Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2006
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2006 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.madison.com/tct/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Note: Usually does not publish letters from outside the state.
Author: John Nichols
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

KOHL MAY BE KEY TO INTERNET NEUTRALITY

Herb Kohl does not face a lot of political pressure this year.

The three-term senator is running for re-election against a Democrat 
primary challenger best known as the organizer of the Great Midwest 
Marijuana Harvest Festival and Weedstock, a Republican who couldn't 
muster 5 percent of the vote in his own party's Senate primary two 
years ago, a Libertarian who couldn't get enough signatures to 
qualify for the ballot, and a Green who is mounting an impressive 
campaign but will never be able to match the campaign spending of the 
wealthy Kohl.

So the question is not whether Kohl will be scared into doing the 
right thing on any particular issue.

The question is whether he will be persuaded.

Anyone who has ever talked with him knows that Kohl takes issues 
seriously. But he is a confirmed moderate whose career has been 
defined by caution - and, of course, by the fact that he is a very 
wealthy man who can and does fully finance his own campaigns.

What persuades him? More often than not, a desire to do what's best 
for Wisconsin.

And what's best for Wisconsin is an Internet that serves rural and 
urban areas, rich and poor, young and old with equal quality and 
equal access to all of the technology's promise.

Today, media reform activists will attempt to get the senator to 
recognize this fact.

The message of those who visit Kohl's office will be that Wisconsin 
and the rest of the country need an Internet defined by the free flow 
of ideas and genuine competition.

Internet users in Wisconsin and across the country are concerned that 
the telecommunications bill pending in the Senate represents a 
massive giveaway to cable and telephone conglomerates that want to 
establish monopoly - or cartel - control of Internet service in 
communities such as Madison, Milwaukee, Mellen and Manitowoc. If the 
corporate giants get their way, the most fundamental consumer 
protection - the network neutrality requirement that currently 
ensures equal access to all sites on the Internet - will be lost. And 
with it will go the vision of the Internet as a tool for 
democratizing communications and opening up the public discourse.

Kohl, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's 
Subcommittee for Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, 
can play a critical role in the debate. Indeed, his reputation as a 
moderate who works with Republicans could make him one of - if not 
the - most essential Democrats in the looming fight. As of now, Kohl 
has not taken a stand on the telecommunications legislation in 
general or on the particular question of Internet neutrality.

Activists were to visit his downtown Madison office today to ask that 
their senator join their fight to save the Internet. They want Herb 
Kohl to use his position and his influence in the Senate to defend 
the Internet that still holds so much promise for rural and urban 
Wisconsin, for honest debate and for American democracy. They won't 
scare him into doing the right thing, but let's hope they can persuade him.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman