This is an all too familiar scene when we look back at the genocide that took place in both Bosnia and Rwanda. Those times, we waited until a great deal innocent lives had been lost before we decided to get involved. We realized that had we acted sooner, many lives could have been saved. The rest of the world greatly regretted waiting as long as we did to take action in these two situations. However, once we did take action, we ended up saving countless lives with our intervention tactics. It would be a great shame if we didn't take what we learned from our past experiences and applied them here. Hopefully something will be done before more lives are lost.

Every day it seems this crisis in Darfur is becoming more and more prominent in the public eye. The civil war, if you will, started over three years ago and was prompted by the Sudanese government with the help of Janjaweed militia. Since that time, over 200,000 people have been reportedly killed and over 2.5 million forced out of their homes into refugee camps. Once a person is in a camp, they are still not safe. Let me paint this gruesome picture of reality for you: throughout the day, hundreds and thousands of women and young girls are raped and beaten for most of the men are killed right away; there is no way for these people to acquire any food or drink so they are dying of starvation. The African Union force, barley armed with more than their bravery, have done their best to protect the people in these camps from the slaughtering of the militia. But these forces have been told, by they Sudanese government, to stop defending these helpless people. In turn, millions of unarmed people will be executed.

With political tensions running high both at home and abroad and people still questioning the war in Iraq; its no wonder that we find ourselves leery to get involved elsewhere in the world. But with the situation in Darfur becoming what it has I don't see how we can stand by and watch more innocent people get killed by the thousands. A letter was written by Bob Dole and John McCain in hopes to get more people, both inside and out of the political word, involved in this tragedy.

Could it be? An issue that trancends partisan squabbling? Well according to James Giguere there's at least one topic of discussion that has done that, you can read his comments here

According to a Reuters article published earlier this week, officials in Montgomery county have decided to allow Verizon to proceed with their web-based television service. It appears that in return Verizon will drop their lawsuit against the county. Now that Verizon has gotten through the legal roadblock of the county not allowing them to move forward, assuming the county council approves their franchise agreement they are hoping to have service avaiable to the county by early next year.

Montgomery County, Maryland and Verizon have settled their lawsuit by reaching a tentative 15-year agreement that would allow the telecom giant to provide its cable television service to county residents:

Verizon is a step closer to being able to offer cable television service in Montgomery county.

Verizon sued the county in June claiming its cable franchise system violates antitrust law as well as the First Amendment by allowing Comcast to have a virtual lock on the market.

Montgomery County said the suit was without merit but has now reached an agreement on a franchise that will authorize Verizon to offer its fiber-powered FiOS TV to county residents.

"FiOS TV will deliver more channels, superior quality and better value than Comcast's service in Montgomery County," said Bill Roberts, president of Verizon Maryland, in a statement.

The 15-year deal still has to be approved by the Montgomery County Council.

We’ll be watching to see how the Montgomery County Council proceeds.

Because broadband has established itself as a household centerpiece, there is little doubt that it will continue to be the future of communication. However, there is one question I do find myself wondering is, how exactly will this transition come to full maturity? With telephone companies continuing to expand their foothold in the broadband arena of internet and voice, we can only assume the resistance they will face will only increase until some sort of law is implemented to either allow state and/or national franchise agreements or they allow the current controlling companies to strong-arm the newcomers out of competition. With no amicable end in sight it seems once again, it will be a commercial debate settled with political powers. If only things could be sorted out without going to the courts; wouldn't it be much more interesting if we just let them proverbially duke it out until they reach an agreement of their own.

With yet another TV push, Verizon's FiOS TV has now become available to nearly 9,000 households in the FishHawk Ranch and surrounding areas. This brings the total number of households that have FiOS TV as an option to just over 1, 000, 000 and counting. This article also includes a fairly detailed report of where service packages prices begin as well as what they consist of.

Driving home from work today, as I got on the interstate, after driving only a couple of miles I found that traffic had reached nearly a standstill. Assuming there had to be some kind of incedent on the roadways I spent the next thirty minutes listen for any kind of accident or delays on this road, only to find that things should be moving without any problems. After about 10-15 more minutes of things crawling along, I finally saw that up ahead on the shoulder; a single car was pulled over by a single police cruiser, now once we got past them traffic resumed to normal speed. Now my question is; why, when people see flashing light on the side of the road, do the feel the need to slow themselves to a maximum speed of 30 MPH? I understand slowing down some, or moving over, of some other form of respect for the situation. But is it really necessary to back up traffic for miles just because someone wants to gawk at another persons misfortune?

Well it looks as though we have yet another state finally getting things in order to dash yet another cable monopoly. With California legislators looking to pass a franchise bill it seems as though more and more people are seeing that more choices and equal opportunities bode well for everybody.