Time Warners Bill to force out competitors by buying Republicons and Democrats with $600,000

[louslobbs]

in bribes........I mean campaign contributions.
Lou

Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband By Zaid Jilani on Apr 2nd, 2011 at 10:30 am Telecom-Funded North Carolina House Votes To Gut Cheap And Fast Public Broadband
The mantra of the modern conservative movement in the United States is that the government isn’t capable of doing anything as well as the private sector. This idea is constantly perpetuated among conservative intelligentsia and as a rallying cry by conservative politicians.

Yet conservative ideology can’t explain the success of Wilson, North Carolina’s, Greenlight fiber optic broadband service. In 2008, Wilson decided that all of its residents deserve access to affordable broadband service and shouldn’t have to put up with a private monopoly. So it established its own broadband service called Greenlight, which offered speeds more than twice as fast as private competitors for a similar price. Soon, Greenlight’s success spread, as several other municipalities in the state started their own public broadband services, giving residents a public option that was cheaper and more effective than the private monopolies.

But the state’s primarily broadband monopoly, Time Warner, decided that consumers shouldn’t have this option. It organized with the other telecoms, and the sector donated over $600,000 to politicians in the state over the last election cycle. And on Monday, every single Republican in the state house along with 15 Democrats voted for a bill that severely restricts the ability of municipalities to operate their own broadband networks, including a provision that disallows them from offering services at below cost — essentially eliminating their ability to provide affordable rates to residents:

A bill that would place restrictions on the establishment of municipal broadband networks is gaining traction in North Carolina. The proposed legislation, House Bill 129, was passed by the state’s House of Representatives in an 81 to 37 vote on Monday, March 28, and is making its way through the state Senate.

The bill, which has sparked controversy across the state, is called the “Level Playing Field/Local Gov’t Competition” act. The legislation would require communities to alter the way networks are financed and deployed. One section of the bill mandates that a municipal network not price services below their actual costs.

Rep. Bill Faison (D), one of the bill’s most vocal opponents, blasted the legislation: “This bill will make it practically impossible for cities to provide a fundamental service. Where’s the bill to govern Time Warner? Let’s be clear about whose bill this is. This is Time Warner’s bill. You need to know who you’re doing this for.” The legislation has moved on to the state senate.

[Scuba]

1. How can the playing field be "level" when there is $600,000 piled up under on end? n/t

[louslobbs]

5. There can't be, that's why they've been pummeling us so badly. Imagine

as a business being able to buy government to stop others from competing with you so that they can keep the market monopolized and the prices high for all of us. Corporate government at its best.
Lou

[malaise]

2. But but but

wasn't it the government who invented the internet?

[louslobbs]

6. I think it was just Al Gore lol

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Next, they will deny cities the right to supply their residents air and water

at below the rate that some company in Saudi Arabia wants to charge for them. Oh, and police and firemen---they'll have to be hired from a private contractor. Having them be city employees is unfair to business. And forget about those public schools. If Bill Gates wants to be in charge (and sell a bunch of overpriced softwear designed to replace teachers) then cities must not stand in the way of his greed/ambition.

Everyone knows that God's 11th Commandment is "Thou shalt not stand of the way of a rich man trying to increase his profit."

[louslobbs]

8. With all the craziness going on from the Republicons I'd believe almost anything you'd make up could

happen and I think your firefighter and police scenario has started to happen in some places. So I guess if you can afford it, they protect you and if you can't, your house burns down or you get mugged and killed while the 911 operator asks you for your contractor number to see if they should send someone out. It's unreal. Thank you for the comment.
Lou

[ThomCat]

4. Government seems to be very effective and guaranteeing profits

for corporations.

But government really sucks at doing things like
- guaranteeing a safety net for real people in need

- or providing quality education equally to everyone that actually focuses on real education (not just tests)

- or regulating corporations so that they serve the public good instead of just serving as as engines of short term wealth creation, upward wealth relocation and externalized value destruction

Government is amazingly efficient at taking, as long as it is taking away from poor and middle class people. Government can take away income, and rights, and opportunities, and safety, and even property that people thought they owned.

But when the government deals with corporations (or the rich people who run them), suddenly the government doesn't know how to take anything anymore. Suddenly the government can't take money anymore, and keeps giving it away. Suddenly, instead of taking rights they are awarding privileges. Instead of taking taking away people's safety, they're making every effort to and sparing no expense to ensure safety at all cost. And instead of ever seizing their property, they are more likely to give them ours if they want it.

Yes, it's very interesting the way the government changes their actions and attitudes depending on who they are dealing with. x(

[sarcasmo]

7. Both parties are corporate whores. A Labor Party is badly needed in this country.

[louslobbs]

9. Exactly, and maybe with the Koch bros overreach in Wisconsin with puppet Walker and his band of

dictators, and KaSick in OH and others proposing the same Union Busting, that might happen. I really hope that this time, we continue the movement, they forced us into, that seems to be growing everyday. Both parties have become corrupt, but one, the Republicons, have become crazier and more evil, We the People need to do something to stop the corporate march to our destruction. We need to "stay the course" so to speak. Thanks for the post sarcasmo.
Lou