Signs of Life at the FCC?

During the Bush administration (and let's face it: during the Clinton administration too), the Federal Communications Commission never found a merger it didn't like. It also seemed to deregulate just about everything having to do with anything and gave media, phone, and internet companies carte blanche to fuck consumers by any means necessary.

In theory the FCC is supposed to protect consumers. Well done, FCC.

I just caught this headline: FCC asks Verizon Wireless to explain fees.

It's not actually that interesting an article and, frankly, I'm surprised it's news at all. Imagine that: the regulatory body charged with protecting consumers from the communications companies is actually asking a company why it believes it has the right to charge certain fees. This shouldn't be news. This should be the FCC doing its daily duty.

Still, I've rather liked the shift at the FCC of late. They seem to be a little friendlier to ideas like net neutrality, which would keep the internet free and open to the public, something the various internet providers are dead set against.

The big test will be the NBC/Comcast merger. That will be one monster of a media/communications company, which will almost certainly screw consumers in the long run. Has the FCC grown the balls to stop it?

The connections between free and open media and a thriving democracy are undeniable, and if you feel like geeking out on these issues for a while, FreePress.net is your one-stop shop for information about these things.

The Controversy of Compassion

A very interesting and controversial thing happened in Scotland last week.

Kenny MacAskill, Scotland's Justice Minister, released, on grounds of compassion, the convicted bomber of the PanAm flight that blew up over Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people. The convicted bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, has prostrate cancer and, according to British doctors, has about three months to live.

A portion of MacAskill's statement and a pretty hard-hitting BBC interview can be found here. I urge you to watch both videos. It's a glimpse at justice in terms we don't usually hear in this country.

So... Uh, yes... Release of a convicted terrorist on compassionate grounds is, well, pretty ballsy.

And when al-Megrahi returned to a very public hero's welcome in Libya, people already angry about his release got even angrier. Even people in support of his release - and indeed MacAskill himself - were pretty angry about that display.

In our country, i.e. the United States, we don't have the element of compassion as part of our justice system. We have a "fuck 'em" attitude toward our prison population, embodied most clearly and cynically in the death penalty. In Scotland, however, compassion is a requisite part of the justice system.

President Obama denounced the decision, and FBI director Robert Mueller accused the Scottish government of giving comfort to terrorists.

So it's no surprise that there's a movement in the U.S. to boycott Scotland. Don't visit. Don't take advantage of its legendary golf courses. Don't drink its fine whisky. As someone who enjoys Scotland, its beauty, its food, its drink, and its women (or at least one particular woman), I think that taking this sort of action is really only punishing the people who participate in the boycott.

My heart goes out and always will go out to the victims of the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. It's incredibly painful to lose someone anyway, and losing someone through an act of violence, terrorism, or other means in which someone else can be fairly blamed must cause tremendous anger. Assuming justice was done and that al-Megrahi did indeed blow up Flight 103, I will never defend his horrific act of murder.

But by releasing al-Megrahi so that he can die with his family at home, MacAskill has said something about our humanity that you don't hear very often. We can rise above people who do us harm. We can recognize that people who commit horrific acts are still human, if not humane. We can value something larger than punishment and firmly grasp the moral high ground.

As the missus asked rhetorically and succinctly over the weekend, "Why is compassion controversial?"

I expect that the missus and I are in a small minority of people in this country who think the Scottish Justice Minister performed a beautiful, profoundly spiritual act of humanity.

Something Good Has Come of All This (So To Speak!)

So it's tax day, and in response, some right-wing nuts threw a bunch of "tea parties." As I've mentioned before, fortunately these nuts have embraced the term teabagging.

The protests are stupid, but at least now everyone on the planet will know what teabagging is. I mean, once David Gergen gets the reference, surely we've reached some sort of teabagging tipping point.

B&E is very pro-sex education.

On a separate but related note, earlier I scrolled through a few dozen photos of various teabagging events around the country, and I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear that I didn't see a single non-white person among the teabaggers. Boy, we whiteys sure are a privileged bunch of tax-haters.

Another Complaint About the MTA

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has gotten my boxer-briefs in a bunch on numerous occasions.

So it's surprising to me that I'm feeling their pain a little bit these days. I still think that they need to open up their accounting books (and I mean the real ones) to the City Comptroller (who will hopefully have some time to look them over while running for mayor).

But I believe that they have a budget shortfall and that they need an influx of cash from the city and state governments to keep service and improvements up. I also believe that much of the problem is their fault but accept that they are affected by the economy like any enormous organization. I hate that they're talking about raising fares when the people who rely on the subway are the people who can't afford any other modes of transportation.

These conflicting emotions are really about as positive as I get for the MTA, which I consider an inherently corrupt bureaucracy with a very confusing private company/public service relationship to balance.

In any case, I have another complaint about the MTA that I need to air, and if they're going to raise fares again, I really hope this is something they address.

MTA, your turnstiles keep hitting my testicles, and I have to go through sideways to avoid pretty serious pain.

I've played baseball, and I own a jock strap with a cup built into it. But I shouldn't have to wear it on the subway.

Please raise (or lower) your turnstiles an inch or two. Thank you.

Maybe They Need Their Balls Back

Some of you may have heard of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC as it's usually referred to in the alphabet soup of governmental organizations.

The SEC has avoided the limelight for a very long time. But then Bernard Madoff with everyone's money! AAAAAH HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Who's to blame for the Madoff nightmare? The SEC, of course. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike are pretty pissed that the SEC let this Bernard fella pull the wool over everyone's eyes without so much of a "Hey, whatchu doin', buddy?" from the SEC.

I'm not remotely an expert on the economy or regulation, massive fraud or the SEC, but I feel pretty safe jumping to the conclusion that, during our last (nearly) three decades of deregulation and widespread evisceration of governmental oversight bureaucracies, the Securities and Exchange Commission has lost any ability to do its job to the fullest extent of its theoretical power. I'm guessing the SEC is desperately understaffed, and I'd bet too that the people in charge are ideologues who support a complete lack of regulation and oversight. Just the people you want in charge of regulation and oversight.

Don't get me wrong: the SEC really screwed the pooch here. But the economic right-wing tends to use a failure of regulation to demonstrate the need to eliminate regulation altogether. I call horseshit on you, economic right-wing.

Instead, let's give the SEC a reverse Bris. Untie the tubes. De-castrate the poor bastards.

President Obama, please give the SEC its balls back.