back to article US Congress seizes net neutrality, stuffs it into a bipartisan black hole

The number of US senators supporting an effort to overturn the repeal of America net neutrality rules has jumped to 40, setting up a Congressional vote on the issue in early spring. Unfortunately, as a press conference held on Tuesday morning in Washington DC made plain, political support for the measure is almost entirely …

  1. King Jack
    FAIL

    They are only bothered now because there is a movement to vote them out. Where was the concern when this shit went down?

    1. Mark 85

      Where was the concern when this shit went down?

      Simples.... follow the money. Nothing new to this except maybe the size of the "contributions" as it's been going on for decades. I know there's been a few but darned if I can remember names of CongressCritters who actually tried to do the "right" thing. Not "right" in political leaning but "right" in sense of what the electorate actually wanted or needed.

  2. Donn Bly

    If they were that concerned....

    If they were that concerned, then they would do their job and write a law. Then, the rest of the government could do theirs and FOLLOW the law as written by the people's representatives. If they had done that in the beginning we would never have the mess in the FCC.

    Holding press conferences, etc. is a sure way of telling me that they don't really care about the issue, it is just (crooked) politics as usual. "Building Grass Roots Support" - nope, not their job. You don't build grass roots support from the top down. Their job is to do what they were elected to do, not to try govern by poll and skew the poll by trying to buy votes by whatever method they can.

    Note, these comments should not be construed as a support or indictment of the FCC and their NN fiasco -- just an indictment of the senators at that press conference and their brethren.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If they were that concerned....

      Umm... Maybe you didn't understand the article well enough. They'd like to make a law; or more precisely, use an existing law to force the FCC to implement net neutrality, but there aren't enough people on the Democrat team in Congress for the law to pass. And no one expects any of the Republicans to vote for net neutrality.

      Any legislation in Congress goes one of two ways these days: Either everyone's for it, or it's one team vs. the other. This one is in the latter category and the Democrats don't have enough players to win. So, if you can't win, then you make it into a political football and start kicking it around.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oprah Winfrey will save you.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Trump vs Winfrey

      One's a spoiled-rotten, fat, rich person, totally out of touch with the reality of the vast majority of the American public, with zero international diplomacy or political skills, totally demands the fawning attention of yes-men, and is completely incapable of a change of opinion.

      The other is Donald Trump.

  4. CFtheNonPartisan

    I am aghast! Does this mean politicians worry about votes? When did this start? Is this heralding the end of governments and politicians as we know them?

    1. jake Silver badge

      Politicians ALWAYS worry about votes!

      They demand the best that money can buy!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Grandstanding

    Yes, it is grandstanding, like the roughly 37 bazillion times the republicans voted to repeal Obamacare as a political maneuver knowing it had no chance of passing.

    Getting politicians on the record with their votes is a good thing though. It is easy for them to claim they have a position when it doesn't count, but votes mean more. This isn't true just of republicans here, there are a lot of democrats who get fat campaign donations from big telecom just like republicans, so this helps identify the ones who are getting bought versus the ones who are just taking the money. i.e. notice how only 40 senators support this so far, when there are 49 democrats...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Dems and the Dumbs...

    ...are doing everything they can to destroy America. It's all being documented as it plays out. One thing we know for sure is that the criminals in DC waiting to be prosecuted - are going to be removed from office and prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. The inept EPA, FCC, FTC and other clueless government agency chairpersons will also get the boot.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    run for office

    I really hope Schumer or Cuomo runs for president. They would totally suck, but at least we would get the bastards out of NY.

  8. Mystic Megabyte

    Question

    If NN is ended will the ISPs be using deep packet inspection technology? If so I might buy some shares in Phorm because I bet they have not entirely disappeared.

    For leftpondians this slightly jokey post has a serious side. If deep packet inspection is used, the internet as you know it will end and you will be paying extra for the "privilege" of a totally crap experience.

    Edit: It seems that they finally went bust in 2016

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm

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