There’s a new story developing. I’ve touched on it now and then, but the pieces are coming together. The FCC temporarily blocked the AT&T/Qualcomm deal to let AT&T buy spectrum using the excuse that they wanted to evaluate it together with the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Well, the latter deal has been withdrawn from the FCC, so now what’s the hold up?

It turns out that the Obama FCC under Julius Genachowski is looking to change the rules of the game. Genachowski wants to make it harder to for firms to pick up the spectrum they need to serve an ever-growing demand for wireless Internet. He and the FCC are calling it a change to the “spectrum screen.”

Why the timing? Well, it turns out that Democrat commissioner Michael Copps, despite being an ardent supporter of the radical George Soros-driven Media Reform agenda, has spoken out against changing the rules midstream. but it may not matter, as he’s quitting, and his replacement is going through the confirmation process right now in the Senate. Though that replacement may be delayed as Chuck Grassley fights for transparency in the FCC, there are no other obstacles to confirmation foreseen.

So while Copps has made a due process argument against what Genachowski is doing, Genachowski may be counting on Copps’s departure to prevent that from being an issue. With him gone, the Chairman will apparently be free to do what he wants, declaring what the rules will be anytime he wants, picking one set of rules for one company, and another set of rules for another, with nothing to stop him.

Chuck Grassley is fighting for transparency with respect to the FCC and LightSquared. The House Energy and Commerce committee is looking into FCC’s Spectrum Screen treatment. Even FCC Democrats are having to speak up. The FCC is completely out of control, and it’s taking all we’ve got in the Congress just to try to keep up, and to force the Obama administration to submit to oversight and respect the rule of law.

SOPA continues. The selective Internet kill switch bill, promoted by the administration’s allies in Hollywood to favor them over Internet-driven industries, now faces a bipartisan, bicameral alternative. Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, has been filibustering PROTECT IP in the Senate, and Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, has been speaking out against SOPA in the House. Together they propose the OPEN Act to keep the Internet open.

OPEN can actually work. Unlike SOPA and PROTECT IP, OPEN avoids regulating the Internet in America, and instead calls for us to use the International Trade Commission to target foreign “e-parasites” who infringe on the property rights of Americans. That’s a key. SOPA and PROTECT IP target American firms, harming us without actually reaching out to foreign firms. OPEN goes after the source of the problem.

It’s also important that OPEN doesn’t mess with the DNS system in America, a core Internet service. If we tried to censor DNS, we’d simply cut ourselves out of the loop, and become a laggard corner of the Internet like China, not at the thriving core. Darrell Issa says Don’t Break the Internet in promoting OPEN over SOPA. It’s a simple slogan but it’s right, and it’s not exaggerating.

Naturally the MPAA is angry, because OPEN calls for government to be neutral, not picking sides with one American industry or another. MPAA wants SOPA, that plays favorites.

Secretary Clinton has even spoken out against SOPA and for Internet Freedom. Oh wait, no, she’s going abroad and telling the rest of the world not to censor the Internet, even as Democrats and some Republicans attempt to do it at home.

The Government already has a poor track record on this. Censorship inherently defies oversight by the Congress and by the People. Don’t give the government a selective kill switch. Defeat SOPA. Pass OPEN Act if you want to target infringers, but defeat SOPA.

Can I get a big, whopping boo for the American Invents Act? That’s the insane bill Obama signed that favors lawyers over inventors, by changing our patent system to no longer give patents to the first person to make an invention. Dana Rohrabacher and I seemed to be the only ones who even cared.

Remember: Even well-intentioned regulation doesn’t always work.

PATENT WARS: Apple fends of Samsung attempt to ban the iPhone 4S in France, while Samsung holds off an Apple attempt to ban the Galaxy Tab in Australia. Worldwide, courts seem reluctant to completely ban the imports of popular electronics. This patent system is a wreck, and AIA’s pro-lawyer stance cannot help. We need real patent reform to fight cartels, and protect the interests of the public and not the American Bar Association

AT&T withdrew its T-Mobile merger application from the FCC in order to focus on the DoJ and Sprint lawsuits. Well now Eric Holder and Barack Obama Justice department are trying to stall that lawsuit until after AT&T re-files. If this were criminal court then it’d sound like an attempt at double jeopardy, wouldn’t it? But, the government gives itself broader latitude in civil court, it seems.

After playing California like a fiddle, in hindsight, Amazon gets ready for a national Internet Sales Tax fight. Conservatives need to watch out here. You’re going to here a lot of arguments about “fairness” and “paying your fair share.” But let me remind you that once the federal government starts collecting sales taxes, then the infrastructure will be in place for a national sales tax. For The Children. Think about the coming Presidential election. Are you confident our next President, Republican or Democrat, won’t get talked into a national sales tax? Nine percent, one percent, even just half a percent. To be “responsible.” To avoid “burdening our grandchildren.”

And once it’s passed, what stops it from growing?

There’s a new story developing. I’ve touched on it now and then, but the pieces are coming together. The FCC temporarily blocked the AT&T/Qualcomm deal to let AT&T buy spectrum using the excuse that they wanted to evaluate it together with the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Well, the latter deal has been withdrawn from the FCC, so now what’s the hold up?

It turns out that the Obama FCC under Julius Genachowski is looking to change the rules of the game. Genachowski wants to make it harder to for firms to pick up the spectrum they need to serve an ever-growing demand for wireless Internet. He and the FCC are calling it a change to the “spectrum screen.”

Why the timing? Well, it turns out that Democrat commissioner Michael Copps, despite being an ardent supporter of the radical George Soros-driven Media Reform agenda, has spoken out against changing the rules midstream. but it may not matter, as he’s quitting, and his replacement is going through the confirmation process right now in the Senate. Though that replacement may be delayed as Chuck Grassley fights for transparency in the FCC, there are no other obstacles to confirmation foreseen.

So while Copps has made a due process argument against what Genachowski is doing, Genachowski may be counting on Copps’s departure to prevent that from being an issue. With him gone, the Chairman will apparently be free to do what he wants, declaring what the rules will be anytime he wants, picking one set of rules for one company, and another set of rules for another, with nothing to stop him.

Chuck Grassley is fighting for transparency with respect to the FCC and LightSquared. The House Energy and Commerce committee is looking into FCC’s Spectrum Screen treatment. Even FCC Democrats are having to speak up. The FCC is completely out of control, and it’s taking all we’ve got in the Congress just to try to keep up, and to force the Obama administration to submit to oversight and respect the rule of law.

SOPA continues. The selective Internet kill switch bill, promoted by the administration’s allies in Hollywood to favor them over Internet-driven industries, now faces a bipartisan, bicameral alternative. Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, has been filibustering PROTECT IP in the Senate, and Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, has been speaking out against SOPA in the House. Together they propose the OPEN Act to keep the Internet open.

OPEN can actually work. Unlike SOPA and PROTECT IP, OPEN avoids regulating the Internet in America, and instead calls for us to use the International Trade Commission to target foreign “e-parasites” who infringe on the property rights of Americans. That’s a key. SOPA and PROTECT IP target American firms, harming us without actually reaching out to foreign firms. OPEN goes after the source of the problem.

It’s also important that OPEN doesn’t mess with the DNS system in America, a core Internet service. If we tried to censor DNS, we’d simply cut ourselves out of the loop, and become a laggard corner of the Internet like China, not at the thriving core. Darrell Issa says Don’t Break the Internet in promoting OPEN over SOPA. It’s a simple slogan but it’s right, and it’s not exaggerating.

Naturally the MPAA is angry, because OPEN calls for government to be neutral, not picking sides with one American industry or another. MPAA wants SOPA, that plays favorites.

Secretary Clinton has even spoken out against SOPA and for Internet Freedom. Oh wait, no, she’s going abroad and telling the rest of the world not to censor the Internet, even as Democrats and some Republicans attempt to do it at home.

The Government already has a poor track record on this. Censorship inherently defies oversight by the Congress and by the People. Don’t give the government a selective kill switch. Defeat SOPA. Pass OPEN Act if you want to target infringers, but defeat SOPA.

Can I get a big, whopping boo for the American Invents Act? That’s the insane bill Obama signed that favors lawyers over inventors, by changing our patent system to no longer give patents to the first person to make an invention. Dana Rohrabacher and I seemed to be the only ones who even cared.

Remember: Even well-intentioned regulation doesn’t always work.

PATENT WARS: Apple fends of Samsung attempt to ban the iPhone 4S in France, while Samsung holds off an Apple attempt to ban the Galaxy Tab in Australia. Worldwide, courts seem reluctant to completely ban the imports of popular electronics. This patent system is a wreck, and AIA’s pro-lawyer stance cannot help. We need real patent reform to fight cartels, and protect the interests of the public and not the American Bar Association

AT&T withdrew its T-Mobile merger application from the FCC in order to focus on the DoJ and Sprint lawsuits. Well now Eric Holder and Barack Obama Justice department are trying to stall that lawsuit until after AT&T re-files. If this were criminal court then it’d sound like an attempt at double jeopardy, wouldn’t it? But, the government gives itself broader latitude in civil court, it seems.

After playing California like a fiddle, in hindsight, Amazon gets ready for a national Internet Sales Tax fight. Conservatives need to watch out here. You’re going to here a lot of arguments about “fairness” and “paying your fair share.” But let me remind you that once the federal government starts collecting sales taxes, then the infrastructure will be in place for a national sales tax. For The Children. Think about the coming Presidential election. Are you confident our next President, Republican or Democrat, won’t get talked into a national sales tax? Nine percent, one percent, even just half a percent. To be “responsible.” To avoid “burdening our grandchildren.”

And once it’s passed, what stops it from growing?

Do we have to rely on the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters to warn us of legislation that the Tea Party Caucus should be opposing on our behalf?  Because that’s exactly what happened recently on “patent reform” – the America Invents Act that Obama signed into law on Sept 16, the day after his big “Jobs” speech to the joint session of Congress.   The measure passed the House on June 23, and passed the Senate with a collegial vote of 89-9 on September 8.

Now I realize that many readers here may have a knee-jerk reaction similar to mine: that if Pelosi and Waters are against it, then I am surely for it.  Alas, in this instance, it turns out that Pelosi and Waters were right, and the Tea Party Caucus was wrong.  Why do I assert that the Tea Party Caucus and its leader Michele Bachmann were wrong when exactly half the caucus (including Bachmann herself) voted to defeat the measure?  Because they did not warn us of the dangers contained in the bill.

Credibility for the Tea Party Caucus is waning fast.   Even Politico notes that…

Only 15 of the 80 freshman House Republicans have signed up for Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party Caucus, accounting for a quarter of the 60 official tea party Republicans in the House . . . the full set of Tea Party Caucus members voted with the party position more often than folks who don’t identify with the group.

As Neil Stevens noted a couple of days ago, the legislation was a very bad idea.  Yet even Stevens failed to plumb the full depths to tell us just how bad this bill is.  Besides being a “jobs bill” for patent attorneys, the bill also has several measures that will very probably prove unconstitutional.

The poisonous part of the America Invents Act is Section 18 which erects a new protected class (Banks and Wall Street firms who must pay royalties on patented electronic payment processing technology).   This new protected class, if they have challenged a patent in court and lost, will now be able to return to the USPTO to get that same patent overturned or withdrawn.  After the patent holder has already won in court!

I think it’s bad policy (unconstitutional?) to allow the executive branch to overturn a high federal court.  And this measure only applies to patents issued to the electronic payments processing industry.  Talk about another payoff from Congress to Big Banks and Wall Street!  Allowing the executive branch to confiscate private property from the patent holder who thought he’d just had due process,  when a high federal court upheld his patent, sounds very much like something the constitution protects us from?  Something protecting us from the confiscation of our property without due process?  Or when due process in the courts succeeds in protecting the property for the owner, having the executive confiscate it anyway?

Yet while violating one clause of the fifth amendment, the bill attempts to satisfy the next clause “without just compensation” by appropriating taxpayer funds to make the violated patent-holder whole (the CBO scored this cost at $1 billion).   So the bailout for the Big Banks and Wall Street firms is not just the technology royalties they escape, but taxpayer funds required to pay the  inventor the settling damages.  Allowing the executive branch to overturn a high federal court sounds to me like a violation of the separation of powers doctrine.  So it looks to me like a “two-fer” for “unconstitutionality”.

And, of course, as the USPTO withdraws patents that the courts had just upheld, more high-paying jobs will be lost in the electronic payments processing industry, innovation and entrepreneurship will be stifled, causing even more jobs to disappear. (disclosure: I have worked and innovated in the electronic payment processing industry for 17 years.  I hold provisional patents, but not in that industry.)

How long will it take until such “protections” are extended from the Big Banks/Wall Street industries to other industries that can afford K Street lawyers?

Ms. Bachmann, thank you for your vote against this measure, but why didn’t you, or anybody in your caucus, sound a loud warning to the Tea Party that this measure was about to gain passage?  I know you are working hard to gain the Republican Presidential nomination, but if that that takes priority over helping to protect our constitution, then you have signaled to us something we desperately needed to know about you.  Thank you for that, at least.

Ms. Bachmann, if you wish to restore credibility to your Tea Party Caucus, then you can lead the fight to repeal  Section 18 of the America Invents Act.   One of the three major Tea Party planks is to vigorously observe the US Constitution.  We expect the Tea Party Caucus to warn us of measures that could prove unconstitutional, just as we expect our Senators to resist collegial votes on those same measures.

The full Tea Party Caucus vote roster on HR1249 is below:

Representative – HR 1249 Vote
Robert Aderholt (AL-4) n
Todd Akin (MO-2) n

Rodney Alexander (LA-5) y
Michele Bachmann (MN-6) n
Joe Barton (TX-6) y
Roscoe Bartlett (MD-6) n
Gus Bilirakis (FL-9) n
Rob Bishop (UT-1) n
Michael Burgess (TX-26) n
Paul Broun (GA-10) n
Dan Burton (IN-5) n
John Carter (TX-31) y
Howard Coble (NC-6) y
Mike Coffman (CO-6) n
Ander Crenshaw (FL-4) y
John Culberson (TX-7) y
John Fleming (LA-4) y
Trent Franks (AZ-2) n
Phil Gingrey (GA-11) ??
Louie Gohmert (TX-1) n
Tom Graves (GA-9) n
Ralph Hall (TX-4) y
Gregg Harper (MS-3) y
Wally Herger (CA-2) y
Pete Hoekstra (MI-2) ??
Lynn Jenkins (KS-2) y
Steve King (IA-5) y
Doug Lamborn (CO-5) n
Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) y
Cynthia Lummis (WY) n
Kenny Marchant (TX-24) n
Tom McClintock (CA-4) n
Gary Miller (CA-42) y
Jerry Moran (KS-1) y
Sue Myrick (NC-9) y
Randy Neugebauer (TX-19) y
Mike Pence (IN-6) y
Ted Poe (TX-2) y
Tom Price (GA-6) y
Denny Rehberg (MT) n
Phil Roe (TN-1) y
Ed Royce (CA-40) n
Steve Scalise (LA-1) y
Pete Sessions (TX-32) y
John Shadegg (AZ-3) ??
Adrian Smith (NE-3) n
Lamar Smith (TX-21)  y
Cliff Stearns (FL-6) y
Todd Tiahrt (KS-4)  ??
Zach Wamp (TN-3) ??
Lynn Westmoreland (GA-3) y
Joe Wilson (SC-2) ??

We’ve lost some battles lately. That’s what happens when we let a radical Democrat become President. We let Patrick Leahy’s America Invents Act pass, imposing on America a Euro-style patent system that rewards lawyering, not being the first to invent something. We let the FCC pass an illegal Net Neutrality power grab, and that will have to go to court soon.

We’re even seeing some nominally Republican-run states get on big government bandwagon against AT&T, sadly joining in the effort by the Obama administration and Sprint Nextel to hinder competition and pad Sprint’s bottom line. What are Ohio and Pennsylvania doing there? Come on.

But at least we’re on track to get meaningful 4G competition. Some question the firm’s ties with the Obama administration, but I welcome progress toward LightSquared launching its network. Unlike Obama and Holder, trying to prop up Sprint, I actually want competition and lower prices.

Remember Google and defenders claiming it only patents things defensively? Even as it seeks to acquire Motorola Mobility, a firm engaged in offensive patent suits against Apple? Well, Google just bought over a thousand patents from IBM. Hmm.

Wikileaks is all about principle, and will stand up for the little guy as long as you’re not African.

You have to love committed ideologues of radical, extremist agendas like the ‘media reform’ crowd. They see vast conspiracies behind the refusal of some to champion Net Neutrality. Maybe if they’d pick agendas that weren’t so out of the mainstream, so that they wouldn’t have to rely on well-funded astroturf, maybe people would actually speak out. But George Soros’s wallet doesn’t need spokespeople.

BGR reads this “smartphone shipments” chart and sees the decline of RIM. I look at it and see why Apple is going after Samsung’s infringement of iPhone and iPad so hard: Samsung’s catching up.

We’ve lost some battles lately. That’s what happens when we let a radical Democrat become President. We let Patrick Leahy’s America Invents Act pass, imposing on America a Euro-style patent system that rewards lawyering, not being the first to invent something. We let the FCC pass an illegal Net Neutrality power grab, and that will have to go to court soon.

We’re even seeing some nominally Republican-run states get on big government bandwagon against AT&T, sadly joining in the effort by the Obama administration and Sprint Nextel to hinder competition and pad Sprint’s bottom line. What are Ohio and Pennsylvania doing there? Come on.

But at least we’re on track to get meaningful 4G competition. Some question the firm’s ties with the Obama administration, but I welcome progress toward LightSquared launching its network. Unlike Obama and Holder, trying to prop up Sprint, I actually want competition and lower prices.

Remember Google and defenders claiming it only patents things defensively? Even as it seeks to acquire Motorola Mobility, a firm engaged in offensive patent suits against Apple? Well, Google just bought over a thousand patents from IBM. Hmm.

Wikileaks is all about principle, and will stand up for the little guy as long as you’re not African.

You have to love committed ideologues of radical, extremist agendas like the ‘media reform’ crowd. They see vast conspiracies behind the refusal of some to champion Net Neutrality. Maybe if they’d pick agendas that weren’t so out of the mainstream, so that they wouldn’t have to rely on well-funded astroturf, maybe people would actually speak out. But George Soros’s wallet doesn’t need spokespeople.

BGR reads this “smartphone shipments” chart and sees the decline of RIM. I look at it and see why Apple is going after Samsung’s infringement of iPhone and iPad so hard: Samsung’s catching up.

Friday has come and gone at last, and in fact we’re well into Saturday now unfortunately, due to my needing to have covered so much this time.

Additionally, at long last it looks like the ongoing saga of California vs Amazon is coming to an end. Amazon had already floated the idea of compromise with the Democrats on their unconstitutional plan to try to bully Amazon with respect to California’s high sales tax rates.

But now it looks like the firm got cold feet. Having already put itself on the line with a plan to lobby for a national law on the matter, with a promise to pay the tax if now law is passed in two years, they caved and cut the “safe harbor” down to one year. As you might guess from how I said that, I disagree that Amazon was wrong to play hardball. I think Amazon was wrong to give in after playing hardball, because if things go wrong they risk victor’s justice.

Joe Mathews says Amazon has given an example of “how not to do business in California.” At this point, I don’t see why anyone should do business in California, with all the corruption and corporatist socialism going on in this one great state.

This matters if you don’t live in California, by the way, because of the next steps.

As a worst-case scenario, Amazon may now turn on us who supported them by joining Wal-mart and the other pro-tax forces to try to ram a national, Canada-style Harmonized Sales Tax down our throats, such as one proposed by Dick Durbin, which will be the gateway to a true national sales tax, if it passes.

Amazon hasn’t come out for the Durbin plan, mind you. I’m just floating that as a possibility. But forces are at work which might give us a national sales tax through the back door.

Bad news: the Senate passed the patent bill of Patrick Leahy which intentionally, purposefully changes America’s patent system to stop awarding patents to the first person who invented the patent. And I’m sorry but it’s delusional to think that this system will reduce patent litigation, when in fact this is a Jobs Bill™ for patent attorneys. 89-9 was the vote to copy Europe and award patents to the company with the most lawyers. Shame.

It’s like we want to send innovation to Asia or something. Not that it happens there, what with Samsung’s shameless copying of Apple leading to court losses worldwide.

Big patent lawsuits are growing in number, and we just rewarded that business. Yes, I’m frustrated.

Maybe we’ll at least beat PROTECT IP, the national Internet censorship bill that, if passed, would threaten America’s leadership online. Because while patent trolling just got some legal support, copyright trolling isn’t thriving as a business.

Another issue to watch: the funding of the radicals who are pushing a big government agenda on us. In the case of AT&T/T-Mobile, radical groups are claiming responsibility for the Obama/Holder lawsuit. So they’re influencing policy while wealthy foundations are funding groups like Free Press, including our good pal George Soros and his Open Society Institute.

I have to wonder, is Obama really being too credulous of Sprint’s claims, or are they just along for the ride as the administration obeys the whims of OSI-funded organizations? After all, the administration is capable of playing favorites, as with Google. Regardless, I do hope AT&T can fight off this corporatist socialism.

TPM is under attack by Anonymous for exposing arrested criminals of theirs. This must not stand, regardless of what you think of TPM.

Bad wireless phone coverage where you live? It might be your local government’s fault due to zoning issues.

How bad is regulation nationally? even “moderate Democrats” like Harold Ford, Jr. are coming around.

Friday has come and gone at last, and in fact we’re well into Saturday now unfortunately, due to my needing to have covered so much this time.

Additionally, at long last it looks like the ongoing saga of California vs Amazon is coming to an end. Amazon had already floated the idea of compromise with the Democrats on their unconstitutional plan to try to bully Amazon with respect to California’s high sales tax rates.

But now it looks like the firm got cold feet. Having already put itself on the line with a plan to lobby for a national law on the matter, with a promise to pay the tax if now law is passed in two years, they caved and cut the “safe harbor” down to one year. As you might guess from how I said that, I disagree that Amazon was wrong to play hardball. I think Amazon was wrong to give in after playing hardball, because if things go wrong they risk victor’s justice.

Joe Mathews says Amazon has given an example of “how not to do business in California.” At this point, I don’t see why anyone should do business in California, with all the corruption and corporatist socialism going on in this one great state.

This matters if you don’t live in California, by the way, because of the next steps.

As a worst-case scenario, Amazon may now turn on us who supported them by joining Wal-mart and the other pro-tax forces to try to ram a national, Canada-style Harmonized Sales Tax down our throats, such as one proposed by Dick Durbin, which will be the gateway to a true national sales tax, if it passes.

Amazon hasn’t come out for the Durbin plan, mind you. I’m just floating that as a possibility. But forces are at work which might give us a national sales tax through the back door.

Bad news: the Senate passed the patent bill of Patrick Leahy which intentionally, purposefully changes America’s patent system to stop awarding patents to the first person who invented the patent. And I’m sorry but it’s delusional to think that this system will reduce patent litigation, when in fact this is a Jobs Bill™ for patent attorneys. 89-9 was the vote to copy Europe and award patents to the company with the most lawyers. Shame.

It’s like we want to send innovation to Asia or something. Not that it happens there, what with Samsung’s shameless copying of Apple leading to court losses worldwide.

Big patent lawsuits are growing in number, and we just rewarded that business. Yes, I’m frustrated.

Maybe we’ll at least beat PROTECT IP, the national Internet censorship bill that, if passed, would threaten America’s leadership online. Because while patent trolling just got some legal support, copyright trolling isn’t thriving as a business.

Another issue to watch: the funding of the radicals who are pushing a big government agenda on us. In the case of AT&T/T-Mobile, radical groups are claiming responsibility for the Obama/Holder lawsuit. So they’re influencing policy while wealthy foundations are funding groups like Free Press, including our good pal George Soros and his Open Society Institute.

I have to wonder, is Obama really being too credulous of Sprint’s claims, or are they just along for the ride as the administration obeys the whims of OSI-funded organizations? After all, the administration is capable of playing favorites, as with Google. Regardless, I do hope AT&T can fight off this corporatist socialism.

TPM is under attack by Anonymous for exposing arrested criminals of theirs. This must not stand, regardless of what you think of TPM.

Bad wireless phone coverage where you live? It might be your local government’s fault due to zoning issues.

How bad is regulation nationally? even “moderate Democrats” like Harold Ford, Jr. are coming around.

I’m in danger of repeating myself as the AT&T/T-Mobile saga goes on, so let me open up tonight’s post with to my latest analysis of the situation. Summary: the behavior of Sprint Nextel’s and Clearwire’s share prices, combined with Sprint Nextel’s decision to sue AT&T, should lead any observer to believe that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal benefits the 4G Internet-using public at the expense of Sprint Nextel and current market leader Verizon.

Same as it ever was, as the Talking Heads said. When Sprint gobbled up Nextel, the public gained. So, too, will the public gain if the government keeps its hands off this time.

Is Sprint in trouble? Some say yes, but the point of antitrust laws isn’t reduce competition to prop up ineffective businesses.

Help the economy, President Barack Obama. Drop the suit. Encourage your subordinates to get out of the way of job creation, innovation, and technical progress. Event the San Francisco Chronicle has run a piece explaining that.

Hearings begin September 21. Ah, government. Slow, slow, slow. Imagine life or death medical decisions in the hands of this government! Maybe they’re still trolling for some evidence that just isn’t there.

And as for Sprint’s suit, AT&T is right: “Sprint is more interested in protecting itself than it is in promoting competition that benefits consumers.”

Back to the fight over the unconstitutional Internet Sales Tax California passed to punish Amazon. Zero firms are paying it. None. It’s a failure that’s costing the state revenue. And yet, Senate Democrats gutted and rewrote AB 155 to try to declare the tax ‘urgent’, for the sole purpose of nullifying the referendum against the tax. It came five votes short of the 27 needed to pass, but they may try again, incredibly enough.

Rand Paul. He was supposed to be such a disruptive force in DC. Well, it turns out, he’ll do whatever Harry Reid tells him as long as he gets to amend Democrat bills with symbolic language against the Treaury that has no substance. Yes, Rand Paul has rolled over and played dead on the America Invents Act, the bill that would turn our patent system into a European-style failure, that rewards lawyering at the expense of the first person to invent a given invention.

Given that half the world doesn’t even respect property rights, it’s asinine even to consider copying foreign countries on Intellectual Property matters.

In the House, we had the lone voice of reason in Dana Rohrabacher standing up against the awful bill of Vermont extremist Patrick Leahy’s. Senator Trainwreck may yet try to stop it in the Senate over a technicality. I don’t care about the reason, but go Tom Coburn go!

Google claims its software patents are ‘defensive.’ Well, it turns out what that means is Google will hand out software patents to business partners like HTC for aggressive action against Google’s competitor, Apple. It’s like Google’s never heard of the Cash and Carry plan, where the US pretended to be neutral in WWII, but wrote a policy that favored Britain by design. Technicalities do not change the fact that Google’s claim of defensive patents is a fraud.

I’m in danger of repeating myself as the AT&T/T-Mobile saga goes on, so let me open up tonight’s post with to my latest analysis of the situation. Summary: the behavior of Sprint Nextel’s and Clearwire’s share prices, combined with Sprint Nextel’s decision to sue AT&T, should lead any observer to believe that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal benefits the 4G Internet-using public at the expense of Sprint Nextel and current market leader Verizon.

Same as it ever was, as the Talking Heads said. When Sprint gobbled up Nextel, the public gained. So, too, will the public gain if the government keeps its hands off this time.

Is Sprint in trouble? Some say yes, but the point of antitrust laws isn’t reduce competition to prop up ineffective businesses.

Help the economy, President Barack Obama. Drop the suit. Encourage your subordinates to get out of the way of job creation, innovation, and technical progress. Event the San Francisco Chronicle has run a piece explaining that.

Hearings begin September 21. Ah, government. Slow, slow, slow. Imagine life or death medical decisions in the hands of this government! Maybe they’re still trolling for some evidence that just isn’t there.

And as for Sprint’s suit, AT&T is right: “Sprint is more interested in protecting itself than it is in promoting competition that benefits consumers.”

Back to the fight over the unconstitutional Internet Sales Tax California passed to punish Amazon. Zero firms are paying it. None. It’s a failure that’s costing the state revenue. And yet, Senate Democrats gutted and rewrote AB 155 to try to declare the tax ‘urgent’, for the sole purpose of nullifying the referendum against the tax. It came five votes short of the 27 needed to pass, but they may try again, incredibly enough.

Rand Paul. He was supposed to be such a disruptive force in DC. Well, it turns out, he’ll do whatever Harry Reid tells him as long as he gets to amend Democrat bills with symbolic language against the Treaury that has no substance. Yes, Rand Paul has rolled over and played dead on the America Invents Act, the bill that would turn our patent system into a European-style failure, that rewards lawyering at the expense of the first person to invent a given invention.

Given that half the world doesn’t even respect property rights, it’s asinine even to consider copying foreign countries on Intellectual Property matters.

In the House, we had the lone voice of reason in Dana Rohrabacher standing up against the awful bill of Vermont extremist Patrick Leahy’s. Senator Trainwreck may yet try to stop it in the Senate over a technicality. I don’t care about the reason, but go Tom Coburn go!

Google claims its software patents are ‘defensive.’ Well, it turns out what that means is Google will hand out software patents to business partners like HTC for aggressive action against Google’s competitor, Apple. It’s like Google’s never heard of the Cash and Carry plan, where the US pretended to be neutral in WWII, but wrote a policy that favored Britain by design. Technicalities do not change the fact that Google’s claim of defensive patents is a fraud.

Hey look, it’s Tech at Night before midnight Pacific time. Guess who’s got two thumbs and is finishing the week early? This guy.

The FCC is creating yet more new regulations. The Obama Administration just can’t get enough of these things. I didn’t know if anyone would have noticed it happen, but The Hill caught it as well.

Meanwhile the FCC slowly moves to increase national 4G competition in America by moving inch by inch toward approving the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, over the continued whining of Al Franken. Franken says he is “very suspicious of consolidation of power.” Yet, he won’t lift a finger against large unions, and he voted for Obamacare. Hmm.

I’d been under the impression that Patrick Leahy’s America Invents Act was a done deal once it passed the House, despite the objections of Tech at Night and Dana Rohrabacher. RedState diarist Ron Robinson says it’s not over though, and has a call to action posted.

More on patents: Daniel Foty has an extended analysis of Google, Motorola, and patents. He suggests, and I agree, that in the short run, buyers of phones won’t notice. But the deal is part of an ongoing escalation of patent litigation in America.

We’ll close with some more on the California referendum to repeal the unconstitutional, punitive Internet Sales Tax aimed at Amazon. It’s been looking good for the referendum, so the Democrats are panicked. They’re now looking to prevent the referendum from happening by re-passing the tax as “urgent.”

Slimy enough, no? Well the new bill also exempts eBay from the tax, making it even more specifically targeted at Amazon. So eBay is now on board to punish the competition.

This whole Amazon Tax is one of the more corrupt situations I’ve seen in my lifetime of watching California politics. They’re not even hiding it. For shame.