Quite apart from the value that Joe Biden’s debate performance gave back to the Democratic ticket,  I am sure there are many like me for whom it just feels darned good to see someone from our generation give as good as he got from the pious junior know-it-all on his left.

Little slack is cut these days to aging actors, athletes and rock musicians who outlive their shelf-life in pop culture; and seniors are routinely blamed for suckling at the teat of Big Gov’ment.  

Twenty-first century living has completely buried the notion that the experience of age can often result in a thing called wisdom.  That possibility has gotten buried in the comic shorthand applied to people of our certain age.

It is simply assumed in the media that we are all incompetent, crabby, selfish, lazy and reactionary.

Last night, Joe Biden once more struck a blow against those stereotypes, making young Charles Atlas look peevish and prevaricating by comparison.  His vigor and passion equaled, and perhaps exceeded, that of his young challenger; and he made it eminently clear that he was not up past his bedtime.

So, on top of the debt of gratitude the Obama campaign owes to Joe the Debater, may I just add the appreciation of one old gal who sometimes feels like she is teetering on the brink of irrelevance.

Following up on Randy Brock’s tempest-in-a-teapot whinge about Governor Shumlin’s unscandalous attendance record, a little bird offered the tollowing suggestion:

Has anyone gone back to Randy’s tenure as Auditor and checked how much time he spent at his second home in Florida? Y’know, since he’s busy throwing stones and might just live in a glass house there.  

Oh no, here comes Randy Brock, riding the momentum of his own internal poll showing that he’s gaining ground among left-handed ferret owners born in the months of May, July, August, and November. Or something like that.

Anyhoo, Randy’s feeling his oats, and now he’s got a red-hot issue to use against Governor Shumlin.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock on Thursday criticized incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin for what the challenger said has been too much time away from the office.

A Shumlin aide confirmed Brock’s assertion that Shumlin was out of state and turned the reins of government over to Lt. Gov. Phil Scott for 119 days during his first 21 months in office.

Huh. Sounds like a lot. Is it, VTDigger?

Shumlin’s time away from the state is hard to put into context, as similar figures for former Govs. Howard Dean and Jim Douglas are not readily available. Douglas spent some time away from Vermont in his role as National Governors Association chair from 2009-2010.

Yeah, and I seem to remember that Smilin’ Jim was very fond of his overseas trade junkets, too. What’s more, it looks like Randy put Shumlin’s schedule in the worst possible light:  

Brock acknowledged that his count included weekends and holidays, which together have numbered slightly more than 200 days since Shumlin took office.

Uh-huh. And I guess the Governor should have been in his office nights weekends, and holidays, eh, Randy?

‘The ship of state demands a captain at the wheel at all times and Peter Shumlin has not been at the wheel,” Brock said.

Mmm, that sounds just a little bit crazy. Does Randy want to be Governor, or Captain of The Caine?

Oh, one more tidbit from the Shumlin camp:

Shumlin campaign manager Alexandra MacLean said on 44 of those 119 days, Shumlin was on official state business, mainly meeting with corporate officials in a bid to get them to bring more jobs to Vermont.

Okay, so that brings us down to 75 days in 21 months out of state and not on official business, a little more than 3 1/2 days per month. Some of those on weekends and holidays. Including vacations, to which even a Governor is entitled. Unless you’re Cap’n Randy, who plans to lash himself permanently to the wheel.

Intimidation! Censorship! Bullying! The horror, the horror!

Eighteen supporters of creating universal health-care coverage took their cause Thursday to the front door of a Burlington woman who’s funding a campaign with an opposing viewpoint.

The Burlington woman? Lenore “Miss Daisy” Broughton, tea-party  moneybags and sole funder of conservative superPAC Vermonters First. The protesters? Members of a pro-health care reform group called Vermont Leads.

Broughton was nowhere to be seen, but in a statement she called the protest bullying.

Hmm. According to the Freeploid article, the group gathered in a nearby park and walked to Broughton’s house. They only briefly stood in front of her house because the sidewalk was under construction.

Bullying? Hah. Miss Daisy gets the vapors awful easy. As does Tayt Brooks, International Man of Mystery, who called the gathering an attempt to “intimidate and silence a citizen.”

Again, hah. The Tayter must be a real softie if a brief gathering of 18 people makes him feel intimidated.  

In a hidden room somewhere

deep within the bowels

of an inhumanity,

young Christian men

study the ancient text,

the world’s most published

book, find the words to affirm

their masters’ wishes.

It is all written there,

in the hellfires and damnations

no Hollywood special effects

could ever beget;

women turned to stone,

the legitimate rape of Eve

for creation’s sake,

the wicked children hurled

into the bottomless pit.

And of course, the end itself,

with only two each of all

heterosexual beings surviving

to resurrect it all

all over again.

The spite and malice

of God’s single mindedness

and unlimited power

has these young men

possessed by a rapture;

they go in heat to the Internet porn

warned about in the chapter and verse

of their employment.

Then they roam the night’s sacrilege,

seeking out whores to punish,

children to discipline,

animals in the acts

of copulation.

And while their masters wield

the sacred golden axe,

while flagellation is made

the frenzy of the day,

they are on their knees

in a hidden room somewhere,

deep within the bowels

where all that was written

finally comes to pass.

The body and blood

of the holy act splattered

across the pages

of the world’s most published

book; tomorrow’s headline

for the unbelieving.

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(Gosh oh Golly, I sometimes surely want to be Elmer Gantry.)

In a hidden room somewhere

deep within the bowels

of an inhumanity,

young Christian men

study the ancient text,

the world’s most published

book, find the words to affirm

their masters’ wishes.

It is all written there,

in the hellfires and damnations

no Hollywood special effects

could ever beget;

women turned to stone,

the legitimate rape of Eve

for creation’s sake,

the wicked children hurled

into the bottomless pit.

And of course, the end itself,

with only two each of all

heterosexual beings surviving

to resurrect it all

all over again.

The spite and malice

of God’s single mindedness

and unlimited power

has these young men

possessed by a rapture;

they go in heat to the Internet porn

warned about in the chapter and verse

of their employment.

Then they roam the night’s sacrilege,

seeking out whores to punish,

children to discipline,

animals in the acts

of copulation.

And while their masters wield

the sacred golden axe,

while flagellation is made

the frenzy of the day,

they are on their knees

in a hidden room somewhere,

deep within the bowels

where all that was written

finally comes to pass.

The body and blood

of the holy act splattered

across the pages

of the world’s most published

book; tomorrow’s headline

for the unbelieving.

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(Gosh oh Golly, I sometimes surely want to be Elmer Gantry.)

TJ may have lost the Democratic primary for Attorney General, but he's being totally smart for the future.

 Did you see his latest mailing? It starts with a nice picture of TJ and his lovely family, like so:

 And he uses the e-mail to convey a message of support for Bill Sorrell.

Here's what he says:

 Bill Sorrell Needs Our Help

 Dear Jack,

A little over a month ago my campaign to serve as your Attorney General came to a close, but the issues important to my campaign, and which I care deeply about, continue to impact the lives of Vermonters. 

Issues ranging from how we effectively battle our state’s prescription drug epidemic and aid those suffering with mental illness and addiction issues to fighting for equality in the LGBT community and for the rights of migrant workers who labor in our fields.  

The debates Bill Sorrell and I engaged in surrounding these and other issues only reinforces my belief that Vermont needs a Democrat in the office of Attorney General. And in a few short weeks, we will have the opportunity to cast our ballots to ensure this is the case.   

Vermont needs a Democratic attorney general who will fight the Vermont Yankee appeal and use every legal means necessary to ensure Vermonters have a real say in our energy future. 

Randy Brock’s facebook shared the link to VT Digger’s Fact Checker story about the “single biggest tax hike in history” claim being labeled as “True”. Here’s my response:

While the as yet still undeveloped Single Payer system will funnel the consumer payment and payment delivery to providers through government (possibly via a partnership with some private insurer(s)) the great benefit for us working stiffs is that it would take health insurance premiums out of our monthly budgets (not to mention our employers).

Raising the alarm about this “single biggest tax hike” is a lot like saying to someone who is on the lot at a car dealership shopping for a new car “They are going to take your old car away!” without them understanding that by doing so they are giving you the opportunity to get a new one with a lower monthly payment.  

Many regular readers know that I work for a small nonprofit up here in Vermont, and we made a decision a long time ago that even if we had to make sacrifices in salary to support the important work we do, we would try to make sure all our employees have good health coverage. It costs a lot of money, but our employees get to go to the doctor when they need to and people with serious health issues are able to get the care they need.

What I have in front of me right now is a memo from our executive director explaining the rebate our organization has received from Connecticut General (CIGNA) because they overcharged us for health insurance last year.

One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (I don't like to call it Obamacare, although President Obama now says he's okay with it) is a provision sponsored by Al Franken, the newest senator from Minnesota. It's based on the radical notion that health insurance payments should go to pay for–guess what–health care. According to this idea, any health insurance company that doesn't spend enough of the premiums it collects on health care must be spending too much money on marketing, fat executive salaries, and other things that you and I and our employers shouldn't be paying for. Therefore, unless the company pays out at least 85% of its premiums on health care they owe a refund back to the people who paid the premiums.

I got my rebate in my paycheck last week. It was about $300. In addition, we have almost $70,000 that they refunded to our employer that we can save to help reduce what we have to pay for health insurance next year.

Maybe you got one of these checks, but maybe you didn't realize why you got it. My $300, and even my employer's $66,000 isn't going to make anybody rich, but it adds up. Across the country it adds up to a billion dollars paid out to over twelve million Americans.That's all money that didn't go to buy health care for anyone: didn't cure any infections, buy any bandages or tests, and didn't make anyone healthier, but the insurance companies would have been able to just pocket all that cash without the Affordable Care Act.

The average rebate per family in Vermont was $807.00, the highest in the nation. You could say that we made out pretty well this year, or you could say that we got ripped off more than other states, and now we're getting it back. There's a map to see what the families in your state got back in rebates.

So this is a good thing to know. The next time one of your conservative friends starts whining about how we didn't need or want the Affordable Care Act, and how it's not helping anybody, remind them of the rebate that you and the other people in your neighborhood are getting.

And also remind them that if Mitt Romney gets his way the insurance companies are going to get to keep that money.

Rotten timing for Wendy Wilton, eh?

First off, it turns out those new Super PAC ads for Vince Illuzzi and Wendy Wilton are not just ugly, they're downright illegal! So they have to be taken down.

Second, not a half hour later Paul Heintz at Seven Days reported that Vermont's own liberal Super PAC has released a commercial for Beth Pearce, who is actually qualified to be State Treasurer. The ad goes up Thursday but you can watch it right here:

 As I say, tough timing, huh?