Hm. In Montpelier, a city with a lively night scene and its share of poverty and drugs, the police department’s desire to purchase and deploy Tasers sparked (sorry) a lengthy public debate and a six-month study.

Next door in Berlin, a smaller and more spread-out community with no real town center, the select board has unanimously approved the purchase of four Tasers.

For a police department with seven officers.

Or, as the Times Argus (story presumably paywalled) put it:

Select Board members haven’t yet seen a policy outlining when they should and shouldn’t be used and don’t know precisely where the money to pay for them will come from, but they did agree this week to buy four Tasers for their seven-member police department.

Great. No policy. No budgeted funds. On top of that, former Select Board member Paul Irons noted that, before its vote, the Board had only heard a presentation by a Taser salesman. He suggested that “a true public hearing” would be valuable. But the Board felt otherwise.  And Selectman Pete Kelley offered this pearl of wisdom:

“If you let me shoot you once with my .45 (caliber pistol), I’ll let you Taser me all day,” he [said]. “It’s much safer than a gun.”

Good point, Mr. Kelley. Maybe you’d like to be pepper-sprayed for a few hours while you’re at it. Do I have to say this again? Tasers are touted as a safer alternative to guns, but too often in real life, they are used as less-safe alternatives to nonviolent intervention. Give a man a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Well, the Berlin police will soon have four shiny new hammers. So if you happen to be visiting their fair town, whatever you do, don’t act like a nail.

(Addendum: When I wrote this, I neglected to check the “Recommended Posts” column before I hit “Save.” If I had, I would have noticed Norsehorse’s diary on the same subject. I didn’t mean to pre-empt his diary.)

In an interview with the Valley News, John Campbell made it official: he’ll run for re-election to the State Senate and seek another term as its President Pro Tem. And in the process, he delivered a nice little condescending pat on the head to certain freshman Senators (viz.  Galbraith, Benning, and Baruth) who, apparently, were responsible for the Senate’s dysfunction this year:

“I know there was some frustration on the part of some of the freshmen in thinking the power was isolated with the committee chairs, but what I was trying to explain to them is there is a thing called seniority and experience, and just as in anything, you have to put in your time and learn the ins and outs of the institution before you want to run the thing.”

(Linknote: The Valley News’ website is a quirky thing. As of right now you can find the story here, but that may change later on.

Now, now, boys! You just sit quietly in the corner and play with your toys, and maybe if you’re still around in eight or ten years we’ll let you join the adults.

Christ on a cracker, what condescension. This, coming from the guy who got into an argument with a colleague and called him a “horse’s ass” within hearing range of a reporter. Yes, he’s the one to turn to for questions of legislative etiquette.

Truth is, the Senate’s old lions are accustomed to doing things their way, and when someone new comes along they don’t like it. From what I read of this session, the Senate could use more new faces and new ideas, and less of the same old same old.  

(cross-posted from Vermont Watch, here; edited third to last paragraph below the fold due to coding problems)

According to an article within today’s Times Argus (Thursday, June 7, 2012; front page, top with continuance on page A6), during its meeting held earlier this week the Berlin Select Board has decided to purchase four (4) Tasers aka Electronic Control Devices (ECD’s) as well as related equipment for its police department (here; via Times Argus; article behind paywall):

BERLIN – Select Board members haven’t yet seen a policy outlining when they should and shouldn’t be used and don’t know precisely where the money to pay for them will come from, but they did agree this week to buy four Tasers for their seven-member police department.

The unanimous decision met with some resistance during a brief discussion that began with a polite request from a concerned resident and ended with a spirited lecture from an unexpected source.

Long-time resident Paul Irons and Dan Stein, an ORCA Media Inc. videographer who took a seat in the audience after running out of tape following the board’s protracted discussion of Berlin Pond Monday night, both urged members not to pull the trigger on the stun gun purchase.

[…]

Since it is related to the above, what follows are excerpted minutes of the May 7th Berlin Select Board meeting during which a Taser presentation was provided (here; via PDF):

Town of Berlin

Municipal Office Building

108 Shed Road

Berlin, VT. 05602

Regular Select Board Meetings

lst &  Monday of Each Month

Monday, May 7, 2012

6:30 PM

Selectboard Members: Brac-il Towne, Chair; Roberta Haskin, Vice Chair, Ture Nelson, Secretary; Pete Kelley, and Craig Frazier. Present: Jeff Schulz, Town Administrator; Patti Lewis, Town Treasurer. All items are unanimous unless otherwise noted.

APPROVED MINUTES

Brad Towne called the meeting to order at 7′:00 p.m.

[…]

Electronic Control Devices – Lt. Faulkner

Chief William Wolfe, Berlin Police Dept., stated that he would like to equip the Police with electronic control devises (tasers). He stated that it would significantly reduce injuries to ofñcers and the public. Chief Wolfe stated that tasers are a safe alternative to pepper spray, which cannot be used effectively at the Central Vermont Medical Center. He stated that three ofñcers have been injured while on duty in the past month, two of whom were injured while on duty at CVMC. Chief Wolfe introduced Lt. Todd Faulkner, Hillsdale, New Hampshire Police, as the representative of Taser International, an expert witness for the Court of Appeals, and a twenty-two year veteran Police Ofñcer. Lt. Faulkner stated that he has conducted Taser training for many years and has worked with over 100 police agencies in New England. He stated that tasers are the most medically tested weapons system that law enforcement carries today. Lt. Faulkner stated that electronic control devices are not risk  but the likelihood of injury is small. He stated that the device is constantly internally registering when it is used and how much, and how long it is used. Lt. Faulkner stated that this data is downloadable to be used as evidence. He stated that the taser uses very low current that disrupts the bodies nervous system so the individual cannot control muscle use. Lt. Faulkner stated that the taser device uses a pulse current not a constant current. He stated that the weapon comes with different cartridges in 25 feet and 35 feet for law enforcement use. Lt. Faulkner stated that the taser is used for 5 seconds at a time. He stated that the training for taser use consists of an online class setting, followed by policy reinforcernent and training drills with a qualified trainer. Lt. Faulkner suggested that the Town set up Capital reserve íimds for the maintenance and replacement of the Tasers as they are equipment that will need to be maintained and will wear out. Chief Wolfe stated that he would like to buy three tasers for the department at $950 per unit. Craig Frazier asked if the Chief could approach Central Vermont Medical Center to see if they could help offset the cost of the units? Chief Wolfe stated that he could explore that route. He stated that VLCT has a policy that the Town could use as a model, and he is also looking at Lt. Faulkner’s policy regarding tasers. Jeff Schulz asked the Chief to provide the Board with copies of those policies.

[…]

View (embedded) archived video of the May 7th Berlin Select Board meeting (available via Vermont Watch, near bottom of post), here.

Related article: Berlin police chief puts in plea for Tasers (via Times Argus; April 21, 2012; article behind paywall), here.

Find out more about Tasers (via an informational slideshow of mine on the subject of Montpelier, Vermont and Tasers), here.

I was at a discussion board I freqeuent when someone asked why liberals always seem to be dissatisfied with America. Here’s what I came up with.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when we were ruled by a foreign king.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when people were allowed to own other human beings as slaves.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when unregulated markets allowed tainted food and dangerous drugs to be freely sold to the public.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when women were denied the right to vote.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when children could be forced to work instead of going to school, and when workers were forced to work seven days a week in unsafe working conditions.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when workers who had lost their jobs had no income, and waited in bread lines for meager handouts to feed their families.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when workers were fired for trying to join together to improve their wages, hours, and working conditions, and when they had no say in any of them.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when workers retired into poverty.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when black children were not allowed to attend the same schools as white children, but were relegated to inferior and poorly funded institutions.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when the poor and elderly could not afford medical care.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when minorities could be denied equal access to employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when corrupt Southern politicians beat and imprisoned black Americans who tried to register to vote.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when our leaders used lies and fabrications to convince us to embark on wars of aggression against countries and people who posed no threat to us.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when people with disabilities were denied educational and job opportunities.

Liberals were dissatisfied with America when patriotic Americans were denied the right to serve their country because of their sexual orientation.

Liberals are dissatisfied with America when we see that not all families are treated equally.

Liberals are dissatisfied with America when we see that the share of income received by the highest one percent of the population is higher than it has ever been, and when the chance that a person born into a lower income family has less opportunity than ever for an affluent or middle-class life.

Liberals are dissatisfied with America when we see that millions of our fellow Americans still cannot afford basic health care.

Liberals are dissatisfied with America when we see that banks that defrauded millions of their life savings and took their homes away are propped up with our tax dollars, while the wealthy speculators who caused the crisis have not been brought to justice.

Yes, there are still many reasons for liberals to be dissatisfied with America. Fortunately, there are also many of us who continue to work for the day when this great country will fulfill its promise to all Americans.

I think we’ve now had a pretty fair demonstration of the kind of false equivalency that is routinely accepted and perpetrated by the media.

Organized labor does not equate to big money in the aftermath of Citizens’s United.

If ever there was a test for this frustratingly frequent misrepresentation of the resources of the left vs. the resources of the right, the Wisconsin recall election was certainly it.

Despite every effort of labor-backed Democrats to finance the campaign of Walker’s opponent,  Republicans were able to bring in much more than twice the Democratic cash for their own campaign.  Walker was carried back into office almost literally on a sea of money.

If this is the shape of things to come in the general election, hang on to your hats…because they may be all that Democrats have left, come January.  (Coincidentally, while I was writing that sentence I received a robo-fright-call from the NRA.)

We’ll get no help in correcting the perspective from national media, because they are committed to the Republican meme that “Big Labor” is a rich and powerful counterpoint to big business (aka Republican) interests.  To abandon that meme would be to bring into question all of the other false equivalencies that shape what they have come to regard as the meaning of “fair and balanced news.’

There’s the one about Democrats and Republicans in Congress being equally guilty of obstructionism; and the one that holds that Democratic criticism of George W Bush is somehow equivalent to the blatant racism and scattergun hate that has been directed at President Obama.  I could go on, but we’re all familiar with the expanded list.

What will the media’s position be when the “99%” finally get it together to demand that Citizen’s United be overturned…or else?  Will they play to their comfort zone and try to strike an equivalent with Roe vs. Wade?

‘Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

David Zuckerman announced today that he will be seeking a Senate seat from Chittenden County.  

He plans to run in the Democratic primary, and in the general election as a  P/D.

Having served 14 years in the House representing Burlington, Zuckerman is well known and respected as an effective advocate for progressive issues.  

With his spouse and co-owner of Full Moon Farm, Rachel Nevitt, Zuckerman is a party to the nationwide lawsuit by organic farmers asking for protection from Monsanto, should GMO materials contaminate their farms.

As a representative, Zuckerman was a leader on many issues that are due to come before the Senate in the coming years. From sustainable agricultural issues, health care reform, labor relations, end-of-life-choice, marijuana policy, labeling of GMO foods and progressive taxation, David Zuckerman was an outspoken leader.  “I look forward to hitting the ground running.  Through my experience on these issues, I am ready to contribute from day one to achieve results on these and other important topics,” said Zuckerman as he announced his campaign.

As Vermont’s AG launches into a challenge to Judge Murtha’s ruling in favor of Entergy/Vermont Yankee, it seemed like an opportune moment to take a look at some of the nuclear stories rolling out around the country.  

Then I received this astonishing piece of news, and all the rest  became quite secondary:

MIT has released a study which, they say, suggests that populations need not be evacuated in the future, should another event like Fukushima take place!

That’s right;  long captive by the now-threatened nuclear industry, in whose future it is heavily invested,  MIT has finally jumped the shark.  Ignoring the large body of scientific evidence very much to the contrary, MIT constructed its own experiment, carefully designed to “prove” a  thesis convenient to the industry: that low-dose radiation over long periods of exposure is essentially harmless.

In a single stroke, the MIT study attempts to overturn all existing science and eliminate a significant collateral cost from the nuclear balance sheet.

Are people concerned, in the aftermath of Fukushima, because evacuation plans almost everywhere have been found gravely wanting?  A simple paper fix from MIT, based on junk science, allows the industry to maintain that exclusion zones aren’t even necessary!

This isn’t the first time MIT has been found to be exercising extreme bias to make nuclear look more affordable. In fact, the advocacy role of MIT on behalf of the industry is boldly apparent in this description of a research grant program:

“Scholarship for Nuclear Communications and Methods for Evaluation of Nuclear Project Acceptibility” will develop a model to characterize the factors affecting social acceptance of nuclear projects by potential stakeholders.  The nuclear enterprise has long faced difficulties in gaining broad social acceptance for success… Reliance upon public education efforts continues to be the main, and largely unsuccessful, tactic to achieve success…”

Returning to my original intention to survey the more eccentric nuclear news, I found this curious news piece out of Woodridge, Illinois, where the senior reactor operator  of the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Morris, Illinois has been charged with hijacking an automobile at gunpoint.  

Michael Buhrman who wore a Halloween mask when he confronted the female car-owner in Kohl’s parking lot and ordered her to abandon her vehicle, was spotted by a witness and apprehended in short order.

Buhrman later told investigators the carjacking was a “stupid thing” to do and that he was only looking for a thrill, authorities said.

‘Good thing he didn’t act out his fantasies at work!  

From the NRC’s own incident reports we have the tale of an external power interruption disrupting normal operations at the Ginna Power Reactor in upstate New York.  Investigation revealed that this interruption had most likely been due to “wildlife, eg. racoon.”

This is a good illustration of the sort of incidents that can plague even non-operative reactors during the long periods before total decommissioning, when constant cooling must still be maintained to prevent meltdowns.  

Once a facility is no longer  generating income for the operators, the temptation will always be there to cut back on monitoring and maintenance staff, which could result in dangerous situations going undetected until they result in an emergency.

…And to top off the crazy, there are the efforts by NRC insiders to push licenses up to 80 years so as to skew the math, making nuclear appear more cost-efficient.

When I was a child in the sixties, the most frightening idea was the threat of nuclear war.  Now it seems we have as much to fear from nuclear peace.

In the ongoing struggle to recover from Tropical Storm Irene, Governor Shumlin has done a lot of things very well. Top marks virtually across the board — handling a catastrophe so smoothly that I don’t think he gets enough credit for it. The Republicans are ignoring Irene because they can’t find anything to take issue with.

But there’s one big exception: treatment for the mentally ill. The entire system is severely overtaxed. Mental health staff are working as hard as they possibly can just to keep the system functioning — barely. Patients aren’t getting the treatment they need, and are often in unsafe situations. There have been attacks on staffers. A major incident could happen at any moment — one that would catapult this issue onto the front pages and into the center of this year’s political debate, and call into question Governor Shumlin’s carefully manicured reputation for good management.

I’m not talking about the plans for long-term reform or the debate over the size and configuration of a state hospital replacement. I’m talking about the jury-rigged, bailing-wire-and-duct-tape mess we’ve got today. And will continue to be stuck with for quite a while.

The Governor and the Legislature deserve credit for moving quickly to craft a long-term plan. But the short-term plan seems to consist of “keep costs down and hope it doesn’t blow up.”

Well, even without a real blow-up, the mental health care system is starting to become a major issue in the media.

Exhibit A: In a Bloomberg News article about mental health care nationwide, Vermont is the poster child for inadequacy and neglect. The story, entitled “Sleeping in Vermont Dumpster Shows Psychiatric Cuts’ Cost,” begins with the sad case of a Burlington woman who clearly needs some kind of inpatient care, but in the wake of Irene, there simply isn’t any space.

…private-hospital emergency rooms have been backed up with mentally ill patients — some handcuffed to ER beds for as long as two days. Dozens of people are turned away each month without being admitted, and calls to Burlington police about mental-health issues increased 32 percent over the prior year.

The article includes this cheery observation from Dr. Robert Pierattini, chair of psychiatry at UVM: “I think we may see a rise in suicide.”

There has been talk of an 8-bed temporary inpatient facility in Morrisville, or possibly a similar arrangement in Waterbury. That would not come anywhere near solving the problems, although it would ease the pressure a bit. But when will something happen? In a couple of months, we’ll be commemorating the first anniversary of the Irene disaster. It’s taking an awfully damn long time to create a “short-term” fix.  

“I worry every day,” Patrick Flood, the state’s mental health commissioner, said in a telephone interview last month. “I have on my screen right now the case of somebody we have to find a bed for tonight and there’s no apparent bed.”

Your anxiety is duly noted, Mr. Flood. It would be more compelling if you were one of the front-line people in health care or law enforcement, or the friends and family of people who need treatment; they’re the ones who actually deal with the consequences, the danger and the fear on an everyday basis. You’re the one in your office, looking at your screen.

Exhibit B: Another thing Patrick Flood is probably worrying about. A big story posted yesterday on VTDigger by Anne Galloway entitled “Brattleboro Retreat faced regulatory violations over drug overdose as lawmakers approved plan for mental health system.” (A plan that put the Retreat in a very central role and gave it a bunch of state money.)

In January, a patient named Jared Fitzpatrick grabbed some methadone off a nurse’s cart, overdosed, and died. His death triggered intensive reviews by state and federal regulators. The Retreat must implement a corrective action plan or face the loss of federal funding for some patients.

The problems at the Retreat occurred just weeks before the Legislature approved plans to rely on the psychiatric facility as part of its complex plan to replace the Vermont State Hospital with a new decentralized community mental health system.

And yet, officials from the Retreat and the Administration did not inform lawmakers of the nature of the incident or the investigations. In fact, if you read the exchange between Retreat CEO Rob Simpson and a Senate committee about Fitzpatrick’s death, it’s obvious that Simpson carefully framed his responses in a deceptive manner. Example:

“…we have not heard back from the medical examiner with any clarity on this death,” Simpson told lawmakers. “It’s unclear …”

Sen. Kevin Mullin interrupted: “But it was from natural causes, right?”

Simpson said,”Well, we don’t know, the medical examiner’s preliminary report is that, indeterminate cause of death.”

…Yet, the medical examiner’s office had preliminarily determined the cause two weeks prior. On Jan. 23, Steven Shapiro, M.D., noted the pending cause of Fitzpatrick’s death as an overdose of prescribed and non-prescribed medications.

It’s only one incident, but (a) it might have made a difference in how the Legislature viewed plans to give the Retreat a larger role in the mental health care system and give them $5.3 million to upgrade its facilities… and (b) as Jim Croce put it, “you don’t tug on Superman’s cape” by omitting key information from your testimony at such a crucial stage. Or, as Digger put it:

Though Fitzpatrick was not a ward of the state – he was a private patient – lawmakers and advocates say his death raises questions about the reliability of care offered at the Retreat and the ability of the Legislature to adequately monitor private hospital facilities receiving taxpayer dollars.

…Ironically, given the concerns about proper levels of oversight, the Legislature approved the reforms without knowing that the Retreat was in trouble with state and federal regulators.

And that’s a huge issue with Governor Shumlin’s future plans. They depend on private facilities to largely replace a state hospital. Are we going to be able to trust the Retreat to hold up its end of the bargain? And can we trust the Retreat — and the Administration — to be transparent when things don’t go according to plan?  

  It’s simple; we just have to work longer. So says the millionaire from his seaside villa.  The CEO of AIG International, Robert Benmosche was speaking about the Greek monetary crisis but said that as life expectancies increase governments around the world should require their populations to work longer,much longer, before retiring.

“Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said “That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth.”  

Greece, where the average life expectancy is 81.3 years, has an effective retirement age of 59.6, among the lowest in Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 Retire at 80 and have 1.3 years of rest and relaxation? Rockin’ chair will get you.  

CEO Benmosche, who was interviewed at his seaside villa in Croatia got a salary of $3 million in 2010 which is boosted to a total of $8.4 million when stocks and other compensation are added.

AIG International ,in crisis and near bankruptcy during the mortgage meltdown several years ago was bailed out by the US Government now claims to be earning profits but there is some dispute about this because reportedly

…if you dug into the numbers, it quickly became clear that $17.7 billion of that profit was pure fantasy — a tax benefit, er, gift, from the United States government. The company made only $1.6 billion during the quarter from actual operations. Yet A.I.G. not only received a tax benefit, it is unlikely to pay a cent of taxes this year, nor by some estimates, for at least a decade.

And this Benmosche fellow tells us there is no easy way out.  

Congratulations are in order for Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. At a banquet last week Allen was honored with the Matthew Lyon Award for his lifetime commitment to the First Amendment and the public's right to know the truth in Vermont.

Gilbert, himself a former reporter and editor for the Times Argus and Rutland Herald (pre-strike, for those with a long enough memory for that), has been in the forefront of the fight for government transparency in Vermont. As the Bennington Banner reports:

 Vermont Press Association President Maria Archangelo, publisher of the Stowe Reporter and Waterbury Record, said Gilbert has been on the front lines in fighting for greater public access to government records, for public disclosure about police misconduct, and for blocking efforts to hide the cause of death on public death certificates in Vermont.

“Allen has been a key figure in tracking what the Legislature has been doing, especially dealing with transparency in Vermont government,” Archangelo said. “He is a big reason that Vermonters now have a new public records law, replacing a statute that was one of the weakest in the nation. ” While the Vermont Press Association and the ACLU don't always agree, it's important to acknowledge Gilbert's extraordinary work through the years as a journalist, as a government official, and with the ACLU, Archangelo said.

In other work, Gilbert was probably most visible this year as the field general who led the campaign to defeat the legislative proposal to allow the State Police access to prescription drug records, remaining at his post on the House gallery even as the closing speeches were being given at the end of this year's legislative session. 

And who was Matthew Lyon, you ask?

 Lyon also has the distinction of being the only person to be elected to Congress while in jail. On October 10, 1798, Lyon was found guilty of sedition, in violation of the Alien and Sedition Acts; which prohibited malicious writing of the American government as a whole, or of the houses of Congress, or of the President of the United States. Lyon was the first person to be put to trial for violating the acts on charges of criticizing Federalist president John Adams for his pretense of going to war against France.

Here at Green Mountain Daily, government transparency and robust dissent are very important, so we congratulate Allen for this well-deserved honor.