senate posts

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Microblogging

The White House wants you to tweet health insurance reform into law

by Adam Maras Jul 28th 2009

The Obama administration has taken a fresh, new approach to lobbying federal legislators about health insurance laws, and it comes in the form of the Twitter hashtag #hc09.

Obama's new Tweet your Senator page provides a pre-built health insurance-related tweet directed toward one of your Senators, based on your ZIP code. Each time you hit the big blue Tweet button, a Senator will be randomly selected, as will a message telling them to help pass the health insurance laws being pushed by the President.

These items, along with a link to the Tweet your Senator page and the aforementioned hashtags, will be provided for you in a brand new Twitter window, ready for you to tweet on the spot. Also, if your randomly-selected Senator is a Twitterer themselves, their Twitter handle will be used instead of their full name in your tweet.

Tags: health care reform, HealthCareReform, obama, senate, twitter, white house, WhiteHouse

Filed under: Business, Internet, News

U.S. Senate considers extending internet tax ban

by Brad Linder Sep 21st 2007

You know how you you don't have to pay taxes on your internet service? (If you're a US citizen, at least). Yeah, that might last. In fact, it might not even last much longer than a month.

In 1998 the U.S. government passed a law preventing states from taxing internet access. The goal was to encourage the growth of internet service providers. The law is set to expire on November 1st, but the Senate is considering an extension.

There's some debate on the issue. But the good news for consumers is that the debate isn't centered on whether the tax ban should be extended. Instead, Senators are debating whether the ban should be made permanent or just temporarily extended.

The bad news is that if a compromise isn't reached within the next six weeks, the moratorium will be lifted and theoretically states could start issuing taxes. We seriously doubt they'll do that until if there's a good chance a new law will be put in place. But you never know.

Tags: irs, senate, tax, taxes

Filed under: Internet

The Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006

by Jordan Running Mar 3rd 2006

So Verizon and every other mega-ISP think Google and other content providers are getting a free ride and should be paying on both ends and Comcast might be throttling Vonage to death, none of seems like a trend that's good for consumers, much less the future of the Internet. Luckily I'm not alone: U.S. senator from Oregon Ron Wyden has introduced the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, which the press is describing as the "net neutrality bill." From Russell Shaw's post on his ZDNet blog, the bill's key points are:

Preventing interfering with, blocking, degrading, altering, modifying or changing traffic on the Internet;
Prohibiting creation of a priority lane where content providers can buy quicker access to customers, while those who don’t pay the fee are left in the slow lane;
Allowing consumers to choose which devices they use to connect to the Internet while they are on the Internet;
Ensuring that consumers have non-discriminatory access and service;
Having a transparent system whereby consumers, Internet content, and applications companies have access to the rates, terms, and conditions for Internet service.

Senator Wyden seems like a very clueful guy who knows what kind of slippery slope Verizon and its ilk are about to create. He says, "I am not going to allow a network operator to say a person who buys online for J.Crew can stay on hold for five minutes, and where they make the Banana Republic customer wait 30 minutes." He intends to make his net neutrality bill part of a large telecom package that'll be making its way through the senate this year. Whether net neutrality will be able to overcome telecom's deep-pocketed lobbyists, however, is another question entirely. Head over to Shaw's blog for more quotes from Wyden and the full text of the bill.

Tags: bill, discrimination, government, internet, law, legislation, netneutrality, Ron Wyden, RonWyden, Russell Shaw, senate, verizon

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures

Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party

Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	114	6
2	Lee Mathews	79	34
3	Sebastian Anthony	52	171
4	Brad Linder	38	7
5	Jason Clarke	31	0
6	Dolores Parker	8	2
7	Grant Robertson	8	8
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	7	1
9	Nik Fletcher	3	0
10	Matt Heerema	3	3
11	Paul O'Brien	2	0
12	John Burke	2	0
13	Download Squad Staff	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad

senate posts

The White House wants you to tweet health insurance reform into law

U.S. Senate considers extending internet tax ban

The Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006

Featured Lists Feed