Last week, Jim Kolbe voted in favor of mega corporations instead of people. (So what else is new?) Kolbe along with majority of the House of Representatives (both Republicans and Democrats) voted for a telecommunications law that would give big Internet operators like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast more control over what we can view online. (Big Brother strikes again.) I guess it must be all those telecommunication lobbyists’ influence. After all, the vote flies in the face of the thousands of signatures by such diverse groups such as the ACLU, Gun Owners of America, the Christian Coalition and MoveOn.org, all on the same side of the fence in favor of Net Neutrality.
The Senate is voting soon, but you got to wonder whose pocket they’re in.
The prolific Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews has something to say. For now, most people seem pretty oblivious about it. If Miller’s article lights a fire under your tush, get on the phone and start calling members of the Arizona Senate and urge them to vote in favor of Net Neutrality.
Senator John McCain: 202-224-2235
Senator Jon Kyl: 202-224-4521
Just how much power do AT&T, Verizon and Comcast need, anyway?
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2006.
I like this blog idea. Good work. Can you do html tags here? Like bold, italics etc?
On Kolbe, the problem with so many of these politicians is they don’t want the free use of the internet because they want to control the message like they have been able to do successfully in broadcast and prnt media. The internet allows for a free exchange of ideas and this is a threat for the top down structure.
The bigger issue with so many of the problems we have today is the overeaching power corporations have which is not what our forefathers intended. The imbalance of uber wealthy and poor is the largest spread in the history of this nation, and as more people are catching on, the corporate executives are fearing they may lose some of their grip.
Have you ever heard of the book Hostile Takeover by David Sirota? I am in the process of reading it and may bring him out here toward the end of July or early August for a book signing. He covers the corporate issue very well.
Cheri: I don’t think html tags work in comments. Let me try one.
Apparently, they do work. Thanks for the kind words, Cheri.