Well, Bernie’s Town Meeting Forum is over, so I’m editing this for Sue, Stardust & Katrinka.  (And also, Maggie)

I’m 65 years-old and on Social Security.  Imagine the NSA hiring us old folks to work at home to ‘entrap’ people online.  Imagine the following e-mail message in your regular In-Box being written by an 82 year-old Granny working at home part time for the NSA to supplement her ‘cut-back’ monthly SS payments.  Note that her language and diction are not like the young and hip cyber-messages you usually get.  I find this more intriguing.  And more conspiratorial, if not sexier:

“Hi.  Wanna be my Fuck-Buddy?  I’m 26 and blonde with a sexy ‘drop-dead’ body.  Click on my pic gallery attached.

“I’ll be up in your neck of the woods next month and would really like to ‘get-together’ with you.  Giggle.

“And hey!  I’m BI too.  So show your partner my pics.

“All I need from you is a brief response.  Tell me I’m hot and tell me what you think about when you look at my pics.  Do you think about Global Warming?  Heh-heh.  Or do you think other sexy stuff?

“When I’m ready to have sex I like to talk about all kinds of political stuff for foreplay.  All of it political.  All over my body.  I think politics is sooo sexy.  That War in Afghanistan is my favorite.  What a turn-on!  And I like to talk about what it would be like if we all got together and shot a lot of mean selfish sexless rich people, and then had sex on their big fancy dining room tables.  Ohhh yes!  And maybe if we got really kinky, we could do some foreplay together fantasizing about being sexed-up revolutionaries setting up a big sexy bomb at the New York Stock Exchange and blowing Wall Street and half of lower Manhattan all to Hell.  Orgasm City!

“I also love Costume Sex, so we could get military uniforms and sneak into the Pentagon and really go at it.  Yeah.  Deeper and deeper, baby.  So fucking hard!  Faster and faster!  Oh God!

“I’m really into Oral.   So talk politics to me.  Tell me sexy stuff.  Oh God, Yes!  Make me all wet, baby.  Yummm.

“So, please hurry and respond to me.  And baby, will I ever respond to you.  I guarantee you’ve NEVER had it the way I can give it to you.  I promise, baby.  I’m ready for you.  I want to do it all with you.  Tell me you love my sexy long legs and shaved pussy and how they make you want to do to me the things the government is doing to you.  Yeah, baby.  Right there.  Ohhh…that feels so good.  Give me all your nasty moves.  I’m sooooo READY!

“I’ll be the Fuck-Buddy you’ll remember when you’re old and grey and retired from the Peoples’ Liberation Fuck Army.  Living in a big house that was owned by some rich pig who dropped dead from a heart attack after watching us make wild monkey jungle love at the Demonstration in front of his big corporate headquarters.  The one that’s 20 stories high, sticking up like a big penis.  Oh my God!

“Anything political makes me hot.  But smashing the State is where I go completely wild.  It gives me multiples, and I could do it all day and all night and forever.

“I want it.  I want you, baby.  Because I know you’re special.  I Googled you.  It made me come.  I want you to give it to me.  All of it.  You and me, baby, all intimate, wet, and sticky in our private places.  Yes!  Don’t stop now!  Click me.  Lick me.  I want all of you.  I want you to fuck me and tell me how you think and feel about everything while you’re pounding me to heaven!  All your most secret secret dirty thoughts.  Everything you’ve been holding inside you that makes your balls all hard.  All the nasty things you’ve been waiting to scream out loud for so so long, you can scream to me in our climax into ecstasy.  And beyond.  You can shoot a big big load, baby, just for me.  I’ll take it all.  Oh God, YES!  Give it to me!  NOW!  YES!!!

“Whewww…  There.  That was soooo good.  Let’s do it again.  And now it’s your turn to be on top.  All you need to do is hit reply.  You know how to hit reply, don’t you baby?  You just put out your big old cursor and CLICK.  Yeah.

“I love you, baby.  Sooooo much.  Yummmm…”

(Oh, and PS:  I have a pair of handcuffs too.  Oh God…)  

———————————————–PeteySweety

This is a kind of half-assed post, and I don’t understand why it hasn’t been posted already by the Sanders’ people in Vermont.

I have been informed that Bernie is holding a Town Meeting forum tomorrow (1pm, Sat., Jan. 31) at Montpelier City Hall (upstairs in theatre section) about the NSA and ‘privacy’ issues.  Sounds interesting, and I hope to attend and hope Bernie has some inside track on what these NAZIS are doing with our e-mail and online communications and political dialogues.

Just so you know, a ‘good’ Little Dem, Maggie Lenz-McQuilken, informed me of this earlier in the week, and I expected one of you other Dems or Bernie’s office to post it here.  But, alas, it is now Friday, and I think something should be up now on GMD.

I hope to ask Bernie to consider an Independent run for Pres in 2016.  If he could get the Green Party, Socialist Labor, Libertarian, Liberty Union and all other Third Parties (including Roseanne) ‘united’ in a move to put all the anti-establishment votes together in one big populist block, I think he could get at least 15 percent, maybe more, and that would be the beginning of a movement that Dem and Republican Congresspeople, Presidential candidates, Governors, etc. would have to ‘pay attention to’.

Somehow, we’ve got to break down a system that is leading this nation into Hell.  Like with Global Warming, we have not accomplished shit on bringing about CHANGE.  Every goddamn Third Party, with its separate ‘special’ issues and ‘special’ candidates (yawn), has divided up our ‘voting power’ for far too long.  It is time to close ranks and try to make a difference with that voting power.  Votes are what the sonsabitches still have to listen to!

And MAGGIE!–Even though you will only be 31 in 2016, I hereby nominate you for VP with Bernie.  If it ain’t legal, Mags, you can pass it on to Roseanne.  Or Jennifer Aniston.  

I wonder if our crusading AG will be there tomorrow:  “NSA?  That’s FEDERAL.  My hands are tied.”  Yeah, no shit.

If Hillary Clinton is the only bright spot on the 2016 horizon, well, we’re in a sad state.  She should have gotten it in 2008, instead of Mr. Do Nothing/Feel Good.  Perhaps, if a Bernie WIND sweeps over the nation in the next two years, Hillary will be forced to make Bernie her VP, so as not to lose to whatever asshole the Republicans recycle out of their garbage.  I can see it now–OVAL OFFICE, May, 2017:

“Jesus Christ, Bernie, I can’t do that!’

“Madame President, either you do that, or I will be forced to sit here and filibuster you until June.  I’ve brought some of my old speeches and manifestos along to read to you from.  Let’s see.  Oh, here’s a good one…”

“All right!  All right!.  I’ll fucking do it, Bernie!  Just please.  Please don’t start speechifying again.  I’m just a little old lady.  I’ve heard all about the Corporate State and the Rich and the…”

“Don’t forget about the minimum wage and Social Security and…”

“All right!  All right!  What Banks to you want me to seize?”

“I have a list here, Madame President.  Also, abolish the Federal Reserve.  And here’s a list with Halliburton, Monsanto and other major corporations who owe the United States Treasury billions.  And here’s a list of properties their CEOs own here and abroad that we can seize, using the troops you withdrew from Afghanistan last month.  And here’s…”

“Okay.  Where’s those Executive Orders you drew up for all this?  And where’s my Presidential Pen?  God, you’re a pain in the ass, Bernie.”

“Just doing the job you told America I would do as a ‘proactive’ Vice President.  And after you sign those orders, I’d like to talk to you for a few hours about alternate energy, Global Warming and the Monarch butterflies.”

Can we do that tomorrow, Bernie?  I mean, not now…I think I’m getting a headache.”

“As you wish, Madame President.  Actually, I do have to put in an appearance at that big rally in front of Congress about the Equal Rights Amendment, and the federal subsidies on child care for working mothers, and FDA action on the Male Pill, and…”

“Yes.  Please.  Just go.  I need to lie down after I sign all this stuff, and after I order the Pentagon to send those units to occupy Wall Street.”

“I’ll let you know what the people at the rally want you to do.  And thank you, Madame President.  I shall take my leave now.”

“Whew…yeah…Thank you, Bernie.  Oh god!…”

“What is it, Madame President?”

“Oh…I’m out of valium again.  Bernie, please send in one of my aides when you leave.”

“You mean Ms. McQuilken or Ms. Aniston?”

“No, Mr. Clooney.  Or Mr. Tatum, actually, if he’s not too busy.”

“As you wish, Madame President.”

Peter Buknatski

& Maggie Lenz-McQuilken

Montpelier, Vt.  

In recent news, the Mayor of Newark accused the Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey of trying to exert undue influence in order to push through a pet development.  

The complaint struck a familiar chord for me, as it sounds like the kind of garden variety corruption that routinely plagues even the smallest of cities and towns.

Giddy with TIF fever, the City of St. Albans has some “goings on” of its own that bear careful scrutiny.  I am referring to the current controversy over the fate of the historic Smith House/Owl Club, and the conspiracy to retool an entire neighborhood in order to accommodate a speculative development by one of the state’s most powerful construction companies, Connor Contracting.  

I began to tell the story on GMD some months ago, after the local Development Review Board, chaired by the first cousin of the four brothers who own Connor Contracting, issued a permit for demolition of the historically designated landmark and endorsed the developer’s non-conforming speculative office building as the replacement.  In so doing, the DRB ignored the fact that the developers had not satisfied even the basic requirements for a demolition permit, and that the City’s Design Advisory Board had unanimously recommended against the changes to street-level parking and destruction of greenspace that the Connor brothers’ proposal entails.

When challenged by members of the community over their failure to enforce City rules and the inappropriateness of the developers’ plans, the City Council refused to vacate the decision and send everything back for a proper review.  Instead they forced us, the near neighbors, to appeal the DRB decision in environmental court.  Rather than take responsibility for the failure of their own appointed permit body to enforce the law, the Council members actually said that they preferred to let a judge decide!

We are now in the midst of the demolition appeal process, with a merits hearing set to take place sometime in May.

Meanwhile… back at City Hall:  Because the Connors’ parking plan required the City to yield its right-of-way so that diagonal parking would make it possible to cram additional cars onto tiny Maiden Lane, it was necessary to obtain permission directly from the City Council for that aspect of the plan.

We, the neighbors who use Maiden Lane, citing safety concerns for the busy little laneway, formally requested the City to do a traffic study before coming to a decision.

Once again, despite the fact  that the City’s own appointed Design Advisory Board had unanimously opposed the plan, and ignoring the public request for a traffic study, the City Council members hastily approved the proposal. In support of their approval, City Manager Dominic Cloud offered a two page ‘opinion’ by the captive engineering firm that is in charge of their streetscape.  

As perfunctory and tainted by conflict of interest as the opinion was, even that could not wholeheartedly endorse the Connors’ proposal, recommending instead an alternative that was unacceptable to the Connors.  

Nevermind the fact that it was Connor Contracting that was responsible for the failed parking design that is already in existence on Maiden Lane in front of the library!

The Council’s reason for rushing?  They actually said, once again, that we, the neighbors would undoubtedly appeal; so, in order to allow the court to “roll both appeals together;” and so as not to further delay the developers’ project, they would simply approve it out of hand, and let the judge decide!

Even though there are two attorneys sitting on the City Council, Tim Hawkins and James Pelkey, they all seemed to be totally ignorant of the fact that any appeal of the City’s parking decision wouldn’t even be heard by the Environmental Court; it would be heard instead by Superior Court and follow a completely separate schedule, costing everyone an additional bundle to litigate.  

The next time someone complains to me about “frivolous” permit appeals, will he ever get an earful!

 

The Chairman of the Design Advisory Board ( a subset of the Planning Commission), Chris Dermody, actually spoke up before the Council made its decision, saying that the board had specifically opposed the changes and sent a memo to the DRB about this and the fact that the applicants had not satisfied the minimum requirements for obtaining a demolition permit for an historic property.  He asked why that memo was nowhere in the record of the DRB review.  He didn’t get an answer.

Last week, when the Design Advisory Board was to hold its next hearing, with the new ACE Hardware store looking for a change to its permit, Mr. Dermody adjourned the meeting without doing any business, making a statement that there was no point in continuing their work if the City disrespects their opinion.

The City’s failures to honor its responsibilities in this matter are becoming so numerous at this point that it really requires much more explanation than I can cram into this diary; so I have laced it with links to Michelle Monroe’s exemplary coverage in the St. Albans Messenger.

Developers enjoying political favors while the public good is left to twist in the wind?  It doesn’t only happen in New Jersey.

 I am calling now for TWO things to happen, as regards the office of Vermont Attorney General.  FIRST, someone outside of the Vermont Dem Party should call for an investigation of Bill Sorrell’s seemingly lack of concern for (or inaction on) these following ‘crime’ problems in Vermont:

#1–The HEROIN epidemic.  This has been growing for years and years under Sorrell’s watch.  With Heroin now heap cheap (no doubt brought about by bringing ‘democracy’ to Afghanistan), it’s only going to get worse.  Shumlin called it–but why didn’t Sorrell?  Vermont is on the Montreal to Florida, and back again, route for Heroin ‘trafficking’–we are WIDE OPEN now for Gang-related crime, the collateral damage intrinsic in this form of ‘BIG MONEY’ drug running.  Where has our Attorney General been in the last few years on addressing this ‘crime’ problem and the future threat of worse to come?  What is his PLAN to deal with it?

#2–SEX/HUMAN Trafficking–The same routes and networks through Vermont for the Heroin trafficking are, again, WIDE OPEN for the ANIMALS who deal in SEX and HUMAN SLAVERY.  It is BIG MONEY.  In 2010, A Task Force was formed, in the AG’s office, I believe, to look into this.  Well…What have they found?  Why the SILENCE on this problem?  I’d bet money that money is changing hands on both the Heroin trafficking and the Sex Trafficking.  What’s the story?

#3A*–Abuses of the elderly and disabled.  Years ago, a network of advocates for the elderly and disabled filed a class action suit against the state about the ‘backlog’ of some 300 cases of abuse of the elderly and disabled filed with the AG’s office that were still ‘pending investigation’–in other words, NO ACTION TAKEN as yet back then by the AG’s office.  What has happened with these cases?  And how many more complaints have been filed since then?

#3B*–Abuses of migrant workers in Vermont.  Another of Vermont’s ‘dirty little secrets’ that good liberals give Sorrell a pass on.  There have been many allegations over the years that, in some cases, migrant workers don’t get the pay that’s owed them before they are ‘deported’ by the Department of Immigration.  There also have been many charges made by Advocacy Groups about housing and health conditions and health care.  This applies to those migrant or immigrant workers who work on farms, and in the ‘service’ areas also, such as restaurants, etc.  Again, what’s the story here?

#4–Improper use of tasers and ‘other’ deadly force by Vermont law enforcement.  Well, we know what the ‘white-wash’ record here is from Sorrell, but how many more times does it have to happen before it is regarded as a ‘crime’ in itself?  

#5–And this is a ‘crime’ committed against the ‘intelligence’ off all Vermonters:  Why is Sorrell famous for his ‘campaign’ to wage war on our ‘addictions’ to sugary-sweet sodas and other soft drinks, when, in fact, there are probably a host of ‘civil rights’ violations going on every year, every week in Vermont.  Most of these at the workplace.  Some involving violations against workers who attempt to ‘organize for unionization’ in small businesses in Vermont.  People have been fired for union organizing, for petitioning for unions, etc.  Hell, in Vermont, under Sorrell’s watch, people have lost their jobs for ‘political incorrectness’ when questioning the actions of their bosses, boards, or co-workers.  Look at VPT.  Look at some of the things that have happened with state workers recently.  And in the private and non-profit sectors, it happens almost off-hand now.  And, let us not forget Sexual Harassment.  SODA?  Come on, Bill!

Now, enough said there.  Lots to INVESTIGATE.  I recommend the Vt. Legislature appoint a Special Legislative Investigative Commission composed of people who are NOT seeking or holding public office.  I suspect that Bill Sorrell has had plenty of time over the years to do like J. Edgar Hoover did–make files on potential enemies and gather the ‘dirt’ on all THE PLAYERS in Vermont politics, including his colleagues.  (Yes, that’s another accusation–#6)  Hoover concentrated on ‘subversives’ in the fifties and early sixties, instead of Organized Crime.  It took a DYNAMIC ATTORNEY GENERAL, Bobby Kennedy, to make Hoover pay some attention to real crime.

We have REAL CRIME here in our little liberal La-La Land of Vermont.  And we’re letting our AG get away with not addressing it, and that means we’re in for a substantial ‘altering’ of the QUALITY OF LIFE we’ve been so proud of in Vermont over the decades.

So, the SECOND thing I want to happen is for some good Prog, Liberty Union, Libertarian, whatever, candidate to come forward and RUN FOR AG this year.  Someone of the Pollina, Zuckerman, and yes, Rosemarie Jackowski caliber.  It would be a good thing if ALL the third parties combined their resources to take a crack at getting an INDEPENDENT elected AG in 2014.  Backed by Advocacy Groups for the elderly, disabled, workers, and those concerned about Vermont’s ‘weak reaction’ to BIG MONEY crime, a Third Party candidate ought to be able to walk away with this election.  I’ll bet a certain REPUBLICAN named Vince Illuzzi is considering options.  And, please, Madame/Mister Candidate, don’t be intimidated by the BIG MONEY Sorrell has raised at the AGs’ confab in FLORIDA.  Just another piece of the overall ‘disgusting’ way Bill Sorrell regards Vermonters’ say in things when it comes to his ongoing (too long) career.  Good Lord!  Could this ABOMINATION actually be thinking of the Governor’s office in 2016?  Say it ain’t so, SodaBill.

OK.  And I didn’t even mention what a wimp Sorrell was as regards the Federal Patriot Act right after 9/11.  Defending Vermonters rights?  Ain’t my job, he said.  His hands were tied by the Feds.  Just like his hands have been tied over the years when the Department of Immigration deports migrant workers in Vermont after they’ve served their purpose and still owed pay.  So PLEASE!  SOMEBODY!  It’s past time to get on Sorrell’s CASE.  Good and hard.  A BAD Democrat only begets a WORSE REPUBLICAN in the future.  Something all you Obamanites should think about too.  

*(I put these two 3s together because I feel they are of the same ilk–PREDATORY CRIMES against people who have limited ability to defend themselves.  Sometimes the elderly person will actually be robbed of money or items out of his/her home by an independent or ‘freelance’ caregiver, and excuses are made about the old person being…well, old and forgetful.  Immigrant and migrant workers are preyed upon because their rights as ‘aliens’ and ‘transients’ put them in a different category than regular Vermont residents.  Both are heinous crimes.  Notice I didn’t go into the mentally ill or children.  There are separate State agencies that should monitor these areas.  Same with INMATES–The Department of Corrections.  Although I believe that if one State agency is dropping the ball, it would be ‘nice’ if the AG’s office were on top of that.  As Obama said Tuesday night:  Have A Nice Day.)

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.  

Back in early January, Senator Bob Hartwell raised some eyebrows in the enviro community when he came out against expanding the Bottle Bill to include water bottles. Instead, he asserted that the Bottle Bill’s days are numbered, thanks to the coming new era of recycling:

“I think we need to face up to the fact that everything is going to go through the single-stream systems,” Hartwell said. “At some point, the bottle bill will be eliminated.”

Hartwell chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, so his statement made the news. He may well have a point, but he’s at odds with environmental groups pushing to expand the bill, not kill it.  

At about the same time, Hartwell made some other comments that went largely unnoticed, but ought to cause an even bigger stir: He cast doubt on Vermont’s goal of 90% renewable energy by the year 2050, as formalized in the Comprehensive Energy Plan. His comments came on Vermont Senate Spotlight, a cable TV show hosted by the George Stephanopoulos of Vermont Community Access, Michael Abadi, best known in these parts as former host of VT Blogosphere TV.  

And in making a case against the 90% goal, Hartwell sounded a whole lot like a Republican — more concerned with cost than with climate change.

There’s a stunning amount of… oil and gas in North America. I think we have to figure out if were going to use a lot of it. Certainly there’s a lot of proposals for expansion of natural gas in Vermont, which would reduce the cost of doing business. And we have a very high cost of doing business in Vermont.

We definitely need to deal with it… The part about the Comprehensive Energy Plan that bothers me a little was the 90% renewables by 2050, because it’s a little hard to tell where it came from. And it’s not in state law. So I think we’re going to look at that part as to whether — because the temptation is to try to reach a goal that may be temporary, or may be somehow inaccurate or unachievable, and that could cost us a lot of money if we mishandle that.

So we’re going to look at that part and we’re going to make sure to look at the entire picture of what’s going to be available to us in the future.

Did you notice what was missing in that little disquisition? How about “climate change,” “greenhouse gases,” and even “environment.” Instead, we get “cost,” “cost,” and “cost.” And an implicit endorsement of fossil fuels, including fracked gas and tar sands oil.

After the jump: Aiming squarely at Vermont’s renewables goal.

And we get a direct assault on the 90% goal itself: “it’s a little hard to tell where it came from.” Well, Bob, it came from a lengthy multi-agency process that included a huge quantity of input from stakeholders, interest groups, and the general public. It came from people a whole lot more informed than Bob Hartwell. “Hard to tell where it came from,” indeed.

Here we have the chairman of the Senate’s committee on environment and energy — a Democrat, mind you — stating his desire to rip open the CEP and, apparently, eviscerate it.

I’ve been told that Senator Hartwell has a solid environmental record. He’s certainly not acting like it these days. Maybe he wasn’t all that solid in the first place. Maybe his head’s been turned by all the lobbyists who target the SNRE chair. Maybe he’s attacking the CEP as part of his crusade against ridgeline wind energy: remove the 90% target, and there’s no official impetus for expanding renewables.

I don’t know. But I think Hartwell’s anti-CEP talk is bigger news than his opposition to the Bottle Bill.  

Hmmm. Up in the little town of Westford (east of Milton, north of the Essexes, population 2086), a curious event has taken place. Right around the deadline for making the Town Meeting agenda, a petition was submitted that calls for the closing of the Westford Elementary School, and the creation of an independent school in its place.

The petition cleared muster, so it’ll be up for a vote at Westford’s Town Meeting on March 3.

As reported by VPR, the petition came as a surprise to the school board:

The board said the petition raises many questions, and school directors will do their best to research the answers. Some of the yet-to-be-answered questions identified by the board are:

— Should we vote to close our school without knowing any of the details about what might replace it?

… — How can we compare the present quality of the school to what might replace it?

— Should the town give up its public school and lose its voice in how the school is run and how much it costs?

… The motivation behind the petition appears to be a desire to divorce the school from the state education funding formula.

According to the town website, a petition must be signed by at least 5% of registered voters. Which, in Westford, means a grand total of 72 valid signatures. So it’s kind of a low bar to surmount, but it does require some coordinated effort.

Now, I have no idea what happened here. It could very well be that a group of dedicated residents is fed up with rising property taxes and wants to force the issue. But I smell something else.  

Could this be the start of an organized campaign by state conservatives to spread the gospel of privatization town by town — targeting small towns where a small number of local activists could carry the day at Town Meeting? Again, I have no evidence that such a thing is happening, but it’s certainly not a stretch. Privatization activists have been stymied by Shumlin Administration opposition at the state level; they have a model to imitate in North Bennington’s move to an independent school; and it wouldn’t be the first time that conservative groups targeted small communities and low-profile elections to advance their agenda.

As far as I know, it’s only one town this year. (Question for VPR: is this happening in other towns?) But if it succeeds in Westford, could we see a wave of similar petitions next year? Perhaps targeting small communities that lean conservative anyway? There’s a lot of those.

It’s just a ping on the radar for now. But it might turn out to be something much bigger on the horizon.  

When Democrats had the unfortunate task of filling a Senate vacancy created by the death of Sally Fox, an impressively strong list of candidates put themselves forward. And one of my idle thoughts was, Gee, I wish we could have all of these people in the Senate. And get rid of some of the deadwood in the process.

Purely a passing fancy, since doing so would mean ignoring residency requirements, not to mention that pesky “right to elect your representatives” thing. But the thought came back again as I watched, in car-crash-esque fascination, part of last Friday’s session of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. If Senators had to prove their fitness to serve through job performance, I think we would have had ourselves a couple of quick vacancies afterward.

The occasion was a perfunctory appearance by VPIRG’s Paul Burns, to testify in opposition to a pair of bills designed to put new obstacles in the way of renewable energy projects. “Perfunctory” because Burns knew his testimony would fall on deaf ears, since SNRE is stacked with senators publicly opposed to ridgeline wind energy: four antis plus Mark MacDonald. So, he didn’t try to hide his awareness of that fact and — very unusual for a Statehouse advocate — barely concealed his contempt for certain members of the committee. To wit, His Eminence Peter “The Slummin’ Solon” Galbraith, Legend In His Own Mind, and the Kingdom’s Own John Rodgers, whose very presence makes me yearn for the halcyon days of Vince Illuzzi.

And the two un-esteemed Senators lived down to Burns’ expectations and returned the scorn in spades. The whole performance is worth watching, and fortunately it’s been posted on YouTube. Takes about 15 minutes.

Burns disposed of his obligation to put VPIRG on the record, and the floor was open for questions. Galbraith immediately pounced, with a question that seems pointless until you know the backstory: He’s got his knickers in a twist over something VPIRG staffer Ben Walsh wrote in a message to the group’s email list. A message sent IN THE YEAR 2012.

His Eminence knows how to hold a grudge. How the hell did this guy ever make it as a diplomat???

After Galbraith batted this around and Burns calmly held his ground (“I stand by that email in its entirety”), the cudgel was passed to Rodgers, who is apparently pursuing his sworn duty to uphold the Northeast Kingdom Way of Life (grinding poverty and underdevelopment) by opposing any and all wind projects in his bailiwick. Because every ridgeline is sacred, and we cannot disturb a single stone even if the benefit is a steady stream of new tax revenue and renewable energy.

Rodgers figuratively leapt at the chance to play Mr. Inquisitor, treating Burns as a hostile witness just begging to be broken. His first line of inquiry was about his desire for a full accounting of the carbon cost of a wind farm — the greenhouse gases emitted in construction versus the emissions saved by turbine operation. The ensuing colloquy:  

Burns: If you can assess the life cycle of an energy source, I don’t know if you can. But clearly, wind would come out near the top of the list.

Rodgers: I want a simple yes or no. When you have an industrial wind development, should we know what carbon they’ve emitted in construction versus the carbon savings from production of emergy.

Burns: If you can do that for all energy sources —

Rodgers: Yes or no!

Burns: For one source? No.

Rodgers: Okay. So we don’t care. And the other point — so we don’t want to know.

Brilliant, Mr. Rodgers. You’ve set a trap of your own devising and pretended to catch your quarry. What you “don’t care” about is the truth, because you’re an absolute opponent of ridgeline wind, and nothing will change your mind.

The Honorable Dogmatist then turned his attention to an inconvenient truth for wind opponents: the Castleton Polling Institute survey that showed a huge majority of Vermonters in favor of ridgeline wind.

Rodgers: Now, the Castleton poll, is that the one you’re quoting? The numbers overwhelmingly in favor?

Burns: That’s the most recent poll.

Rodgers: The pollster has pointed out that, when it’s broken down further, every area where an industrial wind site was proposed, they were against it. It’s easy for those not impacted to vote in favor of something that will impact their neighbor. I don’t need a response from him, I just wanted to make that point. The Castleton poll should not be taken on a whole. It can be broken down and give you a different result.

I pause for a moment to note that of course Rodgers doesn’t need a response, because he must know he’s about to get hammered.

Burns: Senator, with respect that is false.

Rodgers: No, it’s not.

Burns: That is false information. I’ve spoken with the head of the Castleton Polling Institute, who explained in detail that that information simply is false.. He did not break it down by town; it cannot be broken down by town. What he did provide me, however, was the regional breakdown. And in every region of the state, there was overwhelming support for wind development on ridgelines. You are incorrect, and I would love to have an explanation for how you keep saying this when it is explicitly and absolutely false.

Oh snap! Ball’s in your court, Johnny boy.

Rodgers: It was written in publications. Someone interviewed the pollster.

Sharp. “I read it someplace.” But do continue.

Rodgers: So I don’t know where you got your information —

Burns: I spoke with the pollster.

At this point, Rodgers discards the poll issue, having been thoroughly posterized.

Rodgers: But I also know that in my area, we have had official votes — not polls, official votes of registered voters, and you can’t deny the results of those votes.

Burns: I don’t deny that. I simply take issue with your spreading false information as fact.

At this point, SNRE chair Robert Hartwell broke it up, perhaps to spare his depantsed ally Rodgers any further embarrassment. But Galbraith was lying in wait. And even as Hartwell tried to wrap up Burns’ testimony, His Eminence seized the chance to revisit another old, but lovingly held, offense.

Galbraith: I just have a comment because I think there’s a style of making a case here, which is if your views are shared by somebody who has an extreme view, therefore your views are discredited. And I was reflecting, where have I haard that kind of tactic before? And I think back to Joe McCarthy. That really is the tactic.

At this point, a chorus of voices erupts and Hartwell brings the testimony to a close.

Galbraith’s picking at an old scab here. And using one of the harshest terms in our political language: McCarthyism. So how exactly did Paul Burns commit the dastardly act of guilt by association and banishment of his opponents to the unending limbo of political exile?

Well, remember in early February 2013 when Bernie Sanders held a pro-renewables rally at the State House? Burns was one of the speakers, and his address included the following passage (text provided by VPIRG):

You might say this is our Kansas moment.  Back in 2005, the Kansas Board of Education famously rejected the teaching of evolution in public schools there in favor of creationism (or intelligent design).  This rejection of science brought much scorn upon the state and later the decision was reversed.  But the damage to the state’s reputation was done.

So, what will Vermont do at this critical time?

Galbraith misinterpreted Burns as conflating opposition to wind energy with creationism. But the plain meaning of Burns’ remarks is this: opponents of evolution ignore science, and opponents of wind energy ignore established science about the benefits of wind power. It’s a matter of process, not of absolute equivalency.

At the time, Galbraith got all huffy and interrupted a Senate debate a few days later to issue a Point of Personal Privilege in which he lambasted Burns for characterizing wind opponents as “deniers of the science of climate change, and the equivalent of creationists who deny evolution,” expressed his hope that the debate “will proceed in a civil fashion,”  and decried the use of “extreme language and name-callling.”

Well, nearly a year has passed, and Galbraith is still enraged about his misinterpretation of something Paul Burns said last February.

I ask again, how in hell did this guy ever make it as a diplomat?

As for his hope for civil debate, I suggest His Eminence take a good look at his fellow Windies. As I wrote in January 2013:

VPIRG, VNRC, the Sierra Club, and the other pro-wind environmental groups — who spend long hours for low pay trying to defend our environment — have been accused of selling out their principles to some sort of vaguely defined Blittersdorf/Iberdrola big wind cartel.

Those accusations extend to, of all people, Bernie Sanders. In a comment thread below the VTDigger article on Bernie’s opposition to the moratorium, he is accused of being “energy-illiterate, on the take from Big Wind, or both” (Mary Barton), “violat[ing] truth and public trust” and “attempts to manipulate through outright misrepresentation of facts”  and cronyism (Peggy Sapphire), doing favors for the wind industry and not knowing “how wind energy actually works” (Will Amidon), “a raging hypocrite” (Ellin Anderson) and of selling out for a campaign contribution from David Blittersdorf (our ol’ buddy Patrick Cashman).

“Respectful,” indeed. The vast majority of the vituperation in this debate has come from the anti-wind crowd.

And Galbraith has more than done his part in that respect. In addition to his depiction of Burns as a latter-day Roy Cohn, he has also (according to Burns’ account of a conversation between the two men) compared Burns to Mussolini. Hey, congrats for avoiding the Hitler reference, Petey!

Credit to Paul Burns for standing his ground under this unwarranted and inaccurate cross-examination. And while he managed to refrain from exactly the sort of name-calling he’s all too often been subjected to, I feel no such restraint. So…

Senator Galbraith, you are a narcissistic, self-important gasbag. You are far too quick to take offense, and you cling tenaciously to offenses, real and imagined, for far too long. You like to think of yourself as a champion of civility and parliamentary process, when in fact you are a jackass of the first order.

Senator Rodgers, like your allies in the anti-wind movement, you grasp tenaciously to anything that might possibly support your cause no matter how dubious, while willfully ignoring the preponderance of evidence proving that ridgeline wind is a popular, efficient, and environmentally friendly source of green, renewable energy. One of the best, as Burns put it. And while you believe you are serving the short-term views of your constituency — or the subset of your constituency you choose to listen to — you are failing to advance their longer-term interests by blocking a relatively clean form of energy and development.

There, I said it. The videotape proves it.  

Today’s Mitchell Family Organ brings the sad news of Karen Kerin’s passing. Kerin was the notorious perpetual candidate for Attorney General — as a Republican and, later, as a Libertarian. She was last seen racking up 2.7% of the vote on the Lib ticket in 2010.

I never met her, and I doubt I’d agree with any of her ideas. But she led one hell of an interesting, and decidedly bumpy, life:

Born Charles P. Kerin Jr., Feb. 3, 1944, in Barre, Vt., the oldest child of Charles P. Kerin Sr. and Ellen (Douglass) Kerin.

Charles grew up as an Army brat and lived in Munich, Germany, as well as Virginia and Massachusetts, graduating high school at 16 years old from Hingham High School. Married to Regina Stone in June 1963, they had six children and divorced in 1989. Charles changed his name to Karen Ann Kerin and married Mary Aschenberg in November 1996.

More from the bio posted on her (still extant) 2010 campaign website:

Karen is a survivor of many medical calamities starting at age two with an appendix removal. Karen, as the result of a very uncommon cancer, endured the removal of her left lung and virtually all of her urinary and reproductive organs, sparing only her kidneys. Medically that is pretty much what transsexuals seek, but for Karen, it was simply a matter of survival.

The media can not understand that a transsexual Karen is not a wild eyed radical seeking to gain from government as is true of so many minority groups.

So, for ten years there has been a drumbeat by media to portray Karen as something other than who she is – specifically, a fiscally conservative, pro-liberty supporter of the law as created by the nation and state founders.

Again, not much common ground between her and the GMD community. But she was one of a kind, for sure. My best to her wife Mary and surviving kin.  

Ah, wonderful news from the mad scientists at UVM:

Researchers at the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center have discovered that sugar maple saplings produce the same sweet liquid that mature trees yield.

Sugar maple saplings can out-produce mature trees by an order of magnitude. A plantation-style crop of 6,000 saplings can produce 400 gallons of syrup per acre, while a mature sugarbush of 80 mature maple trees produces 40 gallons per acre, researchers say.

Saplings are ready to harvest in seven years, while mature trees take four decades to tap.

Er, yeah, a little free PR advice? Try to avoid using the word “plantation” when referring to a new method of agriculture. How about “orchard” instead? You’re welcome.

Anyhoo, this new breakthrough, they say, could provide “a relatively cheap and easy way to grow a maple operation.”

Yep, I’m picturing that scene from The Matrix where Neo wakes up in the goo-pod and discovers that the entire human race is being harvested for the benefit of the Machine Overlords. (Whoops, Spoiler Alert!) Except instead of people, we’ve got saplings having their precious bodily fluids sucked dry throughout their newly miserable life cycles.

I’m also picturing vast maple planta — sorry, orchards — covering mile after mile of formerly abandoned Vermont farms and newly-clearcut Vermont forests. Kinda like the sheep boom of the early 19th Century all over again.

That’d be a hoot — a core aspect of the Vermont Way Of Life transformed into a landscape-depleting mega-industry. Probably far-fetched, but I wonder how our arch-traditionalists (of all political stripes) would react to the prospect.  Somebody notify Annette Smith, stat!

“My fellow Americans.  Hi.  Gimme five.  You don’t really want to know, do you?  And how ’bout this fucking weather?  I mean, shit, Alaska’s warmer than California.  What do you think?  Think we should just get it over with?  The Boys In The Boardroom, who selected me in ’08, wouldn’t mind a little Nuclear War.  Get your minds off what you’re bitchin’ about.  And warm up Chicago.

“The State of the Union?  You’ve got to be shittin’ me.  The State of the Union is now on sale at WalMart.  Made in China.  By little kiddies.  What all you assholes need to do is get together and become Activists.  And make WalMart label all this shit.  Like: This State Of The Union Product May Cause Cancer Or Bubonic Plague If Used In Certain Environments Otherwise Thought To Be Not Recommended For Human Life.  Heh-heh.  Thought you’d like that.  These are the jokes, folks.  But, all seriousness aside, we should label everything.  Americans love labels.  So, to start with, I’m having the Department of Homeland Security put out 2 million T-Shirts with the logo: SMART PEOPLE CREATE TERROR.  Because when you label things and people, Americans are much more comfortable.  And healthier and happier.  And we can get on with the important work of our nation.  And, what is that, you ask?  Shit.  The fuck if I know.  The Boys In The Boardroom keep changing what the important work of our nation is, almost every week.  Did they tell you?  No?  Well, good.  As your President, that makes me feel even closer to all of you, as a people, and as a bunch of flaming assholes.  Heh-heh.

“I’ll tell you a little story.  Back in ’09, I used to sit in the Oval Office and say to myself: ‘Bama, if you don’t do shit in five years, nobody will care.  Americans are dumber than a box of rocks.’  But now, my fellow Americans, I’ve grown more philosophical, having so much idle time to become so.  And I think to myself that if the American people really want change, they’ll get off their brain-dead asses and do it themselves.  I mean, it’s not like I’m going to help you.  In fact, I may even have to kill a lot of you, and put more of you in jail.  But, go ahead–be my guest.  Change things.  Yeah.  Why don’t you start by changing the fucking channel?  Heh-heh.  Cause I know you don’t like what you’re hearing.  The Boys In The Boardroom told me I could say any kind of shit I wanted to tonight.  Because you fuckers will take anything.  They told me that after they killed Kennedy, and you all bought that Warren Commission Report and that Magic Bullet shit–man, that was a good one–and then you threw the covers over your heads and went to sleep, that they knew there and then that you’d put up with any and all kinds of shit.  War and Injustice and Fairy Tales.  Look at this Arctic Vortex crap.  Ain’t that a cute fairy tale name for: THE WEATHER IS SAYING THE END IS NEAR?  Arctic Vortex.  Sounds like a new fashion line at WalMart.  Heh-heh.  Like my fucked-up Health Care.  The only thing I did in five years.  Hey, maybe the Boys In The Boardroom will decide that, with this Arctic Vortex motha, it would be cool to cut off Fuel Assistance entirely.  Yeah.  I mean, all those unemployed elderly people turning up the heat?  Yeah.  My new campaign to fight Global Warming.  Cut off Fuel Assistance.  The Boys In The Boardroom should thank me for thinking that up all by myself.  Maybe give me a really good job in 2017.  A Game Show Host.  Yeah.  I could be the Black Bob Barker.  You know: ‘Higher!…Lower!…Oh sorry…There goes the buzzer…You’re fucked!…Take him away, FEMA!’  Want to know what’s behind the curtain, my fellow Americans?  You wait.  You’ll love this one.  Maybe a little later this year.  Heh-heh.

“You dumb sorry-assed sonsabitches.  Fucking pathetic.  Brush up on your Chinese, is my advice.  Hey, how’s this one: THE EARTH IS FLAT.  Didn’t you know that?  I just told you.  And I’m your Government, so it must be so.  Right?  Yeah.  So, you stupid shits, be careful when you’re traveling this Summer, if you can afford to.  Might fall off the edge of the Earth.  That’s where the Devil is.  Waiting for you.  Become Christians.  That’s more Presidential advice.  When the Republicans take over the White House in 2017, because you elect them because I didn’t do shit, you’re all going to have to become Christians anyway.  They’ll make laws.  Yeah, they’ll Do Something!  You see, I’m not so bad.  Me doing nothing is something you’re all going to miss in about five years or so.  

“But, hey.  Don’t worry.  Be happy.  And if you can’t be happy, eat some Jello Pudding.  Ummm-ummm.  Good shit, my fellow Americans.  So, have a nice day tomorrow, and remember what I said tonight.  You might feel a little off for a while.  Feel like losers.  But losers make the world go round.  Don’t let any Smart Person tell you any different.  If some Smart-Ass Person gives you any shit, you just tell that sucker that Bama says CHILL.  Smart people like to spoil all the fun.  And we’re having fun, right?  I know I am.  And, my fellow Americans, you ain’t seen shit yet.  Yeah.  It’s going to get even more fun.

“Thank you and Good Night…and, oh yeah…Go Fuck Yourselves…Heh-heh…I knew you wanted me to say that.”

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

!

I woke this morning to learn that Pete Seeger died yesterday.

It wasn't a surprise. He was ninety-four and had been hospitalized for almost a week, but it's still sad news.

Whether we knew it or not, most of us growing up in the 1960's owed a lot to Pete Seeger. Pete was responsible, more than any other single individual, for the explosion of the popularity of folk music, which was one of the fundamental pillars of the music of the 1960's and beyond. 

Without Pete would we have had Bob Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, and the countless musicians who followed in their footsteps? It's doubtful. Or at least, we might have had Bob Dylan but he might not have been Bob Dylan.

Pete was a seemingly inexhaustible font of folk music, the people's music, from America and around the world. Even more, though, he was an inexhaustible source of energy and inspiration for musicians and activists everywhere. At a time when musicians were mainly cast in the bland, conventional mold of Pat Boone or Patty Page, Pete's music, and everything he did, was informed by the radical political views he never hesitated to share with the public, even at the expense of record sales, bookings, or congressional investigation.

I got to meet Pete once, when he came to sing at the inner city high school in Paterson, N.J. where my mother taught, but he was a presence in my life from the first time I heard him on the first Clancy Brothers album we had in my family. 

Remember Pete's life and work, and enjoy his music.