and so it begins… again [updated]

(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

UPDATE: Presser at 1:30pm EST (now-ish) SFGate live blog HERE.

UPDATE #2: okay it’s over, Ill look for analysis I guess…. I have no idea what they said. ;-/  There’s a very long joint statement here.

UPDATE #3: Okay, kids, the Orwellian spin machine is set to … spin. Here ya go: Google, Verizon CEOs announce pact for no wireless net neutrality rules, some paid prioritization [more at WaPo]

Summary: Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg announced a joint agreement on how traffic can be controlled on the Internet. Here’s the joint policy statement on Google and Verizon’s Web sites.

In short: what you’ve read about so far about the deal is true:

1) no net neutrality rules for mobile networks, except for a “transparency” requirement that makes public how traffic is managed.

2) greenlight on “managed services” that would allow for special priority for some content on other parts of the pipe, but not the public internet.

This is not going to be a popular announcement among advocates of net neutrality, particularly public interest groups. Google said it doesn’t want to play in the sandbox of managed service. “We like the public Internet,” Schmidt said in the call. But some say this will give an unfair advantage to companies that are able to pay for priority access (imagine a Netflix channel on FiOs offered at better quality).

LL

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.” ~ Robert M. Hutchins

So after the dumbing down, which they’ve had pretty good success with so far, next up is the shutting down. They learned. They don’t have to gun us down, like in the 60’s and 70’s. No. This (lockdown) is way more effective. Because they know…

“Anger is more useful than despair.” T-101, Terminator 3

Despair = apathy and indifference. And that “undernourishment” …. sigh … man, I’m hungry.

Josh Silver is angry (sign a petition via that link).

Al Franken is angry.

If we learned that the government was planning to limit our First Amendment rights, we’d be outraged. After all, our right to be heard is fundamental to our democracy.

Well, our free speech rights are under assault — not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America.

If that scares you as much as it scares me, then you need to care about net neutrality.

A ha! This just in: mcjoan is angry. Phew. Saved. I’m sure if we all call the White House Hotline, it’ll all be okay.

:-/

He that lives upon hope will die fasting. ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.” ~Thomas Jefferson

…

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

…

“There are laws to protect the freedom of the press’s speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.” Mark Twain

…

meh.