Net neutrality bill blocked by Republicans

[SecularMotion]

Source: ZDNet

The latest attempt in the US to introduce net neutrality legislation has stalled in a House of Representatives committee after a prominent Republican declined to support the proposal.

Texan representative Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he would not support a net neutrality proposal put forth by committee chairman Henry Waxman.

Read more: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/regulation/2010/10/01/net-neutrality-bill-blocked-by-republicans-40090361/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. How does the House get around Barton?

[SpiralHawk]

2. "No no no no no." - Joe the Barton (R)

"Sneer."

- Joe the Barton (R)

[ixion]

3. This was a bill to kill net neutrality, not support it...

It's a shame that it was pushed by a Dem, leaving the GOP low-hanging fruit to pick.

[marmar]

4. Yep, this bill was a sham.....Like those "Broadband for America" commercials.

nt

[NorthCarolina]

8. +1

[ProfessionalLeftist]

5. isn't it special how Republicans can block this, dadt, etc.

when Dems are in the majority? Would this even be possible if the situation were reversed? It wouldn't happen, I'm tellin ya. And that right there is the Dems' problem - then they wonder why they look so ineffective that they may lose seats in November.

Now, yes I know about he Republicans in Dem suits (ie: the "Blue Dogs") but I don't think that's the *only* problem. Sue me, scream at me, call me a whiner and diaper-filler - whatever, but that won't change it.

[BolivarianHero]

6. While I disagree with the reasons Republicans have for blocking this..

I don't support the bill. It makes too many concessions to the telcos in general and the wireless providers in particular.

Why exempt wireless providers?

[Supersedeas]

11. there is a kabuki element to some of the posturing here

[BolivarianHero]

13. Immanuel is always with us :)

Kant's ideas about the univerlisation of moral maxims allow us to look at political and ethical issues with motive and duty at the forefront of our minds.

The GOP handling of the net neutrality issue also reminds me of something I read recently about primaries in the South. Jesse Jackson once remarked that the South's preference for majority primaries were racist because they allowed White racists to gang up on the Black plurality winner in the run-off vote. It takes a moron to believe that, for executive and primary elections at least, plurality victory elections are superiour to majority victory elections under most circumstances, and at first I scoffed at Jackson's opinion because being Canadian, I see my progressive compatriots and I, not to mention my country as whole, get fucked over all the time by unpopular rightists winning with pluralities. But as I thought more about it, I came to the realisation that there's no way in Hell that the same people who would rig elections, take corruption to Tom DeLay levels on a constant basis, and deny the civil rights of African-Americans had fair and representative elections in mind when they implemented majority voting.

Just like the racialist Dixiecrat scum of old (and their GOP successors of this day), Repukes don't care about protecting the online civil liberties of decent, ordinary folk from telco and corporate censorship. They're even more wrong about this issue than the "Democratic" Representative from Verizon, but they pretend not to be because doing so wins some of the same young voters that turned out for Obama.

[TexasObserver]

7. recommend

[Joanne98]

9. I didn't know they could block bills in the house.

[mikesm]

10. Here are some FACTS on this issue

The support of the R's is completely unneeded on this issue. However, Waxman said that without R support, WAXMAN would not advance the Bill. Barton can't block the Bill, it's Waxman who is not going to move it. As with so many other items, the D's could pass this easily without 1 R vote. They just are not unified on this.

The funny thing is that during the summer, 73 D's sent a letter to the FCC saying the FCC should not reclassify broadband under Title II, among other reasons, so that Congress could address the issue. It's clear that many of these D's were not in favor of actually doing that. Sellouts!

AT&T and Verizon and many others pushed hard to get the R's to back this bill. It's a complete sellout, leaving wireless off the table (which is where all the growth and innovation is right now). It's enforcement was dubious, but even so, this bill sucked. It was not consistent with what President Obama campaigned on! The main point of this bill was to get the spineless FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, off the hook.

Now that the bill is dead, the FCC Chairman can actually pass REAL neutrality regulation. The FCC is unaffected by the Nov election - their commissioners are not changing! They do not need any Congressional action to make network neutrality real, and they have promised to do it too!

However, if the R's actually thought the FCC would pass anything with real teeth in it, they would have supported this bill. The fact they blew it off means it's very likely that the FCC is going to fold on this issue, because it would wind up with the incumbents saying bad things about Genachowski, who has not done diddly at at FCC in over a year since he has been there.

No doubt Genachowski, a lawyer who was a large bundler (aka fundraiser) for Obama knows that if he passes real neutrality regulations, he will not be able to raise a lot of money from ATT, Verizon, and Comcast any more. That means he won't be able to get a good position in the next Obama administration, since political appointees seem be be chosen based on how much money they have raised.

The bottom line is that the bill being killed was a good thing. The FCC can now do REAL reform. We in the Dem base should call the FCC and DEMAND they implement the President's promises on network neutrality. There is no excuse here!

If they want us to turn out and vote in Novemeber, they should tell the FCC to say they are voting REAL neutrality at the next FCC meeting. That would do more to energize the base than any hip hop rally.

[Vidar]

12. Thanks for the clarification, unpleasant thouhgh it is.

[pgodbold]

14. You Bastards!