The European open internet is under imminent threat!!

URGENT - VOTING IN EU PARLIAMENT 5th of MAY 2009
Don't let the EU parliament lock up the Internet! There will be no way back!

Act now!
Internet access is not conditional

Everyone who owns a website has an interest in defending the free use of Internet... so has everyone who uses Google or Skype... everyone who expresses their opinions freely, does research of any kind, whether for personal health problems or academic study ... everyone who shops online...who dates online...socialises online... listens to music...watches video...

Millions of Europeans now depend on the Internet, directly or indirectly, for their livelihood. Taking it away, chopping it up, ‘restricting it', ‘limiting it' and placing conditions on our use of it, will have a direct impact on people's earnings.
And in the current financial climate, that can't be good.

The internet as we know it is at risk because of proposed new EU rules going through end of April. Under the proposed new rules, broadband providers will be legally able to limit the number of websites you can look at, and to tell you whether or not you are allowed to use particular services.
It will be dressed up as ‘new consumer options' which people can choose from.
People will be offered TV-like packages - with a limited number of options for you to access.

It means that the Internet will be packaged up and your ability to access and to put up content could be severely restricted.
It will create boxes of Internet accessibility, which don't fit with the way we use it today.
This is because internet is now permitting exchanges between persons which cannot be controlled or "facilitated" by any middlemen (the state or a corporation) and this possibility improves the citizen's life but force the industry to lose power and control.
That's why they are pushing governments to act those changes.

The excuse is to control the flow of music, films and entertainment content against the alleged piracy by downloading for free, using P2P file-sharing.
However, the real victims of this plan will be all Internet users and the democratic and independent access to information, culture goods.

Think about how you use the Internet! What would it mean to you if free access to the Internet was taken away?
These days, the Internet is about life and freedom.
It's about shopping, booking theatre tickets ... holidays, learning, job-seeking, banking, and trade. It's also about the fun things - dating, chatting, invitations, music, entertainment, joking and even a Second Life.
It is a tool to express ourselves, to collaborate, innovate, share, stimulate new business ideas, reach new markets - thrive without middlemen..

Just think - what's your web address? Unless people have that address in their "package" of regular websites - they won't be able to find you.
That means they can't buy, or book, or register, or even view you online. Your business won't be able to find niche suppliers of goods - and compare prices.
If you get any money at all from advertising on your site, it will diminish.
Yes, Amazon and a select few will be OK, they will be the included in the package.
But your advertising on Google or any other website, will be increasingly worthless.
Skype could be blocked. (As it is in Germany in the use from iPhone, already). Small businesses could literally disappear, especially specialist, niche or artisan businesses.

If we don't do something now - we could lose free and open use of the internet.
Our freedom (of choice in information, market, culture, pleasure) will be curtailed.
The EU proposals hold an enormous risk for our future.
They are about to become Law - and will be virtually impossible to reverse.
People (even the members of the European Parliament who are voting on it) don't really seem to understand the full implications and the legal changes are wrapped up in something called "Telecoms Package" which lulls people into thinking it is just about industry.

However, in reality, hiding from public view, the amendments are about the way the Internet will operate in future!
Text that expresses your rights to access and distribute content, services and applications, is being crossed out.
And the text that is being brought in, says that broadband providers must inform you of any limitations, or restrictions to your broadband service.
Alternative versions use the word ‘conditions' - and it is seriously being proposed that you will be told the conditions of use of Internet services.
This is made to sound good - it is dressed up as ‘transparency' - except that of course it means that the broadband providerwill have the legal right restrict your access or impose conditions,otherwise why would they need tell you?
If the Telecoms Package amendmentsare voted in, the changes will not be reversible.

We all have a stake in the Internet! You need to act now to save it!
What can you do about it?
Tell the European Parliament to vote against conditional access to the Internet! Remind them that they need your vote in June and that internet still give us the tools to be watching and judging what they are doing! (link a la quadrature du net) You must know you are not alone: hundreds of organizations are working on that and thousands of people have already contact their parliamentarians about this issue.

So, act now:
1 - Email, write to or phone your MEP - follow this link to get theirdetails - a suggested template letter is attached. You can also use the following software that send the letter directly to all the parliamentarians. Believe, they will really receive it and they will really feel the pressure. You are welcome to personalize the letter and include information that will make MEPs wake up, take note and take appropriate action.

2 - Forward this email to everyone you know so that they can take action.

3 - Syndicate this page so that you keep been informed: disinformation is what they count on, we must be aware. Text for people to cut and paste to MEP: The coalition version needs to have instructions for people from each country. coalition members need to get a translated version online in their own languages and link to the LQ site for their own MEPs.

Suggest you indicate:

Here are the MEPs who are important in the process.
Here are the MEPs from [your country] [or list each country of the coalition] .

This is suggested letter / email to send to your MEP. Personalise this email to include your own Internet use in your personal and business life. Change the sentence in red to personalise the email and tell the MEP how you individually use the Internet or just take it off.

Article source : Blackout Europe

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Will the US Strike Itself Again?

Article from War is Crime

On January 18, 2009, the Associated Press reported that in an interview aired on “Dateline NBC” the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Warren Buffett said that the “US is engaged in an economic Pearl Harbor.”

A shiver ran down my spine! There was hardly any comment by any of our national dailies or the leading financial dailies. Obviously, what Warren Buffett said is open to several interpretations. Whatever it may be, it cannot be good. Why?

If the United States is engaged in an economic Pearl Harbor, it follows that there must be an enemy. Who is this enemy?

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, it gave President Roosevelt the pretext to enter World War II, at a time when the nation was against going to war. It was a day of infamy and American blood must be avenged. The rest, as they say is history — but a distorted one at that. It is now widely held that President Roosevelt had received advance warnings about the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. But the intelligence never reached the US Fleet and the ensuing anger and outrage compelled what was once a reluctant public to join the British induced war against Germany.

But recently, this reference to Pearl Harbor by the neo-cons gave rise to the Global War of Terror in 2001 which postponed the day of financial reckoning by seven years, when President George Bush pumped over US$3 trillion into the war economy.

Recall what the neo-con think tank, Project for the New American Century foretold:

“the process of transforming the US into tomorrow’s dominant force was likely to be a long one, in the absence of some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor.”

September 11 was the catalyzing event, the New Pearl Harbor which enabled the neo-cons to put into action their plan for global domination. And like the events leading to the original Pearl Harbor, President Bush and his regime were warned by eleven countries and were supplied with specific intelligence in the months before 9/11 but no actions were taken.

It was another day of infamy and the United States was led once again by the nose to embark on a military misadventure in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Global War on Terror was unleashed!

This is the third time that a catastrophic event is invoked to justify a certain course of action. Why?

That it is Warren Buffett who is making this reference is most telling, for he is the hidden economic and financial adviser to President Obama. Warren Buffett has in fact said that Obama is the best man for the job!

Warren Buffett is not the effable businessman that the mass media make him out to be. He is an insider in every sense of the word.

I have said repeatedly for over two years that there is an ongoing global currency warfare and what is at stake is the hegemony of the US dollar. Warren Buffet knows that if the dollar ends up officially as toilet paper, his fortune and that of his global partnership – the hidden manipulators would be finished.

This message that the US is in an economic Pearl Harbor is meant for the enemy, as yet to be disclosed to the American public. It is a warning, no less. President Obama has echoed the sentiments in the course of his inauguration speech.

Food for thought:

In both the previous Pearl Harbor events, there were advance warnings of the impending attacks on the United States, which were later used as a pretext for waging global wars — World War II and the Global War on Terror. What is in store for the United States and the world in this, the third and final Pearl Harbor?

Since Warren Buffett has stated that the United States is already “engaged in an economic Pearl Harbor,” I can only conclude that we are going to be in a real big mess very soon — to be precise, the end of the first quarter of 2009!

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