Net Neutrality Up for Vote - Hurry!

Here's the latest from the Senate Commerce Committee, where a "mark-up" on several amendments to Senator Stevens' Telecom Act began today at 10 a.m.: The Snowe-Dorgan Net Neutrality amendment will probably come before the Committee by mid-to-late afternoon. If successfully passed, the amendment would put Net Neutrality language into the massive Telecommunications Act. This is critical.

If your (or your readers'/members') Senators sit on the committee, they need to hear from you immediately. Ask them to support the Snowe-Dorgan Net Neutrality amendment to the larger Telecom Act (S. 2686).

Here are the members of the committee who have not taken a strong position in favor of Internet freedom and for the Snowe-Dorgan Amendment. Please urge your members to call them now:

Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
Phone: 202-224-3004

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Phone: 202-224-2235

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
Phone: 202-224-2353

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Phone: 202-224-5274

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
Phone: 202 224 3224

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.)
Phone: 202 224-4623

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
Phone: 202-224-6253

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
Phone: 202-224-2644

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)
Phone: 202-224-6551

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.)
Phone: 202-224-6244

Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.)
Phone: 202-224-2841

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)
Phone: 202-224-3753

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
Phone: 202 224-6121

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)
Phone: 202-224-5922

Sen. George Allen (R-Va.)
Phone: 202-224-4024

Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
Phone: 202-224-6472

These phone calls actually make a difference.

Thank you for your good work on behalf of this campaign.

Tim Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press

P.S. Here are some recent articles and videos in support of SavetheInternet and Net Neutrality:

An Internet for the Few or the Many?
Michael Copps has a message for the technology industry when it comes to Net neutrality: Get involved.
CNet News.com

Don't Let the Service Providers Discriminate on the Internet
Two of the Internet's top business innovators made a case for Net Neutrality today in an op-ed written for the San Jose Mercury News. "Reinstating the Internet's core principle of net neutrality won't stand in the way of innovation," write John Doerr and Reed Hastings. "Indeed, net neutrality has, until recently, been the very foundation of Internet innovation."
San Jose Mercury News

Protecting Net Neutrality from the Neutricidal Telcos
For AT&T and Verizon to be screaming for the protection of the free market against Net Neutrality is "sheer hypocrisy," writes Internet guru Cory Doctorow. "They themselves are creatures of government regulation, basing their business on government-granted extraordinary privileges."
Information Week

No Tolls on the Internet
Only a Congress besieged by high-priced telecom lobbyists could possibly consider handing the Internet over to the handful of cable and telephone companies that control online access for 98 percent of the broadband market.
Washington Post

Also, check out these recent "Videos from the People:"
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2006/06/26/videos-from-the-people/

How old is SpongeBob?

Aside from the fact that SpongeBob can start a fire, visit the beach, blow bubbles, and play in the snow -- all while living underwater, I have trouble figuring out exactly how old he is.

How old would someone be that:

* Goes to school (teacher is Ms. Puffer)
* Works a job (Krusty Krab)
* Lives on his own (not counting his pet Gary)

So is he a kid that has no parental supervision and not subject to child labor laws? A teen? A grown-up who never graduated from elementary school?

Moral of Story: Kids -- stay in school unless you want to flip burgers and live in a pineapple with no one to keep you company except a snail.

Something I've Always Known about New York City

Reader's Digest recently performed a "politeness" test in 35 major world cities. Guess who's on top? New York...that's right, it's a fallacy that New Yorkers are rude! I have been going there my whole life and rarely when I need help, or receive service do I get rudeness. New Yorkers speak their mind, which can be taken incorrectly as being rude, but if you need something or are being served - you usually will be satisfied.

Mumbai finished last by the way. No surprise for me there. I am pretty sure that this is a cultural thing. I know many Indian guys, and while most were pretty nice, they had behaviors that I would consider rude, especially in regard to women.

My 2 cents

Something You Must Do!

Download, print and distribute this PDF Flyer to Save the Internet! Send it to Con-gress.

If you don't - life without Net Neutrality will allow ISPs to:

• Charge you extra for using certain Instant Messaging software.
• Make sites like Google, eBay or Facebook pay a tax to work properly on your computer.
• Prevent you from accessing the iTunes Store, while making their own higher-priced music service easy to access.
• Charge bloggers skyrocketing costs to post video and audio clips.
• Slow down online political organizations they don’t like or that don’t pay them protection money for faster service.
• Crush economic innovation — relegating the little guy with the next big idea to the “slow lane” of the information superhighway.

Here are some other important things you can do

Scientific American Weighs in on Net Neutrality

Read Sci Am's "Keep the Net Neutral" (and see the post below)

Save The Internet from Big Corporations!

AT&T, Verizon, Time/Warner and all their lackeys want to control what you get on the Internet and how fast you get it. You can be sure that services like Skype will be reduced speed or unavailable. And if you like Yahoo, but AT&T has a deal with MSN, then you might not get everything you want...

This is essentially anti-capitalism by the same Government that is supposed to protect it! There will also be almost no chance of the little guy to become a big success

Hey Congress! What happened to supporting small business -- which is what really supports this country! Can't wait for voting Day!!




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Sweari n Multiple Languages

Going on a trip? Here is a resource to help you be the ugly American that you are... The Swearasaurus lets you learn ho wto say all the "important" words in over 170 languages!

Avoid the Middleman

"Ever notice how it's a penny for your thoughts, yet you put in your two-cents? Someone is making a penny on the deal." - Steven Wright

Hollywood = Immortality (Marilyn Turns 80)

Today would be Marilyn Monroe's 80th birthday. !!!

I guess it's true -- Hollywood keeps you young forever. Can you imagine the woman who sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" (to JFK) hobbling around in a walker and wearing Depends?

She died before I was even born for crying out loud, but it still seems weird that if she were alive today, she would be 80.