January 14, 2011, 2:55 PM — Founding Saturday Night Live comedy writer, standup comic, semi-failed talk-show host and so-far-mostly harmless member of Congress Al Franken is offering members of the U.S. public a chance to voice their opposition to the FCC's consumer-unprotecting net-neutrality ruling.
By signing Franken's "Important Message From Al," you can add your name to the list of Americans who will add their weight to Franken's when he sends the whole thing off to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
(Aside: Al, don't grandstand; take your name out of the title.)
Why oppose it? "This deal would mean higher cable rates and less freedom of choice for American consumers and...give a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America," Franken's letter says, quite correctly.
Franken's support might alienate some on the right, would might not want to sign their name to the same letter as the man whose sober, thoughtful bio of one conservative commentator was titled "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot."
Never fear.
Conservatives are also mounting opposition to the FCC plan, though for different reasons. The main Republican objection is that it doesn't want the FCC intruding on the Internet with any regulation. Other conservative groups are worried about the suppression of free speech.
More than half of U.S. voters don't like, it.
Oddly, neither does Verizon, one of the companies most likely to benefit from it.
If you're one of the 21 percent of Americans who approve of the plan, just straighten up your Comcast business cards and forget you ever saw this story.
If you're not, go check out Al's site.
Or write to Julius yourself. Or to your member of Congress.
Mention that you don't like the FCC's plan, both on principle and because you don't like being left open to financial evisceration by your Internet provider, while being scolded for trying to use the bandwidth it promised.
Kevin Fogarty writes about enterprise IT for ITworld. Follow him on Twitter @KevinFogarty.
