Today’s Rutland Herald talks about Layoffs at the state level:

“It was a surprise,” said Dean, who has worked in state government for eight years and is – at least until the middle of next month – an information technology manager in the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

Dean and three other workers in the agency – a tourism data administrator, a systems developer and a community development consultant – had work to do and lost their jobs because of lack of money to pay them, not because of how they did their jobs, state officials said.

I’m taking this more personally than I probably should because I know that some of these budget cuts are going to hit friends of mine.  I know of at least one other agency that’s been mandated to cut four positions by the end of the year, and I know people in that agency who are finding it extremely difficult to keep up with their work.   I’m not going to give details on this yet because I have to check to see if I have permission to discuss more of it in public, but I’ll give the short summary: an agency which provides support and assistance for people who are just barely struggling to get by is having its staff cut during an economic downturn.

So yeah, I’m kind of pissed about this.

But I’m also kind of pissed because of the stupid, inane, it’s not our fault crap from the administration which is mandating the layoffs:

Who’s responsible for this?  Apparently, it’s all on the legislature’s shoulders:

It was the Legislature’s fault, said Jason Gibbs, a spokesman for Gov. James Douglas, who said earlier this year that reducing the number of positions through elimination of vacant spots would allow Vermont to avoid layoffs or reductions in force (RIFs).

“It is a direct result of the cut that the Legislature required in that agency’s budget,” Gibbs said. “It is a consequence they were aware of and one for which they are entirely responsible.”

This was an extremely difficult budget, and one that took some real compromise between the Governor’s office and the legislature.  But when it leads to bad choices on the part of the administration, it’s obviously got nothing to do with the administration.

You.  Have.  Got.  To.  Be.  Kidding.  Me.

Is there anything about this administration which is not about politics and the way things are worded?

I’ve seen comments here and there about how so much of the party favors Clinton for the VP slot.  Some have even suggested that this is the first real test of Obama’s leadership, such as illustrated here:

Early on in the debates, it was obvious that people wanted the Dream Ticket and that the two of them had a real chemistry.

Face it– the Democratic Party is and always has been a house divided. Obama has a chance to show some real leadership here by bringing the party together.

I’ve seen similar arguments throughout the blogosphere and I think they’re misguided.

The real test of leadership is not what choice Obama makes for the VP slot.  The real test of leadership is how he makes it.  Does he do so quickly, in order to placate disappointed party members or does he do so with careful and thoughtful deliberation?

Does he make a quick rash decision in the interests of bringing the party together or does he let the possibilities linger for a time?

Does he respond to the pressure from outside groups to force him to choose a specific candidate, or does he refuse to allow an entity within the party to dictate to him what his choice will be?

I don’t know about the rest of you but, to me, a leader is someone who actually, you know, leads on an issue: the best possible move Obama can make at this moment in time is to do exactly what he’s doing: say that it’s going to take some time and that this is a private process and that, eventually, a decision will be reached, and then take his time, with the support of his search committee, to find the best possible nominee not for this moment in time, but for November and beyond.

UPDATE: Here are the stats on the call from Welch’s office:

…now let’s see if we can get him on a moderated GMD webchat, eh?   – odum

Per The Rutland Herald:

n an experiment that will join emerging technology with direct democracy, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., will host a telephone town meeting to discuss Vermont’s energy concerns at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Residents who wish to participate can call in to ask questions, tell their stories and listen as others discuss how the rising cost of gas and fuel are affecting them.

“The reason we’re talking about energy and home heating and gas in particular is because that’s the No. 1 issue people are bringing to me,” Welch said.

The telephone town hall meeting is an extension of Welch’s Congress in Your Community events in which Welch sets up a card table in front of hardware and grocery stores around the state to listen to residents’ concerns, said Welch spokesman Andrew Savage.

If you’re interested in participating, call 1-866-447-4149 (and use PIN code 13785#) at the meeting time.

Per the Rutland Herald:

Progressive Party gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina says he’s in the governor’s race to stay.

In a fiery address at a rally on the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington on Thursday, Pollina called it a “myth” that he and Democratic candidate Gaye Symington will siphon votes from each other and hand the election to incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.

Pollina, of Middlesex, says Vermont needs a change from the two-party system that has left Montpelier bickering and failing to address the real issues facing state residents.

His announcement is expected to put to rest rumors that he was considering dropping his bid for governor in favor of a campaign for lieutenant governor.

So… press conference to announce… no news?

The Burlington Free Press has a very similar announcement.

Per the Rutland Herald (emphasis mine)

The last time the 110-ton heavy-duty crane, which is being used at Vermont Yankee to move its high-level radioactive waste, was tested with a heavy load was more than 30 years ago, Entergy Nuclear and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

The crane, which is being relied on to handle the 97-ton steel and concrete casks that will contain the high-level radioactive waste, was slated to be tested Wednesday evening after last week’s failure.

And, of course, there’s more.

Robert Williams, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said the 1968 crane had last been tested for very heavy loads in 1975… he said full weight testing was not required before last week’s first move. He said a test move with a lesser load was conducted before last week’s problems.

Questions about the crane’s ability to safely lift the super-heavy loads, such as a steel-and-concrete cask containing 68 fuel assemblies, were raised this week after an incident where the brakes on the crane failed to stop the descent of the cask to the floor.

The rest of this covers discussions with Stephen Wark, from Vermont’s DPS:

Wark said as a result the state would be increasing its inspection and oversight at the plant, although he said he wasn’t sure what path that would take.

He said the state’s engineer who works on nuclear issues, Uldis Vanags, was at the plant on Wednesday and waiting for the crane test.

He said Vanags had questioned Entergy officials about whether the crane was “certified” to handle the heavy loads, and was told the last time it was certified was in the 1970s.

I have a thought.  My thought is that if we’re going to use nuclear power, it might be good to have equipment that has been tested since all of GMD’s front-page bloggers were born.  

Anyway, there is a silver lining here:

He did say the state was pleased that Entergy had volunteered the information about the crane snafu on its own. The incident occurred on May 12, and Entergy released information on May 16 in a limited way.

“We’re happy to see them starting to embrace transparency,” Wark said.

Argh.

Crossposted to Birding New England:

Vermont is currently the only state in the union which has no documented cases of eagles breeding within its boundaries.  It looks like it’s going to stay that way.

Per The Rutland Herald:

It might have been the inexperience of the female, which still had some of the plumage of a youngster, that led to the loss of the nest within the last week, said Forrest Hammond, a biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, who had been watching the pair.

“We suspect, from what the experts tell us, the birds might have left the eggs at the same time. A crow might have gotten the eggs. A seagull (another known eagle egg predator) was seen in the area at about the same,” Hammond said.

“We’re all really disappointed,” he said. “It’s too late for them to re-nest this year.”

But there’s always next year.

“There’s a great big, good nest,” Hammond said. “If there was a problem, it’s a lack of experience. They’ll stick around and try again next year.”

To compound the frustration of Vermont biologists, Hammond said that an eagle pair has been breeding successfully on the eastern shore of the Connecticut River in Plainfield, N.H., for several years, across from Hartland.

I knew about this before the article was published.  I’d had a conversation with a friend about it; he’d been checking on the site and suddenly one day there was no eagle on it, and there were crows around the area.  

Mostly, it just makes me sad, but they have tried nesting several times now and don’t seem to have an interest in stopping, despite the failures.  So maybe there is next year.

Oh, and that photo is of one of the nesting birds.  I took it from our car, making a point of not venturing off the road even though I could have had a much better shot if I’d chosen to.  No way I’m going anywhere where I could interfere with that Eagle’s nest.  Aside from being morally and ethically wrong on every level, it’s just not smart to mess with a bird that big.

Today’s Brattleboro Reformer reports on yet another incident at Vermont Yankee:

Technicians were in the process of moving the cask from the reactor’s spent fuel pool to a concrete storage pad outside the plant when the cask dropped to the floor.

The crane had operated with no problems during demonstration runs that were performed for the NRC during the past month, said Williams.

But wait: it gets better:

The fuel assemblies are being moved out of the spent fuel pool because it is has no room for any more.

Without the fuel transfer, the pool would remain full, forcing Vermont Yankee to shut down.

Sometimes I just can’t believe that we rely on this stuff for anything

Crossposted to Daily Kos

Clinic defense: it’s getting up very early on Friday and Saturday mornings and driving to a clinic which performs abortions in order to help the women who are coming to them from medical care get into the clinic without having to deal with the harassment of anti-abortion protesters.

It’s challenging work.  It requires you learn to focus on the clients and not react personally to anything the protesters say to you (gay-baiting, race-baiting, threats on your person, etc.).  

When you do clinic defense, you don’t even refer to one another by name where it can be overheard because if they have your name, they make the attacks much more personal.

It was difficult work, but it was well worth it.  It taught me a lot about myself, about responding to personal attacks, and it taught me a bit about courage, too.

The job itself was simple: when someone pulls into the parking lot, do your best to help them into the clinic and distract them from the protesters to ease their way in.

Sometimes, the protesters would play games, like having one of their people pull up and then drive away as they convince the person not to have an abortion.  Like we don’t recognize their cars that are parked along the road every week and don’t recognize the drivers in them as well?  But, I digress…

I’m talking about this because despite my occasional differences with NARAL (I’m not fond of groups which endorse incumbents over challengers just because the incumbents have acceptable voting records, even if the incumbent can do a lot better, so I’ve clashed with NARAL a few times over this), I think they’re a good organization that does good work.

So, if you’re angry about their endorsement, please be sure to let them know what your preference would have been, and if you’re happy about it, let them know that, too.

But whatever you may think about their decision, NARAL is no traitor and if it weren’t for them, some of these clinics I volunteered at wouldn’t even exist today.  They’ve been a major force supporting abortion rights for decades and they deserve some respect for that.

I’m going to close this with two quick stories:

The women who owned the clinic I volunteered at developed a brain tumor which eventually killed her.  While she was still alive, one of the protesters found out about the illness and they started mocking her for it.  

They would shout to her, telling her that this was God’s punishment for her sins.

These are the people who should be our common enemy here.

Once, one of the protesters herself came to the clinic to get an abortion.  She asked for special permission to come around through the back entrance so her friends protesting outside wouldn’t see her.  

The clinic complied.  

We didn’t challenge her on this.  That would have been unacceptable.  She had every right to get an abortion and she had every right to protest.  The contradiction between the two was her issue to deal with, and it wasn’t our place to make her feel terrible for it.

The next week, she was out there protesting again.

We never said a thing.

Chris Bowers reports that the new GOP slogan “The Change You Deserve” is a lot worse for them than you think it is:

Third, it was particularly brilliant to unveil a campaign slogan that is already copyrighted as an advertisement for an anti-depressant.

I don’t feel a need to dwell on this.  It sort of speaks for itself on the pure irony level, plus it was discussed in a front page Kos diary yesterday.

Instead, let’s focus on the other possible slogans the GOP could have picked.  ASD has a list of registered slogans that provide all sorts of alternate possibilities:

I like EMLA’s “numbs the pain,” because it accurately reflects the short-term effect of us all getting drunk and crying into our drinks should McCain win in November.

Aricept has a medication with the slogan “A first step in Alzheimers.”  I think that would do well as a GOP slogan: “Republicans: a first step in Alzheimer’s.”  You can put a picture of Reagan next to McCain.

One of Band-Aid’s slogans is “We’ve got you covered.”  I can picture that being used with a photo of hooded prisoners:

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

Beano has the slogan “Take Beano before. There’ll be no gas.”  I think we can shorten that to a photo of an abandoned automobile with a gas pump handle hanging from its trunk and use the slogan “There will be no gas.”

Bufferin has the “Bufferin is smarter” ad.  We could change that to “The Republican Party: even Bufferin is smarter.”

Crestor has the slogan “Now you’re getting somewhere.”  I picture that with a photo of a humvee driving into Baghdad:

NOW YOU’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE

Immodium uses “Forgotten something?” as one of its slogans.  I picture a print ad with McCain hugging Bush in the bottom left corner, him eating cake with Bush in the upper right, and then in the middle, scenes from Iraq interspersed with photos demonstrating the conditions at Walter Reid medical center and scenes from Arlington.

Or, possibly, we could connect it to hurricane Katrina, as suggested in the excellent Kos diary We Should Use This Photo. Every. Single. Day.:

FORGOTTEN SOMETHING?

Lemslip uses the phrase “Here to help” in its advertising.  I think we can use that with that photo of Bush trying to exit through the wrong door:

HERE TO HELP

You can tell that it’s a day when I just can’t think about anything serious, can’t you?

Today’s Free Press has a surprisingly good article about mothers in jail and the problems they face:

Francis is one of the roughly 130 women in the Vermont prison system who will spend Mother’s Day separated from their children. For Francis and many jailed mothers, their challenge, beyond staying sober and not reoffending, is maintaining their parental bonds and making sure they remain intact after their release.

With the female prison population in Vermont having grown exponentially in the past 10 years, more women are finding themselves in Francis’ position – struggling to be good mothers while behind bars.

The article goes on to note that many of the mothers who are in jail are there for crimes related to substance abuse problems and I’m at the point where I question whether or not jail does these women or their families any good.  I’m not arguing for a removal of the prison system, but I am wondering if drug-related crimes might be better dealt with through treatment facilities with an active interest in, when possible and appropriate, keeping families together.