chief108
5th November 2010, 20:22
All 95 Congressional candidates who pledged to protect net neutrality lost in the midterm (http://www.iheartchaos.com/post/1489087125/all-95-congressional-candidates-who-pledged-to-protect)
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbe8rfP1Z91qzozj1.jpg
For many, at least outside of the US Congress, net neutrality is an important issue—in a nutshell, the policy doesn’t allow ISPs and internet backbone companies to regulate the amount of bandwidth to various websites depending on whim, traffic or preference. Before the Tuesday midterm elections, 95 candidates for House and Senate signed a pledge that they would fight for net neutrality. All 95 of these people lost.
The widespread Democratic losses made an already uphill battle even tougher. More than a dozen incumbent congressmen who had voted for a similar Net neutrality bill in 2006 were voted out of office on Tuesday, most notably Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., a 28-year House veteran. Now, experts say the FCC needs to regroup and weigh its options. “Obviously, the election results mean the FCC has to go about it alone or work out some sort of deal,” said Ron Gruia, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “That’s not an easy balancing act. With change in the composition of House, the momentum for legislative change and the likelihood of changing broadband to Title II is gone.”
Now before you get too lost in despair, all of those pledging were Democrats, and many of them were in districts that they didn’t have much hope of winning, so it’s not like their opponents went on a net neutrality tear.
On the other hand, people in Congress are well known for their ability to be persuaded with a yacht ride or a five star dinner or money donated to their campaign. In addition, I personally think it’s disturbing that some Tea Partiers on the right seem to think that net neutrality equals a loss of personal freedom at the expense of corporate freedom. I hope that viewpoint doesn’t start trickling into Congress if it hasn’t already.
Via (http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/03/technology/net_neutrality_election/index.htm?section=money_latest)
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbe8rfP1Z91qzozj1.jpg
For many, at least outside of the US Congress, net neutrality is an important issue—in a nutshell, the policy doesn’t allow ISPs and internet backbone companies to regulate the amount of bandwidth to various websites depending on whim, traffic or preference. Before the Tuesday midterm elections, 95 candidates for House and Senate signed a pledge that they would fight for net neutrality. All 95 of these people lost.
The widespread Democratic losses made an already uphill battle even tougher. More than a dozen incumbent congressmen who had voted for a similar Net neutrality bill in 2006 were voted out of office on Tuesday, most notably Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., a 28-year House veteran. Now, experts say the FCC needs to regroup and weigh its options. “Obviously, the election results mean the FCC has to go about it alone or work out some sort of deal,” said Ron Gruia, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “That’s not an easy balancing act. With change in the composition of House, the momentum for legislative change and the likelihood of changing broadband to Title II is gone.”
Now before you get too lost in despair, all of those pledging were Democrats, and many of them were in districts that they didn’t have much hope of winning, so it’s not like their opponents went on a net neutrality tear.
On the other hand, people in Congress are well known for their ability to be persuaded with a yacht ride or a five star dinner or money donated to their campaign. In addition, I personally think it’s disturbing that some Tea Partiers on the right seem to think that net neutrality equals a loss of personal freedom at the expense of corporate freedom. I hope that viewpoint doesn’t start trickling into Congress if it hasn’t already.
Via (http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/03/technology/net_neutrality_election/index.htm?section=money_latest)