“I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally.” ― Bill Maher
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Posts tagged constitution
February 9, 2012:
The recent actions by the ASU administration to block access to the Change.org tuition petition are despicable. Worse, the University’s justification for these actions was a bold-faced lie.
For the University to block an online petition just because it advocates something they may not like is the height of institutional censorship, which is contrary to the most deeply held virtues of the academy.
Does AT&T disconnect your phone call if you’re telling a friend that their service is overpriced? Does your MacBook stop working if you go to download a Linux distribution? Of course not.
Worse, far worse, is ASU’s claim that they blocked access to this website to conserve their network resources. This is a lie, plain and simple. They know it, and they purposefully lied to the University community anyway. This website uses a miniscule amount of bandwidth. Students and faculty transfer tens of gigabytes of data without thinking twice, or stream multi-GB movies from Netflix. Compared to these everyday “acceptable” uses of the network, the amount of bandwidth consumed by Change.org‘s petition is utterly trivial — maybe a few hundred kilobytes. This has nothing to do with the cost of tuition at ASU. It’s about censorship and about using lies to justify it.
Sun Devils, you deserve better. You deserve for your university to foster open discourse, something that has been cherished by academics for a thousand years, and not censor ideas just because they’re afraid of them. You also deserve for your university, to whom you each pay thousands of dollars a year, to not lie to your faces about what they’re doing and why.
Walter Freeman
Ph.D., Computational Physics
Originally published February 8, 2012 at 5:18 pm at statepress.com
On November 30, 2011, I ( on behalf of a group of ASU students) started the petition titled “Arizona State University: Reduce The Costs Of Education For Arizona State University Students.”
http://www.change.org/petitions/arizona-state-board-of-regents-reduce-the-costs-of-education-for-arizona-state-university-students
This petition requested signatures to support the reduction in the costs of education for ASU students.
And NOW, Arizona State University is BLOCKING ALL ACCESS to Change.org for ALL of it’s over 70,000 students and over 5,000 faculty and employees.
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As such, students living on ASU campus, using ASU computers or accessing the internet through ASU’s school WIFI are not able to access Change.org.
As a result, Not only can’t ASU students sign the above petition but they are unable to sign ANY PETITION on the Change.org website.
Not only is this outrageous, but it is a violation of the 1st Amendment rights of both ASU students as well the rights of Change.org and those with petitions hosted by Change.org to freely express themselves.
So….Now I’ve started a new petition requesting Arizona State University to STOP CENSORING Change.org;
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-arizona-state-university-stop-censoring-changeorg
Last time I checked this was America, not China, or Iran, or North Korea…..
Support Arizona State University Students.
Support Freedom Of Expression.
Support The 99%.
Sign The Petition.
Things Ron Paul Finds Unconstitutional:
- Social security
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- The National Labor Relations Board
- Income Taxes
- Executive orders
- Paper money
- The Federal Reserve
- The Department of Energy
- The Department of Education
- The Department of Agriculture
- The Department of Commerce
- The Department of Health and Human Services
- The Department of Homeland Security
- The Department of Labor
- Breathing
- Everything
Last Week, a group of ASU students started the petition titled “Arizona State University: Reduce The Costs Of Education For Arizona State University Students.” at the Change.org petition site.
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This petition requested signatures to support the reduction in the cost of education for ASU students.
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This morning. Arizona State University BLOCKED ALL ACCESS to Change.org for ALL of it’s over 50,000 students and over 5,000 faculty and employees.
Clearly, ASU does not want it’s students, faculty, or employees signing this petition and has resorted to BLATANT and UNLAWFUL Censorship in order to block the freedom of expression of it’s students and faculty.
As such, students living on ASU campus, using ASU computers or accessing the internet through ASU’s school WIFI are unable to access Change.org.
As a result, Not only can’t ASU students sign the above petition but they are unable to sign ANY PETITION on the Change.org website.
In addition, emails sent from any “change.org” email address to any student or faculty email address ending in “asu.edu” are also being blocked by Arizona State University. That means that ASU refuses to allow Change.org or anyone using Change.org to send Arizona State University students or faculty emails regarding petitions facilitated by Change.org.
Not only is this outrageous, but it is a violation of the 1st Amendment rights of both ASU students as well the rights of Change.org and those with petitions hosted by Change.org to freely express itself.
Last time I checked this was America, not China, or Iran, or North Korea…..
What can be done about this?
Well. If you are an ASU Student, Professor, Instructor, or Employee you CAN sign the petition….You just can’t use any ASU computer or WIFI network to do so….
Just go to the petition at the Change.org site from your computer using ANY WIFI connection that is NOT associated with ASU…..That’s it…..Easy.
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http://www.change.org/petitions/arizona-state-board-of-regents-reduce-the-costs-of-education-for-arizona-state-university-students
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BIG BROTHER WANTS TO CENSOR YOUR INTERNET.
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Imagine a world in which any intellectual property holder can, without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom, shut down any website’s online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notification” by the website could get service restored.
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It’s the world envisioned by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in today’s introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives. This isn’t some off-the-wall piece of legislation with no chance of passing, either; it’s the House equivalent to the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act, which would officially bring Internet censorship to the US as a matter of law.
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Calling its plan a “market-based system to protect US customers and prevent US funding of sites dedicated to theft of US property,” the new bill gives broad powers to private actors. Any holder of intellectual property rights could simply send a letter to ad network operators like Google and to payment processors like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal, demanding these companies cut off access to any site the IP holder names as an infringer.
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The scheme is much like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) “takedown notices,” in which a copyright holder can demand some piece of content be removed from sites like YouTube with a letter. The content will be removed unless the person who posted the content objects; at that point, the copyright holder can decide if it wants to take the person to court over the issue.
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Here, though, the stakes are higher. Rather than requesting the takedown of certain hosted material, intellectual property owners can go directly for the jugular: marketing and revenue for the entire site. So long as the intellectual property holders include some “specific facts” supporting their infringement claim, ad networks and payment processors will have five days to cut off contact with the website in question.
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The scheme is largely targeted at foreign websites which do not recognize US law, and which therefore will often refuse to comply with takedown requests. But the potential for abuse—even inadvertent abuse—here is astonishing, given the terrifically outsized stick with which content owners can now beat on suspected infringers.
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Citizens United v. FEC - Supreme Court Ruling
When the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Citizens United v. FEC in a 5-4 decision, The Court struck down the FECA prohibition on corporations and labor unions making Independent Expenditures to expressly advocate the election or defeat of federal Candidates, or its functional equivalent.
Tell Members of Congress: Cosponsor a Constitutional Amdenment to Undo Citizens United
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders discusses the president’s recent climb in the polls and the movement to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United. “Whether you’re talking to a Republican or a progressive, people are saying that that Supreme Court decision, Keith, is basically insane. Nobody that I know thinks that Exxon Mobil is a person,” Sanders says.
Help undo the damage of Citizens United! Urge your U.S. senators and your U.S. representative to cosponsor legislation to amend the Constitution and stop the unlimited corporate spending that’s undermining our democracy.
To restore the ability of Congress and the states to regulate corporate influence in elections, Democratic Senators Tom Udall (NM) and Michael Bennet (CO), along with Senators Mark Begich (AK), Dick Durbin (IL), Tom Harkin (IA), Chuck Schumer (NY), Jeff Merkley (OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have introduced S.J. Res. 29, a constitutional amendment that would reverse the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC. The ruling, which granted corporations the same Free Speech rights as people to spend money in support of or against candidates for office, has led to an unprecedented flood of corporate money in elections across the United States, often under the cover of anonymity.
Last month, Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) introduced a similar constitutional amendment in the House — H.J. Res. 78 — that would restore to Congress and the states the authority to regulate corporate spending on political activity, including contributions in support of or in opposition to a candidate for public office.
Please take action now to support this legislation in both chambers of Congress by emailing your representative and senators and urging them to cosponsor these bills!
We must take our democracy back from the corporations and restore Government By the People.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC unleashed a tidal wave of corporate and special interest election spending that is drowning out the voice of the voter. Generations of Americans have used the constitutional amendment process to right egregious wrongs and make our country better. Now it’s our generation’s turn.
To restore the ability of Congress and the states to regulate corporate influence in elections, progressive Senators and Representatives have introduced bills that would amend the Constitution to undo the harm of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
Please send an e-mail your representative right now urging him or her to cosponsor this vital legislation. Corporations are not people and should not have the same free speech rights as people in our democracy!
No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex.
- Susan B. Anthony - 1872.
