 Verizon/AT&T mobile cell towers given to McCain’s campaign |
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is the top recipient of campaign contributions from large Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast over the past two years, according to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics. McCain has taken in a total of $894,379 (much of that money going to support his failed 2008 bid for the presidency), more than twice the amount taken by the next-largest beneficiary, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) $341,089.
Meanwhile, McCain has emerged as the ISPs’ biggest champion against new “network neutrality” rules from the Federal Communications Commission, which voted Thursday to move forward in the process to adopt such rules. Shortly after the FCC vote, McCain introduced a bill (the “Internet Freedom Act“) that would block regulation of the nation’s largest broadband networks.
Net neutrality rules would amount to a federal mandate that broadband providers cannot block or hinder the internet traffic of any web site or service, regardless of whether or not that site or service completes with a similar site or service offered by the ISP itself. In other words, a telco ISP could not limit bandwidth used for Skype VoIP traffic, while maximizing bandwidth available for its own VoIP service.
As Congress considers legislation that would codify net neutrality into law, cable and phone companies are hoping to cut a better deal on Capitol Hill than they are likely to get from the FCC, the Sunlight Foundation’s Bill Allison says…
The telecom interests also targeted House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. ($275,275), Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus, D-Mont. ($248,999) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ($198,972).
Congressional democracy in action. Money buys everyone. Senior politicians just cost more.
Woah, let’s not forget how much money Barack Hussein Obama took from the telcos during his presidential run.
Perhaps the old fart is leading the fight because he’s come to his good senses in his old age.
McCain has always been and will always be a coin operated politician.
McCain coin operated? I thought he was fueled by puppy dog souls and Ben-Gay, but I suppose that was just another smear from the left.
Furthermore, find me a politician anywhere, ever that wasn’t corrupt to the bone.
Perhaps the government should get the hell out of the internet business altogether and actually allow real competition to occur.
Hey John, ever read PC Magazine (you know, that online publication the posts your column):
http://pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354636,00.asp
Here’s an idea: why don’t you and your neighbors pool your money and start your own ISP that does not engage in throttling shenanigans? No, Why not? …because armed goons in swat gear and automatic weapons will bust in your door, steal your stuff and throw you in cage. And in the event that you do not want to go to a cage, they will shoot you.
Don’t give me that ‘it’s too expensive for new players’ nonsense. There are currently alot of unhappy customers and plenty of money to be made. Some enterprising entrepreneurs could make it happen if you just got rid of the government granted monopolies that currently exist.
When Barack Hussein Obama gets kicked to the curb in a few years (if there’s still a USA by that time), perhaps we can use the forthcoming government control of the internet as precedent to silence all those liberal nutcase blogs.
# 6 Alfred1 said,
“John McCain is a man of integrity…a patriot…
AT&T etc support him because he has similar beliefs…the money didn’t create the belief.”
.
Even if this is true, how can the American public ever know for sure with a system that supports private and corporate payments to public official?
Because John McCain says so???
Because AT&T says so???
How can you expect the public to ever trust a system that encourages something that “looks”, “feels” and many times acts like a bribe?
“Pentagon to use cyborg flies to spy on people”
http://joshfulton.blogspot.com/2009/10/pentagon-to-use-brain-dead-cyborg.html
“Given” to McCain’s campaign?…what does he do with them nowadays. Show-and-Tell for his great-great grandchildren? 😉
John Sidney McCain’s name is on a campaign finance reform that apparently is so broken that he’s not required to recuse himself when he’s taken nearly a million dollars from the corporations that he’s protecting.
Follow the money. That is one of the golden rules to teach your kids.
McCain is just another paid off right wing politician. It’s astonishing how this country has evolved into a government run by special interest groups.
The right wink loonies applaud this because they get fed the usual ration of “this is a good thing” by the fascist media channel Fox News. Clueless sheep
StoopidFlanders,
Your post in #5 is completely answered by your last sentence…
Dallas,
It is worth repeating:
Follow the money.
Now we know…
“John McCain is a man of integrity…a patriot…”
Yes, McCain is a patriot.
He just happens to be a very incompetent patriot.
Patriot? What the hell is that?, some sort of maverick? Better to put your trust in a decrepit old hack than a double-talking lair such as those whom Barack Hussein Obama surrounds himself with.
The Sunlight Foundation, bringing light into those dark congressional hallways. http://www.sunlightfoundation.com
And if you’re an AT&T, Verizon or Comcast subscriber, YOU are paying for all that shit.
Eideard: s/completes/competes/
It’s interesting that the ones who yell things like “free market” and
“capitalism” and such are the same thugs who work hardest to thwart those ideals by buying monopolies from politicians.
And they are successful at it.
#13 said it right about the American people – clueless sheep.
Good thing he’s not the prez.
And so much was made over McCain’s (or McCash?) war record. He was a pilot, not a front line combat soldier. He got shot down and made a POW. But his dad was some big admiral. So you can bet the enemy treated just a little bit better, than most prisoners. Something that gets glossed over a lot. Anyway. Decades later he’s an overpriced slimeball for hire. And probably was long before, when he was helping out his friend. Mr. Charles Keating, of Arizona. Which McCain managed to clear himself of. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t sell out his state, for money.
#23 Good point.
Sheeple like to forget that McCain wiggled his way out of the Charles Keating fiasco. Since he served in combat (respectfully), sheeple see that a permanent immunity idol.
Sheeple, even in “Survivor” the immunity idol needs to get turned in.
http://realchange.org/mccain.htm
#20, It’s interesting that the ones who yell things like “free market” and “capitalism” and such are the same thugs who work hardest to thwart those ideals by buying monopolies from politicians.
And they are successful at it.
Agreed. Both of the major parties are so deep in debt to special interests, they don’t have a clue how to fix anything without risking being “suicided.”
Holy crap Alfred, stop copy pasting your posts. The only thing worse than reading your nonsense is reading the same nonsense over and over.
“Congressional democracy in action. Money buys everyone. Senior politicians just cost more.”
In the words of the prophet, “In the exact manner.”
All of you GOP die hards, read the bill b4 you spit out your nonsense.
This an example that you will probably understand…
You hired a driver to drive you where ever you want to go. You are paying him a monthly salary to do this. Then one day, you said, I want to go to my parents house. The driver said, “Sorry I can’t take you there”. You ask him why, he said, coz your parent’s didn’t pay me.
The driver is AT&T and those ISPs, you are paying them to drive you, but they are saying, the destination places should also pay them.
And your GOP politicians are on the side of these corporations. But I hope you have it your way, let these ISP companies control which website you get to visit, while the rest of the world are free.