U.S. Petition to prevent ACTA

I don't particularly like that I had to "sign in" to the government to be able to sign this petition as I don't particularly want Obama to send me ANYTHING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I can't believe this is the first thing EVER that has made me get political on this blog. I apologize to everyone who doesn't care about this issue because I feel it's important. Probably more important than anything else I've ever felt was important. You see, I don't ever want to lose this. I don't want to lose you, my flist. I feel that whatever it is that we have together is being threatened. I don't like that.

Originally posted by lk737 at U.S. Petition to prevent ACTA

Kosmonaunt on Tumblr just posted this link to the U.S. Petition to stop ACTA. Here is what was said about it:

Americans, this is a link to the White House petition to End ACTA and get the Obama Administration to withdraw its support! This petition needs 25,000 signatures by February 20, 2012! Please, Please take a minute to sign this petition!! I'm sure the more signatures we get, the greater chance the Obama Administration may listen to us.

Please pass this along!!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/end-acta-and-protect-our-right-privacy-internet/MwfSVNBK?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Please check it out and Retweet if you're on Twitter (hashtag #ActAgainstACTA). Here is the shortened link for Twitter -- http://t.co/suHDHx8K



Thank you to everyone on my flist and twitter for talking about this and making us so aware! You guys have really filled my flist with so much information! *massive hugs*

U.S. Petition to prevent ACTA

I don't particularly like that I had to "sign in" to the government to be able to sign this petition as I don't particularly want Obama to send me ANYTHING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I can't believe this is the first thing EVER that has made me get political on this blog. I apologize to everyone who doesn't care about this issue because I feel it's important. Probably more important than anything else I've ever felt was important. You see, I don't ever want to lose this. I don't want to lose you, my flist. I feel that whatever it is that we have together is being threatened. I don't like that.

Originally posted by lk737 at U.S. Petition to prevent ACTA

Kosmonaunt on Tumblr just posted this link to the U.S. Petition to stop ACTA. Here is what was said about it:

Americans, this is a link to the White House petition to End ACTA and get the Obama Administration to withdraw its support! This petition needs 25,000 signatures by February 20, 2012! Please, Please take a minute to sign this petition!! I'm sure the more signatures we get, the greater chance the Obama Administration may listen to us.

Please pass this along!!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/end-acta-and-protect-our-right-privacy-internet/MwfSVNBK?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Please check it out and Retweet if you're on Twitter (hashtag #ActAgainstACTA). Here is the shortened link for Twitter -- http://t.co/suHDHx8K



Thank you to everyone on my flist and twitter for talking about this and making us so aware! You guys have really filled my flist with so much information! *massive hugs*

Fic: On the Right Note (SGA)

My first real entry here! Trying the whole cross-posting thing out.

Title: On the Right Note (1/5)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis AU
Characters: John, Teyla, Elizabeth
Word Count: 1012
Prompt: obligation for the stargateland Multimedia Bingo challenge
Disclaimer: I don't own. I only play around with it from time to time.
Summary: John Sheppard's a small town boy wanting to make it big in the music industry. While he loses the family he was born into because of this decision, he gains a whole new one along the way.

( THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! )

Hyper!

Time it took to cook a mini pizza in my old microwave: around 5 minutes (I KNOW! RIGHT?)

Time it takes to cook a mini pizza in the hand-me-down microwave I got from my mom yesterday: 2.30 minutes (about the time it tells you on the package)

And here I was thinking I was just getting really impatient!!!

The snowmenz, they are melting. I will post a pic tonight... if there is anything to take a picture of. We have glorious sun today and it's warming up to a decent level that makes the snow afraid so it pulls a ninja move and turns into water and RUNS AWAY. Literally, in the case of the minor river that is the end of my driveway.

I got everything imported over to Dreamwidth this morning. Only had one meltdown with the first cross-post that elle_blessing was able to help me with (and we'll see how that second help works with this post!) and now I'm thinking I sort of like it around here. I just have to get used to opening THIS LINK to post instead of going to the old link that I have just got used to pushing when I get the hankering to write something.

I had coffee this morning. Those nice Frappacino bottles that are so convenient when you don't have a Starbucks on the way to work. I may have also got a package of Hostess Cupcakes. Eating habits = poor. I know. But all that to say that I've been SUPER DUPER HELPFUL all day so far. Wonder when I'm going to crash?

All the songs I've looked at for the stargateland challenge have been sad which work really well for the avfe challenge but I was hoping to write something fun for the SGL challenge. Hmmm... I may have to switch to a different Spotify playlist.

And speaking of Spotify, paying them money was the BEST thing I've done in ages. No commercials! I can hear my playlists on my iPod! It's like a win-win situation! I know it's essentially paying to rent their playlist but I get bored of music really fast. All that money that I've paid to iTunes over the years? Kind of wasted if I don't want to listen to a song I bought five years ago because I listened to it too much then.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Guess where I'm going to be on Sunday evening?

I'm going to be seeing SCAR ON 45!!!! In my little valley! At this tiny little venue that is a bar/restaurant most of the time except when they have concerts! For $8!

I thought I would miss seeing them ever again because they were in Boise last spring. Amazing! I get to see them! You should have heard my excitement when I opened the paper today. Wait... you probably did! I was that loud.

So. This is going to be about politics. Meet ACTA.

Originally posted by elle_blessing at

So. This is going to be about politics. Meet ACTA.

Online Censorship



If you thought SOPA was bad, just wait until you meet ACTA. Also, Find out what ACTA is, and why it's a problem.

ACTA is not the European SOPA. It’s an INTERNATIONAL treaty that will apply to every country that signs it. ACTA will not just affect websites, and have them blocked out of the internet - its measures go as far as surveillance of anything you share through private channels.

Oh, yeah. And the Obama administration already signed it without Congressional approval a few months ago. So much for the White House's sentiments against SOPA that "Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship..."

Apparently they didn't really mean it. You can read all about how the Obama administration is trying to pass this off as an "executive agreement" as opposed to a international treaty so they didn't have to ask for the Congress's permission. And how it's fundamentally unconstitutional. Basically, Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution says that intellectual property is an issue under Congress's purview, and not the President's. Since it is an issue clearly stated in the Constitution as not being under the President's control, ACTA should be submitted to the Senate for approval.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon even wrote the President on this very issue last October:

“[T]he executive branch lacks constitutional authority to enter into binding international agreements on matters under Congress’s plenary powers, including the Article I powers to regulate foreign commerce and protect intellectual property,” the letter from Wyden states. “Yet, through ACTA and without your clarification, the USTR looks to be claiming the authority to do just that.”

So, what can we as Americans do to stop ACTA?

Well, if you already signed the White House petition to "End ACTA and Protect Our Right to Privacy on the Internet," IT'S NOT ENOUGH. The US has already signed the agreement. The only way we can get out of ACTA as a country is if it is brought before the Senate for ratification.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

• Sign the "Please Submit ACTA to the Senate for Ratification as Required by the Constitution for Trade Agreements" White House petition.
  
• Contact your Senator and tell them you want ACTA brought before Congress as an international treaty for ratification, and that you want it to be struck down.


• Contact your Representatives and do the same thing.

Alright. So now what?

Well, did you know that over 10,000 people in Poland have flooded the streets in opposition to ACTA? And that Ireland and 26 other European countries will sign tomorrow? What is especially fishy about ACTA is that not only was it developed (AND SIGNED HERE IN THE US) behind closed doors, but in Europe unelected officials were part of its development.

Eight of the 11 ACTA participating countries have signed the agreement and the battle now mainly lies in the European Union. This week, the Council of the European Union—one of the European Union’s two legislative bodies, composed of executives from the 27 EU member states—adopted ACTA during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries. It is now up to the European Parliament, the EU’s other legislative body, to give consent on ACTA in the coming year.

So y'all getting it? Done in secret. Unelected officials were involved in the development. Signed in secret in many countries. Has the potential to change the internet as we know it.

After ACTA is signed by Poland, Ireland, most European countries and the EU itself tomorrow, the only thing that stands between ACTA and the world, really, is the European Parliament. If they don't ratify ACTA, it won't go into effect in Europe.

SO WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO ON A GLOBAL SCALE? Sign the petition at accessnow.org to encourage the European Union to take a stand and vote "NO" on ACTA.


After you've spread the word, watch the video Anonymous made about ACTA. Be educated about this y'all. Our ability to even write and share posts like this one are in danger if we're not in the know and DOING something.

So. This is going to be about politics. Meet ACTA.

Originally posted by elle_blessing at

So. This is going to be about politics. Meet ACTA.

Online Censorship



If you thought SOPA was bad, just wait until you meet ACTA. Also, Find out what ACTA is, and why it's a problem.

ACTA is not the European SOPA. It’s an INTERNATIONAL treaty that will apply to every country that signs it. ACTA will not just affect websites, and have them blocked out of the internet - its measures go as far as surveillance of anything you share through private channels.

Oh, yeah. And the Obama administration already signed it without Congressional approval a few months ago. So much for the White House's sentiments against SOPA that "Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship..."

Apparently they didn't really mean it. You can read all about how the Obama administration is trying to pass this off as an "executive agreement" as opposed to a international treaty so they didn't have to ask for the Congress's permission. And how it's fundamentally unconstitutional. Basically, Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution says that intellectual property is an issue under Congress's purview, and not the President's. Since it is an issue clearly stated in the Constitution as not being under the President's control, ACTA should be submitted to the Senate for approval.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon even wrote the President on this very issue last October:

“[T]he executive branch lacks constitutional authority to enter into binding international agreements on matters under Congress’s plenary powers, including the Article I powers to regulate foreign commerce and protect intellectual property,” the letter from Wyden states. “Yet, through ACTA and without your clarification, the USTR looks to be claiming the authority to do just that.”

So, what can we as Americans do to stop ACTA?

Well, if you already signed the White House petition to "End ACTA and Protect Our Right to Privacy on the Internet," IT'S NOT ENOUGH. The US has already signed the agreement. The only way we can get out of ACTA as a country is if it is brought before the Senate for ratification.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

• Sign the "Please Submit ACTA to the Senate for Ratification as Required by the Constitution for Trade Agreements" White House petition.
  
• Contact your Senator and tell them you want ACTA brought before Congress as an international treaty for ratification, and that you want it to be struck down.


• Contact your Representatives and do the same thing.

Alright. So now what?

Well, did you know that over 10,000 people in Poland have flooded the streets in opposition to ACTA? And that Ireland and 26 other European countries will sign tomorrow? What is especially fishy about ACTA is that not only was it developed (AND SIGNED HERE IN THE US) behind closed doors, but in Europe unelected officials were part of its development.

Eight of the 11 ACTA participating countries have signed the agreement and the battle now mainly lies in the European Union. This week, the Council of the European Union—one of the European Union’s two legislative bodies, composed of executives from the 27 EU member states—adopted ACTA during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries. It is now up to the European Parliament, the EU’s other legislative body, to give consent on ACTA in the coming year.

So y'all getting it? Done in secret. Unelected officials were involved in the development. Signed in secret in many countries. Has the potential to change the internet as we know it.

After ACTA is signed by Poland, Ireland, most European countries and the EU itself tomorrow, the only thing that stands between ACTA and the world, really, is the European Parliament. If they don't ratify ACTA, it won't go into effect in Europe.

SO WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO ON A GLOBAL SCALE? Sign the petition at accessnow.org to encourage the European Union to take a stand and vote "NO" on ACTA.


After you've spread the word, watch the video Anonymous made about ACTA. Be educated about this y'all. Our ability to even write and share posts like this one are in danger if we're not in the know and DOING something.

Fic: On the Right Note (SGA) Part 2 of 5

Title: On the Right Note (2/5)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis AU
Characters: John, Rodney, Jeanne, Ronon
Word Count: 1683
Prompt: honesty for the stargateland Multimedia Bingo challenge
Disclaimer: I don't own. I only play around with it from time to time.
Summary: John Sheppard's a small town boy wanting to make it big in the music industry. While he loses the family he was born into because of this decision, he gains a whole new one along the way.

( THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! )