It's Election Season: Time For Presidential Candidates To Announce That The Internet Is Good
from the but-what-are-you-going-to-do? dept
Remember back in 2004, when both presidential candidates spouted totally meaningless statements about how important universal broadband connections were? If you go to that link, you'll see that President Bush stated that his plan (which didn't include any details, of course) would be to get "universal, affordable access to broadband technology by the year 2007." Ah, how did that work? Oh, right. This is politics, where you say a lot of stuff that people want to hear, but there's no reason to back it up. So, don't put too much stock as each of the new candidates for the job talk about the importance of investing in the internet either. First up, we've got Hillary Clinton, who is making some news by announcing her "Connect America" plan, which is designed to get broadband companies to offer broadband where it isn't. What, like the Universal Service Fund, which was designed to get telecom access to underserved areas, and instead became a way for big telcos to pocket extra money from customers with bogus fees? So, yes, improving the broadband access in the country is a worthy goal, and I'm sure we'll be hearing lots of presidential candidates on all sides of the political spectrum talk about it -- but it will be quite amazing if any of them comes up with anything substantial or, for that matter, real enough that we'd ever see it in practice.
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Filed Under: broadband, broadband policies, politics, presidential election
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Hillary
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Re: Hillary
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Re: Hillary
Every election is the same choice, at douche and a turd sandwich. You pick which one you hate less
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Re: Re: Hillary
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Re: Re: Hillary
It would be nice if this time around a third party got the requisite 5% of the popular vote required to actually participate in the PBS Presidential Debates. On that note, if it's PBS, how come the whole field of candidates isn't invited automatically, by merit of being "the public"?
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Re: Hillary
Sen. Obama, I realize, was pumped by the media, but I've taken the time to actually read his books, as well as research his past mistakes and successes. They tend to fall in line with a human being, and to break out of the Politician mold. Certainly he is a politician, but he seems to be a new type of politician who is attempting to capitalize on the very cynicism you express. His chance for success lays largely in his ability to convince people like Anonymous Coward that he's a legitimate leader, and not merely another player of the game.
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internet
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haha
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Re: haha
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Why?
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Re: Why?
Glad to hear some sense being spoken.
Few and far between is the project any government agency complete on time and under budget and meeting the goals involved.
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So what?
Here are some items that should have WAY more importance that whether the people in the middle of Kansas should have access to broadband:
#1: End the war in Iraq.
#2: Decide how to spend the $100 billion we didn't spend in Iraq.
#3: Good health care for everyone.
#4: Build up better relations with the rest of the countries in the world.
#5... #199: assorted crime prevention programs, assorted poverty-fighting programs, better sex education in schools (offering more than "abstinence only" programs), etc.
#200: Universal broadband Internet access.
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Re: So what?
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Re: Broadband #200 and Ron Paul
Especially went taking into account the importance in the Network in advancing America's hegemony.
And sure, Ron Paul's position on the war is great.
But he wants to destroy the department of education.. and labor..and, really, pretty much everything, except for some local militias.
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