I haven’t been able to be as active on this site as I’d like to be (more on that tomorrow), but there are a couple things that have happened recently that – although they’ve already been discussed on this and/or other blogs – I feel the need to diary on personally.

Starting with the bad news, a lot has already been said about the passing of Peter Freyne. I didn’t know Peter personally, beyond a passing acquaintance that you smile and say hi to when you see, so I’ll just comment as a blogger. Peter has meant a lot to Vermont through his long career as a print journalist and columnist, but he has played an irreplaceable role in the development of Vermont’s political blogosphere as well, as new and immature as it still is.

When GMD launched, I dropped Peter an email letting him know I was starting a blog. His response was simply a six word “Might as well. Everyone else is.” I suspected at the time he just wasn’t sure what to make of it all, and that sense was reinforced in the early days of his own blog when he still didn’t seem to know what to make of it. He “metablogged” quite a bit, all the while coming off almost like an excited kid discovering an amusement park for the first time.

Which was ironic, truly, because I have never seen a person from the traditional media (or the blogs, for that matter) so effortlessly walk from one world to the other. It’s hard to know whether Freyne was made for the politcal blogosphere or vice versa, but his style and content was such a perfect fit that his engagement with the medium served to raise the quality, profile and impact of all of us almost overnight. Media pros often have a hard time with the transition because the medium is so interactive, meaning that not only are you likely to get back as good as you dish out, but you’re likely to get it from some amateur in his pajamas just getting home from his shift waiting tables. Clearly, Peter was completely comfortable with those rules and that world. More than comfortable, really, as someone who so easily and casually lived and breathed the give and take of politics and media, it seemed an ideal fit. Even though he wasn’t the first in, he was indeed the godfather of the Vermont political blogosphere.

And then there are the happier tidings, as wedding bells rang last week for Rep. Peter Welch. As profound an impact as it can be to lose someone, it is just as powerful a thing to find someone. So while it may not be as broadly newsworthy as the passing of Peter Freyne, the recent marriage of Rep. Peter Welch to State Rep. Margaret Cheney merits a special mention as well. Welch gets a lot of grief, and lord knows a lot of that grief gets delivered by this very blog (and ofttimes this very blogger), but regardless, I know Peter to be a very, very good man. A good human being with a good heart, a sharp mind, and a real desire to make the world a better place. Anybody who would suggest otherwise is, frankly, full of crap (or more likely, full of themselves).

So Peter, if I had a glass right now, I’d be raising it, as belated as that toast would be at this point. You deserve all the joy that finding someone you want to share your life with gives you, and I wish the two of you health, happiness, and good times.

Granted I’m just as likely to give you a hard time about something tomorrow, but that’s blogs for ya. Just for god’s sake, don’t give any more quotes to Republicans for campaign literature, ‘kay?

(

#$@!#@@

What  f****** next? – promoted by Christian Avard)

Another leak, this time in the reactor building. They’re going to try to plug it while they keep the reactor running full tilt.

Entergy to keep Vermont Yankee reactor at full power

http://www.reuters.com/article…

Look for more radiation overexposure of people on the job, and they will probably have to throttle back on power before they’re done.

Not so safe-clean-reliable.

UPDATE: Sites are coming back, and things have stabilized. Looks like BlogPAC and the netroots community are going to engage activiely to make sure that Soapblox – which has really become the backbone of the netroots – stays viable. Whew.  -odum

Okay, so here’s the deal: Soapblox, the site that hosts Green Mountain Daily and a whole host of other leftwing blogs, is in serious trouble.  At least one of their servers was hacked, bigtime, and several sites that use Soapblox are completely down.

This isn’t even the worst part.  The worst part is that the owners of Soapblox are considering shutting the system down completely.  

The details behind this are over at Daily Kos, but I’ll give the quick summary: Soablox is incredibly cheap and the people who run it do so for very little (if any) profit at all. (seriously: I’d be charging 2-3 times what they charge for the same service, and my rates are not high).

It looks like the only way we’ll be able to keep Soapblox up and running (with its complete history) is to give Soapblox a reasonable fee for its services, which means we need to start soliciting donations to keep it active.  

I don’t have the button to accept donations ready yet, but we’re hoping to do this.  We can host GMD elsewhere, but we’ll lose all the content of the site so far if we do so and have to start over from scratch.  I’ve got all the e-mail addresses, so that if we do go down, we can send a notice out to everyone, but that’s the best I can do right now.

This is big, folks.  Really big.

( – promoted by odum)

Right before Thanksgiving, I saw a Caledonian Record editorial that I wanted to share, but never got around to. Now that it looks like a new sex offender law is on a fast track, it’s worth visiting this months’-old editorial. The whole thing can be found HERE, but I offer some choice quotes:

We find ourselves sharing in the concern the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union has with new sex crime legislation.

On behalf of the Vermont ACLU, Allen Gilbert questions a proposal by the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee, which has been working on legislation to rewrite criminal law dealing with sex crimes and sex offenders.

The proposal would change the law to require the collection of DNA samples from people arraigned on felony crimes, instead of just those convicted of felonies.

The editor goes on to explain that an arraignment is a very low bar to meet, charges may be dropped or reduced, and an arraignment contains nothing approaching proof of guilt. The question of what would happen to a person’s DNA if they did not end up getting convicted is a central concern of the editorial.  

We see this week that a sex offender law is going to move quickly. It is unclear to me whether “DNA at arraignment” is contained in the legislation. I imagine the arguments on the other side are that a DNA sample may be necessary to get a conviction and that a DNA sample is not all that an invasive procedure anyways.

The provisions, according to  WCAX

Lawmakers came up with a new sex offender bill that would:

expand the DNA database

call for new prevention programs in schools

ban deferred sentences for sex offenders

eliminate pretrial depositions of child victims

and give prosecutors the option of a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for sex crimes on kids under 16 years old

From Fox44, HERE’S Senator Dick Sears, Judiciary Committee chair,  outlining the bill’s prospects:

“Then the bill will move from my committee over to the Appropriations, hopefully a very short time there, then it goes over to the House, then I hope to have it on the governor’s desk by Town Meeting Day,” Sears said.

The bill would allow prosecutors to file a new charge that carries a mandatory, 25-year minimum prison sentence.  Sears calls it a responsible bill.

“I don’t see much of a problem in the senate and quite frankly I’ve had good response from most folks in the house I’ve spoken with,” Sears said.

So there you have it. Anyone know if this “DNA on arraignment” provision is included in the bill? Is there a good place online to find the specifics of a VT bill, like we have THOMAS at the federal level?

And then there is the issue of how much civil libertarians want to give on this issue. There appears to be strong bipartisan support for reform. But I long thought that fixing Corrections was step one. Much like when the gun control supporters want to enact restrictions after a tragedy, the mantra from the NRA is “enforce existing law.” It appears that in the Brooke Bennett case, that did not happen. Living in Randolph, I completely understand the desire to “do something” and  I am glad this did not end up getting crammed through right before an election. Hopefully, the bill on the table right now is a thoughtful reform effort, but I do know even if it’s not, it will be tough to oppose.

I’d like to close with the ending of the Caledonian Record editorial, because I love it when the rhetoric of the anti-government libertarian Right sounds so, oh I dont know, progressive?

While our nation sleeps the sleep of apathy, indifference and blissful ignorance, citizens are having their rights stripped from them at an accelerating speed. Vermonters already accept the state requirement that, following an initial arraignment in court and a not guilty plea, defendants are required to go to the police station and provide fingerprints.

Parents voluntarily line up Saturday mornings to provide police with the fingerprints of their children. While, as the police claim, the fingerprints may help identify a missing child, those same fingerprints will be stored in a huge database maintained by Big Brother, on file for life.

One of the Bush presidency’s shameful legacies will be its disregard for the Constitution and its contempt for an individual’s right to a presumption of innocence.

Our rights are a scarce commodity and diminish every year. Vermonters must not allow our government to further erode our sacred freedoms.

Full disclosure: I used to deliver Caledonian Record as a kid growing up in St. J.  

I just saw this in Blurt, the Seven Days blog.

Cathy Resmer just posted it, along with the Stuck in Vermont video that Eva Sollberger did about Peter last summer. 

Many Vermont bloggers look at Peter as a kind of godfather. He did the kind of journalism that we aspire to: irreverent, insightful analysis, personal perspective and voice, and a commitment to progressive values. While he was writing it, his Inside Track column was weekly required reading for everyone who wanted to understand what was going on in Vermont politics and government.

We'll miss him.

( – promoted by odum)

A follow-up to BP’s diary from January 2 (“Burlington Free Press: Does the full Hoover for Douglas”).  

Particular attention grabbers – Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce Tom Torti calls for elimination of the Departments of Labor and Economic Development, as well as a tax decrease for the wealthiest one percent.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

Jon Margolis sums it up on his terrific blog, Vermont News Guy:

http://www.vermontnewsguy.com/…

The Freeps has certainly met its Republican-esque, free market, the-rich-are-getting-screwed quota for the week.