Verizon, on the other hand...

... just bought about $4 billion worth of spectrum from Comcast.

Why do I like this deal, after showering AT&T's takeover over of T-Mobile with so much bile?

Because Verizon's deal brings new, unused spectrum to the market, actually doing what AT&T falsely claimed their deal with T-Mobile would accomplish. Because the Verizon deal still leaves the competitors on the field, especially the scrappy one (T-Mob) known for good prices and good deals. Because, in the final look, Verizon isn't AT&T.

Did you note last week that Verizon was the one major cell phone provider that did not use the sneaky software from Carrier IQ that knows more (a lot more) about you than your mother?

There is an obvious difference between Verizon and AT&T. One is good, the other is ... well, not so good. The corporate cultures seem vastly different. It's like going into a restaurant where staff is smiling and professional and eager, versus going into one where the first words you hear are "We close in fifteen minutes." Don't you just wonder what they're doing to your burger back there in the kitchen?

AT&T just seems to be in it for themselves, ya know?

We post this to let our conservative friends understand that we are not anti-business. We like business, and we like functioning markets, where they exist. Which does not include the U.S. pharmaceutical industry or anything that travels in the same wheel rut as AT&T.

That is not to say Verizon only wears a white hat. They were astoundingly silent about the AT&T and T-Mobile deal. Verizon's execs knew even if AT&T succeeded in swallowing T-Mobile and moving past Verizon to become the largest cell provider, even being second largest would increase Verizon's bottom line in a less competitive market. That's how oligopolies work.

But being silent is not the same as openly trying to undermine market competition. Verizon bought $4 billion of spectrum and will bring it online, while AT&T was taking a $4 billion charge for likely blowing a deal with T-Mobile that was a blatant attempt to subvert market dynamics so beloved of the right wing if in name only.

AT&T is anti-business, except their own. Rep. Greg Walden is anti-business,too, except for AT&T's business which Walden conducts quite well as a mole for AT&T at the government level. He is not working for small Oregon companies that need a functioning market in which to buy phone service. But then, we don't give Rep. Walden nearly as much money as he gets from AT&T.

Verizon is the nation's leader in customer service, the leader in basic service, the leader in high speed service, and it appears that lead will continue with this recent purchase of spectrum and marketing deals with cable companies.

Blessing in the loss

Her mother hovers near death, so light now she floats six inches above the bed while nestled small and frail so deeply in the sheets.

I am blessed, asked to sit in this room, asked to bring strong arms from which grief can be released. Blessed, trying to anticipate small needs, driving small errands, a presence to offer balance, solid with no weight.

Blessed, in this watching, to see here great beauty.

Two weeks since she fell and shattered bones in hip and neck, a week since she lost consciousness. Four adult children attend with children of their own, a great grandchild due in a month visits via the womb.

"Perhaps mom hangs on to meet her great granddaughter," someone says.

"I think it would be better if mom meets her before she is born," says daughter-soon-to-be-grandmother with a smile but not joking, the quickness of her response and the love in this room offers another chance to laugh.

With laughter and warmth they share stories of childhoods where Gaga played her important role, memories brought out and burnished like holiday silver.

So many meals for so many as her own children searched for channels into adulthood, moved back home sometimes with their own kids until fully fledged and swimming on their own. There are many stories.

Running through it all is the common theme: "She made each of us feel like her favorite."

A grandson reads a book, his grandmother had read it to him, he cannot continue for tears that flow from love and loss. His father sits at mother's bedside, head resting on one arm, his eyes to the floor while she looks to other vistas.

He caresses his mother's brow for a long, long time. There is is no measurement for this waiting. He cries, one of his sisters puts her hand on the back of his neck.

The mourning is as natural and accepted the laughter, as the need to go out and get fresh air, to go home for a shower. We attend in shifts. Tears, laughter, errands, waiting, nurses come in every two hours with an opiate to ease her pain.

Until the end each dose eased her breathing for a while, but then seemed to have little effect at all.

A grandson in the Air Force flew home from Arizona, he and his brother stand at her bedside, eyes bright to her. They just stand, holding her hand, no tears, no drama, peace emanates from them. In another world they wore robes and traveled by horse or mule, they are timeless.

Rebel son of rebel dad, long hair creeping from under cap, but pride earned and voice direct to her even as she cannot hear, the love she poured into him pours back to her, from pitcher to cup to pitcher.

The words "I love you" bring from her a smile. They are the words spoken in this room most often.

An Army Sergeant brings his family home from Texas to be here for the services, and uses his leave to be part of this, to help as he can. Soldiers, aviators abound in this family, tough men who do not flinch from their own weeping.

They attend, ageless youth. Baby blankets she made for them, satin edging worn away by their tiny fingers, return to the foot of her bed, warming her now and them now again.

"What will I do, her love was so important to me," asks a granddaughter, a professional pilot, overwhelmed in this moment by her helplessness.

"I just don't want to let go of her hand," responds her mother, who for years absorbed the pain of her mother's uncertain shuffle to flowers in the garden, worn by years of a long transition.

Daughters together here and now, their tears flow to her in one stream through it all.

Then, a smile, another story, one stands to go to her bed, to hold her cool hands, to feel her feet to be sure they are warm enough as circulation slows.

Over the last days and nights her breath slows, becomes uneven, long pauses cause everyone to stop, to listen, then she gasps as the body's need of oxygen overwhelms her soul's desire to flee, the breathing is ragged in her throat, softened only by sponged drops of water.

"There is a door," she said when she still had a few words left to share, "but I don't know how to go through it."

"Daddy waits and will show you the way, your papa waits and will guide you," her children reply to her stillness. "All those who have passed through will be there."

Finally, early in the morning her breathing slows even more and grows even more shallow, then just stops. This struggle is over, surrounded by loved ones through it all, not one moment of this departure did she spend alone in this room.

Such a blessing to be here.

More falsehoods from AT&T

AT&T does not like the report from the Federal Communications Commission on its takeover of T-Mobile. They don't like that the report was released. Surprise.

So they trot out a smart man to try to cast doubt. Let's look at what he had to say.

"The document is so obviously one-sided that any fair-minded person reading it is left with the clear impression that it is an advocacy piece, and not a considered analysis," Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior vice president of external and legislative affairs, wrote in a blog post.

Actually, no. The report simply states reasons why FCC staff do not support the merger. The "analysis" is elsewhere. For nine months AT&T filled the atmosphere with falsehoods about how "what's good for AT&T is good for America." FCC disagreed, and said why. That's all.

AT&T claimed acquiring T-Mobile would help the rollout of its 4G LTE network. The FCC agreed with AT&T rivals who argued that AT&T is going to build out its 4G network with or without T-Mobile because of competition. Cicconi denied that, pointing to "sworn declarations" about its 4G LTE plans.

Oh, please. "Sworn declarations?" And we should wait for AT&T to say "Oh, that sworn declaration? Yeah, about that, well, our plans have changed." That's what always happens when the consequences for lying are less than the benefits. Guess we'll see if AT&T will let Verizon be the only company with a nationwide 4G network.

"The report apparently assumes a high enough level of competition exists in rural areas to compel billions of dollars in investment," Cicconi wrote. "Yet the report elsewhere argues that the level of wireless competition in more populated areas of America is so fragile that the merger must be disallowed. At the very least, these conclusions show a logical inconsistency."

Mr. Cicconi is a smart man. So he must be a lawyer to use the word "competition," which means different things in different situations, and claim it only means one thing and the FCC is being inconsistent.

There is nothing inconsistent in saying AT&T will roll out 4G in rural areas with or without T-Mobile, and loss of competition in 99 out of 100 urban markets (where the money is) would be bad for consumers. This is just a tricky trap of language, common to a certain political class.

The FCC says the deal will kill jobs, Cicconi says AT&T has "promised" to create jobs. No. AT&T was going to recoup the $39 billion it was willing to spend on T-Mobile instead of spending $4 billion to build out its own LTE by cutting jobs and raising prices, which it will be able to do in a duopoly with Verizon across most of America. Somewhere there is a document that shows that, an email, meeting notes. Let's find it and send perjurers to jail.

Cicconi says the FCC is hypocritical in saying there is a national spectrum shortage but saying two national companies face "no such constraints." He thinks we're stupid.

Yes, more spectrum is needed for new phone technology for the public good. But the public, as a whole, does not benefit from one company gobbling the spectrum of another. If you agree with his argument, walk into the coffee shop with a dollar in in your right pocket, move it to your left, tell the server you have a dollar in each pocket for a $1.50 cup of coffee, and, of course, you plan to leave a 50¢ tip.

Cicconi says the report lacks credibility, and distorts the facts. We think the report was a good summation of reasons why the merger should not go through, and Cicconi's response validates that conclusion.

AT&T Randall Stephenson to jail?

It's one thing to lie in advertising. We all expect that.

It's another thing to lie in newspaper stories. Most of us expect that.

It's another thing to lie in applications to the Federal Communications Commission. That becomes a little more troubling.

But it's another thing altogether to lie to Congress. That's against the law. And there is some indication that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson did exactly that. If so, and if it can be proven he did so knowingly, he should go to jail.

By the way? THAT'S what the Occupy Wall Street protests were about.

AT&T's lies for all to see

How wonderful this last week to see the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission protecting markets, small businesses and consumers from a rapaciously hungry corporate monster.

Even "The Economist" magazine, hardly a liberal rag, opposed the AT&T takeover of T-Mobile.

AT&T's discomfort at the release of the FCC staff report on the merger is understandable, and wrong. That is OUR government staff, that is OUR report, transparency is GOOD, the people have A RIGHT TO KNOW. The company wasn't opposed to putting its falsehoods out there during the process. It's blatant hypocrisy to affect outrage when the government releases its findings.

In fact, ALL the documents of the proposed merger should be released. They were filed with a public body to get something from the public. We should be able to see them. Distortions and other bad things, like AT&T, grow in the mouldering dark.

Anyone who watched the AT&T CEO in action before Congress, read the canned pro-merger crap AT&T regional presidents planted in newspapers around the nation (it all reads the same!), watched the callously manipulated spectacle of gay and lesbian organizations, Latino advocacy groups, Black community leaders giving pay back by advocating outside their interest, watched AT&T lawyers preen with false outrage, read anything about this corporation or even just dealt with an indifferent AT&T representative after the company attempted to rip them off, knows that AT&T is a company without a soul.

Yeah, yeah, we get there are people working for AT&T who have souls. So far. Leave it alone.

AT&T will eat whatever it can until gorged and then eat some more, the only thing stopping it something larger.

Which is why we have laws against monopolies, why AT&T had to be broken up once before, and why this last couple weeks of courage on the part of the justice department and FCC is only the beginning. AT&T has already said, somewhat ominously, they will pursue "alternate means" to get what they want.

One day, see the ancient James Coburn movie, "The President's Analyst."

At&T's representative from Oregon, Greg Walden, a man corrupted by campaign contributions and who knows what other spores AT&T may have planted in his brain, must be sweating bullets. He will now have to work harder for his host, and risks even greater exposure.