Please recuse me, let me go
So Commr. McDowell is rumored to be walking the halls of Congress taking political temperatures about what he should do in connection with the AT&T/BellSouth merger.
McDowell used to work for Comptel, where he would have opposed such a merger, but Chairman Martin thinks (and has persuaded the FCC GC) that federal ethical guidelines that would require McDowell not to vote on the merger can be waived — because there's a 2-2 tie among the remaining four Commissioners.
I can't imagine being McDowell's shoes — being forced by political pressure to vote on something that an applicable set of ethical guidelines says you shouldn't vote on. Excruciating. No matter what he does, he looks awful to some large group of anxious and persuasive people with whom he frequently interacts.
So here's the out. If he can't stay recused, he can look to empirical evidence as to whether the merger will improve the public welfare — and that evidence suggests that the merger is not in the public interest. Blogged here by David Isenberg, it's a study by Sumit Majumdar of UT-Dallas:
We find that the approval of the mergers in the past have clearly led to welfare losses for the American consumer. The approval of the ATT&T and SBC merger will lead to further substantial negative economic consequences for hundreds of millions of American consumers. Approval of the merger is not in the public interest. The local exchange sector has been re-consolidated and re-monopolized a generation after the divestiture of the original AT&T in 1984. Today’s lack of productive efficiency and technological progressiveness, particularly with respect to the deployment of broadband and network digitalization, of the merged US comjpanies means that the welfare of the US consumer has been significantly compromised in perpetuity. To ensure that no forther compromises are engendered, and overall compromises exacerbated, the AT&T and SBC merger should not be approved by the FCC.
Movie idea
Today started with me spending hours trying to re-establish my identity with a host of private and public organizations. Thanks to all - you've been great. And I'm back.
So apart from noting a fun evening debating the implementation of Beth Noveck's spirited, worthwhile, and frankly awe-inspiring Community Patent proposal (details here), I don't have much to report.
But I do have a movie idea. Ready? Prior Heart.
It's the story of a fun-loving but eccentric patent examiner who runs across an invention that allows him to travel back in time — sitting right there in his cubicle, he's transported to Mount Vernon (? — has to be near the USPTO) in the time of Washington. And he finds himself falling in love with the great man's niece, and suddenly in a position both to aid the General in a time of great peril (the patent examiner knows what to do because he's an amateur historian familiar with the intricacies of the renovation of the Mansion) (or something like that) AND to help the niece discover just how lovable she is. But then, of course, at a tremendously inconvenient time he can't help having the memory of Crystal City float into his mind (those awful buildings), which jars him back into the present. Poof! But the niece turns out to be in the present too, as a lobbyist working on patent reform, and he looks into her eyes and remembers her. But she doesn't remember him and she's mad about some narrow patent issue. What to do?
Surely we need some entertainment vehicle that brings the drama of the Patent Office closer to home.
Okay, your turn. Try these titles: Novel and Nonobvious. or…Examined Lives.