AT&T gave $62K to lawmakers months before vote to limit muni broadband

[Guest Kloaked]

Original article: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/att-gave-62k-to-lawmakers-months-before-vote-to-limit-muni-broadband/

 

Two words: corrupt government.

 

 

Just look at that punchable face. Isn't it so cute?

 

I bet he spends more on his lunch than you do on groceries for a year.

 

A Missouri legislative committee last week approved a bill that would limit the spread of municipal broadband networks, helping private Internet service providers such as AT&T avoid competition.

 

A few months before that vote, AT&T donated a total of $62,500 to political committees in Missouri. This included $20,000 to the House Republican Campaign Committee, $20,000 to the Missouri Democratic State Committee, $7,500 to the Missouri Republican Party, and $15,000 to the Missouri Senate Campaign Committee (apparently a Republican group). One of the donations is listed by the Missouri Ethics Commission as occurring just two weeks ago, but we’ve been told it was made in September 2015 and not deposited until this month because the original check was lost.

 

This bullshit is not a donation! It's a payment to get bills approved. God I'm so fookin pissed about this.

 

They all know what they're doing. This shit needs to be stopped. Hopefully the FCC will bend these asshats over and give them a kick in the rear.

 

The donations were made before the legislature went into session; AT&T's policy is to not make contributions during legislative sessions. AT&T gave similar amounts in previous years.

 

Well I'm glad that's cleared up!

 

 

These people, everyone involved in this, belong behind bars.

 

It doesn't end there though.

 

The anti-municipal broadband bill, HB 2078, was introduced in January and approved with a 16-2 vote on February 18 by the Missouri House Utility Infrastructure committee. The bill was sent to the Select Committee on Utilities, the last step before a debate in front of the entire House, which is more than 70 percent Republican.

 

"We believe that if a governmental entity seeks to deploy or operate a GON [government operated network] in a market that can be served by the private sector, there should be safeguards in place to ensure a 'level playing field,' which is why we expressed support for HB 2078," AT&T told Ars.

 

"Level playing field" my ass.

 

I can see who got paid with that vote. Corrupt assholes, the lot of them.

 

About 20 states have laws limiting municipal telecommunications services, but one court case could lead to some of the laws being wiped out. The Federal Communications Commission voted a year ago to preempt state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee. The states sued, but if a federal appeals court rules in the FCC’s favor, cities and towns in other states could petition the FCC to preempt similar laws.

 

I do sincerely hope there is something done about this doodoocrap. There is no way this should be happening at all, yet it's happening. All of the time.

 

This shit happens, yet when citizens are late on tax payments, oh ho ho you better watch your ass mate they're coming for your shit.

[Kobathor]

What? The US government is corrupt? 

 

WHO KNEW THAT??????????

[rmac52]

Sadly this is how our government works.

[TidaLWaveZ]

I'm pretty sure they tried to do this in Louisville to the google fiber vote.

 

The first vote made to let google fiber start setting up passed with 23-0 unanimous decision, yet somehow it was decided that a revote would be taken at a later date.

[KemoKa]

Welcome to America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, where the rest of the world powers ahead at the speed of light whilst the US tries to limit the access of its citizens to 21st-century infrastructure at every opportunity. Because 24mbps is all the freedom you could ever possibly need!

Fuck this country.

[thekeemo]

And people ask why I say "donations" should be anonymous and very highly capped..

[Nineshadow]

Only 62k?

Looks like pocket money honestly.

[CommandMan7]

1 hour ago, KemoKa said:

Welcome to America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, where the rest of the world powers ahead at the speed of light whilst the US tries to limit the access of its citizens to 21st-century infrastructure at every opportunity. Because 24mbps is all the freedom you could ever possibly need!

Fuck this country.

24mbps? Don't kid yourself, they keep most people at 5mbps. That is, unless you want to pay $200 a month for gigabit. #MyWalletIsBeingRaped

[ChineseChef]

1 hour ago, Nineshadow said:

Only 62k?

Looks like pocket money honestly.

Honestly, I am not surprised it happens, I am just disappointed they sell for so cheap.

[MrRavens]

2 hours ago, Kloaked said:

 

 

Just look at that punchable face. Isn't it so cute?

 

Lmfao, don't kill me!

[BuckGup]

Think of how cool the future could be without corruption. We need a new young president that actually cares about the country not money

[beebskadoo]

At least they're bipartisan about it lol

This is what you get when corporations are seen as people and can donate money like they do. Things need to change and their is only one candidate that wants to change that and I think you know who they are

[Misanthrope]

The saddest part is that it took that fucking little money to basically rob millions of citizens out of decent internet.

[Yoinkerman]

6 hours ago, Nineshadow said:

Only 62k?

Looks like pocket money honestly.

Partially this.

 

Probably more likely the lawmakers already think exactly the same as what AT&T wants and the money changed no opinions.

[Suika]

The sad thing is that here in Missouri, AT&T is like the second or the fastest provider available anyway. Their only competition is Charter with their 100Mb/s offer but if AT&T's Gigabit spreads more, then yea still no competition. Honestly, I really just want the FCC to look at this and say something, like, I dunno, how a "utility" shouldn't be able to monopolize an area and be forced to fair competition?

 

I excluded CenturyLink as a competitor because they're laughable, the only areas they have business in are areas they've built a monopoly years ahead of Charter and AT&T.

 

Also politics. Like every company you could think of has dabbled in this one way or another. CenturyLink "bought" my area already, and Charter some others.

[Trik'Stari]

The real tragedy here is that the general population is too stupid to see this, realize it for what it is, and then put their collective foots up the collective asses of said lawmakers.

 

Yes, you can blame the politicians for being corrupt, but more blame goes to the people who don't pay attention to what the corrupt politicians are doing. That's sort of the responsibility of the electorate.

[BobbyG2]

The right decision,  for the wrong reasons.  These politicians accepting "donations" to pass legislation needs to stop.  However,  I do agree that socialized services ate the wrong way to go about it,  and would rather see these towns and counties laws forbidding all but one or two companies from being able to provide services in the area,  to be shot down.  Allow other companies to compete in the area and you'll see quality of service increase. 

[NateGSR117]

Why haven't conflict of interest been pointed out? They donated before the voting process, which is shady as f*ck. This is why I don't like companies in my politics, they F*ck everything up the a$$ and politicians are happy taking that chump change as corrupt sell outs. This pisses me off more than anything, companies are the biggest lairs and hypocrite along with their sell out friends. Not like the general public of the state didn't elect you to office or anything. Then, they wonder why Drumfp, (Look at John Oliver new video), is winning so hard and the republics are sh*tting themselves. 

/rant

[Dabombinable]

On 26/2/2016 at 9:01 AM, CommandMan7 said:

24mbps? Don't kid yourself, they keep most people at 5mbps. That is, unless you want to pay $200 a month for gigabit. #MyWalletIsBeingRaped

$150 a month for 25GB of the only internet your area can get, 2-3 bars of 3G, 0 bars of 4G and full bars of 2G portable dialup.....

[Slyhawk]

On 27/02/2016 at 2:35 PM, SamStrecker said:

Think of how cool the future could be without corruption. We need a new young president that actually cares about the country not money

The problem is that a president cant do much on their own the whole system is corrupted.