Posted on 03/13/2015 3:41:32 PM PDT by 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 Dont 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 Congresss 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 Comcasts headquarters in Philadelphia, while using the popular online meme Grumpy Cat to protest the cable giants 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 agencys 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.
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They are offended by a free Internet.
The government indoctrination centers, sometimes called public schools, have achieved their goal.
Irony: Being attacked from the air over regulations from an organization you oppose that restricts what can be put on the air....
Cruz will love this - three little hippie dippy radical leftist organizations attacking him......you can’t pay for this kind of publicity....
1300 bucks for a ticket...man those Texans are successful! I always marvel at the turnout for SXSW
"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.
Gee whiz, I wonder who’s paying for that?
It can’t be free unless the gov’t regulates it - see health insurance....
Demand Progress gets funding from George Soros.
Useful idiots.
When you are taking fire, you know you are over the target.
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.
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.
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?
three little hippie dippy radical leftist organizations attacking him......you cant pay for this kind of publicity....
and in Texas. good luck, you dopes.
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
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!
“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!
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.
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