Tag: internet

Your tax dollars at work: Obama stimulus blew $7 million per house on broadband

Some might say $7 million per home seems a bit pricey, but to those cynics we say money is no object when it comes to bringing high speed porn to rural areas of this fine nation.

Some might say $7 million per home seems a bit pricey, but to those cynics we say money is no object when it comes to bringing high speed porn to rural areas of this fine nation.

redneck-relatives
Cletus and Clem, the Editor's redneck relatives in rural Montana, will love President Obama's high speed internet as soon as they get electricity

Forbes.com has the disturbing details:

Eisenach and Caves looked at three areas that received stimulus funds, in the form of loans and direct grants, to expand broadband access in Southwestern Montana, Northwestern Kansas, and Northeastern Minnesota. The median household income in these areas is between $40,100 and $50,900. The median home prices are between $94,400 and $189,000.

$94,000 for a house? Hell, that may be the real story in this story. $94K isn’t even a down payment here in California.

So how much did it cost per unserved household to get them broadband access? A whopping $349,234, or many multiples of household income, and significantly more than the cost of a home itself.

Sadly, it’s actually worse than that. Take the Montana project. The area is not in any meaningful sense unserved or even underserved. As many as seven broadband providers, including wireless, operate in the area. Only 1.5% of all households in the region had no wireline access. And if you include 3G wireless, there were only seven households in the Montana region that could be considered without access. So the cost of extending access in the Montana case comes to about $7 million for each additional household served.

Of course, the Obama administration was terribly disappointed by the $7 million figure. They were confident the number would come in much, much higher.

Source: Forbes.com

Is Al Franken going conservative? He’s condemning the FCC’s net neutrality regulations

How unpopular are the FCC’s new net neutrality regulations? Even liberal Senator Al Franken objects to this outrageous power grab. He took to the floor of the Senate to deliver a speech that sounded more like “Mr Smith Goes To Washington” than “Saturday Night Live.

How unpopular are the FCC’s new net neutrality regulations? Even liberal Senator Al Franken objects to this outrageous power grab.

He took to the floor of the Senate to deliver a speech that sounded more like “Mr Smith Goes To Washington” than “Saturday Night Live.” He lambasted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachows’ proposed regulations.

“I sincerely hope that the FCC will make significant improvements before then,” Franken said, “and that each of the Commissioners will think long and hard before they vote to approve a proposal that could actually make things worse for all Americans.”

Hey, here’s an idea, Al. How about if the United States Senate actually takes its Constitutional responsibilities seriously and slaps down this bureaucratic fiat.

Nah, what are we talking about? That’s just crazy talk.

FCC commissioner says free internet is a civil right for “every nappy-headed child”

“I can’t think of a more significant overarching civil rights issue than this,” Clyburn said, “that every nappy-headed child have the ability to connect worldwide.” We’re just not sure which part of this statement surprises us most…

Congratulations to Obama-appointed FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Preparing IHateTheMedia.com requires us to read a lot of crap in the course of a day and it takes a lot to surprise us anymore, but she’s done it.

“I can’t think of a more significant overarching civil rights issue than this,” Clyburn said, “that every nappy-headed child have the ability to connect worldwide.”

We’re just not sure which part of this statement surprises us most: the fact that she thinks free internet is a civil right or that she used the phrase “nappy-headed child.”

Oh, Ms. Clyburn, Don Imus on line three.

H/T: WeaselZippers.us

How to get free Internet and screw the American taxpayer

If you liked the government’s “free cell phones for the poor scam,” you’re going to love the new “free high-speed internet access for the poor” program.

free internet coupon
It's free! Free! Free! Except for the overburdened American taxpayer.

If you liked the government’s “free Safelink cell phones for the poor scam,” you’re going to love the new “free high-speed internet access for the poor” program. Or as we like to call it, the precursor to free internet radio, free internet TV, and free internet movies for all.

Unfortunately, that free internet service isn’t coming from companies like NetZero.com or Google TiSP. It’s coming from the government. Which means you, the American taxpayer, will be paying for someone else’s free internet.

Arstechnica.com tells the tale of our new free broadband Big Brother:

Former FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate is back with a vague plan to get Big Government away from “dictating what Americans ‘should’ get or what is ‘best for them'” when it comes to broadband. Forget setting mediocre targets, like the “4Mbps for all Americans by 2010” goal of the National Broadband Plan. Instead, just give people vouchers for really crappy broadband service and the problem will take care of itself.”

Tate actually thinks it’s good sales technique to describe the program as food stamps for broadband or “broadband stamps.” Great.
Continue reading “How to get free Internet and screw the American taxpayer”

Now Democrats want to give Obama “emergency” control of the internet

A new Senate bill is freaking out internet companies and civil liberties groups, because it would allow the president to seize control of privately-owned networks during any ill-defined “cybersecurity emergency.” When you read details of the bill, you’ll understand why Sen. Jay Rockefeller spent months squirreled away behind closed doors.

We apologize for scaring you with our previous article, This site closed for your protection. We even had a near-panic at the worldwide IHateTheMedia headquarters as staff not in the loop this Saturday called in checking on their jobs.

A new Senate bill is freaking out internet companies and civil liberties groups, because it would allow the president to seize control of privately-owned networks during any ill-defined “cybersecurity emergency.”

When you read details of the bill, you’ll understand why Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, spent months squirreled away behind closed doors drafting a new, revised, more authoritarian version of this chilling bill.

Here’s how cnet.com reports the story:

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

C’mon, relax. ObamaNet will only occur during emergencies. Like when the President wants to hold another prime time press conference. Or when decides to name himself Emperor For Life. Or other stuff.

Source: cnet.com

Time magazine internet survey says unknown college kid is the world’s most influential person

Ellen DeGeneres, John Travolta, Nicolas Sarkozy, Vladimir Putin, Helen Keller and Simon Cowell. Just a few of the unimportant people in the Time Magazine internet poll.
Ellen DeGeneres, John Travolta, Nicolas Sarkozy, Vladimir Putin, Helen Keller and Simon Cowell. Just a few of the unimportant people in the Time Magazine internet poll.
Time Magazine intentionally designed an internet poll to prove that internet polling is stupid. Or they intentionally designed an internet poll to prove that they themselves are stupid. Maybe both.

Here’s how Time describes the results:

In a stunning result, the winner of the third annual TIME 100 poll and new owner of the title World’s Most Influential Person is moot. The 21-year-old college student and founder of the online community 4chan.org, whose real name is Christopher Poole, received 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100) to handily beat the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Oprah Winfrey. To put the magnitude of the upset in perspective, it’s worth noting that everyone moot beat out actually has a job.

Time continued:

Undoubtedly, many people will question moot’s worthiness of the title World’s Most Influential Person. TIME.com managing editor Josh Tyrangiel says moot is no less deserving than previous title holders like Nintendo video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (2007) and Korean pop star Rain (2006). “I would remind anyone who doubts the results that this is an Internet poll,” he says. “Doubting the results is kind of the point.”

Time’s circulation is plummeting. And they seem to think that the way to reverse that trend is to conduct and promote a poll that they themselves admit is meaningless.

What the hell. It’s an improvement over just plain making crap up.

Source: Time Magazine

Joe Biden doesn’t know the difference between a website and a telephone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71pTSTwSzK0Ahhhh, Joe Biden. Once again he’s proven that he is the comedy writer’s best friend.

This morning he went on the CBS Early Show to hype Obama’s “stimulus” program and the new government website that lets us track how our money is being spent (or China’s money, as the case may be).

Unfortunately for poor ol’ Joe, he had to admit he didn’t know what the website is. In fact, he didn’t appear to know what the internet is.

“You know, I’m embarrassed,” a flustered Biden admitted. (Looking for help off camera) “Do you know the website number? I should have it in front of me and I don’t. I’m actually embarrassed. (after receiving the information from off camera) Excuse me. It’s recovery.gov. Recovery.gov.”

What’s the website number? We just called information. It’s 1-800-BONEHEAD.

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