calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| OK, so local governments should be able to extort any sort of "support" for favored projects in return for granting permits to do business? You are supporting the antithesis of open government. What's next? We put the arm on grocery stores to give food to homeless shelters so that the true cost of supporting those shelters is both hidden from the public and outside the budget process? Maybe we tell car dealers they have to provide free cars to the city so the council members can have free cars to use without it showing up on the budget? Or how about we make dry-cleaners clean the cops' uniforms for free and we make restaurants give cops free meals? These are all disgusting hidden uses of local governmental power.
It's exactly the fact that I can't identify the monies going into this political slush fund that bothers me--I can identify and trace tax receipts, and petition my local governments about how to spend them. This is a hidden squeeze, and it's only the fact that the end result is a political one you like that causes you to support the result.
Maybe you're happy with government wasting your money on goth girls and nut cases, but I'm not.
Finally, saying that the capability implementing satellite blackouts means the capacity to broadcast local "public access" is a demonstration of your lack of knowledge about the technology. Broadcasting local "public access" would require local channels for each jurisdiction. Blackouts are implemented by turning off the channel in your set-top box, not by wasting satellite capacity by broadcasting different channels for different metro areas.
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
