{"id":29856,"date":"2015-03-01T20:37:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T01:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=29856"},"modified":"2015-03-01T20:37:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T01:37:55","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-friday-february-27th-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=29856","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Friday, February 27th, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Friday, February 27th, 2015…but before we begin, here’s\u00a0<\/strong>a little walk down memory lane, courtesy first of the WSJ<\/em>\u00a0and this snippet from a\u00a0<\/strong>February 23rd letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz regarding the FCC\u2019s vote to reclassify the Internet as a public utility:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The Communications Act of 1934 grants the Chairman of the FCC authority to act as the Commission\u2019s Chief Executive Officer. As such, it is at the Chairman\u2019s discretion that votes are scheduled and delayed, draft rules made public, and the comment periods provided. Yet, with regard to this 332-page order, there were no public hearings, the document remains secret, no comment period existed, and you declined to testify in an open hearing before the Committee. In addition to these concerns, questions exist as to whether the White House had an improper influence on the Commission\u2019s drafting of these rule changes. These concerns were heightened by reports over the weekend that the emails exchanged between you and the White House represent \u201cunprecedented coordination.\u201d On February 6, 2015, the Committee requested documents in pursuit of this investigation, yet Friday\u2019s deadline passed without the documents being produced.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The American people deserve\u2014and have requested\u2014an open and transparent FCC process. Recent polls show that 73 percent of Americans want greater disclosure of the details of the FCC\u2019s proposal to regulate the Internet, and nearly eight in ten favor public disclosure of the exact wording and details of the proposal before the FCC votes on it. Indeed, Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O\u2019Rielly just today called for exactly this\u2014the public release of the 332-page order and a temporary delay of the vote. Nonetheless, citing past Commission practice, you refused to publicly release the text of the 332-page draft order. In a past rulemaking of similar magnitude, however, the Chairman did publicly release the rule prior to a vote.<\/span> This was done in response to congressional requests, including calls from then-Senator Barack Obama<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span>“<\/p>\n

The second is brought to us by the biggest shyster since Harold Hill:<\/strong><\/p>\n