J.P. Morgan Chief Jamie Dimon is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee oversight hearings sometime next month about the company's $2 billion (and still growing) loss from hedge bets made by “the London Whale”. Banking Committee chairman Senator Tim Johnson released a statement saying

"Our due diligence has made it clear that the Banking Committee should hear directly from J.P. Morgan Chase's CEO Jamie Dimon".

Democrats are reportedly hoping now to make a case for finally passing the final important pieces of the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking regulations.  Well by gosh, if handled well this could provide the leverage needed to wrench the “too big to fail” banking system back into some kind of order. You know, get that illusive level playing field we hear so much about back in sight at least. But wait there is more and it’s not at all surprising, but none the less it’s distressing.

Employees of the Wall Street giant and political action committees tied to it have given to the campaigns of eight of the banking panel’s 22 members, according to a search of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In the cases of some members – like ranking Republican Richard Shelby, and Jack Reed, the panel’s No. 2 Democrat – J.P. Morgan-related donors are among their top five campaign contributors.

J.P. Morgan employees and related PACs are the No. 1 donor to panel chairman Tim Johnson. During the 2007-2012 cycle, they’ve given just shy of $39,000 to the South Dakota Democrat’s campaign committee.

(Much more here)

None of this means the fix is in but it is easy to think the campaign contributions might show a better long-term hedge against loss for Dimon and his JPMorgan-Chase than the ill fated trades with “the London Whale”.  

A small, tangible victory in a much larger battle: federal immigration authorities have suspended deportation proceedings against Takako Ueda of Dummerston, VT. Washington Post:

The decision ended months of uncertainty that was heightened in December when Ueda received a letter ordering her to leave the country by Dec. 31. She did not comply. [Her wife, Frances] Herbert said in a phone interview from the couple’s home in Dummerston that they had been told Ueda’s case would be reviewed in two years.

“Now at least we can exhale,” Herbert said.

They can also have something more like a normal life. Ueda had not been able to apply for a driver’s license or seek employment; now she will be able to do both.

The couple had strong support from Governor Shumlin and Vermont’s Congressional delegation. Those three, Pat Leahy, Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch, issued a statement:

We welcome this remedy that for now will offer a measure of common sense and compassion for this Vermont couple. All three of our offices have worked hard to support this loving and committed couple who have been unfairly prevented by DOMA from enjoying the rights and benefits that all lawfully married couples deserve.

Ueda and Herbert are one of five couples who have sued the federal government seeking green cards for foreign-born same-sex spouses. They will continue to pursue the case.

And yes, they face uncertainty after two years. What happens after that may well depend on who’s in the White House.

(Photo from the website of Immigration Equality, an organization fighting for equal rights under immigration law for LGBT and HIV-positive people.)

If you look at all the anti-Democratic numbers in today’s poll on the Governor’s race and the Legislature’s performance, plus the pro-Republican numbers in Castleton State’s earlier poll on the Attorney General race, you see a remarkable consistency.

Every number that’s pro-Republican or anti-Democrat is somewhere between 23 and 31 percent.

That’s the Republican base vote as it exists today — less than one-third of the state’s electorate. And that’s the uphill battle before the VTGOP this year. (Which is why Don Turner is merely hoping to hold onto his tiny minority in the House.)

And it’s why any candidate who campaigns in Vermont on the basic national Republican template has very little chance of winning: that stuff just doesn’t have broad enough appeal in Vermont. So as most state Republicans tack to the right, in lockstep with the national party, they’re decreasing their chances of winning in November.  

There’s a new poll from the Castleton State College opinionwerx, and it’s chock-full of good news for Governor Shumlin and bad news for challenger Randy Brock.

Topline:

The poll has Shumlin winning 60 percent of the vote. The Republican Randy Brock would get 27 percent of the vote….More than 10 percent were undecided how they would vote in the general election.

That’s a huge advantage for Shumlin. Not only is he riding comfortably above 50%, but the undecideds are astoundingly small for such an early stage in the race. Not only does Brock have to win over all the undecided voters; he has to convince a healthy number of Shumlin backers to switch sides. And he’s not gonna do that with his cookie-cutter, consultant-driven Spampaign.

(The WCAX story quoted here makes no mention of Martha Abbott or the Progressive Party. I do hope that Castleton’s surveys include the Progs. )

Making that job even harder is this finding:

Shumlin’s approval rating is also high. More than 65 percent approve of his job performance, 23 percent disapprove of Shumlin’s job performance in his first two years on the job, and 12 percent are not sure of the governor’s performance

Love him, hate him, or be ambivalent about him (there I am), Peter Shumlin has done a masterful job of positioning himself for re-election. Barring a huge catastrophe — and he’s already sailed through one of those, nee Irene — he’s got 2012 in the bag.

After the jump: A late add on another CSC survey result.

An e-mail correspondent reminded me that there was another question in the Castleton survey, which I frankly ignored because the Shumlin results were so stunning.

Respondents were also asked their view of the state Legislature, and the answers were very positive: 57.5% approve or strongly approve, 31.5% disapprove or strongly disapprove. 11% were “not sure.”

Those are pretty darn good numbers, and they further underline the problem facing Randy Brock — especially if he sticks with his off-the-rack Spampaign. With so many Vermonters approving of Shumlin and the Democratic Legislature, the boilerplate attacks on single-party rule are unlikely to bear fruit. The majority of voters see the Administration and the Legislature as basically doing a good job. That doesn’t leave much room for the Republicans.  

Today, TJ Donovan’s campaign for Vermont Attorney General received the endorsement of Democratic State Senator Dick Sears as well as Bennington State’s Attorney Erica Marthage.

Sears had this to say at the press conference that was held on the steps of the new office complex down in Bennington this afternoon:

“I have personally seen the opiate epidemic destroy lives in my community and the lives of Vermonters I have worked with for years.  I have discussed this issue with TJ and I was struck by his knowledge and understanding that this issue is the single most important public health and safety issue facing our state.  I was also impressed by TJ’s energy, ideas and commitment to engagement with the legislature and public.  I will work hard in Bennington County and statewide to help ensure that TJ is elected the next Attorney General of Vermont.”  

Senator Sears has served Bennington County as a Democrat in the VT Senate for 20 years and currently sits as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

TJ had this to say in response to receiving Sears’ support:

“I am honored to have Senator Sears’ support. As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Sears knows firsthand what it takes to protect Vermonters. As Attorney General, I look forward to partnering with Senator Sears to improve the lives of Vermonters and make our communities safer and more prosperous.”

Sears wasn’t the only one endorsing Donovan however. Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage also stepped forward to throw her support behind Donovan:

“I have had the opportunity to work with TJ as a fellow state’s attorney and that experience has convinced me that he is the right person to reform the criminal justice system in a way that makes Vermonters safer, saves taxpayers money, and gives individuals opportunities to become productive members of our communities.”  

TJ has received a string of endorsements lately, including the Vermont Sheriff’s Association, Rutland Mayor Chris Louras and the VT Democratic Party.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My firm contracts with TJ’s campaign for communications work and advice.  

(cross-posted to Vermont Watch, here)

Over on 7Days Staff blog Blurt (here), Paul Heintz reports about how Vermont Progressive Party Chair Martha Abbott is going through the motions of challenging Governor Peter Shumlin, apparently …

… for three reasons: One of their statewide candidates has to win five percent of the vote for the party to retain major party status; they want to keep candidates from other parties from hijacking the nomination; and, most importantly, they want to push Shumlin to the left.

Understood. Nothing new or different from them, as we’ve seen this all before.

However, not that this is anything new or different from them either for that matter, Heintz quotes Martha Abbott as having said (paragraph three):

[…] “But I’m not saying I’m going to stay in the race. I’m not saying I’m not going to stay in the race.”

Huh!? (scratch head here)

Then, when neither or otherwise nothing is being said along these lines (and other than having made the announcement in the process of possibly running for a given political office), unless and until one knows for sure what they will be doing at some future moment and point pertaining to whether they will remain in the race or not, why bother saying anything at all?

Oh, look out, folks: Randy Brock 2.0 is here. Yes, the putative Republican gubernatorial nominee has finally, finally, FINALLY rid the Internet of his first campaign website, an embarrassing hotchpotch of stock photos, recycled material, uncorrected typos, a dearth of material, and sadly infrequent updates.

The new website is slick and professionally designed. But it’s just about as content-free as the original.  It’s obviously straight out of a campaign consultant’s basic toolkit. “Hey, we need a website for Randy Brock.” “All right… let’s see, he’s from Vermont, right? We need something outdoorsy. Maybe template number 24-B, with the fuzzy landscape photo in the background. And plug in that “bears in the woods” ad on the front page — might as well get as much mileage out of that as we can.”

A prefab website. Goes with his prefab stump speech as delivered at Saturday’s state Republican convention. The one where he called Peter Shumlin the most liberal Governor in Vermont history. I suspect that every Republican challenger to a Democratic incumbent will trot out the following Mad Lib: “(Name of Democrat) is the most liberal (name of office held by Democrat) in history!”

And it goes with his prefab new 30-second campaign ad, “Character.” It’s 30 seconds of faux-Ken Burns noble string music with artfully-employed photos and stock footage, just like every other introduce-the-candidate campaign ad in the country. Your eyes are guaranteed to glaze over by the tenth second. Afterward, you might vaguely recall seeing some sort of campaignish ad, but I bet you dollars to donuts you won’t remember who the candidate was.

Folks, welcome to the Spampaign, a 100% potted political product bearing no resemblance to any known animal or vegetable material. I don’t know how much Randy is paying his well-known out-of-state consultants, but whatever it is, he’s getting ripped off. They’ve obviously outfitted his campaign with off-the-rack material, scarcely modified at all to suit Brock’s personality or policy stances or the unique nature of Vermont.  

Let’s go back to the website. Yes, it’s slick-looking, but the content is just sad. The Brock bio looks like it was written by committee, or possibly generated by a computer program. It begins with the stirring paragraph…

Randy Brock, the 2012 Republican candidate for Governor of the State of Vermont, served as Vermont’s 28th State Auditor. The State Auditor is one of Vermont’s five statewide Constitutional Officers. He currently is in his second term as a member of the Vermont State Senate.

Really gets the blood pumping, doesn’t it? And the Brock “issues” page is full of Republican S.O.S. Cut regulations, end Shumlin’s health care reform, “challenge the educational establishment” (hint, hint: unions!), cut “pie in the sky” renewable energy plans, get that $21 million from CVPS, and this little gem:

Simplify the tax code and even the load by making sure everyone pays at least something.

In other words, raise taxes on the working poor. Brilliant!

I don’t know why the VTGOP insists on following the national Republican playbook to the letter, when it’s clearly out of step with Vermont politics. Poverty of imagination? Over-reliance on those out-of-state consultants? Or maybe Limbaugh Poisoning: they’ve ingested so much claptrap from the right-wing media that they can no longer think in any other terms. Kinda makes it tough to appeal to moderates and independents.

Brock’s “Events” page is even sadder. The next event listed is a Meet & Greet at somebody’s house on June 5. June freakin’ fifth! More than two weeks from now! This campaign’s off to a hot start, isn’t it?

There are two other Meet & Greets later in June, and that’s all. Wow.

As for the rest of Brock’s online campaign, it’s still embarrassingly tiny. He’s up to 160 Facebook friends. The four most recent “Posts by Others” include two from this past weekend, one from May 10 (“Are you related to Jim Brock of Bermuda and Quechee, VT?”), and one from April 30.

And Randy has yet to master the Art of the Tweet. He’s only written 16 Tweets in his one month on Twitter, and he has a whopping 60 Followers.

There you have it: Brock 2.0, the Spampaign. Contains no natural ingredients or nutrients; guaranteed 100% completely artificial.  

This Just In from Channel 3’s Kristin Kelly (@KK_WCAX) onTwitter:

New @wcax poll of primary voters #vt AG: Sorrell 49% Donovan 23% Not Sure 25% – @wcax_kristinc has more result coming up at 6.

So, if TJ is to upend Bill Sorrell, he has a fair bit of ground to make up. Of course, you could look at it the other way: a 15-year incumbent can’t even muster 50% support in a primary poll. That’s pretty darn sad.

Still, if this poll is accurate, TJ will either have to convince some Sorrell voters to switch sides, or he’ll have to completely sweep the undecideds.  

(Wrote this as a birthday poem to a woman painter I know.  She tells me she’s been showing and sending it around to other folks and how much those folks like it.  So I looked at it again, and, you know, it would apply to Julie Waters too.)

art is the heart and mind

putting color into the most dismal day

art is a way of life

the way things should be

art is people agreeing

that we are all connected

by brushstrokes and words

to a work in progress

a creation that will evoke

the splendor of all that matters to us

behind our eyes when we behold

the masterpiece of life

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

( – promoted by kestrel9000)

At a time when we have a more than $15 trillion national debt, American taxpayers are set to give away over $110 billion dollars to the oil, gas, and coal industries over the next decade. Clearly, we cannot afford it. When the five largest oil companies made over $1 trillion in profits in the last decade, with some paying no federal income taxes for part of that time, they certainly do not need it.  

It is time we end this corporate welfare in the form of massive subsidies and tax breaks to hugely profitable fossil fuel corporations. It is time for Congress to support the interests of the taxpayer instead of powerful special interests like the oil and coal industries. That is I joined with Congressman Keith Ellison to introduce legislation in the Senate and the House called the End Polluter Welfare Act. Our proposal is backed by grassroots and public-interest organizations including 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and many others.

It is immoral that some in Congress advocate savage cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while those same people vote to preserve billions in tax breaks for Exxon Mobil which is the most profitable corporation in America. It is equally obscene that as those members of Congress fight to continue never-ending fossil fuel subsidies worth tens of billions, they are working overtime to deny a one year extension for key sustainable energy incentives for the emerging wind and solar industries. Instead of passing strong legislation to help reverse global warming, Congress continues the giveaways to the 200 year-old fossil fuel industry even as that industry’s carbon pollution wreaks devastation on our planet. Enough is enough.        

While there have been attempts to remove some of these fossil-fuel subsidies in the past, our legislation is the most comprehensive ever put together in that it would end all of the tax breaks, special financing arrangements, and federal research support for fossil fuels. Our bill would make sure the fossil fuel industry pays its fair share by reforming royalties for drilling or mining on public lands or in federal waters. We end the loopholes that allow tar sands pipeline operators to avoid paying the oil spill clean-up tax.  

It is important that the American people understand just how egregious these fossil fuel handouts are:

•        A Tax Deduction for an Oil Spill? – We all remember the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. What is less well known is that BP is claiming a $9.9 billion tax deduction on the money they had to spend cleaning up their own mess and paying for damages they caused. That is absurd.

•        They Manufacture What? – Coal and oil lobbyists added fossil fuels to a bill aimed at helping American manufacturers, so they too could claim ‘manufacturing’ tax deductions. The added cost for taxpayers: $12 billion over the next ten years.

•        Good Enough for Big Oil, but not Clean Energy – Most of us have not heard about Master Limited Partnerships. These special financing arrangements allow oil and gas investors to avoid paying certain corporate income taxes, but are not available to clean energy businesses. Ending this fossil fuel loophole not only starts to level the playing field for clean energy investment, it saves the government an estimated $2.4 billion over the next decade.

•        Free Federal Oil and Gas Leases? – Fossil fuel corporations are supposed to pay the government fair market royalties in exchange for the right to drill on public lands or in federal waters. But thanks to a loophole in federal law, some oil and gas corporations drilling in the Gulf of Mexico pay zero in royalties. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office estimated this could cost taxpayers up to $53 billion over the life of these loophole leases.

These are just some examples of the obscene subsidies that the oil, gas, and coal industries reap from the government year after year. We know that with the enormous sums these industries spend on lobbying and campaign contributions – no doubt made worse by the new era of unlimited corporate campaign spending ushered in by Citizens United – passing a bill like our End Polluter Welfare Act will not be easy. But we know too that all across our country, and across the political spectrum, the American people are angry and frustrated with a government beholden to the big money interests. They want their elected officials to stand up for the needs of working families and our environment, not the powerful special interests.

While it is true that the fossil fuel industry has a virtually unlimited supply of money and lobbyists in Washington, D.C., they still can be defeated. If the American people stand up and demand a budget which is fair and which finally requires the fossil fuel industry and other corporations to pay their fair share in taxes, we can defeat them. If the American people demand that we transform our energy system away from polluting fossil fuels, and to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we can defeat them. With your help, we can defeat them. Join this fight by signing up as a Citizen Cosponsor of this legislation. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/…