The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

At today's press conference, I was able to ask Eric Massa a couple of questions about piracy on the high seas. Massa service in the Navy included time on two different ships that were tasked with anti-piracy duties.

First, on the subject of the recent anti-piracy actions off the coast of Somalia, Massa said that he was "very appreciative of President Obama's leadership in the matter". Though he didn't want to be an "armchair admiral", he thought that Obama was right to allow the military to do their job, and that the service members on the scene exhibited professionalism. He said that he has "ultimate faith" in the armed services.

I asked Massa if he thought that the Navy had the resources to target the anti-piracy mission. He said that anti-piracy is a core Navy mission, and had been since Thomas Jefferson dispatched the Navy to deal with the Barbary Pirates.

I also asked if, in his role on the House Armed Services Committee, there was something more that he thought could be done to help the Navy deal with piracy. Massa mentioned that he will soon be taking an indoctrination ride on the USS Freedom, a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a small (378 foot), fast (50 MPH) ship designed for shallow water operations. Massa said it was an "amazing piece of technology" that can address the anti-piracy mission, "if we can get the costs under control". LCS procurement has been dogged with cost-overruns and other related issues, as described in this New York Times article.

Eric Massa started today's press conference quoting from Time-Warner's SEC filings. Pointing out that Time-Warner "spent 11% less [on providing Internet] in 2008 and increased their profits by $300 million", Massa characterized their rate increase as "runaway, unregulated corporate greed." He added, "when you look at their filings, the naked, bald falseness of their claims is exposed."

Massa said he was "not elected to support corporate greed" and called the increase "a Time-Warner tax that will destroy the 21st Century economy." He listed a group of constituents, including doctors and farmers, who will be "laid waste" by the increase. He called it a "national issue of generational consequence".

One reporter asked Massa what his proposed legislation would accomplish. Massa said it would increase competition and regulate monopolies. "The tool at the federal level is to understand what the Interstate Commerce Act brings to the table. Businesses that cross state borders are subject to federal regulation."

Time-Warner's ill-conceived, outrageous plan to tax American consumers cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. I plan to take a lead [...] and will be joined by an army of activists, to bring light to a fundamentally unfair and ill-conceived assault on the American consumer.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is launching robocalls in the 29th which will try to link Eric Massa with Nancy Pelosi. There are also radio and TV ads, but it's not clear if any of those are going to show in the district.

Linking Pelosi with Massa is a long-time Republican strategy that didn't work out too well for Randy Kuhl. Pelosi's approval rating is as good or better than Congress' overall, it pretty much tracks Congressional Democrats' ratings, and it completely overwhelms Congressional Republicans. Republicans are between 18-30% approval, versus 43-50% for Democrats.

While the Republicans flail around trying to find an unpopular Democrat to link to Massa, unless trends change, Massa's job in 2010 will be much simpler. He just needs to point out that his opponent is a Republican.

Rochesterturning captured four and a half minutes of classic Eric Massa blasting Time-Warner on Internet caps. The video is embedded after the break.

The Buffalo News has a detailed piece about the fear of gun control that's driving big sales in guns and ammunition. As the News points out, there's really no chance for further gun control legislation in this Congress, and President Obama isn't planning on introducing any. Eric Massa is quoted in the piece saying that the Binghamton shootings, which involved registered guns, shouldn't lead to "sprint" to new legislation.

Time-Warner spokesman Landel Hobb's lack of touch with reality gets another airing at this media blog. Hobbs is the guy who raised fears of an Internet "brownout". The article notes that Internet growth, while still robust at 30-40%, has lessened in recent years.

The Messenger-Post coverage of Eric Massa's Henrietta town hall says that Time-Warner's caps were the main topic of conversation there. Sconsetmonkey has an account of an encounter with Time-Warner reps at the Pittsford town hall, and Rochesterturning promises video of Massa's town hall soon.

As this issue comes to a boil in the 29th, Time-Warner and its industry mouthpieces are laying down fresh new tranches of bullshit. Here's a classic:

"According to industry analysts, the infrastructure may not be able to accommodate the explosion of online content by 2012,” Landel Hobbs, chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable said in an online statement. “This could result in Internet brownouts. It will take a lot of money to fix the problem...”

As has been reported here, the cost for Time-Warner to upgrade its network to support 10X the amount of current traffic is between $20-$100 per subscriber. Also, Time-Warner's per-subscriber bandwidth costs have actually been decreasing. There's something "brown" here all right, but it's not the Internet.

According to Stop the Cap, an industry magazine wonders if Eric Massa's Corning ties are the reason he supports anti-cap legislation. Corning produces fiber-optic cable, and Verizon's FiOS uses fiber-optic cable, so Massa must want FiOS deployment. After more thought, the columnist concludes:

To me, a simpler explanation is that Massa, a freshman congressman, is looking to score populist points and easy press with an anti-corporate tirade.

That is a simpler explanation, if you're an industry shill. "Populism" has become an all-purpose smear word attached to anyone representing citizens' legitimate interests. It's clear that a 4X increase in Internet charges is not in the best interest of Rep. Massa's constituents, and he was elected to represent them, not a corporate monopoly.

Eric Massa's office has posted his earmark requests for the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

The Corning Leader covers Eric Massa's announcement that he's going to draft a bill to stop Internet caps. The story contains this gem from Time-Warner's COO, Landel Hobbs:

When you go to lunch with a friend, do you split the bill in half if he gets the steak and you have a salad?

Hobbs forgot to mention that Time-Warner's plan is to charge as much for salad as it does now for steak.
Meanwhile, back in the non-Internet world, Massa recalls his days in the Navy when he was on patrol for pirates.

According to 13-WHAM, Time-Warner is out with a new proposal for Internet rationing. It's worth a look if you want a good laugh.

On one end, it includes a ridiculously limited RoadRunner "Lite", with a 1GB cap, for $15/month. This special tier will pay double, $2/month, for every extra GB of overage.

On the other end, TWC has finally come up with their number for unlimited Internet access, i.e., what every TWC customer has today. Instead of today's $40/month (if you're a cable subscriber), the new price is $150/month. That's almost a 4X increase -- in the middle of a recession.

It's been clear from the start that Time-Warner execs were asking for immediate, draconian and punitive regulatory oversight, but it wasn't clear until today that they are going to beg for it.

By the way, StoptheCap has been doing a little light reading of TWC's 10-Qs, and they've found that TWC's costs for Internet bandwidth decreased by 11% between 2007 and 2008, and last year TWC said this:

High-speed data costs decreased for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2008 primarily due to a decrease in per-subscriber connectivity costs, partially offset by subscriber growth. [Emphasis added]

So much for the claim that bandwidth hogs are killing TWC revenue.

The Star-Gazette reports That Eric Massa will be at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Bath VA on Monday. Massa's other events are available here.