Not unexpectedly, there are voices among the Legislature calling for a special session this Fall to address the many challenges faced by the state in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. By way of Peter Hirschfeld’s report (paywalled), the legislators making the call range from ideological opposites Senator Anthony Pollina (D-Washington) to Representative Oliver Olsen (R-Jamaica).

It’s easy to understand why the calls are coming. No doubt every Senator and Representative in Vermont is inundated with desperate constituents wanting to know what the state is doing to help them. It’s natural, then, to want to convene in Montpelier ASAP and do something. But it’s an impulse that shouldn’t be given in to.

Dealing with disaster is one of the primary responsibilities of the Executive Branch – even Republicans won’t argue with that (well, except for the most pathological Ron Paul groupies). Given the scale of the damage and the clock ticking rapidly towards winter, it’s critical that the Executive branch move as quickly and deftly as possible. The Legislature deals in lawmaking. The Executive deals in implementing – in doing. Now is the time to do, rather than deliberate.

A shoehorned-in special Legislative session would become a fact-finding exercise with an open-ended date, and no clear goal. Such an exercise would inevitably demand information, testimony and counsel from the doers in the Executive branch, in the process pulling them from their doing during these crucial pre-winter weeks.

In addition, the Legislature would feel obliged to justify the expense of its unplanned-for intervention. To pass something. At this point, it’s unclear what, and without more time to focus, that dynamic could just as easily create as many problems as might get solved. Shumlin reportedly has the budgetary flexibility to access the funds he needs. Also, the administration has made no obvious goof (other than the Governor coming off a bit too defensive on Mark Johnson’s program a week or so back… but you can’t legislate against that). From all accounts, they seem to be handling things as well as can be expected.

If Shumlin were to do something draconian – say, use the crisis as an opportunity to advance an extreme policy agenda, such as unilaterally announcing the end of all environmental permitting (which is what you might have to watch for if Douglas were still in charge), it would become the Legislature’s responsibility to step in immediately and engage with that policy. Short of something like that, though, lawmakers should allow the Governor’s team to continue to focus like a laser beam on doing its job as efficiently as possible.

Over the coming weeks, and into winter, a clearer picture of what – if anything – needs to change in the statutory arena will emerge. Long term budgetary matters will also come into focus. What is a blur of uncertainties will coalesce into clearer view in the next couple months. Rather than call an extra session, legislative leaders can coordinate within their committees informally as we learn more, and be prepared to hit the ground running when the regular January session begins. The timing should be just about right.

In the meantime, let’s let the Governor’s people do what we pay them to do.

The Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, six Democrats and six Republicans tasked with finding government savings of 1.2 trillion in the next decade or else, will have their first meeting this Thursday Sept 8. Also on that date Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who were chosen to lead the group. will have their first face to face meeting.

The two Capitol Hill veterans have never met each other. Not in the month since they were tapped to lead the vaunted “supercommittee,” nor in the preceding nine years that they jointly served in Congress, aides to both lawmakers say.

Maybe having two people who have never met or worked together run a massively important congressional super committee only looks bad to people unfamiliar with the mysterious ways of the congress. Maybe the super-committee’s super-staff relationships are where the rubber hits the road. After all aides say Hensarling and Murray have spoken on the phone and they speak about a growing sense of trust between the two. A senior Democrat aide said:

“Everything has been going as well as anyone could have hoped for”

Well that’s reassuring, depending on your hopes.

Maybe Republican former Sen. Alan Simpson, veteran co-chairman of the presidential deficit commission (AKA cat food commission) can offer a reassuring word or two to worried citizens.

“They’re both very bright people. They’re both very partisan people. We’ll see who wins.”

“They’re just the kind of people that hang tough,” Simpson said in an interview. “And they’re going to hang tough. And if they both hang tough-tough-tough, then it probably won’t get done.”

Thanks Alan, that’s as good as anyone could have hoped for from you. What could go wrong?

Tough-tough-tough.

Sometimes it’s just nice to take a break and get away from home, even if just for a morning.  Yesterday’s trip was relatively uneventful, though if we’d taken the time, it might not have been– some fairly unusual birds were at the refuge but we were slacker birders and just having a mellow day.

And honestly, I’m okay with that.  I didn’t get any particularly unusual birds, but I got some fairly incredible shots of ones I’m familiar with.  This Great Egret, for example, didn’t just make it easy.  It actually flew closer to us and started feeding right by the car while we were grabbing lunch.  

After the fold, lots of photos of that same egret, plus a few others.

Our trip was to Parker River Wildlife Refuge on coastal Massachusetts.  It’s one of our favorite birding spots, and it was a very nice day to be birding the refuge.  

This first bird is a semipalmated sandpiper.  These guys are about 6″ long and tend to move about a bit, so I was glad to see one hanging out close to shore:

This is a Snowy Egret and a Great Egret. (The Snowy is the smaller one).  I’m not sure what happened before we showed up, but the short version is that the Great Egret kept following the Snowy– every time the Snowy would move, a few minutes later the Great would come over and hassle it.  My theory is that the Snowy was better at finding food so the Great just kept waiting for it to find something yummy and then would come over and try to steal it.  Ah… capitalism:

Great Blue Herons are just such beautiful birds:

I thought I was photographing the more common Double-Crested Cormorant, but noticing the distinct white patch on this bird’s chin, I’m fairly certain it’s a Great Cormorant.

The feeding egret: I tried to photograph this bird and it flew off.  Then I went back to eating lunch and it decided to try to grab lunch, too, just right by our car.  So I went back and forth between photographing it and eating my lunch.  I love it when they make it easy:

Japan has a cautionary tale to tell for those who care to listen.  It’s all about the unfolding actuarial nightmare that is quietly cutting some of its citizens adrift.

The Wall Street Journal, that bastion of industry indulgence, is reporting that residents of Date, Japan, some 35 miles away from nuclear ground zero at Fukushima Daiichi are being advised not to evacuate unless their own house is specifically identified as a mini “hot spot.”  

Under lax exposure standards implemented post Fukushima, only 113 residents of this town of 21,800 are eligible for evacuation and the accompanying compensation.

Residents are understandably bemused by government recommendations on how to stay safe without evacuating:

contamination in Date (pronounced DAH-tay) is deemed low enough to be manageable-as long as residents don’t spend too long outside, and avoid spots such as parks and forests, where radioactive elements tend to gather. Radioactive cesium has a tendency to bind to earth, and flow along with silt in water.

That’s right; instead of wholesale evacuation of the entire radioactive town, most residents are being advised to “decontaminate” their houses and fields (!) and avoid the great outdoors!  

In a country where nature has played a singularly important role in the spiritual life of the population, the people of Date are now directed to regard nature as the single specific threat to their health and safety, and to overlook their proximity to the simmering stewpot of lethal emissions that Fukushima Daiichi continues to be.

The Japanese government says the ceiling for what it is calling safe-20 millisieverts of accumulated radiation exposure per year-is one-fifth the level at which scientists see the first solid signs of health risk. A chest X-ray is around 0.05 millisievert. But 20 millisieverts per year is at the top of an internationally set range for safety in long-term exposure situations. Officials say they’re suggesting evacuation at lower levels for pregnant women and children, thought to be the most vulnerable to radiation, though they won’t say precisely what those levels are.

The absurdity of the arrangement is best illustrated by one case in particular.

Lumber-company owner Morio Onami says his house didn’t qualify for evacuation, even though his son’s, just a few steps away, did.

As is common in Japanese extended families, the two households share many functions, including a single bath.    

In Date, mini “hot-spots” have been discovered scattered randomly all over the place.   One likely reason why only 113 residents have been favored with government-backed evacuation is that radiation measurements were recorded in only two locations at each house, over a period of just two days in June.

At each house the inspectors measured two spots-in the yard and at the front door-at heights of about 20 inches and one yard (one meter). In choosing the spots, the inspectors were warned to stay away from areas such as drains, shrubbery and rainspouts, where radioactive elements tend to gather, potentially skewing results.

This conveniently superficial survey pretty well guarantees that industry and the government keep their own exposure to compensatory losses to a bare minimum.    

 Labor Day 2011 finds the US with the lowest portion of the 16-24 year old demographic employed since the government began tracking the youth market in 1948.

Unemployment among that group this summer stood at 18.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual Labor Day weekend report, down a percentage point from the year before. However, only 59 percent of that age group was participating in the job market, either working or searching for a job.

Overall unemployment stands frozen at 9.1 nationwide. This depressing news isn’t shocking as warnings of the societal dangers are well known and have been sounded for almost three years. In October 2009 Business Week worried about the lost generation unable to enter the workforce and start careers.

Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Maybe somebody should do something about this.

Would that Obama’s long awaited pivot to jobs speech might offer some hope or even change. Since the President has secured Speaker Boehner’s approval for the date and time for the speech there are calls (again, still?) for him to act boldly. Maybe he has something more creative up his sleeve than the cancelation announced Friday of scheduled changes to EPA clean air regulations. The Chamber of Commerce which lobbied hard for this move claims loosening regulations will aid job creation. Naturally it will also save industry expenses.  

As if Vermont needs kicking when we’re busy helping each other recover from the damage of Tropical Storm Irene … Vermont’s R.U.12? LGBTQ Community Center has sent around an alert that the folks from Westboro, Kansas Baptist Church are planning to picket with the usual epithets at the State House in Montpelier TOMORROW, Labor Day, 2011.

Their message seems to be that Irene’s damage was retribution from an angry god because Vermont recognizes same-sex marriage.

As Vermont’s LGBT community center and advocacy organization, we wanted to alert the community that we’ve received news that the Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Montpelier with their “God Hates Fags” and anti-Semitic messages on Labor Day, Monday September 5th. (Read More About Their Visit Here: http://bit.ly/n2W6Si). This isn’t the first time that the WBC has come to Vermont to spread words of bigotry and intolerance, but this time their scheduled protest comes at a time when our region is recovering from a natural disaster, proclaiming that the loss of lives is proof that God punishes those permitting same-sex marriage.

 

The RU12? Community Center staff and board are encouraging folks to avoid giving this hateful group the attention they are seeking. Instead of participating in an in-person counter protest in Montpelier, we are asking the community to consider directing their focus towards helping Vermont recover from the devastating storm last week. By getting involved in the recovery efforts, we can turn this hate filled message into something positive for our communities. […]

[emphasis added]

You can also counter the Westboro Baptist Church’s message by helping Vermont LGBT organizations end hate and build community: Pledge a dime, a quarter, a dollar or two dollars, (or however much you can!) to the RU12? Community Center, Outright Vermont, or Vermont Fund For Families for every minute WBC is picketing in Vermont.Email these groups with your name, phone number, mailing address, and the amount per minute you’d like to pledge at TheCenter@ru12.org, info@outrightvt.org, or info@vermontfundforfamilies.org.

 

You can donate directly on the Network for Good website:

 

Outright Vermont: http://bit.ly/nf43NV

RU12? Community Center: http://bit.ly/nOJNR3

Then again, after Irene, the WBC’s hateful bloviating is pretty pathetic. Too bad we couldn’t capture the hot air to dry out a few basements.

( – promoted by odum)

(cross-posted from Beyond Vermont State Hospital blog, here)

While reflecting upon and then pondering where the state currently is with what is proving to be a fork in the road when it comes the enormous and severe damage caused by tropical storm Irene across Vermont, including at the state office complex as well as the Vermont State Hospital (VSH) facility in Waterbury (here) and, what lies ahead as well as how this crisis provides a unique opportunity for finally accomplishing what previously had been talked about for over twenty years as concerns VSH, the last three lines of the final stanza of Robert Frost‘s poem The Road Not Taken comes to mind:

[…]

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

In this particular case, as pertains to VSH and what would be the best course to take in terms of the future of the mental health system across the state, doing so would take plenty of courage, prudent risk taking, wisely changing one’s priorities, exercising the will and leadership to make it happen, widening one’s circle of those to be included in the process from the get go outside the usual inner circle as well as providing for complete and thorough transparency at all levels.

Up to now, when others who should be equals at the table have been part of the discussion — if one can even call it that, for the most part what they have to say is not fully considered on par as is the case with certain others, particularly when it does not fit with the fixed or rather set agenda as well as selected priorities and goals of those seemingly bent on leading from the top down as best serves their own interests.

It is high time for inclusion rather than exclusion and openness rather than continuing to do things behind closed doors or otherwise during meetings or other conversations with mostly insiders as well as those with direct and financial interests.

This is public policy after all and a lot is at stake, including what will determine the future of the mental health system in Vermont for the next 50 years or more as well as millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars too boot.

In my opinion, I believe the citizens of our state are up to the task if they are only given the chance to consider being part of the solution beyond their being expected to pay for it over the years. In addition, those who have also been invested in these matters for years upon years*(1) certainly have been doing all they can to be part of the process of improving the mental health system as well.

*(1: e.g., various stakeholders including peers [read: people with lived experience of being on the receiving end of the mental health system], family members, advocates, etc.)

It is only hoped that the state’s political leaders, rank and file members of the state legislature and those working in the mental health field, among others, will be up to doing what is required as well. Only time will tell however.

If you have not yet signed the petition urging Governor Peter Shumlin to support the building of a more robust community-based mental health services system, including a major increase in peer run alternative services and supports as well as more affordable housing opportunities, in order to foster a holistic and healing, cross-disabilities, independent living, recovery-based and trauma-informed model, please consider doing so, here.

I seem to have been added to the bottom feeders mailing list, so I thought I’d add this link to their latest scheme to profit from environmental calamity.  It seems that impending famine provides another excellent opportunity for investment.

This little gem of corporate cynicism from some place called “Wealth Wire,” came by chance to me today. Their website poses the come-on question:

Is Water the new Gold?

Talk about your mixed metaphor!  

The video begins as a clumsy “documentary” discussing the many  threats to world water supplies. This perfectly valid premise is supported by a smattering of possibly credible statistics and science.

Then comes the wrap-up, where viewers, presumably now impressed with the gravity of the situation, are encouraged to subscribe to an investment newsletter that claims it will provide investors with sure-fire advice on how to profit from this world-wide crisis!

Watch this puppy and then think about it every time you are tempted to drop a dollar on commercially bottled water.

(UPDATE: Looks like the Times Argus did do a piece on this Wednesday that I missed, so somebody actually did notice. That’s good.)

(UPDATE 2: As per the comments, this picture is apparently Johnson Swift Water Rescue in action, rather than Norwich cadets – but students did participate in water evacuations.)

There are plenty of stories of devastation in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene in the media. Entire towns that found themselves cut off from the outside world also make for compelling coverage. What has been missing from the unprecedented amount of Vermont media focus have been the tales of heroism, which surprises me. People have a need to see the best of themselves in times like this, and the media usually fall over themselves in efforts to serve those stories up in often the most syrupy ways.

But not this week, even though there is a refreshing one right down the road from Montpelier. Northfield businesses were hit hard in the flooding, as Bob Kinzel reported on VPR two days back, but nobody’s noticed how Northfield’s Norwich University – the nation’s oldest private military college – mobilized to help the community (and used Facebook to make it happen). Here’s from a bigger piece I did for The Bridge, my new legacy media gig (I don’t think the latest issue is online yet):

At about 3 p.m. on Sunday, members of Norwich University’s Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Company received a call for help from the Northfield Police for assistance in the town. 37 cadets worked through the night evacuating 25 Northfield residents threatened by the rising waters, remaining on call until 6 a.m. Monday morning.

… After the Mountain Cold Weather Rescue Company assistance, Norwich University’s Center for Civic Engagement began coordinating efforts directly with town officials. Blankets were provided, and evacuees were transported to shelters at the Northfield High School and the Barre Auditorium, and returned to their homes the next day.

All told, 150 students will have participated in relief efforts by the time operations wind down.

Campus support has been coordinated largely over Facebook, and has been an indispensable element of a Town-University partnership characterized as “a community-wide effort with a strong base of university support from students, staff and alums,” according to Center for Civic Engagement Director Nicole DiDomenico. It’s an experience that is having no small impact on students.

“The students could tell that many of the families were emotionally overwhelmed, many of them breaking down in tears,” DiDomenico said of students working in water-damaged residences on Tuesday after the storm. Although shaken, student volunteers were recruiting their friends and “coming back even more determined to help throughout the week.”

The Norwich volunteers plan to provide assistance to impacted neighboring towns as well, such as Waterbury and Roxbury.