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Hulu Rolls Out Hulu Plus Subscription Service : Regular Hulu Still Not Available In Canada: Time For Canadian Broadcasters, Cable Companies To Wake Up
Hulu rolled out its new paid subscription service,Hulu Plus, on Tuesday. The Hulu blog says it is not a replacement for the traditional Hulu. 
Hulu streams televisions shows, movies and content from a number of different studios inlcuding Fox, ABC, Disney, MTV, Sony, Warner Bros, National Geographic, PBS, Lionsgate, Biography, and NBC.
Hulu Plus will still have ads but for about $10 month viewers will get a more comprehensive set of TV shows.

In addition, Hulu Plus content will be available across multiple platforms, online, iPad, Sony PS3, Xbox 360,and certain TV models like the Sony Bravia. 

Hulu Plus is currently available on an invite only basis in the USA. The subscription service costs $9.99/month

Hulu and Hulu Plus Not Available In Canada
Hulu in any shape or form is not available in Canada. Technically there is no reason why Canadians should not be able to watch Hulu or subscribe to Hulu Plus. The main reason is control over digital or streaming rights for content. When broadcasters buy TV shows they usually control the digital rights to their shows for the country from which they are broadcasting. Hulu says it is trying to make content available in Canada and other countries. A pop on the Hulu website says.
Hulu is committed to making its content available worldwide. To do so, we must work through a number of legal and business issues, including obtaining international streaming rights. Know that we are working to make this happen and will continue to do so. Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.

In Canada, the online rights to deliver many of the TV shows audiences enjoy is in the hands of the countries main broadcasters, CTV, Can West Media, and CBC. 
So far Canadian broadcasters seem to be on a “go it alone” strategy so users don’t have a one stop shop for all their TV shows.
Plus, the private broadcasters are owned by larger cable and telephone companies,  Rogers, Shaw, and Bell and they have their own strategy for delivering content on demand to audiences.
Simply put the consumer solution on demand, online streaming of television content in Canada is an awful mess.
The online video delivery business in Canada is piecemeal, haphazard and ill conceived. Hulu provides an elegant delivery mechanism for audiences –  customers seem to love the ease and convenience of Hulu and it is time the Canadian TV industry figure the delivery of video to customers.
Here are some factors to consider:
Should Canadian TV and cable companies just do a deal with Hulu? Provide a Canadian version so to speak with some sort of fee negotiated for the Canadian territory? 
Should Canadian broadcast, digital and cable companies create their own branded version of Hulu-type service for the content they have online rights for?
One thing is clear the current model, or lack of one, is not working. TV shows that are available online are had to find and it is hard to know exactly what TV shows are available online in Canada.
The average Canadian consumer is adopting to technological change (iPad, iPhone, etc) far faster than the companies that provide the technology to us – that is untenable.

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Tags: Vancouver | Internet | Tech & Biz | hulu plus | hulu canada | hulu canadian availability

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FBI Arrests Calif Man for Alleged Pelosi Threats

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Nancy Pelosi Death Threats: Fox News Blamed, Incitement of Gregory Lee Giusti, Used Magic Jack For Threats

A California man, Gregory Giusti arrested for making death threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Dem-California) could face up to 2 years in prison and be slapped with a $250 thousand fine if found guilty a court hearing heard on Thursday.

• Patty Murray Death Threats
• Cantor Death Threats
• Security Concern, Members of Congress

Gregory Giusti reportedly called Speaker Pelosi’s office and home, using the Magic Jack computer based internet phone, which belonged to a friend, at least 48 times, according to Politico.

Gregory Gisuti’s death, threats and threatening phone calls were instigated by Fox News according to Giusti’s mother, Eleanor Giusti. The 83 year said her son has a history of mental illness and can be easily influenced and apparently he was angry about the Democrats Health Care Plan.

This arrest is now the third arrest involving death threats against members of congres, threats that are primarily based on oppostion to the Obama Health Care Plan.

Gregory Giusti makes another court appearance on Monday.

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Tags: Washington | World | US Politics | namcy pelosi | gregory giusti | nancy pelosi death threats

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The  Supreme Court Campaign Finance ruling involving Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission  has dramatically changed the rules around campaign finance reform, clearing the way for unfettered and unlimited corporate and union campaign financing. Before Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission companies and unions would have to do it through Political Actions Committees (PAC’s).

The Atlantic has a good summary of the Supreme Court campaign finacne decision, saying the change in the Citizens United case eliminates the “middleman” (the PAC’s).

 ”Now, however, the accounting firewall is gone, and Wal-Mart or the Service Employees International Union, for instance, can spend their corporate money directly on candidates.”

The 5-4 Supreme Court decision essentially means the sky is the limit for political donations by corporations. Writing for the majority Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote

”We find no basis for the proposition that, in the context of political speech, the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers.”

Justice John Paul Steven writing for the minority (all 4 Liberals on the Supreme Court) said the decision was an abrupt shift in first amendment precedent that had been established since the 1940s writing it was a ”radical departure from what had been settled First Amendment law.”

The decision has outraged public interest advocates like Ralph Nader. 

“Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shreds the fabric of our already weakened democracy by allowing corporations to more completely dominate our corrupted electoral process.

Nader’s statement on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission continues,

 It is outrageous that corporations already attempt to influence or bribe our political candidates through their political action committees (PACs), which solicit employees and shareholders for donations. With this decision, corporations can now also draw on their corporate treasuries and pour vast amounts of corporate money, through independent expenditures, into the electoral swamp already flooded with corporate campaign PAC contribution dollars.

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Hillary the Movie Trailer

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This corporatist, anti-voter decision is so extreme that it should galvanize a grassroots effort to enact a Constitutional Amendment to once and for all end corporate person hood and curtail the corrosive impact of big money on politics. It is indeed time for a Constitutional amendment to prevent corporate campaign contributions from commercializing our elections and drowning out the civic and political voices and values of citizens and voters. It is way overdue to overthrow “King Corporation” and restore the sovereignty of “We the People”!

Supporters of Citizens United and its campaign like the Cato Institute had this to say

“Today the Supreme Court struck a major blow for free speech by correctly holding that government cannot try to ‘level the political playing field’ by banning corporations from making independent campaign expenditures on films, books, or even campaign signs. …In short, the Citizens United decision has strengthened both the First Amendment and American democracy.”

One thing is clear that the campaign finance industry has changed, for both Democrats and Republican candidates. They now have the ability to raise money from more sources than ever before and with mid-term elections on the horizon political fund raisers will be knocking on corporate and union doors with more vigor then ever before.

Background Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission stems from 2008  case involving a conservative non-profit organization that wanted to run ads to promote its documentary on Hillary Clinton, called Hillary: The Movie (see video). The Federal Election Commission decided that the ads could air at the time they were slated to run – the eve of the democratic primaries. The Federal Election Commission sited a restriction o “electioneering communications” 30 days before the primaries.

Citizens United appealed and the case would its way to the Supreme Court.

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Tags: Washington | supreme court | World | US Politics | Cato Institute | federal election commission | citizens united v FEC | hillary the movie

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The Haiti Earthquake has generated a mountain of news and information but little in the way of thoughtful documentary coverage has surfaced until now. It takes an inside look at the International Red Cross and its relief effort in Haiti. The Haiti documentary is part of Inside Disaster a documentary series on TVO (TV Ontario, a Canadian Public Broadcaster).

The Inside Disaster team is a crew of media professionals who are following the Red Cross Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT) as the Red Cross delivers aid. They are blogging, photographing and doing a documentary on the story of the Red Cross team, the story of Haiti and Haitians as they struggle to cope in the days, weeks and months to come. 

The Inside Disaster crew will follow the Red Cross for the next six months documenting not just the immediate aftermath of the Haiti earthquake but the the longer-term consequences of the 7.0 earthquake. The Inside Disaster crew will  be there in Haiti long after most of the news cameras are gone – an important fact because it lets the team tell the whole story of the Red Cross relief work, and a more complete nuanced story of Haiti and its people as the re-build from the earthquake. Often in stories like this we see the beginning of the story – stories told by international news organizations who junp on and jump off a story quickly.  

Here is a video for you to check out from  Ste Therese. A camp of about 4000 people, largely self-organized as described and documented by film maker Nico Jolliet.

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Tags: Culture | Music | Port-au-Prince | Haiti Earthquake | haiti relief documentary | red cross relief documentary | inside disaster

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The momentum for Telangana appears to be on hold, needing approval from the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly first according to a Congress Party Official.

“The Central Government will take the next step on Telangana only after the state assembly passes a resoluton to that effect. The Congress will support it only after that,” party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told The Times of India.

This latest move is an indication of the deep divisions in the Congress party over the Telangana issue – a divisionn between the center (in Delhi) and the state (in Hyderabad).
Congress party MLA’s at the state level have threatened to resign en mass.

Right now, it appears there are not enough votes for the pro-Telanagana option to pass in the Andhra State Assembly.

And so with these most recent statements from the Congress Party it seems they are trying to slow down the Telanagan process and diffuse a volatile situation in Andhra Pradesh.

While the government strikes a committee the mood on the street is still electirc. Witness the pro-Telangana rally in Hyderabad below

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Tags: India | World | HYDERABAD | Andhra Pradesh | telangana | US Election

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