S. 1747, the Computer Professionals Update Act, would modify the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to make it harder for computer professionals to get overtime -- basically, by making a longer list of IT professionals who can't get overtime. This, in a field where systems could crash at any moment and require skilled techs to repair it at any moment. The CEOs clamoring for bills like these so they can "reduce labor costs" and "create more jobs" may want to consider how well S. 1747 would go over with the folks who run their networks, without whom, as many IT professionals have pointed out to me in the last few days, they'd be well and truly screwed. I note also that S. 1747's four (so far) co-sponsors comprise exactly two from each party. Ah, bipartisanship: when Democrats and Republicans come together to give corporations whatever they want. If you call your Reps and Senators and urge them to oppose S. 1747, they'll never see it coming.
Meanwhile, super-secret software installed on Android smart phones can record your every move and send those records to a corporation you've probably never heard of. Said corporation, Carrier IQ, says the software is for "quality control" purposes -- to monitor battery life, dropped connections, crashed apps, like that. You can see the problem with that, right? You didn't know about it until now -- you might have agreed to let your information be used that way (though with more safeguards on your privacy than Carrier IQ obviously offers) if Carrier IQ or your service provider had asked you. Do you remember being asked? I thought not. Corporations need to ask us whether we really want our information to be used in that way, lest it fall into the wrong hands and be used in some other way. And making corporations do that won't "break the internet," either. So Free Press helps you tell the Justice Department to investigate Carrier IQ.
Finally, the "liberal" media (excluding McClatchy) couldn't get a damn thing right during the lead-up to the Iraq war, and now they can't get a damn thing right about its consequences. A CBS Evening News report from December 1 suggested that the U.S. somehow got "caught in the middle" of an Iraqi religious war (invading another country does tend to embroil you in drama, doesn't it?), and then told us that "more than 50,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the war." Fifty thousand? According to CBS's source, icasualties.org, that's how many died up until January 2005. Over six years have passed since then; many of these were not exactly pleasant. And icasualties.org only tallies deaths reported by news outlets, and is more than happy to tell you that other reputable organizations put the figure much higher. Learn any of that from CBS News? No, of course not. If you had, you might be even more angry about our great nation being manipulated into war by arrogant thugs than you already are. FAIR helps you tell CBS News to get their act together on reporting Iraqi civilian deaths.
Her gesture, motion, and her smiles,
Her wit, her voice my heart beguiles,Beguiles my heart,
I know not why,And yet,
I'll love her till I die.
Posted by: UGG Boots | 2011.12.05 at 11:09 PM