Which gubernatorial candidate(s) will NOT make the filing deadline?

by: Gerald Weinand

Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 13:05:29 PM EST

Dirigo Blue will run a straw poll for readers to pick the Democratic and Republican nomination, but today's poll asks which candidates will NOT make the filing deadline.

If there are enough participants, perhaps I'll offer a prize for the person that is most accurate and first in - one of those fine Dirigo Blue coffee mugs or something.

So, fill out the poll form, but also list your picks in a comment in order to qualify. I'll close the competition Monday morning at 8:00 a.m.

Update: My apologies - it should read Rosa Scarcelli in the poll. I'll note that she has already turned in petitions, as has Paul LePage.

Updatex2: At the risk of forcing some of you to think twice, rumor has it that some GOP candidates are having a hard time gathering the required 2,000 signatures. I'm led to believe that Matt Jacobson was to file today, but came up short; that Bill Beardsley is hoping to reach his goal over the weekend up to the County; and that Bruce Poliquin is paying canvassers an unusual bounty for each hen scratch that they collect, which one assumes will leave him open to challenge, judging from recent experience.

"Wellpoint would be a primary beneficiary" if health insurance reform fails

by: Gerald Weinand

Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 13:57:45 PM EST

But Ezra Klein has learned that Wellpoint would be a primary beneficiary should health insurance reform fail:

Wellpoint's business model is uncommonly concentrated in the individual and small-group markets. Those are the exact markets that health-care reform will drastically change. Those are the markets where people get rejected for preexisting conditions, where insurers spend 30 cents of every premium dollar on administration and where rate hikes are volatile and constant. Health-care reform wants to change all of that, and if it does, Wellpoint's business model will be changed, too.

Wellpoint's "2.2 million individual members do leave it somewhat exposed to the 80% individual [Medical Loss Ration] floor contemplated in the Senate bill and Federal oversight of rating action proposed by the President," continues the analysis. In English, that means the bill will force Wellpoint to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on medical care for its customers, and it means that regulators aren't likely to let Wellpoint jack prices up by 25 percent with no warning or reason. It also means that Wellpoint is not spending that much of premiums on medical care and is not keeping its rates under control now. (It's possible that "rating" is referring to regulations on things like age discrimination and preexisting conditions in this context. It's not clear from the writing, but it doesn't change the point: The bill regulates those practices, too.)

But we still can't have a conversation about actually removing the insurance industry from our health care system, and industry that provides no care and has proven that it cannot control cost increases. We can't have that conversation because we might be called "socialists" by mouthpieces that the insurance industry has bought, mouthpieces in Congress and the media.

Socialists. Some are so worried about being called socialist that they do not want to change the current failed system.

On The Fear Of Government, Or, Let's Get Back To Basics

by: fake consultant

Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 16:52:47 PM EST

All around us...in every town...on every corner...a massive Army Of Fear is standing by, according to the Messengers, ready at a moment's notice to obey the dictates of some unappointed Czar or another.

Just ask Glenn Beck: concentration camps for the white people, jackbooted stormtroopers ready to snatch the guns from your cold dead fingers...Socialist Government-Controlled Healthcare That Threatens Your Not Socialist Medicare...it's all coming, my friends-and unless we organize, as a community, to return to the values of the Founding Fathers, The Government, meaning that awful Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and George Soros and all the other Evil Community Organizers, will win.

There's no government, we're told, like no government.

You know who would find all of this fear of self-government just entirely bizarre?

The Founding Fathers.

In today's conversation we'll consider the fundamentals of American patriotism, we'll ask one of those Founding Fathers how he saw the role of Government-and we'll toss in a few words from Abraham Lincoln, just for good measure.

Lincoln County Dems to Host Democratic Gubernatorial Panel

by: lincolncountydemocrats.com

Wed Mar 03, 2010 at 22:49:20 PM EST

Open Thread

by: Gerald Weinand

Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 08:09:06 AM EST

The Times of London reports that 'Smoking gun' memo reveals Toyota workers' safety fears:

Toyota was forced today to turn over to United States congressional investigators a "smoking gun" memo produced by its own factory workers that warned management as far back as 2006 of systemic threats to car safety.

The two-page memo, which was drafted by a group of long-term Toyota employees and sent directly to Katsuaki Watanabe, the president of the company in 2006, condemns "safety sacrifices" made by the company in pursuit of profit.

---

The memo warned that an increasing number of problems that led to vehicle recalls were arising not at the manufacturing level, but in the planning stages.

Despite the strenuous efforts of Toyota's management to convince motorists and congressional investigators that it has now solved the problems that afflict its accelerators and brakes, the company has still not entirely rid itself of the suspicion that there are fundamental flaws in its planning systems.

Bruce Bourgoine pointed to this opinion piece in the WSJ, and I wanted to highlight it here, since one of the chief proponents of the failed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, Dr. Diane Ravitch, explains why she changed her mind about school reform:

NCLB received overwhelming bipartisan support when it was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. The law requires that schools test all students every year in grades three through eight, and report their scores separately by race, ethnicity, low-income status, disability status and limited-English proficiency. NCLB mandated that 100% of students would reach proficiency in reading and math by 2014, as measured by tests given in each state.

Although this target was generally recognized as utopian, schools faced draconian penalties-eventually including closure or privatization-if every group in the school did not make adequate yearly progress. By 2008, 35% of the nation's public schools were labeled "failing schools," and that number seems sure to grow each year as the deadline nears.

Since the law permitted every state to define "proficiency" as it chose, many states announced impressive gains. But the states' claims of startling improvement were contradicted by the federally sponsored National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Eighth grade students improved not at all on the federal test of reading even though they had been tested annually by their states in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Rep. Henry Joy (R-Crystal) renews call for dividing Maine by introducing a bill to create the "state of Northern Massachusetts would include the counties of York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Waldo, Knox and Kennebec. Hancock County would be split in half," adding also a coastal strip of Washington County, leaving the rest to remain "the real" Maine (from a press release).

This is, of course, about local control. I wonder how much of the tax dollars generated in the southern half of the state end up in Northern Maine. Perhaps Rep. Joy would be willing to explain that to us.

An open thread.

Education Moon Shot

by: Bruce Bourgoine

Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 09:46:55 AM EST

The first step in public school reform is not the money, the efficiency, the taxes, nor the tests.  It is defining the goal.  It is the equivalent of John F. Kennedy's call to another achievement, "I believe this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

Israeli cabinet approves construction of 1,600 more housing units in East Juresalem

by: Gerald Weinand

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 15:32:58 PM EST

Israel's decision to approve new East Jerusalem houses effectively prevents any peace negotiations from taking place, the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday, following an Interior Ministry statement released earlier authorizing 1,600 new housing units.

Earlier Tuesday, the Interior Ministry approved the building of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, with a ministry official saying the plan will expand the ultra-Orthodox East Jerusalem neighborhood to the east and to the south.

---

Meir Margalit, Meretz's representative to the Jerusalem city council, claimed that the statement was meant to disrupt a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, saying that he had "no doubt that the timing isn't coincidental," calling the announcement Interior Minister "Eli Yishai's answer to Netanyahu's willingness to renew indirect peace talks with the Palestinians."

"The fact that Eli Yishai couldn't restrain himself for another two-three days until Biden left Israel means his intention was to slap the U.S. administration in the face," Margalit said, adding that the announcement was "a provocation to the U.S. and to the prime minister."

It really is time for our government to force Israel to stop building on occupied lands. Period.

Bill Clinton Endorses Libby Mitchell

by: Libby Mitchell for Governor

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 13:51:38 PM EST

Today, President Clinton endorsed my campaign for Governor. It is a thrill and an honor for me.

"My trust in Libby has never been misplaced." ~President Clinton

I strive to earn people's trust every day. As an elected official, every single person who lives in your district is essentially your boss. That philosophy will stay with me if I am fortunate enough to be elected Governor.

Click here to check out our press release and the message President Clinton sent out today.

Also, please click here to make a $5 Clean Elections contribution to my campaign. It is a big help.

I will continue to travel the state and listen to the concerns of all Mainers. In the meantime, I will continue to do my best to craft progressive legislative solutions to the challenges we face right now.  

2,000MW of offshore wind already online in Europe

by: Gerald Weinand

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 12:19:14 PM EST

As a followup, he posted photos from his recent visit to an manufacturing yard in Belgium.

Maine, and our nation, needs to get it's act in gear.

The Definition of Educational Insanity

by: Derek Viger

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 10:59:04 AM EST

This post was inspired by the writings of Gerald Weinand and Bruce Bourgoine at Dirigo Blue.  I'd like to thank them both for continuing the debate.

Not only should Maine's education system continue to evolve, it must continue to evolve.  Our education system is still functioning on a Industrial Era model.  We continue to question why are kids leave school unprepared and/or uninterested in learning.  The answer is right in front of us.  Our schools are preparing them to work in factories settings. RING math time RING science RING eat RING english.  If we want to equip our children for the way our new world works this has to stop.  Learning, as life, should happen outside of the microcosm.  There are opportunities to learn about all the Rs integrated in almost every subject.  The world is moving toward a workplace that requires inventive problem solving.  To compete in a global economy our children will need to leverage one of America's greatest assets; creativity.  Why can't our education system do the same?

I have argued that money does not make education, schools should be adequately funded.  I don't think anyone can argue that our schools don't require at least a certain level of funding, though we could debate what that is.  Still in public education, arguments tend to center around this issue, left or right.  We're missing the point.  The money argument needs to be tabled until we can solve other critical issues.  I cannot stress enough how we need to fundamentally rethink how we deliver knowledge at every level.

You want to talk about increasing efficiency?  I'll hit you with some efficiencies.  I tell the following story a lot.  It illustrates a good point.  A teacher friend of mine suggested that he teach the same class for their entire time at his school, instead of shuffling them along year after year.  He spends most of the year getting to know his students, their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, etc.  Think of the learning time saved if a teacher got all of that out of the way and could continue with the same children.  Not to mention the time saved by knowing exactly what they may need to review at the beginning of the next year.  This is just one piece of the puzzle.

The idea I mentioned is the kind of productive thought that generally meets resistance from the entrenched system.  This is why people turn to charters or private schools as solutions.  The current system is not providing the answers people are looking for and is not open to change.

I'm not afraid to buck the system that is in place and challenge misconceptions.  You shouldn't be either.  Though we may not all agree on the exact methods, I am constantly encouraged by the other brave souls I meet who are tired of doing the same thing and expecting different results.  Those sincerely devoted to improving education don't want to destroy the system.  They want to remodel the house, maybe change the layout a little.  Ultimately we want to turn this rickety one-room school house into a brilliant cathedral of learning.  That might be a little dramatic, but for our kids' sakes, it's time to stop being quiet and start making some noise.

Open Thread

by: Gerald Weinand

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 07:23:43 AM EST

The Bali bomber mastermind Dulmatin 'killed in shoot-out', some eight years after the attack:

The alleged mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings is believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with Indonesian police on the outskirts of Jakarta today.

Dulmatin, nicknamed "the Genius", was an explosives expert who was believed to have set off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone, as well as helping to assemble the massive car bomb used in the attacks, which killed 202 people.

The shoot-out happened during a morning raid on a house in Pamulang city, west of the Indonesian capital. Police said the raid, which comes two weeks before a visit by President Obama, targeted Dulmatin and two other senior members of the militant Islamist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah.

Northrop drops out of bidding for $35B tanker, the Hill reports, but there is no word if Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) will try to place a hold on that.

The LATimes has this on the Runaway Prius that hit 90 mph before stopping with aid the aid of the California Highway Patrol.

Smaller firms exempt in new sick days bill, the BDN reports:

Proponents of legislation that would require employers to offer workers paid sick days have amended the bill to exempt smaller businesses and to reduce the number of sick days employees can earn each year. AJ Higgins at MPBN had much more on this last night here.

But the fate of the bill remains unclear in the face of strong opposition from the business community and some lawmakers. Members of the Legislature's Labor Committee are expected to vote on the measure, LD 1665, this Thursday.

As originally introduced, the bill would have required businesses with 25 or more employees to offer one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, or up to six days a year. Smaller businesses would be required to offer up to three days of paid sick leave annually.

There is a move "to render God's word into modern English without liberal translation distortions." The Conservative Bible Project is behind it, and this example of the adulteress story (John 8:1 - 11) shows how it's done - simply remove the parts that don't agree with current conservative thinking. Done!

And 25 people have downloaded the Dirigo Blue app to their iPhones; pretty amazing.

An open thread.

Remember this?

by: Gerald Weinand

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 20:59:24 PM EST

Hospital industry lobbyists, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of alienating the White House, say they negotiated their $155 billion in concessions with Mr. Baucus and the administration in tandem. House staff members were present, including for at least one White House meeting, but their role was peripheral, the lobbyists said.

Several hospital lobbyists involved in the White House deals said it was understood as a condition of their support that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates - generally 80 percent of private sector rates - or controlled by the secretary of health and human services.

"We have an agreement with the White House that I'm very confident will be seen all the way through conference," one of the industry lobbyists, Chip Kahn, director of the Federation of American Hospitals, told a Capitol Hill newsletter.

Change that you can believe in!

Resist the Evasion Invasion

by: Bruce Bourgoine

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 14:48:07 PM EST

- Repeated assault from the right to ultimately push schools into the privatization sphere where the selfish use of personal resources will determine education outcomes and a new business paradigm of education delivery will arise to create profits for investors.  This privatization effort is characterized by an over reliance on high stakes testing to create winners and losers.  Instead of concentrating on egalitarian success for all, there is a drive to deprive the losers of funding while funneling a lopsided amount of cash resources to the winners, presumably charter and private schools.  Underlying this privatization effort is a distain for unionized workers and hence a great deal of meaningless talk about merit pay and meaningful emphasis on non-union teacher forces.  In the end, should the right destroy public education, schools for the general populace will continue to exist as dilapidated warehouses for those without voice or capital, full of advertising and low cost service delivery, but profitable for some investor.  Private schools will become like private colleges, expensive and out of reach but securing a network for a small upper class and the financial elites to which vouchers will be applied in part toward the cost.

- The funding of education is inordinately built on a myth of local control.  In days of yore, local control meant a community building a schoolhouse, hiring a teacher, and providing financial support.  This small town 19th century approach is no longer applicable because localities are so much of a part of a larger web of services that are appropriate to be delivered by government and funded with broad based taxes.   Localities also had their own industries, sheriff, poor house, et cetera which became outmoded as towns became suburbs, cities evolved, and rural population percentages and jobs declined.  Education's role in society became of increased interest of national and state politics.  However, the national role became one of authority by issuing mandates with little funding role.  States became an unreliable funding partner dependent on the ups and downs of the national economy that also issued unfunded directives.   Rules, laws, and expectations have grown far beyond the scope of local control and thus the myth within local control is that it really is one of primarily local control of limiting budgets to keep at bay upset property tax payers unless it is a wealthy community.

- Education is not a priority in the United States of America.  It gets much rhetorical lip service, we hear constantly about our solemn duty to children through education, and the vital importance of excellent education in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive world.  But that is where it ends; we will not place education as a funding priority.  We seek ways to tinker with this enormous system to tune out a few bucks toward a goal of efficiency.  We have blinders on to the fact that excellent education may not be efficient with a traditional business bottom-line.  Sure, the bus routes ought to make sense, the buildings should be smartly designed, and wastefulness of financial resources that do not support or create knowledge value ought to be controlled.  But the largest expense, staffing, especially if contracted is not going to improve education.  Our emphasis on high stakes testing or racing to the top creation of winners and losers does nothing to establish and maintain a critical funding foundation to be placed under all students to maximize educational success on an egalitarian basis.  To simplify the understanding of our priorities as a nation, one needs only to look at the portion of our budget devoted to defense versus that devoted to education.  Would balancing the two or reversing the equation be of greater strategic value to the United States?  This is a debate we seem to avoid at all costs to avoid costs that may in the end create the greatest costs.

We need to repel the right's assault, dismiss the myth of local control, and get on with a national debate to quickly yield solid funding for public schools as a strategic priority.  Let us begin here, now.    

Going rogue

by: Gerald Weinand

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 14:05:19 PM EST

SARAH!: My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not - this was in the '60s - we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.

Open Thread

by: Gerald Weinand

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 07:29:38 AM EST

Iraqis defy blasts in strong turnout for pivotal election on Sunday, but results will be days off, and a new government perhaps months away:

Defying a sustained barrage of mortars and rockets in Baghdad and other cities, Iraqis went to the polls in strength on Sunday to choose a new Parliament meant to outlast the American military presence here.

---

The shrugging response of voters could signal a fundamental weakening of the insurgency's potency. At least 38 people were killed in Baghdad. But by day's end, turnout was higher than expected, and certainly higher than in the last parliamentary election in 2005, marred by a similar level of violence.

Official results are not expected for at least a few days.

On Saturday, Icelanders snub Britain in vote over £3.5bn loan repayments, the Times of London reports:

At issue in the referendum is the £3.48 billion lost by more than 400,000 savers when Icesave failed in October 2008. The British and Dutch governments covered these losses but want the money back from Iceland.

n the eyes of Icelanders facing repayments equivalent to more than £10,000 a head, their economy will be crippled for decades by the burden. But without an agreement, Iceland will be unable to raise loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or succeed in its bid for fast-track membership of the European Union.

The NYTimes reports that U.S. enriches companies defying its policy on Iran:

The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington's efforts to discourage investment there, records show.

That includes nearly $15 billion paid to companies that defied American sanctions law by making large investments that helped Iran develop its vast oil and gas reserves.

The AP reports that there has been less stimulus for minority firms.

In Maine, two Census workers reportedly have been attacked, the BDN reports.

And at the Maine Fisherman's Forum yesterday, a number of speakers answered the question, "can wind farms, fisheries coexist?":

State officials and energy experts argue that the Gulf of Maine is an ideal place for massive wind farms that would be extremely difficult if not impossible to build on land near people's homes.

But hundreds of massive wind turbine platforms and all of the gear-snagging cables that likely would come with them could affect fish and Maine's commercial fishing industry.

George LaPointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the reality is that the industries are going to have to learn to coexist in areas of the gulf.

"It will take a lot of work," LaPointe said, "but we think it is work that needs to be done."

An open thread.