So yesterday we learned that the Joseph Hazlewood of Vermont politics, Darcie “Hack” Johnston, gets her political insight from the ultraconservative Newsmax.com. Today, we receive some pearls of wisdom from Angry Jack Lindley, chair of the VTGOP, courtesy of Terri Hallenbeck at vt.Buzz:

Vermont Republican Party Chairman Jack Lindley, admitting he wasn’t the hippest guy, said the GOP plans to get more hip. He said they are looking for an intern who can help the party appeal to younger people. “We need to be relevant to young people in the state,” he said.

Oh yeah, that’ll do the trick. I’m just picturing Angry Jack in a leather jacket and aviator glasses, hanging around the UVM campus looking for a young person who can lead the entire party back to relevance. While you’re at it, Jack, you might check out that hippity-hop music. I hear the kids are really into it.

Any other insights, Jack?

He also said he’s consulted with former Gov. Jim Douglas about how to re-brand the party that seems to be having an identity crisis.

That seems like a painfully obvious move; am I supposed to believe that he hadn’t already consulted the most successful Vermont politician of the last decade? Not to mention that Jim Douglas isn’t exactly the avatar of the younger generation.

Also, again with the rebranding? “We don’t need to change our positions to attract more moderate voters; we just need a brighter shade of lipstick on that pig.” Sheesh.

And finally, a rather startling tidbit… after the jump.  

And he said the party will do a better job of recruiting legislative candidates in districts where they know they have a chance. “We were too careful with recruits,” he said. “We will not be using litmus tests to be finding candidates.”

He didn’t make it clear what kind of litmus test was used in the past.

Litmus tests? Litmus tests??? The VTGOP is in serious decline, it’s reduced to near-irrelevance in the Legislature, it had an acknowledged shortage of good candidates, and they were turning people down because they weren’t (presumably) conservative enough?

Who administered these tests, Jack? El Jefe General John McClaughry? The Hack? Robbity Roper? The St. Albans Mafia? Maybe Paul LePage conducted a few inquisitions during his visit to Vermont.

I say it again: as long as these clowns are running the VTGOP, the Democrats have nothing to worry about.

So Phil Scott, moderate Republican and the party’s sole shining light: do you have anything to say about all this? What, exactly, is your vision for making the VTGOP into something other than a complete joke?

After a two-day delay due to holiday travel, we proudly present the Blockbuster 3-D edition! Watch out for flying digits!

The Once and Future Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, for salvaging his position thanks to a last-minute personal revelation. After a difficult 2012 session including frequent delays, abortive debates, confusion, contentiousness, and disorganization which led to a last-minute rush and belated adjournment… and after spending months blaming everyone but himself for all of the above… Campbell has apparently realized that some of that stuff was, incredibly, his fault.

“I had a lot of shortcomings in the first term, I’m not going to back away, I’m not going to make excuses,” Campbell said. “I’ve certainly learned from them. I’ve always believed communication is the most important aspect of what any leader can have. I think I failed there. The office was always busy. I wasn’t listening to everyone, I was listening to a small group of people.”

“All of you know my time management skills may not be the best,” Campbell said. “I am a poster child for ADD.”

This deathbed conversion, coming on the eve of the Senate Democratic caucus’ leadership vote, was enough to convince a majority to give Campbell another shot. In the process, they set aside the question of whether someone with poor time management skills is really a good choice for the office.

Of course, now the real job starts. Will Campbell actually change his ways, or will the caucus’ benevolence result in two more years of dysfunction?

journalistic brown-nosing, of which we had two prime examples in the past week. Most egregiously, there was Paul Heintz’ Iron John experience with the Governor. Heintz fell into a trap on this one; Shumlin invited him to go huntin’. It must have been hard to turn him down. And having gone, he almost had to write about it.  

But he could have — and should have — said no. He put himself in an inherently conflicted position. No matter how he wrote the piece, he was essentially serving as Shumlin’s fluffer, displaying him as a real human being who likes to do stuff that “real Vermonters” do. And although part of me sympathizes with Heintz, he still deserves to catch some grief. And we are happy to throw some his way.

Our other groundward thumb goes to VTDigger’s Andrew Stein, for his beatification of outgoing Mental Health Commissioner Patrick Flood. According to his article, Flood’s abrupt departure is a subject of universal lamentation. He performed heroically, earning the approbation of all concerned.

Let me make clear that I’m not being critical of Mr. Flood, who (by all accounts) is an accomplished public servant. I have been, and continue to be, very critical of the policy he was implementing, but he didn’t create the policy. And in this case, my criticism is aimed at a journalistic hagiography. When I read the piece, I wondered how it came to be written in the first place. It certainly doesn’t add anything to the public’s understanding of the issues. It doesn’t do much, except for burnishing Flood’s public image. Listen, the guy deserves a Good Conduct Medal for his work under difficult circumstances. But is it Digger’s job to do the honors?

After the jump: a theatrical mystery, an unlivable wage, and… I say nice things about a Republican.

State Representative Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe), for a remarkably clear-eyed diagnosis of what ails the Vermont Republican Party. In an opinion piece published in some area newspapers and also available on her website, she outlines a way out of the wilderness and back to relevance for her party. While Randy Brock is saying he would have done more of the same if only he’d had more money, and Darcie “Hack” Johnston promises that Lenore Broughton is ready to dump more of her inheritance down the black hole of Vermonters First, and Republican leaders in general say all they have to do is catch up with the Democrats in microtargeting the electorate. The latter is true, but information is only as effective as its application and “messaging” is only as effective as the message. Scheuermann acknowledges the diminished state of the party and offers some good ideas that her elders ought to listen to.

Not that I entirely agree with her, of course. But she makes a good case in Republican terms. And I definitely agree that our system works better when there is a credible and articulate conservative party. Her piece is well worth reading, and I hope other Republicans are listening.

Given their recent track record, I doubt it.

Northern Stage, one of the region’s strongest theatre companies, for suddenly and mysteriously parting ways with Brooke Ciardelli, its founder and artistic director. Her departure will take effect almost immediately. It’s a stunning end — and an unkind kiss-off — to the person who built Northern Stage from nothing into a highly respected organization.

This fall, Northern Stage hired its first Executive Director. Less than two months latter, it cuts ties with Ciardelli. From the timing alone, I have to conclude that the Executive Director’s hiring led to Ciardelli’s departure. One member of the Northern Stage board told the Valley News that Ciardelli “was a little bit ahead of us,” which is an odd statement considering that she’s been working with the Board for sixteen years. Ciardelli’s comment? “There’s a lot that I’m not at liberty to say today.”

Maybe there were good reasons for the split. But we haven’t heard them. And I hope there were damn good reasons, because this is an awful way to end one of the most noteworthy careers in the history of twin state theater.

Vermont Law School, a worthy institution facing tough times. Enrollment is suffering due to a nationwide surfeit of law-school graduates. VLS is cutting staff and programs to rebalance its books.

Way back in 1985, the great folksinger Tom Paxton wrote a song called “One Million Lawyers,” which bemoaned the various plagues and disasters that have befallen humankind and then noted the most perilous of all: “In ten years, we’re gonna have one million lawyers!” Well, it’s been 27 years, and we have more than 1.1 million lawyers. On a broader scale, I’m very glad to see that we finally — FINALLY — have reached the market’s saturation point for legal eagles. But I’m sorry to see the fallout affecting VLS. I wish them the best in meeting their challenges.

The Skinny Pancake, for weaseling its way out of Burlington’s “livable wage” ordinance in its new contract with the Burlington Airport. The Skinny Pancake is a wonderful Vermont success story; two twenty-something brothers start out with a food cart, then build a restaurant in Burlington, then add another in Montpelier, and now become the primary food server for the airport.

But its bid for the contract was contingent on gaining exemption from the city’s requirement that all businesses pay a livable wage. And it got the exemption, even though two other bidders for the BTV contract were willing to abide by the ordinance. City officials say the Skinny Pancake was the clear overall winner based on a variety of criteria. But it’s too bad that the elevation of a homegrown business will come at the expense of its employees.

C/NET reporter Declan McCullagh, for setting off a firestorm around Senator Patrick Leahy — and for doubling down on his story even after it had been denied by the Senator. McCullagh initially reported that Leahy had amended his update of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to allow government agencies warrantless access to everybody’s e-mails and other electronic communications. The story set off a deluge of criticism (including a post here at GMD). Leahy quickly denied the whole thing.

His explanation: as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, his name is on the bill. But at this stage in the process, a number of amended versions are in circulation. According to the Senator, McCullagh got hold of one of those, and presumed that Leahy supported it. Which seems credible to me.

Faced with this denial and explanation, McCullagh pressed forward with his version, describing Leahy’s explanation as an “about-face” in abandoning “his proposal.” And the reporter smugly noted that Leahy’s denial “came a few hours after” his original article was posted.

Journalists (and heck, bloggers too) love to feel like they’re having an impact, and they love to take credit for doing so. But in this case, McCullagh is twisting the narrative to place himself in the center of the story — and to try to validate his original article, which seems to have been based on a misunderstanding of Senate  procedures.  

Big news at VTDigger:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency determined on Tuesday that the Vermont State Hospital and other state property damaged by Tropical Storm Irene was not destroyed. The decision runs counter to the Shumlin administration’s claims for the past 15 months that the hospital and parts of the Waterbury State Office Complex were destroyed by flooding.

The determination – which comes roughly one month after the agency rejected the state’s appeal for culvert reimbursements – means the state will not receive the 90 percent public assistance match it sought to rebuild the new state psychiatric hospital in Berlin and other facilities on the Waterbury site.

Well, I hate to say “I told you so.” No, actually, I love to say “I told you so.” Me, November 15:

The Shumlin administration may be part of the problem. There are indications that the state is trying to fudge the rules in order to get more money.

First, there’s the question of whether the Vermont State Hospital was really a total loss. After the flood, there were many who believed that VSH could be refurbished — at least as a temporary hospital, and perhaps as a permanent one. But Governor Shumlin was adamant that the state would never return to VSH.

According to Digger, FEMA has yet to determine what its actual reimbursement will be. But it clearly won’t be as much as Governor Shumlin had hoped. And it seems clear that he deserves a substantial share of the blame for this mess. He refused to consider a return to VSH. He pushed the rules, hoping to maximize FEMA dollars. And, just as the agency rejected Vermont’s request for money to build better highway culverts, it has now done the same for the state hospital.

The administration could appeal FEMA’s decision, but success seems unlikely. Failure means an additional burden on an already tight budget — or cutbacks in Shumlin’s grand scheme to reinvent the mental health care system. Either way, bad news.  

Sittin’ in an airport terminal waitin’ for a plane. Scanning my Twitter feed to kill a little time… when what to my wondering eyes should appear, than a twittish Tweet from the keyboard of Darcie “Hack” Johnston, last seen piloting Randy Brock’s gubernatorial campaign into the nearest iceberg. (And “earning” a cool 100 G’s for her trouble.)

Exit Polls Prove US Still a Red State Nation

Followed by a link to an opinion piece that reinforced the Hack’s apparently impermeable belief in the political strategy that just doomed the Vermont Republicans to mini-minority status.

An opinion piece… on Newsmax.com.

Yep, Newsmax, the ultraconservative website known for such gems as a 2009 column that predicted President Obama’s overthrow by military coup. Newsmax, whose regular contributors include Pat Boone, Armstrong Williams, Michael Reagan, Dick Morris, and David (not Rush) Limbaugh. In other words, a dismal parade of conservative D-listers.  

The Newsmax piece that caused Johnston’s heart to flutter was penned by site founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy, and it’s a classic example of conservative self-delusion.  

Ruddy’s examination of exit-poll data from the 2012 election, in which voters soundly rejected conservative Republicanism, is that it all boiled down to likability. Voters liked Obama better than Romney.

And that’s all.

So the only thing the GOP needs to do is find a far-right conservative who’s more likable than the Mittster.

Sheesh.

It somehow didn’t occur to Ruddy that one of the main factors in Romney’s unlikability was his (phony or not) adherence to far-right ideology. Republicans’ overall likability was torpedoed by its persistent and obnoxious promotion of social conservatism and pro-big business free-marketism. Does Ruddy really believe that a Rick Santorum or a Michele Bachmann or a Rick Perry would have achieved higher likability than Romney?

Ruddy also points to Obama’s lopsided support among black and Latino voters as cause for conservative optimism:

Next time, if Republicans woo some Hispanic voters and black voting patterns normalize, 2016 could see Republicans increasing their vote share by some 4 to 5 million voters in a similar, highly contested race.

Which kinda ignores a basic problem: it was Republican ideology that drove away minority voters. If they don’t moderate their positions on issues like immigration and the social safety net, they’re not going to suddenly convert 20% of black voters or 40% of Latinos.

I could go on, but you get the point. Ruddy’s entire column is an exercise in magical thinking. It is nonsense. It is, in Megyn Kelly’s wonderful phrase, “math Republicans do to make them feel better.”

And this is the tainted wellspring of Hack Johnston’s hope, the inspiration for yet another round of the Same Old Thing in 2014. As I’ve said before, I sincerely wish her all the best in her future political career. As long as people like her hold sway in the VTGOP, we liberals have nothing to worry about.  

Senate Democrats held their caucus today, and as VPR reports, voted to give John Campbell another shot. Campbell got 15 votes; challenger Ann Cummings got six.

The vote followed Campbell’s very belated mea culpas:

“There were a lot of shortcomings in my first term here as pro tem. I won’t back away from them; I’m not going to make excuses for them,” he said. “But I can tell you this, I certainly learned from them.”

Cummings was unimpressed by his deathbed conversion:

I’ve listened to the other candidate and he’s given us an impressive list of what he did wrong and a promise that he’ll change. But to change almost requires a personality change.”

It certainly took him a good long while to learn from his shortcomings. Ever since the Senate limped to its belated adjournment in a cloud of acrimony, Campbell had consistently blamed others for his inability to effectively control the Senate’s proceedings. But in recent days, he changed his tune; presumably his pre-caucus vote tallying revealed that he didn’t have quite as many friends as he thought.

We’ll see if his promises turn into action, and Campbell morphs into an effective leader in his second go-round. Color me skeptical.  

Earlier this week, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters announced the hiring of a new CEO. Brian Kelley will be coming to Waterbury from Atlanta, where he’s a top executive at Coca-Cola. It would seem to be a great hire for GMCR, which faces big challenges due to the expiration of key patents on its single-brew coffeemaker. (Wall Street certainly thought so; GMCR stock rose quickly on the news.) Kelley has handled some big chores at Coke, including the development of its “still beverage” line (non-carbonated drinks) and the integration of its North American corporation with its bottling operations, which was considered a big deal. He was due to become CEO of Coca-Cola Refreshments – the current name for Coke’s North American arm – in January.  Instead, he’s up and moving to Waterbury in early December.

Having essentially given two weeks’ notice.

His sudden departure for the wilds of Vermont has prompted a rather ambivalent response from the mothership:

A Coca-Cola spokesman would not comment on whether Kelley’s sudden departure came as a surprise or whether Coca-Cola tried to keep him.

Steve Cahillane, Coca-Cola Refreshments’ current president and CEO, announced Kelley’s departure Monday in a memo to staffers. Cahillane, who soon will lead Coca-Cola Americas, said he had “mixed emotions” about Kelley’s departure and said his contributions were “important to improving our operating effectiveness and efficiencies.”

“Would not comment.” “Mixed emotions.” Huh. That might simply be the corporate self-protective instinct, not wanting to admit that Kelley’s departure is either a loss or a surprise. But, given the circumstances, it might have a deeper meaning as well.

Kelley’s transition seems odd to me in a number of ways. And frankly, I’m surprised that nobody else has asked any questions about the unusual process of his hiring.  

By top-executive standards, it’s awfully quick. Kelley’s hiring was announced on November 19. His start date is December 3. As I said above, that’s basically two weeks’ notice plus Thanksgiving. Which would be normal if you were, say, a cashier at McDonald’s; but executive transitions at major corporations are usually a matter of months, not weeks. Has there ever been such a small amount of time between the announcement of a top-executive hire and the exec’s departure from his current post?

It’s a very unusual career move. Kelley has been a top corporate exec at General Electric, Ford, SIRVA (formerly North American Van Lines), and Coke. He was about to become CEO of Coke’s North American operations; his promotion was announced in September, and would have taken effect in January. He would have headed a workforce of 68,000. GMCR employs less than 6,000. I don’t know how much he would have earned at Coke, but I’d guess it was more than what GMCR can afford to pay.

According to Fortune Magazine, it appears he is no longer considered a future head of the global corporation; that he might have just hit his own personal glass ceiling. That might prompt him to start looking around for greener pastures. But if that’s the case, you’d think he could do better than GMCR.

Out of the La-Z-Boy, into the fire. Kelley leaves one of America’s biggest companies and most established consumer brands for a small firm with an uncertain future. GMCR has grown rapidly because of its exclusive rights to the Keurig single-cup brewing system. Not any more. It’ll have to fight some very big competitors entering its market. Those environmentally-unfriendly plastic cups may well become a commodity item with much lower profit margins. And how many single-cup machines can people buy, anyway?

Maybe Kelley loves a challenge instead of a maintenance job. Maybe he likes to ski, which Atlanta is not known for. But there’s something more going on here.  

The question was first posed by Vermont Pundit Laureate Eric Davis in the wake of the November election, which saw the VTGOP win only one statewide race and lose ground in the House and Senate. It was picked up by the Freeploid in an article published on November 12.

There are valid reasons for asking the question. The VTGOP fielded an incredibly weak slate, and ran a campaign seemingly designed to turn off voters in the center and center-left. Party leaders admit they are underfunded and disorganized, years behind the Democrats in the nuts-and-bolts of politics. Its only prominent statewide figure, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, is a self-described moderate who might decide to go independent if he decides to run for Governor at all.

So it’s a legitimate question. But if you ask me, the answer is no. Right now, it seems almost impossible for the Republicans to win a statewide race. But forever is a very long time. I can see at least four conditions under which the Republicans could retake the corner office.

1. Lengthy tenure leads to complacency. Mismanagement, if not outright corruption, sets in. The dominant party fails to notice until it gets spanked by the voters at least once. Massachusetts is a classic example: complacency led to featherbedding and influence-peddling. Pretty soon, the bluest of states has a series of Republican governors and elects a Republican to replace St. Teddy in the U.S. Senate. The same could certainly happen to the Vermont Dems after a few more years of dominance.  

2. The right candidate at the right time. The obvious name right now is Phil Scott. It’s considered a virtual certainty that he’ll run for Governor sometime. The big question seems to be, will he do it as a Republican or an Independent? Let’s say he stays in the Republican Party. Could he win? Sure he could. Probably not until 2016 or 2018, and only if he influences the VTGOP back toward the center. But he’s got wide name recognition and a positive reputation.

But aside from Scott, someone else could emerge.

After the jump: a name you might not expect.

What about a person who’s not known as a political figure, who manages to do something noteworthy that creates massive amounts of goodwill and turns him into a central figure in Vermont?

What about Bill Stenger?

Co-owner and operator of the Jay Peak resort. The man who built it into a year-round destination and a rare bright spot in the Northeast Kingdom’s economy. And now, the guy behind a very ambitious $500 million project to revitalize the Kingdom. If he pulls it off, he will have done something that nobody ever has: pull the Kingdom out of its seemingly perpetual doldrums.

Stenger has worked across party lines to make things happen. Most notably, he’s worked closely with Senator Patrick Leahy to bring foreign investment to the Kingdom through the federal EB-5 program.

I have no idea if Stenger has any political ambitions. For all I know, the thought of holding political office gives him the heebie-jeebies. But let’s say it’s the year 2018 or 2020; his Kingdom project is humming along, he’s in his late 60s but still energetic and looking for a new challenge to serve as the capstone to his career.

Why not run for Governor as a candidate with no political baggage and a track record of working with all kinds of folks and getting things done? And run, for the sake of using an existing party structure, as a Republican?

Stenger’s only one example, and again, I have no idea if he’d ever be interested. But you never know where the next big thing will come from, and when it will come.

3. The VTGOP gets smart and goes moderate. The Party was unwilling to do so this year, in spite of Vermont’s political realities. But say a Phil Scott (or a Bill Stenger) comes along who can lead a centrist movement, and who has enough credibility to convince true-blue conservatives to swallow their pride and back him?

Say the party simply gets tired of getting its head beat in, takes stock of its own heritage and Vermont’s political scene, and moves to the center on its own. Even if it meant distancing the VTGOP from the national party. After all, how much help has the state party gotten from hewing to conservative orthodoxy? Vermont is such a small prize in national terms, and the Dems are so dominant right now, why would the national bigwigs bother with Vermont? There are much bigger fish in the ocean.

So if the VTGOP is left to its own devices, why not reinvent itself as a center-right party? Or at least plausibly present itself as such?

4. Unforeseeable events. As I said, forever is a very long time. Who knows how Vermont will change in the next 10, 20, 50, 100 years? For most of the state’s history, the Republican Party was dominant. It was known as “the star that never sets,” the most solidly Republican place in the country. But eventually it came to an end. Now, the Dems are dominant — but they’ve only been that way for less than a decade.

In fact, you could argue that the moment the punditocracy declares a single party to be forever dominant is precisely when that party ought to start running scared.  How often, in my lifetime, have I heard predictions that the Republicans — or the Democrats — are about to launch an era of one-party dominance?

And every stinkin’ time, those predictions have proven wrong. Often in a surprisingly short period of time.

So no, I don’t think we’ve seen our last Republican governor. And if the Democrats start believing we have, that’s when the VTGOP will come back.  

Fonzie edition!

Governor Peter Shumlin, for not only winning a second term, but (for all practical purposes) ensuring his re-election next time around. Or the time after that, or the time after that, depending on when he’ll actually need to unlock his campaign war chest. Shumlin raised over $1.2 million for his campaign, but thanks to the meager opposition posed by Randy Brock, the Governor barely spent one-fourth of his available funds.

Shumlin exits Campaign 2012 with a fairly staggering $932,975,40 in the bank. Which is practically enough — with no further fundraising effort needed — to pay for his next campaign. So Brock’s defeat was more than just a single setback for the VTGOP; it virtually ensures at least one more defeat.

And possibly more. If the Republicans nominate another no-hoper in 2014, and if they run another right-wing campaign designed not to appeal to the Vermont electorate, then Shumlin can head into 2016 with an overwhelming edge in campaign cash. And with Shumlin’s big money bomb waiting to be deployed, what are the chances that the VTGOP will be able to entice a credible candidate into challenging the Gov? Slim at best, more likely none.

_____________________________

the Water and Sewer Commission in Bradford, Vermont, for ending the fluoridation of its water supply without seeking any input from the medical community. The panel’s chairman, who bears the oddly apropos name Robert Nutting, acknowledges that the Commission acted without talking to local dentists — or apparently much of anyone else. The vote was taken in April, but the Valley News reports that…

Residents and businesses on the Bradford water system only learned of the decision early this month when a small yellow slip, dated Nov. 2, arrived with their water bills.

Nice transparency there, Bob.

Nutting told the Valley News that the Commission “had some information” that fluoride poses a health risk. That information “came from Gregory Stone, an anti-fluoridation activist from out of the area who did not attend any commission meetings.” Nice: they sought advice from an out-of-stater with an axe to grind, and didn’t tell anyone in town about it until months later. When both the American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control are solidly in favor of fluoridation.

Now that the jig is up, let’s hope that Bradford returns to at least the 20th Century, if not the 21st.

After the jump: Tom Bodett, the Robster, an ill-conceived legal maneuver, and a bad case of Lou hysteria.

Tom “We’ll leave the light on for ya” Bodett, for his willingness to take on a tough task. Bodett, a resident of Dummerston, has been named to the Governor’s Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission, the five-member panel that will examine how to handle proposals for new power-generation projects. Not exactly a post guaranteed to make everybody happy, and Bodett could certainly sit back on his laurels if he chose. But he’s apparently a community-oriented guy; he’s also a member of the Dummerston Selectboard. So thanks to Tom for stepping up and taking on an important responsibility.

Bodett first came to prominence with comic stories about life in Alaska, where he used to live. And, of course, those Motel 6 commercials. Plus his frequent appearances as a panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” He’ll bring first-hand experience with alternative energy to the panel; he lives in a net-zero home with solar-powered electricity and geothermal heating.

Rob Roper of the far-right website True North Reports. for having his hypocrisy inadvertently called out by one of his own acolytes. Recently, the Robster posted a piece complaining about liberal bias at VTDigger, based on a quick Google search of Digger headlines. Digger, as you may know, is a nonprofit enterprise. Well, someone writing under the initials “EH” posted a comment under Rob’s essay:

Those who siphon their livelihood from tapping the wealth of others are not compelled to achieve excellence in any realm, in this case unbiased reporting.

…If [Digger]’s survival were contingent on the sale of advertising, one could almost bet that their articles would have to take on a more impartial tone.

I don’t think you really have a point there, EH, but if you do, it’s more applicable to the Robster than it is to Digger. Because True North Reports is completely dependent on “tapping the wealth of others.” In this case, one Lenore Broughton. Digger, at least, draws its support from a wide variety of underwriters and advertisers, plus reader donations.

It would be instructive to compare the bottom lines of the two organizations and find out which one is more dependent on “the wealth of others.” But I think the Robster would be too embarrassed to ever open his books.

Superior Court Judge Howard VanBenthuysen, for refusing to dismiss criminal charges against nearly 30 Northeast Kingdom defendants. Attorney David Sleigh had sought the bulk-rate dismissals on the rather specious argument that the prosecutor was improperly appointed to his office. Alan Franklin was named Orleans County State’s Attorney shortly after the 2010 election, when his predecessor Keith Flynn was named state public service commissioner.

Sleigh, who plans to appeal, argues that the post should have been filled in a special election rather than by appointment. The reasoning seems a stretch, and if he were to prevail, a whole lot of defendants would go free for reasons that have nothing to do with their guilt or innocence. One of them is Roger Pion, the Newport man who’s accused of driving a giant farm tractor over seven sheriff’s department cruisers.  

Father Time, for taking away two memorable people from my home state of Michigan. Helen Milliken, wife of former Governor Bill Milliken, died at age 89. Her husband was the last great moderate Republican governor of Michigan, respected by nearly everyone as a fair-minded politician who actually combined solid managerial skills with honest concern for the environment and for people in need of help. But Helen herself became a beloved figure in Michigan politics for leading the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, and for her activism on reproductive rights, the arts, and the environment. In 1980, the Republican convention was in Detroit and her husband was the official co-host; but she skipped the opening ceremonies to take part in a rally outside the hall, protesting the GOP’s decision to remove the ERA from its platform. A tough, and dignified, and principled person.

And on a much different note, we also said farewell last week to Sonny Eliot, known to anyone who grew up in Michigan in the 50s, 60s or 70s as the TV weatherman who combined forecasts with Borscht Belt humor. After a long career in television, he continued to work part-time in radio until his 89th year. He died last week at age 91.

Sonny was a clown, but off-camera he was an intellectual and bon vivant who’d had an eventful life before he ever stepped in front of a television camera. He was a bomber pilot in World War II, and his plane was shot down over Germany. He spent 18 months in a prisoner-of-war camp. Not the best of turns for a man born Marvin Schlossberg.

His identification card [at the POW camp] had the word “Juden” scrawled across the bottom – indicating that his captors knew his religious heritage. Asked how he survived, he said: “I was too tough for them.”

Sonny’s shtick was old-school, Henny Youngman-style comedy with a light touch and a constant smile. He was a small but happy part of my childhood. I’m sorry to see him go, but he certainly had a long and satisfying life.

the Chittenden County Transportation Authority, for responding to record ridership on its Montpelier-Burlington commuter line by adding new and substantially larger buses. The LINK Express offers an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to commute between the capital city and the Queen City and points in between. And anytime the price of gas creeps up toward $4.00 a gallon, the buses are overcrowded at peak travel times. The old buses has 39 seats; the new ones have 57. Glad to see ridership on the increase, and glad to see CCTA respond to the demand. Of course, they can only do so because of a federal grant that paid for 80% of the buses’ purchase price. Ah yes, the oppressive hand of Big Government interfering with our lives. How dare they make it easier and more comfortable for people to get to work?

the animal rights activists who made complete asses of themselves while trying to prevent Green Mountain College from doing what any actual farm would do: slaughter a work animal at the end of its useful life and turn it into food for the table. Last week, the College abandoned its plan to turn Bill and Lou, a pair of oxen, into meat for the student cafeteria. Lou was euthanized, and Bill has been put out to pasture.

“Essentially we were forced into euthanasia,” Philip Ackerman-Leist, director of Green Mountain College’s farm and food project, said.

Animal rights activists had “terrorized, called, harassed, made threats of bodily violence and damage to their plants” to every slaughterhouse in the state, as well many in eastern New York and western New Hampshire, Ackerman-Leist explained.

Good on ya, animal-rights defenders. You bullied a small college that teaches sustainable farming, and you bullied a bunch of small local businesses. You made yourselves look like overbearing jackasses. Some of you are still pursuing a boycott of the College, and I hope you fall on your faces in that ill-conceived stratagem.

And there are so many other, better battles to fight than this. Go protest the hog factories of Iowa and North Carolina, for God’s sake. Green Mountain College is the least of your problems.  

If you love something; if you cherish it, and believe it to be of the utmost importance; then you should honor it, protect it, do nothing that would detract from it or diminish it in any way.

Or not:

A Ten Commandments monument is up on the grounds of the [Oklahoma] state Capitol, but it didn’t pass spell check.

“Remember the Sabbeth day, to keep it holy,” reads one.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidseruent,” reads the last one.

Oh well, eight out of ten ain’t bad. Or so says the man behind this overtly religious display on public property, State Rep. Mike Ritze (R-Inquisition):

“It’s a simple fix,” said Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, who hasn’t seen the installed monument.

Yep. This guy sponsored the legislation that authorized the monument’s placement. His family paid for the monument, and has agreed to pay the maintenance costs. But he hasn’t seen the object of his adoration. He didn’t bother to attend its installation. And obviously, he didn’t pay to have someone proofread it, either.

And now, eh, a few whacks, the Ten Commandments’ll be good as new.

The odd amiability of our Devout Public Servant in the face of this desecration got me thinking about a trend I’ve noticed in conservative/religious circles: the transmogrification of important texts (from sacred and secular sources) into totems: objects to be worshipped, not to be read. Or, perish forbid, interpreted through the prism of one’s intelligence and experience.  

After the jump: Cecil B. DeMille spirituality. Plus, our inerrant Constitution’s sacred origin.  

I would love to get the 121 lawmakers who voted for this monument all together in one place, give them each a sheet of paper and a pen, and ask them to write down the Ten Commandments. How many do you think would go ten for ten?

You know the answer. Not many. I’ll be even the most devout lawmakers would have a hard time getting six or seven. That’s because the words aren’t important; just having them around infuses us with the aura of Godliness. Heck, if we had Ten Commandments tablets in every state capital, I bet there wouldn’t be any murder or crime or “legitimate rape” or even any gays or Muslims.

This Oklahoma monument is also a prime example of another unfortunate trend among conservatives: the conflation of Christianity and Americanism. Look just above “The Ten Commandments,” and gaze in wonder at the patriotic pastiche: the eagle on an American flag with the Eye of Providence over its shoulder. Exactly as featured on the original stone tablets brought down the mountain by Moses (one of the Founding Fathers).

And just when you thought the Patriotic Christianist’s worldview couldn’t get any more confused, just take a look at Rep. Ritze’s account of the origin of public Commandments:

Ritze… said Cecil B. DeMille, director of the 1956 film epic “The Ten Commandments,” gave money to the Fraternal Order of Eagles to fund monuments across the country depicting the commandments. Some of the film’s main stars, such as Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, went to unveilings.

That’s right, this “displaying the Commandments” routine started out as a Hollywood publicity stunt.

Which is about right when you think about it, because putting the Ten Commandments in a public place is nothing more than a political publicity stunt. Well, that’s the charitable interpretation. It could also be an unholy mix of Christianity and paganism — treating a physical object as a manifestation of divinity. Which, ironically, was the very sin the Israelites committed while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Commandments. Today, the Commandments themselves have become a golden calf, providing a false sense of security to fearful Oklahomans who believe a stone talisman can forestall the encroachment of secular-humanistic darkness.  

And this commingling of Christianity and Americanism works both ways, as in the elevation of the Constitution to the status of inerrant gift from God. This is most floridly depicted in the work of hack artist John McNaughton, but the same reverence for our founding document can be seen throughout modern conservative circles — from the hard-line originalism of the Constitution’s high priest Antonin Scalia, to the compulsive carrying of pocket Constitutions* by conservative politicians.

*Those pocket Constitutions are, by the way, effective fundraising giveaways for the likes of the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. I’m surprised the entrepreneurial tub thumpers at the Ethan Allen Institute haven’t leaped at that opportunity. Maybe they’ve gotten a bit overly dependent, 47-percenter style, on all those Broughton Bucks.

These would be the same politicians who, at the beginning of the Tea Party Congress, staged a reading of the Constitution from the House floor. Well, most of the Constitution. Part of Article IV was skipped because of a page-turning error, and they omitted parts of the original Constitution (you know, the one handed down by Jesus) that were superseded by amendments, because they didn’t want to read the icky parts about slavery that were in the original Constitution (you know, the one handed down by Jesus).

That would be the same Tea Party Congress that vowed to city the Constitution in every new bill, but couldn’t be bothered to actually do it. Because the words of the Constitution aren’t really all that important; it’s just the fact of the Constitution, its power as a totem of the One True American Religion.

This employment of text as symbol rather than, oh, a way to communicate ideas, can also be seen in conservatives’ steadfast defense of “In God we trust” on our money, and the phrase “under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. When was the last time you had a conversion experience while looking at a quarter? When was the last time a child was zapped by the Holy Spirit while mechanically reciting the Pledge?

That would be never, and never. Same for school prayer: according to conservative dogma, our country started going to Hell in a handbasket when prayer was “banned” from public schools. Which is nonsense in two ways; school prayer had nothing to do with our nation’s salvation or damnation, and prayer is not at all banned from schools — just organized prayer.

The totemization of Christian and American texts does nothing for religiosity or patriotism. It just makes some of us feel better. Mike Ritze’s remarkably phlegmatic attitude toward misspellings in a sacred text is perfectly understandable because deep down inside, he doesn’t care if anybody ever reads the thing; he just wants a totem, a talisman, an icon. An object to mindlessly revere.

Y’know, some people of faith would call this blasphemy.  

The year 2012 has seen Vermont’s two biggest daily newspaper operations (the Freeploid and the Herald/Times Argus) erect paywalls on their websites, restricting access to paid subscribers. (The ‘Loid allows nonsubscribers free access to ten stories a month, so think before you click.)

And another paper is about to join them: the Valley News, which covers the NH and VT sides of the Upper Valley area. Until now, the Valley News has had a very limited Web presence — a handful of articles available free online, but no online access at all to the rest of the paper.

Well, the Valley News has a new website which includes all the paper’s content plus online-only content. It’s all available free for an unspecified but limited trial period, and then it goes behind The Wall.

I’ve chosen to subscribe to the Freeploid and the Times Argus, but I won’t be paying for the Valley News. Even though I have occasionally found interesting stories there. (One of them will be in my weekly Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down post on Monday.)  

Paywalls seem to be an inevitable tactic for daily newspapers trying to make up for the loss of advertising dollars. But each new paywall closes off another source of local news. In Vermont, we’re down to VTDigger, Seven Days, and the scattershot coverage of broadcast outlets VPR, WCAX, and WPTZ, plus occasional gleanings from the likes of the Brattleboro and Bennington papers.

It’s hard to criticize newspapers that resort to paywalls. I certainly don’t envy them the task of trying to make daily journalism pay. But we’re getting less and less information into the public sphere, and that’s not a good thing. I hope someone somewhere figures out a way to turn a profit on good-quality reporting. We need it.