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FCC Republicans Refused To Give Congress Net Neutrality Documents (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The two Republican members of the Federal Communications Commission have refused to give Congress documents needed to complete an investigation into the FCC's net neutrality rule-making process, according to a lawmaker. "Your refusal to cooperate with the Committee's request is unacceptable, it obstructs our investigation, and it prevents the Committee from having a complete or accurate understanding of the circumstances surrounding this rulemaking," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) wrote in a letter to FCC Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly yesterday. There are "serious questions" about "Pai's efforts to organize opposition to the proposed rule with outside parties," Cummings' office said in a related press release. "Pai previously worked as associate general counsel for Verizon, one of the major opponents of the open Internet policy, and he reportedly 'enjoys the support of conservative think tanks like the Phoenix Center, the Free State Foundation and TechFreedom,'" the press release said. O'Rielly wrote an op-ed on the net neutrality rules in 2014, but only after he "sought edits on [the] draft op-ed from three individuals outside the FCC with professional interests that could be affected by the rule," the press release said. The Republican lawmakers claimed that President Obama had "an improper influence" over the FCC's decision and demanded documentation of all communication between FCC personnel and the White House, as well as calendar appointments, visitor logs, and meeting minutes related to meetings with the White House, plus all internal documents discussing the views and recommendations of the White House. They also asked for all documents and e-mails related to views of FCC personnel about the net neutrality proceeding. A Cummings staff member told Ars that the "request has the backing of the full committee and all the enforcement mechanisms the committee has, including issuing a subpoena." The committee has schedule a hearing for September 27 on the status of outstanding document requests to different federal agencies, and could seek updates on the requests to the two Republican FCC commissioners at this hearing, a Democratic aide for the Oversight Committee also said.
GOP has been investigating the hell out of Hillary's emails and boogers for the last 3 years. At least return the favor.
Table-ized A.I.
No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you have to admit to the obstructionism which the Republicans have used over the last 8 years.
This has effectively meant that nothing has been done (mostly) except the bare minimum, for the last 8 years. Now we see it in this particular issue- which should be considered by people in the "IT world" to be a primary issue: Net Neutrality.
It's like this: Without net neutrality the Internet becomes a walled garden for businesses who are already there. Which is good for those businesses. But it's also bad for consumers. You see it now with veiled attempts at cutting out media providers through data caps. If this issue is not resolved in favor of a level playing field or all involved- the promise of the internet could be lost in this country.
Which is to say- whatever services you use over your connection- will be those mandated by whomever has the power that week to reach customers at the lowest cost.
And guess what: It won't be the startups. That is a problem.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
All these congressman get outside counsel from moneyed lobbyists. Shit, the lobbyists sometimes write the final legislation themselves. I don't see what's unique in this scenario.
Srsly, why isn't this considered an acceptable option to this crap? It seems to happen every other month with each party simply refusing to give documents and testimony to investigating committees, then everyone bitches and moans and lets it go.
Why are there not more findings of Contempt of Congress, and why is Contempt of Congress seemingly punished with a slap on the wrist?
Elected officials, corrupted by a virtually limitless supply of money in the form of campaign contributions and inducements by lobbyists, do the bidding of those who pay for their "service". Business as usual. Do something different, or STFU about it.
Don't threaten to daydream about thinking about maybe issuing a subpoena.
Issue the fucking subpeona. When he doesn't immediately comply, charge him with inherent contempt of congress and have the sergeant-at-arms drag him forcibly in front of the committee to answer questions and jail him if he doesn't comply.
Congress really ought to build a Plexiglas jail cell in the Capitol visitor center specifically for government officials who refuse to recognize the subpoena authority of congress. Nothing would compel their compliance more than knowing that the alternative outcome may be high visibility detention facility where tourists come to learn about the many powers of the US Congress.
*sigh
Throw the assholes in jail.
Seconded. And let's figure out who has been bribing them and throw them in jail too. I'm sick of every single government agency being completely crippled by internal corruption.
It seems you haven't been paying attention for the last 8 years or so.
Pretty sure DC would have to build more jail cells. Figure at least 2/3 of each party plus half of the various alphabet agencies based in DC gets thrown in the slammer.
This is what conservatives actually believe.
Witness the self-inflicted information bubble where black is white and up is down.
This is your opponent. A creature without reason or even a firm grasp on reality. Just smile, nod, then keep at arms distance. Hope they only harm themselves.
For the first half of those eight years, Democrats controlled the house and senate and white house.
So why should I admit to something that never happened? Why would you ask that people admit to an obvious lie?
Is this total ability to believe a lie something that has infected Democrats universally? I mean you would think it would be just a handful like Hillary but as you show, it seems to be the entire party that is corrupted absolutely to where they no longer will believe anything that is not a lie...
For something more recent, was it Republicans or Democrats that were blocking Zika funding. HMM!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Indeed. It is my understanding that the US Congress inherited the British Parliament's right to find someone in contempt, and to indeed throw them in prison should they continue to refuse Congress's request.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It would give the Sergeant at arms something to do. Technically speaking, you could just find an empty meeting room, post armed guards at the door, it doesn't have to be an actual lock up.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The article appears to be a press release written by the Congressman Elijah Cummings' staff (with some editing by the reporter whose name appears on the byline). It contains NO information from ANY other source.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Why are there not more findings of Contempt of Congress, and why is Contempt of Congress seemingly punished with a slap on the wrist?
For the same reason that incoming presidents have a tendency to pardon and/or overlook the crimes of outgoing ones. Any politician who reminds people that their peers can actually be punished, might eventually find themselves facing punishment too. Can't have that. Much easier to "live and let live."
Put them in jail and then what? Either by law or tradition the committee members of every executive agency is split between the two major parties. The number of members on these committees is always an odd number with a majority with the party in power at the time. So, we take these Republicans, toss them in jail, and then replace them with some other Republicans, at which time those Republicans can refuse to hand over the documents. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I don't know who is the bad guy here. It could be the Democrats for trying to make the Republicans look bad over something completely innocent. It could be the Republicans trying to hide wrongdoing from the Democrats. I can hear it now, if they have nothing to hide then why not share the documents? Perhaps the Republicans are aware that the Democrats are playing political games and they figure this is the best way to stop it. The Democrats have had a few bad weeks recently in the polls and it might be that the Democrats are looking for ways to make themselves look good. It's quite possible that even if the Republicans handed over everything that the Democrats asked for the Democrats would still claim something is missing.
Aren't we seeing this with the Clinton e-mail server thing going on? The Republicans will claim that e-mails are missing but the Democrats say everything was handed over. How can you prove there are no more documents to hand over? It's not like this is a bank account and someone can show there is no more money with a balance note. This is a request for documents that may have never been created. Even if they handed over every single document someone can claim documents are missing because they didn't find the dirt they are looking for.
We have an election in a few weeks, so even if someone was going to put these people in jail for contempt of Congress, or whatever, they will be out again after the election because keeping them there would be problematic politically. If Congress gets in the habit of putting commissioners in jail because they don't like what party they are in then we are going to have even bigger problems in the future.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Throwing them in jail doesn't remove them from the committee, it just makes them unable to attend meetings or vote on things. They could, of course, resign and allow someone else to be appointed.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
It is my understanding that the US Congress inherited the British Parliament's right to find someone in contempt, and to indeed throw them in prison should they continue to refuse Congress's request.
This is correct. However, since Congress has no law enforcement, when they want to have someone arrested for Contempt, they ask the US Federal Marshals. The Federal Marshals take direction from the head of the Department of Justice - the Attorney General. This is why Attorney General Eric Holder had a warrant issued against him by Congress, but he ordered the Marshals not to obey, so nothing happened.
And how many times did Republicans filibuster again?
You are probably just as mistaken as Obama, since you all get your info from the save hive-mind of lies.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Throw these people under the jail. It is not their privilege to deny a subpoena.
Replying to my own comment:
In a recent hearing, the acting director for FBI's congressional affairs (iirc) was asked "What type of things does congress not have a right to see?"
The FBI answered this, before the conversation moved on:
"There is more to it than a simple answer. I think that each case is, uhm, sort of specific to its own set of facts.
I think we tried to be.. I think Dir Comey tried to be, as transparent as he could, with this committee, (something something) as responsible as he could be."
It sounds to me that the FBI is maybe hiding something, as if being selective about wanting to describe their own intentions, motivations and how they understand things, such that what others might deem to be legitimate concerns might as well have been hidden under the rug, for shielding the government, its employers and anything to do with an upcoming president candidate.
Yeah because the record use of the filibuster happened in Bush's terms, except that it didn't. Not saying they worked with him during the 2nd term, but someone needed to put the brakes on since he was driving the country over a cliff, and had already proved him self irresponsible with the way he lied his way into a war that was not in our country's best interest.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
But they don't just harm themselves, ever.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
That's the sad part... it's the lawmakers that created the ways they can receive "campaign contributions". Do you honestly think that these people that wield the power will kill one of their own cash cows?
If you could make it part of national law that you could receive money from others under the guise of "They support my point of view", wouldn't you do it? Comcast wants to give you $5mil because you have said a couple words against Net Neutrality. If they promise to grease your palms for the next 10 years as long as you keep it up, wouldn't you agree?
Dump Pai. Replace him. Simple.