corrente

No, no, not the neocon-enabling Powell named after a body part. His kid, the one who wants to write telecom law to to protect us from Janet Jackson's body parts and if bloated media companies happen to metastasize all over our free speech rights in the process, so be it.

Michael Powell is floating balloons via the business section of the Chicago Tribune while of course officially denying everything. This is of interest to telecom wonks primarily, but keep in mind that it's agencies like the FCC that work in quiet anonymity their wonders to inflict on us.

WASHINGTON — Convinced that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell will step down this winter, lobbyists for media and telecommunications companies are rushing to put their pet issues on the agency's agenda.

The 41-year-old Powell denied that he had any immediate plans to leave. But the former Army officer and antitrust lawyer recently prepared a six-month strategy for resolving the controversial media ownership, indecency and telephone competition issues that have become hallmarks of his tenure.

FCC Chief of Staff Bryan Tramont said Powell "has no plans to leave after the president's reelection," disputing that the chairman would want to depart after a Bush victory. Tramont acknowledged, though, that Powell had done some thinking about wrapping things up in the event of a win by the presumed Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.