Former Comcast and Verizon Attorneys Now Manage the FCC

[Ichingcarpenter]

The backgrounds of the new FCC staff have not been reported until now.

Take Daniel Alvarez, an attorney who has long represented Comcast through the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. In 2010, Alvarez wrote a letter to the FCC on behalf of Comcast protesting net neutrality rules, arguing that regulators failed to appreciate “socially beneficial discrimination.” The proposed rules, Alvarez wrote in the letter co-authored with a top Comcast lobbyist named Joe Waz, should be reconsidered.

Today, someone in Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters is probably smiling. Alvarez is now on the other side, working among a small group of legal advisors hired directly under Tom Wheeler, the new FCC Commissioner who began his job in November.

As soon as Wheeler came into office, he also announced the hiring of former Ambassador Philip Verveer as his senior counselor. A records request reveals that Verveer also worked for Comcast in the last year. In addition, he was retained by two industry groups that have worked to block net neutrality, the Wireless Association (CTIA) and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

In February, Matthew DelNero was brought into the agency to work specifically on net neutrality. DelNero has previously worked as an attorney for TDS Telecom, an Internet service provider that has lobbied on net neutrality, according to filings.

Around the time of Delnero’s hiring, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, a former associate general counsel at Verizon, announced a new advisor by the name of Brendan Carr. Pai, a Republican, has criticized the open Internet regulations, calling them a “problem in search of a solution.” It should be of little surprise that Carr, Pai’s new legal hand, has worked for years as an attorney to AT&T, CenturyLink, Verizon, and the U.S. Telecom Association, a trade group that has waged war in Washington against net neutrality since 2006. A trail of online documents show that Carr worked specifically to monitor net neutrality regulations on behalf of some of his industry clients.



http://www.vice.com/read/former-comcast-and-verizon-attorneys-now-manage-the-fcc-and-are-about-to-kill-the-internet



Wheeler appointed by Obama


Ajit Pai is a Commissioner at the FCC. He was nominated for a Republican Party position on the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by President Barack Obama

I know Obama had to appoint a republican.But I'm giving you the history.

[Segami]

1. Heh, putting the fox in charge of the henhouse security...

It doesn't take a genius to figure out how this ends.....

[noiretextatique]

38. well...that is exactly what Reagan did

[rhett o rick]

2. Wait I think I am getting it. This mess may possibly reflect badly on the president, even though

we all know it's not his fault. But that must be the reason that all posts I've seen on net neutrality, seem to have been boycotted.

Maybe I am premature with this thread. We'll see.

[L0oniX]

4. Don't hold your breath over that ...I hate it when peoples faces turn purple.

[bobduca]

17. This thread is off limits to the swarm.

I wonder where the list of forbidden topics are listed?

[MohRokTah]

21. If the threads allegedly about net neutrality were actually about net neutrality

You'd have all of us involved in the technology sector who have been activists regarding net neutrality posting in them. But when you have false information like the thread with the Netflix/Comcast graph being falsely linked to the net neutrality issue, you tend to turn off the people who actually understand how the internet works.

The issues pointed out in this thread do raise concerns, moreso when you look at the proposed Comcast/TWC merger, but net neutrality is a very specific issue and relating everything to it when there is little in the way of a connection really is not the best approach.

Learn more here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/25/1294666/-Everyday-Magic-A-Complete-Look-at-Comcast-Netflix-Net-Neutrality

[rhett o rick]

23. Let me see if I got your rational correct. If the OP was written different then more

people would be inclined to comment. Is that about right? You mean not one of them has an inclination to even make a negative comment? No, it's more than that. A very vocal group here seem to be boycotting all threads on net neutrality. At least the ones if seen. Now is that a coincidence that none have any comments on this very important issue?

[merrily]

25. Once they finally accepted that no court ruling stopped the FCC, they

left Villager's New Yorker thread. It would be funny to watch if it were not so sad.

And these are the same kind of people who'll question most of all how Republicans can possibly act against their own best interests.

[Dragonfli]

36. Misanthrope is still peddling that nonsense and no one in the thread

is able or willing to set him/her straight, if you are interested in engaging that poster yet again on the issue http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024873835#post9

Most people just accept the misdirection and I am too busy today to argue the truth with that one.

[L0oniX]

3. Corporate acquisition of our ...errr ...hrmmm ...their government.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

5. This thread needs to be kicked all damn day!

I just have to read an alternate point of view.

[rhett o rick]

6. I dont think you will get one here. The other side doesnt have much conviction. nm

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

11. I disagree. Per usual, they're just chopping at the bit. You watch...

something something purity test

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

12. Actually, it will come in the form of a list of things we'd...

expect from any Dem President. Of couse, that list would omit the things that really make THIS Dem President very agreeable to the very people his cheerleaders hate so much.

To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, You might not be a Democrat when you lose objectivity.

[rhett o rick]

16. I've underestimated Mr. Foxworthy. I agree completely. nm

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

24. No you haven't. I only borrowed his set up...

[rhett o rick]

30. I get it. I understand. Thanks. nm

[merrily]

26. Politically, you can't underestimate him enough.

Broke his rule of never engaging publicly in politics to campaign for Romney.

[merrily]

29. Go for it!

[Doctor_J]

7. More change we believed in

And the Fan Club will still blame the backlash on racism.

[bobduca]

8. How do the Republicans keep making Obama do this?

[merrily]

32. And they're so much dumber than Dems, too, especially Obama.

It's a mystery. Unfathomable, in fact.

[lpbk2713]

9. Verizon and Comcast have got it all sewed up ... and we are screwn.

Vzn and CC write the bills that they get their paid stooges to run through the
House and Senate and just to be safe they stacked the deck at the FCC.
How can they lose? It's the slickest game in town.

[KoKo]

10. Sums it up...Where's a Teddy Roosevelt when you need him...?

Although....this is more massive/intertwined that what Teddy faced.

[merrily]

33. We could boycott, at least as to personal use.

That might make Comcast and Verizon take notice, regardless of what the FCC does.

[jtuck004]

13. K&R n/t

[DotGone]

14. Just a revolving door. Nothing to see. Move along. n/t

[840high]

15. k/r

[Auggie]

18. Goodbye Democracy, hello Corporatocracy

[merrily]

27. That ship sailed circa 1985.

Took us a while to catch up.

[KG]

19. you never loved him

[pa28]

22. 'The days of corporate lobbyist setting the agenda are over!'

[Ichingcarpenter]

28. Don't take it out of context here is the complete quote

from his website:



"I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president."

-- Barack Obama, Speech in Des Moines, IA


http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/

[rhett o rick]

31. So is the conclusion that we cant blame these decisions on the lobbyists? nm

[merrily]

34. .....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4867436

[Dragonfli]

35. I take issue with only one thing in your post.

There is no law that states only Republican lobbyists and former execs of the businesses that are being regulated can be appointed. It is true you only claimed a Republican must be appointed and the rest is my embellishment (before you correctly bring that up) but it is nonetheless still true.

A politically neutral person that is not the obvious inside man of the industry is always an option for any post. I do not recall Bush having no choice but to appoint a Democrat with a history of regulation as opposed to lobbying even when we held both houses.

If we pretend that the only thing that can be done is to hire foxes to guard henhouses the practice will never change.

[silvershadow]

37. We need to stop this corporate takeover of our government. Perhaps by Amendment, if necessary.

There is no excuse for corporate lawyers to move to the agencies which regulate their core business interests. We are in a sad state of affairs at this moment in time.

[HooptieWagon]

39. Who appointed them?

What if the same person appointed 600 lobbyists and corporate insiders to negotiate a trade treaty... in secret? Its a good thing that would never happen. <sarcasm>

[Scuba]

40. This is not the changed I'd hoped for.