In the first of a series of articles written in the spirit of the "muckrakers" who challenged the power of conglomerate trusts in the early 20th Century—a challenge that led to the break-up of, among others, Standard Oil—David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick write It's Time to Break Up AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and the Rest of the Telecoms:
At the dawn of the 20th century, the oil pipes defined America. As the 21st century emerges, the information pipes define America and the world.
A century ago, a courageous muckraker, Ida Tarbell, wrote a series of articles that lead to the breakup of Standard Oil, which had become a trust controlling the energy and associated industries to fix prices, restrict competition and harm the nation.
Today, the "communications trust" -- AT&T, Verizon and the major cable companies of Comcast and Time Warner -- controls the two wires and the wireless networks that link the nation's homes, businesses, schools and other institutions. The communications trust has failed America. A few examples illustrate this failure:
• America is now 15th in the world in broadband. While Hong Kong and other countries are rolling out 1 gigabit speed services, America's average is a mere 5 mbps (i.e., 1,000 mbps = 1 gigabit).
• Americans paid over $340 billion for broadband upgrades that never happened; by 2010, America should have been completely upgraded with fiber optic services to every home.
• The FCC approved Comcast's acquisition of NBC-Universal, foreshadowing a likely wave of integration of transport or carriage and content.
• Together, AT&T and Verizon control 80 percent of all wireless services and AT&T is now attempting to close down one of the only remaining competitors, T-Mobile.
Want to do something more than just read about the situation? You can join others in taking action here.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:
Bush in an October 2002 speech said, "We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. And surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons."
Given that they haven't found a damn thing, it's clear Bush was LYING. Either that or our surveillance photos really suck. I tend to trust our technology. It has served us well. Bush, on the other hand, is a LIAR. So you've got to be skeptical of anything he says.
And while the US public carries on as blissful sheep, unbothered by their leader's lack of, well, truthfullness, the rest of the world isn't happy about it. US foreign policy will be a hornet's nest for some time to come. At least until a Democrat can start repairing the damage.