I just traveled around the web checking the Dem party site, Shumlin and Racine’s websites. One interesting development, but otherwise nothing much happening.

Shumlin’s calendar is empty and nothing has changed on the site in the last couple of days. Racine’s is also unchanged but does have a link to the recount volunteer effort.

Chagas, whoever that is that is blogging on the VT Dem site, asks us all to sign up with the Shumlin campaign today at the very end of a very flowery and verbose note. I actually had to slow down and read the whole thing carefully after catching that just before I was about to click off. So the Party is now asking all Democrats to sign up on the Shumlin campaign site. That’s a positive. In fact, it’s big news, isn’t it?

Read it for yourself: http://www.vtdemocrats.org/con…

(Good to hear from another candidate – promoted by JulieWaters)

This is my first post at GMD so let me introduce myself- I’m Mike McCarthy, candidate for State Senate (Democrat, Franklin County/Alburgh)

Sue Prent was in my bakery/cafe today (Cosmic in St. Albans) and suggested I get more involved in the GMD scene. I love reading the posts here, and I find that the commentary reinforces my world-view in a way that helps me understand why the R’s love Fox News so much.

I’m running for the State Senate because I am excited by the opportunities we have in the next session, and I’m not terrified of the budget challenges we face.

My small business struggled to a start in 2008, when things were starting to go bust all over America. Now Cosmic employs me and two other staff full time as well as five to eight part-time staff with more planned for next year as we expand. None of us are getting rich (yet) but we make (and eat) good food and we can the pay the rent! Who wants a cupcake?

I want to bring energy and long-term vision to Montpelier and bring back better state government for my neighbors. I recognize that we won’t have grid parity overnight and that a single payer health care bill will take a movement to push it through, but I’m willing to fight for a greener, healthier Vermont. I hope you’ll join me!  

Predictably, promoters of Brian Dubie’s agenda have seized on the ISO-New England statements about Vermont Yankee’s withdrawal from the power auction, to do a little campaign cover-shot. It’s no longer possible to link to the editorial content of the St. Albans Messenger, so you will just have to take my word for it that Emerson Lynn’s Sept. 1 editorial is all over this opportunity.  Get this:

…understandably, the other states in the region cant’ be too happy about it.  They are already beginning to talk about how the cost should not be borne by them, but by Vermont.  If we cause the problem (deny the company its license) then Vermont should share more of the burden in making sure the energy source is replaced.

He goes on…and on…and finally gets to the point of lambasting Peter Shumlin for his opposition to relicensing.

Here is my e-mailed response to Mr. Lynn:

‘Looks like another election year fact-check is in order when it comes to the ISO-New England and Vermont Yankee.  In your September 1 editorial, you refer to the ISO as “independent.”  Even though it may be independent of control by any single power supplier, it is nevertheless a vehicle of the energy market as a whole, and so represents the interest of all the companies that supply power in New England.  To imply that the ISO is entirely independent of Entergy is therefore somewhat disingenuous.  

The ISO’s clucking over the possibility that Vermont Yankee soon will not be part of the configuration of power suppliers to New England as a whole is kind of like an entity representing “big dairy” scolding Vermont for wanting to protect it’s small dairy farms.  As the coordinating arm of an industry dominated by big power corporations, it is unsurprising that they would take a dim view of replacing a plant operated by one of their constituents with alternative sources.   If the ISO is indeed suggesting that Vermont should bear more of the burden of replacing the megawatts lost from the grid when VY goes off-line, the idea is absurd.  Vermont has hosted Vermont Yankee for forty years, while consuming only a very small portion of its output.  For forty years, the state has absorbed all of the risk of hosting the plant on its soil; and when it’s gone, we will be the state that must cope with a long-term clean-up issue of unknown proportions.

ISO’s sabre-rattling is most unbecoming, and if Brian Dubie is foolish enough to pick-up this line of argument in his campaign for governor, he can well expect that Vermonters will consider this disloyalty rather worse than what was displayed in his recent banner ads announcing that Vermont is in 47th place as one of the least friendly places in which to do business in the United States.

From the Burlington Free Press:

Entergy Corp., owner of the Vernon power plant, is required to report to the state every five years how much cleanup of the site would cost when the plant closes, how much money is available and how the company will make up the difference. The report from state Auditor Tom Salmon’s office, said that should happen every 2 1/2 years, or more frequently if there is significant turmoil in the financial markets.

Legislators asked for the audit in 2007 amid concerns that the decommissioning fund would be inadequate. The fund had $428 million as of Dec. 31. Decommissioning is estimated to cost close to $1 billion.

So the request was in 2007. The report was released in 2010 (was it really released? there is not a link to the report, or any specific information…) – and Mr. Salmon suggests that it should be repeated every 2 1/2 years (or more frequently) instead of the five.

So, has his office already started on the next audit?

Not much more at BFP: http://bit.ly/apfaLP

Quick e-mail from the Shumlin campaign, signed by all five candidates (I’m assuming this went out to the other campaigns as well) indicating that if you want to volunteer for the recount, you can do so via this link.  It asks basic information (including who you supported in the primary to get a balanced recount team) and your district, etc.  

The recount officially starts September 8th, so time is of the essence.

Per the e-mail:

Judge Crawford has informed us that the primary election recount will begin on Wednesday, September 8th. We need your help to make this process go as quickly as possible. The judge has asked that we submit a list of volunteers by Friday morning (September 3rd). We will need 40 volunteers from each county to complete the recount.

Each county clerk will oversee a recount team, who will be responsible for counting all of the ballots in that county. Normally, each candidate would recruit their own volunteers in each county, but in order to make this process happen as quickly as possible, all five of us have agreed to put out the call generally and nominate the volunteers together.

The more volunteers we can recruit in each county, the faster the recount can be completed. Please help if you can, especially if you have experience with elections or if you are on the Board of Civil Authority. Once we have a list of volunteers, we will submit them to Judge Crawford, so the process can begin on time. If you know people who might be interested in volunteering, please forward this email to them.

This is urgent folks: those of us who are concerned about how long a recount will take should be the first to sign up, if at all possible.  

Information not yet known: are you able to volunteer for a single day or do you have to volunteer for the entire recount?  Is there a screening process?

Regardless, please volunteer if you can.  The sooner we can get this completed, the sooner we can get to the work of taking Dubie down come November.

Just got the following email

“Dear Edward,

Judge Crawford has informed us that the primary election recount will begin on Wednesday, September 8th. We need your help to make this process go as quickly as possible. The judge has asked that we submit a list of volunteers by Friday morning (September 3rd). We will need 40 volunteers from each county to complete the recount.

Each county clerk will oversee a recount team, who will be responsible for counting all of the ballots in that county. Normally, each candidate would recruit their own volunteers in each county, but in order to make this process happen as quickly as possible, all five of us have agreed to put out the call generally and nominate the volunteers together.

CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THE RECOUNT

The more volunteers we can recruit in each county, the faster the recount can be completed. Please help if you can, especially if you have experience with elections or if you are on the Board of Civil Authority. Once we have a list of volunteers, we will submit them to Judge Crawford, so the process can begin on time. If you know people who might be interested in volunteering, please forward this email to them.

CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER FOR THE RECOUNT

If you can’t volunteer for the recount, but you want to help beat Brian Dubie in November, please make a contribution to the Shumlin for Governor campaign or a donation to the Vermont Democratic Party.  

Your contribution will go toward the coordinated campaign to elect Democrats up and down the ticket in November. We need your help now and we’ll need it in the coming weeks to win in November. Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,

Peter, Doug, Deb, Matt, & Susan”

Pardon me, but when VY supporters insist that Vermont would be royally screwed if we shut down the nuke, isn’t it all pure nonsense?  

As I understand it, the electricity market is no respecter of borders. Prices are set, not at the state level, but regionally and/or nationally, based on market forces. Because large-scale power storage is beyond our current capabilities, electricity must be used as it is generated. It flows freely across state lines, so that supply balances demand at every moment.

Thus, if VY closed, the state would not suddenly lose one-third of its power supply. It would have to “import” more power, sure, but there wouldn’t be a shortage. And prices wouldn’t be affected much at all; the absence of VY would diminish the continent’s available pool of electricity — but that’s a really big pool, and the effect would be negligible. Our electricity prices wouldn’t rise any higher than any other state’s.

So the next time you hear Brian, Jim, or Dave bemoan the prospect of extortionate energy prices, businesses fleeing the state, brownouts and blackouts, just remember this: it’s just as untrue as the ranting about the Ground Zero Mosque.  

I went to Walden on Sunday to pick wild apples and swim.

On the way, just outside of Hardwick, I noticed I was following a big, shiny black van with license plates that said: GOVERNMENT. It was also sporting a “Vermont National Guard” decal.

I knew where they were going:  To home of the Walden man, Tristan Southworth, who died last week in Afghanistan as a member of the Vermont National Guard.

And I guess I’m getting old, too. Because calling the 21-year-old Tristan “a man” seems odd. He did, after all, only just become legal to buy a cold can of beer at the same Hardwick Quick Stop that I stopped at on Sunday afternoon.

Tristan’s home is about a half mile from our camp in Walden. Or about a mile from the home we lived in for nearly a decade while dutifully serving our Walden Time.

Walden, of course, is wicked cold, isolated (No store! No post office! And nobody seems to notice!), and economically challenged. It is, therefore, prime recruiting ground for young men and women like Tristan who are looking for some way to “stick around.”

Frankly, we should be ashamed of what we are offering our youth.

Imagine, for example, if a young man like Tristan was offered a chance to serve the country by helping to truly protect it from the real boogeymen: poverty and its sinister and willing accomplice, greed.

Sticking with that theme, consider these words from the Vermont National Guard’s mission statement:

[To] p rovide to the State of Vermont trained and equipped personnel to protect life and property, preserve the peace, order and public safety. Add value to our communities by involvement in local and state programs.

Please, which part of this mission involved sending a Walden boy to Afghanistan?

I only met Tristan once, as far as I can remember. He was a little boy, probably about six. His mom was friends with Steve Hale, a friend of mine too, the fella who first called me,  “Moike.”

Steve was about as local Walden as local Walden can be. But we hit it off really well. We organized the “locals vs. the flatlanders” softball game. Yes, game. Because, quite frankly, we (flatlanders, duh) were so bad that it was hardly worth the effort.

Steve invited the Southworth family to be on his side. And that’s when I met Tristan.

Like I said, I didn’t know him. But following the government van to Tristan’s house on Sunday made me want to try and remember him.

I gathered apples throughout the day, looking down the hill toward Tristan’s house from time to time. You could hear the cars coming and going.

It was a rare but perfect Walden day: sunny, warm, no bugs and the water looked thick in the late-summer light.

I picked apples. I swam. And I thought.

The best I can report is: This sucks.

We were fooled. We refuse to admit that we were fooled. And we continue down a national warpath that is killing thousands of U.S. citizens like Tristan and hundreds of thousands of Afghanistan and Iraq citizens, many innocent civilians.  

Until we realize that war is the most pathetic and misguided place to channel our so-called patriotism, we will continue to be fooled. Time after time.

Worse, many good Democrats will be fooled again tonight by President Obama’s speech to the nation regarding “the end of the Iraq War.” They will allow themselves to feel better about the new rhetoric and the timelines. Oh, the timelines!

But they will be fooled. Because from the moment President Obama says that, “the combat mission is over,” there will still be 50,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and twice that many “military contractors.”

“Wink, wink, nod, nod,” is what Obama is offering the nation tonight.

Because he can. That’s what we, the people, tolerate: Strong leaders! And liars! Well, as long as the liars are on “our team!”

Sadly, the script for tonight has already been written – and well-rehearsed: The Good Democrats will cheer that “their man” has a plan for calling war something not so unpleasant and The Good Republicans will jeer since “their man” isn’t able to do the same (and better!), damn it.

Did you detect the difference? Good. Keep it in mind in November. Or not.

Otherwise, just keep saying this to yourself in the mirror whenever you hear “the parties” speak: Keep fooling me. Bring it. I like it. Over and over. Go team. Better than YOUR team.

And, whatever you do, don’t admit that Tristan in Walden had absolutely no business being in Afghanistan doing what he was dutifully doing for a U.S. military/industrial complex that is being led by a man from one party while the members of the “other” party happily play along.

Ah! Two-party bliss!

The same two-party bliss that led to the policies that took Tristan Southworth from the wilds of Walden to the all-too-different wilds of Afghanistan.

Support the troops? Hear, hear, cried the party faithful. Both parties.

Whatever you do, don’t spoil the mood.  The two-party mood, as in: Support the Troops! (Read: And the absolutely incomprehensible and simply unsupportable reasons to support the mission that these troops are – wink, wink, nod, nod – trying to carry out.)

Got that? Good.

But the truth of the matter is: Tristan Southworth should have been picking apples with me on Sunday in Walden.

Which is to say: Stop the wars. Now.

Rest in peace (yes, peace), Tristan.

[cross-posted at Broadsides.org]

 

   ( a lament)

I am going to die soon

after I kill some more

you sent me here to kill

sent me here to die

you will only bring me back

in a flag-draped box

how many more before me

how many many more after

yes we are killing more of them

and many more after I am gone

I am your son your daughter

you loved me taught me love

here I see love turned to grief

to fear and hate and despair

I want to come home now

to walk again in my community

to feel the goodness of love

as you welcome me hold me

no tears or grief or pain

to live simply yet larger

to tell you all I have learned

teach you mercy and forgiveness

but that I guess is not to be

the mortar rounds are coming in

the evil beauty of war

surrounds me now puts out my light

look at me in my box

take my hand kiss my head

say your prayers of grief

of fear and hate and despair

you have given me my peace

I will study war no more

and I will not be alone

I took a child with me to heaven

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

 Rumors started last week that Entergy may be putting Vermont Yankee out for sale. An energy trade publication carried the story but Entergy has had no comment.

Now the Rutland Herald reports Entergy and one other company (not named) tried to pull out mid way through a power contract auction run by ISO the operator of the New England power grid.  

ISO-New England Inc. held the auction. ISO spokeswoman Ellen Foley said that Entergy Nuclear participated until the fifth round of the auction and then requested to “delist,” or pull out of the auction, a move which was denied by ISO-New England, citing grid reliability concerns.  

The auction was held Aug. 2 and 3, and Entergy’s request came on Aug. 2, Foley said. Entergy did not request in advance to pull out of the auction, she said. By law, every power generator must participate in such power capacity auctions.

Vermont Department of Public Service David O’Brien’s reaction is notable.

O’Brien, Vermont’s advocate for the people of the state of Vermont in these matters didn’t ask why Entergy attempted to withdraw from the auction. Rather than find out the facts or an explanation for Entergy’s behavior he simply brushed aside the question and raised fears of reliability.  

David O’Brien, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, said he did not ask Entergy why it tried to withdraw from the auction. But he said the more important issue was what the loss of Vermont Yankee would have on the New England power grid.