Republican FCC Member Warns Net Neutrality Is Not Neutral

Republican FCC Member Warns Net Neutrality Is Not Neutral

by Chriss W. Street 9 Feb 2015 Newport Beach, CA

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/02/09/republican-fcc-member-warns-net-neutrality-is-not-neutral/

Ajit Pai, the sole Republican Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a Tweet that President Barack Obama’s secret, 332-page “Net Neutrality” document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives’ idea of honest, equitable, and balanced content fairness.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently acknowledged that the two Democrats on the commission had decided to avoid Congressional input regarding the Internet by adopting President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1934 Communications Act to regulate the Internet with the same federal control as the old AT&T customer monopoly. To make sure that libertarian advocates would remain in the dark, Wheeler “embargoed” release of any of the specifics in the new administrative “policy” that will act as law.

The FCC legislation that was passed eighty-one years ago by the most leftist Congress in American history to ban companies from participating in “unjust or unreasonable discrimination” when providing phone services to customers.

But in 1949, the Democrat-dominated Commission implemented the “Fairness Doctrine” that required holders of media broadcast licenses to present “issues of public importance” in a manner that is “honest, equitable, and balanced” in the “Commission’s view. It would take 39 years before a conservative Congress could overturn a policy that hijacked the mainstream media to kowtow to liberals or face loss of their licenses.

If the Internet economy was a country, it would rank fifth, behind only the U.S., China, Japan, and India. Economic activity on the Internet totals $4.2 trillion, and almost half of the earth’s 7 billion people are already connected to the Web.

Ajit Pai’s description of “President Obama’s 332-page plan to regulate the Internet” sounds Orwellian. He tweeted a picture of himself holding the 332-page plan just below a picture of a smiling Barack Obama with a comment, “I wish the public could see what’s inside.” The implication depicted Obama as George Orwell’s “Big Brother.”

Pai also released a statement: “President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works,” he said. “The plan explicitly opens the door to billions of dollars in new taxes on broadband… These new taxes will mean higher prices for consumers and more hidden fees that they have to pay.”

Pai had previously observed that he was concerned about the plan would hinder broadband investment, slow network speed and expansion, limit outgrowth to rural areas of the country, and reduce Internet service provider (ISP) competition.

“The plan saddles small, independent businesses and entrepreneurs with heavy-handed regulations that will push them out of the market,” Pai said. “As a result, Americans will have fewer broadband choices. This is no accident. Title II was designed to regulate a monopoly. If we impose that model on a vibrant broadband marketplace, a highly regulated monopoly is what we’ll get.”

Pai’s confrontational comments came after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler penned an op-ed in Wired Magazine detailing his spin on the core aspects of the Democrat’s desire to lump ISPs under the amended Title II of the 1996 Telecommunications Act — which was used to break-up the AT&T telephone monopoly into four regional Bell companies at the dawn of the digital age.

“Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” Wheeler wrote on Wednesday. “These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services.”

Pai responded that the “Courts have twice thrown out the FCC’s attempts at Internet regulation” during the Obama Administration. On January 14, 2014, the D.C. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals struck down most of the FCC’s November 2011 net neutrality rules. The Appellate Court vacated the FCC’s “anti-discrimination” and “anti-blocking” as essentially discriminatory and blocking in an attempt to again give the FCC political appointees the power to dictate what they believe is honest, equitable, and balanced.

Pai said that after a year of debates responding to the courts twice striking down FCC efforts to regulate the Internet, “There’s no reason to think that the third time will be the charm. Even a cursory look at the plan reveals glaring legal flaws that are sure to mire the agency in the muck of litigation for a long, long time.”

Pai promised he would make further comments as he reviews the plan himself in the next two weeks in the run-up to the FCC’s public vote on February 26. He has blamed the two Democrat Commissioners’ for their dismissal of any negotiations with Congressional Republicans in setting the “basic rules” governing Internet access.

As Breitbart has highlighted before, turning the Internet into a “telephone service” would “empower an intrusive public sector that thrives on high taxes, heavy-handed controls and the status quo.”

D.C. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals

Malcolm R. Wilkey was a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Harold H. Koh was his clerk.

Note: Harold H. Koh was Malcolm R. Wilkey’s clerk, the legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration, a director at Human Rights First, and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Open Society Foundations was a funder for Human Rights First, and the American Constitution Society.

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for Human Rights First, the Brookings Institution (think tank), the International Rescue Committee, and the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Mark A. Angelson was a director at Human Rights First, and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.

James D. Zirin was a director at Human Rights First, and is a senior counsel for Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.                    

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Mark D. Schneider is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, and was an associate general counsel for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Martha L. Minow’s father, and was the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Martha L. Minow is Newton N. Minow’s daughter, Barack Obama was her student, and David Bazelon’s clerk.

David Bazelon’s clerk was Martha L. Minow, and a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Abner J. Mikva was the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Julius Genachowski was his clerk, and is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society.

Paul M. Smith is a director at the American Constitution Society, and a partner at Jenner and Block.

Ajit Varadaraj Pai was a partner at Jenner and Block, and is the commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Donald B. Verrilli Jr. was a partner at Jenner and Block, and the deputy counsel to the president for the Barack Obama administration.

Robert S. Osborne was a senior partner at Jenner and Block, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Faith Elizabeth Gay is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, and was an attorney at Sidley Austin LLP.

R. Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a trustee at the Third Way, and was the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.

James E. Clyburn is an honorary co-chair for the Third Way, and Mignon Clyburn’s father.

Mignon Clyburn is James E. Clyburn’s daughter, and the commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Valerie B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the president emeritus for the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John G. Roberts Jr. is an honorary member of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Gainesville, VA), the chief justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, and was a justice for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Kathleen Q. Abernathy was a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Amy L. Nathan was an attorney at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, is a senior counsel, strategic planning & policy analysis for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and married to Howard Fineman.

Howard Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, and a frequent guest on MSNBC.

Harold E. Ford Jr. is a political commentator at MSNBC, was an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Colin L. Powell is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and his son is Michael K. Powell.

Michael K. Powell is Colin L. Powell’s son, a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Julius Genachowski was the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Barack Obama’s law school friend, Abner J. Mikva’s clerk, and is a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Blair Levin was the chief of staff to the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and is a fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a director at the General Dynamics Corporation.

Lester Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a director at the General Dynamics Corporation.

William J. Haynes II was an associate general counsel for the General Dynamics Corporation, and a partner at Jenner and Block.

Ajit Varadaraj Pai was a partner at Jenner and Block, and is the commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Paul M. Smith is a partner at Jenner and Block, and a director at the American Constitution Society.

Abner J. Mikva is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, Julius Genachowski was his clerk, and was the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

David J. Farber was the chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and is a director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Esther Dyson was the chair for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and is a director at the Long Now Foundation.

Mitchell Kapor is a co-founder for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a director at the Long Now Foundation.

Kevin Kelly is a director at the Long Now Foundation, and was a co-founder for Wired.

Wired is a publication for the Conde Nast Publications.