The Futility Of Internet Debates

(Click for larger view.)

Tags: cartoons, Dilbert, Internet debating

Fight Child Porn: Light A Million Candles

The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.

But you can.

With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade.

We do not need your money.

We need you to light a candle of support http://www.lightamillioncandles.com

We’re aiming to light at least One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.

This petition will be used to encourage governments, politicians,
financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.

They have the power to work together. You have the power to get them to take action.

Please light your candle at
http://www.lightamillioncandles.com
or send an email of support to light@lightamillioncandles.com

Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.

Kindly forward this to your friends, relatives and work colleagues
so that they can light a candle too.

Source: Lotus In The Mud

More

Tags: child abuse, internet porn, child predators, light a million candles

Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

More

Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

Save The Internet III

SaveTheInternet.com has their own Blog where they are updating regularly with the latest and greatest info on what’s happening with the net neutrality cause.  Please add it to your blogroll.

Tags: net neutrality, Congress, Save the Internet

Save The Internet II

Matt Stoller at MyDD is blogging all this week about the Net Neutrality issue. It affects us all and it really is us versus Big Business. (I normally wouldn’t link to Moveon.org as I think they’re too extremist, but I do believe in this particular cause…if you don’t like them, go sign the petition at savetheinternet.com, which is what I did. )

Background on the Issue: The internet is open because private companies haven’t been allowed to block content they don’t like. Now the telcos want to make it so they can block what you see.The Threat to You is real: Telcos have already blocked competing services, censored emails, and political web sites of unions negotiating with them. Why do you assume they care about your rights?Come On, This Isn’t Really Happening: Fine, don’t believe me. Ignore the fact that the CEO of AT&T is on record that this is going to happen. You can pretend that this won’t affect you, if you want.

‘Net Neutrality’: A Simple Explanation: Annoying tech issue, maybe, but you can watch this this simple video explanation.

Explaining the Players in the Fight: It’s a corporate cartel with bought and paid lobbyists versus a free market and citizens groups.

Can we win this fight? Yes, we can. Congress isn’t that set on giving away the internet. They just don’t understand the issues involved and don’t think anyone’s paying attention.

What You Should Link to:
SavetheInternet.com
Moveon Petition
Save the Internet on MySpace

More

Tags: net neutrality, Congress, Save the Internet, AT&T, MyDD

Judge Rules Web-Surfing Can’t Get You Fired

Today in New York, Administrative Law Judge John Spooner ruled that Toguir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education, who had been accused of browsing the internet at work and ignoring supervisors’ requests to stop, cannot be fired.

“It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.”

He added: “For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes.”

Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri’s computer files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites. [“Web-surfing worker can’t be fired” (Yahoo!News)]

(emphasis, mine of course)

More

Tags: Internet, work

Save The Internet

Now here’s something that isn’t making headline news and should be. This will affect everyone if it makes it through and probably people either think no one will be able to enforce it or it’ll never happen in their life time. This is real Big Brother type stuff.

If you’ve ever been frustrated because you were using a library, campus, military, or work computer and couldn’t get to a website because it was blocked, imagine if your phone company or service provider could do that to you just because they want more money? Imagine that your service provider could charge you extra to go to ebay or Amazon.com or bloglines or cnn.com. Imagine that your service provider could decide whether or not you could read Air America’s site or Rush’s or Fox News or NPRs based on their politics not yours.

Just think about it.

Congress is pushing a law that would abandon “network neutrality.” Network neutrality prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from choosing which Web sites open most easily for you based on who pays them more. Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

If the public doesn’t speak up now, Congress will hand control of the Internet to companies that want to decide what you do, where you go and what you watch online. Politicians are already trading favors for campaign donations from these companies. They’re selling us out to people like AT&T’s CEO, who says “the Internet can’t be free.”

Internet freedom could soon be fenced in by the phone and cable companies. If Congress turns the Internet over to AT&T, everyone will be affected.

How does this affect you?
More

Tags: COPE Act, Congress, net neutrality, blogs, iTunes, web hosting, politics, Internet