... partly to get away from the accelerating coarsening of our raucous and mostly irrelevant sideshow political language.  From barrages of negative ads in primary and caucus states bought without “coordination” with the candidates to the latest shamelessness from major “entertainment” figures forgetting lessons from their Mothers about jumping to conclusions, shouting base and made-up accusations, pointing fingers and veering close to slander.  So negative ads “work.”  And sleaze sells.  A pity.  UPDATE: So one slanderer "apologized" for "using the wrong words."  Wow, news to me you can call someone a slut or a prostitute with "nice words."

• So I’m on my way Monday to Brussels for Cable Congress – Europe.  There’s a solid lineup of major speakers from Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, Sky Deutschland CEO Brian Sullivan, Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett and COO Andrew Barron, US tech guru Yvette Kanouf and IHS Screen Digest analyst Guy Bisson.  We might even report a bit from Belgium.  (For details, click here.)

We’re teaming up, sort of, with some folks from the Cable Center and meeting some old friends for dinner in Brussels ... and in London later.  Thought I’d drop into one of my favorite cities ahead of the Olympics (more fun to watch on NBC et al than fight the crowds?).

Meanwhile,  here's the “why-we-live-in-the-mountains” part VXCC: catch this young lady and her violin in Silverthorne, Colorado’s “ice village” ... click here.•

Cable's War of Attrition

The cable industry has been doing relatively well over the past year considering all the threats to its video delivery business. FiOS and U-verse keep gaining subs, OTT services continue to flourish, and two of the planet's most powerful companies - Google and Apple - are knocking on the pay-TV door.

First, AT&T announced that its suite of U-verse services (TV, internet & voice) had reached 400,000 "living units" in the Kansas City area. Hours after the company released the figures, news broke that AT&T had come to an agreement with Google for its subsidiary Google Fiber to use the telco's utility poles in Missouri and Kansas.

The arrangement will enable Google to bypass right-of-way issues as it builds its super fiber internet network in the area. And while neither company is saying much about the deal, Google has already agreed to pay the local government $10 for every utility pole to which it attaches fiber cables.

Meanwhile, some crafty research by Wall Street analyst Gene Munster has shed some light on just what Apple's TV plans might look like. According to a handful of reports, Munster says Apple wants to 1) build a TV that is cooler than anything the market has ever seen, 2) charge twice as much for it, 3) build a 'virtual MSO' with great content, 4) not pay anything for said content, 5) reduce cable infrastructure to 'dumb pipes,' and 6) steal cable's subscribers.

Whether Apple can achieve this vision remains to be seen. "The video entertainment ecosystem will not be blown apart," Bernstein Research's Todd Juenger said in a separate analyst note. "The internet won't kill TV."

Etc: DISH Downer – Google v. Feds? – 25B for Apple

Wireless:  As suspected when the FCC made rulemaking noises toward the end of last week, the Commission turned thumbs down on DISH's request for the integrated service and space satellite waivers that the company hoped would spur its satellite/terrestrial wireless service.  DISH. not surprisingly, expressed disappointment and pointed out that the move could delay new spectrum for mobile services.  The company will keep working with the FCC.

In Court: PaidContent points us to a "pair of cryptic court filings" that suggest a Google v. the Feds battle over Megaupload.    The file sharing service was shut down about a month ago on piracy charges.  Now it appears that the government wants Google to hand over information on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's account and Google is resisting. --- In Kentucky, the definition of video services vis a vis telephone still awaits definition.  A long running case in which Mediacom intervened in the City of Hopkinsville’s deal with AT&T to provide video services under an 1886 state-wide telephone franchise ... originally dismissed, the case was remanded by the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to District Court writing, “The district court prematurely reached the question of law, and improperly dismissed the case in the absence of a sufficient factual record. Prior to resolving the legal question, the district court must first determine whether the video service is more analogous to a one-way television service, or a two-way telephone service. We therefore reverse and remand.” --- Add Hulu to the group battling DISH's trademark on "TV Everywhere." 

People: In another change of plans, Sumner Redstone will show up on the Ides of March for Viacom’s annual shareholders meeting.  He had earlier cited an “unavoidable conflict.”  Worries about the health of the controlling shareholder apparently changed his mind.

Broadband: The Nat’l Broadband Map has been updated ... click here for the latest map by committee.   NTIA says it is now current as of 06/30/11.

Up, Over & Under There:  Here's a good datapoint from comScore's recent report on digital Canada:  The northern country "continues to lead the world in online engagement, with visitors spending an average 45 hours per month online." 

25,000,000,000:  The total number (25B) of application downloads from Apple's App Store as of this weekend.  Yikes. 

Catch the latest market news from The Evening BRIDGE – in your mailbox, after the Bell.•