Those rules are not rules in the same way that the laws of nature are rules, that cannot be broken. They are rules in the sense that they describe observed behaviors, much as one might get some sense, at the least, of the rules of a sport or game by observing those who play the game and those who enforce the rules.
The rules were formulated by way of observation over many years. Attempts to order them according to importance have languished.
Obama envies Russia, China and North Korea’s ability to control the internet. Those that think this is ridiculous need only look at how the Department Of Justice, the IRS and other government agencies have been used to target and harass opponents of Obama’s far left policies.
The Federal Communications Commission’s decision Thursday to regulate the Internet as a public utility is a depressing moment for American innovation and economic liberty. The FCC is grabbing political control over a vibrant market that until now has been driven by inventors and consumers. Welcome to the Obamanet.
President Obama demanded this result in a November speech, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel have now dutifully voted to apply last century’s monopoly telephone rules to Internet service providers. They have in the process made a mockery of the agency’s supposed independence.
The rules are ostensibly to prevent Internet companies from blocking customer access to particular websites or slowing down service. But the FCC has presented no evidence that this is occurring, so the power grab is being justified by some theoretical future harm.
By the way, the FCC hasn’t released the text it has now approved as a final rule, which according to dissenting Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai runs to more than 300 pages. It’s not clear when the public will be permitted to see what Washington has done, and the normal comment period has been bypassed on a plan that is vastly different than what Mr. Wheeler has previously proposed.
Meantime, Mr. Wheeler will exercise what FCC lawyers call “editorial privileges,” allowing him to craft his arguments after reading the two dissents. Taxpayers might prefer that regulators analyze the pros and cons before voting to impose something on the whole country, and we hope judges feel the same way when the rules are challenged in court.
But based on an FCC summary, it’s clear that the agency has done administratively what Congress has always refused to do: make the old telephone and broadcasting overseer the general regulator of the Internet. Providers of broadband services will be barred from employing any “unjust or unreasonable practices,” whatever FCC bureaucrats decide those words mean. The FCC release also makes clear that government attorneys—not engineers—will decide what “reasonable network management” is.
And while “net neutrality,” the fuzzy concept used to justify these rules, was originally sold as a way to ensure that consumers are treated well, the rules will go well beyond those customers. Digital communications networks that exchange Internet traffic will also have to be “just and reasonable” with each other. The bureaucrats will exercise their discretion to define those words case-by-case, always listening to the best-paid lobbyists.
It’s hard to imagine a more just and reasonable market than today’s Internet. According to the website DrPeering, which tracks the agreements among communications companies to move information, the price of moving data across the Internet has been falling roughly 30% a year since the late 1990s. That collapsing cost per bit is a big reason Internet usage has skyrocketed. Consumers downloading huge volumes of video are paying bills not much different than when they were mainly visiting static websites.
Sarah Palin telling it like it is.
It’s said that a man’s word can affect the course of history. Certainly a man with a microphone can. Mainstream media lies. Without accountability their power can influence national debate, shift momentum, and destroy a person’s good name. All affecting history.
When one of their own repeats a lie for 12 years but is excused with the help of the media’s herd mentality, tragic distrust and despondency blankets our land. The veil is torn, however, with the revelation of exaggerated, self-centered falsehoods like NBC’s perpetual lie that belittled our soldiers and their truly courageous missions. The face of that network’s news lied about combat experiences in Iraq and then with false humility accepted the title of “war hero” while the press ignores, disrespects, and often destroys the good name of our true war heroes. To me, that’s like soiling sacred ground.
http://www.stripes.com/
news/us/ nbc-s-brian-williams-recant s-iraq-story-after-soldier s-protest-1.327792
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ lifestyle/style/ brian-williams-admits-that- his-story-of-coming-under- fire-while-in-iraq-was-fal se/2015/02/04/ d7fe32d0-acc0-11e4-9c91-e9d 2f9fde644_story.html After having his lies exposed by troops who were there, this news anchor’s recent acknowledgement of “mistakenly” repeating his grandiose story for more than a decade makes this sad tale even worse because even in his explanation he is deceiving.
http://
www.truthrevolt.org/news/ brian-williams-misleads-vie wers-his-apology-misleadin g-viewers Brian Williams equated himself with our honorable vets and troops in combat boots with a made-up story of his courage and victorious return to the make-up chair strolling in his Bruno Maglis back to read his TelePrompTer’s twisted scripts, and we were forced to swallow it all. That was then. This is now, when we can thank God for new unconventional media that scatters the deceiving herd that would do this to America.
An enlightened public grows more confident everyday knowing we do not have to settle for mainstream garbage insulting our intelligence as it’s sold as “news”. The American public deserves so much better and it’s encouraging to see so many rise up and demand better. It’s why we’ve turned off the old, we turn on the new, and we’ll never look back.
Leftist media and their minions in politics tried for too long to fundamentally transform America with their shared assumption we would fall in line and bend our backs as they rode us with reins to control our individual sovereignty. America said enough is enough and we strengthened our spine so we could fight for freedom, sometimes requiring battles against our own leaders. Remember Hillary Clinton, always seeking the title of Commander in Chief, using a harrowing account of coming under enemy fire in Iraq? (http://
philadelphia.cbslocal.com/ 2015/02/05/ sharyl-attkisson-brian-will iams-not-alone-hillary-cli nton-lied-about-being-shot -at-in-bosnia/) Of course it didn’t happen. But a protecting press excused her with sympathetic descriptions of an exhausting schedule – evidently a schedule having more negative impact than that of her equally busy male competitors, because it was blamed for her dramatic lapse in recalling a near-death war zone experience that was really all made up. It goes without asking, would the press have done the same with others we can think of, had she or he “mistakenly” claimed taking on such danger in their drive to win an election? Taking the Williams and Clinton examples, it also goes without asking, if they lie about things like this, what and who else do they lie about?
Be encouraged though, America! The demise of old media is a result of us saying, “No more.” It shows you what you can accomplish as a free and exceptional nation! We demand truth in reporting by shifting a market away from those refusing to give it. We demand adherence to our Constitution by taking back our government from those refusing to do it. We demand the fundamental restoration of America by refusing to bend to anyone dangerously transforming it.
Thank you for that! And thank the Lord for blessing us with the wisdom and wherewithal to get this done.
– Sarah Palin
