Some or most of this isn’t new but it’s from an interesting source .An unpleasant  website that yielded this assessment on the Vt. race from the conservative side . It may add to the speculation about  Gov.Jim Douglas’s out of character early campaign spending rate of his hard won 3/4 of a million in funds. USNews and World report has Obama is carrying New York and New England by double digits.Couple that with poor economy,Jim fatigue etc.and maybe there really are some substantial straws to grasp at.

Vermont: Gov. Jim Douglas (R) may have been the Republican rooting hardest for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) in the presidential primaries. This liberal-filled state will likely see record-high turnout this November thanks to Obama’s presence on the ballot. This will help State House Speaker Gaye Symington (D).

Vermont, along with North Carolina and Washington, promises the most excitement among governor races this year. Put another way: Douglas is perhaps the most vulnerable incumbent governor in 2008.

In Douglas’s favor, liberal Anthony Pollina is once again running as a third-party candidate, this time as an independent. Pollina says he is reaching out to conservatives as well as liberals, and he probably won’t match the 10% he garnered in 2000. Still, Symington will need to run a very strong race to beat Douglas. Leaning Republican Retention. 7/23

 http://www.humanevents.com/art…

To read more about how the economy looks to people in places other than Wall Street and Washington, go to:

(Across America, economic woes are mounting, McClatchy Washington Bureau)

Yes, the list is of McClatchy news service stories, but it is also what is being printed around the nation.

The BBC reports that world renowned writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure. He was 89 years old. Solzhenitsyn was a longtime resident of Cavendish and returned to Russia after the fall of the Communist Party. There's so much I can say, I'm at a loss for words. I appreciated his works, his ideas, and his bravery for speaking out against Joseph Stalin. He will be missed.

From Hallenbeck (emphasis added):

Douglas said there are certain businesses from which he won’t accept money, including drug and tobacco firms. However, his campaign finance report lists a $3,000 donation from Mylan Inc. PAC, the political action committee for a pharmaceutical manufacturer with plants in St. Albans and Swanton.

Casey said the situation with Mylan is different because it’s a local company. “They’re important to the economy of Franklin County,” she said.

Oh, you see its okay. He hasn’t broken his word. Apparently there was a secret, unspoken clause if it was a local company. But he couldn’t mention that cuz it was a secret.

This particular local company is based in the local Vermont town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was founded in West Virginia. It has a presence in 92 countries, employes 12,000 people and brings in revenues of $4.2 billion. That’s some local success story, eh?

Of course, this is the Jim Douglas definition of a local company apparently. That donation from Wal Mart? Just another good, Vermont company. And AT&T as well. Same for Anheuser Busch, or Century 21. All good, local businesses. Say, Vermont must be booming after all!

So support your community by buying local the Jim Douglas way. Be a good localvore and go buy yourself a Chicken McNuggets value meal and hop on over to a quaint, traditional Vermont institution like Wal-Mart and pick up one of those local products, like a Sanyo TV or something.

Ok, Vermont wine will never match the iconic mystique of Vermont maple syrup, but if we're talking about economic impact, we definitely have a contender here.

On a return trip from Middlebury the other day I stopped by Lincoln Peak Vineyard for a tour of the grape vines and two bottles of their finest as a gift for my new business partner and best friend.  Having just learned about the growth of vineyards in Vermont, I have been planning a campaign stop to talk about cold climate grapes as an emerging agricultural crop.  Lincoln Peak currently offers the largest crop of the Marquette variety of grape here in the State.

But alas, Jane Lindholm scooped me with a story on Vermont grapes two days ago.  That being said, there remains plenty of discussion surrounding the start-up costs for wine producers, liquor control regulations, the revenue per acre for this type of agriculture, and the potential growth of tourism.

Lincoln Peak's Cove Road is pictured above.  It's a nice dry red for only $15/bottle.  Not a bad price if you're a one, maybe two glass person,  especially considering it's locally produced. 

Nate Freeman

www.NateFreeman.com

Energy was in the air at yesterday's meting of the Vermont Democratic Committee. Both declared candidates for Lt. Gov. spoke, and they both had something to say about energy issues facing Vermont.

Tom Costello, recalling his ten years of service in the Vermont House of Representatives, talked about confronting the issue of electric industry restructuring in the 1990's. As Costello describes it (not inaccurately), restructuring was an idea of some Wall Street investors to extract more money out of the previously regulated electric industry, and Costello talks proudly of his role in blocking the restructuring effort after it passed the Senate. Incredible as it seems now, the putative “white knight”, slated to come into Vermont, buy up our retail electric companies, and put Vermont's electric industry on a stable footing was a company that started life as a natural gas trading company down in Texas. That's right: Enron.We avoided retail competetion in Vermont, even when big commercial and industrial customers, through an astroturf group called the Vermont Electric Consumers Coalition, were pushing hard for it. Thanks for helping to block that, Tom.

Nate Freeman was also talking about energy, and he briefly touched on  an idea that could make a lot of sense: a Vermont department of energy. Where does Vermont take a comprehensive look at electricity, home heating, and transportation energy uses? Freeman's idea would enable Vermont to do this. Given the future of energy costs, and the utter failure of the Douglas administration in this area, this is a welcome proposal.

After centuries of reporting temperatures based on thermometer readings in the affected location, the Vermont Department of Weather has announced a new method of reporting. Taking their lead from state regulations on radiation levels at nuclear power plants, the Weather Department is applying the same reasoning to temperatures. Instead of the outdoor temperature, temperatures will be reported based on the body temperature of a person standing at the site.

The human body usually maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees regardless of the weather, he said. “When we are exposed to 80-degree temperatures, our bodies do not turn to 80 degrees. When we are exposed to 120 degrees in the desert we are not affected by that.”

Consequently, in summer weather it is misleading to report temperatures as high as 120 degrees when a person standing on the site would maintain a body temperature of 98.6 degrees.

Similarly, in the winter, the effects of human metabolism and insulated clothing allows the human body to maintain a temperature of 98.6. Thus, while in recent years Vermonters have shuddered at reports of temperatures dropping to 10 degrees, 0 degrees, or even below zero, this winter the official Vermont temperature will hover at a balmy 98.6.

Federal weather officials at NOAA have not commented on this new reporting method, but state officials believe it will have several beneficial effects. For one thing, given the expected high cost of heating oil this winter, this will make it easier for landlords to maintain apartments at the state-mandated 65 degrees. Vermont's public utilities, who are faced with restrictions on disconnections when temperatures drop to sub-freezing levels, will not lose this all-important collection mechanism. And State and local road and highway departments, who have been hard-pressed by road salt costs in recent years, can leave their salt trucks parked as long as the 98.6 degree temperatures prevail.

And what are the implications for Vermont's only nuclear power plant? “Once again, we are pleased that our leadership has been recognized by the Douglas Adminstration,” said plant spokesman Waylon Smithers.

From today’s editorial:

The company was launched in hopes of securing a better milk price and more control over products for local farmers. But Acting CEO Dennis Myrick said the company has laid off several workers and owes money to creditors. Part of the problem is the economy, with higher fuel prices and even higher milk prices eroding the bottom line. But Myrick said a lack of solid, long-term financial planning has also hurt the company, which makes milk, ice cream and yogurt. State agriculture officials should offer any reasonable expertise to help stabilize The Vermont Milk Co. because a healthy company is beneficial to Vermont’s struggling family-owned dairy farms and the buy-local focus of agriculture.

There are some on the internet who are getting a lot of snickers over the problems faced by this company. It’s one thing to question anonymous infusions of cash as they relate to an interest of a gubernatorial candidate, as we have – but its another to take joy in what’s happening.

The VMC was/is a noble effort to help local farmers. It is, possibly, an unsustainable effort, as it’s somewhat predicated on a reaction to the market-driven inequities in the ag sector by setting up a corner of the market and simply deciding not to play the way everyone else is. That attitude usually leads to failure, the same way it would if you were to join a basketball team, get in a game, and decide you didn’t like the game after all, would rather play checkers, plopping down with a board in center court. It’s probably not gonna go well.

This is because leftists are better at critiquing the system than fixing it. Why not? The challenge of making the system better cannot be overstated.

But whenever a patchwork attempt such as VMC or Catamount Health fails, or looks likely to fail, it makes it that much harder for other outside the box thinking (maybe even outside the box thinking that comes with more comprehensive, realistic, and innovative long-term planning for its survival) to get taken seriously and funded.

So now is not the time to mock or scoff. We should be hoping they pull it out, and even – if we’re in a position to do so – offer our own assistance to make it work in the long term.  

From a Douglas Campaign e-mail that I received today:

Campaign finance reports are the yeast of the political season ˆ dull to behold, but remarkable as to what they may ultimately yield. The first of those reports ˆ filed Thursday ˆ does not disappoint.

The governor, as expected, out-raised his opponents. It would have been stunning, had it been otherwise. But the margin was a surprise. He raised $736,596, Gaye Symington, his Democratic opponent raised $205,309, and Independent Anthony Pollina raised $166,200. He more than doubled their amounts combined.

That’s what Douglas is touting in his campaign e-mail: the fact that he’s got money.  Way to go!

Sidenote: the above quote from the e-mail is from a Vermont Tiger column.  The Tiger Column is a full reprint of an editorial from the St. Albans Messenger (August 1, 2008) by Emerson Lynn.  Nowhere is there any indication that anyone sought permission from Mr. Lynn before reprinting his column in full.  Not the campaign; not Vermont Tiger.

Entergy’s Vermont Yankee as Gov.Douglas loves to remind us ad nauseam supplies one third of our energy at some of the cheapest rates in the Country.Our low rates may disappear as Enexus bets on higher rates to survive .Analysts fear Enexus may be too small to survive unless rates continue to rise in New York and New England .

If or when Entergy spins off Enexus they will siphon off funds from the stock offering proceeds to pay off it’s own debt.It’s called a credit default swap.This leaves the new company with a lower credit profile .The fault is Entergy takes a big cut and leaves less for the shell.The shell then needs to make fast money to capitalize.If all parts of the 13 headed Entergy hydra put their efforts into actually running the power plants rather than these corporate contortions we would all be better off.Leaving aside for now where the ultimate liability for five nuclear plants will be  buried in 13 corporate entities .Enexus will be a small under capitalized company that will be relying on higher electric rates to survive as an entity .

That concern was echoed by Charles Adey, who submitted testimony to the Public Service Board on behalf of Vermont’s Department of Public Service. “I am concerned that Enexus Energy will have less financial ability than Entergy Corp. to withstand adverse market changes, weather, poor plant performance or fund unexpected capital expenditures under the intended capitalization strategy,” stated Adey.

But Entergy is betting that energy costs will continue to rise. “As our existing contracts expire, we expect to benefit from the expected increase in power prices in the New York and New England markets,” stated Entergy in documents filed with the SEC. “Most of those existing contracts have contract prices that are lower than currently prevailing market prices.”

If energy prices in the Northeast remain high, Entergy will “realize growth in our revenues and operating income.” The power purchase agreement between Vermont Yankee and the state, which expires in 2012, would not be affected by the spinoff, though any new contract will likely reflect increases in energy costs.

“At this point, I still believe that the drawbacks of the transaction outweigh the benefits to Vermont residents,” stated Adey. “I cannot state that the proposed transaction promotes the public good without a clear demonstration of tangible benefits for Vermont residents.”

Entergy will use the assets of the spin-off to leverage more than $4 billion on the stock exchange. Money raised through the Enexus stock offering will be used by Entergy to pay off debt. The transaction is known as a credit default swap, in which a contract is transferred in a process known as succession.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_100…