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Showing posts with the label political

EFF Announces Voting Registration Service

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF ) has announced a Beta version of their ongoing project to facilitate voter registration for United States elections.  The server allows the user to text the service, HelloVote , in order to register. There is another service provided by VotePlz.org that allows citizens to: Not sure if you’re registered? No problem! We’ll check if you’re registered to vote at your current home address. Don’t have time to vote in person? You can vote by mail instead—it’s even easier! Want to vote in person? We’ll show you where your nearest polling station is and help you get there. Don’t have a stamp or a printer? That’s all right! We can mail you a form, or print a form with pre-paid postage.

Support Freedom and Net-Neutrality

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---------- Forwarded message ---------- From:  +Evan Greer from FFTF   < info@list.fightforthefuture.org > Date: Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 9:14 AM Subject: "Impossible" To: ilmostro7@gmail.com Dear Fight for the Future member, I've got to be honest with you. I really didn't think we would make it this far. When we started this fight for net neutrality, it seemed like the odds were stacked impossibly against us. We're up against some of the most powerful and politically well-connected companies in the world. Companies that are so close to the government, sometimes it's hard to tell the two apart. But against all odds, we are winning. Everything we are hearing says the FCC is finally caving to the public pressure and writing a real net neutrality rule. Please help us finish the fight: click here to chip in whatever you can afford today. To tell the truth, when we first started this, there was a pretty strong voi

The New Meaning of Black Friday

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Today, the day after Thanksgiving, "traditionally" known as Black Friday , is the busiest day for shopping in the United States. Though, most media outlets are flooded by incessant calls to run to the store and "SAVE!!", sporadic reports of nation-wide boycotts--in response to another unarmed African-American teenager's death at the hands of a police officer--do make it through to the occasional news-broadcast. It seems that the Black citizens of the United States came to know a different meaning of Black Friday ; one more synonymous with the dark, gloomy symbolism of all things black. While most Americans wrestled and pushed their way through long lines at the retail stores--the annual event provoking scenes eerily similar to those in apocalyptic movies--fighting for bargain prices on consumer products, the black "community", transfixed in a state of dejavu, wrestled with the idea of bargain-low prices of an African-American life. For

Patriotic Philanthropy

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" -John F. Kennedy I realize it's not very "original" to start off an article these days with such a magnanimous quote of seemingly mythical proportions; it's become cliche, in fact, especially when the words and the orator of those words are revered and idealized by grade-school students and octogenarians alike throughout our country.  Maybe it is because of the ubiquitous nature of this phrase that my mind immediately zoomed to that notable speech when I read the story of the recent repair of the Washington Monument and its financial support provided by an American billionaire (aristocrat).  It may also be the case that I was persuaded by its media coverage by CBS News and the New York Times , which both more than eluded to the phrase "patriotic philanthropy" and "patriotic giving" when presenting this story; nonetheless, I was hooked. While the expone

My Distaste for Our State of Affairs

During this time in history when the most populous nation in the world, China, is aggressively growing a formerly minuscule or even non-existent middle-class--through direct as well as indirect actions and with the help of some of the consequences of those actions--the richest nation in the world, United States of America, is aggressively growing the wealth of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and the upper class through deregulation--actions that erode the rules and laws that were put into place to protect the middle-class from "greed is good" evangelists; corporations that span across ALL sectors of industry and aspects of life in America, and who have no face and no true home but for tax purposes--after all, as they say, ...death and taxes. During this time , when an increasing number of formerly isolated and closed-off nations in the world are relaxing their grip around the minds and mouths of their populace in an effort to release that Potential Energy buzzing within