The 6th Annual DemocracyFest will be held this summer, July 17-19, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, VT!

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! Past annual 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. This year’s event, hosted by Democracy For Vermont, promises to be another exciting, informative and fun filled weekend!

Full weekend tickets are only $55 and include:

– All trainings, entertainment, and speakers on Saturday and Sunday.

– Dinner on Saturday.

– Breakfast on Sunday.

– Semi-Guided Tour of Burlington and Welcome Party on Friday.

– Children under 14 free with adult ticket purchase.

– Free parking, or transportation to and from Burlington Airport.

– Priceless interaction with activists from across the nation.

On site lodging is available at the Sheraton Hotel for the reduced rate of only $99 per night, for rooms up to 3 days before or 3 days after the event (based on availability)! Please call 1-802-865-6600 to make your reservation. You must say you are with the DemocracyFest group to get the reduced rate. Lodging at the reduced rate is limited, so make your reservation today!

Sponsorships levels with a variety of benefits for businesses and organizations who support the 6th Annual DemocracyFest are listed here.

For more information go to http://www.DemocracyFest.net

(This is a few days old, but it keeps the conversation going and is a bit different than many of the suggestions here, although clearly in the same ballpark with the same governmental priorities. Excellent addition to the discussion. – promoted by odum)

All,

Here is an op-ed I wrote a few  weeks back that is in today’s Free Press:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

Best,

Steve

(Here’s an excerpt -odum):

Rather than cut social services and increase taxes, Vermont’s political leadership needs to consider a radical notion: allowing the state government to use the rainy day fund to cover vital social services and issue bonds to finance public works. The state can run a deficit for a couple of years without creating a huge debt burden for future generations. Just as FDR ran deficits to keep people working during the New Deal, the state government can play a smaller similar role. We can keep people working and help soften the worst effects of the economic downturn.

Fiscal prudence does not mean penny-pinching in every circumstance. In fact, tax hikes and spending cuts in vital services at this moment in our economy would be fiscally imprudent during these difficult times.

We need our leaders to demonstrate political courage by maintaining social services and putting Vermonters to work without burdening families and businesses with more taxes.

So yesterday’s Rutland Herald had two headlines under state news, right next to one another:

Legislators to weigh variety of budget cuts

Council focuses on reducing child poverty by half

Now, noting that many of those budget cuts involve major cuts to programs that help eliminate poverty, there’s a certain irony at work here.

In the meantime, I’m getting a real sense of the administration’s approach:

• reduce funding for social programs because the tax base has gone down;


• cut funding to programs that will help people out of poverty;


• this causes a lowering of the tax base, and…


• repeat as necessary.

Take, for example, the testimony the other night from Todd Washburne, a high school student who needs a computer to speak:

“I am within sight of my high school diploma and planning on pursuing a college degree next year… I am concerned about cuts at a time when I need more resources, not less.”

Without the help of Washington County Mental Health, “I will be doomed to life as an underachiever,” he said.

And I’ll note something here: many of you know that I lost a major contract this year and my income has been slashed dramatically.  Things aren’t easy right now, but they’re not awful either.  Even being seriously underemployed, if I had to set aside an extra $50/month to pay an additional $600/year in taxes to cover these crucial programs, I’d have no problem with that.  I’m not the only one who thinks that way.  Again, from the Herald:

Marjorie Power of Montpelier, urged lawmakers to consider raising taxes to cover the shortfall in revenues, rather than cutting services… “I am not wealthy, but if they moved the income tax up I would not fuss.”

The desire to cut, rather than raise taxes, is “simply ideological,” Power said.

She’s absolutely right.  Raising taxes or not– the agenda coming from the administration has nothing to do with competent fiscal policy.  It’s simply about enforcing an anti-tax ideology that favors the wealthy over the poor and the middle class.

You know… I remember seeing how the wingnuts had taken over the Republican party and joking how much I missed the days when they were primarily just the party to screw the poor.

I was wrong.  I didn’t miss that either.

(Thanks BP for bringing to this to our attention. Southern Vermont got hit hard from this last storm.   – promoted by Christian Avard)

 The big ice storm five days ago has really been tough on parts of Southern Vermont .Utility crews are getting things back to normal ,but these few days got me wondering where Lt.Governor Dubie is in all this .Last Summer he declared a symbolic emergency saying the State needs to be prepared for the worst case scenarios involving shortages of fuel and oil .Where is he ?The only recent sign of him to be found is the last entry in his online “logbook” is an essay titled Yes We Can .

Today VPR reports that “The Vermont Agency of Agriculture says it’s looking for generators that can be loaned to farmers who don’t have power. Anyone who can lend a generator is asked to call the Agriculture Agency in Montpelier.” It appears the State has no generators ready  in preparation(past budget cuts?)for this type of emergency given they are asking for the public to loan them .All reports make clear that the situation is under control but after Lt.Gov. Dubie’s election year self declared Fuel Emergency and his general focus on emergency planning it comes as a surprise he hasn’t put in an appearance while its icy out .He announced in June that he would begin a thorough review of Vermont’s emergency response plans – a book several times larger than a state phonebook – to determine if the state should begin preparing for emergencies .How did that work out ?  

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail…

http://ltgov.vermont.gov/log_b…

Not a polite thing to do – I apologize in advance; but I’m desperate for ideas and support in helping my son.  A bizarre story – prepare for it.

I belive it’s one of Medicaid fraud, abuse, exploitation and neglect – but why? what could be the motive?

I know everyone is busy; and just dumping a link might not be terribly acceptable; but my initial story is here: Any mystery sleuths have at it – I don’t know what is going on or why; but maybe someone already has a clue, some direction, a pro bono connection or ideas that I could bring to Montpelier:  

http://www.ibrattleboro.com/ar…