LightSquared: The next Obama pay-for-play morass?

Michelle Malkin Site ^ | 9/15/2011 | Michelle Malkin

[EagleUSA]

When it rains, it pours. And there ain’t a big enough umbrella for all President Obama’s cronies and fixers to crowd under these days.

While the Solyndra BGB (big green boondoggle) continues to blow up on Capitol Hill, the White House faces another pay-for-play backlash — this time from his own left flank.

The liberal Daily Beast reports on a broadband project backed by a frequent Obama White House visitor and donor that has Pentagon officials concerned over potential military GPS interference. The Obama FCC took the lead in intervening on the donor, billionaire hedge fund manster Philip Falcone’s, behalf and granting his company called “LightSquared” one of those coveted Obama waivers from existing law. Then Obama officials reportedly pressured a general to alter his testimony about the company’s impact on military satellite transmissions.

In a nutshell:

The four-star Air Force general who oversees U.S. Space Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor.

[EagleUSA]

To say nothing of the dangerous impact to flight safety of commercial and general aviation, and every other critical service that uses GPS -- all in spite of the massive unanimous warnings from virtually every government agency. Remeber, Obama owns the head of the FCC which is proceeding on this issue outside the normal channels and approvals -- as with many Obama activities.

The law and government procedure, checks and balances be damned.

[shankbear]

This and the Solar Scam should be the focus of special prosecutors. It should be the focus of the campaign instead of just a toss away news item unworthy of comment by the candidates. Stop eating your own, GOP, and go after Obama blood in the water.

[Fred Hayek]

Pay for play is Federal time. A lot of New Mexico politicos spent time in the Federal pen because of pay for play: Senate leader Manny Aragon, Treasurer Robert Vigil, and others, and hopefully soon Gov Bill Richardson and Att. Gen. Patricia Madrid.

There needs to be similar perp walks in Washington.

[autumnraine]

Here’s why I’m fed up with Republicans in Washington. Why on earth is no one looking into these “King’s decree” of permission to ignore laws the rest of us have to abide by? Executive Orders are bad in so many ways, but an essential EO giving a pass to King’s favorites is so unconstitutional and no one cares.

[p. henry]

And let’s not forget the biggest Friend of Barack to get special favors from this administration: the UAW.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I just bet this was done to help Lightsquare:

http://www.shellypalmer.com/2011/09/us-government-sues-to-stop-att-t-mobile-deal/

[Sea Parrot]

I did not read all of MM article, but The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers bought substancial stock in SkyTerra Communications early on.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=gsis%2Ci18n%3Dtrue&cp=6&gs_id=98&xhr=t&q=obama+stock+in+SkyTerra+Communications&pq=obama’s+stock+purchase+of+lightsquared&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=obama+stock+in+SkyTerra+Communications&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=7e03b5402b6aabd8&biw=960&bih=459

[p. henry]

I've just about had it with federal loans and grants flowing to contributors to federal campaigns and relatives of Congressmen and members of the executive branch. I've also just about had it with banksters earning seven and eight figure salaries by incurring risks that are ultimately borne by us, our children and our grandchildren.

I have two modest proposals:

1. Ban ALL federal loans and grants, as well as earmarks, to significant contributors and relatives of Congressman and senior members of the executive branch; and

2. Provide that the assets of any person who is or was a senior officer of a bank during a period of failed risk incurrence, which bank is bailed out because it is deemed too big to fail, are forfeited to the federal government.

[Cheerio]

Anyone that has a subscription to Aviation Week should read the article "LightSquared-GPS Debate Looks To Be A Washington Classic", Aviation Week & Space Technology Jun 27 , 2011 , p. 22. In that article here is just one piece of this NATIONAL SECURITY TREASON that is occurring..........

The GPS community is concerned by the speed with which the FCC approved a waiver to rules requiring terrestrial service to be ancillary to satellite service in the frequencies owned by LightSquared. “To go from a primarily satellite-based service to primarily terrestrial-based with ancillary satellite service is an effective reallocation of spectrum and needed to go through the rulemaking process and not a waiver,” argues Sturgell. The FCC cited the public benefit from LightSquared’s plans to provide nationwide wireless-broadband coverage, but “the existing public benefit from over $25 billion in government investment in GPS and over a billion users worldwide should give them pause.”

Because the signals transmitted by GPS and other global navigation-satellite systems such as Galileo are extremely weak, they were located in a quiet part of the L-band spectrum and designed to operate in the presence of other, weak satellite signals. “The LightSquared waiver is like a re-zoning law,” says Bradford Parkinson, emeritus professor at Stanford University’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. “

Effectively, the FCC is directing that a quiet-spectrum neighborhood be re-zoned for concert rock bands at the threshold of pain. And LightSquared is suggesting that its current neighbors should simply add more insulation to their houses,” he says, pointing out that its terrestrial transmissions will be a billion times more powerful than GPS signals.

Because the power spectrum of a GPS signal is complex and spread over a range of frequencies, applications requiring rapid acquisition and high accuracy, such as aviation, use wide-open receivers that can be overloaded by out-of-band emissions from powerful transmitters in adjacent bands. “GPS comes in different flavors,” says Parkinson. “Some receivers, such as those in cellphones, do not require a great deal of accuracy and are narrowly filtered. But receivers used in aviation, or to measure crustal motion with millimeter accuracy, have wideband receivers looking at adjacent bands, which were relatively quiet.”

I have probably posed more than allowed.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Wow! That looks like a good article! Thanks for the info.

[equaviator]

I want the entire Obama camping trip investigated. Promises of reparations for slavery are at the bottom of all this.

[DManA]

Cherio and all, in searching for that article I uncovered this with links to dozens of stories on this:

http://www.saveourgps.org/related-articles.aspx

[DManA]

Lets just for argument sake say there were no improprieties involved in this decision. In that case the FCC under Barrack Obama has made one of the most bone headed, incomprehensibly stupid decision in recent memory.

[engrpat]

I think I understand why the republicans have been on the sidelines while this plays out. If your enemy is shooting himself stay out of it. This way the republicans finger prints aren’t on any of the reporting or statement. This deprives the dems of saying..oh this is just a republican conspired thing. Good move so far.

[ballplayer]

Didnt Former Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham,Former Navy fighter Pilot and Vietnam Ace,go to Prison for Taking Money or Corruption simmilar to these Solyndra and Light Squared Issues?

[equaviator]

Not really. Not in terms of his position, its scale and scope, and how this thing plays out.

[RockinRight]

This could make Solyndra look like a pat on the back.