roundtable: H.R. 1555 debate commentary from Benton(FWD:CITS)

roundtable: H.R. 1555 debate commentary from Benton[FWD:CITS]

H.R. 1555 debate commentary from Benton[FWD:CITS]

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Fri, 04 Aug 95 09:15:41 EDT 

Message-Id: <9508041318.AA11843@a.cni.org>
Date:  Fri, 04 Aug 95 09:15:41 EDT
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>
Subject: H.R. 1555 debate commentary from Benton[FWD:CITS]


Commentary on the debate

Curtiss Priest
<bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Newsgroups: wash.politics,seattle.general,wash.general,lobby
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 16:52:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeff Michka <wcis@eskimo.com>
To: wa-info-policy@eskimo.com
Cc: wcis@eskimo.com
Subject: H.R. 1555 debate commentary from Benton[FWD:CITS]


As noted by many, debate occured last evening (or early morning,
depending on time zone) in the House on HR-1555.  Through the wonders of
cable television, those of us in western time zones had a reasonable
chance of catching the action on CSPAN and be awake to watch.

For those lucky enough to have access or be awake to view the "debate,"
it was either a real eye opener, or it confirmed your absolute worst fears
about what passage of the Telecomm Reform Act will mean for citizens and
nation as a whole.

Since volumes of information, action alerts and recent background
(including briefs on the Managers Amendment to HR-1555) has been
circulated to these lists and newsgroups, my post is not an attempt to
rehash or reintroduce what's already available.  Instead, someone must
really acknowledge last night's participants for their efforts in putting
on a really great show.

In the worst of times--like this appears to be--a sense of humor and
whimsy can help lessen the pain of getting collectively screwed.  To that
end, we offer the following awards for those few members of the House who
bothered to show up.  Like the the famous "Oscars[reg.]," these awards
also have a nickname: The Gaggy<tm>.  It's appropriate.  Any viewer of
last night's exhibition discovered how quickly existential nausea can
become physical by merely watching the show. To that end...

---

*****
Pictures at an Exhibition Award Winners - Gaggies<tm> for 8/2/95
House Debate on HR-1555
*****

"The-_______-of-Jobs-it-will-bring" Award:

Honorable mention, various artists:

"HR-1555 will...
	* ...create thousands of jobs!"
	* ...create tens of thousands of new jobs!"

Job Category Award winner:
    Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) - ...create *millions* of new jobs!"

Helping the Poorest of the Downtrodden Award, single entry:

Rep. Dingall (D-MI):  "Because of the MFJ, the communications industry 
has been held captive by a federal judge--a good judge, mind you--a group 
of Department of Justice attorneys, and those from ATT...a
third-floor...where meeting happen behind closed doors...it has been
hard times for communications companies the last ten years."

Creative Ignorance of Facts Award, single entry:

Rep. Dingall (D-MI):  Granted this award for never mentioning how the
Managers Agreement was reached (behind closed doors) and given to members
less than a day before, all while working hard to limit time of debate and
discussion on the floor.

General Category, Creative Ignorance of Facts Award, group effort:

To all proponents of HR-1555 at the exhibition for never mentioning
anything about consolidation of newspapers, television, radio and cable
under limited ownership, and carefully side-stepping any response about
the outcome when asked.

General Category, Creative Ignorance Award, artist unkown:

"Telecommunication companies are poised to deploy exciting new
technologies...like Video Dial Tone..."

General Category, "Black-is-White/White-is-Black" Award:

To all proponents of HR-1555 at the exhibition for redefining the word
"competition" to mean "consolidation" and doing so with a collect straight
face.

General Gaggy Grand Prize Winner:

Non-attending "Marlon Brandos" (take that anology as far as you'd like),
American Big Business interests, dominated by the RBOCs and major
telecommunication/entertainment industries, for actually proving they have
the very best government money can buy by spending between $20 and $40
million dollars in lobbying for HR-1555.  We thank Rep. Kaptor for
reminding those attending last night's exhibition of this fact by actually
speaking her mind: "...I'm ashamed..."

Special Category for Performance and Grand Prize Winner of "The Grand
Gaggy<tm>:

Rep. Rick White (R-WA) for his second-to-last performance at the
Exhibition. Given the prestige of this award, and given Rep. White is a
freshperson representative from our home, Washington State, we would like
to present his performance (almost) in total.  We have taken the
opportunity to not include the apparent attempt of Rep. White to do a
Porky Pig voicing of his copy ("di-da-di-digggitalization," etc.) to make
it more readable.
---
[Intro garbled--references to 1989 debate on adopting HDTV standards by
FCC] "If we'd followed that advice in 1989, we wouldn't be here today.
Because it was in 1990 that Americans--without the help of the
government--invented digital television which leapfrogged the technology
that the Japanese were using and put us in the position we're in today.

"It's digital television, and the digitization of the entire
telecommunications industry that lead us to what we are doing in
this bill.  And it taught us a very important lesson.  And that
lesson is that it's people, not the government, who are going to
make the best decisions about technology.

"And as we like to say in my home district--which is the home of
Microsoft--no matter how many Rhoades scholars you have in the
White House, they're never going to be smart enough to tell Bill
Gates to drop out of Harvard and invent the software industry.
And no matter how many Rhoades scholars you have in the White
House, they'll never tell the next Bill Gates to drop out of
whatever school he or she is in now and invent the next
revolution in the telecommunications industry.

"We've learned that lesson in this bill.  The market, not the
government, is going to tell us what the next wave of technology
is.

"We've heard some people say this bill isn't perfect--and I guess
that may be true.  But I can tell you we've made it about as fair
as we can make it.  It's close enough for government work."
----

We encourage everyone out there, especially those people from Rep.
White's home district and Washington State, to contact Rep. White at the
following addresses to congratulate him on last night's stunning
performance and his Grand Gaggy Award:

email: repwhite@hr.house.gov
www: http://www.house.gov/white/welcome.html
phone: 202-225-6311
fax: 202-225-2286

We can all look forward to another exhibition this evening (8/3) and some
real action on the House floor.  Tune into CSPAN and make your own
choices for "Gaggy" awards.

---End "Gaggy"<tm> Awards

PERSONAL, SAD, SERIOUS NOTE:  I've had quite a few years of dealing with
government, bureaucrats and officials as a citizen lobbyist and
community activist.  I'd thought I'd become pretty insensitive to little
shows like last night's "debate" on HR-1555.  I was wrong.  I'm apalled,
dismayed and angrier than hell.

Between viewing the floor debates on Health, Labor and Education
appropriations, followed by the so-called "debate" on HR-1555, it becomes
very difficult to maintain a desire to continue to work for a citizen
voice in governance at a local, state or federal level.

However, on reflection, that's not an option.  In my home state,
Washington State, citizens rallied and worked to turn back the tide of a
"takings" initiative and put it to a vote of the people; stopped grevious
censorship of the 'net in the final days of our state's legislature; as
well as many numerous examples of successful citizen action.

I do not believe our efforts will stop HR-1555 from passage in the House,
but do feel we need to press on and try and prevent it from becoming law.
I strongly recommend those reading this post--if they have not done
so--weigh in with their elected officials in Washington, DC on HR-1555 (a
tad late in the 11th hour and 59th minute) and other related legislative
matters.  It may not stop them now, but it does give rise to a
countervailing voice that *can* make a difference.

Despite the apparent gloom, there's still a need to stand tall and act.
If our elected officials in Washington--or our home states--do *not* hear
us, then the field has been left to those that bought it, particularly in
the case of HR-1555.

Please check this newsgroup or list for many of the exceptional action
alerts on federal Internet/telcomm-related legislation.  Most of these
contain contact information for elected officials from your state.  Use
it.

Grassroots--the real thing, not the bought-and-paid-for version--have
power.  It's time to mobilize beyond what we've done so far.  None of us
can count on the national groups and organization opposing much of this
onerous legislation to do it alone.  We've got to step in--and soon--as
citizens and members of our neighborhoods and communities these
legislative moves will profoundly affect.

I'll get off my soapbox now.
-----
Jeffrey Michka - Boardmember, Coalition of Washington Communities;
Information Policy/Technology Resource for CWC; and CITIZEN ONLINE
 [Views expressed in this article are soley those of the author]
-----

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