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Tech at Night: EPA, FCC, Fred Upton, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Tor

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 31st, 2010 at 11:00 PM  | 

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Tech at Night

Some people stay up late on December 31. I don’t intend to, Friday and New Year’s Eve or not. Boring, yes, I know. But until I switch to decaf coffee my sleeping habits are going to be a wreck, so I’ll just have to ride it out. And that means I want to get going right away with tonight’s stories.

Republicans are getting very loud on regulatory issues, both with the FCC and with the EPA. Fred Upton is ginning up support in Michigan for his planned House efforts to challenge EPA regulatory power grabs with respect to Carbon Dioxide, efforts that will surely influence the FCC and Net Neutrality. In addition, on Sunday morning at 9am Eastern he’s scheduled to speak with Chris Wallace on Fox, with repeats on Fox News Channel at 2 and 6pm Eastern. I am so glad he’s going out there and preparing to lead on regulatory issues.

Kay Bailey Hutchison has also called the FCC “wrong” on Net Neutrality, and is hoping to be able to get some sort of action through a Democrat controlled Senate. It won’t be easy, as she points out, but it could happen if we can swing enough Democrats to see the truth about the FCC power grab.

She also doesn’t rule out defunding the FCC’s Net Neutrality plans, a way of stopping the regulations that the President cannot veto.

One more thing for tonight. The Onion Router (more commonly known as Tor) is getting heightened publicity, it appears. Tor sells itself as a way of protecting anonymity, but this does not come free. The Tor network is certainly loaded with participants who listen in on all the traffic, as it’s publicly documented that governments and others have used Tor in unwise ways. It’s even speculated that Wikileaks runs parts of the Tor network to try to gather data.

Anonymity I think is a dangerous thing, that I think does more harm than good when uncontrolled as it is with Tor. It’s all too often used by malicious individuals, which is why we routinely IP ban Tor exit nodes here at RedState. If people who use Tor are being listened in on, then that just makes me smile, because it means anonymity comes with a price.

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  • fpete13527

    If Upton and the key players show some dynamic, tenacious, quality fight against FCC, EPA, and ObamaCare (and if they WIN the battle and simultaneously de-fund them) it will go a long way in terms of inspiration to ALL Republicans………..IF they do it.

    The issues are absolutely clear to main stream America IMO. Today I could hear the lady at the Walmart check-out counter saying she “doesn’t want the Government controlling her Internet, her car, or her health care.”

    I think there is full support from the public for the GOP to fight FULL bore on these issues.

    IF the House does not show significant FIGHT AND RESULTS in stopping these things (along with intensive budget control) then it is probably time to simply put up Excel Spreadsheets updating the Primary status of getting them out of office.

    In order to get the results that we want, the 112th GOP has to do the following things IMO as they speak and act on FCC and key issues:

    1. Disregard Puffington, MESSNBC, and LSM overall
    2. Disregard the long Marxist rants on Congress floor
    3. Fall on sword about shutting down Govt and …dont back down
    4. Stop considering Conservatives/Tea Partiers more of an enemy to the GOP than the Marxists are

    Either way, tons of work necessary from bottom up. For me, I have a lot of work to do getting more effective in speaking, writing, and enrolling in local REC and Tea Party functions. With respect to Net Neutrality this series has been the most valuable tool for me to gain knowledge and refer to many in the REC to expand the scope of the fight.

    Thanks again for great articles and fight Neil and the best New Year to you and your family

  • cwilson

    Mr. Ban the Light Bulb himself. Change of heart, or just a change of tack? We’ll see…

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • E Pluribus Unum

    I’m not sure how I should feel about that, but I think I find it somewhat encouraging.

    We may have less of that “my friends across the aisle” than we used to. And that is nothing but good.

  • paramedichess

    Remember…republicans in congress live within the DC bubble where every voice they hear is opposed to these fights. They need to hear from us, loudly and often, in support of their efforts to fight the regime wherever they can. Even those who are not our favorites (read: Upton) can be convinced to fight if they believe it is what they have to do in order to survive. Also, on the Senate side there are a number of Dems who are facing an early retirement in 2012 if they don’t radically change their poll numbers. If you live in those states (MO, NE, FL, etc) bully your senators into cooperating. Bottom line….be heard!

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    If Upton is doing all the right things from day one, by what definition is he a squish?

    Because he’s not Barton?

  • Bill S

    I don’t know how anyone does it. It was so bloody slow it wasn’t worth the effort.

  • ohiohistorian

    for McCain; he just was re-elected, remember? Same for Murkowski. Collins has four years left in her current term.

    Why don’t you try instead to get rid of some bums like Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders. In fact, here is the list of the class that took office in 2007 for you to vent against:

    Democrats
    Akaka, Daniel K. (D-HI)
    Bingaman, Jeff (D-NM)
    Brown, Sherrod (D-OH)
    Cantwell, Maria (D-WA)
    Cardin, Benjamin L. (D-MD)
    Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE)
    Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D-PA)
    Conrad, Kent (D-ND)
    Feinstein, Dianne (D-CA)
    Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY)
    Klobuchar, Amy (D-MN)
    Kohl, Herb (D-WI)
    Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV)
    McCaskill, Claire (D-MO)
    Menendez, Robert (D-NJ)
    Nelson, Ben (D-NE)
    Nelson, Bill (D-FL)
    Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI)
    Tester, Jon (D-MT)
    Webb, Jim (D-VA)
    Whitehouse, Sheldon (D-RI)

    Independents
    Lieberman, Joseph I. (ID-CT)
    Sanders, Bernard (I-VT)

    Let’s go after the enemy without and then start after the enemy within. Ya think?

  • ohiohistorian

    Day one is NOT now. This is Mr. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb, of which I like Dennis Miller’s quip:

    “I don’t care what my electric bill is. I haven’t worked my entire life so that my living room can look like a Soviet Bloc stairwell during a James Bond fight scene.”

    Upton is also one of the fathers of extended Daylight Savings Time. This is akin to the old Indian practice, where they would cut one end of the blanket off and sew it on the other end to make the blanket longer.

    In short, he is another “moderate” Republican who has reached across the aisle his whole career. His ACU ranking is 2008 was 44%, but his lifetime is 72%. Some of his non-conservative votes include:
    Doublling of the Children’s Health Insurance Program
    Voting for Cash for Clunkers
    Voting for Legal Services Corporation continuation

    So Upton isn’t new. Why do you think the leopard changed his spots? Hope springs eternal, I guess, for some of these across-the-aisle stooges to actually wake up and vote the will of the people.

  • fpete13527

    …..starting with worthless Nelson in Florida.

    The list I had up, though, is NOT too early to pressure to start making it clear to them that they are not conducting business the way we want. That group (after getting elected) just gave a first class mooning to the Conservatives in the Republican Party last month. Mooning is the polite term.

    I dont think keeping that list up supports Neils’s post here, and it is not exactly the mode I want to use anyway. Campaigning to remove the D’s needs to remain the primary focus and that is what I am doing.

    Make no mistake though, if that group I had up aren’t pressured over the next six months, it possibly won’t matter if the entire group of D’s in your list are replaced with Rush Limbaughs.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    What Fred Upton has to do to get re-elected in Michigan isn’t necessarily the same as what he does as a Committee ranking member/chairman.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    Even if you count Day 1 as November 3, 2010, which I certainly do not. Frankly I don’t know any reputable person saying he’s other than a squish. But if you want a review of chapter and verse, here goes:

    • one of 29 House Republicans to support creation of the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. This empowered federal bureaucrats to impose strict zoning and land-use rules and made it more difficult for the U.S. Border Patrol to do its job in blocking illegal immigration through federal wilderness areas.
    • one of 20 Republicans to vote against an amendment offered by Rep. Jim Jordan that would have reduced the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 funding to 2008 levels.
    • one of 9 House GOPers who voted against Rep. Dave Camp’s substitute amendment to the $787 billion Porkulus in March 2009. The Camp amendment would have substituted a GOP stimulus alternative made up primarily of new tax cuts for individuals and business.
    • one of 16 GOPers to support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2009 omnibus spending bill that included an 8.4 percent spending increase over and above the stimulus package. It also canceled the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program for 1,900 students in the nation’s capital.
    • Founding member of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
    • In 2005 he voted against the extension of the Bush tax cuts on capital gains and dividends.
    • Voted for oil and gas drilling bans off the coast of Florida and in the Great Lakes, as well as for blocking millions of acres from new oil and gas leasing, logging, mining, and other business activity.

    Oh, and yeah, because he couldn’t shine Joe Barton’s shoes when it comes to doing it when there’s live enemy fire going on.

  • peg_c

    She was appointed to that seat after Hillary was picked for State and the preferred appointee to the Senate, Caroline Kennedy, self-destructed. Believe me, we NY Tea Partiers know our reelection schedules ;-)

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    She should be up in 2012 or 2014. I don’t know which.