Politicker.com -- Maine News

[The Rumform Reporter] In His Own Words...

noreply@blogger.com (The Rumford Reporter) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:51:00 -0400

BHO's Healthcare Plan Will Eliminate Private Insurance

[The Rumform Reporter] State and Local Public Safety Officials Continue Double Murder Investigation

noreply@blogger.com (The Rumford Reporter) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:05:00 -0400

For more information, please click here.
Pine Street, Rumford

The Crime Occurred On This Side of Pine Street

The Crime Occurred at 244 Pine Street, Rumford

[The Rumform Reporter] Thank You Angel Mower, Thank You

noreply@blogger.com (The Rumford Reporter) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:13:00 -0400

Prospect Ave, Rumford

Penobscot Street, Rumford

These two infamous properties were on the market this winter if you didn't notice. But, soon they will be back on the rental market with someone local to manage them. Until recently, the person who owned these buildings was deemed an "absentee landlord" and demonized for putting his tenants in "harm's way."

Well let's enter the no spin zone and put things in perspective. But for the Sun Journal, all the drama that ensued during a property owner versus overzealous code inspector could have been avoided. It not only cost the town money for nothing (no pun intended) but it cost the property owner greatly as well.

[The Rumform Reporter] More on Shootings in Rumford

noreply@blogger.com (The Rumford Reporter) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:06:00 -0400

[Westbrook Diarist] A Look at Efforts to Secure a Rudy Vallee Commemorative Stamp

noreply@blogger.com (Westbrook Diarist) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0400

Ventura County Star:
A key Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, a mix of
celebrities and academic types that meets quarterly, last month rejected the
idea of putting Vallee on postage. The Vallee camp says it will appeal the
decision, which it can do next year.As mentioned in the piece, Westbrook is hosting a re-dedication of Vallee Square on Saturday, July 25. Details of the event will be forthcoming.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Rudy Vallee: Modest Inspirer of Goose Flesh or National Menace? (January 22, 2009)
Related: Quote, Unquote: Brad Butler (October 8, 2008)
Related: Sign It (September 9, 2008)
Related: On Location: Movies at Riverbank (August 26, 2008)

[Turn Maine Blue] Why health insurance is different, and how that explains its failure

Gerald Weinand — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:25:00 -0400

Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and budget, has a blog. Today's entry is about the administration's effort to reform the health care delivery system in our country, but in a way that still includes for profit private insurers. From it:
On Friday, I blogged about the fiscal effects of health care reform. Since then, the cost containment efforts we are undertaking and their potential impact on long-term health care cost growth have gotten a lot of attention. Our cost containment falls into two categories: Medicare and Medicaid savings that are key to achieving scoreable savings over the medium term but that by themselves would be unlikely to generate substantial long-term efficiency improvements in the health system, and "game-changers" that are unlikely to generate significant scoreable savings in the medium term but that are crucial to moving toward a health system that addresses the issues discussed in Atul Gawande's compelling New Yorker article.

[Maine Owl] Assassination

Gerald Weinand — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:57:00 -0400

The most dangerous lunatics in America are those who see domestic terrorism as "pro life."

HERE it is quite illuminating to hear Bill O'Reilly do everything he can to inspire formation of a lynch mob to avenge the babies. (The responses are very good and worth a listen.)

[Turn Maine Blue] Charter schools: follow the money

Gerald Weinand — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:10:00 -0400

"A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest." -- Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 1818.

The role played by government in the education of its citizens is one of the hallmarks of the United States. An ignorant populace cannot govern itself, and the Founding Fathers understood this, and so made public education of utmost importance.

For over 230 years, it has been the duty of all Americans to pay for this educational system, typically done through property taxes.

[Turn Maine Blue] Another reporter gets it wrong on the EFCA

Gerald Weinand — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:21:00 -0400

The Hill is reporting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein will meet with opponents of the EFCA. In it is yet another example that the media still does not understand what the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409) does, nor even the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which the EFCA amends:
EFCA is often called "card-check" because one of its provisions would allow workers to form unions not by secret ballot elections called for by management but by a majority of employees signing petition cards stating their intention to organize.

Feinstein's compromise would replace that provision with a requirement that union elections be decided by mail-in ballots with the design that workers, not employers, would have a choice on when to form a union while their privacy would be protected from labor organizers.

[Turn Maine Blue] Open Thread

Gerald Weinand — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:04:00 -0400

Good morning.

This might be optimistic, but the Hill has this analysis that the Pelosi CIA flap may lead to a truth commission on torture:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's fight with the CIA has put her in one of the toughest spots she's been in since she became speaker.

But it may also have advanced her goal of creating a "truth commission" to investigate the Bush administration's interrogation techniques and whether they amounted to illegal torture.

If nothing else, Pelosi's hard-to-prove assertion that the CIA lied to her in a briefing has renewed interest among Republicans and Democrats in what the Bush administration was doing with detainees six years ago and what it told Congress and other officials.