General Assembly Post-Game Wrap=Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 22, 2012
Yesterday’s session was less about what we do know and more about what we don’t know.
The Senate passed two bills of interest, but the roll calls do not show who voted for/against the bills. The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same.
Brad Bennett’s election brochure bill adding a $100 ‘user fee’ onto crimes against seniors passed. One senator voted no and one senator went ‘not voting’. You will have to guess which senators b/c the timely release of roll calls is not a priority of this Senate leadership.
Rep. Keeley’s bill establishing a new liquor license for concert venues like the Queen passed with three no votes and one not voting. Again, no names please.
Like the House, which has released complete roll calls as a matter of course for years, the Senate has the technological capability to do this. As does anybody with a computer. The leadership just chooses not to do this. There is no excuse for the leadership, other than sheer orneriness, to keep this information from the public. But they do. At least, until they feel it’s time to release it. “We will release no roll call before its time.” (Name the product and spokesperson I’m paraphrasing, and win a tip of the sombrero. Film coming up once someone gets it!)
As predicted by Yours Truly, legislation adding public employees to the State Employee Benefit Committee has been assigned to buried in the House Administration Committee, where Pete Schwartzkopf will help Jack Markell kill the bill, just like Pete Schwartzkopf is helping Jack Markell to kill HB 126. While the House Administration Committee has generally been seen as the counterpart of the Senate Executive Committee, the leadership of the committee has rarely exercised the same kind of heavy-handed tactics employed by Thurman Adams and Tony DeLuca on the Senate side. That is, however, what they are doing with these two bills.
Here is Wednesday’s entire Session Activity Report.
Some interesting bills on today’s agendas, mostly in the House.
The Senate agenda does feature one interesting bill, however. HB 49(B. Short), which received 11 no votes in the House, would require that ‘that any person who solicits a door-to-door sale shall display a door-to-door salesperson identification card which shall include the person’s name, employer, employer telephone number, employer address and the State of Delaware business license number.’ The 11 no votes were mostly from downstate R’s, and no D’s opposed the bill in the House. While I generally support the bill, I do have a question about it, and that’s about the exemptions from the legislation. The bill ‘provides an exception for persons conducting home sales events, public utilities and cable television system operators from the requirement of having a door-to-door salesperson identification card.’ Uh, why? Since the bill already only applies to ‘any person who solicits a door-to-door sale’, why should those purportedly representing utilities or cable companies be exempt from this provision? Especially since people have been scammed by alleged salespersons purporting to represent those types of businesses. Plus, since COMCAST has proven to be one of the worst customer-responsive companies anywhere, why should the law not apply to them?
OK, over to the House, where some interesting new bills have surfaced on the agenda. One that is sure to cause some Rethugs apoplexy is HB 9(Keeley), which would amend the Delaware Constitution to ‘eliminate(s) the existing five-year waiting period before eligible felons who have fully discharged their sentences may have their voting rights restored’. I strongly support the bill. It’s not as if these citizens aren’t still accountable to the criminal justice system should they backslide, so why have what is essentially a citizen ‘probationary period’? I will also point out that former Republican Rep. Richard Davis was a stalwart supporter of this type of bill, so there may be a couple of enlightened R’s who will support it. Regardless, the bill must pass both houses of the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions, and this is the first leg of the amendment. Meaning it must pass this session and next session to become law. And it has a two-thirds majority requirement. Tough to accomplish, but not impossible. Of course, since R’s nationally and throughout many states have adopted the approach of trying to prevent people from voting wherever practicable, there is no guarantee that any R’s will vote for the bill. I’ll be watching and, at least, the House will actually publish the roll call.
We have yet another special license plate bill, this one for veterans of ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. If a phrase could capture the 2012 legislative session, it would be ‘All Veterans All the Time’. Which is as it must be in an election year.
Sorry for the truncated report. That’s about all I could glean that I found of interest. As always, YMMV.
Tags: Pete Schwartzkopf Delaware; Jack Markell Delaware; Steve Tanzer Delaware; El Somnambulo;
Re HB 49 — And especially since the Comcast and Verizon sales people who troll the neighborhoods are not regular employees but independent contractors paid according to how many orders they fill. And they’ve been known to entice you with offers that are no longer valid, leaving you to hassle out the details on the phone with the regular customer service reps.
I have become convinced that COMCAST literally HAS no customer service department. You are NEVER allowed to get someone other than the ofttimes clueless person you get the first time. There is NO customer service contact on their website. We have been without High Def since December. We have called them so many times, and we get a different story each time, depending on who picks up the phone. We’re about to change, but it’s a hassle b/c we have phone, net and TV with them, and we’d prefer not to switch. I am amazed that a company that refuses to even provide the most basic in customer service is permitted to remain above the law.
Actually, I’m not. COMCAST has become, if not ‘too big to fail’, then ‘too politically-connected to regulate’.
“We’re about to change, but it’s a hassle b/c we have phone, net and TV with them,”
That is exactly why I have not signed up for a bundle. I get a call nearly every week from a Comcast or Verizon sales troll with a teaser rate for some bundle. I ask them only one question: “How much is Internet only?” They usually have to go look for the answer, and it is never any cheaper. I tell them to call back when it is cheaper.
I think I am the last person on my block with a Verizon landline. Last month it stopped working and I placed a service call. They had to go several blocks away to replace a corroded wire in an outdoor box. I imagined a rusty, disused metal box full of spiders, mouse nests, and dripping water, with a broken hasp swinging in the wind. I am probably the only household using that box.
I think I am also the only Comcast Internet user on my block, which is great because my connection is always fast.
I’m no fan but you can work the Comcast system. When we bought our first HDTV a couple months ago (I call myself progressive but was probably last on the block to get one), we actually got a lower bundled rate including HD than for our previous package. When your rate goes up, check the latest Verizon FIOS package, then call Comcast and threaten to switch. They prefer to match the rate than put up with churning.
As for customer service, we had a persistent problem with slow internet a couple of years back. After we had almost all of Comcast’s hundreds of thousands of repair people scouring the neighborhood unsuccessfully trying to figure it out, my wife latched on to a Comcast VP and soon had him calling her every week or two to check on quality of service.
Give me the Veep’s #, and I’ll be more than happy to call them.
Please? Pretty please?
I still have a Verizon landline because my house apparently is made of whatever they make nuclear bunkers out of. In fact, nuclear bunkers probably have better cell reception than my house.
Not to get too geeky, but the reasons for slow home Internet are almost always one of two things: Crappy ISP-provided DNS servers, or need to replace the modem. I won’t get into it here but switching to faster public DNS servers is trivial and just about anybody can follow the procedure to do it.
Another reason could be the layer of crapware on your computer, but if you use Windows, and if you let the Comcast/FIOS guy install their stuff on your computer, nothing can help you.
Our issue isn’t the net, but High-def TV. After two years of it being crappy, and countless visits from Comcast, a technician finally diagnosed the problem of the wire not being sufficient to handle the functions in our house. He placed a work order for the wire to be replaced with a bigger one. The contractors came out with the exact same wire we already had. We told them. They said they’d be back later that day or the following day with the proper wire. They never came back.
We (my wife, actually, as diplomacy is not my strong suit, and IS one of my wife’s strong suits), have tried to get Comcast to replace the wire. We have been told on at least three occasions that they would put in a work order, but no work has ever been done. On other occasions, we have been told that no work order has ever been placed. Every phone call is like starting over, kinda like Monty Burns going ‘Simpson, eh?’ as if he’s never heard the name before. My wife has requested to speak to a supervisor or someone up the line, and she is consistently told that there’s no one else she can speak to. It’s utterly bizarre.
But, when you pay the pols off, even have some of them on TV, *cough*Ed Rendell*cough*, you apparently can get away without providing even the most minimal of service to your customers.
I love the product we get from Comcast. I have the HD bundle – tv, internet and phone. And they will lower your price when the teaser rate expires if you call and ask. My problem is that when my roommate moved out we never switched the service into my name – I just kept paying the bill online. When I attempted to put the service into my name I was told to go to the office in Penn Mart shopping center and bring ID. When I arrived I was informed the roommate had to be there too – however she now lives out of state. When I asked what else I could do or what they suggest the rep actually said to stop paying the bill! Then the service would be disconnected and I could turn it back on in my name. I’ve dealt with similar situations in the past and know the headaches of switching an account into a different name at the same address when money is still due on the previous acct – obviously however this rep doesn’t or she is new to her job. Do you believe they told a customer to stop paying their bill?? The account is still in the roommate’s name — not sure how to proceed at this point but I won’t stop paying – that would end up on my friend’s credit not to mention the hassles if she ever had to use Comcast again!
Rapidly restoring the voting rights of felons?!
I guess you all don’t want to leave a CORE constituency of the Democrat Party on the sidelines for too long.
After all, if these amoral perps could commit a felony, then for the price of a sandwich and a bus pass, they probably could be convinced to vote two…maybe three times. LOL!
Gotta love QP and the fantasy world he lives in.
Whatever happened to Paul Masson wine, anyway?
And here is some info for contacting the Comcast Executive Complaint Center. No idea how recent this info is, though.
IT was a joke, MJ. Kinda like you.
MJ,
QP is rubber, you are glue…. his jokes make him seem like he’s in grade 2. (teehee)
Thanks, Cass. I prefer this clip where Orson Welles has had a bottle or two too much Paul Masson Champagne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZiWJxSCvlU
And I’m gonna give that number a call. Thanks!