Free Republic

By the way, the FCC's Internet power grab is a bigger deal than executive amnesty.If it seems insane that Google at one point lobbied hard for so-called "net neutrality," you have to realize that the biggest and most influential players always figure they can benefit when a market becomes more political. That's because they figure they're in a better position to manipulate the market to their benefit.So imagine Eric Schmidt's horror when he realized that last week's power grab from the FCC was no ordinary bit of regulatory meddling in an otherwise free market. The heavy-handed move of three FCC...

Speaking on WMAL this morning former US Atty and high powered DC lawyer Joe DiGenova said the FCC Net Neutrality rules will never come to be since they will never survive a court challenge. He added that "standing will never be an issue." He also believes that Gowdy's committe has damaging emails on HRC over Benghazi.

In a landmark decision on net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared the Internet a public utility under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act as reported by CBS News. The 3-2 split decision forces Internet service providers to not actively discriminate in terms of what content is transmitted at what speed. Obama issued a statement supporting the net neutrality decision. “…will protect innovation and create a level playing field for the next generation of entrepreneurs.” Just like Obamacare has? Just like the stimulus package?

The FCC passed the internet regulating “net neutrality” rules on Thursday and questions abound. But there are some things we do know, and here’s a summary: No one but the administration knows exactly what’s in it. The vote passed on a party-line 3 to 2 vote, with one of the Republicans including a 9-page dissent.The internet will now be treated like a public utility.The most commonly understood regulation will be the elimination of a broadband provider’s ability to prioritize or adjust the speed of content based upon their noteworthy financial arrangements with providers.George Soros and the Ford Foundation donated almost $200 million to support...

On Friday, C.J. Pearson, a 12-year-old conservative from Georgia who posted a viral video supporting Rudy Giuliani, discovered that his personal Facebook page was locked. In an exclusive interview with Examiner.com on Saturday, Pearson said he received a message from someone about 6 a.m. Friday. That's when he learned his account and page had been locked for "suspicious activity." He jumped through all of Facebook's hoops, but wasn't able to recover his account. So he created a new profile to take its place. His public page was not affected, he said, however, he can no longer administer the page....

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has pulled the trigger. In the name of “net neutrality” they have decided to assert regulatory control over the vast, sprawling, ever-changing conglomeration of economic activities known simply as the “Internet.” What will the FCC do now? Think of Nancy Pelosi’s infamous statement about the Affordable Care Act: Congress had to pass it for Americans to learn what it would do. The FCC has bitten off more than it can chew. Its task will be somewhat comparable to that of the old Soviet price-setting bureaucracy in which my friend, economist Yuri Maltsev, once worked. Barely...

Silicon Valley is in a panic following an announcement that China is considering sweeping counterterrorism legislation. The law would require tech companies to provide the Chinese government with NSA-like access to private data, terms the industry may be forced to accept if they want to do business in the world’s most populated country. The Edward Snowden revelations about the American spying apparatus have numerous impacts. One of the latest is a decision by the Chinese government to terminate contracts with a number of major US-based technology brands. This could stem from news that the NSA installed spyware into the products of major US technology companies, thus using these brands...

<p>Why won't they release the rules?!?!</p> <p>It's been less than 24 hours since the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve strict new regulations on Internet providers, but that's the leading question coming from its critics.</p> <p>Conservatives are demanding that the FCC release a full copy of the regulations that it's planning to impose on companies such as Comcast and Verizon — and taking the agency's silence as evidence of a cover-up. Readers of an FCC blog post  have suspiciously mused that "these new regulations should have been published by now." It's much the same over on Twitter.</p>

Get prepared for less innovation and a slower Internet with added costs. Oh, and technological innovation? That'll slow down too.All thanks to the government now getting their mitts on the Internet through the so-called "net neutrality" bill. Obamacare didn't bring down healthcare costs and expand coverage; Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley didn't make the financial system safer. And there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that the proposed Cap and Trade legislation would've lowered the earth's temperature. Get wise America. Some of the biggest pieces of legislation past in the last couple of decades don't even pretend to do what's advertised. The Department...

How predictable… The Federal Communications Commission voted on strict party lines to adopt Obama’s 332 page “Net Neutrality” proposal. Given that everything the government touches ends up as a rousing success-story, I’m sure you’ll be able to keep your internet if you like your internet. According to Fox News:The commission, following a contentious meeting, voted 3-2 to adopt its so-called net neutrality plan -- a proposal that remained secret in the run-up to the final vote. On its surface, the plan is aimed at barring service providers from creating paid "fast lanes" on the Internet, which consumer advocates and Internet companies...

After ObamaCare turned out to be such an epic mess, a somber President Barack Obama retreated to the White House for a few days of reading and reflecting on the proper role of government. Okay, this is a vision from an alternate universe. But you’d think that confronted with the mounting evidence of government's basic incompetence, even President Obama might have some second thoughts about assigning to government tasks that were once in the purview of individual citizens. But you would be wrong. Indeed the final two years of the Obama administration will be devoted to enlarging government, despite the...

The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net...

oday’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net neutrality’s goal is to empower the federal government to...

Federal regulators did not need President Obama to arrive at the net neutrality rules that it voted to issue on Thursday, according to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler. After the agency on Thursday voted to issue tough new rules that fell largely in line with those the president wanted, Wheeler countered Republican concerns that the White House put any undue pressure on the legally independent agency. “I’m quite comfortable that we made this decision with independence and wisdom and based on the record,” he told reporters after the vote. Wheeler has previously said that he began to think...

Drudge is a blank page.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has made some last-minute revisions to his net neutrality plan after Google and public interest groups pressed for the changes, according to sources at the commission. Google, Free Press and New America’s Open Technology Institute last week asked the commission to revise language they said could unintentionally allow Internet service providers to charge websites for sending content to consumers. Such a scenario could open the door to an avalanche of new fees for Web companies and threaten their business models. Google executives on Feb. 19 called aides to Wheeler and staffers for the FCC’s two other...

While jousting with Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly a few years ago, Jon Stewart proclaimed him “the Mayor of “Bull---- Mountain.’’ But that image is imprecise. Fox News, the cable network beloved of conservatives, is less a mountain than a fortress, or maybe a tank. Firmly in the driver’s seat is O’Reilly, who worked at a Boston TV station and attended Boston University and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The network’s operational mode is the furthest thing from serene mountaintop remoteness: Day in and day out, Fox girds for ideological battle with what it sees as the...

Despite getting the green light, the exact rules have not been revealed and will remain a mystery for some unspecified length of time. "We will publish the order on our website as soon as next two steps are completed," said FCC chairman Tom Wheeler when quizzed after the vote. "First, we have to get the dissents in, and second have to look at those dissents - and we are required to be responsive to the dissents. Then we will put it on the web. And at that point also file it with the Federal Register." He refused to give a...

"Thanks Redditors! Wish I could upvote every one of you for helping to keep the internet open and free." —Obama While you were all engrossed by CPAC and rampant llamas, the Federal Communications Commission today voted in favor of new net neutrality regulations that, if fully implemented, would mean internet service providers could not discriminate in which sites and services customers would get access to. Websites like Reddit were at the forefront of net neutrality advocacy, and President Obama even voiced support of it months ago. So today, the president actually thanked Reddit directly in this hand-written note:

... The two Republican FCC Commissioners (out of a total of five) know exactly how important this new plan really is. Commissioner Ajit Pai has called the new FCC plan “a massive shift in favor of government control of the Internet…everything from your wireless service plan, to your wire line connection at home.” These new rules would not only affect your services, it would also give FCC regulators the power to decide what content on the Internet was “just and reasonable.” Commissioner Tom Wheeler makes the absurd comment that the FCC would never use those powers. But in a February...