According to The Register on Friday, John Kneuer, assistant secretary of commerce and head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), “quickly lost his temper and began shouting” after an audience of technology experts pressed him to explain how the U.S. had fallen so far behind other developed countries in providing Internet access to citizens.
Kneuer claimed that free market competition was the reason for the Internet’s “great success,” dismissing the history of Net Neutrality protections that have fostered new innovations and public participation online.
Kneuer, who previously served as a top phone company lobbyist for Washington law firm Piper Rudnick, told the audience that the “free market” (by which he means the current duopoly of large phone and cable companies) should be unencumbered by consumer protections and basic Internet freedoms.
Kneuer is a member of the camp of neo-cons who categorically refuse to “even *think* about regulation to promote competition,” writes Harold Feld of Media Access Project.
One Trackback To “Bush Official Shouts Down Tech Experts Over Net Neutrality“
There are echoes of the GOP’s opposition to the electrification of rural America early last century in Kneuer’s stance.
O.T
New video web site
http://goleft.tv/
The stink of money…..
Another fox guarding the hen house. We really need to be more attentive to the Presidential appointee backgrounds this next administration.
chlorocardium @ 3:
I smell Republicans and that smells worse then dirty money
The Suits will destroy the world if they are permitted.
Shouting is all these fuckers know. It’s not like they have anything empirical with which they can argue.
When they say free, they mean they don’t want to have to pay for it. There is no such thing as a free market. They want to control it, but they want the government to step in should things begin to get VIOLENT. Now we see the government beginning to use VIOLENT INTIMIDATION. It is a carefully constructed MELTDOWN. They are certainly not interested in debating the matter. This idiot should be thrown out with no further delay.
As one telecom exec said to the other:
“We call it ‘deregulation’ but we mean ‘cashing in’.”
Fall of the Empire…..As someone once said…
Q: How ya doin today?
A: Oh,,,just circling the drain……
Goodbye America,,,
I think that a law needs to be made that prevents any lobbyist from being able to ever be appointed to a cabinet position. Personally I feel that lobbying needs heavier restrictions imposed nationwide. Too much of our government is for sale to the highest bidder.
Ah, I found the exact quote. From Crooks and Liars, no less:
“Will Congress let us do it?” Whitacre asks his colleagues. “You bet they will - cuz we don’t call it cashin’ in. We call it ‘deregulation.’
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....eutrality/
what? another goddamn bushie throwing yet another temper tantrum…. say it aint so….
“The Internet treats censorship as though it were a malfunction and routes around it.” -John Gilmore.
if they place rules on 700MHz transmissions via specific TCP/IP protocols… someone will just invent another minute change to the way data and media is transferred from point A to point B and back again.
at first the heavyweights with their big bad “popular” websites will mock the content from the new ‘net. then they’ll want it. then they’ll setup portals and share sites. then they’ll try to take that over. then they probably will.
and the hackers will figure out some other new way to reinvent the wheel.
this net neutrality bullshit - and this conversation - really underscores the administration’s shadiness, but its not like the sky is falling. the internet community’s current pecking structure is pretty much here to stay, no matter how much money Rupert Murdoch or how much legislation Dick Cheney try to throw at it in an attempt to change it. all of “YOU” won Time’s Person Of The Year for a reason
AccuRadio, along with thousands of other U.S. webcasters, plans to turn off our music streams and go silent for 24 hours today, Tuesday, June 26th.
http://www.accuradio.com/
Good point burnt.
Althought the only thing they have shown any true skill at is being able to squeeze vast sums of money out of the pockets of the majority of America. I trust that if there is a big enough dollar sign attached, the squeeze is on.
It is really inappropriate for him to shout down this question. It is an extremely good question, and needs to be answered.
The U.S. telecom industry isn’t a “free market.” It is a mess which is at once underregulated and overregulated, in which different players are subject to wildly different levels of regulation and taxation based upon the type of technology that they use, and in which the U.S. government — under the guise of letting the marketplace work — has been gradually strangling the traditional wireline phone companies, while letting wireless and cable companies go almost unregulated.
And then all the industry players beat each other to a pulp in Congress and up front of the FCC, and nothing happens.
So there are plenty of market and regulatory distortions that affect how broadband gets deployed in this “market.” That being said, the cable companies are rapidly building out their high speed networks — at least in urban areas, in places where they will make lots of money. The Bell companies are slower — partially because of regulatory uncertainty over investing a lot in their networks (and then getting undercut on price by competitive carriers that get to lease those same networks and compete against the Bells), and also because of mandates that they build out to EVERYBODY and not just rich neighborhoods where they will make the best return … but also partially because they are the Bell companies, and do things at a glacial pace. And Wall Street has been skeptical of broadband deployment since the flameout in the telecom market six or seven years ago.
Beyond the issue of cost recovery, I think that the main difference between broadband deployment in Europe and the U.S. is geography. In Europe, you can build an expensive network and get LOTS of people paying to use it due to population density. The U.S. is more spread out — even in the suburbs to major cities. Broadband ain’t cheap to deploy — and the more people you can get on your network, the better chance you have of recovering your costs.
All that being said? The U.S. government is completely out to lunch on how things can work better. The FCC fiddles around between singing hymns to the free market and worrying about coverage to lower income and remote areas … the Executive Branch plays friends and enemies, based on who their biggest supporters are … Congress is hopelessly bollixed up with “Net Neutrality” … and so on. In the absence of clear policy directions and good regulators, the U.S. will continue to muddle along. Behind the Europeans.
– Bokonon
Politicians keep forgetting that the purpose of regulation is not to harm Capitalism, but to protect Democracy.
We have many old men elected time after time that should have been retired a long time ago deciding about new technology that they do not understand. How low will we go in retaining those over the hill professional politician!
We need to change in our constitution.
It was written so long ago that they only use the tools in the time they had. We need to limit both house to 2 terms and even the Supreme Court to 10 years. I am for getting rid of the electoral delegates and crazy convention that seems more like an extravaganza parties that cost billion for nothing while millions in this country are going to bed hungry every night! I am for a winner takes all. Our fore fathers put that in the 1776’s because horses and carriages was the only way to communicate the results. We also need to stop this madness of a 2 years election that was started by the 24 hours network.
We also need to get rid of K street lobbyists who are full of our ex-politicians. Let them go back home and do good for the people they were suppose to represent and lost because they were so self center. We do not need more millionaires that get rich on us.
Well, I should be grateful at least that this isn’t another article about that woman.
Just a reminder, we are still living under the occupation of Dick Cheney and his newly formed government of Dick Cheney. Just in case anyone cares.
free market = my clients’ near monopoly position is wildly profitable so fuck off.
.
Oh, you all have no idea how bad this country has done in terms of bringing broadband access to Americans.
Dial up access to the Internet is irrelevant. Access to the Internet at the old “telephone modem” rate of 56K is outdated and outmoded. What every American should have, in some form or another, is access to high speed Internet services (Broadband).
I don’t care where you live–why can’t Americans get their Internet via VSAT or via wireless means? Why aren’t we building networks everywhere in this country to give everyone broadband?
This website will tell you everything you need to know about where this country ranks in relationship to the world. We are slipping to 20th and the likes of this fellow, highlighted above, are to blame.
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0607/
Shouting down your fellow American because you have done a crappy job? Sounds just like the Bush Administration.
Dothehop @ 11:
DING DING DING
WHAT DO WE GOT FOR HIM JOHNNY
Great; sounds like the kind of money-shilling shithead who is typical of the Bush administration. When will we be free from these goons who are thralls to big business?????
Pale Rider, I agree that we are slipping. The country really has no coherent policy for bringing broadband access to the majority of Americans. The current approach — which is a shrug and a whistle — seems to be to let broadband deployment happen wherever private companies feel like doing it, under the current mess of federal and state regulations, without any central regulatory policy or direction. That is what they mean by the “free market” — even though the U.S. telecom market is anything but a free market, after all the regulatory distortions are done.
I’ve been traveling through SE Asia recently and I am amazed that people with almost no income there have access to both the internet and cell phones. None were dial up speeds - all ADSL, DSL and cable. We have fallen so far behind that the average person making $50 a week in SE Asia has better internet access than the average public school teacher in my State.
burnt @ 14:
Yes! Exactamundo.
Much like updating our voting machines, “fixing” the internet is a solution without a problem. What exactly is wrong with the way the internet works now? Nothing. Just like nothing was wrong with our old reliable hand-punched ballots.
These fascists are going to have to pry this keyboard from my cold dead hands.
Without the internet, the world won’t hear us scream.
when you can’t win with reason and facts and truth…….SHOUT THEM DOWN…look familiar?
I’m sick of these fucking mindless fools. These are the asswipes running the country. With the head asswipe in charge.
Ya know. I really don’t have the energy.
They want this fucked up system of theirs so bad. They can have it.
Doesn’t this just say everything you want to know
about the Busheviks and their Authortarian Free Enterprise?
Or call it Corporatism.
Now this is an Issue we all need to pay very careful attention to!
This issue needs to be explained to everyone you know.
We cannot allow these bastards to monopolize our net.
Especially in regards to the next generation of the internet!..
Its ours…
There is nothing free about the U.S.`s alleged “free” market.It`s dictated by the friends and cronies of the Deceider.who according to Dana Perino has promoted himself to the “Enforcer.”
Empty Suits not held accountable for all these illegal acts.
Corruption in the 21st Century by “OUR” Government is absolutely off the scale.
When are the people of America going to get it.
[Deleted. Not a “How Would Ron Paul Be Better” thread here-Sitemonitor]
Just another “Yes-man” with his head up his proverbial a**, unable to think clearly for himself and indebted to big money for his powerful position.
He probably think that brains are automatically endowed with the position. He is wrong.
not stupid @ 19:
not stupid @ 19:
I am against winner take all. That is what got us stuck in this two party system where they spend more time being anticompetitive than competing. We definitely need to change the way elections are conducted so that we get rational and collaborative representative government, not winner take all between antagonists. We need to develop a public voice, not to have some narrow choice. Funny how more competition tends to make participants more cooperative. It is time by apply antitrust principles to politics.
Strip these corporations of “personhood”. Amend the constitution so they can no longer abuse the 14th amendment. These corporation won’t rest until they have liquidated the planet and all its inhabitants.
They should all be hanging from/with CAT 5 cables, multi-colored, of course.
Worst case, this corrupt ideologue succeeds in destroying net neutrality and open access. In January ‘09, it can all be overturned. Any of his actions selling out to the duopoly in the meantime can be held up under restrianing order pending court reviews.
The fascists are running out of time. Eventually, the FCC is going to be restored to integrity - assuming the next president, most likely a Democrat, is not a corporatist whore.
Kneuer was a top phone industry lobbyist… That right there is all one needs to know about this guy and his agenda.. Of course he and his kind will always downplay net neutrality and promote their ficticious free market schemes.. Make no mistake, there is no free market where he and his kind want to take the internet though I love to pervert that phrase, ‘free market’.
I think it would have been most appropriate if all the tech experts and got up and walked out enmasse on this sorry fuckers little tirade… Just as soon as he went ballistic…. Well maybe it might have been a bit newsworthy if one of them had taken a moment to spit in this liars face on the way out….Jus my opinion… I’d a been happy to do the spittin part.. But I wasn’t invited… JD
Whoops, ” ‘they’ love to pervert that phrase”….. So much for spell check…. I guess I just have to go back to checking it myself..
Also not a gaurentee either…. Oh well………..JD
GOP shows it’s “base” is abuse, arrogance, and incivility. People who are screaming, and not using reason, have lost an argument. There is no reason to respect them.
However, there is no reason to treat them with respect. Anything they’ve done — abuse, betray, lie, use deceipt — may be lawfully used against them. It is for them to explalin why they can do to others what they will not allow to be done to them.
“Bush Official Shouts Down Experts” Ah, the high art that is conservative dialogue
Will Net Neutrality kill Web 2.0? That’s what The Register asked the tech experts including Robert Kahn, one of the internet’s founding fathers. The answer: quite possibly which is why my coalition is calling for a Hands Off approach to net neutrality.
Badly written legislation that tries to implement the Apple Pie ideal of “Net Neutrality” threatens such advances, however. Last year’s amendments to the Telecomm bill had the unintended consequence of outlawing for-fee QoS. A “neutral” net ensures there’s one slow lane for everyone; that’s something the net’s most distinguished engineers - including Robert Kahn - think is insane.
Lobbyists are supposed to be diplomatic and well spoken, no? How come the right feels the need to shout at everybody? It reminds me of the senseless phrase we may have all heard: “I’m right because i said so”. Oh, and a telecom lobbyist, huh? Can anybody help me find my country again? I believe it is lost.
This reminds me of when the communists would say on TV that they had record grain harvests even after a devastating drowt.