-By Warner Todd Huston
If you are as worried as I am about the left’s effort to force ever larger amounts of big government onto our lives, then you should be looking into the issue of Net Neutrality. To that end a few times a week I’ll be posting some links and info about Net Neutrality to help you all get your feet wet on this important issue.
Here are just a few of the latest articles on Net Neutrality for your information:
Draft of Waxman’s net-neutrality legislation leaked amid talks
The Hill, by Sara Jerome
Here is a draft copy of the net-neutrality proposal under development by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (Calif.), according to an industry source. This version was under consideration as of the weekend. Two non-Hill sources said Monday afternoon they believe the bill will come on Monday or Tuesday.
Rough week marks end of FCC Chairman’s Summer in Hell
The Daily Caller, by Mike Riggs
Among the Washington power set’s favorite past-times is betting on an agency head’s exit date. After all, it’s usually a question of when — not if — he or she is going to burn out, throw up his or her hands in frustration, and get hounded out of the gig. The betting tables are especially hot after a long week for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
An Open Letter to the Men and Women of the FCC
The Washington Examiner, by Seton Motley
We hope you enjoyed the waffles the “public interest” group Free Press – whose Internet agenda the public isn’t at all interested in – prepared for and served you yesterday as you convened your monthly meeting.
This was their way of attempting to get you to “stop waffling”– and create out of whole cloth the FCC’s Internet authority by reclassifying the Web under the 1930s Title II landline telephone regulatory regime. So as to then give you the usurped power necessary to impose the dreadfully bad idea known as Network Neutrality.
Newest House Net Neutrality Bill Cuts FCC Out of Internet Authority
Publius Forum, by Warner Todd Huston
It looks like House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif) is so desperate to get a Net Neutrality bill out of the House before the recess that he was willing to strip the FCC authority from it this week. For months he Federal Communications Commission has been angling to take power over the Internet and left-wing Net Neutrality supporters were keen to let them but with the clock running down Chairman Waxman took a different path.
As Obama Pretends at Its Freedom, His Gov’t Plans Takeover of Internet
In an address to the United Nations on Thursday, Sept. 23, President Obama pledged to preserve a “free and open Internet” and would call out nations that censored content.
In a veiled reference to China and other nations that censor the Internet, Obama said that a civil society fosters open government. “Civil society is the conscience of our communities, and America will always extend our engagement abroad with citizens beyond the halls of government. And we will call out those who suppress ideas and serve as a voice for those who are voiceless.”
“We will promote new tools of communication so people are empowered to connect with one another and, in repressive societies, to do so with security,” Obama said. “We will support a free and open Internet, so individuals have the information to make up their own minds. And it is time to embrace and effectively monitor norms that advance the rights of civil society and guarantee its expansion within and across borders.”
Yet even as Obama stood giving high sounding words to a “free and open Internet” and scolding other nations that have oppressive controls on Internet access for their own citizens, Barack Obama’s own government has itself been quietly making plans to take over the Internet from private companies.
Obama’s Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Julius Genachowski, has been angling to use telephone regulations from the 1930s to try and take over full control of the Internet.
One wonders how Obama can have the gall to claim that he wants a “free and open” Internet when he is trying to take control of it himself? How long would the Internet stay “free and open” once the federal government takes hold of it and begins to decide what will be allowed and not allowed over it’s infrastructure?
As always, Barack Obama talks out of both sides of his mouth claiming all at once that he is for open access, and promoting new technologies and businesses while at the same time making plans for Bi Government to control it all from Washington.
Majority of Americans Against Net Neutrality
BroadbandforAmerica.com has an interesting report about a survey made by Hart Research Associates that seems to indicate that there is “substantial opposition to government Internet regulation.”
The survey shows that 75 percent oppose government regulation with 55 percent saying that government should not regulate the Internet at all.
“When asked if the federal government should regulate the Internet, 57 percent responded ‘no.’ Of the 31 percent who thought the federal government should regulate the Internet, more than two-thirds said any such regulation should be focused on privacy, online safety and protecting children.”
In other words, respondents did not want the government saying how business should be conducted on the Internet and were reticent to agree that government should restrict or control Internet providers.
Here are a few anti-Net Neutrality organizations and Web Resources that are worth looking in on occasionally:
- StopNetRegulation.org
- The Technology Liberation Front
- The Progress and Freedom Foundation
–Multimedia pages with some great videos and podcasts - MediaFreedom.org
- Tech at Night, Neil Stevens of RedState
- Tech Daily Dose, National Journal
- Tech Meme
- The Hill’s Hillicon Valley Blog
- Politico’s Morning Tech Blog
- Scott Cleland’s Precursor Bog
Here are some industry websites that follow Internet regulations:
- Verizon’s Policy Blog
- Broadcasting and Cable’s Tech Page
- TVB
- AT&T’s Public Policy Page
- Google’s Public Policy Page
We hope that you will post our articles and press releases. We also hope that our emailings will interest you enough to join the fight and write a few blog posts about Net Neutrality.
At stake is no less our freedom to blog not to mention the innovation of a free market.
Feel free to drop me a line at igcolonel@hotmail.com and do let me know if you are interested in helping to get the free market, conservative narrative on Net Neutrality out to your readers. This issue is vitally important for the freedom and success of our Internet.
This effort is in association with the United States Internet Industry Association (USIIA).
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.