If you've ever been to Europe (I haven't, but lots of my friends have), you know that wireless broadband access is everywhere and often free -- unlike here, where it's clustered in the cities, with frequently spotty coverage, and always expensive. The special interests prefer to keep it that way, and that appears to be behind an all-out assault on a company named LightSquared:

LightSquared sent the satellite for its wholesale wireless network in 2010, but has had trouble getting federal approval for the project due to a dustup over GPS and other political woes. Now the start-up has decided to launch a political counteroffensive.

Already mired in a complicated technological debate over how to prevent its network from interfering with GPS, the wireless start-up LightSquared has faced withering political criticism over the past few months. Now the company has a message for its detractors: Two can play that game.

LightSquared is struggling to launch a nationwide, wholesale wireless network based partially on satellites and had been focused on the technical aspects of its argument -- much of it over whether the company’s planned network would interfere with existing GPS technology. But after a flurry of unflattering headlines alleging that the company won Federal Communications Commission approval for its plans through campaign contributions and backroom deals, LightSquared is now trying to shift the focus to its critics.

LightSquared has hired dozens of top lobbyists, including at least seven former elected officials -- including ex-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri; former Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas; and Democratic former Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

Most recently, LightSquared has taken aim at Bradford Parkinson, known as one of the founders of GPS and a member of the National Space-Based Positioning Navigation & Timing Advisory Board, which advises the government on GPS issues. Parkinson is also an investor and a member of the board of Trimble, a GPS manufacturer that has led the fight against LightSquared’s plans.

That, LightSquared officials contend, is a conflict of interest.

“It seems highly incongruous and even inappropriate to us that the government's top outside adviser on GPS matters would be simultaneously helping to oversee the same company that is leading the public-relations and lobbying campaign against LightSquared, and that has a financial interest in the outcome of that battle,” said LightSquared spokesman Terry Neal.

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Jamie Dimon kicked off his Sunday morning appearance on Fareed Zakaria's show with a bit of whine about how mean, mean, mean we all are to bankers. He kicks things right off by blaming the victims:

DIMON: OK. In the United States of America, only one-third of credit is provided by banks. Bank lending actually went up after Lehman Brothers failed, not down. It's a huge misconception. Two- thirds of credit is provided by individuals, corporations, pension plans, you know, et cetera. The huge reduction in credit supplied was the credit supplied in directly to the marketplace. In fact, if you go to any place around the world, you ask people, did you do something more conservative with your money after Lehman went down? Which everyone says, yes.

I would say, well, you caused the crisis. You got scared. You ran. It's perfectly legitimate as an individual protecting yourself. And JPMorgan last year lent or financed $1.4 trillion for corporations, individual around the world, up pretty substantially from the year before and I believe substantially from the year before that.

Really, Jamie Dimon? REALLY? We caused the crisis how? Were we the ones playing high stakes games with mortgages, lending money to people based on fraudulent, jacked up valuations and credit histories and then selling them off to the likes of YOU to gamble? Um no. Not so much.

Funny how the story changes. When he testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, he said this:

"Reflecting on the causes of the crisis, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan testified to the FCIC, "I blame the management teams 100% and...no one else. (Page 18)"

Or here, where he realizes what gambling with those brokered subprime loans cost JP Morgan (Page 91):

"JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon testified to the FCIC that his firm eventually ended its [mortgage] broker-originated business in 2009 after discovering the loans had more than twice the losses of the loans that JP Morgan itself originated."

Of course, 2009 was too late. Everything had gone to hell in handbasket by then, so rippy-rah-hoo for Jamie Dimon's stellar fiduciary standards.

Or here, where he's talking about how they were shocked -- SHOCKED -- to discover that home prices just don't keep rising when markets collapse (Page 111):

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I was pretty upset when I caught this on the news yesterday, since my GPS is my guide through the wilds of New Jersey whenever I have to cross the Delaware River. We've gotten so used to these little buggers so fast, it's hard to imagine how we'd do without them now:

The global positioning system could fail next year and repairs aren't moving quickly enough to prevent failure, according a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

It's unclear whether the U.S. Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to prevent disruption in GPS service for military and civilian users, according to the report.

The GAO said that the Air Force has struggled in recent years to stay within cost and scheduling constraints while building GPS satellites. So far, one satellite program has incurred cost overruns of $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been pushed back three years to November 2009.

"Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation," the report states. "If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to."

That could have wide-ranging implications on all GPS users, although the Air Force and others can make contingency plans, the GAO report said.