Posted on 03/14/2011 12:45:51 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Al Franken: ‘They're coming after the Internet’
By: Mike Zapler March 14, 2011 01:43 PM EDT
AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. Al Franken claimed Monday that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet and issued a call to arms to several hundred tech-savvy South by Southwest attendees to preserve net neutrality.
"I came here to warn you, the party may be over," Franken said. "They're coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.”
Net neutrality, he added, is "the First Amendment issue of our time."
Receiving a hero's welcome from the liberal crowd, Franken took repeated shots at big telecoms, singling out Comcast.
He said Comcast is looking to change the basic architecture of the Web by implementing a pricing scheme that allows moneyed interests to pay for faster speeds, leaving everyone else behind. That would be a particularly bad development for the independent musicians and artists gathered here, he said.
"The real end for Comcast is to put Netflix out of business entirely," Franken said, because of the threat that Netflix's streaming video business could pose to Comcast's cable franchise. "In the end, the American people will end up paying a lot more for worse service."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
He’s right ...they will ..and because of this....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2688668/posts
I agree with Al Franken about anything? "Ugh! I have Franken germs! Get hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some Iodine!"
The Democrats are going to go after the Internet. Watch for it.
Like clockwork. They are so predictable. The stupid bath terds are really beyond help. And, anyone who would vote for a has been so called comic wacko should have their heads examined. These people are not playing with a full deck and are making us suffer for their stupidity.
Yes they are, the Dems in Illinois just passed a bill to tax purchases on the internet. IN response, Amazon pulled all partnerships with Illinois companies, so they don’t have to pay the taxes. Bang up job by dems by hurting their own businesses and making sure no new ones will want to setup shop in their state.
When a dem says this, you KNOW they are not referring to the Government when they talk about “them” or “they”
Al’s either very stupid of very devious.
Yup. My first thought, too. The Demos "need" to "save" the internet for all of us, so they will take it over and run it and control it and tax it (to help them run it and control it).
The best SNL skit I’ve seen on Franken was when he died in the Kuwaiti desert and a vulture plucked out his eye and ate it.
Too bad it wasn’t real.
is as phony as fat millionaire Michael Moore’s concern for ‘the middle class’. Please.
I haven’t heard on the news as yet about Michael Mucho giving his money to the government - he already said it didn’t belong to him so what’s the hold up?
Really? So you are against competition for the consumer? Care to explain this and, while you are at that, why internet, unlike any other transportation conduit, should free from price discrimination?
I wish they were coming after Al Franken! ! ! ! ! !
Besides the design and maintenance, there are other aspects of every product --- economic ones, most notably. Geeks may have invented the internet, but it was the American taxpayer who payed those geeks' salary. That counts for something, does not it?
It's the most dangerous thing to do --- to let geeks pass judgment on how their companies must be run. They do confuse electricity with management and economics, and think that, if they know the former, they must also know the latter.
“The Democrats are going to go after the Internet. Watch for it.”
Agreed. The Internet is the last bastion of free thought that “needs” to be regulated by these scum to exercise total control.
needs” to be regulated by these scum to exercise total control.
The American public won’t stand for it - I think that may be the progressive/marxists waterloo.
Good points. AT&T recently capped bandwidth to 250GB/month so we’re already seeing ISPs trying to curb overly excessive users. If I’m not mistaken, comcast has been doing this for a while.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/13/atandt-will-cap-dsl-u-verse-internet-and-impose-overage-fees/
AT&T says it will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL customers and a 250GB cap on subscribers to U-Verse high speed internet starting on May 2nd. AT&T will also charge overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data, with two grace periods to start out — in other words, the third month you go over the cap is when you’ll get charged. DSLReports says it has confirmation from AT&T that these rates are legitimate, and that letters will go out to customers starting March 18th.
The customer is the one using the bandwidth. If you use more you should pay more. Comcast is currently free to charge customers based on their usage of Comcast's product. What Comcast should not be able to do is restrict content from sources they don't like.
b
Who controls the WH?
I agree, I am sensitive to any restrictions on the internet or any pricing discrimination.
I do believe the control will come from the left. They cannot take the freedom that the internet can bring. It has turned the Arab world upside down. The internet is a pure instrument of our Constitution - it is literally the breath of life for the First Amendment. That is why Cuba just locked up an American for 15 years in Castro’s filthy prisons for the crime of distributing internet equipment. Castro is a leftist gangster who has no better right to be a Cuban dictator than Desi Arnez Jr. This is what he does because he and his gangster imp brother are so afraid of free speech and their final deposing that it will bring that they put journalists in prison. They are paranoid gangsters who realize they have stolen an entire nation and are not giving it back.
For all you Hollywood idiots that have praised Castro - Danny Glover, Oliver Stone, Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Sean Penn, Chevy Chase, Ed Asner, why don’t you go to Cuba and ask Castro to turn on the internet? Do something for freedom instead of attacking America? Yeah right - phonies!
Get rid of cable TV’s monopoly power, and I’ll be happy to allow Comcast to compete in the market and try to drive bandwidth competitors out.
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