An excerpt:

“I don’t want to make it sound like Fair Haven’s completely archaic, but they had to shut down the gay/straight alliance at our high school because there were so many threats,” Holden says.

That happened just before his freshman year. He wanted to revive it, but others were reluctant.

“Even the teacher who was running it got threats. Coming out shouldn’t be as difficult as it is. Gay news on TV and in newspapers is all about the struggle. There are happy sides to being gay. Some people actually get ‘happily ever after’ or as close as you can get. I think there are a lot of people who could use a story like this.”

Even so, Holden’s five-word explanation of “I just like helping people” may not seem reason enough for an introvert to speak out so publicly. And so you ask one more time about his motivation that freshman year.

From
Gay teen says state isn’t always so civil, Rutland Herald, 8/19/2007

Vermont’s got a reputation for being pro-gay; we did Civil Unions back when they were uncool, and we’ve got a reputation for being a lefty state, but it’s really a lot more complicated than that.  There are major lefty elements here, but they intersect with reactionary wingnut elements in strange and bizarre ways.  Don’t get me wrong: I love Vermont, but a lot of nasty homophobic stuff came out during the civil unions meetings and there were some real prejudices unveiled during that time and even for the next couple years later.

Anyway, I posted the above excerpt (and it’s worth reading the whole article) because I think it reflects what a lot of us go through, regardless of when and where we come out.

per the Rutland Herald:

Vermont’s senior senator is coming to a theater near you.
Patrick Leahy has landed a speaking part in “The Dark Knight,” the latest in the Batman movie series.

Apparently, Leahy will be donating the proceeds to a local library.  Very cool.

From the State of Vermont's Web site:

You are "uninsured" if you meet any one of the following circumstances:

You currently have health insurance but it covers ONLY hospital care OR doctor’s visits

 

You have not had health insurance for the past 12 months

 

You had health insurance in the past 12 months but lost it because you:

 

• lost your job
• got divorced
• no longer have COBRA coverage
• became ineligible for Medicaid or VHAP
• had insurance through someone else who died
• are no longer a dependent on your parent’s insurance
• graduated, took a leave of absence, or finished college or university and purchased your insurance through school

Does anyone else notice what's missing here?  It doesn't provide an exception if you lost your medical insurance because your spouse or civil union partner became unemployed.  If your partner dies, you are eligible.  If you get divorced your are eligible.  But if you're getting insurance through someone who loses their job and you therefore lose your insurance, there's no indication in here that you're eligible for catamount.

Is this just a minor error on their web site or did I just find a major gap in eligibility here?

You.  Have.  Got.  To.  Be. Kidding.  Me.

From the Brattleboro Reformer:

One police officer, who attended the Selectboard meeting “on his own behalf,” said the protesters were being irresponsible, pulling officers away from their more serious duties.

“We are a very busy department,” said Detective Eric Johnson, who said he sympathized with the protesters but disagreed with their decision to not leave the property when ordered to by police.

“If we go to a scene and ask you to please leave, just leave and move to a public place,” he said. “Our responsibility is to enforce the law,” adding “if I ask them to leave and they don’t, what am I to do?”

Oddly enough, one of the protesters had a fairly good idea about that:

“All they had to do was take our water away from us and we would have been gone in 48 hours,” said Kilmurray, after speaking at Tuesday night’s Selectboard meeting.

Congratulations, Brattleboro Police Department.  You’ve taken a minor protest by a very small group of people and turned it into something much bigger.

The AP is running a piece that both the Reformer and the Rutland Herald picked up, Critics Say Governor Not Serious on Climate and it doesn’t paint Douglas in a very good light.  An excerpt:

[Douglas]… repeatedly called on lawmakers to get past the climate change issue and focus on his agenda of job creation, lowering taxes and making Vermont more affordable.

Democrats maintain that they are the real guardians of the state’s economy.

They point to fast-growing companies like NRG Systems Inc. of Hinesburg, which makes testing equipment for the wind power industry, as well as to the jobs they said would have been created insulating houses and upgrading boilers had their bill become law.

The bill “had to do with creating job opportunities for Vermonters,” House Speaker Gaye Symington said. “It had to do with helping to make energy more affordable for Vermonters, as well as reducing our carbon footprint, which is critical to our economy in the long run.”

An open question is whether Vermonters care as much about climate change as legislative leaders think they should, and whether Douglas’ veto of an energy bill aimed at addressing it will cost him at the ballot box.

From today’s Rutland Herald, Cash-strapped towns embrace wind projects:

Clinton and Ellenburg [both in neighboring New York] are cash-strapped communities dependent on dairy farming and jobs in towns miles away. Wind turbines mean subsidy money in the town coffers, and opportunities.

“It’s going to help the school out. It’s helping everybody out with their taxes,” said Trombley. “It’s helped a lot of people as far as work.”
[…]
Several towns in western Rutland County may soon have to make the same choices that Trombley and her neighbors faced. Noble is eyeing the ridgeline around Grandpa’s Knob as a site for another wind farm, and already has begun preliminary tests and talks with landowners in Castleton, Hubbardton and West Rutland. The company has set up an office in the Chittenden Building in Rutland.

Trombley acknowledged the wind turbines generated some debate; and there was a steep learning curve among some residents. But Noble worked with the communities, and even individual landowners, to allay concerns. It did not persuade everyone.

For Trombley, it comes down to one thing: making farming a little more practical.

“Put aside everything else, if you have the land and it makes your life easier,” she said. “My husband’s worked hard all his life, and I look forward to the day he can slow down a little. I’d love to be able to cut back a little bit and take it easy.”

Whenever I visit the Western part of the state, I see huge tracts of open farmland which would be perfect locations for wind turbines.  Arrangements where Farmers agree to allocate small portions of their fields for a power system in exchange for a subsidy to cover the lost land plus a percentage of the profits are, as far as I’m concerned, win-win: clean fuel product with no negative effect on the environment.

As far as ridgeline turbines go: I totally get that people are afraid of losing the aesthetics of mountain ranges.  This is a big deal and if we start producing wind turbines on Vermont’s mountain tops, someone’s going to feel like they lost something precious.  I don’t blame them. 

I also, however, think there’s real damage to not adapting to new sources of power.  Wind and solar are existing technologies which work and don’t produce damage to the atmosphere.  They’re more efficient than biofuels and have the potential to draw back long-term damage to the environment produced by greenhouse gases.

Per The Rutland Herald:

A day after the Legislature failed to override his vetoes, Gov. Jim Douglas on Thursday labeled legislative Democrats “big losers,” faulting them for what he said was a lack of civility.

“I think the big losers yesterday are the Democrats. I’m sure they understand that. They decided to bring the Legislature back and suffered two defeats,” Douglas said.

I think it’s time we start to really seriously look at why this guy keeps getting reelected and how to keep this sort of nonsense in the public eye.

Most of you know me as a result of one specific action I took shortly before the 2006 election.  Namely I accidentally uncovered a set of policy statements and press releases from Martha Rainville which were stolen from other politicians and then sent evidence of those stolen statements pretty much everywhere I could find.  Since I’m a frontpager now, I’m posting this to give a little more context to who I am and what my interests are.  So… 

I’m an avid bird photographer and musician.  I also design web sites professionally and teach a variety of subjects at the undergraduate college level.  As a hobby, I design a variety of puzzles (word, math, logic, etc.) and, for personal reasons, I refuse to post solutions to the puzzles.  I figure, if you want the solution, you can take the time to solve the problem.

I’ve lived in Vermont since 2000 and have been an off-and-on activist my whole adult life.  My activism started in the 1980’s with protests against US covert support of the Contras in Nicaragua and has continued on a wide range of issues– HIV/AIDS, animal cruelty, LGBT issues, environment as well as a host of others.

I should probably clarify my positions:

LGBT issues: I’m for full equality under the law, which means either equal marriage rights, or (my preferred solution) leave marriage to religious institutions and treat it as a contract issue with respect to civil marriage; full employment equality under the law,

Environment: I’m strong proponent of natural resources and leaving large tracts without human interference or with only very low-impact use, such as the Nature Conservancy sites around the world.  I’m also a fan of buildings which work with the environment rather than treating it as an enemy to be tamed.  I heard a piece on NPR a few months ago about temporary housing which was designed to be torn down and turned into gardens when it was finished.  I.e., the walls were made of biodegradable material and inside the casing was topsoil with seeds– after a year of living in the housing, you tear down the walls and put it on the ground and, viola! — instant garden.

HIV/AIDS and animal cruelty: I’m against them both.

I’ve never identified with a formal political party and I’m not a great fan of either Democrats or Republicans, but for me it’s more a matter of being able to enthusiastically support about 30% of what Democrats do and 1% of what Republicans do. There are some great Democrats out there who are often hindered by the more mediocre elements of the party.  I’m a fan of the phrase “more better Democrats.”  I.e., it’s not about getting Democrats elected.  It’s about getting more good democrats elected.

I’m a big fan of people being smart.  I don’t mean intelligent which has a lot more to do with genetics and upbringing, but I mean being willing to think things through and look past the simple and obvious choices.  There are all sorts of excuses for not being good at thinking past obvious solutions.  There are no excuses for not even bothering to try.

This, of course, gets me in trouble.  I have no respect for stupid and there’s plenty of stupid from people both left and right and I’m not particularly hesitant to identify something as stupid, even if it makes my own side look bad.

I am a strong believer in civil dialogue, even (maybe even especially) when someone’s being very nasty to me.  Civil dialogue doesn’t mean I don’t stand up for myself or allow myself to be bullied.  It means I don’t engage in name-calling and if I say something that’s going to be taken as an insult I be very specific and factual in terms of what, exactly, I am trying to say and why I think it’s relevant.

Okay, I think I’ve said enough about me.  I’m going to end with a little video I stuck on youtube awhile ago– just an improvisation of some guitar stuff that I did for fun.

Meet Lousiana Republican David Vitter.



Sometimes its fun when Republicans do the work for us.