….but somebody had to do it:

And yeah, I admit it. I voted “not sure it was a good idea” on the poll, but might as well have fun with it now that it’s out there…

Whether it is the business of Burlington City Government, Chittenden County public safety issues, Vermont State Government layoffs all the while the Governor’s favored employees receive bonuses, or the latest Bush/Cheney fiasco, open government is fast becoming obsolete.

Not so with your rights or your tax dollars.  In spite of the Feingold, Dodd, Leahy, amendment, the Senate is poised to pass a FISA bill that grants immunity to telecom giants who listened to your phone calls and read your emails and without court order and without cause turned your records over to the Bush administration.

If you are a Burlington resident or business owner, you may wish to have tonight’s open government task force and forum on your agenda.  The meeting is tonight, Wednesday July 8 at the McClure Facility onNorth Winooski Avenue from 7 pm – 9 pm.

Look at Burlington’s skyline and you will see the Marriott Hotel, which did not provide the affordable housing that was part of the approval process.  You will also see a building that dwarfs everything around it and has the look of a 1950’s style commercial high-rise.  This issue and the muffed zoning rewrite brought the public forward to let city council know it’s concerns are not being heard, and its tax dollars are being misused.  

Fast forward to late April and new hope was on the horizon when Mayor Kiss and City Council teamed up to create an open government task force, which will hold its 4th very public meeting tonight.

Still, it is not all roses… local residents from across the city responded to the invitiation to fill three resident seats.  By random selection Steve McIntyre, Damon Lane and Jeff Royer were selected and agreed to serve on the Committee as  resident members, according to Mayor Kiss.  At that point in time, I and others were heavily critical that no women and no minorities were appointed.

So far I have sat in on two open government meetings.  The first has only public comments, which was OK, but also like sending something into a black hole, and the third meeting (my second) seemed to be a surprisingly honest and frank discussion about CEDO — Burlington’s Community Economic Development Organization.

Missed meetings and want to know more?  Open Government Committee was recorded on 2008-06-25.  You can watch this program on Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television, on Comcast Cable and Burlington Telecom systems at the following times:

Saturday July 12, 10:30 PM, Sunday July 13, 3:30 AM, Sunday July 13, 9:30 AM, or Sunday July 13, 3:30 PM.

Have things to say about open government in Burlington, then tonight is your last opportunity.  Believe me, after the Task Force makes its recommendation, you will hear me and others comment again.

UPDATE: Annikee points out that the Guard also advertises on AIr America Radio, which makes a difference. I still think its a bad idea to be supporting media outlets with explicitly partisan agendas with tax dollars, but at least there seems to be equal opportunity payoffs going on. / UPDATE

Just imagine the hew and cry, the outrage, the backlash – if this site, or one like it, had some form of government sponsorship. If such a partisan, left-wing online community openly touted direct support from taxpayers, regardless of whether those taxpayers were liberal, conservative, or what have you. How dare my money go to support this garbage! It’s proof of collusion – liberals and their big government agenda! The government shouldn’t be in the business of promoting this kind of partisan agenda!

I imagine it’d be quite a show.

I wonder if far-right reactionary Paul Beaudry of True North Radio would chime in? One would think so, except for the fact that, on his website, the first sponsor listed is The National Guard. That’s right, your tax dollars at work, and all to help keep the most reactionary drivel Vermont has to offer (the site, among other things, currently refers to liberalism as a “disease”) alive and kicking. Guess he can’t quite make his li’l enterprise work without feeding at the public trough, eh? What would Adam Smith say?

Somebody should ask him about it. Maybe this Thursday, when regular visitor and former unofficial co-host Rob Roper, Chair of the Vermont Republican Party, stops by.

A couple of awards to give out. Wish I could say that either one came as a big surprise…

Quickest to politicize tragedy: Gov. Jim Douglas.

Sure didn’t take long, but honestly it took a couple more days than I expected. Everybody from the Governor to the Legislative Leaders rightfully put out strong words about the tragedy when the news broke, but Douglas has the distinction of using it to ham-handedly push his electoral agenda before anyone by linking it to a renewed push for his warmed-over, already rejected idea for “civil commitment” that would further extend offenders’ sentences indefinitely. Why does this, and his push for xxx qualify as crass politicization? Because neither would have made one whit of difference in this case. Add that to the fact that Douglas’s tried-and-true propoganda modus operandum is always to return to his oft-rejected (and meaningless) gimmicks at every opportunity, and its clear that the Bennett tragedy is just the latest opportunity for playing the same, tired (but still effective) game.

What makes it even more abhorrent is that xxx has been roundly rejected by everyone except the knee-jerk, emote-now-think-later wing of the GOP, as its blatantly unconstitutional. Of course the guy who put his arm around Dick Cheney, waxing enthused about how “lucky” we are to “have George W. Bush in the White House” is probably not too concerned about constitutionality. It’s pretty gross that he’s using this tragedy as a tool to tear into it further, though. Yuck. Double yuck.

Cheap drama-ing-up of coverage award: Vermont AP’s Wilson Ring.

I was surprised to find myself on a first-name basis with the victim of this too-horrific-for-words crime over the weekend, as the AP writer broke with their standard protocol to consistently refer to Brooke Bennett not as “Bennett” or even “the victim,” but by the first name “Brooke.” Even her photo in the Times Argus was captioned “Brooke.”

Come on. For one thing, this issue is emotional enough without naked attempts by reporters to further personalize it. More to the point, though, it’s not your job to drama it up by making the victim some sort of character in a media storyline. If it were my child that had been killed, and I caught a whiff of that sort of manipulative tackiness (especially in clear contrast with standard reporting practices), I’d be furious.

Please, folks. Do your jobs, and only your jobs. I can think of nothing more serious than this tragedy, and nothing that, therefore, should be treated with more seriousness, respect and professionalism.

This is just a short note today:  check out Philip Baruth's analysis on Vermont Daily Briefing. 

Baruth, reviewing an interview he held in March, cites what he calls Douglas' “two-note campaign strategy”

I'm not so sure I'd call it “two-note” since Douglas isn't exactly trying to play a tune.  Boxing terminology actually comes to mind since the governor has been known to throw quite a few low blows and rabbit punches over the last six or seven years.

Let's hope that the people who can benefit most from VDB today will actually read it.

Below the fold:  Appropriate boxing terminology, defined; and Baruth's explanation of the “two-note” two-step.

But really, just go to the source over at VDB. Special note:  Counterpunch, defined below, is what Douglas' opponents should be practicing.  

And Chief Second (see below):  At this point, I'd recommend Philip Baruth.

Jab : A quick, straight punch thrown with the lead hand. It can be used as a set-up for power punches, as a way to gauge distance, to keep an opponent wary, or as a defensive move to slow an advancing opponent. 

Hook : A short power punch in which the boxer swings from the shoulder with his elbow bent, bringing his fist from the side toward the centre. 

Counterpunch : A counterattack, begun immediately after an opponent throws a punch. A “counter-puncher” typically waits for his opponent to throw punches, then blocks or slips past them and exploits the opening in his opponent's position. 

Chief Second: The person designated by the fighter to provide advice and assistance during the bout, usually the trainer. 

VDB's “two-note campaign strategy” a la Douglas:

Let me just go to the second note of the two-note Jim Douglas re-election strategy. The first note is the series of ads accusing the opponent of being a wild-eyed tax-addict.

The second is to pick up on some hot-button local security issue. So in his first run, against Doug Racine, it was heroin, and what he called “a Megan’s Law for drug dealers.” What Douglas said in that race was simple: “We need a Megan’s law for drug dealers, because heroin is here, it’s scary, and our children need to be protected.”