Senator Al Franken (man, that still sounds a bit weird) speaking at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit at Georgetown University yesterday about the issue of net neutrality.
If you’ve never explored this controversial telecommunications issue before, listening to his speech (more of it here, here and here) is a pretty good place to start. (I’m sure others can provide more links in the comments to other resources about this subject if they’re inclined to do so…)
And to all those right-wingers who thought Franken was nothing but a ridiculous liberal “clown” — well, fuck you. Do you think that unctuous slimebag and Bush pole-stroker Norm Coleman would have stood up in Congress for your right to fair and open net access? No, I didn’t think so either.
h/t: Thanks to Mox News for another yeoman job capturing this!
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
He’s turning out to be one of the best senators – so much so, O’Reilly, apparently, is now questioning his election.
The next Paul Wellstone — Al’s hero.
He’s amazing.
this type of thinking is why the left is behind in the polls, makes no sense and to pat on the back some joke like franken, is just plain ridiculous, that type of thinking is what’s sinking the liberal party, leftist like him, obama, pelosie and co., the mounting deficits, dept, trillions, political mayhem, actualy makes harper look sane, and no one is in the mood to take a chance at change we can believe in, it is not the liberal party’s fault, its just wrong place at the wrong time. I would also say that fox is in the mist also, they, unlike the others, wrong or right, are doing one hell of a job attacking the left. As i have looked at the blogs, news, party’s messages, everyone seems to be at a lost at what to do, denouncing these irresponsible spendings would be a start. Straight talk, fiscal responsibility, so on, would be better that just nagging at the polls.
bit early in the morning for grammar and rationality eh Justanother?
Hmmm, “Justanother” what, I wonder…
Can anyone translate “Justanother” to something coherent ? He/She made absolutely no sense….
Wingnutese is only supposed to make sense to other wingnuts CWTF.
Justanother — I’m guessing it would be a waste of time arguing with you. “this type of thinking”… Huh? I was talking about net neutrality. Did you even bother to watch/listen to the video or consider what the topic was before puking up your illiterate diatribe? Go back to sleep and spare us from your addlepated idiocy.
Firstly, I agree entirely with Franken’s commentary. Well stated, and very appropriate for our time. Contrary to what partisans in our midst like to suggest, “freedom of speech” is not a right/left issue. It is an issue that pits those of us who value freedom against those of us who believe “they” know better for us what we see, read, and listen to. And that comes from the right and the left.
So – believe it or not, when this conservative hears Al Franken talk about the need for a neutral and open playing field, he doesn’t just dismiss it as “liberal lunacy”.
But – translating “Justanother”, who clealry is in the midst of a mental breakdown from recent LPC poll numbers.. it’s not enough to just see one side of the ledger, being “need”. We have to also look at the other side, “ability to pay”. Canadians are struggling with keeping jobs, finding homes, and much of that requires an improved economy, and an improved business climate, so that “business”, is induced to hire the unemployed. And the current incarnation of the LPC is not paying sufficient attention, perhaps, to that side of the ledger. (Can you say, “Greenshift”?).
Anyhow.
Good post R/T.
Except for the “fuck-you” to “right wingers”. Some of us understand a good idea, even when it comes from the other side of the political spectrum.
Except for the “fuck-you” to “right wingers”.
Well someone has to say it. You sure as hell won’t.
..knock knock.
Who’s there?
Someone who has nothing of substance to contribute to the conversation.
Oh.. well, come right in Ti-Guy.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
Sorry. Laughing at my own joke. Bad form and all that.
Still.
See, Rob? I made your day. I brought a little laughter into your life.
I can’t help it. I’m a giver.
We have serious problems with net neutrality in Canada. I can’t even watch this clip, since Rogers is throttling YouTube and other sites. Despite my service being, supposedly, twice as fast as a year ago, streaming video is slower than ever. And yet, through the exact same cable feed, Rogers On Demand can stream gigabytes of (crap) programming effortlessly.
I want all media corporations to go bankrupt. After that, we’ll figure out how to rebuild.
LOL..
It brings to mind the shenanigans going on during the early days of the U.S. bailouts.. this feeling like there is a bigger, broader, animal which profits from the expansion of partisan angst.. you know, “Look what THEY are going now..” sort of thinking. Distracting us from the reality that the “us” and “them” may not be the “right” and “left”.
The “us” may be those who do not have the money and the clout to pressure government (Liberal or Conservative) to respond to our concerns, and the “them” being those who do.
I mean, AIG gave gobs of money to the Republicans AND the Democrats. And, looking at current health care discussions – is there any doubt that the massive amounts of money being dolled out to “lobbyists” by the health care industry isn’t touching both sides of the political fence?
And isn’t that what Franken is actually talking about.. in the context of the internet?
“Look what THEY are going now..” sort of thinking. Distracting us from the reality that the “us” and “them” may not be the “right” and “left”.
That the corporate elites are famously apolitical isn’t exactly news. The political impasse we’ve reached in Canada is in fact a symptom of a civil war among Canada’s business elites.
That’s why CanWest’s slide into creditor protection today is (potentially) good news.
Al’s still making me proud to have voted for him, but I knew that he was going to any way.
I think he’s already shown his mettle in the way he handled those teabaggers that tried to ambush him.
Thanks for posting that c-c, good clip.
C-C: Yeah, that was a stellar moment. Nice when calm reasonableness triumphs over deranged insanity. 🙂
Rob — I like to think that folks on the right and left can unite on different issues — coming at them from our different perspectives and reasons perhaps, but nonetheless combining forces to agree on what the best course of action is or should be. This senseless hammer and tongs partisan battle that goes on all the time gets a bit wearisome and futile.
For example, it should be agreed that as citizens we all want “accountability” and “transparency” from our government. This isn’t a left/right issue and I don’t give a damn who’s in power at the time — we should all be joining forces to demand that our governments (at all levels) really deliver on their promises (which they all do) in this regard rather than just pay lip service to the concept(s) until such time as they get elected when they get conveniently forgotten, derailed or effectively circumvented.
Anyway, that’s how I feel about net neutrality and various copyright/intellectual property issues. They’re not political per se and shouldn’t necessarily be viewed that way. There’s nothing more useful to the powers that be than keeping the peons divided amongst themselves fighting over stupid crap that doesn’t matter a damn while they rig bids, funnel money to their friends, and feather their own nests.
p.s. Sorry about the foul language, but to those of us who know and love Al, the dismissive “clown” comments from ignorant jackasses like… [insert name of right wing blogger here] were especially irksome.
I like to think that folks on the right and left can unite on different issues…
I can’t remember the last time that happened.
Despite my complete loathing of the man, Tom Flannagan is correct when he’s argued that politics (at least, our form of it) is essentially about competing groups among whom there is very little benefit in finding common ground. It’s been my experience in that last decade that it’s almost pointless talking to a partisan adversary, since the it’s never a question of learning from each other, but about winning.
The real novelty has been just how irrational the Right has become. And by irrational, I don’t mean crazy, necessarily. Just the willingness to believe things that aren’t true, or at best, have no basis in fact, as far as we know.
There is no common ground between those people and the rest of us. And there won’t be, until they understand that they just don’t have a knowledge base to support their beliefs about how the World really works.
On this, specific, technological issue, there will likely not be cause for disagreement (although the corporates will certainly try to make a case for one…and a good portion of the Right will swallow it open-throated). But on larger socio-economic issues, the Right should be forced to revisit about three decades of neoliberalism before they’re even allowed to open their mouths about what they believe good policy will be going forward.
“Sorry. Laughing at my own joke.”
at least, somebody got it.
KEvron
Well said Ti-Guy. I hover around blogs and once in awhile troll with nasty comments directed towards libertarians (not directed at you Rob, you can be reasonable enough). I rarely check back to see any response. It’s like arguing with a creationist, a geocentrist or a flat earther. Why are we expected to debate with someone whose entire belief system is based on complete fantasy? Might as well go sign up with a live action role playing group.
Why are we expected to debate with someone whose entire belief system is based on complete fantasy?
The online nobodies are just a symptom. The cause lies elsewhere. For English Canadians, I’m pretty sure it’s the result of a decades-long hate propaganda campaign carried out in Alberta.
Ti-Guy — I can’t remember the last time that happened. Etc.
Well, thanks a lot Debbie Downer.
It’s just me being naïve, I guess.
It’s been my experience in that last decade that it’s almost pointless talking to a partisan adversary, since the it’s never a question of learning from each other, but about winning.
Exactly.
But, at what point, do we stop to ask if “winning” is serving our own interests, let alone the broader society?
To use some examples.. if I hate Ezra Levant, so I champion the efforts of Richard Warran, and in the bargain, weaken my own ability to criticize, for example, Christian zealots, have I “won”?
From the other side.. if in my effort to attack Stephane Dion, I refuse to acknowledge at least the potential that the climate is changing due to human behavior, have i “win”?
Politics is sometimes stupid sport – where every idea from “my” side is good, and every idea on “your” side is bad.
Personally, I enjoy feeling free to attack Conservative policy and Liberal policy at my whim, even though, of late, my personal point of view tends to be more Conservative.
..err “Warman”.
Sorry.
And R/T.. rest assured while there may be those in the blog world and elsewhere that will never open their minds to voting for the “other” guy, there, clearly, are millions of Canadians who will.
And to them, the rest of us are indebted.
It’s just me being naïve, I guess.
You’re not being naïve, you’re being nice to our good friend Rob here. And optimistic.
These days, I’m not that optimistic. I was, briefly, last September, when I thought the American wingnuts would be getting the shock therapy they needed to come to their senses when the banks were being bailed out to the tune of a trillion dollars. I can’t remember if they even noticed.
But boy, did they notice when the current administration started directing public funds to things that actually matter (at least in theory…in practice, I don’t believe anything has really changed). They became even crazier. And their adversaries, sad to say, have become largely complacent.
So I’ve given up optimism for a while. It’s not really a burden for me, since I’ve always been far more fascinated with what doesn’t work, than with what does (which to me, is the default condition for how the World operates anyway).
Rob — I’ve never voted party line and some of my choices over time would seem kind of quirky and ideologically inconsistent. I’ve always believed in voting for the person who could best represent my interests and the common good. If that happens to be NDP, Liberal or Conservative… well, whatever. To me, that’s as it should be. I’ve voted for them all over the years and sometimes for other parties such as the Greens because I’ve been pissed at the major parties and just felt better about doing that than spoiling my ballot.
If “winning” and “team spirit” is all one cares about then, excuse me, but fuck you. (Not you but anyone who thinks that way — the rabid partisans… we all know who they are.) I’ve got no time or interest for such nonsense. These people should be involving themselves in sports where such attitudes are better appreciated.
But, at what point, do we stop to ask if “winning” is serving our own interests, let alone the broader society?
Before that question is asked, people should ask themselves: “Do I know what the hell I’m talking about?”
Most of this time-wasting “debate” has no influence on people’s democratic choices. I originally thought the Internet would facilitate a debate between “us* and our ruling class (the politicians and the media). But they’re not interested at all, for the most part, and the discussion is constantly hijacked and derailed by “Conservatives.” ie. Know-Nothings who at best, have never learned that there’s value in not saying anything at all.
But Ti-Guy.. let’s be honest. We all know nothing, or something close to it.. and that’s the healthiest default position to have, that I don’t know much, but I want to know more. It’s the guys that think everything is easy and black and white who are dangerous (can you way Wild Rose?)
My default is to say “fuck you” to anyone who tells me “this is the way it is, trust me”. And maybe I’ve been offside in my response to Al Gore and his monumental piece of propoganda, but at least I have been open to say, “maybe there’s something to this, but not just because the IPCC tells me so… let me find out more”.
Maybe the point isn’t to tell people what’s right, but to force them to get out of the freaking lineup to pick up their handy little “McAnswers” to actually do some work and ask themselves, “Why do you think this is a good idea? And what is your response to those who don’t agree?”
But Ti-Guy.. let’s be honest. We all know nothing, or something close to it.. and that’s the healthiest default position to have, that I don’t know much, but I want to know more.
Why are you explaining this to me? Go tell that to “Neo” at Halls of Macadamia or “MariaS” at Dodo Can Spell or “Hunter” at Climbing out of the Dark or Stephen Taylor at Stephen Taylor Presents: Stephen Taylor or Kate at Small Dead Animals or Sandy at Crux of the Matter or Gary Goodyear or Maurice Vellacott or Rob Anders or John Baird or Chery Gallant or Lorne Gunter or Charles Adler or Michael Coren or…
It seems that Rob H. would prefer to have a conversation with a thinking human instead of the drooling racists, rednecks and all around scum that seem to represent the Conservatives in this country…
The ill-tempered cart horse “Alberta Girl” called him ignorant the other day, on his blog.
I don’t know how he manages, quite frankly.
Rob — My default position is always one of skepticism — of the informed variety, I hope. If I slip away from that occasionally and let my emotions get the better of me, I’m sure there are plenty of folks who will be more than happy to slap me upside the head, point out my logical failure, detail how reasoning I employed is completely erroneous, or what have you. And I’ll be grateful to them for doing so… In fact, it will be fun and I’ll probably learn something from the exercise.
Many of your compatriots over in the tragically idiotic BT camp however are little more than thunder-stick slapping cheerleaders for Team Harper, mindless right-wing zombies, and when they’re not, they tend to be deranged lunatics, angry nutjobs, unhinged crackpots, racists, religious kooks or fringe conspiracy theorists who cannot tolerate any dissension or variance from what they perceive to be the truth.
Moreover, they’re not very amusing or interesting, both of which are cardinal sins in my book.
Of course, I could be a little biased in that assessment. 😉