• Boys on the Side: This from Hallenbeck at vtbuzz:
  

  Independent gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina is taking the Rasmussen poll and running with it.

  He is trying to get Gov. Jim Douglas to agree to a debate, town-meeting-style, between just the two of them. No Gaye Symington.

• Web woops. The VDP’s website at vtdemocrats.org (first domain name I ever reserved…) was down most of the day, replaced by one of those generic catch-all sites on display instead. A quick whois search suggests (not confirmed) that they forgot to renew, but have made a hasty payment today and its likely the change back hasn’t propagated yet. What makes it bad timing is that its been discovered as folks click on the links from an email from Leahy’s leadership PAC encouraging folks to RSVP to the Election Eve Party, which comes up as nuthin.’ D’oh!
• So why have so many big name Dems been AWOL in regards to Lite Guv candidate Tom Costello? BP took Senator Shumlin to task for his less-than-ringing-endorsement a few diaries down, but Shumlin’s not the only one. Where is everybody?

  According to the scuttlebutt, its because all the various Dems who might be considering a run for the Governor’s office in 2010 (especially if a Leahy retirement creates a game of musical chairs) aren’t all that enthusiastic about the prospects of a Costello win and how that might impact their positioning.

  In a word: yuck.

by Dan DeWalt

Thomas Hermann for Congress Campaign

The Democrats in Congress,  abetted by the Republican leadership, have once again succumbed to fear and threats and have sold the American people down the river to the tune of over 700 billion dollars. Just as the Bush/Cheney administration used the uncertainty surrounding the attacks of  September 2001 to push through the previously prepared, draconian and un-American USA PATRIOT Act, so they now have taken advantage of financial turmoil to pillage the Treasury. The bankers and speculators needn’t be jealous of their war profiteering friends any longer; the government has graciously decided that the rest of us can pitch in and help them maintain their august stations.

Saying that Bush’s bail-out plan did not address the cause nor offer a solution to the problem, Peter Welch voted no and helped to defeat the first version of the bill. The defeat shocked Congress, but they did not recognize the foolishness of their haste. Rather than listening to the advice of scores of economists, including Nobel Prize in Economics Laureate, Joseph Stiegliz, who wrote them ,saying that the sky was not falling , that they had time to work out a plan that would actually address the problem, Congress instead chose to hold themselves hostage to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, twisted each other’s arms, added another $150 billion in tax breaks, pork and raising FDIC insurance, and lo and behold, Monday’s prowess and principles turn into Thursday’s shuffling into line and “reluctantly” voting yes.

This vote proves once again that Peter Welch’s first loyalty is to Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership, with the interests of everyday Vermonters coming second.

To his credit, Bernie Sanders understood that this bail-out was wrong from the start, and he represented Vermonters well by voting no.

Vermonters have a clear choice and opportunity to let Peter Welch know that we do not approve of his vote for the bail-out. A vote for Progressive Party nominee Thomas Hermann, an Iraq war veteran serious about ending the war, is also a vote to resist the corporate influenced Democratic leadership that has neither the will nor the wherewithal to stand up to Bush/Cheney outrages. A vote for Thomas Hermann will tell Mr. Welch that we’re not going to be bamboozled any longer. If the government needs to rescue Capitalism from its excesses, taxpayer money should be used to stabilize the equation from the homeowners’ side, re-writing mortgages to reflect current market conditions, and providing jobs by spending on things like roads and bridges, health care and education, not keeping afloat the investment banks who have created this mess for their own profit. Taxpayers should not have to sacrifice critical needs, let alone our homes, to bail out the speculators.