…but not necessarily a place for the political blogger to sleep:

John Odum, 40, the lead author of the political blog Green Mountain Daily, felt similarly conflicted. Though his readers did supply him with a new laptop computer on his 40th birthday, Mr. Odum, who lives in Montpelier, Vt., and works for a local environmental nonprofit, was reluctant to ask them for further acts of generosity. In an election year, he said, “People ought to be giving it to a candidate, not giving me their spare money.”

Now a yellow “donate” icon on his site links to a separate PayPal account, where readers can contribute toward Mr. Odum’s estimated $1,000 travel costs. He said he had received enough support to pay for the $400 air fare.

“It takes me back to my hippie-ish youth, thrown in a situation with very little to fall back on and not 100 percent certain where I’ll be sleeping,” Mr. Odum said. He said he might have to unfurl his sleeping bag on someone’s hotel room floor if the housing space he reserved on Craigslist does not pan out.

Among the devoted readers who believe Mr. Odum deserves their donations is Nate Freeman, one of two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor of Vermont. Mr. Freeman, 40, gave about $100 to Mr. Odum’s laptop fund, and said he would contribute $50 for Mr. Odum’s convention trip.

“Barack doesn’t need my 50 bucks,” Mr. Freeman said, “but John does.”

And yeah, the Craigslist connection disappeared, but I’m working on it…

(I had meant to write up a post about this, but someone else beat me to it. – promoted by JulieWaters)

In case there’s anyone out there who’s not on their way to Denver, the state has made a deal with Vermont Compost which seems to amount to a total capitulation.

As reported in the Times Argus, the deal removes all threat of regulation or sanction until January 2010, which appears to be in line with the Legislature’s moratorium on enforcement actions against composters. (The moratorium, and the VC agreement, are designed to allow time for state officials to figure out how to regulate large-scale composting operations.) The agreement also settles the two appeals filed by VC against previous state enforcement actions.

The only limitation on VC, according to the T-A:

Vermont Compost Co. will agree to run its Montpelier operation under many of the same health and safety rules and restrictions as it does another facility in East Montpelier. The East Montpelier site is governed under a solid waste permit, but the Montpelier site is not.

Unless I’m missing something, the Douglas Administration has completely reversed course on the issue.  

…either Obama’s web site has been hacked, or he’s chosen Biden as his running mate.

I’d give it 50/50 odds.

I have concerns with Biden, but he also delivered some of my favorite lines in the debates (referring to Rudy, he explained that every sentence out of his mouth consists of a noun, a verb and 9/11).

But seriously, I didn’t much give a damn who his running mate was going to be and I still don’t.  I will say that yesterday there were a lot of rumors from some pretty good sources flying about it being Clinton and I do feel a bit of a relief to know they weren’t true.

UPDATE: Biden on nuclear power:

(Excellent analysis – promoted by JulieWaters)

The Sec. of Administration sent a letter to the Joint Fiscal Committee yesterday regarding proposed reductions in the state budget.  It said that “Raising taxes is not an option…To swamp Vermonters with more taxes when they are getting crushed with higher fuel costs is too much for the average Vermonter, especially when we are still one of the higher taxed states in the nation.”

This is an outrageous distortion of the facts and is a reminder that this Governor is an adherent of the Grover Norquist school of governing.

First, Vermont is only one of the higher taxed states if you measure taxes paid per capita or as a percentage of total income.  But this ignores the distribution of the the “burden”.  Volume 2 of JFO’s Tax Study showed conclusively that Vermont’s tax system is one of the fairest in the country and that average Vermonters pay much less than people in most other states.  Look it up.  [Note: And don’t buy that crap about how the report didn’t include education property taxes. The income sensitivity provisions of the statewide property tax would make us look even better.]

Second, To my knowledge, no one has suggested raising taxes on average Vermonters.  But why shouldn’t the legislature look to those who can afford to pay a little more?  For example, the income of the top 0.2% of filers (492 families) increased by $338 million from 2005 to 2006.  Is the Governor really arguing that these folks would be disadvantaged if they were asked to help avoid cuts in public services?  This group earned $1.4 billion in 2006 and paid $79 million in income taxes (an effective rate of 5.7%).  If they paid 10% more, we could raise almost $8 million (a third of the $24 million General Fund gap).  This would represent less than 0.6% of their total income, which averages $2.8 million.  I don’t think it would change their vacation plans.

Third, it is disturbing that the Douglas administration wants State workers and those who rely on government services to shoulder all the burden of these budget adjustments.  The Governor’s proposal asks NOTHING of the wealthy in this difficult time.  Even Gov. Snelling understood that sacrifice should be shared.  Whatever happened to Vermont values?

Fourth, in my opinion, it is immoral to propose cuts to human services programs before reducing the number of PR flacks that work for the Governor.

Fifth, in light of the Auditor’s recent findings, it is troubling that off-budget tax expenditures like VEPC tax “incentives” were not targeted for reductions.  The Auditor found that many of the jobs supposedly created by this program would have been created anyway.  That means that some of the money was completely wasted.  Why wasn’t the VEGI program’s annual $10 million cap reduced?

We can only hope that the legislature will demonstrate more leadership and compassion than the Governor.  Protecting the wealthy as average Vermonters suffer is not what I expect from our elected officials during tough times.  

We were camping in Maine all week, so I’ve been a bit out of touch with respect to Vermont news.  

This afternoon I got this photo of a Merlin hanging out at our local marsh (she was not amused to see me).  I like to talk about Merlins because they’re overlooked: the middle child of falcons.  They’re medium-sized falcons (a little larger than Kestrels and significantly smaller than Peregrines).  They’re a key part in our ecology and they are very smart (read: sneaky) hunters.  After I spotted this one, I tried to figure out where it flew and then found it accidentally a few minutes later.  When I moved to the other side of the marsh to get some (unsuccessful) photos of a green heron, I accidentally flushed the merlin, which flushed all the ducks in the area (as well as the green heron itself, which flew off while croaking at me indignantly).  

I had no idea it had doubled back behind me.  I don’t even know how it managed to do it without my noticing, but somehow, it managed to sneak its way around behind me without my even realizing.  Then it did it again to get back to its original side.  

But really, this is just an open thread.  I’ve heard that Obama might be announcing his VP nominee soon.  I have no idea who it’s going to be, and I’m not inclined to make a prediction.  

In the meantime, what’s up in your neck of the woods?  

This is going to be a short-lived open thread, because it will be bumped easily by whichever choice Obama made (combined with a listing of the various groups who are offended by his choice and why they’re offended).  Speaking of which, whatever happened to that guy Gore ran with?  Is he available?

In the meantime, I’m thinking we should all take some time off and go looking for the mysterious ninth house of McCain.  I hear there’s adventure, fraught with peril, but lots of treasure as well.  

We just wrapped up the 5th Annual DemocracyFest in Virgina this past weekend and it was another great year!

I know some of you attended DemocracyFest in New Hampshire in 2007 (or the other 4 years in MA, TX, CA and VA), but for those of you that havn’t attended before, DemocracyFest is a an event that started as a “reunion” of Howard Dean supporters and has grown to an annual festival that inspires and empowers activists to make our communities and country a better place with “Education by Day, Celebration by Night”…Plus Howard Dean speaks every year 🙂

The organizers of DemocracyFest are seriously considering Burlington, VT or Chicago, IL for the 6th Annual DemocracyFest (2009). We actually did a straw poll last week at the event and it came out exactly tied! But more importantly then which location is more “popular”, the organizers really want to know which location would benefit the most from having the event held there (education/empowerment for that area’s activists, national media attention for local issues and candidates, etc) and which location has the initial support to make the event successful. In other words, do the active grassroots people in the area want DemocracyFest to come here and will they support it through sponsorships, promotion, etc.

The DemocracyFest organizers have already contacted Democracy For Vermont (our local coalition group to DFA) and they are on board with supporting the event if it is held here and being the “Hosting Sponsor”, but we’d also like to hear from you folks that blog here at GMD think. You can comment here or email us at info@democracyfest.net

A source close to the campaign informs me that the identity of the person Obama has settled on to be his running mate is Hillary Clinton.

The source doesn’t want to go on record, but this particular person is well-positioned for such insights and her information in the past has always been 100% spot on.

A Clinton pick after so many conflicts and concerns surrounding both her and her supporters and the Obama campaign suggests that there is deep concern over the steadily downward creeping poll numbers both nationally and in key states, and the need for enthusiastic Democratic unity (as well as a new campaign narrative) trumps worries over Bill’s mouth on the campaign trail.

We should know for sure soon enough.

I think this best describes my state of mind right now.

DENVER, COLORADO… HE WERE COME!

Meetup?  It’s Adam Quinn’s fault.  He sent me a postcard inviting me to my first DFA meetup.  

Was I the only one who didn’t comprehend meetup?  

My son and his wife go to Washington DC meetups all the time.  

I thought it was slang for hanging out, drinking beer and shooting pool or playing a little darts after a tough day of living and working in DC in the midst of the Rove inspired Bush/Cheney cadre.

My first meetup was in Burlington in July on the “new” outside deck at Burlington Bay with an absolutely gorgeous view of Lake Champlain.  I figured that if I didn’t like the company and couldn’t handle the political talk, then I would just kick back, tune out, enjoy the view, the sunset, and great beer.

Instead, I tuned in to listen to Sarah Puls and Michael Langenmayr, the event hosts, who are fun enthusiastic and committed to the type of political future for which I have worked  my entire life.

My point?  Tonight they are hosting again, – at Main Street Landing – and this time it is a well-orchestrated meet the candidates night.  See info below:

Burlington DFA’s Meet the Candidates

Social Event

Event Date: Aug 21, 2008

Event Time: 7:00 PM EDT

Venue Name: MAIN STREET LANDING PERFORMING ARTS CENTER – ATRIUM, 60 Lake Street, Burlington, VT 05401

Website: http://www.democracyforamerica…

Agenda:

As a new DFA group, we’d like to take a moment to get to meet and talk to local candidates before we make any endorsements. And we’d like all Burlingtonites to have that same opportunity.

That said, you’re invited to join us August 21st at our “Meet the Candidates” community forum. The event is free (suggested donation $5 to cover the cost of the venue) and open to the public. We are inviting local candidates to attend, to meet and mingle with people and to also speak briefly. We hope to see you there, and we encourage your friends and neighbors to to join you.

Confirmed Candidates Attending:

House Speaker Gaye Symington, gubernatorial candidate

Tom Costello, lieutenant gubernatorial candidate

Nate Freeman, lieutenant gubernatorial candidate

Sen. Hinda Miller, Chittenden County

Sen. Ginny Lyons, Chittenden County

Rep. Rachel Weston, Chittenden 3-3

Rep. Christopher Pearson, Chittenden 3-4

Rep. David Zuckerman

Rep. Johannah Leddy Donovan, Chittenden 3-5

Rep. Bill Keogh, Chittenden 3-5

Burlington City Councilor Tim Ashe, state senate candidate

Joanna Cole, candidate for Chittenden 3-1

Kesha Ram, candidate for Chittenden 3-4

Suzi Wizowaty, candidate for Chittenden 3-5

For more info email: spuls@democracyforamerica.com

Come join us, and, if it turns out that you are not a meetup type person, you may still meander outside, have a beer or wine at several nearby cafes, and see a spectacular Lake Champlain sunset!

(Is Pollina on firm ground because Governor Douglas vetoed the $1,000 campaign limit bill and nothing is in place, or as Secretary of State Deb Markowitz “pointed out that because Pollina made his switch on the day of the candidate filing deadline, he never actually participated in the Progressive Party primary”?  

There may be way too many legal loopholes for anyone to unravel…   – promoted by Margaret Gundersen)

I think Pollina’s approach to how he is handling his current campaign donation issue is solid, honest and is the only way to answer some questions.

First is the obvious point that courts will not issue an opinion (with exceptions for legislative inquiries) unless an active controversy exists. In other words, there is no way for Pollina’s campaign to get a substantive answer as to what law will apply on this issue without going against the Attorney General’s opinion.

And we know Sorrell’s record regarding campaign finance laws when facing a court battle, such struck down opinions being shared by Vermont’s SoC Markowitz.

Second is a less obvious, but still substantial point, that Pollina was doing nothing more nor less than any other candidate who intended to be in the primary … receiving donations on the assumption he/she would be participating in the state funded party primary system.

The above is a subtle but substantive issue, because according to  Markowitz one doesn’t actually participate in a primary until one files to be on the primary ballot (see AG investigating Pollina campaign, Times Argus, 08/21/08, “That comment resulted in a quick rebuttal from Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, a Democrat, who pointed out that because Pollina made his switch on the day of the candidate filing deadline, he never actually participated in the Progressive Party primary.”)

In another place I’ve spoken to what I believe are serious constitutional issues on how independents are treated regards financing as opposed to the generous treatment afforded party line candidates. Just to recap: independent is limited to $1,000 per donor, no state funding via the primary election and no unlimited party funding. On the other hand a party line candidate who receives the nomination can receive up to $2,000 per donor, state funding via the primary and unlimited party support … despite being out pursuing votes for the same length of time and covering the same geographical area as an independent and appearing on the exact same general election ballot.

I think Pollina is on firmer ground than recognized.