332 pages of regulations — why can’t we see them?

Internet - Keep It FreeUsing Europe as a model, we can see that throttling the internet via “net neutrality” results in fewer innovations and fewer choices.  All in the interest of “fairness,” you see.

“Net neutrality distorts competition to benefit one group and disadvantage another—the very definition of crony capitalism.” ~ JeffEisenach

Demorats haven’t seen the rules for the FCC’s “net neutrality” proposal — all 332 pages of them — but they’re applauding the rules anyway.  In just the fashion they did with ObamaKare, passed in the dead of night, unilaterally, and unable to see the bill itself — just like the FCC.

Essentially, the US controls the internet.  We could cede power of course, but why would we?  Oh right.  It’s not “fair” for the US to actually have power, according to Mr Barack Hussein Obama.  Again, it is all about his background, his raising and education.  You need to read this to understand Mr Obama.

332 pages of regulations — why can’t we see them?

From the NationalReview.com:

FCC Chair Refuses to Testify before Congress ahead of Net Neutrality Vote

by Andrew Johnson

Two prominent House committee chairs are “deeply disappointed” in Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler for refusing to testify before Congress as “the future of the Internet is at stake.”

Wheeler’s refusal to go before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday comes on the eve of the FCC’s vote on new Internet regulations pertaining to net neutrality. The committee’s chairman, Representative Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), and Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) criticized Wheeler and the administration for lacking transparency on the issue.

“So long as the chairman continues to insist on secrecy, we will continue calling for more transparency and accountability at the commission,” Chaffetz and Upton said in a statement. “Chairman Wheeler and the FCC are not above Congress.”

If that isn’t bad enough, does anyone consider what I term “logical extensions” — ?

Who physically controls the internet?  Who controls the tap, the faucet, the “shut-off” if you will?  And how can this power be transferred?

Check your six, I always say.

From the NationalJournal.com:

Republicans Fear Net Neutrality Plan Could Lead to UN Internet Powers

by Brendan Sasso

The U.S. government’s plan to enact strong net neutrality regulations could embolden authoritarian regimes like China and Russia to seize more power over the Internet through the United Nations, a key Senate Republican warned Wednesday.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota argued that by claiming more authority over Internet access for net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission will undermine the ability of the U.S. to push back against international plots to control the Internet and censor content.

Countries like Russia already have made it clear that they want the International Telecommunications Union or another United Nations body to have more power over the Internet, Thune said.

“It seems like reclassifying broadband, as the administration is doing, is losing a valuable argument,” Thune said at his panel’s hearing on Internet governance. “How do you prevent ITU involvement when you’re pushing to reclassify the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act, and is everyone aware of that inherent contradiction?”

Excellent questions but won’t be answered.

I have but one logical question:

If these regulations are so wonderful, so beneficent, then why the complete opacity?  Why the stonewalling?  Why the refusal to embrace transparency upon which, after all, Mr Barack Hussein Obama said his entire administration is based?

Easy answer: the FCC and Mr Obama want no pushback and NO, the regulations will NOT be beneficial for Americans.

Finally: the internet is NOT broken.  Why are you insistent upon “fixing” it?

Simple as that.

BZ

Net Neutrality Graphic

Last day to weigh in on “Net Neutrality” — i.e., government-controlled communications

Laptop ExplodingToday is the last day the FCC will allow you to express your opinion on so-called “net neutrality.”  You can go to the FCC website here.

A nice phrase, except that “net neutrality” isn’t.  Neutral, that is.

It is a ways and a means for the government to control and regulate something that doesn’t require controlling and regulating — all it requires is what it currently has: a free market.

When “net neutrality” exists, two things primarily occur: 1) rates go up and 2) innovation plummets.

The bulk of Western Europe has a version of NN and those precise things have occurred: rate hikes and a lack of entrepreneurship and cutting-edge technology.  Not to mention general overall lower internet connectivity speeds.

For the obvious reason that, in order to get anything accomplished, a new idea or upgrade has to be proposed to an entirely new and large bureaucracy that will do its best to sit on and table said idea or upgrade, simply to exhibit its power and “prove” its worth.

Public utilities are regulated because everyone needs water and power.  Those things aren’t merely “suggestions.”  They are mandatory for survival.  The internet, however, is not “mandatory” for survival.  It’s a “nice” thing to have but you won’t die due to its removal from your life.

So-called “net neutrality” is a specious solution for a problem that doesn’t even exist.  It gets our government into an area where it doesn’t belong.  And I go back to some of my foundational Libertarian bents here, which occasionally get the best of me:

When the government, any government, intrudes into the primary source of communications today — the internet — it can shut you down when you proffer speech that IT doesn’t care for.  Which is what Socialist and Communist countries do, and nations run by dictators.

Signing off on “net neutrality” will not only allow the government to have its hands upon the spigot, but will allow it to silence you and potentially prosecute you as well.  For speech that it does not approve — on the Left or on the Right.

Leftists in the government are already working to revamp the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights but, specifically, the First and Second Amendments.  Facts in evidence.

Note to self: continue to look around.

BZ

P.S.

What does Free Speech protect?  It assures the worst of speech; it assures the most challenging of speech.  It does not exist for milktoast speech.  It embraces truth and emotion and change and shocking speech.  Sometimes older speech can be the most shocking, the most challenging, and the most warranted.