Net Neutrality on the table again this year

http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Net-Neutrality-Act-Once-Again-on-the-Agenda/31886


From the article

On January 9th, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Democrat Byron Dorgan reintroduced the Internet Freedom Preservation act to the Senate. Better known as the Net Neutrality Act, the bill was killed by the Senate last year in a vote split down party lines (Democrats yea, Republicans nay), with the exception of Senator Snowe. With the Democrats having a slight majority in the Senate, the bill certainly has a better chance this time around, but it still needs 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster.


For those of you who are not in the loop let me break this bill down for you:

the cable that runs to your house is owned by either the phone or cable companies

they want to be able to charge more to content providers (google, aol, myspace) for using more of the bandwidth than the normal user.

in the simplest terms possible, they wanna charge more to those who bring in the most traffic.

The beauty of the Internet is that it IS free and equal. I can go to my friends website for his family pictures just as quickly as i can go to Google.

If the companies get their way they can charge companies like Vonage (Internet phone company) extra cash for running on their "pipes".

At the current time companies like Vonage sell unlimited phone for around 25 bucks a month, the phone and cable companies would love to tax them for using their wire which would in turn make you need to pay more (cause face it if they get taxed they pass the taxes on to you)

this would be detrimental to tech development (does anyone remember how little change there was when "Ma Bell" owned the entire phone system? it wasn't until ma bell got broken up into competitive companies did we see advancements such as touch tone, caller ID cell phones and even the Internet itself.

Competition serves 2 major purposes

variety and advancement, when 1 company has the only tech available, that company see's little incentive to expand the product line, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it)

lower prices, if you sell something for 100 bucks, I'm gonna sell it for 95 and so on.


this is good for the consumer.

If the companies get their way there will be no more vonage, Google will have to pay more taxes so you will see less development from google

there will be no more sites like myspace or slashdot, as the creators will not be able to upload the content for the users without paying more taxes. meaning there will be little incentive to get in the game.


as a user most people pay around 30-60 bucks a month for their Internet service. if one wanted to create a site such as a game, or some other website that takes off, Verizon and Cablevision want to be able to take a piece. so your choices would be

pay more for the premium so your site loads fast enough for the users
your site will not handle the traffic so your new concept never takes off (and most likely a cable company or phone company would "borrow" your idea and offer it their selves.)

this rant is all over the place but the point of this story is this bill needs to pass, if it does not you can expect the same as you did before Ma Bell was broken up. a whole lot of nothing

A look back to andy.

well due to the comments I've received I guess the fact that I noted I didn't write this isn't good enough. I love how the comment is from "African American by choice"(who by the looks of it joined only to make this comment), only about 1/3 of that rant had anything to do with black people. I bet he didn't even read the rest of the rant about girl scouts and English and all the other important stuff, he was merely playing the victim yet again.

I DIDN'T WRITE THIS!!!

HOWEVER some of the information in this rant make a lot of sense, if I made an organization called the NAACP (National Alliance for the Advancement of the Caucasian People, there would be brimstone and fire. (as shown by my comments)

I DO NOT CONDONE RACISM be it white on black black on black alien on human whatever. that is the point I feel Andy was attempting to make, Not a point to further the white race, however to educate people on the ridiculous nature we live in today.

As it stands, 2 people take a test for a job at a police department (true story) 1 white 1 Puerto Rican. The white person did fairly well on his test (top 5 in the class) the Puerto Rican did NOT make the top 10 in the class.

The white (who was 5th on the class) lost his job to the Puerto Rican (who didn't break 10th) because there were no Puerto Ricans on the force.

I do not know about you but I want the best serving on our police forces, be it white, black, red, I do not care. However I do care that a sub par PERSON is patrolling our streets when a fully certified one was not accepted.

This is the DEFINITION of racism to me.

Its snowing finally! turned to global warming rant

Well today we finally get snow..... yay..... so far we got about an inch or 2 and for living in new york its pretty sad that we are only getting snow to almost February. Some people will try to say this is due to "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" I feel that the latter is the way to go. Now the Question is why is the climate changing. Some will have you believe that its all our fault, man did this all with our coal and our oil and what have you. I call bullshit.

As a human we think of climate as a monthly, seasonly, or yearly. We do not think about what the climate was years ago. when i say years ago I don't mean 1995, I mean THOUSANDS of years ago. The worlds clock is WAY slower than a human clock.

So when we look back in time we start to realize that we are still in the mix of an ice age. The "climate" changed DRASTICALLY when the central American joined the continents of north and south America. This changed the flow of the oceans which in turn created an ice age.

We are still in the end of this ice age as the earth catches up with the the changes.
Have things excelerated since the oil age? Yes it has. Can we blame the climate shift to oil consumption??? There are TOO many variables to do such a thing.

End rant

My america - As told by Andy Rooney

* Andy Rooney said on** "** 60 Minutes** " ** a few
weeks back:**
**
I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of
anything except
numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly
discriminatory
are
things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet
Magazine, Black
Entertainment
Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things
like the **
United**
** Caucasian** ** College** Fund, Cloud Magazine,
White Entertainment
Television, or Miss White America; and see what
happens...
Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes
you a killer. You
can
kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one
is trying to ban
you
from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason,
that is why
there are
no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE
YOU LISTENING
MARTHA
BURKE?


I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others
because they are
different,
weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in
cities where 70%
of
the population is black, that is not racial profiling,
it is the Law of
Probability.
I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a
pack of cigarettes,
a
newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English!
As a matter of
fact,
if you want to be an American citizen, you should have
to speak
English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you
can leave the
countries
you were born in to come over and disrespect ours. I
think the police
should
have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you
threaten them after
they
tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word
"freeze" or "stop"
in
English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this
country, you are
qualified for any special loan programs, government
sponsored bank
loans or
tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee
shop, trinket store,
or
any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries
and risk our
lives in
wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later
they could come
over
here and tell us our constitution is a living
document; and open to
their
interpretations.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and
television. That
doesn't
stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny
he made and
continue
to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the
next operating
system
that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child
right, but it does
take a
parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little
behinds when
necessary, and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want
them, but please
don't
pretend they are a political statement.And, please,
stay home until
that new
lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly
infected mouth as you
serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of
black people, and
not
a single one of them was born in ** Africa** ;so how
can they be
"African-Americans"? Besides, ** Africa** is a
continent. I don't go
around
saying I am a European-American because my great,
great, great, great,
great, great grandfather was from ** Europe** . I am
proud to be from
**America
** and nowhere else.
And if you don't like my point of view, tough...

Liberty vs. Privacy

Sometimes, living in a free society makes it harder on law enforcement. There are certain prices we pay for liberty and this is one of them. Taxes are another price we pay for a civilization based on personal freedom. The "hassle" of following the Constitution and not just summarily executing bad guys that we KNOW are bad guys is another.

I'm sure it's a drag for police to have to get a warrant when they know someone is doing something illegal in their house. I'm sure the FBI gets very frustrated when they have to provide a judge with affidavits of Probable Cause when they KNOW that the bad guys are using phones to do bad things, just so they can put up a wire tap.

And it's a hell of a lot more than just a little hassle when our own freedoms allow really really bad guys to plan and execute a terrorist attack where thousands are killed. But it may turn out that too, is the price of living in a free society, God help us.

I know that as I sit in my neighborhood coffee shop, someone with a bomb strapped to their body could walk in and blow me to bits. I watched as fellow Americans (and a lot of innocent non-Americans) lost their lives on September 11, more than 5 years ago.

But I refuse to live my life in fear. And I absolutely refuse to give up one single bit of my liberty to make it easier for law enforcement to do their jobs, or to make it more convenient for our government to govern, or even to ensure that I can walk down the street without the fear of something bad happening to me. That's how important liberty is to me - more important than my security.

I see fear making a lot of people willing to live less like Americans and more like the residents of a gated community or the inmates of a prison. I mean, it's not really that bad if officials have to ask us to show papers on the street - not if it makes us safer. And it's not really that bad if someone in the Federal Government has to read my mail without my permission. And it's not really all that bad if the FBI has to sniff my packets because someone, somewhere else on the internet is doing something wrong. After all if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have to worry.

There a lot of people who have been convinced - we see them around here - that all those little freedoms just aren't worth having to be afraid. These people have wandered very far from the principles that made the US unique in the world and a beacon of freedom to those who live in safe places where they don't fear terrorists, or pornographers, or child molestors. Those people only have to fear their own government.

I'm not willing to trade, and I'm not willing to give up my freedom. I would really, honestly rather die a free man than live under tyranny. I don't blame those of you who have become so scared that you've convinced yourselves it's OK to be watched, because you're not doing anything wrong. But I absolutely pity you. It must be hell to be so afraid.

My first post

So here it is. I finally decided it was time to keep a blog. what will I rant about in this blog??? Everything

Politics - the first and foremost item I will be discussing
Sports - not quite as important, most likely will play a small role here
My daily life - quite boring but hey it wouldn't be My blog without some info on me now would it
User based questions - yeah if you have something interesting in a comment i may run with it.


Now for the legalities, Anything posted on my blog, including but not limited to pictures, soundclips, and comments are property of myself. now let me explain.
I WILL NOT take your pictures and claim them as my own, if i use one you will be given credit if i am able to
I WILL NOT take your comments and claim them as my own comments.
I WILL use these items to further my knowledge and writtings.

Enjoy as I will try to update this on a daily basis.