Earlier today (Feb. 6), a most extraordinary group of people sent a letter to Capitol Hill, in the latest round of the fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), telling Congress it was time to reject the well-worn lobbying...

This is a great week for taking a step back for a good look at how Washington works.  It's also a great demonstration of that wonderful saying, "It's never over until it's over.  And it's never over."

On the menu are AT&T's failed takeover of T-Mobile, a bill to...

Here is the first sentence from a news story about what's going on in Washington:  "California's two most prominent and powerful industries -- Silicon Valley and Hollywood -- are at war in Washington." 

 That sounds about right, given the recent turn of events over the Protect...

In the next couple of weeks, Congress will come back to Washington to start debating, once again, legislation that would severely limit innovation online, limit free speech and weaken cybersecurity, all in the name of protecting the big content companies. Yes, those are the dreaded Stop Online Piracy...

Treasure this past week in Washington. It's not often -- no, it never happens -- that that consumers get a multitude of good tidings from Washington. Is it too much to hope that this is the start of a trend? Of course. The FCC then approved AT&T's purchase...

If corporations were people, here's a bit of advice: Don't enter into a Survivor game if Verizon is a contestant. Verizon shows an uncanny ability to get what it wants with a minimum of fuss, even if it means cutting out erstwhile partners.

AT&T, on the other hand, is a...

A contentious hearing broke out yesterday on Capitol Hill when the House Select Committee To Protect American Culture followed up on the Fox News story asserting the new Muppets movie, and the Muppets in general, had a leftist, anti-corporate agenda.

Committee members leveled a variety of pointed questions...

AT&T hasn't yet formally surrendered in its campaign to pay $39 billion for T-Mobile, and may not for a while. Its top officials are still making provocative, pugnacious pronouncements, whinging about its unfair treatment at the hands of regulators, while repeating arguments that have all but been discredited and dispensing...

With any other company, in any other merger, the action the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Tuesday would be the signal that a deal is dead. But when one of the parties involved is AT&T, the rules don't apply.

To recap, on Nov. 22, the FCC announced...

In April of last year I, like many millions of people, was engaged in reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which is now being made into a film for the second time. (The Swedish version was fabulous; Hollywood's come out...

WTOP-FM is literally at the top of the radio heap in Washington, D.C. The all-news station is the top revenue-producing station in the country, billing $57.2 million last year, the only station in the top 10 not in Los Angeles (which had the number two station), New York...

Earlier today, about 50 people took a drive down Emory Church Road, a quiet little street in Olney, MD. The road is 24 feet wide at its widest, 14 feet wide through most of its length. Located in the last remaining really rural portion of Olney, Emory Church...

If it wanted to, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could create tens of thousands of jobs. But it doesn't want to.

If it wanted to, Congress could let the FCC create tens of thousands of jobs. But Congress doesn't want to. (In fact, Congress is contemplating actions that could thwart...

In a few weeks, quite a few members of the United States Senate will have a choice. They either:

a) make sure that their constituents, particularly those in rural areas, will have a chance to participate in a 21st century economic and educational system or

b) follow rigid...

There were heaps of irony, and not a little schadenfreude, when Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt got himself a bi-partisan grilling before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, just two days before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally released its rules governing an Open Internet.

The...

U.S. Dist. Judge Ellen Huvelle made it clear yesterday she will be a strict traffic cop for the Justice Department's challenge to AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile. The trial will start next Feb. 13, splitting the difference between AT&T, which wanted a January start, and DoJ, which wanted March, and take...

There's no doubt that Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a comedy classic. Those who have appreciation of such things should watch it, and those who show classic films to their kids (and you know who you are) should definitely put it on their lists.

Take a minute (1:49...

There are two ways to look at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) strike against Verizon, mirror images of each other. (The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also is striking, but CWA is the main labor voice.)

First: Why should the striking workers have it better than everyone else?...

AT&T's announcement that it would start to throttle the "heaviest users" on its wireless network is only the latest in a series of developments that place the idea of a thriving, useful Internet at risk. (This is the same AT&T that wants to spend $39 billion buying competitor...

While most of the labor union leadership has decided to blindly follow AT&T off of a cliff in the company's quest to conquer T-Mobile, it's refreshing to find that someone who has finally, if too late, saw the light. He, apparently alone, recognized the value of AT&T's promises of new...