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Old 09-22-2011, 12:08 PM
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Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
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Default Tax Dollars and Who's Pockest Are Getting Filled With Them

LightSquared: Obama’s Dangerous Broadband Boondoggle
If you thought the half-billion-dollar, stimulus-funded Solyndra solar company bust was a taxpayer nightmare, just wait. If you thought the botched Fast and Furious border gun-smuggling surveillance operation was a national security nightmare, hold on. Right on the heels of those two blood-boilers comes yet another alleged pay-for-play racket from the most ethical administration ever.
Welcome to LightSquared. It’s a toxic mix of venture socialism (to borrow GOP Sen. Jim DeMint’s apt phrase), campaign finance influence-peddling and perilous corner-cutting all rolled into one.
The company is building “a state-of-the-art open wireless broadband network.”Competition in the industry is a good thing, of course. But military, government and civilian aviation experts have long objected to LightSquared’s potential to interfere with the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. As the government’s own Positioning, Navigation and Timing agency explained:
“The GPS community is concerned because testing has shown that LightSquared’s ground-based transmissions overpower the relatively weak GPS signal from space. Although LightSquared will operate in its own radio band, that band is so close to the GPS signals that most GPS devices pick up the stronger LightSquared signal and become overloaded or jammed.”
Two high-ranking witnesses — Air Force Space Command four-star Gen. William Shelton and National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Director Anthony Russo — have now blown the whistle on how the White House pressured them to alter their congressional testimony and play down concerns about LightSquared’s threat to military communications. According to Eli Lake of The Daily Beast, both officials were urged to express confidence in the company and endorse its promise to address any technical concerns “within 90 days.”
Gen. Shelton had noted earlier this year: “Within three to five miles on the ground and within 12 miles in the air, GPS is jammed by (LightSquared’s) towers. … If we allow that system to be fielded and it does indeed jam GPS, think about the impact. We’re hopeful we can find a solution, but physics being physics, we don’t see a solution right now.”
Despite industry-wide protests, the firm somehow received fast-track approval for a special FCC waiver that grants LightSquared the right to use wireless spectrum to build out a national 4G wireless network on the cheap. Ken Boehm, of the conservative watchdog National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) in Washington, D.C., summed up the deal earlier this year: “LightSquared will get the spectrum for a song, while its competitors (e.g., AT&T and Verizon) have to spend billions.”
The current “fix” LightSquared proposes to address the interference problems is a costly, conceptual pipe dream that could require massive retrofitting of millions of handheld GPS devices. GPS expert Eric Gakstatter scoffs: “I’ve been pretty open-minded about LightSquared proposing a solution, but this really insults our intelligence. (A)s we’ve seen previously with LightSquared, it’s not about finding a practical solution for the GPS user community; it’s all about selling an idea to the FCC. The problem is that the FCC doesn’t have to live with LightSquared’s half-baked ‘solution’; we do.”
So, what’s greasing LightSquared’s skids? Hint: It used to be known as “Skyterra.” In 2005, Obama put $50,000 into the speculative firm — raising eyebrows even among his water-carriers at The New York Times. The paper noted that Skyterra’s principal backers at the time of the investment included four Obama “friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees.”
One of those pals who urged him to buy stock in Skyterra was George Haywood, a major Skyterra investor and campaign donor who chipped in nearly $50,000 to Obama’s campaigns and to his political action committee along with his wife.
Coincidentally, Obama bought his Skyterra stock the very same day the FCC “ruled in favor of the company’s effort to create a nationwide wireless network by combining satellites and land-based communications systems.” The Times reported that immediately after that morning ruling, “Tejas Securities, a regional brokerage in Texas that handled investment banking for Skyterra, issued a research report speculating that Skyterra stock could triple in value.”
Coincidentally, Tejas and its chairman, John J. Gorman, were also major backers of Obama — flying him in a private plane for political rallies and pitching in more than $150,000 for his campaign coffers since 2004. Obama sold his stock at a loss in November 2005, but his political relationship with the company was cemented. In 2009, shady billionaire hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone — whose firm Harbinger Capital Partners is reportedly under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for market manipulation abuses — acquired Skyterra.
Coincidentally, Falcone, his wife and LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja have contributed nearly $100,000 between them to the Democratic Party during critical White House meeting periods and negotiations over LightSquared’s regulatory fate.
Oh, and coincidentally, there’s $6 billion earmarked for a “public safety broadbandcorporation” buried in the Obama jobs proposal just as LightSquared pushes into that market, too.
It’s all just one strange quirk of timing, Team Obama shrugs. Except, as we all should know by now: There are no coincidences in Chicago on the Potomac. Just an endless avalanche of quids, quos and taxpayer woes.
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/ligh...nd-boondoggle/
LightSquared: Poster Child for Crony Capitalism
Two high-level government officials have revealed they were pressured by the Obama administration to change their testimony to Congress in order to favor a wireless company linked to a high-level Democratic Party donor, and to sound supportive of Obama’s stated goal of bringing high-speed wireless to at least 98 percent of Americans within five years. General William Shelton, a four-star General and Commander of the Air Force Space Command Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, disclosed that he was pressured to add two items to his testimony; that he supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use, and that the Pentagon would resolve questions relating to broadband company LightSquared through testing within the next 90 days. Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, also rejected the coercion to change his testimony, believing that it would take closer to six months to resolve concerns with LightSquared.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), chairman of the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, observed that four out of the five government witnesses for the Obama administration who testified about the LightSquared broadband project had virtually identical language in their testimony reflecting the administration’s views on broadband.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), House Armed Services subcommittee chair, believes that General Shelton’s proposed testimony was leaked in advance to LightSquared. This may have prompted the suggested changes in testimony. The Center for Public Integrity has obtained emails revealing that LightSquared officials lobbied for a meeting with the White House and brought up their political contributions to Obama and Democrats.
LightSquared’s major financial backer is Philip Falcone, a high-level Democratic party donor and hedge fund capitalist. His company, Harbinger Capital, has a $3 billion majority stake in LightSquared. Falcone is a Republican but he has given substantial amounts of money to Democrats. He and his wife gave the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $60,800 in 2009. On the same day that LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja made a $30,400 contribution to the Democratic Party, he sought a meeting with Obama’s top technology adviser, Aneesh Chopra, telling him he would be in town for an Obama fundraiser. In 2005, then Senator Obama made a $90,000 investment in LightSquared, known as Skyterra at the time.
The LightSquared controversy arose due to serious concerns that part of its proposed use of broadband in the terrestrial frequency might interfere with GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, including GPS used by the US military, GPS for hurricane and tornado tracking, and GPS predicting floods, landslides and volcanic eruptions. LightSquared owns the frequency bands 1525 to 1559 MHz. GPS satellites use the adjacent 1559 to 1610 MHz bands. There is a risk that LightSquared signals could overpower weaker GPS signals. The GPS industry has been lobbying Congress and the FCC to stop LightSquared plans until further testing has been completed.
General Shelton testifed to Congress about the results of tests showing that LightSquared’s signals would interfere with military equipment and jam vital GPS receivers. He said GPS would “be completely unusable” for aircraft 500 feet above the ground in the Washington, D.C. greater area. He said it could take a decade or more for LightSquared to mitigate the effect of its proposed network on military GPS.
Two government agencies have concluded that LightSquared’s network will interfere with GPS satellite signals. The National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board, a government entity that advises and coordinates federal departments and agencies on GPS matters, conducted tests in May which found that some GPS receivers lost signal strength or were disabled by LightSquared’s signals. Testing commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration showed that GPS for aircraft would be hampered below 2,000 feet in metro areas.
The FCC generously granted LightSquared a conditional waiver in January of this year to set up a land-based network to operate smartphones over its 4G network, but under pressure now says that it will not allow the company to operate its high-speed network until it resolves the GPS interference issue. LightSquared owns its own spectrum, but must get approval from the FCC in order to use it for another purpose.
Large cellular phone and broadband companies like Verizon and Sprint use either LTE (long- term evolution) or WiMAX technology. WiMAX operates in a frequency range which does not interfere with GPS, in the higher 2.1, 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz frequencies. Sprint currently employs WiMAX technology. But Sprint recently reached a $20 billion 15-year network sharing deal with LightSquared that would use its LTE technology and the controversial range that interferes with GPS.
It comes down to money. LTE and WiMAX are both good technologies. There is no reason why LightSquared using a frequency range in LTE that will likely interfere with GPS should receive preferential treatment over WiMAX - which would not interfere with GPS. LightSquared has bought favorable treatment through its connections and contributions to Obama and the Democrats.
LightSquared is trying to minimize the backlash by offering not to use the top 10 MHz of its spectrum, a loss of $100 million. This did not arouse any sympathy from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Cal.), who pointed out during last week’s Congressional hearing that LightSquared was given the spectrum from the government in 1989 for nothing. Falcone asserts that the problem was created by GPS satellites that have begun spilling out into other frequencies, and claims that LightSquared has a 10-cent filter that will fix the 40,000 military devices at risk. Ted Gartner, a spokesman for GPS manufacturing company Garmin, skeptically told Fox News that LightSquared has been talking about the 10-cent filter for awhile but it has never materialized.
Republican lawmakers are demanding an investigation into LightSquared’s contacts with the Obama administration and FCC officials. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said this week his committee will launch an investigation into government loan programs to private corporations.
Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) believes that the White House was lobbying on LightSquared’s behalf. “I’ve been in politics for 14 years. I have never seen an agency advocate so strongly for something like this, unless there was pressure from above or a relationship that was not being disclosed,” he said.
This is more of the same crony capitalism we have come to expect from the Obama administration. This comes just a week or two after the FBI and a House committee started investigating a half billion dollar federal loan guarantee to a failed solar firm tied to a large Obama fundraiser, Solyndra. As these incidents increase, it is becoming apparent that the level of cronyism in the Obama administration may even exceed the level during the Clinton administration. It is time to clean house and put an honest http://townhall.com/columnists/rache...administration into office.


Obama Creates Chicago Solution to Chicago Problem at Solyndra
True story:
Once while working at a hotel in Chicago many years ago, I checked in an alderman and his mistress in one room, a couple of union guys who asked about the alderman and his mistress in another room and some polite law enforcement officers in still another room within a few hours of each other. It was hard to know who was watching who.
But somebody was watching someone for sure.
So let’s say I learned a few things growing up in Chicago watching politics and crime in real life. The ways of the Obama administration are something I’m used to. That’s partly why I dislike his administration so much.
This much I know: When the Illinois Combine has a problem, they usually make it go away. Like either forever or at least until paroled for good behavior.
For the uninitiated, the Combine is a term used to describe the GOP and Dem insiders who run the state of Illinois with a little help from some ham-handed friends, like asphalt contractors, garbage collectors, teachers’ pension funds and Teamsters.
The Dems run Cook County and the GOP runs downstate.
They stage a few fights here and there just to keep it looking like politics. But really, in the words of Michael Corleone from the Godfather, “It's strictly business.”
That’s why Obama tapped Illinois Republican, former congressman Ray LaHood, long-time Combine member and benefactor of paving contractors everywhere as his Transportation Secretary. LaHood can probably over-estimate the amount of cement and labor on a given road project without even looking at a calculator. He knows the business.
Chicago veteran political columnist John Kass, who covers the Combine for the Chicago Tribune, wrote about LaHood as LaHood was being installed as US transport and asphalt vice regal:
As Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich plays the dancing monkey for America's journalists, another Illinois political story is being ignored:
Ray LaHood, the Republican Combine congressman from Peoria, has been smoothly installed as secretary of transportation in the reform administration of President Barack Obama.
In political terms, Blagojevich is a pimple compared with LaHood, who will have billions of federal dollars to dole out in state grants for contracts for roads, bridges, airport modernization -- all the sugarplums the guys behind the guys dream about.
One such guy is the indicted Republican boss of Springfield, William Cellini, a wealthy developer and executive director of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. LaHood is a Cellini guy.
And Cellini is a Combine guy. He’s known as the “Pope” in the state capital of Springfield. He’s currently under indictment for asking a Hollywood producer to make a seven-figure contribution to Blagojevich’s campaign in return for a contract managing teachers’ pension funds. He’s the guy-behind-the-guy, in Kass’ phrase. And as Wikipedia reports, “He has been vetted and licensed by gaming regulatory bodies in Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, Illinois and Iowa.”
Shovel ready? LaHood and Cellini will give you shovel ready.
That’s why I kind of feel bad for the Solyndra guys. Not the donors, but the executives.
It’s just about now that they have figured out who they were dealing with.
They thought they were dating the prom king when courting Obama and his government checkbook. But really, they were getting juice from a loan shark, Chicago-style, and they didn’t know it.
Maybe that’s why all of sudden the business guys who wear ties for a living and who were so ready to cooperate with the investigation into Solyndra are going to make like mobsters and invoke 5th Amendment protection when testifying before Congress on Friday.
The Combine is pretty adept at government investigations that pin the blame on someone else; someone else who, in the best case scenario, ends up doing ten-to-twenty making small rocks out of large rocks.
Currently the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Treasury and Congress all have open investigations into Solyndra and possible loan fraud by the executives.
Political strategist James Carville recently recommended on TV that Obama “indict” someone as a way of saving his presidency.
This is the final image of hope and change? Scapegoat indictments?
The only hope the guys behind the donors at Solyndra have is for a change at prosecutor.
If I were them, I’d be crying out loud for a special prosecutor, independent of the Obama administration's Combine in this case.
True story:
It’s their only hope.
http://finance.townhall.com/columnis...em_at_solyndra
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