Kansas Municipal Internet Ban Was “Stabbed, Shot, and Hanged”

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
Messages
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A bill brought about by the Kansas cable lobby that would make it illegal for anyone except the cable companies to offer broadband services was pronounced dead by its opponents. Yes Toto, we’re still in Kansas. :D

The bill would also have made it illegal for cities and towns to buy, build, lease, maintain, or operate any facility that helps a private business offer telecommunications, video, or broadband services.
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Who would even introduce such a bill? Hopefully these people will be voted out at the next election(s)
 
Zarathustra[H];1040648504 said:
Finally some common sense!
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That's no lie. The cable companies around here are really bad when it comes to common sense.

I didn't think fellow Kansans would allow something like this to pass.
 
DogsofJune said:
That's no lie. The cable companies around here are really bad when it comes to common sense.

I didn't think fellow Kansans would allow something like this to pass.
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It's amazing what can happen when you have a lobby willing to spend millions for a sweetheart deal.

We desperately need disruptive forces to come in and shake up the internet service provider industry, and these community internet projects are one way to do that!

I hear in places where they have been implemented they tend to provide many times the bandwidth, at a fraction of the cost of existing ISP's all while being self sufficient without relying on tax dollars for their continued operation!
 
rudedog said:
Who would even introduce such a bill? Hopefully these people will be voted out at the next election(s)
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I'd guess someone with a vested interest in the cable companies, stands to make a boatload from lobbyists, or now has to pay his debt to those nice corporate campaign contributors.
 
You know cable companies are bad when they realize that governments could do a better job providing high speed internet.
 
I wonder in cases like this if the cities can apply for money from the government to build these networks.
 
Remember: Kansas was also where their State Legislature passed a bill that would have made it legal to deny service to homosexuals if it went against their religious beliefs.

Thank goodness it was killed by the State Senate. Idaho and Arizona are considering similar bills.

Therefore, I am not surprised such a law would have popped up in Kansas. And, I thought California was the only state that came up with stupid ass laws.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040648537 said:
It's amazing what can happen when you have a lobby willing to spend millions for a sweetheart deal.

We desperately need disruptive forces to come in and shake up the internet service provider industry, and these community internet projects are one way to do that!

I hear in places where they have been implemented they tend to provide many times the bandwidth, at a fraction of the cost of existing ISP's all while being self sufficient without relying on tax dollars for their continued operation!
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BladeVenom said:
You know cable companies are bad when they realize that governments could do a better job providing high speed internet.
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https://www.epb.net/

https://www.epb.net/news/news-archi...fourth-anniversary-by-upgrading-all-services/

Wish I didn't live in california! :mad:
 
Ain't lobbying great. When an entity can easily get a potential law into session that basically says "we're the only ones who can make money at this thing" ..
 
McLobbyist Drive Thru "May I take your order?"
Cable Man "Yes, I'd like one monopoly, please."
McLobbyist Drive Thru "That will be $200'000. Would you like a senator with that order?"
 
octoberasian said:
Remember: Kansas was also where their State Legislature passed a bill that would have made it legal to deny service to homosexuals if it went against their religious beliefs.

Thank goodness it was killed by the State Senate. Idaho and Arizona are considering similar bills.

Therefore, I am not surprised such a law would have popped up in Kansas. And, I thought California was the only state that came up with stupid ass laws.
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Just a fun fact - It just passed the Arizona senate a few days ago and is off to the governor.

Litigation incoming!


But yeah, this Kansas bill is totally wrong and obviously paid for. Between the anti-gay bill, the anti-science legislations (or attempts), and this type of stuff - I'm beginning to think Kansas is the Alabama of the midwest .. IQ wise.

;) :D
 
Spidey329 said:
Just a fun fact - It just passed the Arizona senate a few days ago and is off to the governor.

Litigation incoming!


But yeah, this Kansas bill is totally wrong and obviously paid for. Between the anti-gay bill, the anti-science legislations (or attempts), and this type of stuff - I'm beginning to think Kansas is the Alabama of the midwest .. IQ wise.

;) :D
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My friend was smart enough to move out of Kansas last year.

And, hopefully the governor vetoes the bill or he's going to face an avalanche of civil rights lawsuits all the way up to the Supreme Court.
 
rudedog said:
Who would even introduce such a bill? Hopefully these people will be voted out at the next election(s)
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The bill apparently had no official sponsor, the person(s) responsible for introducing that garbage didn't even have the guts to identify themselves as such.
 
rudedog said:
Who would even introduce such a bill? Hopefully these people will be voted out at the next election(s)
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That would be the congressman for Eagle Communications, Comcast, and Time Warner making sure the government doesn't try and break up their little monopoly.
 
Spidey329 said:
Just a fun fact - It just passed the Arizona senate a few days ago and is off to the governor.

Litigation incoming!


But yeah, this Kansas bill is totally wrong and obviously paid for. Between the anti-gay bill, the anti-science legislations (or attempts), and this type of stuff - I'm beginning to think Kansas is the Alabama of the midwest .. IQ wise.

;) :D
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Are we surprised? Both are heavy Republican states. This is exactly what they mean by a "Free Market", a market where megacorporations are "free" to screw the consumer without the government getting involved.

I have no sympathy for the people of Arizona they voted in politicans who actively work against their own interests...they get what they deserve. At least the people of Kansas were smart enough to stop it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1040648537 said:
We desperately need disruptive forces to come in and shake up the internet service provider industry, and these community internet projects are one way to do that!
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I think in a few years that disruptive force may be called USP or Fedex. Already, you can get a 64GB flash drive for $29-$39 bucks or a 3TB hard drive for around ~$100 on sale.

The cost of sending a flash drive in an envelope is around ~1 dollar. If we can get in a few years 256GB flash drives for the same cost, 256GB if you are talking about legal backups(of course ;)) of 720p movies, you could fit probably 50 good quality movies.

With 3TB of storage, I could theoretically receive an awful amount of content for the cost of $10-$15 of shipping and a 2 day wait time. With my ISP though, downloading a full 3TB would take longer than 2 days. My internet connection maxed out for 2 days straight is closer to 500GB and the time for me it would take to go through 3TB worth of content is literately a few months to couple of year with the amount of free time I manage.
 
I guess their pay off wasn't quite high enough this time.
 
unless anal rape comes with such dumb takedowns,,,

it'll continue indefinitly
 
The bill in question only prohibits municipal ISPs or government help to private ISPs. There is nothing I read that says this would give cable companies a monopoly on Internet access. DSL would still be allowed as would wireless broadband as long as done by private companies. Google Fiber could still expand in Kansas if they wished.
 
drako said:
The bill apparently had no official sponsor, the person(s) responsible for introducing that garbage didn't even have the guts to identify themselves as such.
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Wait, is Kansas politics that fucked up that you can anonymously stick a bill in legislation? I mean I know it's Kansas and they're worried about the gays and the evolution corrupting their children, but come on, there has to be a name somewhere of a person who is identified as the shill who was paid bribed to get this going forward
 
I get my internet TVtv and phone from the only county owned telecom provider in the US, at a very reasonable rate, letting these cable arseholes decide who gets to provide service is like letting the cat watch the canary. By the way my provider is running fiber to every home in the county , with 50mbs basic internet and up to 300 mbs if you want to pay for it. Only other provider in the area is charter and they suck.
 
Just a fun fact - It just passed the Arizona senate a few days ago and is off to the governor.

Litigation incoming!
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This isn't anti-gay, I know some gay people may believe it is, but it isn't. First off, there really are not that many businesses who hold such beliefs, mostly this would be very small businesses.

And furthermore, although the media is having a blast highlighting the part about denying gays services, they are also downplaying the part where the laws say "if it would conflict with deeply held religious beliefs". Just providing a service is not enough to qualify, the act itself must be in conflict. A local garage door company will not be able to deny gays service because the service itself has nothing to do with religious beliefs. A photographer at a wedding could be different, plenty other photographers would be happy to have your business, but the one who would be bothered by it, well you don't want him creating your life long treasured moments anyway.

At some point you gotta get real about this stuff and leave the indignant bullshit at the door.
 
lcpiper said:
This isn't anti-gay, I know some gay people may believe it is, but it isn't. First off, there really are not that many businesses who hold such beliefs, mostly this would be very small businesses.

And furthermore, although the media is having a blast highlighting the part about denying gays services, they are also downplaying the part where the laws say "if it would conflict with deeply held religious beliefs". Just providing a service is not enough to qualify, the act itself must be in conflict. A local garage door company will not be able to deny gays service because the service itself has nothing to do with religious beliefs. A photographer at a wedding could be different, plenty other photographers would be happy to have your business, but the one who would be bothered by it, well you don't want him creating your life long treasured moments anyway.

At some point you gotta get real about this stuff and leave the indignant bullshit at the door.
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Traditional wisdom is that you have your rights up until such a point as they conflict with other peoples rights.

Some times these rights conflict with each other.

What this bill in essence does is it says that the right to not be prejudiced against on grounds of race/gender/sexual orientation (and mostly sexual orientation) is less important than the right to use ones religious beliefs as cover for intolerant asshattery.

It's tough to look at it in any other way than it being anti-gay.

What's next? Introducing a bill that says that because they have deeply held beliefs against black people, Ku Klux Klan members should be allowed to refuse black people entry into their businesses?

I know these morons use their "religious beliefs" as cover for their backwards prejudiced views, but it is total bull. As we all know, Jesus - if he actually existed - would totally NOT be cool with excluding minorities. He wanted us all to love our neighbors.
 
lcpiper said:
This isn't anti-gay, I know some gay people may believe it is, but it isn't. First off, there really are not that many businesses who hold such beliefs, mostly this would be very small businesses.

And furthermore, although the media is having a blast highlighting the part about denying gays services, they are also downplaying the part where the laws say "if it would conflict with deeply held religious beliefs". Just providing a service is not enough to qualify, the act itself must be in conflict. A local garage door company will not be able to deny gays service because the service itself has nothing to do with religious beliefs. A photographer at a wedding could be different, plenty other photographers would be happy to have your business, but the one who would be bothered by it, well you don't want him creating your life long treasured moments anyway.

At some point you gotta get real about this stuff and leave the indignant bullshit at the door.
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Actually, it very much is specifically anti-GLBT. The language of Kansas HB 2453 refers repeatedly to allowing discrimination based exclusively on sexual orientation, gender, and marriage/civil union status. It does not provide any protection for religious business owners that wish to discriminate on non-GLBT related religious grounds.
Kansas HB 2453 said:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no individual
or religious entity shall be required by any governmental entity to do any
of the following, if it would be contrary to the sincerely held religious
beliefs of the individual or religious entity regarding sex or gender:
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A bill to protect the religious freedoms of practice and expression would have been worded very differently, so as to protect any religious business owner that chose to refuse service to any person for any religious belief based reason. Maybe the business owner thinks the person in their store is a demon, or a witch, or gay, or whatever, but there's no reason someone should be forced to serve demons, and not gays.

"But demons aren't real!" you say
And you're right. But we're not talking about reality, we're talking about crazy peoples' beliefs and our need to recognize and validate those crazy beliefs, rather than tell them they're crazy and to get with the times.
 
Speaking of...Does anyone remember the short-lived TV series Reaper? Best gay demons ever!
 
It's sad, but not surprising, that we still have people in this country who defend legalized discrimination. Would the religious community be cool with analogous legislation authorizing gay business owners to deny services to Christians? Rhetorical question... I can hear the Fox News outrage now.
 
lcpiper said:
This isn't anti-gay, I know some gay people may believe it is, but it isn't. First off, there really are not that many businesses who hold such beliefs, mostly this would be very small businesses.

And furthermore, although the media is having a blast highlighting the part about denying gays services, they are also downplaying the part where the laws say "if it would conflict with deeply held religious beliefs". Just providing a service is not enough to qualify, the act itself must be in conflict. A local garage door company will not be able to deny gays service because the service itself has nothing to do with religious beliefs. A photographer at a wedding could be different, plenty other photographers would be happy to have your business, but the one who would be bothered by it, well you don't want him creating your life long treasured moments anyway.
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So discrimination based on religious beliefs is ok then... well shit that makes it all better whew! Maybe I should join a company that's run by Muslims so I can keep my paycheck high and let women get paid much less.
 
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