...they'll introduce a congressional rebuke of the recent political ad from an organization spearheaded by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol (the "Dept. of Jihad" ad) which suggests that lawyers defending guantanamo inmates are in league with (or at sympathetic to) al qaeda. From Greenwald:
One of the most inane acts undertaken by the Democratic Congress was its formal and highly bipartisan condemnation of MoveOn.org's "Petraeus/Betrayus" ad. Regardless of one's views of that ad, formally opining on the views of private citizens is not the role of Congress. But since they did that, and apparently believe that repugnant political campaigns merit Congressional disapproval, shouldn't there be some form of formal sanction for the far more pernicious and genuinely McCarthyite attacks on DOJ lawyers from Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's "Keep America Safe"? So reprehensible was that campaign that numerous right-wing lawyers have vehemenetly condemned it -- including Ken Starr, David Rivkin, Ted Olsen, and even (ironically) former Bush official Cully Stimson -- with most of them signing a letter decrying it as "a shameful series of attacks" that are "destructive of any attempt to build lasting mechanisms for counterterrorism adjudications."
Last week, Senator Leahy and Representative Welch broke with Senator Sanders and brought several flavors of shame to the liberal community under one, all-encompassing umbrella - the vote to rebuke MoveOn. While first and foremost, I find the vote both bizarre and cowardly (for its myopic waste of time on the one hand, and the pointless "Sister Souljah"-style sacrifice of an ally deemed - apparently - disposable on the other), the fact is that it was also an affront to the tradition of free speech in this country.
Don't get me wrong - I didn't like that vote and I don't like the idea of a new one to rebuke this latest attack (and I differ with Greenwald on that). But it does make for an interesting question, the answer to which will tell us whether or not the MoveOn votes by Mssrs. Leahy and Welch were based on genuinely held principles, or whether they were just afraid of the big bad Republican noise machine. Obviously, one would hope it was the former, even if I disagreed with those principles.
If you haven't yet seen it, the ad in question is below the fold.
(I don't necessarily agree with Rama that the point here is to destroy public education, but I have no doubt that at least part of the point is ultimately to bust the union. - promoted by odum)
When you're out to destroy public education, it certainly helps to keep the annoying public out of the discussion:
The Dover School Board held an emergency meeting Monday morning to draft a letter protesting the closed-door policy of a design group named by the Department of Education.
Tom Evslin, chief technology officer for the state of Vermont and coordinator of the Challenges for Change efforts, said the meetings were designed to include just the team members to allow for a more free exchange of ideas.
(ibid)
Yeah, that's where the best "let's drown our government in the bathtub" come from ... a place far from the sunlight of public oversight and participation.
Because we just know all about those wonderful ideas that should never be discussed in public.
Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said Monday that the hole was located in an elbow in a 1-1/2-inch pipe, and he said the company was investigating what caused the hole and whether to replace the elbow or patch it.
[...]
The water coming from the hole is not reaching the environment, since it is in an underground pipe tunnel and the water goes into a drain, where it is eventually treated, Smith said.
So just to make this clear: there is a hole in this pipe, but there is no danger to "the environment" because the liquid goes through other underground pipes before being released into "the environment."
Anyone else see the... hole... in this suggestion?
UPDATE:The Free Press reports this deal is off. Cool. Wonder if that means they'll ask for their contribution back from the Governor. -odum
The Free Press takes note today for Vermonters of the imminent arrival of approximately 33,000 tons of contaminated soil. This hazardous soil will be shipped to Interstate Waste Service’s Moretown landfill. The dioxin-contaminated soil is coming from a Massachusetts Superfund site where wood was treated chemically. This ARRA funded cleanup will make way for a 120 space parking lot. According to a Foxboro Ma. Newspaper, it will take roughly one thousand round trips and 100 work days to haul it away.
Vermont Powerless unless the soil is reclassified? The soil is a hazardous “substance” according to Federal EPA and must be removed from the Massachusetts site. However, in logic that’s worthy of Catch 22, the soil is not a hazardous “waste” and therefore can be dumped in Vermont. A manager at Interstate Waste’s Moretown site couldn’t say “offhand” if they tested leachate for dioxins.[to clarify: leachates at the Moretown Landfill] Vermont’s ANR Dave DiDomenico says unless the Federal EPA reclassifies the soil as hazardous, it can do nothing to stop the dumping in Moretown.
“They are private landfills. We can’t force them to take a waste, and we can’t not allow them to take something that isn’t hazardous,” he said.
Douglas’ Waste Service Donations In July last year Seven Days and Green Mountain Daily noted that among other donations Governor Douglas had received large (by Vermont standards) $2,000 campaign donations from the Interstate Waste Service Moretown landfill and a small landfill in South Hadley Mass. The South Hadley landfill is owned by the town and operated by Interstate Waste Services.
Is there a group that it's still socially acceptable to attack, stigmatize, and stereotype?
Apparently it's people with psychiatric diagnoses.
You can't turn on a crime drama on TV without seeing the guilty, or scary, mental patient. YOu can barely go to the movies without finding a psychotic killer, or a heartwarming story of a mental patient overcoming adversity. Either way, the underlying thread is that those people are not like us.
In order to derive maximum benefit from the redesign, the state will seek a Global Commitment-style super-waiver from Washington that covers all human service programs across a number of federal agencies, including HHS, USDA, and HUD. The waiver will provide for unprecedented flexibility from federal requirements. The state will pass the flexibility granted by the federal government through to its service providers. Additional flexibilities should not be construed to release the state or providers from obligations to ensure that consumer rights are protected and payments are appropriate.
While a federal waiver is preferable, the overall redesign should not be contingent on the waiver. In fact, the overall project should be structured on independent tracks, so if any one track fails, the other tracks would be unaffected. As tracks ultimately intersect and join together, the whole of the project will be greater than the sum of its parts.
I recently posted about the Challengese for Change document which the legislature placed into law without any real notification or warning to the general public. Today, I'd like to focus on the section quoted above.
Will the State of Vermont suffer a population decline if Phil Scott loses his race for Lt. Governor? Writing in the Free Press, a fellow from Lamoille County applauds State Senator Phil Scott. He also declares his intention to leave Vermont if any Democrat becomes governor.
The writer praises Scott’s “measured” and “old fashioned common sense approach” on trying to stall the vote on Vermont Yankee. I want to congratulate Sen. Phil Scott for separating his campaign for Vermont's lieutenant governor from the issues at hand. Oddly though, the writer takes a less measured approach than the one he claims Scott might possess. The writer declares his intention to leave Vermont if any of the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates win office. [emphasis added]
I have lived in Lamoille County all my life and have always loved Vermont. However, I have made a promise to myself and my wife that come November, if any of the five announced Democratic candidates for governor wins the election, I cannot stay in this state.
You know maybe old-fashioned-measured-common-sense isn’t what you think it is. My guess is this urge to flee may be inspired by the example set by Scott’s campaign manager Glenn Wright of Ocala, Florida.
Wright very publicly moved from Vermont to Florida last year based on financial considerations. At the time,waggish rumors circulated that some top Vermont Republicans helped him pack-up his portfolios. He wrote movingly of his financially fueled anguish at the time
we can’t take it any more and are taking the only possible alternative: leaving Vermont.
Could one man’s actions have set in motion a broadly based, formerly latent, Republican flight instinct? Have the persistent yet unproven folk tales of upper bracket flight fueled a generalized Republican exodus threat? Vote down this school budget or we all leave the town. Vote down this highway bill or we leave. My way or I pack it up and leave. Old fashioned measured common sense or tough going.
A hole discovered in a pipe in Vermont Yankee's off gas building could be partly to blame for the leakage of tritiated water into the ground beneath the nuclear power plant in Vernon, said Bill Irwin, Vermont's chief of radiological health.
Now, as you may recall, this particular set of pipes, according to Yankee officials during their actual testimony to the public service board did not exist.
But... really... who are we to judge? Who hasn't, on occasion, lied to state regulators and accidentally released large amount of radiation into the surrounding environment?
And really-- it's not the pipes that are the problem. It's the hole. What's a hole? It's a part of something that does not exist. And they did warn us, at least about the part of the pipes that don't exist, by telling us it didn't exist.
(FYI from candidate Deb Markowitz -- no endorsement implied, just continuing the policy of promoting diaries from officeholders and officeseekers - promoted by NanuqFC)
Hey GMDers.
Just wanted to make sure you all saw this video Deb sent to our supporters earlier today. She will officially announce her candidacy on Monday at the Barre Auditorium in Alumni Hall. Then she will tour across the state to listen to Vermonters' ideas to jump start the economy and lay out her ideas on education, energy and, of course, our economy.
