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 New Orleans We had a good, but troubling, meeting with organizers from Houston, Little Rock, Shreveport, New Orleans and elsewhere about how to proceed to lower the digital divide and access lower cost internet services, promised, but not delivered, by Comcast and other companies. By mid-February we will move forward to either involve the FCC more directly in this matter or file as many FCC complaints around Comcast deceptive advertising as we run into lower income families that have tried, but not been able to access the promised service.
Sadly, our extensive conversation seems to have created even more information about the pattern that really follows Comcast’s pretense at “outreach.” In effect they seem to have foisted the “sale” of this service off to already strapped and under resourced public school officials and principles by simply handing them pamphlets that redirect desperately strapped families to wend their way through an 800-number call center. But, I’m finger pointing at the schools. They should not be in the business of doing sales for Comcast for cry-eye. How can this possibly be appropriate?!?
Another thing I learned that somehow I had missed before, is that Comcast is not offering any financing for the $150 computer. Poor families have to have all of the money up front to pay on the barrel head. I had thought I had clearly read that there were finance plans to make these computers accessible. WTF?!? This isn’t a program yet, it’s a promotion and a farce!
Reading through research our allies in Philly sent over, it turned out that one of the FCC members is a former lobbyist at Comcast. Hope that’s not a problem?!?
 New Orleans When a delegation of members from ACTION United showed up with baloney sandwiches at the Pittsburgh City Council meeting, the Council asked them to address the body and expressed concern with them about the difficulty that low income families are having making Comcast’s promises of greater access to the Internet a reality. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was clear that actions demanding accountability and access were now occurring in Houston, Little Rock, Shreveport, and Philadelphia (“Comcast’s Low-cost Internet Program Criticized”).
In Philadelphia members of ACTION United passed out 75 baloney sandwiches at the Comcast headquarters demanding the promised response from earlier meetings that indicated the company was considering improving its weak performance to date (“Activists Tangle Over Accessibility of Low-Income Program”). Ironically, Comcast seems to have convinced some school principals to apologize in their behalf and accept responsibility for the limited outreach that should have been the company’s responsibility, not the public school that hoped to partner with them and benefit. What a shell game?
There is no date for a reply in Houston yet? The meeting in Little Rock is still “sometime” in the first two weeks of February.
The FCC had called Houston, Little Rock, and Philadelphia to ask for our permission to share the letters with Comcast and send our complaints to the company. The Comcast lobbyist in Philly undoubtedly watched on his television as they read his email denying there were any complaints and begging the City Council to ignore our pleas.
Is the FCC trying to simply sweep this all under the rug and abandon their commitment to greater Internet access for lower income families by in effect pretending this is just Comcast’s “problem?”
Seems like we have no choice but to start having families file deceptive advertising complaints against Comcast with the FCC. The FCC will have a harder time passing that buck back to Comcast.
This shell game has to stop.
 New Orleans Another day, another dollar in Comcast land where it turns out in their view of the world, no promises need be kept, customers should pay and not be heard, government is only for them, not for the people, and if they say it’s good, then, damn, it must be good: Comcast-in-wonderland!
In Shreveport as Local 100 United Labor Union members pushed Comcast for action and access to the Internet for our Head Start parents, TV cameras were rolling and they were “not happy” as one of our members reported.
In Philadelphia where they had promised that there would be a detailed response to demands that our partner, ACTION United had brought forward in behalf of our coalition two weeks previously, yesterday came and went with no response from the company. Houston Local 100 members got the same response from two Comcast governmental relations guys in their meeting on Friday. Little Rock is waiting for its meeting soon. We are on a “need to know” basis!
In Philly and Pittsburgh, members of ACTION United are taking the Comcast issue forward with a “baloney” sandwich picnic in their honor today.
City staffers in Pittsburgh sympathetic to our demands that Comcast lower the digital divide forwarded us an email from the local Comcast executive which is priceless in its arrogance and, frankly, lack of good sense about the basics involved in a democracy including the freedom of speech for folks like us who want to really see their Internet program work. Somehow, Pittsburgh Comcast’s “Frank” seems to believe that if Comcast says “internet essentials” is a “great program,” then that ought to be enough said without worrying about the fact that no one is getting the Internet and virtually no one knows about the program. Ol’ Frank wants to pretend that’s all on the shoulders of the Pittsburgh School System, because they haven’t “reported any complaints.”
Frank, ol’ buddy, first it’s not the job of the public schools to shill your so-called “internet essentials” program for you, and, secondly, if virtually no one has heard of your so-called “great” program, how would they complain? And, who would they complain to? Well, Frank, they would do exactly what they are doing and complain to people and organizations just like us who are committed to making sure that Comcast delivers on their program to provide low cost internet access. And, despite your request to the Pittsburgh City Council members that they simply “not listen” to us as you indicated in your email, we’ve got news for you, they actually believe that it’s important to listen and respond to citizens (you might call them customers if you cared to actually really provide lower income families with internet!).
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Frank’s own words drawn from his email:
I have communicated with the Pgh Public Schools yesterday and they told me they have not received any complaints about the program. We [Comcast?] ask that you do not [Frank’s bold!] engage with this group [ACTION United] and if any questions need to be answered please follow up with me. Internet Essentials is a great program and benefits all families whose children are on the Free lunch program whether they are a Comcast customer or not.
The whole email is a classic, and, personally, I would simply love [my emphasis!] to know how Frank believes that this program currently benefits “all families…whether they are a Comcast customer or not.”
But, answers to those questions are unlikely to be available today in Pittsburgh even to members of ACTION United; since Frank also made it clear he was not going to actually show up at the City Council meeting. Oh, no, not Frank, he’s a cable guy with Comcast. He signed off saying, he’ll “watch on TV.”
Hello, Comcast! Let us introduce you to America. It’s a different country than you imagined it might be! Live up to your word. Provide real access to the internet for the poor, and agree to be accountable to your promises. Hear our demands and “engage” with us directly!
 New Orleans Comcast deigned to meet with representatives of Local 100 United Labor Unions in their offices in Houston on Monday. Once again they tried to slather the butter on the bread with stories of their “good intentions” about internet access for the poor. Once again they promised that they would get back to us. Once again when we asked for real numbers of enrollees and real numbers of goals for outreach and enrollment, the only replies we could get still added up to “no.”
Orell Fitzsimmons, field director for Local 100, sitting in the meeting with a number of our leaders from Head Start units at Gulf Coast and Avance, who knew how little had been done to inform and enroll the children – and parents – they serve, had an excellent line for the Comcast representative. He informed Comcast clearly that, “We are not a faith-based organization. We can’t take your word on how well you think you are doing. We have to know the facts and the real numbers.” Fitzsimmons later told me he even quoted Ronald Reagan at one point from the old SALT missile days, and told Comcast we would need to be able to “verify.”
Maybe we weren’t hearing correctly, but the Comcast VP – they all seem to be VPs – seemed to be saying “make me!” Furthermore he seemed to be insinuating that only the FCC could make them produce the numbers. If that’s the case, then that’s where we will have to go to make this program work, if Comcast won’t live up to its promises.
On another front there was a report on possible progress for some of the homeowners facing foreclosure. The story, as always, was disconcerting when it came to the codependence of the feds with the banks. HUD secretary Shaun Donovan seemed to be wheeling and dealing to buy off different states to accept a deal which would reduce mortgage levels by a small number (the Times reported $20,000 per mortgage, which is a trickle in many communities), and tried to buy off California’s AG with a disproportionate share of the settlement. Luckily, it appears that a number of the state attorneys generals are hip to the fact that the banks only real interest seems to be a “get out of court free” card from them, which Donovan and the feds seem more than willing to help facilitate. Fortunately for many struggling homeowners a number of AGs are insisting that they will not waive their right to sue for the banks shenanigans.
At this point given how long suffering many homeowners have been and how many have already lost their houses, we all ought to hope for real justice, since clearly the time for a quick fix is long gone.
 New Orleans As improbable as it may sound; sweatshops seem to have a lot of high placed advocates who simply swear by them. Yes, sweatshops!
In the recent deification of Apple and its co-founder Steven Jobs, there has been unstinting praise for Apple and its high priced, sleek products as a great American success story. The credible allegations and proofs of how much of Apple’s manufacturing operation rested on the backs of sweatshop labor, particularly at huge manufacturers like FoxConn, were sometimes mentioned in passing, but largely swept under the rug. Not surprisingly a front page article on the death and demise of American manufacturing featuring both Jobs and Apple prominently also tried to bury the sweatshop reality on which so much of this manufacturing “miracle” exists in a few paragraphs of the very long story.
The reporter and others marveled at how on a whim 8000 workers could be pulled out of bed in company owned and run dormitories and put to work on a last minute changeover. Wow, the article and others seemed to say, that couldn’t happen here in America.
Well, that’s wrong. It could happened here in America, but Apple would have to pay for it, and that’s still the real difference.
One fool asked where you could find some thousands of workers in the United States, who would be ready to roll to work. Hey, just about anywhere, jerkwater! Has word of the recession gotten to none of these folks?
Even in the pages of the New York Times, if they were interested they can read about the skilled workers by the thousands that have trucked themselves into North Dakota (of all places!) to live in, yes, bunks, trailers, and all manner of man-caves in order to work in the oil industry on the plains. But, whoops, once again, I should add that they are doing so, because they get paid, and paid pretty damned well to do so! We saw thousands of workers flood into New Orleans to help on the recovery, but once again they did so on their own dime, because they thought they could make a dollar. In all of these cases these are workers with crazy, mad skills, too.
The article seemed to say Apple employed 700,000 workers in manufacturing around the world, oh, and 40,000 or so in the USA. Their spokesperson wanted to make sure all of us knew that the American economy is not “their problem.” Their problem is only “making a good product.” Life and business is not that simple, and the responsibilities go much deeper.
This seems to be a problem throughout much of the Times. Nicholas Kristof did a column that I had to read because it was about Olly Neal from Arkansas, who I had worked with in the 1970’s when he was running the Lee County Clinic. Posting the article, more than one of my buddies reminded me how they too had to hold their noses to read anything Kristof wrote because he is such a relentless apologist for sweatshops.
Good news that we are really talking about manufacturing. Bad news that the ideology underpinning the conversation is that there can only be manufacturing at the expense of workers’ rights and wages in sweatshop conditions.
Shame on Apple, the Times, and the rest of the tribe that makes these rationalizations!
 New Orleans I find no joy in reading about forced-placed insurance, but I take great satisfaction in seeing the farce and fraud of such anti-consumer insurance coming to light. Quoting Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of Financial Services from Gretchen Morgenson’s “Fair Game” column in the Times,
Force-placed insurance appears to be the dirty little secret of the mortgage industry. It is a silent killer harming both consumer and investors while enriching the banks and their affiliates.
I was particularly drawn to the comments of Mark Rodgers who was flaking for CitiMortgage and claimed,
CitiMortgage does not sell homeowner’s insurance to consumers. If a homeowner does not provide an insurance policy, CitiMortgage secures a policy to protect the interest of the investor. Whenever the homeowner submits proof they have obtained insurance on their own, the lender-placed insurance is canceled.
Makes it all seem simple and straightforward doesn’t it? Well, reality with CitiMortgage, not surprisingly is a whole different thing!
Unfortunately, I know because we owned a small, beaten up and dearly loved fishing camp in the marsh and bayou abutting the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge just 35 minutes from our home in the 9th Ward of New Orleans. We still own 2 acres of marsh with some protruding pilings there and hopes and dreams for the future some day, but for now it is a fond memory of life before Hurricane Katrina six years ago. I think of the camp every month as I pay CitiMortgage for the memory and what is left of the place. These days that is a simple process of them sending me a notice and me trying to get them a check, but thanks to force-placed insurance that was not always so.
Even after Katrina, I never missed a payment on the camp, but within months I started having problems with CitiMortgage that continued annually for quite a spell. First they imposed homeowners insurance on the camp at great cost, even though any notion of a “home” had been flooded and flown to smithereens. I would call and explain Katrina, and they would insist on more and more documentation for me to prove that there was no longer a structure on the property. After months of payments and contention they would temporarily yield, issue a refund, and then it would start up again the next year.
And, then they would demand and force-place flood insurance. No small amount of irony here, since flood insurance wasn’t available on the camp before the storm, much less after the storm. Either way, there was nothing left to flood.
I almost wished that Citi had sold homeowner’s insurance, because at least I would have gotten kissed first. They would have at least had to ask before they demanded, assessed and coerced the payments from me, rubbing raw the open sores of already deep discontent in the wake of the loss.
They have a scheme around insurance, but they have no system.
This “dirty little secret” needs to not only be exposed, but solved!
 New Orleans Among other things Comcast provides internet service. As we have discussed previously, they promised to provide internet access to lower income families for $9.95 and connect the same families to a computer for $150. Comcast called the program Internet Essentials. They claim to be proud of it.
We don’t know why?
In Houston a delegation of Local 100 United Labor Unions picketed Comcast’s offices demanding the company live up to its promises. Most of these Local 100 members work at Head Start locations and in public schools in Houston. They are in perfect position to know whether or not Comcast made any effort to live up to its promises to at least provide access to families with children in Head Start or who were eligible for free school lunches. In a survey our union conducted of 75 families, we found 1 who knew about the Comcast program and had been able to access it. One as is only one.
Yet, somehow Comcast was surprised that we did not call off the picket line when they agreed to a meeting on Monday afternoon. Why would we? In Little Rock they wanted to meet in two weeks, when they could kinda sorta get around to it. In Shreveport we have not heard a peep. The FCC has asked for our permission to forward our letters to them about the problems with the program to Comcast, but Comcast has not responded anywhere or at anytime except when they have learned that we planned a public protest.
Comcast’s troubles are deep and thus far their response to our pointing out the problem in cities where our coalition is active has been non-existent. They seemed to have wanted a “pass” in the meeting in Philadelphia just for “saying” they would do something, rather than for actually making the program work.
In Houston, as well as other cities, we are also troubled by the fact that if you call the regular Comcast service number and ask for this program, Comcast believes they have “license” to do their damnedest to “up sell” you for a more expensive plan for service. In the meeting in Philadelphia with our partners at Action United they took the preposterous position that all of that was fair game unless the family called specifically about their so-called “Internet Essentials” program. We have now found examples of this with our members everywhere.
There is a name for this kind of sales tactic, and it is not called “lowering the digital divide,” but it is called “bait and switch.”
Add to that the millions of brochures that Comcast has printed for their public relations program about “internet essentials” and their virtually non-existent effort to really deliver the goods, and what do you have? Well, there’s a name for that, too, and it’s called “deceptive advertising.”
Bizarrely, the FCC does not have a complaint form on their website for the inability to get access to internet or cable services, but they do have one for deceptive advertising. Perhaps as the stack of those complaints rises higher and higher, both Comcast and the FCC will finally start taking seriously the need to finally walk the walk and talk the talk and begin to actually do what it takes to get internet to lower income families.
 New Orleans To the degree that many so-called educational “reformers” like to tout New Orleans and the post-Katrina usurpation of much of the school system through federal money bribes and legislative do-overs as a model, it is worth seeing how the tendency to no accountability and educational autocracy continues unabated.
The original executive orders that seized New Orleans schools from the elected school board mandated a 5-year period to move the schools to the State run Recovery School District and then move them back to the Orleans Parish School Board. Now the five year period has hit the first 8 schools and to no one’s surprise nothing is happening because the usurpers who claim reform but resist accountability have created no system that reintegrates the schools back to the School Board. To no one’s surprise the folks managing the charters want to drag their feet as long as possible as well, so were not exactly beating down the door to become accountable again.
The Times-Picayune story by Andrew Vanacore ended up on the front page even though the story was largely an editorial with a headline drawn from Vanacore’s unsupported opinion. He wrote early in the piece:
For now, city and state officials do not even seem to agree on who is responsible for clearing up how the transition is supposed to work. To be sure, plenty of administrators at the autonomous charter schools that have come to dominate under state authority simply do not think the local school board as it exists should govern anything. They worry about losing the flexibility they have in decision-making and remember keenly the corruption scandals that still mar the board’s image, though few will say so publicly for fear of alienating board members.
The jump headline was “Eligible schools decline return to local board.” No one is quoted along these lines in the story on the school level or from RSD or anyone else. There is not even the old “unnamed sources” line indentifying some quote. The headline stands solely on Vanacore’s personal opinion and allegations.
The story is clear even from the most ardent anti-school board voice, Leslie Jacobs, where even Vanacore has to concede her totally anti-democratic proposal got “no traction” (though once again largely his unsourced opinion), that the schools eventually and “inevitably” will return to local control of the Orleans Parish School Board. In fact the entire story is one of incompetence and who is one first and what is on second with the new head of the State Education Department and until recently the head of the RSD, John White, acknowledging that they need to come up with a plan and make it happen.
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