( – promoted by odum)

Right before Thanksgiving, I saw a Caledonian Record editorial that I wanted to share, but never got around to. Now that it looks like a new sex offender law is on a fast track, it’s worth visiting this months’-old editorial. The whole thing can be found HERE, but I offer some choice quotes:

We find ourselves sharing in the concern the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union has with new sex crime legislation.

On behalf of the Vermont ACLU, Allen Gilbert questions a proposal by the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee, which has been working on legislation to rewrite criminal law dealing with sex crimes and sex offenders.

The proposal would change the law to require the collection of DNA samples from people arraigned on felony crimes, instead of just those convicted of felonies.

The editor goes on to explain that an arraignment is a very low bar to meet, charges may be dropped or reduced, and an arraignment contains nothing approaching proof of guilt. The question of what would happen to a person’s DNA if they did not end up getting convicted is a central concern of the editorial.  

We see this week that a sex offender law is going to move quickly. It is unclear to me whether “DNA at arraignment” is contained in the legislation. I imagine the arguments on the other side are that a DNA sample may be necessary to get a conviction and that a DNA sample is not all that an invasive procedure anyways.

The provisions, according to  WCAX

Lawmakers came up with a new sex offender bill that would:

expand the DNA database

call for new prevention programs in schools

ban deferred sentences for sex offenders

eliminate pretrial depositions of child victims

and give prosecutors the option of a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for sex crimes on kids under 16 years old

From Fox44, HERE’S Senator Dick Sears, Judiciary Committee chair,  outlining the bill’s prospects:

“Then the bill will move from my committee over to the Appropriations, hopefully a very short time there, then it goes over to the House, then I hope to have it on the governor’s desk by Town Meeting Day,” Sears said.

The bill would allow prosecutors to file a new charge that carries a mandatory, 25-year minimum prison sentence.  Sears calls it a responsible bill.

“I don’t see much of a problem in the senate and quite frankly I’ve had good response from most folks in the house I’ve spoken with,” Sears said.

So there you have it. Anyone know if this “DNA on arraignment” provision is included in the bill? Is there a good place online to find the specifics of a VT bill, like we have THOMAS at the federal level?

And then there is the issue of how much civil libertarians want to give on this issue. There appears to be strong bipartisan support for reform. But I long thought that fixing Corrections was step one. Much like when the gun control supporters want to enact restrictions after a tragedy, the mantra from the NRA is “enforce existing law.” It appears that in the Brooke Bennett case, that did not happen. Living in Randolph, I completely understand the desire to “do something” and  I am glad this did not end up getting crammed through right before an election. Hopefully, the bill on the table right now is a thoughtful reform effort, but I do know even if it’s not, it will be tough to oppose.

I’d like to close with the ending of the Caledonian Record editorial, because I love it when the rhetoric of the anti-government libertarian Right sounds so, oh I dont know, progressive?

While our nation sleeps the sleep of apathy, indifference and blissful ignorance, citizens are having their rights stripped from them at an accelerating speed. Vermonters already accept the state requirement that, following an initial arraignment in court and a not guilty plea, defendants are required to go to the police station and provide fingerprints.

Parents voluntarily line up Saturday mornings to provide police with the fingerprints of their children. While, as the police claim, the fingerprints may help identify a missing child, those same fingerprints will be stored in a huge database maintained by Big Brother, on file for life.

One of the Bush presidency’s shameful legacies will be its disregard for the Constitution and its contempt for an individual’s right to a presumption of innocence.

Our rights are a scarce commodity and diminish every year. Vermonters must not allow our government to further erode our sacred freedoms.

Full disclosure: I used to deliver Caledonian Record as a kid growing up in St. J.  

(Thanks for writing this up. – promoted by JulieWaters)

Mydog’s recent post on the rhetorical magic of our 4th term governor inspired me to dig up the VPR radio story “Douglas meets Obama, makes case for bailout of states” When I heard it last week, I knew something did not compute. Here’s Jim explaining that any federal bailout will not effect the need for the Legislature to cut $64 million from the budget:

“We have about a 37 million dollar shortfall this fiscal year to deal with in the General Fund but we also have 27 million dollars of additional pressures for new spending so we’re going to continue to have a significant problem that will require adjustment of our state budget regardless of how much the federal government comes through.”

Note the word “adjustment” instead of something more honest like “cut.” The word “adjustment” sounds so actuarial, so responsible, so accountant-like. And such a word leaves room to think that maybe the governor is proposing a package that would include some cuts but also some more revenue.

Douglas then reinforces the idea that maybe he is going to do the tough work of coming up with more resources for the budget when he says:

We can’t expect the federal government to do all the heavy lifting we have to make the tough decisions we have to make some choices and exercise budgetary restraint so I don’t expect the federal government to come through with all the resources that states need we’re going to do our part too

It is perfectly reasonable to assume that Douglas is proposing the state by “doing our part too” means help the feds “come through with all the resources.” But he really means that the feds will come up with the resources and he will try to push as many budget cuts as he can through the Legislature. Jim will collect the check from the Obama administration and propose only cuts. He’s hoping to play Santa and Scrooge all at once. Now what if the federal bailout of the states includes stipulations that the states put up some money to get more money? Will Jim propose that we forego assistance because his definition of “adjustments” is “cuts”?

I dont know if Bob Kinzel intended the irony when he ended the story, but his closing really underlines the “resources”=”cuts” equation:

(Douglas)… so I don’t expect the federal government to come through with all the resources that states need we’re going to do our part too.”

(Kinzel)Douglas says he’s hopeful that a preliminary list of budget cuts can be drafted by the middle of next week.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

Maybe you can’t be at the 7Days lovefest tonight. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some civil discussion of the D and P rift. Included are the definition of an ideologue, the December 6 meeting,  the candidate vacuum, “weeniecrats,” legislative vs. electoral arenas, and a nice Greenspan hunting season beat rounds it all out.  

Episode 7 of VTblogosphereTV is on the air and this week’s installment is called “Return of the Odum.”  We spent the first bit talking about Lieberman retaining his chair, the vote tally story that GMD broke, and the resulting visitor spike.

Then we moved on to consider how the Obama cabinet is shaping up. Daschle had just been announced for Secretary of Health and Human Services and in the clip here, John underlines the debt of gratitude the nation owes our own Howie.

So what’s left for Dean? I would like to make the case that Secretary of Labor is the best fit out of the positions that remain. Why Labor? He’s got the executive experience and he deserves to head a department. I also think that governing a small state, he got very clear knowledge of how federal  departments interact with and effect states. And as he’s shown with this chairmanship, he knows how to fix stuff, and Labor has been ailing terribly under Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnell and only original cabinet member left standing in the Bush administration. But most importantly, if we are going to retain an employer-based health care system (which looks like a lock) Labor will be pivotal in health care expansion. If Obama is serious about health care expansion, a full court press will be necessary and Dr. Dean at Labor would be a great addition to the team.

I have also heard rumblings that Dean may be vying for Secretary of Education too and I wonder what GMDers think about where Howard belongs and what his chances are.

Next we talked about the state budget, deficits and the progressive economic inferiority complex (© Odum 2008).  Some of the themes dovetail nicely with SPS’s Keynes for Vermont, and here is a great example of where we crazy bloggers can put solutions on the table that the Democrats may initially fear to touch.

Which leads into the potential of a summit to clarify goals and help the dems gain some backbone and outreach to the greater small p progressive world. In the next clip of the interview, John talks about some goals for the summit and I’ll make sure to get that posted before Saturday.  

If you have never been over to Integral Psychosis, it is definitely worth a regular visit. Right now Wes (wdh3) has a great post up about how much of a challenge Obama is for the radical lefts. He has a nice knack for being inflammatory (Obamafascism?)  and thoughtful at the same time. Maybe “provocative” is the word that unifies those two poles.

Below that post you will find the first two parts of my interview with him for VTblogosphereTV. Here’s part 3:

This interview took place 2 days after the election and we spent most of our time trying to sort out its monumental meaning.  I think Wes was trying to bring me down off my giddiness, but I’m afraid I’m still buzzing. We did manage to get in a word or two about the state of the State in regards to the fractured left.

We must have been overtaken by the exuberance of the unity and change rhetoric in the air that week, because by the end we made a dem/prog truce brokered by Bernie seem like a forgone conclusion. No such plan is in the works. I have no reason to believe in such an outcome. But goddammit sometimes speaking something makes it seem more possible. The clip closes with a little Obama Halloween season beat with dueling jackolanterns of joy and dread. I hope it captures the zeitgeist of a time not so long ago.

Next up is the Return of the Odum. Moohoohahahahaha

He’s back and he’s talking GMD visitor spikes, Lieberman, deficits and the progressive economic inferiority complex, and the December 6 meeting of the minds. You can see that on ORCA and VCAM (public access TV) this week and I’ll get it up on the youtube soon enough.

VTblogosphereTV archives HERE

Let me know if you are interested in sponsoring the show locally (basically just telling your public access channel that you want them to pick up the show) or maybe even coming on (we shoot in Montpelier).  Easiest is probably “send Message” on the youtube page.

(Hey… check this out! – promoted by Christian Avard)

VTblogosphereTV continues to assault the public access airwaves in central VT through ORCA Media and the Burlington area through V-CAM.

Now playing is an interview with JD Ryan, GMD frontpager and publisher of FiveBeforeChaos. Okay okay, he is a man who needs no introduction, as evidenced by his recent cavorting and galavanting about with Congress critters.

This interview was a blast. JD’s concerned that he cracked himself up a bit too much, but he just has to face the fact that he is funny. The first bit of the interview can be found over at FIve Before Chaos. More will follow over there, but I’d like to treat GMDers with the last portion of the interview, in which we discuss the Governor’s race, IRV, and Films of Questionable Quality. It all closes out with some Clinton harvest funk for your viewing and listening pleasure.

I really want to resist JD’s negative assessment of the Governor’s race. It is going to be a strong Democratic year nationwide, VT is  one of the most progressive states in the nation, and Douglas seems incredibly vulnerable to me. His record of vetoes alone ought to lose the race for him. His “the business of government is business” philosophy seems an incredibly poor match for the troubles we face.

But I just heard Douglas’s latest nasty but effective ad

and it makes me think he has got this one sewn up. With the wildly fluctuating polls, Pollina’s attempt to make it a two MAN race, and the hand-wringing and recriminations already  apparent on the left, it is hard to muster any hope for this race. Even the Legislative “keep Douglas under 50%” scenario seems increasingly unlikely.

Still,  with all that, I wonder about the question I asked JD. If Doulgas is below 50%, at what point would it be legitimate to choose the 2nd place finisher?  To me, if he is below 40%, that is a sure thing to unseat him. If he falls between 40-45%, then I would see that as fine grounds to unseat him, if not a slam dunk. It is that 45-49.9% range that is the most troubling to consider, and right now it is looking like the most likely scenario.

thoughts?

John McCain’s campaign website leads with “Remarks on the Economy”

It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem. We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debates until we have taken action to address this crisis.

Okay there’s some decisive bold words designed to make the debate commission, Ole Miss, and the Obama campaign look like megalomaniacal celebrities if they don’t stand down and put country first. But then if you go to the “Upcoming events” link, you get

Actually reading the graphic is worthwhile: ‘Straight talk comes to Oxford MS.’ Hilarious. So is the debate between the front page of the website and the “upcoming events” section? I could understand changing the topic from foreign policy to the economy, but debating McCain’s attendance at the debate within the McCain website itself seems excessively meta. Perhaps this is a signal that he is going to show up, perhaps it is a sign that the McCain website can not maintain basic message consistency. Either way, this is a sign that McCain’s latest stunt can be filed under “unmitigated disaster.”  

So maybe we ought to tinfoil hat it and see this debate suspension due to crisis as prepping the American people for election suspension due to crisis. Then maybe some logic emerges. I mean perfectly functional regimes have suspended elections in the past. What makes us think we’re so fancy having elections at a Constitutionally appointed time? What is so special about the first Tuesday in November anyway?

Then again why assume conspiracy when good ole incompetence can explain the Chicken Little strategizing of the Maverick McCain campaign?

crossposted at Dailykos

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( – promoted by odum)

I just got back from Chandler and the NEA sponsored Gubernaterrible bedate. I was hoping to like Symington, figuring a small live audience would improve her comfort level but she just seemed to not be present. She had to ask more than once what the question was, thought it was her turn for a rebuttal when it wasn’t, and then passed when she given the opportunity to rebut the next round. So my advice for Symington would be be ready when it is your turn and don’t make whether it is your turn or not a central theme of the debate. I have seen some painfully amateurish productions at Chandler before but that involved amateurs. I must say it got to a point where she was beginning to win my sympathy, not unlike a middle school theatrical production gone awry.

Douglas suffers from the exact opposite malady. He is such a smug jerk that, although he is polished and speaks in clean paragraphs (in sharp contrast to Symington’s halting delivery), he is entirely an unsympathetic character. He has this incredibly obtuse way of taking sole credit for everything that he has signed that has come out of the Legislature and then follows with a drolly disingenuous snipe at any and everything the legislature has failed to do. Yes he said Gaye was for the two-vote mandate for school budgets before she was against it and yes he relabeled her just announced Bridge to Opportunity pilot… wait for it…. the Bridge to Nowhere. It’s hard to be snotty and dull at the same time but this guy is a master.  

I tend to think of Pollina as the stereotypical perennial third party candidate and was expecting to have my prejudices reinforced. But I must say he was the hands-down winner.

He was specific in regards to policy, rhetorically on point, and rebutted his opponents in the moment in ways that showed he was thinking on his feet. Now debating skills do not translate into governing skills, but I left the hall having a good sense of what his priorities would be as Governor. Job creation through improving our sorely neglected transportation infrastructure. Paid for with bonds funded by closing a capital gains tax loophole– I think I have that right. He thinks we can do in-state single payer health care. He spoke about his experience as a teacher and school director in ways that strengthened his points. He was clearly against the two vote mandate, calling it anti-democratic, and along with Symington did not see a regional or statewide teacher’s contract as any kind of solution. He would use the rainy day fund to make sure no one freezes this winter. He was clear and memorable. I didn’t take notes but between Symington’s equivocating and Douglas’ droning, he was the hands-down winner of the rumble in Randolph.

I did not stay for the last few minutes, so maybe something happened to change this assessment, but I had seen enough. I still dont know who I am voting for, but if Symington wants to hire a public speaking coach, she could not do better than to see  if Anthony would be interested.  

Primary Day is Tuesday and I thought it would be a good time to post this excerpt of my interview with Nate Freeman on VTblogosphereTV. The interview is nearly an hour because the guy running the board in the studio did not give us a timecheck. So when I went to do post-production, I was pretty sure I would be editing out boring or repetitive parts. But there weren’t any!



In this excerpt Nate discusses blogging, the Taylor St bridge video, the official reaction to it, our transportation challenges, and Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs). Coincidentally, He also discusses how text can be more difficult to access than video, so if your eyes glaze over reading policy positions, this interview may help you with decision making.  

      Maybe you’re jealous, maybe you miss him. Maybe Odum’s recent appearance in The New York Times’ “Fashion and Style” section makes him dangerously comparable to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. If you’re a Republican. Maybe that 3AM text message bleeping Biden has primed you for all politics all the time. Maybe you’ve realized that when Biden literally says “literally” he literally means literally.

           Maybe you wish you were in that other state with the green license plates. Maybe you’ve got Denver on your mind. Maybe the Sunday morning yapfests leave you feeling empty. Maybe just maybe you didn’t get to see VTblogosphereTV’s first episode on public access television…….

Okay I already posted the first two segments, but if you haven’t seen them yet, click here and here.

             And here’s the last pieces uploaded to Youtube to make for the first ½ hour episode. I looked at ustream but it appears to be purely about live streaming, and I do a bunch of post-production work that wouldnt fly on such a format.  But keep the suggestions coming, good stuff all around.

          BREAKING:  Episode Two with Nate “mydog” Freeman is ready to air! I will post some Youtube clips well before the Lt Gov primary on September 9, but you can see the whole thing on ORCA media  starting September 1. I’ll post times and clips soon.

          Nate and I went on a bit long as the production folks at ORCA didn’t give us a time check, so we’ve got nearly an hour of quality content! Imagine Brian Dubie yapping for an hour. Hey you wake up.

          Nate’s got a ton of enthusiasm and insight to get us all woke up into the twenty first century and he articulates his vision in an accessible way. Vermont has a great tradition of citizen politicians and Nate is effectively challenging the stultifyingly stagnant Republican executive branch.

       VTblogosphereTV will also show on V-CAM in Chittenden county and I will post air times soon. Episode Three will be with Philip Baruth right fresh off the plane from Denver. He’s not just a blogger, he’s an Obama delegate and is in Denver as I type.

         I would like to get this show on more local public access stations and that requires a local sponsor. So if you live elsewhere other than the VCAM or ORCA service areas let me know at mcabadi(at)verizon.net. If you fill out a form then VTblogosphereTV can show up on your local access channel. And in the spirit of reciprocity, if you have a show you’d like to broadcast in the ORCA service area, I’d be happy to sponsor it. Just let me know. Here’s a list of public access service areas.   The production people at ORCA are talking about a live broadcast on election night so we’re poised to grow. Don’t be surprised if I bother you about coming on the show or let me know if you have any interest.

          I’m telling you, when the blogosphere hits public access TV, we’ll have some serious media democracy on our hands. WGOP look out. And now video updates from Denver on the GMD site? Exciting times.

         So enjoy, produce communicate vote activate educate advocate. Nice to see the sun go down on free market ideology nonsense. Time to plant the seeds for people’s governance. Gardening at night. Oh what a beautiful morning awaits. Darkest before the dawn and all that.