Double dip or just a long slow climb out of recession some job conditions are likely to remain in place. Problems faced by hourly, low-level workers and others struggling to make ends meet on reduced or uncertain hours are unlikely to go away as the recession ends. The extended period of high unemployment has driven down wages for some low skilled outsourced services. It was reported that some outsourced jobs, such as call centers have become as cheap to fill in the US as in India.  

An AARP bulletin based on recent bureau of labor statistic says The number of people working less than they would like, due to their hours being cut back or their inability to find a full-time job, held steady at about 8.6 million.  

In addition to being susceptible to reduced, irregular and fluctuating hours, hourly and part time workers are sometimes not eligible for employee benefits from employers. Part-time workers may not receive unemployment benefits when laid off.  

“Certainly the current recession is contributing to underemployment, as evidenced by the proportion of American workers classified as ‘involuntary part-time,’”

said Susan Lambert and Julia Henly in their forthcoming paper, “Work Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions.

”. The Census Bureau uses the term for those who work less than 35 hours a week because they could not find a full-time job or those who work reduced hours due to “slack demand.” In November 2009, 9.2 million workers fell in this category, the highest level in recorded history

People are talking about it.

A series of four regional forums are planned this Fall by the White House on the issue of workplace flexibility in low wage and manufacturing sectors.

Researchers Henly and Lambert expect the needs of workers for stable adequate hours and benefits will be discussed.

An increasingly large part of the work force has a stake in these job issues.  

A sixty-four-year-old California resident named Peter McFarland fell and injured his leg on his way into his home. His wife called paramedics, who arrived, treated him and left. He happened to jokingly remark to them that he was in so much pain that if he had a gun he would just shoot himself.  Shortly afterward Marin County Sheriffs arrived and entered his home uninvited.  

Although he explained that he was in pain and the remark was hyperbole, the sheriffs attempted to force him to go to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. McFarland and his wife can be seen in the disturbing seven-minute video (filmed by a deputy) repeatedly asking them to leave. Totally fed-up and angry, he finally tried to leave his living room and was tasered three times.

He is now suing the county.

The Sheriff's department defended their actions stating, "the decision to resort to the use of force is never taken lightly."

Vermont is not immune to taser incidents: in March of this year a homeless person was tasered in Barre in an incident that is ‘under investigation.’

And in 2009 the State of Vermont paid an out of court settlement of $40,000.00 for a State Police tasing incident that took place in 2006.

 

 Rumors started last week that Entergy may be putting Vermont Yankee out for sale. An energy trade publication carried the story but Entergy has had no comment.

Now the Rutland Herald reports Entergy and one other company (not named) tried to pull out mid way through a power contract auction run by ISO the operator of the New England power grid.  

ISO-New England Inc. held the auction. ISO spokeswoman Ellen Foley said that Entergy Nuclear participated until the fifth round of the auction and then requested to “delist,” or pull out of the auction, a move which was denied by ISO-New England, citing grid reliability concerns.  

The auction was held Aug. 2 and 3, and Entergy’s request came on Aug. 2, Foley said. Entergy did not request in advance to pull out of the auction, she said. By law, every power generator must participate in such power capacity auctions.

Vermont Department of Public Service David O’Brien’s reaction is notable.

O’Brien, Vermont’s advocate for the people of the state of Vermont in these matters didn’t ask why Entergy attempted to withdraw from the auction. Rather than find out the facts or an explanation for Entergy’s behavior he simply brushed aside the question and raised fears of reliability.  

David O’Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said he did not ask Entergy why it tried to withdraw from the auction. But he said the more important issue was what the loss of Vermont Yankee would have on the New England power grid.

Through an unusual set of circumstances Green Mountain Daily has obtained a sneak preview of some raw footage of what is believed the next RGA funded commercial in support of Brian Dubie’s candidacy. Insiders shown the ad speculate it will soon be released in co-ordination with his long awaited Ten Point Plan.  

In the un-edited spot, a fit looking Lt.Gov. stands beside an easel and helpfully points at his Ten Point Plan and expounds on his vision for Vermont’s future. The comprehensive list notes the importance of relaxation, grooming and positive attitude.

No doubt some of the less polished moments will be edited out of the final piece. However, this uncut version offers a unique glimpse into the campaign’s strategy for swaying voters with Dubie’s unadorned suggestions.

[UPDATE: AARP gubernatorial debate set for tonight has been POSTPONED to Sept. 26, according to the Associated Press.]

Brian Dubie gets a few more days summer vacation and maybe the time to realize that the other side has already figured out its opponent.

“You know what I talked about this morning? I did the final edits on my 10-point jobs plan that I look forward to discussing ,” Dubie said. “The other side will figure out their opponent and when they do I look forward to the debate that will happen.” Times-Argus

Labor Day and September is looking us in the face and Dubie is still polishing his jobs plan.

It reportedly has 10 points, which by now must be quite well polished and edited. He had time to polish in June. He was reportedly polishing in July. He continued polishing in August and reports indicate he will to polish into September.

We all look forward to seeing his ten point plan.  

Those potentially awkward debates will have to wait too. The close democratic primary results have put the debates front and center into prime election period. Debate shy Dubie had scheduled his first debate with the democratic candidate this Thursday. This delay may increase the potential statewide audience and importance of a forum he is noted for being weak in.  It will shine the spotlight on a part time Lt. Gov. with a history of phoning it in.  

UPDATE: I may not have made it exactly clear as Doug Hoffer mentions in the comment below there was no asterix prior to Doug Hoffers press release. So it was a retro-active CYA on Salmon’s part.

Wednesday of last week, Democratic candidate for state auditor Doug Hoffer publicly asked Auditor Tom Salmon to explain why his office has not released an audit of the Vermont Yankee decommissioning fund requested by the legislature almost three years ago.  

Today Hoffer points out and questions why Tom Salmon lists the Vermont Yankee Audit and two other reports on his reelection webpage as accomplishments (followed by a discreet asterix [*] noting they are drafts not yet fully accomplished).

Hoffer believes Salmon should explain why his campaign website lists these three reports as “accomplishments” even though the reports have not been released. “It’s a little puzzling why the State Auditor feels the need to puff up his record with reports that haven’t been released” said Hoffer.

Says Hoffer: A section of Mr. Salmon’s campaign website entitled “Activities and Accomplishments since the 2008 Election,” includes these three titles: Monitoring and Management of the Entergy Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Fund, Situation Report at WNESU, and Comparison between a Unified Supervisory District and a Multi-Board non-unified Supervisory Union.  

Salmon, who has been back in the state almost a week after attending a national state auditor’s convention (according to the Vermont View), is not returning reporters phone calls and has apparently not responded to Hoffer’s initial query. Certainly he will answer phone calls and respond at some point because, as he says on his webpage:

“Politics is calling for warriors. Step up and tell the truth with civility; people are starving for it.”  -T.M.S.

   The past may offer clues as to how negative the friends of Team Dubie might go in a close race this fall. This week the AP did some notable reporting about Brian Dubie and the Green Mountain Prosperity PAC. The report stands out in contrast to much of the coverage of Dubie’s substance-averse, image-driven campaign by opening a window into the actual character his campaign is taking and who his camp followers are.  

Green Mountain Prosperity is RGA’s spin-off PAC set up to assist the Dubie campaign. Some finance filing disclosure questions are being brought up. The article noted that GMP PAC to date has reported no expenditures, thus saving its money for later, which has been the pattern with the RGA’s tactics in the past. Late in the 2004 election, the RGA spent a huge $300,000 in advertising support for Gov. Douglas’s re-election.  

With this in mind, it is worth remembering Dubie’s 2004 campaign benefited late in the election from another PAC’s money. [see who below the fold]

Ultimately the outcome wasn’t close, but even into the last days of October the three way race for Lt. Governor was considered close by the press. One late October headline read: Candidates for Lt. Gov. campaign in tight race and said that the candidates “Find themselves in a competitive race in the final days before the election”  

In 2004, the American Taxpayers Alliance (ATA) spent $50,000 in support of Dubie to run a series of controversial ads late in the campaign. In the days before Brietbart and Youtube, maybe akin to Nixon’s dirty tricksters, they featured distorted and out of context quotes and broadcasted his opponents’ home phone numbers.    

The ATA (a so called stealth PAC) avoided having to disclose donors or beneficiaries and operated without direct coordination from the Dubie campaign. I can’t find any record of Dubie commenting at the time on these ads or ever disavowing their negative style or content in any way.  

The Times Argus wrote that year about the level of negative campaigning in Vermont.  About the ATA’s Dubie ads they said:  

Another negative ad campaign was a nearly $50,000 affair funded by the American Taxpayers Alliance. Unlike the RGA, the alliance is a so-called stealth political action committee, because its donors and beneficiaries are not disclosed.  

The campaign – putatively on behalf of Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie – featured out-of-context and distorted remarks about former state Sen. Cheryl Rivers, who, along with Progressive Steve Hingtgen, ran against Dubie. The ad concluded with Rivers' home telephone number

 Green Mountain Prosperity a political action committee recently formed as an offshoot of Haley Barbour’s Republican Governor’s Association is funneling big money to Brian Dubie.  

It is reported Green Mount Prosperity raised nearly $160, 00 from donations of $100 or more with some of the money having been originally donated to the RGA.  

Some who made their checks out to the RGA have complained that they never intended to give money to this group for a Vermont election race.

The manner in which checks initially made out to the national RGA (and funneled to the new Green Mountain Prosperity PAC) should be listed remains unresolved according to reports.

Nowhere on its July 15 campaign finance filing with the secretary of state’s office does the PAC note that it is an offshoot of the RGA or that its purpose is to help Dubie. The office does have on a file a spreadsheet showing a registration of a "bank designation" in February of "Green Mountain Prosperity PAC (fka[sic] Republican Governors Association – Vermont PAC)."  

Dubie’s campaign denied any knowledge of Green Mountain Prosperity PAC, but welcomed the help.

Here in Vermont in 2004 the RGA was the subject of a superior court injunction forcing it to halt running campaign ads after their funding was thought to have violated the law by failing to register as a PAC and properly report its advertising expenditures.  

It’s worth noting that Dennise Casey, Jim Douglas’s longtime campaign staffer and Deputy Chief of Staff who left in 2009, now works at the RGA.

In the past Virginia gubernatorial race, which may be a model for the Dubie campaign, the RGA funded a last minute attack ad campaign against Bob McDonnell’s opponent.  

Last week after an eight-month battle, and with the unemployment rate hovering at 10%, an extension of unemployment benefits barely squeaked through congress. It was quickly signed into law by President Obama.

Often little sympathy is extended to the unemployed who through no fault of their own suffer long and short-term job loss due to the recession.

Try multiple times an hour, think of it as a radio contest, just hit the redial button said Vermont’s former labor commissioner in early 2009 with little sympathy as she offered unemployed workers advise on how to deal long delays on her departments overwhelmed phone lines.  Unemployment remains high here in Vermont and even higher Nationwide.

Now, building on recent efforts to get this bill through congress, some national online networks of unemployed workers and labor groups hope to marshal a get-out-the-vote effort this November. These organizations are working to register the unemployed to vote and plan to offer traditional-get-out-the-vote assistance.  

Essentially, the unemployed form an enormous political constituency — more than 30 million Americans have been out of a job at some point during the recession — but they have tended to be disenfranchised. Labor groups and grassroots movements [are] hoping to change that — pressing the unemployed to do everything from calling Senate offices to showing up at Republican town halls to voting. (from the Washington Independent here and here.)

Traditionally the unemployed have low voting turnout rates, however the head of layofflist.org (started in 2008) said that “…rather than losing interest in politics since the end of the fight for extended benefits, the unemployed are ‘energized and motivated’ and have started looking forward to the fall.”

Labor groups like Working America, local political groups and the unemployed netroots are working to register the unemployed to vote and to offer rides, childcare and eldercare for jobless workers to get them voting. Of course, these sort of get-out-the-vote efforts are commonplace. They are also very effective.

A spokesman for the labor group Working America said: “We work against wrong-headed priorities favoring the rich and corporate special interests over America's well-being.”