Category: Communications

Senator Barbara Mikulski Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass

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A week or so ago, I sent an email to my Senators regarding the FISA update and Telco immunity.

I congratulated Ben Cardin, and castigated Senator Barbara Mikulski for their votes on telco immunity, which is really all about covering up the misdeeds of the Bush administration.

Here is her response, and my comments, which I’m not sending, because it won’t do any good:

Thank you for getting in touch with me to express your concerns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). I appreciate learning of your views about this important matter.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am very aware that terrorists plan and intend to harm the United States and the American people. I hear about these threats every day – and I take them very seriously. Yet I agree with you – that even as our nation faces new threats, Constitutional protections must be safeguarded.

Which is why she decided to allow the phone companies to Hoover the records of every call in the US and all the internet traffic.

To quote Keith Olbermann:

Mark Klein is the AT&T whistleblower who appeared on this newscast last November, who explained, in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all of AT&T’s circuits — everything carrying every phone call, every e-mail, every bit of web browsing — into a secure room…

…Room Number 641-A, at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco — where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it; not just the international part of it; certainly not just the stuff some truly patriotic and telepathic spy might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.

Everything.

Every time you looked at a naked picture, every time you bid on eBay, every time you phoned-in a donation to a Democrat.

“My thought was ‘George Orwell’s 1984,’” Mr. Klein told me, reflecting back, “and here I am, being forced to… connect the Big Brother machine.”

You know, Mr. Bush, if Mr. Klein’s “Big Brother Machine” — the one the Vice President conveniently just confirmed for us — if it was of any damn use at all at actually finding anything, you could probably program it to find out who started that slanderous e-mail about Barack Obama.

Your actions are inexcusable and unforgivable.

The FISA Act was created in 1978 to regulate how electronic surveillance was conducted in the United States . This law needs to be updated to account for changes in communications technology over the last thirty years.

I’ve yet to see any reason for this. What FISA says is, “if you think that there is an issue with foreign communications, you get the tap, but a judge has to approve it within 72 hours.

That’s why I voted for a bipartisan bill that updates a number of problems with the existing law. This new legislation (S. 2248) strengthens national security while protecting civil liberties. The bill also strengthens the role of the FISA Court by requiring greater judicial review and improves oversight and accountability of the entire FISA process. The Senate passed S. 2248 by a vote of 68 – 29 on February 12, 2008. One key provision I fought to include in this bill was a requirement that a warrant must be approved by the FISA Court to monitor a U.S. person anywhere in the world. This new protection means that the Constitution travels with you – even beyond the borders of the United States.

Under FISA, you need a warrant within 72 hours for anyone. How is this “stronger”.

I understand your concerns about providing limited liability protection to telecommunication companies who assisted the government’s efforts to disrupt terrorist plots in the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001. While the Bush Administration wanted full retroactive immunity for these companies and any White House employee or government official involved in the warrantless wiretapping program, S. 2248 provides a more narrow, focused, and limited liability protection . I strongly supported an amendment offered by Senator Feinstein that would have required the FISA Court to determine if liability protection should be afforded to these telecommunications companies. Unfortunately, that amendment failed to get enough votes to become part of the bill.

Your ignorance astonishes me. This program did not start, “the days following the attacks on September 11, 2001”, it started in February, 2001, a full 7 months before the attacks, and it is clear now that the administration used threats of retribution on government contracts, as in the case of Qwest to get compliance.

When the Senate debated this bill, I supported this protection because those companies were acting in good faith under assurances from the President and the Attorney General that what they were being asked to do was legal. You should know that I also support holding accountable those Bush Administration officials who disregarded the law under the President’s secret wiretapping program.

These companies have legal departments. They know the law. And they are already protected when they follow the law. If they were told that a FISA warrant was in process, they would be indemnified.

Your claim that you, “support holding accountable those Bush Administration officials who disregarded the law under the President’s secret wiretapping program”, is a lie.

Whats more, in your capacity as a member of the intelligence committee, YOU are one of those people who allowed him to disregard the law.

I have heard from many Marylanders on this important issue and I appreciate hearing of your concerns. While we may disagree on some parts of this reform, we both share the same goal of strengthening national security while protecting our civil liberties.

No, you are interested in covering your ass, in one of the bluest states in the nation against Republican attack ads. That;s why you, and about 1/3 of the Democratic Senatorial caucus folded like broccoli to George W. Bush, who is less popular than hemorrhoids.

Again, thanks for keeping in touch with me. Please let me know if I may be of assistance to you in the future.

Sincerely,
Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator

Just so you know, I will never vote for you in a primary or general ever again, nor will I give to an organization that endorses you.

McCains Denials are False, So Says….John McCain

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Michael Isikoff has the goods: McCain’s claims of never talking to anyone from Paxson Communications is false:

A sworn deposition that Sen. John McCain gave in a lawsuit more than five years ago appears to contradict one part of a sweeping denial that his campaign issued this week to rebut a New York Times story about his ties to a Washington lobbyist.

On Wednesday night the Times published a story suggesting that McCain might have done legislative favors for the clients of the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, who worked for the firm of Alcalde & Fay. One example it cited were two letters McCain wrote in late 1999 demanding that the Federal Communications Commission act on a long-stalled bid by one of Iseman’s clients, Florida-based Paxson Communications, to purchase a Pittsburgh television station.

Just hours after the Times’s story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response……

But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. “I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue,” McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. “He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint.”

…

McCain’s subsequent letters to the FCC—coming around the same time that Paxson’s firm was flying the senator to campaign events aboard its corporate jet and contributing $20,000 to his campaign—first surfaced as an issue during his unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid. William Kennard, the FCC chair at the time, described the sharply worded letters from McCain, then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, as “highly unusual.”

So, what we have here at best is what he did with Charles Keating, and now he is lying about it.

You have more details on his ties to lobbyists and wealthy pay-to-play campaign contributors here and here.

The Washington Post notes that McCain’s paid campaign staff is full of lobbyists, which kind of means that when AP Reporter Glen Johnson heckled Mitt Romney about not having lobbyist on staff, he was being unfair and unprofessional.

Rep Markey Tries Incrementalism In New Net Neutrality Bill

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Once again, the draw by crayon libertarians at CNET get it wrong, and Harold Feld at TOTSF gets it right.

This is a change, and while it seems minor at least to the folks at CNET, it’s not.

Specifically, it ammends the FCC act of 1934 and adds a specific goal for the regulators at the FCC:

by adopting and enforcing baseline protections to guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoratism for, or degredation of, operators based upon its source, ownership or destination on the Internet.

In addition, this explicitly gives the FCC authority over “information services”, and eliminates the argument that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 stripped this authority.

Go read the whole post.

WYPR and Marc Steiner, the Saga Continues

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While I’d like to know what is going on, if just for my own selfish voyeuristic edification, my initial reaction is that this is typical public radio bull#$@! politics. If someone wants to enlighten me, feel free.

In perusing the pages of WYPR and Marc Steiner’s blog, it appears that things are not developing in a kind manner regarding the cancellation of his show.

The President’s message about the cancellation has been updated so that it actually mentions the name “Marc Steiner”, and Steiner has a blog post suggesting that WYPR is attempting to minimize public input, and another which mentions that he’s hired on one of his WYPR producers has been hired on to his production company, The Center for Emerging Media.

In the middle of all this, WYPR has pushed back its membership drive from February to April, largely, I think, in the hope of it all blowing over.

Mark Steiner Show Cancelled

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Mark Steiner, who has hosted the local NPR station’s Noon to 2 pm talk show has been fired. They are replacing it with a show called “Statewide”.

It appears that, with WYPR now simulcasting from Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore, that there may have been clashes over the focus of the show. Steiner has spent the bulk of his shows dealing with Baltimore City issues.

In any case, it looks like it might be getting nasty, with Steiner saying that, “his firing was the result of philosophical and personality differences with WYPR President Anthony A. Brandon”, and Barbara Bozzuto, WYPR board chairman, saying that, “Steiner and management had been at odds over what direction his show should take”.

The station’s president’s response is here, but it’s not worth the read. It just mentions unspecified schedule changes, and does not mention Steiner at all.

There’s already been a protest, though that would happen with any major programming change at most public radio stations.

I don’t have a dog in this hunt. I listened to him occasionally, but I’m not generally in the car then.

If anyone has insights, please post them here, or email me (see link on right).

Something Weird is Going On With the Cut Internet Cables

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We have had three major fiber optic cables cut, and they , carrying the bulk of internet traffic for the Middle East and India, and it’s been confirmed that ships did not cut internet cables with their anchors.

Three widely spaced cables have been severed, and the chance that this would occur as random chance is vanishingly small.

I don’t know what it is.

It’s unlikely to be terrorist, because media like the internet help them both in their internal communication and their propaganda.

It could be some sort of attempt by some of the more despotic regimes in the area to get control of the internet, but the economic consequences of this does not make sense.

If I put on my tinfoil hat, I think that it’s the NSA using creative destruction in order to get taps on the lines, kind of how they used submarines to put taps on lines running from the Kamchatka peninsula to the Soviet mainland during the Cold War.

I Disagree With Paul Krugman

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Dr. Krugman comments on the redefinition of high speed internet penetration. It’s now considered complete in a zipcode if one person gets over 200 kb/s.

So Bush is declaring “Mission Accomplished” on broadband, which is, once again, a lie.

However, I disagree with Krugman on the problem.

It’s not, “the failure of US policy to create effective competition”, it is a lack of regulation.

The incumbent providers are not spending money on upgrading the infrastructure because it is not to their business advantage to upgrade the infrastructure.

It is more profitable, and requires less capital, to put up barriers to other entrants into the field.

Europe and Japan with their state owned telecommunications monopolies, and their highly regulated wireless infrastructure are kicking our butt, because the market does not work in this area.

C-Block Bidding: We Have A Winner, Actually TWO Winners

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And one is the American wireless user, because whoever won, and the FCC has not announced a winner yet, will pay $4,713,823,000, more than the $4,600,000,000 required by the FCC in order for open access rules to apply.

The FCC has not announced a winner, and the bidders themselves are technically still gagged, but my guess is that it was not Google. They were willing to bid to win, but they were more interested in getting the open access, and why spend $113,823,000 more than the minimum to get that.

Of course, considering my record on predictions…..

Are Telcos Trying to Sabotage Open Access Spectrum Auction

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It appears that bidders on the C-Block spectrum are colluding to keep the bid price low enough to eliminate open access rules.

Though $8.66 billion has been raised in 12 rounds by the auction so far, it still has a long way to run before it loses steam — more than 1000 separate bids were submitted in Tuesday’s closing round. The D block still has plenty of time to attract more bidders, particularly as the price of the C block and other regional licenses escalate. (For complete auction results see the FCC’s Auction 73 page)

Such escalation, though, appears to be exactly what the C-block participants are bent on preventing. The C-block bidders slowed down their pace Tuesday, taking turns bidding on the license every other round. That not only prevented the license from crossing the $4.6 billion reserve threshold, it also served to knock down the minimum bids required to take the lead in consecutive rounds. According to the FCC’s rules, the minimum bid falls each round a license fails to attract a new bidder. The strategy has definitely slowed down the momentum of C-block bidding, but even at the rate of one bid every other round, the license will clear the reserve ceiling in the next two days. To secure the top bid in Wednesday’s open Round 13, a participant will have to pony up $4.29 billion.

Also the Block D auction seems to be stalling, my guess is that this is a result of Cyrene Call corruption issues. This block is supposed to be shared with public safety agencies, with said agencies having complete control in an emergency, and to be open access.

Reports of Corruption in FCC D Block Auction

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Once again, I would direct you to Harold Feld’s “Tales of the Sausage Factory”, here, and here, with a backup from Morningstar and News.com.

The short story is as follows, a company was formed, Frontline, to bid on the portions D block auction.

Frontline actively lobbied for the partnership with public safety agencies, and based its entire business model on such a network.

The idea was that whoever built the network would then sell access at a discounted basis to the public safety community. Any spare capacity would then be sold to the commercial wireless industry.

Frontline was expected to bid for 10 megahertz of spectrum, which would give the winner a national license with which they could build a next-generation wireless broadband cellphone and communications network.

…


O’Brien also told Frontline that in addition to negotiating for public safety agencies, Cyren Call intended to become the “monopoly buyer” of broadband service on the network once it was complete.

Under this arrangement, Frontline would be obliged to negotiate with Cyren Call when discussing terms of how the network would be built, and then be forced to sell the bulk of the access to Cyren Call once it was up and running.

OK, this seems straightforward, if a bit involved, but the FCC added something else, “In order to ensure the winner of the D-block license cooperates with the public safety community, the FCC rules say if it is deemed the licensee wasn’t negotiating in “good faith” it could be forced to forfeit more than $100 million and lose all rights to the spectrum it had acquired.”

But the FCC gave no direction as to what it meant. So it was completely vague.

It gets worse, Cyren Call, an organization set up by Morgan O’Brien (the Billionaire who founded Nextel) was negociating “on behalf of the public safety community”, but it is clear that his end goal was that he be the one of control of this spectrum, and so he was throwing around outrageous demands, such as a $500 million dollar fee.

He deliberately scared off Frontline’s investors so that he could be in control, despite the fact that he was representing the public safety providers and had a fiduciary responsibility to them.

My Letters to My Senators on Telco Immunity

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I had to send two very different letters, because Ben Cardin voted against retroactive Telco immunity, and Barbara Mikulski voted for it.

To the Honorable Barbara Mikulski:

I have no idea why you were one of the 12 Democratic Senators to vote for Telecommunications Company immunity in the recent vote on the FISA update.

However, I will tell you as a lifelong Democrat, I can find no reason for you to do so.

Given the electoral dynamics of Maryland, you are at no risk, and in any case, you are not up for election this year.

The activity that you voted to indemnify PRE-DATED THE 911 ATTACKS, and the demands of the Bush administration, and were CLEARLY illegal.

Indemnification is an attempt to cover up the clearly illegal actions of the Bush administration and the NSA to illegally spy on Americans.

Absent a convincing justification for this vote, I cannot support you, or vote for you in the future.

This is not an issue of national security. FISA as it exists already includes the necessary mechanisms to make our country secure, notwithstanding DNI Michael McConnell’s lies on this matter.

This is not a matter for politics, or for listening to lobbyists employed by the telecommunications industry.

These actions were clearly illegal, which is why Qwest refused this access, and given the intensity of the desire of the Bush administration on this issue, I can only conclude that the purpose of this immunity is to cover up systematic surveillance of political opponents.

To the Honorable Benjamin Cardin:

I appreciate your vote on to remove telecommunications immunity from the FISA update.

This is a matter beyond politics, and it strikes at core of our constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches.

Much of the illegal activity in question was taken months before the attacks on 9-11, and it was unequivocally illegal.

The desire for immunity on the part of the Bush administration is clearly driven by a desire to cover up their role in illegally spying on American citizens, which very likely involved spying political opponents.

Personally, I would consider any vote to create retroactive immunity to be unacceptable, and dangerous to our republic.

You can find a list of the Democratic Senators who betrayed their oaths of office here.

Telethon For Democrats Without Balls, FISA Edition

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Really. I’m serious.

Here is Harry Reid, getting ready to completely capitulate on civil rights protection and telco immunity in the FISA update.

I should note that once again, Chris Dodd is excluded from my approbiation, as he is still threatening a filibuster on telco immunity.

Glenn Greenwald nails it:

Here we have a perfect expression of the most self-destructive Democratic disease which they seem unable to cure. More than anything, they fear looking ‘weak.’ To avoid this, they ‘cave’ and surrender and capitulate and stand for nothing. As a result, they are, as here, endlessly described in the media as ‘caving’ and surrendering. As a result, they look (and are) weak. It’s a self-destructive cycle that has no end.

I want my party back.

How about we try voodoo to raise Harry S Truman and Lyndon Baines Johnson from the grave, and send them to Congress to bitch slap Reid and Pelosi.

It’s like throwing away an impeachment investigation, even as just a technique to extract documents, because it trumps executive privilege.

NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!