Throughout our history we’ve always been provided an enemy to cover up government mismanagement — including immigrants  (remember when IRISH NEED NOT APPLY) for jobs?  With the exception of Native Americans, weren’t we all born of immigrants?  We thrived for over 200 years as a melting pot, taking the best from ‘the huddled masses yearning to be free’ .. and forging a democracy we could be proud of.

Let’s take all that negative Republican energy focussed on wedge issues that seek to divide us, turn it around and work for solutions to problems that affect us all.  For the people that think that problems would be solved by outlawing basic civil rights for gays, that would force women to bear unwanted children, that would deny immigrants the same choices their own families had …… grow up!  We’ve got BIG problems here not served by the ‘blame game’.

We won’t forget about wars to steal oil, or the thousands of brave troops who were killed or permanently maimed, or the treaties (NAFTA, GATT) that continue to send thousands of our jobs overseas permanently.

We need universal health care and anti-trust laws …… and we don’t want the threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads with the idiot we have with his shaky finger on the trigger.  We want the prescription drug problem sorted out so seniors can get the medication they need at an affordable price.  A hand up is not a handout!

I marched in NYC again yesterday with Bread and Puppet — (one of the Iraqi women all in black carrying a dead child) and came home convinced that we can change our government, and go back to the basic policies of ‘to the people, for the people and by the people’ .. No more imperial Presidencies, Congressional representatives who serve the people instead of the corporations .. and campaign finance laws that will ensure that money can’t buy elections.

We have the power at the ballot box, and we need to take it back.

Keep your eye on the prize and don’t be diverted by blame, fear and paranoia, and be proud to be a Vermonter!

Peace,

Barbara

Hello GMDers:

I’d like you to meet a friend of mine.

Bob Mills was hired to write for Bob Hope in August, 1977. He spent the next seventeen years writing jokes, routines, parody songs, speeches and television scripts for the legendary performer, in the process logging over half a million miles “on the road” with Hope, visiting all corners of the globe from Peking to London, Stockholm to Bora Bora with plenty of stops in between. HOPE WRITER: “My Life Inside Bob Hope’s Comedy Factory” was written between 1993 and 1995 and is dedicated to all the wonderful people who shared a golden age in the history of entertainment, and were privileged to work for one of the most legendary performers of all time. Since 1998, Bob has sailed thousands of miles with Crystal, Princess and Celebrity cruise lines, sharing his TV experiences. He is an Emeritus member of the Writers Guild of America, West.

Crossposted from Bereft on the Left, with graphics and links added.
Bob’s biography, “Hope Writer” is a fascinating read and linked here.

All original material by Bob Mills.
Links and graphic support by kestrel9000.

Keith Richards was injured when he fell out of a palm tree in Fiji. The Mick has told him a hundred times “Never try to trash a palm tree.”…

Rush Limbaugh is off the hook. He pleads to one count of doctor shopping and walks. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has even removed the yellow tape from around his medicine chest….

And I’ll see you below the fold…

Continuing the revelry…..

The Ku Klux Klan will hold a June rally at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland. It was supposed to be a secret but, authorities uncovered the plan when the Bed Bath & Beyond in Sharpsburg sold out their entire supply of king size white sheets….

Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan’s first novel “How Opal Metha Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life” was pulled from the shelves when “similarities” to two novels by Megan McCafferty were discovered. Publisher Little Brown says the book will be retitled “How Opal Metha Got Kissed, Got Wild, Got a Life and Got Caught.”…..

Organizers of the May 1 mass walkout call it “Gran Paro”—-a day without immigrants. It’s estimated that the idle leaf-blowers in Southern California alone will save $1.3 million in gas……

Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference, “Im not a supporter of boycotts.” May not mean much to you, but Fidel Castro is ecstatic….

The Iraq war has stalled the housing market which had flourished briefly after the downfall of Saddam. To compound the sluggish sales, the insurgents keep shooting down the Re/Max hot air balloon….

Incoming Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi vows that U.S.-Italy ties will remain strong. Even though he disapproves of the war in Iraq, the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and the Sopranos…..

Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that if condemned inmates are allowed to object to the method used to kill them, they’ll all appeal. Which Tony refers to as “Mary Queen of Scots Bellyaching.”……

The Pentagon maintains a database of 12 million youths available for military service. At www.cannon-fodder.com…..

Seagate, the world’s largest disc drive maker, is beefing up its drives to 750 gigabytes.Or, enough memory to store all the rap sheets of crooked congressmen, convicted rappers, jailed athletes, defrocked priest pedophiles and disgraced CEO’s with enough left over for all of the Bush administration’s excuses for failing to capture Osama Bin Laden.

Wartime presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt never served in the military. Unfortunately, that’s their only legitimate comparison to Bush….

According to Catholic Digest,73% of Catholics say the “Da Vinci Code” has had no effect on their faith and 43% of them plan to see the movie. Proving yet again that science fiction is science fiction, whether told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or Tom Cruise……

Veteran C.I.A. analyst Mary McCarthy was fired for leaking sensitive information to the press. Mary’s mistake wasn’t releasing the info, but failing to give Bob Novak first dibs on it……

Hasbro will market a modernized version of “Monopoly” with non-Atlantic City Streets, more currency and airports instead of railroads. The familiar “Mr. Monopoly” will be replaced by Kenneth Lay…..

The M.G.M. Mirage will partner with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to build a $700 million hotel-casino in New Haven, Connecticut. Which will be called the “White Man Speak With Forked Tongue—-Grand.”

That’s about it for this week, sportsfans. If you like this kind of stuff, check out my blog!

* When I heard some of “Nuestro Himno” — the Spanish language version of the Star Spangled Banner getting airplay in a few markets, I thought it was an extremely cool, uplifting, patriotic statement from the hispanic community. Apparently a great many feel otherwise (Bush: “I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English. And they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.”). Carpetbagger has coverage. Vermont Radio Guy says

Now, I am as liberal as anyone, but this crap has to stop. Where do we draw the line here?

“Liberal as anyone.” Yeah, right. How about you “draw the line” by listening to something else? This upsurge in xenophobic whining really makes we want to learn Spanish. If someone can possibly come up with a reason why Nuestro Himno is in any way disrepectful, unpatriotic, or “crap” to be “stopped,” please share. I dare you.

* Libby Sternberg has left the anti-NEA Vermonters For Better Education, continuing the deterioration of Vermont’s old-guard right-wing internet set. McLaughry produces less and less (and his website looks like it hasn’t been reviewed in years), and Dwinell has been reduced to bizarre rants about Bernie being a secret agent of international communism. Perhaps the new VT right-wing blogosphere (with the likes of Cool Blue and She’s Right) is the next wave. Maybe there won’t be a next wave (a guy can dream, can’t he?)

* Vermont Yankee has once again halted its relentless upward creep to 120% power output. Everytime they restart the creep, little problems pop up. Sorta like seams popping out.

* Peasants With Pitchforks is doing what I wished I could’ve done — giving us a run-down of the media panel at UVM this week that featured (among others) Howard Dean, and his ofttime nemesis Howard Fineman. Very entertaining posts. Here’s part 1 and part 2 with the promise of more to come.

* Finally, at VTGOP.org, the local Bushies are trying to do that Karl-Rove-thing of making your candidate’s weaknesses into strengths just by relentlessly pegging the other team with your own shortcomings, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately for them, they just look a little…confused? Pathetic? Delusional? They’ve launched a Where’s Welch campaign attempting to highlight what they claim is Peter Welch’s unwillingness to be forthcoming on issues (and of course they picked their pet issue of the day, despite the fact that Welch has an established opinion in print on the matter). Now just think about this strategy for a second. Then spend another second trying to think of a single issue that Republican candidate Martha Rainville has clearly stated an actual opinion on. Just one. C’mon…

There are some very different must-see video clips making the rounds that have come to my attention over the last day. They’re as different as they could be, but they all evoke strong emotion.

First, PoliticsTV has footage of five Democratic US Representatives being arrested in DC while protesting the Darfur genocide. Two of the US Reps are from across the border in Massachusetts. Another is Congressman Lantos, a genocide survivor himself. Powerful stuff. (Quicktime / Windows Media)

Second is this animation, called “What Would Jesus Do” juxtaposing the words of Christ against some truly horrific images of children in Iraq. Being dubbed “the video the religious right doesn’t want you to see,” it should only be viewed after serious mental preparation. (Link (html))

Finally, there is the absolute carnage on display from the much-discussed vivisection of leading neo-con pundit and ideological force of nature Bill Kristol by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report (Colbert, of course, essentially plays a character that is a knock off of Bill O’Reilly on his faux-fox “news” program). It is indescribable. (Quicktime / Windows Media)

A recent statement by Republican Senatorial candidate Richard Tarrant is downright axiomatic. From Freyne in Seven Days:

[Tarrant:] “Everybody has a right to express their views, but I think politicians, it says something about themselves based on who they ask to help them. That’s just the way it is.”

I couldn’t agree more. As we reported, last year Tarrant “made a good impression” looking for support at the Center For American Cultural Renewal/Vermont Renewal (formerly the anti Civil Union Who Would Have Thought, Inc), a homegrown, reactionary, religious right organization. Their president is Stephen Cable, and as reported by the controversial counter-website Blier Watch, Cable is:

a registrant (Officer 5) of a corporation described as “Religious” that went by the name New Hope Ministries, Inc. The corporate status terminated on June 23, 1989.

Similarly, New Hope Ministries was registered as an corporation in California as early as 1981. Today, New Hope Ministries is a so-called “ex-gay” ministry with ties to the discredited groups Exodus International and Love In Action dating back to the 1970’s. The “ex-gay” ministries have been widely rejected by professional organizations such as the American Psychological Association and are considered to be harmful to lesbians, gays and, in particular, youth.

Yup, you sure can tell “something about [politicians] based on who they ask to help them.”

“That’s just the way it is”

You can hear Neil Young’s new album free online tomorrow. Here are the details.

We’ve heard that the Douglas Administration plays the game hard. Gloves off and all that. Still, you expect a certain modicum of honesty and integrity, even from your political adversaries.

This week the Douglas Administration sank below the level of decency we should hold our public officials to.

It all has to do with Medicare Part D, health care, and the health care fight in the Legislature. Some of the people who are now signed up for Medicare Part D are called “dual eligibles”, because they are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. They have to be in a drug plan just like everyone else, but Medicaid pays their premium. The Rutland Herald carried a story yesterday about one of the prescription plans and how they got in trouble with the state for billing about 200 people whose premiums had already been paid by Medicaid. In fact, this situation was so bad that the state had to demand that the insurer call everybody immediately to make sure they knew they didn’t have to pay. And they even had to threaten them with Medicaid fraud unless they did it:

“We would like to see a commitment that AARP contact each of these 200 Vermonters, who were understandably incredibly concerned, as are we,” said Heidi Tringe, spokeswoman for the Agency of Human Services. “We would like them to contact them before this has to be turned over to the Medicaid fraud unit.”

And isn’t it outrageous that the culprit here was AARP, that huge nationwide organization that’s supposed to be looking out for our retirees?

Lucky thing the Agendy of Human Services was there to look out for the little guy, huh?

Well, it turns out that it’s not so simple.

First off, did United Health Group (UHG), the prescription plan endorsed by AARP, actually double bill anybody?
No.

Second, how many of the eleven prescription plans sent out the same kind of notice to their beneficiaries that UHG sent?
Several, possibly all of them.

Third, how many of those prescription plans were singled out by the Administration, threatened with fraud charges, and called out in the press?
None.

So why single out the AARP-endorsed plan?
Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that the AARP is pushing for real health care reform, and they’re giving Douglas a hard time about his position?

Well, you tell me.

Oh yeah, and there is one other question:
Why isn’t the press asking these questions?

The news on the Vermont Democratic Party website today makes me proud to play on that team. The VDP has finally announced the winners of their annual Curtis Leadership Awards. The first recipient is Marcelle Leahy, but I want to focus for a moment on the other two: former Justice Department lawyer and “Rutland Resolution” author Jeffry Taylor (here praised in the current issue of the American Prospect), and Speaker of the House — as well as leading public opponent of the Rutland Resolution — Gaye Symington.

Anyone who finds this juxtaposition unfathomable simply doesn’t understand the Democratic Party. When it works, the Democratic Party has never been about shared opinions or strategies, so much as shared values. A shared perspective, encompassing a broad diversity of specific viewpoints within those common values. And this is something, to my mind, which sets us apart from the other major leftist party in Vermont, the Progressives. Where the Progs are so concerned about uniformity of opinions they have hardwired adherence to the Party line into their bylaws, the Dems eschew “party discipline” and give free rein to rollicking debate. While the Progs’ approach may work for some, it’s always been a poor fit for those leftists with a more left-libertarian bent. From that perspective, issue uniformity is mandated at the expense of open debate, and open debate is ultimately lost at the expense of real democracy. And as maddening, sluggish, and messy as democracy can be, it is a process people like myself are passionately committed to — even if that means losing on occasion (within and outside the Party itself).

Jeff and the Speaker are two people I’ve complimented on this blog, even though Symington has been an opposing force on issues near and dear to me of late. Nevertheless, both are highly deserving. I applaud the VDP for making such a positive statement on it’s dialtectical principles of open, honest debate (which yes, also means open and honest disagreements) among those who hold these shared values of community — not just individual — responsibility.

Congrats to Jeff, Gaye (and Marcelle).

( – promoted by odum)

By Senator Matt Dunne

My recent report on this year’s health care legislation generated a lot of e-mail from friends and activists who were concerned that I sounded enthusiastic about this bill, or that I thought it was the best we could do.  Those who know my position on healthcare reform know that I am disappointed with the legislation, but I thought I should clarify my position for other readers.

The biggest concern I have with this legislation is that it will not achieve the cost containment goals set out by the architects.  As a member of the Appropriations Committee and as someone who works closely with the business community, I have seen firsthand the devastating effects of dramatically rising healthcare costs.  On the public side, it is no longer simply a problem of keeping up with the costs of Medicaid.  Over the past year, the teacher retirement fund hit a critical point: it now pays out more in healthcare premiums than it does in standard retirement income. A couple of years ago, those same two lines crossed as our public institutions of higher education began paying out more in healthcare benefits than in salaries to their faculty. 

This leaves us with a very scary scenario for our state budget. Traditionally, we have budget deficits because our revenues fall during hard economic times.  We bridge those deficits by temporarily raising taxes or dipping into rainy day funds. Once the economy rebounds, we reduce those taxes and refill our reserves.

This time it is different. With no increase in beneficiaries or benefits but yet higher healthcare costs, we now have a state budget deficit even though our revenues are up. As a result, we are forced to make awful decisions in our annual state budgets.  Even though I am not afraid to raise revenue to ensure good services to people, I feel we must resist such proposals since the heath care costs will simply eat up those gains in the next year, leaving us taxed higher and yet back in a deficit position.

Businesses and the self-employed are feeling the same pinch.  Although average Vermont incomes may be up 3%-5%, healthcare premiums rising 10%-15% put people and organizations at a net loss. The bottom line is that the state, public and private, simply cannot sustain the current increase of healthcare costs, currently estimated to be about $1 million per day in Vermont alone.

My fear is that the current healthcare legislation will do very little to address this problem and contain costs.  While I believe cost shifts contribute to the cost of healthcare by hiding the true costs of our broken system, it is not the only driver.  Although covering more uninsured Vermonters through a state subsidized plan like Catamount does take us closer to universal coverage, I’m fearful that the overall cost of the newly insured will very quickly become unaffordable for either the state or the subscribers, or both. Without cost containment measures in place, the plan will potentially increase in cost for the state over time or, if we freeze the subsidy for Catamount premiums, the plan will become unaffordable for subscribers in a matter of a couple of years.

While the chronic care initiative included in the bill provides some hope for tackling a major driver of health care costs, the most optimistic estimates suggest that we might see the benefit of this approach in five years. With the healthcare cost crisis here today, I don’t know how we can wait that long to see if it will work.

There are no easy solutions to this enormous and complicated problem, but there are some good ideas not currently on the table. Early in the session I advocated for a global budget for hospital costs.  The idea is to get our arms around how we spend our resources at hospitals, create a cap with an annual cost-of-living adjustment, and empower the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance to adjust the budget as reasonable and unforeseeable circumstances demand.

The global budget concept was not embraced in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and my floor amendment last week was rejected.  I’m sure the Governor’s opposition, and the laudable desire to get something passed this year, contributed to the resistance.

There was some hope that came out of this amendment effort, as it was embraced by an unlikely coalition of supporters.  The original idea was developed in the House by Republican Rep. Topper McFaun.  When my amendment appeared in the Senate calendar, I received two congratulatory comments for pushing the idea forward.  One came from Dr. Deb Richter, a leading universal healthcare advocate, and the other from Duane Marsh, Executive Director of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.  These are not your usual collaborators and yet their support suggests that the time for this kind of change has come.

As I mentioned in my last post, I do not share the view that the legislation as passed by the Senate does net harm. If made law, time will quickly tell how sustainable the proposal really is, or if the expected cost-shift savings will actually bend the healthcare cost curve. Although I agree with the bill’s supporters that changing the way we cover and manage chronic care is essential, this proposal produces few immediate cost savings.

While I am skeptical about the overall effectiveness of this bill, the current proposal is the only train leaving the station. I supported it as a small step toward fixing our system that also hopefully helps a group of uninsured Vermonters in the near term.  Until we have leadership in the corner office ready to take on the difficult issues of true cost containment, substantial simplification of reimbursements, and the central idea of universal healthcare, the healthcare crisis will continue to be with us in the years to come.

###

From DarkSyde at DailyKos:

How long will Americans put up with the endless excuses and Republican blame game? About as long as it takes for a GOP screw-up to impact their own pocketbook or lives. And that’s exactly what is happening right now with energy prices. Understandably then, Republicans are terrified that their jig is up. High gas prices knocked Jimmy Carter out of office, a hardworking and intelligent man, despite being perhaps a little too ineffective at solving some serious problems that got thrown his way. You can imagine Republican anxiety over voter backlash on gas prices

Except in Vermont. Where, fairly or not, reasonably or not, whenever Vermont voters look at the high gas prices they don’t think of Bush and the Republicans. They think of Democrats.

And as much as it may create problems for Democratic State Legislators, some of whom have shown a dogged insistence on a gas tax hike that likely won’t even be in the final legislation (as if anybody outside the Statehouse ever seriously thought it would), who will this association hurt more than anyone?

Peter Welch.

The price of gas is already shaping up to be a major election issue — second only to Iraq. All the economic spinning and framing done by the GOP hasn’t affected Americans unease and uncertainty towards our economic future for one major reason, and that reason is the price of fuel. Democrats running for federal office everywhere are capitalizing on this. It’s a tailor-made issue that resonates across the middle and working class demographic, and Dems are getting advice across the country to run head-on against the Party of big oil on this issue.

Except in Vermont. Where due to some in the House digging in their heels, in the free association word game of politics, when voters hear “gas prices” they are, for the moment, thinking “Democrats.”

As President Pro Tem of the Senate, Welch had the positioning and the good sense to get that tax out of the Senate bill, which gives him a leg up on getting the albatross off his neck. But it’s still an albatross, because most casual voters don’t make the distinction between the Dems in the two bodies.

In fact, the Senate’s quick rejection of the gas tax allowed for some creative thinking. Matt Dunne’s “gas guzzler” surcharge — essentially an environmental luxury tax — made for great copy. But legislators are loathe to create new revenue tools for their policy toolbox, preferring to tweak the tools they already have.

And in the mechanical sense (setting aside creativity like Dunne’s and the “vision thing”) this makes good sense. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, and the shortest distance between the two sides of the revenue gap was a measly $.04 gas tax.

But just looking at it from the policy perspective – as much as the policy wonks in the legislature want desperately to believe otherwise – is not looking at the whole picture. The shortest distance between me and my car in the driveway is a straight line, but it goes right through a thorn-laden rose bush. So rather than get ripped to shreds, I go around (where was superstar political consultant Bill Lofy on this??)

So Welch is starting a tough race with a disadvantage unique from other Dem candidates for the US House. He needs to get some distance from the session and his team needs to work to refocus culpability where it truly belongs – with Bush and the national corporate croney GOP leadership – before he dare mention gas prices on the stump.

On the upside, nobody in Vermont handles the press better than Welch’s campaign manager, Carolyn Dwyer, so that’s a plus. Although I’ve expressed concerns on this blog about Welch’s tendency to monologue and drift off message (as well as concerns about what that message is), it’s reasonable to assume that public indications, such as the Doyle Poll, which showed the race at a dead heat set off alarms among Welch and his team at least as much as they scared me (and I went into a freakin’ panic), so I’m guessing there’s been a lot of work on those matters. Time will tell.

In the future, though, some in the House might find they get more mileage for being bold, truth-telling leaders by digging in and getting stubborn on ideological issues (such as the National Guard/Iraq legislation that was abandoned at the behest of Dubie II), rather than sterile bureaucratic ones (such as insisting on increasing a high-profile regressive tax that hits people right in their most fundamental sense of fiscal security during an election year – all because it neatly fills a revenue gap). They’ll be doing themselves and their team a favor.