LAT: Senator Snowe Puts Brakes on Toll Lanes on Internet: "Net neutrality"

[DeepModem Mom]

Snowe Puts Brakes on Toll Lanes on Internet
By Jim Puzzanghera, Times Staff Writer
September 4, 2006


(Wikipedia)
Senator Olympia Snowe (R., Maine)

....The 59-year-old Republican senator from Maine (Olympia Snowe) isn't among the 170 Capitol Hill lawmakers who occasionally meet as part of the Congressional Internet Caucus. Her home state has no major technology company headquarters. In fact, she cops to not even being proficient at surfing the Web.

But Snowe has emerged as one of the key leaders in a legislative battle over toll lanes on the Internet.

Bucking her own party leadership, she has championed the push by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other Internet giants to prohibit phone and cable TV companies from charging websites for faster delivery of their data. The issue, known as network neutrality, threatens to kill a wide-ranging telecommunications bill that Senate leaders hope to pass this fall.

The legislation would make it easier for phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. to offer TV service. Supporters say the ability to package voice, video and data would encourage phone companies to spend more on their networks. They say cable TV companies would be forced to do the same, with the increased competition lowering bills and expanding high-speed Internet access nationwide....

***

Snowe acknowledges that Maine desperately needs more broadband access, but says those lines won't be worth much if network operators can dictate whose data flows through them — and at what speed....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-snowe4sep04,0,1588923.story?coll=la-home-business

[Gman]

1. The Internet will cease to be if net neutrality is abolished

Kudos to Snowe. The Internet will be a worldwide network, but it will lose all its current value in terms of the public in general.

[IChing]

2. I hate it when a Repulican does something halfway right but

codos to her

[rodeodance]

5. yes, good for her.

[LostinVA]

21. Olympia is... okay. Not great, but okay

She's more of a Dem than some Dems...

[MindMatter]

29. Can we trade Joe-nertia for Olympia?

Both parties would be happier.

[Eric J in MN]

3. Sign the petition.

http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet

[acmavm]

8. Thanks for the link.

[rodeodance]

9. Sen. Ted Stevens is For "anti-discrimination regulations" what the hay?

"The Googles and Yahoos will take care of themselves," Snowe said. But small entrepreneurs looking to launch innovative Web services, such as YouTube, would be at the mercy of phone and cable companies, who could charge "a mighty fee" for fast content delivery, she said.

Snowe and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) have sponsored legislation to prevent broadband providers from charging companies for preferential treatment of content. The pair failed in a tie vote in the Senate Commerce Committee in June to add the prohibitions to the telecommunications bill.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and other top Republicans strongly oppose the anti-discrimination regulations, arguing that they would prevent phone and cable companies from recouping the costs of expanding their networks.

Some online activists praised Snowe for a forceful and plain-spoken speech advocating for anti-discriminatory regulations during the committee's deliberations.

[high density]

10. Stevens is pro-discrimination on the internet

He wants to give another handout to the telcos.

[rodeodance]

14. guess I had a knee jerk to the word 'discrimination"

[rodeodance]

12. done and thank for link

[high density]

4. Yeah I'll reserve my praise for after she votes against it.

She's good at yacking up faux outrage at something and then voting it in with the rest of the GOP cronies.

[Rainscents]

6. True.

I seen her do that over and over.

[rodeodance]

7. She needs a fuzzy NOW. A bit of honey goes a long way.

[Lusted4]

11. Snowe is one of those freak Republicans

that has a rational thought every once in awhile.

[w4rma]

15. She has to, or she'd never win another election because of her geography.

Btw, she is up for election right now.

[Ignacio Upton]

30. Unfortunately she's safe

I'd like to see her lose, but she's done enough to position herself as a moderate (opposing Social Security privatization and net neutrality) that she'll be in there until at least 2012.

[w4rma]

13. Good. (nt)

[rodeodance]

16. nominate. Time to put ths issue on the front burner again.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Recommended for Greatest page. NT

NT

[rodeodance]

17. "Consumers will have all the choices and selection of a former Soviet Unio

"This is a little more rocket science than a lot of the other issues they work on, but I've been extremely impressed by her articulateness," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group that supports the regulations.

Eschewing technical descriptions, Snowe focuses on the effect on average Web users if phone and cable companies get their way.

"Consumers will have all the choices and selection of a former Soviet Union supermarket," she told her committee colleagues. "They'll have access to that supermarket, but what will be on the shelves will be limited and dismal."

Snowe's 15-minute speech didn't deliver victory for her and Dorgan, but it still had an effect. Stevens responded with a rambling rebuttal in which he called the Internet "a series of tubes." The statement has been roundly ridiculed online, fueling opposition to Stevens' bill.

[saltpoint]

19. With Bush weak generally and especially in the Northeast, Snowe is in

a position to tell the White House to go piss up a pipe.

She initially opposed Bush's first-term first-round tax cuts for the wealthy, arguingly correctly that it was a recipe for long-term problems. Bush/Rove ran ads in Maine (also in Ohio against Voinocich and in RI against Chafee) to put the pressure on Snowe to support the tax cuts.

It was incredibly nasty work by Rove -- or whoever specifically ran that project against more moderate Republicans.

I hope Snowe follows through with this and brings improved service to her constituents.

[Old and In the Way]

23. If we back to a balanced Senate this cycle, Olympia/Sue could

wield a hell of a lot of power in the next Congress. No question, the Democratic Party ought to be organizing like hell in Maine to apply grass roots pressure to support a Democratic agenda. Put the whole nation to bear on their votes. Will they step up and become Cohen/Smith Republicans....or remain Bush Republicans? I've sent a note of thanks for her support of net nuetrality.

[saltpoint]

26. That was right-on. I may take your example and contact her with

a thanks as well.

Also agree with you on Snowe & a Democratic agenda in the next Congress.

[RufusEarl]

20. Ditto, thanks Congresswoman Snowe.

[StrictlyRockers]

22. Thank you Olympia. You still suck...but thank you for this one. n/t

[Terre]

24. Senators tally

List of For, Against, Waffling, Unknown

http://www.savetheinternet.com/=senatetally

[robbedvoter]

25. So far, 26 for, 14 against according to that tally

[blogslut]

27. One of the Sane Repubs

A dissappearing breed. Go Snowe!

[Bluebear]

28. I wish to hell she'd come over to the light.

Even to declare herself independent as Jeffords did. The New England Republicans are for the most part not cut out of the lunatic fundy cloth.

[druidity33]

31. well, there's Romney... nt

:(

[Bluebear]

32. I don't consider him a New Englander :)