Be mine

I want you so

I want your house too

And your car

It’s lonely here on Wall Street

I’m 24 stories up

All those teeny tiny people

I want all their money

Today is a good day

To scroll through the clients

Figure out some passwords

Clean out old people’s accounts

I love you so

I’m thinking of you now

As I transfer funds off-shore

I’m 24 years old

Would you like to power-walk

Over to Bryant Park?

I have some old documents

To search for at the Library

Today is my 24th week here

My boss is a feminist bitch

But I’m setting a trap for her

I want her job

Do you like my poem?

Does it speak to you

Of all the things

You’ve ever wanted?

Why are old people so mean?

Don’t you think they should die?

I’m working on that

I love long power-walks through cemeteries

We’re going to ask for

Another bail-out this year

Just like in the ’08 elections

I’m going to buy a yacht

I want to have your underwear

I have these needs

I’ve only had 24 lovers

I want more

I will keep twitting you

Until you give in

I will kill your parents for you

I know they have money

I have to go back to work now

I’m sabotaging the bitch

I want her office

I want to fuck you in her office

Do you see that I am

A deep thinker?

A sensitive soul?

A mover and a shaker?

I have 24 pairs of shoes

My credit card is Visa Black

I do not read books

But I will write on your underwear

I have these needs

At the end of the day

I stare at all the bottom lines

Some of them I snort

So be my Valentine

You will be number 25

All the rest are dead

But I might let you live

Oh it’s lonely here on Wall Street

I hope we have a meeting today

I love meetings

They let my mind wander

Love you so

XXXXXXXXX

Invest in tasers and prisons

You’ve made me hard

I want 24 billion dollars

To start with

BFN LOL OMG!

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

While writing my previous diary about the accusations against Brian Dubie and the Republican Governors Association, I thought the name of Dubie’s attorney, Brady Toensing, seemed a bit familiar. So I Googled around. And I found some fascinating stuff.

Which, it turns out, was discovered some six years ago by one John Odum, and reported on this very website. At the time, Brady Toensing was representing then-Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie in a dispute with his then-Democratic challenger Matt Dunne. I’ll provide a brief summary, but for the full story I suggest you go to the original source.  

Brady Toensing is a partner in diGenova & Toensing, a heavy-hitting Washington law firm with a long track record of Republican partisanship. The firm’s founding partners are Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, a D.C. power couple going back to the Reagan Administration. (Brady is Victoria’s son from a previous marriage.)

But their salad says were in the 1990s, when both were heavily involved in the Republican Congress’ legal battles with the Clinton Administration. Including the impeachment. They were also media whores, appearing hundreds of times on cable and network news shows, advocating in favor of impeachment. Both have continued to be involved in the Republican side of DC politics and lawyering. As has Brady Toensing.

Full details in Odum’s 2006 post. Which ends with the question, “Why is Dubie getting his hands dirty with this guy?”

Dunno, but apparently he likes it, since he’s hired “this guy” again. And “this guy” has launched his defense in the Dubie/RGA case with a direct political assault on Bill Sorrell’s credibility and ethics.  

Well, now. Vermont’s two-fisted Attorney General, Bill Sorrell, has filed suit against Brian Dubie and the Republican Governors Association, accusing them of collusion in Dubie’s 2010 campaign for governor. The Burlington Free Press somewhat curiously says that it “could be the first case of the state taking enforcement action against an individual political candidate,” which sounds significant but was apparently too difficult to fact-check. “Could be”?

Anyway, Sorrell charges candidate and entity with sharing polling information in a way that was “unusual compared with common election practices.” To wit:

…the state cites testimony under oath by Dubie campaign manager Corry Bliss and RGA regional field director Dennise Casey that they communicated regularly during the campaign period, and that Bliss agreed to share Dubie’s polling information with the association. Casey, a Vermonter who was Douglas’ campaign manager in 2006 and 2008 and eventually his deputy chief of staff, went to work for the RGA in 2009.

The shared polling information amounts to a contribution from Dubie to the RGA, the state alleges, and should have been reported in state election filings by Dubie and the RGA but was not. Likewise, the state alleges that the RGA’s television and radio ads should have counted as contributions to Dubie’s campaign.

Dubie’s polling information allegedly helped RGA formulate its ad campaign supporting Dubie and slamming Shumlin. (Or, in the charming words of campaign strategist Gene Ulm, “WE NEED TO LAY WOOD ON SHUMLIN.” E-mail message, all caps. Good grief, is politics always such a soul-curdling enterprise?)

After the jump: a carefully worded denial and a stock accusation of prosecutorial politics.  

Dubie and RGA deny the charges and have asked the court to dismiss the case:

In their responses filed in court, [Dubie’s lawyer Brady] Toensing and association attorney Chris Roy argue that sharing polling information does not constitute coordination. The state offers no evidence that Dubie knew what ads the RGA was going to air or wanted those ads aired, Toensing argued in court papers filed Monday.

Hmm. They don’t deny the sharing of polling information, which would seem to be a crucial part of the case. And they go out of their way to deny something that Sorrell doesn’t allege: that Dubie “knew what ads the RGA was going to air.” They appear to be aiming for a very narrow definition of “collusion,” which makes me think that they’re in trouble on the merits of the case.

Toensing also goes after the messenger instead of the message, accusing Sorrell of partisanship: “The attorney general, at the behest of the Democratic Party, had engaged in intrusive and extensive investigations of this and other campaign matters.” (Italics mine.)

That’s pretty strong stuff, calling Sorrell a puppet.

Sorrell denies it. In fact, he points out that the case was filed without any fanfare in December, and has only come to light because of Toensing and Roy’s filing.

Myself, I doubt that the charges are politically motivated. Sorrell certainly didn’t try to publicize the case, which is what a politically-minded prosecutor would do. Besides, the short-term gain isn’t worth the potential long-term pain of having a groundless case thrown out of court. I suspect that Sorrell has a lot of evidence on his side.

If so, this could do some damage to Dubie’s carefully constructed image as a Jim Douglas-style nice guy. Stay tuned.  

Or how I wasted most of the morning online while some paint dried. But the internets are great for research and one of the best time wasting tools I know of.  

Vermont’s Peter Shumlin says VtBuzz is among six other governors named in an article: Rookie Governors: Who's Doing Very Well?

Well good enough, that’s something I agree with more often than not. Nice little blurb for the Governor, but who is handing out this honor? Following the link from VtBuzz takes you to Governing Magazine which is found on a serious looking think-tanky website. Digging around I found a couple of the editors have early backgrounds with Forbes and Ladies Home Journal. The new director of The Governing Institute (Governing Magazine’s parent) is the former long-term auditor and one term mayor of Kansas City. He was the first mayor not to win re-election since 1920 and was almost recalled ahead of the vote. Among many of his troubles while in office was the appointment he made of a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (an anti-immigrant group) as the Kansas City parks and recreation commissioner.

So who or what is behind this online magazine and this think-tankery?  

Governing Magazine is a longtime publication that changed hands three years ago and is now associated with E.Republic an online publisher of Government Technology, Emergency Management and Public CIO. E.Republic is owned by the Church of Scientology which amidst some controversy purchased Governing from The St.Petersburg Times in 2009. Surprisingly the Times had been running a lengthy expose on Scientology prior to the sale.Does any of this matter much in this case? Probably not. But why not know who the owner/funder of a think tank and associated publication may be? And it helped pass the time this morning while some paint dried.  

Our Forests Our Future: Action Alert!  

On February 23rd, we need YOU to come to the Statehouse to tell Governor Peter Shumlin that forest conservation is important to Vermonters, important in the fight against climate change, and is important in helping to maintain our rural way of life!

What: Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition Meeting With Governor and Lawmakers

When: Thursday, February 23rd, 2012, 9:00am-10:00am

Where: Room 11 of the Statehouse, Montpelier, Vermont

Why: Because you care about our forests, our environment, and our wildlife!

    For more than a year the Vermont Sierra Club, along with our partners in 350 Vermont, the Vermont Workers Center, organized labor, the Abenaki community, and other environmental groups have been engaged in the grassroots Our Forest Our Future campaign. This campaign is seeking to build a comprehensive system of conserved wildlife corridors throughout Vermont, linking our forests to those in surrounding states.   We intend to achieve this historic task by creating a mosaic of new locally owned town and Abenaki forests.

    We assert that such community forests can help protect our environment, reduce the climate change related stressors placed upon wildlife, and aid in carbon sequestration.  In addition, community forests can help local communities provide free or affordable firewood for elderly and low income residents, provide public revenue and jobs through sustainable forestry, and can provide a public place for Vermonters to hunt and fish. This is The Vermont Way!

    But in order to achieve these historic goals, we need to have the tools to do so.  The Vermont Housing and Conservation Fund is one such important tool in this fight.  This fund, in part, helps provide public money to establish community forests, and must be expanded in order to meet the needs of Vermonters and our environment.  

    Governor Peter Shumlin has made support for VHCB funding a central part of his fiscal policy.  His budget recommends $14 MILLION FOR VHCB – a $1.2 million increase for the year. However, there are those within the Republican Party who are not only against this increase, but who are calling for the fund to be entirely eliminated.

    Don’t let this happen!  Let’s not roll back the clock in our efforts to save Vermont’s forests!  Come to the Statehouse on Feb 23rd and let’s send Montpelier an unmistakable message: Vermonters support conservation, Vermonters support community forests, and Vermonters support an increase to the Housing and Conservation Fund!  

    Together, with your direct support and participation we will win! Let’s Put People and the Planet First!

David Van Deusen,

Conservation Organizer,

Vermont Sierra Club

(802)522-5812  

Having posted a couple of diaries about Bruce Lisman’s websi — er, sorry, the Campaign for Vermont’s website, starring Bruce Lisman, directed by Bruce Lisman, written by Bruce Lisman, Executive Producer Bruce Lisman, but having nothing whatsoever to do with promoting Bruce Lisman, heaven forfend* — I thought I’d spend a little time with the website of Vermont’s number-one actual Republican candidate for high office. Ahem, Randy Brock.

*I just stopped by Bruce’s — er, sorry, the Campaign for Vermont’s website, and see that they’ve done a bit of housecleaning. Replaced their ubiquitous photo of an oddly unfocused Bruce with a more forceful image of Bruce in a suit speaking into a microphone. They also pushed the photo further down the page so it’s not the first thing you see. And they replaced the banner image of Bruce in his L.L. Bean gear with stock photos of happy people doing interesting things, in an apparent attempt to mildly de-Brucify the site. Could it be that somebody at Lisman headqua — er, the Campaign for Vermont — is reading GMD and responding to our critiques? I blush.

Sad to say, compared to the relative professionalism of the CfV website, Randy Brock’s is a study in weaksauce. It looks like a generic “Candidate Website” template from GoDaddy.com or something. (I certainly hope he didn’t pay a web designer. If so, he should demand a refund.) The banner features a waving American flag; Brock’s campaign logo in red, white and blue; and a photo of Randy looking almost alive and a bit constipated. (Couldn’t they get him to smile?) All told, the very model of a Generic Candidate Banner.

The website is strikingly thin on content. I count eight pages, most of them very brief. Four of the pages are stock items like “Get Involved” and “Contribute.” Click the “Tell a Friend” button and it generates an e-mail with a subject line “Elect Randy Brock” and a message as follows:  

I thought you might be interested in reading more about Randy Brock. Randy is running for election as Governor of Vermont. I am urging all my friends and family to join me in supporting his campaign. We need his leadership, integrity, and independence.    Please take the time to learn more about Randy Brock and consider signing up for his email list. Visit his website at: http://www.RandyBrock.com

Inspiring. Almost as inspiring as the first two lines of his home page, under the headline “WELCOME”:

I am a candidate for Governor of the State of Vermont. I take that candidacy very seriously.

The man’s prose is incandescent. I must look away, ere my retinas burn.

After the jump: No news is no news, Salmon envy, and green incoherence.

The “News” page contains a single lonely link: to Randy’s campaign announcement on December 7. Guess he hasn’t made any news since then. Below that is a list of newspaper “Endorsements” — dating from his 2006 bid for re-election as Auditor.

The “Background” page features a short list of bullet points, the “highlights” of his excellent career, many of which are about auditing. Think he’s still pissed about losing to Tom Salmon?

The “Issues” page contains a measly 500 words of Republican boilerplate: lower taxes, more efficient government, growing the economy. I will point out three of the less awesome passages:

Under “Protecting Our Natural Resources,” he begins by saying “Vermont’s environment must be protected.” Having touched that base, he immediately pivots to permit reform, saying nothing further about protecting the environment.

Under “Making Healthcare Affordable,” he calls for encouraging competition and cutting waste, proudly citing his work as State Auditor in discovering “millions of dollars in fraud, waste, abuse and error in Medicaid alone.” Then he seems to take a swat at his successor Tom Salmon, saying “We have not done what we should to continue and expand these efforts.” Get on the stick, Tom!  

Brock ends his six-line healthcare paragraph with a call for a Marshall Plan on healthcare. But wait: wasn’t the Marshall Plan a massive expenditure of government funds? I’m confused.

Thirdly, there’s his “energy policy” paragraph, which mostly concerns Vermont Yankee. It then ends with the following sentence about green energy:

We need to continue to encourage the development of new, green initiatives maintain our position on the leading edge of innovation for new, green initiatives for cost-effective alternative energy sources.

Yikes. Apparently he doesn’t care enough about green energy to produce a coherent sentence on the subject.

Now, I realize that it’s early in the campaign cycle and Brock is just getting started. Well, he’d better hope so, anyway. But if his campaign website is anything to judge by, the Brock for Governor effort is off to a rocky start. And/or an underfunded one. Is Bruce Lisman hogging all the loot?

(Brock does also have a Facebook page. No Twitter, tho. The most recent Facebook entry was posted on February 4, a whole ten days ago. It says he’ll be at the Windson County Super Bowl Party. Yes, “Windson.”)  

Really perplexed by this bit over at the Digger:

Hines and Hartnett are also friends. They first crossed paths at Burlington High School decades ago and have stayed in touch. In January, Hartnett helped Hines obtain enough signatures to get her name on the ballot by putting her petitions out near the cash register at his business, according to a witness.

A nice enough start, except that Hartnett is the Democrat running Republican Kurt Wright’s campaign.

The Republican has acknowledged the potential political edge provided by Hines’ presence in the race, but says that he sincerely respects her work and has known her for years. Her candidacy is apt to attract more Progressive and independent voters than Republicans or Democrats, and a three-way race makes it easier for someone to win with little more than 40 percent of the vote.

How convenient that Hartnett happens to be ‘good friends’ with Wanda Hines and was so nice to help get her on the ballot and enter the race as an independent (as a generally left of center independent at that…).

So thoughtful of him, to you know, help spread democracy and all by getting more people on the ballot, especially now that Kurt and Co. have managed to kill off IRV and we go back to 40% to win a plurality.

And it goes on from there:

…and called opponent Wanda Hines a likely pick for a key role in his administration. Her current boss, Community and Economic Development Office Director Larry Kupferman, would be fired.

Responding to rumors about their relationship last week, Wright insisted that there was “no collusion.” However, he retreated slightly from an offer to give Hines “a key role in the administration.”

The whole article is a good read:

http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/12…

And I say, BTV, WTF?

If you are like me, you are probably still poking your finger in your ear trying to figure out if you heard Mitt Romney correctly when he called himself  a “Severely conservative Republican.” That one goes in the gaffe hall of fame for numerous reasons. Here is a new radio ad that my organization AmericanLP has going up on ABC Radio in Michigan later this week.

Who is Mitt Romney?

Voiceover from Romney ‘I was a severely conservative Republican.’

Severely conservative???

The word ‘severely’ is most commonly used to describe the following: Disabled, depressed, ill, limited, injured.

So, Michigan conservatives, Mitt Romney basically thinks conservatism is like a ‘disease.’

If you’re a moderate/independent Michigan Republican, how do you feel about a politician who doesn’t believe in anything, but implies, ‘I’ll pretend to be a diseased extremist, even if I think it’s crazy?’

Mitt Romney’s father, George Romney was a great Michigan governor who always spoke his mind. He stood up to his church and GOP extremists regarding civil rights.

But Mitt Romney? Has he ever stood up for something unpopular?

Mitt Romney, he’s not his father’s son. Mitt Romney thinks he can ‘brain wash’ the rest of us.

Paid for By AmericanLP, not associated with a candidate or candidate’s committee.

Hey all. Pesky candidate again, coming back to ask for help from the GMD community. Remember, the sooner I can win this City Clerk race, the sooner you all will be rid of my stale, uninspired blogging of late.

The long and the short is that I need another $150 to reach my goal from last week, which will enable me to mail to everyone I want to mail to (for now) in town. If you were thinking about helping out with a contribution, now’s the time (with only 3 weeks left to go!)

Thanks all. Promise to stop bugging folks soon.

All across the nation, the Republican Party is trying to clamp down on voting rights. Citing an imaginary epidemic of voter fraud, they proclaim themselves the guardians of electoral purity.

All righty then. So how do the Republicans fare when they’re running their own electoral process? Badly.

So badly, I wouldn’t put them in charge of a Bingo game, let alone an election.

Rachel Maddow highlighted several instances of GOP incompetence on her February 7 show. The takeaway: Of the contests held to date (primaries and caucuses), only two were relatively trouble-free — New Hampshire and South Carolina. Every other one was seriously flawed. She referred to the whole thing as a “freaking mess.”

Since then, the Maine caucus has added another entry on the bad side of the ledger. On caucus day, Mitt Romney was the announced winner by less than 200 votes over Ron Paul. However… the caucus in Washington County, Maine was called off due to inclement weather. The Paul camp claims to be very strong in Washington County. But while the county GOP chair (a Romney supporter) wants to hold the caucus this weekend, the state chair is refusing. He says the results are final as they currently stand. I guess he doesn’t care that an entire county was disenfranchised.

Once again, a state Republican organization blithely fumbles its process to choose a candidate for the most powerful office in the world. And these are the people who claim to believe in the sanctity of the ballot box.

Just for yuks, we’ll run down the list of other Republican blunders after the jump.

The Iowa fiasco is pretty well known. The “crucial,” “first-in-the-nation,” “bellwether,” insert-your-cliche-here Iowa caucuses were screwed up six ways from Sunday. First, Mitt Romney was named the winner. Then the Iowa GOP broke its own rules by waiting 16 days to finalize the results. Then they announced that, oops, Rick Santorum had a lead. But wait, some precincts are missing, and we can’t really say who won. Oh, all right, Santorum won. And they never did find those missing votes.

Sheesh. On to Florida where, as far as I can tell, the voting went off reasonably well. No hanging chads or anything. But the apportionment of delegates is up in the air. The national GOP had stripped Florida of half its delegates for scheduling its primary so early — but the state party is hoping to reverse that ruling. And second-place finisher Newt Gingrich is appealing the winner-take-all rule, seeking a share of delegates equivalent to his share of the vote. So as of right now, we have no idea how many delegates Florida will have or who they will support.

Then came the Nevada caucus, where the specially-scheduled Sheldon Adelson evening caucus was marred by controversy when party officials tried to impose a religious test on those wishing to vote. And it took two days for the Nevada party to count the votes and release a total, because there was so much confusion to sort through.

The state of Missouri then spent $7 million on a meaningless Republican primary. Following a dispute with the national party,  the state GOP stripped the primary of any role in delegate selection. That’ll happen later. But they held the primary anyway. Way to waste the taxpayers’ money.

On the same day as the meaningless Missouri primary, Colorado and Minnesota held meaningless caucuses. Meaningless because state party rules specifically state that the results of the caucuses have no bearing on the ultimate selection of delegates. Who are, if we need a reminder, the folks who actually go to the convention and pick the GOP nominee.

Looking at this comedy of errors, I can only conclude that the Republican Party doesn’t care the least little bit about clean elections. Which shows, yet again, that their anti-voter-fraud drive is purely and simply an attempt to limit participation. It has nothing to do with principle, because the Republicans routinely ignore the principle in their own house.