So I was hovering around Huffington Post until I noticed their top story today. Check this out.

Jason Linkins writes:

“A critical – and radical – component of the bailout package proposed by the Bush administration has thus far failed to garner the serious attention of anyone in the press. Section 8 (which ironically reminds one of the popular name of the portion of the 1937 Housing Act that paved the way for subsidized affordable housing ) of this legislation is just a single sentence of thirty-two words, but it represents a significant consolidation of power and an abdication of oversight authority that’s so flat-out astounding that it ought to set one’s hair on fire.”

It definitely set my hair on fire. Are you all ready? Here’s what the bailout text says:

So the mother of all bailouts CANNOT be challenged by the courts. Does that make any sense? Is this even legal? Some answers would be great.

Kudos to Huffington Post for finding this. Has anyone else been covering this aspect of the bailout? It looks like The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner has delved into the issue… but not many.

Folks, this Section 8 of the bailout consolidates A LOT of power in the executive branch. I’m confident Leahy, Sanders, and Welch will vote against it but there’s got to be something we can do as bloggers to make sure this doesn’t pass. To read the Huffington Post article in full click here.

Scared yet?  

The Vermont Public Service Board will hold a statewide public hearing tonight on the fate of Vermont Yankee’s relicensure. You can participate in the hearing at VIT (Vermont Interactive Television) videoconferencing, beginning at 7 pm at the following locations:

Bennington, Brattleboro, Castleton, Johnson, Lyndonville, Middlebury, Newport, Randolph Center, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, Waterbury, White River Junction, Williston, and Montpelier.

Click here to find a location near you. The hearing runs from 7 pm to 11 pm.

If you’re at one of these locations tonight, feel free to leave us some updates. Be great to hear how it goes. Thanks!  

Rasmussen will probably be in the field with a Vermont Governor’s poll this week. The high profile polling outfit has been steadily polling on big ticket races around the country, and actually wrapped a Vermont Gov poll early last week. Problem was, it didn’t include Independent candidate Anthony Pollina, and when they heard the news that he’d received 7% in the Research 2000 poll commissioned by WCAX, they decided to reboot.

So I begged the guy for the gist of what their numbers were – promised that I wouldn’t reveal it was Rasmussen numbers – but no dice (of course that means I’m free to tell you it was Rasmussen now). All he would tell me was one thing that he repeated three times:

It was “close.” Clearly, he didn’t realize how impactful just that simple assessment would be, given the political history.

So we should hear more soon – all clearly post endorsements. What I’m also expecting to see soon is Douglas do what Douglas does – get really really nasty with the ads. By this time in the last few cycles we had seen, or were just starting to see, stammering Clavelle, the “Sandinista” red baiting schtick, “Mr. Property Tax” – and I think even the Racine “flip flop” ads. Sure, there’s the radio ad where Douglas brazenly distorts Symington’s record, but that’s hardly in the same league.

In fact, if we don’t see them soon, it’ll be time to ask why not. Are the numbers closing? Is Douglas afraid to push up his already high negatives?

I assume we’ll see them shortly. He goes negative when he doesn’t need to – and spends a lot of campaign money to do it. He obviously digs it.

PBS is running a poll on whether Sarah Palin is qualified, and, incredibly, the yes votes are ahead, 56-42%.

Let’s see if we can fix that.

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/p…

My Mom, Ellen Garneau, is running for the VT State House in Pittsford/Sudbury. She is running as a Progressive against a long-time Republican incumbant, Peg Flory. (There is no Democrat running in this race.) More information about my Mom’s campaign can be found at http://www.EllenGarneau.com

We are having an online auction this week to raise funds for her campaign. Please check out the items listed and bid high! 😉

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/…

Thanks!

Jessica Falker