Posts Tagged ‘chairman julius genachowski’

Seton Motley

FCC Chairman and President Obama–Saying Whatever It Takes, Doing Whatever They Want

by Seton Motley

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski has a bit of reputation for not liking conflict – and avoiding it whenever possible.

An excellent way of attempting to do this is to say whatever it is each person with whom you engage wishes to hear – even if consecutive conversations require diametrically opposite assertions.

The people with whom you speak all walk away happy, each thinking you’re a swell guy.  And you can continue doing exactly what it is you want to do.

Like, say, shoving through in unauthorized fashion overly oppressive Network Neutrality regulations.

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As we have previously discussed, President Barack Obama does – and will be doing – this sort of double dealing all the time.  (He’ll also repeatedly do it with his oath of office – as again demonstrated by his abdicating his responsibility to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act.)

Let us now take a look at Chairman Genachowski’s recent public statements on the subject of Net Neutrality.

Starting with what should have been the end of this entire FCC power grab fiasco.  In the October 3rd Washington Post, Genachowski said:

“…(W)e have a Communications Act that wasn’t written for broadband.”

Game over, one would think.  The FCC can’t regulate anything unless and until Congress writes a law that says “Hey FCC – regulate this.”  And here we have the Chairman of the FCC admitting that Congress has never done this on broadband.

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Seton Motley

Wireless Provider Follows Verizon in Suing FCC to Undo Net Neutrality

by Seton Motley

Metro PCS is an American wireless phone service provider – with coverage reaching about 90% of the nation.  Their slogan is “Wireless for All” – and their different price packages are certainly readily accessible for most people.

Including a single smart phone-specific $40 a month (absurd taxes and fees included) 4G network plan for unlimited talk, text and web browsing – and access to the bandwidth hog YouTube.

Some other plans they offer are:

  • A $50 plan that has everything above plus international and “premium” text messaging, the MetroNavigator GPS directional service, the ScreenIT caller ID app, mobile instant messaging, corporate e-mail, 1GB of additional data access, and the MetroSTUDIO video service.
  • A $60 plan that has all of the above plus unlimited data access and MetroSTUDIO “premium content”—18 video-on-demand channels plus audio downloads.

Those of us now wincing at the thought of our monthly cell bills are also simultaneously thinking – Metro PCS is a pretty good deal.  It is certainly one of the more “public-friendly” out there right now.

You would think.  Ahh, but the Public Interest Groups (PIGs) have found fault with Metro PCS.

At the behest of no one, Media Marxist PIG outfit Free Press went whining to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – and “call(ed) on (them) to investigate Metro PCS for Internet blocking.”

In other words – they are accusing Metro PCS of a Network Neutrality violation.

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Seton Motley

Verizon Sues FCC Over Net Neutrality Power Grab

by Seton Motley

Verizon Communications has become the first of what many expect to be many, to sue the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to undo its voting themselves Internet Overlords on December 21st.

This is an FCC self-inflicted wound; they flung wide open the door to lawsuits aplenty with their dictatorial vote – and the sloppy, self-contradicting and unauthorized order on which they voted.

The FCC decided to again usurp authority over the Internet – so as to then impose Network Neutrality – in a manner similar to the one it attempted in 2007 with the Comcast-BitTorrent situation.

A manner which the D.C. Circuit Court last April unanimously said the FCC is not statutorily authorized to execute.

A manner which FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski himself – just two months before calling for the vote and casting an “Aye” – readily acknowledges he and the FCC don’t have the juice to execute.

For their outrageously outsized part – completely unqualified “Public Interest” Group (PIG) Free Press was cited in the FCC order a ridiculous 53 times – the Media Marxists were livid with the order, somehow asserting that the FCC didn’t go nearly far enough outside its clearly demarcated legal bounds.

Leftists, after all, never allow facts to get in the way of a good beating.

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Seton Motley

Net Neutrality Power Grab Is Worse than Obamacare

by Seton Motley

There are a lot of similarities between the nine-month-long shove of ObamaCare across the legislative finish line and the four-plus year Media Marxist push to the December 21st 3-2 Democrat Party-line Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vote to impose Network Neutrality.

But in some of the most important ways, the Net Neutrality power grab was and is worse.

On ObamaCare, every Congressional Republican save one voted Nay.  Most voiced strong and pronounced opposition throughout the long legislative slog.  It garnered the GOP the moniker of the “Party of No” – which was meant by the forces of Big Government to be derogatory.

But the American people – in agreement with the Republicans on the policies to which they were saying “No” – rewarded their negativity with historic November electoral victories.

As unpopular as ObamaCare was – and is still – at least those who foisted it upon us did so via the legislative process in the People’s Congress.  Officials elected by you and me decided – against our expressed wishes – to pass it.  And we had the subsequent opportunity to throw them out – which, again, we did in record numbers.

The same cannot be said about the route travelled to the imposition of Net Neutrality.

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Seton Motley

Hey FCC: Approve the Comcast-NBC Merger, Already

by Seton Motley

Comcast and NBC-Universal (NBCU) have been waiting to merge for, well, ever.  Or at least it seems that way.

Mergers of this sort are supposed to be approved within 180 days of applying to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Justice Department for permission.  (As offensive as that may sound – two companies reaching mutually agreeable business terms having to then play Mother May I with the government – that is the way it currently goes.)

Those 180 days expired sometime around Thanksgiving.  Yet here we are halfway through January – and Comcast and NBCU are still awaiting the FCC’s blessing.  The delay is just another example of the incredible and incredibly damaging sway Media Marxist and Leftist grievance groups have with the current Commission.

The delay has dangled Comcast-NBCU like a piñata, allowing these PIGs (“Public Interest” Groups) to beat shakedown concessions out of them and feed at the trough into which they fall.

We previously pointed out that a racial grievance group – the National Coalition of African-Owned Media (NCAOM) – is demanding that Comcast set aside 50 channels (10% of its capacity) for exclusively African American owners.

In June 2010, California Democrat Representative Maxine Waters and others were obnoxiously voicing their disapproval of the merger.  (Yes, the same Maxine Waters who said she wanted to nationalize the entire oil industry.)

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Seton Motley

Congressional Review Act Is the First Line of Defense Against Obama’s Regulatory Power Grabs

by Seton Motley

The November 2nd election results caused in Democrats several strains of mental illness – bouts of depression, delusion, deep-seated rage and others were all exhibited in various Donkey quarters.

But going forward, the Obama Administration will exhibit a strategic psychosis – policy schizophrenia.

For public consumption – with the perpetual assistance of his servile media – there will be the “new” President Barack Obama.  The “shellacked,” humbled man who claims to get that his Party’s policies were historically rejected by the American people.  Whose now moderated, bipartisan, Triangulated work with the Republicans will make former President and 1994 “shellackee” Bill Clinton look recalcitrant and amateur.

We saw much evidence of this new PR push with the deal to keep the tax rates for the next two years exactly what they’ve been for the last eight.  This we were told was Obama’s new Third Way – a deal which upset both Conservatives and Progressives and therefore must be fantastic Moderate Obama policy.

But President Obama is a diehard Leftist ideologue – who loathed the agreement as much as or more than any fellow Democrat.

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Seton Motley

Video: Why Net Neutrality Is a Terrible Idea

by Seton Motley

Network Neutrality is a metaphysically bad idea.

But it remains a Leftist wish list item.  So Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Don Quixote – I mean Julius Genachowski – is set to ram it down our throats on December 21st, tilting at ideological windmills to the egregious detriment of the American people.  And commandeering vast new unconstitutional authority over the Internet in a pathetically transparent attempt to justify Net Neutrality’s emplacement – a power grab to justify another power grab.

This is a last minute, behind closed doors, unreviewed, un-Public Commented upon, under cover of Christmas government takeover of 1/6 of our nation’s economy.  The only portion of the economy that is actually still functioning in the midst of what is otherwise is a doldrum-laden Obama Recession.

Not coincidentally, the Internet remains perhaps the only major portion of the economy President Barack Obama has not yet assaulted with oppressive legislation and/or regulation.  A fact that will remain true – for another eight days.

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Seton Motley

It’s Official – The FCC Will Vote to Take Over the Internet in December

by Seton Motley

Just this past Friday, we warned you that a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) December Internet power grab was probably coming.

Well, we now know that it is – and it may be even worse than we thought.

Details have been sketchy, and successive reports often contradictory, but what follows is what seems to be looming over us in December.  (We will know for sure on Wednesday, November 24 – if the FCC maintains its current December 15 meeting date.)

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to be preparing to dramatically increase the FCC’s regulatory role over the Internet (in TWO ways; more on that later).

He is doing so without the necessary Congressional authority – which he himself acknowledges he doesn’t have.  And he is doing so by torturing and twisting the regulatory language he is drafting – so as to keep this extraordinary dictatorial seizure within the current Title I confines.

The latter is for The Chairman merely an optical effort.  If he can feign the appearance of remaining within Title I, he avoids Reclassification to Title II – against which many of us have long been rightly fighting.  He will then portray his fealty to Title I as testament to the alleged “moderation” of his (un)modest proposal.

This will be a totally bogus assertion, but he will make it – and the media will inparrot-esque fashion repeat it.  The Chairman should bring crackers to the press conference.

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Seton Motley

Good Lame Duck Internet Legislation: A Stand-Alone Permanent Halt to FCC Reclassification

by Seton Motley

At this point, it is understandable that the reaction of the Tea Party Movement – and most Americans  - to ANY legislation coming out of THIS Congress would be not just “No,” but “Heck No” (pardon my French.)

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But despite the reams of alleged “reporting” you’ve seen, the Tea Party Movement has for the most part NOT weighed in on Internet legislation – neither the ever-so-brief offer of Congressman Henry Waxman’s bill specifically nor any possible law generally.

Not that the media know anything about this.  In order to find out what the less government, pro-freedom Tea Partiers are thinking on Internet legislation, the Jurassic Press are asking and quoting – Media Marxists:

Tea party support for such an effort would be a reversal from the role the movement played in lawmakers’ attempt to advance a measure last month.

Indeed, “the tea party made it possible for Republicans to opt out of supporting Waxman’s bill with no political ramifications and appear as champions to their base,” said Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Initiative at the New America Foundation.

“I can see why the Republicans would have been resistant to signing on this in a tea-party-infused environment,” said Matt Wood, associate director for the Media Access Project.

Because these people are in constant contact with the Tea Party movers and shakers, and are thusly well equipped to speak for them on matters of Web legislative policy.

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Seton Motley

The House’s Last Minute Net Neutrality Legislation Had ZERO Chance of Passage

by Seton Motley

This preordained doomed attempt should NOT serve as an impetus for unilateral FCC action

Last week gave us another piece of last minute, hurry-up and pass-it legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman’s bill to regulate the Internet, codify Net Neutrality (NN) and define the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s role therein.

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As the recently departed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”  Or a manufactured one – like the four-plus year slow burn “dire” need for Net Neutrality implementation.  Without which the Internet has exploded into a nearly limitless cornucopia of free speech, free markets and free people.

We’ve gone this long – and this incredibly well – without Net Neutrality.  We certainly don’t need the FCC ramming it through in an after-the-election November meeting designed from all appearances to thwart and avoid the scrutiny of the American people.

In actuality, this NN bill had ZERO chance of passing.  You can’t introduce it out of Committee the Tuesday before the Friday Congress adjourns – and expect it to become law.  Anyone who follows these things knows this is folly.

It did accomplish something.  Forced again to make a decision inside of six seconds on transcendentally important legislation, the Republicans rightly said No.  Ranking Committee member Joe Barton decided they would not, again, be forced aboard another screaming legislative locomotive.

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Seton Motley

FCC Chair Genachowski Blinks on Internet Regulation

by Seton Motley

Yesterday Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski issued a statement on Network Neutrality and Internet reclassification that is difficult to interpret in any way other than “I’m not interested in walking the Media Marxist Net Neutrality plank.”

091008_TECH_JuliusGenachowski

Chairman Genachowski has called for another round of public comment on the two contentious components of Net Neutrality – and how they should be applied to both wired and wireless Internet.  And did so in such a way as to make it very difficult for the pro-Net Neutrality Media Marxists like Free Press to raise any objection.  After all, who can protest more input from the American people?

He made it difficult – not impossible.  For no amount of Reality is insurmountable for the Media Marxists.  These are the folks who continuously called for us to “Listen to the People” – until it became exceedingly obvious that the people weren’t with them.

So now their rallying cry becomes “Overregulation by Any Means Necessary.”  They are demanding the FCC reclassify the Internet under ancient 1930s land line telephone rules – and that they do it immediately.

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Seton Motley

Hey, Free Press and Company: We Don’t Like the Verizon-Google Deal Either

by Seton Motley

On Monday, World Wide Web Big Players Verizon and Google made officially public their seven self-agreed-to principles on how they think it’s best to run the Internet railroad.

verizon-google

This was–-and is–a bit of news, given that the two have been on opposite sides of the Network Neutrality debate since its inception–-Google for, Verizon against.

This deal was too much for the whacked-out, way-out fringe pro-Net Neutrality Leftists like Free Press and Public Knowledge, and they immediately collapsed into conniption fits.

The heads at Free Press have yet to stop spinning.

In dread anticipation of Monday afternoon’s announcement, they (along with MoveOn.org Civic Action, CREDO Action, the Progressive Campaign Change Committee and ColorofChange.org) delivered to Google’s Washington, D.C. offices 300,000 signed petitions against the proposed deal.

No one’s sure just how many of the 300,000 actually knew what they were signing, given Free Press’s horrendously dishonest track record on these sorts of things.

After the announcement, they immediately issued Free Press Urges Policymakers to Reject Google-Verizon Pact.  But they still weren’t done–later in the day giving us Google-Verizon Pact Worse than Feared.

You can hear them hyperventilating all the way from where you are, can’t you?

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Seton Motley

Another Week of Growing Opposition to FCC’s Internet Grab

by Seton Motley

It must be getting a bit cramped in the office of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman’s Julius Genachowski, at least figuratively speaking.  Every day delivers more and more people opposed to his “Title 1.5,” promises-of-forbearance laden Internet reclassification push.

fcc_genachowski

The Chairman spent the first half of the year meeting incessantly with the Media Marxist likes of Free Press, Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project – those opposed to free speech, free markets and private property rights, otherwise known as Network Neutrality (NN) proponents.

Genachowski went out of his way – and outside the proscribed bounds of his and his Commission’s authority – to bend over backwards to do these Leftist groups’ bidding on over-regulating the Internet.  Up to and including reclassifying broadband to the oppressive Title II.

Bipartisan opposition to Genachowski’s unlawful unilateralism continues to grow.  There was the Clinton-appointed led D.C. Circuit Court decision against the Commission’s actions in the Comcast-BitTorrent case.  There were the three separate letters sent to Genachowski by blocks of Congressmen and Senators – 282 in all, both Republicans and Democrats.  And yet another letter was sent by seventeen minority groups who almost NEVER oppose anything proposed by any Democrat.

Perhaps the Commissioner has begun to hear the rising din.  In the last month his staffers began to host what has become a series of meetings with Net Neutrality opponents like AT&T, Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association – along with the same old NN proponents.

At least both sides are now getting in the room.  Another one of these meetings was held on Saturday, and two more are scheduled this week.

As it becomes clearer that a rational, reasonable Internet regulatory solution might be achieved, we will see more people rush to join the opposition to the FCC’s proposed “Third Way.”

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