"If this survives the whole house and senate, it will be a much bigger achievement than anything else the netroots have done thus far."

I think that says something about the power and appeal of the NN principle as it relates to broader issues and political strategies, particularly for the netroots community, which is building influence and membership by leveraging the open Internet and manifesting the values embodied in its fundamentally "democratic" and "progressive" architecture.

It also speaks to the "values" space where "personal freedom" meets "fairness" and where folks who wear labels like "libertarians," "progressives" and "conservatives," can find common ground against the excesses of corporate power and their influence over the media and the political process.  

In key respects, the NN issue highlights the fundamental conflicts and policy choices our country faces on multiple but related fronts.  Hopefully there are ways to expand this heightened awareness of the corrosive influence of excess market/political/media power by large corporations to include other issues and industries(e.g., drug, insurance, energy, agribusiness companies).  One common link is the deceptiveness and pervasiveness of their corporate propaganda...the recent ant-Gore ads by an energy-backed group being one recent example.

The beauty of the Internet as a media model is that people get to choose what they "consume" and to navigate through and compare their choices.  They also get to contribute their point of view and to dialog with others with similar or very different views and experience.  

Large corporations are struggling to deal with this growing reality (e.g., Rupert Murdoch's purchase of MySpace and the trend toward corporate "blogs"), but its not what they're good at.  Which is one reason why the pipe-owners want to carve out most of their network for a "controlled" media and service economy. For them its all about "control."  For us, its all about......[anyone want to fill in the blanks?]

I'm rambling....Congratulations Netroots!

Many of the people voting for the bill vote sense simply because of a turf war, not because they support net neutrality.

"In an unusual twist, many members of the committee said they were voting for the legislation not because of strong concerns over Net neutrality--but instead because of a turf battle. They said they were worried that a competing proposal already approved by a different committee last month would diminish their own influence in the future."

http://news.com.com/House+panel+votes+fo r+Net+neutrality/2100-1028_3-6077007.htm l?tag=nefd.lede

And Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were both convicted in the Enron case today.   I don't know it my heart can handle this much good news at once....

Some Republicans are surprisingly good on this type of issue, even if they take the dominionist position on every other issue.  IIRC, one of the best senators on IP issues is Sam Brownback.  Go figure.

Nice work everyone....

Lots of people worked on this.  I'd like to thank Mike McCurry in particular, for helping me understand just how dishonest the telcos are.

bkharmony...I agree. And your comment raises the question of what other issues can the netroots and geekroots align on.  

How about renewable and distributed energy production and conservation?  This issue has a significant tech element and is closely tied to the issue of growth and competitiveness of the U.S. economy as driven by tech innovation.  

And maybe also election reform, including those God-awful Diebold machines, where tech-expertise is needed to dig below the surface to reveal the huge flaws in these systems.

I bet there are more as well.

I somehow doubt we'd be celebrating if the online effort hadn't had the benefit of moneybags like MS and Google on our side and of the extreme anti-leadership ire of Jimmy Sensenbrenner.

But - a result is a result.

However, the GOP leadership will have the last laugh, so far as I understand, because they will determine whether the bill gets floor time or not.

My bet would be that the Sensenbrenner bill gets substantially left on the cutting-room floor. Unless lobbying steps up a gear or several.

Good call. The CWA tied for 1st as his largest contributor in the 05-06 cycle ($10,000).

However... as best as I can tell from the CWA's website, they've adopted a basically pro-net neutrality position. So I'd think that if they were going to exert any pressure on him, it would have been for a 'yes' vote.

alright, so I'm just a bit paranoid today.  I just read the full text.  This is straight up net neutrality, no shady riders.

But Sensenbrenner is still scum.