The FCC is getting ready to decide a new system for handing out the $8 billion Universal Service Fund, which is funded from contributions by telecommunications companies, which means you and I fund it through our phone bills.
Witness the battle for the best spot at the government tit:
Walter McCormick, the president and CEO of U.S. Telecom, said the Federal Communications Commission should ignore the lobbying of the wireless industry, the cable industry and media reform groups as the agency looks to overhaul its Universal Service Fund. Instead, the FCC should adopt the telecom industry’s proposal to restructure the fund, he said. (Full article)
When the government has billions of taxpayers dollars to play with, you can bet that the special interests will tear each other apart to get the biggest slice for themselves.
The FCC has issued a warning that it will vigorously prosecute those who sell or use devices that jam cell phone communications. Hopefully they will remember their objections the next time some nanny-stater comes up with a brilliant idea like mandating such devices in cars.
Your wireless router, even a cordless phone or baby monitor gives the FCC the right to enter your home without a warrant to inspect the device. Wired.com reports on several cases of warrant less “inspections” by the FCC of suspected pirate radio broadcasters. But according to the FCC it doesn’t end there:
“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.
Lew Rockwell of the Mises Institute commented on Freedom Watch this week that the Federal Reserve is “the central institution of evil” and that is certainly true, but it is not the only one. The very existence of the FCC is an inherent threat to the first amendment and apparently the fourth amendment as well. Even if, and I don’t, you grant the notion that the FCC is needed to manage competing claims to radio frequencies, it is impossible to defend giving the commission this sort of unconstitutional power.
CWCD: Freedom Bunker
