This week, Rick Weiland, the populist Democrat running for open Senate seat in South Dakota, sent his supporters a statement called "The Lost Highway," and, of course, he was talking about the Internet. "Everybody," he began, "seems to think the so called net neutrality issue is incredibly complex. It isn't." Weiland isn't much loved by the Big Money interests or the Establishment shills from either party. When CREDO sent out a petition this week "about 20 turncoat Democrats who sold us out," there was no one remotely like Weiland on their list. "20 turncoat Democrats sold us out to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Infuriatingly, they signed an industry-backed letter telling the FCC not to re-regulate broadband Internet as a public utility. If the FCC listens to these turncoat Democrats and fails to treat broadband as a utility, what we’ll end up with is nothing short of the corporate takeover of the Internet and an end to Net Neutrality. This is unacceptable."This is their list of paid-off scoundrels. "These Democrats decided to stand with wealthy corporations rather than stand up for your interests:"
• Gene Green (D-TX)• John Barrow (New Dem-GA)• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)• Bobby Rush (D-IL)• Corrine Brown (D-FL)• Joaquin Castro (New Dem-TX)• Alcee Hastings (D-FL)• Bill Owens (New Dem-NY)• Loretta Sanchez (New Dem-CA)• Albio Sires (D-NJ)• Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV)• Kurt Schrader (New Dem-OR)• Bennie Thompson (D-MS)• Marc Veasey (D-TX)• Lacey Clay (D-MO)• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)• David Scott (New Dem-GA)
CREDO explains: "Net Neutrality says that Internet users, not ISPs, should be in control. It ensures that Internet service providers can't speed up, slow down, or block web content based on its source, ownership, or destination. Net Neutrality is important because the Internet is an essential service Americans rely on to conduct our most basic daily affairs, from applying for a job to finding a home, to running a small business. And our right to communicate freely and be heard lies at the heart of our ability to participate equally in our democracy."And this is how Weiland put it:
Since its inception, the Internet has been a wide open public highway.Just like our Interstate-highway system 50 years ago, this new public highway spawned an explosion of innovation and prosperity precisely because it was equally free and open to all.Even as giant chunks of money and power were taking over our politics, and ever expanding portions of our economy, the net remained neutral and free. While big banks ossified, big insurance and pharmaceuticals made an overpriced fiasco of our health care system, and big government spied on us and wasted our money overseas, the net rolled on, spewing innovation and ideas and prosperity.But the day when the big money highway robbers would turn their attention to the net couldn't be postponed forever. With their big money masks in place they have now stepped forward, political contribution guns blazing, and are trying to set up checkpoints at which ideas and innovation can be shaken down for their profit, and tossed off the net if they refuse to pony up.This form of brazen highway robbery is the very opposite of complex. It has been practiced by the powerful against the less powerful since the dawn of time.The forms may differ. A gunman behind a rock along the line of the Pony Express. A militant with a mask and an Uzi in Iraq, or in a Nigerian forest with little girls as hostages.But the modus operandi has been the same forever. Use your power to make them pay you. Get rich without having to produce anything of value yourself because you have the gun and they do not.About as subtle and complex as a Glock pointed at your head. That is what the Internet faces today. A Glock pointed at its head by big money.I am running for the United States Senate because I believe it is the job of our government not to assist the guys with the Glock, but to stand up to them.In this day where our Supreme Court gives the right of unlimited speech to dollars, and our politicians get elected by begging the guys with the Glocks for money to con an ever angrier, and less attentive electorate, I may be nothing more than a modern day Don Quixote.But I sure don’t think so. I think people are finally fed up, and ready to rise up in anger, to stop the brazen highway robbers from choking the internet highway.…I support net neutrality, and a government that will fight for, not against, that neutrality.
And Blue America is backing Rick Weiland. You can contribute to his campaign here. He's one of only 3 Senate candidates we've endorsed this cycle and, predictably, the DSCC Executive Director, Guy Cecil, is blocking him from getting Democratic backing, even though he's been endorsed by 36 senators including Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Brian Schatz, Mazie Hirono, Ron Wyden, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jack Reed, Patrick Leahy, Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Tom Harkin and, of course, Bernie Sanders. How does Guy Cecil feel about Net Neutrality? How about the massive campaign contributions-- legalistic bribes-- he collects from the corporations who want to get rid of Net Neutrality. Yeah, yeah… I know. Republicans are worse than Democrats. Uh huh.