The Hill yesterday ran two stories that show the Democrats are planning a two-pronged attack on Internet Freedom, to empower the FCC to control the Internet and everything on it, just as they do television and radio. Yes, I’m talking about our good friend, neo-Marxist Net Neutrality.

The first story discusses the honest approach, which is to go to Congress and pass a law expanding the FCC’s powers. After all, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals refused to find Internet regulation in the penumbra of the Communications Act, and changing the law would be an easy way to fix that.

But of course that takes pesky things like votes, so they have a backup plan, Deem and Pass. They call it “reclassifying,” because they want to take the unprecedented step of placing ISPs under Title II of the Communications act, which would give the FCC the same power over ISPs that the Bush-era FCC had when it fined television stations for showing Janet Jackson’s breast, and that FCCs in eras past had when they imposed the Fairness Doctrine on television and radio stations.

The justification for strict regulation on television and radio used to be that there are only so many frequencies useful for broadcast over the air, and that public resource had to be managed to avoid the tragedy of the commons. However the Internet is privately held and expandable, so the argument just doesn’t hold. There is no valid reason to reclassify ISPs under Title II.

But it sounds like the Democrats of the FCC are plotting it anyway, because they just can’t stand the freedom enjoyed on the Internet today. There must be commissars watching every ISP, every router, every packet, to ensure political correctness transparency and neutrality.

[link to www.redstate.com]