Stevens Vows To Move Telecom Bill After Election
Stevens just seems to be hell bent on ramming this legislation through. His final comment here about ‘net neutrality’ really takes the cake.
More Orwellian projection at work? You can’t even parody this stuff.
If Stevens can’t understand what the concept of ‘net neutrality’ is, perhaps he should step away from his role as a legislative leader on the issue and allow people who understand what is going on propose the legislative regarding it.
- Andy Valeri, USTV Media
Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) vowed to move his telecommunications bill during a post-election congressional session. While Sen. Stevens acknowledged during a speech that his bill “obviously can’t be done before we go into recess,” he said he is hopeful the Senate will schedule lame-duck floor action before adjournment.
That would ensure the legislation is “part of the plans when we come back into session,” he said, noting that lawmakers expect to return about Nov. 13. “It is possible still to get it passed, and I’m working as hard as I can to see that that happens,” he said.
The senator conceded, however, that if there is a “sea change” in the composition of the House and Senate as a result of the mid-term election, his bill is effectively dead. “I’ve been through a couple of sea changes. Nothing happens after a sea change,” he said.
Sen Stevens continued to blame advocates of so-called network neutrality restrictions for holding up his bill. “No one can tell me what net neutrality is other than something that a few big companies want,” he said.
Ted Stevens is insane.
A few big companies are the only ones who want “so called net neutrality?” I guess those must be a few big companies that didn’t help write the bill for him. I find vague references like this from politicians who are on the corporate dole very suspicious. Who are these big companies that stand to benefit from the prevention of web corporatization? How exactly will that work, Senator? I suppose I shouldn’t expect answers from somenone who supposedly wrote this bill, but whose public utterances reveal that he doesn’t actually know what the internet is, let alone how it’s future should be determined. As far as he cares we might as well just go ahead and stick all of our heads in the rat cages now. Plus Good! (Bloody hell!!)
Read TheComplete Article in the National Journal Here
- Ed Lacy, USTV Media
on October 4th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Stevens wants the telecom bill passed but without net neutrality provisions, which are keeping this bill - a bill that will create more choice and protections for consumers - from reaching the floor.
Net neutrality should be left to the experts within the FCC and FTC, not in the hands of legislators. (This is also the position of the Chair of the FTC.) I work with Hands Off The Internet Coalition where we believe so called net neutrality will discourage broadband investment and therefore hurt innovation in the fast-moving internet world.
on October 5th, 2006 at 7:25 am
Looks like the astroturf spammers are at it again. Another note, right on cue, from one of the paid trollers out spreading disinformation to try to counter the ever-growing popular support for net neutrality.
I’ve commented on this kind of nonsense before, as evidenced by this past USTV posting, so no need to repeat some of the points made on this issue.
Suffice to say, this person’s moniker is appropriate. “Hands off” is indeed what they want. They want your hands off the internet, and their single, corporate gatekeeping hand on it, to ‘protect consumers’ - their consumers, the same way a mafia don protects his consumers. By making sure they remain his consumers, and only his consumers.
The money shot line of this hack’s missive has got to be the silliness about leaving the destiny of how the internet works to ‘the experts’, and not the legislative branch of government which is ostensibly there to represent the people. “Hi, we’re from the government and we know better.” The ‘experts.’ Jeesh. Whatever happened to “We The People” deciding what we want and how we want our society to operate and for whom? But don’t you understand? Democracy is much too precious and important to be left up to mere people to handle for themselves.
on April 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
[…] As for comments placed by agents of these astroturf groups, regular readers here at USTV know that we have run into this phenomenon on more than one occasion, including here, as well as these rather silly postings here and here. […]