A Poll, Should Cahairman Powell Recuse Himself?

[W9LQI]

Should Chairman Powell, A George W Bush Appointee, recuse himself from participating when Full Commission considers a BPL report and order on 10/14/04?

Please read the ARRL Notice on their web-site then kindly give your opinion.

This is a poll for interested high frequency spectrum users.

Thank you.

A Concerned Citizen

[N7AAO]

What reasons would he have to recuse himself? Is he a shareholder in a company that is doing BPL trials?

[ka5s]

Quote[/b] (N7AAO @ Oct. 13 2004,17:32)]What reasons would he have to recuse himself? Is he a shareholder in a company that is doing BPL trials?
As I understand things...

Chairman Powell has publicly shown (IMO) bias towards petitioners in this matter, and it is clearly improper for someone with demonstrated bias to be allowed to rule on petioners' requests. More specifically, however, the FCC's own rules (see the ARRL site) forbid comissoners from havinging certain contacts with petitioners between the time a matter is placed on the docket and voting. The Rules requires that a commissioner who has had forbidden contact NOT vote on the matter, and the ARRL has asked Chairman Powell to follow the Rules.

Cortland

[N7AAO]

The next question is, will it make a difference? If there are 3 other pro-BPL folks on the Commission (there are only 5 Commissioners), it won't do a thing if Powell recuses himself.

[ai4ep]

what is a cahairman ?

[w5alt]

Whether he should recuse himself or not, I'll leave to real lawyers to decide. However, I don't see how going to a technical demonstration can be construed as being in conflict with the rules. Aren't the commissioners and chairman supposed to know as much as possible about the technology they are going to act upon?

I certainly don't want to see BPL wreak havoc on the ham bands, but my opinion is that in making their petition, the ARRL just committed political suicide and ensured that we now have no voice that the FCC is willing to listen to.

Way to go ARRL ...

73,
Walt, W5ALT

[K7FE]

FCC Chairman Powell is an attorney, a former lobbyist and his dad just happens to be Sec of State. Is he qualified? No, but political appointees often are not.

How will he vote on BPL?
Slam Dunk, he likes it, he is non-technical and doesn't care if the ham bands are eliminated. He is pressing Commission members to approve BPL in spite of the tests that demonstrate that BPL interferes with HF. Write your Congressman, they might care, Powell doesn’t.

[WA5KRP]

It may take a year or two but I'm growing increasingly convinced that BPL will be abandoned as it fails to deliver reliable, uninterrupted service to subscribers because of it's vulnerabilities to EM interferences.

As for Powell, I agree with the previous posters' opinions. BPL is a shoo-in with or without Powells vote.

That doesn't mean I give up. It means I operate QRO if it turns up here in San Antonio.



WA5KRP
Texas

[ai4ep]

Some folks STILL want to know what a " cahairman " is.

READ TITLE

[AG3Y]

"recuse himself" I'se REGUSTED !! "Amos & Andy" http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[KB9YCO]

He should recuse himself, then he should go live on a desert island somewhere with his narrow viewpoint and leave us alone . I say appoint Howard Stern as chairman, then we'll get some things done.

[K0RGR]

I thought this was a bit off the wall, too, but it's probably part of building a case for a court challenge.

This might not be fatal to ARRL - the speculation is that Powell will likely leave the Commission at the end of this year. Sadly, we'll probably get somebody else worse to replace him.

[wa3vjb]

Not only did he NOT recuse himself, the Chairman presided over this morning's meeting and cited his visit to the Manassass senior citizen home as a way to illustrate how easy it is to "plug in" from room to room, like an appliance, he quoted a resident as telling him.

[KB9YCO]

Is anyone really suprised? Hell, if Anton Scalia can make court decisions about his hunting and fishing buddy, then I guess anything is open game these days.