1 edit | A majority of Democrats supported HR 5252 This bill passed in a bi-partisan manner. Even Democrats approved it by a vote of 106-92. Here is a link to the vote and who voted how. Look up your Congressperson and vote in November based on your beliefs. »clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll241.xml
HR 5252 must be passed by the Senate or reconciled with a different Senate bill in a conference committee. No date has been set yet for these actions. Given the limited amount of time in the current Senate legislative schedule, no broadband bill may make it into law this year.
The law as passed would set up a national video franchise system overriding local laws; let the FCC determine what net neutrality is on a case by case basis; and let the FCC extend the USF to VOIP if it so desires.
P.S.> If any Senate bill moves forward this year it will likely be S.2686 sponsored by Sen Ted Stevens of Alaska. It would be very similar to the House bill according to Stevens.
»thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z···s.02686:
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| "Given the limited amount of time in the current Senate legislative schedule, no broadband bill may make it into law this year."
Don't count on it. It's amazing what can get rolled into an end-of-session omnibus bill, especially during an election year! |
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jpark
join:2005-02-05
Jackson, TN | reply to fAcEtIOUs
I'll definitely vote against anyone who supported this bill. Unfortunately, I don't think even votes count for anything anymore. We just replace one POS with another POS. |
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Tom doesn't mention this, as his primary concern is the performance of his incumbent and Comcast stock....but....
The goal is to get anything passed, so this can be pushed into private session, away from public discussion, while Lobbyists can still suggest changes and shape the laws free of consumer provisions....
»www.ajc.com/services/content/bus···&cxcat=6
quote:
The House and Senate are preparing to vote on telecommunications legislation that could affect every American who surfs the Internet, watches cable TV or uses a phone.
But consumers shouldn't waste much time watching the floor debates on C-SPAN. The lawmakers themselves admit their goal is not to pass definitive legislation in public in the coming weeks.
Instead, they want the House and Senate to pass separate bills, regardless of how different they may be. The final version would be negotiated, largely in private, by about a dozen senators and representatives on a conference committee.
The Senate just needs to pass "anything to get us into conference," where the real decisions will be made, House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said Tuesday at a telecom forum hosted by National Journal's Technology Daily.
"It's not supposed to work like this," said Celia Wexler, vice president for advocacy for Common Cause, a government watchdog group. "It's appalling that you can hear a member [of Congress] say that in public."
Watchdog groups say that while most conference negotiations are closed to public view, lobbyists continue to influence the members and their staffers, sometimes even supplying language that ends up as the law of the land.
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1 edit | said by Karl Bode:Tom doesn't mention this, as his primary concern is the performance of his incumbent and Comcast stock....but.... I have just as big a financial stake in the content providers as I do in the telcos and cable companies, so I have no bias for or against the opponents in this battle.
If I have any bias, it is to keep businesses as free of gov't regulation as possible.
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| Yeah, like Enron and energy trading. (Regulation IS needed, the only free market is folks like you taking a free ride off the rest of us) |
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 firephotoKDEPremium
join:2003-03-18
Brewster, WA
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said by fAcEtIOUs:I have just as big a financial stake in the content providers as I do in the telcos and cable companies, so I have no bias for or against the opponents in this battle. If I have any bias, it is to keep businesses as free of gov't regulation as possible. Free meaning to manipulate the gov't to directly benefit your favorable private business financially. You guys don't want to be free of regulation, you want to be free of regulation that makes you pay your dues on an equal scale and at the same time take a bath in the regulations that put money in your pockets. A true free market is the absolute last thing you want because that would mean no more gov't hand outs and pats on the back while you constantly complain about and get laws passed to hinder publicly owned utilities claiming they have unfair advantages.
The rich republican attitude in this country is just sending the majority of the population into the sewer but leaving them able to spend their last dollar on overpriced services never to actually be out of debt or own anything outright.
If this country doesn't bury at least two major political parties and put an end to ALL lobbying and money handouts from corporations or ANY business it's just going to keep going down the drain. Unfortunately the news media is part of the corporate thievery so they just paint a rosy picture on everything and make it seem like being in debt all your life is the way it should be.
Take back your country people, don't let a few losers with more money ruin it for the majority. Taking away your neutral internet access is just another way to control what you see and what you do and don't think it's anything else. Get out and vote or register if you haven't, listen to the issues, ignore the party lines, get the people in office that actually represent you and not just corporate america.
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Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | reply to fAcEtIOUs
Well all your content stock is going to take a hit. Now they will have to pay EVERY provider if they want their next gen tech's to work. Not just their ISP. That's the problem with this idea. You're charging people who you actually provide NO service to. All you're saying is, "if your data is requested by my users I'm going to shift it to the slow part because I don't get any money from you." Imagine if every country in the world did this. Content providers would have to pay 100's of different companies money to develop ANY next gen technology. If the pipe servicers implement this I hope the next step is to take the pipes away. Any company that derives it's profit off assets built with government subsidies needs to treat consumers like it's investors, because that's what we are. (But with much less rights) Frankly I think receiving government subsidies should come with the caveat, up front, that if the assets are abused they will be taken away. Would be a nice offset to the decision making of taking subsidies. As it is, it's just free money doled out to your buddies... |
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| said by Ahrenl:Well all your content stock is going to take a hit. Now they will have to pay EVERY provider if they want their next gen tech's to work. Not just their ISP. That's the problem with this idea. You're charging people who you actually provide NO service to. All you're saying is, "if your data is requested by my users I'm going to shift it to the slow part because I don't get any money from you." Imagine if every country in the world did this. Content providers would have to pay 100's of different companies money to develop ANY next gen technology. If the pipe servicers implement this I hope the next step is to take the pipes away. Any company that derives it's profit off assets built with government subsidies needs to treat consumers like it's investors, because that's what we are. (But with much less rights) Frankly I think receiving government subsidies should come with the caveat, up front, that if the assets are abused they will be taken away. Would be a nice offset to the decision making of taking subsidies. As it is, it's just free money doled out to your buddies... Someone, somewhere must have an affection for the ol' concept of recipricol compensation....
this is a travesty... hopefully as the rest of the world passes us by on the net, that someone in Washington will see the blur and take corrective action. |
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 ThalerPremium
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA
kudos:3 | reply to fAcEtIOUs
Just goes to show you that both Democrats and Republicans are equally corruptable given enough financing. Is this news? |
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ThalerPremium
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA
kudos:3 Reviews:
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said by fAcEtIOUs:If I have any bias, it is to keep businesses as free of gov't regulation as possible. So basically, keep the corrupt is as corrupt does, got ya.
If anything, the creepingly slow advancement of broadband rates/penetration has shown the cartel-like activities of the major ISPs for a good while now. Deregulating corrupted monopolistic systems is only good for the shareholders (that'd be you), and leave the consumers and populace as a whole takin' it up the backpipe.
These businesses have been fishy, and now our government has given them carte blanche to become as big a cesspool as they wish. |
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 jslikThat just happenedPremium
join:2006-03-17
1 edit | reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by fAcEtIOUs:If I have any bias, it is to keep businesses as free of gov't regulation as possible. Then what will be the excuse if this law passes and then, looking at the track record of the telcos, all this deployment falls flat on its face?
You can speed up deployment very easily without nationalizing the whole system. Simply make the incumbent's franchise agreement the template for any new provider, and give all parties involved 60 days to sign an agreement. You'd keep all the protections/language etc., and get the ball rolling quickly. If no incumbent exists (and I doubt this would happen much) then have a 'model' franchise ready. This would satisfy the telcos complaint about the supposed 18 months to get a franchise (although they never produced a name of a city for the example), keep the cable folks happy, and the cities happy. |
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