No transparency, no requests for comment, no debate on the Star Chamber's plan to clamp down on our Internet freedoms, and drag our internet quality and access down to Europe's level.
What? You thought Europe's Internet was better? Think again...
Pro-government regulation progressives have been making that claim based upon outdated studies. Here are articles from this past year that cite newer studies and more recent data:
Financial Times: Studies Show US Beats Europe on Broadband Speed and Access
Forbes: The Grass Isn't Greener in Europe
Net Neutered
Progressives of all parties love attaching warm and fuzzy feel good names like "Net Neutrality" to their statist projects in order to mask their true intent: Power and Control.
Obama's first Internet power grab was back in 2008, but the courts slapped him down in 2010, finding his FCC Kommisars had no legal basis for demanding Comcast stop throttling BitTorrent transfers. (for a constitutional scholar, he sure gets caught doing a lot of unconstitutional stuff)
Like all determined dictatorial regimes, the 0-Ministration has found another bludgeon: The Communications Act of 1934. As Homer Simpson would ask, "is that thing still around?" Yes it is, and Papa's got a brand new bag.
Five years ago, the propaganda driver was hatred of Comcast (I'm not a customer). This time around, leftwingers are rallying around... hatred of Comcast! Damn them for charging us money for their services! The debate is confusing, Comcast could win or lose from Net Neutrality, and the company claims to be for it, while critics call Comcast's professed support a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Fairness
The added twist big government leftists now put on the debate is that every little bit of data should be treated equally, regardless if she is a bit of e-mail emanating from a big millionaire CEO or a humble blogger's upload; a streaming movie or song, or just a workaday bit carrying one piece of a useless fart joke or a Gawker video meme on whether Kim Kardashian's butt can fit inside a battery powered car.
This in itself betrays a fundamental ignorance of how networks works, but I won't bore you with packet switching theory, packet differences, QoS, and bandwidth. Guess what? ISPs, content providers and fat pipe infrastructure owners work this out on their own every day within existing commerce regulations without any help from Big Government. Yes, Comcast now collects more from Netflix, because Netflix on its own accounts for over 33% of internet traffic, the rest is used up by TMZ, porn, and peer-to-peer sharing of pirated content, with about one percent going to legitimate business use.
The Obamanet
Does anyone really think the government laying its clumsy mitts on the internet will make it better? Does government make anything better? Do you want an internet run by the same bureaucratic sludge factory that bring you Amtrack and the Post Office?
The verdict on Obamacare is in: Wildly more expensive than promised, it did help a few uninsurables and people at the bottom, but at the expense of everybody else, many of whom lost their doctors and their preferred plans. Government penetration of the healthcare market goes back decades, and health care inflation runs double that of the CPI, or higher, and despite Obamacare it is rising.
Education is the other market suffering forcible government penetration, and it's products and services are triple the CPI, measured since 1978.
Do you believe government regulation can make the following two claims possible?
A Lexus for the price of a 4-cylinder Chevrolet sub-compact!
A porterhouse steak and lobster dinner for the price of burger and fries!
If you do, then you probably support Obama's Net Neutrality.
What is Net Neutrality?
James Simpson at Watchdog.org has written an excellent article on Net Neutrality.
Here are some highlights:
Under contemplated net neutrality rules, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Verizon and Comcast would not be allowed to charge higher prices for more access.Here is the true motive. Just as Obamacare hopes to strangle what's left of the private insurance and health market, making it ripe for complete government takeover, Net Neutrality will do the same for the internet, making it a government utility under government control:
Net neutrality is a form of price control, and price controls everywhere distort the market. By affording equal access to all comers at below cost, demand will skyrocket while supply dries up. If an ISP cannot provide Internet access at a profit, it will go out of business. The government will then step in to take its place.It's a great article with many useful links, so please go give it a thorough read. The author ends by asking why people rightly upset at government spying on them would want to turn the internet over to that same government?
Related question: Would you rest easy with the internet in the hands of a moralist GOP government? It's a public utility, and we can't have it streaming filth into our public schools, can we? It's for the children!
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