Fed Court dismisses MetroPCS, Verizon suit over new net neutrality rules.

From Jurist:

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday granted a motion by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss a challenge to the new net neutrality rules. Verizon and MetroPCS filed an appeal challenging the new net neutrality rules that allow the government to regulate Internet traffic to preserve the Internet as a free and open platform of communication. The court dismissed the appeal for improper timing because the challenged rulemaking document has yet to be published in the Federal Register and is not a licensing decision with respect to the specific parties as required by 47 CFR § 1.4(b)(1). The court said it would be subject to judicial review once it is published in the Federal Register. Verizon spokesperson Ed McFadden said that the notices of appeal were filed because the FCC's rules governing timing of appeals were unclear and the company did not want to lose its right to appeal. Verizon plans to file a second appeal when the rules are published in the Federal Register. 

Verizon and MetroPCS filed the challenges in January out of concern over the broad authority the new rules would grant the FCC. The FCC has long been trying to exert more control over Internet regulation. Last year, US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced legislation intended to block the FCC from implementing its National Broadband Plan. The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act would remove the FCC's ability to declare the actions of a communications provider illegal unless there was a clear showing that the practice causes harm to consumers and will not be corrected by market forces. A month earlier, the FCC opened a new proceeding to identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to develop universal access to "high quality" Internet broadband services. A previous court ruling found that the FCC lacks the power to enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is thought by supporters to be essential to the goal of an open flow of information over the Internet regardless of the amount of revenue generated by the information.

Of course DeMint tried to undermine the FCC's authority, I would expect nothing less from that corporate lackey.

Personal update...still tryng to rehab ye olde back after my surgery two weeks ago. I am not spending much time online as sitting is the worst possible thing for my spine, according to my Doc and my back also lets me know it too. As a lovely parting gift I now have an 8 inch scar up my back and wearing that friggin huge back brace (for 3 months) is no picnic.

First Republican straw poll of the season and it's a doozy!

Lawd have mercy, what a selection of Republicans, most right, many way right, to choose from! Politico of course has the 411, see the bottom of the post for how the email alert words the same information:

Romney won with 35 percent, beating second-place finisher Ron Paul by 24 points in the WMUR-ABC News straw poll of members of the state Republican Party. In third place was former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who won 8 percent—just one point ahead of Sarah Palin, who drew 7 percent.

*jump to*

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won 5 percent, pizza mogul Herman Cain took 4 percent, and Santorum won 3 percent—tied with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The Half-Term Governor from AK did better than I expected and Pence the fuckwit did worse.Santorum and Batshit Bachmann should of gotten nothing, but there is no accounting for some folks tastes is there? Now, the news alert I got in my email put it this way:

The full results from the WMUR/ABC/N.H. Republican Party presidential straw poll are: Mitt Romney with 35% of the 273 ballots cast, Ron Paul with 11%, Tim Pawlenty with 8% and Sarah Palin with 7%. The remaining results: Michele Bachmann and Jim DeMint with 5% each; Herman Cain with 4%; Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels and Mike Huckabee with 3% each; Rudy Giuliani, Judd Gregg, Gary Johnson and "other" with 2% each; and Donald Trump and Haley Barbour with 1% each. Jon Huntsman Jr. and John Thune were on the ballot but received no votes.(emphasis mine)

I did laugh my brown ass off over Thune's returns or lack thereof. I howled over Haley Barbour's one percent. ;) All, in all, the actual Politico writeup seemed much kinder and gentler to the assholes in the bunch, wouldn't you say?

Sen Jim DeMint protects BP - Our A$$hole of the month.

Senator Jim DeMint objected twice to giving subpoena power to the Congressional commission that is investigating the BP/Transocean/Halliburton Deepwater Horizon gulf oil gusher.

This 'objection' by the rightwing extremists/corporate ass kissers known as the GOP is totally unconscionable...unless he/they are in bed with the oil industry, which seems obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together and and iq higher than that of a dandelion. Watch Tweety ask Bryan Dorgan about this horseshit below:




They can not even put these assholes at BP/Transocean/Halliburtion under oath from what I gather.

This commission has no teeth and we can thank Jim DeMint and the GOP for that.

Doesn't it make you wonder who in the blue hell supports these worthless bags of batshit? Is it people that make over 250k a year and don't give a shit about what happened to the environment in the gulf, not to mention all the jobs associated with that region?

It makes me physically ill m'dear reader...I ain't shitting ya..it does. And it should do the same to you if you care one iota about the horror that happened in the gulf of Mexico because BP plain did not give a shit and spent as little as possible to drill that rig through the floor of the ocean so they could suck up even more oil and make more money.

Illegal Immigration? Why it’s the fault of the unions!

That lovely albeit stupid, totally absurd and fucktarded thought is from the mind of an elected representative of the people – One Senator from South Carolina, Jim DeMint. From RawStory:

After the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas day, a months-old question for the Senate became a pressing concern for the public: Why is the Transportation Security Administration without an appointed director?

While President Obama did make a nomination to the spot — one Erroll Southers, a counterterrorism expert and former FBI special agent — Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has held up his appointment for months. His blockade of Southers’ nomination is apparently due to President Obama’s promise that he would push to allow TSA baggage screeners full union rights.

The objection being, if baggage screeners are allowed to negotiate for better pay, benefits and working conditions, it would somehow place national security at risk. (emphasis mine)

This man is holding up the nomination of the Director for the TSA. Because he freaks out at the thought of people unionizing. Please..read and digest his rationale for this horseshit:

“The union boss that you were interviewing used the customs and border enforcement as an example,” DeMint said, though customs and border enforcement had not been mentioned during the segment. “We do have 12 million undocumented aliens in our country and that agency has also had to deal with all kinds of charges for changing prices for parking. They’re dealing with the collective bargaining of unions all the time and they’re not as effective as they should be.”

Just how fucking ignorant is this man, not to mention the idiots that keep electing him? That question is of course..rhetorical.

Even the Washington Post has published an article about this fuckwit’s hold-up of a most important job post. As the WaPo article notes:

Two Senate committees have given their bipartisan blessing to Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and a counterterrorism expert who is Obama’s nominee. But DeMint has objected to a full Senate vote, saying he wants additional testimony to clarify Southers’s stand on unionizing the TSA, a shift Democrats support.

Notice the word ‘bipartisan’ in that quote from the article. That gives me hope that not all Republican’s are idiots and morons in the same vein as Jim DeMint. So there is hope for the party..however slim.

The Federation of Government Employees has the following response to DeMint’s ridiculous and totally inane bullshit logic:

“This is not an issue of security,” a group spokeswoman said, according to CNN. “There is no evidence that labor union rights have any effect on transportation security officers. This is a dedicated workforce who see their jobs as important to the security of the nation.”

“They point to union members who acted after 9/11 and the Fort Hood massacre as well,” the host said. “These were union members — firefighters, police officers — who essentially acted very quickly, and that your argument doesn’t hold water here.”

And if that isn’t enough to convince you that this crap is all in the mind of a fucking idiot, read the ProPublica article on this issue, specifically the following:

John Gage, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told CNN earlier this month, “People who insinuate that being a union member has a nation security implication are just totally wrong.”

Totally wrong? I call them idiots and morons with the IQ of a fucking dandelion Mr. Gage. It’s embarrassing that this jackass actually holds an elected office. It’s embarrassing that people from around the globe can read his ignorant rantings and frankly I think he should be not only recalled but jailed in Gitmo for being a fucking terrorist..since he is single-handidly undermining the effectiveness of the TSA.

Jesus H. Fucking Christ..how do these people get elected? WTF is in the water in South Carolina anyway? Watch this whackjob say it: