Per the Kids are Priority One Coalition:

The projected revenue for the rest of the state’s 2009 fiscal year (which just began July 2008) is lower than the estimates used when the legislature approved the state budget in May. Experts project a $24 million shortfall in the General Fund. As a result, some changes need to be made in order to prevent deficit spending. Neither the Douglas administration nor the legislators will consider additional revenue-raising measures or using rainy day funds (funds set aside for a specific purpose) until later in the fiscal year. Instead, the Governor has proposed cuts in General Fund spending–recommended without the benefit of public input.

This is a rerun of what we saw a few months ago.  We’ve blogged about this extensively, so I’ll just recap:  the plan is not to cut such expenses as Douglas administration spokespersons.  It’s to cut human services.  

Again.

So let me make this simple: there is no legitimate need for Jim Douglas to have multiple spokespeople.  Those are well-paid positions which provide no public service, but do help the governor self-promote.

Another thing we do not need is to move money from the Catamount fund to mitigate cuts in the early childhood education budget.  

These budget proposals screw the poor for the sake of the convenience of the Douglas administration.  This is pathetic.  It is amoral.  

It is horrendous.

One of Odum's videos describes the subject of condom distribution, and of course it deserves some kind of response, both fun and critical.

On the fun side, I'd like to go back to my earlier comment that Republican's long-term political strategy seems to be to make more babies than Democrats and then teach their kids their despicable ways.  Political Darwinism at it's finest.  Democrats and liberals need to counter this with one of two tactics.  First, we can match baby for baby in the same way the US and Soviet Union matched nuclear warhead for nuclear warhead.  Second, we can surround the Republican convention as well as other national, state, and local events with a ring of condom distributors.

On the critical side, too many of these videos are bringing little information about the convention itself and too much Vermont-focused or self-focused gossip.  

Hey, it's cool.  But show us something we can't see at home.  Interviews with Leahy, Kunin or one's own self are fun and all, but it can also come off as pictures from the family vacation.

That being said, it also looks like some organizers or Dem hierarchy folk may be limiting what you can actually point your cameras at.  It seems a bit ironic given the veneer of openness.  Although a well-intentioned video might become campaign fodder for McCain et all.

Keep up the good work, crew.

Nate

It was a full house at the breakfast hosted by Senator Leahy’s Green Mountain PAC this morning. One person I caught up with was former Governor Kunin who has been blogging herself during the convention at the Huffington Post. To my delight, her reports are among the best I’ve seen… really good stuff. I asked her how it felt to be a blogger…

Quick note: There’ll be other stuff soon – written and video, including some video not well suited to the little zannel widget above, such as an anti-war demonstration I was fortunate enough to encounter. There was, reportedly, tear gas fired at protesters last night while I was elsewhere, but details seem to be sketchy.

Also a quick thanks to Julie and others for keeping the local focus while we’re off running around confused in the wild, wild west.

Not sure if anyone saw today’s broadcast of Democracy Now! but their convention correspondent Jeremy Scahill caught up with our congressman, Peter Welch. Scahill asks him about his support for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her inability to support impeachment. Here’s the exchange they had.

JEREMY SCAHILL: While the hype inside the Pepsi Center is mostly about Barack Obama, many in the social justice movement have criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Perhaps the most frequently invoked of these criticisms is that of her statement upon taking over as speaker in 2006, when she said that impeachment of President Bush was off the table. We put that question to Representative Peter Welch of Vermont.

REP. PETER WELCH: The issue here is accountability. And you’ve got to be candid with the American people. Congress voted with the President to go to war. So they don’t have great standing in second-guessing at this point. We’ve got to bring the troops home, is my view. Secondly, on the whole wiretapping, which is the other area that is of enormous concern to me and many Americans, Congress voted to give the President that authority. So, frankly, I think people can be looking not just to impeachment, but to putting pressure on their members of Congress to use the power of the purse on the war to cut off funding and to use the power of the vote to demand we protect constitutional rights and not re-pass FISA, as Congress recently did.

JEREMY SCAHILL: I think some can reasonably say there’s been a serious failure of leadership from Nancy Pelosi on some of the key issues for the antiwar movement, civil liberties community. It seems like the House caves on almost all of the major issues of the Bush administration’s agenda.

REP. PETER WELCH: Well, Pelosi has voted against the war. Pelosi voted against the FISA-the original FISA legislation. I happen to think Pelosi’s doing a terrific job. And the original Congress, when they voted to support the war, it was a catastrophic mistake for this country. They got a lot of bogus information from the President. But the members of Congress who took the time and had the courage got it right. Pelosi was one of them.

Naturally, this pisses me off. But did any of us really expect Welch to respond differently? I didn’t think so.  

Both of these from the Rutland Herald:

Budget cuts irk critical politico:

Efforts to trim $32 million from the state budget turned political Monday when a prominent Democrat (sic) lawmaker criticized Gov. James Douglas for proposing more than $400,000 in cuts to child-care subsidies while preserving at least seven public relations positions.

In the wake of a downgraded revenue forecast in July, the Douglas administration last week unveiled a proposal to cut spending by $24 million in the General Fund and $8 million in the Transportation Fund. That list included $436,000 in cuts to a child-care subsidy program that helps low-income Vermonters pay for daycare.

Rep. Floyd Nease, Assistant Majority Leader of the Vermont House, said that Douglas could restore the cuts by instead axing seven taxpayer-funded public relations jobs.

“What we’re doing is cutting child-care subsidies to working Vermonters instead of cutting Governor Douglas’ public relations machine,” Nease said.

and…Dem rivals pile on Dubie:

Tom Costello and Nate Freeman faced off Monday night in a polite debate that saw most of the two Democrats’ criticisms aimed at the man one of them will face in November, incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie.

These are the headlines we should be seeing.

The other day, as odum and I were planning what what we would do, I ambitiously thought there’d be a whole lotta posting going on. Then those pesky logistics get in the way – bus rides that should take 10 minutes take 45… the line at the Pepsi center takes 45 minutes just to get through security. Or, when you finally make it to the convention floor, the computer situation is not what you wanted.

But, nevertheless, it was a spectacle. I’ll have more on that aspect over at Five Before Chaos hopefully soon. It did kind of feel like I was at a rockshow. I camE in just as Ted Kennedy was ending his speech. Claire McCaskill’s speech that folowed sounded like one of those political speeches you buy in a box, that had just about every tired cliche you cold possibly imagine, followed by some (inexplicable) heavy metal music for when she left the stage.

Michelle Obama’s brother introduced her with thoughtful words. Her speech, although way to heavy on the sentimentality angle for my tastes, did seem to move many people in the crowd. Regardless of the politics of it, she is a very thoughtful and well-spoken woman (which is probably why she gets so much scorn from the right-wing).  You could tell that some of the words were carefully crafted to counter some of the right-wing nonsense (full text of speech here). All in all, I was a sort of detached observer to the whole thing. It was a surreal experience being in the thick of it all regardless of the politics of it all.  I’ll have some vids hopefully soon, but I threw together a sideshow for your enjoyment. I’m unfortunately not using the best photo equipment but it’s not bad, either. The flickr thing put them out of order, unfortunately.

Crossposted at Docudharma.

The Big Tent was a hip and happening place. Lotsa people in the bloggers lounge today. I met up with some of the shakers and movers of the blogosphere: Markos, MissLaura, BarbinMD, Plutonium Planet, Kagro X, and others. Daily Kos has their own couch reserved for them. Everybody there is cool. I also ran into Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis and Matt Stoller of MyDD.

Lots of people made their appearances. Arianna Huffington, my wonderful Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, Paul Krugman, and more.

Paul Krugman of The New York Times

Arianna Huffington

There was lots of media covering The Big Tent. Eat your heart out MSM. You loathe us yet we’re the ones getting tons of press. It’s great.

Not much more to report. The rest is just a blur. I think that was when the Fat Tire Ales kicked in. However….

More below the fold.  

…. there was a rumor going around that the RNC was sponsoring an event for the PUMA folks. It seems to me the RNC wanted to exploit and take advantage of the bitter Clinton supporters who are out here. I heard some of the DKos front-pagers were going to crash it tonight. If I hear of anything I’ll be sure to post it ASAP.

Before I headed back to the Highlands, I did catch an MSNBC round table show with the usual suspects: Rachel Maddow, Norah O’Donnell, Pat Buchanan, and a special guest I wasn’t familiar with. The part I caught, Maddow and O’Donnell were arguing over something. Rachel said something that made the crowd cheer then they went to commercial. Then they cheered her on some more.

O’Donnell gets pwned by Rachel Maddow

 “The Bastard” known as Pat Buchanan

That’s it for tonight so….

…. “STICK AROUND. WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH MORE STUFF!”

Crossposted at Docudharma.

Michelle Obama spoke tonight but I was too damn exhausted to cover it. I was one of many bloggers getting bombed with all the free beer they’re giving us under The Big Tent. So I guess I’ll just give you some random observations throughout the day along with some pictures to boot. The good news is Green Mountain Daily got some press in Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. Look for it tomorrow….. I hope. So here’s the recap:

*Spent most of the day trying to get to the place to pick up my creds. Luckily I caught a Falun Gong parade. They marched all the way around the Pepsi Center. Check it out.

Lots more below the fold.

* It took me forever just to get my press credentials. I had to have a runner come out and meet me at the first perimeter with a pass. Then they let me in. After that, it was another perimeter just to get to the media tents and The Pepsi Arena. It was like going through airport security. They made me take my laptop out, my wallet, cellphone, etc. I went through the metal detector, got “wand raped,” and then I was free.

*In line were Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of “Morning Joe.” They stood out like sore thumbs.

 Joe and Mika wait to get in.

A young girl went up to interview them and asked Scarborough if he was going to The Big Tent. He responded by saying, “not unless they pay me well,” and then went on to criticize them because they criticize him. Brzezinski just stood there and validated everything he said. What an ass.

* I got my creds through Talk Radio News Service. Great group of folks. The crappy aspect of the media tents were there was no wifi. The DNC wouldn’t permit it from what I heard. When I asked Dan Patterson of Talk Radio News why the DNC wouldn’t permit it, he said “because the DNC are assholes?” Pretty funny. All the usuals suspects were there. I saw the WaPost, Newsweek, Time, Christian Science Monitor, AP had a HUGE presence, WSJ, even GQ was there as well as Politico, NPR affiliates and more.  

* CNN and FOX have their own buildings. They literally took out entire Pepsi Arena restaurants. CNN on the other hand, is in the restaurant business. I’m serious. Check it out.

 CNN: The restaurant franchise? WTF?

 FOX News headquarters: In a burger joint.

* The scene inside the second perimeter is surreal. There are all these empty streets with nothing but cops (lots of them) and tons of golf carts carrying around what looked like important people. Weird. The cops have these friggin long billy clubs while other are carrying machine guns. It’s like a couple notches below a Palestinian check point. It’s that f-ed up.

* After I got my bearings of the area I just had to leave. I did walk by Ted Koppel on my way out and then at the first perimeter I saw a black stretch limo pull up with Colorado license plates saying “TOPGUN-1.” Out came Andrea Mitchell of NBC Nightly News and she was brisked away through security. Whatever.

 Andrea Mitchell: TOPGUN-1? Whatever.

I biked my way over to The Big Tent and things got even better. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to cover Michelle Obama. I’ll be in there tomorrow night to cover whoever’s speaking. Now for Part II: The fun under The Big Tent.

Favorite photo of the day: Rednecks for Obama!

I’m having fun in Vermont with my new web cam 🙂

(crossposted at the UK Guardian website)

The state of Vermont is many things to many people, as those of us who live here are subjected to a daily helping of someone or another trying to define the mercurial “Vermont Way.” One thing everyone can agree on though is that Vermont is small. Burlington, it’s largest city, is home to a mere 40,000 people.

The state’s size and rural character makes for unique political dynamics. Vermont doesn’t have the critical population mass to sustain a “political class” in the sense that larger states do. What it has instead is something smaller and less impenetrable; what could be called a series of political “cliques.” In other states, for example, the prized national delegate slots are generally allotted to party elite, but in Vermont there exist opportunities for those who are not blessed with such institutional gravitas.

At 18, first-time voter and Obama delegate Taylor Bates may well be the youngest delegate at the convention and will be able to boast a unique introduction to the Democratic process. Bates, who at the 2008 State Convention was a high school senior, had to defeat more than 100 other candidates for a national delegate position, including some current officeholders. Bates was well positioned to be the beneficiary of an influx of new activists, engaged by the Obama campaign and who were moved to send newer – and younger – faces to Denver’s national stage.

But you didn’t have to be a new voter to break through the array of insiders. Delegate Daria MonDesire is a writer who has lived many years in Vermont’s northeast kingdom. Previously unengaged with Party politics, her compelling oratory captured the roomful of State Convention voters – no small feat given that each candidate was allotted a mere thirty seconds to speak.

MonDesire’s (pronounced mondeZEER) work has been published widely, and is working on a novel about the “first black president.” An African American woman in the most rural region of the “whitest” state, she drew national attention through an article that took umbridge at the declaration of Bill Clinton as “the first black president” during his personal travails. As such, she is not unfamiliar with national attention, but this stage is one she wouldn’t have expected to find herself on.

“I’m not nervous at all….maybe I should be,” MonDesire remarked the Sunday before the Convention. After acknowledging “survivor’s guilt” at being one of the few  Vermont delegates selected, she made clear that she had no intention of quietly walking back into political anonymity when it ended.

MonDesire said that the delegate selection process had left her “disenchanted,” citing its favored treatment of high ranking officeholders, and the influence of  “the muscle of Chittenden County,” the state’s largest county.

MonDesire indicated she “would like to do something to help change it.”

Bates and MonDesire are enjoying opportunities they would likely not have had access to elsewhere. Opportunities that will likely prove transformative – both for themselves, and ultimately for the Vermont Democratic Party.