes Magazine and MyDD.

3. To learn more about the public interest and the public airwaves, visit the "Save Our Spectrum" site, www.freepress.net/spectrum/

Senate Committee Cut  Net Neutrality Amendment  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1983860,00.asp

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Defending Freedom  In The Digital World

{Check for Updates}

USA Senators:For or Against Net Neutrality

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Internet NewsWatch...  Be Your Own News Director!  International NewsWatch

 Famine of the Word Behold, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a

famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to

sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12  Internet Censorship:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

United Nations Establishes Working Group on Internet Governance New York, 11 November (Working Group on Internet Governance) -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today the establishment of the Working Group on Internet Governance.  The Working Group will prepare the ground for a decision on this issue by the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held in Tunis in November 2005.  Source/Story: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/pi1620.doc.htm

Should the United Nations Run the Internet?

The United Nations wants to expand its influence over the Internet, but would it be wise to let that happen?

Source/Story: http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5181327.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Summit_on_the_Information_Society

Ultimately, the US Department of Commerce made it clear it intends to retain control of the internet's root servers indefinitely.^[6][7][8]

The Digital Divide Main article: Digital divide

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, defined the information society as that through which “human capacity is expanded, built up, nourished and liberated, by giving people access to the tools and technologies they need, with the education and training to use them effectively.” It is this kind of a society that the World Summit on the Information Society set about to create.

^{Source: Wikipedia. Wikipedia articles are subject to change.}

^{http://www.waccglobal.org/}

^WSIS

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. These include domain names

(like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use

 these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability.

Read more about ICANN.

Source: http://www.icann.org/

American Library Association: Cybercrime Treaty

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?    Section=ifissues&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=135036

Main Website: http://ala.org/

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cared about the hair style of reporters. The most important thing was accuracy-getting the facts straight.

Later, when I was hired as an investigative reporter at a Post-Newsweek station near the end of the Watergate era, I received a

personal pep talk from publisher Katherine Graham-a gutsy woman who had recently been threatened with a ride through the Nixon Administration's ringer.

Mrs. Graham warned me that the pressure would be great, but I was to tackle stories without fear from inside or outside the company. If anyone tried to interfere with my work, I should call her.

That call was never necessary. We were in the second golden age of television news (after Edward R. Murrow and friends set the

early standard). Even when I was sued after exposing some unsavory dealings by a local congressman, Graham's company

enthusiastically supported me in court. We won.

Unfortunately, those days came to an end. Television news got profit-conscious, lawsuit-averse, and as a result, much of the

programming morphed into fluffy lifestyle pablum. Over time, viewers would come to believe the sugar-coated diversions were

 actually real news.

We've reached the point where the FCC is investigating almost 80 TV stations for substituting corporate video handouts in place of genuine news stories without telling viewers. How low can television news go?

Just as the new TV season began, David Letterman half-joked, "Here at CBS was Bob Schieffer's last night as the anchor of

'The CBS Evening News.' ...Tremendous man, Bob-brought credibility and ratings to the news. So naturally, they got rid of him."

About the same time Schieffer left the stage, former vice president, Al Gore, a man who has experimented with television interactivity through his Current TV network-added some more harsh words about the quality of television news.

Addressing the International Television Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, Gore observed that increasing media consolidation is a threat against all democratic societies. "Democracy is a conversation, and the most important role of the media is to facilitate that

conversation. Now the conversation is more controlled, it is more centralized," he said.

Gore said that questions of fact that threaten those in power are not heard on today's news programs. "...They try to censor the information," he said.

A few business people or politicians are now consolidating global media holdings, Gore went on. In Italy, much of the media is

owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has stifled dissent on television, and in

South Africa, Gore said, dissent "is disappearing, and free expression is under attack."

In the United States, he said, "the only thing that matters in American politics now is having enough money to put 30-second

commercials on the air often enough to convince the voters to elect you or re-elect you. The person who has the most money to

run the most ads usually wins."

Though I'll surely be labeled a curmudgeon by some, it's pretty much a no-brainer among thinking people that the television news

business is in sorry straits. Veteran reporters continue to leave the business, disgusted with dwindling pay levels, the dumbing down of content, and the outrageous redefinition of what is and is not a legitimate news story.

NEWSLITE

The talented pros who have worked in professional news operations in the past find it hard to play the illusionary corporate game of newslite. Rather than leave the business entirely, hopefully some will embrace the only remaining alternative-the Internet. Of course,

the Internet is no more than a distribution system. It begins as an empty vessel. Someone has to create the information.

Just as word processors didn't produce better writers or video cameras better visual storytellers, a cheap distribution platform won't

alone create a meaningful alternative for journalistic storytelling.

The whole phenomenon of "citizen journalism" and blogging-while helping break down the corporate walls that have long shielded the

news business-does not necessarily result in better reporting or more accurate information. Yes, there is some genuine talent

online-people who have broken important stories-but so far it takes a bit of work to find them.

Hopefully, the talent will rise and ways will be found to financially support them without corporate intervention or the toxicity of

advertising. Sadly, we still must navigate a sea of politically motivated bloviators who claim to be bringing fairness to the news.

Interestingly, ad slogans have tried to convince audiences that one news show is more fair and competitors have bias. Of course,

this is all bunk. Complete objectivity is a myth. All of us are biased, whether through our education, life experiences, age, or otherwise.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

It certainly helps to have some level of objectivity and not approach the news with a hidden agenda. But the holy grail of journalism is accuracy: Getting the story right, regardless of who is offended.

In old school journalism, we learned a simple rule: "Follow the money." In our culture, that has always been the most effective way

to get to the truth.

Real reporting requires the guts to stand up and oppose popular conventions. The post-9/11 fear to tackle hard and controversial

subjects still permeates too many newsrooms. The idea that "embedded" journalism can ever be legitimate should be abandoned.

Journalism, when practiced by the best, demands an adversarial relationship with those in power. It is the opposite mentality of a

White House press corps that waits to be spoon fed the government's prepared theme of the day.

So who still practices this kind of journalism? One example is Seymour Hersh, one of America's finest investigative journalists.

His work has long challenged abuses of power. He works independently, the old-fashioned way.

Hersh's chosen medium is still the written word. There is not yet a www.seymourhersh.com. But when the day comes that reporters

 of Hersh's standards independently report on the Web, we'll know the next golden age of journalism has arrived.

Frank Beacham is a New York City-based writer and producer. Visit his Web site at www.beacham.com.

Source: http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0074/t.392.html

Source: http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idcategory=33&idSub=122&idArticle=7725

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WebNewsImagesShoppingWikipediaBlogsJobs

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Wiretapping News - Worldwide: <http://www.global-teck.com/english/wiretappingnews>

Local Access to Internet Explained:  http://www.freepress.net/defendlocalaccess/

The answer could mean life or death for the internet. <http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19125581.300.html>

News Clipping Services  <http://websearch.about.com/od/effectivesearchstrategies/a/news_clippings.htm>

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