Thursday night, August 19, the FCC held a rare public hearing on net neutrality. The issue is whether the FCC will be allowed to regulate and control the Internet for the public good or turn it over to Comcast, Verizon or whoever has the most magic beads. This is an issue of bandwidth and access, especially wireless. There is no issue about the FCC controlling content, that is not their charter. However if GE, Halliburton, NBC or whoever controls the distribution speed, you can bet that content control is right behind.
Complete coverage of hearing and interviews with participants is at : http://theuptake.org/
This is a serious issue for all of us, it has the possibility to be a disaster. It was duly ignored Strib and the rest of the MSM. Why? Their masters do not want net neutrality in any form. NBC, Verizon and the handful of the powerful are drooling over being able to take over the internet, make it a huge money fountain and control content.
It's no secret to people closely following politics that the extreme right wing GOPer named Tom Emmer was quoted in the Marshall Independent newspaper on September 26th, 2009 as saying:
"I don't think you can call yourself a freedom-loving American and be a Democrat."
That quote, by Emmer, was used against him by supporters of his opponent for the endorsement for Governor in The Small Tent Party, Marty Seifert. Seifert, it should be noted, was nominated at the Convention by former GOP Chair Bill Cooper, who called Seifert a "radical conservative" - so, calling Emmer "extreme right wing GOPer" is something the Delegates were looking for, and Emmer fits that bill.
Last Saturday's Strib ran a front page story about the endorsement of Emmer, at the Convention. When I read this:
Emmer, who had to confirm his conservative credentials again and again to win endorsement, said he could easily appeal to Democrats and independents in a general election.
"We are going to get to know Minnesota, we're going to let Minnesota get to know us better," he said. "We are going to talk about values we believe are important for the state, and that's smaller government, individual liberty and economic freedom. And we will win." (Strib.com)
I paged back to the front page, to see who wrote that. Because, how does Emmer tell that to a reporter, when said reporter should dam-well know about:
"I don't think you can call yourself a freedom-loving American and be a Democrat." -- Tom Emmer, 9-26-09 (MarshallIndependent.com)
When Emmer said he could "easily appeal to Democrats and independents " - that reporter should have immediately followed up with that quote, and asked how Emmer could square "easily appeal" to voters a few months earlier Emmer dam-near called traitors.
Emails to the reporter, and a Twitter DM, were not returned.
Over at The Cucking Stool, Spotty has a piece on how Emmer can "easily appeal to Democrats and independents" -- Emmer stabs those that endorsed him in the back.
At the Strib, not challenging Emmer with such a divisive comment, is stabbing readers in the back.
I often say that the reason politicians - and especially politicians in the GreedOverPrinciples Party - lie to reporters, is because they can.
Emmer, with his "easily appeal" comment, got away with that one.
Because it's not going to be easy getting votes from people Emmer thinks don't love freedom (i.e., Democrats) - unless, of course, they don't know about what Emmer said.
Sure, Emmer's quote was buried elsewhere in the paper - but it wasn't in the story that started on the front page.
Yesterday, I wrote about "Gov. T-Bag And The Case Of The Missing TV's". And we talked about it last night, on AM-950 radio (look for "Two Putt Tommy and Dusty Trice fill in for Mark and talk about Banks, the Governor and some missing TV's").
Well, last night after the show was a snowplow night (thank GOD!!!), and I didn't/don't have time to follow up on that. But, the Strib did, in a piece entitled "Saga of the big-screen TVs continues".
From that story:
More than a month after Pawlenty announced that some of the 50-inch flat screen TVs would be given to veterans homes across the state, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs reports that eight of the 14 TVs it received were damaged when they arrived. Of the remaining six TVs, four have been installed in veterans homes in Minneapolis and Fergus Falls.(emphasis added)(StarTribune.com)
Hmmm....that's funny; the Administrator of the Fergus Falls Veterans Home told me last Monday that the two TV's were NOT installed; they came with wall-mounts but they need "base mounts" to be utilized at Fergus Falls - so, no veterans have watched any football (or, anything else) on 'em.
And, I went to the Minneapolis Veterans Home yesterday; I wasn't getting answers to my questions from the Veterans Homes brass so I went straight to the source and asked a couple of simple questions:
"Did you get the TV's? Were they in working order?"
When they told me that they got two (of the six they were to receive) and they worked, I pulled a Columbo and asked just one more question: "Can I see 'em"?
"Ummm, no" was the answer.
"Why not?"
"Well, they're in the warehouse."
"Why is that?"
"Can't answer that - you'll have to talk to the Press People (a/k/a, "brass")."
And we'll discuss GagGate, later. Right now, I'm tired.
For now, what we do know, is:
What the Strib reporter was told, and had published, is a LOT different from what I was told.
Somebody is playing fast and loose on this one. And I'm smelling coverup.
Then again, coming from the misAdministration of Tim "I'm The Unalotterer!" Pawlenty, no surprise there!
(Eric Zaetsch at Developers Are Crabgrass posted this one today; he graciously agreed to reposting here at MnPP, in it's entirety - TwoPuttTommy)(EZ's original post updated; link at bottom of second page)
The Mary Kiffmeyer - bank closure story is reported first here, with a follow-up account, here.
I want an investigation. The rationale for wanting detail of the failure of Riverside Community Bank, headquartered in Otsego with an Anoka branch, to be fully investigated is basically that one might infer the Pawlenty appointed Commerce Dept. boss had a neck problem from looking the other way on this purported "Christian" governed bank, for the last half year or so (or perhaps longer); with Uncle Sugar now (via the FDIC) on the hook for a reported $20 million. What would losses that way have been if the operation was anesthetized and put under a half year ago?
As everyone knows, in this digital age, space is at a premium on the world wide web. Well, at least it is, over at Strib. According to Strib Reporter Chris Serres, he originally filed the story containing the reference to Mary Kiffmeyer, but the Keffmeyer connection was cut in order to meet the space limitations of the print story. Go that?
The Strib won't expand on stories on the web; the web serves to replicate what appears in print - and that policy means that, as Taxpaying Liberal noted here on MnPP, Kiffmeyer's name got scrubbed.
And as Taxpaying Liberal noted, bad news does indeed get dumped late on Fridays in the hopes that the embarrassing story is gone, come Monday.
But, the bad news for Mary Kiffmeyer, is that is NOT going to happen. Strib Reporter Chris Serres also told me he recived a lot - LOT - of calls and messages over the weekend, and that Mary Kiffmeyer's name will not - NOT - be left out on upcoming Strib stories regarding the failure of Mary Kiffmeyer's Riverview Community Bank.
It was interesting to note that on today's Strib webpage, the story that was dumped on a Friday is one of the "most emailed" today.
And judging by the number of bloggers that wrote about Keffmey's bank failing over the weekend, bloggers won't let this story escape public notice, either.
I've come to conclude Bachmann MotorMouth Overdrive simply must have an evil "eviler" twin sister and that that "eviler" twin sister must be no other than the Strib Editorial Board's Fellow Traveler, Katherine Kersten.
Today, Katherine Kersten seeks to hijack Veteran's Day in an attempt to paint liberals in a Bachmannesque "anti-American" manner.
Here's the first line Bachmann "Kersten" wrote today, that caused coffee to become a projectile fired over the ol' computer's keyboard:
America's military continues to be the world's best, yet today we're losing the struggle for freedom on the home front. We're giving ground in the battle against that voracious devourer of freedom - massive, intrusive central government.
Big government is not making these inroads by threatening or intimidating us. On the contrary, it declares its good intentions in warm, reassuring tones - promising to assume our burdens, protect us from risk and enhance our well-being. (Strib)
ROFLMAO!!!
You want some "warm, reassuring tones"? I got yer "warm, reassuring tones"!!!
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States." -- Vice President D*ck (cheney)in' Cheney, September 7th, 2004
And here's the best part of D*ck "ChickenHawk" Cheney's "vote for us, or else" threat "warm, reassuring tone" - as noted by the Associated Press:
Hours before Cheney spoke, the Congressional Budget Office said this year's federal deficit will hit a record $422 billion. Cheney, in praising Bush's tax cuts, noted that the CBO said this year's projected deficit will be smaller than analysts had expected.
But, NOW Bachmann "Kersten" is concerned with a government that'll "protect us from risk and enhance our well-being"??!?
And she's concerned with that issue, on a weekend when Veterans are to be honored?
That doesn't surprise me.
Nothing that hypocritical ChickenHawks like Katherine Kersten do surprises me, anymore.
For a good laugh about hypocritical ChickenHawks like the Strib's Katherine Kersten, there's a video after the fold:
So, I went to the homepage of the Avista Capital Partner's Strib and Media News Group's PiPress, to see what stories they had published. To my surprise, by the homepage, one would never know DataLeak was a story at all. However, on the PiPress homepage*, I did notice this, under the "Opinion - More Commentary Headlines" section:
Craig Westover: Jobs for jobs' sake? That's fuzzy math
When Jimmy Carter entered the Oval Office, there were many crisis to deal with; one of which was dependence on foreign energy. Jimmy Carter turned down the thermostat, put on a cardigan, and installed a solar panel on the roof.
Compare that with Ronald Reagan, who upon taking office walked into The White House, took off his jacket, turned up the thermostat, and eventually tore that solar panel off the roof.
That's why we're in the mess we're in, today. Thom Hartman discusses this at length in an essay just a few years ago, over at CommonDreams.org.
Back to Jimmy Carter. Shortly after taking office, Carter gave a speech regarding the energy crisis; Jimmy Carter laid out 10 Principles - "The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group." We'll get back to that principle, below the fold.
Mondale was in the inside, helping Carter get the nation's energy affairs in order; then Mondale was on the outside, watching as Uncle Ronnie led the slide backwards. While I have a ton of respect for Vice-President Mondale - he (like the rest of us tundra trudgers) only walks on (frozen) water in January; in July? Not so much. IOW - he ain't perfect. Let's take a look at the letter Vice-President Mondale wrote on December 19th, 2007:
..."That was then; this is NOW!!!" The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board ("MPRB") is again in the news; the Avista Strib has a story about the Park Board and the Minneapolis Charter Commission (the "Charter" is the city government's "constitution"). Last night, the Charter Commission voted 9 - 1 to (among other things) hold hearings on abolishing the MPRB, and bring it's functions into and under the City's jurisdiction. The Southwest Journal also has a story on last night's events. But, I'm not going to talk about the City versus Park Board - today. Later, maybe; today, no. Today, I'm going to talk about "That was then; this is NOW!!!'
Seems The StarTribune feels it's time to take a new look at building nuclear powered electric generating plants. I'm not surprised; it's corporate owners, Avista Capital Partners, is heavily invested in energy - although natural gas and oil appear to be the focus. I've never been a fan of nuclear power, for two major reasons: a) where to put the spent fuel (a class in college determined New Jersey was the best place, as God only knows what else is buried there); and b) Nuclear power plants are not remotely cost competitive without the massive public subsidy provided by The Price-Anderson Act.
In a nutshell, no self-respecting insurance company, let alone companies that are complete crooks like AIG, would ever think of providing liability insurance for a nuclear plant - the potential payout for a disaster is more than any insurer, or consortium, could cover at a price any nuclear plant owner could afford. Enter big business' pal, Uncle Sugar.
Passed in 1957, The Price-Anderson Act requires a nuclear plant to provide a pittance of liability insurance in case of accident; currently The Act requires a nuclear plant to obtain only $300,000,000 in primary coverage. Does that sound like a lot? It isn't, when you look at the Evacuation Map for the Monticello plant (it's on page 3). The rest of the nuclear industry picks up the tab for the next $10 Billion in damages; above that, Uncle Sugar writes the check - which means, we ALL pick up the tab. The General Accounting Office took another look at this issue in 2004 - but that was more of a study if the "LLC" ownership form of nuclear plants was really just a way to dodge even more liability. At any rate, the bottom line still remains: if the taxpayers weren't on the hook for any and all meltdowns, no insurers would underwrite a nuclear plant - not even AIG.
I sure wish I had that kind of sweetheart insurance deal for my business; say I did a couple of thousand in damages, my insurance company pays the tab; into the 5-figure range, the industry picks it up; anything over $100,000 and taxpayers bite the bullet - hey, I could be real profitable with an insurance plan like that!
A lot of businesses could be real profitable with an insurance plan like that. But, like me, most businesses aren't nuclear plants producing electricity, and it's only the nuclear plants that Uncle Sugar takes care of, via The Price-Anderson Act, for insurance purposes.
And pay attention to the Crown Hydro Project as SF 840 winds through the Capitol. I'm hearing rumors things are starting to shake. In the meantime, Political Muse over at Liberal in the Land of Conservative has some thoughts on Crown Hydro, and a call to action, too.
What the three have in common is they were purchased with debt, apparently with the purchased properties being used as collateral. Chysler and The Star Tribune were purchased by private equity companies, which to make money by buying troubled or undervalued businesses and selling them again in a short time. The Tribune Company was purchased by Sam Zell, who might as well be a private equity company since he bought the company without risking his own money. The company was cash flow positive, without counting the debt service. Unfortunately, debt service counts.
The title of Cillizza's BlogPost is "The Best House Campaigns of 2008", and here's what he wrote:
• Minnesota's 3rd district -- Erik Paulsen (R): At first glance, the retirement of Rep. Jim Ramstad (R) presented an ideal pickup opportunity for national Democrats. The suburban Twin Cities seat gave President George W. Bush a narrow 51 percent victory in 2004 and looked to be the epicenter of anti-war movement in the state. And, when Democrats nominated Iraq war veteran Ashwin Madia, it looked like a tailor-made pickup. Enter state Sen. Rep. Erik Paulsen, one of the best (and only) recruits for House Republicans in 2008. Paulsen was able to beat back the anti-Republican trend in the state (Obama won the state by 10 points and it appears as though Al Franken is going to win the Senate seat) by focusing on his own accomplishments in the state legislature. A rare bit of good news for Republicans nationally. (emphasis added) Washington Post
Erik Paulsen's campaign can only be described as "one of the best" if the judgement criteria is Karl Rove's playbook. And Cillizza clearly wasn't paying attention, because he clearly fell for The Hustler's re-writing of history.
Erik Paulsen did NOT run on his "accomplishments in the state legislature" - he ran as fast and as far from his record as he could. Even the Avista Capital Partners propaganda arm, the Star Tribune wasn't buying that line. From the Strib's (non)Endorsement Editorial:
But Paulsen's endorsement interview was disappointing. His answers on energy, health care and foreign policy lacked depth, detail and vision. Paulsen performed better at debates, but did not make the case that he has the depth needed to be a strong, independent leader in Congress.
Paulsen was a fiscal and social conservative in the Legislature, voting for measures that this newspaper opposed. Why he's casting himself as a moderate in this race is unclear. His conservative credentials are solid; he should have run on them.(emphasis added)(Strib)
Here's what I wrote, after watching The Hustler's campaign announcement last January:
At his announcement, Erik Paulsen claimed to have, and I quote from his press release: "...years of working in bipartisan fashion, across the aisle, to get results in the business world and in the Minnesota legislature."
Yeah, "right." Anyone even slightly paying attention understands Erik Paulsen did not rise to Republican state House leadership position by being "bi-partisan."
Right out of the box, Paulsen forces the interested citizen to question his credibility.("The Hustler")
The problem is, interested pundits - such as Chris Cillizza - didn't pay attention, and still aren't.
