Please note update below; new information from the Vermont Foodbank.

Looks like Jason Gibbs has his thinkin’ cap on. The former Douglas Administration utility infielder turned political PR flack, now representin’ Bruce Lisman’s Campaign for Vermont, is presumably trying to relaunch CFV in a more convincingly nonpartisan way — following its rather disastrous 2012 debut as a stalking horse for Republican talking points.

So I sense the fine hand of “gowithgibbs” in a press release announcing CFV’s latest publicity stunt — er, display of compassion:

More than a dozen partners of the independent, non-partisan advocacy organization Campaign for Vermont met Jan. 16 at the Vermont Foodbank to volunteer and talk with human service providers about the growing demand for services, the importance of post-holiday giving and the need for a more vibrant economy where no one is left behind.

We trust it was a more productive visit than Paul Ryan’s infamous 15-minute photo opportunity at an Ohio soup kitchen, which backfired on Ryan because it was transparently phony, and backfired on the charity because some donors objected to its politicization.

The Lismaniacs did actually do some work, unloading “dozens of donated boxes of food. The use of “dozens” implies a figure between 24 and 99 boxes. With “more than a dozen” Lismaniacs on hand, that must have taken at least several minutes of hard labor.

(See note below; per Vermont Foodbank, the Lisman crew did actually do a significant amount of work.)

And then came the talking, which is what this little Potemkin set-piece was really all about.  

As Lisman explains, the poor and needy provide a useful backdrop for CFV’s vision, in which an unleashed free market brings an end to hunger and want:

“The increasing demand for the Foodbank’s services, and assistance provided by countless other organizations, is an important reminder of why we founded Campaign for Vermont.”

…”The Vermonters who will benefit most from our policy work are those who currently rely on the Foodbank and other compassionate service providers to get them through the challenges of today with hope that there will be more opportunities for them tomorrow.”

Yeah, well, unless your “policy work” has changed dramatically from the free-marketeer-inspired rhetoric of Lisman 1.0, “the Vermonters who will benefit most from our policy work” are the rich and powerful. Those are the people who benefited most from the untamed Wall Street gold rush of the last few decades; and it was in the canyons of Wall Street where Lisman made his fortune and formulated his ideas.

But hey, the visit to the Foodbank wasn’t just a one-time publicity stunt. It was the first in a series of publicity stunts, as CFV plans to hold public policy forums around the state — and will accept donations to local food pantries at each event.

How kindly. And how apropos: bring a can of beans, and get a load of CFV’s ideological beans.

________________________________________

UPDATE. I received the following message from John Sayles, head of the Vermont Foodbank. In light of this, I admit I was too harsh on the CFV gang; it was more than just a Paul Ryan thing. (I sitll question CFV’s viewpoint and platform.)

Bruce Lisman himself and more than a dozen people who support Campaign For Vermont did indeed come to the Vermont Foodbank and spent about 3 hours sorting 4000 pounds of grocery salvage product. It is a task that the Foodbank relies on volunteers to accomplish.  

Dozens of groups – churches, businesses, civic clubs, and groups of friends – come to our Barre and Brattleboro locations to sort hundreds of thousands of pound of salvage every year.  We thank every group and never ask their motives or political affiliation.

In fact, I would invite the bloggers of GMD to come in, bring their friends and see if they can beat the CFV total!

Thanks to John Sayles for the information. I don’t know if we’ll be able to meet his challenge; we at GMD can hardly organize our way out of a paper bag.

 The federal Department of Interior is again delaying and revising a draft proposal of rules governing hyro-fracking for gas and oil on public lands. Not only was this news released on a Friday, the traditional day to dump embarrassing, bad or simply bothersome news but this is particular announcement was released on the Friday before the start of Obama’s second Inauguration and Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday. Truly a deep fracking news dump weekend if ever there was one.  

Outgoing Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar had claimed last May that these rules would be in place by the end of 2012. However that deadline has come and gone, and Friday afternoon an Interior Department spokesman appeared to start all over when he said the Bureau of Land Management

is making improvements to the draft proposal in order to maximize flexibility, facilitate coordination with state practices and ensure that operators on public lands implement best practices.

The Interior Department will “float” the never-issued draft recommendation from last May and begin taking new comments, once again soliciting comments from stakeholders and the public.  

The three main components of the much delayed draft rules include requirements for: a) disclosure of the fracking chemicals used on public land (90% of the wells drilled on federal and Indian lands employ hydro fracking); b) verification that the fracking wells are not leaking fluids; and c) confirmation that drillers had (and would implement) a management plan for handling fracking fluids that often flow and ooze back to the surface.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and drilling industry groups praised the rule delay. They welcomed extending opportunities for more stakeholder comment. The industry maintains existing oversight at the state level is adequate for safe fracking and claim that these suggested regulations would impose a grievous monetary burden.

In other news as the week ended, there were reports that Exxon Mobil, which in the past election was a heavy duty Romney supporter, had reached into their well and dug-up $250,000 to donate the Obama Inauguration Committee.  

Here’s something guaranteed to send the conspiracy theorists fleeing into the woods.

The state is looking for ways to shore up transportation funding, which is largely reliant on a per-gallon gas tax. Problem is, cars are getting much more efficient and more people are carpooling or taking public transit, so gas tax revenues are slipping.

Which means the government is looking at alternatives to the gas tax. One of them is a “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) tax.

So how, you may ask, could the government possibly know how many miles you’ve driven? Take it away, Dave Gram of the Associated Press:

Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said calculating how much of a VMT tax is owed would be done through the global positioning system devices that are expected to be standard equipment in cars later this decade.

”It’s a GPS device that is capable of tracking location, time,” he said, adding that he was aware that might raise privacy concerns.

Oh, surely not. The government can tell where your car is at any moment in time? Nah, that won’t set off any alarm bells among the tinfoil-hat brigade. Especially when this idea comes out the same week as President Obama’s TEAR UP THE CONSTITUTION AND GRAB ALL THE GUNS!!!! plan.  

I can see it now. The state police enforces traffic laws statewide from a single central command post. Your car’s computer will be notified by the VSP computer of any traffic offenses you might commit, and will then communicate wirelessly with your bank to electronically transfer the amount of the fine to the state.

As part of health care reform, the health department will be able to tie in to the GPS, and will send a warning message if you park at a fast-food joint. And when you stop for gas, don’t buy any fatty snacks; the gas station’s computerized cash registers will be part of the system too. Buy a microwave burrito, and ding! your insurance premium goes up.

And don’t even think of stopping at one of those freeway “parking areas” to take a piss. They’ll KNOW.

I wouldn’t advise stopping at that 24-hour “massage parlor” either. Big Shummy is watching!

Kudos to Bill Borcher of Green Mountain Gun Shows for gracefully demonstrating how people associated with gun sales are not all hot-headed reactionaries.

According to the Freeps, Mr. Borcher is voluntarily beefing up the screening he was already applying to private vendors at his shows, by requiring background checks for all private sales made at any future event.

Borcher also says the news of multiple-death gun incidents in recent years solidified his view that society ought to make sure only responsible, reliable people get their hands on firearms.

Mr. Borcher is holding an event at the Holiday Inn in South Burlington this weekend and says private security will be on hand to enforce the new rules.

Give that man a ci-gar for saying the magic word: “society.”  

On the same page of the Freeps, but decidedly on the other hand, Robert Boivin II, Chairman of the Board for the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club came across with pure petulance when, acting on behalf of the entire membership, he suspended access to the club’s shooting range for Burlington City police.  

The ban was conceived as a punishment for the City Council, which has proposed a ban on semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines; and it certainly did the trick.  Suspension of privileges at the club means that City Police do not have any place to take target practice.  

Mayor Weinberger and the City Council called the suspension “unfortunate.”

Explaining the reason for its decision, the Club wrote that it was withdrawing its support from the City Council because the Council’s action showed

…such prejudice against our club and its members.

No mention of “society” here.

The club’s punitive behavior qualifies for one of my mother’s favorite scolds:

“You’re just cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

Handicapping the local constabulary, who are entrusted with the safety of all residents, will really make the public more sympathetic to opponents of gun restrictions

Hm. The People’s Lawyer, Attorney General Bill Sorrell, has some big-time reservations about a proposal to allow greater public access to records of criminal investigations. He’d like to keep state law just the way it is, according to VTDigger:

In testimony to lawmakers on Thursday, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell delivered a spirited defense of keeping criminal investigation records largely closed to the public.

Seems he has some privacy concerns. Or so he says.

Problem is, this isn’t some left-wing radical fever dream; the openness proposal comes from none other than Governor Shumlin.

And it’s based entirely on the well-established and thoroughly tested federal rules for disclosure, as we reported on January 4:

Shumlin would like the Legislature to adopt existing federal standards for releasing such information, which state that “records of criminal investigation can only be withheld if disclosure would result in specific harm.”

There’s another advantage to accepting the federal guidelines: “There’s a large body of record around the federal guidelines that will clarify when something should be disclosed and when it can’t be disclosed.”

Allen Gilbert of ACLU-VT supports the legislation. And Senator Dick Sears, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who is not known as a transparency firebrand, says he is leaning toward the Shumlin proposal.

But wait, there’s more:

The law enforcement community, which sometimes opposes opening public records, supports the Shumlin proposal. An attorney for the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state police, said her department has supported a move to the federal standard since early 2011.

All righty then. On one side we have Governor Shumlin, the federal government, the Vermont ACLU, and the law enforcement community.

On the other side, singing a plaintive rendition of “All By Myself”: Bill Sorrell.  

So yesterday, a bunch of Republican lawmakers came out with a campaign finance reform plan. It was, in many respects, very similar to proposals put forward by Secretary of State Jim Condos and VPIRG.

The plan, unveiled by a group of ten Republican lawmakers and actually sponsored by Rep. Kurt Wright, would require electronic filing of campaign finance reports, more frequent reporting of contributions and expenditures, and a requirement that if a single donor is responsible for more than 50% of a SuperPAC’s funding, that person’s name would have to appear on the organization’s mailers and advertisements. Peter “One Man Band” Hirschfeld (behind the Times Argus paywall):

Republicans’ proposals, however, are almost indistinguishable from those put forward by organizations and officials who lament the proliferation of super PACs.

…Secretary of State Jim Condos said the list of ideas offered by Republicans is nearly identical to the plan he put out shortly after Election Day.

Well, okay then. Everybody’s happy, right?

Er, no.

House Majority Leader Willem Jewett, a Ripton Democrat, struck a dismissive tone Thursday.

…Jewett said the disclosure proposals forwarded by Republicans on Thursday aren’t even “really what we as Democrats think of as campaign-finance reform.”

Asked to list aspects of the Democratic Party’s campaign-finance platform not included in the GOP presentation Thursday, Jewett said they were still under construction.

Eh?

I don’t know who pissed in Jewett’s cornflakes, but listen. The Republicans are AGREEING with you on significant aspects of the issue. Sure, there are differences, but Wright’s plan is clearly a positive step. The correct response isn’t a dismissive sneer; it’s more along the lines of “We welcome the Republicans’ support for reform proposals very similar to those endorsed by the Governor and Secretary of State, and we look forward to a bipartisan effort to bring much-needed transparency to our campaign finance system.”

I mean, you’ve got a veto-proof majority. You’ve got the corner office. In the next four months, there will be plenty of chances to ignore the Republicans and stomp all over their ideas. But on a rare occasion when there’s some real common ground, why not be just a little bit gracious about it?

(For those without access to the Mitchell Family Organ, the story was also covered by Paul Heintz at Seven Days and Andrew Stein at VTDigger.)

Earlier today, I contacted Shumlin spokesflack Sue Allen to see if the Governor had issued a statement on President Obama’s gun control proposals.

You know, since the Governor had earlier refused to take any stands whatsoever on the issue until the President came out with a plan.

Well, I just got an answer. Here’s the Gov’s statement in its entirety:

“No one should have to go through the tragedy experienced by the families in Newtown last month.  I appreciate the thorough discussion about gun violence prevention by President Obama, Vice President Biden and others. Common sense dictates that we will only make progress in curbing senseless violence in our country with a 50-state solution.  I support the President’s recommendations, and urge Congress to work collaboratively to adopt comprehensive federal legislation.”

It takes him a while to get to the point, but as I read the final sentence, the Governor has issued a complete endorsement of the President’s plan — the executive orders and the proposed legislation.

That ought to put a dent into his NRA rating.  

Huh boy. Jeff Wennberg’s had himself a brainstorm. The head of anti-health care reform group “Vermonters for Health Care Freedom” is seeking donations to make a documentary film promoting their free-market approach (a.k.a. doing nothing). Peter “One Man Band” Hirschfeld:

Vermonters for Health Care Freedom wants to raise $18,250 to fund production of “Lessons from Canada,” a documentary it says will show what a train wreck single-payer is north of the border.

Wow. $18,250. That’ll go a long way. On a production-quality scale of one to ten — one being “community access TV” and ten being Michael Moore’s “Sicko” — eighteen thousand bucks ought to buy you a “two.” But hey, it’s amazing what you can do with a cellphone and iMovie.

Beyond the immediate quality question comes this: Is VHCF so strapped for money that it has to make a special plea to raise a mere eighteen grand? Doesn’t Jeff have Lenore Broughton on speed dial? That’s sofa-cushion money for her.

VHCF has managed to paste together a “trailer” for the project, visible on its fundraising website above the following pitch to prospective donors:

This documentary will help us activiate (sic) an already existing coalition of conservatives, independents, and moderate Democrats who think Vermont’s single payer plan is reckless.

That would be the “existing coalition” that backed the entire VTGOP to a catastrophic defeat in the 2012 election. Months and months of anti-reform saturation advertising from Campaign for Vermont, VHCF, Vermonters First, and the VTGOP completely failed to convince anyone outside the conservative core — and now a cheap video is going to “activiate” this imaginary coalition? Dream on, Jeff.

Judging by the trailer, the video will rely on anecdotal stories from people who feel victimized by the Canadian system — individuals, doctors, and conservative commentators. The problem with that approach is, the actual evidence is on the other side.  

Last week, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine released a 400-page report detailing the many shortcomings of America’s “best in the world” health care system when compared to other developed nations. As noted by the Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson:

Of the 17 countries measured, the United States placed dead last in life expectancy, even though we lead the planet in the amount we spend on health care (17.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 vs. 11.6 percent each for France and Germany). We get radically less bang for the buck than comparable nations.

The report finds that America’s death rate for people younger than 50 is “almost off the charts” due to poor diet, lack of exercise, and high incidence of violent deaths. (Need more guns, I guess.) Plus the fact that for many Americans, health care is “inaccessible or unaffordable.” The report says:

Americans benefit less from safety net programs that can buffer the negative health effects of poverty and other social disadvantages.

The US mortality rate is 17th out of 17 for those under 50, and 16th out of 17 for those under 70.

But after that, our death rate plummets. “By the time American seniors hit 80,” Meyerson writes, “they have some of the longest life expectancies in the world.”

Part of the reason, he says, is that we’ve winnowed out the weak and sick, and those who can’t get health care, while the healthiest and wealthiest live a long time. But the bigger reason:

…at age 65, Americans enter a health-care system that ceases to be exceptional when compared with the systems in the other 16 nations studied. They leave behind the private provision of medical coverage, forsake the genius of the market and avail themselves of universal medical insurance. For the first time, they are beneficiaries of the same kind of social policy that their counterparts in other lands enjoy. And presto, change-o: Their life expectancy catches up with and eventually surpasses those of the French, Germans, Britons and Canadians.

To borrow the title of another wildly successful documentary, that’s an awful lot of Inconvenient Truth. But I’m sure Jeff Wennberg will go on believing that a handful of irked Canadians is all the proof he needs that single-payer health care doesn’t work. And besides, FREEDOM.  

But golly, it looks like a developer has gotten the State’s OK to build us Vermonters an official highway rest area in Randolph.

Under the 30-year agreement, [Jesse “Sam”] Sammis will pay for construction and operation of the visitors center, which will be open 365 days a year from at least 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. […] The building is designed to resemble a barn to blend into the Vermont landscape. One end of the building will host the State sanctioned visitor center, the other end housing the Vermont Products Showcase.

By gawd what a selfless man, and yet some folks think developers are greedy self-interested exploiters. So this nice man named “Sam” Sammis who must be very busy otherwise because he is Chairman of the New England Land Company of Greenwich CT and Randolph VT owns projects in Vermont including The Green Mountain Stock Farm and Green Mountain Office and Industrial Park.

Well, he will build it all by himself, and as luck would have it he just happens to own a 170-acre industrial park right next to the highway! And that exclusive official Vermont state-sanctioned signage is expected to direct upwards of 500,000 cars and trucks to it every year. Thankfully that traffic won’t be any bother at all to Mr. Sammis!

In addition, Sammis plans to add 274 residential units, 280,000 square feet of office space, 236,000 square feet of light manufacturing space, and a 180-bed hotel and conference center on land he owns near the visitors center.

But what really sold and convinced me was that nice man from Montpelier (the one with beard) that works for the Governor – ,Jeb Spaulding. Why he’s normally so taciturn and serious – well he was just so excited he could hardly contain himself!

“When I first heard about this proposal I thought it sounded too good to be true. Imagine, a private developer offering to build a top quality visitor center for the State on private property, staff it and operate for thirty years and at what cost to the State? Zero,” said Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding. “We are confident this project will be a job creator, generate new revenues and save the state many millions in avoided spending while providing quality services to the travelling public.”

Golly, isn’t it just great that Governor Shumlin lets these wealthy people build nice things for us here in Vermont?! Since we are in these difficult days and must keep upper bracket income taxes low so they won’t move away and tough choices must. be. made.

And gosh what a great coincidence too, this announcement coming now during the new budget session when the state just seems to have hardly any money at all. Goodness me.  

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