Today, I got a rather interesting E-mail.
OK, my first name is Gerald, and when I saw this E-mail, in the subject line it said . . .
Gerald: You're a cyberbully
Well, at first I thought it was going to be an insulting E-mail from some retard complaining about my forum posts, or perhaps some comment I had posted under some YouTube videos.
But, no!
It actually turned out to be some really GOOD NEWS from DEMAND PROGRESS!
Yeah! The E-mail was from Demand Progress, and I have been signing on-line petitions from them urging our duly elected officials NOT to pass CISPA, Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.Gerald: You're a cyberbully
Gerald,
The best way to know that we're having an impact? When our opponents lash out at us. And boy did they ever.
Politico wrote an article that highlights some of the work we've done in opposition to CISPA -- including our campaign to call Mark Zuckerberg out on lining up Facebook in support of the bill:
Facebook, IBM and other firms along with lawmakers have been targeted this week in attacks on Twitter and Facebook, via email and online petitions.
What do the powers-that-be think of our grassroots activism?
Cyberbullying, one tech company insider dubbed it.
Right on. We want to be free to 'bully' mega corporations and politicians whenever they deserve it. And your donations keep us independent and make it possible for us to do so.
We need your support to pay our campaigners, designers, and coders as we take on CISPA and other threats to civil liberties and Internet freedom. Please click here to chip in $10.
We haven't won yet, but they're calling us cyberbullies because we're having a tangible impact on the workings on Capitol Hill.
We're making it harder for big businesses to push a pro-corporate, anti-Internet, anti-consumer agenda.
Over the last month alone we've generated more than 300,000 emails to Congress, nearly 200,000 signatures on our open letter to Facebook, and more than 15,000 phone calls to lawmakers.
And we've seen tangible results:
Amendments were adopted that made CISPA (marginally) better.
Earlier this month CISPA was supposed to sail through, but we helped foment real opposition, and the House vote was far closer than anybody could have imagined even a couple of weeks ago.
Most Democrats held firm in opposition, and more than two dozen libertarian-leaning Republicans defied their leadership and voted no.
Most importantly, President Obama has threatened to veto CISPA.
Will you support our continued organizing as the Senate gears up to work on cyber security legislation? Please click here to chip in $10.
Thanks so much for your support!
-Demand Progress
Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
Here's some more information on what CISPA is all about.
The CISPA act would be a threat to Internet privacy, and to our civil liberties.
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a proposed law in the United States which would allow for the sharing of internet traffic information between the U.S. government and certain technology and manufacturing companies. The stated aim of the bill is to help the U.S Government investigate cyber threats and ensure the security of networks against cyber attack.
CISPA has garnered favor from corporations and lobbying groups such as Microsoft, Facebook and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which look on it as a simple and effective means of sharing important cyber threat information with the government. CISPA has been criticized by advocates of internet privacy and civil liberties, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Avaaz.org. Those groups argue CISPA contains too few limits on how and when the government may monitor private individualâ??s internet browsing information. Additionally, they fear that such new powers could be used to surveil the general public rather than to pursue malicious hackers.
Some critics saw CISPA as a second attempt at strengthening digital piracy laws after the anti-piracy Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) became deeply unpopular. Intellectual property theft was initially listed in the bill as a possible cause for sharing web traffic information with the government, though it was removed in subsequent drafts.
The legislation was introduced on November 30, 2011 by U.S. Representative Michael Rogers (R-MI) and 111 co-sponsors. It was passed in the House of Representatives on April 26, 2012. President Obama has argued that the bill lacks confidentiality and civil liberties safeguards and has threatened to veto it.
Yeah! My E-mails, and my web browsing is my own damn business!
If all the Christard Funny-mentalists in the Republican party were to know everything they wanted to know about my YouTube viewing habits, they would probably want to put me on the stretch rack and have me burned at the stake!
So, all the big corporate cry-babies are all crying boo hoo and calling us "cyber-bullies" because we want to safeguard our privacy and civil liberties!
No, they are the real bullies, because they want to take away our privacy and civil liberties.
And now, they're all crying boo hoo and calling us cyber-bullies because they won't get to spy on us.
Well, too fucking bad for them!
I'm fat and sassy! I love to sing & dance & stomp my feet & really rock your world!
.. 
