Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

FCC Fights Verizon, MetroPCS Net Neutrality Suit
State officials divided on meaning of judge’s health-care ruling
Tea Party congressman clashes over Islam at town hall
Tea Party activist: Conservatives will back Allen alternative in Va. primary
Allen West: No Interest in Being on 2012 GOP Ticket
Bill would require all S.D. citizens to buy a gun
NJ governor stops Redevelopment Authority spending
Maddow Falls for Internet Hoax

FCC Fights Verizon, MetroPCS Net Neutrality Suit

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:20 PM PST

By Maisie Ramsay, Wireless Week

The FCC has asked a judge to dismiss lawsuits from Verizon and MetroPCS Communications that seek to repeal the agency’s new net neutrality regulations.

In a motion to dismiss filed Friday, the FCC said the appeals had been filed prematurely because the net neutrality regulations have not yet been published in the Federal Register, and argued this meant the court lacked jurisdiction over the case.

“[The] notice of appeal thus is fatally premature and must be dismissed,” wrote FCC counsel Joel Marcus in the motion.

The FCC also moved to delay the court’s decision on Verizon’s request to assign its net neutrality appeal to the same panel that heard Comcast vs. FCC last spring. The FCC lost the Comcast case challenging the legal foundation for its open Internet rules.

The FCC wants the court to wait on Verizon’s panel assignment motion until its motion to dismiss the case has been decided. Verizon is already challenging the FCC’s move to dismiss the case and its motion to delay the panel assignment.

Verizon argues the lawsuit should move forward because it filed its appeal within 30 days of the release date of the FCC’s open Internet order and will file a protective notice of appeal when the regulations become published in the Federal Register, the timing of which is controlled by the FCC. The FCC issued its net neutrality order more than a month ago.

“In view of all that, as well as this court’s uncontested exclusive jurisdiction over Verizon’s challenge, the FCC’s motion to dismiss is an ultimately fruitless exercise. Regardless of whether public notice is the release date or the date of Federal Register publication, Verizon’s challenge to the order will be heard in this Court,” Verizon’s legal team wrote in its motion.

State officials divided on meaning of judge’s health-care ruling

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:17 PM PST

By Amy Goldstein and N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post

A day after a federal judge struck down the government’s plan to overhaul the health-care system, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a stern statement: “This means that, for Wisconsin, the federal health care law is dead,” and that his state “was relieved of any obligations or duties” to carry out the statute.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), on the other hand, pointed to the 700 people in his state with serious medical problems who already found insurance under the law. “Who goes to these people,” the governor said in an interview, “and tells them, ‘Sorry, a judge in Florida has decided we now need to put you out in the cold?’ ”

Wisconsin and Colorado are among the 26 states joined in the legal challenge that prompted Monday’s opinion by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla., that the law is invalid because it goes too far in requiring most Americans to buy health insurance. The opposing reactions from Van Hollen and Hickenlooper reflect striking disagreement over the ruling’s practical effects, even for the states in which the decision has the greatest direct impact.

Officials in Idaho and Florida, the state that initiated the lawsuit last March, said the ruling gives them the freedom to stop the work they have begun to put the law into effect. “We are not going to spend a lot of time and money with regard to trying to get ready to implement it,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) told reporters in Tallahassee.

Tea Party congressman clashes over Islam at town hall

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:12 PM PST

By Jim Acosta and Evan Glass, CNN

Boynton Beach, Florida (CNN) — Freshman Republican Congressman Allen West clashed with an advocate for Muslim-American civil rights at a sometimes-rowdy town hall meeting Monday night.

The tense exchange drew boos from a standing room only, largely Republican crowd.

The confrontation came as West, an Iraq War veteran who was backed by the Tea Party in last November’s election, took questions from constituents. Nezar Hamze, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Miami, stepped to the microphone and accused West of making anti-Muslim comments in the past.

“Me and my children choose to follow the faith of Islam. You consistently insult it. How can we expect you to defend our right and practice Islam as far as the Constitution is concerned?” Hamze asked.

“I will always defend your right to practice a free religion under the First Amendment,” West said. “But what you must understand, if I am speaking the truth, I am not going to stop speaking the truth. The truth is not subjective,” he continued to loud applause.

Tea Party activist: Conservatives will back Allen alternative in Va. primary

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:10 PM PST

By Shane D’Aprile, The Hill

Virginia Tea Party activist and U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke says she’s confident conservatives in her state will unite behind an alternative to former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) ahead of next year’s Senate primary.

Aside from Allen, Radtke is the only other Republican already in the race for Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) seat, but the GOP field is expected to be a crowded one.

The chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Corey Stewart (R), is likely to get in and Del. Bob Marshall (R) could join the race, too.

While Radtke acknowledged that a multi-candidate primary could help Allen, she predicted activists would coalesce behind a single alternative before the primary.

“I think that everyone who may be challenging Senator Allen agrees that before the primary there needs to be only two people in the race,” Radtke told The Ballot Box on Thursday after criticizing Allen’s voting record during his single term in the Senate.

Allen West: No Interest in Being on 2012 GOP Ticket

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:04 PM PST

By Jim Geraghty, National Review

Rep. Allen West's, R-Fla., disinterest in the 2012 GOP ticket is positively refreshing:

In an interview Saturday evening on 'Conservative Republican Forum', with hosts Steven Rosenblum and Daria DiGiovanni, Republican Congressman Allen West (FL-22) was asked if he was thinking at all of running for President or Vice-President in 2012. His response was, "Well of course not." He went on to say, "It's so important that we as conservatives avoid the cult of personality style of leadership. But we really do elevate people based upon merit and talent. And, you know, I have to prove myself as an American statesman, as a political leader, and not just someone that is able to, you know give some good speeches. I have to be able to get up there and create legislation and get legislation pushed though and make myself a game changer on the House floor."

West also argued against the "entitlement mentality" in the nomination process, and said that, "We cannot continue to have the model of Bob Dole against Bill Clinton or John McCain against Barack Obama. We've got to do something totally different."

Bill would require all S.D. citizens to buy a gun

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:01 PM PST

By Jonathan Ellis, Argus Leader

Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require any adult 21 or older to buy a firearm "sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense."

The bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, would give people six months to acquire a firearm after turning 21. The provision does not apply to people who are barred from owning a firearm.

Nor does the measure specify what type of firearm. Instead, residents would pick one "suitable to their temperament, physical capacity, and preference."

The measure is known as an act "to provide for an individual mandate to adult citizens to provide for the self defense of themselves and others."

Rep. Hal Wick, R-Sioux Falls, is sponsoring the bill and knows it will be killed. But he said he is introducing it to prove a point that the federal health care reform mandate passed last year is unconstitutional.

NJ governor stops Redevelopment Authority spending

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:56 PM PST

By Associated Press, Asbury Park Press

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday vetoed the 2011 administrative budget for the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority, saying the authority’s proposed 3 percent raise for staff and an employee gift program were inappropriate spending.

Christie says the expenditures contradict his goal of fiscal prudence.

It was unclear how much the total budget was or how much the authority planned to spend on an employee service awards program that would have allowed employees who worked at the agency to order gifts from a catalog.

Maddow Falls for Internet Hoax

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:53 PM PST

From FOX Nation, by John Hudson, The Atlantic Wire

WASHINGTON, DC – The Internet’s finest satirists snookered a big fish in the media world last night. In an embarrassing segment on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow slammed conservatives for attacking President Obama’s Egypt policies. Her targets included Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Stephenson Billings at ChristWire.org. Only problem is Stephenson Billings is not a real person. He’s a fictional byproduct of website that also warns readers that the Xbox Kinect is a terrorist training tool and the Japanese have created scary robot babies which “threaten humanity.”

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Wednesday, February 2, 2011