Blue Hampshire reports that the New Hampshire House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a law legalizing Vermont-style civil unions for same sex couples. The vote was a resounding 243-129. This dramatically makes the point of how much our neighbor is turning “blue” of late. The bill will now go to the Senate where it should pass in the chamber which has a 14-10 Dem advantage. Where it faces an uncertain future is at Democratic Governor Lynch’s desk, as he is in no hurry to deal with the issue. So far his office has been vague and noncommittal.

“So,” you may say to yourself, “the granite state is finally catching up with Vermont.”

But you would be wrong in a very fundamental way; that is, that this bill was NOT passed because a court order forced it upon them. That’s right – No. Court. Order.

Why did they do it then? Why take on a piece of progressive legislation if you don’t absolutely positively have to? And that the Governor doesn’t want to sign? I mean, who else will the lefties vote for anyway, right? Don’t our silly neighbors understand that they may lose Republican votes by doing this?

I suspect they do, and they did it anyway. How can we possibly explain that?

Anyone? Bueller…

[cross-posted from Rover: Riders of Vermont (*Unofficial*) blog, here]

My name is Morgan W. Brown. I am a Montpelier area resident with disabilities living on a low fixed income these days and I depend on the public transit service offered by Green Mountain Transit Agency (GMTA), namely the City Route between Barre and Montpelier.

Without these services I would not be able to live as independently as I now am able to, nor would I be able to get around to engage in the daily activities I currently am active with.

While it may not appear visibly obvious, seven (7) years ago my feet, ankles and knees were injured to the point that I could barely manage to walk around the small room I was briefly staying in at the time.

My legs never quite healed completely and I no longer can walk too far in order to get to where I need to go like once was possible. Thus I find myself dependent on public transit more than ever.

To cut public transit services in Vermont would not merely harm me however, it would of course harm as well as severely limit many others across the state whom are in even more need of such services than myself.

Therefore I strongly encourage those of you with the political leadership and power to do so, to do everything possible to prevent any and all cuts to public transit within the state. I further implore you to properly fund such services as well as the equipment each of the local public transit agencies require.

Thank you for your time and thank you for listening.

[(edited, with embedded links) testimony as written and spoken by Morgan W. Brown during the public hearing held by the House Transportation Committee in room 11 at the Vermont State House on the evening of Tuesday, April 3, 2007]

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(Once again, patrioticresponse sifts through our legislators b.s. – promoted by Brattlerouser)

At the very moment that citizens’ calls for impeachment are growing in number and in volume, our elected representatives are shrinking into their holes, plugging their ears and repeating out loud ” I will not listen I will not listen”.

The latest entrant into this hall of shame is Vermont Senate President pro-temp, Peter Shumlin. He grabbed the headlines last week by declaring himself to be in favor of impeachment as an obvious remedy to a lying and dangerous administration. However, he left himself an easy out by declaring that he would not interfere with the Vermont Democratic Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington who has squarely thrown herself in the protect Bush camp by denying Vermonters the right to have a debate on an impeachment resolution that is now in the House Judiciary committee. Now a Senate impeachment resolution has been introduced but Shumlin won’t let it move forward. saying that there is not enough support for it in the statehouse and it wouldn’t have any impact on the Congress. Here is a politican who shows every sign of thinking himself as gubernatorial material, but he doesn’t even have a fundamental sense of history.

There is no instant gratification when it comes to restoring democracy. Across the nation today, hundreds of efforts are being made to bring about impeachment. An impeachment resolution from a state legislature, or even a state Senate, would be an important catalyst that would draw attention to these diverse efforts, and it would lay the focus where it belongs, in the lap of the Congress.

In the meantime, impeachment fever has now spread down to the southern tip of New England. In Fairfield County Connecticut, an area represented in Congress by Republican Christopher Shays, several towns have organized impeachment committees. Citizens there, without the same town meeting forums that we have in northern New England, have to figure out how to best make their voices heard. It helps that in dozens of other towns organizing from the edge of Long Island Sound to the Canadian border, other voices are also calling for impeachment.

We look at each other in disbelief when our politicians act like cowards or fools. But we must return to the task of harmonizing and coordinating the voices for impeachment until they are so loud that they can no longer be ignored. The extreme urgency of our nation’s position regarding Iraq and Iran had led many more Americans to volunteer to help impeach this regime. Unfortunately, it also indicates that we have a very short amount of time left to act. Will we be reduced to reacting with protests to Bush’s next war, or will we have risen up in numbers large enough to have changed the direction of the government away from more war and folly?

Now, before you read this, I want it to be known that this piece should not be taken as an endorsement of any of the Democratic candidates. I am still firmly in the ‘none of the above’ camp and will be so for at least another year.

Presidential candidate/Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich seems to be a favorite of some on the leftier end of the spectrum, in particular in Vermont. I remember his name being tossed around quite a bit back in the’04 race. I read some of the things he stands for, agreed with some  of it, but the ‘electability factor’ was a big issue with me. Aside from anything else, I really couldn’t see a vegan candidate scoring big in cattle country. He might as well have an arm protruding from his forehead or something.

Kucinich is back in for ’08, and I wanted to read up a bit more about him, and really look into why he will seemingly remain a long-shot candidate. Much has been said about his concept of a Department of Peace. Now, I am by no means a pacifist, and I think that sometimes counterviolence is justifiable, but I generally feel that Kucinich’s concept is indeed a noble one. Although, a close read of that page sends up a few warning signals, namely “confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives”.

Now, those of you who have read me before know that I am a staunch atheist. And that means that I find New-Agey religious stuff just as distasteful and ridiculous as fundamentalist Christianity (although I will admit it is much more benign). Now, Kucinich’s phrase alone is not much cause for concern, but it sent up a red flag for me. I dug around a bit more, and found this speech Kucinich gave at the Dubrovnik Conference on the Alchemy of Peacebuilding, called ‘Spirit and Stardust’:

“Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling.”

Uh, okay. Now, I’m not a big Daily Kos fan, it’s a bit too rah-rah for the Dems for me, but I couldn’t say it better than Markos in regards to this New Age hooey: “Clearly, Kucinich resides in a higher plane of existence than I do. But my plane is on the planet earth. I want my president to reside here as well.” And I can see how this kind of speaking does resonate particularly well in Vermont; we have quite a few people here of this particular worldview and mindset. And most of them are some of the kindest, well-intentioned souls I’ve ever met. But I sure has hell wouldn’t want them running the country.

Now, if that’s not enough to put you out, another thing that seems to fly under the radar is that until he started running for president, Kucinich was adamantly anti-choice, and anti-stem cell research, as well, as this article from the Nation a few years ago points out.

  One thing you won’t find on Kucinich’s website, though, is any mention of his opposition to abortion rights. In his two terms in Congress, he has quietly amassed an anti-choice voting record of Henry Hyde-like proportions. He supported Bush’s reinstatement of the gag rule for recipients of US family planning funds abroad. He supported the Child Custody Protection Act, which prohibits anyone but a parent from taking a teenage girl across state lines for an abortion. He voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes it a crime, distinct from assault on a pregnant woman, to cause the injury or death of a fetus. He voted against funding research on RU-486. He voted for a ban on dilation and extraction (so-called partial-birth) abortions without a maternal health exception. He even voted against contraception coverage in health insurance plans for federal workers–a huge work force of some 2.6 million people (and yes, for many of them, Viagra is covered).

Now, those positions would not even be labelled ‘moderate’ by any stretch of the imagination.  Is Sam Brownback going to be his running mate? And considering that a solid majority of progressive women hold reproductive rights in utmost regard, how would those of you respond to this?

Kucinich seems to be a bit reality-challenged, and that’s my issue with him. Even recently, in regards to the Dems pulling out of the Nevada FOX News-sponsored debate, he had this to say:

“But what I am going to say is that FOX is a legitimate news agency that has the ability to reach out to millions of Americans, so why not get that message out?”

Apparently, Kucinich hasn’t seen how FOX always spins the message of Democrats being terrorist sympathizers who hate America. But there’s more. Like Second Vermont Republic’s completely unhinged cult leader with delusions of grandeur, Thomas Naylor, Kucinich goes to imply that the other candidates canceled out of fear of debating him :

“Is it possible that the real conflict was having to take the stage to defend their votes to fund the war?” Kucinich asked.

No, Dennis. You know as well as they do that you are going to have plenty of debates in the near future. I hardly feel they’re feeling threatened that you’re going to steal the nomination when you can’t even crack into the second tier candidates’ poll numbers.

I will say this: Kucinich is really right on on many of the ideas about where this country should be going. He has spoken out about the dangers of the PATRIOT Act, and really puts the notion of world peace and social equality and justice at the top of his priorities, as they rightfully should be. But his about-face on reproductive rights, delusions of grandeur and completely unhinged New Age metaphysical psychobabble should clearly illustrate why this man will not get the Democratic nomination.

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Continuing our two days (three was just too much) of job assessments of our elected leaders, today focusing here in the state…

Peter Shumlin, the once and current President Pro Tem of the State Senate and Senator from Windham County has been very high profile since his return, to no one’s surprise. He’s put climate change issues at the top of the agenda and been a much greater presence in the role than was predecessor Peter Welch was. On the other hand, while being great on rhetoric, he often is criticized for being too hesitant to challenge the Governor (or his fellow Dems) on issues that are progressive priorities, such as gay marriage.

What do you think? Comments and poll beneath the fold (remember, you need to register as a user to vote, if you haven’t already):

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Continuing our two days (three was just too much) of job assessments of our elected leaders, today focusing here in the state…

Rep. Gaye Symington has been on the hot seat like no other politician in the state of late. The general criticisms have been of her apparent unwillingness to challenge the Governor and the GOP on progressive priorities. Others say that her determination to work collaboratively whenever possible make the policy machinery run more smoothly and efficiently. After last week, where she seemed on the edge of losing control of the caucus over education funding, the Speaker has regrouped and is reportedly is back in control.

What do you think? Comments and poll beneath the fold (remember, you need to register as a user to vote, if you haven’t already):

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I believe that making high-speed Internet access available to everyone in Vermont is good for education, medicine, business and politics. I trusted friend is a member of the Internet for ALL, NOW! Committee and has organized a way for you to easily get information on the subject and sign a petition in support of the proposal that passed the House last week and is now in the hands of the Senate.
Their letter is below the fold. Please take a look at the information and if you find it worthy, send it on to others you think may be interested. There will be a press conference on the issue in the Statehouse Thursday at 2 p.m.

Dear Fellow Vermonters,

Vermont is a special place – but it is often difficult to make a cell call or get high-speed Internet access here.

This situation is not acceptable. Our businesses need to be able to work online or by cell phone. Our kids need to be educated for the e-future. Our first responders need modern communications. (Rutland Herald agrees: http://www.rutlandhe…)

Private industry has already provided coverage to the easy places. It’s the States responsibility to help industry provide coverage to the rest of us… and soon.

Governor Douglas, in his 2007 Inaugural Speech, called for affordable high-speed Internet access and cell phone coverage for ALL Vermonters by 2010. House Bill 248 was introduced to implement this proposal. Its passage will make Vermont the first e-state and bring us new environmentally-friendly people-power business. The bill establishes a Telecommunications Authority and authorizes the State to sell revenue bonds to finance the construction of the needed infrastructure like wireless towers and fiber optics. Treasurer Jeb Spaulding says that this is a good and responsible way to achieve the State’s goal. The bill has passed the House with an overwhelming majority. It is now before the Senate. More… http://www.e-state-v…

The bill, including the necessary regulatory changes for speedy environmentally responsible construction and bonding authority, must pass this year to start work in time to get us all full access by 2010.

Please join us in telling legislators that we want a meaningful bill passed this year. Sign the e-petition (http://www.e-state-v…) and print out the paper petition (http://www.e-state-v…) for friends who do not yet have good Internet access. Get your un-connected neighbors and co-workers to sign before May 20th and mail or fax it to the address at the bottom of the petition. Your connected friends can sign the e-petition. Forward this email to them today.

We only have a little over a month to let legislators know how important full Internet and cellular access is to Vermont. We need Internet for ALL, NOW!

The Internet for ALL, NOW! Committee
535 Stone Cutters Way
Montpelier, VT  05602
info@e-state-vermont.com

http://www.e-state-v…