Good news for Daniel Hauser: a judge in Minnesota has ruled that his parents may not refuse him treatment for his cancer, even though he allegedly also wanted to refuse treatment.

The boy is thirteen years old, and dominated by his parents, who are Catholics but also belong to a made-up cult that claims to use “natural healing” methods. His doctors testified that with treatment Daniel has a 90% chance of surviving, whereas without it his chances are 5%.

So why doesn't the kid get to make his own decision?

Well, first off, he's thirteen, and kids that age don't get to make that kind of decision. He can't read. And, as the judge found, Daniel has only a “rudimentary understanding at best of the risks and benefits of chemotherapy. … he does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently.”

What's the parents' solution? Treat him with “herbal supplements, vitamins, ionized water, and other natural alternatives — despite testimony from five doctors who agreed Daniel needed chemotherapy.“

Sometime, assuming this kid grows to adulthood, and he understands a little more about life and death, I'll be glad to see him make his own decisions. Now, as a juvenile who has no understanding of the situation he's in, and in the hands of parents who are equally clueless, he needs someone with a level head on his shoulders to protect him from those parents. I'm glad this judge was there.

Shay:

With the legislative session now behind him, Chittenden County Democratic Senator Doug Racine is hitting the road to raise money and garner support in his run for governor.

On Saturday, Racine will break bread with the Progressive Party’s State Committee at its quarterly meeting. That confab will be at the Old Labor Hall in Barre at 10 a.m.

“I reached out to them,” said Racine, who met twice with Anthony Pollina, the Progressives’ 2008 candidate for governor (before he dropped the party moniker and ran as an independent). Pollina also ran under the Progressive banner for governor in 2000 and lieutenant governor in 2002.

“I told them I wanted to check in with him and asked for his support,” Racine said of his two meetings with Pollina. “He didn’t say no. And, he said the next step was to talk with the state committee. In talks with other Progressives, they’ve told me they are willing to consider the person, not just the party.”

Perhaps, after all, Progs & Dems can “get along” eh?

I expected Racine to start making big moves as soon as the session was over. I’ll admit, though, I wasn’t expecting this. Good on ‘im. As readers might recall, I went on record saying the Dem Committee should give Pollina a hearing last year. Also, the Progressive complaint against Racine last cycle (when he was thinking about a run) was that they had stepped aside for him in 2002, so he should step aside for Pollina.

Well…merits to that argument notwithstanding, he did step aside. Maybe that creates an opportunity for Racine to uniquely approach the Progressives with a clean slate.

Interesting. I may have to go and see what happens.

is it the “Right Wing Whacko Minor Leagues”??

I’ll go with the latter.

And the following is a great illustration showing why progressives and liberals should be investing their time and lives in our military and police agencies.

The responding officers – eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 – face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots – BAM! BAM! – fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

(Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More, NY Times, 05/13/09)

Yeah, this is about the Boy “We’re in it for the violence and excitement of it all” Scouts.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence – an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

But not to worry .. it’s not all about violence directed to those who aren’t on the side of the Boy Scouts. There’s also “numerous cases” involving charges of sexual assault.

The above presents a horrible paradigm. A socially radically right wing organization like the Boy Scouts being groomed (ala the Hitler Youth) to be the ones who will exercise our various governments’ monopoly on legal violence.

What we need instead are folks who understand allegiance to people and freedom and cooperative living instead of radical causes … we need level headed progressives and liberals … those who are much less inclined to see violence as an acceptable … nay expected … response to any and everything.

We cannot afford to turn our military and police over to the radical right wing.

When police departments are trying to sell us on the value of adding tasers to their arsenals, we’re told that they will only be used sparingly, and that tasers are an alternative to deadly force.

By this reasoning, we should expect no more incidents of tasers being used than incidents of police firearms being used before tasers were available to them. Right?

Ha. Here’s the reality:

The family of a Burlington teenager has filed a formal complaint against a city police sergeant alleging the officer fired a stun gun at the boy while he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground this week….

…(Burlington Police Officer) Schirling said his department acquired Tasers about three years ago, has used them fairly frequently, and they have proved an effective law-enforcement tool. Initially a skeptic, Schirling said seeing the devices in action sold him on their usefulness.

“It is designed to minimize injuries to officers and to people the force is used on,” the chief said.

Funny, I don’t recall Burlington Police officers shooting people with their sidearms “fairly frequently” before the tasers came along.

Again, as an alternative to deadly force, I think most sane people would be all for these things. The problem is, of course, that police departments routinely BS us about how they actually intend to use them and – as in Burlington – choose instead to use these potentially lethal devices “fairly frequently” – sometimes just for the purpose of causing pain in order to coerce desired behavior (which, in more civilized nations, is considered torture and is frowned upon).

But, once again, we just celebrate this sort of thing at the highest levels in Vermont:

Shameful.

Obama doesn’t want to investigate torture and all the criminals that advanced and practiced it in our name.

Obama doesn’t want us to see photos of torture.

And to repeat myself .. FUCK YOU OBAMA! See the below link for just a small part of why I say that.

http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages…

This is basically the Governor’s choice of moves regarding the budget:

1. Fold: Play it safe and cut his losses for the session. Choose not to veto it, despite his previous threats. This would  be another sign of weakness from the backpedaling alone (which may have already begun). Legislative leaders would firm up their empowerment narrative and criticism of the compromise budget from the left would fall off, as it would appear they absolutely nailed the fine line between veto and acceptance and got the best budget they could after all.

2. Go all in. Veto. A special session gets called. If the veto is upheld, Douglas has reaffirmed his power and legislative leaders are in deep doo-doo, as they already offered a “compromise” budget and will have absolutely no place to go. Liberals will be pissed at what comes next – and rightfully so.

If, on the other hand, the veto is overridden, the Governor has just graduated the hit he took from the rest of the session to a full-fledged knock-down wallop. Headlines will question his power and relevence – as well as his re-election prospects. It would be huge – and the legislature would, again, mitigate liberal complaints by being seen as finding the fine line representing the best we could expect to achieve. Plus the victory would be energizing.

And the prospects are there for an override. It was suggested to me the other day that there may be five republicans who may vote for an override. Why? Because at this point, the Governor’s budget would represent higher tax increases by shifting a greater burden onto local property taxes by dipping further into the education fund. Add to that, the momentum-stealing argument that a special session would be an unexpected extra cost to taxpayers, and the Governor (despite his best efforts otherwise) will have the responsibility for that expense squarely in his lap – and that responsibility will be compounded exponentially if the veto is overridden, which will give the appearance of Douglas simply flushing money down the toilet in a pique of vanity and futility.

PS: On another note, I couldn’t help but notice this quote from Douglas at the announcement of the retirement of Marselis Parsons of WCAX, which has been colloquially known as WGOP (ht Freyne) for some time, given its often routine bias towards all things Republican (emphasis added):

“As a reporter, then anchor and news director, he has shaped Vermont history with intelligent coverage and piercing insight.

Reporting the news? Sometimes.

“Shaping” the news. Yep, that’s what he did all right. And I’m sure the Governor is sincere in his praise of Parsons’ success in that department.

I, for one, am glad to see a change. Good luck to the new guy. I’ll be rooting for ya.

The first diary I posted here was about HR 1207 the bill that would require a much needed audit of the Federal reserve by the end of 2010. Some folks here said it was a good idea but I haven’t gotten any feedback on that diary at all.

I can’t help but wonder why.

This link is to a great article on HuffPo about the Fed Inspector General. I posted the video on the other diary as extended text. Maybe you folks missed it? There are 2 bits of extended text that I added in the last few days.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Seems like almost like it's becoming a weekly occurrence, eh? Nutter heads will continue to explode… From the UPI wire:

The New York State Assembly has approved a measure to allow same-sex marriages, shifting the fight over the bill to the state Senate, analysts said.

By a vote of 89-52, the Assembly moved late Tuesday to approve the same-sex marriage initiative, with several legislators who had rejected a similar measure in 2007 changing their votes this time, The New York Times reported.

It goes to the Senate next, where passage is less certain.  If it does indeed pass, the governor is expected to sign it.

Enexus,just like FairPoint but with nuclear waste disposal issues? Vermont Yankee may yet wind up as part of six other nuclear plants owned by a brand new leveraged ,deeply in debt  shell company .As Governor Douglas’s veto of the decommissioning bill looms keep in mind that VY may soon be shuffled off to Enexus providing shelter  for it’s “parent” company Entergy .

Entergy is still persuing the spin-off that will add,as they say “value for their stake holders” but little to no added value to Vermonters.One wonders what hollow reassurances Entergy will offer to state regulators to gain what it wants.Just as FairPoint reassured the state’s DPS regarding it’s capabilities.

Entergy said it’s “prepared to seize opportunities that add value for our stakeholders.” The New Orleans power firm said it’s moving ahead with plans to spin off its Enexus non-utility nuclear business from its regulated utility business through a tax-free spin-off of the non-utility nuclear business.

On a conference call with analysts, Entergy officials said the company remains in discussions with regulators in New York and Vermont over the spin-off of Enexus. Regulators have asked for information on the strength of the Enexus balance sheet, the company said.

Vermont Yankee is a merchant plant that sells power on the open market

http://www.marketwatch.com/sto…

Entergy is currently in settlement negotiations with New York, said Richard Smith, Entergy’s president and chief operating officer

“We’ve done a lot of work with them over the last couple of months providing them really stressful scenarios around Enexus and how the liquidity is as strong going forward as it has been with Entergy in the past.”

The same goes for Vermont, said  Smith,

http://www.reformer.com/ci_123…

Hey now, hey now …

Anson Tebbetts: from WCAX to the guv’s office to WCAX. At least we’ll have consistency in CAX’s coverage.

The guv says

Governor Douglas also expressed his congratulations to Agency of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Anson Tebbetts who will leave the Agency and become News Director when Parsons retires. “Anson has been an invaluable member of my team,” said Douglas. “His knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to Vermont agriculture will be sorely missed. I wish Anson well in his new endeavor.”

(Governor Douglas Wishes Longtime WCAX News Director and Anchor Marselis Parsons Well in Retirement Congratulates Anson Tebbetts on New Position, 05/12/09))

Don’t worry, Jim, Tebbett’ll still do ya’ proud.