"Net Neutrality Wins Iowa"

Matt Stoller writes in Open Left:

In mid-November, Barack Obama laid down some truly remarkable and transformative proposals for the internet, including a strong embrace of net neutrality. Edwards also put out a series of similar policy ideas embracing openness and net neutrality, chiming in during the very imporant 700 megahertz auction of the public airwaves. Clinton, by contrast, laid out a set of proposals written by telecom lobbyists that did not include net neutrality.......

Interestingly enough, on the right, Mike Huckabee has embraced net neutrality at least in concept, whereas every other Republican has not. First on a conference call with bloggers, and then on a Tech President video, Huckabee analogized the internet to the highway system and decried a two tiered set of controls. It's not a full-throated embrace, but it's pretty close.

Comment: I am not a single issue voter, especially not on the issue of net neutrality, but perhaps this is a bellwether issue. The candidates that are really for a change in the way we do things are also for a net neutrality.

I recently thought of two questions to ask of my local Congressional candidates. They were:

• What can the Congress do to restore the good name of the United States government in the world at large (given the increasing antipathy in the Islamic world, Latin America and Russia, and the feeling among our best allies that we don't consult and among the poor nations of the world that we don't care)?
• What can the Congress do to be sure that the United States stays on the leading edge of the economic wave caused by the Information Revolution, while not suffering from a decay in our democracy due to the misuse of the technology?

There are lots of major problems: Iraq, Israel and Palestine, control of nuclear weapons, climate change and environmental degradation more generally, failure to deal with the legitimate needs of the poor (especially access to health care and insurance), signs of an economic recession, an inadequate educational system, massive illegal immigration, and international terrorism.

Still, it we have a strong democracy, a strong economy, and the respect of the other nations of the world, our government should be able to work out the details! JAD