Friday, May 14, 2010



Obama's Internet nanny

FCC regulations not needed to 'protect' the Web
"The Obama administration refuses to take no for an answer in its desire to control the Internet.

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals Court for the District of Columbia delivered a unanimous and unambiguous repudiation of the Federal Communications Commission's attempt to dictate how a cable company should run its business as an Internet-service provider. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski responded last week by proposing a "third way" around the court decision: He will redefine the Internet as if it were a telephone.

The FCC, a New Deal relic, derives its current authority from the Telecommunications Act of 1996. At the time the law was enacted, Congress wisely decided to take a hands-off approach to the Internet by creating a new "information service" category explicitly designed to remain free from the tangle of red tape that the agency layers on top of telephone service, cable, broadcast television and radio.

Mr. Genachowski, however, is upset that this plain reading of the statute deprives him of the authority to "safeguard privacy," "empower consumers" and "lower the costs of investment." He seeks to remedy this by imposing new rules on the Internet's network infrastructure. In a rather Orwellian fashion, he claims these regulations would not involve regulating the Internet itself. Mr. Genachowski insists that he has no intention of meddling with online content.

Even if that's true, his proposal remains deeply troubling. If a federal agency is allowed to ignore court rulings and erase laws with which it disagrees, there would be no restraint on what a future chairman might do.

Neither President Obama nor his appointees have the authority to unilaterally rewrite the law when it suits their convenience. If Mr. Obama wants to impose controls on the Internet, he must go to Congress and ask for the new power - a request not likely to be granted.

Source

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Neither President Obama nor his appointees have the authority to unilaterally rewrite the law when it suits their convenience. If Mr. Obama wants to impose controls on the Internet, he must go to Congress and ask for the new power - a request not likely to be granted."

Already proven wrong on both counts.
Obama will do whatever he want and congress (and the courts) will either rubberstamp it or ignore the fact that Obama has no authority to do it and therefore let him get away with it.
There's enough legal precedent to that by now that any future attempt to block him will simply be wiped away by a court.

Anonymous said...

This story highlights a very important point, one that most Americans are too stupid to see or understand. This govt. will say and do anything to further it's Marxist agenda. To them, (and the rest of the far-left) it's perfectly fine to ignore the courts orders. All you need do is simply change the name of what you want to do. Remember how socialized medicine (something the people didn't want) became universal health care? This govt. has no intention of letting any court stop them. Their actions also show a deep and profound disrespect for the will of the people, something quite typical of the left.

Another point. Whether it's the internet, or so-called health care, or jobs creation, or the environment, or the economy, it doesn't matter. None of it has anything to do with it's stated goal. What it is all about is, CONTROL!