It’s like the post in the supposedly satirical newspaper, The Onion: Terrifying Bill Passed During NBA Playoffs
Last night, June 8, 2006, we saw Game One of the 2006 NBA finals. Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to kill the internet. No exaggeration. The bill in question, the COPE Act (aptly named, since we’re now probably going to have to COPE with this hideous excuse of a bill) was passed by a pretty impressive margin in the House.
The bill was embedded with a national video franchise for telecommunications companies and sold to members of the House as a bill to help lower costs for U.S. cable television subscribers. If analogue legislation is passed by the U.S. Senate, and rubber-stamped signed by the White House, it would become law.
I’ve been commenting here and elsewhere about the stakes at issue, and have made it a serious point to work on this issue. There’s still time to get involved on this. There’s probably some time before the Senate votes, but not much.
I could be overreacting, especially since there are signs that the COPE Act to kill the internet might not get anywhere or very far in the Senate for a number of reasons. But if the Telecom chapter of the K Street Mafia can buy off one house of Congress, why not both?
Last Straw. Camel’s Back. Broken.
We need to do something about this. But in a different way. We need to defend this, but I think we can do so by going on the offensive. I’ll explain more in upcoming posts. But I at least wanted to get the ball rolling — if just to get a head of steam for me personally.
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