“Network Neutrality” on The Daily Caller

Newsflash: the music industry is struggling due to online theft. Okay, that’s not news. It has been going on for years as billions of our songs have been stolen online. So you can imagine that songwriters and musicians from Nashville to Los Angeles and everywhere in between are suspicious of government regulations that not only harm our ability to protect our songs from online theft but jeopardize our ability to create new opportunities that will save jobs in an industry that was already facing enormous hardships. (more)

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa is increasing pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to reveal just how involved the White House was in drafting new rules for government regulation of Internet service providers, an effort Issa himself began more than a year ago. (more)

The House took its first step toward overturning net-neutrality rules after a marathon debate about the economic impact of the FCC regulations on Wednesday. (more)

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee are crying foul over GOP efforts to overturn federal Internet neutrality rules. (more)

1.) Unethical Google alumnus leaves White House one day after FCC passes net neutrality — Andrew McLaughlin should have left the White House in March, when he was found to be using his personal gmail account while at work, or even in May, when internal memos revealed McLaughlin was coordinating PR with Google’s U.S. public policy director. Instead, the nation’s deputy CTO waited until the FCC passed its net neutrality bill to bid adieu to government life. According to WaPo, “McLaughlin, who previously worked as a Google executive, oversaw many of the White House’s Internet policy initiatives including Internet access regulations, the expansion of broadband connections and global cybersecurity.” Not mentioned in WaPo’s writeup is Google’s ardent support for net neutrality regulations. McLaughlin will dive back into the startup world, creating products for state and local governments. He “also said he will return to teaching law, which he did at Harvard University’s Berkman Center seven years ago.” Interesting factoid: The Berkman center is the far-left think thank that the FCC commissioned to produce objective reports on the apparent need for net neutrality regulations. (more)

1.) How the left astroturfed net neutrality into existence — Despite what you may have heard, yesterday’s net neutrality vote at the FCC wasn’t the result of millions of Americans or even tens of thousands of Americans waking up and saying, “I think I am going to suddenly care about this!” No, like most Washington success stories, yesterday’s enslavement of the Internet was made possible by a small group of people with a lot of money. “After McCain-Feingold passed, several of the foundations involved in the effort began shifting their attention to “media reform”—a movement to impose government controls on Internet companies somewhat related to the long-defunct “Fairness Doctrine” that used to regulate TV and radio companies,” writes the WSJ’s John Fund. Those outfits are Pew Charitable Trusts, Bill Moyers’s Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the Joyce Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, all of which have given money to left-wing froth factory Free Press. As a result of Free Press’s close ties to staffers for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, net neutrality crusaders gamed the debate from the beginning: “Some of the same foundations that have spent years funding net neutrality advocacy research ended up funding the FCC-commissioned study that evaluated net neutrality research.” (more)

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, says Federal Communications Commission should be renamed the “Fabricating a Crisis Commission,” following a vote by the panel’s three Democrats to approve proposed rules that amount to a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally. (more)

In the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) passing of a net neutrality plan, some Congressmen are already planning how to fight back. For some, that means the 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA). (more)

That quote is from FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker, one of two Republicans on the FCC and a staunch opponent of Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal.  The commission’s Democratic majority rubber-stamps those rules today, despite objections from the netroots left and conservatives/libertarians. (more)

(Via Ricochet.com) (more)

The Federal Communications Commission is poised on Tuesday to pass so-called net neutrality regulations, first-time rules that prevent Internet service providers from blocking or giving preferential treatment to Web sites on their networks. (more)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is making progress in narrowing gaps with his two Democratic colleagues over his controversial plan to adopt sweeping new rules for the Internet, National Journal has learned. But with the talks very fluid, and differences remaining, there’s still a possibility that the regulatory initiative could be pulled at the last minute from the agenda of Tuesday’s commission meeting. (more)

1.) Joe Biden doesn’t know how to feel about Wikileaks, chooses to feel everything — As the human face of the Obama Administration–we will never forget his honesty during the great swine flue crisis of 2010–Vice Pres. Joe Biden can be expected to accidentally tell something resembling the truth whenever he appears alone in public. Occasionally, Biden feels torn apart by his dual roles as National Billy the Largemouth Bass (singing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”) and his desire to be treated like a grownup human being. Wikileaks has only exacerbated his angst. Last Thursday, Biden told Andrea Mitchell on the air that “leaked cables created no substantive damage — only embarrassment,” and “nothing that I’m aware of that goes to the essence of the relationship that would allow another nation to say: ‘They lied to me, we don’t trust them, they really are not dealing fairly with us.’” A day later, Biden taped an interview with David Gregory for Meet the Press in which he told the MSNBC host, “[Assange] has made it more difficult for us to conduct our business with our allies and our friends,” and “In my meetings — you know I meet with most of these world leaders — there is a desire to meet with me alone, rather than have staff in the room: It makes things more cumbersome — so it has done damage.” Can you now show us on the doll where Hillary Clinton touched you, Joe? You are not going to get in trouble! (more)

1.) Establishment Republicans conflicted over whose back to pat for busted omnibus bill — Majority Leader Harry Reid folded during last night’s high-stakes po(r)ker game. Now Beltway types are racing to cement a narrative for exactly what made the GOP so bold. “The defeat of a pork-laden $1.1 trillion ‘omnibus’ spending bill in the Senate Thursday night was the first serious indication after the Nov. 2 election that the Tea Party movement has staying power and will be a force into 2011,” writes The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward. “Some Republicans on Capitol Hill said Thursday night that GOP leadership played a pivotal role as well. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was said to have pressured key GOP lawmakers to stand firm against the legislation, though some in leadership said the conference was fairly united against it from the beginning.” Less, uh, established folks, like Sen. Tom Coburn’s beard, were more willing to give all credit to the Tea Party: “It was 100 percent grassroots…The American people took it down,” said Coburn spokesman John Hart. Also, bitter Democrats, one of whom dejectedly chalked up the broke-down omnibus to Congressional Republicans being “a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party.” (more)

As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to vote next week on a set of rules that will give the federal government the power to regulate news and information content online, members of Congress are stepping up their opposition. The takeaway? Almost everyone opposes what has been termed “net neutrality” except, as the December 21 vote is expected to show, the majority of the FCC’s five commissioners. (more)

Thirty senators have signed a letter making it clear that should the Federal Communications Commission implement “net neutrality” regulations during its December 21st meeting, the GOP will force a confrontation on the Senate floor over the rules. Doing so would provide insight into how Republicans, as a minority in the Senate, leverage its control over the House of Representatives to hamstring attempts by the executive branch to rule by regulatory fiat. (more)

A net neutrality regulation proposed by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is getting picked apart from many sides. (more)

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday a controversial proposal that would prohibit Internet providers from favoring or discriminating against any traffic that goes over their networks. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposal to prohibit broadband providers from blocking or discriminating against Internet traffic flowing over their networks has an uncertain future with just lukewarm support from large phone and cable service providers and fierce opposition from Republicans. (more)

The Internet has become the greatest liberating tool in human history. It has freed people from ignorance and helplessness. It has revolutionized our personal relationships, how we are entertained, educated, and make everyday choices. The abundance and availability of information online has led to innovations that make our lives healthier, happier, and more fulfilling. (more)