Congress Puts The Heat On FCC Chairman…

Monday, November, 17, 2008 by Mel Phillips.

Kevin Martin might reconsider his decision to stay at the FCC until his term expires in 2011 after receiving a warning from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Michigan, and U.S. Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the committee’s oversight and investigations panel.  The Congressmen want Martin to meet with their staffers now if he wants input on a potentially damning report about his stewardship of the agency.  The committee is investigating allegations that Martin as chairman has limited policy decisions to a few aides and cut other FCC officials out of discussions.  He’s also accused of failing to keep other FCC commissioners informed on FCC staff reports, and of acting in ways that diminished government openness.  Martin has until November 21, the date the committee will finalize their report…

While Dingell and Stupak were issuing their directive, President-Elect Barack Obama was making some surprising moves in the naming of his FCC transition team.  Instead of former commissioner Henry Rivera heading the team, it will be Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach, two academics from Michigan University and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School respectively.  Another surprise was the appointment of former FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, who will co-lead the Federal Trade Commission transition team and just might be a viable candidate for the FCC chair(wo)manship.  Ness switched from the Hillary Clinton camp to the Obama camp prior to his election.  Rivera will be part of the FCC transition team but won’t be leading it…

Obama will hit the ground running once he assumes office in January and one agency that will change dramatically is the FCC.  All signs so far, point to a better agency.  Let’s hope so…       

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1934] Wedding Bells: Lyndon B. Johnson marries Claudia Alta Taylor, but you know her as “Lady Bird”…
2. 1956] A Hollywood ending: Jim Brown finishes his college career at Syracuse by running for 6 touchdowns and kicking 7 extra points in a 61-7 massacre of Colgate…
3. 1968] Heidi Ho: NBC-TV switches from an exciting Jets-Oakland game to “Heidi”. Here’s what we didn’t see: The Raiders score 2 TD’s in 9 seconds to hold on to a 43-32 win over the Jets. The final score is shown in a crawl over, what else ? “Heidi”…
4. 1973] I’m not a crook: President Richard Nixon tells an AP managing editors meeting in Orlando (FL) that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” In front of a news organization’s meeting ? Nice timing Mr. President…
5. 1985] Debuted on this date: Howard Stern on K-Rock (WXRK).  In this clip Howard talks about being fired from WNBC…
6. 1997] The Joe Gibbs Academy: To graduate, you get elected to the Hall of Fame and then come back. NHL great Mario Lemieux gets inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame and then returns to play and eventually get into ownership of the Pittsburgh Penguins…
7. 2003] Guilty as charged: John Allen Muhammad is convicted of two counts of capital murder in the Washington (D.C.)-area sniper shootings. He is awaiting execution in Virginia…
8. 2003] This I swear: Action actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the 38th Governor of California. Just call him ‘The Governator’.  In addition to acting Arnold did commercials too…
9. 2006] Kramer goes off: Former ‘Seinfeld’ star Michael Richards unleashes a barrage of racial slurs during a stand-up routine at the Laugh Factory.  This clip shows it all…
10. 2006] ‘Happy Trails’: Hall of Fame college football coach Bo Schembechler dies at 77.  One of the things Schembechler is famous for is this speech…

Music Memories:

• 1965] Number One on this date: “I Hear a Symphony” - Supremes…1975] “That’s The Way (uh huh, uh huh) (I Like It)” - KC & the Sunshine Band…1984] “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” - (my boys) Wham…
• 1980] Released on this date: “Double Fantasy” LP - John Lennon…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:

RuPaul (48), Howard Dean (60), Tom Seaver (64), Lorne Michaels (64), Danny DeVito (64), Lauren Hutton (65), Martin Scorsese (66), Bob Gaudio (66) and Gordon Lightfoot (70)…

Timeline Countdown: 10 days until Thanksgiving, 34 days until winter, 35 days until Hanukah and 38 shopping days until Christmas…

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