The Susan Komen Foundation folks are headquartered in Dallas so they should’ve known [...]]]> New Orleans  For a change we’re winning one against the right wing strategy of progressive institution defunding. This is a Texas-style bare knuckles dispute, and I’m so proud of the way Cecile Richards stepped into the ring here that I could just spit!

The Susan Komen Foundation folks are headquartered in Dallas so they should’ve known a mess was coming.  Sure they were easily surrounded by the Southern Baptist Convention and some of their largest churches are in Dallas, so they should have been used to the climate, rather than folding like a cheap skirt.  Cecile is a Texas woman through and through and the daughter of a fighting labor lawyer and a fire-fun-and-fury woman, Ann Richards, former Texas governor and freedom fighter, none of which should have made the pink people think that when they go after women, Cecile and Planned Parenthood were going to meekly creep to the corner and let it go down.

We’ve been through how thin, hypocritical, and fictional the excuse that Komen came up with to defund Planned Parenthood in order to either curry favor from right wing pols and anti-abortion zealots or to cave into their bullying.   Picking between those two paths should pretty much disqualify Komen from any future pretense as an advocate for women and their health.   The lead editorial in the Times appropriately called their rationale a “fig leaf,” but frankly that dishonors an excellent tree and a delicious fruit.  This was subterfuge and a lie, pure and simple.

I was shocked to see how little Komen was supporting Planned Parenthood, even when they were supposedly long time partners.  A $94 million operation that funded 2000 groups around community health initiatives was only providing $700,000 in support?  Seems way small, and this has been a long time criticism of Komen that so much of its pink-thing, branding emphasis, and change-through-marketing strategy was distracting and not really doing all it could and should about women’s health and its declared mission around breast cancer.

So far the lost money has been replaced by individual donors, some 6000, and pledges by folks like Mayor Bloomberg.   That’s not enough to declare victory.

Cecile and Planned Parenthood have seized the initiative by creating a campaign around the stark cynicism and cowardice that allows all of these rightwing, gotcha strategies to work.  They prey on the weak and unprincipled who are so afraid that they could be next or that they might have trouble that rather than banding to protect their partners and friends when under attack, they run for the hills with their tails between their legs and hope nobody notices them.  This is what happened on the ACORN attack.  Friends and allies pulled up the covers and hoped it wouldn’t happen to them.  This is what board members of Komen have publicly confessed.  They didn’t analyze the merits of the scurrilous attacks on Planned Parenthood or the impact on the women they had claimed were their mission, they simply deserted them, trying to save themselves.  Shame, shame, shame!

And hooray for all the women, including some within the Komen ranks who have resigned and are protesting (all 7 branches in California!), who have finally said “enough is enough” to these kinds of unprincipled attacks and stood up for Planned Parenthood.

Now if we could get men to grow backbones as well, and, if we could get everyone to stand together for a change, we could finally take the teeth out of this attack on progressive institutions before more of them are caught in the vortex that sank ACORN and has rolled Planned Parenthood over the last year.

Put a ribbon around that, and I’ll wear it!

Update:  Victory, Komen Foundation Restores Funds to Planned Parenthood.  Way to go in stopping the rightwing!

New Orleans  The combined meetings and negotiations with Comcast representatives about their “internet essentials” program to provide low cost access and computers to lower income families seems to have finally provoked the company into putting out some numbers on their performance.  That’s the good news.   Reading the numbers is the bad news.

No wonder our ally, ACTION United in Pennsylvania, when surveying lower income families couldn’t find any who knew about Comcast program or had gotten Internet through the program.  It turns out only about 450 families (according to Comcast figures) were enrolled in the entire city of Philadelphia.

In Harris County where Houston is located, Local 100’s survey of Head Start workers and parents who were eligible even under the restrictive guidelines Comcast had established had also produced a big fat zero.  It goes without saying that Houston is among the largest cities in the country and there are a lot of lower income families, but there the program claims to have only been able to muster a bit over 2000 enrollees.

Our experience with our members in Houston trying to enroll this week not only puts a lie to some of the public relations claims to the Comcast “launch report,” but also proves why it may be easier for a rich man to get to heaven than for a poor family to access the Comcast program that is supposedly designed to lower the digital divide.

We monitored some of these calls and helped the families file complaints to the FCC on what happened, but here are some of the highlights.  One woman was told that they did not have a $9.95 program but she could sign up for $29.99 basic.   When she kept pressing they referred her to an 855 number which is the national Internet Essentials number.   At that number they also claimed ignorance when it got to the computer issue and gave her the Dell computer number in Austin, Texas.  Dell said they didn’t know anything about a $150 computer but they had a $450 job, but it would take a credit or debit card to acquire.

You think that’s wild.  Listen to this one.  Another fellow from Houston called to Comcast Internet Essentials at its 713 Houston area code and was answered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  They asked him for his name, address, zip, and phone.  Then they told him that there was no program for $9.95, the lowest was for $29.99.  Sound familiar?  Stay with me!  Pushing for Internet Essentials they then produced an 800#.  Five minutes later they offered an Internet Essentials 855#.   They said they had a $149.99 computer.  When he asked about taxes or shipping, he then heard about debit and credit cards, like all food stamp eligible families have VISA cards or American Express!  They then gave him an 800# which turned out to be to Dell Computer in Austin.  When he asked Dell for the Internet Essentials computer deal with Comcast, he was informed in no uncertain terms that there was no longer an Internet Essentials program, and that program had been stopped two months ago because Comcast didn’t renew the contract with Dell.  Needless to say the end of this conversation involved a $400+ computer!

David Cohen, the Comcast VP, identified with the “launch report” and much of this dissembling seems not to have a clue about what is happening on city streets or on the phone lines within Comcast or at the computer sources.  All of this seems to be shaping up as a crude hoax being perpetrated on the poor!  Is this a shell game or what?

Meanwhile reading Cohen’s overview on their website and his remarks to the press, he seems to believe that “outreach” to the poor is hundreds of meetings and lunches with politicians and public officials around the country.  Back slapping is not the same as lowering the digital divide and Cohen, once a much touted Philly city official, actually should know that better than most.  The outreach from their report seems to be to get schools to shill for the program, which they are ill equipped to do or in one very intriguing “reform” in the report they want “community partners” to somehow buy the Internet Essentials program in bulk.  I’m not sure to do what?  Re-sell?  Preposterous!

Equally rich to read is the fact that Cohen and Comcast are pretending that this is all just so much do-good work by the company and therefore they should not be judged by results, metrics, or whether or not the much promoted program actually lowers the digital divide. They want applause, but not accountability.

Maybe Cohen didn’t get the memo from his bosses at Comcast on this, but it’s a matter of public record with the FCC.  The Internet Essentials program was required by the 2011 Memorandum Opinion and Order from the FCC regarding the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. In the agreement, FCC requires that Comcast “substantially increase broadband adoption in low income homes throughout Comcast’s service area” (pg. 143).

I’m not sure why city officials, federal bureaucrats and the entire tech savvy community is not up in arms about the Comcast shell game around the digital divide.  Maybe it’s a Mitt Romney “don’t worry about the poor” kinda deal, where Comcast just assumes that no one cares if they deliver on this or not.

Yo, Comcast, our coalition of groups cares.  Come on, man!

]]> http://chieforganizer.org/2012/02/02/comcast-cya-doesn%e2%80%99t-mask-contradictions-and-poor-outreach/feed/ 0 http://chieforganizer.org/2012/02/01/shame-on-komen-foundation-craven-cave-in-on-planned-parenthood/ http://chieforganizer.org/2012/02/01/shame-on-komen-foundation-craven-cave-in-on-planned-parenthood/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:11:05 +0000 Mariehurt http://chieforganizer.org/?p=6147 New Orleans   It was shocking today to read that the Komen Foundation, well known for its ubiquitous “pink” crusade against breast cancer, in the most craven way caved into right-wing pressure and unilaterally defunded Planned Parenthood.  Komen has been increasingly controversial in the anti-cancer health movement for emphasizing marketing and branding over research and cures, [...]]]> New Orleans   It was shocking today to read that the Komen Foundation, well known for its ubiquitous “pink” crusade against breast cancer, in the most craven way caved into right-wing pressure and unilaterally defunded Planned Parenthood.  Komen has been increasingly controversial in the anti-cancer health movement for emphasizing marketing and branding over research and cures, but to hammer Planned Parenthood on such specious “ACORN” grounds is really indefensible.

Spokespeople and statements for Komen claimed that they had created a new policy rule which disqualified Planned Parenthood:

A spokeswoman for the Komen foundation, Leslie Aun, told The Associated Press that the main factor in the decision was a new rule adopted by Komen that prohibits grants to organizations being investigated by local, state or federal authorities. Ms. Aun told The A.P. that Planned Parenthood was therefore disqualified from financing because of an inquiry being conducted by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, who is looking at how Planned Parenthood spends and reports its money.

On its face the so-called “rule” is ridiculous.  Virtually any organization at any time anywhere within this definition could be experiencing some kind of investigation “by local, state or federal authorities.”  Think about it.  The simplest charge before the EEOC, NLRB, DOL Wage and Hour Division, EPA, or OSHA, as well as any of the various levels of health departments required to do routine inspections and certifications of clinics, and on and on and on all could be used to claim a disqualification of an agency from support by the Komen Foundation.  Frankly, when the IRS routinely investigates the tax exempt status of Komen, technically, they shouldn’t be able to fund themselves.

The whole notion of such a rule is absurd, which inevitably lends credibility to PPA’s President and CEO Cecile Richards’ claim that they folded like a cheap skirt because of “bullying by right wing groups.”  Who will do the breast exams for poor women and others offered by Planned Parenthood under this assault?   No one, not that Komen seems to care.  The Komen operation’s sister whose own cancer supposedly inspired the organization of this pink parade would be rolling over, unfortunately, in her grave!

Further the Times seems to have a lead on the “smoking gun” leading to this attack:

…in December, LifeWay Christian Resources, which is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, said it was recalling a pink Bible it was selling at Walmart and other stores because a dollar per copy was going to the Komen foundation and the foundation supported Planned Parenthood.

This is hateration pure and simple.

Thank goodness for Cecile standing up and shouting out.  $700,000 plus won’t cripple Planned Parenthood, but on the other hand this decision should point all of the rest of us who care about health needs and the tragedy of breast cancer some other direction than the Komen Foundation if we really care about women.

The Times reported the following:

The company’s collectors also failed to inform consumers that paying [...]]]> New Orleans    The Federal Trade Commission stepped up to the play in behalf of citizens/consumers yesterday and finally put a boot on the butt of scumbag, lying debt collection operations with a $2.5 million fine levied on Asset Acceptance of Warren, Michigan.

The Times reported the following:

The company’s collectors also failed to inform consumers that paying even a small portion of the amount owed would revive the debt — in other words, making a payment would extend the amount of time the collector could legally sue.

Among other things, the complaint also contended that the company reported inaccurate information about the consumers to the credit reporting agencies.  It also said that Asset Acceptance failed to conduct a reasonable investigation when it was notified by one of the credit agencies that a debt was being disputed. Moreover, the complaint says that the company used illegal collection practices and that it continued to try to collect debts that consumers disputed even though the company failed to verify that the debt was valid.

The proposed settlement with Asset Acceptance requires the company to tell consumers whose debt may be too old to be collected that it will not sue.  It also requires the company to investigate disputed debts and to ensure it has a reasonable basis for its claims before going after the consumer.  It is also barred from placing debt on credit reports without notifying the consumer.

We’ve discussed this before.  These are citizen wealth issues.

Debt expires and becomes uncollectable in some states as early as 2 years and in others after 15 years.  If you live in a state which has a long timeline for debt (like I do – Louisiana can run 10 years!), then it’s worth thinking about moving!  According to the CreditInfoCenter.com:

The Midwest is some rough country but there’s definitely not much love for someone with more mouth than money in Kentucky, South Carolina, or Louisiana!

The point is when the needle goes past the limitations, collection companies cannot come after you or threaten to sue.  Hear, hear!  I mean it!

Now did you realize that if you even cough up a partial payment, you then extend the time for them to come after you?   Talk about no good deed going unpunished!  Seems the only sure fired protection if you are in a jam is:  HANG UP!

In Shreveport as [...]]]> 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!

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 [...]]]> 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!

Force-placed insurance appears to be the dirty little secret of the mortgage [...]]]> 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 9^th 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!

We don’t know why?

In Houston a delegation [...]]]> 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.

The original executive orders that seized [...]]]>  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.