For telecommunications companies to take what used to be public tubes, and twist them into private corporate piggy banks, You need traitorous turncoats like Henry Waxman to sell us out. I would say, fuck you Waxman, but Indeed, he’s already fucked us all.

Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) warned a packed house Thursday night in Minneapolis that the corporate takeover of our media, and the government’s failure to stop it, is one of the most important issues of our time.

Franken said our media system is at risk everywhere we turn — from our free speech online to the growing power of companies who own a massive number of media outlets.

There was a time not long ago when it was easy to believe that Google was a different kind of company — one that considered the public good as well as the bottom line in making decisions. My, how a week changes things.

I’m just back from a sweltering week in Washington, DC, convinced that those of us who care about protecting consumers’ online privacy have reason for optimism. There is growing interest in creating a “Do Not Track Me” list and mechanism to implement it

Now how do they expect us to believe that giving Youtube the fast lane, would not affect any of youtube competitors? Indeed, the Google/Verizon Policty document is hogwash.

Net neutrality is at risk with the new likely deal between Verizon & Google. Obama’s strong stand during the campaign on this issue buckling. Now’s the time to act to prevent further erosion on this issue.

The world’s biggest media companies want to define how people will get content over the Internet. Money talks; independent content creators: take a walk. A mega-deal is reportedly in the works in which Verizon will favor Internet content from Google because Google has the spare cash to pay for preferred access. And this is being touted as the model for how content providers and Internet service providers will do business. We have seen the future, and it is exactly like the past.

The FCC has been holding closed-door meetings with big phone and cable companies like Comcast and AT&T as well as big Internet giants like Google around net neutrality. As Dereck Turner wrote the other day, the “deal” that they’re coming up with may be a big sellout.

S.E.C. Chairwoman Mary Schapiro announced improved public participation procedures to open up SEC’s rulemaking proceedings, thus proving that doing the public’s business in public isn’t hard. So what’s the excuse of other Federal agencies (like FCC) and Obama’s extreme closed-door Catfood Commission?

From S. Dereck Turner at Free Press.