House GOP leaders pleased with Supreme Court verdict upholding lethal injection

House GOP leaders said this week that they were pleased with the opinion issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Baze vs. Rees case that upheld the use of lethal injection as a means of execution. In a 7-2 ruling Wednesday, the Supreme Court held that Kentucky’s three-drug protocol did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

In September of 2007, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled that Tennessee’s method of lethal injection was unconstitutional. Soon after, Governor Phil Bredesen issued a moratorium pending the outcome of the death penalty case facing the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result, two executions were put in jeopardy of not being carried out. Pervis T. Payne was scheduled to be executed on December 12, 2007, for two counts of murder stemming from a brutal stabbing he committed in Shelby County. Mass-murderer Paul Dennis Reid gunned down seven victims execution style, killing more people than anyone else on Tennessee’s death row, and drawing seven death sentences.

The Republican leaders pointed out that by the time a criminal in this state reaches the point of execution, they have been afforded every opportunity—appeals, access to lawyers, and judicial review—to ensure that their rights are properly carried out and protected. The leaders called for the Governor to lift the moratorium and carry out the executions as planned, adding that the justice a jury of their peers determined should be administered.

Ninety-six inmates reside on death row in the state of Tennessee, with the  next execution scheduled to take place in April of 2009.

Immigration provision killed on House floor

House Republicans attempted to add a commonsense immigration provision to a bill before the House on Thursday. The Republican-sponsored amendment would have clarified that employers are able to require that their employees speak English on the job. The move sparked outrage on the other side of aisle, and the amendment was killed, with a 51 to 46 vote.

Earlier this year, Republicans introduced legislation that would have enacted the “Protecting English in the Tennessee Workplace Act.” The bill, similar to that of Senator Lamar Alexander’s legislation on the federal level, specified that it is not an unlawful practice to require an employee to speak, or an applicant for employment to agree to speak, English while engaged in work. The sponsor argued that it was not unreasonable to protect businesses by clarifying that they are allowed to set their own policies, and that requiring that English be spoke on the job often boils down to a safety precaution. He cited businesses where employees are continuously handling toxic products or food containers, or in factories, where critical safety information is displayed in English. The bill eventually failed in the Employee Affairs subcommittee.

Long Term Care proposals moving forward

Republicans have been at the forefront of legislation to help elderly and disabled citizens “age in place” by receiving more home and community based care options — and generally to give them more choices about their health care.  This week marked the passage of House Bill 941 out of Health and Human Resources Committee, legislation that would offer financial allowances to consumers, giving them the freedom to choose which services they want within their spending plans.

The program began as a demonstration in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey. Currently, 12 more states are implementing self-directed personal care programs. Findings of a demonstration project jointly supported by the U.S. House and Human Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed that recipients with disabilities who direct their own supportive services were significantly more satisfied and appeared to get better care than those receiving services through homecare agencies.

Another piece of legislation championed by Republicans for several years was rolled into an Administration’s bill and passed unanimously in the House this week. The bill encourages personal responsibility by rewarding those who purchase long term care insurance. Currently, to receive state dollars for long term care, participants are required to “spend down” their assets—sometimes losing family heirlooms or land. House Bill 4206 would allow those types of assets to be retained, dollar for dollar, to equal the amount of a long term care  insurance purchase, rewarding the participants and allowing them more freedom.

• House Bill 2750 passed out of Finance, Ways and Means this week and is making its way to the House floor. The bill would authorize a governing body to use electronic forms of communication that would be available to the public in an effort to solve some of the problems associated with the dust-up over the Sunshine Law in Knoxville. The sponsor said he believes that with technology expanding the way people communicate, using this technology could solve some of the problems with the Open Meetings Act.
• House Bill 1421, the “Competitive Cable and Video Services Act,” passed out of the Commerce Committee this week and is headed to Finance, Ways and Means. The Senate bill is moving forward as well, with legislators having announced last week that a compromise was finally reached on the legislation after nearly two years of negotiations.
• Two DUI bills saw passage this week, as Republican lawmakers continue their efforts to strengthen the state’s DUI laws. House Bill 831 requires a judge to impose on a DUI offender certain conditions such as participation in an alcohol and drug safety school, or a drug and alcohol assessment or treatment. House Bill 3661 would create within the TBI a “Repeat DUI Offender” registry of persons who have two or more DUI convictions and whose license is currently suspended or revoked. The registry would be available on the Internet, similar to the way sexual offender information is provided.
• The much-anticipated spring Sales Tax Holiday is approaching, and will occur April 25-27, 2008. The date, originally set for March 21-23 on Easter weekend, was changed by the General Assembly in order for consumers to enjoy the full three days of tax-free items. Consumers and retailers can call (800) 342-1003 Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or visit www.state.tn.us/revenue/salestaxholiday for more information.

• House Bill 2484 exempts places of worship from posting of signage to indicate nonsmoking enclosed areas as required by the Non-Smoker Protection Act. (Agriculture Committee)
• House Bill 3602 creates a statewide board of building appeals. (Commerce Committee)
• House Bill 3807 requires a utilization review of medical services in workers’ compensation cases to be done by a physician licensed in Tennessee in the same specialty as the physician providing the services. (Consumer & Employee Affairs Committee)
• House Bill 4029 creates a pilot program to make laptops available to juniors and seniors attending high school who are also enrolled in college courses at the eligible postsecondary institutions. (Education Committee)
• House Bill 2876 creates a Class D felony for fifth and subsequent DUI offenders with a minimum 360 consecutive day sentence; counts all convictions within 10 years of DUI date when calculating prior offenses and includes convictions of vehicular assault, vehicular homicide while intoxicated, and aggravated vehicular homicide. (Finance, Ways and Means)
• Senate Joint Resolution 0687 provides for the popular election of the lieutenant governor. (State & Local Government Committee)
• House Bill 2513 requires the Tennessee lottery corporation to use numbered balls in selecting lottery winners. (State & Local Government Committee)
• House Bill 2860 creates a presumption when determining the amount of bail that any defendant not lawfully present in the United States is a risk of flight; requires jailers to determine citizenship status of persons charged with a felony or with a second or subsequent DUI. (Budget Subcommittee)
• House Bill 2903 requires the general appropriations act to first fund K-12 education and then remaining functions of state government. (Budget Subcommittee)

The answer is discouraging. About a hundred channels pour into my house, including a number of music channels on a family tier.  I watch about a dozen of them.  My grandchildren listen to few more. Is it worth the cost? Probably not. As a matter of fact, definitely not. But cable comes in “packages.” All or nothing.

Because I consider myself “remote challenged,”  I have my grandchildren delete channels for me. I had them program out the mainstream networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) altogether. I like to skim Fox, CNN and MSNBC regularly, but opted out of every shopping and sports channel, religious channels (I get my spirituality my own way), BET, MTV, E, and their ilk. I programmed out the stations with the daylong, inane teen-oriented sitcoms. I don’t tune in the music channels, but my grandchildren, when they are home, watch a few of them constantly (Disney Music etc) on the only “cable box” in the house. Music channels, though, require extra vigilance, because far too many of the videos are offensive, excessively sexual, frequently degrading to women, filled with bad or suggestive language and just too vulgar or violent. Though the grandchildren would have loved it, I certainly wasn’t getting a cable box for every old, beat up TV in the house, and I may not keep the one I have. My part-time title is “Cable Cop.”

Given the volume of channels I don’t watch, I don’t have much left in watch-able cable: the oasis of Nashville Public Television, AMC and Turner Classic Movies, Animal Planet, History Channel, Food Channel, Bravo, A&E, and a few other channels that are my guilty pleasures – Law and Order reruns, or more old movies. Slim pickings, since most of these channels become non-stop infomercials overnight, a bleak picture on those nights when I can’t sleep.

I realize that my TV preferences aren’t everyone’s. And that’s the point. Millions of sports fans love having multiple sports channels to choose from, and could care less about watching the old black and white movies that are my passion. Other people can’t live with a dose of the Comedy Channel, Family Guy, South Park and such. To each their own choices.

As I finger my cable bill, I find myself resentful of the fact that I have to pay so much for so little; that I am billed for so many unwanted channels and am paying for so much unwanted trash TV in order to get the few channels I actually want.

I want to be able to scan a list and pick and pay for the channels I want, the channels I am going to watch, the channels that do not offend me, bore me, or beg me to spend still more money.

I would happily pay a price-per-channel for the privilege of choice. That would make me a happy customer.

And every time you try to get a response from them, you are back to square one: you have to navigate a phone menu that resembles chinese water torture more than anything else. If and when you do get a human being, it’s a whole new world — you have to explain all over again what the problem is. And they will want you to make yet another appointment.We did finally have a tech show up when we were at home. After doing some checks he told us that the problem was in the line outside the house. Along the way, he told us he was not too happy with the service department at Charter, himself. He was a nice guy and seemed genuinely interested in helping us out. He placed a call and told us they should have a tech out the next day to check out the lines coming into the house.

When I came home the next day and saw a Charter truck heading up the street I foolishly thought that they had found and fixed the problem. No such luck. We did pick up some of the channels we were missing, but then others we had had turned up missing. And lately the broadcast stations like NBC, CBS, NBC, and NPR are getting really bad. Along with still missing channels we should have.

Which brings me to the moral of this whole rant. Charter is a monopoly here in Clarksville. They have no competition so, evidently, they don’t have to worry about whether we customers are satisfied with their service. The message I’m getting from all this is, “If you don’t like our service, put up a dish!”. Which, if it weren’t for my need of a broadband network connection (I telecommute a couple of days a week), I might just consider.

Perhaps Clarksville/Montgomery County should consider instituting it’s own cable service, as does a number of cities throughout the country. Could be a good source of revenue. And at the very least, maybe it would scare Charter into being more responsive to its subscribers.

The current providers of these information services, Charter Communications and Bellsouth, have no natural incentives to make the expenditures which are necessary to modernize their systems, and to provide us with the quality and levels of service we require. They have made an uneasy truce with each other, neither wishing to rock the boat by actually competing.

Competition in this vital sector of our economy should be fierce with many different players all seeking to provide us with the most reliable and highest level of service possible. The reason that this is not happening is that FCC rulings have declared that Cable based Internet services are a information service and not a telecommunication service, and other rulings reclassified DSL Internet service as one as well. This removed requirements that they open their networks to competitors. This means that for broadband Internet access and high-end telecommunication services you are stuck with only two cost effective options, cable from Charter, and DSL from Bellsouth.

I have had dealings with these companies and their offerings and have been unhappy with both. The frequent outages, repair times are excessive, businesses are charged punitive rates (The same 3MBS connection that I get at home for 40$ per month would cost a business $200-300 per month), and the prices we pay continue to rise even as their associated costs decline.

The Clarksville Department of electricity wishes to form a telecommunications authority in order to offer these types of services. They propose that they build a city-wide fiber network, fiber optic connections would be extended to all homes and businesses in the city.

They want to do this primarily because they could then check meters, disconnect and reconnect service, and manage other electricity functions from their central office. However, being realistic they also understand that it would also allow them to provide telephone, cable television, on-demand video, video-conferencing, community access TV channels, high speed Internet, and a number of other services some of which are currently not available in Clarksville. This would also bring competition to the currently stagnant local Telephone and Cable TV markets.

The city council voted to allow the Clarksville Department of Electricity to proceed and it passed however, they did not have the percentage of votes in favor that the state requires before they will create the enabling legislation.

I believe that the city council has approved a voter referendum to be placed on the November ballot. Charter Communications, Bellsouth, and their front groups will oppose this, and they will probably attempt to prevent it from happening at all. It is not in their best interest to have real competition occur in our city, their markets. However it is in our best interests. I strongly encourage everyone to vote yes, on this question when the time comes. In the mean time, talk to your friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and your elected representatives, as you can be sure that Charter and Bellsouth will both be talking to theirs.

For some updated information see the Charter Sucks! article