So, more cybersecurity. The government is starting to recognize state actors online, which makes sense given that enemies like Iran aren’t shy about it. That’s good. Recognizing fact is a prerequisite to making good policy.
But I think trying to dictate to private business is the wrong idea. Huawei and ZTE may be organs of the People’s Liberation Army, which would make it a good reason never to have government buy from Huawei, and possibly even to restrict government contractors from using Huawei hardware when fulfilling government contracts. But anything beyond that just grows government in ways that possibly harm us.
If Huawei is breaking the law then we need to put people in jail. If we can show that the Chinese government is attacking us, we need to address the problem at the source, rather than cut a couple vines of kudzu. Expanding government against a couple of businesses is not necessary when we have laws already on the books, and not sufficient when the problem is a state actor.
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Even the Obama regulators occasionally do things right. It was right for FCC to let the regulation die that forced cable companies to license original content to competitors. Though as The Hill points out, it may have done so out of a fear that the courts would force the issue anyway, not out of any desire to deregulate. Naturally House and Senate Democrats can’t abide the least bit of deregulation.
But don’t worry, they’re still making mistakes, too. They can’t free up spectrum until 2015, moving at a snail’s pace in a fast moving industry. And FTC’s antitrust attacks on Google are ludicrous. The standard for antitrust is high: if I recall correctly you have to show market power, being wielded, in a way that harms customers. I’m not sure that, relative to Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, that such points can be made at all.
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Everyone else is talking about the debate, but I’m going to touch on cybersecurity tonight. There was a great overview of what the issues and stakes really are on Monday’s Coffee and Markets. Francis Cianfrocca doesn’t post as much as he used to at RedState – he, not government, is building his business – but he sure knows what he’s talking about when it comes to government, military, and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. And he and I are in agreement that the Obama plan is wrong.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is also saying that a new Senate report on the topic also makes the case. “For months now I’ve been saying that it would be a mistake for the Administration to give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) control over our nation’s cybersecurity. This report affirms my position, and I urge the Administration to take the report into account and not issue an Executive Order that significantly expands DHS’s role in cybersecurity.”
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Top story: the FCC is moving forward with spectrum auctions, providing incentives for television stations to auction off their spectrum for wireless Internet use. We could see the auctions completed by the end of 2014.
Everyone admits there’s a spectrum crunch, and on the right and left of the FCC they say it’s a difficult question of how to transfer spectrum to alleviate it. Greg Walden is right though that this is good “if implemented well.” Bruce Mehlman of iia calls it “a terrific start” and that’s also true.
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Oops. Went to bed before putting up Tech at Night last night. Sorry about that! Special morning edition instead!
Even as House extremists are effectively calling it racist to free up spectrum in America, the IIA has it right that we need the FCC to be serious about this.
So here’s an action point for anyone interested: tell Mitt Romney that he needs to appoint strong, reformist regulators not just to stop the bleeding in all regulatory agencies, but actually to roll back the disastrous Obama years. Repeal and replace. It’s not just for Obamacare anymore.
In fact I will now float the idea that under President Romney, Republican Senators should reject Republican nominees to regulators who are not sufficiently committed to undoing the damage of the Obama years.
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As if it’s not bad enough that Barack Obama and the DHS are planning to defy the Congress and rule by decree on Cybersecurity, we’ve now got Jay Rockefeller using intimidation to try to apply a chilling effect to any opposition to the leader.
The dumbest part? Even as one part of the administration pushes cybersecurity, another pushes for back doors, which is a massive reduction in security, never mind the government spying angle.
Hoo boy. Steve Womack in the House is jumping into the sales tax debate, proposing a similar plan to the Streamlined Sales Tax-backing Marketplace Fairness Act already in the Senate. I expect one of these to pass under President Romney.
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I like Moe’s title here: The cyber-libertarians discover that liberals are not cyber-libertarians. The question is, will they learn, or like bad scientists will they ignore the results of the experiment and vote Obama again?
Especially as the President’s team is shameless in its openly plotting to defy the Congress’s rejection of the Cybersecurity Act by Lieberman and Collins.
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Chuck Schumer is introducing the BRAINS Act and it’s not even about zombie preparedness. Come on, get on the ball guys. Well, it’s actually a bill about getting smart people into the US from other countries. However, rather than lock them down and distort the market with H1-Bs, we’ll give them a path to a green card. Sounds good to me. Though I also like Lamar Smith’s eliminating of the diversity lottery.
And the administration admits rule by decree is in the works for cybersecurity. Night and day. That’s the difference between Mitt Romney and Barry Obama, folks.
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Look, 11,000 pages of regulations have been added under Barack Obama. Consider that the Federal Register only needed 71,000 pages total in 1975. These regulations are being added without transparency, as well.
This is too much, and he wants to grow government further with an executive order on Cybersecurity, which is rightly opposed by a group of Senators in the Wall Street Journal. Enough is enough.
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It is done! Privacy is saved in America? The huge looming threat of Myspace has been defeated by FTC! Don’t you feel so much safer now that the dynamic, active regulators of the Obama administration have clamped down on a competitor of Facebook?
Shame on me. Remember when I went with the claim that Anonymous took down GoDaddy? Well, It may have been an opportunistic claim.
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