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President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

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Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#281

Post by 6stringmerc »

smspence wrote: post #272
joezydeco wrote: post #238

And it's already getting worse: https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/531834493922189313 "Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

Ted Cruz is an extreme outlier. Everyone else in the Republican party hates him. Please don't take his dumb remarks as representative of anyone else. Here is a quote [1] referring to how Mitch McConnell (Republican Senate Minority Leader, soon to be Majority Leader) handles nut-jobs like Ted Cruz: "Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar, isolated Ted Cruz. He's kind of sealed him off l…

No, he's actually a harbinger of the more polarization trend evidenced by the Republican party. In short, I was a Republican, but then the party disassociated itself from the values and concepts that I enjoyed, so I no longer affiliate with them. Ted Cruz is a player...to deny that he raises a ton of money and motivation to vote for his causes / perspective is ignorant. Fortunately he's at least open about his distorted worldview, apple doesn't fall far from the tree, most psychological disorders are inheritable. Yes, I'd actually say Ted Cruz is mentally defective.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#282

Post by tptacek »

emcrazyone wrote: post #278
tptacek wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tom Wheeler was a cable lobbyist from 1977 through 1984. He was a cable lobbyist before the consumer Internet existed, let alone cable Internet. His status as an anti-neutrality lobbyist is a powerful Internet meme based, so far as I can tell, on very few facts. It's sad how much force a tiny factoid can pick up in a public policy debate on the Internet. Public policy facts are about as reliable on the Internet as Go…

not exactly correct. The Internet that we know today existed long before 1977. Around 1987, a freshman in college, I could ftp and gopher with other Universities. I was tickled pink when I found out I could query a time server in Japan from my dorm room of a Michigan University!

The advent of the consumer Internet occurred at the point where most major metro areas had a commercial ISP from which you could buy dial-in access. That was not the case in 1984.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#283

Post by vor_ »

DigitalSea wrote: post #154

As per usual with all politicians, these are just words. Nice words, but until a bill is passed and there is movement in the senate to make something like this closer to a reality, words are meaningless. My question to Obama is: why now? This whole net neutrality debate has been going on long before Obama started his first term of presidency, why wait until you are almost out of the White House to act upon something…

Republicans have an abysmal approval rating. The recent election was the 2008 wave election self-correcting, with Democrats defending seats in red states that voted for Romney. 2016 will see the same correction but for the 2010 election, with Republicans defending their seats in blue states that voted for Obama, potentially flipping control of the Senate again. The American electoral system is, to put it bluntly, fucked up.

Why is the president doing this now? I have no idea. He put off executive action on immigration until after the elections, and perhaps he was doing the same on this issue. Maybe this is low-hanging fruit to keep the base fighting going into 2016 and tempt corporatist Republicans to make foolish statements (see Ted Cruz's tweet). Maybe he thought it would be pointless to act before in the face of Republican obstructionism, and now he's using it as a challenge.

More interesting is Hillary Clinton's position on net neutrality, since polls make her the most likely winner of the next elections at this point. She has publicly expressed support for it as recently as last month.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#284

Post by ep103 »

fulafel wrote: post #267
revscat wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me explain a few things about the American government. The most important thing to understand is that the ability of the executive to influence the direction of the government is limited. The reasons for this are several, but I will try to elucidate a few here. First, it is commonly believed that because of the ability to hire/fire people the President can more or less do whatever he wants in regards to the direc…

> Let me explain a few things about the American government. The most important thing to understand is that the ability of the executive to influence the direction of the government is limited. Compared to most other parliamentary democracies the president in USA is nearly a dictator. So Obama has exceptionally broad abilities in that direction.

Compared to most other parliamentary democracies, is not even comparable. In parliamentary democracies, political parties can almost never survive by completely stonewalling the opponent in power, as by nature of being a parliamentary democracy, opposition parties are forced to work together, or form alliances with one another, in order to function.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#285

Post by smspence »

cement wrote: post #279
smspence wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ted Cruz is an extreme outlier. Everyone else in the Republican party hates him. Please don't take his dumb remarks as representative of anyone else. Here is a quote [1] referring to how Mitch McConnell (Republican Senate Minority Leader, soon to be Majority Leader) handles nut-jobs like Ted Cruz: "Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar, isolated Ted Cruz. He's kind of sealed him off l…

Ted Cruz is incredibly popular and a frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. If he isn't representative of the modern Republican party, who is?

I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need a citation for that "incredibly popular" claim. Or is it that I run in the more moderate circles, so I am unaware? Is he popular among everyone, or popular among tea-party nutter butters?

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#286

Post by vor_ »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #104
mpweiher wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are the same thing: in order to protect net neutrality (the free and open internet), you need strong regulation, it doesn't happen by itself.

This sounds very George Orwell, like "Freedom is Slavery". It's going to take a very strong argument to support the idea that freedom is enhanced by limiting freedom. Not that it's impossible; my glib statement plays fast-and-loose with "freedom", using the same word in one sentence to mean both the overall amount of freedom as well as in a microcosm. But even so, the apparent contradiction should make us think befor…

Monopoly of force is necessary to maintain order in a state.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#287

Post by waterlesscloud »

cement wrote: post #279
smspence wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ted Cruz is an extreme outlier. Everyone else in the Republican party hates him. Please don't take his dumb remarks as representative of anyone else. Here is a quote [1] referring to how Mitch McConnell (Republican Senate Minority Leader, soon to be Majority Leader) handles nut-jobs like Ted Cruz: "Mitch has very carefully, very methodically, very much under the radar, isolated Ted Cruz. He's kind of sealed him off l…

Ted Cruz is incredibly popular and a frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. If he isn't representative of the modern Republican party, who is?

He's definitely not a frontrunner for the 2016 nomination. He's polling at around 4%, well behind Paul, Bush, etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/...

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#288

Post by Zigurd »

adrianparsons wrote: post #184
DigitalSea wrote: post #154

As per usual with all politicians, these are just words. Nice words, but until a bill is passed and there is movement in the senate to make something like this closer to a reality, words are meaningless. My question to Obama is: why now? This whole net neutrality debate has been going on long before Obama started his first term of presidency, why wait until you are almost out of the White House to act upon something…

I don't think Title II classification requires a vote from congress, just an action by the FCC.

You have put your finger on it. Obama is looking for things he can get done without Congress. If he can devalue campaign contributions SPs made to Republicans, that's an even more attractive move.

Re: President Obama Calls for a Free and Open Internet

#290

Post by nkozyra »

yc1010 wrote: post #48
nkozyra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible that the notions of surveillance (and the egregious examples of that which have come from the top-down in this country) and net neutrality can be evaluated independently of each other, particularly because they are dissonant concepts.

He calls for "Free and Open Internet" An internet where all traffic is closely monitored, recorded and data-mined is not free and open in my books.

Sounds too free and open by your qualms
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