Peter Shumlin’s been out preaching the good word of marriage equality in New Jersey, where legislative sponsors of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage are doing a delicate procedural dance to maximize it’s chances for passage. Shumlin’s open letter appeared in GMD’s Soapblox/50-state-blog-project sister site, Blue Jersey:

Senators,

As you consider a vote to extend the civil marriage laws to include same-sex couples, let me offer my two cents, based on our own experience here in Vermont:  Just Do It!

[…] I have no doubt that for some of you, this vote seems scary.  Fear is the opposition’s strongest weapon at this point.  I promise you-if you do the right thing, you won’t regret it.

Kudos also to Republican Senator Diane Snelling for testifying in favor of marriage equality in the New Jersey legislature.

You might’ve already read about this (the Shumlin piece, anyway) in vtbuzz, whose link to Blue Jersey proves that, yes, the Free Press will acknowledge the blogosphere – just not in Vermont. Heh.

In re: Mr. Salmon… When you’re working on as many things as 7 Days’ Shay Totten is, sure you’re gonna get dinged more at a site like this – but you’re also gonna get more kudos, and kudos are what’s in order today. Totten has reportedly been shaking just about every bush imaginable for info on our soap operatic state Auditor Tom Salmon. What he found most recently may not end up getting as much press as a DUI – but it should.

Turns out Salmon has been using state funds to purchase a camera and have staffers video his public appearences. That would just be tacky, and a bit narcissistic, in and of itself – but it seems he also used the state-owned equipment and state employee staff time to record his big campaign fundraiser that included the likes of desperate-to-stay-relevant Burlington moneybags Harlan Sylvester. And that’s against the rules, at the very least.

“If I ever get to the big office, I’ll tell you right now, I’m going to be about reform and honesty and commitment, and I appreciate your help with me getting there,” Salmon told the crowd of supporters. “I may raise $200,000 as auditor, and if I have anything left it will be for the next pursuit and I hope you will help me get there.”

One thing might get in the way: Taping a political speech with a taxpayer-purchased camcorder may violate state rules and regs.

Here’s what it says in the state personnel manual: “An employee shall not use State property or equipment for his private use or for any use other than that which serves the public interest.”

There’s also Bulletin 5.62, which reads: “Employees shall not use, or attempt to use, state personnel, property, or equipment for their private use or for any use not required for the proper discharge of their official duties.”

Salmon defended himself with more insipid attempts at folksy straight talk. This guy is an embarassment and clearly doesn’t give a rats ass about professional ethics.

Bernie & Colbert on capitalsim (weren’t some commenters lamenting the lack of a critique on capitalism? Well, here y’are…. we aim to please…)

The news that the Obama administration will champion targeted assistance for small U.S. businesses is a welcome turn of events after decades of public policy that has routinely favored huge multi-national corporations over  the enterprising little guy.   It also provides an opportunity to focus on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the insidious way its operations have been redirected to serve the interests of the powerful few rather than those of the many.

What peaked my interest was an e-mail link to a story in the Colorado Independent, that was sent to me by my friend Perry Cooper.  It seems that the Aspen Chamber of Commerce has called-out the U.S. Chamber for

questioning of global warming science and other policies it’s adopted that are aimed at thwarting climate-change legislation.

I quickly discovered that the U.S Chamber has quite a reputation for such activities, as reported by Sourcewatch:

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobbying group in the United States, “used to be a trade association that advocated in a bipartisan manner for narrowly tailored policies to benefit its members. Since 1997 or so, it has become a fully functional part of the partisan Republican machine,” with CEO and president Thomas J. Donohue “raising its budget to $150M a year from corporate chiefs satisfied with his ability to move policy through a Republican Congress,” Matt Stoller wrote December 13, 2006, at MyDD.

The Chamber claims on its website that its mission is to “advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility.” It describes itself as “the world’s largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.”

However, the Chamber is “dominated by oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, automakers and other polluting industries,” according to James Carter, executive director of the Green Chamber of Commerce.

As detailed in this Washington Post article,  the Chamber has also taken a highly activist role in frustrating the current efforts toward healthcare reform.

They have opposed legislation that would restrict imports from countries engaged in sweatshop labor practices and fought against the Employee Free Choice Act that would make it easier for labor to organize.   Trumpeting the virtues of “free trade” the Chamber has positioned itself against virtually every measure that would advance the cause of “fair trade” in U.S. and world enterprise. The end result is that there have recently been a number of defections from the U.S. Chamber in response to the sharp right turn that its activities have taken.  Most notable among those departures was Apple Computers which withdrew from the Chamber in protest over its position on legislation addressing climate change.

As small business owners ourselves, my husband and I recognize that implementing public policies like universal healthcare, workers’ rights, a living wage and clean environmental standards is the only way to ensure the survival of “free” enterprise and a stable economy.   By endorsing a profit-driven race to the bottom without regard for the human and environmental consequences, the U.S. Chamber and it’s mega-corporate handlers is courting future economic collapse.  Rather than the flawed model of “trickle-down” economics, it is full participation by all sectors of the U.S. population that will be the engine of long-term prosperity.  

Yesterday it was announced far and wide that Attorney General Eric Holder settled a 13 year old lawsuit brought by Native Americans against the US that dated back to the 1800’s.The case involved allegations that the Department of the Interior had swindled tribes out of leasing royalties for mining, timber, oil and gas.

Under the terms of the agreement, more than $1.4 billion will be distributed to more than 300,000 Native Americans to compensate them for royalty claims.  Another $2 billion will be used to buy back and consolidate tribal lands lost by previous generations

The buy back funds may prove useful as elsewhere in the news and with much less fanfare, a yin to this yang story is occurring.  Many people might think taking Native American’s lands is frowned upon and even discouraged, apparently not. One hand gives back as another takes.  

The IRS just auctioned off 7,100 acres of land (twenty percent of the tribes land) owned by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. The Tribal land includes an area under negotiation for wind farm development. Although valued at $4.6 million, the 7,100 acres was sold for less than $2.6 million to an undisclosed buyer. The tribal council has filed suit and it should come to trial in March.  

The lawsuit says BIA gave the tribe “erroneous tax advice” around 2003 when it said the tribe didn’t have to pay federal employment taxes because it’s a federally recognized sovereign nation.

“The tribe has attempted since then to pay the arrearages and subsequent amounts as they come due, but has been unable to bring the employment taxes current because over this same amount of time the Internal Revenue Services have levied and garnished various accounts of the tribe making it impossible for the tribe to bring the taxes current,” according to the lawsuit. BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling said the bureau is not involved in the case.

The DC Democratic surrender monkeys have once again employed their favorite tactic: simply agree with the radical right wing Republicans and move on.

Any semblance of an honest public option … gone.

Woman’s right to control her own body … on life support.

Massive transfer of government tax dollars to private pockets … just one more time.

So here’s the quiz …

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As the Cold War between the Burlington City Council and the Mayor over financial decision making and transparency has (predictably, but avoidably) turned into a debate over the very viability of Burlington Telecom, the next wave of public pressure and bad press may be approaching.

First comes the news, first reported in the Free Press, that usual suspect Republicans Gene Shaver and Fred Osier have filed a lawsuit against the city on the matter, claiming (from the filing):

This is a taxpayer suit to recover approximately $17 million in city funds which

were borrowed and not repaid by Burlington Telecom (“BT”) to the City of Burlington’s pooled cash management system within 60 days, and have not been repaid to date.[…] Plaintiffs seek an order requiring Defendant to promptly repay such funds with interest to the pooled cash management system; an accounting to determine how the funds were spent and exactly what amount is owing; and an injunction to prevent Defendant from taking any further actions with respect to BT which would place taxpayer funds at risk…

Although the lawsuit doesn’t seem likely to go anywhere, it does amount to a fairly comprehensive bill of particulars against the Kiss administration, and its very existence will increase the pressure. All of which again proves that Kiss, with the backing not only of the Council Progressives but the State Progressive Party itself, have gift wrapped an early Christmas present to Republican opponents of Burlington Telecom by digging in, refusing to acknowledge any screwups, and instead making the whole dustup about BT itself, rather than honestly and honorably confronting charges of misconduct. It took a lot of blind, foolish pride to goeth before this particular fall – however far the fall turns out to be.

But the more interesting bit comes from the media. There has been some behind the scenes muttering about the possibility of Freedom of Information Act requests (demands?) for the business-related particulars of BT’s finances and business plan (the information that Kiss is guarding closely and only releasing in the most limited capacity to the City Council on the condition it not be shared with anyone). Turns out, though, that Shay Totten of 7 Days already has made such a request – but by way of Council President Bill Keogh. This week, he requested copies of all communications between Keogh and the Public Service Board from October 1st through this week, but also “pro forma” financial documents submitted in open session (why stop at the executive session door? Let the sunshine in, I sez… sounds like there’s still room for another request…).

It’s worth noting, too, that not all the requests are being honored. Materials the city deems relating to “trade secrets, litigation records, contract negotiation records, and) preliminary to determination of policy records” were not turned over.

(And does anybody else feel that the blanket “trade secrets” excuse is weak? This aint the secret recipe for Coca Cola here. And yes, I know Comcast is among the evilest of evil companies, but – “trade secrets?” C’mon. The flavor of the fiber? Everybody knows the goals, here, and the technology is hardly unique. But I digress…)

The document dump could make for some interesting coverage, given that 7 Days, after doing much of legwork breaking the story, has since been positioning itself in fairly brazen opposition to the City Council’s efforts to wrest both information and control of the process from the Mayor’s office. Stay tuned.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance.

Activists get the DEA to remove obsolete information from its website claiming that the American Medical Association (AMA) still opposes medical marijuana.

After just one day of emails from activists, the information disappeared.

Now, if we could only get them to delete the more fundamental lies about marijuana, like it's dangerous, it's addictive, it kills you, it causes you to use other drugs . . .

We've covered this issue here before. Vermont's been in the vanguard on other issues, this seems like a pretty logical one. There are three bills in the Legislature relating to marijuana. It might be a good idea to contact your senators and representatives and tell them you'd like to see action on these bills.

An excellent op-ed piece in today's Free Press lays out the myths and realities of the so-called tort reform movement. The piece, by Lars Lundeen, emonstrates the recurring reality that the tort “reform” movement is nothing more than an assault on the rights of injured patients, while offering no benefits to anyone but insurance carriers.

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Those opposed to real health care and health insurance reform appear to be flailing around to come up with alternative, real solutions to our health care crisis. With all the talk of death panels, government takeovers and rationing of care, now tort reform has been thrown into the mix in Congress.

So-called tort reform will do practically nothing to lower health care costs, and certainly will not fix our broken health care system. However, it will most definitely hurt innocent patients injured through no fault of their own. It appears that the effects of legislation on real people have somehow evaporated from the discussion.

It's worth reading the whole thing.

According to [Chuck Heath, guv quitter Palin’s father], the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’ ”

(North Star

Populism, politics, and the power of Sarah Palin, Sam Tanenhaus writing for the New Yorker, 12/07/09)

When John Lennon died, I wasn’t a huge fan of his.  I was young at the time, and it was before I had realized I was a musician and didn’t really understand much of anything about music.

But I did understand something about people.  Standing at that bus stop, getting ready for school, the older kids who were usually brash, often funny, sometimes obnoxious and generally full of themselves, were really subdued.  

I think that may have actually been the moment when I started to understand something profound and crucial about music: that it’s not just about playing notes and making sounds, but it can have genuine impact and influence on peoples’ lives.   It may have very well been the beginnings of my interest in music as a craft and a model for change.  

I think I could write for hours about this if I let myself.  A friend of mine recently got diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is fatal.  It’s gotten me thinking lately about life, death, and what we leave behind.  Some of you know there have been times in my life that have been really rough.  There are times in there where I suspect that music was the one thing that was keeping me going: just something I could grab on to that I could understand and believe in, even when the rest of the world seemed to be failing me,

But mostly, I just want to say to John Lennon, whom I didn’t get while he was alive, you’ve had a profound and lasting effect on me, but I wish I had learned it a different way.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

Vtdigger has only been online since September 2009, but already Anne Galloway’s  journalistic venture has met its objective “to mine the gaps in Vermont news coverage.” Recently Vtdigger filled the void left by lack of newspaper focus in covering the governor’s race. As noted here, Seven Days, and Vermont News Guy, the Environmental Action Conference in Randolph acted as the kick-off to Democratic primary season, but most news organizations missed the obvious headline that all five pledged to shut down Vt Yankee. Since our interview, Anne has also started sorting candidates’ answers by topic with the League of Conservation Voters debate. This kind of video editing and uploading is an incredibly time consuming process but the result is a handy way to compare the candidates.  

Not content to cover event-based stories, Vtdigger has gone deep on complicated issues as well. The quantity and quality of stories Vtdigger has posted on Vermont’s dairy crisis is amazing given the short period of time the site has been in existence. And just this week again, GMD frontpaged VTdigger’s work digging behind the headlines to give voice to Curtis Sinclair and discover the story behind the State Hospital’s canteen shutdown.

VTdigger is not a blog, but it complements VT’s blogosphere nicely.  The site recently underwent a facelift and there are more changes in the works to make it more interactive. To that end, Anne has plans to structure citizen involvement in covering local and statewide political issues. And vtdigger is also practically engaging the question of how to make professional journalism economically viable in the 21st century. With underwriting, grant, subscriber, and donation support, and a whole lot of excellent journalism, Vtdigger will no doubt be a durable excavator on the VT media landscape.