back to article US lawmaker injects ISP throttle into Obama rescue package

US Senator Dianne Feinstein hopes to update President Barack Obama's $838bn economic stimulus package so that American ISPs can deter child pornography, copyright infringement, and other unlawful activity by way of "reasonable network management." Clearly, a lobbyist whispering in Feinstein's ear has taken Comcast's now famous …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Isn't it time to....

    ...make betraying your country or the public you represent for profit or other such personal reasons to be considered treason?

    I mean whats the difference in betraying your country and its citizens to a foreign power or for profit? your still betraying them does not matter to whom or for what.

    Secondly why does America still have the rider system where you can tack on unrelated legislation?

    Can someone from America tell me can the citizens there start up and vote for legislation to control the policital system? Can you not make your own bills and have a vote on it? even if the bills start of state only if enough of them do it then the government will be forced to make it federal or get sued and accused if betraying there public office.

    Ba if the citizens of the US wanted to have a fair political system they could the last time they overthrowed an empire getting some bills past should not be as hard.

  2. kain preacher

    Christ

    Some one please send across the pond . Her and Jaqui can be best pals

  3. Eddy Ito
    Flame

    Fiendstein

    There, I fixed the spelling for you. Ever wonder what you get if you linked up the worst bits of DNA from both Mussolini and Stalin? You get Diane Feinstein. It's not that she's completely evil... well, yeah it kinda is.

  4. Hombre sin nombre

    Send her across the pond

    so she can reunite with her long-lost wacki twin.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Cost

    So how much 'economic stimulus' did this one set them back then?

  6. kain preacher

    @ first AC

    What you are talking about is called and initiative. Not all states allows initiative and its not allowed at the federal level. if it was god help us all.

  7. Darling Petunia
    Unhappy

    Hollywood

    Senator Feinstein is planning to run for Governor of California, home to the majority of RIAA cronies. Favors.

    Though a Democrat, Diane leans to the political right on too many issues. Her hubbie is CEO of an equity-investment management firm, and also serves on the board of Current Media LLC.

  8. Justin White
    Coat

    This is what the people wanted

    Just wondering out loud how long it will be until people flip around to waxing longingly for the days of former Pres. Bush. Moments like this are meant to teach us that policitians belong in the same category as lawyers, auto mechanics, and consultants.

    Mines the one with "Vote None of the Above" on the back.

  9. The Fuzzy Wotnot

    Bloody obvious it was going to happen...

    I think most see Mr Obama as a bit of a John Major figure, nice guy, bit soft but everyone needs a softy in tough times to be that kind, uncle figure.

    The various **AA orgs are getting nowhere fast through the courts, people are fighting back, so let's drop the direct Mr Nasty approach and see if we can slip something in under the radar a little bit of subtle control. Let's face it, a female politician pushing child protection, sympathy with the "soccer-mom" crowd?

    When we have our foot in the door, we'll really be able to tighten the screws to get exactly what we want and Job Public will be none the wiser, he will simply get used it without even realising it enshrined in law!

    Of course when did law ever stop anyone being naughty? Murder is against the law, but doesn't seemed to have stopped people knocking each other over the head for a few pennies does it?

  10. michael

    @first AC

    "...make betraying your country or the public you represent for profit or other such personal reasons to be considered treason?

    I mean what's the difference in betraying your country and its citizens to a foreign power or for profit? your still betraying them does not matter to whom or for what"

    unfortunate weather you like it or not the MPAA are still American citizens so he probably thinks he is doing the will of his country at least the ones that can afford to pay to whisper in his ear and after all an rt those pepol the real Americans making lots of good money for the good old USA?

  11. Adam Foxton
    Thumb Down

    "Reasonable Network Management"?

    Bwahahaha! You nonce, you were trying to download pictures of nekkid kids, but we've throttled your connection! You're down to dial-up speeds!

    Actually, she sounds like the sort of person who'd think that's not going far enough as pictures of kids would be smaller than those of adults...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    A mockery.

    1787, 1918, and 1945 called. They want their time, money, and lives back.

    They'd much rather have watched X-Factor and American Idol than died for the rights which are being stripped from you / us.

    You can't make a difference by writing an email. Go stand on Capitol Hill / Parliament Square until these parasites of Government are removed from their positions.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How?

    Why isn't there some rule in place to stop people tacking completely unrelated stuff onto bills like this?

  14. Joe K

    Nothing new

    Remember how all US internet gambling was obliterated by something that was mysteriously attached to a bill about protecting ports from terrorists?

    You think that never had some sort of mob/corrupt connections?

    The system is rotten to the core, a new administration isn't going to change that.

  15. Simon Ball
    Stop

    Can someone please explain to me....

    Why the US legislative process permits the inclusion of bits of legislation that have little, if anything, to do with primary (or even secondary) purpose of the bill they are attached to? Does it not show contempt for democracy to get legislation that won't stand on its own merits passed, merely by attaching it to something more worthy?

    I understand that this practise inhibits the power of the executive to veto individual programmes, but this singular advantage would seem to be massively outweighed by the sheer volume of legislative fluff and pork that it permits.

  16. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Re: Send her across the pond

    I have a better idea - let's send Jacqui Smith over to her instead. I am willing to finance provision of a suitable stab-proof vest for Jacqui (she's afraid to go out without one) - just take that obsessed control maniac out of this country. Forever.

  17. Pete Silver badge

    pig farmers in barrel buying frenzy

    This stopped being an economic rescue package ages ago. It's turned into good old pork-barrel politics, with every american politician trying to get their pet projects and friends' companies attached to it - whether or not the projects will provide an economic stimulus. Mostly the projects will just be payback for the financial help their sponsors provided during elections, or as a down-payment on a nice, cushy job when they either "retire" or get kicked out of the political game.

  18. James
    Thumb Down

    Just one flaw after another

    This near-trillion dollar porkfest was already ridiculous - projected by the Congressional Budget Office to achieve a total of a 0.1% *reduction* in GDP, at a cost of nearly a trillion dollars, over the long term. Does this thing have ANY redeeming features?! Probably not - yet still it's going to be rammed through, because of which pockets all the pork dollars end up in.

  19. The Badger

    Free Riders

    Is anyone going to tack on a rider "to support the perverted arts" as well?

  20. Tom

    American Politics is Rubbish

    This is reminiscent of how the UIGEA was tagged onto a port security bill in the middle of the night.

    It seems like the way to get your legislation through is to stick in with something else and hope nobody notices.

    What a joke.

  21. Reg Varney

    Many years ago she was described as...

    ... Diane Banker Butt-licking Margaret Thatcher Feinswine.

    I see she hasn't improved with age

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    ban all copyright infringers

    So that will include Universal and EMI, plus those like iTunes and Napster who assume that if an RIAA member company says a piece of music is licensed for download then they can believe them.

  23. nicholas22

    Disgusting

    It's appaling, is there something we can do about this? Where to complain?

  24. Tom

    This is all entirely predictable

    Elect fascists to positions of power in government, and your get fascistic laws. Pelosi, Reed, and Obama all derive their policy prescriptions from the progressive movement that spawned Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin. Following Augustus's precedent, they've put a velvet glove over the mailed fist, but it remains a mailed fist, inimical to the liberty of free citizens. The only thing more depressing than a slim majority of the country voting these fascists into power, is the complete abdication by the press of their responsibility for fair and accurate reporting of the facts before the election.

  25. kain preacher

    re Re: Send her across the pond

    No no no no no Vladimir Plouzhnikov , not unless you take bush , Cheney , rumsfeild and all of the neo cons .

    Plus she will demand a bullet proof vest and a Kevlar helmet as she would fear being shot shot by a Brit over here .

  26. null

    RE: Disgusting

    You can write a letter or e-mail to your senator so one of their staffers can gloss over it and throw it in the trash.

  27. John Werner

    @How

    It was called the "line item veto." US Presidents have long sought to have it, but it has continually been found unconstitutional. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-item_veto)

  28. Darling Petunia
    Linux

    Feinstein slipping ammendments

    As to what to do: If you're a US res, send a message and phone your two Senators, write editiorials to you local media (as this is not getting ANY U.S. news play).

    As to Tom. These folks are not fascists, they're a mixture of the dumb and the opportunists. The folks that just lost the election are fascists, and their Republican cronies, still in-office, are the fascists.

    It's monied vs. not.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Welcome to the scamming of America

    history will show that the proposed trillion dollar PORK package created to reward special interest will drive the U.S. economy into a decade long economic depression and increase the national debt another two trillion dollars. The bread and soup lines form on the right and the left.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Big Brother, meet Lost

    I have an idea for a new reality TV programme. Wherein autocratic, self-serving politicians like these get sent to an Island where their every move is recorded and they vie and scheme against each other in an attempt to either gain the title of Grand High Poobah. We could offer them freedom in exchange for "winning", but since that would just be rewarding bad behaviour, "winning" should lead to a scenario more like that in Michael Marshall Smith's _Spares_ (as ripped off in the McGregor/Johansson Island flick) or perhaps Soylent Green.

    Come to think of it, this could easily be compared to Napoleon's exile to Alba, No. 1's (oops, sorry for the spoiler) self-imposed exile in "The Prisoner", Battle Royale or Golding's Lord of the Flies. The idea has obvious provenance. It's sure to be a hit.

  31. bmuckknock
    Thumb Up

    "Recording Ass. of America"

    Approved

    ;-)

  32. Matt
    Stop

    Unbelievale

    I urge everyone who reads this story to contact senator Feinstein at

    http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe

    or phone her DC office at (202) 224-3841.

    The stimulus package is to stimulate the economy, and this item stimulates nothing other than my blood pressure.

  33. Joe Zeff
    Thumb Down

    @Darling Petunia

    I live in California. Sending letters or emails to those two left-wing, elitist hypocrites we have "representing" us in the Senate would be a waste of time. Until a few years ago, I also had the misfortune of living in Waxman's district. I may have lived in the San Fernando Valley, but all he's ever represented was the movie industry. If you aren't in that industry and a big contributor to him, he won't even admit you exist. This is exactly they type of thing I've learned to expect from all three of them over the years, but the liberals keep on voting them back into office and there's nothing the rest of us can do except bend over and @#%@^%&&$*&*

  34. Inachu
    Flame

    Lots of porno on public access tv still

    So I was sitting eating lunch and then the screen went away then the familiar videos of ARTS logo showing at the bottom which meant that for the n ext hour it would be showing various forms of art be it opera or dancing or what have you and the art in question that was topless

    nudity of a ballerina dancer and you could clearly see that she was a a real girl teen with a very supple chest.

    Now where does it start with this law of nudity being banned when it comes to the ART channel?

    She clearly apppeared to be under 21 and this is art? If so then I want to view an all female nude basketball team from japan playing ball and claim it is art!

    PLEASE!!!!! SOMEONE clear up the TV AIR WAYS! and yes this was basic cable on comcast.

  35. Hombre sin nombre

    I want to be a senator

    So I can add ridiculous attachments to bills I don't like so they won't pass.

  36. kain preacher

    Hmm RIAA

    Rich Idiots of America Association.

    Know wounder politicians love them ..

  37. Dave

    Obama and the pork barrel

    Given that Obama put restrictions on lobbying to reduce conflict of interest issues, perhaps he could also consider announcing that he'd veto this bill and any other if anyone tries appending non-relevant amendments. It's an evil practice that should be stopped, except it won't because too many vested interests have the power to ensure its continuation.

  38. Mectron
    Flame

    Here is Obama's chance

    to prove that the American president is not for sale. If the provision to illegally throttle the internet pass it will prove to the world that Obama is no better then a common crook.

    The MPAA (and RIAA) is a known terrorist group reponsible for destroying countless american lives and Families. The MPAA commit crimes on a daily basis and yet is still allowed to operated in the open.

    Please Mr. Obama, do the right thing the shutdown the MPAA once and for all. The MPAA is a enemi of the American voting public.

    Someone is denying the holocaust and he is praticly crucified, But the MPAA commit crimes again humanity and no body do nothing to shut them down?

  39. Tom

    Why isn't there some rule....

    in place to stop people tacking completely unrelated stuff onto bills like this?"

    Because the people who make the rules are the ones being paid to stick the unrelated stuff onto bills.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @Inachu

    What are you smoking? Can I have some?

  41. BioTube
    Coat

    Obama? Veto this?

    The point of the stimulus is not to fix the economy - it's to put it firmly under government control("never waste a good crisis"). If Obama had line-item veto(interestingly enough, the Confederacy had this, as well as a dental corps), he'd just reject the measure that stand a chance of working. This assumes, of course, that after the bill gets out of committee that a few senators or a few dozen representatives don't come to their senses(hooray for bicameral legislatures!).

    Mine's the cammo one - I'll need it when they come for our guns.

  42. J. Cook Silver badge
    Coat

    re:Biotube

    Biotube:

    That's assuming that they have not trampled over the 2nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution by then.

    Mines the one with the Class IIIA armor plates and the keys to the Bunker.

  43. Wayland Sothcott
    Thumb Down

    Clean WiFi

    You can have your WISP (Wireless ISP) but you must clean all the bad stuff off it.

    If you want proper Internet move to the City.

  44. david miron
    Gates Horns

    Oops, There Goes Our Privacy

    This proposal reeks of greed and medieval intents, and reminds me that there was a time when Microsoft was considered an unbeatable monopoly until the smart and innovative guys from Google found a way to compete. Feinstein’s amendment deserves to be monitored and scrutinized until it dies quietly in some US senate hallway.

    Check out my cartoon for this story

    http://www.pcdisorder.com/2009/02/oops-there-goes-our-privacy.html

  45. John Dooley
    Linux

    Another betrayal

    It is truly painful to watch all you liberal dunderheads having your jaws drop to the floor everytime Obama betrays your issues.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Call Feinstein!

    http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.WashingtonDCOffice

    http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.StateOffices

    Call Feinstein!

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Obama is Exactly Living Up to My Expectations

    Many thought Obama was wonderful. I was sceptical. And I think he's pretty much lived up to my expectations- I had none. I wonder if this sort of privacy argument is academic. On one had the FTC threaten the ISPs if they don't sort out behaviour tracking, but on the other the legislators will give them the power to track all online browsing anyway. Plus the NSA records everyone's websurfing anyway. I probably too pessimistic but I think internet privacy is largely a dead letter. Something somewhere is tracking your internet surfing & storing it. The trend worldwide is for more & more surveillance & restrictions on what you can look at or say online. The aims of the political class & the commercial sector neatly converge & they don't much care for what they see as an anarchist mob trying to shout them down. Get ready for a '1984' & 'Minority Report' type of world.

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