I say they’re spinach!

On Thursday, I participated in an all county candidates meeting in Bennington sponsored by the AARP.  Some of the Republicans resisted my characterization of the Republican party as dishonest, corrupt and tyrannical.  To them I replied, you chose the label.  Was that fair?

I say it was.  We are in the age of mass politics.  Money travels all over the country; Vermont Republicans get money from Washington as well as the rest of the nation.  Just as factory farming has destroyed the family farm so has Rovian politics destroyed the once valid dictum that all politics are local. 

Several weeks ago, packaged spinach was recalled.  Several people died or were sickened by eating contaminated spinach.  The spinach was produced in California and packaged under the name of several industrial-sized conglomerates including Dole.  California agriculture is based on irrigating a desert with scarce water.  Such a regime brings with it a merging of sweet water and polluted runoff from cattle ranches. 

People were wisely advised to throw out all their packaged spinach.  I say all Republicans are spinach! 

It really goes back to the early days.  Political culture is hard to change.  Vermont, under the Allen brothers, really created itself democratically. Government in Vermont has always been “us” not “them”.

  New Hampshire was a crown colony — the least self-governing form of a British colony.  The power was held by the governor (remember Benning Wentworth!).  In post colonial New Hampshire, the political culture remained as hating government and what government they did have was authoritarian.

New Hampshire may well change because the southern part of the state has effectively become a Boston suburb.

In RT’s campaign literature, he singles out mico-loans in Sri Lanka as an example of waste.  What a jerk!  The founder of the micro loan bank, Mohammad Yunus, and his Grameen bank just won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Yet, the Mr. megabucks from South Burlington thinks of it all as waste.

Mr. Tarrant is the waste.  Maybe, after he is soundly defeated, he’ll do wonders for the environment by leaving the state.

Tommy Douglas the NDP premier of Saskatchewan introduced a single payer health care system into that small (by population) rural and agricultural province.  The doctors initially opposed the program and went on strike in 1962.  The strike failed when a little girl died because of it.

The minority liberal government of Lester Pearson soon thereafter introduced medicare nationally with the support of the NDP now led by Tommy Douglas.

The Canadian health care system is viewed by the overwheming majority of Canadians as one of the country’s crown jewels.

Recently, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas the greatest Canadian of all time beating out Banting and Best (insulin)Trudeau, Pearson and even Wayne Gretzky. 

When Vermont introduces a single payer health care system, this small, agricultural, and rural state will once again lead the nation and I can only hope that Scudder Parker will be our Tommy Douglas.

The Bushies hurl abuse such as cut and run re Iraq when the invasion itself was cutting and running away from the war against fundamentalist Islam and Al Qaeda.  I refuse to call it the war on terrorism.  That would be like calling WWII the war against the blitz.  Terror is a tactic not an enemy.

The relationship between fundamentalist Islam and Saudi Arabia needs to be examined.  In the old days of the British Empire, the term used to describe what we would call fundamentalist Islam was Wahabiism.  The Wahabi movement is the established  religion of Saudi Arabia. 

Fifteen of the 9/11 murderers were from Saudi as is Bin Laden (from the ruling class in fact).

Of course, Bush and his dad are in bed with the Saudis big time.

Remember that just after 9/11 the Bin Laden family members as well as other Saudis were allowed to fly out of the US when Americans were all grounded.

In that light, remember that HItler’s nephew lived in this country and was publicly known to during WW II and Stalin’s daughter lived in the US during the Cold War.

(Promoted, with adjustments around to fit around the fold… – promoted by odum)

The country is on the edge of falling into soft then into hard dictatorship.  Bush and the Republicans are a clear and present danger to democracy and constitutional government. 

Anyone who thinks that our (Vermont’s) Republicans are somehow different is either lying or delusional.  The day Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party was the day the line was drawn.  In fact, events since then have only shown how prescient Jeff was.

I am running as a democrat for a State Representative (Dorset, Danby, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Landgrove).  If elected I will introduce a resolution ending Vermont’s involvement in the phony Iraq war.  Phone in that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.  It is as bizarre as if Churchill had invaded Turkey in response to the Blitz or FDR had invaded Spain in response to Pearl Harbor.

Speaking of Pearl Harbor, Vermont actually declared war on Germany three months before Pearl Harbor.  So there is a real precedent for Vermont have its own foreign policy.  As well, Vermont is the only state where the legislature elects the head of the National Guard.  So the legislature (civilian control of the military) can order the A-G to withdraw all Vermonters from Iraq.

  I am also a strong supporter of a single payer system of universal health care.  The Canadian system was created by the great Tommy Douglas when he was Premier of a small agricultural province.  Vermont can once again, as it is often done, lead the nation.

I agree that the funding of education is broken.  Of course, Republicans just taxes.  The problem with the property tax is that, for many, it is a tax not on real resources but a tax on paper profits (the increased value of their homes).  It is not based on ability to pay.  That’s why we should fund education with the income tax.

Broadband access is the electrification issue of our time and it should be available everywhere in the state.  It is crucial for sustainable economic development.  We can keep young people in the state if good jobs are available wherever they live. 

Public support of transportation is needed in Vermont both in terms of bus service and rail.

I don’t have a final opinion on nuclear power, but I do know that Entergy (never trust a company with a made-up name) is a sleazy, dishonest corporation up from the southland of Enron and Worldcom. 

I’ve said enough.