Ted Stevens: senator, comedian

The US government is deliberating on whether to create a tiered and partitioned Internet, where the more you pay the faster your traffic gets through. It is sad to watch, given that the level playing field we currently have has promoted much innovation.

Ted Stevens, an 84 year old senator from Alaska, took $50k in campaign contributions from the telecommunications industry. For their $50k, the telecommunications industry bought his vote on this issue and 10 minutes of Ted saying the darndest things.

Ted doesn't understand how email might get delayed:

I just the other day got, an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

Ted forgets that failed dot coms left an overcapacity of fiber:

I don't have to have the type of speed they're introducing, but the people who are streaming through 10-12 movies at a time or a whole book at a time... for consumers use, those are not you and me, they're not the consumers, those are providers.

Ted doesn't want startups to provide innovative new services:

There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.
But this service isn't going to go through the Internet and what you do is you just go to a place on the Internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ted gets to vote on whether the Internet should be tiered and partitioned.