congress

Whenever we hear about the government trying to regulate internet providers, the right gets in a frenzy. They start screaming about “government takeover” and “interfering in private business”. Perfect examples of this can be seen in Rand Paul speeches.

Now a new report shows that internet providers routinely lie about the speeds you get from them, and in most cases they inflate the speeds by about 50%:

After crunching the data, FCC wonks have concluded that ISPs advertised an average (mean) "up to" download speed of 6.7Mbps in 2009. That's not what broadband users got, though.

"However, FCC analysis shows that the median actual speed consumers experienced in the first half of 2009 was roughly 3 Mbps, while the average (mean) actual speed was approximately 4 Mbps," says the report. "Therefore actual download speeds experienced by US consumers appear to lag advertised speeds by roughly 50 percent."

Internet speed isn’t something you can test before you buy. You won’t know your actual speed until you have signed up and have the equipment installed. After that you can actually test your speed and find out the disappointment, but at that point it’s usually too late. You are now stuck in a contract for a year and face huge fees if you cancel.

In the National Broadband Plan, the FCC has started outlining details on how to fix this crime against consumers. One of the recommendations is a labeling requirement, similar to those we have on food, appliances and cars.

George Stephanopoulos asks a great question while interviewing Timothy Geithner today:

Stephanopoulos: How firm is the President's commitment to this proposal? If, for example, the Congress passes an extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy, will the President veto it?

Geithner: Again, what the President believes is the best strategy for the country is to extend the tax cuts that go to more than 95 percent of Americans, more than 95 percent of small business. Keep taxes on capital income low going to moderate. Give people the certainty that's going to be the world they're going to live in. But to do that responsibly, we let those tax cuts for the highest earning Americans expire as scheduled, as they were predicted to do. And I think that's the better strategy.

Stephanopoulos: I know that's what the President believes is a better strategy. What I'm asking is, is he going to veto-- any bill that extends those tax cuts for the wealthiest—

Geithner: He believes this is what makes sense. It's what I believe.  And we're going to make the case for that. I think it's-- and I think it's the best strategy. And I think that we'll get support for this. Again, it's a sensible, practical--

Stephanopoulos: I know you think it's the best strategy. But I talked to some of the President's supporters who agree with him on Capitol Hill. And they say unless the President comes out firmly and strongly and makes that veto threat, we can't hold back—

Geithner: President's going to be firm and strong because he believes this is the best package. Now, of course, Congress—

Stephanopoulos: But no veto—

Here’s an interesting story out of Arizona (via DKos):

A Valley man says he was pulled over Wednesday morning and questioned when he arrived at a weigh station for his commercial vehicle along Val Vista and the 202 freeway.

Abdon, who did not want to use his last name, says he provided several key pieces of information but what he provided apparently was not what was needed.

He tells 3TV, “I don't think it's correct, if I have to take my birth certificate with me all the time.”
3TV caught up with Abdon after he was released from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in central Phoenix. He and his wife, Jackie, are still upset about what happened to him. 

Jackie tells 3TV, “It's still something awful to be targeted. I can't even imagine what he felt, people watching like he was some type of criminal.

This story was published on 4/21, which is 2 days before the bill was even signed into law. Maybe it’s time for a bill to be put forth in Congress declaring Arizona is no longer a state.

It’s going to be the Republicans big campaign talking point this year – REPEAL! That might work for the crazies in the Tea Party, but a new poll shows that a big majority of those who support repeal actually want the bill repealed so we can get something better – a public option:

When asked how important they thought it was for Congress to work on “establishment of a public option that would give individuals a choice between government provided health insurance or private health insurance,” 67 percent of Americans rated this as an important topic to address. This finding is even more striking given the fact that 59 percent of those in favor of repealing the health care reform legislation rated the public option as important to pursue. Another surprise is that 67 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Independents also agreed that the public option was an important topic to be addressed by Congress.

That really puts a crimp in the GOP arguments to just do away with reform.

This unprecedented:

In July, 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law "An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen," authorizing the creation of a marine hospital service, and mandating privately employed sailors to purchase healthcare insurance.

This legislation also created America's first payroll tax, as a ship's owner was required to deduct 20 cents from each sailor's monthly pay and forward those receipts to the service, which in turn provided injured sailors hospital care. Failure to pay or account properly was discouraged by requiring a law violating owner or ship's captain to pay a 100 dollar fine.

So unprecedented that they were only enacted by the 2nd President of the United States. I guess all those AGs suing over the “constitutionality” of the mandate didn’t really do their homework.

Adding….I  think we can also safely assume that the Texas Board of Education will be meeting this week to remove John Adams from the history books also.

The whole argument that the Democrats didn’t listen to the American people that Republicans like John Boehner keeps telling us is starting to fail. Look at this from Gallup:

As you may know, yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that restructures the nation’s healthcare system. All in all, do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing that Congress passed this bill?

Good thing 49%
Bad thing 40%
Don’t know 11%

This is the first post bill passing poll I have seen and so far the numbers are very good for Democrats. If this trend continues then November might be a very bad month for Republicans.

The biggest reason I have been very pessimistic about the possibility of us seeing health care reform this year is because of the problems in the Senate. I know a lot of people have maintained that we already have a bill that passed the Senate, but we do have to remember that our Congress is bi-camel, composed of two houses with equal power. That’s where our problem lies. The House, that actually functions in a democratic nature 99% of the time is really leery of putting trust into the broken Senate. That’s causing things like this:

Dem Rep Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who voted for the House health bill last time, tells his local WLUK-TV that he doesn’t trust the Senate to fix its bill via reconciliation and suggests he’s leaning against:

“I have made the case to the speaker and also to the White House that we should take small pieces, small bites,” Kagen said. “In the practice of medicine, I can’t give a child a big pill. What do we do? We cut it up into pieces. Let’s find things we can agree on.”

Honestly, if I was in Kagen’s shoes I would probably say the same thing. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I really dislike the Senate bill, but if it could be fixed then I would be happy with it. Sadly though, with the current state of the Senate and it’s lack of leadership, how can anyone trust them to fix something so important?

We are starting to see some movement on the DADT front:

Tomorrow, Congress will be holding its first hearing in 17 years on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the 1993 law that bars gay men and women from serving openly in the military. LGBT leaders expect that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will announce that while Congress and the administration work on a permanent repeal of the law, the Defense Department “will not take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law.” Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen aren’t, however, “expected to offer a specific legislative proposal to repeal the law.”

(emphasis added)