Rotophonic

If you believe in true Net Neutrality, it’s time to get on the phones and try to prevent Senator Ted Stevens from calling a vote on his Net Neutrality bill (S.2686) as the Senate goes into recess. Basically, no one is going to be there after Thursday and yet Stevens is going to try and get a cloture vote through so a filibuster can be prevented and the bill can be considered in the lame duck session after November elections before the Senate leaves for the August recess.

Stevens is shooting for a cloture vote on Thursday and has plans to keep everyone in a lame duck session to force a vote on net neutrality after Congress is supposed to be in recess. If you can’t win fair and square, you try the smarmy tactics…please hit the phones.” - FireDogLake

Email or call these swing voters on the committee with your concerns. Remember, be polite but insistent that these senators appear and vote against cloture to assure that Stevens’ bill does not pass:

Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) - Email - Phone: (202) 224-4843

Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) - Email - Phone: (202) 224-6551

Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) - Email - Phone: (202) 224-4041

[UPDATE 8-1-2006]

Here are Senator Ron Wyden’s June 28th (D-Oregon) remarks objecting to Stevens’ bill, made on the floor of the senate–for some background.
[via Daily KOS via Firedoglake]

As if you could ever find an Apple employee on the Apple Discussions site, Apple is apparently dismantling whatever staff they used to have running their message boards. I’m pretty sure I’ve read posts on Apple Discussions specifically indicating that Apple does not read that board anyway. [via Digg via Apple Insider]

Larry Johnson, defender of Valerie Plame, counter-terrorism expert and general thorn in the side of the neocons, relays a potentially alarming message from inside the American intelligence establishment. Have we seen this situation before?

…intelligence being produced for the Bush Administration by the Pentagon strongly supports the thesis that Hizballah operations are directly controlled and closely managed from Teheran. My source considers this an exaggerated picture of the real situation. He believes that this assessment contributes to an unhealthy and even dangerous mindset in Washington, leading to potentially serious miscalculations and errors of judgment by President Bush and his closest advisors at this very critical time.

Would the Neocons like Rumsfeld, Cheney, et al really shape intelligence in a way that advances their own perspective on how the Middle East operates?
[via TPM Cafe]