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Taking Back the Fourth Estate
By Marta Steele (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)
At a recent convention, the North American Media Executives recognized that the Internet is the new target of advertisers, which has created a crisis for the tv and radio stations.
“They’re trying to figure out how to get back,” observed Melissa. Writers now returning to work will create a more professional product. But while there is Net neutrality, there is hope for the grassroots. The Senate today approved a bill authorizing the expansion of government eavesdropping—to the point of keeping track of the Web sites we visit.
They might take it over, just as they took over cable tv. They are using lobbyists to petition the FCC to take control of the Internet. But today anyone can have his/her own network or programming on issues ranging from election integrity to civil rights to fraud.
There is also a movement toward use of cell phones as computers; and here we are way behind the rest of the world. There is streamed programming on cell phones; we can buy codes, plug them in, and receive announcements from the phones, a process called Hit Cricket.
The multitude of Internet news sources is turning network news into ancient history and so far conveying truth to the people. Those who want ideological slants to this information can also and readily access them.
Melissa next focused on our grassroots triumph in Bucks County. The people are now convinced where before they were alienated. Newspaper editorials speak out against the useless touchscreen machines that two Republican commissioners will not part with. All over the state of Pennsylvania we are stuck with malfunctioning machinery while the government sleeps.
And Bucks, one of the largest counties in the state, is the place to start, as it was the first place to fly the American flag, which Lafayette brought to Washington to revive his spirits at Moland House.
“Pennsylvania will be the Ground Zero of miscounts,” predicted Melissa. “Every American is an Ohioan, a Pennsylvanian, in the sense that what happens here reverberates across the nation,” said Mary Ann. Why should the country have to turn to a state whose votes are not counted accurately? How will we ever be sure who really won, unless Holt’s HR 5036 is implemented across the country in time for election 2008?
Mary Ann is trying to get the whole country, by way of her listeners, to phone Governor Ed Rendell and speak of the importance of an accurate vote count. The full-face touchscreens we use are the worst variety of DRE.
Rendell can be reached at 717-787-2500. Numbers to reach the Bucks County commissioners, Cawley and Martin, are 215-348-6000, 215-348-6424, or 215-346-6426.
Melissa called these voting machines toys: they are ineffective and the citizens are being dismissed.
We must pause from our laboring for subsistence in this mangled economy and take a few moments to attend public meetings and speak out, just like the founding fathers, so many of whom frequented this state in the process of building our nation.
The flag that first flew here is being trampled on, said Mary Ann. No one knows what’s going on inside those machines, with their secret [“proprietary”] coding.
The voices of those trampled on must be heard, said Melissa. This empowers everyday people: the story of the illiterate man who taught himself to read in his seventies using a law book; the story of the woman who never learned to punctuate her sentences—the rights of such people are easily and frequently violated.
Our vote has been undermined similarly. The people must ask and be told the truth: Who monitors the machines? Where are they stored? Will there be enough for each county? Have several exit polls and compare them with each other. Talk to your neighbors and to the media.
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