This is from a Blue Hampshire diary: “Policy Straw Poll: Health Care” that asked candidates about their HC positions and the “rule” was that the response must start with the phrase “I am the only candidate who”…

Of course, the campaigns stretched the rules in some cases and were a bit long-winded, but here are just the opening lines that met this rule. You can go to Blue Hampshire for the rest.

From the Edwards campaign:
I am the only candidate to propose a specific plan that guarantees true universal health care and also gives Americans the option of a public plan.

From the Obama campaign:
I am the only candidate who will sign legislation by the end of my first term that will cover every American and cut the cost of every family’s premiums by up to $2,500 — the biggest cost-savings that any presidential candidate has proposed.

From the Dodd campaign:
I am the only candidate that has over 20 years of experience getting things done.

From the Gravel campaign:
I am the only candidate that has proposed a single-payer Health Care Voucher plan.

From the Kucinich campaign:
I am the only candidate to recognize the single payer not-for-profit comprehensive solution to the problem of providing access to health care is a solution that includes everyone and excludes no one

From the Clinton campaign:
Ignored the rules, did not say what was unique about her, released her statement in third-person, pol-speak. (yes, I found it annoying)

From the Biden campaign:
I am the only candidate who knows first-hand what it is like to survive a life-threatening emergency surgery.

From the Richardson campaign:
I am the only candidate who believes that all stakeholders – government, individuals and business – must share the goal and the sacrifice of providing universal health care coverage for all Americans.

(WOW! Check this site out!

-Note from odum: This is so cool, I launched one for all Vermont over lunch. I’ll populate it tonight or for tomorrow’s lunch… – promoted by odum)

Have you seen the 2008 Race Tracker wiki? While we’re hot about the vetoes on two vital issues, can you help flush out the  VT-Gov 2008 page?

Here is some info on the site:

2008 Race Tracker
Welcome to the 2008 Race Tracker wiki. The goal of this site is to track information on U.S. elections taking place in 2008. For now, the focus is on Senate, House and gubernatorial races. We’re aiming to input data on possible candidates for every such election in the nation. Please feel free to dive right in and add what you know. We strongly encourage you to use the built-in templates.

If you’ve heard about a candidate possibly running for office, please either include a link to a reputable news source or clearly note that what you’ve added is merely a rumor, an educated guess, a recruitment idea, or just “conventional wisdom.” (Rumors are okay! As long as they aren’t completely without basis in reality.)

These are the main pages:

Gubernatorial Races

House Races
Senate Races

Sub-pages dealing with each race branch off from each of those. For House races, each state gets a sub-page, with individual races branching off at that point. For some examples, check out NH-Gov, MT-Sen, the Arizona House main page and the AZ-08 page.

Sponsored by the Swing State Project and DailyKos.

I tend to look at a lot of things in life from a process perspective, and politics is certainly no exception, and from that perspective I am deeply disappointed by what has happened on the Energy Bill, even more so than regarding the fate of the actual bill in some ways.

What I saw at first was encouraging. This was an issue that was very easy to support, with a bill that had a lot of positives going for it and an opposition that was a relatively easy mark. I mean, c’mon, who’s NOT for reducing energy bills, reducing carbon emissions and creating new high-tech jobs, right? Well the Gov, that’s who. He’d rather create jobs in China.

So this environment created a lot of political frustration, and not just for the same old usual suspects. I attended a meeting in Norwich a while back where there were about 25 people ready to lend a hand to support the override cause. That’s a pretty good turnout. There were other meetings around the state. This cause was a rallying point around which Vermonters were engaging, and they were engaging on the side of Dems. This seemed very hopeful for developing into a surge of support for the next elections. There was a real opportunity to build an expanded grassroots network, drawing people from VPIRG, Sierra Club and the Step It Up campaign, among other contingencies, onto a Dem bandwagon.

Alas, I’m afraid that opportunity has been at least partially squandered, and this is where my biggest disappointment arises. Unfortunately, no VT politician saw the possibilities in this moment. Nobody from the Leg rallied the grassroots troops. Nobody connected with the budding “movement” and engaged them. This was an opportunity for a Howard Dean, People-Powered moment, but that lesson from that campaign seems to have been swallowed back up by the politics-as-usual school of thought.

Instead, the volunteer movement was left out to dry. Letter writers now have their contributions to the movement in local papers supporting the energy Bill, including the VY tax adjustment. How do they feel now? See them hang in the breeze below?

This letter writer from South Royalton

“Currently, Entergy only pays one-third the tax rate of what is proposed for other power generators in Vermont. There is nothing unfair about requiring Entergy to pay the same tax as other generators, especially because they have upgraded the facility and increased its output by 20 percent.

Another from So Burlington

“Vermont Yankee currently pays a property tax rate of only .001 cents per kilowatt-hour. Other energy generators, such as wind farms would be required to pay a rate three times as high. While most Vermonters are paying more in taxes, Vermont Yankee’s tax bill has actually gone down since 2001.”

Newfane…

“The governor’s continued use of IBM’s name as a concern about the tax, as though a parity tax on the nuclear power plant is somehow going to carry over to all large corporations in Vermont, is simply deceptive. The last I checked, IBM wasn’t producing energy or plutonium.”

and Richmond…

“All H.520 proposes to do is to tax Vermont Yankee at the same rate applied to large-scale wind projects. No more, no less. Seems more than fair to me considering we will still have to deal with Yankee’s nuclear waste for millennia.”

I have a hard time picturing a progressive or even a moderate Democratic Gubernatorial victory in 2008 given the vacuum of leadership evidenced by this affair (and others).

I really can’t believe I just heard this… NPR this morning run a complete hatchet job on Edwards. I couldn’t find a transcript yet but will try to summarize what was said…

—–
Commentator: Complains about how many candidates we have in USA, one of them, Edwards was on Leno last night.

Leno: Your anniversary is coming up, is it true that since you’re a cheapskate you still go to Wendy’s? blah, blah, blah

Edwards: I can’t spend a lot on dinner whan I spend $400 on haircuts

Commentator: Edwards has been criticized by some recently for paying for his haircut out of his campaign fund, which he eventually paid back, and for having his anti-poverty non-profit fly him to NH, which is an early primary state.
—–

That was it. I thought they would then go into a discussion of these attack points they threw out there, but that was it. What is newsworthy about this? Why did they run it?

Is there really a corporate media effort to discredit the Dem who polls best against any Rep in the general election?

( – promoted by odum)

(Also posted at DailyKos)

Today is the Centennial of Rachel Carson’s birth, and event that deserves to be recognized, especially in these times of struggle to speak truth to power and to overturn the damaging decisions being made by powerful corporate interests.

Rachel Carson proved that a single person can rally a country to see the truth. Even more important than her accomplishments towards banning the use of DDT, she showed the nation that People Power can be a force to be reckoned with.

Do we have a new Rachel Carson in our midst? My thoughts on that after some quotes about Carson below…

Today is the Centennial of Rachel Carson’s birth, and event that deserves to be recognized, especially in these times of struggle to speak truth to power and to overturn the damaging decisions being made by powerful corporate interests.

Rachel Carson proved that a single person can rally a country to see the truth. Even more important than her accomplishments towards banning the use of DDT, she showed the nation that People Power can be a force to be reckoned with.

Do we have a new Rachel Carson in our midst? Thoughts on that after some quotes about Carson below…

Her main accomplishments and her legacy are her books. They are well worth the read, both her first 3 “naturalist” books and her epic, activist Silent Spring.

Books Written By Rachel Carson

The biography by Linda Lear also adds a perspective on how remarkable and inspiring it was that Carson was able to move so many readers through her words.

This rather quiet spoken woman used the power of eloquently written words to literally change the world.

Time Top 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century

Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book

Her legacy endures, with Republicans fighting her still:

Boston Globe article

Her place in the American imagination is enduring: “Silent Spring,” published in 1962, led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and to banning the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT.

…

But revisionists are busy besmirching Carson’s legacy. In Washington, Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, has placed a stop on an innocuous resolution praising Carson on the centennial occasion. The resolution notes her “legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility.”

Al Gore has been mentioned as the “new Rachel Carson” for his work on Global Climate Change with “An Inconvenient Truth”. I think that’s a fair comparison. I wonder if his newest book, “The Assault on Reason” will be another significant voice on the state of our political “ecosystem”?

Welch’s office issued this statement:

“I am deeply disappointed that there is no deadline for troop withdrawal in this bill and will therefore vote against it. Regrettably, the President continues to stubbornly dig in his heels and cling to a failed policy. He has led this country into a catastrophic foreign policy failure and he continues to thumb his nose at retired generals, the will of the majority of Congress, and the majority of the American people.

“While I am profoundly disappointed, I remain determined to end this war. This vote will not be the final say. Regrettably, the President continues to isolate himself on this war. The day of reckoning for this President is coming as more and more members of his own party find their voices and demand a change in course. I have great hope that in the coming months a veto-proof majority emerges in Congress that can stand up to the President to end this terrible war.”

( – promoted by odum)

If you’re in the neighborhood tomorrow, stop by this forum on health care and introduce yourself. I’ll be the one stubbornly asking about “real reform”.

PUBLIC FORUM

Monday, April 9, 7 pm

Damon Hall,  Hartland,VT

Healing Healthcare

Harry Chen, MD, ER physician & VT leg. Rep;

Ceil Furlong, RN,BSN,

Good Neighbor health CLinic Nurse Manager;

Deb Richter, MD. Physician & advocate;

Moderator: Hilde Ojibway, VT leg. Rep.

Sponsored by Windsor Co. Democratic Comm

There has been a lot of urgency on this and other blogs lately about impeachment and the level of democratic commitment to making changes in the war strategy, and in other areas. The intensity of these voices prompts my response today, and some thoughts to share with you.

Kagro’s “warning” about VTDems about to abandon Leahy’s back brought this into focus for me. Kagro – love your stuff, but you got to give folks a little room now and then! Especially when things are moving in the right direction, and I would argue, about as fast as they possibly can and still be effective.

More below…

Think about the nature of political leadership… or any kind of consensus leadership, really. You can usually only move change as fast as a “critical mass” number of the group will move and change with you. I had written on this site that I was opposed to impeachment; that was back before the new congress took their seats. I feel vindicated by my position. Congress has diligently gone about passing a series of needed measures in the house, and serious investigations in the Senate. Because of the way these motions have proceeded and the deliberateness in which the process has moved and taken the time to include a majority along the way, the momentum has built to a place where impeachment IS now really coming closer to the table, and closer to a political reality to consider, and perhaps to achieve.

I think it’s vital to understand that there is a fundamental difference in the nature of leadership and power between the dems and the reps. Republicans rely more on a power structure that builds a hierarchy of authority, and respects that hierarchy. A leader like Bush can pull the BS he has because the people who follow (or instruct) him do so because they are invested in that very structure of power. Their goals are to eliminate the checks and balances on that power so they can have wider rule.

Political power for democrats comes from the people, through consensus, and is much harder to manage. That’s why scandals rock us a lot more. It’s not just that we tend to jump all over each other, it’s because we rely on holding the consensus together, and tough times shake the foundation of that consensus. We don’t have a base of believers of iron-rule autocracy.

There’s a place for voices like Kagro’s and others to demand change NOW!, and in our time and age, this is certainly it. But while we absolutely need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to provide real leadership in these areas, I think they have done a great job, perhaps even the very best job possible, in advancing the critical issues of our day. I think we can help by joining and strengthening the growing consensus that the war is wrong and the Bush Administration has violated the constitution and continue to add momentum to the movement.

I just read a newsletter with a pretty bleak perspective on the state of education funding reform from the VPP. I did however, like some of the alternative ideas they put forth, shared below…

A pre-town meeting report from the committee had acknowledged that most of the cost drivers of public education are caused by the poverty of too many Vermont families.  Schools must provide meals, counseling, substance abuse prevention, and even warm clothes. Yet the proposed bill would simply punish local school districts for doing their job and following the law.

Entitled “An Act Relating To Education Quality And Cost Control,” the draft bill would increase the penalties for schools that happen to have too many children with special needs.  Towns like Bethel provide the affordable housing for low-wage workers employed in Woodstock, White River Jct. and Hanover, N.H.  Special education costs are not optional.  It is no secret that children from poor and single-parent families are more likely to need special ed and other social services.  A school that fails to provide needed services to a child faces expensive legal challenges.

…

In fact, what we really need to do is shift all special ed funding to a statewide pool to reflect Vermont’s obligation to all its special needs children.  The happenstance of where a family finds housing should not subject one town to excess spending penalty, while another slides under the threshold.  If the state believes that some towns are over-identifying special needs students, let the Dept. of Education make that determination in the first instance, and not second-guess and penalize Vermont towns.

I have two questions for this esteemed panel:

1-agree?
2-if yes to 1, why aren’t we heading in that direction?

John Edwards will speak in Hanover, NH at Dartmouth’s Alumni Hall (second floor of the Hopkins Center, right across from the Green) next Wednesday 1/31 at 2:45 p.m. Arrive early if you want to get in.