Sitting here with my wife looking at two papers and listening to NPR. Here are the things getting us animated.
- Entertaining visual from Louis Porter with pics of “all” the announced or “rumored” names for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, with lines connecting them on sometimes random points (relationship line connects Markowitz and Dubie because they “both supported the Abandoned Babies Bill”… as opposed to someone on the chart that didn’t?) Not quite “all” though – a couple names are missing; former Vermont CARES Director Tim Palmer and Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon, both of whom have had rumored interest in Lieutenant Governor, although Lauzon seems to have dropped off the rumor circuit of late.
- The Argus/Herald is all about how we shouldn’t underestimate Brian Dubie today (here and here). Fair enough. My question now is whether or not this is all a warm up for a Dubie-media lovefest that glosses over the significant problems he presents for Republicans as a candidate.
I imagine we all have a bad feeling about the answer to that question.
- From one Montpelier Resident to Gesine Bullock-Prado. I am not a chimp, and you are certainly not Jane Goodall, thank you very much.
- I will not eat ground beef from the supermarket anymore. And neither will you, after you read this from the NYT. Gruesome, scary stuff: “unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing,” meaning that what you buy in the store as “ground beef” is actually ground up parts from all over the place that may or may not have been tested for e coli (which comes from cow shit), which can kill or paralyze you. Unless you’re lucky, and your meat’s been treated with ammonia. Lovely.
- It’s the 50th anniversary of the Twilight Zone. Yeah, they dont all hold up to repeated viewings – but lots of them do, and what a piece of television.
- Finally, Hirschfeld reports on the rich-folks whine fest this week. Yes, yes. They’re all being taxed so much that they’re having to get by on being less rich than they’d like to be. A great quote:
“How is it we have a culture in state politics that seems to see successful entrepreneurs and risk-takers as selfish and evil?” (Winooski marketing firm owner Kevin) Owens asked.
Not all, Mr. Owens. Only those of you who sound off in selfish ways because you’d rather see the burden thrust on those who can’t afford it. It’s really quite simple. I’m torn between Jesus’ quotes about seeing the speck in your neighbor’s eye instead of the log in your own, and the line about how difficult it is for rich men (eye of a needle, and all) to enter heaven. Heck, I’ll take both.
– I found the chart visually enjoyable, and my partner found it interesting ’cause she doesn’t follow all this stuff so closely and hadn’t heard of many of the names floating out there… but other than being pretty and successfully dropping names (lots of ’em), it contained pretty much no useful information whatsoever. I Get excited about politics, excited about charts, and excited about charts involving politics- but that graphic was useless (these people sat on a committee together, these people were both in the Senate together- I fact I never would have gathered from “Senator from __ county” being written under both their names). Bla.
– Yes, a very bad feeling about the coming love fest.
– I’d just like to go on record as saying that the line “Master Baker” was almost certainly stolen from our bakers at Langdon Street Cafe, and in general I found most downtown businesses had few if any nice things to say about Mrs. Bullock-Prado when she ran her bakery on Elm Street because, while Montpelier is full of small entrepreneurs who mostly all understand we’re in it together, she acted with a kind of shrewd competitiveness that hardly seems to make any sense of small business owners in a small community. Her baking, for sure, is great. Her attitude? well, I won’t be encouraging anyone to buy her book.
When we were opening our cafe, the owner of the other main coffee joint in town came over and said “I think this is great; the more downtown has to offer, the more vibrant and viable it is for all of us.” When I introduced myself to the new owner of Gesine’s as a fellow Montp cafe owner she couldn’t have been colder if we were sitting on top of Mt Mansfield.
– Why aren’t you buying your meat from your local farmers instead of the super market? Get with the times JO! That article is EXACTLY what all the “fuss” about this “eat local” thing is all about. Geez 😉
– The Twilight Zone is amazing television history.
– That article about how Vermont’s tax system is so fucked because the rich people don’t like it single-handedly ruined my entire day. It was the worst way to wake-up and try to enjoy some tea. It read essentially like a press release for people who make six figures or more. What I want to know is where are the examples that lower taxes on the rich do any of the things that the oh-so-very-nice (and rich) people in the article claim, such as create jobs or stabilize jobs? The regressive tax structures they’re advocating for have no objective basis for being supported, other than the opinions of rich people, the ideology of “free market” wonks, and of course the “objective” foundations that those two groups run in order to push their agenda.
If I didn’t read the Argus daily I’d expect next Sunday’s A1 above the fold headline to be a piece about how not progressive enough our tax structure is, how it does tremendous harm to the vast majority of Vermonter’s (as well as our physical and social infrastructure) while leaving immorally large amounts of wealth to accumulate within the fewest of hands, and there better not be a single contradicting opinion in the whole piece except for Shap Smith saying “I have no judgement about what we should do, I just want to get the facts and various possible solutions on the table”.
entitled “what a crock” for details about the Chamber’s BS testimomy
I’m sick of their crap; it’s just more of the same and can easily be disputed / debunked
it is disappointing that the Times-Argus reporter made no effort to contact ANYONE with a different perspective
this stuff makes me puke
I just signed up to GMD today. I’m fed up with the Dems’ passive approach to the battle.
I really appreciate your mention of Jesus in a leftist comment. The christian/jewish book is the cornerstone of leftist thought – it’s still too far left for us to actually implement. But, why have we allowed it to be hijacked by the right? Most Dems and Progs I talk to are terrified by the book in politics, when we should use it to club the right.
The right uses classic bait and switch on religion: they hold up the book of ol’ time religion, then switch over to a much older god concept: Mammon, the god of grabbing and hoarding. There’s no reason to let them get away with it.
By allowing the right to make money the sole measure of truth, we have given them control, because they have the money and skill to cook the books:
– War costs hidden, two trillion dollars plus
– Environmental costs hidden, two hundred years of pollution costs dumped on taxpayers
– Social costs of kiss-up, kick-down life hidden
– holding hands with foreign kings caused 9-11, Iraq, etc.
– economic collapse caused by predatory behavior replacing cooperative behavior
– health care is inherently not a free market situation
– neglected, undereducated children cause economic problems
There’s no better place to use the book than with Dubie, becuase he wears his religion on his sleeve. Dubie has an image of trying to stay above petty conflicts. The Dems’ response to his candidacy is just the sort of whine that people want to stay above. So, all Dubie has to say is “Aw gee, shucks, I hate to hear stuff like that,” and the Dems have helped him reinforce his good guy image.
Instead, we should point out that many American churchgoers have been suckered into a regression of human behavior, which Jesus tried to lead us out of some two thousand years ago, and leave Dubie to explain.
If he tries to talk about keeping the nation safe, then bring out the picture of Bush and the king.
If he tries Douglas’s tactic of trying to keep us focused on the state, then he’s trying to keep us focused on pennies, while his masters take the last few dollars we have, and make human sacrifices of our young men.
Remember, our socialist tendencies go as far back as Moses’ vision, so unrestricted power of money over people is heresy, just as war and monarchy are.