Big brother gets bigger

The Obama administration's quest to control the internet is taking another turn, with a new government-run network on the drawing board.

The American Spectator reports:

Now it is taking steps to create a taxpayer-financed, government-run broadband network that while ostensibly deployed for use by public safety officials, would compete for business against the current wireless broadband companies.

A Senate bill has been introduced to set aside a portion of the wireless spectrum for this purpose, the Spectator notes, and funding to create the new network and start a public corporation will come in part from, where else, taxpayer dollars.

A government-run network for public safety and first responders sounds plausible on the surface, but the tentacles are sure to expand in reach.  The Spectator quotes a White House source:

Some people want the network to only be used by public safety and first responders ... But we're talking about a network that could also be used for commercial purposes, especially in parts of the country where people don't have broadband services. 

...you'd expect that as the government, we'd be able to offer those services at considerably cheaper prices."

Which translates to subsidized in perpetuity on the backs of the taxpayers.  There is no end to what can be done with other people's money, and at the current rate there is no end to the reach of our beneficent masters in Washington.

In case you ever wondered what all those czars deep inside the White House actually do, the American Spectator column further reports that the FCC is about to release a report declaring the wireless market non-competitive.

What a coincidence. 

A Republican source observes:

What you are seeing out of the Obama FCC is an effort to use official government reports to influence public opinion and seed the ground for ... policies that essentially further 'socialize' our economy ... You saw it with net neutrality, you've seen it with health care and the environment and now you're seeing it with wireless communications.

If the Obama regime is able to establish the groundwork for a government internet behind the scenes in a first term, it is not hard to imagine what further encroachments on the private sector and personal freedom may lie ahead in a second term unencumbered by thoughts of reelection.

The New York Times revealed earlier this year that "Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China."

And Bill Kristol observed at the time, in the Weekly Standard, that "if you're president of China, you can fund your national public radio to your heart's content." 

China's new State Internet Information Office was in fact the subject of a recent USA Today column:

The State Internet Information Office said it will ensure the "healthy development" of China's Internet... the agency will supervise both content and companies in everything from online news reporting to gaming and video.

Last week FCC Chairman Julius Genachowskie made a show of proclaiming that "I fully support deleting the Fairness Doctrine and related provisions from the Code of Federal Regulations, so that there can be no mistake that what has been a dead letter is truly dead."

Who needs the Fairness Doctrine when you have net neutrality rules and your very own internet.