Perhaps it went by everyone’s notice in all the hubbub over the U.S. Supreme Court’s having done right by pharmaceutically injured Vermont musician Diana Levine. Or maybe it was buried by Sen. Leahy’s hearings on having some form of “Truth Commission” to document the abuses of the second Bush administration.

But it’s important, and it’s a major piece of the reason Vermont should pass — and the Governor should sign or let become law sans signature — a bill granting equal marriage to same-sex couples.

Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) has filed a lawsuit that challenges the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of eight same-sex couples and three widowers who had been married in Massachusetts when their spouses died.

This is the lawsuit we’ve been waiting for, the one that has every possibility of getting federal recognition of such things as the right to file federal income taxes as a couple (no more double-paperwork for feds and state!), the right for a surviving spouse to receive Social Security payments based on the spouse’s benefit (as do all other married couples!), federal health insurance, and even the legal adoption of a spouse’s last name (passports in the prior name may conflict with state-issued ID’s like driver’s licenses, causing trouble at the borders).

More on the flip, but bottom line is that this is the big one: Vermonters don’t even get a seat in the court room unless we call it marriage.

From the Massachusetts gay paper Bay Windows:

[GLAD’s lawsuit is] challenging provisions in section three of DOMA that bar the federal government from granting certain protections to legally married same-sex couples. If successful the suit would overturn only those specific provisions of DOMA, not the entire statute, which prevents federal recognition of any same-sex marriage and also allows states to deny recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states.

GLAD believes the suit may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which would mark the first time the nation’s highest court heard a major DOMA challenge. GLAD filed the suit, called Gill, et al vs. Office of Personnel Management, et al, on behalf of eight couples and three widowers, all from Massachusetts. Among the plaintiffs is Dean Hara, widower of the late Congressman Gerry Studds.

[…]

GLAD’s suit only targets the provisions in section three of DOMA that block same-sex married couples from receiving equal treatment in taxes, federal employee spousal and survivor benefits, Social Security and name changes. [GLAD attorney Janson] Wu said despite the narrow focus of the suit GLAD believes that a Supreme Court ruling in their favor could deal a crippling blow to DOMA as a whole.

“Our legal argument is that [the portions of section three targeted in the lawsuit are] a violation of our federal government’s guarantee to treat citizens equally by refusing to recognize the marriages only of same-sex couples, and that principle of equality should apply in other contexts if we’re successful,” said Wu. While GLAD believes the suit stands a strong chance of reaching the Supreme Court, Wu said it was too soon to tell how long it might take to get there.

The Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley, has offered strong support for the lawsuit. The junior senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, has also declared his support of the lawsuit and continued opposition to DOMA.

We’ve got a chance for equality — if we can get a seat in the court room. We can get a seat in the court room, if Vermont’s legislators and governor don’t stand in the way.

Remember Caoimhin’s formula: One Second, One Syllable (“AYE!”), One Signature for equality.

Email, call, or write your legislator to urge them to support the bill, H.178 (House) / S.115 (Senate). They need to know we’re here in numbers, and that we won’t forget the choice they made to do the right thing — or not — in November 2010.

Jim Douglas, whose Republican slash-and-burn-the-poor approach to every budget issue is an unfortunate reality in Vermont, has managed to force the state to forgo $36 million in Medicaid stimulus funds from the federal government.

Why? Because he insisted last spring that the poor, whose healthcare costs are covered (to the extent that they are covered) should pay more in premiums. Here’s the story, as reported by Nancy Remsen for the Burlington Free Press last weekend (and, btw, I looked for a similar story in the Rutland Herald/Times-Argus and did not find it):

Vermont Returns $36 Million

MONTPELIER – The state learned late this week it must return a $36 million federal stimulus check because the state – for now – is ineligible for this supplemental Medicaid money.

The entire allocation the state has been expecting for this program – $265 million – will be withheld unless the state rolls back a premium increase that took effect last summer.

Federal stimulus dollars come with strings, and the one that tripped up Vermont this week is a prohibition on premium increases in subsidized health care programs retroactive to July 1, 2008.

The Legislature and Douglas administration agreed last year to increase some premiums paid by Vermonters receiving subsidized health care. It was a way to help close a hole in the budget that developed because tax revenues declined.

The premium increase was to start July 1, which is the first day of the new fiscal year. Actual implementation took place July 3, said Finance Commissioner Jim Reardon.

That mere two-day delay has created a problem in the state’s eligibility for federal stimulus dollars. If the change had occurred as scheduled, the state could have kept the check.

“What it means is we are going to return the check we received,” Reardon.

“What we need to do is roll back the premiums” to the pre-July level, Reardon added. “It is a pretty easy fix.”

The Legislature would have to authorize the rollback. House and Senate leaders said Friday they were agreeable.

The premium repeal provisions will be added to the budget adjustment bill, which is scheduled for final action after lawmakers return March 17.

We can’t afford this governor. Let’s move the primary, so more candidates have the time and resources to make their cases to the voting public.

Take a look at what the Democratic Majority Leader is doing to get the word out there concerning Douglas’s shotgun approach to budget-cutting.

What with hearing Doug Racine on VPR today finally saying what’s real: Douglas is conducting a perpetual campaign, and for him to criticize Democrats for beginning their campaigns early is hypocritical (not that he used exactly that word, but still, the thought was there), I guess maybe he did learn to do something different from his silent stoicism in 2002.

Wow, this is looking better for the Dems than usual at this time of the election cycle.

NanuqFC

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

[With a slightly more hopeful update as of Saturday evening — NanuqFC]

I had occasion to head over to the DNC website today. I encourage all those good folks who would come to the aid of their party to check it out.

The link leads to video, posted today, of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Obama/Emanuel’s prize pick to replace Vermont’s former Governor Howard Dean as the DNC Chairman (hey, both states start with “V,” isn’t that enough?).

Kaine spends almost 27 minutes answering selected questions sent via email.

First up: a boomer who converted from R to D because of Obama and wants reassurance that Democrats won’t forget all those Obamacans. Kaine blah blahs about how Obama won, especially in Virginia, by appealing to Independents and “moderate” Republicans (never mind the base).

Next a military wife and mom about healthcare benefits for vets and their families. Kaine talks about being commander in Chief of the Virginia National Guard (echoes of Palin, anyone?), and Gen. Shinseki as head of the VA.

If you’re keeping score, that’s two conservative questions and two conservative answers.

More — and the real disappointment — on the flip.

Third comes a question (again) about appealing to Independents and R’s, and “creating a culture of listening.” The listening part is what Kaine responds to. Not bad, but nothing to hang your hat on.

The next two questions ask about youth outreach and what the Democrats are going to do about the the economy. Again, not too bad, although the outreach answer is pretty Virginia-centric before spreading over to Obamaland, and the economy is a policy issue that will be decided by Congress and the President, not by the Chairman of the DNC.

Here’s the thing that caught my ear and generated not unexpected waves of disappointment in the old aural canal:

Kaine reads a question [the sixth] from an activist in “red state Texas” about the Party’s (read Kaine’s) plans for the future of the 50-state strategy. Kaine admits that a lot of the questions he got were concerned with the future of the 50-state strategy, and this is just the one he picked to represent them all. In answer, he rehearses how he got the governorship thanks to the strategy. (We’re now halfway through the video). Results, he says, speak for themselves. But it’s not good enough to do just what you did yesterday. He will, he says, sit down and analyze what’s the best thing for the future of the party and says that whatever that best thing is, it will include different strategies for different states.

As far as I can see, Kaine’s answer to the hottest question there is among the party’s base — which he doesn’t even address until halfway through this video — amounts to a lot of blah blah and no commitment to DNC funding for state parties any time soon. And without that funding, we here in Vermont, home of the faintly praised Howard Dean, have no chance of hiring a staff or fielding a credible team next year in 2010. Sounds to me like we’re being set adrift to sink or swim on our own. All that matters to Kaine and the DNC is the presidential contest, not the lower tier races that make up the farm teams for Congress and build support within a state for a Democratic majority.

The VDP has learned what having actual staff is like through the 50-state strategy, also known as the State Partnership Program. Liz Saxe (now working as an assistant to House Speaker Shap Smith) did a great job as communications director, keeping grass roots activists up on issues and media coverage across the state. Other staffers — including Field Director Gretchen Kreusi — did more-or-less credible jobs. And now, just when the VDP is trying to hire a new director (the decision is made with Kristina Althoff’s withdrawal, a case of her jumping before being pushed; just waiting for the negotiations with the new guy), imagine that conversation: We can offer you below-average salary for a state party executive director, and btw, you have no staff, and if you want staff, you have to raise the money on your own to hire them.

The DNC is meeting in Washington the day after the Inauguration.

It might be logical, if our DNC committeeman cared about the entire VDP instead of simply protecting his candidate, to think that perhaps Chuck Ross might fight for 50-state funding, or that accountable-only-to-herself (thanks to her large contributions to campaigns) DNC Committeewoman Billie Gosh might raise the point and put some energy into it. But I suspect we’d have people passing out or turning Democratic chokehold blue holding their breath waiting for that to happen.

[Update: Word is that VDP Vice Chair Judy Bevans will stay in DC in order to attend the DNC meeting, and specifically to urge the renewal of the State Partnership Program as soon as possible. You go, girl! The state Chair seems to be, as usual, absent from any real work on behalf of the party.]

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. – George Orwell

( – promoted by odum)

As you all know, I have the honor of being one of Vermont’s three Electors, and since Obama won the state, I get to cast one of those three votes on December 15 in Montpelier.

I just received via certified mail a small packet of information purportedly sent by one “Terri Storm” of Bessemer, Alabama. It was addressed to me by name as an Elector. The gist of the message is that some group plans to mount an Electoral College “challenge” to Barack Obama’s qualification for President based on their suggestion that he is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States.

This group charges that

Despite much public demand, Mr. Obama has not provided access to a classic Birth Certificate that proves the actual place of birth (Web site “short form” version simply does not address this question — He [sic] must deliver the certified long form …

More after the jump.

There’s a graphic of the comparison of the “Obama Certification” as shown on the President-elect’s campaign web site and a “Normal Certificate.” In some of the accompanying text, the group claims that on Obama’s website, “He displayed the kind of document Hawaiian residents can get for their  foreign born children.”

There’s more like that, including a close reading of the alleged law regarding foreign-born children of mixed-nationality parents and why, “if Barack Hussein Obama II was born outside the U.S. or its Outlying Possessions on August 4, 1961, then Ms. Dunham could not have transmitted her citizenship to her son …”

The guy behind this malarky is one Douglas W. Schell, who says in his introduction on meetup.com (all typos his):

My name is Dr. Douglas W. Schell. I recently retired as a Univesrity Business Professor from The Univesrity of North Carolina at Pembroke. In 2000, I ran for NC Governor on the Reform Parrty ticket. I have helped manage several state-wide camapign

He’s a Ron Paul partisan. He’s behind a website called Democratic-Disaster.com. A paragraph from his so-called evidence expresses outrage that non-citizens can appear as candidates on the ballot, citing Socialist Workers’ Party VP candidate Roger Calaro as a Nicaraguan citizen with a US green card.

So I’ve been “invited” to sign on to the challenge by promising to refuse to cast my Electoral vote until Obama delivers “the good stuff, the real Birth Certificate …”

This “invitation” is part of a plan to apply to the Supreme Court for a Stay of Election, while awaiting the results of “forensic tests”

on the original, vault copy [of Barack Obama’s birth certificate] residing in the State of Hawaii … to determine if the BC was actually produced on or around 1961 when Obama was born. This test should not take more than 72 hours and then a report produced by these forensic scientists giving their INFORMED opinion of the validity of the BC. … The report must be done by Dec 1, 2008 [from this weird website

But, of course, here’s the real agenda:

THIS CAN WORK AND WILL BE OUR LAST CHANCE TO STOP OBAMA. PLEASE BECOME A PART OF HISTORY AND IN DEFENSE OF OUR BELOVED CONSTITUTION.

GOD GRANT US HIS HELP IN THE BATTLE FOR HIS CONSTITUTION. I SEEK THE PRAYERS FOR THIS ACTION TO SUCCEED IF YOU ARE A PERSON OF FAITH.

It’s all hogwash, out there in lala conspiracy land. I just haven’t personally come into contact with this sort of junk since I can’t remember when.

Never fear, Obamanians, my Electoral Vote is a lock. Just wanted you all to know what kind of [heavy sigh, glyph of hand to forehead] pressure we Electors are subject to. And, besides, it’s Friday, so why not …

It was relatively quiet at the Vermont Democratic Party Platform Convention (you can read the amended and passed document here). In contrast to other years, the hostility level from the floor was waaaay down, although one gentleman tried to add a section condemning the “government corruption” in drug interdiction and treatment agencies. Most others present agreed that the statement didn’t fit — and Chair Ian Carleton was mightily offended at the impugning of the sincerity and righteousness of people he meets every day in the courtroom as a litigator.

But two interesting things happened, both of which trend toward more openness and transparency in the VDP: the Presidential Electors were nominated from the floor; and their election was accomplished through (a slightly odd version of) IRV.

Some recent history and context after the jump.

The Presidential Electors are the people from each state whose votes actually elect the President. They are, collectively, the Electoral College, which was the Founders’ last-ditch protection against rule by the rabble.

When we vote for, say, Barack H. Obama in November, if we read the ballot carefully, we see that we are actually voting for “Electors for [or pledged to] Barack H. Obama.” The total of Electors for the US is 538. Vermont has 3. Alaska (which has nearly the same population as Vermont and waaaay more earmarks) also has 3, as do Delaware, Montana, each of the Dakotas, and Wyoming.

Traditionally, the Electors for the Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates have been presented as a slate of three names which was then simply ratified at the Platform Convention. It was never anyone I’d ever heard of, and I had no clue as to how they were chosen. Some Democrats with longer experience suggest that the office was primarily honorary.

VDP Chair Ian Carleton neglected to appoint a “Credentials, Rules and Procedures” Committee o run the nuts and bolts of the Platform Convention. The committee working on writing the Platform met throughout the spring and summer and actually posted a couple of different drafts on the VDP website several weeks ahead of the event — thanks in large part to VDP Vice Chair Judy Bevans’ competence, determination, hard work, and great good humor.

Two weeks before the convention, the Platform (writing) Committee was suddenly informed that it was up to them to oversee everything. So, essentially, they did. Building on the 2006 rules, with some additions and interpretations by State Committee Treasurer Michael Inners, and consultation with the 2006 Rules Committee, and their own persistent questions about how the slate of Electors was chosen, they came up with rules that pretty much make sense. And they were able to include the procedure for open elections of Electors.

Attendance was down, and the VDP knew somehow that it would be: staff set up maybe 50 chairs in Barre’s Old Labor Hall. It begs the question: was it because we know in our hearts that the Democrats must and will win in November, and that the national Platform will “rule” the next four years? The fire of opposition to a corrupt regime has been banked in a soothing ash blanket of “Hope”?

The draft VDP Platform focused on Vermont issues (economy, energy, healthcare, environment) and did not mention the Iraq War or impeaching G.W. Bush or R.B. Cheney. An amendment was offered and passed enumerating the reasons to support “prompt withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq” and to oppose “permanent military bases” there, as well as “military incursions into Iran and Pakistan.”

I worry that the low attendance was abetted by deliberate inaction by the VDP staff. And that it’s one more nail in the coffin of a dying process. Nearly everyone agrees that no one reads the document. Two years ago, constituents like the VSEA and other labor groups raised objections and insisted on changes. This year? Nothing. Maybe that has as much to do with  labor’s leap to Independent Pollina (who doesn’t have a party and thus is not required to have a platform).

A friend of mine was at an eighth-grade graduation recently where Lt. Governor Brian Dubie was the keynote speaker. Following the presentation, my friend was absolutely aghast. Here is my friend’s summary of Dubie Don’t’s speech and her reactions to it:

Help.  I can’t stand it anymore.  Last night at the 8th grade graduation, Lt. Governor Brian Dubie (Dubious?) (Duped?) was the keynote speaker.  He began with a theme of advice for the graduates at this “very important event.”  However, and I’m not exaggerating here, he went completely off the rails when he spoke about listening to the black box voices of pilots who were about to die.  And how in those final seconds when these guys knew they were about to crash and burn, some “pretty amazing things come out.”  And … then [he] tried to bridge the gap with asking the grads to think about what they would say in their last moments. Yes, to eighth graders and their parents!!??

“Inappropriate” doesn’t quite capture it.

Also of note was his anecdote about flight training as a pilot and how he couldn’t barf or he would fail his flight test so he had to swallow…and how sometimes you just have to swallow that throwup and go on and give the thumbs-up!

I almost fell out of my chair.

There was more … but my point in writing that we MUST GET GAYE ELECTED. Brian Dubie is just the tip of the iceburg.

While I’ve had my political differences with the very moderate and centrist former Speaker, it’s clear to me that she’s the most qualified of the available candidates to actually be the state’s CEO/ top administrator. And I will work for that outcome.

As for who the Lt. Governor will be … I can’t say that the reported candidacy of Rutland Rep. Dr. Harry Chen makes my heart go pittypat, but it could be worse. In an impassioned speech seconding the endorsement motion at the State Committee meeting, Chen’s wife, Anne Lizak, related the story of Chen’s entering the Republican-dominated Rutland race for Representative: Before he met with Gaye, he wasn’t much interested; afterward, he was excited about running and ready to make Democratic inroads into previously Republican territory.  

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. —George Orwell

There will be something like 600-plus delegates pledged to Obama at the Vermont Democratic Party’s State Convention in Barre on May 24.  Of those, 110 are declared candidates for the six open district-level slots to represent Vermont’s Obama voters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. If every candidate gets two minutes of air time, that’s three-plus hours of listening to impassioned people say, “I’m just so fired up, and I’ve worked so hard to get here.”

So I heard an interesting take this evening at our County Committee meeting. A young woman who worked the phones, stood in the cold at the honk & waves, and brought the signs to the Maple Fest Parade, told us why she wanted to go to Denver to help nominate Barack Obama. She’s biracial, moved here despite her family’s concern that she would be terribly isolated in the whitest state in the US, and she wants to show the rest of the country that there’s more to Vermont than skiing, ice cream, and being the whitest state in the country.

More after the jump.

[She also said that she had been too young to vote for JFK or march for civil rights with Dr. King. But she’s not too young now (she said she was over 40), and she wants this chance to help make history.]

So, thinking about it later, it occurred to me that one of the things I want people to know about Vermont is that a hell of a lot of white people here are going to vote for Obama — and it’s not about race or race guilt. And then up came questions that I can barely articulate about whether voting for this delegate for the reason she stated would be some kind of weird tokenism, or — as my spouse prefers to frame it — ‘affirmative action.’

And how are we going to choose 6 from 110?

A political sister forwarded to me an email from Damian Sedney,  who decided to organize a series of Obama delegate-candidate forums so people could hear from or meet at least some of the folks running before the convention. The email was supposedly sent to all the Vermonters for Obama going to the State Convention (although I wouldn’t have received it if my friend hadn’t sent it on). Sedney also promised to publicize the dates and locations of the forums to the 600 Obama State Conventioneers, but I never got that from him either. More importantly, neither did the young woman asking for Franklin County votes to send her to Denver.

The three forums are in Norwich at the Public Library, 368 Main St. on Thursday May 15, 7 p.m.; Monday May 19 in Burlington at Oakledge Park (end of Flynn Avenue) at 6:30;  and at Mark Skinner Library, 48 West Road, in Manchester on Tuesday, May 20th, 6:30. (Info from http://my.barackobama.com/page…

NanuqFC

In a time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. — George Orwell

There’s an informational & organizational meeting at St. Luke’s Episcopal in St. Albans on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6:30 pm brought to you by the Obama campaign.

Phone banking is being organized, too.

St. Luke’s is across from the southeast corner of Taylor Park (the green space in the center of town; the parish hall door is around the side to the left of the building.

If anyone is organizing for Hillary in Franklin County, I’ll post that, too.

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary  Act. — George Orwell

I believe there are times when Progressives and Democrats can work together, and times when we need to go our separate ways.

The Executive Director of the Progressive Party, Morgan Daybell, lives in Franklin County, where a bunch of us liberals of whatever party and no party get together and shoot the breeze once a month over a beer. It’s friendly and entirely off the record.

A week or 10 days ago, I got a call from Morgan asking whether Anthony could come to our March Franklin County Democratic Committee meeting to talk about his candidacy. I said I’d run it by the committee.

On Feb. 11, we were winding up the business part of our meeting when Peter Galbraith  arrived as our speaker. It was awkward, but there was a request for a show of hands on whether we would allow Anthony Pollina to come the next month and talk to us. There was no formal motion (despite what you might read in Friday’s St. Albans Messenger, which relied on hearsay and got the numbers wrong), some discussion, at least one vehement declaration that the declarer would not come to the meeting  if Anthony was there. The show of hands came to 15 for letting Pollina come, 6 against.

Then Peter Galbraith spoke. It was a good speech, and his responses during the Q&A afterward were even better. Healthcare, the environment, diversified and renewable energy, housing — Galbraith touched on all of them enough to confirm that he is a liberal Democrat, and definitely not a DINO.

What happened next after the jump.

After he was done, there was a show of hands as to whether the committee attendees would like to see Peter G. run for Governor. It was nearly unanimous (a couple of people not voting). Then there was some conversation about not wanting Anthony Pollina to come to the next meeting after all. This time, a formal motion was offered, carefully worded along the lines of allowing Anthony Pollina to consult with us at our next meeting on how best to defeat Jim Douglas. There was more discussion, and then a vote. The formal motion was defeated 15-6.

To compound the impact of the half-assed reportage, publisher Emerson Lynn (known to be a strong Douglas supporter) wrote and printed in the same issue a long two-column editorial (not available online), regurgitating the errors. Lynn’s point was to commend the Democratic Party for sticking to its own and not giving even the appearance of considering Anthony Pollina. Emerson’s Republican soul is no doubt chortling at the prospect of the three-way race among a Republican and two liberals.

The committee changing its mind after hearing Peter G. is interesting — and I don’t think they were just being polite. More along the lines of, “Well, this guy says good stuff on issues we care about, so why should we abandon our party if Peter runs?”

So at this point, if Anthony Pollina wants to talk about his candidacy, he gets to rent his own hall. If he wants Franklin County Democrats (or anyone else, for that matter) to come hear what he has to say, he can invite us to that meeting.

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. — George Orwell