internet

"A direct assault on Internet users" is what the ACLU is calling it. Yesterday a U.S. House committee approved HR 1981, a broad new Internet snooping bill. They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and retain their customers' information -- including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups have expressed our opposition to this legislation. Will you join us, by emailing your lawmakers today?

NBC 17's Justin Moss took a look at the money flowing from Time Warner Cable to the primary sponsors of H.129, the so-called "Level Playing Field" bill that would bury municipal broadband systems.

If you've been waiting to see the "deer-in-the-headlights" look of a politician caught with her hand in the cookie jar, watch Rep. Howard's reaction at the end of this video. It is PRICELESS!

Last Friday, September 24, I attended a lecture by Neal Caren, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill, at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies. The PowerPoint lecture and discussion were advertised as “Online Activist Communities: the case of white supremacists.” I imagined it would be about the techniques used by white supremacists that have proven successful. I was even hoping to pick up some pointers that could be applied to work in the favor of the progressive movement. I was more than happy to have my preconceived notions crushed.

It has been an amazing week in Iran, and you are no doubt seeing images that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

For most of us, Iran has been a country about which we know very little…which, obviously, makes it tough to put the limited news we’re getting into a proper context.

The goal of today’s conversation is to give you a bit more of an “insider look” at today’s news; and to do that we’ll describe some of the risks Iranian bloggers face as they go about their business, we’ll meet a blogging Iranian cleric, we’ll address the issue of what tools the Iranians use for Internet censorship and the companies that could potentially be helping it along, and then we’ll examine Internet traffic patterns into and out of Iran.

Finally, a few words about, of all things, how certain computer games might be useful as tools of revolution.

Last Week, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made a bold proclamation about wind energy.

"The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility...It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now."

Wow, that is good to hear. But if you read Vincent Carroll of the Denver Post, you'd think Ken Salazar is just some country bumpkin whose ideas on wind energy are a prescription for the middle ages. Really? Hmmm ... It seems he gets his conclusion by 1) attacking Al Gore and 2) by cherry picking his information from Energy officials, and citing no renewable energy experts. Way to do your work Mr. Carroll. Shill work.

In which we examine who is using the internet as a political tool,,,who isn't...and how it might affect Obama going forward.

AN ACT to appropriate funds to the e‑nc authority to increase the availability of internet connectivity in underserved areas of the state through incentive grants, to provide additional funding for general operations, to expand the funding for the e‑nc business and technology telecenters program, and to provide incentives to e‑communities, local e‑government utilization program participants, and e‑commerce initiatives.

McHenry EXPOSED, a McHenry watchdog site Pat Go Bye Bye just partnered with this week was shut down at 3 p.m. this afternoon by the host:

Click here to see the server's message.

Crossposted at Kos -Sam.

It's simple, really. We need a proven perspicacious progressive in the United States Senate to talk for Kossacks and, more importantly, Americans. We need United States Representative and fellow Kossack Brad Miller in the United States Senate. And all weekend, Blue South and I have been asking for the small amount of $5.08 to make it happen. If you help make it happen, I swear this will be the last Draft Brad diary for a long time.