PITA

Mobile Pipeline | Federal Anti-Municipal Wi-Fi Bill Introduced (emphasis mine):

Dubbed by the Author, Representative Pet Sessions (R-Texas), the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, the bill prohibits state and local governments from providing any telecommunications or information service that is "substantially similar" to services provided by private companies.

The bill, HR 2726, is similar to a host of state bills pushed by telecommunications companies aimed at fending off municipally-run wireless networks. Some of those bills, most recently one in Texas, have been stalled in state legislatures.

The telecommunications operators say that such networks represent unfair competition while municipalities claim that the services are needed to promote business and close the gap between digital haves and have-nots.

The idiot from Texass couldn't have chosen a more appropriate name for his bill. It's acronym is PITA -- pain in the ass, which is exactly what this bill is. This one is right up there with Sen. Santorum's bill to prevent the NWS from providing forecasting services via the web (for free):

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.

Oh, did I mention that Santorum has received campaign contributions from AccuWeather's CEO to the tune of $4000?

Providing Internet access for free to everyone is a bad thing, how? Providing free web-accessible weather information is a bad thing how? Apparently, it's only bad for corporate concerns that also happen to line politician's pockets. These people really creep me out. They don't have the people's interests at heart, it's all about the moolah.