XM And Sirius Announce Plans To Merge

   Just a little bit of business news for you.

  It looks as if  XM and Sirius satellite radio service's are going to merge. This will no doubt raise some anti-trust issues with the the Federal Communications Commission  which  has said once before that the merger would go against the current FCC regulations.

    The deal also has to be approved by both companies shareholders.

   I, for one, do not think that this merger should be allowed until there is more competition from other satellite radio providers.

                           

    NYTimes

“The hurdle here, however, would be high as the commission originally prohibited one company from holding the only two satellite radio licenses. The companies would need to demonstrate that consumers would clearly be better off with both more choice and affordable prices,” Mr. Martin said.

Even if the deal does not face resistance from the F.C.C., it is likely to encounter opposition elsewhere. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade association for television and radio stations, is already speaking out against a merger.

“In coming weeks, policymakers will have to weigh whether an industry that makes Howard Stern its poster child should be rewarded with a monopoly platform for offensive programming,” the group said. “We’re hopeful that this anti consumer proposal will be rejected.”

 

Technorati tags: XM, Sirius, Satellite Radio, FCC, Howard Stern

McCain Bad Mouths Rumsfeld In SC.

   If this isn't the pot calling the kettle black,almost.

   Senator John McCain, still mouthing off down in South Carolina, said that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would be remembered as one of the worst Defense Secretary's ever because of the mis-management of the war in Iraq. McCain said that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground in order to succeed in Iraq.

    This is another one of McCain's flip-flops as it was just in November when McCain said of Rumsfeld,"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," as opposed to this remark today, "I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war."

       McCain spoke to a crowd at a Hilton Head Island retirement community so that would explain his memory loss. There were 800 McCain supporters at Hilton Head and most were no doubt lifelong GOP supporters who would never switch parties for any reason.

  Rumsfeld did many stupid things during his run but one must remember that he was doing what President Cheney, oops, Bush told him to do.

   He had no say in the troop level deployment and McCain would know this to be true.

 

Technorati tags: John McCain, Donald Rumsfeld, SC, Worst Defense Secretary, Hilton Head