Slashdot Mirror
Obama To Veto Anti-Net-Neutrality Legislation
An anonymous reader writes "In a statement of policy on Tuesday, the White House announced that President Obama will veto upcoming legislation that would undermine the FCC's net neutrality rules. According to the statement (PDF), the rules 'reflected a constructive effort to build a consensus around what safeguards and protections were reasonable and necessary to ensure that the Internet continues to attract investment and to spur innovation.' The statement continued, 'It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world.'"
You do realize that the President isn't the one wasting his time writing legislation like this. Nor was he the one wasting time voting to reaffirm that "In God we Trust" is our national motto or that the mint should print Baseball Hall of Fame coins.
Right now he's the only one making any attempt at fixing anything with the limited powers he has. Even if you don't agree with what he is doing at least he is DOING something.
He got a 1206 on his SAT's. That doesn't make him bright but pretty much average - even I scored higher. He went to Yale and Harvard because of who his father was and we have no evidence of how much work he really did while there.
Of course, it is possible that he intentionally played dumb to be more attractive to his illiterate constituency. Some say the same thing about Sarah Palin. If you want dumb people to vote for you then you have to relate to them on their level.
Are you joking? How many voters do you think even know what Net Neutrality means?
I've heard people, educated people, who think it's like a Fairness Doctrine for the Internet.
Do you think Obama cares about his popularity among open source geeks?
Let's face it. As hard as it is to swallow he may have just gotten this one right.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'm impressed. The first time in 3 years I've been impressed, so the bar is pretty low. But good going Obama.
Really? Getting rid of Ghadafi at very minimal cost and with 0 US lives lost didn't impress you?
No, hiring thugs and orchestrating a PR campaign to overthrow a government because it was making deals with the wrong country (China) doesn't impress me at all. Especially given that the new government looks to be even more brutal than the one that was replaced (but at least they are making deals with OUR corporations and Frances' instead of Chiner's - that's all the counts, right?)
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Just don't let anyone know your sexual preferences.
So what you're saying is that the guy who goes on and on about his wife and kids is ok, but the guy who lets something slip about his husband and kids...
Oh, nevermind. There's no talking sense into you people. "Family values" is a sham, and it makes me sick. Real family values might mean including your child who turns out to be homosexual or transgendered in your family instead of throwing him out with your trash.
Not like I care. Turns out I didn't need my family after all, just a shame they missed out on their child buying his/her first new car and buying a home because "family values" says that someone who isn't cisgendered and heterosexual can't be part of a family. It's also why when I want canned soup or chili, I buy Campbell's exclusively, even when something else is on sale. At least Campbell's soup thinks I deserve to have a family despite being LGBTQOMGWTFBBQ and has the balls to advertise to people who aren't heterosexual and to go tell "family values" to screw off.
Join the Slashcott! Stay away entirely Feb 10 thru Feb 17! Close all tabs to prevent autorefresh!
How ironic, you've fallen for the trap.
Net Neutrality IS about being neutral. The only choice it makes for you is that it forces you to choose a neutral ISP, because it doesn't allow for non-neutral ones. I hope this demonstrates what a silly word game you're playing.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
What ever happened to human decency and respect for your fellow man?
What part of heading off to foreign countries to kill people you've never met because a guy in a suit told you to counts as "human decency and respect for your fellow man"?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The problem is... we can't choose ISP's in the US. I don't know where you live but I have a choice between 10/1 cable (which behaves like 8/512k) and if I'm lucky 1/128k (DSL). Verizon FiOS said they were coming for the last couple of years and we even had a petition to urge them to come but they never did.
My parents have a choice between 5/128k cable and... that's it. They can't even get cell phone reception at their house so 4G is out too.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I'm not so sure about that. When I listen to the people who know about presidential history, they invariable say that Obama has been an exceptionally active president. Some of the accomplishments aren't amazing, for example, while he order the closure of Guantanamo, the actual closure hasn't been completed. But the list credits him for ordering the closure, not accomplishing it.
I think many Americans are upset over the economy, ideology, or skin color and refuse to give Obama credit for what he's actually done with possibly the most obstructionist congress the U.S. has ever seen. Obama has literally taken plans that the Republican party approved of and offered it as legislation, only to have them turn on it and declare it's now socialist because it has Obama-cooties.
There may some truth to the charge that Obama is a bad negotiator, that he isn't a ruthless, cold-hearted, and dangerous as his opponents. I think he's caved a few times because he feared the consequences to the American people if he stood his ground, mind you, I'm not talking about his political career but literally what would happen to the people of the United States. He may have sacrificed political victory for what he believes is the greater good on the Bush tax cuts and Debt limit. So I agree he should definitely be punished for that.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Its true with everything. Helmets, Seat Belts, Airbags, Planes that don't break up in the air. Bus drivers that arent drunk. ( I should be free to chose the bus service that does not have drunk bus drivers i don't need the government to make that decision for me.), DOT tires, gas stoves that don't blow up in my face, clean water ways ( if I can simply chose my ISP i can simply chose my water company.) etc etc etc. We need to get rid of government regulation so that the free market can work. If we leave it up to the free market then when companies poison the crap out of the ground water system, we the fully informed consumers will just switch to a competing company and the polluting company would lose in the marketplace. Its really simple. Look how good its working in china We need to be more like them.
We need to let Obama know of our support for this action. You can kevetch and criticize other things or the timeing or the lateness, but you need to show your support (as in email to the White House) for things done right and that emboldens him to do more and take more postitive steps because he knows he is working from a supported position.
Applying regulation to the internet is the gateway to further government control. A LOT of control.
The Internet was started by the US Department of Defense. The telecoms who currently make up most of the backbone have always had lots of regulation about what they can and can't do, and have also typically operated with subsidies to build capacity. Unix, which has formed the software basis of a huge number of Internet nodes, was created by the heavily regulated AT&T. The FCC has always had some authority to regulate Internet traffic.
Saying "Keep your government hands off my Internet!" makes about as much sense as "Keep your government hands off my Medicare!".
I am officially gone from
You mean as opposed to when he had the DoJ stand down over DOMA and got DADT repealed or used a tremendous amount of political capital to get healthcare reform?
He's cared up until this point, it's just surprising hard to fight with bat shit insane.