Save the Internet

The effort to save the internet needs your help like yesterday, Matt Stoller says:

Last Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee took up the massive Stevens telecommunications bill, bringing it into what's known as 'mark-up'. A 'mark-up' is a session held by a committee in which members of that committee discuss and vote on amendments to a bill and the underlying bill itself. In this case, it's like a mini-Senate floor, but only for Commerce Committee members. This mark-up has over 200 amendments, with the most significant being the net neutrality Snowe-Dorgan amendment.

The key is to get a close or winning vote on Snowe-Dorgan, and a close or winning vote on the final bill. If that happens, the legislation will take a lot of time to be debated on the Senate floor and will lose a lot of momentum. That's good for us.

Here are Senators with shaky or unknown votes on the net neutrality amendment. Ask them to support net neutrality, and to vote against any bill without the Snowe-Dorgan amendment. What happened in the house is that the telcos were able to convince lots of Democrats to support the final COPE Act because it contained fake language supposedly protecting net neutrality. This doesn't need to happen in the Senate, though Stevens is trying a similar trick:

Republicans:
John McCain (AZ): (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX): 202-224-5922; 202-224-0776 (FAX)
Gordon H. Smith (OR): 202.224.3753; Fax: 202.228.3997
George Allen (VA): (202) 224-4024; Fax: (202) 224-5432

Democrats:
Jay Rockefeller (WV): (202) 224-6472; (202) 224-7665 Fax
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE): Tel: (202) 224-6551; Fax: (202) 228-0012
Bill Nelson (FL): 202-224-5274; Fax: 202-228-2183
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ): (202) 224-3224; Fax: (202) 228-4054
Mark Pryor (AR): (202) 224-2353; Fax: (202) 228-0908

I haven't updated the list of candidates supporting net neutrality for awhile. I have taken a few off because they lost primaries. As always, add new ones in the comments with a link to the candidate's public comments.

Linda Stender (NJ-07)
Steve Herr (WI-01)
Bill Winter (CO-05)
Donna Edwards (MD-04)
Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
Joe Sestak (PA-07)
Coleen Rowley (MN-02)
Al Weed (VA-05)
Robert Rodriguez (CA-25)
Chris Owens (NY-11)
Rick Penberthy (FL-05)
David Harris (TX-06)
Paul Aronsohn (NJ-05)
Herb Paine (AZ-03)
Ned Lamont (CT-Sen)
Tim Barnwell (TX-26)
Tony Trupiano (MI-11)
Eric Massa (NY-29)
Glenn Melancon (TX-04)
Bob Johnson (NY-23)

This is critical.