This has been talked about at My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, and at SaveTheInternet, among others, but I haven't seen anything here yet. I've cross-posted this at
West Massholes), as well as my MySpace page. But I wanted to alert the community about it as well.
Basically, what follows is my analysis of a little site called "dontregulate.org". They seem inocuous. They've got ads going through blogads.org, which, MLW, Booman, and other lefty sites, including ActForLove, use to get ads based upon their sites. Now, they've got this fascinating flash video to start the site, and from there, it just turns into arguments against net neutrality, looking all like it's a regular internet site that regular people put up, with regular drawings and Flash movies...
For more info, SaveTheInternet has also made it the big lie of the week
So, I'm currently not a big fan of the telecoms. Ma Bell and her babies have sold the American people out on NSA Spying, and have been a big part of the net neutrality fight. Now they've come up with a gem of an ad they're running on left-wing websites (like Booman Tribune and My Left Wing) for a front group called
"Hands off The Internet". (Sorry, you're going to have to watch this)
MLW and
ghandi at Booman have blogged it, and you can go read my comments on MLW, but I thought I'd give you, my loyal (or disloyal) readers, what I think of this shizzle:
The ad seems to imply that "net neutrality" is just some plan devised by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Alyssa Milano to steal money from you through govenrment regulation and bureaucrats and Congressmen. Now, this seems all interesting. The problem is that it's absolutely dishonest. Last I checked, I don't pay any money to Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo (well, I did give Yahoo $9.99 for Fantasy Baseball StatTracker, but I asked to pay for that). What is being implied is that the poor old telecoms will have to raise my rates if net neutrality and regulation against them is passed. Oh, no! Not that! They would have to raise my rates because they couldn't deal with the fact the internet is growing! As it is, they sell us out regularly, so they're going to no matter what happens. But without net neturality, they can also block websites if they don't agree with the sentiments, or if sites don't pay money.
Here's the problem with the site: now, they like to pretend that this site is all well and good, and that it's concerned internet-types who are regular, normal people. You see, Savetheinternet IS concerned internet types. Like this blog. Or conservative blogs like Instapundit. Or Alyssa Milano's blog (No, I do not have a crush on Alyssa Milano).
In reality, it plays like Concerned Women for America (actually a front for Beverley LaHaye and her Christian-whack-job buddies to spread the word of "Left Behind") Take a quick look at the wonderful people who sponsor our friends over at "Hands off The Internet". Look at all those telecoms! AT&T, BellSouth, Cingular, oh my! And on top of that, we've got pro-business kids like Chambers of Commerce, as well as conservocrats like the American Conservative Union, and something called the America Channel, which, after much investigation, turns out to be another front for the Telecoms, as there is next to no info on it, yet it's going to be launched the seven major telecoms. Fishy...
Oh, and the chairmen of this shizzle includes sell-out shill Mike McCurry, who went from being Clinton Press Secretary to telecom shill.
So, what do we have, in conclusion? Industry using .org addresses to pretend to be ordinary people. It's frightening, it's sick, and you shouldn't stand for it.
So contact them today! :)
Phone: (800) 619-5268
Email: info@handsoff.org
(Note: This is all public info on their website here)
Let them know what you think of their tactics, and tell the media too. Write a letter to the editor. Write a nice letter to Ed Markey. Contact your Congressman. Just do something!
You should also contact blogads, because this advertising is incredibly disengenuous.