Sirius/XM Merger approval
I can’t express how excited I am by this. Since I first subscribed to Sirius two years ago it’s been my primary source of entertainment, I’ve written about it briefly here in the past. So lets just say I was thrilled to see that the year long merger with XM satellite radio has cleared the federal approval process. This really is a great thing for any entertainment fan, the quality of programing one can have for relatively short money remains pretty staggering.
But this isn’t about the rather boring process of federal antitrust clearance. It’s about the cost of a congressman. I’m always shocked to see just how inexpensively one can purchase a congressman of his/her own. You would think with inflation, owning a lawmaker in the worlds greatest superpower would be quite an expensive proposition. Not so. Congressman Edward Markey of the Massachusetts 7th, who was one of the many roadblocks for this merger in his role as head of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, was purchased by the National Association of Broadcasters for about 30k since 1989. Fifteen thousand since 2006 alone. That’s pretty astounding, to think that for the price of a very inexpensive car you can literally own a Congressman who will take completely anti-consumor stands on your behalf. But what really makes his role as lackey for the NAB amazing is the irony in this great quote from the Bloomberg piece regarding the merger:
Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House telecommunications subcommittee, said, “the Bush administration has apparently never seen a telecommunications merger it doesn’t like.”
Now, I look forward to hearing news that GWB has colon cancer as much as the next patriot. But some things you just can’t blame on that particular douche bag. I mean lets be honest with ourselves here, these being some of Ed’s top contributors:
AT&T Inc - $91,600
Time Warner - $68,000
Viacom Inc - $66,350
News Corp - $56,500
Walt Disney Co - $50,850
Comcast Corp - $43,500
Sprint Nextel - $41,750
General Electric - $41,000
Paloma Partners - $36,500
Qualcomm Inc - $32,204
MCI Inc - $31,150
National Assn of Broadcasters - $30,300
He’s even on the RIAA payroll having received 2k in the 2006 cycle. This clown has overseen the kind of media consolidation that has Judge Harold Green doing backflips in his grave and he has the audacity to insinuate the Sirius/XM merger is some sort of Neo-Con inside job? Does that look like the resume of a guy who’s interested in consumer protection? A member of the Progressive caucus taking 56k from News Corp? That must be what ‘Progressives’ consider equal time.
link (Bloomberg merger story)
Congressman Markey receipts at OpenSecrets.org
Markey Press Release on the merger
Americas pastime, meet the Puritans.
So I’m going to be honest here, I find baseball to be pretty fucking boring. But I’ve never found it to be such a threat to good morals and decency that I would encourage the license division of the WPD to crack down on it.
In Worcester, police Lt. James J. Johnson, commander of the city’s Alcohol Enforcement Unit, said the Police Department is going to enforce the law that sets 8 a.m. as the earliest possible opening time. The lieutenant said bars are not allowed to open earlier even if they have no plans to serve alcohol until the allowed hour.
“We’re going to hold true to that, not to be a spoiler or anything,” said Lt. Johnson, who met with his staff today to discuss the situation.
link
Meanwhile, 45 min East…
Fenway faithful expected to rise early for Sox opener
March 24, 2008 11:53 AM
By Globe Staff
Talk about your diehard fans. Some Red Sox supporters, hoping for yet another championship season, will be getting up before sunrise tomorrow to trek to Fenway-area bars to watch the Sox open their season more than a dozen time zones away in Japan.
“I think we’ll be pretty full, to be honest with you,” said Lindsay Curtis, a spokeswoman for the Game On! bar.
Curtis said the bar, which has a capacity of 500 people, has been getting numerous calls and e-mails from fans hoping it will be open.
The bar normally opens at 7 a.m. Tomorrow it will open at 5:30 a.m., so people can settle in for the game, which starts at 6:05 a.m.
At the Cask ‘n’ Flagon, assistant general manager Ron Abbott said he’s expecting 150 to 200 people when the bar opens at 5:30 a.m., several hours earlier than usual.
“I think we should actually have a pretty decent crowd,” he said.
Mayor’s spokeswoman Dot Joyce said the bars, which had received special permission to open early, were not allowed to sell alcohol until the game is over.
Abbott said he didn’t know how many people would be tempted to imbibe, rather than stick with their pre-work mugs of coffee.
But he said, “I definitely don’t see it being a productive workday in the city of Boston tomorrow.”
link
This is what we refer to, in my line of work, as completely batshit fucking insane. Hopefully, now that the baseball scourge is conquered, we can start craking down on cooking Apple Pies out of season.
Lights! Cameras! Are you kidding me?
Today’s big story in the T&G is the Scorsese film being shot at Medfield State Hospital, which is the same Scorsese film that should have been shot in Worcester. The story is a good read for a number of reasons as it points to the benefits being seen by local business in Medfield. For whatever reason, Worcesters leaders cannot wrap their heads around the concept of secondary effects of film for Worcester. That’s not hard to understand, Worcester being such an isolated community, many provincial locals are sure to believe we’ve got it all right here, which is quaint, but obviously not true. For example, my whole life I’ve run into people who have no connection to the city of Worcester other than one night at Ralphs Diner. There is a population of people scattered throughout the world who truly believe Worcester is a great place only because they got some free coke and a blowjob back in ’91. Maybe not how the Economic Development office wants to define Worcester, but it’s certainly better than today where the average person thinks of Worcecester as… OK so people just don’t think of Worcester. But the most important aspect of the story is the light cast on the attitudes held by Worcesters finest pols. Take a look at this quote from State Rep Pedone:
“To put all that in jeopardy to have Martin Scorsese driven around in his limousine to look at the little diners on Shrewsbury Street would have been foolish,” Mr. Pedone said. “Maybe Medfield has people in their diners at noon, but what we’re going to have on top of that hill is a $300 million investment that’s going to employ people for the next 50 years.”
Grand. I hope I’m not the only one pointing this out to Vincent today, but what he is describing is the exact opposite of investment, it’s a divestment. There will never be a return from a new state hospital, that’s just silly. For as long as this hospital is open the people who pay for it, Massachusetts taxpayers, will never see a return. I’m not going to start getting checks from the state because this hospital is making so much money they’re going to give some back. And let’s not kid ourselves; there are examples of actual government investments. My family in Anchorage for example, receives a dividend check every year for their collective ‘investment’ in the oil pipeline. That’s a return on investment. And as that investment losses its value as it has over the years, their checks get smaller, that’s how investments work. But you have to at least start with the potential for return. You would have to be a moron to actually believe that something that will cost, for all time, with no actual expectation for a return, could ever be considered an investment. Since I know Vincent isn’t a moron, I look forward to his statement of correction.
It’s broken, fix it
As a representative for the thousands of people literally trapped on the MA Pike this morning I would like to point out what is now an obvious flaw in the construction on said roadway. But first, let’s ignore the fact that a full 1.5 hours after the accident there was still no notification for people getting on the highway. That’s forgivable when you consider the entire Turnpike Authority is run by the otherwise unemployable cousins of Massachusetts politicians. Second, let’s ignore the dozens of State Police and emergency crews standing around doing absolutely nothing at the scene of the accident. I’m sure in the 5hrs before I got there they were all very busy doing extremely important things.
No, the real failure of this morning is it is impossible to get off the Mass Turnpike unless an exchange of money is involved. If you were to enter the Pike at 146 as I did today, you’ll notice there is not a single break in the cement barriers in the center of the highway until you get to the 495 exchange. So although today was really in the grand scheme of things, no big deal, I’m sure we can all imagine the sort of natural disaster, zombie attack or plague that would make you want to simply turn around and go the other way. No such luck for the Pike traveler, not with your car anyways.
In any other space these would be emergency exits. Theaters have them, strip clubs have them and even planes have them. At no less than 30,000 ft. It’s a rather simple concept. But on the pike if disaster lay ahead and the big LED sign warning you is placed AFTER the last exit before the zombies, you’re simply going to have to suck it up like a cow to the slaughter and drive right in while the entirety of Troop E stands there, on the side of the road and watches. I’m sure someone has a great reason for this, probably a fear of lost revenue from toll jumpers. But try, if you can find it in you, and show some compassion, the person whose job it is to come up with those excuses is also someone’s cousin and being stupid is all he knows how to do.
The history of everything +Dianne
Dianne Williamson’s column in todays T&G is both rather awesome and moderately funny; a rarity for those old folks at the local daily. I’m glad to see I’m not the only jerk who thinks the Montvale ‘hood is being rather cunty these days.
Reminds me of Granny
The history of everything
During this mornings 508 I mentioned that the push by the Montvale Neighborhood to expand their historical district, as reported in yesterday’s T&G, may be the single most disgusting move I’ve seen by the city in my time here.
Here’s the short version of the story for those of you just tuning in.
- In 1812 Isaiah Thomas founded the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA to protect the collected works of early American history.
- Sometime in the early part of the 21st century Worcester City Clerk David Rushford decided the property value of his home ($520,300 according to the fiscal 2008 city assessment), which is adjacent to the AAS, was more important than the revolutionary war.
The American Antiquarian Society is that funny looking, near windowless brick building over on the corner of Park and Salisbury; I only point that out because I honestly had no idea what it was till I was almost out of High School. We’ve done a terrible job of promoting its existence and significance to Worcester residents. And I know this is going to sound pretty out there, but that weird looking building is the closest thing any of us alive today, can ever hope to come to understanding the spirit behind the Revolutionary War. It’s a collection of knowledge that could never be replaced; the physical embodiment of a set of ideals leaders in 2008 could not dream of replicating. The Montvale Neighborhood as a whole and especially the City Clerk really should be ashamed of themselves on this one. Neighborhoods are not valuable simply because they exist; their identities are what bind them. In this case the Montvale identity is inside that funny looking building and quite frankly, the neighborhoods wants are secondary to its identities needs.
L.B.’s right-on
This may be the one and only time I will ever agree with L.B. Worm, but the dude is spot on.
So far, the booking at the Hanover looks like it’s catering to the recently deceased. Someone fix that, please.
Self referencing link
I don’t like to do this sort of thing, but the comments in this earlier RadioBall post pointing to Tracy Novicks WPS blog have blown me away. There are some rather great fact, figures and opinions being thrown into the ring. A must read for anyone who considers the WPS a priority.
Worcester Public School funding blog
A kind reader just pointed me in the direction of what appears to be the early (very early) stages of a public call for increased funding of the WPS. There is not a ton of info up right now, but they have drafted some nice ‘fill in the blank’ style letters to the City Manager and City Council as well as collected contact info for just about every player involved. There is also a link to a google group that has been set up for communication.
I hope to see something come from this, my son will be of age for public schools next year and there is absolutely no way we’ll even consider them in their current state. Which feels pretty terrible for someone raised in a family of educators, mostly in the public sector.
link (thanks for the tip, T!)
