(front page worthy – it’s on a lot of our minds, no doubt. – promoted by JDRyan)

Louis Porter had an item in yesterday’s Times Argus about the large role that Vermont members of the Credentials Committee might play in the Democratic National Convention. Who receives the nomination could hinge on whether the Florida and Michigan delegations get seated.

Porter identifies Dean loyalists Kate O’Connor, Bob Rogan, and Kathy Hoyt as members of the elite DNC-appointed core of the Credentials Committee. So it comes down to whether the Deaniacs will cave to Clinton pressure and seat the banned delegations (gutting the authority of the party to regulate its primary schedule), which will award most of their 360-some delegates to Clinton, who walked a very fine line (and some say, stepped way over it) about campaign appearances in the shunned states.

So that raises the question of how Dean and his campaign stalwarts feel about Clinton. I don’t have an answer. I have a vague recollection that there was no love lost between the Clintons and Howard Dean, even if they are essentially cut from the same political cloth.

Another piece that doesn’t figure into Porter’s calculus is that VT DNC delegate Billi Gosh — a major donor in Vermont and die-hard Clinton supporter — was just elected to the (temporary) Credentials Committee. (Vt State Committee Treasurer and establishment supporter Michael Inners and political newcomer Dottie Deans were also elected to the [two other] temporary DNC Credentials Committee[s].) Final Committee delegates will be elected at the State Convention.

Finally, there’s Dean’s quote:

I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don’t, then we’re going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement. Because I don’t think we can afford to have a brokered convention.

So why is it we bother with primaries?

(This one really needs to stay on the radar. – promoted by JulieWaters)

The Valley News has an editorial  alerting its readers to the issues of Vermont police going fishing for wholesale pharmacological records without a warrant.

The NH primary is exciting, but let’s not forget the legislature and the local warrantless searches and seizures that we might actually be able to do something about.

NanuqFC

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

The Snelling Center presents itself as a “nonpartisan” nonprofit working to engage the public in serious discussion of public policy issues. Its current project, on which it began polling last year, is whether Vermont should amend its constitution to change the term of office for Lt. Governor and Governor from 2 years to 4. A question that is clearly treated as secondary is whether the Senate and/or the House should get the same deal.

But frankly, there’s an agenda here, and it’s not exactly nonpartisan — although the polling figures handed out at last night’s debate between Gov. Madeleine Kunin and Prof. Frank Bryan suggest that majorities of both Democrats and Republicans participating in a randomized poll favor an increase in the Gov’s term.

I blogged on this, with an aside regarding John McLaughry’s strong support for the four-year governor and total disdain for the four-year legislature, almost two years ago. My opinion hasn’t changed. But the urgency of taking the poll online has: the Snelling Center will present the results of its polling in January in a push to get a vote on an amendment bill.

The amendment process, a cautionary list of supporters, and the two competing proposals after the jump.

A Constitutional amendment must be approved by a 2/3 majority in the Vermont Senate, pass by a majority vote of the House this session, then get majority approval in both chambers in the next legislative session, then win a popular vote in order to be enacted.

As for the “funding partners” supporting the Snelling Center’s relentless “engagement” with this issue (last defeated by public vote in 1974), here’s the list:

Funding Partners:

AARP Vermont
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Vermont
Central Vermont Public Service Corporation
Champlain Oil Company
Doubletree Hotel
Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
Entergy Nuclear VT Yankee
Fletcher Allen Health Care
Forcier, Aldrich, and Associates, Inc.
Gallagher, Flynn & Company, LLP
GBIC
Green Mountain Power
Hackett, Valine, MacDonald
Hazelett Strip-Casting Corp.
Hubbardton Forge
Kelliher, Samets, Volk Communications
Lang Associates
Middlebury College
National Bank of Middlebury
National Life Group
Neagley & Chase Construction Group
Northfield Savings Bank
Paul Frank & Collins P.C.
Queen City Printers, Inc.
Union Mutual Insurance
Union Street Media
Vermont Business Roundtable
Vermont Electric Power Co., Inc. (VELCO)
Vermont Gas Systems
Vermont Law School
Vermont Mutual Insurance
Vermont State Chamber of Commerce
Wells River Savings Bank
Windham Foundation

What I see here for the most part is a who’s who of folks who fund the army of lobbyists and donate to Gov. Does-less: banks, utilities, insurance companies (include AARP in that group), and law firms which provide “government liaison” services.

Yes, there’s a bill in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Bill Doyle, he of the famous Town Meeting Day survey of issues, along with Ann Cummings, Harold Giard, Don Collins, and (ahem) Doug Racine, among others. A competing bill that includes all the legislators was filed by Jim Condos and co-sponsored by Diane Snelling, and (more on this in a minute) Don Collins, among others.

Sen. Collins, of Franklin County, was at a different event in Montpelier at the Capitol Plaza, but dropped by briefly before the debate. He said, “I support a 4-year term for constitutional offices and the Senate, and that’s it.” It was said lightly, with a laugh, but I think that’s what he really means.

Other shared sponsors between the competing proposals are Hinda Miller and Ginny Lyons.

The chairs of the three major parties were on a “reaction panel” at the debate, and Dem chair Ian Carleton and Repub chair Rob Roper agreed (!) that each of their parties held a “diversity of opinion” on the subject. Only Martha Abbott of the Progressives was solidly against moving to four-year terms.

Carleton admitted that, personally, he would support moving to four-year terms for statewide offices. The issue is not (yet) on the agenda for the State Committee meeting on Nov. 17. Perhaps it should be.

Final note: on Nov. 28 there will be an “interactive forum”  with Supreme Court Justice John Dooley and Vermont Law School Professor Peter Teachout at UVM in Burlington at 4:30. The topic is “looking at the roles of Vermont’s Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches in the 21st Century.” The location has not yet been listed.

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

Oh, and PS: I’ll bet a four-year term wasn’t something Gov. Does-less heard from Vermonters on his STAT.
 

Okay, here's another thing I just don't get: Valerie Plame Wilson suddenly becoming some kind of hero to civil libertarians and other liberals. She was in Burlington today (I did not go, had plenty of exposure on last week's 60 Minutes and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, thanks). 

Her sound bite about her book (and all this exposure is definitely about selling the book) is that the story is “about speaking truth to power” and “holding your government to account for its misdeeds.”

Say what?! This from a CIA covert operative? I know lefties and liberals (being one myself) tend to support victims of tyrants, but come ON! Yes her cover was blown by vicious thugs making an example of a critic by targeting her as “collateral damage.” Yes, it ended her covert career (hence the book and the massive media exposure cum sellathon).

She said on 60 Minutes that some of her “assets” had disappeared, and one had likely been killed, IIRC. Those weren't “assets,” Valerie, but people who took risks, people whom you used. I'm sure you chalk their probable detainment and interrogation up to the misdeeds of the Bush administration. But they would not have been at risk if your agency  had not put them there in the first place.

Plame Wilson is hardly destitute, hardly liberal, and at least to my mind, hardly someone whose lectures on ethics and morals I would give credence to, much less the $28 cost of admission and the $26 list price for the book (though I found it on Overstock.com a mere week post-release for just over $14, and Amazon has it at under $16). Click here for an appropriately skeptical review of her talk in South Burlington.

Yes, I suppose she gets some points for not quietly going away, and Joe gets some points for having written the yellowcake fraud expose in the first place.

But, remember, folks, “The enemy of an enemy is NOT necessarily a friend.” And for a willing tool of an agency that specializes in deceit to suddenly feel victimized when her bosses use the same tactics on her and her husband is, IMO, the rankest hypocrisy that disqualifies Valerie Wilson Plame from even uttering the words “speak truth to power” and turns the phrase “holding one's government accountable for its misdeeds” in her mouth into a hollow mockery.

NanuqFC

In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the TRUTH is a Revolutionary Act. — George Orwell

Is anyone else seeing what I'm seeing? In the new environmental crisis — wildfires in the hills around San Diego & Los Angeles — The Bush — um — team has been most helpful to their fellow Republican governor Aah-noldt, in helping to feed, water, and temporarily house middle class mostly white fire refugees.   CarpetBagger Steve Benen's look is a tad less cynical, if you want to check it out. No mercenaries barring access, way less despair, everyone but a handful of people got out, and many are now returning to their homes, although a couple thousand homes are ash and debris.

Except, somehow, the migrant workers who were left in the fields by their employers, and stayed there, worried they would lose their jobs if they evacuated as urged by migrant aid groups and authorities.

Some may say it's different — and better — because the Bushie FEMA folks actually “learned” something from the Katrina-levee disaster fiasco. I suspect that the party of the governor and the race and class of the victims have way too much to do with it.

My belief is partly fallout from the politicization of the Justice Department: if the Current Occupant's administration can pressure prosecutors to ignore Republican crime to animate dead cases against Democrats, what would stop them from shipping aid hand over fist to a Republican-led state versus a Democratic-led one?

In a Time of Universal Deceit, Telling the TRUTH is a Revolutionary Act. — George Orwell

Rep. Avis Gervais is my rep. She's a very conservative Catholic Democrat in a conservative, Republican-dominated district. The Republicans don't run candidates against her because they wouldn't win if they did.

Tomorrow (that is, Thursday, August 16), at noon, a small but dedicated group of peace activists in Franklin County will hold a press conference to bring attention to the local cost of U.S. participation in the unwinnable religious civil war in Iraq. The group is the Franklin County Peace Alliance, and as of this moment, it is the only MoveOn.org-registered group in Northern Vermont. The punchline of the MoveOn-disseminated report: Vermonters have had their tax pockets picked by Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, Blackwater, et al to the tune of $663 million since the U.S. military began its occupation for the control of oil.

According to The National Priorities Project , which generated the numbers:

The numbers include military and non-military spending, such as reconstruction. Spending only includes incremental costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers’ regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. Potential future costs, such as future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war, are not included. It is also not clear whether the current funding will cover all military wear and tear. It also does not account for the Iraq War being deficit-financed and that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to those deficits.

The local cost for Franklin County, again according to the National Priorities Project’s local costs page, is over $50 million. Burlington’s cost comes in at over $34 mil; Chittenden County at $186 mil. Montpelier kicks in an even $8 million. The details on how the figures were arrived at:

The state-level costs in the table are computed based on how much each state contributes in tax revenues, according to IRS data. The local-level costs are based on the state costs, and on relative population and income levels in each location. These numbers were updated for the latest IRS data in Sept 2006. The population and household amounts are based on Census Bureau estimates: population as of February 2007; households for 2005. The taxpayer amount is based on IRS projected taxfilers for the 2005 tax year.

Beyond the numbers, the idea is to set up for a national peace vigil on August 28, soon before Congress returns from summer vacation to focus on the “War Report” due from General David Petraeus. The object is to get Reps and Senators to see that fear, fraud, and funding an unwinnable civil war are no longer (if they ever were) national priorities. What this country needs is peace, NOW! What this country needs is for funding to be directed to domestic needs and not into the pockets of war profiteers. What this country needs is to fund an economy that doesn’t force adolescents into uniform because there are so few other options. What this country, this county needs is for husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in uniform to come home, safe, whole, and sane.

In Franklin County there will be a vigil for peace, the safe return of soldiers, and the end of American participation in the Iraq civil war, in Taylor Park on August 28, organized by the Franklin County Peace Alliance. Stay tuned for more details.

NanuqFC
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell

News flash: Karl Rove is jumping ship as of August 31.

So, CarpetBagger (citing Josh Marshall at TPM) has a report on Florida State Rep. Bob Allen, yet another of the Sunshine State’s legislators to get in trouble for inappropriate sexual activity. Last month he allegedly offered $20 and oral sex to an undercover police officer in a public bathroom in a park — and Allen was going to perform the oral sex as well as pay the guy.

Wow, the training these Florida Reps are getting from the Republican Party is really thorough!

The rest of the story, released yesterday (Aug. 6) is in the excuse Allen, who is white, offered — he said he was afraid of being assaulted by other black men in the park. Allen denies wrongdoing and will fight the charge of soliciting prostitution.

And then there’s the fact that Allen was a co-chair of Senator John McCain’s Florida presidential campaign, a position he resigned after his arrest, according to 365gay.com.

I’m sure there’s something really symbolic about that, but I’ll leave it to you to come up with the wording.

Also according to 365gay.com, Allen was the Police Union’s 2007 Lawmaker of the Year. And here’s the real kicker, somehow omitted by both CarpetBagger and TPM, supplied by 365gay.com:

In the last session of the Florida legislature [Allen] sponsored a failed bill that would have tightened the state’s prohibition on public sex. He also has been a supporter of amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and has opposed a bill to curb bullying of gay students.

My interest in this is in how often repressed Republicans who are so active in maintaining discrimination against gays and lesbians manage to get themselves caught in inappropriate or illegal same-sex acts. Their hypocrisy is stunning in its flagrancy.

NanuqFC
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell

Here’s a joke (I’ve seen it in text and in cartoon form) about marriage for gays and lesbians:

Woman: I think lesbians and gay men should be allowed to marry, don’t you, honey?

Husband: Haven’t they suffered enough?

(Rimshot)

But seriously, folks, the Free Press has put up a poll on  marriage equality. I’ve already been to cast my vote for equality. Please go thou and do likewise.

NanuqFC

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell