The final House vote is coming to repeal Net Neutrality via the Congressional Review Act. I’m pretty interested to see how many Democrats we can get in the House, because it may give a clue of how many Democrats we can get in the Senate. Remember: under the CRA we only need 51, not 60.
I hope we don’t have to fire up the CRA next over socialist wireless data roaming regulation. As I pointed out earlier this week, Sprint stopped investing in its network, while AT&T and Verizon spent even more. So now Sprint customers end up having to roam more when off of Sprint’s network. Should Sprint be allowed to make up for that by getting the government to force a special deal? I don’t think so. Regulation should reward investors and punish free riders. Only then do we truly look out for the public, the people who need more investment made.
Here’s an interesting point I hadn’t seen made before: if a National Broadband Plan requiring Universal Access is implemented like Obamacare, then the states will get stuck with a big bill they honestly can’t afford. It’s no wonder they’re passing bills to ban cities from entering the Internet access business.
George Soros says “Change the world. Change the media.” Yeah, I know we occasionally get trolls claiming that the TEA Party needs to back Net Neutrality and the FCC against Big Business™, but that’s just Soros propagandists looking for useful idiots. Have no doubt about who are adversary is.
Yeah, so the courts ended up throwing out the preemptive suit by Verizon (and also made by Metro PCS) trying to stop Net Neutrality ASAP, but don’t feel bad. It’s not really a loss. It’s just a delay of the inevitable.
So Senator Tom Udall (Democrat-N.M.) wants to get government even more strongly in the Wireless Internet business, even as the House is trying to pull us back. His “Cell Phone Bill Shock Act” would raise costs on all Americans with wireless service plans by adding new burdens on providers, and raise costs on us all, period, by expanding government to enforce that. CTIA says “Legislation is not needed. CTIA’s members currently offer their customers a variety of tools and features, such as 24/7 support on websites and toll-free numbers, to help them monitor their usage. Many carriers also offer free shortcuts for consumers to check the number of texts, amount of voice minutes and data usage.” Will Udall even try to refute that? Facts are facts.
It’s not the Anbar Awakening, but I’m reminded of it. Remember earlier this week when a popular board on 4chan turned on the online anarchist group Anonymous, who has long used 4chan as a recruitment and propaganda hub? Well, the bad press has gotten to be such a problem for them that they’ve given up. Sony wins, Anonymous loses.