COMMON CAUSE: “This is not the end of the struggle, but the beginning. We will mobilize our activists for the upcoming fight on the Senate floor.”

SENATE COMMITTEE REJECTS “NET NEUTRALTY”
INSIDE AN AIPAC “RALLY”
RABBI WRITES TO NY TIMES

Front Page: The News We Need to Know

Broadcasting and Cable reports on the Net Neutrality defeat but media activists argue the fight is not over yet: Lower Power Radio survives to stay on the air.

Senate Commerce Passes Franchise Bill

The Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday approved a large communications/video franchising reform bill after a long and heated debate on the issue of network neutrality. The bill passed by a vote of 15-7, but there was an 11-11 tie on the network neutrality portion of the bill, so that amendment was defeated. (A tie is a defeat.) One Republican, Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine), a co-sponsor of the bill, crossed over to vote with the Democrats. To read more, click on the link below.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6348269.html

COALITION PUTS AN UPBEAT FACE ON THE DEFEAT

”The Senate Commerce Committee fell a single vote short of passing an amendment to safeguard the free and open Internet as momentum builds toward a full Senate vote on Net Neutrality.

Offered by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), the amendment to Senator Stevens’ telecommunications bill (S. 2686) would have ensured meaningful protection for Net Neutrality, preventing big phone and cable companies from turning the Internet into their private tollway.

The amendment failed by a tie vote of 11-11. All ten Democratic committee members voted in favor with Senator Snowe. The eleven remaining Republican members voted against the amendment.

In response to the vote, Free Press, the Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America made the following statement:

Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press:

“The tie vote in the Commerce Committee shows the gathering momentum for Network Neutrality across political lines. In the past several weeks, this fundamental principle has moved from obscurity to the center stage in the debate over our nation’s telecommunications policy. The issue of Net Neutrality will continue to gain speed as the full Senate takes up a bill that will determine the fate of Internet freedom

.

MoveOn response:

” As the fight to preserve Net Neutrality continues in the Senate, big-moneyed companies like AT&T are losing steam in their quest to erect tollbooths on the Internet and gain more control over what Americans see and do online.

WHO LEAKED THE GOVERNMENT’S SECRET PLAN FIRST?

Remarks by the President, Secretary of the Treasury O’Neill and Secretary of State Powell on Executive Order
The Rose Garden September 24, 2001

”THE PRESIDENT:… And, by the way, this list is just a beginning. We will continue to add more names to the list. We will freeze the assets of others as we find that they aid and abet terrorist organizations around the world. We’ve established a foreign terrorist asset tracking center at the Department of the Treasury to identify and investigate the financial infrastructure of the international terrorist networks.

It will bring together representatives of the intelligence, law enforcement and financial regulatory agencies to accomplish two goals: to follow the money as a trail to the terrorists, to follow their money so we can find out where they are; and to freeze the money to disrupt their actions.

We’re also working with the friends and allies throughout the world to share information. We’re working closely with the United Nations, the EU and through the G-7/G-8 structure to limit the ability of terrorist organizations to take advantage of the international financial systems….”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010924-4.html

MERCENARIES ARE ALIVE AND WELL

Jose L. Gomez del Prado writes:

”The 25 000 private security contractors presently working in Iraq constitute, after the United States Army, the largest force of occupation well before the British Army. These private security companies with over 420 deaths and some 4 000 injured, according to the USA Department of Labor, also yield the highest number of casualties with the exception of the US Army which has already reached over 2 500 deaths and more than 18 000 injuries.

“According to a report emanating from the USA Government Accountability Office, contracts for over $ 766 million have been awarded to private security companies in Iraq. Criticisms have been raised pointing out that, on the basis of such contracts, unethical mercenaries are being recruited complicating the reconstruction undertaken by the Coalition and receiving sometimes salaries up to several thousand dollars daily. In addition, these companies are accused of fraud and of overt confrontations with the US Army under which they should operate.

http://soros.c.topica.com/maaeWaEabrBkYb7dKhyb/

Yesterday I reported that the Iraqi resistance was denouncing the government’s peace offerings. Now the AP says several groups are welcoming them:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks — including those on American troops — if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

SOLDIER DIES, MOORE BASHED

CNN: DETROIT, Michigan (AP) — A U.S. Marine and one-time recruiter who appeared in Michael Moore’s acclaimed documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ has died in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Although Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar willingly appeared in a segment of the 2004 film, his father, Raymond, said Tuesday that his son did not realize that it was for a movie critical of the war.

The 57-year-old Plouhar said his son took four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Michigan after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle.

HEATH CRISIS HITS HOSPITALS

We have heard of the health crisis facing Americans—now it is facing hospitals too, reports Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/newsletter/2006/06/28/hospitals-hca-triad-in_dp_0628soapbox_inl.html

ISRAEL PALESTINE AT WAR AGAIN

Gaza power plant reportedly knocked out by Israeli attack.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli forces rounded up dozens of Palestinian Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from Hamas, increasing pressure on the Islamic militants to release a captured Israeli soldier, and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel’s largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory.”

CNN: Palestinian militant group says it killed an Israeli settler kidnapped in the West Bank, AP reports. Israeli soldier still missing.

A Palestinian view by Mazin Qumsiyeh:

According to UN reports, Palestinian poverty in the occupied areas (living at less than $2 per day) increased to over 70% (it was less than half of that during the Great Depression in the 1930s in America). The capturing of the Israeli soldier by the resistance was called “kidnapping” by the spin machine (the 8000+ Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are not called kidnapped even though most of them are snatched in the middle of the night in their homes and lands). The Palestinian resistance faction holding this soldier was willing to negotiate a trade for Palestinian women and children illegally held prisoners in Israeli jails (International law prohibits taking citizens out of the areas illegally occupied). Israeli leaders refused such negotiations…

http://qumsiyeh.org

INSIDE AN AIPAC CONFERENCE

By Alice Ollstein, HS Senior

”I’ve been working as teacher’s assistant at my temple’s religious school for the past four years. I love teaching my second-graders their first Hebrew letters. I love watching my sixth-graders find Israel on a map. But what I love most is the connection my job gives me to Judaism and to Israel, where I hope to travel during college.

“That is why I jumped at my grandfather’s invitation to attend the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington D.C., where I could join more than 1,000 students and 4,000 adults in discussing the future of Israel. I returned from the conference, however, feeling manipulated, disturbed and disgusted with a great deal of what I witnessed there.

“The first thing I noticed about the conference, besides the sheer volume of participants, was the carefully manufactured atmosphere of fear and urgency. The cavernous hall that hosted all our meals and plenary sessions was always filled with dramatic classical music, red lighting and gigantic signs reading “Now Is The Time.” That, combined with the montages of terrorism footage projected onto six giant screens, whipped the audience into a “Save Israel” fervor that most found inspiring. By the time we finished our meal, the audience seemed eager to agree to anything that would protect Israel - even war.”

http://www.rense.com/general72/aip.htm

INDONESIA FAILS QUAKE VICTIMS AGAIN

By Andre Vltchek

”A devastating earthquake of 6.3 magnitude hit central Java on May 27, killing more than 5,800 people, leaving 420,000 homeless. This is just the latest terrible disaster that has hit this enormous archipelago - home to almost 250 million people. Many Indonesians are beginning to believe that their country is doomed, punished by god. The reality is much more prosaic: the pro-business state with almost no social conscience is continuously failing to implement preventive measures which could save lives in times of disaster, as well as educate citizens and improve infrastructure.

“What would you do during a powerful earthquake in Japan or Chile, two countries periodically shaken by mighty temblors? Chances are that you would behave in accordance with what you learned during the countless drills at school or at your office or what you saw on television. If electricity were knocked out and the tragedy happened in the middle of the night, you would orderly evacuate your building or your house, either following emergency signs or taking earlier memorized escape routes.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-06/25vltchek.cfm

HENRY PORTER: “Blair laid bare: the article that may get you arrested”

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1129827.ece

THE MIAMI TERROR THREAT

You have read the alarmist reports. Now here’s Jon Stewart’s take: The Daily Show examines the case known to many as “The Miami Seven.” He examines the careful and decisive evidence cited by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Click here to view
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13782.htm