Free Republic

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Even before adopting net neutrality, here are 26 actions by which the Obama administration has already proven itself to be incompetent when it comes to the internet The fact that Obama refuses to allow the public to see his 332 page net neutrality plan until after its implementation is voted on is, by itself, reason enough for me to oppose the plan.I would think that even the biggest supporters of net neutrality would be curious as to why Obama won’t let people see his plan until after it is implemented.However, in addition to that, here are...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog The “most transparent administration in history” says it won’t let the public see its 332 page net neutrality plan until after the FCC votes on its implementation The Obama administration has just said that it won’t let the public see its 332 page proposal for net neutrality until after the FCC votes on its implementation.Which reminds me of this Nancy Pelosi gem regarding Obamacare:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5ToRepublican FCC Commissioner Ajit Paisaid has seen the proposal. Paisaid said Obama’s net neutrality plan was 332 pages long, and that:“It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how...

Google, Facebook and other big Internet companies might very well come to wish they'd never agitated for federal net neutrality rules. That's the message Richard Waters, writing in the Financial Times, delivers in a must-read column this week.

The Federal Election Commission is considering expanding their regulatory power to include political speech online… Yeah, let’s regulate the internet. I mean, free speech can’t just be expected to run wild or anything, right? The FEC held an open hearing yesterday to determine if they will move forward on clamping down on political content online (such as blogs, YouTube videos, and other “free” messaging). According to CNS News:Last October, FEC Chairwoman Ann Ravel issued a statement in which she complained that the agency was not doing enough to monitor activity on the Internet.Right… Because I know I’m terrified that the feds...

It sounds so fair and so right. Just like health care for everyone, under a plan in which "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." But so-called "Net neutrality," being pushed by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is likely another power grab that will give the federal government vast control over the Internet. Years from now, this could make the Obama administration's efforts to control banks, health care and other major components of our economy look like small potatoes. After having been "persuaded" by representatives of the White House, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler finally announced...

(CNSNews.com) -- The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is holding a hearing today to receive public feedback on whether it should create new rules regulating political speech, including political speech on the Internet that one commissioner warned could affect blogs, YouTube videos and even websites like the Drudge Report. The hearing is a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in McCutcheon v. FEC last year, which struck down the FEC’s previous cap on aggregate campaign contributions from a single donor in an election cycle. Before the decision, individuals were limited to a combined total of $46,200 in contributions to all...

First lady Michelle Obama believes Americans can keep the federal government from meddling with their lives by eating healthy foods and maintaining an active lifestyle. In an interview with Cooking Light magazine published Monday, Mrs. Obama said the best way to avoid dealing with “the system” is to take care of one’s own body. Doing so, she said, will eliminate trips to the doctor and the need to deal with Obamacare. “It’s just making sure people understand that the most powerful thing that they can do for their overall health is feed their bodies good nutritious food,” the first lady...

Ajit Pai, the sole Republican Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a Tweet that President Barack Obama’s secret, 332-page “Net Neutrality” document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives’ idea of honest, equitable, and balanced content fairness.

A Nevada court has ruled FBI agents can dress up as ISP repairmen to blag their way into a suspect's home without a search warrant – but must tell the courts about it when they do. The ruling stems from a case brought by the Feds against Malaysian poker player Wei Seng Phua and his son, whom the agency accused of running an illegal betting syndicate from a luxury Las Vegas villa during last year's FIFA World Cup. The duo hired the house in the grounds of Caesars Palace casino on the famous Strip, and asked for large-screen monitors, laptops,...

As millions of Americans brace for tax season, the Internal Revenue Service is requesting a $2 billion boost to its budget and 9,000 new employees as it prepares to enforce Obamacare’s tax provisions. President Obama released his $4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 this week, which includes $13.9 billion for the Internal Revenue Service. The agency asked Congress for close to $2 billion more for operations than last year—a 16 percent increase. The billions of dollars will help the agency bolster its staff by adding more than 9,280 full-time employees. The proposed jump in employment at the IRS...

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) collects 220 million pieces of information about foreign phone calls and SMS every day, Zeit Online reported on Friday. According to BND documents seen by journalists, five locations around Germany are used to collect the millions of so-called “metadata” about foreigners’ phone calls. It is not yet clear where the BND obtains this much data. But the parliamentary committee at the Bundestag (German parliament) investigating surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) has established that the BND taps satellite communications and internet cables. …

A top EU official wants internet and telecommunication companies to hand over encryption keys to police and spy agencies as part of a wider crackdown on terrorism. The EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, in a document leaked by London-based civil liberties group Statewatch, says the European Commission should come up with rules that require the firms to help national governments snoop on possible suspects. “Since the Snowden revelations, internet and telecommunications companies have started to use often decentralized encryption, which increasingly makes lawful interception by the relevant national authorities technically difficult or even impossible,” notes de Kerchove in the...

The Internal Revenue Service, which claims to be so understaffed that it can’t bother to collect unpaid taxes, or search backup tapes for Lois Lerner’s “missing” emails, apparently has plenty of time to read the comment threads on conservative blogs that have been critical of the agency (Hi there, IRS agents!). William Jacobson, one of the best-informed and most effective critics of the agency, writes on Legal Insurrection: Hey, remember the Reader Poll we did about whether it was okay to follow and try to interview Lois Lerner in her neighborhood? Do you approve of media confronting Lois Lerner in...

Venezuela's ruling socialists have set up a telephone hotline to denounce "infiltrators" they say are jeopardizing the legacy of beloved late leader Hugo Chavez by seeking to destroy the government. "The enemy who most harms us is the enemy within our ranks. It's the one who calls himself 'Chavista' but is not 'Chavista,' " said Francisco Ameliach, governor of the state of Carabobo and a high-ranking member of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV.

DESOTO COUNTY, MS (WMC) - You might expect to find an army in DeSoto County ... an army of drones, that is. A Southaven man has an army of hand-crafted drones, all controlled from inside of his customized command center. Estes built drones that provide infrared thermal imaging; they also detect human movement inside of a home or car. And what he is doing is legal. "You can do good things with this, or you can do bad things with this," Estes acknowledged. Estes wrote letters to the Federal Aviation Administration about his drone capabilities. Right now, the FAA requires...

The IRS may have inadvertently figured out how to win its legal battles against aggrieved tea party groups: Give them what they wanted in the first place — tax-exempt status. That was a major reason a Republican-appointed federal judge on Thursday threw out two lawsuits brought by more than 40 conservative groups seeking remedies for being singled out in the tea party targeting scandal, a victory for the IRS.

The sickening transformation of these United States into an authoritarian police state with an incarceration rate that would make Joseph Stalin blush, has been a key theme of my writing since well before the launch of Liberty Blitzkrieg. American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012. In the event you never read it, I suggest taking a look before tackling the rest of this piece. Fast forward to fall 2014, and the Wall Street Journal has a powerful article about how children in schools systems across the U.S. are being arrested or turned over to police custody for...

If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?-A— Annise Parker (@AnniseParker) October 15, 2014

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have required police to obtain warrants for surveillance by drone, making California the latest state to weigh on an issue that is dividing lawmakers across the country. Mr. Brown's decision comes as the nation grapples with how to balance concerns over privacy and civil liberties with a technology that police departments say can serve as a powerful law-enforcement tool.

Cooperation between Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, and America's NSA is deeper than previously believed. German agents appear to have crossed into constitutionally questionable territory.