Maine: Coalition Lower Fuel Prices

June 1, 2009 - 03:00 pm
NEWS FEED: Westbrook Diarist

A Look at Efforts to Secure a Rudy Vallee Commemorative Stamp

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)

June 1, 2009 - 12:25 pm
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Why health insurance is different, and how that explains its failure

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.

June 1, 2009 - 10:57 am
NEWS FEED: Maine Owl

Assassination

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.)

June 1, 2009 - 09:10 am
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Charter schools: follow the money

"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.

June 1, 2009 - 07:21 am
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Another reporter gets it wrong on the EFCA

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.

May 18, 2009 - 07:04 am
NEWS FEED: Turn Maine Blue

Open Thread

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.

May 18, 2009 - 04:00 am
NEWS FEED: Westbrook Diarist

Your Supreme Court Fix

Since last week saw the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in S.D. Warren v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, there is no better time to check out Oyez's Web page devoted to the case.

Besides containing a brief summary of the facts of the case, this great resource features case briefs, as well as the audio of the oral arguments and opinion announcement.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: No Sleeping Pills Required (May 13, 2009)

May 17, 2009 - 11:35 pm

Maine Heritage Policy Center

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is a research and educational organization whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise; limited, constitutional government; individual freedom; and traditional American values--all for the purpose of providing public policy solutions that benefit the people of Maine.

MHPC's staff pursues this mission by undertaking accurate and timely research and marketing these findings to its primary audience: the Maine Legislature, nonpartisan Legislative staff, the executive branch, the state's media, and the broad policy community. MHPC's products include publications, articles, conferences, and policy briefings.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center researches and formulates innovative and proven conservative public policy solutions for Maine in four general areas:

Economy/Taxation
Education
Health Care
Transparency & Open Government

Governed by an independent Board of Directors, The Maine Heritage Policy Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization.

May 17, 2009 - 09:43 pm
NEWS FEED: Slublog

President Infanticide Lies At Notre Dame

Today, President Barack Obama spoke at Notre Dame. In his commencement address, he said the following:

So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let's reduce unintended pregnancies. Let's make adoption more available. Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term. Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women." Those are things we can do.

May 15, 2009 - 03:38 pm
NEWS FEED: Westbrook Diarist

Paper City Targeted in Guerrilla Ad Campaign

Westbrook, Portland, and South Portland have each been targeted in the Salvation Army's unique take on advertising. Mainebiz:

Local ad agency The VIA Group began blanketing
Portland, South Portland and Westbrook on Monday with a pro bono grassroots ad
campaign on behalf of The Salvation Army, designed to boost awareness and
donations during a typically slow time of year for the charitable organization.
Roughly 50 area businesses are donating space for the effort, including the
Portland Pie Co., which will have ads stamped on the underside of its pizza
boxes, and Novare Res, where messages will be painted on the bar's
mirrors.Besides the aforementioned pizza boxes at Portland Pie, I know the Pratt Abbott laundromat on the corners of Main and Seavey streets has a makeshift Salvation Army sign draped on the side of the building. Am I missing any other examples of The VIA Group's noteworthy ad campaign in Westbrook?

h/t: Portland Psst!

- John C.L. Morgan