Slashdot Mirror
FCC To Vote On Net Neutrality On December 21
GovTechGuy writes "The FCC just released its tentative agenda for the December 21st open meeting, where the Commission will vote on whether to adopt rules to preserve net neutrality. According to the agenda the FCC will consider 'adopting basic rules of the road to preserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, competition, and free expression.' House Republicans have already promised to oppose any solution put forth by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski."
So the same governing body that allows me to be forced to a single ISP now wants to tell me what "Free" really means. They need to let a free market determine what should be supplied instead of protecting the monopoly.
All kinds actually. Cell phones, wifi; anything that takes up spectrum space is under the jurisdiction of the FCC.
Mostly the latter. If a Republican administration did the same thing, then a few of them would complain, but they'd go along with it.
Except that Slashdot overreacted to that story, in typical Slashdot style - the Comcast-Level3 issue was not net neutrality related, it was a case of Level3 exceeding their already existing peering relationship with Comcast by taking on Netflix CDN traffic (replacing Akamai), and turning down Comcasts offer to include it under the same terms as offered to Akamai.
It was Level3 trying to position this as a net neutrality story when infact it was a breach of already existing commercial peering arrangements - Level3 expected Comcast to take more traffic than formally agreed to and Comcast said "no".
What's more foolish? The Republicans? Or the fool who thinks the Democrats are any better? They aren't. They are both dicks.
Anyway they oppose the FCC Chairman because they think he's trying to yank rushlimbaugh.com, glennbeck.com, and others off the net using a modern variant of the Fairness Doctrine (but called net neutrality). It's not about opposing for the sake of opposing. The Republicans generally think the FCC CHAIR is trying to censor the net.
And given what the FCC has done in the past (see their lawsuit against a christian station that refused to air Democrat ads), I can understand the R's fears.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
" they oppose the FCC Chairman because they think he's trying to yank rushlimbaugh.com, glennbeck.com..."
Really, someone throws out an excuse and you suck it up like chocolate milk?
They oppose the FCC because that is what defines the Republican Party: all opposition all the time, let there be no successes under Democrats. They are insane and it works because there are enough stupid people to believe their lies.
Funny thing is, the states that vote Democrat tend to pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal spending. It is the poor rural red states that are the leaches off of the rich blue states. The Democrats "base" tend to be more educated and affluent than the Republican base. The Republican base are the ones actually receiving entitlements like farm subsidies, and "homeland defense" for small towns of 400 who get more money than New York City.
Read this report on taxes versus spending per state. Note which states receive more federal spending than they pay in taxes, and which pay more than they get. Republicans should stop accusing others of being leaches, when all the evidence shows that they are leaching off of the very people they call leaches. Must be nice living in a Red state, getting all the dirty liberal commies to pay for your farm subsidies and other benefits, and still getting to believe that you are the productive citizen and they are the leaches. Denial is alive and well in America.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Only idiots think that. There is nothing in any Net Neutrality proposal that does anything close to that. If you are parroting those ideas, you're either an idiot who had them told to you, or you're just spreading FUD to defeat something the Democrats are trying to do.