Happy 4th of July everyone!  Celebrate safe.

-TF

City Council members who voted 13-1 in favor of the punitive measure said it could affect about $8 million in contracts with Arizona, but Los Angeles must first decide which of those agreements it can break without triggering lawsuits.

In response, Arizona’s Corporation Commissioner Gary Price sent a letter to the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, cautioning him to go ahead with the boycott.

If and economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation.  I am confidant that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands.  If, however, you find that the City Counsil lacks the strengths and conviction to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.

Read the letter at the link, it is truly awesome!

-TF

We certainly wouldn’t send her home for wearing the American Flag!

Enjoy,

-TF

On the other hand, though, students are kicked off of campus for wearing American Flag shirts to school.

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts “incendiary” that would lead to fights on campus.

“They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended,” Dominic Maciel, Galli’s friend, said.

The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension.

In other news, a typo caused one of the biggest down and ups on wall street, causing the dow to lose almost 10% yesterday!

One possibilility being investigated was that a trader accidentally placed an order to sell $16 billion, instead of $16 million, worth of futures, and that was enough to trigger sell orders across the market.

‘No-fly list’ flaws.  No Shit?  From Thomas Frank, USA TODAY, “The TSA tacitly acknowledged flaws Tuesday when it required airlines to adopt a new procedure for the no-fly list used at airports to prescreen passengers.”

As the BP oil spill story grows more and more interesting every day; claims of safety violation, new proposed methods of stopping the leak, ect., Pres. Obama and other members of congress are being scrutenized for the large amounts of campaign contributions that they recieved from the oil and gas company.

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

An Obama spokesman rejected the notion that the president took big oil money.

Your Daily Dose of Creepy…Lawrence Taylor charged with rape and solicitation.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was arrested Thursday on rape and prostitution charges in an assault on a 16-year-old runaway who police said was brought to his suburban New York City hotel room against her will.

Your Daily Dose of Awesome…May is the official Zombie Awareness Month of the Zombie Research Society.

-TF

From the BBC…

The US Coast Guard says five times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from a well beneath where a rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

As the Deepwater Horizion oil spill reaches the Louisianna shore, and although it’s really not a spill; it is a leak caused by an explosion aboard an offshore platform that is now seaping 5000 barrells (210,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day, it’s been suggested that this unfortunate disaster could be equated to Pres. Obama as Hurricane Katrina was equated to Pres. Bush.  This happening only about a month after Obama announces plans to open up more offshore drilling.

For 8 Days, the oil leaked.  Pres. Obama didn’t even make a statement until 6 days after the event which left 11 people missing and assumed dead. 

From Business Insider…

Today the story got elevated to national emergency level, but the explosion on the rig happened eight days ago!

While numerous investigations will no doubt be launched into the companies behind the rig (BP, Transocean), will anyone ask what the DHS and The White House have been doing for 8 days, while an ecological disaster was unfolding in such a sensitive region?

We’re guessing that unlike Bush, Obama will largely get a pass. Katrina played into a narrative of Bush ignoring the plight of the poor and African-Americans. Nobody is suggesting that Obama is bad on the environment. Also, just generally, an ecological disaster won’t elicit the same kind of emotional response as a human tragedy (for good reason).

Business Insider is likely correct since the mainstream media is largely backing up the Obama administration’s claim that ‘BP lied to us as to the extent of the leak’.

For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were content to let the company handle the mess while keeping an eye on the operation.

But then government scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe, and days of lulling statistics and reassuring words gave way Thursday to an all-hands-on-deck emergency response.

In other news…

Deficit panel leader says Obama will OK findings …AP

In opening-day testimony before the commission, panel members were amply warned that failure to reduce the deficit could lead to higher interest rates, harm the economy and ultimately erode Americans’ standard of living.

…

It’s a task, though, that won’t be easy: produce a deficit no bigger than $550 billion by 2015, an amount equal to about 3 percent of the total U.S. economy. That would require deficit savings in the range of $250 billion or more.

“Spending cuts will have to affect programs we all care about and benefit from and revenue increases will have to come from a wide swath of Americans,” Urban Institute President Robert Reischauer said.

I have an idea…spending cuts to ObamaCare!

Your daily dose of…Funny as Hell!

EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women’s Rights …By Joseph Abrams

Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

Your Daily dose of…Awesome!

Icy asteroid may shed light on where Earth’s water came from …from CNN

An icy asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Saturn is adding credence to theories that Earth’s water was delivered from space, according to a report published in the new issue of the science journal Nature.Using the infrared telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, they were surprised to find not only water on 24 Themis, but organic compounds as well.

-TF

In an interview with former Sox pitcher Rob Dibble, not only can he not pronounce Comiskey Park, he can’t name one White Sox player in history.  Way to go, Mr. Pres!

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Also, you can now follow us on Facebook, become a fan today and get updates as stories and editorials are posted!

Click the Image to Watch

Enjoy

-TF

“Change.”  A plurality of American voters asked for it last Fall, and that is exactly what we are now all being forcibly fed by the Obama Administration.  While there is a significant amount of media coverage these days on the “Major Changes” Obama is enacting (Healthcare, Financial Regulation, the Afghan War), not much attention has been placed on the myriad of smaller topics on his fast-paced agenda that, when summed, have major implications to the daily lives of all Americans.

One such topic is using the FCC to intervene in the free market for Broadband Services in hopes that further regulation of this market will yield greater broadband coverage at more affordable prices.  Fundamentals and historical evidence (to be discussed below) prove that free market action, not government intervention, drives the growth and competition that raise service levels and lower prices for the consumer.  Government simply lacks the foresight and responsiveness required to react to the rapidly changing market for communication technology.

The FCC is contemplating 3 possible actions:  (1) Double the $7 billion dollar phone subsidy “Universal Service Fund.”  (2) Revive open access rules, applying the 1996 Telecommunications Act to Broadband.  (3) Broadening internet access through the easing of regulation of “white space” in unused analog TV frequencies.⁽²⁾

The first option would extend taxation to broadband internet service providers, who would then pass along that taxation to the current consumers of broadband.  The real driving force behind this tax increase is the fact that the tax base for the fund has been drying up ever since its inception in 1997, despite adding VoIP to the tax rolls in 2006⁽³⁾.  In addition to the recent cost reduction in telecommunication itself, the taxation of established technologies discourages further investment in them, in lieu of newer technologies not yet taxed by the government.  Since government is always 2 steps behind the free market, this fund will never generate the expected revenues, and hence will never achieve the mission of truly “universal service” to every American.

As this fund is a subsidy to rural areas, government has effectively unbalanced the already unbalanced telecom market.  In Iowa’s (712) area code, for example, the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) can offer free international calling, while maintaining healthy profit margins due to the government subsidy⁽⁴⁾.  Empowering this fund with additional tax revenues will lead to further corruption.

Proponents for applying the open access rules of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 need to re-examine the effect this strategy had on the telecom market of the time.  Since the divestiture of the Bell System (the old AT&T) in 1982⁽⁵⁾, the market was comprised of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs)⁽⁶⁾ and a new group, the Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)⁽⁷⁾.  CLECs were responsible for laying much of the fiber optic networks (brand new technology) at the time.  CLECs in the decade from 1985 to 1995 had developed much of the infrastructure they needed to be profitable in the free market.  When the Telecommunications Act of 1996⁽⁸⁾ was passed and open access was allowed, a host of CLECs sprang up without any infrastructure investment.  This was made possible through IPOs and private investment by equipment vendors.  As history proved, the number of CLECs in competition post 1996 was more than the market could handle, and the telecom bubble of the late 90’s was born.  This bubble led to the telecom bust of 2001-2, where the entire industry went through an enormous correction. 

The lesson learned here is not that the free market failed.  Instead, the government intervention to produce competition caused a disaster when the new entrants had little or no investment in infrastructure to lose.  The CLECs that had made investments in infrastructure largely survived the correction.  Those with none ceased to exist.  This open access strategy not only failed to create universal service, it set the entire industry back decades. 

A fundamental rule of economics is that where there is demand, there will be supply.  If it is unprofitable to bring broadband to certain areas with current technology, then it should not be forcibly accomplished via subsidies.  Instead, the free market will develop new solutions that are economically viable for both the provider and consumer.  And perhaps the free market has already done so in utilizing “white spaces.”

White Spaces⁽⁹⁾ refer to frequencies in the broadcast spectrum that are not utilized by local broadcasting stations.  Recently an incredible amount of open bandwidth has been created with the switch from analog to digital television broadcasting.  The White Spaces Coalition was formed to develop and deliver high speed broadband internet access in these white spaces beginning in 2009.  The group is comprised of Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, EarthLink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.  Despite successful demonstrations of the technology and approval from the FCC, this initiative is currently mired in the court system by lawsuits filed by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television, Inc. (MSTV).  White space broadband represents the free market ingenuity to apply new technology to an existing infrastructure with the goal of universal access.  Of the 3 contemplated by the current FCC, it is this option that stands the best chance to expand broadband access to all with fair market pricing for both investors of the infrastructure and consumers. 

This industry has been shaped by mergers, anti-trust suits, and ever-changing government regulation.  The only constant has been the advancement in newer technologies that challenge and overtake the old.  This force, developed through imagination and free market ingenuity, has driven broadband to more people than could possibly be achieved via government mandate or manipulation.  This issue is larger than expanding access, limiting consumer cost, and regulating provider profits.  The question is how to achieve all three simultaneously.  The answer to this question is the free market.

References 

(1)     Digital divide. (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Divide

(2)     Schatz, A.(2009, November 18). Feds Mull Rules, Fees to Spur Net Access. The Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125850641299752981.html

(3)     Universal Service Fund (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Service_Fund

(4)     Saunders, A. (2006, October 11). What’s With the 712 Area Code? Saunderslog.com.  Retrieved from: http://saunderslog.com/2006/10/11/whats-with-the-712-area-code/

(5)     Bell System divestiture. (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System_divestiture

(6)     Incumbent local exchange carrier. (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILEC

(7)     Competitive local exchange carrier. (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_local_exchange_carrier

(8)     Telecommunications Act of 1996. (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996

(9)     White spaces (radio). (n.d.) Retrieved November 29, 2009 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Space_(coalition)

-Common Sense

Americans have used text messaging (texting Haiti to 90999 donates $10 to the American Red Cross Disaster Releif) to raise more than $21 million.  The Red Cross reports that Americans have donated close to $90 million in total to help Haiti.  Thousands of Americans, both soldiers and civillians, have headed to Haiti to help with rescue operations, medical care, and help distribute fresh food and water.  Firefighters from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, just to name a few, have gone to help.

Meanwhile, we have certain other countries spewing insane comments about the United States’ aid to Haiti.  “This is about helping Haiti, not about occupying Haiti,” French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU meeting on Haiti, said on French radio.  I could expect crap like this from the idiot dictators like Hugo Chavez, but seriously, from France? 

I say to the critics…Shut the hell up, you stinkin’ pansies!  There are still a lot of Americans unaccounted for in Haiti and being that we are less than 700 miles from that island, of course we’re going to have the quickest response and most abundant support, not to mention that historically, we are the most generous nation when it comes to natural disaster releif.

In my opinion, however, I could care less what the rest of the world thinks about our great nation.  It’s a double-edged blade when it comes to ‘America’ in some other countries’ eyes.  We throw all our resources to helping these people and we hear ridiculous accusations like we are trying to invade the coutry.  On the contrary, Haiti used to be a French occupied territory, should we defer all the efforts to France?  No, then we would be accused of abandoning our neighbors…because we’re racist!

-TF