It has reached this point now, even amongst ‘officialdom.’ There is no longer the pretense of acknowledging people as ‘citizen’, but we now are publicly relegated to the role of simply ‘consumer.’

This is from Kevin Martin’s FCC in response to comments I provided to the FCC regarding their approval of the merger of AT&T with BellSouth. Of course, this came to me long after they had already approved it (which pretty much was a done deal anyway, considering Mr. Martin’s role in the Corporate State).

AT&T Merger language

Dear Consumer,

Thank you for contacting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the AT&T-Bell South Merger. Your comments will be filed in the proper FCC proceeding docket.

On December 29, 2006, the FCC approved the AT&T-Bell South merger. For further information, please see the Press Release discussing the approval of the merger on the Commissions website at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-269275A1.pdf

Again, thank you for contacting us about this important issue. Your views and comments are important to us.

The Federal Communications Commission

Happy shopping, everyone, in the marketplace of ‘democracy’!