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from the public-servants-not-serving-the-public dept.
Common Dreams reports
Last Week Tonight host John Oliver on [May 7] issued another powerful rallying cry to save net neutrality protections, and, repeating the outcome of his 2014 plea, his viewers flooded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) site, causing it to temporarily crash.
[...] Oliver said it's worth noting that [FCC Chairman Ajit] Pai is "a former lawyer for Verizon", a company which "won a lawsuit which meant that if the FCC wanted strong, enforceable protection, its only real option was to reclassify the ISPs, and yet he cheerily insists under questioning that there is just not evidence that cable companies were engaging in rampant wrongdoing".
"Title II is the most solid legal foundation we have right now for a strong, enforceable net neutrality protections", Oliver said, and urged "we, the people, [to] take this matter into our own hands".
To that end, Last Week Tonight bought the domain name gofccyourself.com, which redirects users to the official FCC page[1] where open internet advocates can leave a comment and call for these protections to remain in place. (Oliver notes that it simplifies the commenting process the FCC "has made more difficult since three years ago".)
"Everyone needs to get involved. Comment now, and then maybe comment again when the FCC makes its proposal official. Even call you representative and your senators", Oliver urged.
So successful was the start of his campaign, according to Motherboard, that there was such a high volume of traffic flooding the Federal Communications Commission that the site temporarily went down. As of this writing, it is up and running again.
[1] The fcc.gov page is almost entirely behind scripts.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 09 2017, @05:31PM (2 children)
Public executions for anyone in the government not recusing themselves in cases with an appearance of conflict of interest is both just and necessary approach to this problem. Corruption is my one exception to thinking that the death penalty solves no problems.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 09 2017, @06:26PM (1 child)
The death penalty would not solve that problem, so long as the enforcement mechanism can also be corrupted.
For a simple example, consider a corrupt president that is the leader of the thoroughly corrupt Alpha Party. His opposition in congress consists of the also thoroughly corrupt Beta Party. The president and the Alpha Party would both like to consolidate their power. End result: all Beta representatives are tried for corruption and executed while the Alphas are never investigated, and the Alphas get 1-party rule that is at least as corrupt as it was when there was still Beta opposition around.
But, you cry, what happens when some non-corrupt Gamma Party comes around and challenges the Alphas? And the answer is that that never happens, because while the Alphas use the thoroughly strengthened anti-corruption laws (with the demonstration of the corruption of the Beta Party used as a reason) to strictly and constantly investigate any Gamma candidates that might crop up. And of course if the Alpha government finds one tiny thing wrong with the Gamma, guess what, they're headed to the guillotine. Meanwhile, the Alphas can continue to be as corrupt as they like with impunity, buying off, say, media pundits and organizations to make Gammas look bad to the electorate and of course organizing the election to ensure the "correct" (i.e. pro-Alpha) outcome.
Many attempts have been made to create a system of government immune from corruption. So far, none have succeeded.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 09 2017, @09:09PM
I know it wouldn't work, but it would be so satisfying.