UPDATE 3 – Tuesday: WCAX, which is as well-connected to the Vermont Republican party as any corporation, reports that “Republican sources have confirmed for WCAX News” that Tom Salmon is joining the Republican party and that he will run for reelection. Statement by Vermont Democratic State Committee below the fold.

(UPDATE 2 – Monday Tuesday (woops): Since its Salmon jump day, I thought I’d bump Julie’s diary from Friday back up top. Totten is less skeptical today, and even has a copy of Salmon’s letter to supporters on the matter (yeah, apparently he still has a couple. Who knew?). Word is that Mr. Auditor’s Democratic re-election consultant team of Burlington Democratic Chair Jake Perkinson and former Peter Welch Staffer Selene Hofer-Shall will be severing ties. — odum)

(UPDATE – Saturday: In terms of professional media picking this up, Hallenbeck echoes what we’ve been hearing, while Totten is skeptical that Tuesday’s announcement will be substantive. – odum)

1. Salmon will be switching parties on Tuesday, September 8th;


2. Salmon will still be running for auditor unless Dubie chooses not to run for Governor, in which case Salmon will run for governor instead.

We’ve also heard that someone named Lenny Britton (from South Pomfret), who owns a lumberyard in Windsor County, is talking about running for Senate in 2010.

Remember.  You heard it here first.  Or second.  Or whenever.  But, unlike some websites, we’re not going to sit here and pretend after the fact that we knew it was coming but chose not to post about it.

What does any of this mean?  I suspect that in Salmon’s case, it merely suggests that he’s returning to his natural spawning grounds.  For those of you who weren’t paying attention to the auditor’s race in 2006, he basically didn’t bother running much of a campaign at all, and merely squeaked in over a fairly unimpressive and (as I’ve noted before), smarmy opponent.  If he runs as a Republican, I think we’ve got a good chance at beating him just by showing up and actually trying to get someone elected, as opposed to slouching our way into office.

I’d write more, but I think my metaphors are a bit fishy today.  It’s best I clam up now.

Statement by the Vermont Democratic Party regarding Auditor Tom Salmon’s Announcement

We are disappointed by Auditor Tom Salmon’s decision to switch to the Republican Party. Auditor Salmon and his family have a long and storied history with the Democratic Party in this state and have enjoyed a great deal of electoral success with the help and support of the party and our dedicated activists.

As shown during this past budget battle and again in his statement today, it is clear that the Auditor identifies himself with Republican Governor Jim Douglas and the “Party of No-New Ideas.”

We will field an exciting slate of well qualified Democratic candidates for every statewide office in 2010. We are confident they will be successful and continue to do great work on behalf of the people of Vermont.

People do this sort of thing every day, so this is nothing major for most people, but this is the first time it is legal in Vermont for two women to get married, so this is something I think of as somewhat important.

What I’m looking forward to, however, is the time in ten years when two women can get married to one another and not even think about what a big deal it is.  

This is not a personal story.  There are certain aspects of my personal life that I share gladly and willingly, but my relationship with my girlfriend, soon to be my wife, is not one of those things.  You won’t see photos of us, personal stories, or anything like that, after the fold.  

Instead, I will tell a story about politics, change, and evolution.

In February of 2004, Massachusetts was given a mandate by its supreme judicial court: enact marriage equality or fall afoul of the constitution.

It was that Spring that I watched most of the hearing at their constitutional convention, in which an attempt was made to amend the Massachusetts constitution in order to restrict marriage to one man and one woman.  

What’s interesting about this was that even most of the proponents of this amendment quickly gave into the equal protection under the law argument.  Here’s a (nearly half hour long) video which encompasses a lot of what happened during that period:

Here’s what I remember: the original version of this amendment was not intended to protect any same-sex couples.  Quickly, this changed.  And I mean quickly.  I got whiplash realizing what had happened here: suddenly, civil unions, which had been a major controversy in Vermont just a few years earlier, became the conservative fallback option.  

In the end, nothing happened in Massachusetts.  The legislature let the court’s decision stand, and same-sex marriage became legal without any major calamities, craziness or much of anything unusual or unexpected.  

It wasn’t until a few years later that Vermont started to address same-sex marriage.  The initial process was a series of town meetings, one of which I liveblogged here.

I should explain something about Vermont here: a lot of people think we’re this super-liberal state full of old hippies or something.  There is that element here, but we also have a lot of rural conservatives and some really vitriolic homophobia.  (for some examples, see the reader comments to this story from Vermont’s Rutland Herald).  Our fairly conservative governor even used anti-same-sex marriage rhetoric to fundraise (pdf file of his fundraising letter here).

So that’s why it’s still a bit of a shock that not one person opposing same-sex marriage appeared at that hearing I liveblogged.  Other hearings had similar results: no more than one or two scattered opponents.

Fast forward two years, to 2009.

At the beginning of the year, I never would have thought we’d be approaching same-sex marriage as part of the discussion in Montpelier.  But not only did we pass it, we passed it by significant margins.  The state senate passed it 26-4 (!).  The house passed it 95-52.  This was in late May and early April.

Our governor vetoed this bill.  He claimed it was a distraction from the real work of the legislator (unlike the extra time it took to deal with the override vote).

It came down to April 7th.

The requirement in Vermont for ovderiding a veto is 2/3rds of the members of each house.  This was easy in the Senate, with support for the override of 23-5.

The house was much closer, with a necessity of 100 votes, and only 95 supporting the original, it was a very tough call.  Not only did we win, we won by exactly the number we needed.  The final vote tally was 100-49 (see my original post on this here).

Here’s the relevant part of the bill that got passed.

§ 8. MARRIAGE DEFINITION

Marriage is the legally recognized union of two people. When used in this chapter or in any other statute, the word “marriage” shall mean a civil marriage.

That’s it.  It’s that simple.  It goes into effect today.

It’s about time.

From the “sore loser” files, per the Burlington Free Press:

The Rev. Craig Bensen said the organization he helped found to oppose the same-sex marriage lawsuit and legislative initiative – Take It to the People – was never anti-gay.

“Our focus was the marriage question and the right way to deal with it,” said the minister of the Cambridge United Church. He’s still pushing for what he calls a fairer way for all Vermonters to weigh in on this core societal question.

Here’s the deal, and it’s a pretty simple thing: Vermonters have had nearly a decade to weigh in on this question.  They will have another election in just over a year which allows them to voice their satisfaction or displeasure with the decisions made by their legislators with respect to this issue.  If this is truly a deal-breaker for Vermonters who oppose same-sex marriage, then it should be easy to get enough legislators elected to vote to change the laws back the way they were before this session.  But that, clearly, is not enough for Benson:

Bensen hasn’t given up his quest to allow Vermonters to speak on the question of same-sex marriage, but it is now part of a broader strategy to give Vermonters a greater voice in government.

The new group, letvermontvote.org, wants a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, which would reverse current law.

The group also advocates a citizen initiative process so Vermonters could speak at the ballot box on issues as important as this marriage question, Bensen said: “We think that would be a good option for Vermont citizens to have.”

What Benson is asking for is, in effect, mob rule.  He wants the ability to rile up voters who are easily able to be manipulated on the emotional level to enact his own agenda, regardless of how much support it has statewide.  It’s easy to get people up in arms over an emotional issue, especially if they’re ready to believe whatever lies you tell them in order to reinforce their existing prejudices.  Benson’s organization wants 5% of the population to be able to initiate a ballot referendum.  We might as well open the floodgates then, because 5% of the population would sign referenda suggesting that Barack Obama is actually a Kenyan.  You could probably get 5% of the population to sign a referendum to the effect that Thomas Jefferson was a Kenyan.  

Allowing 5% of the population to push their agenda on a statewide ballot referendum is only useful if your objective is to push minority rule through shouting over the rest of the population.  It is not Democracy.  It is chaos.  In the presence of chaos, anyone with a sufficient number of useful idiots at their disposal can hold a lot more power than they should.  

I was away for a good chunk of the week, and then spent the rest catching up at work, so I’ve not been following everything as well as I might, but a few stories caught my eye.  

First, the not so stupid.  According to the Reformer, even people who support Vermont Yankee are concerned about Exenus (which I, personally, think should be called “Exodus” since it’s Entergy’s escape route).  According to the reformer:

“Decision makers are looking at (Enexus) and are less confident in what Entergy is trying to do,” said Rep. Virginia Milkey, D-Brattleboro.

Even those in favor of Yankee’s continued operation, the Enexus spin off is of major concern.

“I’m not comfortable with that yet,” said Rep. Richard Hube, R-Londonderry. “You’ve got to have the resources and the capability to fulfill your part of the contract.”

You read that right.  Even Rick Hube gets it.

The photo, by the way, is of a Broad Winged Hawk, which was just hanging out on a utility wire off rte 12 yesterday.  I pulled over, got a LOT of photos of it, kept waiting for it to fly off, and it just hang out there.  I’ll post another later.

After the jump, we get to the stupid, and there’s a whole lot of it.

Among the stupid: Vermont Tiger, on Vermont Tiger:

Early the next morning Vermonttiger.com, sent press and politicians into a frenzy when it reported that the rumor of an appointment was bogus, but Douglas was going to make a major political announcement that would change the political landscape.  Vermonttiger stopped an inch short of saying Douglas would not seek reelection, but it was clear they had the story.

See, they didn’t say it was going to happen, but it’s “clear” that in their heart of hearts, they knew it was coming.  Is there such a thing as a cranial enema?

Among the other stupid?

Per VPR, Douglas says Dubie would be most qualified Republican to succeed him.  Draw your own conclusions.

Also from VPR, a Whistleblower says FairPoint faked its readiness to take charge.  This is quite a story actually.  It looks like Fairpoint managed to fake out regulators by writing a computer program to simulate good performance.  Heckof a job, private contractors acting as regulators!

Tom Salmon sells us out.  Not a real surprise, but even so:

(Kinzel) State Auditor Tom Salmon is also weighing his options, and if he runs, he says he would bring a very different economic point of view to the Democratic race because he thinks Douglas has done a good job managing the state’s finances:

(Salmon) “The state needs to have a sound financial future and the path that he has been on regarding that has been one that needs to be instituted whether it’s a Democrat, Republican or Progressive………so I’m going to be very watchful of the debate and the candidates to ensure that that is on front dashboard so to speak.”

(Kinzel) Salmon says he’s concerned that the Democratic Party is drifting too far to the left on fiscal issues and he hopes to revitalize the moderate wing of the party.

But here’s my vote for one of the stupidest things I’ve read in a long time.  The Rutland Herald has a piece called Caledonia Fair officials fret over pigs’ health.  What’s wrong?  Are pigs in trouble?

No.

But you can probably guess where this is going:

…Officials at Vermont’s oldest fair, which runs through Sunday, have decided to take no chance, banning all swine from the Lyndonville event.

“The perception that swine flu was transmitted between pigs and human is why we did this. In reality, we know there’s no transmission between pigs and humans,” said Fair President Dick Lawrence.

Jim Tucker, president of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, said he doesn’t know of any other fair in North America where pigs are unwelcome. He said most fairs will go on as usual, stressing personal hygiene.

Argh.

Argh.

Argh.

Okay, time to calm down with photos:

Ahh…. much better now.

(Intrusive note from odum: There will be accompanying video of both the Rutland and Arlington events, but not until later this evening…)

Bernie Sanders gave a town meeting in Rutland this morning.  There were protesters there, but they were generally ignored.  Mostly they stayed in back, sometimes yelling, but fizzling quickly.  Very few people tried to engage them.

I took a lot of video and learned something important from the experience: my phone is completely worthless when it comes to taking video.  Quality is poor on every level: you can barely hear most of what’s said, and the visual quality is poor even by cell phone standards.  So I’m skipping the video and going right to summary.

So, basically– we had major overflow.  There was no space left inside the church, but there were lots of people outside.  Bernie made a point (see photo above) of coming out to tell us he wanted to make sure everyone could participate.  So he explained what would happen: brief panel, him talking briefly and then splitting everyone into two lines: one line generally supportive of the health care reform ideas and one generally opposed.

He gave both sides equal time.  He did this inside for a few questions, and then came outside to do the same.  We were outside, so I was a little more engaged with those questions, but the sessions inside and outside (we had a speaker system so we had a clear sense of everything going on inside) were very similar.  

Sanders is a master at handling strong disagreement with tact and civility: never backing down, but never letting anyone shout him down either.  A few times the (fairly small) crowd in back started to get nasty (trying to shout people over) and he just told them to cut it out, which they did.  Similarly, a few questioners tried to yell their questions and express the depth of their anger.  In every case, he thanked them for their questions, and when they wouldn’t allow him to respond, he just said “do you want me to answer your question?” and that generally worked.  

Basically, this was nothing like what we’ve seen at other rallies: civil, even if rancorous; very even-handed; each side got equal time.

There was a guy there with a bullhorn who didn’t use it until the rally was over, which was a bit of a surprise.

Towards the beginning, when Sanders was giving his opening speech, the group in the back started yelling, trying to shout over him saying they wanted us to get to questions.  It was a little silly: we were all outside; Sanders was inside, so it wasn’t like he’d hear them.  

There was a lot of media there, and they always mobbed the protesters with cameras whenever they started yelling.  My favorite exchange was, I think, between a protester who was yelling at the beginning about how she wouldn’t get to speak her mind and a man asking her, over and over again, “are you getting in line to ask your question?  Why aren’t you in line?”

There was a lot of heated conversation going on while everyone was waiting in line beforehand and very little in terms of Useful Idiotry.  Even the people who strongly opposed health care reform were mostly expressing their opinions respectfully and a lot of us were trying to engage one another in meaningful debate about it, which was pretty cool.

I don’t think anyone’s mind was changed.  The people who were opposed to reform were outnumbered significantly; less than 25% of the crowd, possibly even less than 20%.  They still got the opportunity to speak 50% of the time, which I think worked fine and gave Sanders the opportunity to dispel a few myths.  One man was insisting that his federal taxes had gone up since Obama took office, which is sort of odd given that his federal taxes haven’t been collected for the year since Obama started yet.  Sanders explained how he was wrong, and he was not mollified.  Another woman insisted on explaining the death panels that most sane people know is crap.  Sanders very politely explained it to simply not be true, and she wasn’t really mollified either.

But mostly, it was just people talking passionately about what they believe in and why, and Sanders talking about what he believes in and why.  It’s unlikely that anyone’s mind was changed, but I think the point of these town halls is not to change anyone’s mind.  It’s to give us all an opportunity for our voices to be heard.

We camped up North this weekend, giving us a chance to check out a few good spots.  Here’s what I photographed.  We also spotted a few other warblers at Victory Basin, including an immature Magnolia and a likely Nashville, as well as what I think was a Redstart, but for me, getting a really good look at a Canada was a major treat.  Also, at Victory Basin, just after I was thinking “I should really be looking for a Bittern in this marsh” a bittern landed right next to me and then flew off, before I could even get my camera pointed at it.

The other major treat was my first ever Vermont sighting of a Rusty Blackbird.  No life birds this trip (no Gray Jay, Spruce Grouse or Boreal Chickadee) but some pretty good looks at birds I’ve seen before when the light wasn’t as good (Brown Creeper– first time I’ve ever seen one with the sun out) or my equipment wasn’t as nice (Canada Warbler, which I’ve only ever photographed once, back when I didn’t have nearly the setup I’ve had now, and never seen in VT before).

FRI, AUG 7, 2009

——————

Sometimes when birding you can experience moments in which everything just comes together.  We were walking at night when we spotted this Osprey perched overhead, first simply perched, then noticing me, then flying off. [Fri, Aug 7, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

SAT, AUG 8, 2009

——————

Red-breasted nuthatches were plentiful at Moose Bog [Sat, Aug 8, 2009, Moose Bog, Ferdinand, VT]

This white-throated sparrow was bopping about in the bushes as we ended our walk [Sat, Aug 8, 2009, Moose Bog, Ferdinand, VT]

We didn’t manage to find a spruce grouse, but we did spot this ruffed grouse on the side of the road.  I have no idea why its tongue is sticking out. [Sat, Aug 8, 2009, Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge,]

This question mark butterfly was hanging out at our campsite [Sat, Aug 8, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

This immature hermit thrush was spending a lot of time at our campsite [Sat, Aug 8, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

SUN, AUG 9, 2009

——————

A view of the beach at our campgrounds on an early misty morning [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

Probably the best photo I have ever taken of a brown creeper, and the sort of look I usually get of them [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

Mystery dragonfly, hanging out on my windshield [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

Red-eyed vireo [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Brighton State Park, Island Pond, VT]

A walk through parts of Victory Basin yielded great looks at a chestnut-sided warbler [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

    http://juliesmagiclightshow.co…

    http://juliesmagiclightshow.co…

Common yellowthroat [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

Some of the best photos I have ever taken of a Canada Warbler [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

Black-capped chickadee [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

I think this is a Great Spangled Fritillary [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

Mystery damselfly [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

First rusty blackbird I have ever photographed (or even seen!) in Vermont [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

Mystery flowers [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

Mystery dragonfly [Sun, Aug 9, 2009, Victory Basin, Victory, VT]

A few closing notes: First, these are all smaller images, linked to larger ones.  Clicking on them gets you to the larger versions, with details about the type of camera used to take the photograph, the lens used, etc.

Also, a shameless self-promotional plug: I’ve put together a 2010 Calendar of birding.  Here’s the preview:

From today’s Brattleboro Reformer:

Unsubstantiated claims and arguments submitted to the Vermont Public Service Board by parties opposed to the relicensing of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant should not stand in the way of the plant’s continued operation past 2012.

That’s not the reporter quoting anything.  That’s just presented there as part of the article.  It’s the opening sentence.  The piece goes on to make it a little more clear that this is presenting Entergy’s perspective, but it does so primarily by mining Entergy’s own statements, such as…

“(The board should) not be swayed by unsupported legal arguments, perceptions and anecdotes about the impact of the VY Station’s impact … many of which involve public fears and perceptions, not factual evidence …” wrote John H. Marshall, of Downs Rachlin and Martin, which represents Entergy,

…and…

Marshall also contended that the failure to allow continued operation “would result in a significant void in Vermont’s energy portfolio both in terms of the amount of electricity generated and the ability to access a low-carbon, baseload resource.”

Another reason why Yankee should be allowed to continue operation, according to the document, is that without the power plant, “Vermont’s carbon footprint would increase dramatically …” because it would have to rely on generators such as gas-fired turbines to supply it with electricity.

Such reliance would make it “virtually impossible” for the state to achieve the 25-percent reduction in greenhouse gases it is aiming for by 2012.

Seriously?  This is what passes for reporting?  The reiteration and tacit support for comments from a corporate press release?

No wonder newspapers are struggling.

…but it seems as though some of the politicians are catching up with us:

The Vermont Progressive Party has a wish list for the Democratic nominee for governor.

Members of the political party said Tuesday they would not field a candidate for governor next year if the Democratic nominee for that job agreed with them on three key health care, labor and energy issues.

These include supporting single-payer health care, closing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in 2012, and opposing any further state job cuts or reductions in unemployment benefits to out-of-work Vermonters.

If we can (a) field a candidate that gets the support of both parties and (b) see to it that Pollina doesn’t run, we’ve got a serious shot at this.

You can see from the calendar shown here that Rep. Welch will be doing some public meetings over the next few days.

For those of you unfamiliar with recent events, there have been a lot of teabaggers angry mobs wingnuts showing up at public events to try to drown out the discussion and attack Democratic representatives at public events.  Some of this is getting a bit insane.

Which is why we need to be there, not just to provide a balance to the right wingers paid flacks for right wing organizations useful idiots who are there to shout people down, but to show them how things are handled with class.

Welch is supporting good and positive health care reform.  We need to show him that we’ve got his back, no matter what the crazies throw at him.

(Calendar courtesy Firedoglake)

((bumped, with new info) – promoted by JulieWaters)

Uhm…  right:

The additional monitoring of the nuclear plant’s spent fuel storage was supposed to begin in the spring of 2008 and was required as part of a state license that allows Yankee to store spent fuel in steel and concrete casks. But a spokesman said that officials recently discovered they had failed to set up the monitoring protocol.

But I guess that’s okay as long as we get cheaper power.

UPDATE: the Reformer Herald [sorry!] has more:

Smith said that the state nuclear engineer asked for the results of the high-level waste casks in January, and was told by Entergy that he could review the results at the Vernon plant.

But in June, Entergy Nuclear informed the state that the results didn’t exist because it hadn’t started the monitoring process.

Okay… so it was an “oversight” that was supposedly discovered in June, but we find out about it in August and it came up in January.

Well, I feel much better.