There is a pending bill concerning royalty rates for internet radio stations. Entitled Senate Bill 3609, The Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012, it is intended to set royalty rates for internet stations.
Curious to know what position our elected Senator has, we used the questionnaire form on his website to pose a simply question, “What is your position on SB 3609 ?”
Here is the email response I received Monday:


 
     Thank you for contacting me regarding the Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012 (S. 3609).  This legislation would change how royalty rates for Internet radio providers are fixed under the Copyright Act as a way of encouraging more innovation and competition in the radio-listening marketplace.  
 
     This bill is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has no plans to hold a hearing on it before the end of the year. If S. 3609 is considered in the Senate, I will keep your views in mind.  
 
     I appreciate your taking the time to write to me.  Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need assistance in the future.
 
                                   Sincerely,
                                   Bill Nelson

Dear Mr. Murphey:

Thanks Senator, appreciate your keeping my views in mind, except that I have not shared any. Thanks for not sharing any clues as to your position on this matter. I guess we can wait until after the election to find out what you intend to do or how you will vote on this issue.

On Thursday evening, we spent the early evening at Emerson Hall at UF. We were blessed with an outstanding speaker, Herman Cain. As you may remember, Mr. Cain was formerly a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
The first part of his talk centered on his youth. He was raised in Atlanta. His family lived in “half of a house” better known as a duplex. He and his brother slept on cots in the kitchen. He credited this for developing his debating skills - as he and his brother had to decide nightly who would set the cots up and take them down in the morning. More seriously, he spoke about lessons from his father, and mother. Both his parents spent their childhood on rural farms, both left the farms and got married, achieving one of their dreams.
Things were not easy for that family, Cain’s father had to work three jobs to make ends meet. Even so, this was an American success story, as Cain was able to work with his father when working as a janitor at the Pillsbury plant. Cain spoke with pride about his first job being an Assistant Janitor with his father, and said this could only happen in America, as he later ended up going from an Assistant Janitor to being a Vice President of Pillsbury.
Cain recalled what it was like the morning his father summoned the family to the car, and they rode for about 40 miles. As they turned off the main road, there were three brick houses. Cain stopped in front of the last house and surprised the family by telling them this was their new home. He thrilled Herman by telling him he was going to get them bunk beds!
These stories, while giving you a better understanding of the man, also illustrated some significant points. Cain’s father had made goals in his life, including making enough to help his family, buy a home and educate his children by ending them to college. He met those goals by hard work and a strong work ethic. By doing so, he had a pride in his accomplishments, his goals were stepping stones to the realization of his dream. He gave a piece of advice to his son that is really striking to me. He told his son not to follow in his footsteps, but to make his own footsteps. There is no tragedy in not meeting your goals, the tragedy is not having goals to meet. Without goals, he told his son, how do you know when you have gotten there ? Mr. Cain is an example that patience, determination and work ethic ll lead to the achievement of your dreams. He still remembers how proud he and his father, indeed the family, were of that first house and he has a message - his father could, and did, build that house.
What are the barriers to meeting your dreams? Three major barriers were discussed - the economy, the National Debt, and energy dependence.
The debt is not only killing the value of the dollar, it is placing a tremendous and unacceptable debt on our children and grand children, which may not be recoverable. Mr. Cain discussed a study of just the entitlements in our system. Assuming that nothing changes, given our political situation and divisions - a good bet, over the next 10 years the cost will be 85 trillion dollars. That sum is 85 million million. In contrast, if you added up all the net assets of every company in the United States, then added in the net worth of every person living in the United States, the total would be 82 trillion dollars, still short of the funds needed just to pay the entitlements.
Energy dependence is contributing significantly to our debt and crippling the economy. The unrest seen in the middle east and the arab spring has not yet used their real weapon against the rest of the world. If these countries persuaded OPEC not to sell oil to the United States, our cost of gasoline would, in todays dollars, jump from $4 a gallon to $8 a gallon. Excess oil would also be available to China, Russia and other countries around the world. We need to achieve energy dependence. There are ways to achieve this, according to Mr. Cain.

1. Utilize our technology the harvest our shale oil.
2. Allow safe drilling for oil off the coasts, stop giving noney and infrastructure to South American Countries and encouraging them to off shore drill.
3. Look at other sources of fuel, including nuclear. This is being done in other countries, as Cain cited France as an example. 80 percent of their energy requirements are generated through the use of safe nuclear.

1. Know the facts, do your own research. Do not rely on the media to make your mind up for you.
2. Stay informed on the issues confronting this country and our people. tupid people are running America and we have to vote them out.
3. Stay involved, the good guys are outnumbered by those who are operating on blind faith in the national media, believing what they hear and are told, not what the research and find out on their own.

Boykin said he studied Marxist insurgency, which was part of his military training, saying that the things he knows “that have been done in Marxist insurgency are being done in America today.” He then compared the rise of Fidel Castro in Cuba to the nationalization of major companies of the American economy by the Obama administration.
“Folks, that’s what the bailouts were. Nationalizing major sectors of the economy,” he said.
“The second thing they’ve done is that they redistributed wealth,” said the General. He mentioned about Medicaid, Medicare and the ObamaCare, which are being used to redistribute wealth in America. “Health care is nothing but a redistribution of wealth,” he said.
“The third thing they do is that they discredit the opposition,” Boykin said. He then mentioned about the Department of Homeland Security memorandum that went around the law enforcement all over the country. The memorandum states that the future threats to America are “right-wing Christian groups, pro-life groups, Second Amendment groups, and returning veterans.”
The Homeland Security Report titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” states:
Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
Page 3 of the report states:
Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.
Like Boykin said, “returning veterans” are also considered future threats to America. Page 7 of the report states:
(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans
(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.
“I’m still angry about that. But it never said Islamic terrorists. That’s discrediting the opposition. The very groups that stand up and protest the things that they see happening in this country.”
“The fourth thing that have been done in the model is censorship,” Boykin said. A proposal has been made to censor the Internet and control online activities.
Under a new bill titled “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act”, US President Barack Obama would be granted powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet. This bill bill describes the global internet as a US “national asset”. This proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by independent senator Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to give the President sweeping emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.
Boykin also said that the U.S. media are controlled by liberal elites who set political agenda and who protect the Obama administration from public criticisms. Remember the Tea Party protest that’s being discredited by the liberal media elites from CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, and New York Times? As a result of the dishonesty and bias of these liberal media, their ratings are now going down.
Boykin also talks about “hate crimes” being used to destroy free speech in the United States, as well as the concerted efforts of the government to control gun ownership. Part of the Marxist Agenda in America, Boykin said, is the establishment of “national civilian security force” that would be “as large as and as well equipped as the United States military.”
“For what?”, Boykin asked. “Remember Hitler had the Brown Shirts, and in the night of the long knifes, he even got scared of the Brown Shirts and killed thousands of them. Well, so you’ll say are there any signs that that’s actually happened? The truth is, Yes.”

Thanks to our good friend - ChampionGator for sending this to us. Unfortunately, it makes sense. Your thoughts ??
              

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* You can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.

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* Your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more of our money.

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* The Supreme Court of the United States can rule that lower courts cannot display the 10 Commandments in their courtroom, while sitting in front of a display of the 10 Commandments.

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* Children are forcibly removed from parents who appropriately discipline them while children of "underprivileged" drug addicts are left to rot in filth infested cesspools.

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* Working class Americans pay for their own health care (and the health care of everyone else) while unmarried women are free to have child after child on the "State's" dime while never being held responsible for their own choices.


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* Hard work and success are rewarded with higher taxes and government intrusion, while slothful, lazy behavior is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid and subsidized housing.

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* The rights of the Government come before the rights of the individual.

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* Parents believe the State is responsible for providing for their children.

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* You pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor defaults on his mortgage (while buying iphones, TV's and new cars) and the government forgives his debt and reduces his mortgage (with your tax dollars).

You know you live in an Upside-down Land if...

* Being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you "safe".

You know you live in an Upside-down Land if...

* You have to have your parents' signature to go on a school field trip but not to get an abortion.

You know you live in an Upside-down Land if...

* An 80 year old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a Muslim woman in a burqa is only subject to having her neck and head searched.