The battle over net neutrality rages on, but Congress, as always, does its damndest to make things worse: H.R. 4752, a Bob Latta (R-OH) production, would prevent the FCC from ever reclassifying broadband as a "public utility," which is what the FCC would have to do to be able to legally enforce net neutrality regulations. And again, we learn that, despite the fact that both conservatives and liberals support net neutrality, all Congress cares about is who gives them campaign money. I suppose you could interpret Mr. Latta's bill as evidence that Congress is actually scared of the people's will -- that if the people hadn't said en masse that we, and not some corporation, should dictate what we see and where we go on the internet, this bill would never have seen the light of day. And Mr. Latta's own press release includes his absurd statement that the internet should be free from "government interference" -- which, since we are the government must mean "freedom from the people's interference," and what about corporate interference? As a bonus, the release also quotes no less than four big telecom spokeshacks all saying the FCC should use a "light touch" or a "lighter touch" on regulation. Fellas, the bullshit spreads much better if you don't all say the same thing in the same press release. Free Press helps you tell Congress to reject H.R. 4752.
Meanwhile, as we discussed the other day, the "liberal" media has had a field day covering the failures of the Veterans Administration to provide good health care to our veterans -- so much so that President Obama accepted Secretary Shinseki's resignation the other day, and it's quite rare for an Obama Cabinet member to resign in the middle of a storm. But the "liberal" media has largely forgotten to mention that Republicans filibustered an expansion of veterans' health care services back in February, largely because they could not successfully attach an amendment punishing Iran further. Perhaps the "liberal" media thinks it's not newsworthy when a Republican filibuster happens, since, you know, they do it all the time. But of course it is newsworthy when politicians who spend all their time telling us that they support the troops and we don't actually fail to support the troops. So CREDO helps you tell Senate Minority Leader McConnell to stop standing in the way of better health care for our veterans. Mitch McConnell, you may recall, is the man who actually filibustered his own bill back in December of 2012 (and then tried to blame Harry Reid for it, which so totally resonates with people who don't already hate Harry Reid!), so he's old hat at obstruction. It's well past time we told him to stop, which we can do, even if we're not Kentuckians, or rich corporatists.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment that would guarantee our right to restrict campaign spending and thus effectively overturn the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, then the People's Email Network still helps you do that. The relevant bills, S.J.Res. 19 and H.J.Res. 20, would both explicitly grant state and federal governments the authority and the right to limit both political contributions and campaign spending; S.J.Res. 19 also explicitly states that "(n)othing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress the power to abridge the freedom of the press," which may not sound absolutely necessary, but with The World's Most Literal Man in charge of the Supreme Court, you never know. Word on the street is that the Democratic-controlled Senate will actually hold a vote on S.J.Res. 19, which will then get Republicans on the record as opposing campaign finance laws, and supporting unlimited contributions to campaigns, a position that's even unpopular with rank-and-file Republicans. And then Republicans will claim it was all a Democratic "stunt" -- just like the Republican flag-burning and anti-gay marriage amendments were "stunts" years ago, amirite?
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