Net Neutrality Update -- Markey's back
Net Neutrality champion Ed Markey will take the reins of the House Telecom and Internet Subcommittee.
As we said the other day, it's no slam dunk that Net Neutrality will be approved by the new Congress. But, the odds got better with Rep. Ed Markey's decision to take back the Telecommunications Subcommittee next year.
Markey was the House's great champion on Net Neutrality, as well as on a host of other telecom issues. His welcome announcement comes as the Government Accountability Office issued a new report finding there's less telecom competition out there than we thought in the big-business market, which was supposed to be more competitive than consumers have at home. The report also chastized the FCC for not keeping up with what's going on in the telecom industry.
You sure Markey's the right guy for the job? Last I checked, he was calling for the arrest of a grad student who discovered a flaw in the way boarding passes work at airports.
Let's hope he understands net neutrality better than security...
(Grad student will not be prosecuted, by the way.)
Dissent Protects Democracy.
December 1, 2006 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was at a talk Markey gave to a college Institute of Politics group. (It was a pretty good one, actually. Shrum gave a talk. A couple of local power brokers showed up.) If I remember right, he was elected in the '74 democratic wave. He was 25 or just barely more than that.
He did not strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. But he has been pretty solid in support of net neutrality.
December 1, 2006 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
He did, but Markey backed off a couple of days later, apparently he spoke before learning the circumstances and the student's intentions. BoingBoing has some more info and opinions about it.
December 3, 2006 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the info. At least he's willing to admit a mistake.
Dissent Protects Democracy.
December 4, 2006 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink