Updated:

From Vermont View-it was just that tricky context thing!

Scott said he didn’t mean to suggest that Democrats were not working hard after Irene.

“I said it, but I didn’t mean it the way it sounded, I guess,” Scott said. “In retrospect, it wasn’t the best thing to say.”

His quotes were “taken out of context quite a bit,” Scott said.

http://rutlandherald.typepad.c…

Whoa now- that’s not right at all. Lt.Gov. Phil Scott certainly took a bad partisan skid at a Republican Harvest Dinner with this post-Irene observation on recovery work.

…. As I crisscrossed the state and witnessed recovery efforts, and saw the truck drivers, the equipment operators, the law enforcement personnel, the National Guard members, the municipal leaders… and it may have been my imagination, but I do believe most of them who were doing the work were Republicans.”

Normally a steady political driver, Scott then over-steered to the right and managed to get all four wheels off the road.

Scott concluded, “We’re the party of common sense. We are the doers. We’re the ones that get the work done…. Isn’t it ironic that with the majority of Vermonters declaring themselves Democrats, that Governor Shumlin would have to lean on Republicans like myself and Neale Lunderville to help steer the ship, to come up with common sense solutions during adversity to get things done.”

In August after revelations that leaking tritium from Vermont Yankee had reached the Connecticut River shoreline Governor Shumlin called for increased monitoring of the situation. However anyone that assumed Vermont State monitoring and coordination would quickly tighten-up might be mistaken.

A Brattleboro Reformer report about a Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel meeting to review VY disaster response (which VY  officials were too busy re-fueling to attend) reveals almost as an afterthought that some State officials were aware a month ago on Sept. 15th that dump trucks are relocating soil/silt material from inside Vermont Yankee to a Vernon gravel pit.

He [Vermont Health Department inspector Bill Irwin] said there was concern that the removal of those materials was not approved, but the inspection found Yankee has a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to trawl the Connecticut River and typically deposits the silt on site.  

Plant officials opted to hire a trucking company to remove the soil because of a lack of space within the station’s boundary after Entergy sold a portion of land to the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) and instead took the materials to a Vernon gravel pit. Miller said the panel was not informed of the hauling.  

According to Irwin, inspectors took photographs of the sediment at the pit and analyzed samples of the soil, testing for hundreds of radioactive materials to identify any byproducts of the plant’s operation.  

"What in the soil is what see [sic] in all soils and sediment in the Connecticut River," Irwin said.

 

It is not made clear when exactly Yankee’s Army Corp. permitted river dredging took place.

Seems like prompt knowledge and explanation of this silt/soil relocation is just the kind of thing that would fall front and center for the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel.  

Hundreds of defense contractors that defrauded the U.S. military received more than $1.1 trillion in Pentagon contracts during the past decade, according to a Department of Defense report prepared for Sen. Bernie Sanders.

It’s a funny thing, you know; despite the fact that it’s been anecdotal knowledge since the Viet Nam era that the Dept. of Defense is routinely taken to the cleaners by its contractors, no one in Congress has done much to end the culture of abuse.  That could be because our corrupt campaign finance rules allow lobbyists to pretty much govern the agenda up on the Hill.

The perpetrators continue to be rewarded with more and bigger contracts.  Witness:

…Lockheed Martin in 2008 paid $10.5 million to settle charges that it defrauded the government by submitting false invoices on a multi-billion dollar contract connected to the Titan IV space launch vehicle program… the Defense Department (then) gave Lockheed $30.2 billion in contracts in fiscal year 2009…

Northrop Grumman paid $62 million in 2005 to settle charges that it “engaged in a fraud scheme by routinely submitting false contract proposals,” and “concealed basic problems in its handling of inventory, scrap and attrition…Northrop Grumman received $12.9 billion in contracts the next year, 16 percent more than the year before.

Lavishly courted by lobbyists themselves, the Department of Defense insisted last January:

‘the department believes that existing remedies with respect to contractor wrongdoing are sufficient.”

But now, in response to the report from Sen. Sanders they change their tune:

“It is not clear, however, that these remedies are sufficient … to deter and punish fraud when it is detected.”

It may not be clear to the DOD, but it certainly is to Senator Sanders who proposes increased scrutiny of defense contracts, compilation of a fraud database, and much stiffer penalties for offenders.

Said Sanders: “It is clear that DOD’s current approach is not working and we need far more vigorous enforcement to protect taxpayers from massive fraud.”

One has to wonder why the same swift justice has not been applied to DOD contractors who engage in systemic fraud, that was applied to ACORN following a single biased and unprofessional set-up.

Just another example of the double standard of justice served up to the 1% versus the 99%.

It will take more than a single Senator’s earnest efforts to bring about change, but when has there been a better opportunity to place Pentagon waste due to fraud under scrutiny, than right now, as we are seeing our trusted social safety nets under attack from the right?  

Effectively penalizing those who have defrauded taxpayers through the Pentagon sounds most attractive as one alternative.

That didn't take long:

Republican Burlington mayoral candidate Kurt Wright’s plan to sell off the city’s electric department might not yield his envisioned windfall, the utility’s general manager says. Wright, a Ward 4 city councilor, said Wednesday that a sale of Burlington Electric Department likely would net more than $100 million — after paying off its bonds — and boost the city’s recently downgraded credit rating.

From the Freeps He also thinks the airport might be in need of a commercial 'partner' to thrive as a regional airport. Really? Wonder if Entergy would be interested in BED. Lots of fresh water in the lake to absorb some tritium exit sign chemicals, and they could refurbish the old Moran plant – it already leaks and has structural issues, no mismanagement needed. This election might see a call to 'Occupy Kurt Wright'.

10-21-11 Another Occupy Walmart demonstration; this time, in DC.

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This is a story that is just beginning to unfold.  Check this out!

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Well, it was inevitable.  The Occupy Wall Street movement has found its logical extension in a new “Occupy Walmart” wave that has hit the internet with its own Facebook page; and even “Don’t Occupy Walmart,” which takes the same position, arguing only the name.

Go ahead…Google it.   You know you want to.

Lots of folks seem to have had the same idea. Consumers must take the “Occupy Wall Street” movement to the well that feeds Wall Street; and what better place to start with than Walmart?

Walmart virtually defined the economic race to the bottom in America.  Now that the retail predator has strip-mined American consumers to the breaking point and pock-marked the rural countryside with its behemoth supercenters, it finds its market here leveling off somewhat, and has turned its attention elsewhere.

Like a cancer that depends for its perpetuation on unlimited growth, the economic model that Walmart’s practices have engendered in American business has finally metastasized to the brink of killing the host.

“Occupy Walmart” or “Don’t Occupy Walmart,” the message is the same.  We have it within our power as consumers to stop enabling Wall Street greed machines by denying our business to the worst offenders, among which Walmart is still #1.

(Did you hear what that FUCKER said dedicating the MLK Memorial?  Shameful!  This rant is dedicated to JUNIOR, who told me about what the FUCKER said.)

“Yes, if the Reverend Dr. King were alive today, I know he would tell us that, although people may think Wall Street is evil, it is also evil to HATE evil.  Because Hate begets more evil, and evil begets more evil, and, in the end, we have only ourselves to blame.  That the righteous way is for Americans to go forward and say:  ‘I know that the only true way to change things is to follow the teachings of the Reverend Dr. King, as defined by President Obama, who is also Black and therefore must know what the Reverend Dr. King really meant when he said whatever he said about not HATING the people who work on Wall Street.’  

Yes, my fellow Americans, the Reverend Dr. King, a true Christian, would have in his heart a message for all of us.  He would say, and take my word for this, I know he would say it…he would say:  ‘Do not HATE people who wish to make money off the suffering of others, or HATE those who oppress the poor, or HATE those who would expunge from our nation’s history all social and economic reforms and all social and economic rights Americans have fought and bled for.’  Because the Reverend Dr. King knew about HATE.  He had dreams about it.  HATE pissed him off.

So, I would say to all Americans that, as a fitting Memorial to the Reverend Dr. King, we consider, as the Reverend Dr. King would, LOVE as a way forward in these difficult times.  That LOVE is more powerful than HATE.  If we LOVE the people who work on Wall Street, if we give them a hug, if we reach out with a neighborly casserole dish to the rich man up in his mansion who runs our town and country, if we try, every day, to see that LOVING is more important than money, than war, than anything that we may think of as evil–then, through this LOVE and LOVING we will erase all evil from our lives, and live in the true spirit of the Reverend Dr. King.

I therefore call to all those out there, the protesters, the union organizers, the single working mothers, the students and teachers, the elderly and disabled whose benefits have been cut, the parents and loved ones of our troops now dying and killing in Afghanistan, the gay hispanic migrant workers, and all those who live in FEAR and HATE–You must now turn to LOVE.  March in the footsteps of the Reverend Dr. King.  Make LOVE not HATE.  The survival of our nation depends on you making this change of attitude.  That was the CHANGE I meant back in 2008.  The CHANGE that the Reverend Dr. King would have suggested to me himself, I can say with absolute certainty.  The CHANGE that says LOVE is the only social, economic, and human right we need.  Because with LOVE, bad jobs turn into good jobs, bad wages into good wages, bad wars into good wars, bad times into good times, and a bad Wall Street into a GOOD, LOVING, KINDER AND GENTLER Wall Street.  A Wall Street and a nation under God, moving forward with the blessings of the Reverend Dr. King, who looks down upon us today and says:  ‘LOVE Capitalism, and it will LOVE you’ as only the Reverend Dr. King could say it, knowing that I today would say it for him.

Thank you”

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(And remember, as PolitenessMan would say:  “Sometimes, some people, deserve to be demonized–thus my Steel Hankies.”

Per WCAX:

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has named his choice to sit on Vermont Supreme Court.

Shumlin has chosen his own legal counsel, Beth Robinson, for the job.

Robinson has no experience as a judge. She is best known for leading the legal battle to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont.

Robinson is Shumlin’s first appointee to the 5-member high court. If confirmed by the Legislature, she will replace Justice Denise Johnson who retired from the bench in August.

Per Shumlin’s press release:

“I am proud to appoint Beth Robinson to the Supreme Court,” the Governor said. “Beth’s strong legal background, experience with crafting legislation at the State House and commitment to the equal rights of all Vermonters will make her an exceptional justice on the Vermont Supreme Court. While I am thrilled to see Beth go to the Court and believe her to be the best qualified of an extraordinary pool of candidates, I am also sad to lose Beth as my legal counsel. In addition to depending on Beth’s sound legal advice, it is a pleasure to work with her every day.”

October 17th, 2011

People of Vermont, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Other Interested Parties,

    Vermont’s leading voices for working families and the environment are united and speak with one voice when it comes to renewable in-state energy production. We agree that renewable energy production is necessary if we are to become energy independent, environmentally responsible, and carbon neutral. We also comprehend the building of these new energy facilities as a source of construction jobs for working people. However, the question becomes, will these jobs go to out-of-state corporations, will they go to irresponsible in-state companies, or will they provide livable wages, good benefits, and family sustainable employment for a generation of Vermonters?

    It is our common assertion that the environmental and economic issues related to new energy development cannot be separated. Creating green energy without also supporting a strong local economy, or aggressively seeking  job creation without addressing basic environmental issues undermines the future upon which our Green Mountain State is predicated. As Vermonters, as the leaders of organized labor, as environmentalists, we do not and cannot accept a disjunction between these two foundational beliefs. In brief, we need green energy, and we need good green jobs!

    As the State of Vermont moves forward with its comprehensive energy plan we have an opportunity to not only guarantee Vermont’s place of honor as a leader in the global struggle against climate change, but also as a leader in local green job creation. It will be by virtue of this multiplier effect, by virtue of breaking down the false dichotomy between environmental concerns and economic concerns that we will firmly establish the cultural shift necessary to achieve sustainability, self reliance, and to further the common good in Vermont and beyond. Once again, history calls for Vermont to lead the way. Will we heed this historic call as we so often have in our proud past? That is the question before us today.  

    Therefore, we, the undersigned leaders of Vermont’s labor and environmental movements, with a combined membership in the tens-of-thousands, call on the Public Service Board to make local job creation, livable wages, and good benefits a basic, binding, and non-negotiable prerequisite prior to issuing a Certificate of Public Good for renewable energy projects. We further call on our Governor, Peter Shumlin, to continue to be a strong voice in support of hiring local, ideally union, for these green energy projects.

    We look forward to working in partnership with socially responsible renewable energy developers, the Public Service Board, our Governor, and the State of Vermont towards a green energy and green economic future. However, let it be known that we will publically resist any and all new energy projects that do not address the needs of the People of Vermont, articulated as good jobs and a green environment.  

Freedom and Unity,

Ben Johnson, President of the Vermont AFL-CIO

Jeff Potvin, President of the Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council

Michael Morelli, Business Agent for the Vermont Iron Workers Local 7

James Haslam, Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center

Zak Griefen, Chairman of the Vermont Sierra Club

Steve Crowley, Energy Committee Chair of the Vermont Sierra Club

David Stember, Organizer for 350Vermont

Obviously, there has been a lot of powerful video emerging from the Occupy Wall Street protests, but this one really shook me. Shamar Thomas is a 24-year-old Marine Veteran currently playing amateur football and attending college.