I'm sick of all these "Oh, our infrastructure is vulnerable to attacks!" Yeah, they are...

My power sub station is vulnerable to anyone with $5 of copper wire. It's not like they're gaurded... Fling! Zap! Pow!

Gas stations are vulnerable to anyone with a $0.50 lighter and no sense. It's not like they're guarded! flick flick flick Woosh!

Nothing is guarded, and yet the world keeps on rolling just fine. I hate these stupid scare tactic BS articles.

" absolutely nothing in law that allows the FCC to change the classification of anything it regulates"

Great! Then we already HAVE title II regulation! It was the FCC itself that reclassified broadband providers back in the day. Thanks to the great legal opinion of some !@#$ on the internet, they never HAD that authority, so we don't need to reclassify, because THEY NEVER COULD HAVE RECLASSIFIED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I don't think you know the history of what's going on here. I don't think you know what you're talking about at all.

Somehow I don't think you know that the FCC HAD this authority for the longest time, and they themselves are the ones that gave it up, and they can easily get it back again by reclassifying. I don't think you have the foggiest idea what you're talking about. I don't think you know the history here. I think you just like to circle jerk about how unconstitutional everything is and how blah blah the president is bad.

The FCC was created, with this authority, by a vote of congress. This is nothing new.

We could fix it by passing a law that the broadband companies had to lease their lines at reasonable rates to third parties. We used to do that, and it created real competition by enabling mom and pop ISPs...

That would be awesome... Oh wait, that was done using Title II regulation back in the day.

Those bills weren't a product of Title II regulation, and you know it.

Forcing the ISPs to lease the lines out to other players, and hence creating actual competition and a plethora of mom and pop ISPs? That WAS a product of Title II regulation.

You sir, are a liar.

This is a classic example of some people just hating on Obama, because he's Obama.

In 2014, Republicans were mad at Obama for pushing net neutrality. All we needed to do was to end the city and state laws preventing cities from creating municipal broadband. Let the market work!

In 2015, some of them (not all, but many) will be mad at him for sticking the fed's nose into state and city laws, forcing them to ... You get the idea.

And once again, our great socialist democrat commy leader does EXACTLY what Republicans would have done(cough war, gitmo, bailouts, etc). And they probably won't be happy with it, because it's Obama....

I don't really see how diesel vs. gas is a good vs. evil debate that warrants you throwing suspicion on their "evil" motivations.... They ran a test against Diesel. That doesn't mean they aren't going to run one against gasoline too.

It's not like there's an evil Gasoline lobby buying up scientists to destroy the good name of Diesel.....

Congres... elected representatives.... created the FCC. You're whining about nothing. Every stupid position in government is not elected. So What. I don't need to hold elections for the clerk at the DMV.

From Wikipedia.... "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government, created by Congressional statute (see 47 U.S.C. 151 and 47 U.S.C. 154) to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. "

This is stupid. The FCC proposed the Open Internet rules a while back, and we already took those to court in 2013 and 2014. A US Circuit court stated in 2013...

"That said, even though the Commission has general authority to regulate in this arena, it may not impose requirements that contravene express statutory mandates. Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such. Because the Commission has failed to establish that the anti-discrimination and anti-blocking rules do not impose per se common carrier obligations, we vacate those portions of the Open Internet Order."

I can't find a quick link to the 2014 decision, but it said basically the same thing.

So, are they common carriers? If so, they should be Title II regulated. Are they not Common Carriers? Then they're responsible for what goes over their networks, and they do NOT want that....

The FCC can throw out all the rules it wants. We've done this. They GAVE UP the ability to regulate these companies, and all it takes to get it back is for the FCC ITSELF to decide to do so once again. It's easy. They could do it tomorrow....

but Tom Wheeler, head of the FCC, is a former cable lobbyist... so....

So... This guy things that you can keep a company going just copying the other guy forever?

Funny thing is, when HUDs or driveable cars become popular, google will have the market cornered, good products that have been tested, and engineers that are experienced with the tech.

It's not enough to wait and see what the new thing is, then move into it. You have to invent the new thing. Then you ARE it. Everyone else is catching up to YOU.

You won't, and can't, get it right all the time. The alternative is to just play catch up all the time.

Gene Marks is an idiot...

Sigh. "Socialism in particular fails because the only motivation []is to improve the lives of others."

You need to go talk to people who work in a co-op business. A co-op is The People Owning The Means Of Production. Socialism. And it's awesome. It's not about making life better for others. It's about making life better for YOU. Imagine if you can, owning part of your workplace. Being able to have a say in how it's run. Being able to share in the gains. That's a LOT better (and a little riskier) than being a wage slave like you are now. It's also Totally Worth It.

I hate it when people make sweeping generalizations about something they have no practical knowledge of. Slashdot Armchair Philosophers, oh, socialism fails... You should go experience it and see just how awesome it can be.

Also, socialism isn't the best way. Neither is pure capitalism. The countries that have the happiest people in the world are mixed economies, and embrace that idea. Anyway.... I just wanted to gripe.