FCC: Fascists Controlling Communication

Inside Every Progressive is a Tyrant Struggling to be Free... And Oppress Others

When liberals like Al Crapton (he calls Limbaugh "Lumbar," so I call Sharpton, "Crapton") shout about conservatives having no right to talk on public airwaves, it means liberal talk radio is getting its ass kicked by conservatives.

When irrelevant nobodies like the Reverend or any MSNBC ranter talks like this, no one even takes notice anymore. Their audience can fit in a port-o-potty.

But when a government official proposes such dangerous and un-American absurdities, it's time to sit up and take notice.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is proposing all radio and TV stations that broadcast over public airwaves submit to a "public values test."

Copps had suggested that the test would make a broadcaster's license renewal contingent upon proof that they meet a prospective set of federal criteria. (Hillicon Valley – FCC Push)

Local boards packed with angry, agenda-driven liberals would sit in judgment on radio and tv stations, using government-approved criteria such as "Diversity Compliance."  Gotta have the government recommended daily amount of one legged lesbian church bishops, gay soldiers, peace-loving Muslims and of course the stupidest species in America:  The White Male Father and Husband!

Progressives cannot win in the free marketplace of ideas so they propose to use the coercive power of the state to shut it all down.

Media outlets would be required to submit to the Ministry of Truth disclosure reports and programming plans proving their worthiness and "meaningful commitment to public affairs and news programming."  Progressive toadies and bullhorn-wielding activists at the local level will be the foot soldiers in this Obama-approved Hush Rush campaign.  

And make no mistake, Copps and his fellow statists want to expand their purview to all communications outlets, including cable and internet.  Here is Der Kommissar in his own words:

"What we've had in recent years is an aberration where we have had no oversight of the media.

It's a pretty serious situation that we're in. I think American media has a bad case of substance abuse right now. We are not producing the body of news and information that democracy needs to conduct its civic dialogue [...] we have to reverse that trend." (Copps quoted at NewsBusters)

Is this guy crazy? We've got news coming out our ears. Yes, much of it is sports and celebrity-driven frivolity, but serious news and analysis is as close as your computer keyboard or local library periodicals section.

All Palin, All the Time
Maybe he has in mind a press that flocked to Alaska for synchronized Sara Palin dumpster dives?  This same press corps spent more time investigating an Ohio plumber than they did the Democratic nominee for president. Is this the news media dereliction the FCC Kommissar seeks to stamp out?  I doubt it.

The IBD editors ask the most important question:

Who is Copps to make such demands? And why does a man who thinks like a tyrant hold such a high-ranking position in the U.S. government?

It's reasonable to ask, as Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas did in a letter to Copps this week, if the commissioner means to give the federal governmentthe power to determine what content is available for Americans to consume. (IBD)

Indeed.  The federal government and its batwinged gargoyles like Copps are not neutral.  They are biased and are therefore unfit to be the arbiters of what free men and women can or cannot read, see and hear.  We're smart enough to figure it out on our own without a paternalistic statist holding our hand.  MSNBC's ratings are in the toilet; America knows crap when they see it.

Grab their Guns and Shut them Up!

Why should it be more of a crime to threaten a politician than it is to threaten an ordinary citizen?

A threat is a threat, and all credible threats should be treated equally under the law regardless of who issues the threat or who is threatened.

"The president is a federal official," Brady told CNN in a telephone interview. "You can't do it to him; you should not be able to do it to a congressman, senator or federal judge." (The Hill)

You shouldn't be able to do it to anyone, congressman! A threat to my wife or a threat to Harry Reid; it doesn't matter. Both are criminal and should be punished.  This concept is a cornerstone of The Rule of Law. 

David Weigel at Slate explains better than I can why this is a bad idea.

Brady's proposed legislation is half unenforceable and half redundant. Threats against public officials are already illegal. A year ago, a Pennsylvania man was arrested because his interminable YouTube rants veered into threats against Eric Cantor, who's now the House majority leader.

Loughner didn't make any YouTube threats. (Slate)

Such proposed laws are really about controlling speech, but like gun control, the nuts and the criminals the law is directed at won't obey it anyway...

If someone like Jared Loughner wants to develop bizarre ideas about government based on obscure online theories—or based on nothing at all—no amount of civil dialogue will prevent it.  (Slate)

Here's the real agenda.

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) suggested the Federal Communications Commission was "not working anymore," adding she would look at ways to better police language on the airwaves.  (The Hill-New Curbs)

Yes. All that criticism of failed, tired statist policies foisted upon us by a power-mad democratic party is getting out of hand. "Irresponsible speech" and free-thinking caused a turnover in the house of representatives and almost upturned the senate. We can't have that!

"What I'd like to see is if we could all get together on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, and really talk about what we can do to cool down the country," Slaughter said.(The Hill-New Curbs)

Liberals want to cool down the criticism, take the heat off of themselves, their horrible agenda, and the multi-trillion dollar failures they have burdened us all with. "Cool down the country" means shut up criticism of liberalism and put off limits all this wild talk about shrinking our bloated, inefficient politburo-style government and the big fat Greek-style debt it has incurred. That's the kind of talk these failed statists in the Democratic party want to squelch.

To equate criticism of government with killing people is repulsive, but that's the stinking sewer liberals now find themselves mired in. They are completely repudiated and their policies discredited, so all they have left is to tell the country to shut up, and enforce their imperial mandate with the force of law.

Dedicated to the Socialists at the FCC

The petty statists at the FCC have wrapped the FCC's bureaucratic tentacles around the internet.  This is just the beginning...

What is the problem this "solution" is supposed to solve?

Supposedly it will deal with "...bandwidth hogging sites such as Netflix."  Such language in a free-market with unlimited bandwith potential is not only ignorant, it is especially disturbing coming from a government bureaucrat.  Such interventions pervert the natural market incentives and spark inane arguments over who hogs more bandwidth and whether every child has a “right” to surf YouTube all day.

It's about power and control

What this FCC Beer Hall Putsch really does is establish a precedent.  It's about the Federal Government establishing primacy over the internet.  More regulations on content and speech control will follow.  Further on down the road is the government parceling out internet access and speech "rights."

How the internet works

Net Neutrality is a hard subject to grasp.  It is further befogged by those who discuss the internet as if it were a shared commons with constrained capacity. It is not. It is an agglomeration of competing operators, scalable infrastructure, ISPs and content providers.

Think of it as a network of toll roads (the backbone), that truckloads of products (content providers) use to deliver content to stores all over the US (ISP's).

We customers go to an ISP to get our YouTube and blogs, just like we go to Walmart to buy shotgun shells and DVDs.  ISPs and content providers pay the backbone operators for the bandwidth they use.  They then pass the cost on to us.  It's a great system, but some people just cannot stand the fact that market forces drive pricing.

"Usage-based pricing is a clear positive for cable, telecom, and wireless providers, but it also might be a concern for Netflix," said MF Global analyst Paul Gallant. "Depending on where the tiers were set, usage-based pricing on wire line broadband could end up deterring some people from dropping cable for over-the-top video."

A group of pointy-headed government bureaucrats cannot better determine what customers want than the free market can. Remove the regulations and let each ISP come up with their own pricing plan. That’s how cell phones work. It’s also how cable tv works. If I don't like Verizon I can switch over to Sprint, and I don't need a government nanny holding my hand.

Government should not be favoring one industry over another.  If internet demand grows, companies operating on the free market will build more capacity because they want to make more money off of us consumers. It’s a fair deal. We want more internet, and they risk their capital to build it, recouping their investment when they bring it on line and sell it to us. If it kills cable tv in the process, who cares?  It's a free marketplace--let the best technology win.

Our government does not understand the free market

An FCC official said in a statement that it would be a "cop on the beat" for "arbitrary, anti-consumer, or anti-competitive tiered pricing plans."

What a moron.  What company could make money with "arbitrary" or “anti-consumer” pricing?  Has this imbecilic statist never heard of Walmart, Amazon, or Priceline.com?  They would go broke if they were stupid enough to do what this FCC bureaucrat suggests!  This is one more reason why government has no business intervening in the free market. These petty dictators don’t even understand basic economic fundamentals.

And "Anticompetitive?"  Look no further than the US government.  They routinely snuff competition in the energy market (ethanol and wind subsidies, import tariffs on foreign ethanol), automobile and transportation market (battery powered car and Amtrack subsidies), and now they are intervening in the competition between video stores, on-line video providers and cable tv.

This ruling retards the advance of consumer technology

Look at what a lack of government regulation has done to the music industry and cell phones.  We can now listen to whatever we want whenever we want, indy bands can build an on-line fan base without expensive promoters, and we can talk to anyone in the world while paying less for phone service than out parents and grandparents did.

One day, if government gets out of the way, we will all have fiber running to our house, and the possibilities are limitless.  Phone service, tv, movies, live streaming video teleconferencing for the average family.  John Nolte explains what the entertainment future would look like:

What I also see is a world in which absolutely EVERYTHING, every television show, movie, music video, what have you, is made available for mass consumption online. Because there’s no distribution costs beyond converting to the digital file necessary for streaming, we could see, for example, complete episodes of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show made available. 

With very little upfront investment, anything and everything ever committed to film or video could find itself monetized again. And of course all of it would be available in the best sound and picture quality available.

And for the consumer? Well, that’s the best part. No more video collections clogging up the living room. For X-amount of dollars per month everything ever put on video will be one click away. For a monthly fee, sites like Netflix or Amazon will store your video collections for you.

Unfortunately, many Americans are more interested in professional ball sports or the Kardashians than they are in their freedoms.  Perhaps we could get their attention by giving them a glimpse of what their entertainment future could look like if the government would just get out of the way

Further Reading:
John Nolte - The Future of Home Video
Source-Report - The Internet Backbone
Politico  - Net Neutrality
Robert M McDowell - FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom
WaPo – FCC Market Meddling

Anarchy: It’s not just for the downtrodden!

Life imitates art

A Multi-bajillionaire Pink Floyd scion desecrated a British war memorial as part of the selfish rants going on in Britain over the government’s austerity programs. This stunt could only have been improved upon by a live soundtrack of uber rich old dude Steven Tyler belting out “Eat the Rich.”

During the most recent—on the day of the tuition bill vote—they drew graffiti on a statue of Churchill and urinated on its base, damaged the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, and then attacked the royal car. One protester—the adopted son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, as it happens—climbed the Cenotaph, London's central war memorial (inscribed "To the Glorious Dead"), swung from a flag that hangs from the top, and then tried to start a bonfire outside a courthouse for good measure. (Slate – Anne Applebaum)

The anarcho-trustfunders can retreat to their posh estates after a day of sticking it to the man, but the poor remain trapped among the rubble they’ve created. Ask the people of South Central LA.

What to do about the poor?
“Give them a job!” I shout at the rich liberal hand wringers. Education too expensive? Then open your wallets and start handing out money, you liberal millionaires! These faux generosi then protest that its government’s job. Oh yeah? Says who?  I don't remember reading that in the US Constitution.  And by the way, where does this omnipotent government get its money? Uncle Obama’s stash is emptier than Al Gore’s lock box.

The rich will then protest that they don’t have enough to hand out to everyone that needs it. They sigh dejectedly as they climb into the Lambourghini, shrugging their shoulders at the unfairness of it all as their tail lights fade in the distance.


Meanwhile, the Bill Gates’s of the world start with a small amount of money and a good idea, add a lot of hard work, and end up providing jobs for millions who want to work and take care of themselves.  Many become millionaires themselves.  Gates and people like him are now funding whole schools and food and medicine programs for entire countries.

Capitalism works. Statism doesn't.  Just ask the British protesters.

Vote Democrat or Vote Liberty--You Can't Do Both

Hayek famously dedicated his book, "The Road to Serfdom" to "Socialists of all parties," and Republicans have earned every bit of criticism they get.  They have eagerly participated in the horrible progressive experiment of the last 100 years.  They say they've changed, and I'm willing to give them one more chance.  With the Democrats, we are guaranteed to continue our death spiral.

100 Years of Progressive Statism is Enough!

Let’s consider, say, the year 1880. Here was a society in whichpeople were free to keep everything they earned, because there wasno income tax. They were also free to decide what to do with theirown money—spend it, save it, invest it, donate it, or whatever. 

People were generally free to engage in occupations and professionswithout a license or permit. There were few federal economicregulations and regulatory agencies. 

No Social Security, Medicare,Medicaid, welfare, bailouts, or so-called stimulus plans. No IRS.No Departments of Education, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, andLabor. No EPA and OSHA. No Federal Reserve. No drug laws. 

Fewsystems of public schooling. No immigration controls. No federalminimum-wage laws or price controls. A monetary system based ongold and silver coins rather than paper money. No slavery. No CIA.No FBI. No torture or cruel or unusual punishments. No renditions.No overseas military empire. No military-industrial complex.  (Reason - Up from Serfdom)

We have made great strides since the 1880's, but government has grown into a leviathan, trampling the First, Second, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Amendment in the process, while stretching out the Commerce and General Welfare clauses into a penumbra so large they block the sun.

The federal government doesn't care more about your state than you and your fellow residents do.

The federal government does not care more about your kids, their education, their souls and their futures than you do.

No government can order your life better than you.  No government cares more about your life, liberty, family and property than you, and no police force is in a better position to defend them from immediate attack than you are.

Unintended Consequences

Government "solutions" create more problems, which require more solutions, which create more problems...

Economist Walter E. Williams explains the Law of Unintended Consequences, using the Federal Government as an example.  His article, Making Americans Sick, is a must read for free-market conservatives.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised, "The U.S. government plans to increase funding to battle obesity and views healthcare reform as an opportunity to encourage better eating habits."

Dr Williams goes on to show how US government sugar subsidies combined with tariffs on foreign sugar has distorted the market and driven up the price of that commodity.  This caused manufacturers to replace sugar with the cheaper high fructose corn syrup in domestically produced food.

This, in turn, has caused more obesity and diabetes among Americans.  It has also driven candy manufacturing out of the country to destinations where sugar is cheaper.


A Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone
In summary, congress caused obesity and increased diabetes by taking political bribes from domestic sugar companies in exchange for protecting them from competition.  Now, the government will blow more money on initiatives to solve the problems their previous laws caused.


I can't wait for the fallout from the obesity initiative...

A Threat to One Right is a Threat to All Rights

I got into an argument with an old friend and fellow lifetime NRA member over that organization’s support for campaign finance legislation that restricts free speech in exchange for an exemption for itself.

Good on the NRA for defending our Second Amendment rights. Bad on them for squashing the First Amendment in the process.

Things really got heated when I excoriated our NRA for toying with the idea of endorsing Harry Reid. Reid Voted for the Brady Bill, Erik Erikson reminds us.  Politico explains how politics in America makes such bedfellows possible:

First, Reid has a fairly favorable lifetime rating from the NRA. And then there’s the $61 million for the Clark County Shooting Park, earmarked by Reid, which led Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, to call Reid “a true champion” of the Second Amendment at an event commemorating the opening of the 2,900-acre park in April. (Politico)

So Reid bribed the NRA with $61 million of taxpayer money, and they in return call this petty statist "a true champion." Disgusting.

Legislation as a Money-Making Scam
It is bad enough that congress exempts itself from its own laws. It is a truly despotic government that enacts laws threatening our individual liberties in order to sell those rights back to the highest bidder. This is extortion--a sickening theft of our birthright.

Progressive America, Negotiated Rights
Natural Rights are down the toilet. The Kagan hearings confirmed that. Congress can make us eat our veggies and progressive jurists like Kagan will stand aside because they see nothing wrong. And she will be confirmed in a cakewalk.

If government can make a free man play “mother may I” in order to keep firearms, it can also make a free woman ask permission to exercise her God-given right to free speech. Once we open negotiations on our fundamental rights, we’ve already lost. Government ceases to be the protector of our rights and now becomes the gatekeeper, telling us which rights we may exercise, when and where.

Welcome to Progressive America...

GM President Fines Competitor Toyota

General Motors President Barack Obama will fine his competitor Toyota a whopping $16 Million dollars.  It's good to be the king!

The announcement was made by loyal Liberal Democrat and Grand High Lord Minister of The People's Roads and Transport, Ray LaHood.

Goose Stepping Towards Gomorrah

Sinclair Lewis (no relation to C.S. Lewis) has been misquoted as saying something like "if fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the flag and whistling 'The Star Spangled Banner.'"  Liberals have been repeating it ever since.

Who thought it would come riding on a donkey?  

But seriously, the democrats are not fascists, and Lewis' sentiment doesn't apply anymore, since the US populace is no longer as susceptible to patriotic or religious appeals, and thank God for that.  Have any two ideals been more abused by politicians?  Nowadays, fascism would have to be wrapped in hundred dollar bills, porn, botox and free stuff for all.

Here's a more appropriate quote from a different Lewis:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. 

It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. 

The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis

It's About Ideas--Republicans just happen to be on the right side this time

For three straight days I've attacked Democrats, and this after I proudly told some liberal bloggers I respect that I don't engage in partisan political arguments, I'm about ideas.  Well, this is about ideas.

Shall we be free to make our own choices and live our own lives, free even to fail?  Or will we allow a nanny state government to infest every last corner of our lives?

They are not Nazis

A commenter yesterday obliquely accused me of calling Democrats Nazis, but I'm not doing that at all.  Despite the Leni Reifenstahl propaganda and public displays that border on deification of Obama, it is not appropriate.  Obama is not Hitler and the Democratic party in no way resembles his horrible ideology.

It's Not Socialism

Obama's coterie includes some socialists and Chairman Mao fans, but they are not implementing socialism or communism either.  This despite the cult of personality, the artwork and the iconography.  Socialism dictates that the state seize the means of production.  They are not doing that.

 It's Called STATISM

They are statists.  Statism does not advocate seizing the means of production, but rather using the power of the state to manipulate them.  This leads to crony capitalism where companies curry favor with a corrupt political class that routinely milks them for money to pay for voter freebees.  In return, favored companies are allowed to make money in a rigged market while calling themselves capitalists.

Statism is better known as fascism, but that is a European concept that rightly conjures ugly, murderous thugs.  ACORN and SEIU aside, it doesn't fit here, so I prefer to call them statists.  And there are plenty in the GOP as well, they just don't have any power right now. 

Statism includes:

 

* Grab the corporations by the throat and challenge them: You're either with the state or you're against us!

* Drastic decrease in strikes--The state is looking after the worker now. Unions are only allowed to march on companies the state has declared evil.  The federal government, through a Department of Labor, intimidates uncooperative businesses to get in line
 

* Central control by the state of everything, from schools, to commerce to public health.
 

* Manipulation of societal institutions such as church, family and community

Our government bears all of these marks, and it's only getting worse.  

I put Soviet hats on Democrats not because I think they are communists, but because they have come to resemble a Soviet Politburo, binding all states together tightly, snuffing all differences and applying top-down, one-size-fits-all solutions that vast majorities do not want.

Call it what you want, but it doesn't look American.

Demon Pass: A Congress of Cowards

Demon Pass?  Never heard of it!  It's "Deem and Pass," and it's the latest craze!  All the kids in the District of Criminals are doing it...

Dispatches from The CrapItAll 

Obama:  I don't care about the process I just want this done.  Government is not big enough and the people have too much power

Pelosi:  It's a good thing when we can take the coward's way out and declare edicts without voting

Rev Wright:  America's Chicken's...  have come home...  to roost!  And they're roosting under the capitol dome!
Louise Slaughter (apt name) says it's "Self-Executing!"  ...If Only...
Ramesh Ponnuru - Talking Points
Orange Punch - We Don't Need No Stinkin' Vote!