The Daysies are in, and once again our esteemed colleague Philip Baruth hauls in the big prize, Best Political Blog. In other words, once again our lame efforts at ballot-box-stuffing, underhanded bribe attempts, and ill-concealed blackmail schemes fell short, so GMD comes in as the runner-up.

Naturally, we'd like to win one, but we also enjoy and admire PB's writing, so congrats!

 On the non-political listing, Bill Simmon of Candleblog gets the readers' choice award. Bill also tops our non-political blogroll, so if you don't usually venture out of the political realm, hop on over there. We think you'll like it.

 Congratulations to both Philip and Bill. Keep up the good work. 

Some of you may have caught Art Woolf’s “solution” to  the question of how we are to keep warm this winter – – electric storage heaters.

In his post on the “vermonttiger” blog reported in the Times-Argus he suggests that using off-peak electricity to heat your home is the way to go.

I know something about those critters and thought I’d discuss the pros and cons.

But first let’s start at the beginning – – there is smart energy and dumb energy.  The dumbest is perhaps cord wood.  It costs the least because its hard to handle and can’t do much but burn, somewhat inefficiently.  Next in order of dumbest to smartest is wood chips, then wood pellets, then fossil fuels, then at the top of the heap, the smartest energy – – electricity.

That’s why around these parts, electricity has always been (except for short-lived price spikes) much more expensive than the other fuel choices.

Electric storage heaters, of the type that Art is talking about, store heat in ceramic bricks during the night time when electricity is cheapest and release the heat as needed. These heaters are expensive and very heavy.  They include the necessary controls to allow them to heat in this fashion.  There is nothing new about them.  Many buildings put them in during the various other energy crises that we’ve had.

However, they are much despised little units and are typically removed when fuel prices stabilize.  Why?  Well there are a few problems with them.  A primary one is that they absorb the heat during night-time and give it off 24/7.  When heat isn’t needed during the day, they are still very hot and give off heat anyway (not as much as with the fan going, but overheating the space nonetheless).

And installing them isn’t cheap like Art suggests.  First you need an adequate electrical entrance to the building.  You need to remember that you need adequate capacity for two to three times what a electrically heated building would need because you can only accumulate the heat during the eight hour off peak period.  This generally means upgrading the service entrance to the building as well as running wires to all the storage heaters.

Then there is the concern of what happens after a power outage at night.  You won’t have any heat so you may then go and turn on the heaters during the daytime peak hours.  If there was substantial use of storage heaters this would create new utility peaks and increase power rates.

And, of course, if oil continues its downward trend, the investment in the storage heaters would be wasted.

Personally, I think we should save the smart energy for smart purposes and burn the dumb renewables like cordwood, chips and pellets.  Eventually the off-peak electricity will power a good number of automobiles.

Anyone driven down Route 7 from South Burlington to Shelburne lately? Not quite the thriving business district it once was, to say the very least. At least a half dozen empty buildings that haven’t been reoccupied. Noted businesses that have left include the Tuscan Sun, Sirloin Saloon, Vermont Country Kitchen, and Climb High. Roche’s Casual Furniture/Kasazza Kids made the move across the street to the old Climb High building, leaving their old venue vacant.

Is competition from the box stores in Williston leaving Shelburne Road in the dust? Does Route 7 just not have the draw to bring people like it once did? Tough saying really, but every rush hour Shelburne Road is literally clogged with cars. The people are there, they’re just not stopping to buy or eat. Why is that?

Hate to point the finger, but it didn’t seem like things were this bad before the Route 7 redo a couple years back. Maybe all those businesses were right and their worst case scenario’s have been realized? Could it be that all those traffic medians in the middle of the road did hurt business? Could it just be that the area is so known for it’s traffic that it’s just avoided in general? Or is it simply that the State of Vermont played with the traffic patterns and was too successful? After all, they were looking to lower the amount of time it took to get from one end of Shelburne road to the other, kudos to Agency of Transportation for this success.

But the vacant businesses? I think a couple factors are at play here. While it is easier to get from one end to the other, it certainly is harder to cross the road and get from one business to the next. Not having people crossing the road constantly does allow for better thru flow, but makes it trickier to visit the places you want. You have to consciously plan out where you’re going to start and end, and how best to navigate the flow of traffic. That’s a feat for seasoned Shelburne Road shoppers, let alone the visitors in town for the first time.

Looks like only time will tell. Will Shelburne Road become a ghost town, or return the profitable business district it once was?  

From The Nation:

  We write to congratulate you on the tremendous achievements of your campaign for the presidency of the United States.

Your candidacy has inspired a wave of political enthusiasm like nothing seen in this country for decades. In your speeches, you have sketched out a vision of a better future–in which the United States sheds its warlike stance around the globe and focuses on diplomacy abroad and greater equality and freedom for its citizens at home–that has thrilled voters across the political spectrum. Hundreds of thousands of young people have entered the political process for the first time, African-American voters have rallied behind you, and many of those alienated from politics-as-usual have been re-engaged.

 The open letter is not simply a reflexive attack on some of the apparent changes in Obama's position, but actually recognizes the values and concerns many of us have raised:

We recognize that compromise is necessary in any democracy. We understand that the pressures brought to bear on those seeking the highest office are intense. But retreating from the stands that have been the signature of your campaign will weaken the movement whose vigorous backing you need in order to win and then deliver the change you have promised.

You can follow this link to add your name to the open letter. 

Because this is just too damn surreal.

As some of you may remember, I reported earlier about the group of Burlington-area activists who had held a sit-in/lock down at the offices of weapons contractor General Dynamics and the local State’s Attorney who had vowed to “put an end to civil disobedience in Chittenden County” through prosecuting them to the fullest.  Well a couple of days ago I got an email update which said, in part:

As many of you know, our sentence included “restitution” to General Dynamics for alleged overtime fees for security guards, along with a six month deferred sentence (probation), and 50 hours of community service.  (Two of the activists) refused to pay General Dynamics, and were cited for Violation of Probation.

At their Violation of Probation arraignment, the judge couldn’t find probable cause because of obscure wording in the statute that doesn’t recognize failure to pay restitution as a violation.  Despite this ruling, the judge was furious with the two for not paying and charged them with Criminal Contempt of Court.  Heading into their CoC hearing, which was August 4, the lone two of the original ten who had the time, energy, and willingness to fight on were fully expecting to be convicted to 6 months in jail without a jury trial, as is apparently fairly standard for such situations.  As the two said in the email:

(We) refused to pay because we felt that in doing so, we would be giving in to the very company we originally opposed, and would be violating our values in a fundamental way.  While we accept that our actions are accompanied by serious consequences, and made our decision with this knowledge, we think that the latest developments have shed light on some interesting aspects of the so-called “justice system”.

Now I’ve just received an entirely unexpected follow-up email:

Court went in a fairly surprising direction.  (We) went expecting and prepared to go to jail, and the judge made it known that she was not in favor of “letting us off the hook”.  TJ Donovan, (the same State’s Attorney who previously vowed to do away with civil disobedience in his district), argued in our favor, stating that he didn’t think it would be beneficial to give us a criminal record, and that although he disagreed withour methods, he thought that “sticking to our principles was commendable”.

In the end, the deal that was worked out has the two activists paying double the amount of money originally sought by General Dynamics to a charity that aids the families of armed service personnel, which the judge reluctantly agreed to.  As their email continued:

I feel I must give thanks where they are due, and say that TJ Donovan truly helped us out this time.  Hooray for fewer dollars going to General Dynamics!

Great news for these incredibly brave and principled activists, and good on TJ Donovan for doing the right thing.  Now, if we could just keep any more money from going to the manufacturing of weapons, and if we could just end the wars and the logic which require such weapons to be made….

I had to be home watching my youngest today:

Zane is 4. When he grows up, there are a few basic things I’d like for him, especially since he isn’t starting with any class or financial advantages. I’d like to think it would be important enough to Zane’s community, state and nation that he have access to a good education that they/we decide to put some money behind helping him get there if the prices are out of his reach. When he gets into the workforce, I’d like to think if he gets caught by a downturn in the economy and finds himself temporarily between jobs, that there’ll be a social safety net to keep him afloat until he gets back on his feet.

I’d like to think, by the time he’s an adult, that if he becomes sick or injured, we’ll have made the collective commitment to be sure he can get the health care he needs, regardless of his situation. I’d like to think if he turns out to be gay, that he can marry whoever he wants to and live in a community where he can feel safe. And when he gets older, I’d like to think that he’ll be able to retire without wondering how he’ll afford to survive.

And I’d like to think the community will make a commitment to keeping his air, water and land clean and safe – enough that he can raise his own family.

I could go on, but you get the idea. The question is – is this all too much to ask for?

It appears there is no “surge” from the perspective of the people who live in the prison camp that used to be called Baghdad.  A Guardian reporter has posted YouTube video from Baghdad. As an Iraqi citizen, he has managed to get into places no other journalist can.

Part I: City of Walls

Part II and III below the fold…

Part II: Killing Fields

Part III: Iraq’s Lost Generation

Crossposted at Huffington Post’s Off the Bus.

The presidential election is turning again on a choice between conversation and confrontation. How will we choose to approach our neighbors, allies and adversaries — domestic and foreign? Helena Cobban is a veteran journalist who has traveled extensively around the world. She writes for the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Review, and blogs at justworldnews.org Her most recent book is Re-engage! America and the World after Bush, in which she suggests ways citizens can help shape a more inclusive, less confrontational, foreign policy. Off The Bus caught up with Cobban this week and asked her about her book and what she thinks the “post-Decider”-era might hold in store for us and the world.

Interview below the fold.

Off the Bus: In your book, you make the case for global inclusion as a new path for U.S. foreign policy. We’re coming out of eight years where the message has been basically: “I’m the president. We’re the United States. This is how it’s going to be.” We haven’t been very diplomatic at all.

Helena Cobban: For some of us, there is this thinking that, because we’re so special, we deserve a perch somewhere higher than the other 6 billion people. We need a re-inclusion with the rest of the human race and to get back to the framework of international law, norms, and institutions, like the United Nations.

Look at the role the U.S. traditionally played, particularly in the founding of the United Nations. If you go back and read the Preamble to the U.N. Charter, you’ll see how it was so visionary. It was written by Americans in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Three years later another American, Eleanor Roosevelt, drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.S. played an instrumental role. It was a pillar of its founding and they have hosted the U.N. ever since. So when George W. Bush just blew off the U.N. in a completely arrogant and self-referential way in 2003, that really broke with tradition.

You address six elements the U.S. government should pursue in becoming a “neighborly nation among nations”: the environment, human rights, economic and social justice, and rejoining the rest of the world. With the election coming up, what indicates the U.S. is pursuing those issues?

I’m seeing a new openness. I think this whole experience of the Iraq war has made people more thoughtful. Back in the 1990s, there was this post cold war victory euphoria. We had Madeline Albright talking about the U.S. as the “indispensable nation” and policy elites seeming to be in a self-congratulatory frame of mind. They didn’t think about the longterm questions and problems nearly hard enough. Now, after what we’ve seen in Iraq, it seems the “indispensable nation” was carried through its ghastly logical conclusions with such horrible results. We’ve had 4,100 dead Americans soldiers; we’ve had tens of thousands of badly maimed and mutilated Americans come back into our communities with PTSD; and we’ve inflicted far greater damage to the people of Iraq than what we have suffered. We also have to remember the war was completely financed by debt. Our children and grandchildren will be paying off that debt. That’s going to impact future generations. I think we need to look at the interests of our country’s citizenry, not of its corporations.

We’ve been damaged as citizens. I can’t easily travel to a lot of the places where I used to. We have to be fearful as we go through our own domestic airline system because of the hatred. This invasion has fomented anti-American hatred around the world. It’s such a change from September 12, 2001 when Le Monde ran the headline “WE ARE ALL AMERICANS.” There was large amount of sympathy for the United States among Muslim, European, African countries all around the world. George W. Bush completely blew that off. Instead of using that sympathy to build new alliances around the world, Bush took a posture of suspicion that fueled anti-Americanism. I think a lot of Americans are seeing the folly of that now. They may not be seeing the criminality but they’re definitely seeing the folly of those decisions.

But global inclusion issues have always been placed on the backburner. What should be our top priorities?

My three markers are to close Guantanamo, announce a specific date to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, and declare intentions to negotiate (in good faith) the Kyoto Treaty. I think taking very concrete actions on these issues in the first 100 days could really revolutionize how the other 6 billion people look at us.

Do you think Obama’s visit to the Mideast and Berlin indicated a change towards global inclusion?

I think Obama is on the right track. He has so many multicultural skills that would be helpful in pursuing constructive relations. But right now we’re in an election period and he’s surrounding himself with people telling him what he needs to do to get elected. I thought he did really well on his trip, but my understanding is that doesn’t necessarily help in America. Looking like a superstar in Berlin allowed John McCain to portray his visit as a mark of elitism or being removed from American concerns. I think Obama succeeded in showing he has commander in chief qualities and an understanding there has to be a give and take with other nations. I’m moderately hopeful. I’m also not completely pessimistic about McCain. I know he’s a mercurial character and he won’t take my policy prescriptions to heart, but maybe he would close Guantanamo because of his own personal history as a P.O.W. I think he is genuinely outraged by some of the things Bush has done regarding detainees. I think we should continue to place those demands on whoever gets elected.

What I’m trying to do with the book is to get our citizens more engaged in the discussion and feel more empowered. After 9-11, a lot of citizens felt scared and or lacked confidence in voicing their opinions on foreign affairs. We have to get our citizen voices back in there because these guys have been so criminally irresponsible.

Next up…. a VERY special interview! Stay tuned.

I just got the following e-mail:

From: “VERMONT STATE EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION” [customers@vsecu.com]

Subject: Important VSECU Notice

Dear Customer,

This communication was sent to safeguard your account against any unauthorized activity.

Vermont State Employees Credit Union is aware of new phishing e-mails that are circulating. These e-mails request consumers to click a link due to a compromise of a credit card account.

You should not respond to this message.

For your security we have deactivate your card.

How to activate your card

Call (802) 304-1922 .

Our automated system allows you to quickly activate your card

What to expect when activating online.

Card activation will take approximately one minute to complete.

If this is legit, why didn’t anyone proof-read it?  If it’s not legit, it’s actually kind of a clever scam, and something I’m seeing a lot more of: scam someone by preying on their behavior when they think they’ve been hit by a scam.

Some days I hate the internet.

UPDATE: it’s a scam