Boston Herald attacks Kerry becasue of his Net Neutrality letter

[karynnj]

in a sarcastic op-ed that says the House, which is trying to stop net neutrality by not funding the FCC committee that is enforcing the rules they decided on last December. This is NOT an acceptable role of the appropriations process as it is legislating. Given that the Herald is part of the Murdoch empire that clearly wants to bias what people hear and see, it is no surprise that they agree with the RW House.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is mounting a last-ditch fight to let the Federal Communications Commission impose “Net neutrality” rules on the Internet. It’s time to throw in the towel, senator.

Kerry, who is chairman of the communications subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote to the majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and to the minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), asking them to block a House-passed provision in the stopgap spending measure moving through Congress that would forbid the spending of money on the FCC’s December rule.

The rule ostensibly forbids service providers from interfering with transmissions on their networks.

Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Al Franken of Minnesota and Ron Wyden of Oregon also signed the letter. Only Cantwell is a member of the subcommittee; neither of the other signers is on the subcommittee or the parent committee.

http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1319662

[Mass]

1. I disagree with their position, but I dont see how it is sarcastic.

They state their position and their arguments. They are wrong, I think, but, for once, it is not disrespectful of the senator. They just disagree, which, considering where the Herald stands, is not not surprising.

What is more bothering is that we seem to have lost the argument, and this largely because Democrats have been unable to articulate this argument in a way that speaks to people.

[karynnj]

2. Editting to say that I agree it was respectful and written on the issues - not like the varous Howie

Carr pieces. What I did see as sarcasm, really is something different.

What I had a problem with wasthat 2 signers are not on the sub-committee. That is not unusual, nor do they criticize anyone else for statements on issues not overseen by their committee. Would they have limited Brown to speaking just on Armed Services, Homeland security and veterans last year? But, you are right that that is not sarcasm - even if it a false criticism.

Not to mention, Kerry's effort was to stop the House from using the appropriations process to get what they lost by having a Democratic President. It is in the FCC's power to make the rules they did - and Kerry is appealing to Reid to keep that funding in the Senate bill - and to fight to keep it there.

(I also think that there idea that this is a competitive market ignores that the backbone of the internet - through which most things will flow is NOT made up of a large number of companies. In addition, most people have access to just one cable company. Cablevision is my only choice. This is not a free market. This would have been like saying in the Bell System days that there were plenty of companies - by counting all of the Bell Companies - even though in NJ, the only one I could get service from was NJ Bell - not Indiana Bell, Illinois Bell, etc (That would have been true even if AT&T did not own all of them)

[Mass]

3. I saw it as a way to emphasize that there was not much support: 4 senators 2 of which dont

even belong to the committee. Obviously, it makes no sense, because we dont know when Kerry decided to send this letter and if he made an effort to get signatures.

As for competition, I agree that competitive market does not necessarily mean choice. My MIL has exactly 2 choices for her internet: Comcast or Verizon DSL, and there are parts of the state where DSL is still not accessible, so there is no choice.

[karynnj]

4. That makes sense

I think the House did this no more than 2 weeks ago. Given that the Senate was out last week and Kerry was in Pakistan most of the previous week, it is hard to imagine he could have made much of a personal effort to get people to sign it - though it might have been that his staff did.

To its credit, the BH op-ed does put the Kerry et al letter into perspective in what the current situation is. I remember that the left blogs were not happy because the decision was weaker than they wanted. This may be another thing where the left itself might not fight for it because it was not as much as they wanted. I suspect the lack of any activist pressure on this, at a time where Reid will be fighting many similar battles - many over more popular programs, will doom Kerry's effort to preserve this.

[Luftmensch067]

5. Don't know enough about the organization

But this might be one way to try and help JK:
http://act2.freepress.net/sign/resolution_of_disapproval?source=STIhomepage

Defend Free Speech on the Internet

Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation that would give phone and cable companies absolute power over the Internet.

They are pushing a “Resolution of Disapproval” that would strip the FCC of its authority to protect our right to free speech online. If it passes, the FCC would not just be barred from enforcing its already weak Net Neutrality rule, but also from acting in any way to protect Internet users against corporate abuses.

We can kill the resolution in the Senate by getting 51 members to stand with us and online freedom. Sign this letter to demand that your senators join us in protecting free speech online, and we will deliver it to their offices in Washington.