Conservative Happenings

Monday, June 1, 2015

5 Supreme Court Cases to Watch in June

The Supreme Court's 2014-2015 term will soon reach its finale. By the end of June, when the justices depart for their summer break, the Court is expected to issue a series of blockbuster decisions, including rulings on gay marriage, death penalty drugs, and Obamacare. Here are five cases to watch as another momentous SCOTUS term reaches its peak.

Elonis v. United States

Anthony Elonis claims that he's "just an aspiring rapper" who likes to post violent lyrics and graphic first-person murder fantasies to Facebook. But after numerous Facebook postings in which Elonis wrote about killing his estranged wife, killing his boss, and killing others, including the FBI agent sent to investigate him, a federal jury found him guilty of transmitting "in interstate or foreign commerce any communications containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another." He was sentenced to 44 months in prison.

In Elonis v. United States the Supreme Court will decide whether those Facebook posts constituted a "true threat" of violence or whether they count as constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment.

Glossip v. Gross

The state of Oklahoma employs a three-drug protocol when carrying out the death penalty via lethal injection. The first drug is supposed to render the prisoner totally unconscious and insensate. The second drug is a paralytic. The third drug does the killing. But what if there is a lack of medical consensus about whether or not the first drug actually renders the prisoner unconscious and insensate? What if paralyzed prisoners sometimes suffer excruciating pain in the final minutes before death? Would that lack of medical certainty about the drug's effects violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against imposing cruel and unusual punishments?

Glossip v. Gross centers on such concerns. At issue is Oklahoma's use of the drug midazolam to render prisoners unconscious during execution. According to the petitioners, midazolam "is not approved or used as a standalone anesthetic during painful surgeries, because it is inherently incapable of reliably inducing and maintaining deep, comalike unconsciousness." The Supreme Court is tasked with determining whether or not the lower court got it wrong when it allowed Oklahoma to continue using this potentially unreliable drug.

Horne v. United States Department of Agriculture

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay just compensation when it takes private property for a public use. Yet according to a federal regulation designed to "stabilize" the raisin market, raisin farmers such as Marvin and Laura Horne are required to physically surrender a portion of their crop to federal officials each year without receiving just compensation in return. For example, in 2002-2003, the USDA demanded 30 percent of the annual raisin crop, which amounted to 89,000 tons. In return, the federal government paid nothing back to raisin farmers.

Do the USDA's actions violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment? The Supreme Court will decide in Horne v. USDA.

Obergefell v. Hodges

Do state legislatures have the lawful power to prohibit gay marriage? Or do state bans on gay marriage violate the 14th Amendment, which forbids the states from denying the equal protection of the laws to any person within their respective jurisdictions? In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court confronts the possibility of legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

King v. Burwell

The question before the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell is whether the Obama administration illegally implemented the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the IRS allowed tax credits to issue to certain persons who bought health insurance on federally established health care exchanges. According to the text of the ACA, such tax credits should only issue in connection with purchases made via an "Exchange established by the State." According to the Obama administration, however, the phrase "established by the State" is actually a "term of art" that encompasses exchanges established by both the states and by the federal government. The legal challengers, by contrast, maintain that the statutory text is clear and that the health care law means what it says. Depending on how the Court sees it, the long-term survival of Obamacare could be at risk.

Via: Reason.com

Rod J. Rosenstein U.S. Attorney for the District of MARYLAND are you listening?

B4INREMOTE-aHR0cDovLzIuYnAuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLy1ubU9fY2RaaF9aUS9WV3M0YzZmMVJVSS9BQUFBQUFBQUZxay95aDBCc2hXZW5May9zMzIwLzY2Ni5qcGc=

B4INREMOTE-aHR0cDovLzMuYnAuYmxvZ3Nwb3QuY29tLy1fX0xqcDRDdmE2QS9WV3M0aHhuNEJLSS9BQUFBQUFBQUZxcy9VRmQ4RC1yY1BaUS9zMTYwMC82NjcuanBn

THIS IS WHAT I SEE
At first blush the demeanor of this Baltimore Mayor is GUILT!!!
It’s my gut feel and I always go with it.
If you don’t think drug money isn’t finding it’s way into the Mayor’s coffers you’re kidding yourself.
Drug money is the biggest game in the town of BALTIMORE and liberal black politicians will take it every time.
The liberal black Mayor of New Orleans and many others are now serving time for corruption and she knows it.
That puss of her’s spells “I hope nobody finds out!!!”
Hello hello – Rod J. Rosenstein U.S. Attorney for the District of MARYLAND are you listening???? – N.P.Contompasis

Via: Before its News

CBS's Moonves expects deal with Apple on TV

Asa Mathat | Re/Code

Les Moonves at the 2015 Code Conference.

CBS is in talks with Apple about offering content on Apple's revamped TV offering, CBS CEO Les Moonves said Wednesday.

When asked whether he would consider a deal with Apple—which is working to update its Apple TV product—Moonves said he "probably" would.

What would it take? "Money."

Moonves said discussions were ongoing with Apple, and recently met with Eddy Cue, the company's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

Moonves' comments came at the second annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

"Apple TV is trying to change the universe a little bit as did Sling as is Sony," he said.

What Apple will offer is "a more select group at a lower price. Any one of those groups will need CBS. We have the NFL, which is must have television. Any of those bundles we will be a part of that and we should get a better proportion of the share of that universe than we currently do on cable," he said.

Despite the rapid growth in non-traditional media, and the rise of a generation that thinks of on-demand television as normal, Moonves said he isn't terribly worried about digital and streaming media

Seventy percent or more of people who watch television do so while the show is being broadcast, and the average American still watches 5 hours of television a day, he said.

And, at least for now, network television remains a primary cultural institution in American life.

"For every Chelsea Handler who doesn't want to be on network television, I have a Steve Colbert who does," he said. "I think I've won."

Via: CNBC News

The Supreme Court Could Transfer A Lot Of Political Power Away From Cities

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit filed by conservative activists in Texas that could redefine the principle of “one person, one vote” as we know it. And if the Court sides with the plaintiffs, Republicans could stretch their already-historic majorities in the House and state legislatures even wider — the GOP would be helped just slightly in presidential elections.

Is Congress’s job to represent people, or just voters? Currently, all states are required to redraw their political boundaries based on the Census’s official count of total population every 10 years, which includes minors and noncitizen immigrants. But the Texas plaintiffs argue that states should be allowed to apportion seats based on where only U.S. citizens over 18 years of age live.

It seems like a minor detail, but it’s actually a major distinction. The decennial Census doesn’t track citizenship data, but the Census’s American Community Survey does. And although all 435 U.S. congressional districts have roughly equal total populations, the number of eligible voters and rates of actual participation can vary wildly from place to place.

For example, in Florida’s 11th District, home to the largely white retirement mecca of The Villages, 81 percent of all residents are adult citizens. But in California’s heavily Latino 34th District, anchored by downtown Los Angeles, only 41 percent of all residents are eligible to vote. The variations across districts in terms of actual turnout can be even more eye-popping. According to results compiled by Polidata for the Cook Political Report, Montana’s lone House district cast 483,932 votes for president in 2012, more than four times the tally in Texas’s 29th District, 114,901.

Via: FiveThirtyEightPolitics

The hotel industry is sending a clear signal that the US economy is not grinding to a halt

Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesVisitors sit by the pool at the Riviera Hotel & Casino on April 30, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Want a sign that the economy is doing fine? Look no further than the hotel industry.

First flagged by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, in April all of the major metrics measuring the hotel industry hit all-time highs.

Via Jan Freitag at HotelNewsNow:

April had the highest occupancy ever (66.8%) and the highest room demand (99.4 million rooms) ever.

This pushed annualized occupancy (measured as a 12-month moving average) up to 65%.

What does this mean? All key performance indicators (rooms available, rooms sold, revenue, average daily rate, occupancy and revenue per available room) are still at all-time highs.

The broader economic takeaway is simple: If people are moving around the country, be it for leisure or business, the economic engine is still humming along.

In his report, Freitag also noted that April was the 62nd-straight month that RevPAR, or revenue per available room, increased. What this measure means, most simply, is that hotels are getting more money for each of their rooms, whether via price increases or because each room is booked more often. And right now, it appears the latter is the case.

In his report, Freitag writes, "Demand was 3 million rooms higher than last year, and supply was only 1.7 million roomnights higher. Ultimately that will change and the industry will sell less new rooms than build new rooms, but we do not expect that to happen until 2017."

So basically, there is a supply shortage in the hotel industry, and it looks like there will be one for some time.

Via: Business Insider

Continue Reading....

Colleges and Universities Have Grown Bloated and Dysfunctional

American colleges and universities, long thought to be the glory of the nation, are in more than a little trouble. I’ve written before of their shameful practices — the racial quotas and preferences at selective schools (Harvard is being sued by Asian-American organizations), the kangaroo courts that try students accused of rape and sexual assault without legal representation or presumption of innocence, and speech codes that make campuses the least rather than the most free venues in American society.

In following these policies, the burgeoning phalanxes of university and college administrators must systematically lie, insisting against all the evidence that they are racially nondiscriminatory, devoted to due process and upholders of free speech. The resulting intellectual corruption would have been understood by George Orwell.

Alas, even the great strengths of our colleges and universities are threatening to become weaknesses. Sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

American colleges, dating back to Harvard’s founding in 1636, have been modeled on the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The idea is that students live on or near (sometimes breathtakingly beautiful) campuses, where they can learn from and interact with inspired teachers.

American graduate universities, dating back to Johns Hopkins’ founding in 1876, have been built on the German professional model. Students are taught by scholars whose Ph.D. theses represent original scholarship, expanding the frontiers of knowledge and learning.

That model still works very well in math and the hard sciences. In these disciplines it’s rightly claimed that American universities are, as The Economist recently put it in a cover story, “the gold standard” of the world. But not so much in some of the mushier social sciences and humanities. “Just as the American model is spreading around the world,” The Economist goes on, “it is struggling at home.”

Via: Human Events

Kerry's Broken Leg Comes as Iran Talks Heat Up

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cut short a trip to Europe to return home to Boston after breaking his right thigh bone in a bicycling accident Sunday in eastern France.

The accident came as the U.S. -- led by Kerry -- five other world powers and Iran have resumed efforts to reach a nuclear accord before a June 30 deadline. It is unclear whether the accident will affect those talks. The accord would curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions.

The top U.S. diplomat met with his Iranian counterpart, Javed Zarif, for about six hours in Geneva on Saturday. The pair’s next meeting was expected to be in about two weeks, which would give Kerry some time to recovery from his injury. Technical experts will hold meetings in the meantime, starting in Vienna within a few days.

Special: Validate Real Organic Products From a USDA List

Pelosi: We’re Beating Isis – On Twitter

Good news, everyone:

We’re out-tweeting ISIS!

And isn’t that what really counts?

Just ask ~~babbling fool~~ foreign policy expert Nancy Pelosi.

Via HotAir: Pelosi: We’ve made big “advances” against ISIS … on social media … kind of

Were you there for the Battle of Hashtag Hill? Nancy Pelosi attempts to make the case that the US strategy against ISIS is working somewhere in this exchange with newly minted MSNBC host Patrick Murphy, a former House colleague of Pelosi’s from Florida. The range of choices for examples of victory must be very, very narrow for Pelosi to claim victory — if indeed that’s what she’s doing at all:

FMR. REP. PATRICK MURPHY, MSNBC HOST: This past week, though, when it comes to ISIS, the mixed result — unfortunately, Ramadi was taken over by ISIS. The same time, the army’s delta force captured the money man for ISIS in Syria. so obviously mixed results. So you think the strategy’s working? What else needs to be done?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: It’s an enormous challenge. And we have to fight it on every front, including the front of social media. That’s a place where they have really made more advances than you would have suspected. And that is where we have to fight them, as well. This apprehension in Syria — well, killing of one and taking of his wife, as well as important intelligence information was a success. Again, we have to fight them on all fronts. Communication-wise as well as militarily….

Sunday, May 31, 2015

You Know All Those Obamaphones You've Paid For? You're About To Pay For ObamaSMARTPhones...

According to this, if you're a taxpayer, you're about to get screwed again. But if you're a person who gets one of those Obamaphones? You're about to be as delighted as this young lady:

The FCC is "proposing to expand its Lifeline program to help subsidize Internet service for low-income Americans." It's a $1.7 billion program, and Republicans are against it, naturally, because there's a crap-ton of "waste and inefficiencies" in it.

I'll wait over here while you stop being shocked at the government wasting your hard-earned money.

The update has been made a "priority" now, because it needs to "adapt to current technology." Basically, we're talking about upgrades to smartphones, y'all.

Yep:

One senior FCC official noted...that studies have shown smartphone use is popular with low-income individuals.

You think they're popular with low-income individuals, FCC? Really?

I'm super-hoping that they used taxpayer money to do the studies to figure THAT genius information out, because wow.

But at least they're making some reforms to the program:

The commission will ask if establishing a "neutral third party administrator" would be better than having telecom companies handling sensitive customer information they would not otherwise have. The commission will also ask if the overall program should be capped with a budget.

In the meantime, the proposal would require providers to maintain customers' eligibility information to help with oversight. The proposal would also require companies to retain records for 10 years.

It's such a huge relief that these customers won't have any of their private information shared with anyone, and I can't believe there is a commission that has to ASK if the program should HAVE A BUDGET.

This is why we can't have nice things ("we" meaning taxpayers...the folks in this program will more than likely get killer smartphones...you know).

Just thought I'd let y'all know that when you're busy getting ready to go back to work tomorrow (some of us work seven days a week, who am I kidding?), you need to really get fired up and put some pep in that step. There's a person out there that is depending on you to get them a really awesome smartphone sometime in the near future.

YAY YOU!

Via: Chicks on the RIght

68th Terrorist Plot Calls for Major Counterterrorism Reforms

On the evening of May 3, two men armed with rifles attacked the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas. While both shooters were killed before they could get inside the exhibit, this attack is the 68th Islamist terrorist plot or attack against the U.S. since 9/11. This incident has raised significant questions about the way terrorists are being recruited in the U.S. and what the U.S. can do to stop them. With Congress set to debate portions of the Patriot Act, it should consider how it can provide intelligence and law enforcement officials with the tools they need to find and stop terrorists, while respecting individual liberty and privacy.

Attack in Texas

While the FBI has not completed its investigation of the incident, FBI Director James Comey provided details to reporters last week and the Garland police have provided updated information as well. The first shooter, Elton Simpson, had been watched by the FBI since 2006 when it appeared that he was going to travel overseas to join al-Shabaab, a terrorist group that is based in Somalia and affiliated with al-Qaeda.[1]While his travel plans were thwarted, he was only convicted of lying to federal officials and received three years probation in 2011. The FBI stopped monitoring him in 2014 but reopened their investigation in March after he expressed interest in jihad and the self-styled Islamic State (ISIS) on social media.[2]

Hours before the attack, the FBI sent a bulletin to Garland Police to notify them of Simpson, but they had no definitive information that he was headed from Phoenix to the event much less that he was set to attack it. So far, little is officially known about the other shooter. According to the Garland Police, he was Nadir Soofi, Simpson’s roommate.[3]

Arriving at the art contest in Garland, Simpson and Soofi opened fire with rifles, wounding one unarmed security officer in the leg.[4] The first officer to confront the shooters wounded both before other members of the Garland police department returned fire, killing the shooters. ISIS reportedly claimed credit following the attack and also claimed that it has “71 trained soldiers in 15 different states ready at our word to attack.”[5]

While the investigation will uncover more specifics, there is sufficient detail available to declare this a terrorist plot: Simpson had expressed interest in jihad and proceeded to attack an event that he viewed as contrary to his faith. The investigation may provide us more insight into Simpsons’ connection and communication with ISIS, how this target was chosen, and how Soofi became radicalized, but for now many of these details are unknown or unconfirmed by law enforcement.

Via: Heritage

Mike Lee: Americans deserve better than Congress' 'governing from a cliff'

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, addresses the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 26, 2015 in National Harbor, Md. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Sen. Mike Lee criticized his fellow lawmakers for waiting until the last moment to act on the expiring Patriot Act.

"I do believe we have the votes … the question is not whether we will get this passed, but when," the Utah Republican said Sunday on CNN.

"It'll happen tonight or on Wednesday," he said, before criticizing how Congress continues to "govern from a cliff."

Congress knew the Patriot Act was set to expire June 1 four years ago, but failed to act on it, Lee, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said.

"American people deserve better than this … governing from a cliff," Lee said, adding, "This sort of thing has become all too common."

It's a "bad habit" adopted by both parties, Lee said.

According to Lee, the USA Freedom Act — which has been passed by the House but remains stalled in the Senate — solves the underlying problem of bulk collection of Americans' phone records and keeping the American people safe.

Senators are to adjourn Sunday in Washington to decide what to with expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, which expire June 1.

Via: Washington Examiner

The Obama Administration Was Handed a Huge Immigration Defeat. Here’s Why It Matters.

COMMENTARY BY

Hans von Spakovsky@HvonSpakovsky

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama administration a huge defeat this week.

It denied the government’s request for an emergency stay of a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of President Obama’s immigration amnesty program. This is not a decision on the merits of the lawsuit filed against the administration by the 26 states. But it certainly does not bode well for the administration’s case since in today’s 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit concluded that “the government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal of the injunction.”

The panel also denied the government’s request to narrow the nationwide scope of the injunction so that it only applied to Texas and the other states in the lawsuit.

The court concluded that “partial implementation of [the president’s program] would undermine the constitutional imperative of ‘a uniform Rule of Naturalization’” contained in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, as well as “Congress’s instruction that ‘the immigration laws of the United States should be enforced vigorously and uniformly’” that is outlined in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

The 68-page opinion was written by Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, who was joined by Jennifer Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee.

The dissenting judge, Stephen Higginson, an Obama appointee, argued that the underlying immigration issue is one that can only be decided “by the federal political branches” and is not an appropriate issue for “intervention and judicial fiat” by the courts.

Next up in the 5th Circuit will be the main event: Oral arguments over the substantive issue at stake, which is the constitutional and statutory merit of the injunction issued against President Obama’s plan to, in essence, legalize up to 5 million illegal aliens.

Via: Daily Signal

‘San Andreas’ Set to Rock Box Office with $47 Million Debut, ‘Aloha’ Left in the Dust

Warner Bros.’ “San Andreas” is no box office disaster, with the 3D action film drawing $18.2 million on Friday, setting it on track for a projected weekend haul of $47 million at 3,777 locations and smashing past early estimates that put it around the $40 million mark. Cameron Crowe’s “Aloha,” meanwhile, was left in the dust, eyeing a modest $10-11 million weekend after a slow Friday that drew approximately $3.6 million at 2,815 sites.

Critics may not be giving “San Andreas” points for its brains, but the Dwayne Johnson film is certainly demonstrating its brawn — its strong performance is the best of Johnson’s career outside the “Fast & Furious” franchise, handily beating the opening weekend haul for “Hercules” ($29.8 million), “Pain and Gain” ($20.2 million) and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” ($40.5 million).

There’s still a chasm between “San Andreas” and the opening weekend tallies for Roland Emmerich’s similarly cataclysmic movies, “The Day After Tomorrow” ($68.7 million) and “2012” ($65.2 million), but it’s a vast improvement over last year’s “Into the Storm” ($17.3 million) and “Pompeii” ($10.3 million), which barely measured on the Richter scale.

While the romantic “Aloha” offers counter-programming for viewers who may have grown tired of the endless CGI carnage that has become a staple of summer blockbusters, the Bradley Cooper film has received a critical mauling. A $10-11 million opening is in line with Crowe’s two most recent drama offerings — 2011’s “We Bought a Zoo” garnered $9.3 million and went on to make $75.6 million, buoyed by the star power of Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, while 2005’s “Elizabethtown” bowed to $10.6 million on its way to a $26.8 million total.

Elsewhere, Universal’s “Pitch Perfect 2″ is still humming along, eyeing a weekend total of around $14 million in week three, while Warner Bros.’ “Mad Max: Fury Road” clearly has plenty of gas in the tank, on track for a three-day total of around $13 million. Disney’s “Tomorrowland” is nipping at “Max’s” heels for a similar $13 million weekend.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is still showing its box office muscle in week five, with Joss Whedon’s superhero sequel expected to pass $425 million this weekend, which could relegate “Aloha” to sixth place on the chart. 20th Century Fox’s “Poltergeist” remake scared up $2.6 million on Friday, looking to chill audiences to the tune of just under $8 million in its second weekend.

Via: Variety

Texas Now Produces More Natural Gas Than All Of OPEC

Everything is bigger in Texas, especially natural gas production. The Lone Star State alone produces more natural gas than every country in the world, except Russia, and that includes every member state of OPEC.

The American Petroleum Institute has released a graphic showing that Texas produces 18.81 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, well above any member of OPEC. The graphic is meant to show how hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling into shale formations has made the U.S. the world’s top oil and gas producer.

: Source: The American Petroleum Institute

“This is what energy security looks like,” Tracee Bentley, head of the Colorado Petroleum Council, said of the graphic. “Thanks to innovations in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, Colorado now outpaces seven of 12 OPEC nations in natural gas production.”

Individual U.S. states now produce so much natural gas, they outrank whole countries when it comes to daily production. Iran, the largest OPEC gas producer, only produces 15.43 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Qatar, OPEC’s number two gas producer, produces 15.09 billion barrels per day.

Via: California Political Review

For 'the Working Guy' But Killing Good Middle Class Jobs

A tugboat pushing nine loaded coal barges chugged up the Ohio River, toward the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.

It eventually passed the McConway & Torley steel foundry along the Allegheny, likely headed for one of the few coal-fired power plants left in America.

Hold on to that imagery: It is part of the left-behind community of Americans whose struggles with the we-know-what's-best-for-you elite will be central to the fight over our direction in the next presidential election.

Workers in the coal industry and at McConway & Torley are in the cross hairs of the progressive left. The left rails against McDonald's for not paying a salary that sustains a family of four, as it simultaneously tries to snuff out the manufacturing base that provides well-paid middle-class jobs.

McConway & Torley has been in Pittsburgh for nearly 150 years. It is one of the few places in the city where laborers can earn enough to stay out of poverty, own a home and provide security for their families' futures.

All of that is what both Democrats and Republicans are preaching in the run-up to the 2016 election; each candidate promises to rebuild the manufacturing base that evaporated from the industrial Northeast and Midwest and shifted overseas, where labor is cheaper.

Since the Civil War era, McConway & Torley has made couplers that link railroad cars, a once-deadly task performed manually by brakemen; what it produces here accounts for 60 percent of the North American market.

Via: Real Clear Politics

Rep. Marsha Blackburn: ‘I Will Take the Lead’ in Defunding Net Neutrality

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says she will “take the lead" in congressional efforts to defund the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality order using the appropriations process.

Blackburn is the first member of Congress to publicly express her willingness to block implementation of the new FCC rule that reclassifies the Internet as a public utility.

“We know that President Obama’s plan to take over the Internet was written by liberal activists behind closed doors at the White House and will result in up to $11 billion in new fees and taxes for hard working Americans,” Blackburn said in a statement to CNSNews.com. “It will lead to regulatory uncertainty and be tied up in the court system for years, where the Administration is already 0-2 on this issue.

“The Internet has thrived with a light regulatory touch. Title II reclassification of the Internet is the regulatory nuclear option and will have disastrous consequences,” Blackburn concluded.

Blackburn, the vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been a vocal opponent of the Open Internet Order passed by the FCC in February that is set to go into effect June 12. She also sits on the Energy and Commerce subcommittee tasked with devising an appropriations bill to fund the FCC.

This would not be the first time that the House has voted to defund net neutrality rules. The chamber voted to defund a previous incarnation of the rules in 2011, but ultimately had its efforts thwarted by Senate Democrats. However, that earlier version was later struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC (2014).

The new version of the rules reclassify Internet providers as Title II utilities along the lines of telephone service providers and open Internet service up to new fees. Advocates say the rules will prevent Internet providers from blocking or throttling online traffic.

But FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who dissented from the agency’s 3-2 net neutrality decision, has repeatedly called on Congress to strip the FCC of funding for enforcement.

Pai said the rules could cause the FCC to become the “Department of the Internet,” giving it the power not only to impose new fees on Internet service but ultimately to regulate what consumers are allowed to view online.

Via: CNS News

Monday, June 1, 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Attack in Texas

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