WASHINGTON — Federal telecommunications regulators approved new rules Tuesday that would for the first time give the federal government formal authority to regulate Internet traffic, although how much or for how long remained unclear.
WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee filed an amendment on Thursday to halt U.S. regulators' plans to act on contentious Internet traffic rules next week.
"The FCC chairman's attempt to impose new government regulations on the Internet is unnecessary government overreach that will stifle future innovation," Hutchinson said in a statement.
The proposal will be introduced for a vote before the five-member commission on Dec. 21.
FCC Chief Backs Usage-Based Broadband Pricing There will be significant haggling over the proposal for the next few weeks, particularly on the rules for wireless broadband networks. Consumer groups want more protections but wireless carriers are resistant.
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators are proposing to create a "Do Not Track" list for the Internet so that people could prevent marketers from tracking their Web browsing habits and other online behavior in order to target advertising.
Washington, D.C. – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) released the following statement after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski announced sweeping new internet regulations.
“I am disappointed with Chairman Genachowski’s decision to push forward with a partisan proposal to regulate the Internet in the face of a court that has questioned his authority, a Congress that has questioned his policy, and an American people that have said we need less government, not more. I am also troubled by the process under which the proposed rules have been crafted. The companies that power our economy should not be forced to choose between bad and worse. Rest assured we intend to conduct rigorous oversight and explore all our legislative options to put things back on the proper track.
"If last month’s election told us anything, it’s that Americans are exasperated by the explosive growth of government and the higher taxes and burdensome regulations that come with it. Imposing net neutrality requirements would significantly harm a key industry by shackling it with unnecessary and anti-competitive regulations at a time when we can least afford it. Make no mistake, a thriving broadband industry will be a crucial piece of the private sector in the years ahead, and we must do everything we can to ensure long-term broadband investment and availability."
Regulating the Web wasn't a political winner last week. As a reminder of unpredictability in politics, consider what happened when the Progressive Change Campaign Committee last month announced that 95 candidates for Congress had signed a pledge to support "net neutrality." The candidates promised: "In Congress, I'll fight to protect Net Neutrality for the entire Internet—wired and wireless—and make sure big corporations aren't allowed to take control of free speech online."
Last week all 95 candidates lost. Opponents of net neutrality chortled, and the advocacy group retreated to the argument that regulation of the Internet wasn't a big issue in the election.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats have shelved a last-ditch effort to broker a compromise between phone, cable and Internet companies on rules that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or degrading online traffic flowing over their networks.
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a range of ideas, including national advertisements, to cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.
Christine O'Donnell hits the stage at Values Voter Summit "The small elite don't get us. They call us wacky. They call us wingnuts. We call us, 'We the people,'" she said to sustained applause. "We're loud, we're rowdy, we're passionate.
It isn't tame, but boy, it sure is good."
"Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our backgrounds and distort our records? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harass our families, namecall to try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it?" she said.
"Well, let me ask you. Is freedom worth it?" she asked, as the crowd chanted "Yes." "Is America worth it?"
Glossary Narco-speak Students of the Spanish language and Mexican culture alike can add a new module to their classes: narco-speak. Mexico’s drugs cartels and the chilling violence they have inflicted on the country, have spawned a new lexicon to describe objects and activities that were barely known in the country just a couple of decades ago.
Cuerno de chivo Before the rise of the cartels, the term “cuerno de chivo” used to mean just that: a goat’s horn. Today, only the most isolated from current affairs and popular culture would confuse it with anything other than an AK-47 assault rifle. The nickname comes from the weapon’s distinctively curved ammunition clip.
Levantón In more peaceful times, the word “levantón” usually meant a round-up of suspects by police or other security forces. Today, it means only one thing: kidnapping of one or more rival gang members with the express intention of torturing and then killing them.
Manta More often than not, a “manta” in Spanish was something your grandmother might have made to cover your bed. Nowadays, it is a scrawled message or warning – sometimes in blood and often pinned to a dead body – from one armed group to another.
Plaza Remember the “plaza”, that sunlit square complete with bubbling fountain in the middle that forms any self-respecting image of a Mexican town? Today, it means a local territory for dealing drugs.
Dar piso The literal translation of “dar piso” is to “give floor” (to something). Today it means to kill someone or to “take them out”.
Narco- Perhaps the most flexible term in the new vocabulary is the prefix “narco”.
Try “narcocandidato”, the term for describing a corrupt politician. Or “narcofiesta”, a party of rabble-rousing music, pretty girls and plenty of white cowboy hats held by and for drug traffickers. Then there is the somewhat older term “narcocorrido”, a ballad whose lyrics are specifically about mafia culture.
Tough hair to split. And then there’s the fraudulent support. In short, the lights have been turned up in Club Net Neutrality, and it isn’t a pretty sight. The members of the ever-dwindling pro-NN “movement” certainly can’t like what they’re seeing.
MILWAUKEE – Flying thousands of miles to reap millions of dollars, President Barack Obama is dashing across the country to help his party retain power, essentially offering one familiar argument: Republicans don't solve problems.
Google Backs Down on Net Neutrality Net neutrality opponents may take heart from this latest move on Google’s part, which may indicate a weakening of the coalition favoring aggressive regulation. In a statement, Free Press adviser Joel Kelsey remarked that “If codified, this arrangement will lead to toll booths on the information superhighway.”
FCC scraps Net neutrality talks The decision to cut off negotiations marks a major political setback for Chairman Julius Genachowski, whose office reached out to stakeholders six weeks ago to strike an agreement and avoid a public battle over rules that would treat all users’ Web traffic equally.
Colombia offers clues for solution to Mexico drug war The Mexico drug war is pushing officials to take heed of Colombia, which made progress with social welfare programs and acknowledgment that force alone doesn't work.
Jobs for ex-cons In the past decade in urban areas in Colombia, local officials, with support from the federal government, have tested a series of social-welfare programs, such as new infrastructure, increased spending on education, and reintegration programs for former guerrillas and paramilitaries who have disarmed.
Angle attacks Reid over 'coked-up stimulus monkeys' A full read of the ABC News report features a quote from the recipient of the 'coked-up stimulus monkeys' grant. Bonnie Davis, a spokeswoman for The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, told ABC the "small grant has helped protect very important research that will have significant impact on public health in regards to cocaine addiction and the issue of relapse."
Anti-Immigrant Group Calls for 'Safe Passage' Of Illegals Out of U.S. Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is urging U.S. citizens to pressure the White House and the Homeland Security Department to establish "safe departure" border checkpoints along the U.S. border for illegal immigrants so they can leave without fear of being detained or prosecuted for immigration crimes.
"The peaceful and gradual exodus of illegals from Arizona shows there is no need for comprehensive immigration reform amnesty," William Gheen, president of the group, said in a written statement. "Comprehensive immigration enforcement works and has the desired effect without mass deportations."
"I think it's clearly part of the attrition strategy. Make things so horrible for immigrants that they will self deport," said Sarahi Uribe, a regional organizer for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "But while it's true some people are leaving Arizona, a great deal of people are staying."
Which group mentioned is an 'Anti-Immigrant' group, exactly? People who run down the street chasing Mexicans while brandishing antacid bottles? Sounds like the gory hypocrisy of a pro-amnesty group to me.
Mexico: Prison guards let killers out, lent guns Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and allowed them to use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.
America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term “political class” came into use.
1990's HIGH SCHOOL SOCIAL CLIQUES WHY WON'T THEY GO AWAAAY!!!
Consider what he has already achieved. Obamacare alone makes his presidency historic. It has irrevocably changed one-sixth of the economy, put the country inexorably on the road to national health care and, as acknowledged by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus but few others, begun one of the most massive wealth redistributions in U.S. history.
I resent mexicans... "I can’t help but get the sense that these afro centric victim minded groups will not be satisfied until white people do HATE US! It’s like Emperor Palpatine slappin’ Luke Skywalker on the back of the neck, sayin’ strike me down punk! You know you want too!
And Luke is like, ” No I don’t.” And Palps’ is like, “yes you do!”
This goes on until Luke becomes what Palpatine has accused him of, and Luke jerks his laser- stick and gives into the anger that was manipulated. Not the anger of his own design." And I hate Delano
WASHINGTON — Rep. Michele Bachmann today filed paperwork to form the House Tea Party Caucus.
The organization, she said, will be devoted to the Tea Party's principles of "fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government."
"This caucus will espouse the timeless principles of our founding, principles that all Members of Congress have sworn to uphold," Bachmann said in a statement. "The American people are doing their part and making their voices heard and this caucus will prove that there are some here in Washington willing to listen."
I am saddened by the NAACP’s claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America’s Constitutional rights are somehow “racists.” The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the color of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand.
President Reagan called America’s past racism “a legacy of evil” against which we have seen the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights. He condemned any sort of racism, as all good and decent people do today. He also called it a “point of pride for all Americans” that as a nation, we have successfully struggled to overcome this evil. Reagan rightly declared that “there is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country,” and he warned that we must never go back to the racism of our past.
His words rang especially true in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 presidential election. It seemed that with the election of our first black president, our country had become a new “post-racial” society. As one writer in the Washington Post stated: “[Barack Obama’s] election isn’t just about a black president. It’s about a new America. The days of confrontational identity politics have come to an end.”
We, as a united people, applauded that sentiment. We were proud of that progress. That’s why it is so sad to see that 18 months later, the NAACP is once again using the divisive language of the past to unfairly accuse the Tea Party movement of harboring “racist elements.”
Black Political Leaders to Recapture '08 Momentum "The danger of the tea party is that people see them and think about periods in history when groups like them were much more powerful than they are now," he said. "And so a lot of what we spend energy doing is explaining to people what reality is, and that the reality is that the majority from 2008 still exists. It went no where but back on the couch, and our biggest challenge is to get it back off the couch and back to the streets and back on the battlefield."
Allen West, the Republican challenging Rep. Ron Klein (D) in Florida’s 22nd congressional district, sharply criticized the Obama administration for having allegedly declined prosecuting the New Black Panther Party on voter tampering charges for political reasons.
