Because simple commentary will not suffice.

C’mon… you know you wanna…

I'm sure many of you rec'd the email from Ian Carleton regarding the upcoming Curtis Awards. At the bottom of the email is this note:

P.S. We will be announcing Award recipients in the next couple of weeks, but it is not too late to nominate a deserving individual. Please visit here for the details: http://www.vtdemocrats.org/page/s/nominations

The first people who came to mind were Jon Odum for maintaining this forum and David's son CJCurtis for revitalizing the Northfield Dems. Alas, another year, eh?

I'll have to admit, trying to think of a Vermont Dem whose efforts and accomplishments rose above and beyond in 2007 was something of a head-scratcher. But as Jimmy Neutron would say in a moment requiring an immediate moment of brilliance: Think! Think! …BrainBlast!!!

My nominee below the fold. I'm sure you have a nominee to offer as well, so go ahead and post 'em, then make sure you present that person to the powers that be.

First, the rules:

The awards recognize individuals involved in the political process in Vermont and nationwide. The Awards will also serve as a fundraiser for the Vermont Democratic Party. Awards will be presented to leaders who meet the following criteria: An individual who has demonstrated, throughout his or her public/professional career or participation in the political process, a dedication to the values of the Democratic Party, particularly with regard to upholding the legal, social, economic and political rights of the underrepresented. Nominees can be any of the following: A Vermont elected official (at any level, past or present) A Vermont political activist/volunteer A Vermont political contributor/fundraiser

Now, my nomination.

In my opinion, Howard Dean, a 2002 recipient of the Curtis Awards, should be recognized once again in 2008 for his work in delivering party renewal through his once controversial 50-State Strategy in the presidential campaigns. Howard Dean overcame a culture of insider DC culture to implement his plan with an outcome of success not only in 2006, but in the current primary season. Record numbers of Democrats are coming out to vote in every state. Dean's efforts are a dramatic change from the prior strategy to focus on “key” states, and given this historic primary of 2008, he has provided the funding and organizational infrastructure that will inevitably become a winning strategy for decades to come.

I am proud of our former governor for his accomplishments as DNC Chair, and I respectfully submit my nomination of him for the 2008 David C. Curtis Awards.

Nate Freeman Northfield, Vermont

( – promoted by JDRyan)

else the state might have to … well … enforce some environmental standards.

From the Burlington Free Press

The Vermont Natural Resources Council visited 29 randomly selected construction sites around the state last summer and found virtually all were not taking what are often simple measures to prevent erosion and control sediment, said Kim Greenwood, the council’s staff scientist who conducted the study.

Greenwood, a former staff member of the state Agency of Natural Resources, said the state also declined to punish violators, fining only two developers in the past eight years.

Agency officials defended the state’s stormwater program and said changes made in 2006 called for a period of education rather than enforcement.

Peter LaFlamme, director of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Water Quality, said last year the state increased its inspections of construction sites and once the rules are more well known the state will likely have tougher enforcement. The agency is establishing a new compliance and enforcement center that will establish standards for when to go after violators, he said. “We’ve worked with people in a cooperative manner,” he said.

My head hurts.

You may have seen this report in today's paper: 

Vt. delegation gets A+ for poverty votes March 11, 2008 By Dan Barlow Vermont Press Bureau Vermont's congressional delegation received extremely high marks for its voting records last year on poverty issues, according to a new report, just as most of those bills failed to get the support necessary to pass the U.S. Senate.

A 40-page report from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law gave both U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch an A+ for their voting record while U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy received an A.

Vermont joined Hawaii, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as the only four states whose Washington delegation received all A marks on their voting record on poverty bills, according to the report.

 To see the full report, go here.

 I think this is great news, partly because it highlights the work of the National Center on Poverty Law, formerly known as Clearinghouse, whose publications I've been reading ever since I started work as a Legal Aid lawyer back in 1979.

What's more telling, though, is the next two paragraphs:

Yet, despite the fact that most of the members in the U.S. House and Senate received passing grades on their poverty voting records, most of these proposals did not muster up enough votes to actually pass both chambers, especially in the Senate where the threat of a filibuster from Republicans forced supporters to seek a minimum of 60 votes to end debate.

“That's something I don't think the America people understand,” said Sanders, who said Republicans are “obstructing” the work of the Senate. “A lot of these votes were not yes or no on the specific bill. They were yes or no to end a filibuster.” Poverty has not been an attractive issue for politicians to talk about in recent years, but the 2005 hurricane tragedy in New Orleans made people realize “we had taken our eyes off the ball for a few years,” according to John Bouman, the president of the Poverty Center, which released its report on Monday.

That's right. We have every reason to be proud of our delegation, but it's important to remember that what is blocking progress is the Republicans across the country.

Ronald Reagan and his war on the poor continues to rule the national scene. 

(FP’ing this because it’s very important that we call Governor Douglas on Monday and ask him to sign the bill. Spread the word, and major h/t to Rama for all the work he’s put into this. I added the phone #’s to the bottom of the post. – promoted by JDRyan)

(Cross posted from VermontIRV and mostly quoted from the Vermont Progressive Party)

From the Vermont Progressive Party newsletter:

Nothing is ever certain in the legislature, but after years and years, it appears the House is ready to pass IRV and send it to Governor Douglas for a signature.  Take a moment to contact your Representative and urge them to support IRV on the House floor.  Rep. Chris Pearson will present the bill on the floor. You can listen to the debate Thursday afternoon on VPR’s stream.

(from JD) – The governor’s phone number is 802-828-3333, or the toll-free in VT number is 800-649-6825. Please call on Monday.

The “Democrats for Pollina” website (such as it is) is up at http://democratsforpollina.com. Currently, it consists entirely of a list of presumed Democrats… for Pollina (duh). Some notable names on the list, including internationally lauded author and frequent GMD commenter Bill McKibben. There are also a lot of familiar Dem names on there. Janet Munt, of course. Also a lot of bona fide party names such as Rob Backus, Louise Coates, Peter Grant and others. A lot of folks who pass in and out of the whole Democrat thing, such as Alexandra Thayer and Dave Grundy. Some names I assumed were more independent sorts than Dems, such as Andrea Stander.

So it looks mostly legit, but should be read with a skeptical eye. I was surprised to see author and activist Brian Tokar on the list, for example – not because he’s such a dyed in the wool Dem… quite the contrary. He’s a Social Anarchist. That’s…er… quite a fudge factor for the Dem label, there…

WCAX on the DFP press conference:

Monday morning, Democrats for Pollina– a citizen group of Vermont Democrats– announced they are launching a write-in campaign to place Anthony Pollina on the Democratic ballot this fall…

“…It’s about time that the two entities got together behind a single candidate and given the circumstances this year, I think the Democrats and Progressives have a great opportunity to elect a governor. We ought to get behind Anthony,” said Harvey Carter

What’s interesting about this, is that the report doesn’t say “write in” campaign on the ballot, it says a write-in campaign “to place Anthony Pollina on the Democratic ballot.” Interesting if true, and not a misprint, as Pollina would have to consent via signature to allow himself to appear on the ballot, as Bernie Sanders did – which is frankly what so man of us have urged him to do. We clearly need a primary to avoid a 3-way in November, and if it takes semantics to get Pollina to agree to honor one, I suspect most Dems would be okay with that. In fact, such a de facto Prog-Dem primary may be a critical part to any chance of winning.

And if this is the word, don’t count out the possibility that Pollina may well intend to follow through with it. This is no rogue group, it’s an arm of the Pollina campaign (although organized as a separate PAC). Emails went out promoting the press conference from Progressive Representative David Zuckerman, after all.

The question then will be, should activists step up and push this all the way? The logic is sound – and in fact, is only consistently sound if a comparable push would be undertaken to put Galbraith on the Progressive ballot after he formally announces – with an agreement from both candidates to honor the results if one is eliminated. I’m sure the Prog powers-that-be squealing would rival what is likely to be the inevitable Dem powers-that-be squealing, but that’s the powers-that-be’s jobs.

As a postscript, it’s worth noting the not-so-cryptic announcement/threat from “Snarky Boy” Michael Colby, both on his own site, and on the GMD sidebar as “LeftField” that “A true progressive needs to challenge Pollina in the Prog Party primary so his followers will have to focus on their own party’s efforts rather than soiling that of the Dems…And I think I know someone who’s interested..”. One may assume that this suggests his intent to jump into the Progressive Gubernatorial primary, but it’s more likely that he’s referring to his mentor, perennial Liberty Union candidate Boots Wardinski. Wardinski has had a negligible effect on statewide ballots, but the relatively small Progressive ballot (especially if there are Pollina supporters crossing over to support him on the D ballot) might provide a greater opportunity for impact. It’s hard to imagine him having any serious effect, though, given the reverence Pollina is held in by even the least partisan Progressives.