I’m going to start by just saying, some days, I can be kind of awesome:

So… consider this an open “how awesome are you?” thread.  Talk about something cool, great or just plain funny you’ve done recently.  

(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.

We would love to see you there!

Paul Tencher

Campaign Manager

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

As we talked to locals in Gaborone, Botswana Capital City, people were so proud to talk about the things they love about their country.

“We are free here, our country is so peaceful, you don’t have to be afraid,” said one.

“You can criticize the government, you have free speech, free elections,” said another.

Botswana is indeed an incredible country.

Home to not only the most beautiful wildlife we’ve seen yet, including elephants, giraffes, impala, kudu, and warthogs, but also to the friendliest people. It was one of the most vibrant political democracies we’ve seen so far, a nation proud of its peace and stability.

More than diamonds, people in Botswana consider water their most precious resource. This landlocked country’s national flag is blue to symbolize water and it even named it currency pula or “rain.” Nearly everywhere you go in the country — including public toilets, sinks and showers–you see signs asking you to curb your consumption of water. These signs are tied to a massive national education and advertising campaign geared at creating constant reminders about our obligation as individuals to conserve water.

Efforts to converse water have led Botswana to become leaders in environmental conversation in the continent.

In fact we can learn a lot from Botswana on the importance of conservation and techniques to reduce our consumption of energy and resources.

Here are two simple techniques they are using:

1. All electrical outlets — from the cities to the countryside — come with an on/off switch (pictured). While this switch might sound simple, how many times have you seen these in the United States (instead of just having to unplug everything)? Most importantly — people really use them — when they are done watching TV or using an electric kettle, they turn the switch off. Televisions, alarm clocks, air conditioners, and other appliances are programmed to withstand these power shifts and they don’t have to be reset when the power is turned back on.

2. We’ve all seen plastic bags on the side of the road or in trash bins — taking lifetimes to biodegrade — and doing irrevocable damage to the environment. While a few U.S. cities are trying to implement a small fee or even ban plastic bags such as Seattle (it passed but now goes to referendum in August), San Francisco, and Washington DC, we were impressed that Botswana has already implemented a surprisingly high (by local stands) national fee of their use or purchase. As a result, people bring their own bags to the grocery or use no bag at all for their groceries. Why can’t the United States implement a national law? Check out this interesting page on plastic bags by the Worldwatch Institute.

We also visited a project helping to conserve another of Botswana’s precious resources–wildlife. The Mokolodi Wildlife Reserve teaches the community about conserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, while also educating students about permaculture. By growing indigenous vegetables, recycling water for irrigation, and using organic fertilizers-including elephant dung-the Reserve’s Education Center is demonstrating how to grow nutritious food with very little water or chemical inputs. We met with Tuelo Lekgowe and his wife, Moho Sehtomo, who are managing the permaculture garden at Mokolodi. Tuelo explained that the organically grown spinach, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, green peppers, garlic, basil, parsley, coriander and other crops raised at the garden are used to feed the school groups who come regularly to learn about not only animals, but also sustainable agriculture. Tuelo and Moho use the garden as a classroom, teaching students about composting, intercropping, water harvesting, and organic agriculture practices.

Another plus to our travels here is that everything seems affordable here compared to its more expensive neighbor, South Africa (especially since we weren’t shelling out hundreds to go to Chobe national park for a safari). The pula is roughly valued at six to one against the US dollar. To put prices in perspective: a beer costs roughly $1 USD, a taxi anywhere in the city costs $3, a nice dinner for two costs around $15, a birdwatching walking tour with a private guide for two, around $25 per hour, and the bus ride from Johannesburg to Gabarone via Intercape costs around $25. The countryside might be a little off the beaten track, but it’s well worth the trek and you can still find a nice, clean, and comfy private double room with bath, hotwater, and air-conditioning for around $30 dollars a night.

…should resign. If he does so soon, Burlington could even elect a mayor in a required special election using IRV, before the legislature would approve the charter change just passed by voters.

I’m not a Burlington resident, so he aint my mayor. But as of this week, the turmoil surrounding this mayor has started to impact me – and that impact is only going to get worse.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Politically, there have been several problems with the pro-IRV effort in Burlington. It was poorly organized. It didn’t seem to take the election seriously. And then there’s the ongoing oozing condescension issue of proponents refusing to respectfully acknowledge and address wavering voters concerns – even other liberal voters. That right there is just so many flavors of self-defeating dumb, I can’t emphasize it enough. Kurt Wright was largely correct when he said “Now, they want to talk about having a fuller understanding and trying to educate and re-educate the public but you know what? What people reject WAS a system where you need to educate and re-educate the public..” Too many supporters openly scoffed at the challenge that perspective created.

But despite all those dynamics, IRV did pass in the first place – and it wasn’t about to be challenged. What tipped the scales in this case was an angry electorate determined to express what little power and control they felt they had in the face of a city hall openly contemptuous of rules, transparency, dissent, and possibly legality – and a city council that vascillated between disinterested passivity and ineffectual noisemaking.

But mainly it was focused at Bob Kiss. Anger at Kiss is what really tipped the scales against IRV. No one disputes that – except, apparently, for Bob Kiss, who still – still – will not accept any responsibility. And every time he refuses to offer even the slightest degree of humility or introspection one might expect – he makes it all worse.

And now he’s dragged IRV down with him.

What that means is that all of us in Vermont who have a stake in IRV and other progressive policies have a stake in this. If not for the Mayor’s  intransigence, Burlington would still have IRV. Period. Even some of his fellows in the Progressive Party have tentatively begun criticizing him in public – and for the Progressive Party institution, that’s nothing short of a revolutionary act.

And now that there’s a glimmer of hope for the publicly owned Burlington Telecom, Kiss’s refusal to make changes will likely put the nail in its coffin as well. When half of my prediction – that an anonymous donor would step up to bail it out – came true, it did so in a way I didn’t mean at all. The donor was not anonymous, or Progressive Party connected, it was a group of investors that included BT visionary Tim Nulty and former Kiss nemesis Andy Montroll, who will bail out the utility if they are given the reins. After reading this excellent, comprehensive history of BT from 7 Days’ Kevin Kelley this week, I can’t imagine anything better for renewing the sense of enthusiasm and mission among BT employees – thus reinvigorating the entire operation.

But it already seems clear that Kiss & Jonathan Leopold’s pride will not allow them to consider the option. At some level, one wonders if they’ve taken a “if we can’t have it, no one can” attitude.

So I imagine another progressive accomplishment will soon go down in flames.

Look, I understand that Mayor Kiss is a nice guy with a good heart. Everybody says so. And my own personal judgment of a person always comes down to whether or not their heart is in the right place, and I have no doubt whatsoever that Kiss’s is. But he has some problems in this office. As I see it, those problems are not simply impacting Burlingtonians anymore.

The first step is supposed to be to acknowledge you have a problem. Kiss won’t even take step one. Whatever other issues there are of governance and the running of City Hall aside (and there are many kicking around that the public hasn’t even heard about – at least from what’s reaching my ears – and believe me, we’re looking into them), Bob Kiss has started setting back progressive policies by decades. If he cares more about those policies than his own pride, if he’s not willing to completely change his tune and approach, he should do the honorable thing and step down before he leads us all back into the Dark Ages.

It’s Friday end of another long late winter week. How about some zombie news?

During a 2006 summer festival at a Minneapolis shopping mall seven zombies created an event to illustrate mindless consumerism. The group "calling themselves zombies and almost touching people.” were the subject of 911 calls complaining about them walking "in a stiff, lurching fashion" throughout the mall. For musical accompaniment the zombies carried packs of audio equipment with wires sticking out which police claimed looked like a bomb or simulated WMD.  

Court News Reports All but one member of the group were held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center for two nights; the minor in the group was taken to a juvenile detention center.    Jail officials confiscated Sternberg's prosthetic leg, explaining that he might use it as a weapon. The group members were initially booked on charges of displaying simulated weapons of mass destruction, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a sergeant reviewing the case determined that none of the sound equipment seized fit the definition of a simulated WMD.    Authorities returned the property, including [Zombie] Sternberg’s prosthetic leg, and released the group without filing a formal criminal complaint.

 

Now, years later a Minneapolis circuit court ruled that police should not have arrested the zombies. However the court dismissed a lawsuit for damages.

The zombies claimed their arrests and overnight detention were unconstitutional. Discrimination was alleged in the complaint over the confiscation of one zombie’s prosthetic leg.

The St. Louis-based appeals court reversed on the Fourth Amendment claims, saying the plaintiffs "were engaged in protected expressive conduct."   "[A]n objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements, dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis during a week-long festival," the three-judge panel wrote.      Nor was there probable cause to arrest the plaintiffs for displaying simulated WMDs, the court added.

We’ve reached a point in Palestine where even Hamas has openly accepted the concept that Israel will exist in part of Palestine …

so what do the bigots of Israel do?

Why, they figure out how to keep a war from ending of course.

Jerusalem’s mayor yesterday unveiled details of a controversial and long-expected plan to demolish Palestinian homes and make way for an Israeli-sponsored tourist park in a neighbourhood of the city’s Arab eastern sector.

(Mayor unveils plan to raze Arab homes, NZ Herald, 03/04/10)

A majority of Israeli Jews learned their lessons well on the lap of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party. A master race and lebenstraum … look it up.

(Okay, the other FPers may kill me, but I’m promoting this (and bumping some content sub-folda, as Ed sez). Some have seen these borderjumpers diaries as unwanted spam. When they first popped up, they seemed very self-promotional…. a little too “look at me” rather than “look at this.”

So here’s a really interesting one, promoted to the top. If you’ve missed the others, click on the “borderjumpers” username/link and you should get to a page with all of them. And I’ll be very curious to read the comments… – promoted by odum)

Check out this interview featured in Eco-Chick about the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet‘s on-the-ground research in Africa by Stephanie Rogers:

If it’s true that there are sayers and there are doers, Danielle Nierenberg falls firmly into the latter camp. Danielle is currently traveling through sub-saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in sustainable agriculture and blogging about it at WorldWatch.org.

A Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet, Danielle is a widely cited expert in sustainable agriculture issues and the spread of factory farming. She knows better than most of us how our eating habits affect the world, and the experiences she shares on her blog will blow you away.

So of course, Danielle fits right in as an Eco Chick Heroine for the Planet! I talked to her about women in agriculture, global food issues and what we can all do to help.

SR: We were surprised to learn through your blog, Nourishing the Planet, that 80% of sub-Saharan farmers in Africa are women and that women make up the majority of farmers worldwide. What are some of the unique problems that female farmers face?

DN: Although women produce most of the food and raise most of the livestock in Africa, they rarely have access to land tenure, credit, agricultural extension services, and are under-represented in farmers groups, associations, unions. But by increasing women’s participation and representation in these groups, women and men farmers alike can work together to improve gender awareness, as well as improve their access to loans and agricultural inputs and land tenure. As a result, women are able to earn a greater income, which translates into better nutrition for their families. But womens voices often go unheard, or even ignored, and that has to change.

SR: How has your focus on sustainable agriculture influenced your own eating habits?

DN: I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, but the more I learn about the global food system, the more interested I become in knowing where my food comes from and how it was produced. I think it’s important to put a face to your food and know not only how the animals you eat were treated, but if the farmers who raised the vegetables and other foods you eat were given a fair price for their crops and if the workers who processed and packaged the food you eat had safe working conditions and were paid a fair wage.

SR: As much as we all care about global food issues and how they affect human health and the environment, sometimes we’re not sure how to help – and sometimes, the problems of people in third-world countries can seem so far away. What can we do to contribute, even if it’s just in a small way?

DN: This is a question we’re asking as part of our Nourishing the Planet project: Why should wealthy foodies in the United States and Europe care about hunger in Africa?

The foodie community in the United States and Europe are a powerful force in pushing for organically grown and local foods in hospitals and schools, more farmers markets, and better welfare of livestock and I think that some of that energy can be harnessed to promote more diversity and resilience in the food system. Right now, the world depends on just a few crops-maize, wheat, and rice-which are vulnerable not only to price fluctuations, but the impacts of climate change. Many indigenous crops-including millet, sorghum, sweet potato, and many others-however, are not only more nutritious than monoculture crops, but also more resilient to adverse weather events and disease.

By supporting-and funding-NGOs and research institutions, such as Slow Food International, Heifer International, and the World Vegetable Center, wealthy foodies can help ensure that farmers in sub-Saharan Africa help maintain agricultural biodiversity.

SR: Did you have any moments of extreme culture shock when you first got to Africa?

DN: We started this trip in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a place most Americans associate with war and hunger because of the famines of the mid 1980s and 1990s. Even today, more than 6 million people in Ethiopia are at risk for starvation so I think I had mentally prepared myself for seeing very desperate people. Instead, though, I found farmers and NGO workers full of hope for agriculture in their country. I think that’s been my greatest surprise about the continent in general – how vibrant, entrepreneurial, friendly, positive, and alive people are here. Six months and thirteen countries later, I’m now in Antananarivo, Madagascar, feeling more hopeful than ever that things are really changing.

The trip is surprising in a lot of different ways. While we’ve seen extreme poverty and environmental degradation during our trip, we’ve also been impressed by the level of knowledge about things like hunger, climate change, HIV/AIDS and other issues from the farmers we meet. The people in many of these countries know better than anyone how to solve the problems their facing, they just need attention-and support-from the international community. In Africa, maybe more than anywhere else we’ve traveled, a little funding can go a long way (if used the right way).

SR: What’s your biggest goal for the Nourishing the Planet trip?

DN: We’ve made a point during this trip to focus on stories of hope and success in agriculture. Most of what Americans hear about Africa is famine, conflict and HIV/AIDS, and we wanted to highlight the things that are going well on the continent. There’s a lot of hope out here – a lot of individuals and organizations doing terrific work – but that doesn’t necessarily translate into them receiving resources or funding.

We hope to create a roadmap for funders and the donor community and shine a big spotlight on the projects and innovations that seem to be working, so that they can be scaled up or replicated in other places. Please check out our site and sign up for our weekly newsletter – and if you know anyone or project we should visit on the continent, please email me at dnierenberg@worldwatch.org.

Thanks Danielle, and many thanks as well to Bernard Pollack for the beautiful photos!

So I visited Washington Monthly this morning to get my RDA of Steve Benen, and at the top of the page was a banner ad for Brian Dubie! (Actually, this seems to be a frequent occurrence: conservative ads appearing on liberal websites. Hey, Republican donors, did you know your hard-earned dollars are going to support Talking Points Memo?)

The banner read: “Should Vermont’s Next Governor Increase government spending?” And offered a link to an online petition.

Yeah, I clicked on it.  

The “petition” is just a place to give the Dubie campaign your contact information, of course. Above the “petition” is a rather disconcerting close-up of Brian squinting into the camera. And below the “petition” is the inevitable “Comments” section. Which included this gem, from “VT Rebel”:

VT. state Gov’t like the Fed. gov’t is a Cancerous tumor that is metastasizing. What it needs is a good dose of radiation to shrink it.

Ahhhh. Now I understand why conservatives support Vermont Yankee. Radiation… it’s a good thing.  

http://greenmountaindaily.com/…

You got the word now.  Yeah, me too.  I forgot how the U.S. military won all those hearts and minds in the Nam.  And Lebanon.  And……………….

I’m so glad our military is in Haiti to make sure them folks are really gonna get their $3.09 a day.

Remember Pearl Harbor!

And maybe, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, the Philippine Insurrection, United Fruit in the ‘Banana Wars’, and on and on and on….

Where was our benign and ‘effective’ military might when it came to Rwanda, Somalia, Yugoslavia and………….?

Oh, but I forgot, this is only for ‘show’–no live ammo, please; just the American military doing things in a ‘kinder, gentler’ way.  Sort of like…what are the words?…lock and load and lobotomy.  

Ah, Peace In Our Time.  May I please introduce my friend Adolf and his corporate entourage.  Hey, we’re back to the Olympics!  Sue–maybe in 2014, they’ll have War events.  I see GOLD.

http://greenmountaindaily.com/… — GOOD QUOTES

I am forever opening the paper to some new head-scratcher of a disconnect.  A couple of days ago it was Bunning yowling that not one more cent should go to the unemployed until Congress had a plan  (presumably one of which HE approved) to pay for it.  This morning, it was a tiny afterthought on the weather page about the Marines landing (again) on Iwo Jima that caught my eye.  It seems that, this being the 65th anniversary of that immortal bloodbath/victory, someone at the Pentagon thought it would be a good idea to throw a party:

Both my Mom and Dad served in WWII; and I understand and appreciate the sacrifice those men made at Iwo Jima, but is this an entirely appropriate use of taxpayer dollars when there are people living in their cars in America because the country has fallen on hard times and all of the safety nets  are failing?  How much does it cost to fly all of the celebratory paraphernalia and personnel to Iwo Jima, and how much did the staging of the event cost?   I think this is a legitimate question as well as why this was necessary on the 65th anniversary of the battle?  What happened on the 50th anniversary, the 55th anniversary and the 60th?   Will the 75th bring a full-scale reenactment of the battle?

How many other similar commemorative enterprises, toasts and roasts, flying beneath the radar of taxpayer indignation, go undetected every year?  In my humble opinion, that sacrosanct Pentagon budget needs a much closer look.    How many people did they say die every year in the U.S. for lack of healthcare?  If we can’t find the means to care for the living in this country that our forefathers fought to preserve, it is an insult to their memory when we pile any of that desperately need coin on their graves.