Free Republic

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, hit the two leading Republican presidential candidates this morning - one for spending issues and the other on his much-discussed tax plan. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., "thinks there's some sort of virtue in not criticizing Bush's [big spending] mistakes," Norquist said. Romney could correct that mistake, but Norquist was even less sanguine about Cain's 9-9-9 plan. "Having three taxes, all of which can grow - it's like having three needles in your arm taking blood out, it's much more dangerous than having one," Norquist explained. Norquist praised Cain for trying to...

In the recent Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate the moderators wanted the candidates to get specific regarding their economic/jobs plans. That's sort of amusing considering that the level of specificity we got from Obama in 2008 was "hope" and "change you can believe in." It turns out that we didn't get much hope, but Obama kept his promise to "fundamentally transform the United States of America. With his 9-9-9 plan Herman Cain might be getting a little too specific. Actually, it's not the specificity; it's the rigidity that Cain has been displaying which will eventually hurt him. I think Cain...

Fast forward into troubleFour years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century Saturday June 14, 2003The GuardianApril 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of...

DirecTV has reached a settlement agreement with States Attorney Generals in all 50 states over consumer complaints about its advertising, customer service and third-party retailer policies. A DirecTV spokesperson said the settlement included $14.25 million for court costs in all 50 of those states, plus an as-yet undetermined amount for restitution to consumers. The complaints date back to January 2007, according to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray in an e-mailed release about the settlement, which stems from allegations of deceptive and unfair business practices. For example, Cordray said his offices had received 1,714 complaints over that time, including that DirceTV...

The number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom TV services in the U.S. fell for the first time ever in the second quarter, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The U.S. multichannel TV market lost 216,000 customers last quarter, vs. a gain of 378,000 a year ago. The total number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telecom video fell to 100.1 million in the second quarter, SNL Kagan says.

Washington, D.C. (August 3, 2010) -- The Better Business Bureau reports that more than 53,000 consumers have filed complaints about their satellite TV service in the past three years. According to the BBB, 39,000 of the complaints were filed against DIRECTV while 13,000 were against Dish Network. Many of the complaints, the consumer group said, stemmed from fees and terms in the satcasters' customer agreements. The companies often invoke penalties if customers cancel their service before their agreements expire; the agreements are usually two years in length. “Many complaints to BBB about satellite providers stem from steep cancellation fees,” Stephen...

Washington, D.C. (July 16, 2010) -- NASA TV next week will launch a full-time High-Definition channel featuring news and coverage of agency missions and programs. The HD channel, which will be launched on Monday, will include live launch coverage of space shuttles and other spacecraft, a daily program covering the activities of the International Space Station crew and 'Video of the Earth' shots by the station crew. NASA said the channel will also deliver video file news feeds for local stations, media conferences and lectures on space-related subjects. NASA TV HD will be offered in the MPEG-2 format. The agency...

Scientists have identified a massive eruption from the sun in April that reached all the way to Earth and may be responsible for knocking out a satellite, creating a so-called "zombie satellite." The huge explosion of plasma and magnetic energy, called as a coronal mass ejection, occurred on April 3 and was observed by NASA's sun-watching STEREO spacecraft, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The laboratory released new images of the solar storm last week. The solar storm appears to have disabled the Intelsat communications satellite Galaxy 15, NRL officials said. Galaxy 15 lost contact with its ground controllers...

LONDON (AP) -- A TV communications satellite is drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth, threatening to wander into another satellite's orbit and interfere with cable programming across the United States, the satellites' owners said Tuesday. Communications company Intelsat said it lost control of the Galaxy 15 satellite on April 8....

Media mogul John Malone has agreed to reduce his voting control of satellite TV operator DirecTV Inc. to 3 percent by trading in his super-voting shares for common shares worth some $162 million more. Malone also agreed to resign from the board of directors, the company said Tuesday. The transaction was necessary to satisfy a concern the Federal Communications Commission had about Malone essentially controlling two TV signal providers that do business in Puerto Rico, DirecTV said. The Malone family controls Liberty Global Inc., which owns Liberty Cablevision Puerto Rico. Under the new arrangement, Malone, his wife and two trusts...

I'm in the process of selecting a satellite TV provider since I'll be moving soon when I buy a house. I found an old FR thread from 2003 on the topic of Direct TV vs. Dish TV. The market has changed since then. I only have two TV locations. I don't need the premium channels, just the basics, especially Fox News. Any suggestions and information will be appreciated.

Just started getting the 'Storm Fade' effect from "Snowmageddon"..have lost most of my DirecTV channels to one degee or another. Still getting my local channels though (off my roof attenna no doubt, but still digital. I gotta admit i'm curious as to how long it will last (the outage) considering the intensity of the storm. But considering my usual TV fare for Friday nights, is Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and Numb3rs, that and a large list of movies at Netflix to watch instantly, i'm not all gthat put out. Shame Hulu doesn't have a deal with CBS, so that if the...

BAGHDAD -- Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis have been greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution. No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman. The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't...

Turning on their TVs during the long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein. The late Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting on the Islamic calendar's anniversary of his 2006 execution. No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, although the Iraqi government suspects it's Baathists whose political party Saddam once led. The Associated Press tracked down a man in Damascus, Syria named Mohammed Jarboua, who claimed to be its chairman. The Saddam channel, he said, "didn't receive a penny...

Despite the recession and growing competition, DIRECTV has been remarkably effective in continuing to add subscribers. In its last financial statement, the satcaster said its net subscribers rose 74 percent in the second quarter, with a monthly churn rate of just 1.5 percent. At the end of the second quarter, DIRECTV reported that it had more than 18 million subscribers in total, a seven percent increase over last year's second quarter. Well, DIRECTV, enjoy it while you can. I predict that the nation's largest satcaster will start to experience a slowdown in subscriber growth -- and it will be largely...

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa announced Saturday he is seeking to definitively shut down a private television station that he accused of "espionage" on his office. The station Teleamazonas, a private broadcaster that has been critical of Correa and his government, has already been fined multiple times for breaking broadcasting law, notably for reporting opposition charges of voter fraud during April's general elections. This week the station broadcast a secretly recorded conversation between Correa and a Quito lawmaker -- seemingly the last straw for Correa, who has sought the station's closure for months. "I ask that Teleamazonas... is finally closed," Correa...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Authorities have closed an office of an Arab TV station after it broadcast an interview with a Saudi man speaking frankly about sex and showed off erotic toys, a Saudi official said Sunday. Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told The Associated Press that the office of LBC, a Lebanese-based satellite TV station, in the western city of Jiddah was closed because of the program and because it is unlicensed. "The closure is indefinite," al-Hazza said. The Saudi man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, has been in detention since last Friday. Abdul-Jawad, a 32-year-old...

<p>LONDON (AP) - The BBC is using two extra satellites to broadcast its Farsi-language service after days of jamming it blamed on Iran.</p> <p>The British state-run news organization said the move was meant to help it reach its Iranian audience as the crisis over their country's disputed election deepens. It is also a challenge to Iran's religious government, which has accused foreign broadcasters of stirring unrest, singling out the BBC in particular.</p>

The BBC said Sunday that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 GMT Friday onwards by "heavy electronic jamming" which had become "progressively worse". Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said. The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had...