Franken on Net Neutrality

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Must reading...Senator Franken's op-ed at the cnn.com website.

Our free speech rights are under assault -- not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America.

If that scares you as much as it scares me, then you need to care about net neutrality.

"Net neutrality" sounds arcane, but it's fundamental to free speech. The internet today is an open marketplace. If you have a product, you can sell it. If you have an opinion, you can blog about it. If you have an idea, you can share it with the world.

And no matter who you are -- a corporation selling a new widget, a senator making a political argument or just a Minnesotan sharing a funny cat video -- you have equal access to that marketplace.

Until you don't.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Seminal

Prairie's Reading: Wendell Potter on Medical Ratios.

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Over at Huffington Post, Wendell Potter, former Cigna executive who is now doing heroic advocacy for healthcare reform, blogs about a healthcare amendment you need to know about. Senators Franken and Rockefeller are pushing to hold for-profit insurance companies to account by mandating they spend 90% of every premium dollar on medical care.

It's called MLR -- medical loss ratio.

An interesting twist of phrase. Actually providing the service for which people are paying their insurance companies is considered a "loss."

It should be Moral Leadership Return.

Insurance companies actually having ethics, moral responsibility, you know, all those old-fashioned values that the values crowd corrupts to line the pockets of Wall Street, buy the yachts and the Bentleys and Gulfstreams and the penthouse lofts and mcMansions.

Dancing around their 21st century version of the Golden Calf while turning a blind eye to the parable values of the Jewish guy with the loaves and fishes and healing touch.
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crossposted at Firedoglake's The Seminal and Clotheslineblog

Salut! Senator Franken

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Gosh darn it, that feels good to say. Somewhere out there, Senators Paul Wellstone, "Clean Gene" McCarthy and the original Happy Warrior, Hubert Humphrey, are smiling. Excellence has returned to the Minnesota Senate team in full.

This temporary Minnesotan joins the celebration to say Congratulations, Senator Franken.
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Minnage àTrois

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Now I ask you, who in bloggerville could possibly resist the opportunity to use that snarky headline? So when I heard on a Fargo talk radio station this morning that Jesse "The Body" Ventura was running for Senate, according to NPR, the ol' wheels started spinning.

Of course, by the time I got back home, the story, which was spreading faster than the Big Sur fire, was already on ABC's Political Punch and being knocked back down by Jesse, who said not even his wife will know before Tuesday's deadline whether he's jumping into the fray against Norm Coleman and Al Franken.

So what is it? The media are flip-floppers? Or Jesse is?

Jesse's got issues with the two candidates in the fray. Al Franken, says he, is a carpetbagger and a political opportunist... hmmm, wonder if he said that from his casa de Mexico where he pretty much decamped away from Minnesota after his single term as governor. And how much credit does the tax-slashing, surplus-draining former governor want to take for the condition of the highways and byways—and bridges—of Minnesota these days?

Speakin' of highways, apparently Franken hasn't yet discovered there are gosh-darned voters and media north of Hwys. 10 and 200.

Jesse doesn't mince words about Coleman either. Points out that Nahmie has never held a job out in the real world since he signed on to government as an assistant attorney. Always lived off the public, says Jesse. And Nahmie voted for the Iraq war, right in lockstep with you-know-who.

So, if that's your criteria, Jesse, why aren't you running against McCain? The mediocre-student, crash-five-planes flyboy who cracks up himself with jokes about bomb-bomb-bombin' and death-by-tobacco has always lived off the government dole. Well, except for Cindy's gazillions, of course.

No wonder McCain doesn't understand basic economics. Like how Social Security works. Or what the price is at the pump.

At first I was dismayed by the prospect of Jesse in the Senate. But a younger Sunshine pointed out to me he couldn't do any more harm than who's there now.

And at least when the Senate and Congress take on all the trappings of pro wrestling—sturm und drang, kabuki, theatre of the absurd [FISA eff-up, anyone?]—there'd be one authentic pro wrestler in the mix. And who knows, maybe he could bring their poll ratings up out of single digits.
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"I Voted"

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Prairie Country had an election yesterday—not to worry, no presidential races on the ballot. Yes, the presidential primary season is truly over. We were voting for City Commissioners, County Commissioners, School Board, Park Board. And a primary at the state level, but no cross-overs allowed, so that doesn't indicate a whole lot. Oh, yes, and whether we can smoke in bars.

Some results gave me pause, so let's talk about 'em a bit, because even small elections can be microcosms of the macro-election coming this fall.

Women incumbents were voted out of City Commission seats in both Fargo and West Fargo, one, the largest city, and the other, among the the fastest-growing cities in North Dakota [sidebar to Chris Matthews: Tweety, you came to North Dakota and you didn't call? You didn't write? I'm not feelin' the luv... and you looked so gosh-darned cute in that black cowboy hat. What's the metaphor, Chris?]. We are now back to business as usual in both cities—greying white males with boosterism and sports arenas in their hearts and guts. Chalk up one in each city for the Fatcats.

Was there a Hillary Factor? Unquestionably both were targeted by the business [bar and restaurant owners] crowd. Will there be a backlash against women candidates after Hillary's campaign—the law of unintended consequences coming into play? I don't know, but it's something I'm chewing over.

The pro-smoking crowd lost bigtime and this morning their spokesman predicted they'll need to gear up statewide in the future against a likely campaign by those awful charities with their nasty mortality statistics and campaign dollars. Chalk up one for Families and better, proactive health management. Wait a sec. Management, isn't that a bigbiz kinda thing? They should be happy about that.

Across the river in Minnesnowta over the weekend, Al Franken won the Democrats' endorsement to run against former Democrat-turned-Republican-turned Opportunist...nah, that's not right...Opportunist-Democrat turned Republican [yeah, that fits] Norm Coleman.

Don't know what Minnesota's Republican Governor Tim Paw-plenty was doing over the weekend [*cough* McCainiacism *cough*]...sure wasn't showin' up for his job. In the true spirit o'Katrina, it took until Monday morning for P'lenty to do a fly-over in the North Country/Hubbard County after the force-3 tornado blew through Friday morning. Heckuva job, Timmie. Guess he wants to show his chops for that veep slot on the McCain ticket.

Now we turn to the General. Come November there will be clear choices. You might find a few here on the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats.

Or, in the weeks to come, expect to be flooded with screed. That Obama woman, she's too proud, she's not proud enough, she's...why, she's...

"Yes"? The strong mother of a loving family, a wife who truly cares about her husband and his campaign and his causes which are all our causes.

Or, that wacky Cindy...was she proud stealing drugs from the charity she was working for? Proud that she could buy herself a political rising star? Proud that she could be holier than thou in the best tradition of hypocritical Republicans? Think anybody will ask her?

Or, in the state elections, like Minnesota, will it be about how racy Franken's writings were back in the day? Or how racy Coleman's little woman's poses were back in the Washington Post?

Or could we maybe—with the help of a shamed press corps that will no longer allow themselves to be used for political, partisan propagandizing—talk about the real policy differences that separate us, and work for and vote for the candidates at all levels of government who will work to restore the "US" in USA.

Nah, I'm not holdin' my breath, either.

Brace yourselves, America, it's gonna be an epic battle.
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Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, just sayin'.