Net neutrality ain't tennis talk

I encountered a new phrase on my Facebook page the other day. (Yep, Farmville and Mobsters has kept me away from my blog. So sad.) A group wanted me to join Al Franken and fight for net neutrality. What??? Sounds like Venus Williams is charging the net again.

No, this refers to actually keeping the internet the way it is and should always be. NN supporters don't want a tiered network where free things become fewer and popular sites require a fee. Nor do they want our mobile access of the virtual world to be treated differently than our wired ethernet connection. Yeah, the internet (as it is so loosely called now) is messy, chaotic, sometimes pornographic, occasionally frustrating. But it's out there for everyone to use! It enabled protesters of the last Iran "election" to send photos worldwide, letting us know the abuse and crackdown that was happening. It re-connects us with old high school buddies, if we want to re-connect at all. I can read news from around the world and gain more than American perspective.

So why has this become an issue now? Doesn't the FCC have regulations in place to protect us from the corporate hooligans? Fortunately, Al Franken gave a speech this month and warned that net neutrality is the first amendment issue of our times. And when someone spouts 1st Amendment, I pay attention. (There's a reason why our Founding Fathers made it number one.) Yet, for reasons I can neither fathom nor follow, the FCC has thrown up its hands on the issue because it can't get all the corporate giants to play well with each. The FCC can't seem to write legislation that Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Google and other corporate giants like.

EXCUSE ME??????? Why do corporate bigwigs get a seat at the table of regulation? Oh, I know the pat answer. They don't want anyone to "restrict innovative practices and deprive investors of a worthwhile return." Well, gee, they don't seem to have any problem raising my bill because the CEO wants to fart in a crystal bowl instead of a porcelain toilet like the rest of us. My Verizon bill went up $4 last month. Why? Because they could. Yep, that's the answer the phone rep gave me. And I guarantee that if Verizon can raise landline prices willynilly, they will damn sure raise "access fees" on the net. After all, those crystal bowls are small and have to be replaced frequently.

The Google-Verizon platform will basically create a public/private internet. You'll still be able to access some things for free (much like those free movies offered through On Demand that were filmed in 1971), but you'll pay for the good stuff. Now, Google and Verizon think they are capitulating by saying that any such private, tiered system would only apply to wireless, mobile devices. Gee, ain't that swell? Because mobile isn't the future, is it?

I'm old enough to remember when cable television was going to be great. You had to pay for it, because they didn't run commercials. And the company had to get money from somewhere. Well, the next thing you know, a few advertisements crept in. Then more, and more and now we pay for hour-long infomercials.

The FCC needs to turn squirrel and grow some big nuts. Piss off the corporations. They've certainly pissed us off over the years. The FCC is in the business of protecting the American people, as much as any branch of the military. And right now, I feel like the man in Tiananmen Square in 1989, waving his red flag to keep the tanks of corporate greed at bay.