“But it's my house.”
“You're under arrest anyway.”

America's newest crime: being in a house while black.

BOSTON (July 20) – Police responding to a call about “two black males” breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there — Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar.
Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

You've gone out for the evening and forgotten your keys, or maybe the door is stuck, so what do you do?

It's your house, right? So if you have no other choice, you break the door in, or break a (preferably cheap) window and let yourself in.

Then, if you're a black man living in Boston, be prepared to deal with the police, and be careful how you talk to them.

Skip Gates broke into his own house, and when the police showed up he took umbrage, reasoning that he was being targeted for his race. If you're the cop, and you have any sense, what do you say? How about, “Sorry to bother you, sir, but we had to check out the break-in report. I'm glad you were able to get in.”

What do these cops do? They arrest him for disorderly conduct.

Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.
“Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him,” the officer wrote.
He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26. Police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.

The next time you find yourself wondering if there is still a need for the NAACP after 100 years, remember this story.

Most parents of college-age students have had the same experience: complete the FAFSA, which is burdensome enough in itself, submit the information, wait for the notification of the expected family contribution, and then try to face the shock. Whatever you thought you could afford to pay, it’s not nearly as much as what they tell you you’re going to pay. Not even close.

There is a crisis in higher education in the United States. People just can’t afford it, and many students graduate with paralyzing levels of debt. What we should do is what many civilized countries do: provide higher education free, or nearly free. We’re not going to do that, but we should.

Obama’s new proposal is a major step in the right direction. By directing more money to community colleges, the new plan will bring higher education within reach of many who cannot now afford it; direct funds to some of the most motivated students, who are best able to benefit from it; and provide education and training that is directly relevant to the career needs of many students.

Community colleges have never gotten the respect they deserve. Everyone knows a derogatory nickname for the community college in their community: when I was at Michigan State I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard Lansing Community College referred to as Last Chance College. What a mistake. Community colleges provide great value for the money, are nimble, and reach nontraditional students who are there not just because it’s expected of them, but because they are prepared to get something out of it.

I think this proposal is a great idea. It’s also a major campaign promise kept.And if you’re a parent or a prospective college student, this proposal builds on a great educational option.

I’d like to see us follow this model here in Vermont.

The news tonight is that Walter Cronkite died tonight at age 92.

It is sad news. He was important to a lot of people.

I never quite got it. He was known as the most trusted man in America, people called him Uncle Walter. People will feel the loss, even though he's been off the air for a long time.

For me, I really couldn't get the reverence people felt for a man whose job was to read the news on TV.

Back when Cronkite was on TV he embodied a certain image: authoritative, avuncular, stolid. He was trusted because his voice, his whole persona, exuded authority. When they were looking for someone to do his job, he was the right guy for the job.

We didn't even know that we were in the running, or even that they were doing this, but the Times Argus today published the first edition of their Best of the Best, their Readers' Choice awards for the best of all that you can find in Vermont.

 And it's not just restaurants, movie theaters, and state parks.

 Here's the category we're interested in:

Best Vermont Political Blog

Green Mountain Daily
www.greenmountaindaily.com

I didn't find the full text online, but here's what they said about us:

“For a modern, liberal take on the political scene go to www.greenmountaindaily.com. This team of bloggers holds strong opinions and has been delivering strong insight into Democratic and Burlington politics for several years.”

So this is a GMD thank-you to the Times Argus, the readers of the Times Argus, and the loyal readers of GMD who voted for us.

A couple of years ago we posted about how Apple was trying to crush innovation by “bricking” people's iPhones.

Maybe it's something to do with owning the hot, exclusive technology that makes you arrogant, but this case is too ironic to believe. The hot new technology this time around is the Kindle, the new e-book reader from Amazon that many people consider the first e-reader that, although not perfect, is the first on that's even worth looking at. Three bills brings it home, and you can buy over 300,000 titles.

But what if you buy a title and Amazon changes its mind? Well, then you've got a bit of a problem, as Amazon customers learned this week when they found out that books they had bought from Amazon were suddenly gone.

Or should I say “bought”? The customers thought they owned these books, but Amazon changed their mind, or the publisher changed their mind, so, poof, no more books. All the books by, get this: George Orwell!

That's right, the author who visualized and warned us against Big Brother, the all-seeing, all-powerful dictator, who knew what you were reading, what you were doing, and had the power to make you love Him. That George Orwell.

Now the giant, all-powerful, octopus-like e-retailer claims to feel bad about how it handled this situation, but you have to wonder if they would have acted this way if they had any real competition in the e-reader market.

Now maybe they do. It's not on the market yet, but it looks pretty good to me.

You're already read all aout it: how Douglas scammed some out of state enviro group to rate him in the top ten for green governors, based on the Governors' own websites rather than on critical analysis of actual results based on policies and procedures established by the various governors during their respective tenures. That's right: I guess it was too much trouble for Geenopia to do  their own research, so what better place to find out what a great job Douglas has been doing for the environment than Governor Douglas?

Fortunately, the folks at Greenopia have had no shortage of comments pointing out just how off base this rating is, including this one:

“This is from a Bizarro universe right?  . . . Good news for you – your “ranking” reveals how well you researched him and set your criteria. You probably rank SVUs as green because they have big windows that can open to cool occupants and not use A/C.”

Well, there's good news this morning. Douglas has just taken another step to prove how supportive he is of environmental protection. He's  appealing the decision of the Environmental Court invalidating a permit issued to Montpelier's sewer plant because the state had failed to do a proper analysis of phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain.

Yes, rather than spend effort and money to actually clean up the lake, he's decided that a better use of state resources is to make sure that more pollution can be allowed to flow from the state's wastewater treatment plants into the lake. 

Hmm. Maybe when they said he was a green governor they were talking about the algae in the lake.

Great news! The Republicans have come up with a strategy to attract Hispanic voters: pepper their commentary on Judge Sotomayor's confirmation with wacky, Desi Arnaz-flavored ethnic slurs.

That's right, Sen. Coburn decided to share his wisdom about what would happen in the unlikely event that Judge Sotomayor would get hold of a gun and shoot him. It's his considered legal opinion that if that were to happen, she would have “a lot of 'splainin' to do.”

Read the rest here.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance:

Okay, here's another one: you wouldn't necessarily say that every time a Republican goes near a computer it helps us, but they really aren't helping themselves.

Here's a story from the Daily Beast about Audra Shay, a woman who's the leading candidate to be the national chair of the Young Republicans. (I know, I know, my mother always said there was no such thing.) On her Facebook page she starts complaining about Wal-Mart, and how they're helping the country go communist by supporting Obama's health plan, and people start making comments.

One of her friends posts this comment:

“Obama Bin Lauden [sic]  is the new terrorist… Muslim is on there side [sic]… need to take this country back from all of these mad coons… and illegals.”

Eight minutes later, Audra posts back: “You tell em Eric!  lol.”

Two of Audra's friend point out that there might be something wrong with endorsing this kind of racist statement, and Audra responds by defriending them. Then she claims that she wasn't responding to Eric's racist comment, but another comment he made an hour earlier.

Yeah, right.

So follow the links and read the whole story. She took down the page, but someone had already archived it, so the links take you right to the evidence.

Once again, I say, let's handcuff the Republicans to their computers. It can only help us.

 Recognize these guys? One of them is Evan Bayh, the Democratic [sic] senator from Indiana with a penchant for supporting Republican ideas and programs. 

 The other is Tom Salmon, our own Auditor of Accounts, who also seems to be establishing his public profile by supporting Republican ideas. Well, he's certainly got our attention. In January, Salmon stepped up with a proposal to change the character of Vermont's ski areas by alllowing casino gambling on the mountains, maybe to come up with a new meaning for the “Green Mountain State”.

Then, back in May, when the Democrats in the Legislature were standing up to Douglas's veto, Salmon tried to undermine them by offering to mediate between the two, presumably equally intransigent and guilty parties.We know how that came out: thanks to the organizational skill and intestinal fortitude displayed by Shap Smith and Floyd Nease, and the Democratic rank and file, the D's held the line and overrode Douglas's veto for the second time this session.

And then, just last week, we spotted him trying to insert himself into the legislative process and running an op-ed piece attacking the Democratic budget and parroting the Douglas line that Vermont can't afford to levy taxes to support social services.

And now this week, in another fight that really doesn't come within the purview of the Auditor of Accounts, Salmon sides with the Douglas administration on allowing ATV's on public land. 

 I don't know that much about ATV's, but I do know how happy I am when I've been away and I get back to our beautiful home state, and how much pleasure I and my family and friends have had in the woods, mountains, and trails across the state.I don't want to hear the ATV's in the woods when I'm out there, and I don't want to see stuff like this:

 Is there a guarantee that opening Vermont's public lands to ATV's will do this? Of course not, but I do think that it's going to be harder to regulate where ATV's go once they're on state land than to keep them out completely.

What does this have to do with Salmon? Just that we are now seeing one more time where Salmon is siding with the conservative, soft-on-the-environment Douglas, and against the people who want to protect the environment. He can do that if he wants, of course, and he may have his reasons to think that this will help his political career. On the other hand, if he keeps siding with the Republicans, will the Democrats be there when he comes looking for our support?

If you're like me you don't have much use for “God Bless America”, and you're even more annoyed about the fact that you can't go to a ball game without being assaulted by it when you just want to hear “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the seventh-inning stretch.

Also like me, but unlike Bradford Campeau-Laurion, you've probably never been grabbed up by the police and hauled away because you had something better to do than sit there while the sheep watching the game with you sing.

There's now good news for Mr. Campeau-Laurion and for your civil liberties: with the help of the ACLU he sued the Yankees and the New York Police, and they've now settled for a cash payment to the plaintiff, attorneys' fees, and a statement from the Yanks that they won't force people to listen to the song if they don't feel like it. (Actually, the settlement says that the Yankees don't have any such policy and don't plan to institute such a policy, but you get the idea.)

So when you go to the game, and you're celebrating the greatest American game, and you hear a song that supposedly celebrates American values, you can be glad that you don't have to shed your civil liberties at the gate.