The End to the Internet, the Loss of Net Neutrality

Jon Sayer writes in Western Front on 3 June: " The Internet is the greatest invention in the history of the human race. You don’t believe me? Well, what’s the capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco? If you are reading this article on WesternFrontOnline.net, then you can look it up with a few keystrokes. You will know the answer in 10 seconds flat. If you were reading it in the dead-tree edition of this paper back in 1988, well you would have to go find a print encyclopedia, which you probably don’t have laying around in your dorm room. That’s a big hassle. You would ask your roommate and he would say, “Sauce! LOL!” Only he would have actually laughed out loud. He wouldn’t have said “el-oh-el.” The printing press may have enabled one-to-many mass communication. The steam engine may have connected the Atlantic and Pacific. But the Internet enables many-to-many mass communication. It connects the Atlantic and Pacific to the Mediterranean, Caspian and South China Seas. The sum of human knowledge is literally at your fingertips."

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Media Reform: Politics or Democracy?

Josh Wilson in Illustrated Media writes: "There is a widespread and paradoxical fallacy among media reformers that considers the nature of our media as a “second issue” that can and must be harnessed to specific political agendas of the progressive variety. In fact, media is a primary issue that serves the entire socio-political process, not just the needs of progressive politics.
Failure to recognize this ultimately will marginalize the efforts of the media reform community. It limits the issue of reform to one smaller fragment of the larger body politic, and does little to build inclusive media that can accommodate the breadth, depth and diversity of the political discourse — not to mention the journalistic inquiry — this nation requires to survive as a democracy."

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Report says converting to green economy creates jobs
John Myers, Duluth News Tribune Published Wednesday, June 04, 2008The movement of giant wind turbines through the port of Duluth has created a boomlet of economic activity for the region, just the kind of clean, green jobs that will flourish when the U.S. turns away form oil and coal in the battle against global warming.

That was the message Tuesday from leaders of environmental, labor and political groups who say U.S. action is needed to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and push the nation’s economy toward green energy.

The groups released “Job Opportunities for Green Economy,’’ which looked at current jobs and potential in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.

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McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too

Writing for Wired, Ryan Singel reports, "If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday."

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Judges Uphold Voting Rights Act

The Washington Post's Del Quentin Wilber writes: "A federal court yesterday rejected the first legal challenge to a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, in a case that legal scholars view as an important test of one of the country's seminal pieces of civil rights legislation."

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The Corporate State and the Subversion of Democracy

Chris Hedges gave this keynote address on Wednesday, May 28, in Furman University’s Younts Conference Center. The address was part of protests by faculty and students over the South Carolina college’s decision to invite George W. Bush to give the May 31 commencement address.

He begins: "I used to live in a country called America. It was not a perfect country, God knows, especially if you were African-American or Native American or of Japanese descent in World War II or poor or gay or a woman or an immigrant, but it was a country I loved and honored. This country gave me hope that it could be better. It paid its workers wages that were envied around the world. It made sure these workers, thanks to labor unions and champions of the working class in the Democratic Party and the press, had health benefits and pensions. It offered good public education. It honored basic democratic values and held in regard the rule of law, including international law, and respect for human rights..."

For complete speech, click here.

Indefensible Spending

Robert Scheer Writes in an Op-Ed that originally appeared in the L. A. Times: "What should be the most important issue in this election is one that is rarely, if ever, addressed: Why is U.S. military spending at the highest point, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than at any time since the end of World War II? Why, without a sophisticated military opponent in sight, is the United States spending trillions of dollars on the development of high-tech weapons systems that lost their purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago?"

For complete op-ed, click here.