back to article Net neutrality advocates freak out as lobbyists pull rug from California's draft net neutrality law

An effort to pass net neutrality legislation at the California state level is in doubt after an official analysis of the proposed bill recommend pulling out two key measures. Net neutrality advocates exploded when the analysis, written by the US state's Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications in Sacramento, …

  1. Ole Juul

    Senate Committee on Energy

    I take it they're an arm of the Telco monopoly, though I didn't see AT&T on any election ballot.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CA government is so corrupt

    IMNHO CA government is so corrupt they should all be prosecuted for their crimes.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: CA government is so corrupt

      > ""It's outrageous that California democrats would produce a document that looks like it was literally written by lobbyists for AT&T and Comcast..."

      Don't see the GOP mentioned (and they have no power in Cali anyway), so let's focus on the actual perps here. Democrats.

      1. Joe Werner Silver badge

        Re: CA government is so corrupt

        1) you turn everything into "democrats are bad!" that ticks me off. Not because it's the democrats and republicans are in your mind flawless, but rather because you generalise and turn everything into a partisan thing. Seems to be all the rage at the moment, but it is fundamentally stupid. (and lobbyists will bribe all in power, no matter the party, look at the federal level)

        2) no power? Right. They didn't have a republican senator from Austria, didn't they?

        3) yeah, this counts as feeding the troll. No, you are not a troll in general, only when it comes to politics. But you are not the only one of those around here...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: CA government is so corrupt

        @Big John

        Whoa, hold your god damn horses. You are calling out democrats for introducing a law with problems to reverse a problem create by republicans. Do you even understand irony or are you just a manufactured troll?

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: CA government is so corrupt

      Cali-Fornicate-You's gummint is probably THE most corrupt institution in the USA, let alone half the world.

      Lobbyists on the floor being consulted on EVERY bit of legislation. The best legislators money can buy!

      And they keep getting RE-ELECTED, no doubt through FRAUD in the voting system. That, of course, is kept well-hidden. I mean, WHO would vote FOR Jerry Brown??? That guy's nuttier than any Lewis Carol imagined creature ever thought up, all rolled into one complete lunatic that happens to be in charge...

      It may have started with those cultish EST seminars from the 70's

      1. Mark 85

        Re: CA government is so corrupt

        Nah... not fraud but the type of folks who live there. In CA there's only two areas where a Republican has a chance (one area north of San Francisco and the other is Orange County). So this isn't about Repubs or Dems, because there is no opposition. Funny thing about all this... Dems are supposed to be against big business and the evil monopolies, not for giving them more power.

        So for you and Big John, it's not fraud and seeing how there's no Republicans to speak of in office, no reason to mention which party rules the state. It's obvious. I'm in southern Oregon and watching the Californians move up here to get away from things like higher taxes. And what do they do? Start voting for those same laws, taxes, services, and the same type of legislators they moved to get away from. Go figure.

        Seems this country is getting too damned polarized with the right vs. left. No statesman, no moderates who can see and temper the extremes at both ends. This is a pretty sad state of affairs, IMO, as there's no balance but only party lines. And both extremes are corrupt as hell as what's going on with their "net neutrality" makes clear. The big corps own them.

        1. Alistair
          Windows

          Re: CA government is so corrupt

          Seems this country is getting too damned polarized with the right vs. left. .... This is a pretty sad state of affairs, ..... And both extremes are corrupt as hell ....... The big corps own them.

          Up north of the excited snakes, and sadly, the above noted disease is spreading up here too.

          I only have the one upvote.

      2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: CA government is so corrupt

        Cali-Fornicate-You's gummint is probably THE most corrupt institution in the USA, let alone half the world.

        Based on this comment - you have not been in half of the world.

        As my kids say after this summer: "We are entering Bosnia and Herzegovina. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious". Russia, Lat Am, Africa - anything and everything is more corrupt than the rather tame Californicating legislature. Even the UK house of lords.

  3. ZPO

    In today's news, Californians realized their fine upstanding congresscritters have campaigns to run, "speaking fees" to collect, and "fact finding missions" that require travel to exotic locations. All paid for by lobbyists and interest groups.

    In other words... those congresscritters are taking care of their true constituents. The ones that keep them in office to peddle influence and line their pockets.

    Oh, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy aren't real either.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is not unusual for any government to co-opt "experts" when drafting bills affecting a particular area of esoteric/complex matters.

    Unfortunately the "experts" most visible to the politicians are often vociferous people lobbying for a vested interest.

    The Sexual Offences Act 2003 in England was first published as a draft bill for public consultation. It had originally been announced as the revision of the ragbag of old laws - to make it suitable for a modern liberal society.

    On close reading it proved to be draconian in many aspects. It had been strongly influenced by co-opted vested interests who wanted lower thresholds of evidence to produce more prosecutions and convictions.

    Subsequent protests from affected groups in the general society only succeeded in ameliorating some of those aspects.

  5. Nimby
    Paris Hilton

    Yawn.

    And in other news, people be cray-cray.

    A plethora of crap for a proposed law to extend the powers of a law that has no power to correct a law that they don't agree with. Which part of this sounds sane to you? California's tax dollars at work.

    The real answer, of course, is that CA should just secede from the union and become their own country. (Whereupon they will find that no one actually misses them.)

    1. Mike 16

      Who would miss California?

      Well, many of the reddest states who depend on federal subsidies, paid for by CA taxes. yes, CA is a net exporter of taxes to the federal government. Of course, Washington and Oregon might welcome the boom for their ports.

      BTW: Anybody who equates "Democrat" with "Liberal" should check into DiFi's persistent support for "Whatever privacy invasion the police claim they need".

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, I wanted to swear, but i refrain

    THIS IS A UK BASED WEBSITE AND COMMENT SECTION

    Please keep the political US discussion, including all this left and right name-calling

    OFF THIS COMMENT SECTION

    please, please, pretty please?

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      UK BASED

      Well sometimes I might tend to agree but this is a story about US politics. So fair's fair, I reckon. And some of the "political US discussion" can be educational to those of us from elsewhere, although less so the name-calling.

    2. Swarthy
      WTF?

      I'll make you an offer

      Howabout we septics keep our politics limited to the Comments Sections of articles about US politics, and in exchange everyone else can stop whining about the Bootnotes articles.

      Or, alternatively, if you don't want to read about USAian politics, don't click on articles about USAian politics. If you do, and then proceed to the Comments Section, you really ought to be prepared for septics discussing politics.

      On the topic of Left v. Right name calling, I agree, and wish it would stop - Not just in Comments, but in general (in person, in the "news", in the houses of government, etc.).

      1. Peter2 Silver badge

        Re: I'll make you an offer

        On the topic of Left v. Right name calling, I agree, and wish it would stop - Not just in Comments, but in general (in person, in the "news", in the houses of government, etc.).

        Dīvide et imperā.

        Split the proles up into smaller groups, play those off against each other to create division and argument and then keep feeding the flames if they start dying down. Meanwhile, get away with murder doing what you actually wanted to do under the cover of the arguments you started between other groups over some ultimately irrelevant point.

        It's worked for at least the last two thousand years at keeping those in power powerful.

        It's also caused huge hatred and division where none need exist between countless numbers of people. It will continue, because "divide and conquer" is easier than "unite and lead" and too many people take part in the division part.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I'll make you an offer

          "Split the proles up into smaller groups, play those off against each other to create division and argument and then keep feeding the flames if they start dying down."

          A recently published book "The Lost Boys" delves into a psychology experiment from the 1950s. The aim was to cause tribal disputes between groups of boys at a USA summer camp.

      2. 2Nick3

        Re: I'll make you an offer

        "On the topic of Left v. Right name calling, I agree, and wish it would stop - Not just in Comments, but in general (in person, in the "news", in the houses of government, etc.)."

        Amen. It's very hard to find common ground with someone who is calling you an idiot.

  7. Eddy Ito

    Probably not an issue. It was no doubt headed for a gut and amend into something completely different like a new gun ban, another tax to funnel money into the failing CalPERS, a ban on straws based on three phone calls made by a nine year old, or like Prop 65 a law designed to line the pockets of lawyers. It's the Cali way.

  8. mymaverick

    "Democrat" and "Liberal" you Americans know only two ways...

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like