We have previously discussed how the United States lags behind many countries in the speed and availability of high-speed Internet. As noted earlier, this is due primarily to the powerful lobby in Washington and members who do their bidding in Congress to allow certain companies to control and profit off of such access. The U.S. cable industry and its lobbyists however have been careful to stay out of the public eye to protect their income and the members that they use in Congress. Now, however, the industry has made a rare play in the open. The industry is moving to block plans in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina to offer high-speed internet services to their citizens. Lawyers and lobbyists for USTelecom, which represents cable giants Comcast, Time Warner and others, have mobilized to stop this trend where municipalities have responded to the demand of their citizens for such access. In the world of Washington lobbying, the slowest in this field has continued to win the race. While slow in service, our telecom companies are fast in making friends in Congress.
USTelecom has actually argued that it is merely trying to protect consumers from bad internet connections by forcing them to buy access from it: “The success of public broadband is a mixed record, with numerous examples of failures. With state taxpayers on the financial hook when a municipal broadband network goes under, it is entirely reasonable for state legislatures to be cautious in limiting or even prohibiting that activity.” By the way, Chattanooga offers customers access to speeds of 1 gigabit per second – about 50 times faster than the US average. The service, provided by municipally owned EPB, is now petitioning the FCC to expand its territory. Comcast and others have previously tried to use lawsuits and lobbyists to block such efforts.
I fail to see why a major developed nation like the United States does not offer free high-speed Internet and wi-fi access in the same way that it supplies actual superhighways. This is the key to the modern economy and yet we are allowing companies to manipulate speeds to profiteer at the cost of economic growth.
In publications, USTelecom is calling for the Commission and possibly Congress to preempt such efforts and cut off such access to consumers. If history is any measure, the well-healed telecom lobbyists will have little problem in getting members to listen to their plight.
By the way, we rank 31st in the world thanks to our friends in the Telecom industry and their friends in Congress.
The question is whether the public will finally wise up and demand that this stranglehold by USTelecom be taken from their virtual throats.
NEWSFLASH – CHINA RESTRICTS THE VOTE
Did I say “restricted vote?”
“Opinion: Beijing plays hardball over Hong Kong democracy
Published: Sept 1, 2014 2:51 a.m. ET
The gloves are now off, and civil disobedience protests will start for real in Hong Kong after the Chinese government rules out open elections for the territory, writes Craig Stephen.”
NS,
I call your statement about Daly Plaza in Dallas BS. You make it up as you go along. Your real ignorance and bias is showing.
Paul,
YOU are hilarious.
AY – now you are misspelling Dealy Plaza. Really! Generals with birds on their shoulders, court-marshalls and now Daly Plaza!
NS
“I have spent many years deriding the right, and I have to admit, it has been a hoot. The conservative world is an endless shooting gallery of hypocrites, con men, narcissists, and walking examples of this or that species of cognitive malfunction. In fact, whacking the wingers is such a fun pastime that it is ballooning in popularity these days: The crazy right now furnishes reliable material for our generation’s best comedians, and laughing at the benighted japes of the GOPers is, for many of us, the closest we come to real political involvement.
Today let’s try a little introspection instead.”
Thomas Frank
Salon
Poor Nick —
Do you really believe the BS you post – or are you simply so uninformed and disinformed that your only response to information you can’t refute is to try and divert attention with juvenile silliness. Most right-wingers at least try to make an effort to hide or mask their ignorance — but Nico apparently thinks his low-information-based comments is a collector’s item.
bill mcwilliams – quoting from Salon is like quoting from Mao’s Little Red Book. How can we forget Joe Biden, Al Sharpton, Harry Reid, etc. the comedians of the Democrats. I am sure that Frank Thomas considers ‘our generation’s best comedians’ to be liberals.
“I keep six honest serving men: They taught me all I knew: Their names are What & Why & When & How & Where & Who”
— Rudyard Kipling
Doglover,
Obviously, you are well versed in the rationale for the restricted vote.
Try these action words: Establish, Insure, Provide, Promote and Secure.
That is all. No less. No more.
Those are the actions the Founders took to set the parameters of government which are Justice, Tranquility, Common Defence and General Welfare.
Secured are the “blessings of liberty” which are people’s endeavors, businesses and industries conducted in the free markets of the private sector without governmental interference.
The government is to promote the general welfare which is comprised of utilities which are monopolies. General welfare, which is only promoted, includes goods and services that ALL PEOPLE USE TO GET ALONG WELL – well, not perfectly. For example, the utility provides water not champagne and public school teaches students to get along well by the end of elementary, not high school and college. If the consumer wants to not only get along well but excel, he must obtain that from the private sector. Champagne and advanced education must be paid for by the consumer.
The Post Office monopoly executes a mission as the military does and it does not operate for profit. The Post Office delivers to every address, every day. That cannot be done with an expectation of generating a profit. UPS and FedEx do not deliver to every house, every day. They only deliver profitable packages to the addresses that pay well. When the mission of the Post Office is completed, the Post Office may be closed.
Americans are CITIZENS not SUBJECTS. The government is the SUBJECT of the CITIZENS in these United States. The government is SEVERELY LIMITED by the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Post Office? Doing pretty well actually. Now that they aren’t on psych drugs any more & shooting each other. Its more the opposite of what Chill says: being part of the government means the gov in other areas can steal from it, but its been holding its own quite well and is still open on Saturdays.(tell that to UPS & all those trucking companies) Try mailing a package to the Philippines if you want to know what a bad post office is like. Fact is it balances its books and still delivers to desolate areas like Wyoming & West Texas for half a dollar.
Yeah, the law in this country has been the whore to give corporations monopolies since John D Rockercenter started it. Real change would be to do things in the interests of the majority of the people, somewhat like we heard about in New Zealand recently.
traveling limey – actually the government has been more the pimp to several public monopolies (whores) rather than whoring themselves out which is done in the UK.
When we took our kids to Dallas we asked about 6 or 7 people where Dealey Plaza was located. All we go were shrugs. I then asked a cop, he looked puzzled. I then said, “Where JFK got shot” and the light bulb went on, “Oh, it’s just 4 blocks south.” Apparently the world knows it as Dealey Plaza but Dallas folk just know it as where JFK was shot. Apparently by the Bush family!! But, I still think Elvis was complicit.
Nick – if the cop does not know where it is must make it hell to do those re-creations there almost yearly. Surprisingly though, in none of them are the Bushes mentioned.
Where does Walter Jones from North Carolina side up on this issue? Where does your own Congressman and Senator side up? Let us make a list of the good, the bad and the ugly. I am betting that Boner (Boehner in Deutsch) is a TelCom Troll. Please chimne in on your Congressman and Senator. Inquiring minds want to know.
GHW Bush and his son George were both photographed in Dealy Plaza on 11-22-63. GHWB aka “Poppy” was a CIA agent then, and on-going research is being conducted regarding his participation in the assassination conspiracy.
Nancy Reagan never invited the booshes to visit their WH living quarters because she believed (as many others do) that “Poppy” was involved in the attempt on RR’s life.
Apparently, NS loves a good coup d’etat – whether in the U.S. or anywhere else except for the Terrorist State in the M.E.which some like to say is the only democracy in that part of the world – or the Saudi dictatorship.
Elvis was spotted near the grassy knoll.
NICK SPINELLI Is obviously a supporter of the 11-22-63 coup d’etat, and probably the conspiracy to overthrow the government when FDR was President. One of the plotters was Prescott Bush.
Why do you hate democratically elected Presidents – or is it only those that aren’t as right-wing as most have been?
Where honest competition exists among simple easy-to-understand products and services the “free market” makes sense – groceries, barber shops, retail products.
Where monopolies are the only practical way to provide a service, publically supported government control makes sense – as with internet service and other utilities, highways, small town hospitals, police force, public schools, airports.
Where systems are so complex that people must rely on experts, as with insurance, financial advice, banking, health care, the experts need to be heavily regulated and monitored because fraud is too easy.
Those who cry “free market capitalism”, reduce regulation, no socialism, seem far too superficial in their thinking.
I’m surprised the leftists on this blog haven’t blamed Bush. But as long as the leftist want to change the subject, how about Obama’s wimpy foreign policy decisions (i.e., backing down on his Syria threats) resulting in the mass slaughter of thousands in Syria and Iraq? If Obama and Putin were in prison together, we know who would be catching and who would be pitching.
Chill,
Utilities are monopolies and monopolies are utilities. You seriously need to remediate in Econ 101. Can you say post office, water, natural gas, electricity, cable TV, etc.? The Founders referred to this a “General Welfare.” Which they PROMOTED. The didn’t micro-manage, they promoted.
Are you allowed to vote?
P.S. ALL ANYONE NEEDS TO KNOW IS IN THE PREAMBLE. The preamble sets the America CONTEXT – its parameters. The Constitution provides for governance within the parameters of the Preamble. When you get that, you’ll be an official American.
@john
How well is the post office running by the way? They’ve been losing money for years and if they were a private company they would’ve been out of business but of course that doesn’t happen when their funded with stolen money.
@Steve H
Hey Mr. Conservative tough guy, you want to do something about the disasters of Iraq and Syria put your money were your mouth is and go there yourself. It quite funny that you conservatives still cling to this pathetic lie that Chocolate Mussolini is a pacifist when in reality he’s a bloodthirsty murder.
USGovthugs ( including POTUS & SCOTUS ) must get out of meddling with the lives of those who live in America.
THEO, hear, hear!
The SCOTUS had but one duty; to assure that execution comports with legislation.
The SCOTUS was established to read the law, not write the law.
The SCOTUS MUST suffer penalties for perversion and corruption of the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights.
9 justices should agree as 9 doctors would agree – one cannot read the same
simple language 9 different ways.
Justice Roberts, who cannot grasp the essential American thesis of freedom, self-reliance and private enterprise, in contrast to the doctrine of Karl Marx, and allowed Obamacare, should be in prison; yes prison. This has persisted for far too long.
@Justice Holmes
You seriously have it backwards. Anyone real advocate of the free market knows that this isn’t competition. Utility companies have a well entrenched government protected monopoly that prevents competition from being established.