Joe Barton Apology-Fest Continues: First BP, Now AT&T, Comcast ... [Your Company Here]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/joe-barton-apology-fest-c_b_616445.html

But Barton's campaign of contrition for corporate wrongdoing didn't stop there. Barton went for a "two-fer" today, firing off a letter with fellow apologist Cliff Stearns of Florida demanding a hearing about the inquiry launched today at the Federal Communications Commission into how the agency should regulate broadband networks.

While not as blatant as his mea culpa to BP, if you read between the lines, the message is the same. Sorry, AT&T, that the FCC is bothering you. Sorry, Comcast, you can't block legal content. Sorry, Verizon, I really tried to kill off Net Neutrality when I was in charge.

We've seen it before, from the banks on Wall Street to the mines of West Virginia to the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico -- laws loaded with special favors for the most powerful, toothless agencies that are supposed to act as watchdogs, and the bogeyman of regulation trotted out again and again to scare our elected officials from doing anything to protect us.

You'd think we'd have learned from AIG, Massey and the Exxon Valdez disaster, but here we go again. You'll be hearing a lot from the apologists and the astroturf groups in the coming days about "the government takeover of the Internet." But the real problem is the corporate takeover of Congress.

:bounce:

---Jackie the Jokeman Martling