Fear and Loathing in the Vermont Senate

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It’s December 10, and even though Norm McAllister was arrested for sexual predation at the Statehouse way back in April, he is still free to represent himself as the senior senator for Franklin County, effectively victimizing all of us, his constituents.

Shame on you, Norm McAllister; and shame on those senators who won’t lift a finger to revoke your Senate privileges.

According to Seven Days a significant number of Vermont senators now appear either to be unwilling to expel Norm McAllister based on the public record of his conduct, or say they need “more information.”

Many in that number still seem to be unaware of the difference between Mr. McAllister’s right to a fair trial and his privilege to represent the people of Franklin County within the guidelines of his oath of office. He as much as admitted to being in violation of that oath, which promises to protect his constituents, when he was recorded saying to one of his sexual assault victims,

“I knew I was forcing you to do something you didn’t want to do … I knew that you didn’t really want to do that.”

What additional information could one possibly need in order to conclude that he is in clear violation of his oath?

Now, even some senators who initially said they would vote for his expulsion, including Franklin County’s only other senator, Dustin Degree, are backpedalling:

Sen. Dustin Degree (R-Franklin) was among those who told Gram last summer that he’d vote to expel McAllister, with whom he shares a two-member district. But now that he’s learned how “murky” such a process might be, the St. Albans Republican says his position has “evolved” to undecided.

‘Sounds like weasel words to me. There is nothing ‘evolved’ about failing to protect the vulnerable.

The idea of a “suspension,” pending the outcome of the trial, has been suggested; but even that gets surprisingly little Senate support, according to Seven Days.

Suspension might have more appropriately been applied some eight months ago, immediately following the shocking revelation in the Messenger that States Attorney Jim Hughes had recorded the above statement and worse in telephone conversations between McAllister and two of his victims.

We are no longer talking about grey areas of “he said/she said.” That ship has sailed, and one can only wonder why there is still so much hesitancy  in the Senate about doing anything to defend the interests of the people of Franklin County in general. As things now stand, his constituents are only being dis-served by McAllister; especially the vulnerable female constituents whom McAllister victimized.

Now, a new layer of intrigue has been added to the controversy. Discussions are apparently already underway concerning what to do about McAllister, but the press and public have not been privy to those proceedings.

Seven Days made a standing request last spring to be notified directly of all Rules Committee meetings after the panel met secretly to discuss the creation of an ethics committee.

Once again, no allowance was made for  Mr. McAllisters’ long-suffering constituents who might have appreciated the opportunity to listen in.  Even the press has been rebuffed.

The Senate Rules Committee, which is vetting the various proposals, met last month in the Senate cloakroom to try to find consensus. Leadership notified all 30 senators about the meeting, but not the public nor the press, and did not list it on the legislature’s website.

Secretary of State Jim Condos (D) disagrees with Senate Pro-Tem John Campbell’s (D)defense: that the Senate and House are exempt from Vermont’s open meeting laws.

I’ve heard a lot of concern expressed by senate members about the precedent an expulsion would set, but precious little about how waffling on such an outrageous abuse of elected power, (and of women in particular) betrays the progressive values for which Vermont is known.

No one…absolutely no one, has asked the people of Franklin County whether they are comfortable with a confessed sexual predator claiming to represent them. We have a right to be asked, we have a right to be heard; and we have a right to hear deliberations on this matter of local representation, that currently are being conducted behind closed doors, 64 miles away.  Senate members may have weakened in their resolve to see him gone, but I, and I would guess, the majority of my Franklin County neighbors have not.

All of the secrecy just adds to a suspicion I’ve heard rumored around here, that others at the Statehouse were aware at least of the inappropriate “relationship” between McAllister and his teenaged “intern” and themselves fear exposure in the course of an expulsion process.

Surely Mr. Degree, having teamed closely with McAllister for several years now, should have all the information he could possibly need to say the man has to go.

Scandal feeds on secrecy. There is a sense that Mr. McAllister’s dirty little secrets may belong to a larger culture of questionable ethics at play in Montpelier, and the senators’ reluctance to discipline McAllister or see meaningful consequences attached to electoral misbehavior may come from a place of squalid self-interest.

It’s time to open the windows and let the sun shine in.

Ducking Donald but Phil Scott might like a little Cruz

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Yesterday many Republicans expressed shock — shock! — at Donald Trump’s call for a total and “[…] complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” With this latest outrage  some prominent Republicans repudiated the remarks, among them candidate Jeb Bush went so far as to call Trump “unhinged.”

Such repudiations are long overdue but perhaps a bit odd given Bush’s own near unhinged call, made after the Paris attacks, to screen out all Mideast refugees coming to the US who are not Christians.

But a Republican strategist recommends candidates stake out  Trump turf. In September a Republican memo on how to deal with Trump and his supporters suggested the following strategy “Trump will continue to advance those messages, but you don’t have to go along with his more extreme positioning,” [NRSC head Ward] Baker writes. “Instead, you should stake out turf in the same issue zone and offer your own ideas.”

CruztrumpTed Cruz has his own idea in that issue zone and it may please Vermont’s own Phil Scott. Earlier, along with Scott, Bruce Lisman suggested a ban on allowing Syrian refugees into Vermont and both expressed worries about the thoroughness of the Federal vetting process for immigrants fleeing war zones. A gaggle of Republican governors expressed similar fear, all using almost identical language. Phil Scott was briefed by security officials and he claimed to be reassured for now.

But Ted Cruz‘s Trump-light legislation seems designed with these exaggerated fears in mind. Cruz wants to allow governors to refuse to participate in resettlement programs if they, “[…] conclude that the federal government has not done a sufficient job ensuring that the safety and security of the citizens of the state will be protected.” Cruz’s position might please Scott if he once again questions security.

For now Scott firmly twittered his criticism of Trump’s latest remark but he seems basically aligned with Cruz’s legislation. This is the Trump/Cruz issue zone, a dark-alley, Constituion-free twilight zone that Scott and Lisman have already peeked into. Would Phil Scott want the Cruz legislation to use as governor?

And more tellingly, would Scott admit it if he did, or just ride Cruz’s coattails on legislation that recalls some of the worst excesses of right wing fanatics?

Go, Man, Go: Mark Johnson is a big fan

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He’s a fan, yes, and it couldn’t be more obvious after reading the following bit from Mark Johnson’s piece about Phil Scott’s gubernatorial campaign extravaganza kick- off held last week. In Phil Scott: Holding the Pole with Few Policy Positions, Johnson wrote this about Scott’s reaction to former Governor Jim Douglas’ candidate intro for VtDigger.com:

A small, knowing smile curled across the broad face of the 57-year-old Scott, the all-time winning driver at Thunder Road racetrack, long before a reporter reached the finish line to the Douglas anecdote.Go,Man,Go

He saw it coming, like a potential pass on the inside groove picked up in the sideview mirror.

Scott, second-in-command for the past five years, a state senator for 10 years before that, knows the knock: that he doesn’t take strong positions, sometimes changes his mind and doesn’t have a signature issue that defines him politically.

Yes, that’s right. You probably spotted it too. Mark Johnson is a total fan of the obscure 1950’s paperback author Edward De Roo. In fact, Johnson’s fandom stands out like sore thumb at a manicurist’s.

Go, Man, Go by Edward De Roo:

The speed demons were a non-association gang of wild, daredevil hot-rodders. They had the 100 m.p.h. chariots, the crazy drag races, and all the thrill-hungry chicks in the neighborhood. That’s why Paul Sanders was ready to do anything to get in with them and drive his own hyped-up bucket of bolts. But what they wanted of him was nothing short of a nightmare!

Notice the similar lingo, the hyped-up phrasing of Go, Man, Go that Johnson uses: He saw it coming, a potential pass on the inside groove picked up in the sideview mirror. And this: Scott […] knows the knock.

Phil Scott may indeed be the nicest guy in the history of Vermont politics and not have (or want) a signature issue that defines him. This may be his great advantage in a largely Progressive/ Democratic state. But after ten years in the state senate on the Committee on Institutions and the Transportation Committee, and five years as Lt. Gov., Scott has left a record that should be reported on. Maybe before the election some Vermont reporter will make like ‘50’s author De Roo says and “go man go” and find it. Over fifteen years many votes were cast and deals were made to “get things done.”

Or the reporting might just be a hyped-up bucket of bolts driven to Election Day.

To paraphrase  Bobby Kennedy:  Every society gets the kind of candidate it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of journalism it insists on.

VCV Releases Interim Legislative Scorecard

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Vermont Conservation Voters (on which I proudly serve as a board member)
has just released it’s 2015 Interim Environmental Scorecard for the Legislature, on which all our Senators and House members are evaluated strictly on the basis of votes cast on key issues that came before them this year.

“Vermonters overwhelmingly value clean water, clean energy, and healthy families. We want voters to know if their elected officials are representing their values – or not,” said Lauren Hierl, political director for Vermont Conservation Voters.

After careful consideration, the VCV focussed on just five votes in the House, surrounding three important issues:

H.40 The Revewable Energy Bill (third reading), where VCV was looking for a ‘yes’ vote.

H.40 An Amendment to strip creation of a “Transformation Tier” from the bill.  VCV was looking for a ‘no’ vote on this one.

H. 4 The ban on microbeads, where VCV was looking for a ‘yes’ vote.

H.35 An amendment to strip funding from the Water Quality Bill. VCV was looking for a ‘no.’

H.35 The Water Quality Bill (third reading), where VCV wanted a ‘yes.’
The Senate evaluation looked at:

H.40 The Renewable Energy Bill (third reading); for a ‘yes vote.

H.40 An Amendment on Energy Siting. VCV was looking for a ‘no’ vote on that one.

S.R.70 A Global Warming Resolution acknowledging the threat posed by human influenced climate change and Vermont’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.

S.139 Which would have stripped effective language from the Toxic-Free Families Act (Act 188). A ‘no’ vote represented the environmental position on that issue.

H.35 The Water Quality Bill (third reading); looking for a ‘yes’ vote.
First, the bouquets:

It is gratifying to see how many (78) House members and Senators (10) have earned a 100% score from the VCV this year, including two representatives from my own home-county of Franklin; Democrat Kathy Keenan of St. Albans and Republican Carolyn Branagan of Swanton.

In fact, only four other Republican reps and no Republican Senators distinguished themselves in this way. The rest were all Democrats and Progressives, too numerous to single out.

And now for the brickbats:

The most noteworthy environmental fail was turned in by gubernatorial hopeful and current Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott, who stepped into the breach to cast the deciding vote to strip language from a health care bill that would have “improved the process
for regulating the use of toxic chemicals in children’s products.” This family unfriendly vote earned him a special mention on the VCV’s “Environmental Laggards” list.

Others on this list were the twelve Representatives and five Senators who each earned an environmental score of 20% or less from their votes. Only one Democrat appears on that list, Senator John Rogers of Essex/Orleans, who came in at 20% and whose lifetime score is barely better at 40%.

I take particular note that while my St. Albans representative, Corey Parent (R) supported the Water Quality Bill in theory, he voted to strip away the funding necessary to achieve its objectives; as did Eileen Dickinson (R) of St. Albans Town.

Our St. Albans Bay is ground zero for the Lake clean-up urgency, so their votes seem particularly ill-advised under the circumstances.

There is a whole lot of valuable information about your representatives to be gleaned from the VCV Scorecard; so I urge you to download and read it; then keep it in mind the next time they ask for your vote.

A Real-Life Act 46 Experience

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Last night I attended a public forum at Saint Albans City School about the Franklin Central Supervisory Union’s consolidation plan. It was the first time I had seen one of the proposed plans in any detail and I have to say it was reassuring on a number of levels. Saint Albans City School board chair James Farr and Fairfield board member Michael L’Esperance did much of the presentation, along with other board members and Supervisory Union Superintendent Kevin Dirth.

1. The Boards and Administrators Get It

Act 46 has a lot more to do with achieving equity between towns, than it does dramatically decreasing property tax rates or school costs. While the Act 46 Committee did estimate nearly $250,000 in efficiency savings by consolidating into one districts, they were quick to point out that this is a conservative figure and that they don’t anticipate big savings from consolidation in the first year.

2.  The Smallest Town Has A Lot to Gain, But…

Fairfield has about 230 students and the proposed district will be about 2700 students. Saint Albans Messenger reporter Michelle Monroe pointed out that Fairfield has struggled the most with the current relationship between property tax rates and per pupil spending. The loss of a handful of students two years ago caused a 20 cent tax increase even though the school budget didn’t go up at all. The new district would spread the impact of population over all three communities (Saint Albans City, Saint Albans Town and Fairfield).

There will have to be equity in programming, class offerings and educational opportunity among the three elementary schools- and that’s the biggest opportunity for Fairfield in the new district. The hard part is that there will be 9 votes on the new consolidated School Board: 4 Town residents, 4 City residents and 2 Fairfield residents with 1/2 vote each. All members will be elected at-large, which means the two big towns will be able to elect the two Board members from the small town. That was a bit unnerving to some Fairfield residents, but Jim Farr was quick to say- “Every town has 9 votes representing them, we’re going to be one district.” Still, if voters in Fairfield choose to keep riding the tax roller coaster in order to maintain local control, then the plan will fall apart because all three towns must approve the plan for the merged district to be approved on Town Meeting Day.

The Act 46 Committee for Franklin Central S.U. presents their plan for a consolidated district to the public at a forum 12/02/2015

3. The Tax Savings Are Real…

… and those districts who don’t get the benefits by consolidating will end up paying for those benefits to other districts. For a Saint Albans City resident with a $200,000 home the 10 cent break on the penny rate in the first year will be worth about $200, and the projected savings over five incentivized years would be about $1000 for the owner of a $200,000 property in the City or Fairfield and over $1400 for the owner of a similar property in the Town. However given the fact that most homeowners pay based on income I don’t think that the majority of people will see a huge difference in their taxes because of this plan.

Act 46 is going to give the new district’s school board members flexibility and options they never have had  in our one-building-per-district model. We have four school districts and five boards that will now become one unit, with one budget- assuming that the plan is passed in March by all three towns. The transition is going to be tough, but as one City School board member told me after the meeting “we have actually already been working on this for years but none of the prior initiatives passed by the state had enough carrot or stick to work. The only part of act 46 I don’t like is the spending caps.”I imagine we’re not the only Supervisory Union in Vermont where that’s the case.

Coke stops funding obesity study group

Business, ,

It is good to keep an eye on the giant sugary soda company, as they currently own 16% of Keurig Green Mountain. sucrecola

Coca Cola has pulled the cork on its Global Energy Balance Network. The GEBN was an effort bankrolled by Coke designed to influence academic research into obesity and blunt criticism of big-time sugary drinks.

Public health groups said the company was promoting “scientific nonsense” through research partnerships. And on Monday the GEBN removed all content from its website “due to resource limitations.”
Public health authorities complained that Coke, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, was adopting tactics once used by the tobacco industry, which for decades enlisted experts to raise doubts about the health hazards of smoking. Last month, the University of Colorado School of Medicine said it would return a $1 million grant that Coca-Cola had provided to help start the organization.
“I think ultimately the Global Energy Balance Network was a megaphone for Coca-Cola,” Yoni Freedhoff, an obesity expert at the University of Ottawa who first raised questions about the group’s funding, said. “And now that Coca-Cola is no longer providing the funds to support that megaphone, it’s shutting down. I think that speaks to the purpose of the establishment of this group.”

For months, the group denied that it was allowing Coke to influence its message or the work of its scientists.

Coca Cola is no stranger to this type of thing. In 2009 the company formed a controversial funding partnership with the American Society of Family Physicians “to develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners for FamilyDoctor.org.” Some ASFP members in California resigned in protest. And three years ago under pressure of a product boycott the Atlanta-based corporation stopped its longtime funding of ALEC, the “corporate bill mill.”  In addition, Coke is one of six companies that together spent $12.6 million lobbying against state and federal legislation dealing with GMO labeling in the first half of 2015.

While GEBN has obviously fizzled out, Coca Cola’s CEO said, “Clearly, we have more work to do to reflect the values of this great company in all that we do.” I’d guess they’ll be back reflecting the company values after a pause to refresh.

Time spent eating and drinking: Vermont stands out

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This is how Vermont stands out according to data from the Department of Labor’s 2010-2016 American Time Use Surveys. Governing Magazine online complied and mapped the bite sized pieces.

Vermonters spend an average of 1.3 hours per day eating and drinking, the most of any state. States on the opposite end of the spectrum are primarily concentrated in the South.

Data reflects all time spent eating or drinking regardless of location (including meals at home), except when completed as part of a work or volunteer activity.

leisure map 1In New England Massachusetts was closest eating and drinking 1.21 hours per day and out west Colorado came in at 1.22 hours per day.

 

But how about all that outdoorsy Vermonter stuff? Well, it seems we’re in the back of the pack in sports, exercise and recreation. Vermonters spend 0.33 hours per day and that is below our neighbor, New Hampshire at 0.42. Western states lead in this category with Alaska the highest at 0.61 hours per day and Wyoming next at 0.54.

Other data includes the state by state amount of time spent on income-generating activities. That estimate seems low but it includes those not working, so averages are lower than would be if only employed workers were counted.

Some fits neatly into longtime perceptions, such as Southerners spending more time on religious and civic activities. Almost neatly enough to wonder about confirmation bias-a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. Probably check into that after a hike or lunch.

Lt. Gov. Phil Scott: “I thought there was a sort of stigma,”

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Phil Scott is a clever one …and he says some of his best friends are hippies.

Lt. Gov.Scott who is running in the Republican gubernatorial primary has dredged up a sticker he had made up about four years ago. The sticker reads: “Lt. Gov. Phil Scott asks you to buy local! It’s not just for hippies anymore!” he says it is aimed at promoting the buy local movement to everyone.

Scott “sported’ a sticker during a recent statehouse interview with The Burlington Free Press and he explained:

[…] four years ago, he visited farmers markets throughout the state to meet people. While Scott saw these hubs of local food and artisan crafts as quintessential Vermont, others saw a place only for hippies.

“I thought there was a sort of stigma,” Scott said.

While he’s not one of them, Scott said he has many “proud hippie friends” who also wear his stickers and get a good laugh out of the tie-dye versions.

Huh? “Sort of a stigma” Oh well, good ol’ Phil is just having a good ol’ laugh. Kind of like when, after Hurricane Irene he “joked” that;  those he saw doing clean-up work were mostly Republicans. And you know at least he didn’t stick something like Take back Vermont, buy local on his bumper for his primary campaign.nobestniks

Candidate Scott doesn’t mention, but he might have recalled that Governor Douglas started an initiative (shortly after the buy local movement took hold) at the Agency of Agriculture in 2003 to buy local food for state institutions. Douglas did face criticism for taking a little too much credit (as was his habit) for the start of the  buy local movement. But Jim Douglas didn’t feel any hippie stigma.Governor Douglas was just co-opting an issue as any good politician might and in doing so  hope to scoop up supporters (votes) in an inclusive way.

But Jezzum,Phil ! Come to think of it Jim Douglas is just a flatlander from way back.

Three Dead in Colorado Springs

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The headline gets barely a blink, it’s become so commonplace. Maybe it gets a little more attention because it happened at Planned Parenthood; but we’ll be over it just as soon as the next ISIS soundbite bypasses America’s frontal lobe and goes straight to its amygdala.

Who knows why it happened?

The shooter believed heavily altered videos of PP ‘wrongdoing’…

He believed he was smiting the wicked, because ‘all lives matter’…

He had a personal ax to grind with someone who done him wrong…

He was compensating for the lack in his tackle, or.…

He just doesn’t like Fridays?

Who cares?

It happened because it could.

It’s odd how a slim majority of Americans are so utterly terrified by atrocities committed oceans away from them, that they will at least consider abandoning key provisions of the Bill of Rights and centuries of fundamental principles surrounding it; yet, the Second Amendment is not just upheld by them, but expanded, both in scope and rigor, in ways never imagined by the Founding Fathers.

All of those history lessons about the Fall of the Roman Empire? Take a closer look: this is what decadence looks like.

Budding fascists used to be shown the door at their first outrageous suggestion, but Donald Trump, who is both pig ignorant and diabolically crafty, has been able to parlay his xenophobic stream of consciousness and a boatload of television exposure so that he is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

His appeal? Pure unbridled selfishness run amok.  His partisans don’t care who suffers, just so long as they get theirs.

The politician’s promise used to be “ a chicken in every pot;” now its a gun in every hand.

Smith and Wesson is over the moon.

Syrian Refugees and Scar(e)city

International, local/regional, , , , ,

I’ve had occasion to spend some time driving around the state for work and I’ve been listening to reports on VPR about Syrian refugees- and our politicians responding to the situation. It’s been a divisive issue, with a few leaders stepping up to welcome refugees- like Governor Shumlin and President Obama– and a few leaders fanning the flames of fear- like Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Bobby Jindhal, and our own Vermont Republican gubernatorial candidates.

The UN estimates there are over 4 million refugees from the civil war in Syria. Most of them are in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. In recent months tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have left crowded camps in the region and struck out for Europe- often paying smugglers to guide them on dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean. Many have died just trying to make the trip.

So what is our response? Many politicians have engaged in disgusting pandering and fear-mongering- including gubernatorial candidates Bruce Lisman and Lt. Governor Phil Scott. I applaud Gov. Shumlin for his leadership on this issue, and I was glad to see Matt Dunne making a strong statement of support for Vermont hosting Syrian refugees.

“I would have hoped that Phil [Scott] would be someone who would not just fall in line with the right-wing Republicans in Congress.”- Matt Dunne

President Obama has been making the case for welcoming Syrian refugees to the United States, but he was defied by 47 Democrats in the House who sided with Republicans in an effort to halt refugee resettlement in the wake of the attacks in Paris last week. It turns out the “Syrian” in the group of attackers probably wasn’t Syrian at all and was in the possession of a forged passport.

Over the last few weeks in my church, our pastor has been talking about moving out of an attitude of Scar(e)city into an attitude of Abundance. Is it good for us to protect what we have at the expense of our neighbors? Are we really willing to reject our obligations to other human beings when we have been blessed with so much? I can’t imagine that our free society, with all of its diversity, could be diminished by including a few thousand people who are fleeing a war-ravaged land. With all of the abundance in the United States of America, and here in Vermont, can we really turn away these refugees with a clear conscience?

My answer is emphatically no. We’ll all benefit from having open doors and open hearts in a world that has seen so much violence. If we turn our backs on Syrian refugees, like we did so many Jewish refugees fleeing the rise of the Third Reich in the late 1930s, we sacrifice all of the moral high ground and good will that we so often claim in the world.

I hope compassion wins out, and that we do take in a good number of Syrians who want safety and freedom and have had to wait, fight and sometimes die to have a chance to get it. We have so much to be thankful for in America, and in Vermont. How dare we pretend to live in a world of scarcity when our freedom, compassion and opportunities are so abundant?