Excellent reporting this week by Susan Smallhear on Vermont Yankee issues.   Click on the headline for the full article at the Rutland Herald. 

Click on Susan's name to send her a nice thank you note.  It's easy to beat up on Vermont's press corps, so please be nice and let them know if you think they're doing a good job, too.  We wouldn't have anything to write about on GMD if we didn't have reporters.  

DemocracyFest is a political festival for liberal/progressive activists which features trainings, speakers and entertainment; teaching people how to make a difference and have fun doing it! Prior DemocracyFests have been held in Massachusetts, Texas, California, New Hampshire and Virginia. Over 4,000 activists have been trained to help on campaigns and make a difference in their communities. The 6th Annual DemocracyFest will be held this summer in Burlington, VT !

Democracy For Vermont will be this year’s Host, and we are beginning to partner with other organizations who will offer education and entertainment at DemocracyFest 2009. If you would like to recommend a particular organization for us to work with, or have other input for this summer’s DemocracyFest, please contact us at info@democracyfest.net

We are also currently accepting sponsorships for the 6th Annual DemocracyFest and cordially invite liberal/progressive organizations and businesses to become sponsors of this year’s event at one of the sponsorship levels which can be found on our website at http://www.DemocracyFest.net

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. I will try to post updates regularly here at GMD.

Nice! I take the day off, and there’s something important to post. Here’s Senator Leahy on VPR today, regarding Lieberman: “I’m one who does not feel that someone should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he (Lieberman) did.” He goes on to condemn the “attacks” on Obama as “way beyond the pale,” labelling them as “horrible.”

Click on the embed link below to hear the question and its complete response. It’s about 2 minutes. You can find the complete podcast at VPR.

Last week, I mentioned that one of the possible candidates for Secretary of Treasury was the deplorable Larry Summers, who, if you read the post, presents a whole litany of issues, not the least having some rather neanderthal views in regards to gender. Matt Stoller at Open Left started a petition drive to put some pressure on the Obama transition team not to select Summers, and there was considerable pressure from women's groups, as well.

It seems like the pressure is paying off. From Politico:

Intense backlash from women’s groups may have pushed former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers off the short-list to lead Treasury for President-elect Barack Obama, according to widespread reports circulating in Democratic circles.

The women’s opposition to a possible Summers’ appointment was the explanation some Democratic sources are hearing for why the Obama transition team has crossed Summers off their list. The Obama team doesn’t want to kick off its administration with a controversy nor go head-to-head with an important constituency when there are other qualified candidates, political operatives speculate.

To those who have said that we should just give Obama a break and enjoy the honeymoon, this is proof positive that it's exactly what we shouldn't be doing right now. Good news.

Lots of updates on the Speaker’s race. Shay has the goods, including the one bit of gossip I had in my pocket, but couldn’t be first up with yesterday cuz it was during work hours. Sigh… the hobbyists’ lament. Guess we’ll all know how it goes on the 6th when the Dems caucus.

Speaking of December 6th – that’s the now-official date for the progressive althing (big honkin’ meeting) I suggested in a the post earlier this week. Why the change? I’d originally contemplated tying it to the same day/locale of the Democratic State Committee meeting, but that meeting is going to have so many components, I’d be asking some people to stay for, essentially, a 4th meeting. And that’s not the way to squeeze out fresh ideas from human brains. So based on advice, I’m gonna risk a loss of momentum and bump it to the first weekend in December: Saturday, December 6th.

A note: this is a Dem focused conversation I’d like to have. Hence the original idea of timing it after a Dem State Committee meeting. New media is becoming a force, and I believe it – we – could have a profound effect if we engage in a full and deliberate way from the get go. I’d like to create open (and off the record for all) discussions about problems with the Party and the Left’s structure in the state, concerns about the players (we cant handle another candidate vacuum like this last time), and what this means for dealing with the Dem-Prog issue. Since the Progs are so much more of a linear hierarchical organization that the sprawling thing that is the Dems, I think conversations like this have to happen (both with self-identified Dems, as well as those who may not ID as Dems but are “stakeholders”) before meaningful discussions about working together can happen. Again, email me if you’re interested. The plan now is Saturday December 6th in Montpelier – tentatively 11 AM at the Kellogg Hubbard Library, but we may push that time back a bit to accommodate the caucus. Will have it firmed up within the day. Dem, non-Dem who has a stake in the Dems being an effective progressive force… definitely not the place for “anti-Dems” though. Let’s brainstorm!

UPDATE! PLEASE NOTE: Only part of this althing is going to be a “Dems/Progs discussion”… the D-P thing is only one component of a “how can we do better” conversation, and I think it’s needlessly limiting to narrowcast that “how can we do better” discussion right from the start. There are a lot of things we need to talk about doing better from our unique position as modern-day “plugged in” activists (again, as both self-IDed Dems and Indy-types with an investment in the Dems being functional and progressive…. call them “Dem stakeholders”) that may have nothing to do with what the Progs do, and in fact may be necessary to ultimately facilitate inter-party dialogue.

Talk to me about fusion politics and how important it is for self identified Progressives and Democrats to join together, even to the point of figuring out some method of runoff when the two parties run for the same seat … and then explain to me the voters who chose McCain as their presidential choice and Pollina for Governor.

That’s right. As I was helping to count votes on the evening of this just past November 4th two different things leaped out at me: a lot of people were picking Obama for President and and Douglas for Governor; and a sizable minority voted McCain at the top of the national ticket and Pollina for the top of the state one.

(A third thing that stood out, but isn’t relevant here, is folks for the most part voted incumbent.)

Caveat: I only counted 120 votes out of 1,577 so I don’t claim to anything more than a small window within a small window.

My point being: there’re reasons people freely associate with certain political parties, and there’re reasons folks freely don’t associate with certain political parties.

I believe the Progressive Party does themselves and those who’ve supported them a great disservice by trying to paper over these differences … the Progressive Party, and the voters at large, can only lose by trying to be better Democrats than the Democrats. I believe that should the Progessive Party pursue a Progressive/Democratic fusion agenda, they should just close up shop and become Democrats.