Band-Width

"In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage. Today, most U.S. homes can access only 'basic' broadband, among the slowest, most expensive and least reliable in the developed world, and the United States has fallen even further behind in mobile-phone-based Internet access. The lag is arguably the result of the Bush administration's failure to make a priority of developing these networks. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized state without an explicit national policy for promoting broadband." Thomas Bleha, May-June issue Foreign Affairs.

Not just a failure on the part of our leadership and the FTC, but a victory beyond their wildest dreams for the phone companies, they have managed to stop technology dead in its tracks; at least that part of technology relating to the exponential growth of computer and information technology. (Access to the last mile is vital. One might argue: it should be free or at least cheap.)

Believe it, this war over Internet access dwarfs the Iraq war both in magnitude and in the implications for us as technological leader. Not a partisan issue, the ignorance among nearly all legislators matches only the shrewdness of lobbyists in valorizing obstructive legislation and regulation that fixes prices unreasonably, restricts competition unreasonably, restrains trade unreasonably and denies our people access to information vital to their future, their productivity and their ability to compete.

What higher order of crime, it seems that a crime in the trillions goes un-noticed, and yes, it amounts to negligence and incompetence for the leadership especially the judiciary in not to providing an environment of competitive fairness and innovation in our world of communication and information technology.