IAHF List:
On Thursday Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon took a courageous stand against the Telecommunications Giants that are trying to turn the Internet into a toll road wherein we would be BLOCKED from using our web browser to go WHERE we want, WHEN we want and to retrieve WHAT we want.
Although the Snowe-Dorgin Net Neutrality Amendment that would have insured PROTECTION against this madness went down to DEFEAT in an 11-11 TIE VOTE, whereas ATT, VERIZON & BELL SOUTH may have won Thursday's BATTLE, they have not yet won THE WAR, and there is STILL A LOT we CAN and MUST DO to defend the internet from these evil policies which would BLOCK our ability to disseminate information on health freedom issues thus giving us a FIGHTING CHANCE to maintain our access to dietary supplements and alternative medicine.
WYDEN SLOWS THE SENATE DOWN BY PUTTING A "HOLD" ON THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS ON THIS ISSUE
Go here to view C-Span footage of Wyden's speech in which he ANGRILY DENOUNCES what the telecommunications giants are trying to do to the Internet.
http://agonist.org/sean_paul_kelley/20060628/wyden_putting_a_hold_on_the_legislation
Although Senator Stevens has stated that he "lacks the votes" to shove this legislation down our throats this session of congress with the clock ticking and time almost running out in this legislative session, all of us MUST CONTINUE to make our voices heard on this issue by calling THESE members of the SENATE in SUPPORT of WYDEN's HOLD so that this battle will continue in the next legislative session and not be shoved down our throats NOW:
First: What to Say: "I am calling in support of Senator Wyden's putting a HOLD on S.2686, The Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 because it does not contain language to protect Network Neutrality. Aaron Russo's film "From Freedom to Fascism" will be airing in theaters all over America starting at the end of July and the American people are getting rapidly FED UP with the rampant criminality of the US Congress which we are increasingly having no choice but to view as our ENEMY. To understand my views View the trailer for this film at www.freedomtofascism.com You better either GET IT RIGHT on this issue, or I'll see to it that you get driven OUT OF OFFICE over it and will work TIRELESSLY to oppose you politically. The LAST thing we need are greed driven Telecommunications Giants CENSORING what we can and cannot view on the internet by tampering with something that doesn't need so called "FIXING". The US Senate is supposed to OBEY the WILL of the American people, but increasingly it is not, it is only listening to the "special" interests and that ANGERS me."
Either read my message or make up one of your own. See the additional websites and the article below to learn MORE about this important issue because you won't be able to DEFEND your access to supplements if IAHF, NHF, ANH, AAHF, and THE COALITION FOR HEALTH FREEDOM get driven out of CYBERSPACE by these threatened changes.
HERE IS WHO TO CALL WITH THEIR PHONE #s:
(SEE THE ARTICLE NO TOLLS ON THE INTERNET BELOW THE NUMBERS) & PASS THIS ON URGENTLY!
Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
Phone: 202-224-3004
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Phone: 202-224-2235
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
Phone: 202-224-2353
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Phone: 202-224-5274
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
Phone: 202 224 3224
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.)
Phone: 202 224-4623
Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
Phone: 202-224-6253
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
Phone: 202-224-2644
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)
Phone: 202-224-6551
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.)
Phone: 202-224-6244
Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.)
Phone: 202-224-2841
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)
Phone: 202-224-3753
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
Phone: 202 224-6121
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)
Phone: 202-224-5922
Sen. George Allen (R-Va.)
Phone: 202-224-4024
Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
Phone: 202-224-6472
These phone calls actually make a difference.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html
No Tolls on The Internet
By Lawrence Lessig and Robert W. McChesney
Thursday, June 8, 2006; Page A23
Congress is about to cast a historic vote on the future of the Internet. It will decide whether the Internet remains a free and open technology fostering innovation, economic growth and democratic communication, or instead becomes the property of cable and phone companies that can put toll booths at every on-ramp and exit on the information superhighway.
At the center of the debate is the most important public policy you've probably never heard of: "network neutrality." Net neutrality means simply that all like Internet content must be treated alike and move at the same speed over the network. The owners of the Internet's wires cannot discriminate. This is the simple but brilliant "end-to-end" design of the Internet that has made it such a powerful force for economic and social good: All of the intelligence and control is held by producers and users, not the networks that connect them.
The protections that guaranteed network neutrality have been law since the birth of the Internet -- right up until last year, when the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the rules that kept cable and phone companies from discriminating against content providers. This triggered a wave of announcements from phone company chief executives that they plan to do exactly that.
Now Congress faces a legislative decision. Will we reinstate net neutrality and keep the Internet free? Or will we let it die at the hands of network owners itching to become content gatekeepers? The implications of permanently losing network neutrality could not be more serious. The current legislation, backed by companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, would allow the firms to create different tiers of online service. They would be able to sell access to the express lane to deep-pocketed corporations and relegate everyone else to the digital equivalent of a winding dirt road. Worse still, these gatekeepers would determine who gets premium treatment and who doesn't.
Their idea is to stand between the content provider and the consumer, demanding a toll to guarantee quality delivery. It's what Timothy Wu, an Internet policy expert at Columbia University, calls "the Tony Soprano business model": By extorting protection money from every Web site -- from the smallest blogger to Google -- network owners would earn huge profits. Meanwhile, they could slow or even block the Web sites and services of their competitors or those who refuse to pay up. They'd like Congress to "trust them" to behave.
Without net neutrality, the Internet would start to look like cable TV. A handful of massive companies would control access and distribution of content, deciding what you get to see and how much it costs. Major industries such as health care, finance, retailing and gambling would face huge tariffs for fast, secure Internet use -- all subject to discriminatory and exclusive dealmaking with telephone and cable giants.
We would lose the opportunity to vastly expand access and distribution of independent news and community information through broadband television. More than 60 percent of Web content is created by regular people, not corporations. How will this innovation and production thrive if creators must seek permission from a cartel of network owners?
The smell of windfall profits is in the air in Washington. The phone companies are pulling out all the stops to legislate themselves monopoly power. They're spending tens of millions of dollars on inside-the-Beltway print, radio and TV ads; high-priced lobbyists; coin-operated think tanks; and sham "Astroturf" groups -- fake grass-roots operations with such Orwellian names as Hands Off the Internet and NetCompetition.org.
They're opposed by a real grass-roots coalition of more than 700 groups, 5,000 bloggers and 750,000 individual Americans who have rallied in support of net neutrality at http://www.savetheinternet.com/ . The coalition is left and right, commercial and noncommercial, public and private. Supporters include the Christian Coalition of America, MoveOn.org, National Religious Broadcasters, the Service Employees International Union, the American Library Association, AARP and nearly every consumer group. It includes the founders of the Internet, the brand names of Silicon Valley, and a bloc of retailers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Coalitions of such breadth, depth and purpose are rare in contemporary politics.
Most of the great innovators in the history of the Internet started out in their garages with great ideas and little capital. This is no accident. Network neutrality protections minimized control by the network owners, maximized competition and invited outsiders in to innovate. Net neutrality guaranteed a free and competitive market for Internet content. The benefits are extraordinary and undeniable.
Congress is deciding on the fate of the Internet. The question before it is simple: Should the Internet be handed over to the handful of cable and telephone companies that control online access for 98 percent of the broadband market? Only a Congress besieged by high-priced telecom lobbyists and stuffed with campaign contributions could possibly even consider such an absurd act.
People are waking up to what's at stake, and their voices are growing louder by the day. As millions of citizens learn the facts, the message to Congress is clear: Save the Internet.
Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Stanford University and founder of the Center for Internet and Society. Robert W. McChesney is a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-founder of the media reform group Free Press.
MORE INFO: http://www.myspace.com/savetheinternet also http://www.savetheinternet.com
SEND IAHF TO DC BEFORE AUGUST RECESS: Donations needed to help John Hammell get to DC to lobby against the FDA's Trilateral Cooperation Charter with Canada and Mexico which threatens to impose one harmonized set of food and drug regulations on all 3 nations. This is an attack on DSHEA and part of the planned destruction of America which IAHF opposes.
See this previous Alert for details: https://www.ymlp.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?jham+505
Send Donations to: IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd., Point Roberts WA 98281 USA $25 Donation we'll send you a copy of "Fight For Your Health- Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America" $50. Donation We'll send the book + the DVD We Become Silent. $100 donation or more we'll send your choice of multiple copies of either the book or the DVD or Both depending on your needs, please call 800-333-2553 to discuss how we can work together to defend health freedom and ALL freedoms in America and the World. Help IAHF to keep this ball rolling!
