The UpTake for obvious reasons has been following the issue of Net Neutrality. They have several really great posts including one from Minnesota Senator Al Franken who gives it the double whammy of truth:
“Net Neutrality is the biggest issue since Freedom of Religion, which until last week I thought we had worked out” – Senator Al Franken (MN-D)
Once again like Target, Wal-Mart, BP, or any other corporation, net providers care about their bottom line not your rights. They are lobbying Congress on this very issue. Call your Reps and let them know you want Net Neutrality. Demand freedom of the Internet or your ability to do anything on the net may come at the cost of both freedom and dollars.
2 comments:
Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 3458). To date, no Minnesotans have signed on as co-sponsors. In the past Tim Walz and Keith Ellison have voiced approval while Michele Bachmann has opposed it.
Let's not forget Senator Klobuchar who has championed broadband expansion ... which may be meaningless if net neutrality is lost.
This was an issue in Walz's 2006 campaign against Gil Gutknecht ... as Gutknecht had a leadership role on the committee that was writing the legislation ... Gutknecht was carrying the tele-cons water.
This should be an election year question ... imagine John Kline as the Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee ... Paul Ryan as Chairman of the Budget ... and Joe Barton (yep, that Joe Barton that apologized to BP) as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Who will win with that trio determining legislation ?
FYI : Two FCC Commissioners and Senator Al Franken slammed the Google-Verizon joint policy agreement and strongly endorsed the principle of net neutrality last night at a hearing before hundreds of citizens in Minneapolis, giving the Chairman of the federal agency Julius Genachowski all of the support he would need to regulate broadband Internet, if he so chose.
Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn both endorsed the reclassification of broadband as a communications service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Copps said simply, “It’s calling an apple an apple.” If Genachowski agreed, he would thus have enough votes to pass the change in policy. Genachowski and the FCC released a plan in May to reclassify, but has yet to move on it, taking meetings with industry stakeholders and generally foot-dragging in an effort to reach consensus.
Both Copps and Clyburn sharply criticized the statement. The deal “would eliminate any openness provisions over wireless, which is where all Internet applications are going,” said Copps, the longtime Commissioner. Clyburn, the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, agreed. “Any proposal that treats wire-line and wireless Internet differently would be impossible for me to support,” she said, citing the increasing tendency for minority Web users to access the Internet on phones or wireless devices.
Sen. Al Franken, who has led on the issue of net neutrality recently, concurred. Speaking of the Google-Verizon deal, he said, “We can’t let companies write the rules that we the people are supposed to follow. Because if that happens those rules will be written only to protect corporations.” As Copps put it, “Dealmaking between big Internet players is not policymaking for the common good.”
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