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The FCC and the shutdown

I think the FCC should be ashamed of itself (even more than normal) for shuttering their website. Last time I checked it didn't cost much more money to get that plugged in. They are just proving how assine they can be by doing so.
 
I don't think the FCC was alone in this process. I heard news stories yesterday about a number of government agencies following instructions to shut down web sites, change the telephone answering machine greetings.

If you are looking for the people proving how asinine they can be, look a few levels higher up the food chain... the people called The Congress of the United States.
 
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okcradioguy! said:
I think the FCC should be ashamed of itself (even more than normal) for shuttering their website. Last time I checked it didn't cost much more money to get that plugged in. They are just proving how assine they can be by doing so.
Click to expand...

The law says to minimize expenditures if there is no government appropriations available. "[Not] much more money" is more money than "minimum."

- Trip
 
If you're going to shut down, then you should shut down. Everything. Congress shouldn't have access to their offices or chambers either. Send em home. And prohibit them from talking on TV. It's all such a farce.
 
It costs the same to keep the website up whether it's serving the static shutdown page or letting people access the database. They're still consuming electricity and they pay for bandwidth in bulk, not per megabyte.
 
Transfer of ownership requires FCC approval. You can't file for approval now since the web site is down. So, yes, transfers at that stage on on hold.

Once the Commission has approved the transfer, the parties can close even if the FCC is out to lunch. The purchaser needs to file a notice that the sale has been consummated, but if the web site is down, it is down. That's the Commission's problem--I wouldn't advise a client to hold up the closing under these circumstances. If nothing else, one could always tape a notice of consummation to the front door of the Commission.
 
I think the particular transfer mentioned here was filed before the closure, but is sitting on someone's empty desk. Do the limbo, baby.
 
nkd said:
It costs the same to keep the website up whether it's serving the static shutdown page or letting people access the database. They're still consuming electricity and they pay for bandwidth in bulk, not per megabyte.
Click to expand...

(Borrowed text from a post I made on a different forum.)

No, it's quite a bit cheaper to pull it offline. A static web page uses significantly less bandwidth and CPU time, and you can turn off all the separate database servers to save electricity. Plus, you have to keep someone on staff to monitor an active database in case it gets hacked; a database that is turned off cannot be remotely hacked. Furthermore, any deadlines that may be on the website may be inaccurate with the government shut down, and no information is generally considered to be preferable to inaccurate information.

The reason for this shutdown is that no money was appropriated, and agencies are not allowed to spend money that has not been appropriated unless the activities provided for involved the protection of life or property. Most, though not all, of the FCC's activities are considered to not impact life or property, thus only 2% of FCC employees are still around and every attempt to reduce expenditures had to be made.

- Trip
 
tripinva said:
(Borrowed text from a post I made on a different forum.)

No, it's quite a bit cheaper to pull it offline. A static web page uses significantly less bandwidth and CPU time, and you can turn off all the separate database servers to save electricity. Plus, you have to keep someone on staff to monitor an active database in case it gets hacked; a database that is turned off cannot be remotely hacked. Furthermore, any deadlines that may be on the website may be inaccurate with the government shut down, and no information is generally considered to be preferable to inaccurate information.

The reason for this shutdown is that no money was appropriated, and agencies are not allowed to spend money that has not been appropriated unless the activities provided for involved the protection of life or property. Most, though not all, of the FCC's activities are considered to not impact life or property, thus only 2% of FCC employees are still around and every attempt to reduce expenditures had to be made.

- Trip
Click to expand...

I think all CPs should get extended by at least the number of days lost. For example, if a CP was to expire on October 1 and the FCC went back to work on, say, October 15, the CP should be extended until at least November 1
 
Nothing preventing work on the CP--just filing the 302. (I'm in that situation now--but my CP doesn't run out until next year).
 
Is the shut down of the FCC web site all that important?

If I pack up my family for the "big vacation trip" that we only do once every three years and we travel halfway across the country to find Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon closed, that is important to me. That is big time inconvenience.

If I am disabled and I depend on some public agency for food deliver and for vouchers to buy food and the government shuts that down, for me, that is important.

If I eat contaminated food and the CDC people aren't there to advise my doctor how to treat my strange ailments, that's somewhere up there on the importance scale.

But shutting down the FCC web site? Wow! Stop the presses! Big news! Human catastrophe on an unbelievable scale!

No. It simply rates a big: "Ho Hummmmmmmm "
 
GR, if they would simply stay gone, that would be fine. They are hindrance to most all of the industries they regulate. So, here's the problem. When these jackasses decide to save 5 dollars worth of electricity and 1 guy to make sure they don't get hacked, they screw up tons of business of others. It's not like they care. They don't. They've made a lifetime of dragging their heals, wasting time and resources, and generally being a pain in the butt. Don't be late in filing YOUR paperwork for FEES though. Again, if they would simply close for good, that would be great. But, since they are now back, we have to put up with their crap again. Not having their database creates a headache for all us that have to live within their world of insanity. I guess my biggest disgust in it all is that keeping a damn website up with no changes costs nearly nothing. The door guard costs them more. This whole government shutdown crap is just a show anyway. The FCC pulling their site offline is just a very obvious example.
 
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okcradioguy! said:
GR, if they would simply stay gone, that would be fine. They are hindrance to most all of the industries they regulate.
Click to expand...

We live in a time when our entire society sometimes appears to suffer from POLITICUS BI-POLAR DISORDER.

We've got this very loud, noisy bunch of activists today who daily want to trash government, trash government employees, they want to abolish parts of government, they want to have hearing and have people sit at that table facing congressmen and answer questions with their hands and heads stuck through "stocks" like were common in the world at the time of the founding of our nation.

But if you and I step out in a public place somewhere, pull out an American Flag, and attempt to set it on fire, there will be an instant riot by these same people ready to hang us. How dare you! This is the finest nation on the face of the earth. You need to be exiled to some other country until you understand what a great nation we are. If you don't like it here.... move somewhere else.

A lady of some religious intensity put out the word a few months ago she was looking for some technical assistance. Here American group based near where I lived was raising funds to finance a broadcast facility in an African nation and she was ready to go shopping for equipment. I did some nosing around. Who regulates broadcasting in that nation. Who can apply for a station? Who can APPROVE the station.

I didn't take me long, Hoss, to realize that dealing with the FCC is a dream-come-true and a piece of cake in comparison to what that lady and her group wanted to get done in the far-away African nation.
 
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