Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior…
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More Legal Shenanigans from the Biden Administration’s Department of Education

Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior of federal administrative agencies, whose vast armies of overpaid bureaucrats remain unaccountable for their excesses.

Among the most familiar examples of that bureaucratic abuse is the Department of Education (DOE).  Recall, for instance, the United States Supreme Court’s humiliating rebuke last year of the Biden DOE’s effort to shift hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt from the people who actually owed them onto the backs of American taxpayers.

Even now, despite that rebuke, the Biden DOE launched an alternative scheme last month in an end-around effort to achieve that same result.

Well, the Biden DOE is now attempting to shift tens of millions of dollars of…[more]

March 19, 2024 • 08:35 AM

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61 Obama to FCC: Let's Regulate the Internet

The Internet has done just fine over the past two decades without Barack Obama's oversight.  So naturally, amid his other post-election tantrums, he now wants to begin regulating Internet service like an old-fashioned utility.  That is not hyperbole.  This week, perhaps in a fit of vindictive defiance following his humiliating electoral…

62 Copyright: “First Sale” Doctrine Unsuitable for Digital Goods

This month, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet conducted an important hearing regarding what’s known as the “first sale” doctrine, with particular focus on its application in the current Internet era.  So what is the first sale doctrine, and why would extending its application…

63 “Net Neutrality” and “Title II”: A Brief Primer on Two Dangerous Ideas

In recent days, the terms “Net Neutrality” and “Title II” have interspersed our national news cycle.  Most of the discussion, however, has occurred at the level of tech policy experts and political leaders inside the Beltway, rather than among the general public.  As a result, even such undeniably learned opinion…

64 CBS – Time Warner Standoff Reemphasizes Need to Deregulate TV Marketplace

While CBS and Time Warner struggle to reach agreement over fees for carrying CBS’s programming, most Americans not impacted by the blackout view the standoff in the same way they view a Senate filibuster or professional athlete holdouts.  Namely, a distant source of annoyance, to the extent they pay any attention at all.  At the end…

65 A Tech Boom, If We Can Keep It

In a jarring and unexpected announcement this week, the federal government reported that the nation’s economy shrank in the latest quarter for the first time since the last recession.  Fortunately, as 2013 begins in earnest, one sector of our economy remains vibrant:  telecommunications and technology.  Just five years ago, for…

66 FCC to Expand Obama Phones into Internet Subsidy

When a Barack Obama supporter said the reason to reelect the President was because of a free cell phone program, she drew attention to an abusive waste of taxpayer money.  Unfortunately for the FCC, she also spotlighted its attempt to spend even more of other people’s money.  In response to a question on a video that went viral on…

67 Rare Consensus: 80% of Americans Oppose U.N. Internet Authority

Think about the Internet.  Think about the United Nations (UN).  Now imagine the Internet under greater UN authority. This week, a new Pew Research Center survey revealed that partisan polarization in America has reached a record high.  Accordingly, when 80% of Americans manage to unite in rare concordance against a proposal, that…

68 Rogue Website Legislation: Google Says, “Don’t Be Evil… Unless It Helps Google”

As contemporary examples of malignant irony go, it’s difficult to top Google.  Recall Google’s ostensible corporate motto:  “Don’t be evil.”  According to Google itself, that extends beyond mere customer interaction:  “’Don’t be evil.’  Googlers generally apply those words…

69 Myth Versus Fact: Debunking Dishonest and Inaccurate Claims Against Congressional Legislation to Stop Online Piracy

Here’s something on which reasonable people agree:  Internet piracy by foreign rogue websites constitutes a malignant, persistent and costly menace to America’s economy and intellectual property (IP).  Sadly, however, opponents of Congressional legislation to address that menace have waged a campaign extensively contaminated…

70 Congress Considering America’s Version of Egypt’s Internet 'Kill Switch'

With the Egyptian government repeatedly jamming its citizens’ access to the Internet during the country’s ongoing protests, one bill making its way through the U.S. Congress is getting heightened scrutiny.  Originally titled the “Cyberspace as a National Security Asset Act of 2010,” the bill has been dubbed by critics as…

71 “Net Neutrality:” Regulating Like It’s 1934

A lot has changed since that not-so-halcyon year 1934.  So why are the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and “Net Neutrality” advocates attempting to regulate the Internet under laws drafted for the technology of that era?  In 1934, World War I was not yet known as “World War I.”  A short film featuring…

72 “Net Neutrality” Regulation: Obama’s Imperious FCC Shifts to Plan B

Last month, a federal court of appeals unanimously rejected the brazen campaign by Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet via so-called “Net Neutrality.”  Meanwhile, over in the court of public opinion, the American electorate opposes Obama’s scheme to federalize the Web by a 2-to-1 margin…

73 Thwarting the Aggressive Obama Agenda: Appellate Court Quashes FCC’s "Net Neutrality" Scheme

Politics isn’t the only means by which we can defend freedom and thwart the Obama Agenda.  This week, we received an encouraging reminder of that fact.  In its much-anticipated Comcast v. Federal Communications Commission decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that Obama&…

74 Surprise: Obama’s FCC Quietly Proposes Nationwide Internet Tax, Says it Will “Reduce Uncertainty”

The Obama Era has become a protracted, nightmarish Whack-A-Mole game of tax increases and bureaucratic self-enlargement. In sector after sector of American life, another scheme to expand government and wrench more earnings from Americans’ pockets pops up.  Its next targeted sector?  The Internet.  Take a look at the following…

75 Obama Administration Imitates Hugo Chavez on Internet

When asked this week whether he planned on reading Sarah Palin’s new autobiography Going Rogue, Barack Obama curtly replied, “probably not.”  Fair enough.  The President is a busy man playing pickup basketball games at the White House, whisking Michelle off to taxpayer-subsidized dates in New York City and plotting methods…

76 Google’s Spider Web of Ties to the Obama Administration

Obama's FCC and Net Neutrality – Merely a Trick on Internet Users or Just a Treat for Google? WASHINGTON, DC – As President Obama’s FCC moves forward to impose burdensome Net Neutrality regulations on the Internet and just in time for Halloween, the Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) today released the following illustration…

77 Political Opposition to Destructive “Net Neutrality” Gains Momentum

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski, apparently lacking any sense of irony, warned this week of a “looming crisis” in wireless Internet capacity, even while he simultaneously proposes “Net Neutrality” rules that would exacerbate the problem.  Speaking at a wireless industry convention, Chairman…

78 Net “Neutrality” – Government’s Newest Takeover Plan and Corporate Welfare for Google

Amid the blizzard of governmental hyperactivity since Obama’s inauguration just eight months ago, it’s understandable that disoriented Americans remain unfamiliar with the looming threat known as Net Neutrality.  Understandably, the current healthcare debate alone consumes a great deal of Americans’ focus and opposition. …

79 If You Like How Big Government Runs the Post Office, You’ll Love How It Runs the Tech Industry

America’s telecommunications sector has withstood the economic downturn remarkably well.  In spite of this, or perhaps precisely because of this, it might be the next target of government overreach.  As The Wall Street Journal noted this week, the tech sector has helped lift the markets from their recent troughs…

80 “Net Neutrality”: Regulating and Politicizing the Internet

Net “Neutrality”: Regulating and Politicizing the Internet What is Net Neutrality? So-called “Net Neutrality,” or more aptly “Net Regulation,” is governmental regulation of the Internet. It creates new government mandates to regulate the Internet by limiting broadband companies’ ability to freely…

 
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