Most of you probably know US Rep. Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee’s 7th District. She has long been a reliable Conservative voice in both Tennessee and national politics.
As her first act in the 112th Congress, Blackburn filed HR 96, The Internet Freedom Act (presser), to counter the FCC’s attempt to usurp Congressional authority and regulate the Internet. On Tuesday of last week, she addressed the same issues in keynote remarks at the State of the Net conference in Washington, DC (text and video here). The same day The Washington Times ran an OpEd from Blackburn on the need for Conservatives to be engaged in the tech policy debate.
Her bill and the discussion of it has been well received by the online community, the tech community, the political community and even the liberal press in Tennessee. As part of her strategy to address these matters, Congressman Blackburn has made herself available to us for a conference call on Thursday, January 27th from 8PM to 9PM CST. She will address us during the first portion of the call and the final portion will be a Q&A.
The call is specifically for Right of Center bloggers, the leadership teams of Right of Center groups like Tea Parties or 9/12 groups and officers, Communications and/or New/Social Media people for Right of Center organizations. You are invited to participate on the call and encouraged to share your thoughts with the Congressman, with the rest of us on the call and, afterwards, with your readers and members. If you meet those criteria and would like to participate, please subscribe to the email list which manages the notifications for this call and upcoming similar calls. If you know someone who meets the requirements and you think might like to participate, please pass this along to them.
The call is scheduled for tomorrow night, Thursday, January 27, 2011 from 9PM-10PM EST, 8PM-9PM CST and is by invitation. If you have any questions, please email me at GrassRootsLeaderList at GMail dot com. Details have been finalized and will be going out to list members later today. However, new subscriptions will be monitored and if you subscribe prior to 1 hour before the call, you will be able to participate. After that, I’ll try but no guarantees.
If Net Neutrality is not your hot button, I encourage you to subscribe anyway. We will be hosting upcoming calls with guests of similar caliber on a wide variety of topics. Subscribing means you will always get notified and, of course, you can unsubscribe at any time. Looking forward to having you on the call!
#1 by mickeywhite on 01/26/2011 - 12:57
Why does Marsha Want Congress to Regulate the Internet? Why not just say NO FEDERAL branch (the FCC and congress and the federal courts included) has any authority to decide or rule on any aspect concerning the Internet?
BUT Marsha Blackburn did Vote FOR: Patriot Act Reauthorization, Electronic Surveillance, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening, Patriot Act extension; and only NOW she is worried about free speech, privacy, and government take over of the internet?
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her “blatantly unconstitutional” votes at :
http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2009/09/tn-congre…
Mickey
#2 by Sean Plankey on 01/27/2011 - 06:36
Come on Mickey, are you serious? Do you really think the internet is likely to go "uncontrolled" into the forseeable future? The KEY idea or question here is "WHO will control it?".
The leftists (I hope you are not one) seek to control it by Executive fiat, using the FCC which is directly accountable to Obama and his leftist ilk. In doing so, they can silence the voices of opposition under an oh so clever guise of "fairness" and "civility".
Marsha seeks to place the legislative branch in a position of oversight/control of the internet. As we learned last November in the electoral drubbing of our lifetimes, at least the legislative branch IS accountable to "We the People". If we do not like their oversight of the internet, we can hold them accountable every 2 years.
I would much rather have the "People's House" keeping the internet free from tyranny than put it under the direct control of a former community organizer at ACORN who wants to "spread the wealth".
Sean Plankey
Meat and Potatoes Blog
Knoxville, Tennessee
#3 by Blue Collar Muse on 01/27/2011 - 16:19
@Mickey -
I understand that you have a long standing beef with Congressman Blackburn. You have made your case and you have those who agree with you and those who don't. That's the beauty of what we do. We help facilitate give and take.
But to do so effectively, we have to have the terms of the debate down. It is my contention that you are mistaken in your original premise; that Blackburn wants Congress to regulate the Internet.
Certainly that COULD be her position. It's easy enough to find out. You could just ask. That's part of why we had the call with her tonight.
She was quite clear in stating what she believes. It is not that the Internet should be regulated by Congress or by anyone else. It should be left alone to work its magic on the Economy and life in general. But if there exists any authority to do so, it resides in Congress and not a regulatory agency like the FCC. She is establishing that authority to use it against the FCC in order to remove internet regulation.
Just because she recognizes Congress' role as lawmaker does not automatically translate into her advocating for laws being made in a given area. That's a reasonable and common sense granting of "the benefit of the doubt" to her in this matter until you can offer up concrete evidence that she plans to introduce her own regulatory legislation. While you may have legitimate beefs with Blackburn in other areas, it seems to me you're reaching here. Not much "there, there" as it is said …
#4 by McQuay Parts on 02/17/2011 - 15:43
The feds don't have the time, expertise, or funding to police the web. That means they will use the laws to shut down those they disagree with and ignore other violators. Business as usual.