Dear Conservative,

“We now have a court order. We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic,” Prime Minister of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey isn’t alone. During the “Green Revolution” in 2009, Iran implemented a widespread crackdown on the Internet. China has censored information for years. And Russia made Facebook take down content that was critical of Putin last year.

These are just a few examples of what can happen when Government takes total control of the Internet. That’s why I’m writing today. I need your help to keep the Internet open and free.

On November 10th, 2014, President Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to re-classify the Internet as a public utility. He proposed dusting off a law that’s nearly 80 years old (and about unrelated technology) and using it to give the Federal Government power to police the Internet.

I know many people do not love the big Internet providers (count me as one of them) and just want to make sure that consumers are not stuck with slow access speeds and bad service. That’s a good goal.

But the solution is not to get Government in this space with expanded powers to police the Internet. Internet freedom is just too precious to hand Washington new regulatory powers over the Internet without oversight.

You see, if President Obama gets his wish, instead of the “light touch” approach that has allowed the Internet to flourish for years, Government bureaucrats would be put in charge of a new heavy-handed regulatory scheme.

Worst of all, Americans do not fully understand the implications of how far this could go because it’s all happening so fast. Instead of Congress having a public debate out in the open where the American people can listen and Congress is held accountable, the Executive Branch is rushing to pre-empt Congress and jam this new regulation through while the American people are not really paying attention. (If this reminds you of Nancy Pelosi’s “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” statement about ObamaCare a couple years ago, it should.)

Americans should be deeply concerned about the chilling effect a Government controlled Internet could have on speech. Recent actions taken by foreign governments should make every American nervous when thinking about a Government controlled Internet.

That’s because the Internet is not just a more efficient way of engaging in commerce; it’s the greatest threat to tyrannical Governments in the world today. Autocrats like Putin do not want a free and open Internet. They want a “small I” Internet that runs more like their own personal intranet that they can control. America must remain a global leader for a free and open Internet and continue to tell countries like Iran, Russia, and China “No” on regulating the Internet access of their people, and their right to free speech.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that maintaining a free and open Internet is the goal. But more Government intervention will not help us reach that outcome. It will restrict the dynamism that has fueled the greatest revolution since Henry Ford invented the Model T, and choke political speech.

I believe this truly is a slippery slope scenario where years in the future, another Administration could use power over the Internet to censor speech and intimidate political opponents.

I know there will be those who try to dismiss this concern out of hand…But after the way our Government has operated over the last six years, does anyone really think we should just give Washington control over something as precious as the Internet?

Do we really want the same type of people who brought us the IRS scandal–where they targeted political opponents of the Administration–making decisions about political speech online? 

Should the same type of people who were responsible for the utter failure of the Veterans Administration be in a decision-making position on the future of the Internet? Can the same group of “tech experts” responsible for the roll out of Healthcare.gov really be entrusted with maintaining transparency and access online?

It’s up to us to preserve the Internet for our kids and grand kids as the one of the greatest forces for freedom the world has ever known. A Government-controlled Internet is not the right choice.

The FCC votes on February 26th. They need to hear from you today.

Please, join me today in calling on the Obama Administration and the FCC to keep the Internet open and free.

For Internet Freedom,

Sen. Ben Sasse
Republican–Nebraska

P.S. We don’t have much time left to tell the FCC “NO” on taking over the Internet. You need to make your voice heard today if you want to keep the Internet open and free.

They turned the doomsday clock for the first time in three years. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb, say the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight and the closest it has been in 30 years.

The main reason the scientist think why we are moving closer to doomsday is global warming and the new rise of nuclear weaponry. Global warming is becoming a huge threat. 2014 was the warmest year since modern record according to NASA.

More big news was the new report form Oxfam. The 85 richest people in the world as much wealth as half of the rest of the world. That would be 3,5 billion people. I wonder why it got wrong and where. I reading some books about it right now. This is great stuff for a doomsday movie – we just need to add some free masonary/ conspiracy theories and we are set.

I didn’t write about the killings in France. If you are wondering what the killings are about, below some cartoons. I can’t believe people have died because they made and published them. Freedom of Speech and expression is very important to me and our democracy. Killing us will not make us shut up.

I did have a good laugh seeing the cartoons. Hope you do as well and remember, people actually died for our laughs.

Yesterday, 10 years ago Theo van gogh was brutally murdered in Amsterdam. The Dutch magazine HP/ De tijd published three columns of van Gogh about freedom of speech.

People like van Gogh, Geert Wilders, Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali  alle openly and loudly expressed their disagreement with the islam and fundamentalist radicalism using the scripture to suppress people life’s.

We fought hard for the freedom of speech and the right for freedom of expression.

Every morning I when I cycle to work, I pass along a wall right outside the old Heineken brewery. 12 March 1945 30 resistance fighter were executed right there. The wall now reads in Dutch:

Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht
zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen
dan dooft het licht…

which translates to:

A nation that succumbs to tyrants
will lose more than body and property
then the light will be extinguished.

A while ago in 2008, someone modified it to read:

Een volk dat voor korannen zwicht
zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen
dan dooft het licht…

so it translates to:

A nation that succumbs to korans
will lose more than body and property
then the light will be extinguished.

I am not anti islam. I am pro freedom of expression and pro freedom of speech. If someone has an opinion about a book, a religion and is not able to express it, gets brutally murdered on a street with a knife in his chest with a note that someone is next – it causes trauma deep inside me. I am also anti violence. Just like 99,9% of all Dutch people.

Amsterdam is build on freedom of religion and expression among others. We will not allow any kind of religious fanatic take that right away from us or the lights will go out again just as in 1940. It will surely not happend again and we will all stand up against it.

Theo van Gogh would have smiled 4 years after his death if he would have seen the above transformation of the sentence put up in the middle of Amsterdam in honor of resistance fighter H.M. van Randwijk, but it gets an ugly meaning in the light of his death and why he died. He died because someone thinks that in Amsterdam you are not allowed to say what you think and openly express your opinion. You are damn wrong. You can think, feel, say whatever you want in this city and this is not going to change any time soon. Go ahead try killing us one after another. We will not let you kill the light. If you do not like it, get the hell out of here and go somewhere where the light is already out. In this city it will shine like the bright sun forever.

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