Are Progressive Listserves Arbitarily being Blocked by AT&T?

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By Caroline Vernon

A few months back, PACG (Progressive Action for the Common Good) started experiencing problems with our members dropping off our email list.  Oddly, as site administrator, I was not receiving any official bounceback notices informing me of any undelivered email with the occasional exception of a full mailbox now and again.

It wasn’t until the first of this year that I realized the extent of the problem and determined that most of our Mediacom and Yahoo users were being blocked from receiving our email. Last week I finally received a bounceback notice in my administrative inbox, with the names of almost 70 members which were”blocked for abuse”.  As it turns out, many of these members had not been receiving our email for weeks and in some cases months, so I was very concerned as to why I only recently received the bounceback notice. This indicates that the data was blocked going out and coming in.  I immediately contacted Mediacom and after much wrangling was told that the problem lies with AT&T as they manage the traffic for both carriers. A Mediacom representative actually told me we had been “blacklisted” but did not know why. I then contacted AT&T, following their recommended protocol and providing them with all pertinent information via email as no telephone number is available.

After 3 days, and no response from AT&T, I filed an official complaint with Congressman Braley’s Davenport office who in turn filed a complaint with the FCC. At that time, the FCC indicated they were receiving many similar complaints. The following day (yesterday) I received a response from AT&T which indicated that the block will be removed within 24 to 36 hours. A copy of their response is below.

I think it is important to mention that PACG has been advocating against telecom immunity within the FISA bill. We sent out many action alerts asking our members to contact their elected officials and even staged a funeral procession for the U.S. Constitution outside of Senator Grassley’s Davenport office. We were asking the Senator to vote against the bill that provided immunity, and to protect the Constitution. Channel 6 (KWQC) covered the event as did the Moline Dispatch. The related action alert that we sent out to our list was front and center on our website for many weeks.

As you may know, in January of this year, AT&T, Comcast, and others, announced that they would begin to take more aggressive steps to manage network traffic in order to minimize spam and safeguard against copyright infringement of video sharing, etc. Unfortunately, they seem to be inspecting for content other than what they have cited. PACG is an opt-in only email service. We do not send out spam or share video files although we may provide links to sites that do.

During the recent Hearing on Broadband Network Management, FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin stated,

“Obviously network operators can take reasonable steps to manage traffic, but they cannot arbitrarily block access.”

There is no justifiable reason to have blocked PACG for abuse as is sited in the communication below… nor is any explanation given as to why we were classified as such.

I have since received communications from other progressive organizations who have indicated that much of their email is also being blocked. Given AT&T's response below, it seems as though they are saying this may be an ongoing problem for many listserves, and they seem to be passing the buck right back to the carriers.

If any of your organizations are experiencing similar problems, I strongly recommend that you contact your Congressperson and/or Senators to file an official complaint with the FCC.

In order to track this issue more closely, I am creating a list of all organizations who are having similar problems with delivery of their email. I can be reached at carolina1961@gmail.com or 563-676-7580.  

Response from AT&T:

Administrator/Customer:

Thank you for contacting the Postmaster/Abuse team at ATT.NET and
BELLSOUTH.NET.

The mail-server IP address(es) associated with your request will be
removed from the block-list within 24-36 hours from the receipt of
this letter.  ATT.NET and BELLSOUTH.NET, its affiliates, and network
services customers do NOT intentionally block legitimate mail in the
course of our anti-spam initiatives.  We regret any inconvenience this
may have caused.

Network administrators at ATT.NET and BELLSOUTH.NET closely analyze
the mail stream bound for our customers to identify sources that exhibit
the characteristics of compromised network objects or are compromised
by an offender of Acceptable Use Policies.  While a certain level of
this kind of mail is to be expected in today's internet traffic, when
this occurs above generous thresholds set by ATT.NET and BELLSOUTH.NET
system administrators, immediate and decisive action is taken to
protect our network resources.

****CUSTOMERS****
If you submitted an IP address for removal through the administrator's
webform, or requested removal by emailing abuse_rbl@abuse-att.net, the
administrator of the sending mail service or hosting provider is unaware
of the issue and the IP may be blocked again.  It is imperative that the
sending service or hosting provider be made aware of the issue.  Please
send this message, along with the error message to that administrator
so action may be taken to resolve the issues that caused the block.  If
you forward mail from a hosting service to your ATT.NET and
BELLSOUTH.NET mail account, read the note on forwarded mail below.

****ADMINSTRATORS****
Please thoroughly check your IP logs before requesting removal.  If you
have already been removed, please examine your logs for rogue traffic,
AUP offenders, and compromised scripts or objects.  You must determine
that all traffic from the blocked IP is actually from your mail servers
to ensure your network is not compromised.  Administrators who fail to
do this may experience subsequent and more resolute blocking.


Thank you for helping the ATT.NET and BELLSOUTH.NET network combat
network abuse in all its forms.

Regards,

ATT.NET and BELLSOUTH.NET Postmaster/Abuse Team

****FORWARDED MAIL****
If you are forwarding mail from a vanity domain, hosting service, or
any other mail account that receives a high volume of spam, you may
be indirectly contributing to the blocking of that IP.  Forwarded spam
is still spam and should be filtered at the source to end the abuse of
network resources at the earliest point.  Users can do this by utilizing
spam filtering tools provided by the hosting service or external
Internet Service Provider before it is forwarded to your ATT.NET and
BELLSOUTH.NET.

Statement of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Broadband Network Management Hearing:

http://www.freepress.net/news/30728

We Must TAKE Our Country Back!

Whether it’s health care, the cost of education, our environment or global trade, Corporate America is holding us all hostage to the almighty dollar. Greed continues to trump need as corporations make record profits while more and more Americans fall into poverty every year. Congress allows industry to write policy, and legislators don’t even read the bills they enact. The average person would lose their job for gross negligence. The pharmaceutical/insurance lobbies make billions on the grief of others, systematically denying people essential treatment or drugs in order to save a buck. Half of our taxpayer money goes to the Pentagon who “loses” over a trillion dollars and “it’s nothing but a thing” yet we have to beg to fund health care for our children. Agri-Business dominates at the expense of our environment and health as 85% of our food is now genetically modified, our meat is ridden with hormones and antibiotics, and pesticides have permeated the water table. Global trade agreements allow corporations to exploit for profit with no safeguards in place for workers or the environment.

It is our moral imperative to stand up and say no more! John Edwards seems to be the only candidate that understands that we have to make an aggressive push to take our country back – the key word being “take”. While it is important to be able to bring everyone to the table, we can’t continue to allow Corporate America to eat all the food.

Which comes down to, follow the money…

Edwards and Obama are my two top picks but there are some important distinctions to be made here. I think Obama is awesome and I will support him whole heartedly if he gets the Democratic nod, but as an activist, and more importantly as a mother and your sister, there is way too much at stake in this election, not only for our country but for the planet. Corporate America will never give up their stranglehold on America or the rest of the world so we must TAKE IT from them! There is no negotiating a moral standard… and frankly, that’s what this election is about.

There are two main issues that concern me about Obama; the fact that he voted for the Peru Trade agreement (more of the same of what ails us), and more egregiously, the fact that he is promoting nuclear energy. Coincidentally, Obama has accepted a lot of money from Exelon Nuclear and only stopped taking corporate monies this past year once he decided to run for President. I commend him for that recent decision but I am horrified that he is promoting  nuclear power.

The current energy bill before Congress may have 10 billion dollars allocated toward renewable energy, and that rocks, but if you look at the whole pie, it’s too little too late! 25 billion is allocated for guaranteed loans to build new nuclear sites and billions more for coal fired plants. I mean, this is what I am talking about people… Corporate America writing OUR policy! Do ya’ll remember all the hoopla about storing the nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain? Do you want that in your backyard? Is it OK as long as it’s stored in someone else’s backyard (out of sight, out of mind)? Do you really think our Earth Mother will be served by that? We need to save Her in order to save ourselves. Almost everything we do generates some form of waste by-product. Instead of adding to it, especially nuclear waste, we need to use our considerable ingenuity to invent our way out of this mess. It is our only true hope.  What we absolutely cannot afford is more of the same… business as usual.

Corporate America has had the resources and the necessary information to create new technologies for decades.  Rather than doing the right thing, and truly be leaders of innovation, much of their resources have been spent preventing said technologies from entering the marketplace because, God forbid, that could hurt their bottom line. If their shareholders weren't so blinded by their own greed, they would be able to recognize the incredible opportunity that is presenting itself NOW. Corporate America and our elected officials could simply CHOOSE to lead this necessary technological revolution, but it remains to be seen.... so it's up to us.

We must TAKE our country back!

The Authoritarian Political Brain

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by Propagandee

September 3, 2007

Drew Westen's The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation helps explain the neuro-cognitive mechanisms involved in rationalizing away inconvenient truths, something we all do regardless of political affiliation. From the Introduction:

The neural circuits charged with regulation of emotional states seemed to recruit beliefs that eliminated the distress and conflict partisans had experienced when they confronted unpleasant realities. And all this seemed to happen with little involvement of the neural circuits normally involved in reasoning.

The results show that when partisans face threatening information, not only are they likely to "reason" to emotionally biased conclusions, but we can trace their neural footprints when they do.

When confronted with potentially troubling political information, a network of neurons become active that produces distress. Whether this distress is conscious, or unconscious, or some combination of the two, we don't know.

The brain registers the conflict between data and desire and begins to search for ways to turn off the spigot of unpleasant emotion.

Nothing earth shattering there. But here's where it gets interesting (italics in the original):

But the political brain did something we didn't predict. Once partisans found a way to reason to false conclusions, not only did neural circuits involved in negative emotions shut off, but circuits involved in positive emotions turned on. The partisan brain didn't seem satisfied in just feeling better. It worked overtime to feel good, activating rewards circuits that give partisans a jolt of positive reinforcement for their biased reasoning. These reward circuits overlap significantly with those activated when drug addicts get their "fix", giving new meaning to the term political junkie.

To read the rest of the article, click here:

The US Social Forum is more than a conference, more than a networking bonanza, more than a reaction to war and repression.

The USSF will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.

The USSF sends a message to other people's movements around the world that there is an active movement in the US opposing US Policies at home and abroad.

We must declare what we want our world to look like and begin planning the path to get there. A global movement is rising. The USSF is our opportunity to demonstrate to the world Another World is Possible!

Check out the following link to see some of the many workshops that will be available...

http://www.ussf2007.org/en/submitted_proposals

If you would like to be part of this great adventure, please contact Caroline at 563-676-7580,  carolina1961@gmail.com

Establishing our Progressive Iowa Network (PIN) – Mark the Date!

On Saturday, June 9th, progressive leaders, activists and legislators from across the state will converge on Iowa City for our first 2007 Democracy for Iowa Organizing Summit.  We are still working out the details on the venue (forthcoming) but we will be meeting from 9am to 3pm (the last hour will be reserved for DFA-IA members to discuss administrative business so it will not be necessary for everyone to stay for that segment).

The purpose of this gathering is to establish the Progressive Iowa Network (PIN). This network will serve to better unite progressive organizations, legislators, and leaders across the state so we can support each other’s efforts around progressive issues in Iowa.

Currently, we have an unprecedented opportunity to get progressive legislation passed in our state. However, in order to achieve legislative victories on the issues that we care about, we must establish an effective framework that allows us to better organize our efforts, clarify our message, mobilize our base, educate the public and influence our state officials.

We have identified the following 5 issues as requiring urgent action:

1. VOICE (Voter-Owned Iowa Clean Elections)
2. CAFO regulations / Farm Bill
3. Fair Share
4. Healthcare
5. Media

Please note: we want ALL progressive organizations to attend this meeting and become part of this network even if we may not be focusing on your specific issues at this time.

The Summit Agenda will cover the following:

I. Why is PIN important?

The first part of this summit will discuss why PIN is important. Groups/Individuals will be asked to introduce themselves and identify their main areas and issues of focus:

• Policy/Research
• Lobbying
• Media/Public Relations (including bloggers)
• Grassroots Organizing

This will NOT be an informational meeting about the issues, but rather a strategy session on how we can support each other moving forward.

II. Update & Evaluation of the recent Iowa Legislative Session

• What went well?
• What would we do differently?

III. Break-Out Sessions by Issue

• Strategize with other progressives around the state that are working on the same issue.
• What kind of help do you need from other organizations/leaders who may not be directly involved in your issue.

Lunch

IV. Report back to larger group identifying specific needs

• What do you need from PIN?

We will not have time to hear specific plans but rather will want to hear your list of needs on how other organizations/leaders can help you make progress around your issue.

V. Where does PIN go from here?

We will discuss logistics, network structure and set a date and time for our next meeting(s).

VI. DFA-Iowa Administrative Planning Session (for DFA-IA members)

This last segment will be for DFA-IA members to discuss by-laws, how we can better support Blog for Iowa, and other administrative details.

Outreach around this summit has been underway for awhile -- many progressive organizations/individuals in Iowa have already been notified. However, if you have not yet heard from us directly, please email Caroline Vernon ASAP: carolina1961@gmail.com. We need every progressive organization, leader and legislator in Iowa to participate in order to achieve maximum effectiveness as a network.