He doesn’t actually have the ability to do much here. Its entirely in the hands of the FCC, and beyond Obama appointing the Chair of the FCC, which he already did a while ago, he can’t go much further. Unless there’s some way for him to un-appoint (and I do not believe there is)?
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Yea, but when did it hit say the New York Times? I’m aware it was an issue since… well possibly for as long as the internet has existed really, in various forms. 2010 wasn’t well researched (some stuff did happen in 2010 that was national news). But whatever. Plenty of time for Obama to have appointed with net neutrality in mind had he wanted to and by 2012 he was surely being asked to do so.
*answering my own question first NYT mentions I see are from 2006, quite a few of them.
Obama appointed all of the commissioners of the FCC in 2012 and 2013. Not just the chair, all five of them.
Which is why it makes a whole lot of sense for him to sensibly make his case to those people he appointed, and why we shouldn’t assume he’s just “lame-ducking”.
Great, so now conservatives everywhere are going to be opposed to net neutrality, simply because Obummer said he’s for it.
Though I must admit I love the irony of thousands of minor conservative bloggers writing up diatribes against net neutrality, which is like asking that their own blogs be restricted to the slow lane.
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I’m not convinced it’s that simple.
Just reading the lobbyist response to Obama’s message is beyond belief. It basically makes the case that the entire free market tech industry that was built around internet net neutrality is not the free market that deserves protection, but the “free market” that the late-to-the-party broadband monopolies and duopolies have (as though they’re the paragons of competitive service and pricing) that deserve to be free of regulation even if it means destroying the very free market they’re already exploiting for ridiculous amounts of money.
There’s a reason 99% of the 4 million responses to the FCC are on the same side.
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Um, are BoingBoing editors so pissed off at Obama that the best they can do is post this announcement verbatim? Isn’t this exactly what y’all have asked for from Congress and the administration? Why no cheering?
What Boehner, Ted Cruz and other conservative non-thinkers fail to comprehend is that a truly free market is one that is not controlled and dominated by big money and monopolies. Anyone who supports the interests of big business’s freedom to take more than their fair share from the same pie everyone must eat from, knows nothing about the meaning of freedom or free markets. A truly free internet is one that has enough regulation to maintain that freedom without which it would soon be turned into just another product whose only real purpose becomes higher shareholder profits.
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I don’t know if they fail to comprehend it. They just stand to profit from aforementioned giant monopolistic companies.
I wouldn’t give them a much credit as assuming that they are simply misguided free-market ideologues. It’s far more likely that their short-sited greed, causes them to not give a damn.
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He can’t unappoint them, he can only disappoint them.
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If only…
And vice-versa? I think we’re all pretty disappointed in the FCC!
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That’s one of the core properties of a politician.
Maybe because the loss of faith on whatever The Big O says? The disconnect between words and actions is suggesting an interpretation that the opposite may actually happen.
Trust takes more effort to gain than to lose.
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Not just because Obama said he’s for it. Also because they get ridiculous amounts of money in the form of campaign contributions from cable companies.
Ted Cruz seems to have an early lead in the “idiotic, ill-informed and reactionary opposition to Obama’s stance on net neutrality” field:
"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014
Because I stumbled over it on imgur when looking at the bad design photos.
Thanks for the better link!
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He’s had trouble in the past with reposting of his content, so I try to be sensitive of that.
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