Free Republic

If you noticed more buffering and sputtering when streaming video from Netflix a few months ago, you weren't alone. But who was really to blame? Your broadband provider or Netflix? Netflix, which earlier this year reluctantly agreed to pay interconnection fees to broadband providers, has suggested that Comcast is to blame because it's violating principles of Net neutrality, which are all about keeping the Internet free and open. Comcast has vigorously denied these assertions. Still, questions remain and confusion abounds over how the two ideas are linked or whether they should be linked at all. The confusion deepened with statements...

Will the IRS retreat from managing political speech through the tax code? One might have thought that the scandal that erupted a year ago this month would have discouraged the tax agency from pressing forward again, but they still proposed a more extensive enforcement mechanism for 501(c)4 groups just months after the targeting of conservative groups was exposed. After an avalanche of negative comments in the public-review period, though, the IRS is rethinking their approach (via Instapundit): The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said today that it will revise proposed rules governing nonprofit groupsÂ’ involvement in politics.The rules, released last...

Regulation: While we were distracted by the president's birth certificate show-and-tell, his EPA releases its guidelines for expanding federal power under the Clean Water Act. America's economy and freedom are at stake. President Obama's long-form birth certificate wasn't the only thing released last Wednesday, but it was probably the least important. The Environmental Protection Agency also released its guidelines for expanding federal power over the nation's waterways, ponds and puddles. These guidelines will take effect after a 60-day comment period and will serve as a reference for environmental agencies in determining their jurisdiction over a particular body of water, large...