Ted Cruz channels Senator McCarthy in wrongheaded internet power grab
crusade
Cruz threatens commerce secretary, staff with jail
With echoes of the notorious hearings run by Senator Joseph McCarthy in
the 1950s,
Wednesday saw Senator Ted Cruz cajole, misrepresent and then outright
threaten witnesses
to a hearing he called over the important change to the internet's
functioning.
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A battle lost on logic
This was not the only point on which Cruz pushed heavily and was met
with frustrated and at times
aggressive responses from his witnesses and Congressional colleagues.
Cruz repeatedly referenced the First Amendment, arguing that if the IANA
contract was moved away
from US government control, it would cease to be applied across the
internet. The argument was a
strawman that Strickling and ICANN CEO Göran Marby were repeatedly
forced to argue against.
*Strickling repeatedly pointed out that Cruz was conflating two entirely
different things*, and that the IANA
contract presented no opportunity for either free speech or censorship.
Marby confirmed as much again,
with Committee member Senator Christopher Coons (D-DE) repeatedly
pulling the hearing back to the realities
of what was being discussed. *But Cruz simply plowed on regardless*.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/14/ted_cruz_in_wrongheaded_internet_crusade/
