First a caveat: I don’t think today’s mortgage crisis is the cause of our current economic regression. It is, in my opinion, merely a deliberately caused symptom of modern day cheap labor capitalistic theology. But that’s been discussed before on this board, and I’m sure will be again  … just not here and now.

In a previous discussion folks were asked to list their top five items regarding what should be done to improve Vermont’s economic condition. In my interpretation of the ensuing posts and replies the general consensus was to work with today’s list of Acronyms such VEDA and others.

I argued that we needed to change our way of thinking about our economy … and today’s Washington Post provides a great story that illustrates (in part) why I feel that way.

Now that the Federal Reserve has pledged billions of dollars to rescue Wall Street bankers from possible default, lawmakers and regulators are turning their attention to helping average citizens — from homeowners in danger of foreclosure to people who want to buy a home.

(Democrats, Bush Square Off Over Housing Relief, Washington Post, 03/20/08)

The short version of this story, and the story of all the proposals regarding this issue, is simple: we’ll buy our way out of our debt hole by making it easier to go further into debt.

I know … it makes absolutely no sense! But that is exactly what has been, is being and will be proposed by big business and big government.

The thinking behind this is extremely simplistic: we need to “grow” the economy. And that is the mantra … “grow” the economy even when this “growth” is really nothing but an upwards transfer of wealth or destroys our only source of food, water, air and shelter (aka the physical environment), wrecks our health or poisons our minds with gobs of useless pandering information.

So here is MY economic question: at what point should we say “Fuck phony growth: let’s get strong!”

While the greater Vermont journalism world noted the retirement of columnist Peter Freyne, of even greater impact to the teeny Vermont blogosphere (political and non-political) was the retirement of Seven Days’ 802 Online by longtime blogger (and Seven Days online editor) Cathy Resmer. Cathy’s blog has been an electronic foundation, of sorts, that the developing weblog ecosystem in the state has grown from, on, and around over the past few years.

Unlike Freyne, however, Cathy isn’t going anywhere. Rather, she’s simply retooling the way she manages and develops the newsweekly’s rapidly developing online presence, continuing to do an extraordinary job of interfacing the traditional media outlet into the realm of new media. Nevertheless, the passing of 802 Online suggests the passing of an era for Vermont bloggery, and for that reason, we tip our collective hats to Cathy and 802, looking forward to what comes next.

At this Saturday’s Representative Town Meeting in Brattleboro, a Resolution calling for no pre-emptive strikes on Iran will be put up for the vote in a non-binding Resolution.

Several months ago I spied a story about this happening last March in Gary, Indiana. I shopped it around to several of the lefty crowd and got no interest. They were all working on the Indictment. After Dora Bouboulis decided to not run for re-election to the Selectboard, she volunteered to present it at Town Mtg. I’ve received some criticism for it on iBrattleboro, and this evening posted this piece below on why this Reaolution should be adopted:

Cross-posted from iBrattleboro.com:

To my mind, the bottom line that seems the obvious objection to any more spread of invasion we’re doing is practical: death and taxes. Deaths of our own countryfolk and the mideast’s countryfolk, and taxes that our children’s children will be paying from their WalWorld paychecks. But that’s the practical side. I’m a fiscal realist, and I hate death. It’s all wasteful.

In the larger, moral picture, I just think it’s imperative that we do every single thing within our grasp to stop this war machine before more veterans come home ruined for life; before parents, spouses and children send their loved ones off to some other place to receive back a folded flag and silence. I saw enough of that with Vietnam, waiting every day for the two officers bearing news about my brother, or sighing with relief when it was someone else’s door they went to, then feeling like crap when you heard the family in that house wail. I was lucky, my brother came back alive.

So yes, I have an agenda in pushing for this Resolution. I don’t want anyone else to go through losing anyone, anymore. Not for a fake “wah on terrah”, not for a bunch of lies, not for big business, not for the Rapture. These are false reasons.

Gary, Indiana, is not known for its progressive politics, but it passed a much more inclusive Resolution. When I shopped it around to friends, the same suggestion came back; shorten it. So Dora Bouboulis and I cut it down to what would cause the least argument. That text is on another post:

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/ar…

If you are a Town Mtg Rep, please consider your vote to be a Yes on this Resolution. We don’t need any more death and taxes.