I would be remiss, and disrespecting my blogging name if I did not give a shout out to Jim Rice on his election to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Congratulations to you, Jim Ed!

Rice came to Boston in that transformational year of 1975. He had almost the same numbers as the other historic rookie next to him on Fenway’s lawn that year; Fred Lynn, but by virtue of a bit of an edge in batting average and a superior glove, Lynn went on to be the only player ever to win the Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player awards in the same season. An all-time “what if” is the question of how the Sox would have done in the greatest world series ever if Rice had not had his hand broken by a pitch that September and missed the playoffs.

(bottom of the inning below)

Rice was an African-American from South Carolina, and must have found Boston in the 70’s… interesting from a social perspective. He famously refused to engage in the usual banter with sportswriters, and his hostility has been seen as a possible reason for him making the Hall only in the 15th and last year of eligibility.

Rice also came into a better light over the years though as revelations of steroid use came out, and the relatively low numbers of hitters of the deader era before that were put in new perspective. Statistically, Rice is a debatable selection, but certainly not an outlier. But in the context of his era, to me he is a solid choice.

It’s in non-statistical terms that his best case can be made though. Anyone who followed the Sox, or baseball in general, from 1975 to the late 80’s recognized that #14, Jim Ed Rice, was truly an offensive force with game-changing abilities. To be so feared a hitter for such an extended period of time is definitely worthy of the Hall, imo.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle here (and throughout the liberal blogosphere) over whether we should give Obama a nice little honeymoon or push him over policies that we don’t support.

Now we have the answer:

The message was heard and is being acted on.  Barack Obama and his administration-to-be has been listening to Democrats and now is revising the stimulus plan.

The message is clear: criticizing Obama’s plans yields results.  

Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease (via TPM).  Apparently, the caption under the official Bush portrait to be displayed at the Smithsonian said the following, that Bush's term was:

marked by “the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Sanders fired off a letter to Martin Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington:

When President Bush and Vice President Cheney misled our country into the war in Iraq, they certainly cited the attacks on September 11, along with the equally specious claim that Iraq possessed vast arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. The notion, however, that 9/11 and Iraq were linked, or that one “led to” the other, has been widely and authoritatively debunked … Might I suggest that a reconsideration of the explanatory text next to the portrait of President Bush is in order[?]

Sullivan's reply? They're removing the words “led to” and revising the statement for accuracy. Nice job, Bernie.

If you could write the caption under the portrait, what would you have it say?

Divide $700 billion (the amount of the publicly acknowledged Wall Street & Rich People’s Bailout … which doesn’t include the trillions in dollars worth of low or no cost loans made to these same people by the Fed) by 300 million (the approximate current population of the US) and you’ll come up with about $2,300.

That’s not a per household figure … that’s a per person (infant to elderly and everything in between) figure.

So think about it: what could YOU do with that twenty three hundred dollars?

I know there are plenty who will talk of vacations or new purchases, and there will also be many who will think about debt such as mortgage or credit cards or auto loans.

None of the above should be considered a bad thing.

But keep in mind that others will think savings or investments … and building true economic strength for themselves via new privately owned, small (not in the bloated US SBA definition of hundreds of millions of dollars or hundreds of employees; I mean small as in ‘mom and pop’, in the neighborhood) businesses.

Years ago I was doing an interview on a local radio show I hosted/engineered/produced. The topic was community development and micro-loans. In this case the micro loan was about $1,000, and it purchased a massage table for an aspiring masseuse who had developed a workable business plan and obtained the loan with the help of a local non-profit agency.

When I talked to the not quite young, not quite middle aged woman about her experiences, current status and future dreams; she talked of a year’s worth of success and the vision of a shop outside of her apartment (where she’d been doing business).

She also talked of self worth, independence and personal growth … along with the ability to earn a livable income.

Quick jump to me: I’ve been a computer programming junkie for decades now. I actually putzed with a computer for the first time way back in the early ’70s!

Not to long ago, out of financial necessity, I decided to turn what has been a much loved hobby into an income producer: I combined my experience and knowledge with a high quality laptop … made a few pitches … and started earning some decent per hour cash as an independent contractor.

I know there are a lot of stories like the above … so I ask in closing … what could YOU do with $2,300?

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Yesterday’s Rutland Herald Headline: Leak fixed, Yankee at full power

Today’s Reformer headline: VY powers up, down for new problem:

Power was reduced due to a problem in the switchyard located just east of the reactor building, according to Rob Williams, spokesman for Yankee.

The plant was powered down after operators discovered reduced pressure in one of the switchyard breaker’s insulating gas. The breakers open the circuit on the high-voltage transmission lines that originate at the plant.

[…]

On Monday afternoon, technicians were replenishing the sulfur hexafluoride gas and trying to determine how the breaker lost pressure, said Williams.

I’m not sure which concerns me more: the fact that VY keeps having these problems or the fact that VY never seems to know why it’s having these problems.

For years, Vermonters have faced the lingering question of what to do without Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant scheduled to shutdown in 2012.  Today, Vermont Utilities announced that they have received Dozens of energy offers after filing a RFP (Request for Proposal).

http://money.cnn.com/news/news…

Vermont’s three-largest electric utilities have received dozens of new energy sales proposals in response to a comprehensive market request issued late last fall. "We are pleased with the variety, number and range of potential options we have received," Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE: CV), Green Mountain Power and Vermont Electric Cooperative said in a joint statement.  "There are dozens of bids, ranging in duration from a year to two decades, representing a wide range of electricity sources, with a mix of costs and attributes.

According to Ross Sneyd, VPR,

Windmills, solar panels, even coal could provide electricity to Vermont in coming years.

The state’s three largest electric utilities have been looking for generators that could replace power contracts that begin to expire in three years.

As VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports, the utilities found dozens of companies that would like to sell them power.

(Sneyd) Hydro-Quebec and Vermont Yankee are the power plants that for years have kept the lights on in Vermont.

They supply two-thirds of the electricity sold in Vermont. But with contracts for that power set to expire, the biggest utilities decided to band together in search of replacements.

We’ve heard it all before:  Vermont cannot survive without Vermont Yankee.  Yet today’s RFP’s showed that more than 1,000 megawatts are available from a variety of power producers and developers.

Given the NRC’s abysmal record of oversight and enforcement, no place to store a growing pile of nuclear waste casks, and an aging plant that seems to need a new repair every week, if not several as occurred this week, I hope Vermont’s utilities and legislators will look at the many viable alternatives on our horizon.

According to the CVPS press release,

Bids were opened this week on the first RFP; the bids on the second RFP are not due until the end of the month.

“Bidders include power marketers, energy developers, existing and to-be-built power plant owners and banks,” the utilities said. “In total, bidders offered more than 1,000 megawatts, so there is a healthy mix of potential options. Some of the bids are quite attractive environmentally, many offer significant baseload options, and some are unique and worthy of considerable consideration.”

Over the next few weeks, the utilities will begin to winnow the field, and bidders with proposals deemed among the best will be asked to make final offers. The utilities hope to make awards and sign contracts based on the RFPs this spring.

The utilities said that among the factors to be considered in both RFPs are price, volatility or stability, fuel diversity, environmental attributes, public preferences based on the results of the state’s public outreach process and reliability.

The RFPs were distributed to all New England Power Pool participants, power suppliers and developers. Bidders are from across the Northeast and Canada.  More information about the RFPs can be found at www.cvps.com.

What’s your take?