The big stories this week continue to be LightSquared and cybersecurity. Even as House Democrats complain about government doing too much, incredibly , we see that Senate Democrats are so inflexible that John McCain is in a gang of Republicans to fight the Democrats on the cybersecurity bill. Consider that. That’s how extreme Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller, and Susan Collins are on this. John McCain is putting together a team to make a Republican bill with Kay Bailey Hutchison and others, rather than sign on with a Democrat on a bill. Danger, Will Robinson! Harry Reid is that much of an extremist! Reid is rushing to pass it, but details come out anyway, such as an attack on FOIA . Transparency! Not. Speaking of transparency, the firm that the Barack Obama FCC has remained oddly silent on, and that insists the FCC should remain silent on, is ready to go on the offensive . It almost seems like LightSquared bet the company on this, and will go down swinging. They may end up making a spectrum trade though , which if workable would be interesting. There is good news, though. The tax deal has essentially forced the President to go along with some FCC spectrum reform . With current technology, spectrum is a finite resource that we must manage for the greater good. That means getting into the hands of the people who can use it the best, and we can decide that with market forces. Spectrum auctions create jobs though, as we’ve seen with LightSquared, Some spectrum needs to be held aside for national security, civil defense , and first responders. PATENT WARS. Well, Patent and Trademark wars. China steals iPads in its fascist bias against the foreign Apple claim . Turns out though that Amazon’s recent actions in China were not anti-Apple and were unrelated to the trademark battle. Apple is on the winning side in another country, though. Apple is winning over Motorola Mobility (the firm being acquired by Google, so soon this will be a direct Apple-Google war) over Motorola’s apparent infringement of a slide-to-unlock patent. I believe Google will solve this by using another gesture for unlocking a phone. Oh yes, and another Google/Apple thing to pas the popcorn on: Google tries to track you even when your iPhone tries to stop it . Google is almost certainly lying through its teeth when it claims that it’s not tracking anything at all. That’s what Google does, it’s their core product: the synthesis of information to sell targeted advertising. That’s why they made the huge stink about unifying your accounts across sites and unifying the privacy rules for them. But this an industry matter. The inflated egos on Capitol Hill need to take Will Riker’s advice to the fake Jean-Luc Picard: “Shut up. Close your mouth and stop talking.” Nobody wants to hear them talking to hear themselves talk, and nobody needs any legislation. Mary Bono Mack: You’re still my representative. I so badly wish you’d find something productive to do. We don’t need a privacy nanny. We really don’t. Government regulation is harder to avoid and more dangerous than anything Google is doing. Google is optional. You people aren’t. The fact is people want to sell their privacy. It’s just not that valuable to them. Firms off the Internet have worked that angle for years . And guess what? When people can buy a little of your privacy, they can sell you stuff cheap, or even free . You have a choice. Use it, or not. Leave government out of it. The Anontards keep hitting webpages . Anonymous is even a failure at life than the Occupations. These social outcasts, jerks and losers who tell themselves they have Asperger’s Syndrome so that they don’t risk killing themselves for being just total wastes of human flesh, they are unbathed, semi-literate, lazy fools who can’t have a conversation and barely even try. And they deface webpages! Inconveniencing innocent third parties, costing the taxpayers (including their parents, I’m sure) without actually accomplishing anything. Joy! Again, Add the SEC to the list of runaway regulators being cheered by George Soros-funded front groups like Free Press. We have to beat Obama. I’m sorry, but you’re blind if you can’t see that there’s a striking, huge, wide gap between this radical socialist and any Republican. That’s right. Any Republican. Yes, including the one you don’t like. I don’t care. Read, study, and watch this. The EPA, the FCC, the FTC, the SEC, they’re all packed with radicals who believe themselves above the law. Next they’re coming after school lunches. Just watch. This administration is dangerously out of control.
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Tech at Night: Cybersecurity battle sends McCain to find Republican help, LightSquared fights, Obama regulators are dangerous!
I meant to talk about the cybersecurity bill on Monday as it’s a big story. But, it’s gotten even bigger since. You see, a broad spectrum of Republicans is coming out against it. Names like Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain, Mike Enzi, Saxby Chambliss, Jeff Sessions , and even Lisa Murkowski are against the crazy Rush Harry Reid and the Democrats are putting on the bill pushed by Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller, and Susan Collins. And they’re right to oppose it. The case is overblown , and even if they claim the Internet Kill Switch is gone , it’s still a power grab. We’re at the point where Dianne Feinstein is a voice of reason , as she promotes voluntary data sharing, a plan Tech at Night has previously supported when also proposed by Dan Lungren in the House. Yeah, seriously. If you know California political history you know how funny it is that Republican Lungren and Democrat Feinstein now have another thing in common. But I think they’re both right on this. The way we’ll get more secure is to share more data and to prosecute the offenders. In other major news, the FCC has rejected LightSquared’s proposal to build a terrestrial wireless LTE network. Long time readers will remember that at first I leaned heavily toward LightSquared on this matter. I did and do think that in isolation, their case was strong that they should be able to do what they planned, and use their spectrum in a new way to improve wireless competition in America. But, Grover Norquist may disagree , I now suspect it was the right call. I’m skeptical of LightSquared because I think Chuck Grassley was asking the right questions . Rather than prejudge the matter, he wanted transparency from the FCC, and continues to demand it even though the FCC is trying to sweep this under the rug. With both the FCC and LightSquared objecting to Grassley’s transparency demands, one does have to wonder if something is there. LightSquared says it will fight on , and I don’t see why they shouldn’t. This is a big deal for them and, frankly, it’s a huge deal for universal Internet access in America. I expect they’ll lose, but they’ve got to try. China’s war on iPads continues in the name of Proview International. Now, I don’t know if Proview International is controlled by the People’s Liberation Army or Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Amazon’s even been bullied into the act , at least in China. Meanwhile, Chinese companies ignore our property rights all the time. Where’s the enforcement? Where’s the Administration to stick up for America? Where is Barack Obama? Hiding under the bed like the gutless wonder he is, that’s where. And where’s the Congress? Hyperventilating over non-stories against Apple, while the free market already solved the privacy problem . Quick links: I’m skeptical of some of the anti-AT&T reports , but if AT&T is arbitrarily throttling unlimited users instead of just letting them out of their contracts, then I object (as someone under contract with AT&T with an unlimited data plan, so in theory this affects me most directly). They shouldn’t be able to get the best of both worlds: changing the conditions while keeping people from punishing them for that by leaving to a competitor. Do fraudulent phone users have a reasonable expectation of privacy ? The courts seem to be saying no. I think I agree. Crime in itself should not be a free pass to commit more crime. Will new technologies threaten broadcast television ? I sure hope so, especially if we keep on pushing incentive auctions to transfer spectrum from broadcast television to wireless Internet. GSA opens up to competition , allowing people to switch from Blackberry to Android or Apple iPhones. RIM weeps. The SEC of all things gets into the Net Neutrality wars . See? Every single Obama regulator is working in concert to expand government, picking winners and losers in the marketplace. FCC spectrum auction reform may get passed as a rider on a tax deal . Hooray! Note that according to The Hill’s article, Democrats are openly complaining that they want to rig auctions to pick who wins them, or at least who doesn’t win them. Picking winners and losers. Corrupt from top to bottom.
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Tech at Night: Harry Reid’s rush to pass an Internet power grab. LightSquared LOSES at the FCC thanks to Chuck Grassley?
From the diaries by Erick I have an OpEd in the National Review today about the Club for Growth PAC endorsement of Richard Mourdock for U.S. Senate in Indiana: “Earmarks,” also known as pork-barrel spending, are considered a “gateway drug” to corruption and bigger government in Washington. They got that well-deserved title because there’s a history of both Republicans and Democrats using earmarks as a currency to buy votes for all sorts of bad policies. Sometimes, members of Congress have actually taken bribes in exchange for obtaining earmarks. The system was abused so badly that Americans shamed both parties into passing a temporary ban on the practice. Thankfully, there are very few Republicans left who still support earmarks. Regrettably, one of the remaining few is 35-year Indiana senator Richard Lugar. He continues to stand in favor of earmarks to this day. Recently, Lugar was one of only thirteen Republicans to join Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid in voting against a permanent ban on earmarks. That was the final straw for the Club for Growth PAC, which has now endorsed Lugar’s conservative challenger, Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock. Click here to read the whole thing . I hope the RedState community will join the Club for Growth PAC in support of change in Indiana. Chris Chocola President, Club for Growth
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It’s Time to Bring Lugar Home
Memo to GOP candidates: Make Harry Reid an issue. See the article here: McGurn: The Do-Nothing Senate
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McGurn: The Do-Nothing Senate
In yet another installment of the “New Tone Rules Only Apply to Republicans” series, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday to accuse “Republicans” of using the payroll tax cut bill to extort the Democrat majority for the right to personally poison the American people. Yes, you heard that right: the Senate Majority Leader took a page out of former Rep. Alan “Republicans want you to die quickly” Grayson’s (D-FL) book and delivered that accusation from the floor of the United States Senate. Naturally, this came only two weeks after Reid called on both sides – the dirty, evil, water-poisoning Republicans and the good-hearted Democrats – to “achieve greater results for the American people.” Video and transcript are below: In exchange for extending this middle class tax break, Republicans are insisting, among other things, that we pass unrelated ideological legislation that will make our water less safe to drink. This would allow mercury and other carcigonens [sic] to be put in our water supply. That’s a pretty stark compromise. We’ll give you a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans if you will let us continue to put things like arsenic and mercury in the water of the American people . I’d say that rhetoric like this is beyond the pale – which it is, of course – but the media and civility police (inasmuch as they’re different) are busy reserving their outrage for the next Republican “dog whistle” of a comment whose insensitivity and violent intentions only they can hear.
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Harry Reid: Republicans are Personally Poisoning the American People
