To:\u00a0 The new Republican majority in Congress<\/p>\n
From: Mitch Berg, First and Fourth Amendment Buff<\/p>\n
Re: In re the FCC<\/p>\n
Dear new majority,<\/p>\n
Please see to abolishing the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n
Julius “Seizure” Genachowski, Obama’s current puppet as chairman of the FCC’s board, is involved in an epic power grab that indulges the classic liberal conceit that “if we can make the law say it’s right, then it must be <\/em>right”.\u00a0 Scott Johnson shreds Genachowski’s legal approach<\/a>.\u00a0 Kevin O’Brien gets the rest of it in this Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed<\/a>, noting that Genachowski’s latest power grab has something for everyone <\/em>to hate:<\/p>\n [MN Senator Al] Franken wrongly believes the FCC can make the rules. He just finds what is proposed too generous to big corporations — a legitimate concern. When the feds make rules, they tend to preserve the primacy of whoever the industry leaders are at the time. As Franken wisely notes (now, there’s a phrase you may never see in this space again), if the big boys like it, be suspicious.<\/p>\n [SC Senator Jim] DeMint, while properly dismissing the FCC’s authority to require anything at all of Internet providers, is more worried about a government takeover of the Internet. He’s right, too.<\/p>\n The idea that this is all about consumer protection and a level playing field is plainly ludicrous. It’s just another a power grab, nobly camouflaged in the familiar progressive guise of Making Life Fair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Leftyblogs’ cases for <\/em>Obama’s power grab usually involve plaintive pleas of “why shouldn’t everyone have equal access to the Internet?”.\u00a0 For the same reason that I don’t have equal access to your refrigerator or your retirement account; it’s not theirs<\/em>.\u00a0 The Internet’s costly grows almost exclusively due to private investment; it’s not been a government or academic preserve since DARPA let the genie out of the bottle.\u00a0 The Internet is not like the broadcast spectrum<\/em>, as dubious as the FCC’s case is for regulating even that.<\/p>\n The end result would be an Internet tied up in rules and regulations, with government setting rates and stifling competition. It can’t go any other way, because it never goes any other way.<\/p>\n In a speech announcing that the FCC would ignore the courts and dare the Congress to stop it, Genachowski unwittingly explained just how unnecessary it is for his agency to “protect” us:<\/p>\n “Internet companies have started as small startups, some of them famously in dorm rooms and garages with little more than a computer and access to the open Internet. Many have become large businesses, providing high-paying, high-tech jobs in communities across our country. It’s the American dream at work.”<\/p>\n The rest of the speech was unadulterated bunkum, but he was right about that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It’s time to shut down the FCC.\u00a0 Please see to this ASAP.<\/p>\n Use the Air Force if necessary.<\/p>\n That is all,<\/p>\n MBerg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To:\u00a0 The new Republican majority in Congress From: Mitch Berg, First and Fourth Amendment Buff Re: In re the FCC Dear new majority, Please see to abolishing the Federal Communications Commission. Julius “Seizure” Genachowski, Obama’s current puppet as chairman of the FCC’s board, is involved in an epic power grab that indulges the classic liberal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-16757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-open-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38783,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16757\/revisions\/38783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}