...and make it a particularly bad one.  Apparently the Tedster has latched onto the effectively useless poll as the word of God or something, and is using it as evidence of what the people want.  Oy.

Put that back on the truck there, Ted.

Which of the following two items do you think is the most important to you: Delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice so consumers will see increased competition and lower prices for cable TV? OR Enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee?

Best quote from the STI blog:

As Matt Stoller wrote, “the rest of the questionnaire is similarly structured along the lines of ‘do you want lots and lots of pie or would you like a kidney infection’.”

Link: Save the Internet Blog » Blog Archive » Senator Stevens Spams for the Telcos

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, ted stevens, series of tubes, wtf, kidney infection

Now, I'm not a pollster by any stretch of the imagination, but isn't 800 kind of a small sample?  I wonder what the demo of that 800 was....

And to call it "onerous" is just going over the top...

A nationwide survey of 800 registered voters is being touted by the
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation because it
purports to show that Americans are not interested in net neutrality
legislation. Calling proposed net neutrality "onerous," the Committee's
press materials say that the poll makes it clear that Americans prefer
"video choice" over such regulations.

My god.  Especially when you consider how biased this thing was...

When pollsters introduced the concept to poll takers, they described it
solely as "enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet
providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and
increased security for a fee."

**Shudder**

Link: Poll: Americans don't want net neutrality (or maybe they don't know what it is)

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, poll, senate, commerce commitee, bias, scientific results

Some of the more interesting bullet points:

• Approximately one out of 10 households with incomes below $30,000
  reported having high-speed Internet access, but six out of every 10
  households with incomes above $100,000 had broadband.
• The most important factors explaining the digital divide among nations
  are household income and poverty — not population density.
• Consumers in other countries enjoy broadband connections that are far
  faster and cheaper than what is available here. U.S. consumers pay
  nearly twice as much as the Japanese for connections that are 20 times
  as slow.

Gee, and people are somehow shocked at the notion that corporations aren't after their own interests... and nothing else.

Link: Free Press : Press Release

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, ah come on woe!, broadband, digital divide

Cripes has it been that long since this whole net neutrality thing started?  That's like, what, a year or something?!

In all seriousness, this would be good news.  Bad news for this site! But good news for the internet.

Link: Net Neutrality 'May Well' Kill Bill, Says Stevens - 9/12/2006 11:11:00 AM - Broadcasting & Cable

Technorati Tags: net neutrailty, ted stevens, only a bill, on capitol hill

I mean, I needed a good laugh and all, but can I get a big WTF?  OK, so lets (incorrectly) assume for a second I do pay more if Net Neutrality wins out.

Isn't it worth it?  Isn't the mere fact that my tubes won't be filled up by anyone in particular worth it? That I would have the choice of which massive amounts of information to fill them with? Isn't it?

Thanks National Cable & Telecom Assocation for my laugh o' the day this early....

Link: NCTA: Untitled Page
More: Slashdot | Net Neutrality is Just "Mumbo Jumbo"

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, series of tubes, lies and deceit