Citizens' Daily Lobby

This is an important issue, and I’ll quote directly from Move On rather than trying to paraphrase.

Big news: according to reports, Google is about to cut a terrible deal with Verizon that would end the fair, open Internet as we know it.¹

The reported Google-Verizon deal would allow giant corporations to control which websites load quickly and easily on the Internet and dump everyone else onto an Internet slow lane. This is exactly the kind of unequal playing field that Google itself has opposed in the past.²

We only have a few days to stop it, so we’re launching a grassroots protest calling on Google to scuttle the deal. Will you sign our emergency petition to Google? Click here to sign:

http://pol.moveon.org/google/?id=22383-17217716-aeXBmWx&t=4

The petition says: “Google: Say no to the reported agreement with Verizon to kill Net Neutrality and the open Internet.”

The Internet was founded on the principle that all data is equal—and that no corporation should be able to decide whose data goes faster or slower. It’s this principle, called Net Neutrality, that has made the Internet such an amazing platform for individual speech, democratic action, and entrepreneurial creativity.³

And until now, Google—which uses the corporate motto “Don’t Be Evil”—has been a staunch defender of Net Neutrality.⁴ But now, Google is threatening to turn the Internet into a closed, pay-to-play, cash cow for large corporations. This move is evil, and Google knows it.

Here’s why this is a big deal. President Obama’s new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair initially came out strong for Net Neutrality, in line with the President’s campaign promises.⁵ But the big telecom companies launched a lobbying frenzy, and soon the FCC was meeting with them behind closed doors.

Because Google and Verizon are two powerhouse corporations that have historically been on opposite sides of this issue, an agreement between them will put enormous pressure on the FCC to go along with their recommendations. Essentially, two giant corporations may be deciding the future of the Internet—if the Obama administration goes along, and if the public doesn’t push back right away. Click here to help stop them now:

http://pol.moveon.org/google/?id=22383-17217716-aeXBmWx&t=5

Google was once a champion on this issue—Google chief executive Eric Schmidt once attacked “phone and cable monopolies” who “want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest.”⁶

But today’s news stories report that under the new deal, Verizon could be allowed to give some sites preferential treatment. Even more ominously, it appears that Verizon would have free rein to discriminate on the mobile Internet (smartphones, cell phones, etc). Since that’s where most people will access the Net going forward, this would essentially spell the end of Net Neutrality.

Google has issued a short, carefully worded statement challenging some of the details in The New York Times story, but it hasn’t denied that it is going along with this agreement to kill Net Neutrality.⁷ So much for “Don’t be evil.” Will you sign our petition today and tell Google not to be evil on Net Neutrality?

http://pol.moveon.org/google/?id=22383-17217716-aeXBmWx&t=6

Thanks for all you do.

–Kat, Justin, Carrie, Steven, and the rest of the team

1. “Google and Verizon Near Deal on Web Pay Tiers,” The New York Times, August 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/technology/05secret.html

2. “Google Just Killed Net Neutrality,” Gizmodo, August 5, 2010
http://gizmodo.com/5605310/google-just-killed-net-neutrality

3. “Network Neutrality Fact Sheet,” Common Cause, April 6, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87794&id=22383-17217716-aeXBmWx&t=7

4. Google Investor Relations: Code of Conduct, accessed August 5, 2010
http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html

5. “FCC Chair Proposes Net Neutrality Rules,” Digital Daily, September 21, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=87795&id=22383-17217716-aeXBmWx&t=8

6. “Google Just Killed Net Neutrality,” Gizmodo, August 5, 2010
http://gizmodo.com/5605310/google-just-killed-net-neutrality

7. “Google Denies Priority Internet Access Deal With Verizon,” PC Magazine, August 5, 2010
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367436,00.asp

If you think politics should be for people (the old fashioned, biologically embodied kind, that is) add a few more corporations to your boycott list.   Other corporate donors to Minnesota Forward, the conservative PAC making headlines for its support of Tom Emmer,  are the Regis Corporation (mall salons), Best Buy, and Securian Insurance.

I think those of us boycotting these corporate donors need to make our position very clear.  We are not boycotting to protest corporations buying conservative candidates.  We are boycotting because we do not believe corporations should buy ANY candidate in any election.  Period.

The role of government subsidy of industry, if any, should be to support important, but struggling industries, or to bring new industries into an area.   Currently, government subsidies often work as huge handouts, in the form of tax breaks, to profitable corporations.  Big Oil is no exception.  Even while earning record profits, these corporations have enjoyed tax breaks totaling as much as $45 billion a year.   BP received $225,000 a day by writing off the rent on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Climate Progress sums up the situation nicely.  “So, essentially, the U.S. taxpayer paid BP to lease a rig that was incorporated in a foreign country for the purpose of avoiding the U.S. corporate tax.”

It’s time to let Congress know the American taxpayer is tired of subsidizing the wealthiest corporations on the planet through tax breaks.  Write Senators Lincoln and Pryor today.  CREDO is circulating this petition that you may sign on-line as well.  (Please note that Sen. Pryor requires a letter through his website as he does not accept petitions and letters from outside groups.  Cut-and-paste works well, but please add a personal touch.)

“At a time of soaring deficits and record unemployment, there’s no excuse for giving Big Oil a $35 billion bailout. I call on my elected officials to end the Big Oil Bailout by repealing all dirty fuel tax breaks and investing the money in green jobs instead. We have to get serious about supporting new, clean energy companies and breaking our addiction to oil.”

A local foods blogger at http://realfoodlittlerock.blogspot.com/ has the full story on the farmers that were shut down in West Little Rock yesterday with a full load of freshly harvested food.   Please join her in taking action to make it possible for the West Little Rock Market to continue.  The botttom line is that the farmers must apply for a variance to city zoning ordinances in order to continue to market on Mondays at PA.  This process can take quite some time, and, obviously, peak harvest season is already upon us.  These farmers have much to lose, and so do the consumers who depend on them.   You can help by urging the city to get this approval finished as quickly as possible.  Write or call Mr. Dana Carvey, at 371-4844 or write dcarney@littlerock.org.   Let him know you appreciate and support our local farmers, and that you believe a vibrant farmer’s market is an asset to the West Little Rock community.

The current limit for corporate liability in cases like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is capped at $75 million.  The estimated cost of clean-up and restoration is already estimated to be close to a billion dollars.    That’s going to leave the US taxpayer holding the bag for over 90% of the clean-up.  It’s time that corporations are held accountable for their mistakes.    The risks of doing business should be borne by the corporation, in exchange for the privilege of doing business.  That privilege amounts to about $14 billion dollars of profit yearly for BP.  Transnational corporations should not be allowed to create environmental disasters in this or any other country without making full restoration.

You can take action today by signing a petition at Firedoglake asking the Senate to end the liability cap.

When a company like BP conducts reckless projects that destroy our environment and our communities, they should assume full liability for their actions and be held financially responsible for paying any damages.

The current liability cap on companies who pose such a threat to our collective safety and livelihood ultimately puts taxpayers on the hook for cleaning up someone elses mess.

We, the undersigned, demand the Senate eliminate the liability cap and force companies to pay for their disasters in full.  Taxpayers cannot be expected to bailout another irresponsible corporate giant.  We need accountability in business now.

Progressive groups like CREDO are calling on the Obama administration to take action against BP for the alleged negligence and incompetence that led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.    Although the current liability cap is set at a measly $75 million, less than BP makes in profits in a single day, the EPA could sanction the oil giant by suspending its contracts to the tune of billions of dollars in lost revenue.    There’s ample reason to do so, according to CREDO.

Prior to the current Gulf spill, EPA had linked BP to at least four instances of criminal misconduct and BP has paid tens of millions in fines for environmental crimes. According to the public interest investigative journalists at Pro Publica, the EPA is considering re-evaluating BP and determining whether the company’s actions leading up to and following the Deep Horizon spill are evidence of an institutional problem inside BP that would qualify for debarment action.

You may sign a petition here urging the EPA to sanction BP.

BP isn’t the only company that should be in the spotlight.  TransOcean, the company running the Deepwater Horizon rig at the time of the explosion, is planning to pay out dividends worth a billion dollars to shareholders.   18 Senators, including our own Mark Pryor and Blanche LIncoln (yes, that’s Murkowski Amendment Blanche) signed a letter demanding an investigation of TransOcean, which, incidentally, will make an additional $270 million dollars in profit off the insurance policy on the rig.  The Senators claim the rig was insured for more than it was worth.  Full story at Politico.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is balking at Democratic requests to raise the liability cap on  oil-drilling corporations to $10 billion or higher, according to the Huffington Post. Decisive action by President Obama on this issue would resound with voters of all but the most rabid Right persuasion.  Sainthood would be within his grasp if he assumed leadership and demonstrated that the United States is in control of the Louisiana Gulf Coast and clean-up efforts, not BP.  Handing over the Louisiana beaches, the livelihood of thousands of Gulf-coast families, and the welfare of a fragile ecosystem to a trasnational corporation isn’t helping his image right now.

Americans for Financial Reform is sponsoring a forum on the proposed financial reform legislation.

Join Americans for Financial Reform for a Town Hall meeting on financial reform at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church at 1601 S, Louisiana on Thursday, April 8 at 6:30 PM.

Legislation addressing our financial system is now on the floor of the senate.  Let Congress know that you want them to protect Main Street and not the interests of big Wall Street bankers.

Panelists include:  Rev Steve Copley, Chair, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; Ricky Belk, Secretary-Treasurer of the Arkansas AFL-CIO; and Hank Klein, former president of the Arkansas Federal Credit Union and founder of Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending.

For more information, call Neil Sealy at Arkansas Community Organizations at 501-376-7151.

Big Money lobbyists are working feverishly to keep financial reforms from happening.   Although bankers don’t have as much  manufactured grass-roots support as the health care industry lobby, and it’s virtually impossible to drive the public into a frenzy of fear over bank regulations (where’s the death panel in that?), they have the money, and they have the attention of the people in power.  It will take strong grassroots attention and support to keep financial reform alive.

President Obama has reversed his position (or at least what Progressives thought was Candidate Obama’s position) on offshore drilling.  It’s hard to accept that the administration we helped to elect would roll over for the Sarah Palin war cry of “Drill, Baby, drill!”  The truth is, as it has always been, that offshore drilling will not provide enough oil to make us energy independent and it will be years before we see any effects of drilling.

Firedoglake has a petition to the President, asking him to change his course.

Yesterday, to the surprise of many, President Obama announced that the United States will begin drilling for oil in the waters off the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore drilling was a contentious campaign issue in 2008, and Obama even criticized his opponents for supporting it because, in his words, “it didn’t do much to reduce energy prices.”

Candidate Obama pledged to maintain the moratorium on offshore drilling to protect our coastlines and acknowledged a “bipartisan consensus” that it was bad policy.  Now he claims offshore drilling is an integral part of reforming the way we consume energy.

If Obama is serious about addressing our environmental and energy concerns, making us even more dependent on fossil fuels while simultaneously destroying our ecosystem is not the way to go about it.

Join us in telling President Obama: offshore drilling isn’t a solution to our energy and environmental problems.

It’s still bad policy.   Haven’t we learned anything from the health care reform battle?  Republicans don’t want to play nicely, even if Democrats make concessions, and this is one concession we don’t need to make.  Sign the petition today.  You may even add a personal note.

From ADEQ:

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality will hold an informational stakeholder meeting regarding the proposed changes to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission Regulation 2 – Regulation Establishing Water Quality Standards for Surface Waters of the State of Arkansas on Tuesday, April 6 at 6:00 PM.  The meeting will be held at ADEQ Headquarters (5301 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock, AR).  A presentation on the proposed changes will be made by the Department and time will be allotted for questions and comments. Please call Steve Drown at 682-0655 or Jamie Ewing at 682-0918 with any questions you may have.  A copy of the draft rulemaking package can be found at:

http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/regs/drafts/reg02_draft_docket_10-002-R/reg02_draft_docket_10-002-R.htm

It’s important for those of us with a stake in clean water (and that’s everybody) to make our voices heard.  Proposed changes to the standards, including lower tolerance for several toxins, are under attack by industry, for the predictable reason: cost.  We need to make it clear to our regulatory bodies and to industry that human and environmental health comes before industry profit.

If you haven’t done so already, please join the virtual march on Washington today.  MoveOn and a coalition of other groups are sponsoring the event.  The goal is to have $1 million faxes sent to Congress today.  You may also call your Senators, especially if the thought of all that paper use gets you down.