Given that both Sanders and Leahy saw fit to vote against the measure to deny funding to ACORN, I was more than a little puzzled by Peter Welch’s decision to support it; so on Sept. 20, I emailed the following to his Congressional mailbox:

I just have to ask you what was your rationale in supporting the measure against funding for ACORN. I’d like to think you have a reason other than the obvious need for a Junior Congressman to follow the leader.  So I am writing to give you an opportunity to explain to me why this measure serves the long-term interests of the country and your constituents. You must realize that  your vote  has just expressed your support for political interference in the normally non-partisan review of projects seeking federal funding.

A couple of days later, I received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting me about federal funding for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).  I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this issue.

Recent actions by ACORN employees reveal a disturbing and intolerable pattern of abuse of taxpayer dollars.  On September 17, 2009 the House of Representatives voted 345 to 75 with my support to ban federal funding for ACORN.  In addition, the Census Bureau informed ACORN last week that it no longer wanted the group’s assistance for the 2010 census.

Thank you again for contacting me.  Although we may disagree on this issue, please continue to be in touch and I hope to see you in Vermont soon.

 Sincerely,

PETER WELCH

Member of Congress

I didn’t think that this was a very satisfactory reply; so, on September 22, I followed-up with a few specific questions.

Thank you for your response.  We are discussing your vote on Green Mountain Daily and I wished to give you an opportunity to respond.  

I will try to re-phrase my question; why do you not feel that the conventional review processes, which are in place for any federal funding, are the appropriate filters for Acorn’s projects as well as those of any other entity?  Do you now believe that the role of Congress is to second-guess the non-partisan review process?  Wouldn’t this be substituting political judgment for qualified peer-review?  

Regardless of the outcome of the ACORN investigation, doesn’t this set a dangerous precedent?  How do you respond to those who believe that the enormous scale of ACORN’s workforce, and the wide scope of their community activities make it statistically more likely that SOME individuals within the ranks will behave improperly from time to time?  Should we de-fund Congress for the same reason?  Or deny tax-exempt status to the Catholic Church because of systemic pedophilia among priests?

Green Mountain daily represents many people who have supported you over the years.  I think you can see that we are truly troubled by your vote.  

That was five days ago and I am still waiting for a reply.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance:

You know what we learned from The Wire, right? Among other things, we learned a lesson that we seem to need to repeat endlessly: that our cities are neglected, that people are suffering, and that a system that offers them no hope condemns them and their children to poverty, violence, and death.

It is telling that The Wire, the best show in the history of television, never won an Emmy. Maybe it's a little to real for people who prefer to watch undertakers or suburban Mafiosi, or maybe it's just part of the phenomenon it reported on.

Now we have a new series that has been compared to The Wire, but it's a documentary. In five consecutive nights, Brick City documents the struggles of people trying to make Newark, N.J., a better place. The star is undoubtedly Mayor Cory Booker, but the heroes are in every scene, including gang members, ex-felons who have taken to the streets to save Newark's youth, to guys who get out of prison and decide they need to serve their families by making the hard choice to look for a straight job.

 The entire series ran this past week, but it's still playing on the Sundance Channel. You need to watch it.

(thanks to Common Dreams and FAIR for helpful pointers)

In late June of ’09 the AP was saying this about the political struggle in Honduras:

Sunday’s referendum has no legal effect: it merely asks people if they want to have a later vote on whether to convoke an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

(Honduras heads toward crisis over referendum, Guardian (Brit), 06/26/09)

It didn’t take long, as the Common Dreams post above states, for that refrain to change to one of Zelaya actually trying to change the constitution and install himself as president forever.

But the lies my newspaper don’t stop there ….

In a USA Today article titled Honduran soldiers ring deposed leader’s refuge, the AP further misleads by mindlessly repeating the words of the coup installed self proclaimed Honduran president: “”Coups do not allow freedom of assembly,” [coup benefactee Micheletti] wrote in a column published Tuesday in The Washington Post. “They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights. In Honduras, these freedoms remain intact and vibrant.”

Fact checking that claim would have been as easy as … oh … maybe checking out this news piece from “The Real News”:

It’s time my newspapers stop lying to me.

It's taken a very long time, between all the obstructionism, outright lies and manufactured outrage, but miracles evidently do happen. The Senate Republicans have finally found a tactic and a strategy that will actually benefit the American people, if you can believe it. What could it be? A sudden bout of conscience or something? Are you kidding?

The new strategy? Quit. Yep, as in the “take my toys and go home” way:

Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Friday that they will no longer participate in an investigation into the Bush administration's interrogation policies, arguing that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s decision to reexamine allegations of detainee abuse by the CIA would hobble any inquiry.

They're not too thrilled that Holder didn't stick with Obama's “make-nice-move-along-nothing-to-see-here” capitulation in regards to the CIA abuses perpetrated under Bush, so they're not participating:

“Had Mr. Holder honored the pledge made by the President to look forward, not backwards, we would still be active participants in the Committee's review,” the ranking Republican on the intelligence panel, Sen. Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, said in a statement.

Ok, so after whipping up the Teabagging mouthbreathers into a perpetual pants-pooping frenzy about Obama's fascist/socialist/communist/antidisestablishmentarianist (insert your own “ist” here – they won't have a clue, regardless) lies, all of a sudden they took him at his word that he was gonna brush the Bush stuff under the Oval Office rug. Convenient.Yet they don't believe him when they say there's no “death panels”. Go figure.

Of course, Diane Fienstein (D- Milquetoast) is all upset that now it can't be “bipartisan” – you know, you have to have some element of reality-detached craziness in there for it to be taken seriously by the Amuurrican people, but overall, I hope that this will be a new-found winning strategy the GOP is taking on… getting the hell out of the way. Think of the things we could finally accomplish.

There's still those Blue Dog Dems to deal with, the real impediment to progress nowadays, but at least we wouldn't have to hear McConnell or Boehner whinin' and lyin' anymore.

Welch voted a big “fuck you” at the low and moderate income advocacy group ACORN by voting (along with many, many other DC Dems) to go along with the vicious attacks on ACORN and to appease his “good freinds” from the radical, dishonest and racist political right. Leahy and Sanders merely purred their invectives with weasel words in twin Burlington Free Press opeds. Neither partner in the P & B show could find it within themselves to say “These vicious smears against a group of hard working, honest Americans are nothing but lies and slander.”

Obviously the vast majority of Americans are being pissed on by the DC Dems … yet one more time.

But we need to keep in mind what the reality is … because reality might just make the difference someday … so …

Here’s a great little study done by a professor of journalism and professor of politics titled Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong

This study, which received no outside funding from any organization, analyzed the complete 2007-2008 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news media organizations, and the narrative frames of their 647 stories during that period. The news media analyzed include the four the highest circulation national newspapers-USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal-and an analysis of the transcripts of reports from leading broadcast news organizations: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). We also analyzed stories from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Here’s a bit from the Bradblog that presents us with a great journalistic piece from Rachel Maddow.

Don’t think ACORN matters in Vermont? You’re wrong; these attacks against ACORN are the same attacks being carried out against any real health care insurance reforms. These smears against ACORN are intended to help keep the necks of the vast majority of Americans firmly under the jack booted heels of the rich and well connected.

So let’s not follow in the footsteps of Welch, Leahy and Sanders. Don’t let the lies grow.

Wonderfully timed in the same week Douglas completes his plan to lay off 300 state workers the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation has a “My Turn” piece in the Free Press .Commissioner Gibbs’ noted earlier triumph had been to put up a Facebook page for the Dept.. Now he shamelessly borrows language reminiscent of the New Deal and recalls the CCC .One can only marvel at the moxie of these small government fellows.

At Gov. Jim Douglas’ direction, the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation is doing everything it can to generate economic activity and create jobs. We’re pleased to report that your investment of tax dollars is achieving important results and producing meaningful returns.

Earlier  the Governor  took a stand against placing  inexpensive (signs can cost as little as $300.00) ARRA  signs notifying state run Federal stimulus funded highway projects .He was reportedly angered when a photograph of him at an event was published with one of the orange signs in the image.  

Jason Gibbs is not orange but is much more costly  and basically serves the same purpose as the scorned ARRA stimulus road signs.

The Governor’s personal human signage continues ………..

Our projects meet the strictest definition of “shovel ready” and are moving forward swiftly. We’ve targeted long-term, infrastructure projects that create good trade jobs — carpentry, plumbing, masonry, electric, excavating, roofing and others — critical to immediate and sustained economic growth. And we are transparent. It is important that taxpayers and policymakers see the immediate economic and lasting environmental values of investing in these natural resources.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

Markowitz has a campaign video up. I can’t watch it, unfortunately – I can’t even see the player – because I’m on a public wifi signal that blocks YouTube. So you all will have to tell me what you think (I’ve cut and pasted the embed code from Markowitz’s campaign site… hope it works).

————

[UPDATE by Caoimhin]

Here is the video that DebForVermont released on YouTube on Thursday.  Unlike the last video (Coldplay), this one uses a Beatles instrumental to far better effect. Even if I were a Coldplay fan, and I’m not, I’d still think the Beatles are way cooler than Coldplay.

I moved the ka-ching (cash register) video below the break. That video was released last summer in response to the press reports concerning the candidates’ fund raising. The release date of last summer’s video explains the references to Jim Douglas that are now stale.

-cl

———–

Markowitz releases this vid the same time Racine announces a new tech hire: Brendan Bush of Burlington’s Original Gravity Media, who will be handling webstuff. Bush is a veteran of efforts from the Kerry Presidential campaign to United Food and Commercial Workers’ national anti-WalMart campaigns.

This is the video from the original post and which DebForVermont released last summer.

-cl

a nice piece by Terry Allen

In These Times

http://www.inthesetimes.com/ar…

Here’s what corporations know, but don’t want you to find out: Private insurance is for suckers.

Armies of healthcare industry flacks, lobbyists and bought-and-paid-for legislators rant that nonprofit, public insurance is a slippery slope to socialist hell, will limit your choice of physicians to Doc Watson and Dr. Kevorkian, and bankrupt the country. But, in fact, most U.S. Fortune 500 companies wouldn’t touch private insurance with a 10-foot colonoscope.

When they need to insure their financial health against fire, terrorism, and liability lawsuits sparked by defective products and polluting factories that kill people, they don’t call State Farm. Instead, corporations routinely insure themselves by creating a “captive” insurance company as a wholly-owned subsidiary. “The parent company is insuring its own risk,” says Sandy Bigglestone, of Vermont’s Captive Insurance division.

But when we the people need health insurance against the high cost of staying alive, we, or our employers, pay private insurers-corporations that are more devoted to protecting their profits than our health. The premiums we pay go not only for our pills and treatments, but also for lobbyists (on whom the health insurance industry currently spends $1.4 million per day for the U.S. Congress alone), campaign contributions, stratospheric executive salaries, private jets, lawyers hired to fight legitimate claims, and, of course, profits.

Click here for the complete article.

(cross posted from IntgralPsychosis.com)

With behemoth health foods retailer Whole Foods marching ahead with plans for an out of scale (and, with the existence of so many local food co-ops, locally-based retailers, and yes, direct-from-the-farm markets, we could say wholly redundant and un-necessary) South Burlington location, faux-progresive and CEO John Mackey may well be getting a bit concerned.  That’s because Vermonters in Pittsburgh to protest the G20 meetings have chosen to target a Whole Foods retailer there as part of their protest against the corporate elite’s pro-profit and anti-sustainability agenda.

A group of Vermont farmers and students blocked the entrance of a Pittsburgh Whole Foods around 10:00 Friday morning.  They then built a raised-garden bed, complete with growing plants and vegetables, under their banners which read “Whole

Communities Not Whole Foods for ½ the people” and ” A Whole Lot of $$$$ GREEN $$$$$” as well as “Grow Gardens Not Corporations”.

From the activists’ press release:

One person joining them from Pittsburgh said “I have watched Whole Foods come in and cater to wealthier folks from outside this neighborhood with its corporate green image while selling products that not only don’t contribute to a local or sustainable food system but are totally unaffordable to most folks that live here.”

Jean Marie Pearce left her farm in the Northeast Kingdom to participate in planting the garden.  “We need to realize that Whole Foods is about growing profits not sustainability and the G20 is about growing capitalism not a healthy world.  I want a world where food is grown for everyone, not the GDP for 20 countries!  Examples like the dairy farm crisis right now prove the need for more inclusion around these policies.  We can’t protect or control our economy when it is run by 20 people and their corporate friends.”

Once these Vermont activists return from Pittsburgh, we can only imagine what they have in-store for the developers who hope to build a Whole Foods in South Burlington.  It’s a safe bet that Whole Foods and those developers are working on trying to imagine that very thing right this moment.

Time for a Friday end-of-week what is known and unknown about Lt. Governor Brian Hamlet “Lite Flight” Dubie.

First the KNOWNS:

Lite Flight has consulted with at least two (2) out of state political consulting firms to plot strategy for a gubernatorial campaign.

Lite Flight, despite being caught flat-footed by Jim Douglas’s wise read of a near impossible reelection year, has been receiving significant pressure to run for Governor.

Lite Flight makes a really good living right now as a full time private citizen pilot leveraging his taxpayer funded flight training and only part time Lt. Governor.  As Governor, he will need to take a big pay cut.  He does not relish this scenario (GMD, for the record, doesn’t actually blame the guy on this front. Seriously, who wants to work five times harder than they are currently clocking for the privilege of a 60% more/less pay cut?)

Also: Dubie has, of course, been in contact with national R’s who have made it clear they would like him to be their guy.

More knowns, unknowns and unknown unknowns not now knowable, below:

KNOWN UNKOWNS  There are two camps working the strings of the GOP primary nomination right now.

Camp one revolves around a few party leaders and social big government conservatives who want the State involved with everyone’s personal lives. They want an empty suit to dress their radical social agenda and Lite Flight is their man.

Camp two revolves around a collection of conservatives who are more concerned about the typical GOP agenda. For them, it is all about class warfare, low wage jobs, enabling corporate give-a-ways (VT Yankee/Walmart/Developers) and otherwise mortgaging Vermont’s future to score a short term gain at everyone else’s expense. This camp is also looking for an empty suit to dress up an ugly continuation of their failed Douglas-style economic policies. However, the difference here is that Camp Two is pressuring Dubie NOT to run.  This camp knows that Dubie can’t win and they have been “grooming” (not that you’d notice) Tom Salmon to run for them.  Tom Salmon says “I could be Governor tomorrow if I had the right people behind me.” What the good young man doesn’t realize is that the “right people” who’ve been whispering in his ear are some of the same people who have already pegged him for an empty suit puppet whose best qualification is that he will loyally carry water for those same “right people.”

We know about the two camps grooming/pressuring (pressing?) their suits.  It is unknown whose suit will be coming off the rack in the next few days.

KNOWNING the UNKNOWNS

Right now, Camp One has the upper hand.

Dubie wants to be Governor even if he doesn’t want to campaign for the job, give up his current cushy lifestyle, take the paycut, or quadruple his workload.

What is unknown is whether Lite Flight is going to make the leap and whether it will come before the middle of next week.

As of this posting, it is looking like Tom Salmon or Brian Dubie will be running for Governor before the end of the first week of October. Dubie’s awkward reticence would almost certainly mean “I’m out” for any other politician. But the ground work he has already laid, people pressuring him, the folks he has already brought in to sketch out a campaign, as well as those who are doing early work for him, all point to Dubie running for Governor.  

UNKNOWN UNKOWNS

To be discussed in the comments —

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