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Nothing Changed This Week-The FCC Still Has No Authority to Regulate the Internet

What was true before FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s Tuesday midnight run to grab power over the Web remains true today – the FCC does not have the authority to do what they have just announced they will do on December 21st.

Unless and until the Congress enacts law making it so, the FCC doesn’t have the authority to do anything. December’s vote to commandeer control of the Internet is no more legitimate than – and just as capricious as – if they were to vote themselves masters of all the nation’s pizza joints.

The FCC – no government agency – can just decide they want to regulate an industry – and then vote themselves power over it. That’s not constitutional, representative, limited government – that’s Hugo Chavez-style expropriative despotism.

And it’s not as if The Chairman has been suffering from a dearth of people pointing out his lack of authority. We have repeatedly pointed it out. And it hasn’t just been us.

In April, the D.C. Circuit Court said so, unanimously ruling the obvious – that the Commission does not have the authority to do anything to the Internet.

More after the jump

Steele says GOP has been transformed during his tenure, defends rocky tenure

Steele says GOP has been transformed during his tenure, defends rocky tenure

He can defend all he wants. They can do better. They have to do better. I know half a dozen people I'd rather see running the RNC. The time to work this from the inside has come.

Sarah For Chairman?

I could get behind that.

Sarah Palin: A Replacement for Steele?
Thursday, 08 Jul 2010 08:01 AM

In the wake of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's lashing out against the war in Afghanistan, CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante is reporting a buzz in the GOP inner sanctum that Sarah Palin should replace him.

The former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate already qualifies as the Republican Party's top endorser and top fundraiser, reports Plante.

Steele's latest gaffe was calling the Afghan conflict "a war of Obama's choosing."

"This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in," he added.

To read the full story — Go Here Now.

Time For A New RNC Chairman

I wanted Ken Blackwell running this machine. I still do. Whatever, Steele has to go.

Conservative commentator William Kristol immediately called for Steele to resign.

“At a time when Gen. [David] Petraeus has just taken over command, when Republicans in Congress are pushing for a clean war funding resolution, when Republicans around the country are doing their best to rally their fellow citizens behind the mission, your comment is more than an embarrassment. It’s an affront, both to the honor of the Republican Party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting to accomplish the mission they’ve been asked to take on by our elected leaders,” he writes in a post at The Weekly Standard.

Steele released a statement in which he walked back his comments and voices support for the war.

“There is no question that America must win the war on terror,” he said. “During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear his belief that we should not fight in Iraq, but instead concentrate on Afghanistan. Now, as President, he has indeed shifted his focus to this region. That means this is his strategy. And, for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war.”

The RNC staff sought to tamp down the controversy—ill-timed ahead of the July 4 holiday—by circulating a memo to reporters highlighting the chairman’s support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memo is title: “RNC Chairman Michael Steele Has Been A Consistent, Vocal Supporter Of The Wars In Afghanistan And Iraq.”

It may not be enough to appease conservatives, many of whom are already tired of Steele’s lengthy record of verbal gaffes and fund-raising controversies since he took over the party committee in January 2009.

“The war in Afghanistan is not a war of Barack Obama’s choosing. It is a war of Al Qaeda and the Taliban’s choosing. We responded. Michael Steele must resign. He has lost all moral authority to lead the GOP,” Erick Erickson of RedState.com, a popular conservative blog, wrote this afternoon.