Ah, Free Press. One of my early favorite tech topics at RedState. One of the more visible George Soros-funded fronts, along with Public Knowledge. I have to say my early hits have been somewhat successful too, when Free Press completely gave up on Save the Internet as a fake left-right thing, instead fully integrating it with the Free Press extremist brand. Remember when they could fool solid groups like Gun Owners of America with their dishonest rhetoric?
I mean, they do still have language up that says “Organizations as diverse as the Christian Coalition for America, Moveon.org, the ACLU and the American Library Association have joined in support of Net Neutrality.” But, what? MoveOn, ACLU, and ALA are ‘diverse?’ Get real. Christian Coalition is the only right-wing fig leaf they have left, and Christian Coalition isn’t exactly known as a small-government group, nor a tech policy leader. Come on. I won, they lost. Net Neutrality was exposed as a single-party, left-wing effort, like so many others of the extremist Obama regulators. Time to… Move On.
And let’s be clear, Free Press’s Soros funding is a matter of public record, even if they’re coy about that source of funding. I think they dislike that being pointed out, even. I think they dislike their funding being poked at, period, which is why they dragged their feet so long in answering Marsha Blackburn’s request for information.
And note that when Rep. Blackburn asked for 2010 donations… that two-year grant from Soros was not listed in their list of 2010 donors. Funny, that. What do they have to hide?
They’re also coy about taking money from a group that offers a for-profit telecom, CREDO Mobile. Industry dollars – the thing Public Knowledge once tried to discredit me by (falsely) floating – are actually true about Free Press.
And yet, Free Press has a history of talking about transparency.
Here’s another funny bit: According to Free Press, blogging about the FCC Chairman is bullying. I guess they’re bullies. In fact, Free Press has gone beyond mere blogging and has attempted what could be described as intimidation tactics against Julius Genachowski, publishing a ‘wanted poster’ with his photo against him in a newspaper.
Funny that.
I favor letting states get into a compact to enforce sales tax laws on their own residents, but others disagree. Again, I think this argument is as wrong as the ‘fairness’ one made by Walmart. Sales taxes are owed by the buyer, not the seller. The seller merely collects them. It’s not taxation without representation, especially when the seller’s own state would have to be in the compact, and therefore would be the ones, along with the US Congress in its role as regulator of interstate commerce and ratifier of interstate compacts, actually enforcing the sales tax requirements.
More details come out of Google giving away your information to app developers for no good reason. And yet, Microsoft’s anti-Google privacy ad campaign is going to fail, miserably, because people just don’t care enough.
MPAA wants you only to think that regulating them is a slippery slope. But all the times they push for regulation of others, in the name of perpetual, criminalized copyright, wasn’t a slippery slope. Blank check for the state, except when they’re the targets. Guys, you’re being stupid here. Quit riding the scorpion. Quit fueling the regulatory-industrial complex.
Georgia could be set to join South Carolina in restricting socialized Internet. Good on them.
Is it fair to say that if the taxpayers sponsor some scientific research, that taxpayers should have access to that research without paying a third party? I think so. I favor Mike Doyle’s Federal Research Public Access Act, and encourage Kevin Yoder and John Cornyn to get Republicans on board. You get a free ride, we get a free ride in return. Fair’s fair. If “basic research” is so essential, as we’re always told, then no more paywalls for the essential research we’re paying. If it’s too essential for the private sector to fund, then it’s too essential to be withheld from the public at large.
According to IIA, the FCC broadband report makes the case for IP Revolution, the concept being attempted by AT&T and promoted by Ajit Pai. It’s time we upgraded our legacy networks to use modern technologies.