Some of us around here, especially JD and me, have become regular readers of Pharyngula, a science and skeptic web page created and written by PZ Myers, a biology professor in Minnesota.

Today, PZ is covering the child rape case against the Vermont Catholic church, in which a jury just awarded the victim of the church's malfeasance almost $9,000,000.

It's a harsh penalty, but warranted by the way the church turned a blind eye to outrageously criminal behavior. I'd like to say that they'll learn a lesson from it, but the comments from Catholic officials suggest that no, they won't.

PZ's observation, which I totally agree with, is that the church still doesn't get it, as Archbishop Matano is still focusing on the tragic consequences of the monetary loss on Vermont Catholics, instead of looking at the harm that the church knowingly visited on young, vulnerable children.

Come to think of it, that's what punitive damages are for: we might not make them see things the right way, but at least we can teach them that they'd better do the right thing or it will cost them.

And with these guys, maybe that's the best we can hope for. 

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) have an amendment pending in the Senate Judiciary committee to vacate a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board that will likely increase Internet music royalties by an astonishing 300 percent to 1,200 percent, putting a horrific squeeze on the still-nascent medium. From Technology News Daily:

Currently, terrestrial radio stations only pay royalties to songwriters. Internet radio and satellite radio pay royalties to both songwriters and record companies/recording artists. However satellite radio only pays royalties of 7.5 percent of their revenue. The Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007 corrects the enormous disparity created by the CRB by putting Internet radio on par with satellite radio. Additionally, the legislation would create special royalty rules for the Webcasting arms of non-commercial broadcasters like National Public Radio and college radio to ensure they are not left out of reaching new listeners on the Internet.

“Our bill is about standing up for folks ranging from a small Webcaster in a basement in Corvallis to an innovative startup in Beaverton to a new band trying to be heard in Portland to a huge music fan in Coos Bay” Wyden said. “Keeping Internet radio alive is part of a broader issue that is important to me — keeping the e-commerce engine running by preventing discrimination against it.”

Okay, so all of this means that my favorite music website is in dire need. I just got this via email:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I’m writing today to urgently ask for your help. Our future and that of all webcasters is being threatened by the actions of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). In an effort to cripple Internet radio they have defied Congressional direction to negotiate reasonable performance fees and are trying to shut us down.

In spite of overwhelming opposition, including from thousands of musicians, they have blatantly pursued a strategy of undermining the process, making outrageous demands, and trying to run out the clock, hoping we will just quietly fade away. There is only one way to stop this violation of the public trust, and that is by mobilizing the collective will of our listening audience.

I am writing to you because your Senator is on the crucially important Senate Judiciary committee. It would be tremendously helpful if you would take just a minute to call your Senator:

Senator Patrick J. Leahy: (202) 224-4242

** When you call, please tell them your home town, and ask them to support the Brownback Internet Radio Equality amendment that will be considered in the Judiciary Committee this Thursday.

This amendment sets webcasting royalties at the same level as those paid by satellite radio, which would compensate musicians fairly and allow web radio to survive. For more info on the bill, please visit: www.savenetradio.org

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to call. It’s easy to do and it will truly, truly make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

Pandora.com keeps me sane on challenging workdays. If you’ve never visited – you should. It’s plugged into what it calls the “music genome project” – a genre/style/artist database that uses some clever logic to create user “radio stations” queued to the listener. What that means is that you can plug in the name of a song, artist or style, and the system will generate a playlist for you – often of cool music you’ve never been introduced to before.

It’s awesome – not only for listeners, but for more obscure musicians. I’ve been introduced to so many performers I’d otherwise never have heard of. Trying to price these folks out of existence is one of those cutting off of noses to spite faces (and make the quick bucks now at the expense of the long term health of the industry) policies. It’s unreasonable, unfair, impractical – and by god it will wreck my life! (okay… maybe not my life, but… you know).

Once again, its time to save the music industry from itself. Why does it seem like we have to do this every couple years?

The national blogosphere is all a-twitter with the news that the DNC is announcing the first round of blogs that will receive credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver – including being seated with their respective state delegations. We’re happy to announce that GMD has received the honor of being the officially credentialed blog for Vermont. Expect lots of coverage, both text and A/V over the length of the convention.

Here’s Dean:

Mark Johnson needlessly gotten caught in the crossfire when I unloaded on Mr. Pollina (currently on Vermont Edition, again promoting his campaign by complaining about Democrats… seems to be the only “issue” he’s really passionate about in the last week). It seems Johnson really is hearing from many prominent Democrats that there may be interest in the legislative option in a three-way race, and isn’t just shorthanding GMD as “The Democrats” (although “some Democrats” still would have been a more accurate and appropriate phrasing). All I can say is: wow. That’s a 180 degree turnaround from what I was hearing.

Of course, Johnson did lead the chorus of very serious experts (which also included Terri Hallenbeck and Shay Totten) pooh-poohing the entire possibility out of hand on Vermont This Week last Friday, and has really latched onto the issue – even pushing Gaye Symington for a commitment to oppose the idea after her announcement speech (and reading way too much into her non-response: Here’s reality – no candidate with half a brain is going to get pulled into the specifics of any issue right after their announcement speech, lest they end up inadvertently eclipsing the positive message the whole announcement was designed to transmit.)

So I’ve made a couple more inquiries – and the landscape may indeed be changing on this issue, in no small part from the discussions at this site. Good. Now Anthony Pollina may currently be running around BSing Vermonters by insisting its a bad idea that he never approved of himself in 2000 or 2002 (which, by all accounts, is a naked fib), but the fact is that he was right, and folks like me were wrong. Now the question is for Mr. Pollina, is truth and what’s best for Vermont really of less importance than saying whatever pops into your mind to bash Democrats? Based on your media interviews in the last week and the content at the Prog Blog, that’s sure how it looks.

As for the very serious experts… I’ve only proposed the idea predicated on the ability of Dems to propagate the message in an IRV-style context over a long period to gain acceptance – and stated outright that it works much better if the third place candidate buys in and agrees to endorse the second place finisher in the event that happens. I’m not an idiot.

But as far as shorthanding Johnson’s advocacy of his strong feelings against such an approach as “lazy,” apparently it wasn’t, as my info was stale. My apologies.

Tell you what – I’ll make it up to you by phoning in reports to your show from the floor of the Democratic National Convention if you don’t make it (see above diary)….

from a Mexican newspaper advertisement (h/t Americablog)

Peter Welch, as has been widely covered, is in front on the push to offset rising gas prices by suspending purchases into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – a suggestion Bush has resisted. The Welch-sponsored H.R. 6022 would suspend such purchases to create a type of demand-side impact which is not unprecedented. While commenters on this site and elsewhere have pointed out that this would not have a massive impact, Welch in this video clip is careful to be clear that its effect would be modest – but not negligible, couching it in a “we should do what we can” argument, and in the process making a more sober and realistic assessment than some of the grandiose projections we’ve heard from other proponents.

The vote will follow todays 97-1 action on a companion bill in the Senate, co-sponsored by Senator Sanders. There’s little doubt that the three members of Vermont’s delegation have continued to work in extraordinary synergy, with Washington newbie Welch exuding the kind of confidence and seriousness that belies his freshman status (of course, still not having a Republican opponent sure doesn’t hurt in that department).

Staff shakeups and switcheroos have begun, with session’s end marking the unofficial kickoff of the full bore campaign season in Vermont.

First to go was Adam Quinn, Finance Director for the Vermont Democratic Party, and a veteran of statewide campaigns in Vermont and Montana (Quinn has been picked up as the new National Field Director for Democracy for America). Following on his heels is the departure of VDP Executive Director Jill Krowinski to manage the Symington campaign. Joining her on the all-but-guaranteed Democratic nominee’s campaign will be Drew Hudson, former Communications Director for VPIRG, and most recently with MoveOn.org.

Over in the Lieutenant Governor contest, former columnist Peter Freyne has been active in the preliminaries of as-yet-unannounced candidate Deb Richter’s campaign, and word is he will be onboard the formal operation in an official capacity (as to a “professional” capacity, who knows… the fact is, Lite Guv campaigns in Vermont don’t usually have budgetary capacity for multiple staffers, and its hard to imagine Freyne as a full-blown campaign manager, as opposed to a communications person. We’ll see.)

Chris Bowers reports that the new GOP slogan “The Change You Deserve” is a lot worse for them than you think it is:

Third, it was particularly brilliant to unveil a campaign slogan that is already copyrighted as an advertisement for an anti-depressant.

I don’t feel a need to dwell on this.  It sort of speaks for itself on the pure irony level, plus it was discussed in a front page Kos diary yesterday.

Instead, let’s focus on the other possible slogans the GOP could have picked.  ASD has a list of registered slogans that provide all sorts of alternate possibilities:

I like EMLA’s “numbs the pain,” because it accurately reflects the short-term effect of us all getting drunk and crying into our drinks should McCain win in November.

Aricept has a medication with the slogan “A first step in Alzheimers.”  I think that would do well as a GOP slogan: “Republicans: a first step in Alzheimer’s.”  You can put a picture of Reagan next to McCain.

One of Band-Aid’s slogans is “We’ve got you covered.”  I can picture that being used with a photo of hooded prisoners:

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

Beano has the slogan “Take Beano before. There’ll be no gas.”  I think we can shorten that to a photo of an abandoned automobile with a gas pump handle hanging from its trunk and use the slogan “There will be no gas.”

Bufferin has the “Bufferin is smarter” ad.  We could change that to “The Republican Party: even Bufferin is smarter.”

Crestor has the slogan “Now you’re getting somewhere.”  I picture that with a photo of a humvee driving into Baghdad:

NOW YOU’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE

Immodium uses “Forgotten something?” as one of its slogans.  I picture a print ad with McCain hugging Bush in the bottom left corner, him eating cake with Bush in the upper right, and then in the middle, scenes from Iraq interspersed with photos demonstrating the conditions at Walter Reid medical center and scenes from Arlington.

Or, possibly, we could connect it to hurricane Katrina, as suggested in the excellent Kos diary We Should Use This Photo. Every. Single. Day.:

FORGOTTEN SOMETHING?

Lemslip uses the phrase “Here to help” in its advertising.  I think we can use that with that photo of Bush trying to exit through the wrong door:

HERE TO HELP

You can tell that it’s a day when I just can’t think about anything serious, can’t you?

Today’s Free Press has a surprisingly good article about mothers in jail and the problems they face:

Francis is one of the roughly 130 women in the Vermont prison system who will spend Mother’s Day separated from their children. For Francis and many jailed mothers, their challenge, beyond staying sober and not reoffending, is maintaining their parental bonds and making sure they remain intact after their release.

With the female prison population in Vermont having grown exponentially in the past 10 years, more women are finding themselves in Francis’ position – struggling to be good mothers while behind bars.

The article goes on to note that many of the mothers who are in jail are there for crimes related to substance abuse problems and I’m at the point where I question whether or not jail does these women or their families any good.  I’m not arguing for a removal of the prison system, but I am wondering if drug-related crimes might be better dealt with through treatment facilities with an active interest in, when possible and appropriate, keeping families together.

It’s up to you

All I can do, I’ve done

But mem’ries won’t go

No, mem’ries won’t go

(With apologies to UB40 and their song Red, Red, Wine)

The cry has once again been raised on this board.

If only Douglas wasn’t so mean. If only Pollina weren’t in the way. If only everybody would do it our way …. WE, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY COULD WIN!