It’s easy to see why there’s sudden, strong opposition to the Marketplace Fairness Act, as yet another Republican governor, Terry Branstad, backs the bill. I again state my opposition to the lousy language backing the bill, including “fairness” and “loophole”. Yes, that language is being driven by marketplace losers, but both sides of this debate are ponying up cash. I favor the bill on its | Read More »
So, Erick Erickson decided to make a big push against SOPA today, again bringing out the primary threat card. I also had a post on SOPA and PROTECT IP today. We were heard. On the House side, Speaker John Boehner echoed Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and said the committee needs to find consensus before the bill can get a vote. And again, conservatives like Darrell | Read More »
Lamar Smith, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is using his committee to further his bill, SOPA. SOPA is very bad. It threatens due process and prior restraint of speech as it censors the Internet, and risks putting Internet-based business out of business. Darrell Issa is leading House efforts to oppose SOPA. He’s on the Judiciary Committee, but he’s not in charge. However he does | Read More »
Why can’t the news come in even intervals, instead of batching up all at once? So yes, the Senate Net Neutrality vote is coming up. Credit where it’s due: Kay Bailey Hutchison moved the ball forward on this, no doubt about it. Credit also to Marco Rubio making headlines with his strong support of the repeal. And Rubio is right: the whole thing is ridiculous. | Read More »
There’s been a push lately to attack punitive, unfair taxes on wireless service, one that Erick Erickson signed onto, and was advertised at RedState. Ironically I only found out about it because I saw the ads while working on the code side of the site, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Anyway, that movement seems to have gotten a win, as the House passed the | Read More »
I made another video.
Oh for crying out loud. For all that Washington talks tough about getting Americans access to high speed Internet, the “supercommittee” wants to tax new spectrum licensees. That’s just what we need: make it more expensive to build out America’s wireless infrastructure in order to pay for the President and his Cabinet to hand out money to their friends and political supporters. Isn’t that special? | Read More »
Hello again to those I saw in Charleston over the weekend, and hope to see you next time to those who weren’t able to make it! While I return to California and get settled in again, it seems that some are leaving the state for good, and the hostile business climate is why. This includes the punitive Amazon Tax which has made it impossible for | Read More »
Hello everyone! I hope people have plants to get out to Charleston this weekend for the third annual Gathering. I will be there, which is why there will be no Tech at Night on Friday. Having also missed Monday due to Gathering preparations, I have much to cover tonight. I’ll start with a wrap up of everyone’s favorite online terrorist group, Anonymous. I don’t use | Read More »
Even as Mary Bono Mack and Republicans fiddle with the pointless SAFE Data act that won’t actually do anything to prevent or even to deter online crime, the Internet burns with a string of further attacks. The Senate was hit twice, and the CIA was hit as well. I thought we were the party that likes to solve crime by putting the criminals in jail? | Read More »
State governments are timid beasts. So often the country will refuse to move in a new policy direction unless one state jumps out ahead and acts first. In the past, California was often the dynamic frontrunner. Now, Texas is increasingly the example that other states ought to follow. When it comes to the Amazon Tax, or the plan to change the tax laws in Texas | Read More »
Haley Barbour’s been taking some criticism lately, which to me is a sign of how seriously people are taking his rumored Presidential aspirations, with reports indicating that he’s running until he says he’s not. I was able to meet the Governor at CPAC and I’m certainly taking seriously his budding candidacy. I’d like to see him run and I’d like to see him win. Governor | Read More »
Remember when the Communication Workers of America backed Net Neutrality in the mildest way possible, despite the fact that it risked killing CWA jobs? Well here’s their payoff: CWA is all-in for the Internet Tax. Of course, the left isn’t calling it the Internet Tax. Instead it’s “Universal Service Fund reform,” by which they mean finding a way to get more money into the so-called | Read More »
Good evening. I’ll level with you: I’m exhausted. All summer I got virtually no exercise because, as it turned out, I’ve developed asthma triggered by the air pollution that gets worse during the summer here in inland southern California. So I’m ramping back up my weight lifting, and as I adapt, it’s wearing me out. So tonight I’ll be brief. The push continues for Republicans | Read More »
Apologies for missing the last two Tech at Nights. But unlike the paid staff of the well-funded Free Press, every word I’ve ever written here on technical issues has been on my own time, for free, because I care about the issues. And when work overwhelms me, as it did last week as a huge deadline approached, something had to give. And what gave was | Read More »
Good evening. I’ve been getting some warnings for a while now about the possible next frontier in Internet regulation. I still haven’t digested it all myself, but I wanted to get the idea out there for people to think about, and be watchful for. The Access Board is a government agency that sets rules for websites as directed under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. | Read More »
How do you know when the Net Neutrality proposals of the neo-Marxist group Free Press are really out there? When the 31337* Al Franken is building his mailing list off of promoting the radical fringe’s version of the Net Neutrality agenda, you know you’re off in loony land. Reading his poorly thought out rhetoric gives the same effect. He claims that we need massive government | Read More »
Ray Haynes at Flash Report has a subtle hit up on somebody running for office this year: The key years for the current budget are the 06-07 and the 07-08 budgets[....] As critical to the current crisis, however, is the 07-08 budget. A legislator, or former legislator that voted for 07-08 budget, and who is now running for office, who claims to be a fiscal | Read More »
Yesterday California voted on a slate of budget measures put forth by tax-and-spend Democrats. Three of them were outright terrible for the state, two were playing pure budgetary shell games, and one was a meaningless propaganda exercise meant to bolster the rest. Proposition 1F, the propaganda exercise that attempts to deny pay raises for state elected officials when the budget is in deficit, passed and | Read More »
Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Republican of Irvine, is running for Senate in the hopes of challenging and defeating Senator Barbara Boxer (Dunce-California) in November 2010. He’s gotten off to an early start, but he needs it, because he’s definitely an underdog. California has not elected a Republican Senator since Pete Wilson in 1986, nor have we elected a pro-life politician to a statewide office since Attorney | Read More »
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