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Comcast Executives Appear To Share Cozy Relationships With Regulators
v3rgEz (125380) writes A month before Comcast's announcement of a $45B takeover of rival Time-Warner, Comcast's top lobbyist invited the US government's top antitrust regulators to share the company's VIP box at the Sochi Olympics. A Freedom of Information Act request from Muckrock reveals that the regulators reluctantly declined, saying "it sounds like so much fun" but the pesky "rules folks" would frown on it, instead suggesting a more private dinner later.
suggesting a more private dinner where Joozian Three Way orgy was performed
They invited them to a party Comcast was throwing at the Newseum in D.C., which is a far cry from "the company's VIP box at the Sochi Olympics."
I hate Comcast/Time Warner as much as the next guy but... I work in sourcing and this is the exact type of email I would send back to a vendor that is overstepping reasonable G&E (gift and entertainment) bounds. What else should they have said? Just not responded? Jeez.
I suppose I could go into a rant and write a long post lamenting the influence of the wealthy on our government. However, I think I will just shut-up and do something about it instead by going here and doubling my pledge. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
This is blatant corruption. But it's the US, so nobody will give a shit, and the crony capitalism will continue until it ruins the entire country.
You are fired. You are now free to work for Comcast and have all the dinners and box seats they offer you. Which will be ZERO, you THICK IDIOT.
Regulatory Capture results in regulators being captured.
Because in Rome you puke a lot!
"It's a non-story. Just regular schmoozing. Though the fact that regular schmoozing is a non-story might be a story in and of itself..."
Exactly. Government cronyism is at an all time high under the current administration and most Americans could care less, don't care at all or are completely ignorant of the current state of politics.
*sighs*
While Slashdot's modus operandi is soak us in hyperbole and half truths while daring us to make fools of ourselves in this case there is not even a morsel of parity between headline and TFA and as such goes too far.
Headline might as well have read.. "Comcast executives appear to have sexual encounters with unicorns" while casually quoting a document which provides no evidence of the same.
Uhm, no fucking shit. Obligatory
You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
*Regulator hand Comcast a grimy, well used jar of Vaseline®* Them Tax Payers tend to clench up when you shove it in, so dab some of that on your rod and it's like riding a slip n' slide
The circles of power are incestuous! News at 11!
Christ, is this really what passes for news on slashdot these days? "Appears"? Pull the other one!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
You know it runs deep when you have legal bribing (lobbying) in your country.
Different scale but as being a manager or someone senior in IT in the corporate world, you could get a free lunch, dinner, and box seats for something probably 5 days a week if you tried hard enough. One of my guys that left recently was doing this all the time. I didn't mind but eventually they would start calling me. I'd have to explain why our Windows engineer was wrong when he said we are interested in accelerators, some new router, or switching to some company for our corporate MPLS. Why he was meeting people for those things I'll never understand. I don't even answer my desk phone for an outside number unless I know the number. There is no such thing as a free lunch :)
I'd rather pay the $10-20 myself for my own average lunch and eat with a college or friend than someone else pay $50 for me at a "nice place" and have to sit there and act interested. I scored an ipod mini recently from a vendor we bought some software from. I gave it to one of my engineers.
"I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists â" and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president."
-- Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA
November 10, 2007
http://change.gov/agenda/ethic...
Yes, this is still up on the Internet, even today.
That should simply be illegal. It's good to have meetings with related businesses to express concerns etc., but it should be in a plain government meeting room with no perks: no food, no dancers, no music, etc.
Table-ized A.I.
And that's hardly anything new, either. Andrea Mitchell of NBC married Alan Greenspan in 1997; he was Chairman of the Fed at the time, and continued in that role until 2006. Nice little bit of "extraordinary access" NBC had there during Clinton's and W's presidencies.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
I am shocked. Now, leave me alone, I have to play with my new iShit gadget.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
In their training material that new employees go through, they make a big hairy deal out of not doing exactly these types of things.
...the worst government money can buy.
In my former hometown of Philly, there's a saying "you can vote for whatever you want, but you can't against Comcast." For all practical purposes they have a monopoly on wired Internet access in the city.
appear ?
They have MSNBC to do that.
The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
Many Americans are just stupid. They put all their faith in government and many times they even rely on government to survive. Yet, we all see day in and day out countless agencies and government programs fail at what they were created to do. From the FTC, to the FDA and the FCC. Not to mention to corruption and lack of proper care for our vets at the VA, or the bias at the IRS a agency by design that should not be political. Yet, Americans continually seek more government help and creation of new programs like the Affordable Care act? When will we ever learn?
The big telecoms are perennially in the top 20 companies/organizations in terms of annual lobbying expenditure. In 2012 for example:
https://www.opensecrets.org/lo...
#10 AT&T $17,460,000
#15 Verizon $15,220,000
#16 Comcast $14,750,000
Imagine what they dump into PACs and campaign contributions? How many regulators are past or future execs in these companies?
No wait, the other thing.
Really, though, they shouldn't be inviting their *regulators* to anything other than functions related to regulation.
What else should they have said?
Uhm here's a thought.
Thanks, but no thanks, that violates all sorts of boundaries.
You and your company are hereby notified that you are now on the proscribed list - do not, in any way, shape, or form, attempt to communicate with anyone in this or any future government, ever again.
Thank you for showing your true colors you filthy scumbags!
Sincerely,
Government officials that "cannot be bought".
Sounds to me like a clear and direct contractual breach to me - I say we sue the PotUS for said breach, for everything he has ever had or ever will have from now until he leaves this earth.
The entire body of elected officials should be quartered in WWII style barracks, with military chow lines, with drill sergeants at every entrance and exit to make sure that they understand what kind of maggots they really are.
Every meeting should be publicly recorded, available 24x7 - there are NO secrets from the people of this country from which all of their "powers" are derived.
If they forget about this, then please refer to Thomas Jefferson.
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is ...
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."
Language, please. This isn't AIM.
Water is wet.
The corporations own all of federal regulatory agencies.
You don't have to be a lawyer to know this. Every Federal employee is taught in orientation on the 1st day: $20 limit on individual gifts, $50 annual total.