A misplaced personal opinion rant: The new United States, where everything is written and reported as us vs the nefarious them, where everything is a conspiracy.
As if the sensationalist, yellow dog journalistic title, "Broadband Trojan Horse" wasn't a big enough clue, I knew this article would be an alarmist screed by the first sentence, which uses the word "ram" and "controversial" and "Obama" in the same sentence. For Christ's sake I am so tired of the relentless fear-mongering. If I were to believe all this junk I'd be running into Iranian Revolutionary Guards teamed together with Bolsheviks around every corner. Writers like live in opposite world in my opinion. The ones actually doing any crazy things are the riled up lunatics who see boogeymen and socialists under every leaf. Just yesterday the Texas School Board pulled Thomas Jefferson (a Diest) from the textbooks in favor of John Calvin, among many other politically and backwardly revisionist changes. One of the Board Members, advising on the subject of Economics, did not even know who Milton Friedman was. Yeah, tell me what the real threats to our country are today... Last night I watched the first installment of Hank's new Pacific mini-series, an American master piece like Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. I followed that with a late night watching Apollo 13. As I lay down to sleep, I reflected on what we have become as a people since those days of great national unity, though not without challenges of course, but at least unified toward some greater common goal and ideal. I wonder if the wedge-driving nature of how we conduct our national dialogue and get our, uhem, "news" today is only capable of further subverting our common interests and repeling each other. Misplaced personal opinion rant off. Patrick Leary A veteran An American, like many of you -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Broadwick Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 1:30 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: [WISPA] From Today's WSJ REVIEW & OUTLOOK MARCH 15, 2010 Broadband Trojan Horse The FCC has a new plan but doesn't want a vote. Health care isn't the only policy arena in which the Obama Administration aims to ram through controversial new rules. The Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil a "national broadband plan" opposed by industry and without any of the five commissioners voting on it. Last year, Congress directed the FCC to develop a plan to make high-speed Internet available to more people. But given that 95% of Americans already have access to some form of broadband-and 94% can choose from at least four wireless carriers-rapid broadband deployment is already occurring without new government mandates. Since 1998, the FCC has classified broadband as an "information service" subject to less regulation than traditional telecom services. The Supreme Court's Brand X decision in 2005 validated that classification, and the upshot has been more investment, innovation and competition among Internet service providers, all to the benefit of consumers. In 2009 alone, broadband providers spent nearly $60 billion on their networks. Absent any evidence of market failure, the best course for the FCC is to report back to Congress that a broadband industrial policy is unnecessary. Instead, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is moving to increase the reach of his agency and expand government control of the Web. Among other things, he wants broadband services reclassified so the FCC can more heavily regulate them. The national broadband plan, to be unveiled tomorrow, will call for using the federal Universal Service Fund to subsidize broadband deployment. The USF currently subsidizes phone service in rural areas, and Mr. Genachowski knows that current law prevents it from being used to subsidize broadband unless broadband is reclassified as a telecom service. Congress ought to be wary of letting the FCC expand its jurisdiction through back doors like this. Mr. Genachowski wants more control over broadband providers so that he can implement "net neutrality" rules that would dictate how AT&T, Verizon and other Internet service providers manage their networks. To date, Congress has given the FCC no such authority. Nor has the agency had success in court. Based on oral arguments last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is almost certain to rule against the FCC in a case involving Comcast's network management. At the urging of liberal advocacy groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge, Mr. Genachowski also wants to use the national broadband plan as a vehicle for returning to the bad old 1990s era of "open access" regulations. He recommends forcing major broadband providers like Time Warner Cable and Qwest to share their high-speed networks with smaller competitors at federally set rates. We can't think of a better way to reduce capital investment and slow the build-out of high-speed networks. Mr. Genachowski's proposals are meeting resistance from telecom companies and fellow commissioners, which is reason enough to put his broadband plan to an agency vote. Instead, the chairman is urging his colleagues to sign a general statement that endorses the goals of the plan and ignores the details. "Instead of risking a split vote among the five regulators on approving the plan," reports National Journal, "Genachowski is seeking consensus on a joint statement, which sources said would provide him with some political cover for the controversies that are certain to be triggered by some of the plan's recommendations." The FCC chairman and his staff have spent the better part of a year preparing a major report while keeping his colleagues largely in the dark. What happened to the Obama Administration's promise to be open and transparent? Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Regards, Jeff Jeff Broadwick Sales Manager, ImageStream 800-813-5123 x106 (US/Can) +1 574-935-8484 x106 (Int'l) +1 574-935-8488 (Fax) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
