July 2008

President Bush Signs FISA Amendments Act

At the signing of the FISA Amendments Act, President Bush said:

I'm pleased to sign landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people. The bill will allow our intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor the communications of terrorists abroad while respecting the liberties of Americans here at home. The bill I sign today will help us meet our most solemn responsibility: to stop new attacks and to protect our people.... The legislation I am signing today will ensure that our intelligence community professionals have the tools they need to protect our country in the years to come. The DNI and the Attorney General both report that, once enacted, this law will provide vital assistance to our intelligence officials in their work to thwart terrorist plots. This law will ensure that those companies whose assistance is necessary to protect the country will themselves be protected from lawsuits from past or future cooperation with the government. This law will protect the liberties of our citizens while maintaining the vital flow of intelligence. This law will play a critical role in helping to prevent another attack on our soil. Protecting America from another attack is the most important responsibility of the federal government -- the most solemn obligation that a President undertakes. When I first addressed the Congress after 9/11, I carried a badge by the mother of a police officer who died in the World Trade Center. I pledged to her, to the families of the victims, and to the American people that I would never forget the wound that was inflicted on our country. I vowed to do everything in my power to prevent another attack on our nation. I believe this legislation is going to help keep that promise. And I thank the members who have joined us. And now it's my honor to sign the bill.

Senate Democrats In No Rush To Confirm Cheney Deputy To Critical Commerce Post

The White House’s selection of a senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to run a division of the Commerce Department that shapes telecom policy has languished for four months and is not expected to see Senate action. The nomination of Neil Patel is one of 189 pending in the Senate, most of which are not likely to be approved before Congress adjourns because Senate Majority Leader Reid is reluctant to act on them in a presidential election year. Many sources said that Senate Commerce Chairman Daniel Inouye has no plans for a hearing on Patel, effectively blocking his confirmation. Patel serves as Cheney’s assistant for domestic and economic policy, although he reportedly had been on the short list of candidates in 2005 to succeed I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby as the vice president’s chief of staff. The Bush administration tapped Patel on March 5 to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is playing a critical role in overseeing the nation’s transition to digital television signals in February. He would replace Meredith Baker, acting administrator and the daughter-in-law of former Secretary of State James Baker, who took charge in November when her embattled predecessor stepped down amid criticism over his leadership. Several congressional and telecom insiders questioned how Patel, with relatively little communications experience, got the nod — albeit for what many consider a thankless job — and at time when the acting administrator has received mostly positive reviews from Democrats and Republicans. NTIA is overseeing a $1.5 billion coupon program designed to assist analog-dependent TV viewers. The next several months will be particularly risky because Congress would likely lower the boom if glitches strand millions of citizens without TV reception. Patel has no broadcast experience, though he previously served as assistant general counsel at an Internet service provider. He advises Cheney on several issues, including telecom policy. There has been speculation that Patel was angling for a title he could turn into a well-paying lobbying job, but that Senate Commerce Democrats have no incentive to facilitate the move.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cda_20080710_1555.php?

Dingell, Markey: NTIA Not Prepared For Unredeemed DTV Coupons

Dingell-gram for Ms. Meredith Baker. House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) have sent National Telecommunications and Information Administration head Meredith Baker a letter suggesting that the NTIA's digital-to-analog convertor box coupon program has been mismanaged and is going to run out of money. The chairman want to know how NTIA will resolve a big problem: NTIA has $160 million to process and mail out 33.5 million $40 coupons. But millions of coupons are going unredeemed -- $3 million worth have already expired, according to the NTIA -- and the chairmen are concerned that there aren't administrative funds to process the re-cycling of those coupons for new requests.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6577557.html?rssid=193

McCain Adviser: We're Outspending Obama Three-To-One On TV Ads

On A McCain conference call about the combined $94 million he and the republican National Committee have in cash on hand, campaign manager Rick Davis claimed that they were outspending the Obama campaign by a large margin. "We have spent up until last week probably over $10 million more than Obama has in the last two months on television advertising," Davis said, adding: "From April to this point, we've spent almost three times the amount of TV spending that Obama has." Is it true? The Obama campaign declined to respond to Davis' claim, saying it doesn't comment on its ad buys.It's not easy to verify or disprove this. Such claims are typically based on what a campaign's ad buyers are telling campaign aides about what the other side is spending.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/mccain_adviser_w...

Two campaign speeches, one JFK moment?

Through the 2008 primary election season, two candidates -- Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican former governor Mitt Romney -- received more media attention about their faith than any of the other candidates combined. For both, the attention raised concerns about their religious identities and culminated in public speeches delivered at pivotal points in their campaigns. To better understand the media’s role in raising these concerns, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life closely examined newspaper coverage in the months—and years—leading up to each speech as well as in the weeks that followed. Romney’s campaign had hinted for some time that he might give such a speech, but they held out until Mike Huckabee began to surge in the polls and the Iowa caucuses approached. But even before the speech was delivered the press had saddled him with comparisons to John F. Kennedy’s 1961 speech on faith, a comparison that only worked against the former governor. And while the speech was deemed a necessary hurdle, it solidified religious concerns which the once GOP front-runner was ultimately unable to surmount. The media narrative leading up to Obama’s speech was somewhat more complicated, as it was fraught with racial and ethnic issues that often obscured the religion angle on the story. A sudden one-two punch, with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s semi-endorsement of Obama followed by a media-created event releasing clips of Wright’s sermons, drove Obama to give his speech. But what had been damage-control proved surprisingly successful for the candidate. The JFK comparison that had hung like a millstone on Romney’s image was bestowed on Obama, this time, as a compliment.
http://www.journalism.org/node/11859

OMB Rejects FCC Leased Access Rules

The Office of Management and Budget has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission's new leased access rules violate the Paperwork Reduction Act, a law designed to minimize the burden of bureaucratic red tape on unregulated industries. OMB repeatedly faulted the agency for failing to take into account the additional costs, additional staffing, and risks to proprietary information that the rules would impose on cable operators.

OMB, for example, invalidated the FCC's decision to reduce from 15 days to 3 days the amount of time the cable operators have to provide terms and conditions to would-be programmers. It also faulted the FCC for failing to demonstrate:

1) “[It had] taken reasonable steps to minimize the burden on [cable], ... who will be required to hire new staff in order to maintain the capacity to comply with the reduced deadline for leased access requests.”

2) “There are reasonable mechanisms in place to protect proprietary and confidential information respondents will be required to provide potential programmers, regardless of the legitimacy of the request .."

3) “[It had] taken reasonable steps to minimize the burden on respondents, who due to reduced pricing, will be required to hire new staff in order to maintain the capacity to respond to an increased number of inquiries ...”

The action by OMB was setback for leased access programmers that have been seeking better terms and conditions from cable operators. According to a cable attorney, the FCC has the authority to vote to overturn OMB's action, but such a move is considered unlikely because a federal appeals court in Cincinnati stayed all the rules in May.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6577358.html?nid=4262

Frustration Continues for Leased-Access Programmers

The head of the Leased Access Programmers Association wrote Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to express his continuing frustration with what he said is a lack of access to cable systems, specifically via Internet delivery of Internet-protocol-TV signals. LAPA president Charlie Stogner has asked the FCC to act on a petition for relief he filed over the issue of how a signal is delivered to the cable headend. Stogner pointed out that while some cable operators, including Comcast, don't charge for Internet delivery, others do, and at least one cable operator refused to accept an Internet-delivered signal at all. Stogner is concerned that a court's stay of new FCC leased access rules put that and other complaints in limbo -- a concern that appears justified given an FCC staffer's e-mailed response to Stogner's inquiry about the status of the petition: "Leased-access petitions have no formal start date since the time clock has been stayed."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6577207.html?rssid=193

FCC Plans White Space Device Field Tests

Starting July 14, the Federal Communications Commission is launching field tests of "prototype" white-spaces devices -- laptops and smart radios that will share the spectrum with TV broadcasters if the FCC concludes that they do not interfere with digital-TV reception. The FCC has been testing the devices in its labs but it said Thursday that it was ready to start field-testing. The sites will be in suburban Maryland, where the FCC's test lab is also located, as well as in Washington (DC) and will include rural, residential and urban areas, as well as an airport and a sports and entertainment venue, like a theater.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6577547.html?rssid=193

NAB: Viewers Acting to Be DTV-Ready

According to a new survey released today by the National Association of Broadcasters, 64 percent of U.S. households that rely exclusively on free, over-the-air television have already taken some type of action to prepare for the Feb. 17, 2009, switch to all-digital broadcasting. Those actions include either learning about or applying for a $40 TV converter box coupon provided by the federal government, as well as shopping for a DTV converter box.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/07/10/daily.6/

Greater Oversight of Universal Service Fund Needed

The Government Accountability Office released a report questioning the Federal Communications Commission's oversight of the Universal Service Fund's (USF) High Cost program, a multibillion dollar, nationwide program aimed at ensuring affordable access to communications services in largely rural areas. The GAO finds that USF funding is distributed in a manner that may cause disparities in the availability of telecommunications services in different rural communities. GAO found that to strengthen management and oversight of the program, the FCC should establish short-term and long-term performance goals and measures. GAO also determined that the FCC should implement mechanisms to ensure that expenditures are cost-effective. The GAO report was requested by Reps. John D. Dingell (D-MI) and Joe Barton (R-TX), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and John Shimkus (R-IL), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. The Members of Congress said the report highlights the need for a comprehensive review of the USF program.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr313.shtml

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