(Good work on the part of activists. – promoted by JulieWaters)

That awkward pause followed by Lt. Governor Dubie pounding his gavel and asking attendees to “be respectful” you may have heard if you were listening to Governor Douglas’ State of the State address this afternoon was the result of several protesters in the balcony of the House Chamber as they unrolled three seperate banners and tried to bring the fact that we’re a nation at war into the political realities of the Governor and the legislature.

Several local high school students, along with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and accompanied by other concerned community members banded together as a part of their on-going campaign to tie issues of the illegal Iraq War together with our local community and how the war is effecting our local economy, citizens, and our kids.

I’ve been told by a few of them that, while being escorted out of the room by the Sergeant at Arms, their was a considerable number of legislators and attendees who gave them nods of approval and thumbs up; later, in the halls, they even got a few pats-on-the-back from fellow Vermonters who appreciated their demands as well as their insistence that the War is very much a local issue, and that it must be addressed by our law-makers.

The statement they were handing out to members of the media:

Vermont Troops Home Now.

Today, in the Vermont People’s State House, a group of students,  

veterans and citizens decided it was time to put the issue of the War  

on Iraq on Vermont’s legislative agenda. And so we’ve come to  

Governor Jim Douglas’ State of the State address to remind him, the  

Legislature and all Vermonters that we are a nation waging an illegal  

war against Iraq – a war that has left tens of thousands dead, cost  

nearly $500 billion, and diverted our nation’s attention from other  

pressing issues that deserve our attention. This war must end now.  

And every elected official – indeed, every citizen – must take action  

now to end the Iraq War and re-focus our national and state priorities.

The Governor’s State of the State address is traditionally a time to  

set the state’s agenda. It is a time to assess our past and look  

toward the future. But the “elephant in the room” that will probably  

go unmentioned is the war and its impact on all of our lives. So, we  

ask the Governor and members of the Legislature to consider these facts:

·      26 Vermonters have lost their lives in the Iraq War.

·      It has been estimated that Vermont’s share of the cost of the  

Iraq War is over $660 million.

·      Vermont’s National Guard is participating in the occupation of  

a sovereign nation.

·      U.S. Military and National Guard recruiters are actively  

preying on Vermont high school students and others to join the armed  

services and serve in this illegal war.

·      More than 70% of Vermonters oppose the Iraq War.

Therefore, we ask that the Governor and the Vermont Legislature  

listen to the people and begin to take immediate action to help end  

the Iraq War and/or Vermont’s role in it, including:

·      A call for an immediate end to the war directed at the  

President, Congress, and Vermont’s Congressional delegation.

·      A demand that all Vermont troops come home now.

·      An end to military recruitment in Vermont’s high schools.

Out of Our Schools, Out of Iraq

( – promoted by odum)

On the heels of Gov. Douglas’ State of the State address to the legislature and the People of Vermont tomorrow this afternoon, you gotta kind of wonder why he would bother.  I mean, at this point, he’s spent several years informing us of just exactly what the “state” of our State is……

“Good afternoon, thank you…. (obligatory, thunderous applause)

Mr. Shumlin, Mr. Dubie (nodding towards the President Pro Tem and the Lt Gov)….

Dear, ah, Madam Speaker (hug and kiss on the cheek to the Speaker of the House)…..

Esteemed Members of the House and Senate, Fellow Citezens of Vermont, I’d like to inform you that I am hear today to once again remind you, that the youth are fleeing, the jobs are moving away, the environmentalists are inhibiting the creation of new businesses, and the State of Our State is Bad. (more obligatory applause, though with several confused looks from Progressives and Democrats)

In fact, the State of Vermont is in a horrible place.  Our taxes are making it impossible for life as we know it to exist here, regulations are driving away potential polluters, and the average working Vermonter is in fact being place on the endangered species list.  (lone shout out from Earth First! member in balcony)

Health care profits are in danger thanks to an obnoxiously persistent plea for help from the electorate, our schools are rated among the top in the Nation do largely to a commitment of excellence from our teachers, middle class jobs such as those at our hospitals and universities continue to be secured thanks to unionizing efforts, and friggin’ everyone keeps voting for Bernie.

But make no mistake, in the coming year, I will do everything I can to position myself strategically for a run at the next available Senate seat.  I will allow VT Yankee to skirt the system and obtain a license renewal with few if any conditions; I will be sure to fuck up any great opportunities for ‘out of the box thinking’ like I did on the CT River Dams; and I will stop at nothing to derail attempts for a universal health care system, and I will do so in a way that allows me to take credit for its eventual success, should that day come.  

For, my fellow Vermonters, Vermont can continue to be a wretched, horrible, inhibitively expensive, snot-covered fly-dung of a place, but only if you continue to allow me to convince you of it.  With your support, we can continue our regressive tax system, continue to shift the costs of basic services around and around until eventually the littlest guy is getting screwed, and, goll darn it, if you won’t let me do it to anything else, at least let me privatize the lottery system!

(applause from the 12 people still in the room)

(Good stuff included in here. – promoted by JulieWaters)

Well, it seems activists from the left in Vermont were pretty busy during the course of this last week.  There was the announcement that the quarterly, statewide anarchist paper Catamount Tavern News has reached an agreement to join the Teamsters and become VT’s first all unionized media.  Then Friday’s non violent civil disobedience successfully shut down two military recruitment offices and grabbed a ton of regional and national press (here, here, here, and of course here to mention just a few).  At the same time, national attention also came to a Brattleboro man for his efforts to push for impeachment.

And in the midst of all this, now comes the news that Vermont activists and organizers once again have their own, open source Independent Media Center, as VT Indy Media has been re-launched.  They still have some bugs to work out, but once back on its feet, VT Indy Media stands to be a solid contribution to our state’s people-powered, non-corporate media.  In a world where exploitation, dishonesty, and media consolidation are common, everyday occurrences, we need more sites like IMC.

Now, to keep it going…..

Montpelier-based Catamount Tavern News (from  where I got the interview with Anthony Pollina here) is announcing that they will become members of the Lithographers Local 1L-Teamsters.  The paper, which is free though only prints around 1200 copies an issue, is entirely worker-owned and controlled. 

 CT News bills itself as "a quarterly Statewide publication covering news, politics, and counterculture for the working Vermonter".

Their press release is here.

Congrats to them.  Who woulda thought a bunch of crazy commies living in the woods could do something they love, And believe in, and get a pension when they retire. 

(the following is from their official press release):

MMU Peace Club determined to amplify voices of high school students against the militarization of public schools and the war in Iraq.

Jericho, VT. After just two days of petitioning their classmates at Mt. Mansfield Union High School in Jericho to denounce 'purposeful misrepresentations' and oversimplifications by military recruiters in their school, the MMU Peace Club was able to gather 171 student and faculty signatures. The petition calls upon representatives Sanders, Leahy and Welch "to represent our collective discontent with this situation and do all that is in your power to change this legislation.” The legislation they refer to is No Child Left Behind.

Emily Coon of the MMU Peace Club explains, "Section 9528 of NCLB allows recruiters invasive access to our schools and our lives. Once in our schools, recruiters use deliberate misrepresentations, to gain the trust and confidence of the students. Enough is enough.” “There is a growing voice of opposition among youth here in Vermont and across the country, as more students realize their privacy is being violated in the military recruitment process. Also, recruiters downplay what we see right before our eyes. Every day we hear about more young people, including friends and family, losing their lives in Iraq and taking the lives of innocent Iraqis. All this to fight in a war that most students find more and more useless as the years wear on. Among our friends and peers, we’re finding that more students want to take action against both pervasive military recruitment and against the war,” Emily continued.

MMU student Phoebe Pritchett adds, “we are considering what actions we can take to project the huge number of hidden youth voices against these lies and deceptions in our schools and against the lies and deception behind this totally unjust, immoral, and corporate-driven war in Iraq." This week students re-open the petitioning drive at MMU but are setting their sights higher to schools throughout Vermont and across the country, launching a new campaign: “Out of Our Schools – Out of Iraq” The 'Out of Iraq' demand “calls upon high school students to learn about and use non-violent civil disobedience to intervene directly in all institutions that are waging this war.

Now is the time for students to do this as it becomes increasingly obvious our government, our parents and our teachers will not do it for us,” Phoebe explains. The ‘Out of our Schools’ demand will include, among other things, petitioning drives to put an end the NCLB condition that attaches school funding to the requirement for mandatory recruiters in schools, and challenge recruiters on the invasion of privacy. They will also engage in the development of partnerships with teachers, parents, vets and other peace and justice groups to challenge misrepresentations and deceptions by recruiters by intensifying ongoing counter-recruitment campaigns.

The MMU Peace Club started in 2004 for students to come together and affect positive change. They have raised money for organizations such as Heifer International, the Genocide Intervention Network, and Room to Read. In addition to fundraising they have been continually working on counter-recruitment by handing out information to students about the realities of war and serving in the military. If you are a high school student, teacher, vet, or peace and justice group that wants to get involved with the ‘Out of Our Schools Out of Iraq’ campaign, contact Phoebe Pritchett (kiwilover1234@riseup.net or 802-598-6721), Emily Coon (susurro7@riseup.net or 802-373-4641), or Ben Weber (mithrilbalrog@yahoo.com).

(Great interview. Makes for a nice lead-in to the huge Pollina diary I’ll have up tomorrow. – promoted by odum)

The following is an interview with likely candidate for governor, Progressive Anthony Pollina.  The interview is done by David Van Duesen of the tiny little Catamount Tavern News.

Interviewer:  You’ve been organizing the dairy farmers. Before that you where organizing with Rural Vermont, before that with the Northeast Organic Farmers’ Association [NOFA].

 Pollina:  In between with VPIRG. I worked with NOFA back in the late 70s-early 80s and then I founded Rural Vermont in 1985.  I went to work for [then Congressman-now Senator] Bernie Sanders back in 1990… and then I went to VPIRG in 1995 as the interim Executive Director.. [After that] I was the VPIRG Policy Director until 2000.  I [also] ran [as a Progressive for Governor] against Howard Dean. Since then I have started the Vermont Milk Company.   

 Interviewer:  You’ve been organizing around farmers’ issues since the late 70s.  What is it that draws you to that?

 Pollina:  Well there really is two things, and I don’t know which comes first.  One is the people quite frankly.  Farmers and people who are farming, [those who are] working the land, are just about the most genuine people you could work with. So I find myself drawn to that type of work because of the people I’ve come to know through it.  Other than that, the issues around agriculture and food bring together a lot of the issues that we all care about –you know economic justice, social justice, environmental justice.  They seem to come together in many ways around agriculture –or at least they have for me. I’ve worked on other issues too, obviously, but I find myself drawn back to work on agriculture and food issues.  If you’re talking about economic development, you’re talking about agriculture.  Environmental policy? Agriculture.  Worker exploitation?  Agriculture.  On the other hand, when you talk about the positive things that bring people together you’re also talking about agriculture. It’s ‘culture’ –that’s why its ‘agriculture’ because it is a lot about who we are as people. Whether its free trade, or local economic development there seems to be a piece in it that comes back around to working on those issues.   

 Interviewer: The Vermont Milk Company?  How is that coming along? 

 Pollina:  One of the most important things about the milk company is that it’s a business enterprise that is the direct result of a grassroots organizing effort that [local family] farmers undertook close to three years ago. Those farmers were looking for a way to regain control over their milk and their [rapidly falling] income.  They were looking for a way to take some milk out of the commodity market, add value to it, and put that money in their pockets.  They were also looking for a way for consumers to directly support them…

     We had a committee, which was primarily farmers, and traveled around the state and had a lot of meetings and talked to a lot of [other] farmers.  We then held meetings with the major milk handlers and talked about ways in which they could work directly with the farmers to help them through this and got nowhere! As we went through this process more and more the farmers said the only way to do this is to have our own brand –our own processing facility.  So it’s important to me that it came from that.

     We started the business about a year ago; ‘we’ meaning a group of farmers, myself and a few other non-farmers, and it is different than any other dairy business that I’m aware of. It has a fair trade mission…  It is Vermont owned and farmer controlled in the sense that the board of directors is dominated by farmers, and we’re committed to paying the farmers a stable minimum price.  Right now the price that is the minimum is $15 a hundred weight. Of course the price of milk is [currently] well over that so we match that higher price. But when the price goes down we have that floor that we won’t go below.

     Last year at this time the price of milk generally was eleven dollars, twelve perhaps:  we were paying $15… In the last couple weeks the price of milk was $23. What we do in that case is we match the market price.  We basically use [the] St. Albans [Co-op] as our benchmark…  BUT we also don’t charge the farmers’ for the trucking of the milk from the farm to the plant [in Hardwick], which other handlers or milk companies do.            

 Interviewer:  Can you tell me how much does the average farmer pay for ‘stop fees’ and ‘hauling fees?’

 Pollina: Not really, because they [the farmer] doesn’t even really know.  It’s a very complicated formula.  It varies a little from farm to farm…  I’ve herd it to be as low as thirty cents a hundred weight, and as much as seventy cents a hundred weight…  But lets say its fifty cents a hundred weight on average. [On top of that fifty cents the farmer] pays a ‘stop charge’ which is $7 to $9 every time the truck stops at their farm… That’s every day or every other day, as it depends on the farm. [In addition] right now they’re paying fuel surcharges, which of course [the farmer] can’t pass on to anybody. They [are compelled] to pay promotion fees that go into the federal and state promotion programs.  [Even more, while] it depends on the handler, I know that this year a number of them were paying extra assessments to help their companies overcome bad debt… So when you look in the newspaper and read that the price of milk is whatever, say $12, farmers are not getting $12.  Some of them are getting close to $10 [amounts which translate into the mass foreclosures of family farms]. The media doesn’t report the ‘net.’  They’re reporting what the federal government or market order says the price is. 

     So just to finish this thought: [the Vermont Milk Company] pays the farmers a fair price, we pay for the transportation, we keep the money here in Vermont, and we’re taking a commodity, milk, and we’re adding value to it.  So it’s a fair trade product. [and often with fair trade products] we talk about fair trade coffee, fair trade chocolate, fair trade crafts, [all imported goods]. What we want people to talk about more is domestic fair trade –Vermont fair trade. So that is what is so important about the [Vermont Milk] Company. 

     We make cheese, we make ice cream, we make yogurt, and like any start up there is a lot of challenges and we’ve just come to the end of our first year. We’re looking at the places where we made money and the places where we didn’t and we’re figuring out how to go forward. It has been extremely exciting and extremely challenging and extremely rewarding. And it has kept us very busy because there are a lot of moving parts.

     I frankly think that there are some folks out there in the industry that would rather we not succeed. I really do. We’re trying to create a model [that is] pretty similar, but a little different, than a worker owned [co-op]… And if we can make it work, and we will, I think it will be a model for [farmers] around Vermont as well as other places. 

 Interviewer:  In twenty years from now, do you see farmer controlled milk companies like this operating in several counties?

 Pollina:  I would say most likely… This has already come up.  People have said ‘can we do one in southern Vermont, can we do one in Chittiden County?’ The short answer is ‘sure’ –but it is quite complicated. Lets make sure this one [in Hardwick] becomes established so we really understand what it takes. We’ve really learned a lot in this process. Sometimes there’s talk about expanding the Hardwick location. Sometimes there’s talk of doing it somewhere else.  Right now we’re not ready to do either of those things, but both of them get thought about a lot. People come and visit the plant all the time and talk about that. I think there is potential…

     Interviewer: In general terms, what is the state of the farmer movement today in Vermont?

 Pollina:  In some ways it tends to follow milk prices up and down. Like any group of people, when times are tough they tend to motivate, and right now for what it’s worth the price of [raw] milk has been pretty good… On the other hand farmers lost so much money over the last year or two that even though the price of milk doubled, they are really struggling to catch up… They’re trying to deal now with the higher prices of corn and feed. 

    There has also been something else which has been going on, which we have been somewhat involved in but not as directly, which is a group of farmers [Dairy Farmers Working Together] that started in Vermont…which has been traveling around the country to try to see if they can get Congress to develop a supply management system… And those folks…went to California, they went to Wisconsin, they went to Washington…  [This] is good and something that we all have worked on a long time. So a lot of what’s been going on, and I don’t mean this negatively, has been that…a lot of attention has been turned towards Washington… But I think we do better by focusing on state and local policy because I guess I have a little more faith in [Vermonters] ability to change than I do with the federal [government]…

     The other thing which is happening which is interesting is this movement towards the development of a Vermont fair trade designation… There is growing evidence that people in the region…will pay a fair price for dairy products that are designated to be fair trade products. So we’re trying to figure out what that means and how to put it to people. It’s really like the early days of the organic movement when people were trying to figure out what the standards would be. So that’s what has been going on…

     The other people who have been really good for farmers in Vermont lately have been the public schools’ cafeteria workers. [They] have now become the frontline in supporting local agriculture.             

 Interviewer: Have they been buying local products?

 Pollina: Yes, they’ve been going out of their way to buy local.

 Interviewer: Is that having a big impact on small local farms?

 Pollina: It is, [but] its not big enough to solve the problem, but its big enough to set the example that if public schools can do this…maybe the big institutions in the state, the IBMs and the National Lifes can start figuring it out. I mean that if the cafeteria lady at the Holland Elementary School can find a way to buy local you would think that cooks at National Life would be able to do the same?   

 Interviewer: Does Vermont need its own state based subsidies program for family farms? Do we need a base price for farm commodities?

 Pollina: The wording is complicated. When you say a ‘subsidy’ I would say no, [but] if there was a way in setting a base price that farmers got through the market -in other words if St. Albans, and Agrimark, and Dairy Farmers of America (the organizations which control most of the milk in Vermont) simply said that we are going to pay farmers no less than $16 a hundred weight and were going to pass that on to consumers wherever they may be, that would be great, we’d be getting the marketplace to pay that price. That is what the organic companies do. They set a minimum price and that’s it… [But] these entities, the St. Albans and the Agrimark say they can’t do that. They say they don’t really control where the milk goes. It’s a legitimate discussion, [however] I don’t really believe that. They could play a strong role [advocating for the farmers]… I think it would be a good idea to do what we [The Vermont Milk Company] are doing. We’re saying were not going to pay less than $15 a hundred weight.   

 Interviewer: But can you rely on the free market to figure this out on its own?

 Pollina: No.

 Interviewer: Does the state have to be involved?

 Pollina: What we need to do is find ways [for the state] to invest in local processing, because if there is more local processing for dairy and other products…those processors will be able to put those products out in the market place with the minimum price attached to them. I think that would make a big difference.   

 Interviewer: So let me see if I’m following you. You contend that instead of the state taking a direct role in such a process [ie ownership], you advocate the state acting to economically support endeavors from groups like Dairy Farmers of Vermont?

 Pollina: Right, right. Basically there are things that the state could do immediately… The State of Vermont could actually commit to buying local products. You know Jim Douglas goes on the radio and runs these adds which say ‘buy local –its just that simple.’ Well if its just that simple, Jim, why aren’t you doing it? [And here] when we say ‘the state’ what I mean is the UVMs, the state colleges, the prisons, the public schools. But that could also extend to things like Fletcher Allen [hospital in Burlington] which receives public money.  If they all bought dairy from the Vermont Milk Company, it would be glorious. If they all decided that they were going to buy Vermont hamburger… well, what they would say is that ‘Vermont hamburger is not there.’ Well if you tell us you’re gonna buy it, we [the Vermont farmers] will bring you the hamburger.  We were talking about all this at a meeting I was at last night on a farm in Franklin County.

     So how do you build the infrastructure necessary to meet the demand of the state and other consumers? It means you need a place where you can keep frozen hamburger over the winter… So what the state can do is it could provide capital and equity to support those kinds of endeavors. The Governor says that ‘the state doesn’t do that’ but two years ago the [Vermont] legislator was close to appropriating half a million dollars to support in-state dairy processing… The Governor killed that bill. Literally the same week or so the [Democratic] legislator and [Republican] Governor gave half a million dollars to the Ski Areas’ Association to promote skiing in Vermont because they had a ‘tough’ winter. Well dairy farmers have had a tough life! The ski industry has had a tough last season.

 Interviewer: Most the Ski areas are owned by out-of-staters.

 Pollina: Well of course! They are owned by big corporations whether in state or out of state and they have resources. So they [the government] literally said ‘no’ to the agricultural infrastructure, and it was a half a million dollar appropriation…

 Interviewer: Less than a dollar a person for every Vermonter.

 Pollina: Yeah, and [instead] they gave it to the ski areas to advertise. The ski areas admitted a couple months later that they only spent half of it because the season ended, and they put the other half in the bank!

     So are there ways to raise capital, and to make that capital available to entrepreneurs, or groups of farmers or other Vermonters who want to build processing plants or have a place to freeze vegetables or have more meat processing? There are ways to do that.

 Interviewer: So where has Governor Douglas been in this big picture?

 Pollina: Absolutely nowhere, that’s the thing! Missing in in-action! He talks about it a little bit, but as far as I can tell there has been very little effort made to create an investment in infrastructure. [Even so] there have been a couple of small things that are underway [through the current government]. Although I haven’t seen it yet, somebody has set aside [resources] for a mobile slaughter house that could go around and slaughter poultry and other larger animals on the farm. [This] would make it easier for people to do that kind of stuff.

 Interviewer: Who would own or control the operation?

 Pollina: That right now is unclear to me… We have to find a way to invest at [a higher] level in Vermont. So there has been this talk about the mobile slaughter house, [the government] has given some grants to schools to buy local, but we’re really missing the boat. We should be talking about a plan, an agricultural development plan that would require some investment in this industry. The problem is when Jim Douglas hears the word investment he says ‘you want to raise my taxes.’ And that is not necessarily what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is coming up with capital through a variety of ways. There is plenty of money in Vermont, the question is what are we doing with it?

 Interviewer: Well you hear Douglas say “higher taxes, higher taxes” what you don’t hear politicians talk about is whether your talking about taxing the average working person, or are you talking about taxing the [wealthy] Richard Tarrants of the state? For somebody who is engaged in politics, is there something to be lost for a person to say ‘hell yeah, we’re going to tax the Richard Tarrants and we are going to create a mobile slaughter house?

 Pollina:  First of all you don’t want to increase taxes on working Vermonters because they are the ones who are struggling. What they are struggling with though is not their taxes. What they are struggling with is their healthcare, energy costs, transportation, and housing. The Governor will tell you that taxes are the biggest problem working families have. He’s wrong. The biggest problems in terms of chunks of their family incomes is housing, healthcare, and energy. And food comes after that. Those are much more of a burden on families then taxes are. On the one hand you don’t want to raise their taxes, but on the other hand you want to reduce some of those other costs as well.

     There was a study which came out recently that said compared to the twelve other states that they looked at, Vermont had the fairest tax system of all. [This] means that we as Vermonters have done a very good job of being fair to working families when it comes to taxes. That is something Jim Douglas doesn’t tell people about.

    Having said that, I do believe there are ways to bring Vermonters together to talk about whether to make changes to our tax system [and to do so in a way that does] not burden working families. We can make changes in the way we tax capital gains in Vermont –that would bring in money. But I actually have a different idea to tell you the truth! When I think about capital, I look at institutions in Vermont who have a lot of wealth. The obvious ones…are UVM, Fletcher Allen, and the state colleges. They have portfolios, they make investments. They have endowments and that kind of stuff. [Vermont] has told them over the years ‘don’t invest in tobacco, don’t invest in Darfur.’ We have never told them to invest in Vermont. I think we could work with them or require them, depending on how it shakes out, to put a percentage of their endowment into an equity fund which would then be used to support rural entrepreneurs and others who would be able to then set up processing plants…distribution networks, whatever it takes. I think we could make that happen… They are [already] using our money! UVM is supported by us! Fletcher Allen uses medicade/medacare. They use public dollars. Why don’t they give a little back to the local public? We used to call it 2% for Vermont. [Why not tell them] to put 2% of their portfolios into this fund?… Then [after they did that] you ask other large businesses, private entities, to do it.  If National Life of Vermont put 2% of their investment portfolio into Vermont…rural development fund we would have all the resources we would need to invest… So again, I think there are ways in which we can change the discussion about what we mean by investment in Vermont, and that is part of what I would like to do.

     How about we have a Vermont credit card? Vermonters use their credit cards to buy their boots and to go out to dinner and its Visa and LL Bean even has their own credit card. Let’s face it. US Airways has a credit card. Everybody gets a cut and there is a lot of interest that is obviously gained from credit cards. Where is it going? Why don’t we sit down at the table and think about whether or not we could direct Vermont’s spending into Vermont more. I think Vermonters would like to have that conversation.

 Interviewer: You have recently been going around the state talking to people about many of these ideas, what are your goals in this endeavor?

 Pollina: Its about allowing Vermonters to have a vision and to move forward with it. I do think that in particular [living] under Jim Douglas has made it more difficult for us [common people] to talk about the challenges we face and the big issues and [for us] to try to find solutions. Jim Douglas has basically put creativity on hold when it comes to state government. He explains to us often what we cannot do; he tells us why we couldn’t buy those dams on the Connecticut River, why we couldn’t invest in the energy efficiency program, why we don’t have real healthcare reform, why we couldn’t invest in the agricultural infrastructure. He talks a lot about why we can’t do things. The first thing we have to do is get Vermonters to stop talking about what we cannot do, and actually start to talk about what we can do…

     Just recently there were some people getting together to talk about affordable housing. You know, sort of what you would call affordable housing advocates and activists sitting down with government agencies, and they [asked] ‘why isn’t the Governor here as part of this conversation?’ and the Governor’s people said ‘it’s not appropriate for him to sit down with special interest [groups].’ I’m sure he sits down with the Chamber of Commerce and other people! Its ridicules! My point is he is not engaged with talking to Vermonters about how we’re going to deal with the things we need to deal with.

     Part of it is getting people to change their frame of mind, getting them to feel optimistic about themselves again. Jim Douglas [on the other hand] tells us that ‘we are the most taxed state in the country’, which is not true if you’re a working Vermonter. He tells us business doesn’t want to be here. He tells us that young people don’t want to be here. He tells us we can’t afford to live here. You listen to Jim Douglas long enough and you want to leave! This is not the guy you want leading the way to creative solutions to solving problems… So I think part of it is getting people together to stat having the conversations…

     On the [energy] efficiency issue, that’s just a question of making it clear to Vermonters what that was about. [Douglas] at one point said expanding [the state’s] energy efficiency program beyond electricity was about taxes! He literally at one point was quoted saying ‘this is all about taxes.’ Somebody should tell the man he’s wrong! Somebody should stand there and say ‘this is not true.’ This is about saving businesses money, that’s what this is about; its about creating jobs, its about reducing energy costs, its about expanding a program that has already been identified as one of the best things Vermont has ever done! But he gets away with saying it’s just about taxes. So let’s talk about that.

     When you talk about healthcare reform what he talks about is [how] ‘we can’t raise taxes’ but we can spend a lot of public dollars on Catamount Health, for some reason that’s ok –we can spend tobacco money or little bits from pots of money from here and there, but we can’t sit down and really talk bout the fact that if [Vermont] publicly funded healthcare you would actually eliminate premiums! So in that case you may actually be talking about a tax, your talking about public financing of healthcare and where he would immediately run away from that I would say ‘well wait a minute.’ If I were gonna use public financing and you were going to pay no healthcare premium but your cost were going to go down would you like to at least talk about that? I think most Vermonters would at say ‘lets at least talk about that.’

     With energy I think we’re missing the boat. Vermont Yankee [Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon] is going to meltdown before we figure out how to replace that power. So we’re wasting time. It’s unfortunate, because we are running out of time when it comes to energy. With energy and healthcare you need to really change that whole conversation and talk to Vermonters about the reality. [Here] it does start with a reality check as related to taxes. Where [the Governor] tells us we’re the most taxed state in the nation. That’s just not true if you’re a working [class] Vermonter.

 Interviewer: Vermont currently receives one third of its energy needs from Vermont Yankee, another third from Hydro Quebec, and the rest from small local sources such as dams, wood burning plants, and some methane and wind. Can Vermont be energy self sufficient without the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant?

 Pollina:  Can we be more energy independent? The answer is yes. [Unfortunately] we missed the boat in some degree [when the state] did not buy the dams on the Connecticut River and we’re going to live to regret that. [Even so] we could find Vermont scale wind power that people could relate to and support. [But] the best way to become energy independent is by using less energy. And that is what that energy efficiency program has done and could do more of. So are we ever going to be as energy independent as much as a lot of us would like to be? Probably not in our lifetimes unless we fund [the means] to make it happen. But can we become more energy independent? The answer is yes… Then the [other] big issue is cars. We have done nothing in Vermont for public transportation.

 Interviewer: I was recently in the Northeast Kingdom and I observed that they were tearing up miles of old railroad tracks. It seems like a further move away from that?

 Pollina: Well what the Governor wants to do, if he has his way, he would invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the Circ Highway to move people in a circle around Burlington. [This is] very indicative of the way Jim Douglas thinks about policy… The studies have shown that the Circ Highway is not going to reduce commuting time, it’s not going to create jobs [in] a healthy local economy, and it’s not really going to reduce accidents. I’m not even sure what the whole purpose if the Circ Highway is at this point, but Douglas still supports it. He thinks its something we really have to do. That’s a couple hundred million dollars that we could be investing in something else.

 Interviewer: Given the current make up of the Vermont General Assembly, [overwhelmingly Democrat with six Progressives], with the right person as Governor can Vermont be the first U.S. state to achieve universal single payer healthcare? Could we move towards real livable wages? Can this be done in the next five years? Are these things possible?

 Pollina:  Yes! Yes they are possible. I don’t really know what the time frame is because I’m not sure [how strong] the resistance will be.  But the things that you mention are things that Vermonters support. When you ask Vermonters if they support universal healthcare [and] if they’re willing to finance it…the answer is yes. The majority want to move in that direction. What it’s going to take is a person who is willing to have that conversation with Vermonters and then is willing to stand up with them. 

 Interviewer: Are you going to be that person?

 Pollina: I don’t know. I think if I were Governor I would be that person. Whether I’m going to be Governor right now or not is unknown because I have a lot of things that need to be figured out before we can really make that decision.

 Interviewer: I understand that you have had conversations with Mat Dunne [*2006 Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor and rumored 2008 candidate for Governor].

 Pollina: Well, yes, I’ve talked with a number of those [Democratic] folks including the Mat Dunne [as well as] the Chair of the Vermont Democratic Party. You know, you sit and you drink coffee and you talk about what may or may not happen… From my point of view what those conversations are mostly about [comes down to] ‘is there a way that Vermonters can come together and, for lack of a better word, unite around a candidate and build a grassroots movement strong enough to defeat Jim Douglas. Could Democrats, Progressives, disaffected Republicans, independents, and people who are getting fed up with the way Jim Douglas treats Vermonters come together to defeat him. Everybody says they want to do that, everybody says that’s what we need to do. And then we move into a discussion about who might be suited to do that. I certainly have given reasons as to why I think I can do that [but] I’m not 100% certain I’m ready to give up the other things I’m doing. We’ve [also] talked about [if] there are Democrats who could be able to play that role as well.  [However] I quite honestly think the list is relatively short for most of the Progressives I talk to, but we’re not closing the door to those options.

 Interviewer: But how much confidence do you have in the Democratic Party in Vermont?

 Pollina: What I think would be best would be to take [and incorporate] some of the good work that the grassroots Democrats have done and want to do. You know the Democratic Party is pretty broad in Vermont and obviously it is capable of electing people. [Most of] our Congressional delegation [and] most of our state office holders are Democrats. And I think most [rank and file] Democrats believe in universal healthcare and livable wages. Those are things Vermonters do believe in. For some reason that Democratic base has been unable to capture and shape the debate in a way that really moves beyond the politics of Jim Douglas. So I think there is a lot of good folks there, but what is lacking…is a leader at the statewide level who can better articulate what grassroots Democrats and Progressives really support… What you need is a person who can harness all that energy and yet articulate it in a way that would motivate Vermonters to dump Jim Douglas and [instead] take on a Governor who supports those things.

     So when you’re talking about the Democrats…a lot of them are neighbors and friends… The question is ‘given their majority [in the General Assembly] why are they not able to better control the debate?’ I don’t know why they can’t do that, I just know that they can’t.

 Interviewer: Some people would say the Democrats have a long history of half measures, symbolic actions.

 Pollina: Sure! First of all because they are a broad party in a sense there are a lot of [internal] factions. There are a lot of legislators who are Democrats who are not inspired by things like universal healthcare. [But] I think Democrats as Vermonters are, but that doesn’t mean that their elected officials are all committed to the same agenda. So that is one thing. I think that sometimes some of the people in the Democratic Party fall for Jim Douglas’s political line. They maybe start to believe that Vermonters don’t want to talk about these things. Some of them have come to rely over the years on the same sources of political power and money [as the Republicans] and they don’t want to alienate those people…

     A reporter said to me recently that ‘I don’t get the feeling that you’re talking to the Democratic powers that be.’ And I assume she meant these mythical people who live in Burlington who have a lot of money who tell Democrats what to do! Ha! I don’t even know who those people are!

 Interviewer: State Senator Hinda Miller could probably tell you.

 Pollina: And you know what? I haven’t asked! But that’s what the reporter said to me. So I told her ‘you’re absolutely right. Why would I be talking to those people while I’m talking to people who live and in communities where they are working people, who are farmers, those who are the base of the Vermont political movement who are going to defeat Jim Douglas. Those wealthier people who like to pull the strings are not necessarily committed to defeating Jim Douglas, its people in the county side who are committed to defeating Jim Douglas. I’m talking to those people! I’m not going to start a campaign from the top down, you start a campaign from the ground up because it is those people, the farmers and the working people and [organized] labor, it’s those people who are going to do the grunt work of making the campaign.

 Interviewer: Rumor has it the Vermont AFL-CIO President Lindol Atkins is ready to back you for Governor. Have you been talking to the AFL?

 Pollina: I was at their convention [in September] and I spoke with people there and I felt like there was a lot of support there. I did encourage them to play an active role in deciding who the candidates should be. What happens all the time is that the Democrats pick a candidate and then organized labor is expected to endorse that candidate. And I just suggested that they play a more active role not just this time but all the time.

 Interviewer: The war in Iraq?

 Pollina: What would you do with six hundred billion dollars? I mean everything we’re talking about would not even be an issue if we weren’t throwing all that money at a war which is immoral, unjust, unnecessary, and ironically enough opposed by 70% of the American public. You talk about democracy, and then you talk about how 70% of Americans don’t want something yet we have it, in this case a war. It tells you something about the Democratic Party on the national level.

 Interviewer: Can a Governor of Vermont find a way to bring the Vermont National Guard troops home?

 Pollina: I think a Vermont Governor could look for a way… I don’t say this definitively, but I believe that there are some rules about how the National Guard can be used or not used and at the discretion of the Governor. So I think that could be looked at… There are certainly ways in which the Governor could mobilize Vermonters to put pressure at the national level to put an end to a war that the great majority of Vermonters don’t want to be in.

     You know we have all these distinctions in Vermont. They tell is ‘this is the best place to live’, ‘Burlington is the best place to raise kid’, recently we’ve been designated the ‘smartest state’ based on how kids test –but we also have this rather dubious distinction of being the state with the highest number deaths of per capita in Iraq and we don’t really need that. That doesn’t rank with those others.           

 At this point of the interview Anthony’s wife Deborah Wolf appeared in the doorway.

 Deborah: Hi. I was just a little worried because you said you were going to call me when you were done.

 Pollina: Well, I guess I’m not done. –I was gonna call you.

 Interviewer: It’s my fault.

 Pollina: I can be done any second, but I haven’t finished doing what I was supposed to do. Are you in a hurry?

 Deborah: I guess I was ready to go home. Yeah.

 Pollina: OK.

 Interviewer: We can wrap this up. Any final words?

 Pollina: No.

 (We both laughed)

 Interviewer: Thanks Anthony.

(This gave me a lot to think about. – promoted by JulieWaters)

I just read JDRyan's thoughtful reflections to all this Welch meeting hoopla over at his site, Five Before Chaos.  Very well put, productive, and worth the read in my opinion.

As folks may have heard by now, yesterday Peter Welch's Burlington office was the sight of a direct action by Vermonters disinterested in Welch's voting record towards war funding and his action/in-action in regards to putting an end to the U.S. war in Iraq.

If you missed it, here, and here is a bit of local coverage.  

Whille cleaning out the maze of crap that I have accumulated on my computer I came across the following, which (in a slightly different form was a flier that I had made and posted around during the flurry of activity that was the VT anti-war movement before the war started).  

U.S. war since WWII

Since WWII, here is a partial list of countries that the United States has either waged a bombing campaign or fought an all-out war against. Notably not on this list are proxy campaigns, like fighting the Soviets by arming and funding the Afghans during the 1980's, or the “drug war” in Columbia, etc.

China (1945-46, 1950-53)

Korea (1950-53)

Guatemala (1954, 1967-69)

Indonesia (1958)

Cuba (1959-60)

Belgian Congo ((1964)

Peru (1965)

Vietnam (1961-73)

Laos (1964-73)

Cambodia (1969-70)

Grenada (1983)

Libya (1986)

El Salvador (1980's)

Nicaragua (1980's)

Panama (1989)

Bosnia ((1995)

Afghanistan (1998, 2001-present)

Sudan (1998)

Yugoslavia (1999)

Iraq (1991-present)

Notice that none of these countries are currently being run democratically. There is no reason to believe that the United States has any intention to spread “democracy” to any country, especially ones that we bomb or go to war with. The goal of U.S. military action is always to provide stable markets for capital.

Also, note that the U.S. is the only country in the world to be reprimanded by the United Nations for committing acts of terrorism! Places where the U.S. have used terrorism to overthrow democratically elected governments include Chile, Haiti, and Columbia.

That’s right, Snarky Boy and Sheehan puffin’ a big phat one, I’ve got the photo just bellow. . . .

. . . OK, just kidding, I have no such picture.  And something tells me it would be in Cindy’s best interest to not be found in Snarky’s company.  But anyway. . . .

Whatever the GMD experience with Snarky Boy, I know little of it; it was before my time here.  I did spend a bit (far too much) of my time over the weekend reading back on some of his posts, and reading a shit-load of stuff from his blog site.  And OK, I get it, he annoys people.  He is controversial, at times immature, and at times far more concerned with character assassination than with fair-minded conversation about issues and tactics for accomplishing goals.  At the same time, I have to admit that I seldom find myself in disagreement with his positions.  While I have been taught to temper-down my ideals in order to try and engage productively with the tone of the conversation at hand, Snarky Boy has decided to take a different route.  Even though my strategy is different, I can’t say I disagree whole-heartedly with his, nor do I blame him for his choice.

A few days ago I ran into Michael Colby; he denied being Snarky Boy, though I’ll have to admit there was a momentary reluctance from him when I asked that I wonder if it wasn’t his personal conflict in either coming clean about it or lying to keeping up the persona of Snarky Boy.  Who knows?  And really people, who cares?  Snarky may or may not be him.  But Charity over at She’s Right noted that during the testimony at the Statehouse the other day:

Speaking of Snarky Boy, he mentions in his post that a “middle-aged man began booing [Marion Gray, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who spoke in support of the war, and against Sheehan] from the back of the room and shouting that she “was out of order.” He was quickly engulfed by the large numbers of security personnel and, from my perspective, immediately ushered out of the building.”

The Free Press identified this man as one Michael Colby.

If you spend some time over at Snark’s site you may find it interesting that Snarky Boy’s play-by-play of the legislative testimony ends right where Colby gets escorted out.  Regardless though, the man who would be Snarky makes a great point in that the left allowed the right -the less than 30% of Vermonter’s who support the war in Iraq- to look like the strong and the organized on this one.

Also, reading back some, I wonder what the wisdom is in ‘banning’ someone from this forum.  If people feel there are comments, or a conversation, that they don’t want to take part in, can’t they simply not do that?  If Snarky Boy is so horrible and disruptive, won’t readers be smart enough to see that for themselves and choose to not pay attention to the Snarkman?

Anyway, all this talk about war, anti-war, and liberals vs radicals makes me want to escape from the reality of, well, reality. . . .

Which makes me think of the Medical Pot Bill that passed, it would seem from that link, through the VT Senate last week.  I certainly can’t find anything more about it though (which isn’t to say I’ve searched high and low).

What I really like is that this bill (as far as I understand it) lets a doctor decide when and why a patient should be prescribed pot.  The old bill allowed for 3 or 4 very specific illnesses that would allow for a doctor’s prescription; this new bills seems to take the State out of the process of deciding what’s best for those in need.  Of course, I still don’t understand what business it is of that State what choices people make for themselves.  Coffee?  fine.  Cigarettes? just tax ’em.  Booze? tax it, regulate it, decry it but hit the bars after work anyway.  Pot?  Well, since the only real effects are slow-thinking and increased Twinky sales, lets send the fuckers to jail and disrupt the rest of their lives.  Unless of course, you have the money to afford a good lawyer and you can pay some fines and takes some classes, in which case you don’t have to go to jail.

Legalize Pot, legalize the Snark, and send Sheehan home to fight for bringing the troops home.  We can get it done ourselves, if only we actually do something.  The testimony of out-of-State celebrities is, and should be, irrelevant under the golden dome.