Republican FCC Member
Warns Net Neutrality Is Not Neutral
by Chriss W. Street 9 Feb 2015 Newport Beach, CA
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.
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.
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