The Genesee County Republicans will hold Precinct Delegate Training this week and next.  Dates and locations are:

Also, Anne Norlander, candidate for Secretary of State, notes an important change in campaign law that affects precinct delegates.  This year, any elected official must now file as a precinct delegate to be given preference at their county convention to become a delegate to the state convention.  Previously, elected officials were given more-or-less automatic status at the convention.
 
If you are an elected official, please submit a Precinct Delegate Affidavit of Identity to your local County Clerk to maintain your status as a precinct delegate.  The deadline to file is Tuesday, May 11, 2010 by 4:00pm.  Anyone interested in becoming a Precinct Delegate can download a copy of the Affidavit.

This news from Congressman Dave Camp,
"Thursday was Tax Day. No kidding: Democrats have raised taxes by nearly $700 billion in just the last year, more than 14 of those on middle class families - directly breaking President Obama's promise to not raise taxes "one dime" on those making less than $250,000."  And, there's more tax news to come, as the 'Bush' tax cuts expire this year, meaning taxes will go up next year guaranteed.  Now we see how the President and Congress intend to balance the budget after their tremendous spending spree!

Internet Regulation Coming?

As Washington has taken over banks, auto companies, mortgages, insurance companies, and health care, we all wonder: what next?  Maybe the Internet, if they can get away with it.  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now considering reclassifying the Internet as an old-fashioned regulated monopoly, like the Ma Bell-era phone system.  This would mean regulators overseeing every aspect of the network.

While the FCC debates that idea, they have already rolled out another idea to control the content.  This is the so-called" Open Internet" or "net neutrality" regulations.  In the first round of comments to the FCC, Americans For Prosperity activists filed over 22,000 comments opposing the regulations, overwhelming the leading advocates of this regulation, who filed only 13,000.  They just extended the deadline for another round of comments to TODAY, April 26!

The proposed rules would prohibit Internet Service Providers from treating types of traffic differently, which would put regulators, instead of the market, in a position to determine which business models can be used,.  As usual, such restrictions would likely deter private investment, slowing the remarkable innovation we have seen over the past decade of a largely unregulated Internet.  Regulations to force "neutrality" could eventually even restrict political speech online.

If you would like to add your voice  to the millions of Internet users who are NOT clamoring for regulation, please go to Stop-the-internet-takeover.