[Update 2: via email: Sen. Randy Brock will offer an amendment to slow the process, although he believes Entergy is “suspect.” He says today’s vote is based on emotion and innuendo. — NanuqFC]

[UPDATE & call for participation: Have to quit live-blogging for now — paid work takes precedence. Any GMD-er is invited to contribute if you’re listening either in comments or by adding updates under your own moniker. Thanks! — NanuqFC]

The proceedings began with Senator and lt. gubernatorial candidate Phil Scott (R) raising procedural objections, “interrogating” (their word) Rules Committee Chairman and gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin on how the ordinary process was circumvented to bring the VY relicensing bill to a vote. Scott then inquired of Rutland Republican Kevin Mullin (I think; the Senators are not addressed by name, but by district, and I’m listening via VPR’s live stream) about whether the poll of the rules committee was unanimous as presented, which he denied.

As Scott seemed ready to continue his challenge, someone whose district I didn’t catch asked for a recess. At 10:57 a.m., that’s where we are.

They’re back: Scott agrees to shut up and sit down. Shumlin regrets any misunderstanding in the process.

Mullin thought he was clear with his thumbs-down response on the rules committee process. But does not mean to imply that Shumlin intended to pull a fast one.

Sen. Ann Cummings makes a presentation from the Finance Committee about Enexus. No recommendation from the committee.

Compiling latest press releases, rumors, information and reactions:

• RUMOR: Democratic Senator and gubernatorial candidate Susan Bartlett may have as many as 14 votes for delaying any Senate vote on relicensing VY,although one insider puts the count at 10-12.
  
  • If she forces a tie, Republican Lt. Governor and anointed Douglas successor Brian Dubie will get tie breaker vote. No points for guessing correctly which way he’d vote.
    

  • Dubie would then get a huge headline for his vote, and likely Bartlett will lose the Democratic base and the primary (unless many R’s jump party lines to vote in the D primary).
    

• PRESS RELEASE: Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, considered one of the more conservative Democrats in the legislature, accused “Entergy officials and lobbyists” of “distorting the truth” regarding a forthcoming report characterized as “commissioned by the Joint Fiscal Office.” It is one of the reports that proponents of delaying the vote suggest is “imperative” to review before voting. Campbell says the report was “commissioned and paid for by Vermont’s two largest utilities.”
  
  • The JFC agreed to let its economist and its economic consultant work with the utilities’ report writers.
    

  • “This is not a legislative initiative and the legislature did not pay for this report.”
    

  • The legislature’s report was on “electricity price forecasts” and “was delivered to the legislature on January 7, 2010.”
    

  more on the flip

Doug Hoffer’s promoted diary on the AHS budget is the bigger picture, and here’s just one piece of the inhumane priorities promulgated by the Dubie-Douglas-Lunderville Administration. We could easily call it the “Death by Budget” plan for low-income Vermonters with AIDS/HIV.

As proposed by Agency of Human Services Secretary Rob Hoffman from Health Department Commissioner Wendy Davis, M.D., the Health Department’s budget will:

* eliminate medication subsidies for AIDS/HIV drugs entirely (a 100% cut).

* cut funding for support services for Vermonters with HIV/AIDS by 40%,  $135k.

* cut funding for syringe exchanges by 50%, gutting an important prevention program.

The total damage amounts to a 57% cut in funding for AIDS/HIV-related programs. Meanwhile the rest of the Health Department’s budget is being cut an average of 4%. Nearly half the total cuts from the Health Department’s budget (excluding federal funding) came from the AIDS/HIV programs.

Figures like those might make a Vermonter wonder – or perhaps choke – on reading some of the goals of the Health Department, such as these [emphasis added]:

The Health Department’s many programs and initiatives help Vermonters live fuller, healthier lives from birth through old age.

* We focus on prevention, which is perhaps the best investment that can be made in health.

[…]

* We promote and improve access to immunizations, mammograms, HIV/AIDS testing and care, treatment for mental disorders, and prenatal care.

The assumption behind the cuts appears to be that federal funding will pick up the slack. But according to Vermont Cares Executive Director Peter Jacobsen, that’s not realistic, and even if federal money does materialize for some of the cuts, it will take a long time to secure those funds. And in the meantime, clients would  be forced to go without medications and/or services.

Those Death by Budget cuts will also have a severe impact on AIDS/HIV service providers, mostly nonprofits like  CARES, which get part of their funding through the Health Department. If these cuts go through as proposed, Jacobsen is looking at laying off a third to half of his staff and seeing a cut of 17% in his agency’s budget.

AIDS is not over. Nor is it a ho-hum manageable disease, although we’ve made enough treatment progress that some PWAs are making it to Medicare, rather than dying in their early adulthood. But if the Dubie-Douglas-Lunderville Health Department budget passes without significant changes, the lives of some low-income people with AIDS/HIV will be at risk.

[Update: From dearth to flood — Senator Ginny Lyons of Williston will be at the Grand Isle County Committee meeting Monday Feb. 1 as a potential Lt. Gov. candidate, joining Steve Howard and Chris Bray, making it possible that there will be four candidates in that Democratic primary.]    

Two of the three Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor introduced themselves to Franklin County Democratic activists on Monday night. Both Chris Bray and Steve Howard made it to the meeting, having driven a considerable distance in flood weather to be there, while the third candidate, Tim Palmer, from Chittenden County, had to be in Washington DC instead.

Bray was quiet and professorial at his first outing as a statewide candidate. Howard took a more rabble-rousing partisan tone, which might work well with a larger audience.

The gist of their presentations is after the jump.

Rep. Chris Bray, from New Haven in Addison County, concentrated primarily on the role he envisions for his tenure as lite guv in encouraging the re-establishment of food processing and distribution centers in the state as a way to bring back a half-billion dollars in money sent out of state for food. That would represent a 10 percent increase in money spent locally. According to Bray, 97 percent of our food money goes out of state. In addition to increased processing and distribution facilities, he like to see more diversification in farming toward other foods than dairy, and at the same time an alliance [in law and policy] among all farmers, not the current division between “dairy” and “non-dairy” farms.

Bray has degrees in Zoology (BA, UVM, 1977)  and English (MA, UVM, 1991), and taught English at UVM for four years. He is the principal of Common Ground Communications, a writing-editing-design-production outfit in New Haven. He’s been on the House Ag Committee since 2007. Bray and his partner Kate Selby have a horse farm on 82 acres.

Rep. Steve Howard (Rutland City), is a 6-term veteran of the House, half from Rutland Town, more recently from Rutland City. He gave a near-textbook stump speech, hitting the current governor for trying to balance the budget on the backs of senior citizens without even asking Vermonters in the top two income brackets to contribute a little more, specifically, 3 percent more, the same amount as the state employees gave back in their recent contract negotiations. If we can ask the snow-plow driver to give 3 percent, then we should be asking people in the top two brackets to give the same, he said. He was running to stand up for “the little guy.”

He touted his ability to bring people together — as shown by his successful campaigns in two tough, conservative districts.  Howard also named healthcare a major issue that must be addressed in order to encourage job development and control the state budget, identifying increases in medicaid costs as the biggest state budget buster of all, and the lack of wage and salary increases in the small-business private sector as a direct result of the rising cost of health insurance. He favors making Vermont a national leader by establishing a single-payer system within the state.

Howard graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy (a private Catholic school) and from Boston College (1993). He is a political and communications consultant.

Both men said they would address the current budget deficit through a combination of approaches, including some budget cuts in services, better government efficiency through re-organization and outcome-based budgeting, an increase in some taxes, and using some portion of the “rainy day” fund.

How either man will fare against the Republican candidate — construction company owner and stock car racer Phil Scott or political family scion Mark Snelling — is the question.

A judge has finally ruled on whether developer Jeff Davis can build a Walmart in a cornfield next to an organic farm in St. Albans Town. Judge Tom Durkin gave Davis the go-ahead, affirming the Act 250 permit awarded in April of 2008, according to an article by Michelle Monroe in the January 22 St. Albans Messenger.

It’s not quite a simple yes/no decision. The Vermont Natural Resources Council — in consultation with co-appellants Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth (which has caught most of the local heat by the “give-us-our-Walmart-NOW” crowd) and farm owners Marie Frey and Richard Hudak — has 30 days to file an appeal. And there are side agreements on traffic issues and stormwater runoff mitigation measures.

Plus there are major bribes incentives of up to $400,000 for St. Albans City to be paid by developer Davis if construction meets certain deadlines (meaning no further delay fostered by any city entity).

One other interesting point. The developer, Jeff Davis, had filed a post-trial motion to deny/dismiss the affected/interested party-status of several groups. Judge Durkin denied the motion, noting:

“But for VNRC’s efforts to protect its particularized interests and those of its co-appellants, it is unlikely that the pending application would include the applicable revisions to stormwater treatment, traffic mitigation and economic impact JLD presented at trial. VNRC’s participation… resulted in an approved project that is unlikely to cause the adverse impacts once feared.”

Whether or not you agree with that last conclusion (“unlikely to cause the adverse impacts once feared”), the point is that the judge recognized the value of having a process that included the public and advocacy groups.

Something to think about every time some developer/Republican starts bloviating about “streamlining the process,” or amending Act 250 to prevent public input.

With all precincts counted, according to the NYT, Massachusetts picked Republican teabagger darling Scott Brown over stolid Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley by 52 to 47 percent.

Our neighbor to the south, my spouse reminds me, did after all elect Mitt Romney as governor, despite its Democratic leanings. Of course, it also elected Deval Patrick, its first black governor, more recently. Like Vermont, it’s another usually reliable blue state with a wide swath of “independents” who seem to lean to the right (in this case, the far right), especially in the suburbs.

And now it’s a warning to Democrats here in Vermont and nationally, not that the Democratic agenda is wrong, but that Democrats cannot take for granted their election victories just because they know they’re right on the facts and the issues. The electorate seems not to want “facts” or “hard data.” They are swayed by spun tales of tax cuts that equal more revenue, and of government bogeymen counting your doctor’s use of tongue depressors.

While there is some pressure to urge the House to pass the existing Senate healthcare bill, the state’s own senior Representative, Barney Frank, is already signaling defeat (emphasis added):

If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate healthcare bills.  But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate.

I am hopeful that some Republican senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of healthcare reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the healthcare status quo.  But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a healthcare bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened.

Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the healthcare bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of this process.

There is always the debate over whether behaving as the opposition most certainly would — and ramming a bill through — means becoming the opposition. One other option being that Democrats would give up their internal sense of superiority and get/use some brass knuckles to save the country from ruinous runaway healthcare costs and the inevitable Republican push for the next war — Yemen.

Good night and good luck.

NanuqFC

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. ~ Sam Adams

The Burlington Free Press has made its choice for Vermonter of the year. Nominated multiple times, Beth Robinson deserves the honor, for her patient persistence for more than a decade in achieving marriage equality for same-sex couples (although she never lets that sort of thing go to her head).

She founded an advocacy organization, wrote grants, established political action committees, raised money, organized hundreds of volunteers and a dozen or so staff (varying from none or one up to maybe a dozen at the end), recruited and ably inspired all of them to make concrete change happen that helped Vermont realize America’s promise of equality for ALL.

Given the Free Press’s determined (even belligerent)  editorial silence back when the civil union debate was occurring, their recognition of Beth as Vermonter of the year is a stunning turnaround, an honor well-deserved.

The First Stonewall Rebellion (or “riot,” depending on your point of view) was arguably the (ahem) seminal event in modern lgbt history. Queers, dykes, faggots, cross-dressers, and street kids for the first time fought back against the expectation that they would just allow themselves to be brutalized and arrested out of shame for who they were. No longer would we let electioneering prosecutors make their names by “cleaning up the streets” through closing down our gathering places.

And to the gay and lesbian communities’ credit, it’s happening again. The community is broader, and maybe older, but has lost none of its moxie. A group of bloggers and activists have followed the National Equality March (October 11) with a simple proposal:

Shut Down the gAyTM

The idea is this: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans have been part of the Democratic Party’s constituency for decades. The Party has been promising movement toward equality for decades. In response to those promises, lgbt Americans have been giving money to the Democratic Party to help elect Democrats who will enact laws furthering our equality. Result? The Defense of Marriage Act. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (and the ignored third leg, Don’t Pursue). No count in the census. No clout for equality, no progress. No Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We are the first constituency thrown under the bus, tossed to the lions, sacrificed for expediency’s sake, despite the national Democratic Party’s own rhetoric.

“It is not enough to look back in wonder at how far we have come; those who came before us did not strike a blow against injustice only so that we would allow injustice to fester in our time. That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America.” – Democratic Party Platform, 2008

The gAyTM shut down movement says we’re not going to pay for our own oppression at the hands of politicians with pretty words and no action any more. Those who sign up pledge not to give money to the DNC  or the Democratic House or Senate Campaign funds until we see some actual progress. If you want to give money to your Senator or your Rep., fine. But send nothing to the organization that ignored the campaign to preserve marriage equality legislation in Maine and has decreased its lgbt-specific policy positions.

[Why Obama’s gAyTM PIN has been sequestered, too, after the jump]

Last year, lots and lots of us took President Obama at his word that he would be a “fierce advocate” for our concerns, fighting for our equality. Surely the first black American president would understand that we’re tired of waiting for equality, tired of waiting to make the same choices all other Americans can make: to marry the person we love, to share in more than a thousand rights and benefits derived from federal recognition of the legal status of marriage, to serve openly in the armed forces, to be treated as an equal worker by an employer and not subjected to harassment or dismissal for reasons having nothing to do with our job performance, to participate as full and equal citizens.

[N]o one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love.  No one in America should be forced to look over their shoulder because of who they are. ~ US President Barack Obama

Instead, with one significant exception (the Matthew Shepard and Robert Byrd, Jr. Violence Prevention Act, otherwise known as the “Hate Crimes Bill,”), there’ve been a lot of symbolic gestures with no real substance, and a whole lot of slaps in the face. So the gAyTM movement has also shut down donations to Organizing For America (formerly Obama for America, local Vermont organizer Jesse Bragg) and the Obama re-election campaign.

There’s a checklist here, with only a single item done – and very few of these items require cooperation from Congress.

You can read lots more about this issue here  (and Pam Spaulding has signed on to the pledge) and from Michelangelo Signorile.

The idea originated with Americablog’s John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay (be sure to read the FAQs). Aravosis has negatives both within the lgbt communities and outside it that may cause some natural allies to shy away. On the other hand, Jane Hamsher at firedoglake and Markos of Daily Kos have signed on, as have many other well-respected bloggers and activists. Some stress the idea that withholding funds from the DNC and its associated campaign committees and from OFA is simply a temporary measure, surely a short-term boycott, a “pause’ in giving  just until lgbt-and-allies’ contributions to the Party get some respect and some results.

Think Nationally, Give Locally. The VDP is deserving of your political dollars – having supported lgbt equality measures for years and providing support for the legislature’s Democratic majority in finally delivering the last state-enforced recognition in April of this year.

When I’d begun hearing last week about self-identified Christians circulating signs and tee-shirts reading “Pray for Obama Psalm 109.8,” I shrugged it off as more birther-style nonsense.

The a friend called me in a major outrage underlain by fear and depression. “Have you heard about this?!” she asked. “These are Christians! Supposedly, anyway.” Psalm 109 is about praying for the death of an evil person. Verse 8 reads (in one common translation), “Let his days be few, let another take his office.”

It’s the next verse that is the most troublesome: “Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”

Think Progress reports that two online merchandizers, Zazzle and Cafe Press (which is where all that fabulous GMD swag comes from), have agreed to remove all merchandise with the Psalm 109 designs.

It took two changes of mind, but Cafe Press was apparently persuaded by the preponderance of  opinion against the slogan as “overly inflammatory and unfair.”

Hey, the customer is always right, right?

You can also check out the discussion on Beliefnet. Or go to the source at Cafe Press’s own blog

Oh, um, I mean John Waters. Tickets, that is. Once I heard him in an interview relate that the Japanese loved him early in his career when Americans weren’t sure what to make of him. They thought even his name was an ironic commentary on American obsession with toilets, or something.

So, a good Democrat donated a pair of tickets to John Waters’ upcoming show at the Flynn on December 10 at 7:30. Face value is $40 each, and the seats are pretty good (5th row, left section on the main floor). Proceeds will benefit the Franklin County Democratic Committee.

For a description of the show, go here.

Highest bidder by Dec. 4 gets the tix.