Dan Gillmor: Blog

Wall Street Journal: Taxpayers May Face Hurricane Tab. As hurricane season begins, Democrats in Congress want to nationalize a chunk of the insurance business that covers major storm-damage claims. The proposal — backed by giant insurers Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., as well as Florida lawmakers — focuses on “reinsurance,” the policies bought by insurers themselves to protect against catastrophic losses. The proposal envisions a taxpayer-financed reinsurance program covering all 50 states, which would essentially backstop the giant insurers in case of disaster.

This is a fiscal disaster in the making if it passes. It will encourage even more reckless coastal development that would be uneconomic if the people who benefit had to bear the real costs of what they’re doing.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes it. Democrat Barak Obama is for it. McCain is on the right side of this issue, and I don’t mean the right wing.

Obama has been presenting himself as a candidate who wants to tell the truth to the American people — to run a government that recognizes reality and doesn’t continue the lies of the past. His support of this legislation is a giant blind spot in his vision.

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A good man has died. You can read about Utah Phillips, who influenced several generations of singers and activists, by clicking through to the link above, which goes to his official website. Or you can look at his Wikipedia entry, which as far as I can tell is quite accurate.The obituary and stories will tell you a lot, but as always in such circumstances they can’t capture the full essence of a life.

I met him in Vermont, when he was living in a reconditioned train caboose next to the recording studio, known as The Barn, where he and many other people (including me) recorded their music. Those days are a bit, uh, blurry — but I’ll never forget his humor and kindness.

When I moved to California, I helped put together what remains one of my most memorable evenings — a living room concert at the Saratoga home of Tom and Carol Lustenader. He came down from Nevada City in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he’d settled later in life, and regaled us with stories and songs. I hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years at that point, but as in the old cliche we seemed to pick up our conversation pretty much where we’d left off back in Vermont.

Although he sang wonderful songs, his most indelible piece of work is unquestionably his funniest. Have a listen to Moose Turd Pie (MP3), and you’ll have a sense of this man and his times.

Rest in peace.

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AP: Dunkin’ Donuts pulls Rachael Ray ad. Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.

Just when you think companies can’t be any more cowardly, Dunkin’ Donuts proves they can. Good grief.

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The news so far from the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference is Bill Gate’s unintentionally hilarious comment in last night’s show-opening interview, in which he said: “Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete.”

Who knew?

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NY Daily News: Obama: ‘Assassination’ flap over-rated. “I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Sen. Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make,” Obama told Radio Isla in Puerto Rico, where he and Clinton stumped in advance of the June 1 primary. “And I think that is what happened here.

This really should be the final word. Sadly it won’t be.

Look, we all say stupid things from time to time, even super-smart people like Clinton. Some of the criticism of her remarks, which were kind of weird, is so far over the top that it’s crazy. Yet journalists continue to flog it mercilessly.

Let it go.

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The “Publius Project” — essays and conversations about constitutional moments on the Net collected by the Berkman Center — has launched. I have an essay there, along with the writings of many other folks.

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Guardian: White House tells court of missing emails from beginning of Iraq war. The White House has admitted in court that it has lost three months of email backups from the initial days of the Iraq war, raising questions about the possible deletion of politically sensitive records.

The disclosure came in a lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, a non-profit group that specialises in uncovering classified documents.

The archive was told it could not receive emails relating to Iraq, despite a 30-year-old law requiring the preservation of presidential records, because a system upgrade had deleted up to 5m emails.

Given the record of the Bush White House, a better bet is that these folks deliberated deleted the material to prevent anyone from knowing what was going on inside the administration. Naturally, Congress won’t even try to find out the truth beyond the normal handwringing.

But the alternative is that the administration deliberately violated the law requiring retention. Who’s going to prosecute? You already know: nobody, because these folks don’t do that sort of thing when they’re the lawbreakers.

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I have a particular disdain for people who park SUVs in spots marked “Compact” — especially when there are bigger spots 50 feet further away.

Here’s my Parking Jerk of the Day, on level 4 of the Yahoo parking garage.

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At UC Berkeley’s Journalism School tomorrow evening, there’s a Screening of “Citizen McCaw”:

the new documentary film about the journalism ethics battle and meltdown at the Santa Barbara News Press. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the state of journalism with former News Press Editor Jerry Roberts, “Citizen McCaw” director Sam Tyler and San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Page Editor John Diaz, moderated by journalism school professor Cynthia Gorney.

“Meltdown” is an understatement for what has happened at the Santa Barbara newspaper, a once-respected journal that has fallen under harsh times during the Wendy McCaw ownership.

If I were going to be in California tomorrow I’d be at this screening. If you’re in the neighborhood and have the time (and nontrivial but $50 admission going to the legal defense fund of people who were kicked out of the paper), please consider it.

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At a conversation site where I spend some time, someone noted a Twitter posting from earlier today — well worth repeating:

“What I like about April Fool’s Day: one day a year we’re asking whether news stories are true. It should be all 365.”

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