Why So Serious?
I try not to get TO political here on this audio blog, but big surprise that Senator Ted Stevens, the former chairman of the Senate's Rules Committee, Appropriations Committee, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Governmental Affairs, and Senate Ethics would be indicted (SEVEN COUNTS) in a Federal corruption probe.Yes Mr. Hissy-Fit Mc'Bridge-to-NO-WHERE, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, is being taken down for failing to disclose gifts from private corporations valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I'll always remember him best for his staunch opposition to Net Neutrality, and for delivering us the popular meme about the internet not being a big truck but a series of tubes that movies can get stuck in.
I'm very happy about this. Aside from the obvious schadenfreude, this is a quiet yet big step for protecting communications technologies. I know his indictment alone doesn't radically change the landscape of the debate, but removing any opposition can only be a good thing in my opinion, especially a committee chairman.
America is already behind EVERY other industrialized nation on the planet [to be fair,Q1 2007 we did increase to 24th out of the top 25 countries in terms of broadband penetration barely edging out Australia, but still WAY behind countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, Iceland, and Monaco LINK, Ed.]. We need to maintain neutrality. We're already seeing ISP's toying with data caps, monitoring private traffic, and engaging in other fairly anti-consumer activities. Anyone who would have us commercially divide, or tier, the internet needs to be considered a grave threat to the future of America's telecommunications prowess (the future of our ability to communicate, our commerce, and our competition), and will be someone I will vote against in a heartbeat (McCain I'm looking in your general direction).
We invented the damn thing. We should be guiding it's future. We should be leading it.
More on Ted Steven's indictment.
