Today at 9:00 AM, Middlebury College professor and internationally renowned author and activist Bill McKibben will address a joint House/Senate Committee at the Vermont Statehouse to discuss the urgency of addressing Climate Change. Although he’s not going in with any prepared statement, he did offer the following to pass along regarding the website he and six recent Middlebury grads launched a few days ago – stepitup07.org – to coordinate a national day of action on climate change on April 14th. According to the website, there are already 94 local events planned in 30 states, but obviously much more help is needed. The following is from the email he sent out announcing the site:

Dear Friend-
I’m writing to ask your help. I know you’ve already made changes in your own life to deal with climate change; I’m guessing that, like me, you feel a little helpless about the scale of the problem. Some of us who are eager to do something more are organizing a day of demonstrations for April 14. We’re calling ourselves Stepitup2007.org, and we need you to be a vital part-to organize a rally in your neck of the woods. If everyone pitches in, we’ll have by far the largest action yet in this nation about global warming-large enough that Washington will notice and start to act.

It’s going to be an unusual day. People will be rallying in many of America’s most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting ice sheets on Mt. Hood and in Glacier National Park, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West and Hawaii. But we need hundreds of rallies outside churches, and in city parks, and in rural fields. It’s not a huge task-assemble as many folks as possible, hoist a banner, take a picture. We’ll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web-before the day is out, we’ll have a cascade of images to show both local and national media that Americans don’t consider this a secondary issue. That instead they want serious action now.

We’re not an organization-we’re, in essence, a few people sending out invitations to a party. A potluck. This is going to be a homemade day of action. So go to our website at stepitup2007.org, and say `here’s where I live-I want to help organize.’ We’ll coordinate the responses, introducing you to others from your area, and give you everything you need to be a leader, from banners to press releases. You don’t have to have ever done anything like this-you’re not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood. We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore’s move and want to do something-then we need you now.

And by now, we mean now. The best science tells us we have ten years to fundamentally transform our economy and lead the world in the same direction or else, in the words of NASA’s Jim Hansen, we will face a “totally different planet.” We’re calling for 80 percent carbon cuts by 2050, which would be a good first step to warding off that future. But the exact numbers are less important than the underlying message to Washington: get serious. The recent elections have given us an opening, and polling shows most Americans know there’s a problem. But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.
Please join us.

Bill McKibben

Although it’s hardly news to visitors of this site, it still can’t be said enough; it is impossible to work too hard, or move too quickly on this issue. Stop by the website and spread the word.

I’m not kidding. Please believe me when I say I WISH this wasn’t true, but it seems to be. From the AP by way of Kos and newsfortheleft:

South Carolina Democrats expect to hold the first debate of the 2008 presidential cycle on April 26 at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg County, the largest concentration of black voters in this early voting state.

The hour and a half debate at the historically black college will be televised live nationally by MSNBC, state party Chairman Joe Erwin said Monday outside the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. auditorium.

I don’t know about the rest of you, I just need a little more time between election cycles. This is gonna make me insane. I’ve been trying to ignore the Obamapalooza all around me, but I suppose it’s now completely topical.

And the Presidential drives everything else. Expect an electoral trickle-down that’ll bring the local Vermont cycle into higher gear much sooner as well (at least among political junkies – not so much the general public). Ten-to-one, this is going to necessitate that potential statewide candidates in Vermont make serious moves before the end of the 2007 session.

Addison County Democratic Senators Claire Ayer and Harold Giard were right out of the legislative gate with a slew of new bills stuck to the wall. Although several of them merit some discussion, this one in particular made me feel all warm and giddy inside. From S.16: An Act Relating to Noncompliance with the No Child Left Behind Act:

(a)  The state board of education is directed not to implement amendments to Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 made in the reauthorization of the act under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.  The board shall continue to implement the Vermont state assessment system as envisioned in No. 60 of the Acts of 1997, but shall not require more statewide testing than that authorized under Act 60.  Further, the board shall not implement the adequate yearly progress system nor require schools and school districts to meet the highly qualified teacher provisions of Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act.

(b)  Schools, school districts, supervisory unions, school administrators, teachers, other school personnel, the state board of education, and the state department of education shall comply with Vermont state law in which any provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 conflicts with state law.

The bill also specifically repeals language currently in the law that makes specific reference to adherence to NCLB.

Let’s be clear, NCLB has made a bad situation much worse. It is a turkey that mandates a cookie-cutter approach to children, teachers, school districts that is antithetical to local control, and lays the groundwork for even more direct, heavy-handed government intervention when schools fail under this deliberately underfunded (read sabotaged) regime.

Teachers don’t like it. Parents don’t like it. Liberals don’t like it. Conservatives don’t like it. In 2005, Utah Republican Governor John Huntsman was the first Governor to sign a law allowing his state’s schools to ignore NCLB provisions that conflict with state law. From commondreams.org:

During the debate, several lawmakers protested the growth of federal influence on Utah’s schools, asserting that while Washington paid 8 cents of every education dollar in the state, the law had given it virtually total control.

NCLB also generated lawsuits from districts in Vermont, Michigan and Texas, plus National Education Association chapters in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah – which famously prompted Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige to publicly call the NEA a “terrorist organization.”

Sure it comes with badly needed federal money, but not enough to matter in any meaningful way, when compared to the damage it does.

And I don’t care that Ted Kennedy co-sponsored it. Nor do his excuses and scapegoating get him off the hook for adding his name to this fiasco foisted upon American families. Big shout out to Ayer and Giard for taking the bull by the horns on this one.

From the VT Dems:

The Vermont Democratic Party announced today that Jill Krowinski has been hired to serve as Executive Director.

Krowinski, a native of North Tonawanda , New York and currently of Burlington , came to Vermont in 2002 as a Field Coordinator for the Vermont Democratic Party. In 2003 she served as the Director for the Vermont Democratic House Campaign and in 2004 as Field Director for the Vermont Democratic Party.

In 2005, Krowinski worked for House Speaker Gaye Symington (D-Jericho) as her Assistant at the Statehouse. In June 2006, she left the Speaker’s Office to work on Peter Welch’s Congressional campaign as Field Director.

Congrats Jill! Hope the high-falootin’ new job doesn’t make you re-evaluate your taste in movies…

Groovy.

From UPI:

And of course, we can’t talk about the “methods” because it might “help the enemy.” Techniques such as:

FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay military base, including one detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran and another who pulled out his hair after hours in a sweltering room.

Lest you think this is just a partisan pissing match (and if torture isn’t enough to bug you), the Project on Government Oversight sums up the stakes:

Also to keep in mind, the Executive branch is denying Congress policy documents, not detailed information on what we actually know about Al Qaeda that could tip them off–again, if they were publicly disclosed.  If the Executive gets away with keeping these documents from Congress, then our constitutional system of separation of powers will have totally failed because Congress cannot oversee without basic information such as the policies of the Executive.  Leahy, Congress and the American public should fight for these documents.

Unintentional implications can be funny.

In his verbal dismissal of blogs, bloggers, and blog readers, AP reporter Ross Sneyd seems to have not been too concerned about collateral damage from his rhetoric. On Tuesday’s switchboard, Sneyd and VPR reporter John Dillon fielded a question from a caller who asked whether or not blogs might have an effect on the upcoming legislative session. Now let’s be honest here – the real answer is “who the hell knows” – we’re, after all, in uncharted territory here, and bloggers like myself, Philip Baruth, J.D. Ryan and others are just people with access to software, web space, and who possess a pathological need to type our opinions. Clearly blogs impacted the recent elections, but how much is an open question – just as open as the switchboard caller’s question.

Sneyd attempted to hedge his bet in his response, but quickly started his eyes rolling (here’s a link to an mp3 of the question and its responses):

Sneyd:
  “…I wonder if maybe some folks who are on the blogs think they have a little bit more power than in fact they do. You know a lot of these legislators – I shouldn’t say a lot – there are some legislators who don’t even know how to use a computer, let alone get influenced by the folks who are out there, uh, you know, the political activists. So, I think there may be some impact, but I think, really you have to spend time in the Statehouse to have much of an impact on what the agenda really is.”

Now, for the record, I don’t think Sneyd really believes what he incidentally implies in his response; that only those in the Statehouse can influence lawmakers (constituents can forget those letters, phone calls, emails and hometown personal contacts, I s’pose). Nor do I think he means to suggest that many lawmakers are just too stupid to be able to use email or visit a web page. (more on the flip)

Of course, maybe he does, what do I know?

I aint Markos, so I’m not going to bludgeon the fellow with this as he does when reporters casually dismiss political blogs, but it’s worth discussing why Sneyd would suggest that blogs and the internet are irrelevent when such an assertion is, frankly, demonstrably untrue. On this blog, we’ve had comments and/or diaries from legislators of all stripes; Republican, Progressive, and Democrat (all right, all right, put the knives away – I know that’s not all stripes…). I’ve also received input and story tips via email from sitting Representatives and Senators – and I know Baruth gets a lot more of those sorts of communications than I do.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not trying to toot my own horn. Fact is I just know a lot of legislators, and whatever handful read this particular blog may only do so precisely because they know me, or Jack, or one of the other front pagers. Who the hell really knows. The point is that to suggest that blogs, email and electronic activism in general have no impact just seems goofy on its face, and to do so with such ill-considered, cavalier language is odd.

In fact, John Dillon quickly spoke up to counter Sneyd’s haphazard blog blow-off:

Dillon:
“But on the other hand, I think its a way – the blogosphere – it’s another way that the public will provide feedback to the legislature. And we’ve seen on hot button issues that the email inboxes of the lawmakers get flooded. That happens with Governor’s office – and once an issue starts bouncing around, reverberating online – in the blogosphere – you know, people emailing each other whatever, then it can amplify, and it can become just one more feedback loop, if you will, for the lawmakers. 

And people- its interesting, that there’s sort of this political, I dont know what you want to call it, but sort of the cogncoscenti of political followers in Vermont who are reading 4 or 5 blogs on a daily basis, and what is said on those blogs does have impact at least on the conventional wisdom among those people  – so, in that sense there’s another way that it’ll feed back.”

Dillon’s answer seems like the clear-headed one; blogs are a function of the internet, which is a medium for communication. Things can get communicated through them. There are certainly some people who read the blogs, but how many is hard to say – making their impact hard to gauge, but certainly not as negligible as Sneyd suggests.

I believe this is what most people in and around the Statehouse would say in one way or another, and yet it is in stark contrast to Sneyd’s analysis – a condescension he felt strongly enough not to worry about how far he may have inadvertently spread that condescension in trying to justify it.

Is this just another example of that retro, traditional-media/blog distortion zone? Was Sneyd just having a bad day?

Why do I get the feeling we’re going to be having more and more of these sorts of discussions in the coming months…?

The Speaker is the Speaker once again, and in her opening remarks before the assembly, she struck the right balance of crusading do-gooder and down-to-Earth, hands-on political pro. From her remarks:

I ask that as we consider these and other challenges and opportunities, we think beyond the next election or even the election after that. I ask that we consider how our actions or inactions today will determine the kind of state we leave to the generations that follow.

Let’s ask, What are we doing today to make sure we are leaving a prosperous and healthy state to our children and to their grandchildren?

As we build a budget are we paying the bills for the services we expect? Or are we passing debts on to our children?

As we choose our energy future what opportunities are we building for the economy to grow and prosper?

As we examine our transportation and heating habits are we doing enough to rein in the trends of global warming that threaten our four seasons and our health?

As we address the burden of property taxes in Vermont, are we looking for transient fixes that will play well for an election season, or are we taking a more fundamental look at what we ask of our public schools, how we deliver those services and whether we could do that more effectively, and whether we can lower Vermont’s reliance on property as a measure of wealth in school taxes?

As we look at options for investing in the next generation, how we are preparing our youth for the economy of the future, and are we creating an electronic, rail and road infrastructure that will be relevant in our global economy.

As we consider how best to provide safe communities, do our actions provide only perceived incremental safety today, or are we making investments that lower the rate of increase in crime and the rate of increase in the cost of our corrections system?

We must think of our decisions in the context of longer term consequences, not just getting by for this year and next, but building a more secure and prosperous future for the generations to come.

Obviously words aren’t actions, but they are still very important. There’s a cacophonous game of telephone that goes on at the Statehouse, giving rise to legislation that squeezes out painfully when enough pressure gets applied. This first address sets the tone for a lot of that cacophony, so it is not without some import, if nothing else as a preview of coming attractions. If she can sustain this tenor and quality of rhetoric, it’ll make it easier to deliver when the crunch is on.

From The Nation Online’s John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism (emphasis added):

Nancy Pelosi may have tried to take impeachment off the table, but the AfterDowningStreet.org crew, led by the indomitable David Swanson, kept forcing it back on. Their coalition’s website remains the “go-to” place for the latest on investigations, inquiries, subpoenas, legal actions and every other move to hold this president and vice president to account. And their passion for empowering citizens to promote “impeachment from below” and other accountability initiatives has forged a loose-knit but very real national movement. Watch for this movement to get a lot more attention in March, when a drive organized by Newfane, Vermont, town selectman and impeachment impresario Dan DeWalt and others will see dozens of town meetings endorse articles of impeachment.

Well deserved kudos, Dan. Congatulations and thanks.

It’s 2007, and I’ve asked current and former front pagers about renewing their involvement with GMD, as well as brought on a couple new/old faces. The “official” GMD front pagers going into the New Year are:

Brattlerouser – he of the linkdumps, and occasional other unexpected goodies
Ed Garcia (kestrel9000)
Jack McCullough
Kagro X
NanuqFC
odum
Vermonter

I’m adding a menu down a ways on the left that will link directly to their work, if you’re so inclined. I feel like we’ve got a good spread of viewpoints, geography, priorities, approaches and styles.

Generally front pagers will write 1-3 posts a week, with the inevitable long mysterious absences. With this number, though, we should be able to consistently guarantee between 1 and 3 new diaries a day to keep things interesting.

There may also be some upcoming special projects here at GMD, so we may be diversifying a bit and likely bringing in some more folks into front pager status. Stay tuned. Things are getting complicated enough that I’m finally getting off my butt to formally get this operation incorporated.

Anyway, thanks for reading and participating. As always, the occasional diary that seems to fill a hole in our coverage or be particularly well-timed (as in, all the front pagers are on vacation) will be front paged.

iCasualties is reporting the 3000th American casualty from Iraq. The latest casaualty is among 11 not yet officially confirmed by the Pentagon, so expect to hear this reported tomorrow, rather than today.

Happy New Year, indeed – and get ready for the escalation (“surge”). I think we all know at some level that, one way or the other, Bush will leave Congressional Democrats with no choice but to face their two ultimate Constitutional options; cutting off the federal purse strings and/or impeachment.