I don't know about you but I am sick of hearing how these racketeers rip us all off and seem to get away with it. The response becomes "what are you going to do?...we have no power.." You know that is BS, legislators and ALL government leadership are supposed to be working for US, the people. How is it that so called leaders seem to forget that ?

A Summary on the Comcast/FCC Net Neutrality Hearing
Posted on February 27, 2008 - 12:10pm.

Comcast Threatens the Open Internet – FCC Hears Complaints
Last summer, users of Comcast internet services reported cut-offs and significant decreases in their download speeds when they were sharing large content such as video, audio and data files using a peer-to-peer sharing application known as Bit Torrent (www.bittorrent.com).
Here is a link to the scoop
Viva save access

Interesting Reading:
Stanford law professor Larry Lessig may have cast off plans for a congressional bid of his own, but he still wants to turn the political process as we know it upside down.

Larry Lessig: Time to reject corporate influence on Washington

change-congress

Kid co-host Jeremy Abare takes a State House Tour with State Representative Vincent Pedone (D) Massachusetts.

• learn the history behind the building
• see the historical works of art
• go into the two chambers for a private tour
• amaze your friends with interesting facts
• Learn what goes on when making laws.

Video: Download the mpeg4 video (86MB) or see other formats.

I would like to share my comments which I recently submitted in an online discussion about Telecom space.

Public Access centers are much more than the content that comes through them. Telecom space is what it is. Telecom space is space that is controlled by and to serve the interest of the telecom industry.

In my city WCCA TV, our Public Access Center, serves one interest and that is the interest of the people our communities throughout our city.

It is the public access center, particularly the non-profit facilitated access centers that have been the first to really experiment and played a lead role in the development of IP TV and video content driven websites. PEG offers more than packet files of video however. In a Public Access Centers, such as ours, you will find thousands of content producers participating in a community contributing to cable presentations, up and down loading video content, creating community interactive websites, sharing information, conducting workshops and classes, youth media groups, forming outreach partnerships, providing connections for those in need including valuable outreach for millions of non-profits around the nation and so much more. Our Public Access Center, like many others, give back millions of dollars of media, public service to benefit our citizens local economy every year.
The truth is, Public Access centers have been the first to introduce, provide experiential learning opportunities, and promote video applications via the Internet. Furthermore, Public Access centers have introduced and continue to offer, on a daily basis, hands on training, access to media production tools, computers, and personal consulting and assistance to meet the electronic needs of their communities. The result has been a increase of content up and down loading, as well as an increase of interactive media. This deserves to be celebrated as democratic and free speech media/television at its best. Not the static television paradigm that commercial media tends to produce.
It may be true that some examples of cable companies and local governments are seen as stonewalling, or cordoning off public access video presentations. People aren’t aware of the programming because many cable operators refuse to include PEG channels on their program guides. Political whim, ignorance and corruption, and or the failure of local government often play a role in diminishing the capacity of a public access center. Cable companies and government entities rarely, if ever, prioritize public access programming. Most non-profit public access centers however, at the center of their mission, place the public/community voices (content) as a first priority and in addition, work hard to promote it make the public aware of it. Non-profit Public access centers also give control to content producers to post videos online, present their shows on cable. In addition most public access centers provide professional staff assistance to train, and to ensure content producers can reach their vision. Our access center also is the paramount beacon, in our city, to advocate for community voices and free speech electronic platforms. In our city 91% of those surveyed find our public access channel important.
Interest in local content exists because of our public access PEG channels. I suggest that what needs to be done is to increase legislative mandates to further support Public Access channels and to ensure non-profit facilitated centers are encouraged to continue to move forward to carry their missions on all modes of transmission be it fiber, broadband, wireless, satellite, and whatever will next be invented. Perhaps mandates should also be enacted to assure every city and town must carry a fully functional public access center. The one problem we face, at least locally, at the moment, is a city that may fail to include public access on its new telecommunication infrastructure. This challenges us to find ways to reach beyond the limitations of one cable operator. However, in spite of the lack of city or government in this area we do manage to be seen around the world through our stream or download offerings. It is not without difficulty. I imagine that if we, as a funded public access center are financially challenged to maintain such service how would poorer individuals participate at all in a PEG .20 venue without totally free equipment, connection and access? There are many great public access centers. Check out what WCCA TV has been doing to celebrate and enfranchise citizens, engage and share stories, culture and heritage, through locally produced content. I invite you to visit http://www.wccatv.com . Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support.
Mauro DePasquale, WCCA TV 13, “The People’s Channel”

For more on this subject

Forwarded:
Teletruth News Alert: December 3rd, 2007

LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE

How much of your state’s legislation is being drafted by industry?

The American Legislative Council, or ALEC, lets corporations cultivate
legislators and win support for industry-written bills while not technically
breaking lobbying rules – and paying no taxes. (First of two articles)

Q. The American Legislative Council, or ALEC, is a corporate-funded group
that gives large donations and other perks to legislators in states across
the country. It writes industry-serving bills that those legislators
introduce and get enacted. How many legislators in your state are or were members of ALEC?

Q. How many ALEC-drafted bills, if any, were introduced by legislators in your state? How many were enacted?

Q. ALEC is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) group. Should it be?

In previous articles I discussed Astroturf groups (fake grassroots
organizations), co-opted groups (activists that bend to serve donors), and
think tanks whose research is aimed at serving the special interests that
fund them.

This cast of characters churns out corporate-friendly data. But the real action takes place when laws are passed based on this one-two sucker punch of skewed data and high-priced, propaganda-style marketing — a process to which the public is not invited. The drafting of proposed legislation is often a done deal before the public knows it has begun, much less has a
chance for input.

LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE:
http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00304

My son writes:

It's pretty rare that someone challenges bull*** media live and direct in their own forum. Watch the link in this article and get that warm fuzzy feeling that come over you when a fascist's ****'s get in a sling....

Kids pick up the cutest things don't they ?
Check it out enjoy:

Found on http://www.fair.org

WCCA TV does not endorse every opinion expressed or vouch for facts presented here.

Cool whistleblower site

This may be useful to budding journalist and for those interested in social justice.

Their Mission: The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a 29-year-old nonprofit public interest group that promotes government and corporate accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. We pursue this mission through our Nuclear Safety, International Reform, Corporate Accountability, Food & Drug Safety, and Federal Employee/National Security programs. GAP is the nation's leading whistleblower protection organization.

Check out their blogs and latest news menus.
Enjoy

In an effort to engage citizens we thought it would be fun to ask community media groups and individuals to join us ( independent journalist, volunteers and public access video producers) as we hit the streets asking the questions:

1."Do you trust City Hall?"
2."Do you trust State House politicians?"
3."Do you trust the president, senate and congress?"
4."Do you trust government in general?"

Look for the question answers to posted on this site http://www.wccatv.com.

We invite other community media organizations, writers, and volunteers to ask the same questions. It will be interesting to see the collected at large results. We hope to share results and post them the week of May 21, 2007.

Enjoy