Monthly Archives: September 2012

The U.S. Republican Party has approved a policy statement that focuses on removing regulations and protects personal data on the Internet.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, approved last week a platform that embraces private-sector autonomy on the Internet and opposes efforts to move Internet governance from the current model to the United Nations or other international organizations.

"The Internet has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance in human history," the platform reads. "Its independence is its power. The Internet offers a communications system uniquely free from government intervention."

Republicans will also "ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties," the platform says. But new laws or regulations cannot accomplish those goals; instead "the only way to safeguard or improve these systems is through the private sector."

Several groups have been calling on both the Republicans and Democrats to support Internet freedom principles in their party platforms. The Democratic convention takes place next week.

Demand Progress, one of those groups, applauded the Republican platform. Lawmakers sticking to language in the document would have opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill that would have allowed U.S. agencies to force payment processors, search engines and other online businesses from doing business with websites suspected of copyright infringement, said David Segal, the group's executive director.

Lawmakers abiding by the platform would have also opposed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a bill that would allow private companies to share a broad range of information about their customers with U.S. agencies in an effort to fight cyberthreats, he said.

"It's important for politicians to know that if they act contrary to these Internet freedom principles, they'll risk the wrath of their party's most committed activists," Segal said in a statement. "It is clear today that censoring the internet or monitoring internet users is wildly unpopular, and we urge Democrats to join the fight to protect the Internet today by forming their own party platform plank."

The Republican Platform also rips President Barack Obama's administration for being "frozen in the past" on Internet and communications policy. The Obama administration has conducted no wireless spectrum auctions, has not given carriers any incentives for investment and has embraced the U.S. Federal Communication Commission's net neutrality rule, which tries to "micromanage telecom as if it were a railroad network," the platform says.

The Obama administration has made "no progress" toward its goal of universal broadband coverage, the platform adds.

Read the rest here:
US Republicans Back 'Internet Freedom'

1:00 AM

By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@mainetoday.com Staff Writer

Mainers who have trouble getting information from government agencies soon will have an ally at the State House.

Maine's Freedom of Access Act now includes these clarifications and additions:

Gov. Paul LePage and the Legislature this year funded a public access ombudsman's position in the Attorney General's Office. The position was created in 2007 but had never been filled.

It's one of several significant changes in the state's Freedom of Access Act that took effect Thursday and are expected to make it easier for Mainers to get public records.

Mal Leary, vice president of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, called the move to finally fund the ombudsman's position "a huge improvement." Lawmakers budgeted as much as $88,000 for the position, including salary and benefits.

"This person will be there for everyone, to hear right-to-know issues so people don't have to go to court," said Leary, who runs Capitol News Service. "That can be a daunting prospect, especially in these economic times."

The Attorney General's Office soon will name a lawyer to fill the ombudsman's position, said Linda Pistner, chief deputy attorney general. The opening was advertised internally and to district attorneys offices across the state. Three people applied and interviews were conducted.

See the original post:
Freedom of Access Act gives Mainers variety of benefits

TWO recent developments - namely the interim findings of an opinion survey by a right-wing American propaganda think-tank called Freedom House and Zanu PFs progressive amendments that have aligned the July 18 Copac draft constitution with the views of the people gathered during the Copac outreach programme contained in an unpublished National Report - have coincidentally combined to wreak untold havoc for the MDC formations in the GPA Government which now do not know whether they are coming or going.

The ensuing havoc that is there for all to see has been made worse by the fact that both developments have far-reaching electoral implications for the two embattled parties which have nothing to show for their presence in the GPA Government except for the self-aggrandisement of their leadership, some of whom have taken to primitive accumulation in three short years while others like Morgan Tsvangirai now have US$3 million houses and are selfishly planning to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the signing of the GPA on September 15 by indulging in a plush wedding to Zanu PF fiances at a time when civil servants and ordinary Zimbabweans they gave false promises in 2009 are struggling to make ends meet.

There are two key questions about this background that beg for interrogation. First, what exactly does the Freedom House survey seek to communicate and to whom? In other words, what really is the purpose of the survey at this juncture in the scheme of national and geopolitical things? This is an important question because as the proverbial saying goes about statistics, while surveys can be revealing, their problem is that they are like miniskirts in that they conceal the essential and most exciting part and therefore useless for that reason. So what is the Freedom House survey concealing while revealing the obvious?

Second, why are the MDC formations going mad over Zanu PFs progressive amendments of the July 18 Copac draft constitution whose demonstrable essence is to align the draft with the views of the people in accordance with Article VI of the GPA?

A lot has been written and said with all sorts of nuances about the preliminary findings of the Freedom House opinion survey entitled, Change and New Politics in Zimbabwe conducted between June 23 and July 7, 2012 involving a nationally representative of 1198 adult Zimbabweans. But the bottom line from the survey that has given Tsvangirai and his MDC sleepless nights is the following Freedom House finding: When asked who they would vote for if parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, 47 percent of respondents said they would not vote, or refused to indicate who they would vote for (up from 41 percent in 2010). Of the 53 percent who declared their preference, 20 percent said they would vote for MDC-T (down from 38 percent in 2010) and 31 percent Zanu PF (up from 17 percent in 2010).

Instructively, despite his recent outbursts of sophomoric militancy about non-issues that have made him sound like a frustrated student living in the past, Welshman Ncube and his MDC did not feature at all in these stakes despite the fact that this national survey was done between June 23 and July 7 this year at a time when Ncube has been driving around in a pathetic convoy ranting, raving and pretending to be a national leader contending for the presidency of the Republic of Zimbabwe when his party cannot hold multiple star rallies even in one province, in Matabeleland itself.

This important point will be examined further another day, but what should be noted for now - and this is the talking point of the moment - is that the interim findings of Freedom Houses survey show that the MDC-T has dramatically lost support since 2010 - two years after the last election in 2008 - while Zanu PF has sharply increased its support over the same period, with Welshman Ncube having nothing to show.

This has shocked the MDC-T and its pundits out of their wits. Their best but hollow spin has been to claim that Freedom House has done the survey at this juncture in order to wake up the MDC-T and to send Zanu PF to sleep before the forthcoming general election which is now around the corner. If this spin had been spun in 2010, it perhaps could have had foolish takers, but you dont have to be a rocket scientist to understand that theres no political party that needs to be awoken or sent to sleep during an election year. The proposition that the Freedom House survey, done between June 23 and 7 July, is intended to wake up the MDC-T while sending Zanu-PF to sleep is therefore utter and complete rubbish.

As such, there must be more to the saga than meets the eye. If Freedom House was an independent think-tank which does research for its own sake, then there would be no need to split hairs about whats going on here. Indeed, if that were the case, the MDC-T would not be losing its empty head and going mad over the matter. The reason why all hell has broken loose is that Freedom House is not a think-tank but a propaganda tank which, along with the International Republican Institute, has been at the forefront of building the capacity of Morgan Tsvangirais MDC as a direct component of Americas so-called Zimbabwe Democracy Act (Zidera) to seek illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.

In other words, and there is a lot of public evidence out there to support this, Freedom House has been one of a few but critical instruments of choice to effect regime change in the country. In the run-up to the 2008 harmonised elections, Freedom House combined forces with the International Republican Institute under the tutelage of the likes of the infamous Melinda Ferris of the CIA to hold training seminars and workshops on electioneering, mainly in South Africa, for the MDC-T and its associated NGOs and developed the campaign strategy and even messages including designing and producing campaign jingles for Tsvangirais party.

More here:
Unmasking Freedom House

September 1, 2012 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom Evansville,IN-Brad Allen(4-1) pitched eight dominant innings to lead the Florence Freedom(56-39) past the Evansville Otters(45-49) with a 4-2 win to clinch their first playoff berth in franchise history.

The Freedom moved to Florence in 2003 and the 2012 club will be the first to play for a Frontier League Championship when the playoffs begin on Wednesday, September 5. Florence's first home game will come Saturday, September 8 at 6:05pm.

Allen went eight innings giving up a solo homerun to Matt Sheely in the third which was the only run he allowed. He scattered three hits during his masterpiece while striking out three.

Evansville had a 1-0 lead going into the fourth, but that's when the Freedom took control of the game.

With two on base, Eddie Rodriguez hit a two run double over the head of right fielder DeAngelo Mack to give the Freedom a 2-1 lead. Peter Fatse also provided an RBI single and Stephen Cardullo produced a SAC Fly for the other Freedom runs.

Jorge Marban pitched the ninth for the Florence. He allowed an RBI double to Luis Parache, but got Nick Schawaner to fly out to left field to end the ballgame. It was Marban's sixteenth save of the season. Peter Fatse led the Freedom going 2-4 with an RBI.

The Freedom have won five in a row and twelve out of their last thirteen as they go for a series sweep Sunday night against the Otters. It will be the regular season finale as RHP Brandon Mathes (4-0, 3.61) takes the mound for Florence while Evansville will have LHP Adam Champion(8-4, 2.44) on the hill. The game can be heard starting at 6:50 pm with Steve Jarnicki on Real Talk 1160 AM and realtalk1160.com.

Discuss this story on the Frontier League message board... Digg this story Add to Del.icio.us

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Read the original post:
: Freedom Playoff Bound for First Time

TWO recent developments - namely the interim findings of an opinion survey by a right-wing American propaganda think-tank called Freedom House and Zanu PFs progressive amendments that have aligned the July 18 Copac draft constitution with the views of the people gathered during the Copac outreach programme contained in an unpublished National Report - have coincidentally combined to wreak untold havoc for the MDC formations in the GPA Government which now do not know whether they are coming or going.

The ensuing havoc that is there for all to see has been made worse by the fact that both developments have far-reaching electoral implications for the two embattled parties which have nothing to show for their presence in the GPA Government except for the self-aggrandisement of their leadership, some of whom have taken to primitive accumulation in three short years while others like Morgan Tsvangirai now have US$3 million houses and are selfishly planning to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the signing of the GPA on September 15 by indulging in a plush wedding to Zanu PF fiances at a time when civil servants and ordinary Zimbabweans they gave false promises in 2009 are struggling to make ends meet.

There are two key questions about this background that beg for interrogation. First, what exactly does the Freedom House survey seek to communicate and to whom? In other words, what really is the purpose of the survey at this juncture in the scheme of national and geopolitical things? This is an important question because as the proverbial saying goes about statistics, while surveys can be revealing, their problem is that they are like miniskirts in that they conceal the essential and most exciting part and therefore useless for that reason. So what is the Freedom House survey concealing while revealing the obvious?

Second, why are the MDC formations going mad over Zanu PFs progressive amendments of the July 18 Copac draft constitution whose demonstrable essence is to align the draft with the views of the people in accordance with Article VI of the GPA?

A lot has been written and said with all sorts of nuances about the preliminary findings of the Freedom House opinion survey entitled, Change and New Politics in Zimbabwe conducted between June 23 and July 7, 2012 involving a nationally representative of 1198 adult Zimbabweans. But the bottom line from the survey that has given Tsvangirai and his MDC sleepless nights is the following Freedom House finding: When asked who they would vote for if parliamentary elections were held tomorrow, 47 percent of respondents said they would not vote, or refused to indicate who they would vote for (up from 41 percent in 2010). Of the 53 percent who declared their preference, 20 percent said they would vote for MDC-T (down from 38 percent in 2010) and 31 percent Zanu PF (up from 17 percent in 2010).

Instructively, despite his recent outbursts of sophomoric militancy about non-issues that have made him sound like a frustrated student living in the past, Welshman Ncube and his MDC did not feature at all in these stakes despite the fact that this national survey was done between June 23 and July 7 this year at a time when Ncube has been driving around in a pathetic convoy ranting, raving and pretending to be a national leader contending for the presidency of the Republic of Zimbabwe when his party cannot hold multiple star rallies even in one province, in Matabeleland itself.

This important point will be examined further another day, but what should be noted for now - and this is the talking point of the moment - is that the interim findings of Freedom Houses survey show that the MDC-T has dramatically lost support since 2010 - two years after the last election in 2008 - while Zanu PF has sharply increased its support over the same period, with Welshman Ncube having nothing to show.

This has shocked the MDC-T and its pundits out of their wits. Their best but hollow spin has been to claim that Freedom House has done the survey at this juncture in order to wake up the MDC-T and to send Zanu PF to sleep before the forthcoming general election which is now around the corner. If this spin had been spun in 2010, it perhaps could have had foolish takers, but you dont have to be a rocket scientist to understand that theres no political party that needs to be awoken or sent to sleep during an election year. The proposition that the Freedom House survey, done between June 23 and 7 July, is intended to wake up the MDC-T while sending Zanu-PF to sleep is therefore utter and complete rubbish.

As such, there must be more to the saga than meets the eye. If Freedom House was an independent think-tank which does research for its own sake, then there would be no need to split hairs about whats going on here. Indeed, if that were the case, the MDC-T would not be losing its empty head and going mad over the matter. The reason why all hell has broken loose is that Freedom House is not a think-tank but a propaganda tank which, along with the International Republican Institute, has been at the forefront of building the capacity of Morgan Tsvangirais MDC as a direct component of Americas so-called Zimbabwe Democracy Act (Zidera) to seek illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.

In other words, and there is a lot of public evidence out there to support this, Freedom House has been one of a few but critical instruments of choice to effect regime change in the country. In the run-up to the 2008 harmonised elections, Freedom House combined forces with the International Republican Institute under the tutelage of the likes of the infamous Melinda Ferris of the CIA to hold training seminars and workshops on electioneering, mainly in South Africa, for the MDC-T and its associated NGOs and developed the campaign strategy and even messages including designing and producing campaign jingles for Tsvangirais party.

See the original post here:
Unmasking Freedom House survey