Net Neutrality Equals (Net) Freedom

Here's a column I wish I'd written about the future of the Internets. Though he doesn't quite say it, columnist Michael Janover alludes to the importance of free access to the "tubes" as integral to our democracy. I would add that this becomes more and more critical as newspapers fold around us.
My favorite line concerns television's eight gazillion channels controlled by a handful of corporations:

Too much creative control is in the hands of too few people who aren't creative.

(HBO and other paid cable channels are the obvious exceptions.)
When you hear wonkie types blithering on about Net Neutrality, try not to tune them out, unless of course we want the telecoms in charge of where and when we travel these cyber roads.

An Ad You'll Never See on the TeeVee

Can't resist posting this for those who aren't Josh Marshall addicts like me.

Susan Collins, Ugh

If you've had your breakfast, go to TPM and click on the Susan Collins video. She runs the gamut from the Edwards scandal to hypocrisy about oil company profits. Yecchh!
The radio hosts are godawful, too.

Boothbay Attorney Resigns Under Cloud

Franklin A. Poe, not a lawyer I know, allegedly stole $70,000 from a trust he managed. In a quick Google, the first reference that pops up is a Findlaw entry that notes his specialty as an estate lawyer. He also represented the famous Brud of Brud's Hot Dogs when Boothbay Harbor neighbors wanted to shut him down.
From the Press Herald via Downeast Law:

Poe was an attorney for Josephine Davis Day, who owned the Trailing Yew boarding home on Monhegan Island from the 1920s until her death in 1996, at age 99.

Poe prepared Day’s will and a trust that provided for the continuing operation of the Trailing Yew Inn. As the sole trustee, Poe was supposed to pay for the inn’s expenses, then divvy up profits to several beneficiaries. Instead, Poe was allegedly siphoning off profits for himself, and he stopped sending out payments entirely in 2003, according to court documents.

The state ethics board is recommending Poe be disbarred.
Anyone know this guy? Or does anyone know the Trailing Yew? [Insert small bitter complaint from long story for another time: though I was married to a lobsterman with a gigantic boat, I have never been to Monhegan.]

Two Pieces of Good News

Number One: Despite claims to the contrary, Mainers are not the most taxed humans on earth. A newly released study by The Tax Foundation says we are a long way from holding that place and we never have. In fact we've been as low as 35th and has high as 6th, and currently hold 15th place some 3/10s of a percent from dead average.
How the drama queens in the Republican Party and the Chamber of Commerce have managed to make this lie into their mantra is a sad mystery to me. Did no one actually check their numbers? The pity party is over though. Spread the word friends. Turn Maine Blue is. Maine's plain ol' in the middle as far as taxes go. Maybe instead of whining about taxes we ought to demand that we get something in return for them other than the privilege of living in the least evolved industrialized nation.
This brings me to the second bit of good news. Nearly all the 357 inhabitants of two islands in Penobscot Bay, Vinalhaven and North Haven, voted almost unanimously late last month to go completely to wind power. They own their power company in a quasi-public deal and they get to make decisions like that. Amazing, huh?
Of course it helps that they live in one of the windiest spots in America. This kind of good sense is astonishing these days, however.
Apparently the biggest snag is obtaining the turbines. There's some ungodly wait time for the equipment needed to make the change. Paging University of Maine and Southern Maine Vocational--think you could train some wind engineer and installer types in a big hurry, please?

Milestones

Though this may seem like small beans to many of you blogomaniacs, I had to note our 100th visitor this morning. As I write this, we're up to 102. Since as yet only the faithful and funny Alna Dem has seen fit to comment, and I'm not the NSA so I can't track down ISP numbers, I don't know who all is reading. Regardless, I'm grateful. Thanks for stopping in. I hope this place provides something useful and/or interesting.

I use the plural form milestones because today Mike created a blog for our documentary company, Lacunae Productions. There we'll be articulating some of our projects in preparation for fund raising and would be grateful for input. Please visit if you're interested in civics, justice and art of any ilk.

Surprise, Surprise--Anthem's Been Crying Wolf

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has balked at every step of Maine's attempt to provide health care for those who fall between the cracks of MaineCare and the purchase of some of the most expensive health insurance in America. Turns out Anthem executives have not wanted to jeopardize their 89 percent increase in profits since 2004.

The insurance company and the Chamber of Commerce have been able to convince Republicans and many Democrats that it's not possible to provide health care to the whole state. The legislature has cooperated by designating the chief fox as hen house watcher. They appointed Anthem--who would much rather sell its own policies--to market Dirigo. I don't know five people who could tell you anything about Dirigo except that it is a failure. Pretty poor marketing, in my book.

Anecdotally, I tried to get Dirigo in 2006. I'm pretty savvy online and arguably even better on the phone, yet I couldn't even get them to send me a packet in less than seven weeks. By the time I got the packet, I'd gotten a promotion at work and didn't need it. Every other time I've ever purchased insurance it's been practically an instantaneous deal. Thing is, in these other instances the insurers seemed to want my money.

Now I see there is a discount calculator to help figure what premium discount Dirigo can provide. Now that I'm currently self-employed, I pay in the neighborhood of $2400 per annum for the world's crappiest coverage--i.e. none, until I reach a $5,000 deductible. According to the calculator I'd get a nearly $2000 discount.

Think I'll apply and see what happens.

U.S. Leaders Part of An Interesting Family

Cato Institute researcher Will Wilkinson interviews Rolling Stone writer and NYU religion scholar Jeff Sharlet about his new book "The Family."

I won't say much about this longish interview except to say, though it's not exactly local news, this is essential information about a loose knit group of powerful men who appear to exert an important influence on our national leaders.

[Update] Ah, nearly forgot. The heroes of this group include Hitler and Pol Pot. Nuff sed?

It's Not Right

Whether the latest news about Blethen possibly closing the Portland Press Herald, the Waterville Sentinel and the KJ are some kind of threat designed to make Bill Cohen et al cough up a little more cash for the alleged newspaper deal is hard to tell. In any case it would be a hell of a note for nearly half the state to be without a daily newspaper.

Granted the Press Herald, like many papers these days is a newsletter compared to its former robust, if not exactly newsy, self, so losing it is hardly the disaster it once might have been. Nevertheless, the loss of all three would be really jarring, especially for the people who work there, not to mention several I know there and a few I've worked with at other papers.

That a paper like the Washington Times can go on hiring idiot columnists and selling ads at a loss makes the evaporation of these three regionals all the more criminal. I am embarrassed to say I didn't know until about a month ago that Sun Myung Moon ran the WT at a loss. I knew he owned it and I knew people on Fox News and shrieking hate-filled AM talk radio were the only people who ever quoted its writers, but I had no idea it had never, that's right, never, ever turned a profit until I saw Jeff Gorenfeld on C-SPAN. His book Bad Moon Rising, which apparently gives a comprehensive history of Moon and his influence--including jaunts with the Presidents Bush. Gorenfeld's abbreviated tale for the teevee was horrid enough for now. I'd like to read the book after W's out of office.

Well, actually that makes the WT a newsletter. Yes, the PPH has struggled to keep its page numbers up, but that the Washington Times has never come close to paying its own way is a definite sign of flak, PR and spin. Hell, even The Nation is in the black, if only barely. The WT has lost billions, that's billions of dollars since its inception in 1982. If the arbiters of the free market would only come clean about their favorite print megaphone, the laughter would blot out the sun--umm, well you know what I mean.

Anyway, it's simply not fair that three papers serving decent people who need information may go tits up as the WT fishwrap of a rag continues to feed the poison spewing right wing echo chamber on the crazy Moony's tab.

Do It Because Josh Marshall Says To

Today on Talking Points Memo, Marshall posted his daily Must Read, accompanied by the phrase, "Stop what you're doing and read this article." I did. I hope you do too.

And to those who think the blogosphere is too self-referential, tough. TPM is probably one of the five best sources of factual information on the Web.