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SuperWISP
join:2007-04-17
Laramie, WY
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Lobbyists
The trouble, Robb, is that the lobbyists are the only people who have the money to follow the Commissioners around wherever they go -- inside or outside the Beltway. Their goal: to make EVERYWHERE "lobbyist-land."
It would cost me about $1,000 to make a quick trip to Pittsburgh for the hearing -- enough to deploy broadband to 20 square miles of countryside that was previously unserved. But the monied lobbyists, such as Free Press (AKA "Save the Internet"), have no such money issues.
The two organizations that call themselves "Free Press" (there's a "Free Press" and a "Free Press Action Fund," because by running the two under separate sections of the IRS code they can evade restrictions that would limit their lobbying) said, in their Form 990 reports to the IRS, that they spent $711,971 on activities related to their push for network regulation. This puts them right up there with the corporate big spenders. And what are they lobbying for? Internet regulation that would actually put small and independent ISPs out of business and pave the way for a total telco/cable company duopoly.
One has to wonder whom Free Press really works for! (The names of the contributors were blanked out in their filing.) The press has long speculated that Google (Motto: "Don't be evil unless it makes us money") is among the biggest contributors, because it is also a huge contributor to Larry Lessig's Internet center on the Stanford campus. (Lessig has used that Stanford organization to push for regulation and legislation that is consistent with Google's wishes, and also is on the Board of Directors of Free Press, so there's clearly a strong connection.) But whoever is giving Free Press those big bucks, they're rich enough to make contributions as large as $300,000 per year (again, according to their 2007 Form 990).
In short, roaming the country is no guarantee that the Commissioners will hear from the public or from knowledgeable people in a particular region. They also must choose their witnesses carefully, and discount the scripted rants of people such as the busloads of people whom Free Press brought in from San Francisco to pack the Stanford hearing.
To paraphrase Lessig's rant at that hearing: "A lobbyist has a nature. It is not one that you trust with your country." | |
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Robb
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join:2001-03-11
Hillsboro, OR
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|  #1: They're not going to Pittsburg PA to hear from someone from Laramie WY. HELL, BRET, YOU WERE ON THE PANEL at the one closest to our side of the country!
#2: Even if you were determined to go, the cost is about the same...
Depart Mon, Jul 21, returning the next day
From Laramie, WY to Washington DC
Great Lakes Aviation $672
Frontier Airlines $701
From Laramie, WY to Pittsburg PA
Great Lakes Aviation $672
Frontier Airlines $777
#3: Roaming the country may be no guarantee that the Commissioners will hear from the public, but staying in Washington DC year-'round makes it even less likely so.
#4: What the hell does any of this have to do with Free Press? Even if they are the evil lobbying group you paint them to be, it seems to have nothing to do with this topic at all.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
HTTP is the new Bandwidth Hog...
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