DhammaSeeker.com

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

For quite some time we’ve been talking about the potential of the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels (”white spaces”) to provide affordable, high-speed wireless Internet connectivity nationwide. For this to happen, the Federal Communications Commission must allow unlicensed use of this spectrum.

If you care about the future of the Internet, now is the time to take action. The FCC has completed its field testing and is expected to make a ruling in the coming months. With this in mind, today we’re launching Free The Airwaves, a new effort to bring users together around this important issue.

To help you to learn more about the tremendous promise of these airwaves, people from around the country have filmed video testimonials. Matthew Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village explained how freeing the airwaves would bring new opportunities to the Southern California Native American community, currently underserved by today’s broadband providers. Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network discussed the potential of these airwaves to bring broadband access to rural communities. Many others have also weighed in, and we hope you will too.

At its core, Free the Airwaves is a call to action for everyday users. You don’t need to be a telecommunications expert to understand that freeing the “white spaces” has the potential to transform wireless Internet as we know it. When you visit the site, you’ll be invited to film a video response explaining what increased Internet access could mean for you, to sign a petition to the FCC, to contact your elected officials, to spread the word, and more.

When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But we also want to be transparent about our involvement - Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web. There’s no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the Internet. That’s certainly good for Google (not to mention many of our industry peers) but we also think that it’s good for consumers.

That said, we can’t pretend to speak for you. To learn more about what’s at stake and to get involved, check out FreeTheAirwaves.com. We hope that once you’ve explored the facts for yourself, you’ll want to make your voice heard.

Ray LaMontagne just stopped by KBCO Studio C and played a couple of songs. I apparently missed all but the last due to techincal difficulties. The audio clip that I have is Ray speaking about Gossip in the Grain (To be released: October 14, 2008), and playing ‘Hold You In My Arms’. Enjoy!

I also came across this free download of the first track from Gossip in the Grain a track called ‘Let It Be Me’.

Download link

What I’d like to know is what kind of a liberal nutmeat in New York thought it was a good idea to publish this:

The cover art, depicting Senator Obama in a turban, while wife Michelle, packing an assault rifle, shares a “fist bump” with him, is described by the New Yorker as artist’s Barry Blitt’s lampooning of “scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.”

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” countered Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

“This is as offensive a caricature as any magazine could publish,” one high-profile Obama backer told ABC News, “and I suspect that other Obama supporters like me are also thinking about not subscribing to or buying a magazine that trafficks (sic) in such trash.”

“We completely agree with the Obama campaign,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds added. “It’s tasteless and offensive.”

– Raw Story

Are they so insulated in the towers in New York City that they don’t know that the rest of us out here in fly-over country are scared shitless that the knuckle-draggers are just going to see that as an affirmation of their (ignorant) opinions. Seriously WTF New Yorker.

Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable
Associated Press
Published: Tuesday July 8, 2008

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s national security adviser says his country will not accept any deal with the United States unless the agreement sets specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie come a day after Iraq’s prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

President Bush has said he opposes a timetable.

Al-Rubaie told reporters Tuesday the country “will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn’t have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces.”

Halle-fuckin-lujah!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

These words are just as relevant today as they were in 1776. Perhaps even more so.