Hightower Lowdown
"No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
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Misery for U.S. towns and $10 billion dollars a year for China
July's Lowdown
If Obama wins, who will be on his team--and who should be?
There'll be a crush of cameras at the front door of the White House on January 20 as scores of media outlets scramble to record the moment that the new president walks in. But, wait--who're those people who'll be sliding in quietly behind him? They're the ones who'll spend the next four years whispering in the president's ear, sitting in strategy sessions, running presidential councils, filling agency slots, and pulling the levers of executive power.
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how to wire the internet
In CorporateWorld, if you can’t win . . . cheat. What a hoot it is to watch free-market, make-it-on-your-own capitalists go running to bad ol’ Big Government, whenever they hit a bump on their path to global empire.
The latest giant to look to Washington for special favors is SBC Inc. This $55-billion-a-year outfit is the local phone monopoly for 60 million customers in 13 states. In 1999, SBC decided to remake itself into a razzle-dazzle provider of high-speed internet service.
But there was more razzle than dazzle to its performance. It charged high prices, gave poor service, and couldn’t compete against the cable companies fighting for the same market.
So SBC has resorted to the tried and true tactics that served it so well in its home state of Texas: Hire a passel of lobbyists, shell out millions in campaign cash, and get the government to rig the laws in your favor.
An SBC-backed bill is already moving through the House in Washington. It’s called Tauzin-Dingell, named for its chief sponsors, the commerce committee’s Republican chairman and the top-ranking Democrat—both grateful recipients of SBC’s largesse.
SBC has also named a new company president: Bill Daley, a former Clinton cabinet member and political operative. Daley knows nothing about phones or the internet, but he does know how to wire legislative deals, and that’s the fix SBC wants.