Most of you know me as a result of one specific action I took shortly before the 2006 election.  Namely I accidentally uncovered a set of policy statements and press releases from Martha Rainville which were stolen from other politicians and then sent evidence of those stolen statements pretty much everywhere I could find.  Since I’m a frontpager now, I’m posting this to give a little more context to who I am and what my interests are.  So… 

I’m an avid bird photographer and musician.  I also design web sites professionally and teach a variety of subjects at the undergraduate college level.  As a hobby, I design a variety of puzzles (word, math, logic, etc.) and, for personal reasons, I refuse to post solutions to the puzzles.  I figure, if you want the solution, you can take the time to solve the problem.

I’ve lived in Vermont since 2000 and have been an off-and-on activist my whole adult life.  My activism started in the 1980’s with protests against US covert support of the Contras in Nicaragua and has continued on a wide range of issues– HIV/AIDS, animal cruelty, LGBT issues, environment as well as a host of others.

I should probably clarify my positions:

LGBT issues: I’m for full equality under the law, which means either equal marriage rights, or (my preferred solution) leave marriage to religious institutions and treat it as a contract issue with respect to civil marriage; full employment equality under the law,

Environment: I’m strong proponent of natural resources and leaving large tracts without human interference or with only very low-impact use, such as the Nature Conservancy sites around the world.  I’m also a fan of buildings which work with the environment rather than treating it as an enemy to be tamed.  I heard a piece on NPR a few months ago about temporary housing which was designed to be torn down and turned into gardens when it was finished.  I.e., the walls were made of biodegradable material and inside the casing was topsoil with seeds– after a year of living in the housing, you tear down the walls and put it on the ground and, viola! — instant garden.

HIV/AIDS and animal cruelty: I’m against them both.

I’ve never identified with a formal political party and I’m not a great fan of either Democrats or Republicans, but for me it’s more a matter of being able to enthusiastically support about 30% of what Democrats do and 1% of what Republicans do. There are some great Democrats out there who are often hindered by the more mediocre elements of the party.  I’m a fan of the phrase “more better Democrats.”  I.e., it’s not about getting Democrats elected.  It’s about getting more good democrats elected.

I’m a big fan of people being smart.  I don’t mean intelligent which has a lot more to do with genetics and upbringing, but I mean being willing to think things through and look past the simple and obvious choices.  There are all sorts of excuses for not being good at thinking past obvious solutions.  There are no excuses for not even bothering to try.

This, of course, gets me in trouble.  I have no respect for stupid and there’s plenty of stupid from people both left and right and I’m not particularly hesitant to identify something as stupid, even if it makes my own side look bad.

I am a strong believer in civil dialogue, even (maybe even especially) when someone’s being very nasty to me.  Civil dialogue doesn’t mean I don’t stand up for myself or allow myself to be bullied.  It means I don’t engage in name-calling and if I say something that’s going to be taken as an insult I be very specific and factual in terms of what, exactly, I am trying to say and why I think it’s relevant.

Okay, I think I’ve said enough about me.  I’m going to end with a little video I stuck on youtube awhile ago– just an improvisation of some guitar stuff that I did for fun.

(WOW! Check this site out!

-Note from odum: This is so cool, I launched one for all Vermont over lunch. I’ll populate it tonight or for tomorrow’s lunch… – promoted by odum)

Have you seen the 2008 Race Tracker wiki? While we’re hot about the vetoes on two vital issues, can you help flush out the  VT-Gov 2008 page?

Here is some info on the site:

2008 Race Tracker
Welcome to the 2008 Race Tracker wiki. The goal of this site is to track information on U.S. elections taking place in 2008. For now, the focus is on Senate, House and gubernatorial races. We’re aiming to input data on possible candidates for every such election in the nation. Please feel free to dive right in and add what you know. We strongly encourage you to use the built-in templates.

If you’ve heard about a candidate possibly running for office, please either include a link to a reputable news source or clearly note that what you’ve added is merely a rumor, an educated guess, a recruitment idea, or just “conventional wisdom.” (Rumors are okay! As long as they aren’t completely without basis in reality.)

These are the main pages:

Gubernatorial Races

House Races
Senate Races

Sub-pages dealing with each race branch off from each of those. For House races, each state gets a sub-page, with individual races branching off at that point. For some examples, check out NH-Gov, MT-Sen, the Arizona House main page and the AZ-08 page.

Sponsored by the Swing State Project and DailyKos.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance: 

Ya gotta love this, right?

First off, here's the story about Senator David Vitter, a “pro-family” Republican from Louisiana who has just been scooped up in the “D.C. Madam” case.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the “D.C. Madam,” making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case. . . .
On his Senate Web site, Vitter says he is committed to “advancing mainstream conservative principles” and notes that he and his wife are lectors at their hometown church. Lucky for him, he says both God and his wife have forgiven him, although I'm not quite sure how he knows.
While he was running for Senate he angrily denied a story that he had carried on a long-running relationship with a New Orleans madam, but now that story also appears to be true.
NEW ORLEANS — New allegations tie Sen. David Vitter to a high-priced brothel in his hometown, one day after he publicly apologized for his connection to an alleged prostitution ring in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Vitter acknowledged being involved with the so-called D.C. Madam. A day later, new revelations linked him to a former madam in New Orleans and old allegations that he frequented a former prostitute resurfaced, further clouding his political future.

The irony of this case is not just that he has made a career out of being a committed family guy, but also that he got his start in Congress by replacing Bob Livingston, Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the House, after Livingston got called on his own sexual pecadilloes.

Vitter was the first senator to endorse Giuliani, who famously met his third wife while cheating on his first wife with his second wife.

But that's not all. Today the Orlando Sentinel has a story that Bob Allen, a Republican State Representative from Florida, has been arrested for soliciting male prostitutes.
TITUSVILLE – State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.

Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail in Sharpes on a charge of solicitation to commit prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a $500 fine.

I don't know much about the guy, but I'd happily speculate based on his ability to get elected as a Republican in Florida. I did find a number of bills he has sponsored, including one to stiffen (oops–sorry!) laws against lewd and lascivious conduct; one to increase penalties for indecent exposure; and one to encourage family education regarding the dangers of sexual solicitation and abuse.

We can thank Larry Flynt for at least the Vitter story, and who knows how many more to come?
Flynt hunts for political sex scandal
The Associated Press

The publisher took credit for the demise of Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., who admitted he had had extramarital affairs after word got out that Flynt was investigating him. Livingston announced his resignation in December 1998, days before he had been expected to become speaker of the House.

Today sucked. In many many many ways. And I'm mad all over the place. I'm mad at the Dems who voted to sustain the global warming veto. I'm mad at the Franklin County nominal Dems who have probably decided that global warming is a big hoax dreamed up by Al Gore and MoveOn.org, or somesuch nonsense. I'm mad at Essex Dems Tim Jerman and Debbie Evans who presumably want to stay buddy-buddy with the IBM crowd, rather than do the right thing.  I'm mad at Speaker Symington for not holding firm and changing the date given that she clearly needed every vote. I'm mad at my Rep, Warren Kitzmiller, for making vacation plans when it was clear there was going to be a veto session – same with Rep. Sue Minter. I wonder if doing the people's business that they were elected to do couldn't rate a bit higher on their priority list. I'm mad that the Dems didn't play hardball when they attempted to suspend the rules to pass a new bill without the funding source, by using a majority vote to amend the house rule on rule suspension, rather than use the established rules requiring a three-quarters vote (which, as NanuqFC pointed out, was a doomed strategy from the start).

But most of all, I'm mad at Governor Douglas, who vetoed two bills for which there was no rational reason to be in opposition to. Out of political spite and muscle flexing, and coming from a hard right ideology that he masks in populist double-talk.

I am happy about a couple things. I'm happy that Symington and Shumlin shut down any and all attempts to gut the bill. It was definitely time to draw a line, and it's nice to see that they can do that when they want to. I'm also glad that they stuck it to Douglas for the cameras, as the Governor was trying to wax environmental while basking in his victory (look for it on the news tonight).

But for today, I'm more mad than anything. We should think carefully about primary challenges to some of the folks who side more often with the Governor on important issues. And none is more of a pain in the ass than Rep. George Allard (“D”-St. Albans). While I personally allow for conservative Ds in a conservative district, there is a line. This guy – the only Dem to vote to uphold both vetoes, as well as the one during the session – has either got to go, or be forced to change his party affiliation. If he's the only Dem who can take the district, fine. Let's leave it to the Republicans – but I'd be willing to bet that an actual Democrat would have a better chance than people think.

Allard. Must. Go.