from RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter:

Today is the Day of Silence at _____
The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!).

To protest these rates and encourage you to take action and contact your Congressional representatives, we are taking part in the Day of Silence, by silencing our programming for today.

We ask that you excuse the interruption of our normal programming, and ask that you take action to help ensure this silence is not permanent. Please call your Congressional Representatives today. Click the link below http://www3.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9738601
for instructions how. Thank you.

more at SaveNetRadio.org.

via readwriteweb:

Yesterday, Google officially unveiled its newest blog: Google Public Policy. The blog, which carries the tagline “Google’s views on government, policy and politics,” is different than any other Google blog in that it has nothing to with their technology. The blog will instead be an outlet for Google’s views “on issues like net neutrality, censorship, innovation regulation, immigration, R&D, national security, and trade” (“just to name a few”). Google’s public policy team, who author the blog, say that they hope to foster a “dialogue” with Google users about political issues in order to “do a better job of fighting for our common interests.” But a new blog is just a small piece of Google’s strategy for influencing government policy.

Google is fast becoming a proving ground for top-tier US presidential candidates ahead of the upcoming 2008 election cycle. “Does Google want to be the 51st state this election season?” was a question recently posed in the San Jose Mercury News.

from Free Press:

Postal regulators have accepted a proposal from media giant Time Warner that would stifle small and independent publishers in America. The plan unfairly burdens smaller publishers with higher postage rates while locking in special privileges for bigger media companies.

In establishing the U.S. postal system, the nation’s founders wanted to ensure that a diversity of viewpoints were available to “the whole mass of the people.” Time Warner’s rate increase reverses this egalitarian ideal and threatens the marketplace of ideas on which our democracy depends.

It’s time [to] stand up for independent media. Demand that Congress step in to stop the unfair rate hikes.

Click through and show your support!