Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman: 'Oversight of the Internet is One of His Top Priorities'
Monday, February 16, 2009 | Kristinn

Posted on 02/16/2009 6:59:38 PM PST by kristinn

The American Spectator's Prowler column published today has a disturbing report on the plans by the Democratic Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman to regulate political speech on the Internet.

In addition to details of methods Waxman is considering to rein in conservative talk radio, The Prowler reports on Waxman's desire to use the power of the federal government to investigate amd control political content on the Internet.

The article quotes an unnamed committee staffer as saying of Waxman's power grab:

"Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."

"Internet radio is becoming a big deal, and we're seeing that some web sites are able to control traffic and information, while other sites that may be of interest or use to citizens get limited traffic because of the way the people search and look for information. We're at very early stages on this, but the chairman has made it clear that oversight of the Internet is one of his top priorities."

"This isn't just about Limbaugh or a local radio host most of us haven't heard about. The FCC and state and local governments also have oversight over the Internet lines and the cable and telecom companies that operate them. We want to get alternative views on radio and TV, but we also want to makes sure those alternative views are read, heard and seen online, which is becoming increasingly video and audio driven. Thanks to the stimulus package, we've established that broadband networks -- the Internet -- are critical, national infrastructure. We think that gives us an opening to look at what runs over that critical infrastructure."

The article reports that Waxman intends to work with Democratic Party President Barack Hussein Obama's nominee to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, who is awaiting confirmation by the Democrat controlled Senate, to investigate and regulate free speech on the Internet.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 111th; 1stamendment; batboy; bigbrother; censorship; censorshipdoctrine; democrat; democratcongress; democrats; dncbrownshirts; fahrenheit404; fairnessdoctrine; fascism; firstamendment; henrywaxman; internet; islamobama; lping; neomarxism; nostrildamus; obama; orwelliannightmare; porkulus; stalinisttactics; talkradio; waronconservatives; waxman; webnazis
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 381 next last
To: Wisconsinlady

Well I will be out here in the Ohio Valley frontier. I don’t know what it will be called in the future. Maybe it will be called NEW CHINA. Cell phones...we’ll be too busy looking for food and water and cell towers prolly wont be working anyway.


101 posted on 02/16/2009 7:34:19 PM PST by timestax (CNNLIES..BIG TIME)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

Greta is great tonight...you may have to call 911 when you hear this about your elected officials (showing pic of Pelosi). Pelosi and Co. rushed the vote of a bill nobody read so they could fly off by military planes to Italy. Greta says it makes her feel had.


102 posted on 02/16/2009 7:34:49 PM PST by Miss Didi ( "After all...tomorrow is another day." Scarlett O'Hara, Gone with the Wind)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

This should be the second “shot heard around the world”. The destruction of the First Amendment cannot be allowed to stand.


103 posted on 02/16/2009 7:34:50 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. Margret Thatcher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FlingWingFlyer

I think you made a mistake and posted a picture of BatBoy.


104 posted on 02/16/2009 7:35:15 PM PST by DeLaine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

Then they are JINOs........


105 posted on 02/16/2009 7:35:22 PM PST by Red Badger (Zimbabwe has removed 12 zeroes from its currency. We need to remove ONE from the White House......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: EGPWS

Socialist Blitzkrieg.


106 posted on 02/16/2009 7:35:24 PM PST by ladyvet (WOLVERINES!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

Big Brother and 1984 come to mind.


107 posted on 02/16/2009 7:35:38 PM PST by Reagan Man ("In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: river rat

In another World, in an alternate universe, in a Galaxy far, far away, there would be a list made of all enemies of their world’s freedoms... A not so silent revolt would take place, with selective assassinations, public hangings, and as you mentioned, the neck slicing machines would be rolled out to eliminate the evil that threatened their very existence...


108 posted on 02/16/2009 7:36:24 PM PST by JDoutrider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

Comment #109 Removed by Moderator

To: kristinn

Liberals are a greater threat to freedom than terrorists.


110 posted on 02/16/2009 7:37:22 PM PST by clintonh8r (Bill and Hillary Herpes....they never go away.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

>> Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman: ‘Oversight of the Internet is One of His Top Priorities’

My liberal friends who ‘tortured’ me with never ending complaints about the Bush administration will surely remain quiet concerning this attempt of seizure.


111 posted on 02/16/2009 7:38:27 PM PST by Gene Eric
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

“Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views?”

No idiot (Waxman)that’s the ENTIRE POINT!!! Good grief, sites like FR are arount to present a forum for like minded individuals to freely express their perspective of current events to work together to either dissent or applaud anything that an individual might read about which is CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED!!!!!

Seriously, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE MORONS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?


112 posted on 02/16/2009 7:38:49 PM PST by phatus maximus ( John 6:29. Learn it, love it, live it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

they aren’t wasting any time. They have dropped the mask. to quote one columnist.


113 posted on 02/16/2009 7:38:54 PM PST by WoofDog123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HonestConservative

“interstate commerce”

Why that is the first and last page in the liberal play book.


114 posted on 02/16/2009 7:40:52 PM PST by JSteff (It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: kristinn

kristinn - I guess you got me on this one. I reread the source several times and could NOT believe this was not satire. We all know Waman is a slimeball and all but this is sloppy politics and hard to believe.


115 posted on 02/16/2009 7:42:28 PM PST by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: J40000

See following parts of the US Constitution:

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 (interstate commerce clause)
Article 1, section 8, clause 18 (necessary and proper clause)

Together, these constitute primary standing for nine-tenths of current federal activity and spending. If you have ever seen the government do something and then wonder, “is that even constitutional?”, chances are, the sole bases for the questionable government powers are the above Clauses 3 and 18.

I’m not saying I agree with it, just stating the way it is. IMO, these should both be scratched from the US Constitution, and all rulings and laws therein predicated should be culled from the books. Creative destruction and grievous hilarity would ensue.

Anyway. The history of the link between the FCC and the commerce clause goes back to 1887, under the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), and later (1930’s) the creation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) - BOTH under the purview of the US department of commerce, and justified by the above two clauses.

Nosferatu’s bolshevization of the internet is the natural progression of the last 120 years of constitutional thought.


116 posted on 02/16/2009 7:43:06 PM PST by M203M4 (Bill Kristol: Piltdown conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: J40000
Seems to me his job is ENERGY and COMMERCE, is it not???
117 posted on 02/16/2009 7:44:36 PM PST by Netizen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: J40000
Seems to me his job is ENERGY and COMMERCE, is it not???

True. It's to ELIMINATE energy and commerce in order to speed their transition to communism. That leaves plenty of time to meddle in other parts of the expansive federal nanny.

118 posted on 02/16/2009 7:45:11 PM PST by OrangeHoof (YES WE CAN have a Depression.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Arizona Carolyn
Ummmm you were one of the people on FR who preached do not under any circumstances vote for McCain!

That's exactly right. McCain and the GOP would have continued to move us towards socialism at 100 mph but the end result would have been the same. Lindsay Graham recently spoke in support of nationalizing the banks. It's socialism from either party just at a different rate.
119 posted on 02/16/2009 7:45:22 PM PST by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: behzinlea

No doubt...show this to the lefties who were crying a river about that and they’ll just whistle and skip away with a twinkle in their eye and a child like laugh....

I cannot stand much more of this garbage!!


120 posted on 02/16/2009 7:45:36 PM PST by phatus maximus ( John 6:29. Learn it, love it, live it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 381 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson