WAIT, I THOUGHT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HATED BIG BUSINESS: Ending Welfare for Telecom Giants: The FCC’s spectrum auction brought in nearly $45 billion. Why were some big bidders using taxpayer dollars?

What is astonishing about the manipulation of the bidding process is how cavalier the parties are. The two Dish-related companies—Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless—didn’t exist until a few months before the auction, and each reported to the FCC that it was a “very small business,” as neither had any gross revenues. Yet together the two companies magically managed to place bids more than seven times those of spectrum-hungry T-Mobile . They claim to be small so they can qualify for federal money to cover 25% of the cost of a bid that suggests they have incredibly deep pockets. . . .

Plays like these shut out genuine small entrepreneurs. The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 30 that Stephen Wilkus, who worked for 27 years as an engineer at Alcatel Lucent , quit his job a year ago to bid in the auction. He set up a partnership whose investors included a few family members with controlling interests in other companies. As a result, lawyers told him he wouldn’t qualify for small business credits. With some understatement, the article concludes that Mr. Wilkus was “irked to see entities related to [Dish co-founder and Board Chairman Charlie] Ergen, a billionaire, obtain that same credit.” We don’t blame him.

The FCC’s rules are a labyrinth that only a lawyer could love. Even if everything was done by the book, why are the FCC’s rules set up this way? Does it make sense to milk taxpayers to benefit corporate behemoths? Should the FCC allow companies that don’t need the help to claim billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded discounts? Is it fair to deny designated-entity benefits to entrepreneurs who do need help entering the wireless business? We’d say no on each point.

It’s as if the whole thing is designed to protect existing companies donors from competition.

JESSE WALKER: Will Brian Williams Get Away With ‘Misremembering’ a War Story? Well, Hillary Clinton Did.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Backed by Obama, Iranian militias move to the forefront in Iraq.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Poaching Law Students.

Law schools across the country are fighting for transfer students in a testy cat and mouse game that involves some questionable practices.

In areas with multiple law schools — like Washington, Phoenix and northern Florida — the transfer market has lately exposed the contentious underbelly of legal education. The transfer market has become particularly active in recent years as overall law school enrollment has fallen dramatically.

Critics say law schools farther up the rankings chain are enrolling students whose Law School Admission Test scores made them undesirable to enroll as first-year students. Law schools generally do not give transfer students the sort of competitive scholarship discounts they dangle in front of first-year students, making transfers a potentially lucrative source of revenue.

Schools that lose dozens of students each year to other law schools accuse their competitors of poaching to boost enrollment and get around college rankings.

Schools that pick up those same students say the schools’ students are obviously not satisfied, or else so many would not head for the exit.

Some transfer students even say they have to cut through a variety of questionable practices designed to make it harder for them to leave one school for another.

When the pie’s shrinking, people fight harder over slices.

ALEXIS MADRIGAL: Why Testosterone Is The Drug Of The Future. One of my college buddies is running a Low T Center; he says the difference that re-normalizing testosterone levels in patients makes is amazing. Note, however, that they don’t boost it beyond the normal range, as some do, so it’s more a treatment than an enhancement. On the other hand, I personally feel better than I felt at 35, without taking testosterone. I credit a better diet, and heavy lifting.

And, luckily, the industry has a sanctioned victim-class to give it legitimacy! “Perhaps it is easy to sneer at aging investment bankers tottering down to the doctor to get juiced. Consider, though, the case of a trans man who wants the biochemistry he feels to match his gender identity.”

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VIDEO: THE NEW FCC INTERNET REGULATION PROGRAM.

HOW THE GOP would repeal and replace ObamaCare.

JOURNALISM: Former Columbia newspaper editor admits biased reporting on rape due to fear of backlash.

Daniel Garisto, a junior at Columbia College (part of CU), responded to a recent expose in the Daily Beast that provided Paul Nungesser’s account of what happened between him and fellow Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz. Sulkowicz has made numerous media appearances claiming she was hit, choked and raped by Nungesser and is carrying a mattress around campus as an art project and effort to get him to leave the school.

Garisto said he was “perturbed” by the Daily Beast article, because of its claim that Nungesser was found guilty in a “trial-by-media.” He explained his role in telling the stories of accusers in an effort to “promote discourse about sexual assault policy.”

“But I think we — not just the opinion page, not just Spec — but we, the members of the campus media, failed specifically with Sulkowicz’s story by not being thorough and impartial,” Garisto wrote.

“Instead, campus media’s goal to promote discussion about sexual assault and to support survivors became conflated with a fear of rigorous reporting,” he added. “Personally, I felt that if I covered the existence of a different perspective — say, that due process should be respected — not only would I have been excoriated, but many would have said that I was harming survivors and the fight against sexual assault.”

Well, with that attitude, you’ll fit right in with the ball-less lemmings who make up much of the field.

THE HILL: Rand Paul to vote against Loretta Lynch for AG.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he will not vote for Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, citing her support for a controversial law enforcement tactic.

“I can’t vote for her,” he said on Fox News’s “On the Record With Greta Van Susteren.” “The big issue for me is something called civil forfeiture.”

Under so-called “asset forfeiture” laws, law enforcement agencies can seize property and keep the proceeds — even if they never charge the owner with a crime.

At her confirmation hearing, Lynch called the tactic a “wonderful tool,” noting that it allows authorities to return the proceeds of a crime to victims and “take the profit out of crime.”

In a statement after his interview, Paul said Lynch had a “track-record of violating the individual freedoms granted to us by our Constitution,” citing her stance on drone strikes and Obama’s immigration actions.

“She remains non-committal on the legality of drone strikes against American citizens, while I believe such strikes unequivocally violate rights granted to us by the Sixth Amendment,” said Paul. “Mrs. Lynch also supports President Obama’s calls for executive amnesty, which I vehemently oppose.

“The Attorney General must operate independent of politics, independent of the president and under the direction of the Constitution,” he continued. “I cannot support a nominee, like Mrs. Lynch, who rides roughshod on our Constitutional rights.”

Well, I wouldn’t vote for her either. But it’s not as if anybody Obama appoints will be any better.

FALSE RAPE CONVICTION OVERTURNED: Man who spent 26 years in prison settles for $2.5 million. “The city of Detroit has agreed to pay $2.5 million to a man who spent 26 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, a lawyer said Tuesday. Walter Swift’s attorney, Julie Hurwitz, said the deal will allow him to heal, especially from substance abuse linked to his wrongful conviction and nearly three decades behind bars. Nonetheless, she called the agreement a ‘travesty’ because she believes Detroit should be willing to pay more to make up for police misconduct that spoiled the investigation.”

BROTHERS MOE AND CURLY WERE UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: Report: Harry Reid’s Brother, Larry Reid, Arrested for DUI and Assaulting Officer, Had Gun on Him.

ROLL CALL: Deep-Sixing 529s Could Add Up to Zero for Tax Overhaul. “President Barack Obama’s swift killing of a proposal to effectively eliminate the college savings accounts known as 529s is instructive about this year’s legislative dynamic because it connects two emerging story lines: The efforts by both parties to be perceived as doing the most for the middle class and the drive toward the biggest overhaul of the tax code in a generation.”

OBAMACARE ARCHITECT JONATHAN GRUBER: “Ultimately, what may be needed to address the obesity problem are direct taxes on body weight.”

It’s a good start, but I think we should also tax people for being unattractive. When you look good, that’s a positive externality. When you look bad, well, you’re hurting others.

You laugh, but as the government gets more and more desperate for revenue. . . .

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Does Have a Strategy: Once you see what he is trying to accomplish, it all makes sense.

FALSUS IN OMNIBUS? Also Fabricated? Brian Williams Told Similar Story in Katrina About Cop ‘Rescuing’ Him From Gangs.

THE GOVERNMENT WANTED HIM BAD, AND THE GOVERNMENT GOT HIM: Silk Road Mastermind Ross Ulbricht Convicted of All 7 Charges. “More broadly, the case represents the limits of cryptographic anonymity tools like Tor and bitcoin against the surveillance powers of the U.S. government. In spite of his use of those crypto tools and others, Ulbricht couldn’t prevent the combined efforts of the FBI, DHS, and IRS from linking his pseudonym to his real-world identity.”

Had he asked my advice at the beginning, I would have told him that. An awful lot of people have paid a steep price for understimating the U.S. government’s resources in that department. A “partnership” with an intelligence agency would have given him more protection. . . .

YES. YES, THEY DO: John Hinderaker: Do Brian Williams’s Lies Matter? “Williams is not just an anchor, he is the Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News. Given the magnitude of the firestorm in which he has been engulfed, and the lack of any apparent defense for his mendacity, it seems inevitable that he will resign or be fired by NBC. . . . As to why he did it, the answer seems obvious. Williams used the story to burnish his credentials as a reporter; as a war correspondent; as a man. Check out this Letterman appearance, where beginning at around 3:50 he tells the story in what John Nolte terms ‘sociopathic detail.'” Video at the link.

SHOCKER: Eric Holder’s Justice Department rocked by nepotism charges: Head of Interpol unit hired son, friends.

COME PARTY WITH ME, ROGER SIMON, DANA LOESCH, STEPHEN GREEN, KEVIN WILLIAMSON AND MORE AT Bullets & Bourbon 2015. Mark Rippetoe will be training people.

A BETTER POSTER-CHILD FOR MONARCHY THAN THAT OTHER KING ABDULLAH: Jordan’s King May Participate Personally In ISIS Raids.

JON GABRIEL: Brian Williams: Big, Fat Liar. “The whistleblowers were the actual crew of the targeted copter. They had first noted Williams’ false report in 2003 but kept quiet. But after 12 years of hearing Williams take credit for their hardship, they finally had enough.”

The theory of the “anchorman” is supposed to be that while you can’t know what’s behind all the stories you see on the news, you trust them because you trust the person who delivers them. When you are a busted, repeat, self-glorifying, stolen-valor liar like Brian Williams, well, it’s a test of that theory. Will NBC keep him on? Bear in mind that his geriatric audience is likely to have stronger feelings about this sort of lie than the 20- and 30-somethings who are writing about it tonight in industry blogs.

Plus: “Williams was asked in 2007 why the public should trust his reporting from Iraq. Wallow in the smugness of his answer.”

JOURNALISM: The Times Sexualizes Children:

At a moment when the Times is trimming its news staff, the whole enterprise seems like an exercise in excess. And if, say, a Republican politician, a Wall Street bank, or a college fraternity were to devote these sorts of resources to producing elaborate photographs of “virginal,” “sexy” “kids” splayed on half-bare mattresses, Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, and a passel of New York Times investigative journalists would be all over them with condemnatory coverage faster than you could remove a $1,725 Givenchy bodysuit. I understand, I suppose, the imperative to produce editorial content friendly to luxury fashion advertising that pays for the news in the rest of the paper. But at a certain point — at this point — one begins to wonder if there is any adult supervision.

Propriety is for the little people.

JENNY ERIKSON: The Real Reason Mitt Romney Won’t Run for President Again.

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