Your ISP slowing down your P2P or VoIP or Skype? Test your connection !

Google and partners are releasing a set of tools to determine whether
your ISP is throttling down your P2P traffic or our VoIP traffic.

Check it out here (Hint: if you are on a slower DSL connection, change your
parameters of the NPAD test from the default 20 and 10 to 100 and 1 !

http://measurementlab.net/

A longer article here:

http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/274715/google_partners_release_net_neutrality_tools

C4L Mass Action Day

Got this email from C4L today. Great list of talking points and
phone numbers to call below!

January 28, 2009

Dear friend of liberty,

While driving to work two weeks ago, Campaign for Liberty member Chris Engel was listening to a conversation on talk radio.

After one particular caller, Chris decided he couldn't just listen anymore; he had to join the discussion.

"It is hard not to pay attention to what is going on in the world today," Chris said. "To put it lightly, there is a lot."

So, he picked up the phone and dialed the number for Bill Bennett's radio program, "Morning in America."

"The host and screener were very nice and the show had many opinions offered," Chris explained.

After getting on the air, Chris made a great point about how we not only enjoy the sacrifices made by our nation's founders, but that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents struggled to give us an inheritance we are now too willing to throw away for a short-term gain.

"At the end, I got a quick shout-out in for Dr. Paul and the folks trying to swing the pendulum back the other way at Campaign for Liberty," Chris said.

Chris did a great job!

Inspired by Chris, Campaign for Liberty would like to encourage all of you to follow his lead with our first Mass Action Day.

Campaign for Liberty Mass Action Days are one-day events where the national organization encourages its members and state groups to perform a specific task in order to achieve a stated organizational goal.

The first Mass Action Day will be centered on National Freedom Day.

According to the Library of Congress,

Major Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former slave, fought to have a day when freedom for all Americans would be celebrated. When Wright received his freedom, he went on to become a successful businessman and community leader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Major Wright chose February 1 as National Freedom Day because it was the day in 1865 that President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution...

Wright gathered national and local leaders together to write a bill declaring February 1 "National Freedom Day" and President Harry Truman signed the bill in 1948 making it official.

"National Freedom Day" provides a backdrop for us to discuss the principles that made our country great - limited government, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and a respect for civil liberties.

For this Mass Action Day, we are asking you to contact national and local talk radio programs to share and elaborate on items within Campaign for Liberty's Core Principles and message of freedom.

This year, February 1 falls on a Sunday. For that reason, and because most talk shows accept a wider range of calls on Fridays, the Action Day is this Friday, January 30th.

A set of basic talking points along with a list of national talk radio programs and their contact information has been created to help you with this effort. Please view these documents here and here.

The goal is simple: we want to educate and influence mainstream political thought so that its adherents begin to adopt our core principles as their own.

Thanks for all the hard work you have done, and for the support you have given to Dr. Paul and his message of freedom. Together, we can ensure the success of our message and see a day when our Constitution is respected and our liberties are secured.

If you make it on the air, please send a link to the audio of that show. We will be posting successful calls on Campaign for Liberty's main page.

For liberty,

Matt Holdridge

Director of Marketing, Campaign for Liberty

P.S. Follow the lead of Campaign for Liberty member Chris Engel, and call a national or local talk radio program on Friday, January 30, 2009. Click here for a set of basic talking points along with a list of national talk radio shows and their contact information here. If you make it on the air, please send a link to the audio of that show. Again, we will be posting successful calls on Campaign for Liberty's main page.

Change.org vs. Change.gov: What is the Connection?

I got a strange looking email in my mailbox today. It had a number of instances of "Obama" and "hope" mentions in it so I was surprised. I used Google Desktop Search and I realized that I signed for change.org mailing list to vote for the Health Freedoms. I was asked to do so by HealthFreedomUSA.com.

The strange looking email is included below. It makes me wonder. Change.org was established in 2007, just a year before the election. So my question for you is:

IN WHAT WAY ARE CHANGE.ORG AND CHANGE.GOV RELATED? ARE THEY REALLY AS INDEPENDENT AS CHANGE.ORG CLAIMS? Please comment below! I am dying to see your opinion!

This is the email today 1/24/2008 in its entirety. Note it is all about Obama, and hope. Why??

Change.org Weekly

Jan 19 - Jan 25

	Hope for Obama, America, and the World This week the world witnessed an amazing moment: As Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States in front of almost two million Americans and over a billion viewers around the globe, one could sense the emergence of a new era in America - one of change, hope, and responsibility. President Obama's inaugural message was a clarion call to service and action. "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility," he said. "A recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." The president's message echoed the long-standing American values of hard work, sacrifice, and service. He stated without equivocation that by coming together, rolling up our sleeves, and working our tails off, we can do more than get ourselves out of the rut we're in; we can make lasting change to benefit generations to come. We couldn't agree more, and in the next few months we will be answering this call to service by providing additional ways for the Change.org community to get directly involved in the work of reinvigorating our nation's civic life. As a first step, our team of bloggers spent this week writing about their hopes for the Obama presidency, providing a sense of the direction we aim to take in the months ahead. Here's a sampling: Day One, Darfur One of the many pressing issues facing our new president is the restoration of America's image abroad writes Genocide blogger Michelle. By fulfilling his commitment to make Darfur a "day one" priority, Obama will not only make good on a campaign promise, but will set the direction for a future of American global engagement grounded in both strategic and moral leadership. Governance dot com Nathaniel Whittemore has always thought of Barack Obama as a fellow Social Entrepreneur, and he anoints Obama's run as the "entrepreneurial presidency." Inspired by techies working in their garages, Nathaniel offers five ways that Obama can govern like a startup (and that doesn't mean free beer after 5pm or a Wii in the game room). Focus on Learning We need more than a hodgepodge of reform to provide a real New Deal for education, writes Education blogger Clay Burell. To come up with a coherent vision for education in the 21st century, Clay suggests that we return education, like the economy, to the hands of public servants rather than the private sector. Obama to End Slavery? Obama's election has realized the dreams of many, but Human Trafficking blogger Amanda Kloer hopes that he will end slavery -- a crime that shockingly continues to coexist alongside racism. Equality and Inclusion Because Obama spoke about disabled rights and discussed issues that directly affect autistic people, Dora Raymaker has high hopes that he'll follow through with his disabilities agenda and further empower those on the autistic spectrum. That's a lot of hope in one week. To read summaries from all of our 19 causes, please visit our blog. And stay with us as we expand upon these ideas in the next year and respond to President Obama's commitment that he's listening. As part of this effort, we'll also soon be launching the next phase of our Ideas for Change in America contest, for which we announced the winners last week at the National Press Club. Stay tuned -- there's a lot more to come. - The Change.org Team

A letter from BJ Lawson

Dear Matt,

Thanks again for your support and efforts last November. Since the election, I've taken some needed time with the family -- but as the new year rolls around, it's time to once again get active.

While we weren't victorious, it is critical that the voice of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and principled government remain strong during these trying times. We continue to head down the wrong path, and The Establishment in Washington (and Raleigh, for that matter) perpetuates its interests as power brokers, bureaucrats, and politicians look out for one another while Americans on the outside suffer the consequences.

Just this morning, you'll be pleased to know that our corporate welfare system has given Bank of America $138 billion in capital injections and guarantees as it pulls an Enron following its purchase of Merrill Lynch. Keep in mind that Bank of America's total market capitalization is about $40 billion -- therefore, you'd expect that such a dramatic rescue would completely wipe out existing stockholders, bondholders, and present management to prevent moral hazard and demonstrate the consequences of corporate irresponsibility.

But that's not the way the world works. Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and other recipients of government largesse will continue to profit from the illusion that their existence makes the world a better place. Did you know that we gave Goldman Sachs $10 billion in taxpayer money in 2008, while Goldman Sachs gave out $11 billion in bonuses? Our national debt and budget deficits are going vertical as we borrow money from the banksters to give it back to the banksters... while we shoulder the endlessly compounding burden of interest. Folks, this math doesn't work.

As the assault on our country, its economy, and our future becomes increasingly brazen, it is important that we stay involved. I will continue to blog at www.unitedliberty.com, but the most important involvement is in the real world. As I mentioned in this blog post:

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/save-the-date-save-the-country

It starts at the precinct meeting, then the county convention, then the district convention, and finally the state convention. Bring a few friends along with you to each of these events, volunteer, elect principled people into leadership positions, appoint principled people to committees, and with some effort we’ll end up with a party organization that is willing to be honest with itself, and the American people.

If you’re in North Carolina’s 4th District, start by saving these dates:

• Chatham County: Precinct meetings at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, March 10 at the District Courtroom in Pittsboro. County convention to follow at 7:00 PM.
• Orange County: Precinct meetings at 9:00 AM on Saturday, March 7 at the Big Barn Convention Center. County convention to follow.
• Durham County: Pending, but will be on a Saturday in March.
• Wake County: Precinct meetings at 8:00 AM on Thursday, February 19. Locations depend on State House district. County convention on Thursday, March 12.

Ready to get in touch with others? Sign up at Campaign for Liberty, join organizations like the Republican Liberty Caucus, an let’s be the change we want to see in the world.

Sincerely,

BJ