Some free advice for Colby College students: Always follow these simple rules for a favorable outcome.

Rule # 1. # When a cop (yes, campus cops are cops) tells you to do something, just do it. Every time. No exceptions.

Rule # 2. # Never get so drunk that you can't follow Rule # 1.

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I'm not sure if this relates to the FiCri as some kind of hidden indicator, but I've noticed a dramatic increase lately in the number of ads from slimy law firms offering to help people resolve their massive, unpaid IRS debt.

These advertisements make it sound as though anybody who gets in debt to the IRS is some kind of innocent victim. One especially frequent commercial depicts a sweet, grandmotherly type. In a voice choked with emotion, she recounts how the evil IRS drained the last ten dollars from her checking account.

I don't understand why more people aren't offended by these ads. Many folks seem to have the attitude that taxes are too high, and therefore it's OK not to pay them. But I'm not trying to start a discussion about whether taxes are too high or too low; or whether they favor one group over another. There are thousands of websites where those issues are endlessly picked apart. The only topic at issue in this blog post is whether or not you owe the taxes as the laws exist today.

People don't get into debt to the IRS by "accident". Taxes aren't like a catastrophic injury or illness where you incur an unexpected, large debt through no fault of your own. It's relatively easy to project what you're going to owe based on your income. Obviously, you need to reserve at least enough of your earnings each year to offset your tax debt. It's pretty hard for me to feel sorry for somebody who claims that they got mixed up on their tax liability because they made way more money than they expected to. That's the kind of problem that most people would like to have!

Here's the thing that these ads never point out: If you're in debt to the IRS, and you use one of these law firms to settle for ten cents on the dollar, that portion of government spending doesn't simply disappear from the appropriations side of the budget. In reality, every other taxpayer has to chip in to make up your portion of the unpaid bill.

Just in case I haven't made my feelings clear on this topic: If you don't pay your debt to the IRS, you are stealing money from the government at the expense of law-abiding taxpayers. You're not a victim … you're a DEADBEAT!

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"The act would grant union certification if a majority of employees signaled their desire to form a union by signing cards that would be submitted to the National Labor Relations Board. These cards are not secret ballots. Instead, a union organizer can be present when they're filled out … Taking away the right of workers to vote in secret on whether to have a union is fundamentally unfair. In advocating for this approach, unions have ceded the high ground and lost an opportunity to build support for its concerns about employer intimidation and resistance to first contracts."

Source: Portland Press Herald ...

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"PORTLAND, Maine - L.L. Bean Inc., the Maine-based clothing and outdoor-goods retailer, anticipates layoffs this year after annual revenue dropped for only the third time since 1960, the company's CEO told employees in a memo Monday … Revenue for the company's fiscal year that ended late last month was $1.5 billion, down 7.8 percent from the previous year, and sales are expected to be down in 2009, as well, said Chris McCormick, president and CEO. Privately held Bean doesn't release earnings."

Source: MSNBC ...

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Welcome to Maine tuppence. You will find government here just as unjust here as where you are from. Remember these words, " Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely!" I have been one who has questioned the bookkeeping of my town and I cannot make heads or tails out of it. That is the way they want it and the way that the Maine Municipal Association wants it to be. They want the overtaxed citizens of a town to be like mushrooms, fed horse manure and kept in the dark.

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I realize that many Portland Press Herald readers will be horrified to see a link to the As Maine Goes forum on this website, but this is the most enlightening/entertaining discussion of New England town government that I've ever come across. Go here to view the complete thread …

Source: As Maine Goes ...

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Quote:

Southern Maine hospitals will collect about $90 million in back payments for services to MaineCare patients from the state and federal governments in the next two years … The payments, for care that dates back to 2005, will be taken from the $300 million that Maine expects to receive for Medicaid reimbursements under the federal economic stimulus.

Source: Portland Press Herald ...

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Quote:

AUGUSTA - If the state can tell school districts to consolidate, the state Legislature should consolidate too, Rep. Linda Valentino says. How would that work? By creating a unicameral Legislature with 105 senators to represent the entire state. The Saco Democrat thinks Maine should put a lock on the Senate chamber door and create a one-body Legislature that would provide a strong counterbalance to the executive and judicial branches. To make such a radical change, it takes an amendment to the Maine Constitution. That means Valentino has to convince two-thirds of the current Legislature to go along with the idea before it would go to voters.

Source: Portland Press Herald ...

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What explains so called Maine media critics' obsession with the editorial minutiae of the Portland Press Herald?

A. Unresolved anger issues
B. Professional jealousy
C. Schadenfreude
D. All of the above

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WISCASSET - The Wiscasset Board of Selectmen has more information to digest in the case of a local business owner who is asking the town to pay for damages caused by a Dec. 12 sewage backup at her establishment. The board tabled the issue at its regular Tuesday night meeting after hearing a Maine Municipal Association attorney explain why the group's insurance denied the claim, then hearing Wiscasset Wine Outlet owner Luanne Clifford's assertion that the town set a precedent by paying for repairs in a similar case several years ago.

Source: Brunswick Times Record

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"Folgers, Maxwell House, and Starbucks are America's best-selling ground coffees. But all three were iced by Eight O'Clock Colombian coffee in our taste tests. As for Starbucks, it didn't even place among the top regular coffees and trailed among decafs … Our tests of 19 coffees also show that some of the best cost the least. At about $6 per pound, Eight O'Clock costs less than half the price of Gloria Jean's, Peet's, and other more expensive brands."

Source: ConsumerReports.org ...

I am an unabashed fan of Starbucks coffee. I like it so much that I gladly pay their admittedly ludicrous prices; and I'm the Grand Poobah of cheapskates - just ask anybody! It makes me crazy when I hear people describe Starbucks coffee as bitter. News flash: That "bitter" taste you detect is what actual coffee tastes like. That stuff you THINK is coffee is really just coffee-colored hot water.

Consumer Reports is a great source of generic information about a lot of products, especially electronics and appliances. They're fantastic when it comes to things that can be objectively measured, such as the suction power of a vacuum cleaner. Too often, however, they try to evaluate subjective criteria like the taste of coffee. Nowhere is this more evident than in CR's automotive evaluations - inarguably the main focus of their entire business. I figured out years ago that CR was never going to give a favorable review to a pick-up truck because they couldn't find one that had the ride and handling characteristics of a Lincoln Town Car. Now, any true pick-up truck has a rail on frame suspension. This type of suspension is well suited for load carrying work vehicles, but will never deliver the smooth ride of a unibody suspension, despite the best efforts of automotive engineers. Any idiot that has ever walked down the aisle of a Home Depot understands this, and yet the writers at Consumer Reports have historically dissed the pick-up truck because of its uncomfortable ride characteristics.

(And for those of you who would take me to task for referring to CR as a business in the previous paragraph: Yes, I understand that they are a non-profit. But they're still a business in the sense that they make money to keep their staff employed and grow their organization. I know this is true because I get just as much junk mail from CR as my wife gets from Pottery Barn.)

Anybody that thinks 8 O'Clock Coffee is better than Starbucks knows as much about coffee beans as I know about astrophysics. CR's conclusions about coffee simply defy rational thinking.

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The article on Lewiston is a small part of the printed magazine but it appeared much larger online. News of the story and links to Newsweek's Web site spread by e-mail and, by 5 p.m. Thursday, the day after it appeared online, 87 people had commented on the article. By contrast, a story on Pastor Rick Warren's prayer at President Barack Obama's inauguration drew 15 comments … Many of the comments about Lewiston seemed to come from city readers, discounting the facts of the article and sometimes insulting Somalis.

Source: Lewiston Sun Journal ...

Click here for the Newsweek article ...

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Like a gazillion other people, my mom received one of those digital picture frames this year as a Christmas gift. Now, I have to admit that I had seen these things displayed in stores and instantly written them off as worthless junk. Why not just download the pics and view them on your PC, which already comes with a gigantic digital picture frame called a monitor? I've reconsidered my position, however, after seeing the results that a friend of mine achieved by scanning old family photos and creating a themed display. This is a very nice application, even if the digital frames themselves are ridiculously overpriced (Why should a 7" digital frame cost as much as a freaking 15" monitor?).

Since my mom's not too computer savvy (sorry, Mom), and since I already own a good flatbed scanner, I convinced her to grant me temporary custody of "The Album". As you might guess, The Album refers to a photo album. This particular tome weighs in at around 20 lbs. and contains every Moening family related daguerreotype, snapshot, Polaroid print, instamatic photo, etc, since the invention of the photographic medium. Needless to say, The Album is the most jealously guarded and prized possession of the collective Moening family. There are already some preliminary indications that The Album will be the subject of an ugly family dispute on that sad but inevitable day when Mom's estate is dispensed with. I suspect that many others have similar Albums in their own families.

In case you've never seen one of these digital frames, they consist simply of a small LCD screen combined with one or more ports for the storage media that contains the photos. The more expensive frames might accept a USB device, or even possess some built-in internal memory. However, the less expensive models - like the one my mom received - just have a port for an SD memory card that is the universal, on-board storage device for all digital cameras. Presumably, you use your digital camera to take pictures of the annual Christmas brawl, pop the SD card out of the camera, plug same into the back of the digital picture frame and - PRESTO - instant, sensational Christmas gift!

As some of you may have figured out by now, it was my intent to flout the theoretical digital picture frame data model. I didn't want to get NEW pictures OFF the SD card; I needed to get OLD pictures ON the card. "No problem", I thought to myself. "I'll just scan and save the photos, put a fresh card in the camera, plug it in to my PC, and copy the old photos to the card using the camera itself as card reader/writer".

Note to self: In the future, you've got to remember to TEST these bright ideas before you spend five hours scanning and cropping old pics, only to discover that your Canon camera is a proprietary device. It turns out that the software engineers over at Canon have decided to imbed tags in the header of any image created with a Canon PowerShot A560. If you download that image and edit it with any software other than Canon's, you're not going to be able to write that image back to the card. Ditto for any image that was created or edited with a non-Canon camera to begin with.

Now I'm going to have to go to Staples and spend 20 bucks on an SD card reader that I'll probably never use again. I'm guessing that there are several thousand Canon camera owners that had exactly the same idea as me and are finding themselves in a similar predicament. Nice job, Canon.

Industrial customers were disappointed by the PUC's ruling, which they say will do nothing to lower electricity costs. Maine ratepayers give $100 million a year more than they should to the regional grid operator, effectively subsidizing southern New England states, said Tony Buxton, a lawyer who represents the Industrial Energy Consumer Group … "Two commissioners have decided, effectively, that they're satisfied with the status quo," Buxton said. "They have set Maine on a course of begging, and so far, begging is costing Maine $100 million a year."

Source: Portland Press Herald ...

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VASSALBORO (NEWS CENTER) -- A proposal to open a topless coffee shop in Vassalboro has been approved for permit by the town planning board. The board voted unanimously Tuesday night for Donald Crabtree's coffee shop, saying his application had everything it needed.

Source ...

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A story in yesterday's Portland Press Herald notes that Catholic Charities of Maine is assisting in the relocation of 200 Iraqi refugees to the Portland area.

Let's hope that Catholic Charities learned a lesson from the fiasco that they helped perpetuate in Lewiston a couple of years ago. Most Press Herald readers are only vaguely aware of the controversy surrounding the 2006 Somali relocation; but in Lewiston, it's a topic that will generate hard feelings for generations to come.

Honestly - I respect the good intentions that prompted CCM to aggressively relocate 3,000 refugees to a town of 35,000. But I contend that it was socially irresponsible to expect a relatively small town to shoulder so much responsibility. When you consider that Lewiston - or anyplace in Maine - is just about the whitest spot on the planet, it's hard to understand how CCM failed to predict the disastrous social upheaval that resulted from the deluge of immigrants. My sense is that Lewiston was basically chosen for the Somali relocation because - unlike Portland - it lacked the means to aggressively lobby against the huge Somali influx until the relocation was already well underway.

Just to be clear: I'm not defending the ignorant, racist acts and words that occurred - and are still occurring - in the aftermath of the Lewiston relocation. I'm saying that somebody should have foreseen the results and taken steps to steer the migration in way that would have had a less dramatic effect on the host communities.

Read the Press Herald story here …

August 7, 2008 - The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram announced Wednesday that several employees have been laid off and that there will be changes to the layout of the paper in an effort to cut costs ... Last month, the newspaper announced the need for another round of layoffs to compensate for a projected $1.2 million shortfall in advertising revenue for the second half of the year. It is the fourth round of layoffs in the past 12 months and the third round this year. In the last round, which took effect July 1, the company cut 36 jobs.

Source - http://pressherald.mainetoday.com ...

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I'm not going to mention where I work, but suffice to say that it is a large building with an associated retail outlet that is prominently situated on Route 1.

During the tourist season, there are hordes of visitors wandering about our lobby, taking photos and doing other touristy things. Inevitably, a lot of these folks consist of young families with small children. As I enter and exit the building, I can't help but overhear these parents addressing their children by their given names, and I've noticed that there is a preponderance of little boys between the ages of 5 and 12 named Damien.

Ummm … Is it just me, or didn't any of these parents see the movie "The Omen"? For me, the name Damien is always going to be associated with this film. For those of you who missed it, the theme of this movie could be summed up by the phrase "Spawn of Satan". Whenever I encounter a kid named Damien, I experience an involuntary moment of shock. To me, these people might as well have named their little bundle of joy "Dracula" or "Beelzebub".

I'm not suggesting that these children will carry this burden around for the rest of their lives. What makes the movie so creepy is the fact that the devil isn't a big, powerful, ugly, lecherous, dissolute adult; instead, HE'S AN ANGELIC LOOKING LITTLE TOT WHO BREAKS HIS MOTHER'S NECK JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT! Once these kids reach adulthood, the stigma of the "D-name" will be dissipated (mostly).

I'm curious whether there are other people with this peculiar cultural reaction to the name Damien?

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Regarding the Letter to the Editor from Katy Perry of Hallowell in Thursday's Portland Press Herald: Ms. Perry complains about the Plum Creek Timber plan to build vacation homes on its property near Moosehead Lake.

Click here to read the letter ...

In one section of her letter, she makes the following statement,

"If there is any way to say "no" to all proposals and never allow a bit of change in that area, I would be the first to sign a petition or vote for such a well-aimed plan."

I've got great news for Katy and all the folks who share her views. There's already a legal way to accomplish her goals. It's a firmly established precedent called "private property". All the Plum Creek Timber opponents need to do is raise an appropriate amount of cash and buy the land from Plum Creek at its current market value.

Too many opponents of the Plum Creek project seem to feel that they have stewardship rights to the company's property by simple virtue of the fact that they reside in Maine. If you want to build an addition on your house, should your neighbor have the right to prevent you from doing so, just because he objects to the altered view? Of course not!

Let's be honest: There are very few Mainers outside the immediate Greenville area - myself included - that want to see this project come to fruition. But that doesn't change the fact that the property belongs to Plum Creek, and they have the right to use it as they please within certain limitations.

If Plum Creek opponents want to preserve this land in its current condition, they should do what Percival Baxter did: Buy the land at market value and donate it to the state of Maine. Quit expecting private property owners to forfeit the value of their land out of the goodness of their corporate hearts.

I see the latest polling on the 2008 U.S. Senate race gives incumbent Susan Collins a 25 point lead over Tom Allen.

(Paste the following URL in your browser for full poll results. The PHPost utility is refusing to let me hyperlink this story)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=1&8481&ac=PHnws

I'm not sure whether we can draw any conclusions from that result, given that a similar poll conducted in the same time period only gave Collins a nine point lead. It seems to me that results like these make the polling itself suspect.

For those who haven't been following the race closely, the Democrats' strategy has been to criticize Susan Collins for her lack of "bipartisanship" - whatever that means. Ironically, only the most partisan Democratic Activist could possibly view the situation in that light. Susan Collins breaks GOP political ranks more often than just about any Republican in Washington, especially on key platform issues like abortion rights or domestic oil e%ploration. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of hostility toward Ms. Collins from members of her own party, who widely regard her as that most abhorrent of creatures - a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

There's no doubt that Susan Collins is solidly middle-of-the-road. Truth be told, a lot of moderate Democrats are going to vote for her over the spendthrift Tom Allen, even if they won't own up to it around the water cooler. At the same time, conservative Republicans will hold their noses and pull the lever for Collins. As a result, she's going to win another Senate term with relative ease, IMO. In the meantime, the Democratic Party will have wasted millions of dollars in Maine that could have been spent more effectively elsewhere.

In the July 3 editon of the Forecaster, Edgar Allen Beem derides class action lawsuits, specifically as they relate to the recent Hannaford security breach.

Click here for story ...

Although it pains me to admit it, I have to agree with Edgar regarding this issue. There's practically universal agreement outside the legal profession that class action suits are nothing more than a protection money shakedown of major corporations. There's virtually no benefit to the wronged consumers that these lawsuits ostensibly protect. It's just one more indication that Washington D.C. is a Country Club, and average Americans are the groundskeepers and chambermaids that work there. However, that's not what I wanted to talk about today ...

There was one passage in Mr. Beem's essay that really got my attention.

"Permitting class-action litigation every time someone feels aggrieved in this country drives the price of everything, from health care and auto insurance to youth sports and college education, increasingly out of reach."

Let me get this straight: Edgar is complaining that class action lawsuits increase the cost of affected goods for every consumer? Considering his record of public discourse, this viewpoint is completely out of character! In the typical Beem worldview, increased costs are nearly always a POSITIVE development. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the same Edgar Allen Beem who describes himself as an unapologetic, fiscal liberal, and who has seemingly never encountered a government program that he didn't embrace wholeheartedly. For example, Mr. Beem is an enthusiastic supporter of the disastrous Dirigo Health Plan, which effectively taxes every Maine health insurance consumer in order to provide coverage to approximately 9,000 Maine citizens at a cost (to date) of around 100 million dollars.

It's also worth noting that Mr. Beem was vehemently opposed to the 2006 Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), and was utterly contemptuous of the major Maine newspapers that recognized the need for change and urged a "yes" vote on their editorial pages.

Similarly, Mr. Beem was virtually the lone public voice last year in defending Mary Jo O'Connor in her well-intentioned - but nonetheless incompetent - management of the Portland School Budget, which resulted in a 2.1 million dollar budget deficit that still dogs city officials and taxpayers alike.

Edgar - say it ain't so!

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In the days around the July 4 holiday, investigators with the state Fire Marshal's Office are staking out fireworks stores in New Hampshire, where fireworks are legal, Dean said ... Mainers suspected of buying fireworks may be stopped and arrested as they cross the border. Penalties range from a $50 fine for having less than $100 worth of fireworks to 10 years in prison for having more than $5,000 worth of fireworks.

Full Story ...

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WATERVILLE — The Vietnamese pot-bellied pig that roamed Waterville for a month was captured Saturday when police used a Taser to disable the feeding swine ... Waterville Deputy Police Chief Charles Rumsey said Monday that someone who had been feeding the pig french fries called police around 6 p.m.

Source: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com ...

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Maine's lobster industry is looking a lot like the stock market these days. Since the early 1990s, the industry has enjoyed record catches and strong demand. But the good times might be over ... In 2007, the total harvest fell by nearly 23 percent, according to preliminary figures released by the state – from 73 million pounds in 2006 to 56 million pounds last year. Total revenue declined 16 percent, from $297 million to $249 million.

Source: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com ...

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... Allen referred directly to his political rivals. He briefly mentioned Ledue’s excitement without criticizing his primary opponent, but he reiterated some of the criticism he has had for Sen. Collins, whom his campaign expects to face in November ... Allen linked Collins to Bush and Cheney, saying she has voted for their economic policies 100 percent of the time, and to McCain, an ally of Collins whom he said would continue those policies.

Source: http://www.bangornews.com ...

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NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine -- Police said the seven-vehicle pile-up on the Maine Turnpike Thursday morning was caused by a dog crossing the road ... The accident happened in the southbound lane between exit 75 in Auburn and exit 63 in Gray around 8:30 ... Dan Paradee, spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, said Troopers told him a Ford Taurus pulled over into the breakdown lane after seeing a black Lab run across the road into northbound traffic.

Source - http://www.wmtw.com

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... Maine's Legislature passed the tax on beer, wine, sodas and other syrup-based drinks to help fund the approximately $50 million annual operating budget of the state's Dirigo Health program. The bill will increase the 25 cents per gallon tax on beer to 54 cents per gallon, and the 30 cents per gallon tax on wine to 65 cents per gallon. A 42- cent tax will be assessed on a gallon of soda, and simple syrup will be taxed $4 a gallon. The taxes are expected to take effect in late July, Augur said.

Source - http://www.redorbit.com

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... Fairpoint Communications is under fire in Maine after their 911 systems malfunctioned nearly a half-dozen times over the last few months, several times for at least half an hour. According to the Portland Press Herald, "software and customer service problems" were to blame for the outages, and at least one county is redirecting 911 calls to the State police dispatch system until the problems are fixed.

Source: http://www.dslreports.com

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As some of you are doubtless aware, the Portland Press Herald has been auditioning comic strips to replace the ubiquitous Peanuts (whose author has been dead for EIGHT YEARS!). I was recently informed that Mark Ricketts – a Maine-based cartoonist – had unsuccessfully lobbied to get a trial run for his daily strip, “Moose Mountain”. Moose Mountain is a strip about a dysfunctional Forest Ranger and his animal acquaintances. The story is set in Maine’s own Acadia National Park and the surrounding area.

Make no mistake: Moose Mountain is no “amateur” comic strip. Mark Ricketts is a successful, professional illustrator with a long resume. Residents of the Bangor area will recognize Mark as the creator of “Earl Hornswaggle” in the Bangor Metro monthly magazine.

In my view, Moose Mountain is superior to most of the test comics in both content and execution. The only qualification it seems to lack is the fact that it isn’t already syndicated. I think it's unconscionable that the Press Herald won't allow Moose Mountain to compete head-to-head with the other strips. Perhaps there's some underlying business reason that makes it difficult to include Moose Mountain in the test group: For example – a contractual agreement with a comics syndicate. If that’s the case, maybe a Press Herald editor can comment in this blog or elsewhere.

It seems to me that newspaper editors often fail to understand that syndicated cartoons wouldn’t BE syndicated unless an editor had taken a chance on them initially. Sadly, many Maine editors don’t seem to feel that the state has any homegrown talent: They’d prefer to publish the same content that’s available in USA Today. With this attitude, it’s not hard to see why the industry has been decimated by the Internet.

Click here to check out Moose Mountain by Mark Ricketts …

Click here for background info on the Press Herald comics contest …

If you agree with me, I urge you to email comics@pressherald.com and let them know that Moose Mountain should be allowed to compete.

Housing sales declined less than expected at 1% in April, but inventories grew to record highs ... There are now 4.55 million single-family and condo units for sale, the most since combined tracking began in 1999, and enough to last 11.2 months at the current sales pace. For single family homes the index stretches further back, and we now have the most inventories - relative to sales - since 1985.

Source - http://seekingalpha.com ...

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