The Illegal Wiretappers in John McCain’s Backyard
The WaPo reports on yet another example of how John McCain has abused his position on the Commerce Committee and his stable full of telecom lobbyists to make sure he got cell phone coverage in the desert.
Early in 2007, just as her husband launched his presidential bid, Cindy McCain decided to resolve an old problem — the lack of cellular telephone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, nestled deep in a tree-lined canyon called Hidden Valley.
By the time Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid was in full swing this summer, the ranch had wireless coverage from the two cellular companies most often used by campaign staff — Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
Verizon delivered a portable tower know as a "cell site on wheels" — free of charge — to Cindy McCain’s property in June in response to an online request from Cindy McCain’s staff early last year. Such devices are usually reserved for restoring service when cell coverage is knocked out during emergencies, such as hurricanes.
In July, AT&T followed suit, wheeling in a portable tower for free to match Verizon’s offer. "This is an unusual situation," said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia B. Jones. "You can’t have a presidential nominee in an area where there is not cell coverage."
Over the course of the past year, Cindy McCain had offered land for a permanent cell tower and Verizon embarked on an expensive process to meet her needs, hiring contractors and seeking county land-use permits even though few people other than the McCains would benefit from the tower.
Ethics lawyers said Cindy McCain’s dealings with the wireless companies stand out because Sen. John McCain is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission and the telecommunications industry. He has been a leading advocate for industry-backed legislation, fighting regulations and taxes on telecommunications services.
Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if McCain’s people were evenly split between AT&T and Verizon. I’m not surprised that the McCains were looking for coverage on these two networks.
But at the same time, I can’t help but remember that AT&T and Verizon are the two companies who–according to reports–collaborated most enthusiastically on Cheney’s illegal warrantless wiretap program. Sure, Jello Jay and even Barack Obama have given those telecom companies immunity. Still, I can imagine there are reasons–aside from just wanting to schmooze up a Senator on the Commerce Committee–to stay on the good side of a potential President.
Shorter McSame: “Wiretappers are a man’s best friend. They’re my base, doncha know?”
…and they still can’t get a decent signal! Ba-de-bump, I’m here all week, remember to tip yer servers…
Digg is open…:)
OT, did you guys see this already?
‘Domestic travellers leaving Melbourne Airport over the next six weeks will be asked to test new security scanners that can see through clothing.
– Body scanner trial
– Voluntary testing
– ‘Possible to see genitals”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/new…..83412.html
My question..
‘What are the actual physical numbers of airplanes blown-up by a bomb inside the plane??’
There has been maybe 9? 10? planes destroyed this way? (also i believe those ‘bombs’ were all in the Hold of the plane?)
This whole ‘Everyone, maybe/is a Terrorist’ stuff ‘ and the ‘WE have to do this to protect YOU’ is complete BS.
Body scans, personal computers being copied, shoes removed, only 3oz bottles of toiletries (I wonder just who on those companies ‘board of directors’), No-Fly list (that you can’t question or get off).
WTF
The general population is being trained/herded?
Why are the ‘government/HLSS (homeland SS)’ still being allowed to do this?
/end rant
Jeeze..and Sen. Toobz is getting hung out to dry for taking a little contractor action and a sled dog? Holy communication towers, Batman…this is amazing stuff. What’s next, Cindy – Microwave towers, too? Or are you going to go straight to satellite?
They could have gotten satellite phones.
Do they have satellite blackberries thought? IPhones?
McCain oughtta wish he helped Dingell unlock the IPhone.
Though I guess Republicans don’t like Apple products. (Admittedly, neither do I, but that’s probably genetic.)
Don’t know about blackberries. About an hour to go before John’s head explodes along with his mouth.
I’m still surprised that Jane, bmaz and the other Appleholics allow you (and me) to hang around here.
And even more, in spite of our heresy, we seem to thrive. How can this be?
Irish people hate apples ???
that explains a lot …
my Dodgers are dyin here, folks
I got nuttin …
My parents met at IBM. Bros went to IBM nursery school, I learned to swim at IBM country club, and IBM paid for a chunk of my college tuition.
Can you hear me now?
Good! John, give it up. It’s over. Don’t embarrass yourself any more.
And for an encore, can I recommend Hannah’s Oxdown Gazette diary – Justice Roberts Writes in Noir…and Limits Constitutional Rights here?
It seems that Justice Roberts believes “evidence of guilt” is no longer necessary. “Thinking” someone is guilty is all that is now required.
You must admit that this concept certainly streamlines the Justice System and it does free up the Judiciary to amuse everybody by demonstrating their wit as they shred the Constitution. Whatever happened to that much ballyhooed Strict Constructionism?
Ain’t it great that Justice Roberts wants to save us all so much money?
Whatta guy!
Anybody around who doesn’t have cell coverage? CALL and ask for service, and please report their response!
After all, Cindy called as a regular citizen and it worked for her.
I guess it would have been to expensive for Cindy to get a satelite phone?
A cell provider responded to an online request? Really? Excuse me, I’d like to ask the DM here if I can roll my d20 to disbelieve.
You were right, Marcy. Bob Schieffer was the one who brought up Ayers.
But drational precisely predicted his oblique method of bringing the subject up.
Sedona can use the bandwidth boost. What kinda sauce on the bbq, my friend? There are even wiFi towers designed with a shape like palm trees from some vendors. Several hundred miles to the south of there, impoverished denizens have no analog telephone, but might benefit from a little wi-fi. I would imagine Whitacre standard practice would have placed a Crawford bandwidth enhancer sometime eight years ago. Bbq ranches 1 and two likely have their own half-meter satellite monitors, too.
Those deals on wheels won’t give coverage to anything but Hidden Valley where his resort compound is. Couldn’t be more than a couple, maybe a few, other residences in there. Wouldn’t even help Cornville.
Well, let me state this in extremely clear and unequivocal terms. Here in Arizona, nobody in their right mind would have AT&T, it would be Verizon. Verizon is not a little better on coverage and reception, it is literally magnitudes of light years better. This I know for a fact as I recently cashiered my Verizon for AT&T so I could get a new iPhone. The iPhone is the greatest thingy evah; AT&T cell coverage and quality is so fucked I could scream.
One completely inconsequential but telling fact. John McCain has been using Juvaderm. Here’s how you can tell. Look at a clip from the debate (tpm has one up already), compare Obama’s and McCain’s nasolabial folds (those are the lines that run from you nose down and out towards your mouth), especially when they smile. You can see that Obama’s are much more pronounced. That’s pretty weird since those get worse as you age. Even more telling, check out this clip from the 2004 RNC. The resolution is poor, but you can see that the 2004 McCain has more pronounced nasolabial folds than the 2008 McCain.
I have it on good authority from an MD with whom I watched the debate that McCain must be using Juvaderm injections to look younger.
I watched the debate, sort of. Last week, a Debtor was in court asking the Judge to stay her grant of relief from the automatic stay pending appeal. I had won the motion in an extended hearing attended by counsel for all parties, and my client was permitted to go forward with her divorce in State Court.
I made a brief argument, pointing out the legal standards for granting a stay pending appeal, and how the Debtor had failed to demonstrate any of them. Neither his divorce lawyer nor his bankruptcy lawyer would argue the Debtor’s side so he argued it himself. He used some of my technical words with laymen’s meanings, talked about how badly he was treated in the divorce court, explained that he wasn’t blaming the Judge, she just didn’t understand the situation, cited a couple of cases from irrelevant jurisdictions for propositions that weren’t relevant to the case.
That’s what Obama had to deal with tonight. McCain starts with one point, says a couple of sentences about it, moves to some other point, then to another, and then says something about taxes. How do you even start to argue?
Wow! This story needs to be elevated to a very high profile; Not because of any appreciable effect it might have on the campaign, but for the simple fact that this is the frozen limit when it comes to abuse of power and privilege.
I am not sure this is really any outer limit of abuse of power and privilege; sure is galling though. I wonder how much one of these cells on wheels costs and what cost per day the carriers allot to them in normal use. Also, how much traffic was realized on each of the two during the deployment. Has there been enough traffic at whatever rate is being billed at to even come close to the opportunity cost of placing them there? I cannot imagine there is that much traffic, but you kind of need to know both parameters, cost and income realized.
When I last visited the telco literature, the baby bells and worldcoms were spinning off ‘outside plant’, so the actual tower ownership, installation, and upkeep, were property of ‘unaffiliated’ companies outside of the incumbent baby bells. The ownership may be more closely held in cellcos. So there may be more than Verizon involved in the deal.
Yeah, AT&T, way to say the installation is because of John McCain’s candidacy, like you’re going to yank their mobile connectivity by rolling out the tower when McCain loses the election.
Even as a presidential candidate (and a Senator), McCain’s communications security situation is much different from that of nearly all other mobile phone users, isn’t it? It appears that Cindy McCain stands to benefit the most from the special installation.
OT: The entire debate, nay the entire campaign, summed up in one (not photoshopped image):
http://images.derstandard.at/2…..450981.jpg
I am wondering why neither cindy nor mccain have sat phones
There seems to be some speculation around about who Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher really is. I’m not sure we’re supposed to pass that sort of thing on here.
“free of charge” boy oh boy those rich folks have their backs scratched.
The MSM keeps repeating how one of McCains best lines last night was ” I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run four years ago” I so wish Obama would have jumped McCains bones on this one.
McCain keeps saying “look at my record” HELLO WE ARE. McSame
OT
Attackerman has an important clip up about what we deal with in southern Ohio well in many pockets in Ohio. This is the tip of the iceberg. Let’s hope the youth vote trumps the bigots vote. LTBB (leave the bigots behind)
http://attackerman.firedoglake…../#comments
We dispatched two of these trucks during the (San Diego) fires last year. (When the power goes out, you lose any tower on the grid after the battery backup fails – 8-12 hours – unless you have an onsite generator with a supply of fuel). They were on duty in LA for different fires when they were brought down.
They set them up outside the LACs (Local Assistance Centers) where it happens is exactly where the media setup. They get a LOT of positive press – local news mostly.
The BS that Cindy just went through the customer service website is transparent. Why lie if there’s nothing untoward? Answer: because that’s what they do.
If it’s the case that the Secret Service wanted it (the article suggests that at the end), I’m fine with that, but they (SS) should be paying for it out of their protection budget.