Tech at Night: Post-Election Edition

Sorry for missing Tech at Night on Monday, but I had to rest up for Election Day. And of course, as you may have heard, Republicans ended up having a good night. What you may not have heard though, was that the forces of radical Internet regulation had a very bad night. Democrats went for broke on Net Neutrality but as covered by Moe Lane and RS Insider, support for unilateral regulation of the Internet killed Congressional jobs. Every single member who signed the PCCC pledge to support the FCC on Title II reclassification, lost. Every one of them!
It’s time the FCC owned up to the rejection the American people dealt their plans, and pledged to wait for Congress to act.
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The Democrats did not have to lose this year
Some will try to minimize the importance of any Republican gains tonight by saying the Democrats were bound to lose. Some will even say Democrats had a baked-in loss of 45 or more seats, which implies they had no hope of keeping the House at all, no matter what policy aims they worked to implement. The problem is, that’s nonsense.
Cutting to the chase: while the 2008 electorate was never, ever going to be duplicated in this or any midterm election’s turnout, previous midterm elections showed that the Democrats were capable of keeping the House, and therefore capable of keeping midterm losses down to reasonable figures. Here’s how.
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Final notes on the California Senate race

I’ve obtained a few documents and one link which really tell us where we are in California right now. Per the polling, which has remarkably projected in California little or no TEA party/Republican/Independent/conservative backlash at all, I still see Carly having a one third shot to win this, and if we saw polling which actually demonstrated a partisan enthusiasm gap, that number would have been much higher.
Because seriously, who or what is supposed to be motivating Democrats in California this year? Moonbeam Brown, who failed last time around? Babs Boxer, who couldn’t even get the Chronicle’s endorsement? Or maybe the high unemployment is the ticket for them? Get real.
Marty Wilson, the Carly for California Campaign Manager, has made more key points about the race, in a memo to “Interested Parties” I got a hold of. Third parties do better in California than other states. They don’t do well, but they pull in a few points, and the major polls ignore them. He’s also pointed out that Proposition 19 (Cannabis legalization) was supposed to help Democrats, but it’s likely to fail now. He predicts that Fiorina beats Boxer by three.
I don’t even know what a California recount would be like, but we might see one if it’s closer than that.
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Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, Google, For The Children

Good evening. Through the magic of Claritin, my favorite drug, I’m able to bring you tonight’s edition. On the Net Neutrality front, the progressive left is getting delusional. They’re pretending that it matters what their members of Congress think when their President has done not one thing to stop his FCC from going off on its own to break the law, defy the courts, and go ahead with Title II Reclassification. This is not Sparta. This is madness.
Of course, the online petition? Meaningless of course except as a trap to build mailing lists. And it’s not me who says that, it’s Clay Johnson who says that, founder of Blue State Digital and the New Media Director of Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s petition is nonsense upon stilts.
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Boxer getting the benefit of press bias in her favor
Imagine if Sarah Palin promised reporters she’d take questions, then ran out from the event through the side door to avoid the questioning? Now imagine if Sharron Angle or Christine O’Donnell did it. The same shunned press would call them out for it and say they were fake or even avoiding accountability. Palin, of course, was accused of being entirely unqualified in part to avoiding high pressure press exposure, a charge Ginger Gibson is also leveling against O’Donnell.
Well, Babs Boxer has joined the club. I’m not expecting a rash of stories calling her an unqualified fake, seeking to avoid accountability for her 28 failed years in DC, though.
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Babs Boxer: Desperate enough to encourage lawbreaking
That’s where we are now in the California Senate race. Babs Boxer’s campaign made an organized, coordinated effort to reach out to schools, supplying teachers with information to disseminate out to students telling them how to volunteer for the Boxer campaign. That is not in dispute. Boxer’s campaign has admitted to it and apologized for it.
Of course, what they’re really sorry about is getting caught, and about Boxer having her toughest campaign of her entire career. That’s 28 miserably ineffective years in DC if you recall, voting the party line for the most radical elements of the leftist agenda. She’s so divisive she even started a fight about Ohio’s electoral votes in 2004.
This is one of the more competitive Senate races in the country, and it’s part of the key battleground of five marginal seats held by Democrats that we could pick up, along with Nevada, West Virginia, Illinois, and Washington. Consider helping Carly Fiorina’s moneybomb today to keep her on the air and keep her shifting the polls our way.
Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, ACLU, Google

Opinions differ on the Cato Institute, but they’re right on when it comes to the ACLU’s deceptive arguments on Net Neutrality. Case after case of alleged net neutrality “violations” are raised and demolished. And remember, this is the case being used to justify urgent action by the FCC in defiance of the law and the courts.
It’s all a bunch of garbage.
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Tech at Night: Google, FCC, Net Neutrality

Yes, we’re talking about Google again tonight. Of course they never did delist Daily Kos after the Chris Bowers manipulations, despite having gone after Kay Bailey Hutchison for breaking their rules. But we have more to ride them about:
They’re blocking pro-life ads again. These ads are running on local television in DC for Republican Missy Reilly Smith who is challenging Delegate Holmes Eleanor Norton, or Norton Eleanor Holmes, or whatever her name is. I mean really, she doesn’t even get a vote. Local television will run the ads, but Youtube will not. Interesting, eh?
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Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, Google, free weights

Good evening. I’ll level with you: I’m exhausted. All summer I got virtually no exercise because, as it turned out, I’ve developed asthma triggered by the air pollution that gets worse during the summer here in inland southern California. So I’m ramping back up my weight lifting, and as I adapt, it’s wearing me out. So tonight I’ll be brief.
The push continues for Republicans to listen to us and and join to pass legislation preventing the FCC from implementing devastating, systemic regulation of the Internet through the Title II reclassification power grab. Roll Call describes the troubles on this front with Congressional Republicans hesistant to touch Net Neutrality at all.
Honestly I’m glad we’ve pushed the debate to the point where Net Neutrality is so radioactive that no Republican wants to get anywhere near it, but we all must remember that the FCC remains under Barack Obama’s control, not ours, even if we win the election. Action must come sooner, not later, to ensure the FCC respects our need for an open Internet with free and active investment from private business.
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California Senate Update

It’s getting remarkably rough for the Democrats out here in California. Long, long time Assembly Speaker (and then after 1994 booted him out, San Francisco Mayor) Democrat Willie Brown has no confidence in any of the top Democrats, saying they have no ground operation at all. He applied that to Jerry Brown (Governor), Gavin Newsom (Lt. Governor), and Babs Boxer (Senate).
The Chamber of Commerce is also pounding on the Democrats, pointing out that No Ma’am Boxer bounced 143 checks in the House Bank scandal. No integrity. No honesty. She’s a thief.
Just one more reason we need to beat her and elect Carly Fiorina to the Senate.
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