Category: Politics

[Political Post]

As soon as I turned 18, I registered as a Republican, and even watched Fox News. It’s no secret that I was an officer, at the age of 18, of the Tulsa Young Republicans, and even traveled to the national convention as a delegate to vote for the new president of the national organization. In my first presidential election in 2004, I voted for Bush’s second term. I campaigned for conservative city counselors, and even had a chance to meet Dick Cheney. To be fair, I couldn’t understand how anyone thought that liberal ideals were worth having, as they were obviously a waste of money.

Despite my almost religious belief in the conservative platform, there was one thing that never quite felt right with me, and that was the Patriot Act. Despite the attacks on 9/11, I couldn’t see the justification in giving the government almost unlimited power to spy on and collect private data on nearly anyone they saw fit, all through the guise of secret court orders, which even our representatives and leaders had no access to. I read the original document cover to cover, and reported on it in class. At that time, I was enrolled in TCC, and one of my favorite teachers was a history teacher who, if I remember correctly, was a Vietnam veteran. He was an extremely liberal hippy with strong convictions who was also very confrontational. That being said, he was fair. He loved to argue, but would concede to a good point when one was made. Needless to say, we disagreed most of the time, so when I explained that I was going to do a report over the Patriot Act, he was rather excited. He thought of so many points to tear my report apart. He thought of all the different ways in which the program could be abused.

When I walked into class, he was so excited to tear apart my report, but when I finished giving the presentation, he was completely speechless. All the points that he had thought of to counter my argument were the very same points that I had chosen to report over.

So, why am I saying this. Mostly, it’s because my belief that the Patriot Act is a terrible program has actually grown stronger. Don’t get me wrong.  Not every clause in the act is terrible, but the sections and clauses that enable massive surveillance of American citizens without due cause are troubling, to say the very least.

What’s more troubling is that recently, talk has all but stopped about this issue. It’s a very complex issue, and many people have no idea what is really going on. I think John Oliver has a good approach to explain it.

So what do you think? Do you think these are necessary provisions to keep America safe, or are they nearly worthless programs that waste money and give the government too much power and control?

I recommend that you get yourself educated, and contact your representatives. It’s very important that they hear our voices! The current expiration on this set of controversial provisions is June 1. So, let your congressmen know before then!

I know that the Internet isn’t a person, and it’s a little silly to congratulate it, but seriously, the US has been really lagging behind in the quality of the Internet.

Today, the FCC passed an act that will reclassify the Internet as a title 2 utility. It’s the same thing they did for telephone communications many years ago. There are some pros and cons to this, but in my humble opinion, the pros outweigh the cons.

I’m an optimistic person, so I’ll start with the pros. More competition! Right now, companies like Comcast and Time Warner have contracts with states and cities that give them legal monopolies over internet services in those areas. In all these areas, the service has been ridiculously bad. This reclassification will make those contracts unlawful. Other companies will come in and offer better service for a lower price, and so they too will have to improve their service.

Secondly, an ISP won’t be allowed to force a company to pay to have their data delivered, or pay extra for the same speed they’re already paying for due to having a bandwidth product. Anyone remember the Netflix vs Verizon fiasco last year? Netflix caved and started paying Verizon for the faster speeds, passing that cost down to the consumer. Yeah, that will be a thing of the past, because Verizon will not be allowed to limit the speeds on a delivery service you’re already paying for.

Third, this doesn’t just apply to land lines! It will also be applied to mobile, so there will be more options for low cost mobile internet, and, hopefully, the reintroduction of unlimited data plans.

Next, the fast lane is dead. If you heard nothing about this in 2014, then you must have been hiding under a rock, but basically it was a money making scheme on the part of the ISPs (Comcast and Time Warner primarily) to make extra money by charging companies to have their data delivered at faster speeds, where the smaller companies who can’t afford the higher costs would suffer at lower connection rates. There would be nothing the consumer could do to stop this either. You could have a gigabit connection, and if the company you were trying to get data from couldn’t afford the higher cost of delivery, you’d get a slow loading page.

Finally, depending on the wording of the act, companies should now be held accountable to use the subsidies they receive from the government to improve the service. There have been too many cases of companies receiving billions of dollars to expand the internet, without action on the part of the ISPs. Since it will be considered a public service, taxpayers can have some expectations on how it should work, and will finally have some recourse when it doesn’t work as it should. Of course this part won’t be immediate, but within the next 3-5 years, I imagine that the average speed of the internet will increase nationwide.

Now, as I said, this reclassification comes with a few cons, but the worst one is the added opportunity to tax it the same way that other utilities are taxed. Each person will be paying a little more taxes for the “maintenance” of the infrastructure. But oh well, with the added competition, I’m confident that the savings on the service will offset the added taxes.

Secondly, it will be harder to remain anonymous on the internet, but if you think you’re anonymous now… well… hahahahahahahahahaha! Sorry, couldn’t resist. Let’s just say that the NSA and other federal organizations know well what recipes you’ve been checking and what porn you’ve been watching.

Anyway, this is one of the hurdles that is keeping me in Japan. I just can’t live and work in a place that has such terrible internet, especially when I’ve lived in a place that has amazing internet (Japan has the second highest average internet speeds in the world, behind South Korea). The transition won’t be easy, and there will be speed bumps, but I’m really happy that the US is actually moving in a positive direction on something for once.

So to reword my initial statement, Congratulations Americans! You’re about to get more choices, and most likely a lower internet bill.