Politician: Don’t Let Comcast “Manipulate Internet Traffic”

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I know it's childish but, after so many years of watching this guy on SNL, I just can't take him seriously...even if what he's saying might be true.

"I am very concerned that Comcast could use its clout in the broadband market to dictate the content consumers receive and the prices they pay, and these concerns are only intensified by Comcast’s proposal to acquire Time Warner Cable," Franken wrote in a letter to the DOJ. "With more than 20 million customers, Comcast already is the nation’s dominant Internet service provider, controlling about a quarter of the national broadband market and a much higher percentage of the market in many of the local areas in which it operates. By acquiring Time Warner Cable, Comcast would extend its reach substantially, covering millions of additional customers. This would give Comcast even more leverage to manipulate Internet traffic to serve its own corporate interests."
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Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
 
thejokker said:
Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
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So ~40 posts here in 9 years and this is one of them. You must really hate Al Franken. :D
 
thejokker said:
Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
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Unfortunately, Franken has plenty of idiot company in Congress these days--the current Congress *is* the new SNL...;) But, yea, Franken stands out among his fellow morons, to be sure.
 
Is it better to allow comcast to go ahead with its plans and eventually the public will become so angry, that, perhaps, the government might break the entire company up because it's a monopoly or is it better to slow them down and let the agony continue for the next several decades.

Obviously much of the blame falls on local municipalities for not implementing a last mile carrier, but that won't change now.
 
Why does voicing his concerns make him an idiot? I thought many people here have the same fears... no?
 
pgwalsh said:
Is it better to allow comcast to go ahead with its plans and eventually the public will become so angry, that, perhaps, the government might break the entire company up because it's a monopoly or is it better to slow them down and let the agony continue for the next several decades.

Obviously much of the blame falls on local municipalities for not implementing a last mile carrier, but that won't change now.
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Well Comcast is not a monopoly for one. But many things require public outcry. And I think there has been a lot of public outcry over this issue. Part of the problem though is there is no clear direction on where to go with this. Comcast isn't necessarily doing anything new or that hasn't been done before by other companies. Just now all of this is more visible to the public. I think a much more serious conversation needs to take place not necessarily concerning government regulation, but perhaps of restructuring the whole infrastructure concept as it exists here today.

We should get out of the mindset of punishing companies or people for doing what is legal for them to do, and start thinking of how we fix the way things are structured so that loopholes don't exist or are at least minimized. Creating more regulation will lead to more loopholes, will lead to more abuse, and so on and so forth.
 
WaltC said:
Unfortunately, Franken has plenty of idiot company in Congress these days--the current Congress *is* the new SNL...;) But, yea, Franken stands out among his fellow morons, to be sure.
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Congress never works weekends!


Yes, I suppose this statement is still true without "weekends", but then there's no link to Saturday Night Live.
 
PornoSatan said:
So ~40 posts here in 9 years and this is one of them. You must really hate Al Franken. :D
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You are right; I was out of line. I've insulted idiots by associating them with Franken. Idiot status for Franken would represent a major upgrade...
 
I am always amazed when witness to ideology trumping reason.

To everyone suggesting Franken is an idiot: did you *also* graduate from Harvard?

I am very concerned that Comcast could use its clout in the broadband market to dictate the content consumers receive and the prices they pay
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I used to work for Comcast; this is exactly their plan.
 
latenite said:
Yes they are not monopoly but they are an oligopoly, which is only slightly better than a monopoly
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Perhaps, but monopoly has more binding legal ramifications to it. Oligopoly is more a description than anything else. Nothing inherently illegal or evil about an Oligopoly; in fact there can be many benefits depending on the companies that interact with one another. Price fixing which is usually the result of a true oligopoly is illegal and is monitored. In that vane, Intel, Nvidia, and AMD also make up an oligopoly. As do Apple, Microsoft and Google.
 
thejokker said:
Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
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Funny, considering Franken is the most vocal supporter of privacy rights for individuals in Congress at the moment.
 
after so many years of watching this guy on SNL, I just can't take him seriously
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Mmmm.. wonder why that is..

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thejokker said:
Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
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He is the biggest douche-canoe ever.

But I'd consider it lawn-dart random probability, and not let his idiocy sway anyone one way or another.
 
thejokker said:
Shame on you for assuming: http://kidsiqtestcenter.com/al-franken-iq-110.html
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My parents had high hopes for me from my IQ test... didn't really pan out! :D

The real issue is more involving scope of knowledge/training IMO, and how much certain people are willing to talk out of their ass rather than admit ignorance. As an actor and a democrat, he is heavily biased towards Ace Ventura butt-cheek communication style quite often throwing in his two cents on things he knows absolutely nothing about, most likely because it fits his liberal ideology to push some other agenda, gets his voter base to golf-clap, or whatever special interest groups are feeding his coffers asked him to support.

In this instance I agree with him, but again, doesn't mean he isn't full of crap heh!
 
gamerk2 said:
Funny, considering Franken is the most vocal supporter of privacy rights for individuals in Congress at the moment.
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He makes a valid point about massive companies and abusive market control.. However, I'm going to go ahead and assume by the vitriol I'm reading here that Franken isn't ultra right wing?
 
Ducman69 said:
My parents had high hopes for me from my IQ test... didn't really pan out! :D

The real issue is more involving scope of knowledge/training IMO, and how much certain people are willing to talk out of their ass rather than admit ignorance. As an actor and a democrat, he is heavily biased towards Ace Ventura butt-cheek communication style quite often throwing in his two cents on things he knows absolutely nothing about, most likely because it fits his liberal ideology to push some other agenda, gets his voter base to golf-clap, or whatever special interest groups are feeding his coffers asked him to support.

In this instance I agree with him, but again, doesn't mean he isn't full of crap heh!
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Democrat/Left-wing/Liberal or not, he is still just spewing what he is reading on the internet, which is pretty much all he has done his short-lived political career. The reason people don't respect him is precisely what has been said already: he presents an issue without the knowledge or self-formed opinion to back it up, nor any ideas to resolve the issue. He's just as much of a problem in our currently inept government as those who refuse to work with each other toward a common goal, Republicans AND Democrats.
 
yea, except Franken has a good approval rating (55%)

He's been an opponent of SOPA
Advocate of tech (vs the mafiAA)
Pro-veteran
Pro-gun ownership

dang it...better than the senators I have in my state.
 
I'd rather have a guy who would like his concerns addressed representing me, over a bunch of people who dismiss stuff without at least exploring or addressing the validity of those concerns.

I'm not a lawyer, I don't play one on television. I don't know the legal do's and don'ts of what Comcast wants to do with TWC. But what I do know is that I am seeing a big corporate giant trying to become even larger. While that may be great for Comcast's business, what does that mean for its customers? What can we expect from this merger? What can TWC customers expect out of Comcast? What is stopping Comcast from doing what Franken speaks of?
 
Franken is a lot better than what we had here in MN before, Norm Coleman was a far bigger douche.
 
So is anyone going to say why he's an idiot or is it just the usual hate because he's not a right wing crackpot like we love so huggy muggy much here on the [H]
 
Has it occurred to any of the Al Franken haters here that despite your bias he might actually be right on this.

Does anyone really think letting ComCast get monopolistic control of the Internet is a very good idea?

Despite the fact that we have been in that situation before (Standard Oil, AT&T, US Steel) I am sure Comcast wouldnt do anything to effect the freedom of the Internet in order to line their own pocket. Would they?. Nah......

What could possibly go wrong by letting this merge proceed?
 
anyone actually read the article before spewing Al-franken hate? Guess not.
It actually sounds quite reasonable, he is also mentioning the problems that can arise from peering arragements.. arguing that there should not be money paid by companies like netflix.

In truth all this is gone by opening up the infrastructure to competition.
I don't know how this could be arranged.. it is a complex issue, but I am sure there are experts on the matter, and certainly don't need to be working for comcast.
 
I don't care who said it - it's a valid concern, and that is all that matters. Comcast is a dirty company, and they have a proven track record of detrimental behavior. Remember the lies about throttling downloads? They even lied to the FCC! Bandwidth caps will most certainly be put into place over time after the acquisition of TWC.
 
thejokker said:
Al Franken is an idiot of the highest order. From a strictly statistical point of view if Al Franken is against it than "probably" the opposite is true.
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The true idiots are those who voted this clown into office.
 
Fumz said:
I am always amazed when witness to ideology trumping reason.

To everyone suggesting Franken is an idiot: did you *also* graduate from Harvard?



I used to work for Comcast; this is exactly their plan.
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Agreed. I am rather amazed that so many people here are likely trying to bash Al Franken he is a Democraft and former SNL comedian even though 99.9% of us agree with his views on net neutrality.
 
BassDX said:
Agreed. I am rather amazed that so many people here are likely trying to bash Al Franken he is a Democraft and former SNL comedian even though 99.9% of us agree with his views on net neutrality.
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I agree with all the laws that Hitler pioneered as first in the world including making vivisection's illegal, protection of endangered species, establishing hunting seasons and laws on maximum's a hunter can take, afforestation projects, and other things to protect native wildlife and animal rights... doesn't mean I don't think Hitler is still a douche, just like Al Franken. In fact, if Hitler were born a little later, Jewish, and less funny, he'd probably be Al Franken.
 
Ducman69 said:
I agree with all the laws that Hitler pioneered as first in the world including making vivisection's illegal, protection of endangered species, establishing hunting seasons and laws on maximum's a hunter can take, afforestation projects, and other things to protect native wildlife and animal rights... doesn't mean I don't think Hitler is still a douche, just like Al Franken. In fact, if Hitler were born a little later, Jewish, and less funny, he'd probably be Al Franken.
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Stop being facetious, comparisons between modern American politicians to Hitler has been done to death already and are not constructive, nor accurate. You may disagree with some of Al Franken's views, but it is not like he committed mass genocide. Are people here not humble enough to acknowledge him the one time where he has a view that aligns with yours, especially when so many other tech illiterate people in congress do not?
 
This forum is being over run by a very ignorant and very vocal minority. Just like the fucking tea party. It's really sad.
 
Disposed said:
This forum is being over run by a very ignorant and very vocal minority. Just like the fucking tea party. It's really sad.
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I know right? If someone disagrees with you or your politics, we should just label them as less-intelligent and ignorant, then silence them using the tools of government and media as to discourage anyone from adopting a point of view different from your own... :rolleyes:

Back on topic, I happen to agree with Franken on this, but question his motives as anything more than trying to appeal to younger voters. He's playing defense right now, along with a lot of other Senate Democrats who voted for the Patient Deflection and Unaffordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

His voting record is strictly partisan-left, so I'd never be able to vote for him. His voting record: https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/108924/al-franken/?p=1
 
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