Sign This: Stop The Internet Blacklist!

According to Demand Progress:

Just the other day, President Obama urged other countries to stop censoring the Internet. But now the United States Congress is trying to censor the Internet here at home. A new bill (S. 3804) being debated this week would have the Attorney General create an Internet blacklist of sites that US Internet providers would be required to block.

This is the kind of heavy-handed censorship you’d expect from a dictatorship, where one man can decide what web sites you’re not allowed to visit. But the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to pass the bill this week — and Senators say they haven’t heard much in the way of objections! That’s why we need you to sign our urgent petition to Congress demanding they oppose the Internet blacklist.

Sign the petition here
Read more about the bill here

Since Google was so willing to abandon its commitment to an open network in a deal with Verizon, the fight against the internet blacklist can not be lost. Otherwise the free and open internet we have come to know and love will be no more.

On a sidenote:
Just last week a French three-strikes anti-piracy law Hadopi (not to unlike the proposed blacklist law) went live. Copyright holders are currently in the process of sending out tens of thousands of IP-addresses of alleged infringers to Internet service providers, and this will increase to over a million in a few weeks. The ISPs have to hand over the identities of the associated accounts to the authorities within a week, or face a fine of 1500 euros (roughly $2021) per unidentified IP-address. Penalties for those busted range from hefty fines to disconnecting the Internet connection of the infringer altogether.

White House Farmer?

We’ll let the website, whitehousefarmer.com, speak for itself:

“This site is a forum to follow up on Michael Pollan’s (New York Times writer and author) call for a White House Farmer. The farmer will be charged with transforming ‘five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant[ing] in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden’ whose produce will be used by the White House Chef, and given to area food banks.”

Although nominations are now closed there are 100 worthy candidates from 34 states awaiting your vote. The top three nominations will be presented to President Obama’s staff and hopefully, in particular Sam Kass, the newly appointed White House Chef and local food proponent.

We at The Rathaus are partial to Diane Endicott (24th from the bottom), the founder and director of the Good Natured Family Farms’ alliance, and with the help of her husband also the proprietor of a 400 acre organic farm. We, of course are completely biased on the issue since Endicott lives and works in Kansas, just like The Rathaus. But regardless of who you vote for, do so quickly because voting ends tonight at midnight and you’ll want to have your voice heard on this positive idea.

VOTE HERE!

posted by: Harold Johns III

Secretary of the Arts?

For 10 years, musician/producer Quincy Jones has been asking the American government to provide a cabinet post capable of promoting the arts, in particular arts education, directly from the White House. In a radio interview last November, Jones reiterated this need for a minister of culture, similar to those found in France, Germany, or Finland, after he encountered high schoolers unfamiliar with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane. Jones said that he would even “beg” President-Elect Obama to establish the post if he had to.

Inspired by Jones’ passionate plea, two New York musicians, Jaime Austria and Peter Weitzner, have started an online petition to make this idea happen and well over 140,000 people have signed the petition thus far. Please help support the arts in the United States and take a moment to sign the petition. We did.

SIGN IT HERE!

posted by: Brent Carter