How the Internet works, by Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), 85 years young. If you haven’t read Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) explanation for his opposition to net neutrality, you’re missing out... The audio is HERE Pretty funny until you realize that Stevens is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and is in charge of the bills that control the future of internet in the United States.
omg this guy is totally clueless. I'd like to offere my services as a highly-paid consultant to explain to these idiot politicians what the tech is really about. say about.....um..how bout 1M per year? Considering the massive amounts of wasteful spending they love to do...my salary would be a minor expenditure and would help keep them from looking like Ludites everytime they talk about technology.
what the hell is he talking about? netflix? what the hell?! what does this mean? "I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?"
This guy can't work a vcr or dvd player and we expect him to be able to understand the internet? "An internet was sent by my staff........ What is that, did he get one of those AOL cds?
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ota/ There used to be a small outfit attached to Congress called The Office of Technology Assessment that advised Congress on technology issues... If anyone can be called the creator of OTA, it's George E. Brown, Jr., a physicist elected to Congress in the early 1960's. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/nrclibrary/George_E_Brown.html Brown also happened to be a tutor to a young Congressman from Tennessee, who often stopped by the office to chat about environmental and technology issues, including climate change and topics related to the devlopment of the Internet. When this same Congressman became a Senator, he continued to visit Brown's office for bull sessions, which led many of the finer sort to discuss the shocking lack of protocol exhibited by the Senator. In 1991, Brown finally became Chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. When Republicans took the house, the Office of Technology Assessment was immediately killed. Republicans argued that they had to show the country they were willing to cut their own budget, but the move was seen and interpreted as a slap at the Democrats and Brown in particular. Even though OTA was praised for impartiality and many other countries have subsequently copied the approach, Republicans identified it as a Dem-laden organization. Perhaps they didn't like it because the facts have a Dem bias and it was hamstringing their emotional arguments. Perhaps they didn't like Brown because he routinely won elections in a Republican-leaning district or that he was a fierce opponent to Star Wars and the militarization of space. Regardless, I think it was one of the more short-sighted moves by Republicans (and that's saying a lot.) Ironically, one of the few Republican defenders of OTA was Sen. Ted Stevens. (Full disclosure: I had the opportunity to be member of Brown's DC Staff, 1987-88.)
The OTA was definitely a really great idea. I remember getting tons of research material from their various studies, much of which was very very comprehensive and objective. I ended up writing a paper on establishing an education policy equivalent of the OTA that would advise the government on education policy and how to improve it. Another really short-sighted move in the attempt to create "smaller government."
Ladies and Partisans - I present to you, one of the people ensuring that the United States of America prospers.
