Save the Internet: a MoveOn petition

Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? These activities, plus MoveOn's online organizing ability, will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, MoveOn either pays protection money to dominant Internet providers or risks that online activism tools don't work for members. Amazon and Google either pay protection money or risk that their websites process slowly on your computer. That why these high-tech pioneers are joining the fight to protect Network Neutrality [1] — and you can do your part today.

The free and open Internet is under seige — can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

Then, please forward this to 3 friends. Protecting the free and open Internet is fundamental—it affects everything. When you sign this petition, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress. Votes begin in a House committee next week.

MoveOn has already seen what happens when the Internet's gatekeepers get too much control. Just recently, AOL blocked any email mentioning a coalition that MoveOn is a part of, which opposes AOL's proposed "email tax." [2] And last year, Canada's version of AT&T — Telus — blocked their Internet customers from visiting a website sympathetic to workers with whom Telus was negotiating. [3]

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T's CEO, who openly says, "The Internet can't be free." [4]

Together, we can let Congress know we are paying attention. We can make sure they listen to our voices and the voices of people like Vint Cerf, a father of the Internet and Google's "Chief Internet Evangelist," who recently wrote this to Congress in support of preserving Network Neutrality:

My fear is that, as written, this bill would do great damage to the Internet as we know it. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity...Telephone companies cannot tell consumers who they can call; network operators should not dictate what people can do online.

The essence of the Internet is at risk—can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

Please forward to 3 others who care about this issue. Thanks for all you do.

–Eli Pariser, Adam Green, Noah T. Winer, and the MoveOn.org Civic Action team
Monday, April 24th, 2006

P.S. For a reminder of why this is important, check out the coalition we're launching today: www.SavetheInternet.com

P.P.S. If Congress abandons Network Neutrality, who will be affected?

* Advocacy groups like MoveOn — Political organizing could be slowed by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to pay "protection money" for their websites and online features to work correctly.
* Nonprofits — A charity's website could open at snail-speed, and online contributions could grind to a halt, if nonprofits can't pay dominant Internet providers for access to "the fast lane" of Internet service.
* Google users — Another search engine could pay dominant Internet providers like AT&T to guarantee the competing search engine opens faster than Google on your computer.
* Innovators with the "next big idea" — Startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay Internet providers for dominant placing on the Web. The little guy will be left in the "slow lane" with inferior Internet service, unable to compete.
* iPod listeners — A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service that it owned.
* Online purchasers — Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choice as a consumer.
* Small businesses and tele-commuters — When Internet companies like AT&T favor their own services, you won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.
* Parents and retirees — Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.
* Bloggers — Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

To sign the petition to Congress supporting "network neutrality," click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

P.P.P.S. This excerpt from the New Yorker really sums up this issue well.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, as a national telephone network spread across the United States, A.T.&T. adopted a policy of "tiered access" for businesses. Companies that paid an extra fee got better service: their customers' calls went through immediately, were rarely disconnected, and sounded crystal-clear. Those who didn't pony up had a harder time making calls out, and people calling them sometimes got an "all circuits busy" response. Over time, customers gravitated toward the higher-tier companies and away from the ones that were more difficult to reach. In effect, A.T.&T.'s policy turned it into a corporate kingmaker.

If you've never heard about this bit of business history, there's a good reason: it never happened. Instead, A.T.&T. had to abide by a "common carriage" rule: it provided the same quality of service to all, and could not favor one customer over another. But, while "tiered access" never influenced the spread of the telephone network, it is becoming a major issue in the evolution of the Internet.

Until recently, companies that provided Internet access followed a de-facto commoncarriage rule, usually called "network neutrality," which meant that all Web sites got equal treatment. Network neutrality was considered so fundamental to the success of the Net that Michael Powell, when he was chairman of the F.C.C., described it as one of the basic rules of "Internet freedom." In the past few months, though, companies like A.T.&T. and BellSouth have been trying to scuttle it. In the future, Web sites that pay extra to providers could receive what BellSouth recently called "special treatment," and those that don't could end up in the slow lane. One day, BellSouth customers may find that, say, NBC.com loads a lot faster than YouTube.com, and that the sites BellSouth favors just seem to run more smoothly. Tiered access will turn the providers into Internet gatekeepers. [5]

Sources:

1. "Telecommunication Policy Proposed by Congress Must Recognize Internet Neutrality," Letter to Senate leaders, March 23, 2006
http://www.aarp.org/research/press-center/presscurrentnews/internet_neutrality.html

2. "AOL Blocks Critics' E-Mails," Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2006
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aol14apr14,1,5346265.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

3. "B.C. Civil Liberties Association Denounces Blocking of Website by Telus," British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Statement, July 26, 2005
http://www.bccla.org/pressreleases/05telus.htm

4. "At SBC, It's All About 'Scale and Scope," BusinessWeek, November 7, 2002
http://www.businessweek.com/@@n34h*IUQu7KtOwgA/magazine/content/05_45/b3958092.htm

5. "Net Losses," New Yorker, March 20, 2006
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/060320ta_talk_surowiecki

6. "Don't undercut Internet access," San Francisco Chronicle editorial, April 17, 2006
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/17/EDGNSGUA4F1.DTL

Forgettings by Ángel Crespo

Every poet must write to destroy himself, so that his last poem makes all the others forgotten.


Let us build palaces of poetry, or simple cabins, but let us put within the masonry, or the adobe, sticks of dynamite. And don't forget the fuses.


Those skilled at managing their fame cheat themselves.


The memory to learn, the intelligence to understand that it's better to forget, the will to do so.



[from Sentence: a journal of prose poetics (No. 2, 2004), translated by Steven J. Stewart]

The Heath by Luis Cernuda

Look, this is the heath. Back in your childhood your imagination envisioned it, never doubting -- how could a child doubt his imagination? -- that the heath could only be as you created it, with that interior gaze that fills solitude, and so seen definitively. The word surprised you in the pages of a book, and you fell in love with it, associating it with gusts of wind and rain out of some unknown Northern sky. The vision was real and true, all dense, profuse, mysterious countryside; but in that landscape, as in a dream, there was no color whatsoever.

Time was to add color, when under foreign skies, weary and bored, you saw one day that moorland covered in sullen green bushes, which the summer set flowering with purple blossoms (there was no white heather there), so the fall could then turn them rosy, until withering little by little, they'd blend into that basic green their sad and monotonous dullness. That's when you understood the vividness of imagination's reality, and how much it can add to what you've read, however slight the plot on which it plays and builds.

Time, while applying color, removed enchantment, and a lot of time had now passed, when your intimate reality finally met the other one. So many things like the heath could speak to you before, and now that you faced them were mute and expressionless -- or was it you? -- because heather is a plant of desolate and solitary places. Then, after a long look at the countryside and the sky, attuned in their grim appearance, with a vague satisfaction, more for the proof you were finally observing than for the problematic enchantment of the heath, you crossed disillusioned past its frontier flowers from summer into fall.

And you told yourself that when visible reality seems more beautiful than the one you imagined it's because a lover's eyes are seeing it, and yours weren't in love, at least not at that moment. Imaginary creation trumped reality, and while that might mean nothing with respect to the beauty of the actual heath, there was move love in the child's vision than in the grown man's reasoned contemplation, and the pleasure of the former, in its fullness and beauty, had exhausted the future prospects of the latter, however real they were or seemed to be.

[from Sentence: a journal of prose poetics (No. 2, 2004), translated by Stephen Kessler]

Fathoms from Anywhere: A Samuel Beckett Centenary Exhibition

The Harry Ransom Center introduces an online exhibition to celebrate the centennial of the birth of Nobel Prize-winning writer Samuel Beckett at
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online/beckett.

The web exhibition traces Beckett's (1906-1989) career, using materials from the Ransom Center's collection. Exhibition highlights include a textual and pictorial overview of Beckett's career; "Beckett's Circle," brief biographies of contemporaries and friends; and the opportunity for web visitors to share their views on Beckett and his works.

The centennial web exhibition is derived substantially from information and materials in the Center's renowned Beckett collection. Holograph and typescript works make up the bulk of the collection, supplemented by Beckett's correspondence and a wide range of his writing, including poems, stories, and plays spanning
most of his career.

The research, design, and construction of the online exhibition was made possible with the assistance of Humanities Texas and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Bush, GOP Approval Ratings Hit New Lows

"These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said. "The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one."

Heritage extremists threaten builders with sites damage

Heritage extremists threaten builders with sites damage
· Shadowy group attacks developments
· Police insist crimes are 'serious issue'

Robert Booth
Saturday April 1, 2006

Guardian

Police are to investigate threats against housebuilders and demolition contractors made by Britain's first known architectural extremists who have accused them of being responsible for "beautiful buildings, full of history, being ripped apart and replaced with featureless junk".

Barratt Homes, Bovis Homes, Laing Homes and Westbury are on the Historic Buildings Liberation Front's list of 37 targets which have been threatened with "retaliation for nationwide devastation" in an attempt to escalate a decade-long campaign by the shadowy group which has staged dozens of attacks across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

The group says it is dedicated to stopping modern housing developments and the destruction of historic buildings.

It claims that "as a result of developers' greed and planners' indifference, the erosion of regional identity is at crisis point".

Police believe the group is being spearheaded by an individual. So far most of the attacks have been carried out single-handed.

The HBLF has damaged new buildings with paint and angle-grinders, slashed and punctured tyres on demolition contractors' vehicles and caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the property of companies and individuals connected to new developments or the demolition of historic buildings.

Its campaign restarted this month with a call for supporters to step up activity and target the housebuilding companies which are being relied upon by the government to make up a supply shortfall of 50,000 homes a year nationwide.

A manual on how to carry out attacks has been written for recruits and includes instructions on using a specialist grinding wheel to tear into brickwork and glass "throughout the night to cause tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage".

There is advice on executing its trademark technique of splashing buildings and cars with white paint. It recommends tyre walls are spiked with Stanley knives and that activists carry bolt cutters and saws for vandalising fences and cables. Weedkiller should be used to paint the letters HBLF on to the grass of target sites.

Members are told to cover their faces and wear hats and gloves. Old clothes, especially for assignments, should be kept hidden, for example under the floorboards in a garden shed. The manual even advises would-be attackers who are feeling nervous. "You are feeling apprehensive, leave your tools where you can pick them up later, go into the site and sit down for a time. Relax for a while, perhaps with a flask of tea," it advises.

It also offers advice on avoiding capture and insists on every action being accompanied by a calling card.

"There has been a huge indifference to his beliefs and horror at the nature of his crimes," said Sergeant Howard Travis of Bedfordshire police, referring to the invidual thought to be behind the attacks. "In the last 10 years, crimes claimed to be by the Historic Buildings Liberation Front have been committed in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. It involves very serious damage and is without a shadow of doubt a serious issue."

HBLF's reported activities include an attack on the offices of Hitchin Youth Trust in Hertfordshire because the trust's building was slated for demolition prior to redevelopment. It spiked scores of tyres at two demolition companies and in September 2003 it ground the letters HBLF into the wall of a social housing development by Bedford Pilgrims housing association in Kempston where an ornate Victorian house had stood, causing damage estimated at £2,500.

"The attack came out of the blue," said the association's chief executive, John Cross. "There had been a campaign mounting through formal means and some councillors were saying perhaps we should save our Victorian heritage, but it came as a shock." He said the building was replaced with "routine family housing that wouldn't win any architecture awards" but denied it eroded local character and pointed out the Victorian building was fire-damaged and could only be reused at great expense.

The property of Gerald Angell, a farmer in Ashwell village, Hertfordshire, was attacked after he decided to carry on with a project to build a new barn in spite of a planning refusal because the site was thought to contain the remains of an historically important villa. "The experience was absolutely shocking," said Courtenay Patten, a friend of Mr Angell. "They knifed his tractor tyres and they also knifed my Land Rover tyres and they threw paint over his tractor and over his house."

The HBLF's call for action was reported in the Architect's Journal this week after it was sent to campaign group, SAVE Britain's Heritage.

"There is no way we could condone violent action, but this reflects widespread concern and anger at the continuing loss of great historic buildings and the continuing erosion of the wider historic environment," SAVE director Adam Wilkinson said. "There are thousands of houses threatened with demolition in the north and midlands under government policy."

A spokesman for the House Builders Federation refused to respond to the HBLF's criticisms. "These are criminal activities and are matters for the police."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006