SMDH over the responses I’ve been seeing to the FCC’s Net Neutereality rules.
The three Democrats on the panel supported the rule, while the two token Republicans opposed it.
Ultimately, it says that providers can do whatever the hell they want. If they’re being paid by content providers for preferred access, so be it.
Cluestick: they already had the authority to do this. The FCC ruling just codifies it. Had the FCC ruled the other way, the big telecommunications companies would have filed suit over the rules. These new rules are akin to a state government giving permission to a neighboring state to do something they’re already permitted to do. The Virginia General Assembly could pass a bill saying it’s okay for North Carolinians to root for Duke. (We’ll set aside, for a moment, the fact that Duke sucks, and if you have the misfortune of residing in North Carolina, you could root for something a little better, like UNC or NC State….)
Congress could have given the FCC the power to regulate in 2009-2010, but they chose not to. Even if they had gotten a NN bill through the House in 2010, it likely would have died in the Senate at the hands of people like Mark “Nextel” Warner.
Since the bill never got to him, he can run and say he supports it. O.o And the NoVA Hipster Democrats will totally believe him for saying it. (And ignore the fact that come election day, he’ll have passed only two yearly budgets during his six-year term.)
On a somewhat-related note, interesting Sweeps reporting from WTKR about getting rid of cable. Naturally, they omitted the part about how the broadcasters are actually charging the cable companies money to carry a freely-available signal, but, this is what my wife and I tried to do last winter during my last period of goverment-inflicted unemployment. FORWARD. Unfortunately, that experiment didn’t work as planned to the incompetence of the local phone company, and its wonderful “employees.”
I’m getting a bit off-point; the reason the FCC can’t do anything about providers giving priority (or throttling) to content providers isn’t because of Republicans in the House. The Hipster Dems would prefer despotic action to get whatever it is that they claim to want. Nobody in Washington is willing to go through the processes to do things the right way.
It’s sad.
Much like what I’ve faced lately with my work prospects, doing the wrong thing faster doesn’t make it the right thing. That you’re authoritative, either by your office, or by the store-bought letters after your name, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to abide by the processes in place to get things done.
Listen, I understand that you’re awesome. I get it. You still have to follow the rules. (And that’s why I’m not linking to my new stuff. 1. It’s not ready for public-consumption. 2. I haven’t finished the necessary paperwork to make it legitimate. So it goes….)