How many more times will we have to learn about maintenance issues at Vermont Yankee before Jim Douglas presents a plan for transitioning to other sources of power if this aging plant has to be shut down?

Vermont’s business community needs to know that this major source of power is reliable. Vermonters need to know that it is safe. This incident underlines the need to have an independent assessment of Vermont Yankee and raises further questions about the wisdom of continuing to rely so heavily on it as major part of our power supply.

Believe that? Me neither.

Shay Totten has the story that the Second Vermont Republic has decided to make a clean break from the (openly) racist League of the South.  

UPDATE–MAKE SURE TO READ THE COMMENTS AT SEVEN DAYS!! 

 The famous Thomas “Don't Call Me a Racist” Naylor has published a letter called (I'm not making this up)  

To The League of the South From Vermont With Love

Yes, you read that right: “With Love”. That's only the first reason to question the sincerity of this “break”, however. If you read the letter, you will see that, far from acknowledging the racism of the League of the South, Naylor treats it as no more than a PR problem.

Naylor thinks racism is no more than a problem of perception.  Naylor covers some history, and then begins with the racist aroma surrounding secession movements: “Secession is often equated with Southern, redneck, Christian fundamentalist racism. Anyone who is a secessionist is considered a likely racist, but a Southern secessionist is a racist a priori. Since the LOS is a Southern secessionist group, it’s hardly surprising that there is a widespread perception that it is racist”. Get it? There's nothing racist about LOS, but for some bizarre reason, people think that southern secessionists have some racist ideas. According to Naylor, this idea is no more than a “knee-jerk reaction” on the part of most Americans. It's not that there actually is any racism involved in secessionists, it's just “equated with” southern racism. The problem isn't the racist ideas, it's that people can't stop thinking about them. There's nothing wrong with it except those unfortunate associations with “images of the Civil War, slavery, racism, violence, and preservation of the Southern way of life.”

This unfortunate perception even infects the cultural symbols of the South. For instance, here's Naylor on the Confederate flag: Whether justifiably or not, most Southern blacks view the Confederate flag as an overt racist symbol aimed at rubbing salt in their 400-year wounds.

 “Whether justifiably or not?” He really thinks there is some question about this? Try this little thought experiment: “Whether justifably or not, most Jews view the Nazi flag as an overt anti-Semitic symbol aimed at rubbing salt in their wounds.” If you read this as a serious proposition, would you conclude that the author understands that the Nazi flag is actually a symbol of anti-Semitism, or would you think that the entire problem is in the eye of the beholder? Clearly, if Naylor thinks that the display of the Confederate flag (maybe it's just a coincidence that many southern states started flying it during the Civil Rights Movement) has nothing to do with racism, he lacks the ability to detect racism in himself and others, a basic tool for identifying and extirpating it.

Or, take this line:  “And in a similar vein, nothing enrages Southern blacks more than the singing of “Dixie.” Oh yeah, like when Jesse Helms used to start singing Dixie whenever Carol Moseley Braun got on the Senate elevator, vowing that he would keep singing it until he made her cry. Yup, in Naylor's view, the only people who have any objection to these racist displays are “Southern blacks”. Funny how touchy a few centuries of slavery and oppression can make you, isn't it?

  Naylor ignores the reality of modern racism. In the world according to Naylor, racism is all in the past, but since Bush 43 became president that's all gone away. Bush's appointment of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice “sent a very clear signal to white racists everywhere that racism was no longer part of the national agenda.” Really? Well, here's what Bush's pal, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just said about racist dog Jesse Helms: “He put duty above all else — duty to God, to country, to family … the simple duty of treating other people well.” And famous right wing preacher Billy Graham called Helms “a man of consistent conviction to conservative ideals and courage to faithfully serve God and country based on principle, not popularity or politics.”

And yet, to hear Naylor say it, racism is gone from the modern scene, except when practiced by Democrats like Bill Clinton, and even then it doesn't work.  “White South Carolina Democrats got the message and voted for Obama. Guess what, Tom? That's because the white racists who used to make up the Democratic Party in the South became Republicans! 

 Naylor attacks anti-racist organizations. For instance, he refers to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has spent decades investigating and suing the KKK and other racist organizations a “race-baiting” organization.

Naylor is blind to true racism. Up is down, black is white in Naylor's world. After reciting a long history of racism, the use of racist symbols, and calling on them to start letting black people to join, who does Naylor think is ideally suited to unite all southerners, black and white? You guessed it, the League of the South.

So there we have it. In the world according to Naylor, the Southerners who run the League of the South, fly Confederate flags, and sing “Dixie” aren't really racists, they just suffer from unfortunate associations. The real racists and race-baiters are people like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Bill Clinton, who have actually worked for the cause of racial justice. And the reason SVR can't continue to work hand0n-hand with the LOS is not because the LOS is an irredeemably racist organization, but because it makes SVR look bad. If they could just fix those pesky perceptions they can be friends again.

For us here at GMD, though, it's clear that Naylor hasn't changed, and we continue to believe that SVR has no place in the legitimate debates on Vermont's future. 

Did you catch Douglas's complaints about the Vermont Yankee audit panel? I did, and you just have to conclude that they don't have any sense of irony.

The background: the Legislature created a new panel to look at Vermont Yankee and its operations.

Douglas got to appoint somebody, Gaye Symington got to appoint somebody, and Peter Shumlin got to appoint somebody.

Gaye appointed Peter Bradford, who used to serve on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Peter appointed Arnie Gunderson, a nuclear engineer (they don't give out licenses to operate a nuclear power plant out in cereal boxes) who got a lot of exposure when this picture was taken.

Naturally, Douglas attacks these two appointees because they're enemies of nuclear power.  

“These appointees today clearly have a bias against nuclear power,” said Stephen Wark, director of consumer and public affairs at the Department of Public Service. “This is not a referendum on nuclear power.”

Oh, but wait a minute, who did Douglas appoint? This guy:

 Not a familiar face? That's Larry Hochreiter, a professor at Penn State since 1997. Apparently a pretty smart guy. He's got a Ph. D. in nuclear engineering, he's a member of the American Nuclear Society. He undoubtedly knows a lot, probably including how to pronounce “nuclear” which gives him an edge over Douglas's buddy in the White House.

But, and you'll like this, you know what he was doing from 1971, the year he got his Ph. D., until 1996?  According to his resume he was a:

Senior and Advisory Engineer, Westinghouse Energy Systems Business Unit

And what do they do?

Westinghouse Energy Systems helped pioneer the commercial nuclear power
business and today holds the premier position for nuclear fuel, services and    
technology in the $9 billion annual global market.

 I'm not saying Hochreiter will be anything but professional and unbiased in this work. 

What I am saying is that Douglas has to be kidding if he thinks he can appoint a guy to this study panel who worked for the nuclear industry for twenty-five years, and then get away with attacking people who have sometimes been critical of nuclear energy for being biased. 

GMD has it on good authority that former Rutland and Brattleboro State Rep. Tom Costello is about to announce his candidacy for Lieutenant Governor.

Costello is an attorney who served four years in the House representing Rutland in the late 1970's, and another six years representing Brattleboro in the late 1990's, chairing the Judiciary and General Affairs committees, but he's been out of elected politics since 2000.

Known for his strong personality, Costello promises to be a strong candidate, although the fact that he's been out of politics for so long, and that he's from Brattleboro, would suggest that he's got some work to do to raise his profile.

We don't have a confirmation from the candidate, but we'll be keeping our eyes open. If true, this would mean that we've gone from zero candidates to a pair, giving us a primary for Lt. Gov.

hit the unemployment line.

From yesterday's Times Argus:

MONTPELIER – Gov. James Douglas' administration on Monday defended nearly $300,000 in merit bonuses given to state officials in the months before it proposed cutting 400 jobs from the state rolls due to the downturn in the economy.

The state government awarded about $280,000 in bonuses to more than 100 state workers in the last year, including top executive officials such as Secretary of Commerce Kevin Dorn and Douglas Spokesperson Jason Gibbs . . .

So what's the problem?

I think the problem is the next seven words of the sentence:  

Progressive candidate for governor Anthony Pollina said.

I knew about this Monday night, so I have to bet that Gaye Symington's campaign knew it, too. Why wasn't Gaye on the front pages attacking Douglas for this instead of Pollina?

I'm just asking. I want Gaye to win, I know Anthony can't, so I want the campaign for Symington to be as effective as it can possibly be.

So let's do it. 

From today's Times Argus:

MONTPELIER – There is a Democrat running for Lieutenant governor: Blogger, school board member and upholsterer Nate Freeman said Monday he will try to unseat incumbent Republican Brian Dubie this fall.

“We haven't seen the lieutenant governor's office really do anything other than a ceremonial role over the last six years,” said Freeman, who lives in Northfield. “We forget the role played by Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean.”

 Nate joined us at the Washington County Democratic Committee meeting last night to share his ideas, collect signatures for his petition, and get some good campaign advice. I don't think anyone is understating the difficulty of this race, but it's not as though Brian Dubie has left deep footprints in the job.

If I'm walking down the street and the police ask me to break into your house, rifle through your possessions, and bring them anything I think they might be interested in, I could be prosecuted, charged with burgalary, breaking and entering, theft, and unlawful trespass, and besides that, you could sue me for it.

Now, according to the bill that Bush and the House of Representatives want to pass, if the police asked me to do it, my criminal acts would suddenly be legal.

I'm talking about the new FISA legislation. Last year many of us were hugely supportive of Chris Dodd because he stood up to the administration and the Senate leadership and he was willing to filibuster to block FISA, and especially the retroactive immunity provisions.

Now it's back and Obama is saying he's going to support the bill even with the retroactive immunity provision in it.

I am so angry I am thinking about asking our delegation not to support him in Denver.

Before doing that, though, there is a way for Obama supporters to make their voices heard. If you go to www.mybarackobama.com you can sign up with the group called Senator Obama – Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right.

Since last Wednesday more than 6000 Obama supporters have signed up, probably 4000 since noon yesterday.

I've been trying to get the message through every way I can. As soon as I learn that Obama has a staff person in Vermont I'll post that information. Obama needs to hear this. Maybe if we rise up with one voice, and make clear that we aren't going along with Bush's assault on our civil liberties, and we don't want him to go along with it either, it will make a difference.

I just got this from Philip. Every time you see something from that POS Lieberman he's more insufferable than he was before. For instance, in an interview with ABC News he parroted the Republicans' Willie Horton line against Obama:

“In fairness we don't know if Rev. Wright said these inflammatory, anti-American, racial comments every Sunday, but I would not continue to go to a synagogue where that kind of rhetoric was spoken,” Lieberman said, adding, “I think it did raise questions in people's minds about why did he stay in the church that long,” but he said he would “take (Obama) at his word” and move on.

Now there's a new site, with a petition you can sign to go to the Senate leadership:

 Demand the Steering Committee remove Joe Lieberman's position within the Democratic Caucus.

 I've already signed, and you should go over there and sign too.

I rode the bus out to Waterbury today, the same as I do every Tuesday and Thursday, and when we got to Waterbury, Rep. Sue Minter got on for her ride to Montpelier, along with someone I didn't recognize. Sue introduced us, and then said to him, “Tom, do you have something to tell Jack?”

 It was longtime Waterbury Selectman Tom Stevens, and his news was that he is running to replace Robert Dostis, who's just announced he's not running for reelection.

Tom Stevens, former chairman of both the Waterbury Town Select Board and the Village Trustees, would like to take on a new leadership role: state representative.

Stevens, 47, of Waterbury announced this week that he is running as a Democrat for Waterbury’s open legislative seat.

Rep. Bob Dostis, D-Waterbury, announced last month that he wouldn’t run for re-election after eight years in office. Dostis represents the legislative district for Waterbury, Duxbury, Huntington, and Buels Gore.

 I think this is great news. Tom is well-known in the district, has experience in Waterbury electoral politics, and is well-placed to enable us to hold the seat for the Democrats. This should be a good year for Democrats, but we need strong candidates like Tom to make the most of it.

It's worth pointing this out once again.

 Remember a couple of years ago when Dems in the legislature handed Douglas a big political victory by passing Catamount Health, the phony health insurance program for the working poor?

Well, once again there's a report on enrollment, and once again, enrollment is well below expectations. 

How far below?

The state had estimated that by the end of May about 5,978 residents would be enrolled in the state-subsidized version of Catamount; that actual enrollment at the end of the month stands at 3,918.

The numbers are even worse for the full-cost Catamount product. Estimates for May enrollment was 2,547, but so far only 470 Vermonters have chosen the option for their personal health insurance.

I have to say I'm not surprised. People don't have extra money in their budgets, and they don't perceive Catamount as a legitimate or valuable program. Why spend money you don't have on “insurance” that gives you no reason to believe will pay when you need it?

There are two times we need to keep this experience in mind:

1. When we listen to McCain saying that giving people tax credits to cover a fraction of the price of a health insurance plan will actually get people to buy health insurance; and

2. The next time Democrats in the legislature are thinking about whether to cave to another Douglas plan, or to stand up for something real.