Despite the fact that

I am sure that the folks in South Burlington and Winooski feel greatly reassured.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I was discussing the proposal to locate F-35’s at Burlington airport with an engineer friend who had worked in the Canadian aircraft industry some years back.  While he was sympathetic to the noise issue, he seemed to think that the greater concern for environmental impacts might come from the accompanying, more powerful radar station that will have to be built to serve the expanded capabilities of these jets.

It was his view that, while the effects on humans would be negligible, flying creatures might not fare so well.  

Bear in mind that, so far, the jets do not seem to have been tested in areas with the same population density (human and otherwise) or natural topography as that of the Burlington area.

I couldn’t find a great deal of data readily available on possible threats to living organisms from radar radiation; but two studies caught my attention.  

The World Heath Organization opinion seems to be that the effects on humans are inconclusive, but not particularly concerning.

However, a limited study on the effects of radar on bird populations invites a very different conclusion.

Remember that the observations in both of these studies were drawn from examples of older, and presumably less-powerful generations of radar equipment.

I’m just throwing this out there. Should anyone have useful perspective to offer on the subject, please weigh-in and set me straight.

I still can’t understand why, with the noise issue being the most compelling argument against, there has been no actual demonstration of one of the jets in South Burlington.  This would answer a lot of people’s questions.

Could it be that the Air Force/Air National Guard is fearful that a real-life demonstration might awaken the concerns of people who are not now actively engaged in opposing the plan?

 The well known catch phrases; “What could possibly go wrong?” and “Who could have predicted?” should come to mind when reading about the fast track U.S. domestic drones are on.  Early this year the ACLU was the lone voice lobbying against the move by congress to permit domestic drones. One observer said

“The privacy caucus didn’t even realize until it was passed and they are now playing catch up.”

The ACLU spent $500,000 last quarter lobbying unsuccessfully against the FAA Reauthorization Act that mandated the development of regulations for commercial drones by 2015.One corporation that manufactures drones for the Navy spends 2.2 million lobbying congress. The FAA is reportedly predicting we could see 30,000 drones in US skies in the near future.  

So,while the FAA moves forward on its mandate Sen.Rand Paul has offered a bill that will require warrants for some domestic surveillance drone use. What other evidence of the weak resistance to domestic pilotless drones is needed than when Rand Paul, often called America’s dumbest senator is one of the lone voices of caution.  

Domestic drones at the moment…    

After the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Aviation Administration they released a list that shows 63 authorized US launch sites. Interactive map here.There are 300 active operating licenses out of the 700-750 which have been issued since 2006.Among the list are about 20 state and local governments, 25 universities and colleges, two small mid-western towns and defense contractors. The FAA list does not identify the types of drones in use.

Some investors are predicting pilotless drones could take on everyday Fed-Ex style delivery tasks and there was the West Coast’s Taco-copter hoax (Lobster-copter on the East coast) but until we all get our very own jet packs,

Several big manufacturers of“unmanned aircraft,” as the industry prefers to call them, each spent millions of dollars during the first quarter of this year, in part lobbying for language tucked inside the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration requiring the agency to allow drones into airspace with other planes in the next three years.

Another big push came from the military, which is preparing to bring home drones that were used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under current law, the military is restricted in moving drones around the country and using them for training operations.

The answers to the two questions; “What could possibly go wrong?” and “Who could have predicted?” could prove to be everything could go wrong and had anyone been paying attention everyone might have predicted it.  

Sad and wistful thoughts arise in the mind of the traveler who visits the lone and level sands of the antique land that is — or was — Vermont Tiger. There its shattered visage lies, with frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command.

And there, beside two vast and trunkless legs of stone, lie scattered bits of rubble, all that remain of Tigger’s delusions of intellectual grandeur. Rubble, mostly, from the mind of Art Woolf, pretty much the only person still posting on the site. The Last Tigger Standing, if you will. I have previously dubbed him Vermont’s Loudest Economist ™ for his relentless media presence. But, reading his recent — and lonely — postings on Tigger, I am tempted to substitute a new monicker, Vermont’s Laziest Economist (trademark pending).

After the jump: Signs of laziness.

Take his latest emission, a half-hearted ad hominem attack on Bernie Sanders. Woolf is exercised over Bernie’s brazen introduction of a bill called the End Polluter Welfare Act, which would end federal tax incentives to Big Oil. In Woolf’s eyes, it’s a cardinal sin to name a bill in a way designed to enhance its political appeal, rather than to simply describe its purpose.

Don’t know where Art’s been lately*, but this has been common practice in Washington for quite some time now, and is at least as often done by Republicans as by the odd socialist. Think USA PATRIOT Act, for starters.

*Judging by the fact that, in one recent post, he admitted that he only recently learned of such a thing as “TV shows only available online,” which have been around since the mid-90s, I’d say he’s been under a rock somewhere. Or a vast and trunkless leg, whatever.

At the end of his short rant, Woolf admits that “I don’t know the purpose or the impact of the tax incentives [Sanders] proposes to eliminate.” Now, that’s laziness taken to heroic lengths. He’s hammering a bill whose effect he hasn’t bothered to determine, simply because he doesn’t like its name.

The post before that, also an attack on Bernie Sanders, was even worse, because its laziness was directly related to Woolf’s supposed area of expertise.

(Economics.)

Woolf noted that, three months ago when gas prices were closing in on $4 a gallon, Sanders was quick to cast the blame on speculators. Then he said that since Sanders made his outrageous accusations, the price of oil had fallen by more than 20%.

Woolf took this as proof that Bernie is a goofball because “if speculators have so much power… then why are they allowing prices to fall so much?”

This conclusion is so completely wrong, any sane economist ought to be too embarrassed to put it out for public consumption. If Woolf knows anything about how investors and speculators work, he would know that they don’t always want higher prices, nor are they always in full control of all circumstances.

On the former point, the wise guys on Wall Street don’t like persistent price rises; they like fluctuations, because they know how to make money both ways. If a price consistently rose, then all the “dumb money” would flow in and wreck the game. Specific example: investors might take a short position on oil if they believe that prices will fall in the near future. Obviously, they don’t want prices to rise; they’ll lose money.

On the latter, remember the big oil price spike in the spring of 2008? It was the economic event of the year — or it was, until the mega-Wall Street meltdown that followed. The oil spike can be traced back to late 2007, when the mortgage market began to collapse and the smart money started looking for safe havens. Many investors turned to commodities, and the prices of oil, wheat, gold, and other items went through the roof. Not because of supply or demand, but because of speculation. Then, in the summer of 2008, there were some disastrous hurricanes that interrupted oil drilling and refining on the Gulf of Mexico. There were predictions of $5 or even $6 a gallon gas. But at the same time, Wall Street was going belly-up and a lot of speculators needed to turn their oil positions into cash.

And, in spite of the hurricanes and the interruptions in supply, gas prices went down.  

That’s just one example. The bigger issue is that Woolf is basing his argument on one single price movement and ignoring all the evidence that speculators do exert an unhealthy influence on energy prices. Bernie Sanders cites a figure of 80% of all oil trading is by speculators — not by those who want to consume oil, but by those who want to make money by trading the rights to oil back and forth.

But if you want to discount the claims of Vermont’s Homegrown Socialist, let’s turn to the absolutely non-collectivist Bloomberg Business Week, and an article entitled “Rising Gas Prices: Not Demand Driven.” (GMD readers with severe cases of OCD will recall this passage from a February posting entitled “Gas Pump-a-geddon!” It’s just as pertinent here.) Bloomberg quotes Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service:

Kloza believes much of the increase is due to speculative money that’s flowed into gasoline futures contracts since the beginning of the year, mostly from hedge funds and large money managers. “We’ve seen about $11 billion of speculative money come in on the long side of gas futures,” he says.

Speculator-driven crude prices went so high in February that some refineries cut production or even shut down rather than operate at a loss — which meant lower gas production and higher prices.

In that same diary, I referred to another unlikely source of speculator-bashing: the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association. For years, they have been calling for strict limits on commodities speculation because they see how speculator-driven price fluctuations can cause great harm to oil dealers and  consumers alike.

Art Woolf blithely ignores all this evidence and more, simply to take a cheap shot at Bernie Sanders. And now you know why I’m tempted to call him Vermont’s Laziest Economist (trademark pending).

I look on his works, and despair.  

The race for Vermont Attorney General is getting more interesting in a hurry. We’ve had the first dirty trick of the campaign, targeting Democratic challenger TJ Donovan. And the challenger has taken a big step in differentiating himself from incumbent Bill Sorrell on an important policy issue — calling for much more open access to police records in Vermont.

Donovan said current law in Vermont has a “presumption of secrecy” relating to requests for information about criminal investigations.

He went on to assert that the Attorney General should take a leading role in advocating changes in the law — offering some direct criticism, after a campaign that had been rather indirect so far.

“I think the Attorney General hasn’t been addressing this issue,” Donovan said. “The Attorney General is the state’s top lawyer. This is about leadership.”

Records secrecy should be a vulnerable point for Sorrell, especially in the Democratic primary, because he has consistently sought to keep records closed — especially in cases of possible abuses by law-enforcement officers and officials.

A few examples and Sorrell’s rebuttal… after the jump.  

The very physical arrest in 2010 of Wayne Burwell inside his own home by Hartford police. VTDigger and the Valley News have sought release of police records; the police have refused, and Sorrell has backed them up. (This is one of three incidents involving the Hartford police in the past two years; in all three cases, Sorrell’s office exonerated the department.)

On New Year’s Eve 2010, Jamek Hart was arrested by Rutland police on a drunk-and-disorderly charge. While in custody, handcuffed in a holding cell, an officer repeatedly fired a pepper-ball gun at Hart. The officer later resigned. In the wake of the incident, Sorrell called for a state police investigation. I can find no record of a conclusion or report from that investigation; I will happily include that information if someone can provide it.

Sorrell played a legally dubious role in the regrettable case of convicted murderer Douglas Mason. It’s a very complicated situation, but the core of the problem is that the Vermont Parole Board issued a warrant containing false charges in an attempt to keep Mason in prison. And, as the Burlington Free Press noted:

The full story came to light only after U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III ordered the state to release documents being withheld from federal prosecutors on the advice of the state Attorney General’s Office.

Hmm. I don’t know what the usual etiquette is in such situations, but it strikes me as a really bad idea for a state Attorney General to advise the withholding of documents from federal prosecutors.

A really, really bad idea.

And then there was the case of possession of child pornography by personnel at the Vermont Police Academy. After an investigation, Sorrell declined to bring any charges, and he fought an effort by the Rutland Herald to gain access to the state police files. The state Supreme Court ruled against the Herald in that case.

A noble sentiment, but an astoundingly passive one. That passage from the Vermont Press Bureau is available here online. Sorrell went on to say that he has publicly supported a change in the law to allow access to records of police-misconduct probes. And then, in a passage that’s apparently behind the Herald/Times Argus paywall, he added the following:

Sorrell said he has been on the record with that proposal in the last two months. Asked why he didn’t start advocating that position sooner, he said: “The issue about changing or reviewing the access to public records has just come into the fore in the last six months or so, and we were waiting to be called into the Legislative committees looking into reviewing the exemptions and sort of waiting to be called on that.”

Again, curiously passive from the man who’s held the state’s top law-enforcement position for 15 years. “The issue…has just come into the fore in the last six months or so”? Completely false. It’s been brewing for several years, and has especially heated up in the past couple of years. And “waiting to be called into the Legislative committees”? Waiting? Waiting? You’re the Attorney General, for Pete’s sake. If you seriously believe it’s an issue, what in hell were you waiting for?

It’s weak, really weak. As Donovan said, “This is about leadership.” And on this issue, Bill Sorrell has failed to provide any.

Not exactly what I’d expect from a “two-fisted attorney general.”

(Update: I’ve slightly edited this entry due to a Comment from regular commenter “simplify” pointing out that, as a matter of legal fact, Donovan does not have a criminal record. The record was expunged. Therefore, the title of “Fair Game” is inaccurate, and so was the wording of my diary.)

(Update to the update: It’s been pointed out that Fair Game’s title says that “Donovan had a criminal record,” which is factually accurate.)

Lead item in this week’s “Fair Game” column in Seven Days is about a heretofore-undisclosed incident in TJ Donovan’s past. It seems that Donovan, who has been very open about his troubled youth, got into a drunken fight when he was 18 years old and was charged with aggravated assault. (The charge was pled down to a misdemeanor, Donovan did community service and paid restitution to the victim, and the crime was expunged from his record.)

Donovan’s been Chittenden County State’s Attorney since 2006, but now that he’s running against Attorney General Bill Sorrell, the case comes to light for the first time. And how did it come to Seven Days’ attention? The old-fashioned way.  

Fair Game received an anonymous tip through the mail about the incident, which Donovan immediately confirmed when asked.

How about that. He challenges the Attorney General, and suddenly information (presumably from law enforcement files) about an expunged incident that happened 20 years ago is made public.

I’m sure Mr. Sorrell himself had nothing directly to do with it. Gotta maintain plausible deniability at the very least. But I’m equally sure that someone who supports him was responsible for the leak. Is the Sorrell team feeling a little nervous, perhaps?  

This is great news for Franklin County in general, and for St. Albans in particular.  Mike McCarthy ( link  to his website from the 2010 campaign) has just announced his intention to run for the House in 2012.

Even though they will soon be new parents, the McCarthy’s have decided the time is right for Mike to serve his community at state level.

This extremely creative and capable young business owner has chaired the Franklin County Dems ever since Euan Bear stepped down last year, and has an impressive history of community service; most notably with the St. Albans Community Justice Center, and Downtown Master Plan Board.

There is no one whom I would more like to see represent St. Albans in the Legislature.

With the current growth of St. Albans and Franklin County as a whole, it is more critical than ever that we expand the Democratic voice for the district at State level.

In 2010, when Mike made the extremely gutsy move of challenging former auditor, Republican Randy Brock, for the Senate, he gained considerable name recognition, admiration and friends around the county.

Now, as a somewhat more seasoned pol, Mike looks extremely promising to pick-up a second Democratic seat in the House that has seen many years of service from Kathy Keenan, who has also announced her intention to run again.

There will be a campaign announcement in Taylor Park at 4:30 PM Thursday, hosted by one of St. Albans’ most active community volunteers, Denise Smith.  Mike invites his friends and supporters to stop by his business, Cosmic Bakery tomorrow to sign his petition.

You can count me in, Mike!

Well, well. Not only is Gov. Shumlin running for re-election — he’s planning to move a lot closer to his office, at least most of the time. Vermont Press Bureau:

Peter Shumlin has added a parcel of land in East Montpelier to his real estate portfolio.

…t isn’t another investment property. Shumlin plans to build himself a modest abode sometime in the future.

“I’m going to put in a really energy efficient governor’s cabin,” he said.

Ah, the ol’ Governor’s Cabin. Just like Old Abe Lincoln, come out o’ the wilderness. I’m sure our Guv is looking forward to those quiet evenings on his front porch, whittlin’ as the sun goes down. Those weekends splittin’ wood for the winter. Those late nights, reading by the light of the fireplace.

Evabodah sing…  

Old Pete Shumlin came out of the wilderness,

Out of the wilderness,

Out of the wilderness,

Old Pete Shumlin came out of the wilderness

Many long years ago.

Old Jim Douglas tore down the government,

tore down the government,

tore down the government,

Old Jim Douglas tore down the government

Many long years ago.

But old Pete Shumlin he built up a better one,

built up a better one,

built up a better one.

Old Pete Shumlin built up a better one

Many long years ago.  

Note: Updated with confirmation from vtBuzz below.

Longtime State Senator (and nearly-disbarred lawyer) Vince Illuzzi says he plans to file candidacy petitions for Auditor General on Thursday, which is deadline day for state candidates. Thus endeth his lengthy dither on which office to run for… Auditor, Senator, or (earlier) Attorney General.

Or… DOES it????

Candidates are technically allowed to file petitions for multiple offices, so Illuzzi could file to run for re-election to his Senate seat while also keeping the option open to run for auditor, but he says he doesn’t plan on it.

“You’ll know for sure on Thursday,” Illuzzi said.

Awwww, jeeziz, Vince. Cut it out already and make up your mind.

Illuzzi’s announcement, if that’s what it can accurately be called, did have a domino effect up in the NEK. Former Democratic State Rep. John Rogers, who had been planning another bid for the House, started gathering petition signatures for a Senate run. And Republican Rep. Bob Lewis has announced his candidacy for Illuzzi’s Senate seat.

Which he hasn’t quite let go of yet. Vince Illuzzi, the Hamlet of Vermont politics.

Update: The Freeps’ politics blog, vtBuzz, says Illuzzi has, in fact, made up his mind and WILL run for Auditor as a Republican.  

We’ve cited the phrase before in relation to the use of shiny new technology by law enforcement, whether or not the technology is truly appropriate: To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Well, thanks to a well-developed military hardware industry and free-flowing Homeland Security grants for up-armoring your local constabulary, we have this:  

A summer morning’s peace ended jarringly Monday morning when more than a dozen police cruisers, an armored vehicle and the big box truck that houses Vermont’s equivalent of a SWAT team set up shop in Washington to take what proved to be one unarmed man into custody.

(Times Argus; story behind a paywall as of this writing. I’ll update w/link if ti becomes available without paying.)

And no, we’re not talking Washington, D.C. We’re talking Washington, Vermont, sleepy little village, population 1,047. In response to an uncertain situation that might possibly have led to violence, the cops rolled out the heavy artillery and all the troops, shattering the atmosphere of a quiet rural community.  

The whole mess started Saturday night when Sara Perreault was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries allegedly inflicted by her husband Albert. a 68-year-old retired granite worker  Police were on the scene from Saturday night until Monday morning, when they brought in their heavy gear.

During that time, numerous attempts were made to reach Perreault by phone. At one point, police tried a loudspeaker. According to the T-A, “police learned that Perreault had allegedly threatened himself and police.” Perreault was known to be an avid hunter and had guns in the house. A neighbor said that the couple had “a combustible relationship,” and it wasn’t the first time police had responded to their home.

Unable to know what to make of their inability to contact Perreault – first by phone and later with a public address system outside his residence – police blocked off the half-mile stretch of Route 110 just south of the village for nearly an hour Monday.

Part of that response, presumably, was the State Police’s new Lenco BearCat G3 armored truck, acquired last November. Price tag: $255,398. About 190K was covered by a Homeland Security grant (Your Tax Dollars At Work) and the rest came from drug-forfeiture funds. This is the same Lenco I wrote about in February, when they were trying to sell a BearCat to Keene, NH, and its sales guy, Jim Massery, said this:

We’ve given the police a hammer, and they saw Alfred Perreault and the village of Washington as nails. Your neighborhood may be next.  

Here comes Jack Lindley, head of the impoverished and hopeless VTGOP, trying to stir up some controversy at Gov. Shumlin’s expense. And failing miserably.

Chairman Jack has issued a news release about Shumlin’s widely-rumored interest in becoming the next Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, a post that will become open in December.

Lindley says the DGA chair is nothing more than a disreputable  “bundler of undisclosed corporate donations.” Always makes me laugh out loud when a Republican gets dudgeony about corporate contributions. If he’s so concerned about “bundlers of undisclosed corporate donations,” maybe he should have a stern talk with Jeff Wennberg of the non-disclosing Vermonters for Health Care Freedom. Not to mention Karl Rove et al.

Lindley then goes on to say…

If the governor plans to become the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and be a part-time governor during his next term, Vermonters are entitled to know that before November.

More unintentional comedy.

Now, Jack, you may not be aware of this, but the head of the DGA — just like the Republican Governors Association — is always a sitting Governor. I do hope you’ll be calling out Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for his “part-time” service to his home state while he’s been chairing the RGA and, as you so vividly put it, “hangin’ with DC big shots and running around the country handing out undisclosed campaign contributions.”

Of course, you were referring not to McDonnell, but to Shumlin’s as-yet hypothetical candidacy for the DGA. I’m sure the RGA is a completely different kind of organization that requires its chairman to do absolutely nothing and raise no money whatsoever.

Poor Jack Lindley. If this is the best his outrage machine can concoct, then the VTGOP is truly up the brown-tinged watercourse without a means of propulsion.