There's a Google Ad poll (which can currently be seen at Crooks and Liars) that reads like a set of Douglas/Dubie talking points. For instance: Vermont can succeed; can lower the cost of government, lower taxes, create jobs, and allow the tax base to grow. But succeeding means making choices. Something tells me they're looking to create the illusion of a groundswell for Dubie's "ideas", so maybe some GMD readers would be interested in sharing their perspectives.

Hop over here to take the poll.

Thanks to John Fairbanks at Scaypgrayce for the link.

Is there a group that it's still socially acceptable to attack, stigmatize, and stereotype?

Apparently it's people with psychiatric diagnoses.

You can't turn on a crime drama on TV without seeing the guilty, or scary, mental patient. YOu can barely go to the movies without  finding a psychotic killer, or a heartwarming story of a mental patient overcoming adversity. Either way, the underlying thread is that those people are not like us.

We see it in Vermont, too. You probably remember a few years ago, when the Vermont Teddy Bear Company decided to make a profit by mocking mental patients with their Crazy For You Bear. They actually seemed surprised when people were offended.

Now, those lovely folks at Vermont Commons, sponsors of the Second Vermont Republic and their neo-confederate buddies, are  helping advertise for a play called Mixed Nuts.

Mixed Nuts, a screw-ball musical comedy by Jim Hogue, will be performed at the Unadilla Theatre from August 24 – 31 (and later at the Vergennes Opera House).

The play is about 6 inmates from the Vermont State Hospital who escape to make Vermont an independent Republic.

Yup, those madcap Vermont State Hospital inmates–always good for a laugh.

Keep it up, guys.

On tomorrow's City Meeting ballot:

ARTICLE 16. Shall the City of Montpelier vote on a non-binding resolution that states: “The voters of the City of Montpelier advise the Vermont Legislature to pass a bill to replace criminal penalties with a civil fine for adults who possess a small amount of marijuana”. (By Petition) 

The story also made the front page of today's Free Press:

The ballot item is the result of a petition drive led by the Vermont Alliance for Intelligent Drug Laws, which is lobbying for decriminalization statewide. Group founder Nancy Lynch said she, a volunteer from Burlington and two Montpelier residents went door to door and quickly collected nearly 500 signatures. People were overwhelmingly supportive, said Lynch, a Williamstown resident.

A yes vote would send lawmakers a message that there is significant public support for decriminalization, Lynch said. Current law creates criminals out of nonviolent offenders and costs the state millions in courts and corrections money. Decriminalization would be “a no-brainer,” said Lynch, executive director of the Burlington Peace and Justice Center.

As someone with a healthy respect for the intelligence and good sense of my fellow Montpelier voters, I think the chances for passage are excellent.

UPDATE: (excerpt from press release)

Statement by Senate President Peter Shumlin Regarding the Senate’s Vote

to (close) Vermont Yankee as Scheduled

Montpelier, Vt – “The Vermont Senate, today voted by an

overwhelming bipartisan majority to close the aging Vermont Yankee

nuclear power plant as scheduled in 2012. The 26 to 4 vote sent Entergy

Louisiana a clear message: enough is enough.

Vermonters deserve better than an aging, unreliable nuclear power plant

owned by an untrustworthy out of state corporation.  The Senate took the

courageous step to close the unreliable plant on schedule and voted

instead to stake out a bold new energy future that will create thousands

of good-paying jobs in the fields of renewable energy and energy

efficiency.”

-k9k

UPDATE: Bill to extend VY license defeated, 26-4.

UPDATE:

Sen. Brock, R. Franklin, admits he’s been trying to slow the process down, but will vote no on the bill. Wishes he knew more. Not happy with prevarications by Vermont Yankee.

Sen. Bartlett, D. Lamoille. “To vote no today is a no-brainer.”

Roll call on passage.

Ashe: NO

Ayer: NO

Bartlett: NO

Brock: NO

Campbell: NO

Carris: NO

Choate: NO

Cummings: NO

Doyle: NO

Flanagan: NO

Flory: YES

Giard: NO

Hartwell: NO

Illuzzi: NO

Kitchel: NO

Kittell: NO

Lyons: NO

MacDonald: NO

Mazza: YES

McCormack: NO

Miller: NO

Mullin: NO

Nitka: NO

Racine: NO

Scott: YES

Sears: NO

Shumlin: NO

Snelling: NO

Starr: YES

White: NO

Bill defeated, 26-4.

More below the jump to save front page real estate.

UPDATE: Another proposed amendment from Flory, R. Rutland. Key idea: Let’s put up a new nuke! After all, when they set up Yankee they permitted the site for two plants.

Sen. White: There is no evidence that the site was ever approved for two plants.

Roll call: Brock, Carris, Flory, Mullin, Scott, Starr vote Yes, all others vote No. Amendment defeated 24-6.

UPDATE: reconvening after lunch recess.

Senator Mullins from Rutland is proposing an amendment, which is being passed out now.

Drafted with Brock, Flory, and Scott to be a “better framework” for the decision.

Starts out with discussion of new findings.

Creates two new sections that seem to be designed to create a fig leaf for support of the plant.

Roll call:

Yes votes from Brock, Flory, Mullins, Scott, Starr.

25 No votes. Amendment is defeated.

Debate starts with a point of parliamentary inquiry by Phil Scott, R. Wash., asking Peter Shumlin how they could consider the bill when it was introduced in contravention of the rules. This apparently relates to missing crossover.

Shumlin: it’s a committee bill, they never reject a request to bring up a committee bill after crossover, and the Rules Committee was polled and agreed unanimously.

Apparently dissatisfied with Shumlin’s response, Scott now interrogates one of the members of the Senate Rules Committee. Kevin Mullin responds, saying that he had his thumb down, but said that he eventually said “If you want to have this fight on the floor we’ll have it on the floor.”

At request of John Campbell they go into a brief recess.

Recess ends: Scott stands by his comment. Doesn’t “withdraw” anything because he didn’t make a point of order. “I’d like us to move forward. I think it’s important to have this discussion today.”

Shumlin: I thought we had unanimous support to allow the bill.

Chair recognizes Ann Cummings, D. Wash. Senate Finance Committee has followed strict procedure and followed a deliberative process. Twelve-page handout on their process.

S. 289 mirrors the language of Act 160, reciting requirement of finding that continued operation of VY is in the public interest. Bill voted out without recommendation, which is very rare.

Begins recitation of VY history, going back to 1972 opening of Vermont Yankee.

Complicated corporate structure, involving several LLC’s that insulate the parent company from potential liability.

Repeated legislative attempts to ensure safety, reliability, and decommissioning. Entergy has refused all attempts to provide security for decommissioning costs. “We have not gotten a clear answer.” “They come with a very limited focus as to what they can talk about.”

Cummings concludes. Up next, Ginny Lyons, D. Chitt., from Senate Natural Resources. Committee has heard from many re: performance reliability and have information relating to planning for and access to electricity.

Lost audio. Hopefully it will return.

Audio is back. Shumlin up to respond to process questions.

Open process. No surprise that they’re voting today. Quotes news reports going back months of him saying they’re going to move forward and vote.

Ten days ago the chair of Finance came to him and said there is nobody left to hear from, and it’s time to vote. Natural Resources said the same thing. “We cannot take additional testimony, we’ve been taking it for four years, it’s time to vote.”

Up until a few days ago that’s also what Douglas, Entergy, and the Public Service Department wanted. Quotes Douglas from January 30: “Peter Shumlin ought to have a vote.”

Praises the work of Arnie Gundersen. His character was maligned publicly because he has been an ardent watchdog of the industry, who also happens to know more about the industry than anyone I know, and he’s been right every time. Praises Arnie Gundersen’s courage and knowledge.

The fact that future Legislatures can undo this vote doesn’t mean it’s a meaningless vote today. That’s just the way every bill and every new Legislature works.

I’m urging you to allow VY to close on schedule.

Five facts:

1. Price offered by Enexus in December. 50% price increase, plus inflation kicker, for 11% of Vermont’s electric needs, not the current 33%. Price offer is from Enexus, not Entergy. If PSB didn’t approve transfer to Enexus they would shut the plant down. Entergy-Louisiana is getting out of nuke business.

GMP and CVPS have not made a deal because they’ve concluded the price is no good.

2. Cleanup. Recommissioning fund is $600 million short. Douglas has vetoed two bills to require guarantee of recommissioning funds. This is even before the tritium leaks. A similar plant had its costs double after tritium leak.

3. The spinoff. We’re in recession because of Wall Street schemes that cost people on Main Street billions. Those schemes are nothing compared to Enexus scheme. Pocketing $3.5 billion of borrowed money, $4.7 billion of low quality debt.

4. Reliability. No further explication necessary.

5. Trust. I know they had a press conference this morning and their lawyers concluded they had not misled our regulators or legislators in describing the pipes that “didn’t exist”. I learned when I was in business when I was 23 years old, don’t do business with someone you can’t trust.

What’s worse: a company you can’t trust or a company that doesn’t know it has pipes with radioactive waste on the shores of the Connecticut River.

Phil Scott: Point of order. What is the basis of our vote supposed to be?

Recess.

Back in session. Vermont Constitution, Art. 14, provides that legislators have immunity for words spoken in debate. Therefore, “It’s our responsibility to talk about these things, irregardless of the fact that the PSB and the NRC are responsible for safety.”

Campbell requests recess to investigate basis of jurisdiction under Act 160.

Senate in recess.

Back in session. Not sure how much I missed. Ann  Cummings is being interrogated about economic impact.

Scott moves to commit the bill to Economic Development committee. Supported by Bobby Starr, D. Essex-Orleans. Supported by Randy Brock, R. Franklin, with a litany of business groups to bring in. “I could keep reading for another twenty minutes.”

Senator from Rutland (can’t tell if it’s Mullins or Carris, but I think it’s Mullins) talking about financial impact. Cummings: Maine study by Ray Shadis found that the plant in Maine didn’t have as large local purchases as some other plants.

John Campbell interrogating Ann Cummings on study of economic impacts. Supports motion to commit bill to Senate General.

Mark McDonald, D. Orange: The utilities already have a contract to buy power in 2012 for the same price that VY is offering now, today. It’s going to be 6.1 cents with or without VY. The next question is whether it will be deliverable. VELCO says that reliable power is available even if VY and McNeil in Burlington shut down. Why would we keep Yankee open if we can get the power we need at the same price without them? I would recommend that we say no, we don’t need the power from VY. If anyone wants to offer a better price in the future, let them do that. No financial reason to continue to take power from this plant.

Jeannette White, D. Windham, to Ann Cummings: did the business interests ask to come testify to Finance, and were they turned down?

Answer: No. They didn’t request and we didn’t turn anyone down.

White: They would have been heard if they had asked.

Shumlin: “If I had a crumb of bread for every time I’ve had a chair come in and beg me not to send a bill to the Committee on Economic Development, whose chair has a prodigious appetite for bills, I could make us all sandwiches.”

Roll call on motion to refer:

Ashe: No

Ayer: No

Bartlett No

Brock Yes

Carris No

Choate No

Doyle No

Flanagan No

Flory Yes

Giard No

Hartwell No

Illuzzi No

Kitchel No

Kittell No

Lyons No

MacDonald No

Mazza Yes

McCormack No

Racine No

Scott Yes

Sears No

Shumlin No

Snelling No

Starr Yes

White No

I know I missed a few, but there were only six Yes votes.

30-minute lunch break.

It's barely a month ago, but the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United could have a bearing on tomorrow's vote on letting Vermont Yankee's operating license expire on time.

Or maybe I should say that considerations of Citizens United should have a tremendous bearing on the vote, and here's why. You probably know what the Supreme Court did in Citizens United, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that they opened the floodgates to unlimited spending by corporations in political campaigns.

Corporations like Enexus, or Entergy, or whatever they're calling themselves to stay ahead of state scrutiny these days.

You probably get campaign solicitations from political parties every week. In fact, I just got one while I was writing this. If you're like me, whenever you get these calls you think about how important the cause is, what your budget happens to look like that week, and you decide how much you can afford to spend.

If you're Entergy, what's potentially at stake in November's election is whether they get to keep running their plant, so let's take a look at the numbers. On average, Vermont Yankee sells the electricity it generates at about a nickel a kwh, or $50 per Megawatt hour, so every hour their sales are about $31,500, and every day they're running it's about $756,000. In a year that puts their sales at about $276,000,000. Kind of a lot of money, huh?

Now, we have a state Senate (maybe) and five Democratic candidates for governor who are saying they should be required to shut down in 2012, which means shutting off the $276 million spigot. One might think it's worth a lot of money to them to stop that from happening. That's why they're buying all the full-page ads in the paper, running all the TV spots, flying their PR flack up from New Orleansto glad-hand the locals, and offering a sweetheart deal (what? Did you say bribe? I'm shocked!) if we let them keep running.

And their message? The same as Douglas's message: do nothing. They know that Douglas won't be around to carry their heavy water next year, but they can hope that Brian Dubie will follow in Douglas's footsteps, if only they can sit on the ball until November. That's why they are doing what they can to stall a legislative vote this year.

But remember Citizens United? That's the game changer in this fight. Say the Democratic candidate is Peter Shumlin, who has come out strong against relicensing. Or, for that matter, any other D, all of whom favor closing VY. And just say, just for the hell of it, that Dubie has come out in favor of relicensing. (He can't hide forever, right?)

Thanks to Citizens United, if the election in November is between a Democrat who favors shutting down VY and a Republican who favors keeping it open, how much is it worth it to Entergy to keep the plant running? Obviously not three quarters of a million a day, because that's their total sales, but definitely in the millions, right? Tens of millions? What does it cost to pay for a governor and sixteen senators?

If it's still an open question in November, we can expect to see possibly the most expensive election in Vermont history.

The vote's tomorrow, and the Senate should vote No and let VY close.

The Burlington Free Press this morning featured GMD's own Maggie Gundersen and her husband Arnie, who have been a thorn in the side of the fork and spoon operators in charge of Vermont Yankee. You may recall that Douglas's Public Service Department attacked Arnie when he was appointed to the panel to review VY's operations, but who's getting taken seriously now?

As the Free Press points out:

“Arnie Gundersen is the only person who’s been right about Vermont Yankee every time,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, who two years ago appointed Gundersen to an oversight panel to study Vermont Yankee in preparation for decisions about the plant’s continued operation. Since then, the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office has contracted the Gundersens as consultants on Vermont Yankee for up to $47,000.

Although the Legislature — and by extension the public — has come to rely on Arnie Gundersen to help them understand what’s going on inside the Vernon nuclear power plant, Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien bristles at the very mention of Gundersen’s name. O’Brien contends Gundersen’s warnings have not been as on the mark as some would suggest, is eager for attention and barrages officials with accusatory questions.

Good work, Arnie and Maggie!

I'm not sure whether I should be saying he's started early or what took him so long, but Brian Dubie has jumped into the demagogue business with both feet.

His campaign has largely been following an under-the-radar rose garden strategy. He hasn't exactly been holed up, but unless you're a member of the Elks or Odd Fellows in some small town you probably haven't had much chance to see him lately.

Today, though, he signs up for that old reliable among right-wing Republicans: the No New Taxes pledge. You'd almost think he was running on the other side of the river.

Meanwhile, just Friday, what did he say in the Caledonian-Record? Let's shovel $8.6 million of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of Vermont businesses. But let's just think for a moment. Where are those millions of dollars coming from?

If you guessed taxpayers, you're right.

So where's the demagoguery? Pretty simple, really. The fake populism of the Republicans is the formula: pretend you support the little guy, while dishing out the goodies to the fat cats.

A few random thoughts:

 1. What took them so long?

We all know what to do when your company screws up, right? Round up a few guys in suits and throw them off the cliff.

Why did it take Entergy so long? And do they really think it's going to distract us from continuing problems at the plant?

2. Republican tog-dog-ism.

Just a farily obvious example of the Republicans' natural affinity for the bosses. The state decides to issue a new license plate to honor Vermont's war veterans. Who gets the first one? The oldest surviving WWII veteran? The most highly decorated Vermont veteral from each of the wars honored by the license plate?

Nope. Michael Dubie, an Iraq War veteran who just happens to be the head of the Vermont National Guard.

Way to look out for the bosses, Republicans!

3. Another difference between Obama and Bush.

Bush lies, Obama tells the truth. Say what you like about Obama's war plans (and most of us around here disagree with them), but at least Obama put the costs in the budget instead of trying to pretend they aren't part of the deficit.

 4. More good news for Evan Bayh wannabe Harold Ford.

Picks up the coveted Karl Rove endorsement.

5. VPR succeeds where Times Argus fails.

 We've noted here that theTimes Argus has uncritically swallowed Douglas's patently false claims that his budget “holds the line” on taxes.

 Now VPR has covered the story and gets it right.

The Governor's proposal would increase tax burdens for homeowners with household incomes between $60,000 and $90,000.

Kinzel) Senate Majority leader John Campbell says the plan is “an assault on the middle class”:

(Campbell) “What the Governor is doing by this is what I will call a shell game, because he's trying to say this is not a tax increase. This is an increase in tax burden to those people who can afford it the least.”

 Congratulations to Bob Kinzel and VPR for looking beyond the administration's line.

6. Lite Gov understory:

From this morning's Free Press:

Sen. Edward Flanagan, D-Chittenden, who had said last year he would run for the seat but then became the center of controversy for inappropriate behavior at the Burlington YMCA, said Tuesday that he won't run for lieutenant governor but will run for the Senate.

We haven't heard anyone talk about his Lite Gov bid for months, but I guess now it's official.