MaxFax
Summer’s Gone, Gone, Gone Back to work. Back to the real world. Sure, Congress is in “session.” Well, surreal world? More Congressional misbehavior. More dumb laws. More “explanations” that raise more questions. Along with more Administration stonewalling. A winners’ circle visit to New Orleans—like a walk around the bases after a home run? Did Ray Nagin “like” that hug? No officer held accountable for Abu Ghraib (oh, accountable for talking about it, though!). Can our government ever recover from these last few years of misadventures by all the branches? Got a great idea come Election 2008… vote for the challenger in every national-impact office race. Any challenger. If you can’t stomach voting for someone in the “other” party, vote for the primary challenger. How could anyone do worse? Ain’t it about time to start over? Random Notes
- Pre-Hell Week: Our friends at WICT-Virginia Chapter are hosting a fine evening featuring Cox’s Gary McCollum and Comcast SportsNet’s Rebecca O’Sullivan-Schulte at Veritas Vineyard on Thurs, Sept 13th. For info: [email protected].
- Smoking Gun? Federal Confusion Commission chmn Kevin Martin(et) showed up, haltingly and with hesitating speech-making, at the NCTA show earlier this year and claimed he wasn’t “anti-cable.” Of course, the evidence just keeps mounting that he is just what he says he isn’t. Otherwise, how could anyone—anyone!—buy his arguments in favor of classifying The America Channel as an RSN? The only conceivable reason? It gives lawyers at Comcast more billable hours causing more hassles? Methinks he has painted himself into a corner from which he’ll never emerge… unless with really messy feet.
- Bad News as Good News? There’s always that line: one man’s floor is another man’s ceiling or some such. So, CNBC trumpeted its “best August in five years.” Deservedly so. Better ratings for the network naturally derived from big swings in the markets. Everyone wants to know, “What does this mean?”
- Clearwire Is Coming? Maybe. Interesting “Tech&You” column in the Sept 3 BusinessWeek: “A Sneak Preview of WiMAX” says Craig McCaw just might do it again… despite the Sprint partnership. Does suggest the competitive landscape is going to continue to evolve in unforeseen ways. Wonder what those talks—the ones that led to the cable “Pivot” group backing away from Sprint’s WiMAX endeavors—were like?
- Flown Away: Wow, the Kid comes into your life. You raise her. Take her everywhere. Put her through college. She has great worldwide experiences in her chosen field. She graduates. Didn’t get the job she dreamed of (though offers from the Chicago Fire and DC United materialized). She bolts. “Need some time off.” Got a year-long work visa to New Zealand. Took off. Didn’t like Wellington. Now in Tauranga working as a bartender. Good for the Kid! She will be calling a few of you in about a year with an even improved resume and life experiences.
