Technology

Budget - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Policy - Scott Cleland - Technology

GoogleMonitor.com Launches Today

January 31, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

Will spotlight Google’s lack of transparency and accountability

WASHINGTON – A new web site designed to make Google more transparent and accountable launched today. GoogleMonitor.com is a crowd-sourcing site which will keep watch on the Web’s top watcher of everyone.

“Google is the most powerful company in the world, dominates the Web’s business model for information discovery and monetization, and watches most everything that happens on the Web,” Scott Cleland of Precursor LLC and GoogleMonitor.com’s publisher said. “Given all that un-checked power, Google has a dangerous dearth of transparency and accountability.”
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GoogleMonitor.com Launches Today”

Computers - Crime - Democracy - Elections - Freedom - Government - Inernet - Journalism - Media Bias - Radio - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Technology - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Warning on Electronic Voting

January 31, 2010 by

(Publius Editor’s note: This is a fairly old report on the troubles with electronic voting so some of the links are no longer valid, but the work was pretty comprehensive so I thought some of it might be of interest to those worried about electronic voting. I had this sent to me by a reader and I told him I’d post it but I have been waiting to post this until we were close to the primary. Since it is only a few days away now, so here it is…)

Pandora’s Black Box, Did it Really Count Your Vote?
Relevance – November 1996 – Vol. III- No. V

Editor: Philip M. O’Halloran

[Editor’s Note: When we began researching the integrity of the election process, we wanted to believe that the talk of “votescam” was just overblown hype. However, we have since discovered that the computer voting system in this country is a veritable can of worms, so open to tampering that if there is no organized election fraud going on, the criminals are falling down on the job.]

ELECTRONIC VOTING ON TRIAL

On November 5, 1996, millions of Americans voted by secret ballot for thousands of elected officials from the Presidency to the local dog catcher. What few realized is that a key aspect of the vote-counting was also done in secret. What’s more, they have been legally denied the right to find out precisely how their vote is counted.

How can this be? After all, everybody knows that each aspect of the vote-count is officially conducted by “the government under the microscopic scrutiny of thousands of party officials, anxious candidates, poll workers, curious voters and the media, right?
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A Warning on Electronic Voting”

Computers - Inernet - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

What Would Revolutionize Wireless Service?

January 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, I want a Blackberry, I’d love to have an iPhone, gimme a new iPad, I want…. well, whatever new, cool device out there. I want to try them, use them own them. Yet, there is no earthly reason why I’d buy them because I am not a millionaire. And it’s not because the devices themselves are too expensive, either. It’s because it costs too much to keep them operating. And why is that? Monthly fees.

If I get a Blackberry, I have a monthly fee. If I get a new iPad, then I have another fee. If I want an iPhone then there is a whole ‘nuther fee. Screw dat noize, man.

Here is the thing. Until wireless service can be sold to a customer, not a device, until the service follows the person and NOT the device, we will not be able to revolutionize America’s wireless service. There should be no service stuck to a device. It should be assigned to the person who can then key in his passcode and use his wireless service on ANY device that uses wireless.
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What Would Revolutionize Wireless Service?”

Blogging - Chicago - Cook County - Elections - Government - Illinois - Republicans - State Government - States - Warner Todd Huston

Cao Responds to Kelly Accusations of Links to Topinka/Paid Blogger Claim

January 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There’s been a swirl of charges and counter charges with some of the operatives of several different campaigns here that we’ve only had a few posts about — mostly because I think these charges are tangential to the actual issues. It basically concerns charges made by the William Kelly for Comptroller campaign that operatives of the Dodge campaign are actually working for Topinka in a sort of typical Chicago dirty tricks campaign effort. These charges have been returned by the Dodge folks that it is in reality Kelly who is the false front candidate.

On Jan. 25 I posted D2s Prove Jim Dodge Dirty Tricks in IL Comptroller Race written by Tom Mannis of Chicago News Bench because it was a pretty good summation of the charges from his camp (he’s a Kelly man). Right after that 62nd District candidate Paul Mitchel responded to the claims. I posted that address the very same day.

Lynn has also responded to the Kelly camp’s claims (she’s a Dodge supporter) on her blog, Cao’s Blog and I think her voice should also be heard here. Among other things, she disputes that she makes money from Jack Roeser and that she’s a “paid blogger.”
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Cao Responds to Kelly Accusations of Links to Topinka/Paid Blogger Claim”

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Technology

Unintended Consequences: Balkanizing the Internet

January 15, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

The big missing part of the policy debate over how to best ensure continuation of an open Internet, i.e. through existing policy or the FCC’s proposed preemptive regulations, is what makes the Internet universal?

The Internet is near universal because it is entirely voluntary. All of the Internet’s signature elements are voluntary, not mandated by government(s).

Internet Protocol (IP) is a networking protocol that became universal precisely because it offered the ability for everyone to communicate in basically the same “language.” No one was required to use/adopt IP; people voluntarily adopted it because it was better and offered the most universal networking opportunity. Moreover, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), whose “mission is to make the Internet work better,” is an entirely voluntary collaborative process that functions outside of any government(s) control.

The Domain Name System (DNS), essentially the Internet’s address system, rapidly became universal precisely because people voluntarily recognized its essential value and adopted it. No country owns, controls or approves the Internet’s addresses; it’s a voluntary market process.
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Unintended Consequences: Balkanizing the Internet”

Anti-Americanism - Blogging - Book Reviews - Budget - Chicago - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Cook County - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Federalism - Free Speech - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - History - Inernet - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Republicans - Security/Safety - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - States Rights - Taxes - Tea Party - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

January 13, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Google - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis

January 10, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

In a filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the U.S Government’s leading expert in assessing the state of competition in communications markets, implicitly rejected net neutrality proponents’ core thesis of broadband market failure.

This DOJ filing, which represents the most recent U.S. Government expert assessment of broadband competition, could make it extremely difficult for the FCC to legitimately conclude in the coming months the factual opposite — broadband market failure.

Without a sound factual finding of broadband market failure, it also could be extremely difficult for the FCC to legally justify preemptively mandating common-carrier-like regulations on un-regulated broadband information service providers in the FCC’s pending open Internet proceeding.

Let’s review the DOJ’s core broadband competitive conclusions, which are relevant to the alleged broadband market failure thesis and the FCC’s open Internet proceeding.
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DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Technology

Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open”

December 27, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Google posted its treatise on “The meaning of open” designed to redefine the word “open” in Google’s image. It is an important read because it is a bay window view into the altruistic way that Google yearns for the world to perceive it.

Like most all of Google’s PR, however, Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open” may be “the truth” as Google sees it, but it is certainly not “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

I. Google’s Open Double Standard

Simply, Google is for “open” wherever it does not have a monopoly or dominant market position, however where it does, as in AdWords, AdSense and search advertising syndication, it is closed, to ensure that its dominance remains impregnable to competitors.
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Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open””

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

Googleopoly V — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob

December 22, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Below is the abstract of the latest white paper in my five-part “Googleopoly” series of antitrust white papers. The full white paper is at this link and at www.googleopoly.net.

 Googleopoly V* — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob

The Top Ten Reasons Why Google-AdMob Would “Substantially Lessen Competition”

Abstract: A Google acquisition of AdMob would eliminate Google’s only substantial rival platform in mobile in-application advertising and catapult Google from an estimated 25% share to over 75% share of this strategic gatekeeper market for monetizing mobile Internet applications. Combined with Google’s search advertising monopoly and dominance of mobile search advertising, Google’s acquisition of AdMob, “the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace,” would likely tip the broader mobile advertising marketplace from a competitive to a monopoly trajectory. In short, the AdMob acquisition threatens to foreclose competition and facilitate monopoly in a strategic gatekeeper market essential to the Internet economy, which would harm: consumers, developers, advertisers, publishers, smart-phone manufacturers, and broadband providers.
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Googleopoly V — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob”

Anti-Americanism - Blogging - Democrats/Leftists - Gays - Inernet - Liberals - Media Bias - Republicans - Society/Culture - Taxes - Tea Party - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Liberal Website Wants ‘Teabaggers’ to ‘Die’

December 11, 2009 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The profane, but popular lefty site named “Wonkette” decided that it wants conservatives to die. Either that or it wants homosexuals that indulge a certain sexual practice to die, it’s a bit hard to tell.

In a post outrageously headlined “Teabaggers To Feign Death In Senate Offices, Because Of Whatever,” the Wonkette crew snarks that “teabaggers” will appear in the Senate and will “pretend to die, because they’re pussies, and won’t die for real.”

Now, there is a bit of confusion here, as you can readily see. None who are going to the Senate to protest the anti-American Obamacare policies that the Senate is trying to push through are “teabaggers.” They may be Tea Party goers, Tea Partiers, or Tea Partyists, but none of them are “teabaggers.” As many of you already know, a “teabagger” is someone that indulges in some crazy homosexual sex practice. Most assuredly no one going to D.C. for this protest will be under any apprehension that they will be doing so to highlight any aberrant sexual practice. Maybe an aberrant taxing practice, but not any aberrant sex practice.

So, we have that whole confusing terminology thing going on here.
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Liberal Website Wants ‘Teabaggers’ to ‘Die’”

Blogging - Conservatives - Illinois - Inernet - Republicans - State Government - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Publius Forum at Lucky 13 on Illinois Top Blogs

December 9, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s the end of the year and that means LISTS! Over at Illinois Observer, David Ormsby has assembled the rankings of the top 50 Illinois websites and Publius Forum shows up at number 13 on that list.

Seeing as how we few, we unlucky few conservatives in Illinois live in a bloo, bloo state, it is not surprising that most of the sites are lib sites. But there are some great conservative sites represented in the list, as well.

Here are the conservative/libertarian blogs as they appear ranked (the number to the right is the Alexia ranking):
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Publius Forum at Lucky 13 on Illinois Top Blogs”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Technology

Critical Gaps in FCC’s Proposed Open Internet Regulations

December 3, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Like the FCC’s National Broadband Plan task force identified seven critical gaps in the path to the future of universal broadband, the FCC should resolve six identified “critical gaps” in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations before moving forward to regulate the Internet for the first time — by dictating Internet access pricing, terms and conditions or dictating what services which businesses can and cannot offer on the Internet.

Here are six critical gaps in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations:

Credibility Gap: The FCC isn’t “preserving,” but changing the Internet by regulating it for the first time.
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Critical Gaps in FCC’s Proposed Open Internet Regulations”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Liberals - President - Science - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

Who’s Next Under The Bus?

December 1, 2009 by

-By Dan Scott

Since the Climategate story has been broken over a week ago, we have begun to see the cracks in the AGW edifice. George Monbiot, an AGW proponent has called for the resignation of Phil Jones from the IPCC. Source The emails implicated Phil Jones, Michael Mann and Stefan Rahmstorf in a scheme to rig the Peer Review process to only allow pro-AGW papers through while banning anything remotely unfavorable regardless of any inconvenient facts. Both Messrs. Monbiot’s and Zorita’s desire to toss the high profile offenders under the bus are purely self serving, since the sacrifice of Jones, Mann and Rahmstorf is merely a means to claim isolated individual overzealousness in an attempt to distract the public from the real issue regarding the wholesale scientific fraud of AGW.

We have corroborating proof regarding the rigged Peer Review process from the personal account of Vincent Gray, PhD. His experience shows any paper with unfriendly AGW leanings were sent to file 13. It should be noted that another famous hurricane researcher by the same last name, Professor William Gray lost his funding for Hurricane research because of his stance against AGW. There is no denying the obvious when it comes to being politically incorrect regarding AGW. Science was supposed to be a debate of theories, not the suppression of facts to support the theory du jour.
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Who’s Next Under The Bus?”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Censorship - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Free Trade - Freedom - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Science - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology - Thomas Brewton

When Fanatical Agendas Obliterate Science

November 29, 2009 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Climate Emails Stoke Debate: Scientists’ Leaked Correspondence Illustrates Bitter Feud over Global Warming (Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2009).

The Wall Street Journal article notes:

Representatives of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a large professional organization, expressed concern that the hacked emails would weaken global resolve to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

One would expect true scientists to be more concerned with pursuit of the truth than with foreclosing questions about an hypothesis. As it stands, the greenhouse-gas hypothesis is no more than a religious dogma proclaimed from closed chambers. Liberal-progressives treat all questions or challenges to it as heresy.
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When Fanatical Agendas Obliterate Science”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Cable - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - House of Representatives - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Socialism - Taxes - Technology - The Law

Is FCC Declaring ‘Open Season’ on Internet Freedom?

November 22, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC, in proposing to change the definition of an “open Internet” from competition-driven to government-driven is setting a very dangerous precedent, that it is acceptable for countries to preemptively regulate the Internet for what might happen in the future, even if they lack the legitimacy of constitutional or legal authority to do so, or even if there is the thinnest of justification or evidence to support it.

How can we ever hope to influence China, Iran and other undemocratic regimes to provide more Internet access and freedom to their citizens and businesses when our FCC is proposing a radical take back of existing Internet freedoms without legitimate authority or justification?

The grave mistake the FCC is making in the broader international context is claiming that private companies are the primary threat to Internet freedom and free speech, and not governments. History and common sense tell us only Governments have the effective coercive power to dictate real censorship.

The FCC is effectively declaring “open season” on well-established Internet freedoms.
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Is FCC Declaring ‘Open Season’ on Internet Freedom?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Socialism - Society/Culture - Technology

Google-AdMob’s Antitrust Problems

November 17, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Google’s acquisition of AdMob, “the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace,” will receive serious antitrust scrutiny focused on whether the deal lessens competition by extending search advertising monopoly to mobile devices.

Expect the review process to be a magnet for a host of antitrust, competition, and privacy product/services concerns, much like the proposed Google Book settlement has been a magnet for antitrust, competition, and privacy content concerns.

First, Google is misleading with its blanket statement: “We don’t see any regulatory concerns with this deal.”

Not “any” concerns implies Google does not expect: any DOJ/FTC discussion over who reviews the deal; no second request for information; no CIDs (subpoenas); no hearings; or no serious competitor objections that authorities will have to explore. If that is true, why does Google say it could it take “several months” to close?
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Google-AdMob’s Antitrust Problems”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Cable - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Economy/Finances - Entertainment - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

Why Google Is Not Neutral

November 13, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Scott Cleland

After discussing whether Google should buy The New York Times, Google decided against it because it “would damage its ‘neutral’ identity,” per Ken Auletta’s just-published book “Googled: The End of The World as We know It.”

Google has long claimed to be neutral. Their corporate philosophy statement claims: “We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.”

As the world-leading corporate proponent of an industrial policy to mandate net neutrality for all its potential broadband competitors in cloud computing, and as the beneficiary of “The Google Loophole” in the FCC’s proposed open Internet regulations (para 104), it is fair to stress test whether Google’s claim of a “neutral’ identity is true or just cleverly-executed PR.

Is Google Neutral?
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Why Google Is Not Neutral”

Blogging - Business - Censorship - Computers - Humor - Inernet - Liberals - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Apple App Store Says Mad Magazine Artist too Mean for Approval

November 10, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I always knew that Mad Magazine was filled with ner-do-wells that will rot your brain and turn you into a big meanie. My teachers in school all told me so… and they were teachers so they must’ve been right. Now the Apple iPhone App store has finally seen the light of reason on this truism, too. Well, if the App Store didn’t deny Mad Magazine exactly, it did lower they kabosh on one of its nasty, mean-spirited artists, Tom Richmond, by denying his iPhone App registration. Serves him right, the troublemaker.

The good name of Apple computers will not be sullied by the rottenness, and all around anarchy of this no-account, Richmond, that’s for sure. And to assure that Apple will always stand for truth, justice and the American way, Richmond’s crummy little iPhone App has been denied. Take that forces of un-Americanness!

So, what was Richmond’s apostasy, you might wonder? Well, last year cartoonist Tom Richmond was asked to help with the graphic display of a proposed iPhone App that would connect the user with information on their representatives in Congress. It was to monstrously be titled the “Bobble Rep” App. The idea is that you’d key in the name of a congressman into your iPhone and his contact info would pop up on the screen. You’d get a little cartoon illustration of the congressman, his phone number, address and website.

“And,” You might ask? “So blinking what,” you might blurt out? Well, any casual look at these ultra mean, highly objectionable cartoons depicting a few of those well-born and delicate members of Congress will disabuse you of the notion that this iPhone App is anything but born of the devil.

Behold more of the blasphemy:
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Apple App Store Says Mad Magazine Artist too Mean for Approval”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Inernet - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Technology - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston

D.C. Based Muslim Prays for ‘Recovery of Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan’ on FaceBook

November 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, but a Washington D.C. based Muslim named Khadeeja Nuur has created a FaceBook Page offering prayers for the recovery of Fort Hood murderer Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan.

The page seems to have been started sometime before Friday at 3PM and she features this main message in her information section:

Together we pray for the recovery of Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan, MD. May Allah see fit to return this loyal son of Islam back to perfect health. Sallalahu Alayhi Wa Sallam.

Initially, it appears that a few Muslims celebrating Hasan’s evil actions were leaving messages in hopes that Hasan gets well, agreeing with his actions, or at the very least justifying them.

A Graal Reborn, for instance, leaves the message that, “killing is bad I agree but being forced to do somethnig [sic] you don’t want to do and being the minority standing up to the majority is respectable no matter who you are.” And Alex Gould wrote, “I pray to Allah that he may recover soon.” Later a fellow going by the name Abu Soleiman Al-nase wrote, “nidal malik is a brave mujahid,,he did jihad ,,he did kill the killers (american soldiers) that was going to iraq and afganistan [sic] to fight the islamic nation…my greeting and pray for him,,we will never forget you brother nidal.”
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D.C. Based Muslim Prays for ‘Recovery of Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan’ on FaceBook”

1st Amendment - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Media Bias - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

How FCC Regulation Would Change the Internet

November 6, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC’s claims that their proposed net neutrality regulations would just “preserve” the open Internet are simply not true. The facts clearly state that the FCC’s proposed regulations would: Be a big change in FCC Internet policy; Implement big Internet policy changes without Congressional authorization; and Change the Internet in big ways. (The one-page PDF version of this post is here)

The FCC’s proposed net neutrality regs are a big change in FCC Internet policy; they would:

  • Replace the FCC’s voluntary net neutrality guidelines with mandated net neutrality regulations;
  • Selectively apply net neutrality regulations to only broadband and not to applications/content providers like the current principles do;
  • Add two completely new net neutrality principles that are not found in law or congressional policy:
  • Mandate the strictest non-discrimination requirement in the last 75 years;
  • Mandate public disclosure of detailed proprietary network management techniques for the first time;
  • Expand application of net neutrality to wireless and satellite broadband for the very first time;
  • Expand consumers access to content entitlement by adding entitlement to send/distribute content as well;
  • Redefine entitlement to competition in the current fourth principle, to favor resale competition over facilities-based competition;
  • Subject broadband companies to a new “Mother-may-I” FCC approval process for offering new managed services and for experimenting with new business models; and
  • Subordinate private standard-setting bodies, like the IETF, to new FCC omni-technical oversight/approval.

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How FCC Regulation Would Change the Internet”

1st Amendment - Blogging - Computers - Conservatives - GOP - Inernet - Republicans - State Government - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Clueless Arizona GOP Heavies Demonizing Bloggers?

October 28, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Ken Marrero over at Blue Collar Muse has posted an interesting if not entirely infuriating story about GOP officials coming down on other officials and certain county employees for having the gall to talk to those eeeevil Arizona bloggers that have been doggedly reporting the corruption stories of county officials.

GOP officials of Maricopa County have been in a bit of trouble recently having been accused of wasteful spending, power grabs and criminal investigations. Marrero even notes that there is a Twitter feed used to needle these officials called CorruptAZSupes.

The barbs have been coming fast and furious and County Manager David Smith has decided to try and stop the bleeding. So, did Smith decide to clean up the Supervisor’s office? Nope. He’s decided to attack Republicans that have talked to the press and the bloggers. Classic shooting the messenger mistake.
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Clueless Arizona GOP Heavies Demonizing Bloggers?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Technology

Takeaways from FCC’s Proposed Open Internet Regs

October 28, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC’s proposed Open Internet regulations (NPRM) are sweeping and audacious.

First, the FCC proposed rules are audaciously attempting to implement the introduced-but-never-passed Markey bill (HR 3458) entitled: the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009.” The purpose, premises, language and core positions are nearly identical for anyone willing to forensically compare the NPRM and HR 3458.

This presents a substantial legal problem for the FCC in that the premises and justifications undergirding their current NPRM can be found nowhere in existing law as the FCC’s own thin 28 line legal justification confirms (paras 83-87).
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Takeaways from FCC’s Proposed Open Internet Regs”

Business - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Technology

Open Un-Neutrality – Will FCC Re-Distribute Internet Opportunity? For Consumers? Businesses? Investors?

October 24, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

In effectively reversing fifteen years of bipartisan U.S. communications policy from promoting competition and reducing regulation to promoting regulation and reducing competition, the FCC’s coming “Open Internet” regulations are anything but neutral; they pick sides and strongly skew outcomes.

  • First, the FCC is proposing new preemptive business bans mid-game, the harshest, most disruptive form of economic regulation possible.
  • Second, the FCC is arbitrarily discriminating among increasingly similar and converging businesses, resulting in the arbitrary punishment of some businesses for what they allegedly might do, while rewarding others with protection from competition for what they allegedly might not do.
  • Third, the FCC is arbitrarily mandating one-way technology convergence without any supportable justification, i.e., banning distribution convergence into applications/content, while encouraging application/content convergence into distribution.

The chaotic result of this “open un-neutrality” will be regulation that is increasingly at war with inexorable technological convergence and economic efficiency — requiring ever-increasing FCC regulatory artifices to keep the Internet’s original technological layers, market segments and business models from naturally converging, evolving and competing.
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Open Un-Neutrality – Will FCC Re-Distribute Internet Opportunity? For Consumers? Businesses? Investors?”

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Inernet - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

The Internet as the Post Office?

October 21, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

I produced a new, brief, and different op-ed against the FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules that ran on BigGovernment.com today. It employs a new “delivery” metaphor that I believe most people will easily grasp and find compelling.

The Internet as the Post Office?

by Scott Cleland

Why force the private Internet to be as inefficient as the old public post office? For the first time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to regulate how private companies can deliver the quadrillions of broadband Internet packets that are sent over the Internet every day.

Americans know from experience that private companies competing for customers deliver better service than Government. Who thinks the Government can do a better job than private companies in designing, building, and managing broadband Internet networks? Who thinks the Government can run the Internet better, faster, cheaper, and more innovatively than private networks do now?
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The Internet as the Post Office?”

Blogging - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Inernet - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Technology

Why FCC proposed net neutrality regs are unconstitutional

October 19, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

My NPR Online op-ed, “Net Neutrality Regulations Compromise Freedoms” makes the case why the FCC Chairman’s proposed net neutrality regulations are likely unconstitutional in multiple dimensions.

If you like the op-ed, please click on the “Recommend” check button above the title or at the end of the piece because that will keep the op-ed posted longer than otherwise:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113297709

My proposed title, which was supplanted for space concerns, was: “Taking Freedom From Some Takes Freedom From All.”

Below is the text of my NPR Online op-ed:
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Why FCC proposed net neutrality regs are unconstitutional”

Barack Obama - Blogging - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Health - House of Representatives - Inernet - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Healthcare Conference Call With Representatives Shadegg and Rodgers

October 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today at 4:30PM eastern a blogger conference call was held by Representatives John Shadegg (R, AZ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R, WA). The subject we spoke about was that of House Republican’s ideas and problems on healthcare reform issues in both the Senate and the House. The following are my notes of the call, any direct quotes are in quote marks but the rest is my summation of what was said.

The call opened with a welcome from Cathy McMorris Rodgers who introduced herself and Rep. Shadegg. Rodgers talked of the situation in the House and reminded us that 44 House Democrats said they’d vote no on the bill if it has public option and 57 said they’ll vote no if it doesn’t have the public option so the Democrats might not have the votes to pass H.B. 3200.

Shadegg reminded us that the CBO score on the Senate bill was made on 10 years of taxes being taken by the federal government but with only 7 years of coverage afforded, so it’s no wonder the bill sounds like it is paid for. Shadegg also warned of the political monkeying that is going on with the Baucus bill in the Senate. He mentioned that Harry Reid is down in the polls back home so he tried to slip through a sleight of hand way for four favored states to get special Medicaid provisions (including Nev., Oregon, Mich.) forcing the other 46 states to pick up the tab. This was Reid’s attempt to find success in his upcoming elections in Nevada.
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Healthcare Conference Call With Representatives Shadegg and Rodgers”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Inernet - Liberals - New Media - President - Society/Culture - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Internet Supporters Are All Pot Heads and Poker Addicts

October 1, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know, we all love the Internet. Heck, I make a good portion of my living on Al Gore’s most famous invention so it gets a big thumbs up from me, for sure. But we have to admit that there are an awful lot of goofballs on these Internet tubes. In some ways, the whole venue isn’t quite ready from prime time, if you will.

Let’s take Obama’s Internet experience, for instance. His giant email list and heavily active campaign website was touted as the new way to affect politics. Obama’s mybarackobama.com site was crowned as the new mover and shaker of Washington. During the end stages of the campaign millions of people streamed to his site every day, polls were taken, ideas shared, “meet-ups” planned and executed, and a massive voter drive all successfully added to Obama’s big November win. And once he took the White House it was assumed that Obama would take this Internet army to new heights of political activism. So, what has happened since Obama took residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…

About nuthin’ at all.
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Obama’s Internet Supporters Are All Pot Heads and Poker Addicts”

Anti-Americanism - Blogging - Conservatives - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Inernet - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Military - Republicans - Society/Culture - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Lefty Outrage at ‘Conservative’ Article Misses Key Fact, Writer Isn’t Conservative

September 30, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left is in an uproar today. They got their panties in a bunch over a piece that ran on the conservative newsblog NewsMax.com where it was suggested that Obama’s irresponsible actions as president could result in a military coup that would “restore” the Constitution.

Not completely without reason, many lefty blogs have lost their tiny little minds over this article. The piece was written by NewsMax blog contributor John L. Perry and talked of a “bloodless coup” where “Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.” Perry wondered if some “patriotic general” might confront the president (or a president of the future) and demand that he allow the military a shared power in government or face a military overthrow.

It was all speculation and phrased as a question, not asserted as fact or presented as imminent, of course. But this sort of over-the-top foolishness really does not add to the national debate, I have to agree. So, the lefty sites that railed against this NewsMax.com piece were right on that base level.

NewsMax.com has since removed the article and issued a statement that Perry is an unpaid member of NewsMax.

But there is one tiny, little, bitty fact about this story and its author that every single one of these lefty sites that are railing about this story have left out.

The fact of the matter is that John L. Perry is not a conservative. In fact his bio page says that he’s worked for Jimmy Carter, a Democrat governor of Florida and other Democrat Party institutions.
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Lefty Outrage at ‘Conservative’ Article Misses Key Fact, Writer Isn’t Conservative”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Economy/Finances - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Technology

The Many Vulnerabilities of an Open Internet

September 29, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

What an “Open Internet” does not mean is as important as what it does mean. Surely an “Open Internet” is not intended to mean what it certainly could mean: unprotected, unguarded, or vulnerable to attack. Thus, it is essential for the FCC to be explicit in defining what the terms — “Open Internet,” “net neutrality,” and Internet non-discrimination — don’t mean, as well as what they do mean.

The word “open” has 88 different definitions per Dictionary.com and the word “open” has even more different connotations depending on the context. While the term “open” generally has a positive connotation to mean unrestricted, accessible and available, it can also have a negative or problematic connotation if it means unprotected, unguarded or vulnerable to attack.

When such an amorphous, multi-use term like “open” is proposed as a new effective purpose for the FCC, and a new formal basis for new economic regulation, it is essential that the term be defined very specifically, for what it is, and just as importantly, for what it is not.
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The Many Vulnerabilities of an Open Internet”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Inernet - Journalism - Media Bias - President - Selwyn Duke - Socialism - Society/Culture - Technology - YouTube

YouTube Caught Red-handed Cooking Stats for Obama

September 28, 2009 by

-By Selwyn Duke

News aggregator DrudgeReport.com is currently linking to a YouTube video of a government schoolteacher instructing young students to praise Obama in song. While this is shocking, there is an even bigger story here. Consider this: the video’s “views” counter listed only 363 views as of 1:04 p.m. EST on Sept. 24.

But at the same time it had 2,279 comments.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Obviously, those figures should in the least be reversed. After all, since the number of comments on high-traffic YouTube videos generally represents only one-half of one percent to three percent of the total views, we can estimate that the Obama worship video had in excess of 200,000 hits at the time. But what accounts for this? Is it a technical glitch? I doubt it.

But why would YouTube cook the statistical books?
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YouTube Caught Red-handed Cooking Stats for Obama”