Neal Boortz: Obama’s latest move is no gift

By Neal Boortz

For the AJC

Well, it’s Christmas. A gift would be nice, I guess. So I’ll remind you that as of noon on Jan. 5 Nancy Pelosi no longer will be Speaker of the House and third in line for the presidency.

Now open your presents before you read the rest of this column. My present to you will be the gift of awareness. An awareness of the immense power grab orchestrated by The Community Organizer this week; a bold attack on freedom of information in our country.

When despots stage a coup to take control of _ or to “fundamentally transform,” if you will _ a country, where do they head first? The retail industry? Your local dry cleaner? Nope, they head to the newspaper and broadcasting operations. They seize control of the means of disseminating information. Democrat rule in Washington for years has been accompanied by calls for more control over various elements of information sharing.

This past week Obama’s Federal Communications Commission adopted what are called “net neutrality” rules for the Internet. As John Fund describes this in The Wall Street Journal; “The losers are likely to be consumers who will see innovation and investment chilled by regulations that treat the Internet like a public utility.” The Internet may be the most vital element of our free market economy right now, but this move places it under strong executive department control.

There was no call for this move from the public, nor was there any need. None of the problems this net neutrality purports to solve actually exist. A federal court ruled that the FCC did not have the power to make this move. Three hundred members of Congress signed a letter opposing this idea. Yet, on Obama’s orders, the FCC went ahead. Few Americans have any real idea what this regulatory power grab means. I’ll bring you up to speed; but first some history on how this came about. In short, this is part of the drive by the left – the far left – to seize control of the greatest vehicle for information sharing we have today, the Internet (this column notwithstanding).

The idea of net neutrality first came from an admitted socialist named Robert McChensey. You won’t be shocked to learn that McChensey is a university professor at the University of Illinois. McChensey, who refuses to deny being a Marxist, says the goal here is to “get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and divest them from control.” McChensey formed a lobby named “Free Press” to promote his views on the media and overthrowing our capitalist system. The former media relations and chief diversity officers for Free Press, Jan Howard and Mark Lloyd, now work for Obama law school buddy Julius Genachowski, Obama’s FCC Chairman. You might remember our previous encounter with Mark Lloyd. He’s the ObamaZombie that has been calling for FCC regulation of talk radio, a dominant leftist fantasy.

The FCC has now seized regulatory authority over the preeminent means of information sharing in our country. Who knows where this might lead under the rule of a man who thinks that America’s greatness comes from government?

On Jan. 5, 2011, the Republicans become the majority in the House of Representatives. They have their work cut out for them on a number of issues, not the least of which is repealing or rendering harmless the absolute worst piece of legislation ever passed by the Congress of the United States, ObamaCare. Though the voters might not yet realize what is at stake here, they must also overturn this FCC Internet power grab. If the American people can come to understand that this is nothing less than a banana dictator style attack on freedom of information they should be able to get this done in short order.

Listen to Neal Boortz live from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays on AM 750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB.

His column appears every Saturday. For more Boortz, go to boortz.com