(An update: this video has been removed from youTube. So far, no one has come to take credit for it, so this leads me to believe that my initial assessment of it was entirely accurate. Will the anonymous user who posted it acknowledge what was done here?
This was posted to youTube under the moniker PoliticsVT, who had two videos. They have both been removed. – promoted by JulieWaters)
In the past week, a video’s been referenced in the comment threads here that suggests that Brian Dubie wants to tax small stores and that it’s okay to tax them as much as we want:
A few problems I see with this:
- the quote in question isn’t from Brian Dubie, but instead tax commissioner Richard Westman;
- the quote itself isn’t specifically sourced. It references “Vermont Public Radio” and “April of 2010” but doesn’t provide anything specific enough to find out exactly when this statement was claimed to have been made
- The quote is taken out of context with no clarity as to what the intent was behind it.
It’s extremely easy for me to imagine that this was someone saying that this is what us liberals think, that it’s okay to tax mom and pop stores as much as we like. Without a broader context, I don’t see how we can make a judgment about this specific quote, but it’s presented as some sort of attack on Dubie himself.
Look, we’ve just seen a really nasty example of what can happen when clips are edited for partisan political purposes. I’ve no problem with attack ads, but they need to be properly sourced, documented and valid. I don’t see an indication that this one is, and given that I asked for clarification from the person who posted the links and never received a response, I’m inclined to think that this is bogus.
I’m sure Dubie would make a horrible governor. He’s shown more interest in platitudes than policy. But we need to go after him for what he’s actually involved in or avoided.
And yes, I’m going after something produced by someone who clearly shares my goals, because I don’t think my goals are truly served by this sort of approach.
It’s good for neither politics nor policy to muddy the waters of our debates with this sort of innuendo.
No one’s best interests are served by perpetuating the pattern of distortions and contextual misrepresentations that have already become the stock-in-trade of Republican campaigning. We’re better than that; and there is no lack of legitimate beefs with Dubie’s performance in the administration, ivory tower perspectives and failure to engage with working Vermonters on their own turf.
Now, in the menacing shadow of Andrew Breitbart’s cut and paste savaging of Shirley Sherrod, we have this video distortion. As far as I can tell, this may have been lifted from an interview Richard Westman gave on VPR about the challenges facing the Ed Fund. See: http://www.vpr.net/news_detail…
I thought the interview done by Bob Kinzel was good. He had then-Tax Commissioner Westman on and also had Paul Cillo of the Public Assets Institute. While Rich and Paul may have different perspectives on Act 60/68, their discussion was civil and informative. Sadly, this video is anything but!
If you want some broader context, take a look at the Joint Fiscal Office site and the news articles listed under the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission. See: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo…
A link to the clip was originally posted in the comments section of another GMD thread on Monday by someone who appears to have no previous history of participation on GMD. The clip is crudely constructed, to say the least… and it begins with a glaring error by representing Dubie as running for “re-election” as Lt. Governor.
Either this is the work of one very bad amateur; or could it possibly be a put-up job to see if Democrats could be ensnared in an embarassing rush to perpetuate misinformation?
My focus is the redirection of our State wide monetary system so that it reflects the values of the people and return the power of money to the people in a direct fashion. My premise is that ( perhaps you’ll agree) the abuse of big money is the core of our planetary crisis, thus it is the appropriate and proper use of money that is it’s remedy.
Markowitz, for example is suggesting we take the 4 billion in our treasury to lure the big banks to lend to VT, and thus move into a more abundant state, this of course is absolute ridiculosity, to coin a term, since they will then charge us interest and money will be sucked from us. The better plan is to form our OWN state bank and make loans for the things we wish to see in the state with the interest from those loans returning to our treasury. This has been done in North Dakota since 1919, and they are the only state that has job and income growth. We would not only recession-proof our state, but as well get on with the job of making a permenant budget surplus and the elimination of rob…..- taxation (- I didn’t say robbery, did I ) ?
The Bank of Vermont acts as a wholesale bank, and for further empowerment of the people I want A common Good Bank in every community which is a fractional-reserve bank with the funds generated from interest in that system would be directed into projects as per the depositors through a democratic voting system. Thus the Common Good communities revive themselves as per their collective local vision. A governor will be able to instruct and educate the people as to their power, given a governor is not motivated by greed and I am free of that addiction as is Dennis Steele, but none of the major party candidates have that conquered..I will invite Dennis into my administration.
AS well, my administration will implement a Vermont Unit of exchange ( VU hereafter) , this being a tool to protect us from pending collapse of the Federal Reserve Banking system. It is a measure of value that I will press into service to lift the people of Vermont into more abundant exchange in their communities, and a way to provoke community involvement where we have had many people simply on the take- because perhaps they rightly are disgusted with the government and it corruption.
Lastly a Credit Card that is Anthony Pollina’s plan, we neeed that in VT.
Now in the marvelous reality that I am elected, I will be addressing a number of important imbalances that have come into existence through the abandonment of common law and the adoption of commercial code jurisprudence. In very brief: I see the curative powers of hemp as a challenge to cancer industry. I see the lock up of our youth as simply a means of separating the have-nots from the have-mores, and I see it as both unhealing and criminal, instead we return to a citizen grand jury basis for prosecution.
I believe we have to transform our State. We must have the vision of New Vermont placed before us. I will send you the platform card. You will see that I feel passionate and empowered by love of our natural world, and here in this email, I have given you what amounts to a bare bones summary of the starting point from which I want to remedy the addiction to greed and alter our current state of enabling the corporate killing of the planet to one of sovereign responsibility.