Virginia Attny Gen to Sue FCC Over Net Neutrality

by: warner todd huston | published: 07 02, 2011

Up to this point, the far left has won the war for branding on the issue of Net Neutrality. Even many conservatives and Republicans have been fooled by the "freedom of the Internet" lies that the left has spun with NN. But the Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of The Commonwealth of Virginia means to change all that by launching a lawsuit to stop the government take over of the Internet.

First off this claim from the left that they only want to keep the Internet free and open is simply an outright lie. What they really want is two fold. One, they want all capitalist ventures removed from the Internet, and two, they want government to have 100% control over the Internet and they want the Internet treated sort of like a public utility.

The simple fact of the matter is that if government has 100% control over the Internet "free and open" is impossible. Even if this government control starts with no rules over content (and it won't start that way), it won't be long before the federal government starts mandating what is on the Internet, starts banning content that it doesn't like, and starts laying out requirements for those websites lucky enough to be allowed to stay in operation.

But the left badly wants this autocratic, oppressive environment. Why? Because they imagine they will be the ones to say whose content is allowed and whose will not be allowed on the Internet. This, they think, will be the perfect way to get rid of all conservative leaning content and the perfect way for them to control the online debate. Naturally, they are stupidly insensible to the idea that if they can eliminate conservative content, there will be a day when someone can eliminate their content. Liberals never think through to the ultimate folly of their actions. After all, if they did, they'd never be liberals.

Even if the left didn't want to impose its authoritarian will on Internet content through federal regulation, the clamping down of such regulations would still have a souring effect on the Internet. It would chase away investment and quash invention. Where there is heavy government regulation, commerce and innovation flounders. And at a time when the Internet has been one of the few engines of economic growth in this bad Obama economy, full government control of the Internet would kill that engine.

In any case, this is the scenario that Attny Gen Cuccinelli wants to avoid. Cucinelli spoke eloquently about the abuse of federal power that Obama's FCC is perpetrating at the recent RightOnLine conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since he got back to Virginia, he's taken that talk a step farther by urging other states to join him in the fight.

Saying that the FCC's net neutrality regulations are the "most egregious of all violations of federal law," the Attny Gen has decided gather support for a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission.

“They have no respect for the courts, no respect for the states, no respect for the Constitution, no respect for federal law,” Mr. Cuccinelli, a Republican, said during an appearance on Capitol Hill at a lunch meeting of the National Italian-American Foundation.

Let us hope for his success in eliminating this unnecessary and dangerous overreach by Obama's regulatory agency.

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