Telecom immunity: where does your Rep stand?

Where does your representative stand?

For more than five years, AT&T and other telephone companies broke the law and violated their customers’ privacy rights by sending billions of private domestic internet and telephone communications and records to the National Security Agency.

The Bush administration has been lobbying Congress to let the phone companies off the hook. But recently, the House of Representatives stood strong and passed a bill that would hold them accountable.

Enter your zipcode at StopTheSpying.org to find out how your House representative voted on the recent bill denying the telecom industry immunity for their criminal involvement in spying on the American people.

See also:

• EFF: The Case Against Retroactive Amnesty for Telecoms
• Wikipedia: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
• American Civil Liberties Union: FISA
• Wikipedia: Legal challenges to NSA warrantless searches in the United States

Advertisers may sneak into your brain

We may soon wish the Firefox extension Adblock Plus existed as a neural implant affecting all sensory input:

Study: Subliminal ads warp your brain – CNET

Science has proven, once again, that advertising is effective. Who knew?

Researchers from upset-destined Duke University (fill out those brackets, people) and the University of Waterloo have published the results of a study that suggests that brief exposure to Apple’s brand logo drives higher levels of creativity than exposure to IBM’s logo. In fact, the researchers suggest that subliminal advertising is actually more effective than regular advertising, because people don’t have time to raise their anti-ad defenses.

…etc.

The Reality Distortion Field Is Real – Slashdot

“Apparently, even subliminal exposure to the Apple logo can make you ‘think different.’ Researchers at Duke University subjected participants to subliminal images of the iconic Apple and IBM logos (during what subjects thought was a visual acuity test), and those who were shown the Apple logo generated more creative ideas after the test than did those who were shown the IBM logo. In a second test, subjects exposed to the Disney logo acted more honestly than those who saw an E! Channel logo.”

Examining the Origins of America’s ‘Founding Faith’

Highly recommended. Click the first link to listen to the 39 minute interview and to read an excerpt from Steven Waldman’s book:

Fresh Air from WHYY, March 11, 2008 · Was America meant to be a Christian nation? Author Steven Waldman attempts to answer this and other questions related to America’s religious history in his new book, Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.

Waldman is the co-founder of Beliefnet.com, a website devoted to spirituality and faith issues. In tandem with his book, Beliefnet has opened an online archive of historical documents related to the separation of church and state, and religious freedom in America.

Mardi Gras: Made in China

Plot synopsis via AllMovie.com:

One of the better known traditions of the annual Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, LA is the beads — most folks wear lots of cheap plastic beads while they wander the city’s streets in search of fun, and men hoping that women will flash their breasts usually toss ladies their beads in what they hope will be considered a fair exchange. However, while in New Orleans, those beads symbolize a wild party and low-level exhibitionism, on the other side of the world they mean something else. In Fuzhou, China, a man named Roger Wong owns a factory that produces the majority of the beads tossed to strangers during Mardi Gras, and to his employees, the beads mean work days of 14 to 20 hours, for which they are paid less than ten cents an hour. Most of the workers in Wong’s plant are young women, whom he says are less likely to cause trouble or make demands than their male equivalent. The workers live in a dormitory where they can be fined one month’s wages if a member of the opposite sex is found in their room. And most are struggling to support themselves and their families on wages that are low even by the standards of a Chinese sweatshop. Mardi Gras: Made in China is a documentary which explores the dramatic contrast between the conditions under which Mardi Gras beads are made and what happens with them once they arrive in the United States; both American revelers and Chinese workers are given a perspective on how the other half lives, and what can be done to make their circumstances more equitable.

Mardi Gras: Made in China official website

IMDB

RottenTomatoes.com

One Nation under the dollar, for corporations, by corporations

It just don’t stop. “Democracy for sale! Come one, come all (super rich)!”

I feel like my congresspeople are whoring me and my Country out:

The INQUIRER: FCC Chairman is owned by media conglomerates

FreePress.net petition & Facebook community

ConsumerAffairs.com: FCC Votes To Relax Media Ownership Rules

DailyKos.com: Making the World Safe for Rupert

Reuters via Truthout.org: FCC Votes to Ease Media Ownership Restrictions

Chris Dodd single-handedly protects our rights

This guy really deserves some props for being the only one to hold up a filibuster of the new FISA bill. This bill would have given immunity to telecomm companies for committing illegal and unconstitutional infringements upon U.S. citizens’ privacy or helping government agencies do so.

Why weren’t more of our representatives – on either side of the aisle – adamant about protecting the Constitution in this case? Do the phone companies have so much power that everyone wanted to protect them more than the people of the U.S.? Where are the congresspeople who work for us (the people)?

This seems an issue that should have been dear to conservatives. I have always understood the Republican party to traditionally be the party to protect citizens’ privacy and curb government intervention in our lives.  Where are the Republicans in fighting this injustice? If the perception of what happened in the Senate is accurate, then there was only one person, a Democrat (and without much help from the other Democrats, either), who kept this bill from being passed at this time. It’ll come around again in January.

Chris Dodd’s my hero today.

Articles:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Threat Level blog @ Wired

Crooks and Liars (MSNBC Countdown video w/great talking points)

Chris Dodd’s voting record at Project Vote Smart – certainly not squeaky clean (supports PATRIOT act? Oh boy)

Boing Boing

The Raw Story

We’re not gonna take it anymore!

Source one (PDF link); Source two

Address by Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson

October 27, 2007

City & County Building

Salt Lake City, Utah

Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: “You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.”

“While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral, military, and national security abyss.”

“You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution, permitted the violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of law.”

“You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never before countenanced in our nation’s history as a matter of official policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder.”

“We are here to tell you: We won’t take it any more!”

“You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and balances among the three presumed co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation’s treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”

“Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false ‘patriotism,’ our world is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of terrorism is far greater than ever before.

It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side nonsense – when what you have done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling – and disgraceful. What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do you not understand? What part of the “Golden rule” do you not understand? What part of “be honest,” “be responsible,” and “be accountable” don’t you understand? What part of “Blessed are the peacekeepers” do you not understand?

John Buckman (BookMooch founder) joins EFF Board of Directors

[This was announced in the EFF newsletter back in September.]

Source: http://www.eff.org/press/releases/2007/09#005443

* Two Leading Technologists Join EFF Board of Directors

Free Culture Leader John Buckman and Privacy and Security Expert Lorrie Faith Cranor Sign on to Distinguished Team

San Francisco - The Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has elected two leading technologists to join its executive board: free culture leader John Buckman and privacy and security expert Lorrie Faith Cranor.

John Buckman is a programmer, an entrepreneur, and the founder of Magnatune.com — an online record label that strives to be fair to both recording artists and consumers alike. The Magnatune site provides web-based distribution to over 250 recording artists and features an innovative tool for online music licensing for film, television, and new media. This Creative Commons-backed business model has helped establish Buckman as a leader in the free culture movement. Buckman is also the founder Bookmooch.com, an online community for the exchanging of used books. His past accomplishments include having founded email software company Lyris in 1994, which he sold to JL Halsey in 2005. He also created Tile.net, an early web site directory that was purchased by Internet.com in 2001.

“EFF fights to protect the rights of artists and fans who use technology to make and enjoy creative works,” said Buckman. “I’m happy to join them in taking on these cutting-edge issues.”

Lorrie Faith Cranor is an Associate Research Professor in the School of Computer Science and the department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. She has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the seminal book “Security and Usability” and founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). Cranor has authored over 80 research papers on online privacy, phishing and semantic attacks, spam, electronic voting, anonymous publishing, usable access control, and other topics. She has also testified as an expert in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Internet “harmful to minors” laws. In 2003, Cranor was named one of the top 100 innovators 35 or younger by Technology Review magazine. She was previously a researcher at AT&T Labs Research and taught in the Stern School of Business at New York University.

“The privacy and security policy decisions made now will have far-reaching implications in the years to come,” said Cranor. “I’m pleased to work with EFF as they champion the public interest in these important debates.”

Other members of EFF’s executive board include John Perry Barlow, David Farber, Edward W. Felten, John Gilmore, Brewster Kahle, Joe Kraus, Lawrence Lessig, Pamela Samuelson, Shari Steele, and Brad Templeton.

“EFF is so fortunate to have such a distinguished Board of Directors, comprised of leaders in technology, policy, and law,” said EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. “John and Lorrie bring a wonderful wealth of experience to EFF and will help us continue to think about our role in relation to emerging technologies.”

Lawrence Lessig on ending corruption

Lawrence Lessig (1) (2), professor of law at Stanford Law School, founder of the Creative Commons (3) and board member at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (4) has announced his next ten years will be dedicated to ending corruption (5) (6).

Where do I sign up?! Well, probably at Lessig’s Corruption wiki (7).

(If you would like to see more of Mr. Lessig, take a look at “The Withering of the Net: How DC Pathologies are Undermining the Growth and Wealth of the Net” (8) (9). Very worth the 40 minutes.)