Jake Johnson at Common Dreams writes—With Friday Deadline, These 16 House Democrats About to Go Down in History for Helping GOP Kill Internet as We Know It:
The U.S. House still has an opportunity to side with the vast majority of the American public and overturn the Republican-controlled FCC's net neutrality repeal, but time is quickly running out.
With Friday, Dec. 21, marking the official deadline to restore net neutrality in this session of Congress, the House still needs 38 signatures to pass the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would reverse the FCC's deeply unpopular repeal, which was crafted by agency chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai.
According to Fight for the Future, 16 Democrats—all of whom are major recipients of telecom cash—still haven't signed on to the CRA. To pass, the CRA needs every Democrat and at least 22 Republicans to sign on before the Friday deadline.
The 16 House Democrats who still haven't signed on to the Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure to restore net neutrality protections are: Reps. Brandon Boyle (Pa.), Robert Brady (Pa.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Matt Cartwright (Pa.), Jim Costa (Calif.), Henry Cueller (Texas), Dwight Evans (Pa.), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Gene Green (Texas), Tom O'Halleran (Ariz.), Brad Schneider (Ill.), David Scott (Ga.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Filemon Vela (Texas), and Pete Visclosky (Ind.).
View the full list of House members who have yet to back the CRA here.
"Lawmakers have no excuse. Signing on to the CRA discharge petition is the clearest way to show support for real net neutrality protections. It's a simple up or down vote on the future of the free and open web," Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, said in a statement. "Any rep who doesn't sign is making it clear that they don't really support net neutrality, and would rather take money from big telecom companies than side with the overwhelming majority of voters from across the political spectrum." [...]
"The internet still works. But unless something changes soon, either in the courts or in Congress, it might not work the same way for very much longer," noted Slate's April Glaser. "Internet service providers stand to make a killing without net neutrality rules, since they can essentially operate a two-way toll, charging both subscribers for access to the internet and websites to reach subscribers at faster speeds."
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~~Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
TWEET OF THE DAY
On this date at Daily Kos in 2009—Magical Thinking Prevails in Copenhagen:
With demonstrators being arrested every day and non-traditional media, plus some mainstream media, being kept out of discussions, the climate change talks in Copenhagen are teetering on the precipice of outright failure. While some progress has been made, even the arrival of the chiefs of more than 100 governments Friday, including President Barack Obama, seems unlikely to accomplish in less than 24 hours what hasn't been achieved in two weeks of talks or the months of preparation for them.
Meanwhile, long-time environmental advocate Bill McKibben revealed in a Daily Kos diary Thursday afternoon, and traditional media subsequently have reported, leaked documents from the United Nations call into serious question governments' claims that they are aiming for carbon dioxide cuts that would hold average global temperatures to a rise of 2°C over the next century. Instead, the cuts could allow a temperature rise of 3°C or 4°C, with more than 550 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That's well above the 350 ppm scientists believe is a (relatively) safe level.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Turns out people think Trump benefited from Russian misinformation. And American! Weird! Greg Dworkin has news and polls, and points to 2018's best local investigative reporting in every state. NC-09 gets worse, again. The POTUS who got arrested.
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