Ooo, I Am So Mad! I Can't Believe This...
Entry posted by Lost_Warrior
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I got this email today. Normally I don't pay too much attention to forwarded emails unless they are cute, but I read about this EXACT SAME THING in Newsweek about a month or so ago.
Please act immediately to save and protect the Internet frommonopolies, tolls and censorship.
House Vote Will be Crucial to Future of Your Internet
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/st...View/sid/14914/
--- excerpts:
Within the next two weeks, and with very little media
attention, the House of Representatives is expected to
vote on the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and
Enhancement Act, also known as the COPE bill. The bill
will have an impact on every American family, but the
only agenda that will be promoted and enhanced by this
bill will be that of the country's largest telephone
and cable companies.
Despite COPE's blatant flaws, only 12 members of the House
Commerce Committee -- one Republican, Rep. Heather Wilson
(R-NM) and eleven Democrats -- voted against the bill last
week. The House Commerce Committee approved the bill, by a
vote of 42 to 12. It's not hard to understand why the COPE
bill continues to gain momentum. It's being aggressively
pushed by cable and telephone companies, and other telecom
giants that will benefit from this unfair legislation.
The COPE bill opens the door for companies to turn the free
and open "Information Superhighway" into a toll road
benefiting their own bottom lines. A vote for COPE, Rep.
Markey warned, is a vote "to fundamentally and
detrimentally alter the Internet."
The Commerce Committee turned back an amendment by Reps.
Markey, Rick Boucher (D-VA), Jay Inslee (D-WA), and Anna
Eshoo (D-CA) to ensure 'net neutrality': the principle that
Internet users should be able to access any web content
they want, post their own content, and use any applications
they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by
their Internet service providers (ISPs).
The amendment, defeated by a vote of 34 to 22, would have
protected an Internet where any user can search for
information without constraint, and where thousands of
nonprofit groups and bloggers have been able to prosper
because the Internet provided them a lowcost forum where
they compete for an audience based on the quality of their
ideas, not the size of their wallets.
As the House prepares to vote this week, the House
leadership wants this bill to be rushed through before the
public gets a chance to voice its opposition. But that
opposition already is being heard. Common Cause alone
has generated more than 80,000 e-mails and calls to
Congress and telecommunications executives calling for
'net neutrality'. As one Member of Congress put it:
"There's a prairie fire going on out there."
Stupid government. If the American people are not sufficiently angered by this, then I officially give up on America. And if this bill actually passes, then it's really true, democracy doesn't work anymore.
On a lighter note, after much work this morning we got the art show cleaned up (I worked extra to help out afterwards) and I got all of my artwork home safe thanks to my mom for giving me a ride home today. I found out today that I almost won "choice of show", which is considerably more annoying than not winning it when I thought I didn't stand a chance 
Oh, and I posted the pictures of the flowers in my gallery, come check them out! I am so proud!!!
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