Lies, Damned Lies, and Expert Testimony

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, History, Inernet, John Armor, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Net Neutrality, Taxes, Technology | No Comments

-By John Armor

Before we get rolling, a pet peeve. Entirely too many reporters are too lazy to check their quotes. Time and again, they will say in their lede that “some wag referred to lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No, no, no. That was not “some wag;” that was the greatest of all American humorists, Mark Twain.

Twain’s Autobiography attributes the quote to the quick-witted British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali. But Disraeli’s biographers can find no trace of it. Apparently, Twain attributed it to someone else who was conveniently dead, to fend off attacks for using that shameful word, “damned,”

I’ve modified the Twain quote to apply to recent hearings before the Federal Communications Commission. I’ve testified before a handful of federal hearings. I’ve attended dozens of such hearings. And I’ve never heard more lying, by more people, not even from sitting through an entire day of traffic court and hearing the infinite reasons why each particular motorist was not guilty.
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Google-AdMob: An FTC Antitrust Enforcement Watershed — Lessons from Google-DoubleClick & EU

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Will the FTC strictly enforce antitrust laws in its review of Google’s AdMob acquisition? Google-Admob is a watershed decision for the FTC given that Google recently blew off the DOJ’s serious antitrust objections to the pending Google Book Settlement; The EU opened a preliminary investigation of antitrust complaints against Google from companies in the UK, France and Germany; and The DOJ had to play backstop to the FTC and block the Google-Yahoo Ad Agreement, less than a year after the FTC incorrectly assumed in their 4-1 approval of the Google-DoubleClick deal that Yahoo and others would provide sufficient competition to Google and Google acquiring DoubleClick would not “substantially lessen competition” or tip Google to a monopoly.

A recent New York Post article: “FTC inclined to approve Google’s acquisition of AdMob” states the deal “may just squeak by federal regulators.”

It’s pretty obvious the article’s source came from the Google camp and not the FTC, given the political nature of the source’s views: the FTC “will likely not rule until Obama nominees” are confirmed by the Senate, strongly implying that the:

Administration’s close political ties with Google would trump any career staff law enforcement findings of fact or the law and the lone FTC vote against the 4-1 Google-DoubleClick deal approval, Commissioner Jones-Harbor, will no longer be at the FTC.

Why is this Google spin on the FTC’s inclination likely false?
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Will ‘Conservatives’ Let Palin be Palin?

March 7, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Democrats/Leftists, Inernet, Josh Painter, Liberals, New Media, Radio, Sarah Palin, Society/Culture | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

Author and talk radio host Austin Hill, in a Townhall.com commentary, looks at the phenomenon of apparent “conservatives” who seem to begrudge Sarah Palin her success:

The continual attacks on Palin from the cultural left, while reprehensible, are nonetheless understandable. Given its narrow-minded allegiance to stereotypes, liberal America simply doesn’t know what to do with a sexy, telegenic woman who believes in things like traditional marriage and American exceptionalism. Women who believe as Palin does, so the liberal assumptions go, are supposed to fit the frumpy, dowdy, “church-lady” description. But Palin shatters that assumption, and thus, the left’s response to her is to lash-out.

But regardless of one’s political or cultural leanings, any American who feels uncomfortable in the face of Palin’s recent choices and fortunes should ask themselves “why?” Why is it so unnerving to observe a woman in the public eye rise from modest, middleclass status, to wealthy, high-powered celebrity status, in less than two years?

[...]

“But if she keeps charging people for photos and all of that” a caller to my talk show told me, “she’s going to irritate her core supporters.” Yep, Sarah Palin’s choices may very well alienate her supporters. And without our government guaranteeing economic outcomes, all our economic choices entail a level of risk. But Palin is nonetheless free to charge for photos, risky as that may be - and I’m free to decide whether or not to buy them.

Will “conservatives” let Palin be Palin? Will Americans allow the “free market” to remain free?

We suspect that some of Austin’s callers are deceiving him, a prospect that the author doesn’t delve into beyond putting quote marks around the word “conservative” when discussing these callers.

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Foundem FCC Filing Documents Google Search Network Discrimination; Window into EU-Google Antitrust Case

March 2, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Capitalism, Computers, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Foundem, a UK vertical search competitor to Google, documents serial anticompetitive discrimination on Google’s search network, in a data-driven filing to the FCC in the FCC’s Open Internet regulation proceeding.

It is logical that the data-driven analysis in Foundem’s public FCC filing is an integral part of Foundem’s antitrust case against Google, which Foundem recently submitted to the EU, but which has not been released yet.

Therefore, Foundem’s FCC filing may be the best publicly available window into what the EU investigation of Google’s anticompetitive practices entails.

In essence, the Foundem filing accuses Google of monopolistic self-dealing and bundling.
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Don’t Forget, The Sammies Coming April 16th

February 23, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Illinois, Inernet, Sam Adams Alliance, State Government, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

For further info see thesammies.com.

Sam Adams Alliance: The Sammies April 16

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Computers, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Inernet, Sam Adams Alliance, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Sam Adams Alliance is proud to announce that we will be hosting the Sammies April 16, 2010, at the Chicago Cultural Center with special guest Andrew Breitbart.

The last year has been one of the most active and visible for citizen leaders who support free markets and individual liberty. Join us for dinner, drinks, and conversation as we honor the very best at our third-annual awards show in downtown Chicago. Purchase your tickets today: http://thesammies.com/attend/.

WHAT: The Sammies
WHEN: Friday, April 16, 2010
WHERE: The Chicago Cultural Center / 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, IL
WHO: Andrew Breitbart, and all of this year’s Sammies winners

PURCHASE TICKETS: http://bit.ly/csL0YQ

How much should Google be subsidized?

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Computers, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Taxes, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Pending FCC policy proposals in the National Broadband Plan and the Open Internet regulation proceeding would vastly expand the implicit multi-billion dollar subsidies Google already enjoys, as by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth and the smallest contributor to the Internet’s cost relative to its use.

Interestingly, the FCC’s largely Google-driven policy proposals effectively would:

  • Promote Google’s gold-plated, 1 Gigabit broadband vision for the National Broadband Plan at a time of trillion dollar Federal budget deficits;
  • Recommend a substantial expansion of public subisidies for broadband that would commercially benefit Google most without requiring Google to contribute its fair share to universal broadband service; and
  • Regulate the Internet for the first time in a way that would result in heavily subsidizing Google’s out-of-control bandwidth usage.

I. Does Google need more subsidies?

Google is one of the most-profitable, fastest-growing, cash-rich companies in the world, with over $10b in annual free cash flow, 17% revenue growth and ~$25b in cash on hand.
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FCC: Forced Access Uneconomics & Selective Math?

February 19, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Computers, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC just signaled it is considering requiring forced access and more special access as part of its soon to be released National Broadband Plan.

Colin Crowell, a top aide to FCC Chairman Genachowski told Bloomberg that mandating that competitors lease their facilities to other competitors “has a lot of appeal as part of a national strategy” in order to help small businesses grow and aid job creation.
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FCC Reclassification is Eminent Domain, but with No Just Compensation or Authority

February 7, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

At core the FCC’s contemplation of reclassifying, or effectively treating, unregulated broadband info services as regulated telecom services, would be tantamount to the FCC declaring “eminent domain” over private broadband providers, i.e. justifying a government takings of private property for public uses, but doing so “without just compensation” or any statutory authority.

The U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment requires: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

A gaping missing element in all the FCC’s discussions of all the new “public uses” it envisions for broadband in its pending National Broadband Plan and its proposed preemptive Open Internet regulations is any consideration at all of the potential hundreds of billions of dollars of un-budgeted liability to the U.S. Treasury that could result from the takings of private network property without just compensation — at a time of skyrocketing trillion dollar Federal budget deficits and rapidly mounting public debt.

The FCC appears to be operating under the sweeping and heroic presumption that any prospective FCC regulatory action it may take here is essentially cost-free to the U.S. taxpayer and will be completely shouldered by broadband shareholders; in other words, the Fifth Amendment appears to be irrelevant to FCC decisionmaking.
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An Inside Look at Organizing for America Part II: ACORN for America?

February 2, 2010 | Filed Under ACORN, Andy Stern, Anita MonCrief, Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Computers, Congress, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Liberals, Lobbyists, Media Bias, SEIU, Senate, Socialism, Technology | No Comments

Part II of our inside look at Organizing for America was inspired by the investigative work done by Carol Greenberg Thank you Carol for getting involved and driving this story.

Anita MonCrief

-By Anita MonCrief

From a tiny acorn, a mighty oak can grow. With ACORN’s help, Barack Obama “grew” from an ACORN community organizer and instructor, to an ACORN lawyer and ACORN benefactor as a board member of donor organizations, to an ACORN-backed Illinois state senator, to ACORN’s favorite United States Senator, to ACORN’s candidate for President of the United States in 2008. This article shows how ACORN and its allies helped organize America to make Obama President in this, the computer age.

Barack Obama’s meteoric rise from rookie Senator to President had man marveling at the efficiency and breadth of his campaign. Obama’s ability to fund raise had seasoned experts playing catch up while his voter registration money machine operated in the background. In 2008, the New York Times explored a seemingly innocent tactic the Democrats were utilizing to elect Obama. The article stated several times that the Republicans had honed this technique and Democrats were just “borrowing the play.”

“For years, Republicans had the landscape to themselves. More recently, however, Democrats, along with such allies as trade unions and progressive groups, have poured millions of dollars into building two formidable databanks. One is managed by the Democratic National Committee and can be used by candidates up and down the ballot. The other is Catalist, a for-profit company headed by Harold M. Ickes, a Democratic political operative, that specializes in providing data for scores of liberal groups supporting the Democratic ticket as well as for the Obama campaign itself.”

Progressive organizations, trade unions and a for profit group run by someone who had been implicated in the radical Teamstergate saga of the 1990’s? The crack reporting of The Times glossed over this toxic mix, and the Obama machine kept running.
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An Inside Look at Obama’s Organizing for America Part I

February 1, 2010 | Filed Under ACORN, Anita MonCrief, Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Congress, Conservatives, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Inernet, Liberals, Lobbyists, SEIU, Socialism, Society/Culture, Technology, Vote Fraud | No Comments

Blogger and activist Carol Greenberg approached me recently with an exclusive look at her work investigating Organizing for America. I was impressed with Carol’s investigative reporting initiative and realized that America needed to see the “Obama Machine” in action. I began working with her on unraveling the truth behind OFA.

I have invited Carol to guest blog at my sites this week for Part I. Carol’s courage in standing up for America and the information provided has allowed me to write the stunning Part II that will follow shortly.

Thank you.
Anita MonCrief

-By Carol Greenberg

Obama’s “permanent campaign” Organizing for America has managed to skirt campaign finance laws while continually providing the unprecedented “opportunity to help the president.” Countless emails fill boxes across America with the sender name President Barack Obama.

Organizing for America has kept a high profile and played a key role in the healthcare debate. Obama’s managed to turn his extraordinary campaign model into a post-election campaign/organizing website where OFA honed their method of using the internet to reach progressives to push through his increasingly unpopular agenda.
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GoogleMonitor.com Launches Today

January 31, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Free Trade, Google, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Policy, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Will spotlight Google’s lack of transparency and accountability

WASHINGTON – A new web site designed to make Google more transparent and accountable launched today. GoogleMonitor.com is a crowd-sourcing site which will keep watch on the Web’s top watcher of everyone.

“Google is the most powerful company in the world, dominates the Web’s business model for information discovery and monetization, and watches most everything that happens on the Web,” Scott Cleland of Precursor LLC and GoogleMonitor.com’s publisher said. “Given all that un-checked power, Google has a dangerous dearth of transparency and accountability.”
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A Warning on Electronic Voting

January 31, 2010 | Filed Under Computers, Crime, Democracy, Elections, Freedom, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Journalism, Media Bias, Radio, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Technology, The Law, Uncategorized, Vote Fraud, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

(Publius Editor’s note: This is a fairly old report on the troubles with electronic voting so some of the links are no longer valid, but the work was pretty comprehensive so I thought some of it might be of interest to those worried about electronic voting. I had this sent to me by a reader and I told him I’d post it but I have been waiting to post this until we were close to the primary. Since it is only a few days away now, so here it is…)

Pandora’s Black Box, Did it Really Count Your Vote?
Relevance - November 1996 - Vol. III- No. V

Editor: Philip M. O’Halloran

[Editor's Note: When we began researching the integrity of the election process, we wanted to believe that the talk of "votescam" was just overblown hype. However, we have since discovered that the computer voting system in this country is a veritable can of worms, so open to tampering that if there is no organized election fraud going on, the criminals are falling down on the job.]

ELECTRONIC VOTING ON TRIAL

On November 5, 1996, millions of Americans voted by secret ballot for thousands of elected officials from the Presidency to the local dog catcher. What few realized is that a key aspect of the vote-counting was also done in secret. What’s more, they have been legally denied the right to find out precisely how their vote is counted.

How can this be? After all, everybody knows that each aspect of the vote-count is officially conducted by “the government under the microscopic scrutiny of thousands of party officials, anxious candidates, poll workers, curious voters and the media, right?
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What Would Revolutionize Wireless Service?

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Computers, Inernet, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, I want a Blackberry, I’d love to have an iPhone, gimme a new iPad, I want…. well, whatever new, cool device out there. I want to try them, use them own them. Yet, there is no earthly reason why I’d buy them because I am not a millionaire. And it’s not because the devices themselves are too expensive, either. It’s because it costs too much to keep them operating. And why is that? Monthly fees.

If I get a Blackberry, I have a monthly fee. If I get a new iPad, then I have another fee. If I want an iPhone then there is a whole ‘nuther fee. Screw dat noize, man.

Here is the thing. Until wireless service can be sold to a customer, not a device, until the service follows the person and NOT the device, we will not be able to revolutionize America’s wireless service. There should be no service stuck to a device. It should be assigned to the person who can then key in his passcode and use his wireless service on ANY device that uses wireless.
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Cao Responds to Kelly Accusations of Links to Topinka/Paid Blogger Claim

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Blogging, Chicago, Cook County, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Republicans, State Government, States, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There’s been a swirl of charges and counter charges with some of the operatives of several different campaigns here that we’ve only had a few posts about — mostly because I think these charges are tangential to the actual issues. It basically concerns charges made by the William Kelly for Comptroller campaign that operatives of the Dodge campaign are actually working for Topinka in a sort of typical Chicago dirty tricks campaign effort. These charges have been returned by the Dodge folks that it is in reality Kelly who is the false front candidate.

On Jan. 25 I posted D2s Prove Jim Dodge Dirty Tricks in IL Comptroller Race written by Tom Mannis of Chicago News Bench because it was a pretty good summation of the charges from his camp (he’s a Kelly man). Right after that 62nd District candidate Paul Mitchel responded to the claims. I posted that address the very same day.

Lynn has also responded to the Kelly camp’s claims (she’s a Dodge supporter) on her blog, Cao’s Blog and I think her voice should also be heard here. Among other things, she disputes that she makes money from Jack Roeser and that she’s a “paid blogger.”
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Unintended Consequences: Balkanizing the Internet

January 15, 2010 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Google, Inernet, Scott Cleland, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

The big missing part of the policy debate over how to best ensure continuation of an open Internet, i.e. through existing policy or the FCC’s proposed preemptive regulations, is what makes the Internet universal?

The Internet is near universal because it is entirely voluntary. All of the Internet’s signature elements are voluntary, not mandated by government(s).

Internet Protocol (IP) is a networking protocol that became universal precisely because it offered the ability for everyone to communicate in basically the same “language.” No one was required to use/adopt IP; people voluntarily adopted it because it was better and offered the most universal networking opportunity. Moreover, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), whose “mission is to make the Internet work better,” is an entirely voluntary collaborative process that functions outside of any government(s) control.

The Domain Name System (DNS), essentially the Internet’s address system, rapidly became universal precisely because people voluntarily recognized its essential value and adopted it. No country owns, controls or approves the Internet’s addresses; it’s a voluntary market process.
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Book Review: What Are These Tea Parties About, Anyway?

January 13, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Blogging, Book Reviews, Budget, Chicago, Communism, Congress, Constitution, Cook County, Crime, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Education, Elections, Federalism, Free Speech, Free Trade, Freedom, GOP, Government, Corruption, History, Inernet, Jobs, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Republicans, Security/Safety, Senate, Socialism, Society/Culture, State Government, States Rights, Taxes, Tea Party, Unions, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new book about the Tea Party movement — and a movement it really is — will soon be hitting the shelves. “A New American Tea Party” penned by John M. O’Hara, one of the many folks that helped bring us some of those protests in early 2009, is a book that hopes that the reader will come away understanding and appreciating the Tea Party movement as a truly grassroots happening, a spontaneous outpouring of interest backed by true red, white and blue American ideals.

Author O’Hara, himself an early Tea Party organizer in Washington D.C. and the Chicago area, answers several questions with the book: what sparked the Tea Parties; is the name “Tea Party” itself a proper sobriquet; what do they mean; what does the future hold; and how do you make more?

The first thing one might notice is that O’Hara writes in a crisp, conversational style with short subchapters. This makes it ideal for reading bits at a time. This is not a dense treatment and I think his style makes the book very accessible to people of all ages — without talking down to the young or dumbing it down for the more advanced reader.
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DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis

January 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Freedom, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Jobs, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

In a filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the U.S Government’s leading expert in assessing the state of competition in communications markets, implicitly rejected net neutrality proponents’ core thesis of broadband market failure.

This DOJ filing, which represents the most recent U.S. Government expert assessment of broadband competition, could make it extremely difficult for the FCC to legitimately conclude in the coming months the factual opposite — broadband market failure.

Without a sound factual finding of broadband market failure, it also could be extremely difficult for the FCC to legally justify preemptively mandating common-carrier-like regulations on un-regulated broadband information service providers in the FCC’s pending open Internet proceeding.

Let’s review the DOJ’s core broadband competitive conclusions, which are relevant to the alleged broadband market failure thesis and the FCC’s open Internet proceeding.
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Michael Zak wrote the RNC website’s Heroes and Accomplishments

January 8, 2010 | Filed Under Conservatives, GOP, History, Michael Zak, New Media, Republicans, Slavery, Socialism | No Comments

-By Michael Zak

Republicans welcome a comparison of the history of the GOP with that of the Democratic Party - the party of slavery and socialism, Big Government and the Ku Klux Klan.  To quote Back to Basics for the Republican Party: “The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs.”

Ronald Reagan:

The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people.  And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Abraham Lincoln:

The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future.  All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.

If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

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Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open”

December 27, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Google posted its treatise on “The meaning of open” designed to redefine the word “open” in Google’s image. It is an important read because it is a bay window view into the altruistic way that Google yearns for the world to perceive it.

Like most all of Google’s PR, however, Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open” may be “the truth” as Google sees it, but it is certainly not “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

I. Google’s Open Double Standard

Simply, Google is for “open” wherever it does not have a monopoly or dominant market position, however where it does, as in AdWords, AdSense and search advertising syndication, it is closed, to ensure that its dominance remains impregnable to competitors.
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