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Comcast-NBC Merger Approved By FCC
AndyAndyAndyAndy writes "It seems that the FCC has approved the proposed merger between Comcast and NBC, effectively kicking apart hopes for protection against 'pipes and their water' frameworks. Pres. Obama's 2008 goal also goes ignored: 'I strongly favor diversity of ownership of outlets and protection against the excessive concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group.' The Dept. of Justice is also onboard, leaving little hope that this will be stopped."
WTF? I thought the Dems were all about keeping the monopolies from taking over, and then collapsing, as happened in 2008.
Sweet, I cant wait to see the great programs they have to offer
One step closer to a single outfit controlling^Wsupplying all your media needs.
Sent from my PDP-11
Let's just start making all our own content and distributing it by sneaker net and avian protocols. I'm tired of every single damn decision going towards funneling more funds and freedom (for abuse) to the megacorps. We'll hire Kenyans drinking powerthirst to be the runners for the sneakernet version of gmail.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
Big business coming through!
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
wNNNNbComcast." PigF**&^er
It seems these kinds of excesses are only dealt with after some severe abuse. Even though the potential for abuse is clear, the regulatory approach always starts with vague promises by corporations with spotty histories and some limited, in scope and duration, conditions with questionable enforcement provisions.
the only good stuff on NBC is sports and by NFL rules that MUST BE FREE OTA.
2012 the year of the cable only or PPV olympics then in 2014 EPSN or fox get's them.
NHL moves to ESPN in 2012 and VS becomes a other G4 with crap on it.
I wouldn't suggest downloading any NBC-related torrents on Comcast.. because you know they'll be watching.
And, for the record, I don't condone illegal torrents, but I would merely like to point out the large privacy concern this merger presents.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
"Yes we could've."
I will not be voting D or R this election. I don't care who it is, but it won't be them (tea party isn't a party).
I have friends who work at Universal, according to HR, "it is quite an exciting time to be working apart of the NBC Universal family."
Who wants to predict a big round of layoffs in the entertainment industry pretty soon?
You really believe that?
It is in the interest of governments to allow monopolies, it is much easier to order 1 big entity to cough up certain needed information or to force them to execute the government plans, than a lot of small entities.
This revolving door between big corporate US and the government (fascism) is starting to be a real burden on the people, all we have to wait for now is government to draw the wrong cards and finding that in reality their power is more and more subdued by the corporates.
But then, the people lost already 50 years ago when Ike proclaimed his farewell speech, this is just the final stage of that losing battle.
Its President Obama's agency heads who have signed off on this.
The President has to be in favor of it.
So why vote Democrat when they are the ones who do this?
It seems like Obama has betrayed a large fraction of the ideals he stated during his campaign.
What I'd like to know is, during his campaign, did he...
(a) Lie about those ideals, never intending to pursue them?
(b) Tell the truth about what his ideals where, but know he was exaggerating about being able to accomplish all of them?
(c) Intend to achieve them all, but not realize that he could only chose a handful to push through?
(d) Once in office (and with access to all classified info), realize that some of his campaign promises were unwise, although he believed them to be wise at the time?
The answers to these may suggest whether we as citizens need to be more realistic about what's really possible (for example, effective counterintelligence while prosecuting your state torturers), or whether Obama is really just a far worse person than people give him credit for.
The first time he's late with his CATV bill they'll cancel his show.
leader of their party...
...appointed the current FCC chairman and is responsible for the D majority of the FCC.
leader of their party...
...is the largest recipient of Hollywood campaign contributions in the history of US politics, and is about to embark on a $1E9+ re-election effort. NBCCOMCA$T? No Problem!
Keep drinking the anti-republican cool-aid, numpty. It's helping a lot. But for wise folk such as you we'd really be messed up. Quick, everyone mod this brilliant mofo way the hell up!
now I will have to get the darn near 80$ a month package to watch ... um ... hm the office or 30Rock? nah that is on hulu, um ... some football games like with ESPN and Monday night football?
awesome! thank you very fucking much comcast. If I can manage to afford it can you bother to actually hook the crap up without me rescheduling you 4 times cause your retard operator wrote down apartment 101 even though I TYPED 901 in your website? or is that too much bother?
While the Republicans have certain ideological commitments to "free market" (i.e. free for the incumbents) content creation and distribution, the Democrats just get too much in campaign contributions to let this sort of thing fall apart. You'd be better off pushing for public financing of elections, or organizing your friends into a cadre of nutty "patriots" who show up at town hall meetings with rifles and threaten "second amendment remedies" to the problems of media consolidation.
Of course, as long as the only people who care about media consolidation are the Clearasil posse, and pissy libertarians who refuse to vote for the major parties, expect no change on this front.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
...was heard from some exec's top floor corner office.
think of the lawyer on the simpson's episode who stood up on his desk to do a dance when apu's wife wanted to file for divorce. yes, the guy who looked like the animal who stole her chickens back in india.
PARTY TIME for our cable overlords.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
voting?
how cute. someone who still thinks there is a connection between the will of the people and those in charge.
for your 15th birthday, I'll get you the video game of your choice.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
*was* opposed. He isn't now.
Vote neither. Either vote third party, or stop voting at all. At least that way your hands are clean of this bullshit.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
How about stop voting for either?
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Really, the Obama Administration has been just a continuation of the Bush Administration. Every time they have had a choice, they have chosen to keep the status quo and to continue to favor large business. This is no exception. The only change we got is in the last name of the POTUS.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Is Justice the final word on mergers? I thought the SEC and other financial watchdogs had to sign off on mergers like this, and not just the FCC or DOJ.
It's both, you pinheads! When are you douchebags going to wise up to the fact that the Democrats AND Republicans are both full of shit, corrupt entities? The right vs. left "fight" is only a diversion to keep you from noticing that the corporations continue to bribe, I mean, lobby their point home with tons of cash for anyone willing to vote their way? You think your vote does anything useful? You're fooling yourself. You think the Tea Party is going to be any different? Good luck, citizens. The corporations call all the shots in this "democracy." Nothing has changed, only the leanings to garner your waste of a vote. Whoever controls the house and senate are meaningless, because they vote the way the corporations tell them to vote. Period.
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
Any minute now...
Tum Te Tum.
3rd party, or nothing; there r more then the 2 and they airnt already corrupt so at lest a year of pure public interest
btw pirate party USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
warning pointless sig
It seems odd to buy NBC, considering how poor they've been doing and how utterly incapable they've been on developing new shows. What does it matter if Comcast owns NBC, if NBC has nothing anybody wants? I write that as someone whose only sitcom-viewing is NBC Thursday nights, though I don't like them enough to pay their ridiculously high iTunes price (showing that even without Comcast, their approach towards online sales is severely self-sabotaging).
So, really, NBC has pretty much no good new content, and old content isn't worth much online since whatever that's old and gets eyeballs is syndicated ad nauseum. What can we realistically expect from this? Is Comcast really going to start pushing NBC content down the throats of their ISP subscribers, even when it makes most of them throw up?
. . . heard that. Remember when GE made TVs? Remember when they made other TV equipment (post RCA, per-RCA re-aquisition) like TV cameras, too? Remember when they owned Universal Studios, too? Remember when pundits said GE was going to control the airwaves (as they did when they first owned RCA) and the minds of America? Now, who is selling NBC to Comcast?
This is fucking bad !
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
...ck. That about sums up my thoughts.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Time to wake up folks. Here's the spoiler alert on the Big Conglomerates' evil plans:
1) Buy off all major media outets
2) Widen the party divide through sensationalist stories from aforementioned media outlets
3) Convince the average Joe that a vote for will make a difference by keeping those damned out of office!
4) Buy off whoever wins.
5) Enact laws that favor Big Corporations
6) If Big Conglomerates control all branches of Government, Goto 7, else Goto 2
7) Profit
Anybody who truly understands the details of what transpired here and who has at least a shred of respect for the truth understand we live in a Kleptocracy.
Weren't you one of the slashdot guys telling us how great the FCC would be at regulating the internet?
..or do you need the FCC to fuck you over a couple more times before you will listen?
We told you that the FCC had no intention of promoting net neutrality, but you didn't fucking listen. The FCC then put forth bullshit neutrality rules that not enforce neutrality.
Now the FCC is condoning the creation of a real neutrality problem (not just one you fucking imagined.)
Are you ready to concede, that the FCC should not to be in charge of regulating the internet?
"His name was James Damore."
2012 the year of the cable only or PPV olympics then in 2014 EPSN or fox get's them.
I've been wondering for quite a while anyone would watch the Olympics. Are they really that interested in how much the death of the bronze medal winner's great grandmother affected his childhood? I really don't care if Michael Phelp's socks make his feet itch. Personally I hope that they go PPV and nobody pays.
Support SETI@home
Executive authority over the DoJ? I don't think the U.S. government works the way you think it works.
NBC is General Electric. They have authority over everything.
You are welcome on my lawn.
with business concerns in mind but without concern to the citizenry!
Regulatory Capture of the FCC is kind of a given at this point.
The Worshipers of the Grand Free Market (except where the tariffs and controls prevent others from competing with the Grand Free Established and Entrenched) are full force and full on in genesis of this decay.
Sure the FCC makes stupid token actions in terms of the indecency of seeing aging female nipple or any male appendage over the airwaves to keep the proles feeling "protected" from the evils of the flesh (and coincidentally bolstering the closed and captured pay-per-view and [ahem] "premium-package providers" in the cash), but beyond that token public good with its fully coincidental cash windfall to the cable companies, it should surprise nobody that the FCC demonstrates purient action in favor of its corporate owners.
No need for a conspiracy theory here. Money talks, unfunded speech doesn't even get a "protest zone" for the President of the United States.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Personally I think both "sides" are bad.
...but at least the leader of their party was opposed to this!
In my opinion, if someone is against it...well saying something and doing something are two different things. I think it is apathy that is to blame. Too many (non tech-"savy") people just say they really do not care that much. Apathy, hell we know those lobbyists are very motivated people. The other problem is ignorance, I mean the internet is a series of tubes right?
...kicking apart hopes for protection against 'pipes and their water' frameworks.
Oh right, pipes. Also from the article:
...the Federal Communications Commission determined the deal was in the nation's public interest...
But having just The Washington Post opinion really is just that. Let's go to the source...
Here are the statements: 1 2 3 4
The news release isn't much better as when reading down to each individual bullet point, I see many comments for "protecting online video", but video is not the only concern!
Offers its video programming to legitimate OVDs on the same terms and
conditions that would be available to an MVPD.
Send chills down your back when you consider the implications of statements like that, doesn't it?
Quote from link 1 above:
The conditions include carefully considered steps to ensure that competition drives
innovation in the emerging online video marketplace.
A nice disclaimer at the front of link 3 above (joint approval):
However interesting and intricate the issues raised by the combination of Comcast and
NBCU may be, as a matter of law, our role at the Commission is limited to ensuring that the
transaction complies with all applicable statutory provisions, such as ensuring that the license
transfers are in the public interest. Our analysis should only include a thorough examination of
the potential benefits and harms of the transaction. Any proposed remedies should be narrow
and transaction specific, tailored to address particular anti-competitive harms. License transfer
approvals should not serve as vehicles to extract from petitioners far-reaching and non-merger
specific policy concessions that are best left to broader rulemaking or legislative processes.
That would be fine if the government actually gave the FCC power, but this is a whole other issue within itself.
From the dissenting opinion, to which I agree: (link 2)
Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal is a transaction like no other that has
come before this Commission—ever. It reaches into virtually every corner of our media
and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in the land. It is new media as well as
old; it is news and information as well as sports and entertainment; it is distribution as
well as content. And it confers too much power in one company’s hands.
Looking over these public notices on the FCC site I think it must be considered though on what we expected the FCC to do in the first place. If a particular judge thinks a law is stupid, it is not his job to ignore the law. (Constitutionality being a whole oth
We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
I was going pretty soft on Obama- I think he'd done some not-very-bright things, but he could shape up.
Time to go complain on the internet.
Sent from my CR-48
It's not my fault, I voted for Kodos.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
I agree with all the posters here that have seen where America is going. It is no longer a multi party democracy. When was the last time Americans had any control of important legislation? Where was the vote on the Health Care Plan that Obama pushed through with his majority vote?
This country no longer is controlled by the citizens. At least at my state level I can vote on certain state initiatives but I did not get a chance to vote on the Health Care Plan and the Health Care Plan will wind up costing me more than any state initiative. Just as Bush was given the green light for going to war from the big defense industry, Obama was given the green light from the health insurance industry, who by the way the health insurance industry will gain the most as the 30 million or so people that don't want insurance or was just managing to put food on the table for their family instead of paying high insurance rates will now be forced to pay high insurance rates and let their family die of starvation.
Obama did not get the chance to design the right health care system for the right one would limit the public health insurance options. There was billions of dollars spent behind doors that we voting Americans will never see. The people in control will never show themselves. They hide behind their money and corporations getting richer and richer all the while our jobs are going overseas, our gas is getting more expensive and the security of our families is going away.
I predict outages/quality degradations/nefarious tweaks coming to ABC/CBS for Comcast customers in 3... 2... 1...
He might say he "strongly favors" this and that, but it's quite likely his power is much more limited than people realize. He's just one man against an entire bureaucracy with established connections between various groups that aren't going to be particularly willing to budge, no matter what he says. For him to make a difference he would have to put his political career on the line and risk significant retribution from those who don't want the change he's after.
For this reason I'm not sure whether to blame Obama just yet. Of course, maybe he was just naive in thinking he could conduct change without any personal risk.
This is only a concentration of power if you see comcast and NBC as needs. Who actually needs either of them?
Not answering to this specific situation, but you are 100% wrong. Not objecting strongly enough to burn political capital to change the decisions of others is not the same thing as actively supporting it. Pretending they are the same is a lie. I don't know Obama's opinion on this, and neither do you. You don't know what he's thinking and don't have enough from this situation to deduce it. Don't pretend you can and then assert that it has to be the worst possible situation.
Not that I'm supporting the democrats. They are as bad as the alternative. But I advocate hating the parties for the right reasons, not lying about it to hate them for unrelated things. That's what creates partisanship in the first place, and partisanship is the worst possible thing because it gets people to think they aren't voting for evil when they vote for the lesser of two evils. They are all evil, and selectively bashing one to imply the other isn't as bad as they actually are is a lie.
Learn to love Alaska
Sorry, but if the President was against it he could simply make that clear to the two Federal agencies who have signed off on it. Both agencies answer to the Executive Branch.
Political capital is for people who intend to be career politicians, President Obama has reached the peak of US politics and vetoing this merger would not cost him anything in the 2012 General Election.
President Truman established the idea that he was responsible for the government and the decisions they made, by that two Federal Agencies coming out in favor of it means the head of the Executive Branch is in favor of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing
there were rules AGAINST media companies owning one another and cross-media ownership. It seems those days are gone forever. It is very sad that we are allowing so much power to concentrate in so few hands.
Like the inimitable Groucho Marx, I would never join a club that would have me as a member.
the usa canada games where big in 2010 but nbc f*** up game one by having it on MSNBC that very few had in HD (comcast Chicago did not have it) but they had the end of the game on NBC in HD but did not tell any one that it was moved there.
and in the meantime, betraying their promises they made to people before election ?
... that is news to me.
my my
simple conclusion : in capitalism, the one with the most gold makes the rule.
Read radical news here
Who knew that the purchase of NBC by Kabletown was really Comcast! Life imitates art.
Jack Donaghy would really be mad!
see
http://www.kabletown.com/
see
http://campuswham.com/umasswham/blog/kabletowncomcast-a-kind-and-generous-company-30-rock/2010/03/11/
Is Obama from a major party? That pretty much answers the question: he is a liar.
Palm trees and 8
Downvote this garbage, PLEASE. This is becoming such a tired meme born of cynics who fail to objectively look at the world around them. What the hell did people honestly think was going to happen... that Obama was going to change the world and usher in a utopia to please every libertarian and liberal alike? Jesus people! The president is clearly a moderate and a consensus builder. Despite conservative talking points, there has clearly been a concerted effort to engage conservative and liberal proposals and find something that both find appealing... something lacking the last 8 fucking years! Did we suddenly forget that the previous president stopped engaging other nations, ordered people to be tortured, invaded sovereign nations, passed absolutely NO domestic bills to address any looming problems (healthcare? They had the House/Senate/White House), Guantanamo, lying about weapons of mass destruction, an anti-science agenda actively trying to discredit science findings, ousting CIA agents to discredit them, commuting the sentences administration members who committed crimes, Ordering the NSA to wiretap US civilians... did everyone suddenly get amnesia and forget what the fuck happened during the last 8 years of the Bush administration!?
Jesus Christ, people... I don't approve of everything the Obama administration does but shut the fuck up, please... this "meet the new boss same as the old boss" bullshit is so grating. Yes, Obama is a politician and does politician things. Yes, the Obama administration has continued some of the Bush era prcatices. But there is no fucking way you can objectively sit there and tell me he is anywhere NEAR the level of fuckup the previous president was... he is a massive improvement.
Tell you what, come talk to me when Obama knowingly manufactures evidence to start a war with Iran, discredits everyone who knows he's lying, and pardons Timothy Geithner after he leaks classified information to the press... then punches a baby in the face... then we'll talk about how bad Obama is.
US Government:
Executive - President, federal law enforcement etc
Legislative - Senate, congress etc
Judicial - The Courts
More info that would be better off as a link than posted here:
Separation of powers under the United States Constitution
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
"I strongly favor diversity of ownership of outlets and protection against the excessive concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group." -- Sounds like he's in the works for something like the 'Equalization of Opportunity' bill that nearly killed Taggart Transcontinental and Rearden Steel when they were trying to build the John Galt Line.
We are drifting further and further into a plutocracy. The GOP-packed Supreme Court recently made legalized direct bribery of politicians via campaign funds.
Table-ized A.I.
Big media could not do that until a "genius", "transformational", and other kinds of "chill up Chris Matthews' leg" presidential candidate who all but one major news outlets would never allow to be meaningfully questioned or criticized got elected by the trusting public. Remember how that guy preached about "net neutrality" and "balancing the copyright"? Yah, gotcha.
Anti-republican kool-aid. Anti-democrat kool-aid. Same formula, same factory, same vat. Only the label's different.
This was ok'd by the FCC? Start counting your civil rights one by one as they start to disappear. This is not republican or democratic, It's the ultimate in socialist society.
Hope I didn't piss off anyone in office as they might try to "get back at me" for such a thing as speaking my own free mind.
Also. at what point do activists stop getting viewed as wing nuts, and start being viewed as rational individuals who car about our freedoms. I think I finally understand Julian Assange' predicament.
As long as the government can control the collective mind, they control your behaviour. What better way to control you, than to "protect you".
I feel like it's been a very long time since I've watched a TV show from NBC. Then again, I don't really watch TV so it's not really something I care much about. If I were to comment about the concept of this whole ordeal I'll just say that Comcast can do whatever they feel like and if people really don't like what they're doing, they can go to AT&T or whoever. I know it wouldn't be exciting to go through with this but in the end it's the people who make the decision in the end. Who are they buying products from, who are they voting for, etc etc etc... Corporations don't become large because they magically have money. People love a company and support them by investing into it, and in this case 27mil do every month. Comcast still has to grant access to NBC shows both to their competitors and online so it's not all bad for those who do enjoy NBC programming.
Comcast has a large presence in the DC area and they are the largest cable provider in the country. Now the people that get internet service from a company that has a worse customer service reputation than the IRS can look forward to all the liberal media bias they can handle. There's more incentive for the republocrats to become even more homogeneous.
Is no one here capable of considering the benefits of vertical integration. I bet a significant portion of the people posting here are posting from Macs. Macs that are controlled from head to tail by Apple. Most of these posters would break about how stable, quick, and integrated the use experience is. When asked if they would install windows, they would say no. All of them are too stupid to realize that there are benefits to the average consumer for vertical integration. The FCC and the FTC have no grounds to stop this merger. You can not act against a company like a person simply because of what they might do, only what they do. If Comcast starts utilizing the position in a monopolistic manner than they can (and should) step in. Also, the FCC and FTC can certainly allow the merger with provisos on certain behavior to prevent abuse if it so please. The lack of understanding about complex deals such as this that spend months getting approved is astounding. Its not like they just see the application and stamp it. This deal literally spent months waiting on the FCC to come to a decision. People need to give a little more thought than simply spouting off about how big corporation == evil.
The DoJ is the part of the executive branch tasked with enforcing the law. Completely separate from the Judicial Branch of government.
Sorry, but if the President was against it he could simply make that clear to the two Federal agencies who have signed off on it. Both agencies answer to the Executive Branch.
Some positions serve at the pleasure of the president. Others don't. If they don't, then it doesn't matter how "clear" he makes his desires, they do not have to follow that and there will be few, if any, direct repercussions. Agencies that answer to the Executive Branch (actually, many don't answer to the Executive Branch, but actual are, in fact, part of the Executive Branch) still have votes and such made by people who do not directly report to the president, and as such can safely ignore such recommendations.
Political capital is for people who intend to be career politicians, President Obama has reached the peak of US politics and vetoing this merger would not cost him anything in the 2012 General Election.
If you think that's the only political capital held by a first-term president, then you are both so ignorant and confident in that ignorance that debating anything political with you would be a complete waste of time.
President Truman established the idea that he was responsible for the government and the decisions they made, by that two Federal Agencies coming out in favor of it means the head of the Executive Branch is in favor of it.
If you want to make up shit and attribute stuff said by dead people to the modern situation, I'd assert that George Washington argued that anyone who joins a political party or votes on party lines (regardless of which party) is a traitor. It makes an interesting talking point, but it simply isn't true and makes a better soundbite than philosophy.
Learn to love Alaska
Vote with your wallet. I've started already. I refuse to watch anything by NBC/Universal, and won't touch Comcast.
Now that Comcast has got Americans hooked on the idea that $60 per month is a good price for a 12 mbit connection with a 250GB cap, their margins keep getting bigger and bigger and they can raise the price any time they want. Even if the piracy rate rose to 100%, they'd still be making money hand over fist. Hell, the piracy rate could rise to 200% and they'd still be in business.
Now that the merger has FINALLY gone through I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all to suck it.
Nor the way you apparently think it works. The DoJ is a part of the executive branch, not part of the judiciary. President Obama does indeed have authority over the Department of Justice, as he does over every other department whose head he selects.
ending DADT on the side of inclusion
The sad thing is that is the most liberal act that Obama has seen ushered through since taking office.
comprehensive healthcare reform
While comprehensive bills are generally long, bills do not become comprehensive just because they are long. And this long bill was anything but comprehensive. Shit, in reality it was anything but reform, as well.
While we're at it, there wasn't all that much healthcare involved in it, either...
banking system overhaul
You're stretching the meaning of overhaul significantly here...
but those issues alone are pretty substantial and quite different from anything that Bush was willing to do
Are you joking? The health care bill was written by republicans, for republicans. They only opposed it because they knew they wouldn't get credit for it. Anything that was the slightest bit liberal was thrown out in very early revisions, and all that remained were parts that were written by conservatives under the false promise of "bipartisanship" and "cooperation". If the republican congress in 2006 had taken up the same issue they would have written the same bill and Bush would have happily signed it as a new "contract with America" or some such stupid shit.
Really, all you need to know about the lack of distinction between the current and most previous POTUS lies in that bill. If Obama ever intended to pass any health care reform (which is now very much an open question) he sure didn't do shit to hold his ground. Instead he passed a bill written by the other guys. He might as well have signed the Washington DC yellow pages into law, it would have been just as useful.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Communism is a totalitarian system of centralized control.
communism is a negligable system of decentralized control foundationed by communal property and respect.
The problem with communism (small-c communism) is that there isn't a central control point. The power vacuum allows for the worst possible candidates to assume a position of power, thus leading to a Communism (big-c Communism).
Small-c communism actually works really well, in geographically limited close knit communities. We see it in part in Amish communities, in the old agrarian south (yeah, the communist party of America used to be based out of the bibble belt), and in "simpler times" when communication and distribution were much more limited.
But as soon as a small-c communism grows, things get ugly. You wind up with individual communities favoring themselves over the other communities, so you need someone to over see the whole lot to ensure that things are being done in the interest of the whole. But that immediately creates a position and a system for abuse and fraud. And eventually, those in power will seek more power (just like all political systems, even/especially democracy). And before you know it you have a big-c Communism with a centralized totalitarian government controling wages, production, distribution, and enjoying a level of comfort that is not inline with their citizens.
communism isn't inherantly evil or wrong. It's a governing tool, just like a monarchy, democracy, republic, etc... In some cases it works well. In some cases it works poorly.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Silly Tablizer, we've been a plutocracy for quite a while now.
I know I'm a broken record now when I say you're fooling yourself if you think one party is better than the other. They're all run by PACs.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
In the words of the comedic unveiling of Vader in SW:EP III... noooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!
It's Obama ignoring his own goal.
Except that, contrary to TFS, this has nothing to do with Obama's stated goal. It does nothing to affect diversity of ownership of outlets, and transferring NBC Universal from 80% GE/20% Vivendi to 51% Comcast/49% GE doesn't increase the concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation.
It increases vertical rather than horizontal integration in television, and shifts assets around between existing megacorporations.
Sorry man, you can't go around placing reasonable criticism on Obama here on Slashdot. It gets the mods riled up and frustrated with all that cognitive dissonance. You have to blame nameless entities who operate in the dark, as you see in the +5 comment up top, since the dude they voted for can't possibly do any wrong. Of course, 4 years ago you could accuse Bush of all sorts of unsubstantiated collusion for easy karma.
It's a hard life online for non-partisans.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Exactly which branch do you think the DoJ is part of?
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
the revolution will NOT be televised, it will be streamed from a cellphone
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obama isn't evil. he just betrays the public will at every opportunity. i think that's just being a selfish millionaire.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Well, I had THOUGHT it was in the judiciary. I was apparently wrong though. Either way, it's some good information regardless of my intent/motivation in posting the link.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I wish I hadn't commented previously. I would have modded you up further. Now I'm generally curious: was this merger largely outside of the scope of the FCC's power, once certain licensing and certain consumer protection items in place?
was this merger largely outside of the scope of the FCC's power, once certain licensing and certain consumer protection items in place?
The FCC's job is not largely feasibility, it's legality. This is similar (in my humble understanding here) to a judge: morality is not of the concern, that is the concern of the legislative body. I believe you are right in saying that.
Now whether we as citizens so desire our Congress to grant the FCC specifically more "power" and/or "directive" in this area... that is a whole other issue.
Don't take what I say as an expert's opinion here, I'm not one, rather this is what I've heard from reading around the internet especially over the past few weeks.
We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
Hi, it's a week late for a normal reply, but your article just came up for metamoderation. Slashdot Guidelines are that articles deserve positive moderation if they're trying to contribute what the author thinks is something positive to the discussion, and shouldn't get negative moderation even if you think they're wrong, and metamoderation should reinforce this.
You, Sir or Maam, fall into both categories, so as a metamoderator, I gave you a "+", but I'm posting this to rant at you for being seriously wrong. I'm not likely to read your response or follow it up - I try to minimize the amount of complaining to wrong-headed partisan Democrats I do, and ranting at wrong-headed partisan Republicans is hopeless so I try not to do it at all, but in the interest of balance I'm posting a brief rant to make up for the positive feedback the metamoderation gave you.
Obama's candidacy was supposed to be about Hopey Changey Stuff, restoring the basic American civilized values that the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration discarded, getting us out of the Iraq War, and implementing a bunch of traditional Democratic Party goals, like helping poor people, and it was supposed to be about fixing the economy which Bush so irresponsibly trashed. The reasons the Democrats picked him over Hilary Clinton were primarily his inspiring speaking and her lack of commitment to getting us out of Iraq (neither one would have gotten us out of Afghanistan, and while Dennis Kucinich and a couple of the other minor candidates might have, they weren't serious players; I forget where Edwards stood before he self-destructed.)
Obama promised to fix the atrocity of America's illegal treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and his first week in office he told us he'd be doing it, and then he chickened out and let the Republicans and conservative Democrats pretend that giving fair trials to people America had tortured would cause the terrorists under your beds to eat The Homeland's children. And beyond that, instead of having his Justice Department prosecuting war criminals or at least abrogating the policies the Bush League set while they were in office, Holder and friends have been defending them. And while they're probably not torturing prisoners any more, and there's a bit more adult supervision, they still haven't given these people fair trials, and there's a serious lack of transparency about how the official prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan are treating prisoners, much less about whether they're still running unofficial secret prisons.
Warrantless Wiretapping - As with war crimes, the Justice Department is defending this set of Bush Policies, because the folks they work for like to avoid any legal and Constitutional restrictions on arbitrary surveillance and prosecution.
Extrajudicial Assassination By Executive Order - No, Obama didn't promise that he'd do it while he was out campaigning, he just announced it after he got into office. I suppose he gets some transparency points for admitting it; even Darth Cheney Himself wouldn't have said he was going to have people assassinated, he would have just done it and kept it hidden.
Immigration reform - there's a lot that could and should have been done to make La Migra treat people fairly and openly, and to fix the immigration-detention prisons which are an offense to civilized society. And Obama's kept them as part of the Homeland Security Mafia which should have been broken up. However, the fundamental questions are more political - some people think "reform" means sending all the brown people back to Mexico even if they're not from there, and some people think it means having Congress follow its Constitutionally mandated duty of setting up processes for naturalizing immigrants, and the right-wing propaganda machine has been pushing anti-immigrant hatred for years, so it's been tough for moderate Republicans to say anything (and on this issue, Bush was a moderate, even if it was just because he liked cheap imm
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks