Subject: Pissing into the wind....(guru).
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 111010 -0600
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
--------------------------------------------------
Hi folks:
Below is forwarded a profile of the telephone/internet industry's chief
lobbyist. He is typical. Ex-military. Disciplined. Smart. Motivated
only to serve his master -- no thought of "the public" interest whatsoever!
(That is not in his Mission Statement.) Backed by BILLIONS of $$$$$$$$$.....
You saw much the same kind of spokesmen if you watched the Bill Moyers
show last night -- the spokesmen for the chemical industry.....
The oligarchy routinely hires (and pays well!!!) such professional
spokesmen (polite word: lobbyist; descriptive word: hired guns)
and literally FILLS the Washington culture with tens of THOUSANDS of them!!!!
(They, in turn, are backed up with vast expensive staffs of lawyers,
researchers, "P.R." types, etc.)
They have immediate and unrestricted access to the White House (staff)
and legislative offices as well as all of the bureaucracy. Most of
them are hired by industry (or other "deep pocket" special interests)
from such legislative or staff backgrounds. Many of the most powerful
are former Congressmen or Senators....
The important point is that they are THERE -- on scene -- when laws
are being written, or Executive Department or bureaucratic policy is
being formed...... YOU HAVE NO ONE "THERE" ON YOUR BEHALF!!!!!!
At those critical times.... (The elected representatives whom you
send to be YOUR MAN/WOMAN "on the scene" have been -- all too often --
already "bought" by the campaign funding system.)
In THEORY, of course, you are supposed to enjoy "equal access" with
your senator or congressman or bureaucrat. But the REALITY is that
this system of "hired guns" (fueled by MILLION$$$$$) completely
overwhelms the "Jeffersonian democracy" concept with which America
was born......
It is gone!!!! We are NOW an OLIGARCHY that is being governed by a
few EXTREMELY WEALTHY HUGE CORPORATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS who are
paying the HUGE cost necessary to support this system.....
That is what the McCain-Feingold Bill is all about..... And even
that bill will prove to be far from what is needed to restore our
government to the people..... It is more accurately a case of
**pissing into the wind** ... unless we can make dramatic changes
in the WASHINGTON SYSTEM AND CULTURE, itself.......
BUT, McCain-Feingold must be enacted unto law!!!! Or we have no
chance at all.....
Cheerio.......
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com http://emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness....
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
.....Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Performance Based Bylaw for cell towers (Hines)..
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 01:48:24 EST
From: Katnip364@aol.com
To: roy@emfguru.com
Tom Wheeler Is Advocate for Mobile-Telephone Industry
Las Vegas, March 23
(Bloomberg) --
Tom Wheeler, standing 6- foot-4 with a soldier's bearing,
is hard to miss, especially when he's talking about the U.S. mobile-telephone
business.
Wheeler is president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet
Association, the spokesman for a two-decade-old industry with more than
150,000 employees and annual revenue of $45 billion. He fights for carriers
including AT&T Wireless Group and Verizon Wireless Inc. on issues such as
banning cell phones in cars or limiting new antenna towers. After 32 years in
the nation's capital, his Rolodex is filled with names of political and
social elite and has a reputation as a successful lobbyist.
``He's a heavyweight,'' said Scott Cleland, chief executive of the
independent Precursor Group, a Washington-based research company. ``His
association is a real Big Foot.''
The 17-year-old group of more than 300 companies and 112 million customers is
battling this year for more relief from government. Wheeler is pushing to
ease some U.S. rules and win airwaves needed to upgrade services and keep
pace with customer demand. The group is ready to battle the U.S. military,
which uses spectrum they want, and challenge the Federal Communications
Commission to lift limits on control of airwaves.
New airwaves might boost industry revenue by $35 billion a year, according to
a 2000 report by the Council of Economic Advisers. Advanced mobile services
need more airwaves to let the carriers sell a single handset that is used as
a phone, computer, television or fast Internet access device.
`More Spectrum'
``We have to get more spectrum,'' Wheeler told more than 30,000 attendees of
his group's annual conference this week. Sitting on stage in a dark suit and
red tie, Wheeler interviewed VoiceStream Wireless Corp. Chief Executive John
Stanton, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang and
other industry leaders about the need for additional airwaves.
The son of a Columbus, Ohio, salesman, Wheeler's philosophy is ``to never
take no for an answer,'' said Ron Nessen, a former White House press
secretary and association spokesman who's known him 20 years. ``I've heard
Tom say, `You can knock me down but you can't knock me out.'''
Wheeler is accustomed to fights. From 1979 to 1984, as president of the
National Cable Television Association, he battled the better-financed
National Association of Broadcasters, which sought to thwart its TV rival.
Cable survived and, now led by AT&T Corp. and AOL Time Warner Inc., reached
67.8 percent of 102 million U.S. TV homes and generated $42.1 billion in
revenue last year, the group said.
Friends, colleagues, lawmakers and regulators call Wheeler a skillful and
fair lobbyist. His staff often is reminded that ``doing things the way we did
it last year is just an excuse for not thinking,'' Nessen said.
`Formidable Adversary'
Former FCC Chairman William Kennard, a Democrat, says Wheeler a ``formidable
adversary.'' Kennard had opposed efforts by wireless carriers to ease all
spectrum limits, a goal that may be easier to attain under Powell, a
Republican who has expressed displeasure with such restrictions.
``He knows how to work the Hill, the press and the executive branch at all
levels,'' Kennard said. ``If he's not your ally on an issue he's tough.''
Wheeler is steeped in U.S. Civil War battle history, thanks to his
grandfather, and will transport anyone within earshot to grassy fields in
Pennsylvania or rolling hills in Virginia to recount tactics use by generals
more than 135 years ago.
``The give and take of leadership is timeless,'' said Wheeler, who wrote
``Leadership Lessons from the Civil War'' in 1999. ``The absolute truth of
history is that it's all happened before,'' he said as classical music from
the radio filled his office and a TV flashed images from financial news
network CNBC.
Military's Spectrum
Those lessons should be useful as the group tries to snap up U.S. Defense
Department frequencies used to communicate and operate equipment. An
international body designated those airwaves for new wireless services, and
some nations set aside the frequencies for phone carriers.
U.S. companies such as Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless, the SBC
Communications Inc.-BellSouth Corp. venture, want the same frequencies so
customers can use a single handset anywhere. So far, the military has refused
to step aside.
Wheeler is conciliatory. ``We can't have this as an `us and them'''
situation, he said. ``We must find a way to work together.''
The fight for spectrum is among several Wheeler issues this year. Other
debates might emerge over issues such as privacy, driver safety and the
**health risks of cellular phones.** [Italics by guru.]
Wheeler takes it all in stride.
``I get to live at the vortex of changes in technology and changes in
society,'' Wheeler said, sitting in a rocking chair resembling the model
owned by President John F. Kennedy.
His office, on the eighth floor of a downtown Washington building, is filled
with photographs of his wife, Carol, children Nicole and Max, politicians
such as Vice President Al Gore and President Bill Clinton and mementos of his
global travels.
``I can't think of a more exciting place to live.''
[Or more destructive to the principles of a Jeffersonian democracy...guru..]
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com