Josh Marshall: Net Neutrality Defeated...Telcos & Cable Win

[AnnInLa]

Net Neutrality Defeated -- Telcos and Cable Win
By Art Brodsky | bio

A House Committee sold out the Internet.

snip

The vote is over, and the amendment from Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and others to protect the Internet and preserve openness and innovation lost. The vote was 22-34. That's the bad news.

The good news is that, considering the lobbying power of the combined cable and telephone industry lobbying, losing by this little is a good sign. It's better than we did at subcommittee.

There is some recognition that the grass roots efforts that started relatively late in the game, combined with some lobbying by e-commerce companies, is starting to have an effect. We've probably got a couple of weeks before the full telecom bill goes to the House floor. (As I write this, the final vote hasn't happened yet, but there's no doubt the Committee will approve the bill.)

This turned, unfortunately, into a partisan fight. Only one courageous Republican, Heather Wilson of New Mexico, voted in favor of the amendment. These Democrats left the reservation: Ed Towns of New York, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Al Wynn of Maryland, Gene Green of Texas and Charlie Gonzales of Texas.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29242

[eleny]

1. K&R - a must read!

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Kicked and recommended !

[Daphne08]

3. Yes, I just watched part of it. Am sick!

Our tax dollars paid for the development of the Internet, yet they're going to let the big corporations screw us... yet again!

There is something fundamentally wrong in this country and it is corporate power.

[AnnInLa]

4. Assessment by Matt Stoller

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/26/16377/9867


Ok, so the vote on the Markey amendment to protect the internet has happened, and it was voted down, 34-22. That is a big deal. It's too bad we lost the vote, but we expected that loss. What we did not expected was the narrow margin. By way of comparison, the subcommittee vote was 23-8, which means we should have gotten blown out of the water. We did not. All four targeted Dems by McJoan on Daily Kos flipped to our side, and many of the Congressmen both for and against this campaign mentioned the blogs and angry constituents.

snip

I watched the markup and the voting, and there was noticeable defensiveness among Congressmen on the wrong side of this. They are wrong, they know it, and they are ashamed. Now they know people are watching. So we didn't win this vote, but this close margin was nonetheless a smack to the jaw of the insiders, and a clear victory for the people. Now the battle moves out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and onto more favorable territory

s Sean-Paul said to me over email, "today was a victory as a few key players on the full committee changed their votes. Important action is required heading into the Senate but we have created significant momentum and the telco cartel is very afraid of us now."

This is not how they wanted it to go down. They wanted this amendment to fail quietly, so the Senate would not take it up. We changed the rules today. Great work."

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/26/16377/9867

[AX10]

6. What are the chances of this bill dying in Congress?

Also, can Democrats undo this damn thing, should it pass, once, we get back into power?

[cascadiance]

8. YUP! FOR SURE! One more thing to add to the long list...

of things for the 2007 congress to fix! The problem is that it will be harder to undo things like the judge nominations, unless we can get fuel for impeachments. Hopefully they will have been shown to have covered up some of the cases like Sibel Edmonds' appeals which will be found to be impeachable actions for some on the SCOTUS.

[kenny blankenship]

9. Once something is given away

it's hard to get it back.

[Zodiak]

16. yup...I can hear it now

Giving the internet back to the government will be the embrace of socialism! The government cannot run anything efficiently....why the internet? Remember the days when the net was neutral and all the child predators were around?...the Democrats want us to go back to the "wild west".

RW talking points are so predicatble, and they are more powerful when they defend the status quo.

The loss of net neutrality should NOT become the status quo. We win this now or we fight an uphill battle.

[serryjw]

10. If this passes how doe sit effect DU?

n/t

[AX10]

5. 39% in the committee and 27% in the subcommittee

A dismal showing.

[derby378]

7. So the Internet isn't dead yet

That's the main thing - the sword is being drawn, but it ain't dead yet.

[AnnInLa]

11. Update: Regulation of Search Engines Proposed

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/26/191219/310

Update: The bill passed 42-12, but not before AT&T got off its final counterattack, just before passage around 7 p.m. In the empty room, right before final passage, Gonzales, from the home town of AT&T, San Antonio, offered an amendment to require the FCC to make a study "competition in the Internet world," particularly what he called "special arrangements" between Web sites and other companies. It would be similar, he said, to the type of tie-in arrangements that proponents of Net Neutrality said will exist with telephone companies favoring content. Such arrangements between Web sites and others, Gonzales says, would make it hard for a "garage-bases startup" to make a go of it. Citing an article from Southwest Airlines' magazine, he noted that Google gets revenue from ads tied to searches and that Yahoo is "fighting for deals."

Democrats were flabbergasted. Eshoo, who represents Silicon Valley, said she was "baffled by the amendment, because Gonzales, who earlier said he was opposed to regulating the Internet. This, she said, "is about regulating search engines." Markey said he was preparing an amendment to expand the study to include the top five telephone companies and top five cable operators, but didn't get to offer it. The Gonzales amendment was defeated 11-43, but Google, and Yahoo! and the others should be on notice. This isn't over. They are squarely in the gunsights.

[Hissyspit]

12. kick

[SammyBlue]

13. This doesn't have a chance of passing the senate.

this will be a house bullshit bill and nothing more.

[rucky]

14. Never underestimate our Senate's ability to sell us down the river.

bankrupcy bill?

[Left Coast Lynn]

15. So Democrats voted 21-5

the right way. I'm proud of my party.