Tech at Night: The Internet Sales Tax roll call. Obamaphone survives. Do people care about Privacy?

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 26th at 03:30 AM  | 

Jeff Flake. Jeff Sessions. Ron Johnson. Tim Scott.

Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio. Mike Lee. Rand Paul.

I’m generally pleased with all eight of these guys being in the Senate. They were on opposite sides of the sales tax compact amendment vote, though. If you look at the way Governors split on the issues, you’ll see similar responses. Effective conservative Governors have fallen on both sides, including neighbors Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal.

I’m fine with the compact. It’s Constitutional and merely lets states preserve existing revenue streams, without having to defy basic economic reality by unilaterally cooperating in the rewrite-the-sales-tax Prisoner’s Dilemma. That is, any one first state that shifts from buyer-owes to seller-owes in sales tax, creating the marketplace of sales taxes that compact opponents favor, automatically creates a disincentive for businesses to set up shop there.

So, we pass the compact as the best practical solution.

Recently at RedState: Ajit Pai on Robert McDowell is worth a read. Then there’s Seton Motley on Marco Rubio challenging Internet regulation.

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Tech at Night: ECPA may yet be worth a look. Robert McDowell to leave FCC. Resist comprehensive copyright reform.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 21st at 03:30 AM  | 

Well, just last time I mentioned I had so little to talk about. I guess everything was lying in wait for tonight.

Top story appears to be the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. I’ve been skeptical since Leaky Leahy has been pushing it, and he’s pushed many a bad tech idea in the Senate. But Mike Lee is also backing it, as is apparently Jim Sensenbrenner. So it’s worth considering. It may actually be that Leahy isn’t trying to expand the state or weaken the nation here.

Also, Robert McDowell is leaving the FCC. It’s up to Ajit Pai to get stuff done, now.

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Tech at Night: FCC gets it wrong by pushing an agenda in its 706 Report

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 23rd at 12:30 AM  | 

So, the FCC put out another report (the “706 report”) that just pushes an agenda rather than reporting the true facts about high speed Internet in America. Commissioners McDowell and Pai tell it like it is. We’ve also got Broadband for America telling the story. I’m not even worried about the details: the FCC is saying what they feel they must say to justify expanding | Read More »

Tech at Night: Needed FCC Oversight, SOPA’s Lamar Smith has a challenger, Irresponsible cybersecurity rhetoric

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 20th at 03:30 AM  | 

The House is doing anything but shirking its responsibility to apply oversight to the Obama administration. The FCC in particular is getting the attention it needs. “Regulatory hubris” in picking winners and losers is part of the problem, says Commissioner Robert McDowell. He should know, as he’s on the inside. Darrell Issa and Chuck Grassley disagree on the FCC’s transparency though. Issa gives them a | Read More »

Tech at Night: Tell Scott Brown and the Senate to repeal Net Neutrality

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 8th at 03:10 AM  | 

Oops. It’s midnight as I type this out. I just remembered I’d better do Tech tonight, so here goes. Fortunately I already did my reading! Urgent in the Senate this week is the upcoming vote on Net Neutrality repeal, which was already passed by the House. We need 51 votes, not 60. Less Government has a list of Senators to contact with this urgent message: | Read More »

Tech at Night: FTC joins the FCC in overreaches with Twitter, Anonymous hackery lives on, Al Qaeda reels

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 2nd at 12:00 AM  | 

When it comes to the FTC beginning to persecute Google, I think conservatives have mixed feelings because the problem of overbearing government is one of Google’s making. So while we do need to keep government in its place here, the situation is understandable. The FTC going after Twitter, though? That just doesn’t make sense. It’s not even the largest “social media” software around, not at | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, FCC, Patents, Copyrights, Sony, Anonymous

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 5th at 03:30 AM  | 

Good evening. Or Good morning on the East Coast, as it’s unfortunately approaching 5am there as I start tonight’s edition. A big story is that the House Judiciary Committee will get into the game of watching the FCC, following in the footsteps of the Energy and Commerce, and Oversight committees. Commissioner Robert McDowell and Chairman Julius Genachowski are among those set to testify before Bob | Read More »

Tech at Night: Broadband, FCC lies, Wireless, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Internet Tax

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 30th at 01:30 AM  | 

Good evening. Here’s a bit I’d never expect to read from the San Francisco Chronicle about Sprint’s begging for the FCC to pick winners and losers, instead of just standing aside and letting AT&T and T-Mobile get together: At a time when wireless service is getting cheaper and more innovative, there is no reason for a Depression-era bureaucracy like the FCC to step in and | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, Sprint’s attempted looting, Copyright, Security, Internet Taxes

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 5th at 03:30 AM  | 

I’m late. No excuses. Let’s go. So the courts threw out Verizon’s challenge of Net Neutrality, rejecting the very clever argument made by Verizon that it wasn’t premature. So now we wait for the actual publication of Net Neutrality to take place. Well, to a point. The Republicans aren’t waiting and will vote this week in the full House to repeal Net Neutrality under the | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality Reactions

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 23rd at 03:00 AM  | 

Tech at Night is starting a little later tonight than I planned. I ended up showing my brother The Greatest American Hero on Netflix. Oddly enough I had no trouble with that despite the Net Neutrality framework not having taken effect. But yes, the big story is that the FCC voted to regulate the Internet. This has been coming for a long time, but now | Read More »

The Obama FCC has regulated the Internet

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 21st at 02:30 PM  | 

Today the FCC defied the courts, the Congress, and a clear national consensus in favor of an open Internet, when it claimed the authority to regulate the Internet and passed so-called Net Neutrality regulations. On a 3-2 vote, FCC Democrats Mignon Clyburn, Michael Copps, and Chairman Julius Genachowski voted to pass not just new Net Neutrality regulations, but an entire “framework” for future government meddling | Read More »