Barack Obama

Telecom lobbyist's alleged Obama advisor role criticized

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:32:42 -0500

Telecom industry lobbyist James Halpert reportedly is advising President-elect Barack Obama on issues related to intellectual property and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Halpert worked on behalf of the Internet Commerce Coalition, which included major telcos AT&T and Verizon Communications. If Halpert is advising Obama (Halpert has not been officially named as an advisor), it would violate Obama's stated ethics policy regarding lobbyists, which prohibits transition team members from working in areas in which they have served as lobbyists within the last year.

An Obama spokeswoman says in a story at GovernmentExecutive.com: "Everything we're doing is consistent with the principles that President-elect Obama laid out during the campaign. We are operating under the farthest-reaching ethics policy in history."

The allegation about Halpert also comes at a time when the growing consensus is that the telecom industry will face a tougher regulatory environment with Obama in the White House.

For more:
- GovernmentExecutive.com reports

Rockefeller set to rock telecom?

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:43:22 -0500

The telecom industry has been trying to figure out what the regulatory effect of the Obama Administration will be, and with the promise of a national CTO and movement on Net neutrality and other policies, it could be extensive. Now, it appears that Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.) likely will become chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which steers and influences much of the telecom industry.

Observers believe that Rockefeller will be much more active as chairman than previous committee leader Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), especially when it comes to Net neutrality legislation, and privacy issues related to traffic monitoring. He also has been viewed in the past as a champion of Internet availability for public libraries, schools and the under-privileged. Additionally, he has taken on the Federal Communications Commission in the past, joining other legislators in urging a review of the agency's processes.

However, it also was Rockefeller who helped drive Congress toward a compromise on the amended Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allowed telcos immunity for engaging in warrantless wiretapping at the federal government's request. That compromise angered some fellow Democrats, but President-Elect Barack Obama, who supported telco immunity in the Senate, was not among them.

For more:
- CNN Money has the Dow Jones wire story

Telecom awaits President Obama

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:10:41 -0500

We elect a president on promise, but how much of that promise can he fulfill, and how will he have to compromise lofty goals in the name of actually accomplishing change? Perhaps no one wants to think about that this morning, but we will have to think about it soon. And while President Obama may have other worthwhile priorities during his initial days in office, issues affecting the telecom market and broader high-tech industry will bubble to the surface soon enough.

Will Net neutrality policy now be a slam dunk with a Democrat leading the country and more Democrats in Congress or, in the wake of network management controversy and with the advent of overage charges and other new thinking, will hard-line Net neutrality ideas fade?

How soon will we get the national CTO that Obama promised us? How will this person get a multitide of companies and an entire industry to settle on and execute progressive broadband goals? Could telecom companies facing potentially higher taxes find it hard to make good on the broadband mission?

What about telecom immunity in the wake of the wiretapping scandal? Obama supported telecom immunity, but those against it have recently revived their fight.

President Obama soon will face all of these questions.

For more:
- Web Pro News has this evaluation of Obama and McCain

Could U.S. CTO help broadband cause?

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:26:20 -0400

Presidential candidate Barack Obama has warned his supporters not to get over-confident about his chances in the election, but that hasn't quieted the discussions about the figures who could play prominent roles in an Obama cabinet. Most notably, there has been recent speculation related to Obama's long-ago stated wish to create a cabinet position that essentially would be chief technology officer of the U.S. Who might fill such a role? Google executive and Internet forefather Vinton Cerf? Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos? What about a career academic who isn't associated with one of those high-tech brand names? Given how much attention has been paid to the Obama campaign's use of social networking, maybe it should be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? (I'm joking about that last one, I think).

The major mission for the CTO would be to advise Obama on how to spur the creation of better broadband policies and a better national broadband infrastructure, which in turn could help the economy's recovery. Still, it is unclear how such a position would interact with the Federal Communications Commission, or if it would rank over the FCC chief in advising and driving the government's position on various technology matters. Would the job be like a managing director at a high-tech venture capital fund, just telling the government where it should spend its money, or would the position drive policies, or both?

Obama, of course, needs to win for any of these questions to be answered.

For more:
BusinessWeek reports on the shortlist for U.S. CTO

EFF challenges telco immunity law

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:31:11 -0400

Remember the whole telecom immunity controversy? How easy it was to forget the several months of wrangling and debating amid--well, amid several more months of wrangling and debating, although this time it was over the presidential election. Last week, however, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a brief in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that claims the telco immunity law, passed as an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, violates the U.S. Constitution.

Specifically, the EFF says that the government's ability to prove presidential certification of warrantless surveillance in a private court proceeding violates the right to due process for telecom customers. The issue is scheduled to be taken up in court on Dec. 2, so stay tuned.

For more:
- read this story at InformationWeek

Markey chides McCain on broadband

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:43:48 -0400

In a comment so obvious it's a surprise someone hadn't said it sooner, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass), said "The Obama campaign is the broadband campaign and the McCain campaign is the dial-up campaign." The statement came as Democrats attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver cited the importance of new broadband policy and chided Republican presidential candidate John McCain and other Republicans for letting the nation's standing in the broadband world slip during President Bush's watch.

That's what McCain gets for admitting his computer illiteracy, and what the Bush administration gets for setting a goal for universal broadband by 2007 that somehow fell by the wayside. Markey, who is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecom and the Internet, is in a strong position to make that statement. Yet, at the same time, there is a lack of specifics from the Obama camp on how broadband change can be accomplished. Is Obama's Internet-friendly reputation solely based on the canned text messages and e-mails his camp sends out so aggressively?

For more:
- check out this coverage at PC Magazine

Related articles:
The DNC is a high-tech wonderland. DNC report
Obama vs. McCain: Who's telecom's favorite. Obama vs. McCain report

Senate approves FISA, telco immunity

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:35:49 -0400

As expected, the U.S. Senate approved the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Wednesday with the telco immunity "compromise" intact. The final vote was 69-28 (Obama was a "Yes," Clinton a "No," and McCain a "No, thanks. I'm running for president." The House of Representatives approved the FISA with conditional immunity (telcos need to prove the White House or top government officials said wiretapping was legal and necessary).

Now, if the government pursues a wiretapping program, it must get a special search warrant from a "secret" court, according to The Wall Street Journal's coverage. "The government must show a program is designed to spy on foreigners outside the country and will suppress information obtained on people in the U.S. who are deemed not of interest," the WSJ story reads.

Other than the actual vote tally, most of this is old news. Much of the coverage since the vote has focused on the split between Obama and Clinton, and on McCain accusing Obama of being a flip-flopper for originally opposing FISA and later supporting after the compromise was reached. So, why didn't McCain vote?

For more:
- see this story at The Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
Telco immunity was approved by the House of Representatives last month Telco immunity report
The telco immunity debate seem to quiet briefly a few months ago Telco immunity report

Anti-climactic Senate FISA, immunity vote expected today

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:21:41 -0400

The U.S. Senate likely will vote on the new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including the compromise granting immunity to telcos for past involvement in the federal government's wiretapping program, sometime today, according to several published reports. Months of intense debate are expected to end in a whimper as the Senate probably will approve the legislation by a wide margin. Though legislators and non-legislators alike will continue to argue about the course of events for years to come, the biggest remaining controversy related to telco immunity might be presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's decision to support the telco immunity provision after initially saying he would not support legislation with immunity included. How damaging will his support for the new legislation prove to be when Mr. and Mrs. America (and even us regular folks) head out to vote in November?

For more:
- see this Associated Press story

Related articles:
The telco immunity switch is beginning to haunt Obama Telco immunity report
Telco immunity was approved by the House of Representatives last month Telco immunity report

Telecom immunity switch haunts Obama campaign

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:34:49 -0400

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is under fire from some of his most liberal supporters for supporting the compromise that likely will result in new surveillance laws with immunity included for telcos who engaged in wiretapping initiated by the federal government in the past, reports the New York Times. At the heart of the complaints is that fact that Obama switched his stance on the legislation, saying in the past he would fight a new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but then switching to support the legislation after a so-called compromise was reached in the House of Representatives.

A number of other legislators switched allegiances after the compromise, but of course, they are not the ones who are running for president. Could a telecom-related issue--ok, one with telecom interests at its fringes--greatly hamper Obama? Will those inflamed by his new position on telco immunity be moved enough to jump to Nader?

The new legislation with telco immunity included is set to hit the Senate floor early next week.

For more:
- read this story at The New York Times

Related articles:
It has not been clear which presidential candidate the telecom industry most favors Telecom report
Legislators who switched to support telco immunity saw contributions rise Telco immunity report

Telecom execs don't have a read on McCain, Obama

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:14:56 -0400

Not sure where JohnMcCain or Barack Obama stand on telecommunications issues? Join the club. A Pike & Fischer survey of communications execs found that slightly more than half were either unfamiliar or unhappy with the telecom policies of the two presidential candidates. Some 40 percent of execs said they didn’t know where the candidates stood on telecom issues. And, few felt either could develop sound policies on broadband availability. Among those surveyed who felt they had a handle on the policies of Obama and McCain, most feel McCain is better prepped. For the record: Obama is against continued media consolidation and McCain is a strong supporter of cable ala carte.

“The overall state of the economy, the war in Iraq, and gas prices have dominated the presidential race, while communications issues such as broadband availability and advanced communications for public safety have thus far not been major topics of debate,” said Scott Sleek, director of Pike & Fischer’s Broadband Advisory Services. “It appears that this has left many telecommunications industry leaders feeling pretty pessimistic about the fate of communications policy under the next administration.”

For more:
- Check out the full story at Broadcasting & Cable
- Or see the release

Related article:
Obama dominates mobile web searches Obama report