Second “Stimulus” Will Be Cap & Trade

I just witnessed Obama on television performing double speak.? I paraphrase…

The stimulus was a success, but we are still losing 70,000 jobs a month.? The economy is in recovery, but it still needs more help.

Then right in the middle he slipped in “cap and trade”.? And began speaking of the millions of jobs this promised land would provide and how it would spur on economic stimulation.? He then introduced some individuals that have “ideas” for jobs.? One of them was a Veep at GE.? Big surprise!

So we can probably expect MSNBC to start ramping up their GE commercials and pushing cap and trade policy again here soon.

Of all the things that Obama can do to ruin your life, cap and trade will be the absolute worst.? It will destroy small business in America by reducing profits to nothing and creating barriers to entry that are too high for new small businesses.? It will increase the costs of everything you buy, and it will strip you of your freedom.

Cap and trade is the government granting you the right to breath.? And if someone owns your right to breath, they can just as easily take it away and they can give it out.

-nick

Looks Like Everything’s Gonna Be OK!

Our modern society depends heavily on substantiating claims and backing them up with “facts”.? We see these here everyday, as writers for thelobbyist attempt to demonstrate that we do not just come up with the stuff we write out of thin air.? We are not the New York Times, so we are not afforded that privilege.? John Adams once sarcastically quipped that facts were “stubborn things,” and their stubbornness lies in the inherent inability of anyone to disprove what can be taken as a fact.? Such is the problem of the fact-value distinction: a derivative of the modern project that is exaggerated by political scientists and economist.? Take the numbers as they are, and let their quantitative values speak more loudly than their qualitative values.? What is better?? The fact that a policy raises more money, or the fact that a policy that raises more money also can contribute to cultural decay such as gambling.? There is no more right/wrong anymore, because that is all relative (to both liberals and many conservatives).? Instead, the answer will always be the one supported by quantitative facts.

So how then, are we to digest the recent GDP numbers that were released yesterday?? The news undoubtedly brought optimism to the number crunchers and economists who are no friend to the good life but rather the abundant life.? The DOW yesterday, ascended as though carried into the heavens on the wings of their optimism 199 points after a several-day long slump.? I am reminded of the line from the movie Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, particularly the commercial (the line was sadly stricken from the movie which, I did indeed, pay to see and enjoyed) when the police officer says to the people with eyes the size of saucers, “Looks like everything turned out?O.K.!” as a flying piece of food destroys the building right behind him.

The recession is over… right?? A recession is defined as two or more quarters of economic contraction generally, or a 1.5% rise in unemployment, or any other number of things.? By all technicality, the worst recession in 7 quarters is over.? Those are the facts.?

This announcement was followed shortly by another economic declaration regarding the slumping consumer spending figures.? Economists admit that the strong GDP can be attributed to the government spending programs like “Cash for Clunkers” which turned out to have cost $24,000 per car.? In the end, however, it is being admitted that we can go ahead and plan for weaker than normal 4th Quarter profits.? Nevertheless, the fourth quarter is the one that leads into the holiday season, which will allow the administration and wall street syccophants to use that all so clever “we still had growth, it just wasn’t as much as we hoped,” or “we planned for it being bad, and it wasn’t as bad as our worst predictions.”?

Which of these facts shall we use to mold our own ideas of what the future will bring?? Is the recession over, and on the verge of full recovery?? Is the only thing holding us back from such a recovery is the opposition to the President’s federal expansion?? Why are there so many different figures pointing so many different ways?? Do they not understand that in our modern society we would rather be guided by mundane facts and figures instead of by reasoning toward the good life, and that we cannot do that so easily and escape the “pain of thinking” and the “agony of living” as Tocqueville warns??

The government programs that will be credited with bringing us out of an officialrecession do not touch or explain away human nature and the deeper problems our regime is facing.? We must dig to penetrating depths into the soul of our Republic, and learn to start thinking about what is right and wrong, and stop this slide into not thinking at all but reacting to the latest facts, figures and reports.?

-rj

More Gateway Neutrality

News outlets are reporting today that recipients of grant monies from the Broadband Expansion portion of the Stimulus Act will be forced to implement Net Neutrality regulation into networks built on these grants as ruled today by the Obama Administration.

I first divulged this in an article on OpenMarket.org back in January.? And to quote myself, I had stated that,

The issue here is that it doesn?t matter if the FCC or the Fed can regulate net neutrality on the grand scale right now, the recipient of these grant funds will be legally bound to adhere to the FCC policy statement implementing net neutrality and establishing open networks.? After that, the fix is in.? One or more publicly funded networks would exist running under regulated and enforced net neutrality principles.? A few years later, legislation will be introduced again to mandate net neutrality in all U.S. networks.?? Backers of the legislation will refer to the networks built under the stimulus plan pointing out how flawlessly they are running, and how neutrality principles have provided for that condition because the FCC can watch dog the network.

Furthermore, I reported in March that companies like Verizon and AT&T were potentially not going to apply for grants for this very reason,

This reluctance to accept government funding shows that major ISPs realize that acceptance of stimulus funds puts them squarely under the FCC Network Neutrality principles.?? These principles could bleed into the other networks?such as Verizon?s FiOS TV or AT&T?s U-Verse?that these large Internet players own. ? Meaning this policy would be the camel?s nose under the tent.

Adding that,

Molly Peterson of Bloomberg News confirms that big ISPs realize the danger associated with accepting recovery funds:

AT&T, Verizon and Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable provider, say the rules are unwarranted and would hinder their ability to manage congestion on networks they have spent billions to build.

So while this was bound to happen, I guess one could say that it’s a sure thing now.? With only $7.2 Billion available for broadband expansion and those monies being distributed in amounts that will be paltry in comparison to what telecoms generally spend in network expansion, there is a real possibility here that avoiding government funding will actually benefit their bottom line rather than helping improve them.? These gateway stimulus fund drugs will inevitably find their way into regulating their own private networks if these companies are not weary.

-nick

Biden’s Prestige

Over the grandeur of the July 4th weekend we saw magic.? It wasn’t over head in the skies of various cities around the United States in the mystical explosion of fireworks, but rather in an interview with Vice President Joe Biden that received rather low attention.

In the interview Biden was quoted as saying,

We misread how bad the economy was…it’s unfair to consider the program a bust because “no one anticipated, no one expected that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having distributed the bulk of the money.

Biden followed this up by briefly saying that the administration had not ruled out a second stimulus package.

Did you catch it?

See a magician is all about slight of hand.? He shows you something, and then follows by making you believe something impossible occurs next.? This is generally done by making you believe something has disappeared or something has been killed.? Most will chalk this performance of Biden up to another one of his famous gaffs.

It’s not a gaff folks.? This is the administrations way of making us look one way, while the other hand is actually extremely calculated in its movement.? The misleading moment of course is to scare us into believing we need more stimulus.

And the prestige?? It will arrive in a second stimulus bill sometime in the neighborhood of 12-18 months from now.? This is just the start.? You’ve been warned.? Keep your eyes peeled.

-nick

Verizon, AT&T See the Regulation Writing On The Wall

As published on openmarket.org.

AT&T and Verizon are indicating that there is a chance that they will not seek funds from the broadband stimulus portion of the American Recovery Act.

Verizon Executive VP Thomas Tauke has stated that, ?We don?t have any plans to apply; we also have not made a decision not to apply.?

Similarly, AT&T Senior Executive VP told reporters that, ?We do not have our hand out seeking government funds.?? But, ?[AT&T is] open to considering things that might help the economy and might help our customers at the same time.?

This reluctance to accept government funding shows that major ISPs realize that acceptance of stimulus funds puts them squarely under the FCC Network Neutrality principles.?? These principles could bleed into the other networks?such as Verizon?s FiOS TV or AT&T?s U-Verse?that these large Internet players own. ? Meaning this policy would be the camel?s nose under the tent.? I ?ve previously referred to this potential phenomenon as ?Gateway Neutrality.?

Molly Peterson of Bloomberg News confirms that big ISPs realize the danger associated with accepting recovery funds:

AT&T, Verizon and Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable provider, say the rules are unwarranted and would hinder their ability to manage congestion on networks they have spent billions to build.

So, it could be that networks built with stimulus funds would have sub par service when compared to networks built without the funds.? This forces one to wonder what the point of the multi-billion-dollar subsidy is in the first place.

Additionally, were ISPs forced to merge networks that ran under different principles?those that are neutral like Internet service and those that are very non-neutral like television or phone service?very costly problems could emerge.? Trying to slam together TV, Internet, and phone service into one neutral IP-based service could even prove to be financially impossible.

At OpenMarket we often say that government should never be in the business of picking winners.? It appears the winners at broadband build-out will be those who avoid picking government.

100th Post! Stimulating!

So we’ve hit our 100th post here at thelobbyist and we have been going strong for almost 6 months! Where has the time gone?

In celebration, I figured something stimulating was in order.? And it just so happens that StimulusWatch has some tasty tidbits for all of us.? They have conveniently broken down the stimulus porkjects by state.? So you can easily find your home state and see what they intend to do with their stimulus funding and what projects will be headed to that state.

Below you will find all 50 states, D.C., and Porto Rico listed in alphabetical order with a link to the projects headed to that state.

Enjoy! It’s your money!

Thanks goes out to one of my best friends, my pop, for the tip!

-nick

Alaska (46 projects)

Alabama (318 projects)

Arkansas (199 projects)

Arizona (743 projects)

California (1971 projects)

Colorado (201 projects)

Connecticut (449 projects)

Washington, D.C. (8 projects)

Delaware (7 projects)

Florida (1752 projects)

Georgia (266 projects)

Hawaii (316 projects)

Iowa (51 projects)

Idaho (348 projects)

Illinois (1031 projects)

Indiana (713 projects)

Kansas (139 projects)

Kentucky (524 projects)

Louisiana (433 projects)

Massachusetts (266 projects)

Maryland (54 projects)

Maine (72 projects)

Michigan (782 projects)

Minnesota (335 projects)

Missouri (403 projects)

Mississippi (552 projects)

Montana (57 projects)

North Carolina (319 projects)

North Dakota (61 projects)

Nebraska (154 projects)

New Jersey (261 projects)

New Mexico (215 projects)

Nevada (163 projects)

New York (289 projects)

Ohio (847 projects)

Oklahoma (223 projects)

Oregon (159 projects)

Pennsylvania (352 projects)

Puerto Rico (340 projects)

Rhode Island (116 projects)

South Carolina (271 projects)

South Dakota (30 projects)

Tennessee (103 projects)

Texas (1240 projects)

Utah (298 projects)

Virginia (400 projects)

Vermont (61 projects)

Washington (368 projects)

Wisconsin (358 projects)

West Virginia (1 projects)

Wyoming (85 projects)

Why Won’t The Media Show The Tea Parties?

Anti-Stimulus Tea Parties are occuring all over the country.? But why aren’t they getting more media attention?? Initially it was reported that there was strong support for the stimulus.? But as American’s actually had time to review the bill after it was shoved through Congress, things are not sitting so well with the public.

Tea parties have received little to no coverage, even on media outlets that traditionally lean conservative like Fox News.

Why?? Well, I think I have the short answer.

It simply doesn’t suit their desires.? Channels like Fox News benefit from the negative press associated with the tactics of the Obama administration.? Allowing “disaster scenerios” to occur brings them higher ratings, and higher ratings equal increased ad revenue.? While traditionally liberal outlets like CNN benefit from sweeping over negative press of the Obama administration because it will cause their viewers to change the channel.? In the end, it’s all about money, and even the media is a free market operation designed to bring in revenue, and not necessarily the truth.

There’s really not much more to say.

Check out photos from various tea parties across the state, courtesy of faithful reader Chris O’Neal.

-nick

“I’d Pretend I Was One Of Those Deaf-Mutes.”

We have a new national recovery emblem.? And it looks like the The Laughing Man to me, but I suppose I may be a little psychotic.? There is potentially a deeper message buried under the surface for those of us familiar with the origin of the image on the right.? The symbology will probably be apparent to that party.? To others,? I’ll do my best to explain a very complicated character in a short space.

The Laughing Man was a major character in the popular distant future anime series Ghost in the Shell.? The Laughing Man hated “phonies” much like Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye fame, a work by J.D. Salinger (Laughing Man was also the name of a short story by Salinger).? In this case “phonies” were politicians.? The Laughing Man was irritated by their actions and carried out rogue crimes to act revenge on the “phonies”.? He used an image/icon to cover his face on various video transmissions, and even going into individuals bionically controlled minds and erasing memories of his ever being seen.? He did this to cover his criminal actions.? He had little sympathy toward the public because he believed they, at-large, had allowed the government to slowly restrict freedom, and remove liberty.? A 1984 Big Brother times 10 scenerio.? His message to those that would not defend their rights encircles his graffic quoting Salinger, “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.”

There’s an interesting post on Econarchy.? I suggest you read it.? But the jest of it goes something like, Bernie Maddof and Allen Stanford are in trouble because they mislead individuals by raising money to pay off former investors, and then they would need to raise more money to pay off the other investors, and this continues in a never ending cycle.? Econarchy’s main punchline is that what we are doing with the stimulus is no different than what these men will indefinitely go to jail over.

The tax system itself is financial fraud by constantly forcing 50% of the country to pay 97% of the taxes.? And now we will increase the process by implementing the Recovery Act.? The government taking money from one group to pay off another group.? A never ending cycle as the recipients will undoubtedly grow more deserving striving less to increase their personal wealth creation and prosperity since they are already entitled to someone elses.

Shanea Watkins, a brilliant treasure of the Heritage Foundation, claims that the bill will cost every American family with children roughly $22,445.? But one certainly has to wonder what the true cost will be for that top 50%, or top 10% of the tax bracket?? $40k? $50k? More?

I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.? That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody.? If anybody wanted to tell me something they’d have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me.? They’d get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I’d be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.? -Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye; J.D. Salinger

So we’ll slap a recovery stamp on everything, including your mind and your mouth, and the Obama Administration will start pretending you’re “one of those deaf-mutes”.? But we can’t stop trying to talk, or reading the evidence shoved in front of our faces.? We can’t give up on getting their attention.? I certainly won’t.? This place exists for the conversations.

The State of the Internet…

…is strong.

But we will be led to think differently in tonight’s faux State of the Union Address.? Obama will undoubtedly speak on the subject of what I have decided to call Social Internet Expansionism.? This is the extension of networks into rural areas for people that can’t afford or don’t want Internet according to Pew studies, but of whom Obama asserts need it and has determined it will create 300,000 non-farm jobs for every 1 percent increase of penetration.? This assertion is of course based on a paper by Robert Crandall, William Lehr, and Robert Litan who have repeatedly stated that their research is being taken out of context.? Mainly because the project was completed almost 2 years ago and was looking at 2005 numbers for non-rural areas.

Nonetheless, the Obamulus will pour almost $7 billion into funding projects led by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and to a lesser extent the Department of Agriculture who previously headed the Rural Utilities Service Braodband Grant and Loan Program (RUS).

My top 10 questions for the President regarding Social Internet Expansionism:

1) Will the public or private sector be building your networks?

2) How precisely will bureaucracy define “unserved” and “underserved” areas?

3) If it is the private sector, how will grant winners be chosen?

4) Will the grantee manage the network after it is built?

5) If so, will maintenance costs be solely their responsibility?

6) Will the government pick winners?

7) What if a grant holder does not have a stake in an area, and they begin building a network in direct competition with an existing area network provider who does not have government financing?

8) What if a service provider who does not have government financing is pushed out of business because of a service provider that has government financing?? Will the out of business service provider receive compensation?

9) If a service provider constructs a network in a government mandated rural area and cannot attain service contracts and therefore cannot continue service in that area, will they receive compensation for any privately invested funds?

10) If Social Internet Expansionism proves unsuccessful, will you return the original investors money in form of a tax rebate?

Congress Double Dealing On Net Neutrality Issue

At this point in all the stimulus bill talk, if I made the statement that there is something in the package that appears to be two-faced and underhanded you would probably just tell me to get in line, you have already heard it.? Well surprise!? There’s something two-faced and underhanded in the stimulus, and I’m jumping in line.

Yesterday, Public Knowledge sent out an Action Alert concerning an amendment to the broadband portion of the stimulus package focused on allowing network management for child porn and copyrighted material.? (Julian Sanchez also has a nice break down of the particulars at Ars Technica).

AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by Mrs. FEINSTEIN to the amendment (No. 98) proposed by Mr. INOUYE (for himself and Mr. BAUCUS)
Viz: On page 56, between lines 23 and 24, insert the following: (11) In establishing obligations under paragraph (8), the Assistant Secretary shall allow for reasonable network management practices such as deterring unlawful activity, including child pornography and copyright infringement.

Take a step back back to my original concern about net neutrality (as defined by the FCC) being enforced and regulated on any network built with funds from the stimulus plan.? That concern actually is basis for what I perceive to be a larger threat, which is the enforcement of net neutrality to other non-stimulus funded networks down the road.? Essentially proponents would be using stimulus built networks as a gateway to full network wide implementation of net neutrality.

But here, we don’t even need to go that far.? I’m just looking at the enforcement of net neutrality on stimulus built networks.? This, along with this network amendment is guaranteed to happen if the House and Senate compromises that are expected to take place in conference go through.

Now for the double speak.? The Fed is telling everyone that they want net neutrality… Unless…? Well, unless it just doesn’t completely benefit them.? So all packets on government stimulus built networks will be treated equally unless they contain child porn on copyrighted material.? Hmmm.? Well how do we know they are containing that material?? The network managers will have to violate neutrality and inspect packet layers, then additionally if they discover child porn or copyrighted material then they will be free to “manage” that content.? Which if my bullcrap detector is fully functioning, just means they will drop the packets.? This is not to even mention the fact that it also gives network managers the opportunity to drop or block packet transfer for completely legal uses of copyrighted material being that they can’t determine what the use of that material is for by simply examining the packet contents.

So what have we learned here?? Once again when regulators create rules, they only create them to be self serving, and beneficial to those they for whom they are alligned.? This is not net neutrality, this is Internet regulation where convienent.

-nick

p.s. Please don’t send me email about child porn.? This is obviously not a statement condoning that dispicable act.? The point far exceeds that particular subject line.

Update: The final bill was released and the admendment was not added back into the bill during Conference.? I guess one could say “we got lucky” but the result of the actual broadband stimulus and it’s enforcement of network neutrality on grantees is really not that great…

« Previous Page — Next Page »