Cruz attacked from the air over net neutrality

The Hill ^ | 03/13/15 05:11 PM EDT | Julian Hattem

[SoConPubbie]

Net neutrality advocates are taking to the skies over Austin, Texas, this weekend to hit Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his opposition to net neutrality.

A plane dragging a 1,500-square-foot banner reading “Don’t be an enemy of the Internet, Sen. Ted Cruz,” will fly above the Texas capital on Friday and Saturday afternoons, while the South by Southwest festival goes on down below.

Cruz has been one of Congress’s most vocal critics of federal net neutrality regulations, which attempt to ensure that Internet service providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable treat all online traffic equally.

Last year, he called it “ObamaCare for the Internet.”

The banner-toting plane is being launched by Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and Free Press, which all lobbied vigorously in support of tough net neutrality rules over the last year. In February, the three groups flew a similar banner above Comcast’s headquarters in Philadelphia, while using the popular online meme Grumpy Cat to protest the cable giant’s opposition to new regulations.

“Our banner is an Internet-backed reminder to Cruz and all politicians that if you stand against net neutrality, you are standing against the Internet,” Demand Progress executive director David Segal said in a statement.

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission imposed the toughest Internet regulations the U.S. has ever seen by regulating the Web like a public utility.

Groups like Free Press, Demand Progress and Fight for the Future, among others, were critical in getting the agency’s three Democrats to embrace those rules, and helped to drive about 4 million public comments to the FCC over the last year — far more than it had ever seen before.

[SoConPubbie]

"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[TBP]

They are offended by a free Internet.

[gorush]

The government indoctrination centers, sometimes called public schools, have achieved their goal.

[GraceG]

Irony: Being attacked from the air over regulations from an organization you oppose that restricts what can be put on the air....

[C. Edmund Wright]

Cruz will love this - three little hippie dippy radical leftist organizations attacking him......you can’t pay for this kind of publicity....

[nascarnation]

1300 bucks for a ticket...man those Texans are successful! I always marvel at the turnout for SXSW

[SunkenCiv]

"Our banner is an Internet-backed reminder to Cruz and all politicians that if you stand against net neutrality, you are standing against the Internet," Demand Progress executive director David Segal said in a statement.

Demagogic Party shills lying again.

[smokingfrog]

Gee whiz, I wonder who’s paying for that?

[Plain Old American]

It can’t be free unless the gov’t regulates it - see health insurance....

[EQAndyBuzz]

Demand Progress gets funding from George Soros.

Useful idiots.

[Mouton]

When you are taking fire, you know you are over the target.

[VerySadAmerican]

The objective is to get Comcast to treat all subscribers equally. That means all the poor people will now have to pay more so they’ll be equal with the rich. Or the rich will pay for it. It won’t go the other way.

[Kenny]

We’d better find a way to fight back over this. We always wait until they’ve indoctrinated the masses then it’s too late.

If they want it this bad, it’s dangerous, over-the-top dangerous.

[Mark17]

Cruz has been one of Congress’s most vocal critics of federal net neutrality regulations, which attempt to ensure that Internet service providers such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable treat all online traffic equally.

How is it that Comcast and Time Warner Cable DO NOT treat online traffic equally? Is this like what Krauthammer said, a solution looking for a problem?

[freedom6178]

three little hippie dippy radical leftist organizations attacking him......you can’t pay for this kind of publicity....

and in Texas. good luck, you dopes.

[nitzy]

I wish you all would take a look at the 18 enumerated powers of the federal government laid out in the Constitution.

I think a VERY powerful argument can be made that the framers of the Constitution thought that the free flow of information was so critical to the national interest they included this as one of the 18 powers....

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

I don't think it is a stretch to consider the internet to be the equivalent of the postal system for the 21st century.

That being said, I believe that free markets will always do a better job at giving the customer what he wants. I also believe that the government has a seat at the table regarding this and very few other things. They also have a right to flex that muscle when the system is not working in the best interest of the People. The oligopoly that has developed in the internet industry was not operating in the best interest of the People.

Ask yourself...
How would you rate your satisfaction with your barber?
How about your favorite website?
How about your ISP/Cable company?

The difference is that the free market corrects the issues in the hair cutting and internet content industries. The oligopoly controlling infrastructure of the internet does not seem to be as responsive to the free market. Therefore, in this case only the government has a right and duty to act.

Constitutional defined responsibility + practical need = right to act

[txhurl]

This is happening EXACTLY in the backdrop of TimeWarnerCable dropping channels that are going ‘digital’, i.e.,you need a TWC box to get cable back, as they have dropped nearly ALL cable channels in Austin if you don’t have a box.

UT area is stuffed with homeowners renting out their garage apartment to students who no longer have cable as of this month because the owner won’t buy them a box to put in that guest house, garage apartment, where thousands and thousands of students live. Net Neutrality has had IMMEDIATE effects, including HotSpot dropping for students who used their phones for their laptop internet.

Couldn’t happen at a more opportune time. GO CRUZ!

[Steve_Seattle]

"Our banner is an Internet-backed reminder to Cruz and all politicians that if you stand against net neutrality, you are standing against the Internet”

Typical leftist lies. I detest those animals. A position to defend the status quo, which has allowed the Internet to grow and prosper in ways unimaginable twenty years ago, is now called "anti-Internet."

[sergeantdave]

“Net neutrality advocates are taking to the skies over Austin, Texas, this weekend to hit Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his opposition to net neutrality.”

Time to start counting lampposts in Texas to be sure we have enough to hang all the traitors. Go, Senator Cruz!

[Steve_Seattle]

It’s interesting that they are doing this AFTER the regulation has already been imposed. So this can only be intended as a political ad directed at Cruz, not as an issue-oriented ad. I wonder if that might affect their tax status.