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

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.

So when I want to know what Free Press – the Media Marxist outfit leading the charge on the horrific ideas that are Net Neutrality and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Internet reclassification – I’ll ask Jenny Beth Martin, Founder of the Tea Party Patriots.

Unlike any of the Media Marxists, Ms. Martin is one of this year’s Time magazine 100 Most Influential People – could not the media have tracked her down? Could they not have asked her what she thought, rather than trying to glean it from the psychic individual utterances of the likes of the Media Access Project and the New America Foundation?

What many, MANY Tea Party groups HAVE said “Heck No” to is FCC internet reclassification – which may very well be looming over us as early as November 30th.

The World Wide Web has become a free speech, free market Xanadu. And the FCC is rushing to unilaterally, DRAMATICALLY overregulate it – burning the village in a misguided and unnecessary effort to “save” it. The Tea Party Movement has grown and blossomed on the Internet – under the current regulatory model – so they know that the government seizing control of it is a bad idea.

And right now, perhaps the only thing that stands between us and this FCC Internet power grab is – Congressional legislation, passed by THIS Congress in a post-election lame duck session.

Congressman Waxman’s bill – while not perfect – contains a two year moratorium on the FCC reclassifying the Internet. This is good, given the imminent possibility of reclassification.

But the halt on the FCC’s power to grab should be permanent. They should not reclassify – period. No elapsed period of time changes that.

And it’s not just me saying it. 299 members of Congress have said it – a large bipartisan majority. More than 150 organizations – including the aforementioned 35 Tea Party groups – state legislators and bloggers have said it. So have seventeen minority groups – that are usually almost always in Democrat lockstep.

So have many additional normally Democrat paragons, including several large unions: AFL-CIO, Communications Workers of America (CWA),International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); several racial grievance groups: League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Minority Media and Telecom Council (MMTC), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Urban League; and an anti-free market environmentalist group: the Sierra Club.

So how about a lame duck session stand-alone bill that forever forbids this Chairman and the FCC from reclassifying the Internet?

You already have the aforementioned bipartisan Congressional majority on the record in favor of it. It would most likely sail through to President Barack Obama’s desk, and put a permanent end to the tremendous uncertainty that this untenable situation has already created.

Uncertainty that has already cost us billions of dollars in job-creating investment. And would cost us hundreds of billions more were the FCC to actually execute the Web seizure they are now threatening.

Once we have removed the peril of FCC Internet reclassification, we can then engage in the sober and reasoned, unhurried and unharried discussion of possible Internet legislation not afforded us by Congressman Waxman’s last-minute bill introduction.

This is something the Tea Party Movement – and most Americans – would relish and appreciate.

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