Category: Communications

Bush Political Show Trial Overturned

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I’m not normally on the side of overpaid chief executives, but Joe Nacchio is the exception.*

Nacchio was convicted of insider trading, but this has ju
st been overturned by the appellate court, and remanded back to the lower court, with a the old judge being removed from the case.

This is noteworthy, because much of the financial problems resulted from Qwest refusing to execute surveillance against the American public when requested to do so in February 2001, a full 7 months before the attacks on the Pentagon and WTC.

Basically, the judge excluded a number of arguments improperly, and he got seriously reamed out by the appellate court.

I believe that the prosecution was intended as a warning shot to other Telco executives by Bush and His Evil Minions™, “You do whatever we tell you, and f%$# the law, or you sleep with the Fishes.

It was 2-1 decision, with one ultraconservative Bush II appointee, Jerome Holmes, siding with a Bush I appointee who dropped 3 grand at a strip club one night, and may have patronized an “adult dating service”. He also parks in handicapped parking, and threatens people who complains.

We really are going to have to “debushify” our government when this is all over.

*Full disclosure, Qwest is my long distance carrier. I dumped AT&T and signed on with them about a year ago, specifically on the illegal surveillance issue.

What Technically Competent ISPs Do to Provide Service

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Verizon is investing resources in a technology called P4P, a PEER TO PEER technology which promises to reduce the burden on ISPs with regard to the distribution of commercial and licensed high bandwidth products.

This is what Bit-Torrent was designed to do. It was developed for things like Linux distros, and the idea was that when you released an upgrade, you would get the downloaders to share amongst themselves, so your server would not be vomiting blood.

Ars spoke with Verizon senior technologist and P4P workgroup co-chair Doug Pasko, who tells us that Verizon observed download performance improvements of approximately 200 percent during tests conducted with Pando. The performance boost can climb as high as 600 percent in some cases. Verizon believes that P2P technology is moving into the mainstream and is being legitimized for large-scale commercial content delivery. The company sees P4P as a way to enable broader commercial adoption of P2P tech while unclogging the tubes and relieving network congestion.

Since the efficacy of the P4P protocol largely relies on the availability of network topology information, Verizon and the P4P workgroup aim to make the new protocol an industrywide standard and convince other carriers to share their own data and participate. “Quite frankly, any carrier should benefit from this,” Pasko told Ars. The initiative has drawn support from a number of ISPs, including Comcast, which is currently facing scrutiny for impeding peer-to-peer traffic on its own network.

This is not to say that Verizon is not evil, after all they are the phone company, but they are not evil and stupid as ComCast is.

Books I Need To Read: Greenspan’s Bubbles

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I read an interest review of Greenspan’s Bubbles by William A. Fleckenstein:

… He sets out to deflate Alan Greenspan’s reputation by parsing Greenspan’s own comments during his tenure as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve. His conclusion?

“Greenspan bailed out the world’s largest equity bubble with the world’s largest real-estate bubble,” he writes. “That combination easily equates to the biggest orgy of speculation and debt creation the United States (and the world) has ever seen.”

Bernanke was left to sweep up after the debauch while Greenspan rewrote history in The Age of Turbulence.

I’m not sure that there is a whole bunch to learn from his book, so I’ll wait until it hits the library.

What I find interesting, and well deserved, is that Greenspan will find himself increasingly reviled in the final years of his life.

In a very real way, this is more than a repudiation of Greenspan, but it is also a repudiation of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism.

The fact that Greenspan endorsed the worst excesses of the market for ordinary people, but rushed to bail out the “noble entrepreneur”, is a direct consequence of his experience of Ayn Rand’s acolytes.

House to Hold Closed Session over FISA Update

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This is not a common event, and if you have a “blue dog” representative, call him, and make it clear that you will never vote for him for anything under any circumstances if he approves Telco immunity.

I’m still not sure what put some spine in the House dems, but when Pelosi is saying things like, “the president is wrong, and he knows it“, it’s clear that something has given them the will to resist Mr. Nineteen percent.

My theory is that when they left without passing telco immunity, they were overwhelmed at the support that they received, and that they realize that opposing Bush on anything for any reason is a winning tactic.

Of course, Senator Rockefeller is still determined to put telco immunity back in there. My guess is that he was briefed and signed off on it, and thinks that it will harm him politically.

Net Neutrality as Anti-Trust

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The Judiciary Committee has had hearings on this.

It’s a good sign, but I think that it’s more inside baseball than anything else. Specifically, has been before Ed Markey’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and in order to get it in front of the Justice Committee, they are looking at putting it in antitrust legislation.

The fact that two committees are now competing to get this passed is a good sign for network neutrality legislation.

Unexplained Testicle Sighting Among Congressional Democrats

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The house is completely defying Bush on the FISA wiretap update proposal.

Instead of immunity, they are putting forward giving, “the federal courts special authorization to hear classified evidence and decide whether the phone companies should be held liable.” Meaning that their answer to Bush’s demand for a coverup is even more judicial overview with regard to spying on Americans.

Word that I’ve read is that the freshman Democrats are very opposed to immunity, and my not so educated guess is that when they went on recess, that the reps got hundreds, if not thousands, of “attaboys” from theid constituents.

The Bush administration hates the bill, and the response for John Conyers and Sylvestre Reyes is brutal:

The Administration, which has refused to even attend negotiation sessions between the House and the Senate, has now apparently launched another round of scare tactics and falsehoods. The American people expect government officials to wrestle with these difficult issues and reach common sense solutions that protect Americans from terrorism and preserve our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the President’s advisors seem more inclined to issue ‘my way or the highway’ press releases concerning a bill the Administration hasn’t even read. The Congress will continue to give this issue the careful consideration it deserves and we hope the Administration will change course and join us in this effort.

I don’t know who put some steel in their spine, but it feels good.

FWIW, Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who got bunked by Reid on immunity, likes the House bill too.

So does the EFF.

I Don’t Think that I’m a Real Blogger

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I just discovered that both Matthew Yglesias and Duncan “Atrios” Black really hate making phone calls.

Personally, I’ve never done a whole bunch of phone calling for social purposes, except for when I was away from various girl friends, but I have used the phone to communicate information effectively.

I ran a bloody Science Fiction Convention with most of my staff on the other side of Massachusetts in 1990 and 1991, before meaningful email was common.

I would make phone calls, communicate my information, and get off. I wasn’t elegant of sparkling, but I worked the phone well.

I don’t understand “hating the phone”, any more than I understand hating postal mail, or email.

I do hate junk mail of all forms, that is content, rather than medium based.

Melanie Morgan Gets Well-Deserved Boot

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Citadel Broadcasting, which owns her station, KSFO, had declined to renew Malanie Morgan’s contract, see here and
here.

I wish that it was a sign that there are going to be limits to how scummy you can be, but a more likely reason is that they were trying to save cash.

Citadel is losing money hand over fist, and is also cutting extensively at their Chicago station, WLS, in what is described as bloodbath.

Bush Holds Press Conference, Desparately Tries to Convince Congress to Cover His Law_Breaking

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Yes, in addition to other matters, Bush is going full fear factor to sell the telco immunity.

I hope it won’t work. My sense is that the House stood up to him, and when they went home for the recess, they had constituents high-fiving them.

If they have any sense at all, they will tell Mr. 19% to pound sand.

They tried to collect all the phone records, and all the internet traffic, and they started in February 2001, 7 months before 9/11, and Bush is terrified that he’ll have to pay for his law breaking.

Let him twist in the wind.

Republican Feel Underappreciated by Telcos

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The Republicans are shocked that their efforts to cover-up illegal telco spying on Americans have gone unrewarded.

Despite their best efforts to get retroactive immunity to pass, they have not seen an increase in donation from phone and internet companies.

This isn’t surprising. The telcos know that immunity is to cover the collective asses of Bush and His Evil Minions™, and that the Republicans will cover his ass regardless of whether or not they donate to Republican campaigns.

You see, the telcos are trying to rent Democrats, because they know that the Republicans are already bought and paid for.

Rep. Markey Proposes Universal Access Bill for Wireless

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Rep. Markey has consistently been at the forefront of such things, and how he has proposed the Wireless Consumer Protection and Community Broadband Empowerment Act, which calls for the following:

  • Adequate and plain English disclosures about contracts.
  • Provision of more detailed coverage maps.
  • Require the sale of plans without early termination fees.
  • Require phone carriers to sell “subsidy free” phones.
  • Give municipalities the explicit right to offer broadband services, preempting state laws forbidding this.

Seems like a good bill to me.

Major Props to Senator Ben Cardin

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Earlier I wrote about my senator, Barbara Mikukski, and her voting for telco immunity, and the inadequacy of her response.

I also wrote to Ben Cardin, expressing my appreciation to him for voting against caving to George W. Bush. Major props to him:

Dear Mr. Saroff:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the President’s warrantless wiretapping program.

In February 2008 I voted against final passage of S. 2248, the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Amendments Act. The bill would have made permanent changes to the original FISA law in addition to many of the changes included in the Protect America Act (PAA). I am disappointed that the Senate has failed to a dequately improve the PAA which Congress enacted in August 2007, and which I also opposed . The PAA was intended to be a temporary solution to FISA, giving Congress the opportunity for a more careful consideration of amending the FISA law.

The President must have the necessary authority to track terrorists, intercept their communications, and disrupt their plots. Congress should make needed changes to FISA to account for changes in technology and rulings from the FISA Court involving purely international communications that pass through telecommunications routes in the United States . While we have a solemn obligation to protect the American people, we must simultaneously uphold the Constitution and protect our civil liberties.

After learning about executive branch abuses in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress passed very specific laws which authorize electronic surveillance. Congress has regularly updated these measures over the years to provide the executive branch the tools it needs to investigate terrorists, while preserving essential oversight mechanisms for the courts and the Congress. FISA requires the government to seek an order or warrant from the FISA Court before conducting electronic surveillance that may involve US persons. The Act also provides for post-surveillance notice to the FISA Court by the Attorney General in an emergency.

I am very concerned that the FISA law was disregarded by the Administration, and want to ensure that we put an end to this type of abuse. We are a nation of laws and no one is above the law, including the President and Attorney General. Congress has the right to know the extent of the warrantless wiretapping program and how it was initiated and changed over the years by this Administration.

I voted in favor of the Judiciary Committee substitute to the Intelligence Committee bill. The Judiciary Committee version strengthened Congressional and judicial review, including increasing the oversight by the FISA Court of the Administration’s wiretapping program. I am therefore very disappointed that the Senate rejected the Judiciary Committee substitute, and that the Senate has rejected numerous amendments – including an amendment that I had offered which would reduce the length of the reauthorization from six to four years – to improve this legislation.

I am hopeful that the House will make much needed improvements in this legislation during conference, and that I can support balanced legislation that gives the intelligence community the tools it needs to track terrorists and prevent attacks, while maintaining safeguards against the abuse of power by the executive branch. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will continue to work to ensure the safety and security of the American people, as well as their civil liberties. Domestic eavesdropping raises serious and fundamental questions regarding the conduct of the war against terrorism, the Constitutional and privacy rights of Americans, and the separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Congress must continue to work to strike the right balance, and we did not achieve that goal with this legislation.

Thank you again for contacting me, and please feel free to do so again in the future.

New York Times Puts Siegleman News Blackout in Alabama In OP/ED

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They write about the fact that WHNT, a CBS affiliate, went to black during the 60 minutes presentation of the politicization of the prosecution of former governor Don Siegleman.

Last two ‘graphs:

In 1969, the F.C.C. revoked the license of WLBT in Jackson after the commission established a systematic effort by the broadcaster to suppress information about the civil rights movement. Today, broadcast rules have changed, giving stations more leeway to decide what to air. Dropping a single report is unlikely to set the regulators in motion. Still, it would be deeply troubling if a partisan broadcaster could suppress information on the public airwaves and hide behind a technical fig leaf.

In this case, if the blackout was intentional, it may also have been counterproductive. Rather than take attention away from allegations that Mr. Siegelman was the victim of a partisan campaign, WHNT’s technical glitch seems to lend support to the charge.

Based on what is going on in Alabama, I’m coming to believe that this prosecution was driven by political considerations.

Otherwise, why would the GOP there be so freaked out and hypersensitive about this.

Bush and His Evil Minions™ Say that Telcos Will Not Cooperate with Surveillance Requests…Except, of Course They Are Cooperating

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Yep, McConnell and Mukasey are at it again claiming that intelligence is being lost because there is no Telco Immunity, except of course for this:

But hours later, administration officials told lawmakers that the final holdout among the companies had relented and agreed to fully participate in the surveillance program, according to an official familiar with the issue.

The Telcos broke the law and surveilled people without warrants, startinb 7 months before 9-11, and they would like to be excused, but it is not stopping them from cooperating new.