As our shot at universal coverage slips slowly away into the pockets of big pharma and the health insurance industry, it might be a good time to redirect naysayer’s attentions to a country that was much maligned by tea-baggers as an example of a public healthcare system gone terribly wrong.  

I was watching ski-jumping on CBC this afternoon when suddenly a public service spot came on requesting that everyone in Canada be vaccinated against H1N1.  “We have plenty for everyone,” the smiling spokeswoman said. No matter what your opinion is on vaccination, it’s pretty obvious that the Canadian healthcare system has it all-over the U.S. when it comes to providing emergency care for its population in this particular health-care crisis.

Why are we such patsies down here?  

Remember when Senators Leahy and Sanders cast two of the only votes against the craven, legislative mugging of ACORN that terrified Dems joined Republicans in enacting? At the time, Leahy commented “Just as I would be against banning other specific organizations on the right or on the left from applying for competitive grants, I believe it is harmful, even though popular, to approve an amendment like this.” And beyond being a matter of principle, it was a matter of basic Constitutionality, as our founding document prohibits Congress from singling out a single organization for petty punitive action in this way.

You may also remember a couple voices in the legacy media that just couldn’t believe Sanders and Leahy (Welch, unfortunately, snatched up a pitchfork and joined right in, much as he did with the congressional censure of MoveOn after Republicans didn’t like their ads). They couldn’t get their brains around it.

Remsen at the Free Press:

What were they thinking? Vermont Republican Party Chairman Rob Roper called the pair out of touch with common sense… Expect to see and hear about the votes Sanders and Leahy made for months — maybe years to come.

The Caledonian Freakshow Record:

Challenge Leahy and Sanders on this vote. Please don’t let it be said that Vermont has become so liberal its senators get a pass when they stand in opposition to morality and honesty.

Yesterday’s word? The ACORN-bashing law was tossed out prevented from being implemented by a judge. Why? Duh, because it’s an unconstitutional “bill of attainder.” Just as everybody who stopped for ten seconds to think about it said at the time.

So, what on Earth were Sanders and Leahy doing voting the way they did? As should’ve been obvious to folks like Remsen at the time, in voting against a plainly unconstitutional partisan hit job, they were doing their jobs.

This is great news.

I offer this quote, from Bianca Fernandez, one of the organizers of the shelter:

“There has been a lot of controversy over this, but at the end of the day mostly everyone was supportive,” Fernandez said. “There were not many people who opposed it, but those who did, did so loudly. Now even some of them are supportive and are offering a hand to help.”

So yes, this sort of thing does change the character of the community.  It changes it for the better.

I will also make this announcement here, now that it’s ready to go: I’m organizing a benefit concert in Bellows Falls on February 6th to support this shelter and help give them operational funds to keep them open through the season.  Stone Arts Church in Bellows Falls has already offered space and I have one great musician (Jesse Peters) as a definite, and several other potentials lined up.  If you’re in the vicinity and want to see a great show for a great cause, save the date!

All week we’ve been hearing and reading about Tom Salmon’s latest debacle in his use of taxpayer money to buy a video camera to glorify his own campaign for auditor, lt. governor, governor or whatever.  You name and he’s running for it.

Kudos to Shay Totten for not only breaking the video story in his Fair Game column this week after having Seven Days shell out $105 to buy the DVD.

Now see it live on Seven Days Blurt thanks to Shay Totten who has mounted it on You Tube as well.  

Read Shay’s latest on Blurt:  http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2009… and read Odum’s post this week with the great GMD reader responses: http://www.greenmountaindaily….

The $400,000 overpayment to Scott Construction by the city of Montpelier and the subsequent decision by City officials to keep the goof quiet has been a source of much political sturm und drang in the capital city, and has already led to at least one announced challenger to incumbent Mayor Mary Hooper. While the concerns generated by the lack of conspiracy transparency will likely remain in play, the original issue (the money thing) looks to be solved. From the city:

The City of Montpelier will be paid in full for the loss it incurred from an overpayment to the Scott Construction Co, Inc of Newport. This morning officials from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns Property & Casualty Insurance Fund (VLCT-PACIF) informed the City Manager and Finance Director that the City’s insurance claim in the Scott Construction matter would be honored and that the City would be covered in full. While full details of this decision have not been received from the insurer, the amount of reimbursement is expected to be the $397,079 awarded to the city in a court judgment against Scott Construction, Inc. on June 16, 2009. This claim was originally denied in January of 2007.

The moral to the story is – once again – transparency, transparency, transparency. With the original issue now handled, the only issue that remains is the trust gap brought on by the city officials themselves.

Still, unlike their counterparts in Burlington facing their own financial scandal, Montpelier’s mayor and city council have proactively contained much of the public resentment through accepting responsibility with appropriate humility, as well as opening up the process to full public scrutiny. What difference that makes at the ballot box remains to be seen.

1. Transcripts reveal that O’Keefe and Giles said they needed ACORN’s help to protect Giles from a violent pimp-but they carefully edited this out of their videos1. O’Keefe and Giles used clever editing and voiceovers to hide a key fact that the transcripts show to be true in each case: In each office, the duo claimed that 20-year old Hannah was being threatened by a violent abusive pimp. They pleaded for ACORN to help protect the prostitute (and in some cases underage girls as well) from the pimp by helping her get a place to live. O’Keefe and Giles edited this out of the video given the news media and the public, but neglected to remove it from the transcripts.

Remember, for example, the tape of the NY ACORN worker advising the prostitute to hide money in a tin can, presumably to evade taxes? The transcript shows it was so the pimp “can’t get it from you if he wants to come and rip up the place.” And the prostitute told the loan counselor that her pimp had ” all these 13, 14,15 year old girls from El Salvador and that’s what-I need to protect them like I know what its like and I have to protect them and like give them somewhere to live.” 2

(What the Transcripts Show About the Doctored ACORN Video Tapes, ACORN)

And the links to transcripts are all provided in the above document. In New York, for instance, ACORN workers were doing nothing worse than trying to help a self proclaimed prostitute get away from a violent pimp!

Thanks weasel Welch.

I posted before about the hopes to build a homeless shelter in Bellows Falls.  One voice opposing that shelter is that of Stefan Golec, who has no actual facts, but has a lot of opinions.  Per today’s Rutland Herald:

Bellows Falls Village Trustee Stefan Golec spoke strongly against the shelter, questioning the wisdom of placing it in the downtown business district and whether there was a need for such a large shelter.

“Once you build it, they will come,” said Golec, who said he was representing the entire Board of Trustees.

…and…

…Golec said the shelter would place “an undue burden on services,” provided by the village, “particularly police.”

“The character of the area will be unfairly affected,” he said.

Did Golec present any evidence?  No.  Did he show any data that would support his claims?  No.  But, gee golly, it sure sounds good.  

Could it possibly be that this shelter isn’t there to attract new homeless people to the area but instead to try to help those who are already there to survive the winter?

Seriously: is anyone willing to make the claim that there’s anything about New England which will attract homeless people to the area?  

“Well, it’s colder than you can possibly imagine, but I hear they’ve got a decent shelter up there.  Let’s hop a train!”

Here’s the simple truth of the matter: Bellows Falls has homeless people.  If we don’t find a place for them to stay at night, it places them at undue risk.  A place for them to stay from dusk through dawn is the very least we can do to help them, and I do mean the very least.  The arguments against this shelter are not based on reason or risk analysis.  They’re based on fear and prejudice.

UPDATE some interesting history on Golec after the fold

I got a tip after writing this piece about an old Ruland Herald piece on Golec:

Village trustee Stefan Golec forwarded at least two Internet jokes and messages this month to town officials and community leaders that contain derogatory terms for Muslims and are critical of their culture and religion.

One e-mail he forwarded labeled Muslims as “brutal and uncivilized” and another referred to them as “Towel Heads.” The e-mails were sent to friends, community leaders and this reporter.

But it’s homeless people that will damage the community.

Classy!

In Obama’s Nobel prize acceptance speech he does a great job of illustrating the political leadership’s role in continuing war for fun and profit. Non-defensive war is not only morally defensible, but what the hell … we can’t do anything about it anyway.

(my emphasis)

The concept of a “just war” emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when it meets certain preconditions: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the forced used is proportional, and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.

(Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech: FULL TEXT as presented on The Huffington Post)

“They won’t let me have their oil,” screamed the now blue faced president as he managed to holler while holding his breath, “As a last resort I’m going to do a just war!”

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

(ibid)

So if not in our lifetime, when? In the next lifetime, President Obama, folks’ll be told by the likes of you that “We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes.”

You, Mr. Obama, are a part of the problem … definitely NOT the solution.

Tracking Vermont ARRA stimulus funding isn’t easy. The Vermont Recovery Czar refused to put up ARRA road signs and the Vermont State and National Recovery websites are not easy to navigate. The Vermont State webpage, far from transparent, is a jumble of PDFs and old and new press releases. Judge for yourself here: Recovery Vermont.

The National Recovery webpage is a little better, but anyone wondering how their county or the entire state has faired can find it at ProPublica website. The website has an easy to use by state Stimulus Tracker chart, which has been recently updated.   The Vermont per capita winner was Washington County home of the state capital, Montpelier. This is slightly deceiving as it is noted that

“There still may be overrepresentation of money going to counties where state capitals are because of funding going to state agencies but where the data did not designate that it was to be used statewide.”

So given that, Washington County weighs in at a heavy $5,143 per capita with total county funding at $302,543,048.  

Caledonia County home of the conservative up–by-your- bootstraps Caledonian Record newspaper received the second  largest per capita share of Federal gov’mint tax money.Caledonia took home a substantial $1,236.00 per capita, with a total county funding amount of $37,675,844. Taking into account possible overrepresentation in Washington County’s numbers Caledonia might well be first. Grand Isle, Vermont’s smallest county, comes in last with just $97.00 per capita for their 7,729 residents. Vermont’s overall statewide funding per capita was $270.00 above the nationwide average of $237.00 per capita.    

Also listed are Statewide and non-County specific project grants; state budget hole pluggers.  Most of these amounts are all in or above the six figure range save for a noticeably small grant (or typo) to the Agency of Human Services listed for $2.00. [!]  

VT State  Agency of Human Services  $2.00 Grant Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid) Medicicaid Entitlement  for Vermont – FY 2009 Quarter Department of   Health and Human Services 6/26/2009

( – promoted by odum)

Barre’s mayor lauzon is showing his true self once again. At the last city council meeting, the prick decided he could throw somebody else’ phone into a corner because the phone had the temerity to buzz during a meeting ((Fl)iPhone?, Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 12/10/09).

To make matters worse, the prick had to prove he’s a bully too! Not only did he demonstrate absolute disregard for another’s personal property, but the prick did it to an employee of the city who is directly answerable to the mayor.