Just a quick note that my GMD coffee mug and bumper sticker came in the mail today from Cafe Press!!!

Ok, so my daughter Lydia convinced me that the mug should be hers for hot chocolate, but the bumper sticker — I’ll be proud to put that on the back of the Volvo!  It will be my first, and only, bumper sticker since I slapped Dean for America on the now departed minivan.

Get yours today!  The mug and sticker total was under $23 including shipping.  Just the sticker is like $3 I believe.

Show your pride in GMD!  Click on the mug icon today!

Nate

Crossposted at rednalsiofvermont.blogspot.com

So I already voted by absentee ballot, and no, I couldn’t vote for Hillary.  Our nation needs to move forward, not backward.  We already had 8 years of a Clinton in office, anyone else remember what it was like?  No, I’m not ready for Whitewater Gate 3, or Lewinsky Gate 4.  Unfortunately that’s what I akin her running to, a bad sequel.

When I look at where we are now, and how we got here, I really wonder.  It seems to me the NAFTA Hillary’s husband signed into law did more harm than good.  I guess that’s really the only place I let Bush off the hook.  The job’s began headed out of the US before he took office, of course, did he do anything to stop it?  Stem the tide?  No, I feel the Clintons deserve some of the blame as well.

I realize she was only the first lady then, and she wasn’t running the country, or was she?  Sure seems like she wears the pants in that family, so that would mean she’d bare part of the responsibility.   As far as I’m concerned NAFTA was the plug that was pulled, that allowed the slow drain of jobs from our economy.  Maybe if the focus of her campaign was to undo NAFTA and the bad things her husband and Bush did, I’d be a little more inclined to listen to her.  But so far, and we’re late in the season, I’m hearing nothing new.

At least with Obama his message of change resonates, and he’s not afraid to speak his mind.  Talking about climate change, jobs and green energy he’s at least talking about heading in a positive direction.  I’m still apprehensive of putting all my eggs in his basket, but between him, McCain, and Hillary, I’ll take the chance on Obama.  This country needs a new direction, and a change from the old guard.  Hopefully Obama will be the champion he purports to be.

I for one appreciate reading and participating in the discussion continuing in the diary, Taming the Tiger 1.

Hierc, would you like to put some teeth into the assertion of “tax flight” please?

Doug, can you split out the numbers for wage earners over $300K; their total tax burden; and the percentage of total tax collected by the state of Vermont, please?

Cairn, can you help split the difference between the Progressive and Republican points of view, please?

Nothing below the fold, except continued discussion, if you will.

Nate Freeman  

Well, I thought it was a petty complaint and I wouldn't even have written about it, but now I'm not so sure.

I've been subscribing to the Burlington Free Press, daily and Sunday, ever since I moved to Vermont in 1983. Naturally, sometimes the delivery service is good, sometimes not so good. In the last few years it's been generally good, but last weekend we had two days in a row when we got an incomplete paper. Saturday we got a very skimpy paper, even skimpier than usual, but there was at least one section missing. I called and spent some time trying to deal with the awful (and new) voice recognition automated attendant, then I finally started hitting the 0 button until I got to talk to a human being, who advised me that it wouldn't be possible to have someone deliver the whole paper to my house.

Sunday, the same thing. I'm not sure what sections were missing, except I know for sure that the comics and the color supplement were missing, and I missed my Doonesbury and Dilbert, so I called again. Same routine, same repeated banging on the 0 button until I got to talk to someone. That time they promised they would send me a replacement paper, not that day (remember, they aren't bothering to deliver replacement papers anymore) but the next day, along with my Monday paper. They also promised to have a district manager call me.

Monday: no Sunday paper, no call from a district manager. So far, this just seems routine, right? Bad service from a company you do business with isn't usually surprising, it happens all the time. What makes it a bigger story is what I read in Seven Days this week:

Vermont’s largest daily newspaper, which is owned by media giant Gannett Company, has outsourced nearly all of its circulation and delivery calls to a regional calling center in Louisville, Kentucky. The change, which took effect about two months ago, is part of a push by the nation’s largest newspaper publishing chain to consolidate the business operations of its 85 media properties across the United States.

So thanks, Gannett: worse service, job losses for Vermonters, more irritated customers.

Oh, and if that district manager feels like calling, I have the same phone number you've had on file for me since 1983. 

Mark Levine, former Counsel in the House of Representatives:

The hard work began here in Vermont. There is more work to be done.

Toward the end of this 7 minute video, Mr. Levine tells us what our part is.