“Some issues are neither right nor left.” I’d never vote for Marine Le Pen, President of the National Front in France and consider it tragic her party is doing so well. But when she’s right, she’s right. In her vote at the EU and in her statement below, she strongly supports Net Neutrality. Meanwhile, the “socialist” French government waffled on the subject and the “liberal” U.S. Obama regime actively opposed NN at the U.N.
Danny Sepulveda’s State Department insisted that the words “Net Neutrality” be removed from the ITU & WSIS resolutions. I was horrified by this, especially after Net Neutrality was a strong part of the President’s campaign. I said so on the State Department ITAC, where I’m a member and I urge you to also join.
“I believe Barack Obama and the U.S. government continue to support net neutrality, a major plank of Obama’s platform since 2007. So we should have been happy that WSIS + 10 included two references. Instead, our draft strips out both. I asked what was going on on the ITAC call and was told “we believe NN is too controversial” by a corporate lobbyist. Someone tried to change that to the more bureaucratically correct “this isn’t the right place” but that’s obviously not the real issue.
The U.S. is not a credible defender of the open Internet if we keep making decisions like this.
Dave Burstein”
I make a point of reporting what I say at ITAC but I keep “off the record” other people’s comments. I urge all of you to join, filtering the (voluminuous) email into a folder to read at your convenience. Ambassador Phil Verveer testified to Congress, that ITAC is “open to all interested parties to review and advise.” Julie Zoller writes
“Please provide the following if you wish to join the ITAC to Julian Minard at MinardJE@STATE.GOV, copy to JMinard@ARTELLLC.COM:
Name:
Company/Organization/Community you are representing:
Mailing Address:
Email address:
Telephone Number:
I’ve been assured there will be minimal bureaucratic difficulty but be considerate if there’s a short delay because the staff is very busy.
Below, my earlier article confirming with State that ITAC is open, Ms. Le Pen’s official statement that is more progressive than two “liberal” governments and some miscellaneous rules of State committees.
| ITU Secrecy Disappearing As U.S. ITAC Open To All |
Join me and make a difference. 303,000,000 Americans have just been offered access to the notoriously secret ITU WCIT documents. Just join ITAC, the State Department International Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and enjoy access. “It takes a simple email with a request to be placed on the ITAC listserv, based on some material interest in a given topic,” Paul Najarian of State writes. Simply send an email to joinJulian Minard at MinardJE@STATE.GOV, copy to JMinard@ARTELLLC.COM: and you automatically have access to ITAC. That’s actually proving true, and email me if you need details how to make this work for you. Until now, no one knew about it so almost no one applies except insiders. It’s really that simple. I’ve recommended three people and they were all treated respectfully. Uncle Sam wants you, as Ambassador Terry Kramer makes clear below and confirmed to me in a brief phone call. “We welcome all interested stakeholders to participate in our WCIT preparatory process and help the U.S. Government form positions in advance of the conference. We solicit this input and feedback through the United States International Telecommunications Advisory Committee (ITAC).” His colleague, Ambassador Phil Verveer testified to Congress, that ITAC is “open to all interested parties to review and advise on the regional and national contributions to WCIT as they are submitted.” |