My own feeling about the Bush White House is that the fish rotted from the head down,but what about those just following orders ?

A newly unclassified Senate report on the US government’s treatment of terrorism suspects vindicates enlisted soldiers prosecuted for the abuse of inmates Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq , a lawyer for one of the soldiers and a US senator said today.

Texas-based lawyer Guy Womack, who defended specialist Charles Graner, said he plans to seek a presidential pardon for his client. Graner was in 2005 sentenced to 10 years in a military prison on charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and other counts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…

( – promoted by odum)

In my inbox:

Come all to Waterman, now, where we began a sit-in at 3:00 and where,  

at 1:45 a group of students locked down in the President’s wing.

We are here until our demands are met, at the top is NO CUTS, Revoke  

LAYOFFs and NON-REAPPOINTMENTS, and all future plans for layoffs!!!

COME NOW!!!!  Fogel and Cate are negotiating now, but not budging yet.  

 Time to make change and TAKE BACK OUR UNIVERSITY!!

–Students Stand Up!!

UPDATE 8:15PM-

Though the students who locked-down were prepared to make concessions and, well, negotiate, Fogel apparently left abruptly saying he wouldn’t agree to “any of it”.  Those students sitting in the President’s Wing were then immediately arrested (I don’t have a number of arrestees or details of charges yet but at least 7 have been arrested).

At present over 100 students, staff and faculty are still engaged in a sit-in at the Waterman building and have been told that if they don’t leave by 10pm they will be arrested too.

Organizers are calling for community members to head over to the Waterman building for a 9:30 rally this evening in support of those arrested and the coalition of students, staff and faculty who are demanding an end to budget cuts, layoffs, and outrageous administrative salaries.

http://twitter.com/studentsSta…

UPDATE 4/22: Still haven’t gotten a response from Senator Ashe to my email asking him why he opposed this. I’ll let you know when I do.

UPDATE #4: Very pleasant conversation with Senator Ashe. Basically, he voted the way he did because of a clear, strong distaste for the idea of a Primary in August. It was a distaste that was stronger than any positives he felt regarding an earlier Primary, which he rightfully feels would be better moved father up to some time like June. Told him I thought he was letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. At any rate, it was clear that there was nothing deeper about his vote. It occurs to me that as the only semi-sorta-Prog in the Senate, any such vote he casts that doesn’t seem to cleanly line up with what one would expect to be the left/liberal ideal will be greeted with eyebrow-raising. That probably won’t prove to be much fun for the guy.

As you’ve probably heard by now, the Senate approved a third reading vote for the Primary adjustment by a 21-9 vote. And yes, it was the barely-relevant 3 week shift, but that’s 3 weeks better than it was. After the pro forma final vote, which will come either tomorrow or the next day, the challenge will be in the House where, although there is interest in the House Gov Ops Committee, there seems to be little enthusiasm from leadership, as some seem to consider this a “tough” vote. Why it would be is strictly an issue for the Montpelier insider bubble, as its hard to imagine a public backlash on something so dry – given that we’re only talking three weeks, here.

The opposition was spearheaded by Sen. Doyle (R-Washington) and effectively countered by Senate Gov Ops Chair White (D-Windham). Basically, Doyle ran through a fairly silly laundry list, hoping something might stick; dismissing all legal concerns over the overseas ballots (downplaying – questionably to the point of misrepresentation – the pressure being brought to bear on other states as well as Vermont on this issue from the feds), and moaning about the irreparable harm three measly extra weeks would do to our “citizen legislature” because of all the folks that will be on fishing trips and how inconvenient it all is to candidates. It was not a particularly distinguished performance.

I’ll put the full roll call beneath the fold, but there are two points of interest. One – Republican Senator Illuzzi voting with the majority, while his Democratic seatmate Senator Starr voting with the Republicans. Sometimes I wonder if both these guys are just contrarians.

More interesting was D-P Senator Ashe of Chittenden County voting with the Republicans (shades of the Burlington City Council?). One wonders what exactly that is about, and I’ve sent an email asking him. Ashe has traditionally held office as – and identified as – a capital-P Progressive until he won the Senate by going through the Dem Primary (something I encouraged at the time and continue to today). Still, it’s an odd vote when you consider that the obvious little-p progressive stance would be to create the opportunity for healthy, meaningful primaries, to break out the calendar that institutionally shields incumbents from empowered challenges, and to therefore support the bill that overall enhances the democratic process.

So why the vote? A cynical person might see this as either a) relating to the smaller Progressive Party’s possible fear of dealing with non-hand-picked primary candidates, or b) simply an interest in making primaries more problematic (which could be simple self-interest). Am I that cynical? I’m a cynical guy, to be sure, but I’m gonna withhold any conclusions until I hear from him. Interesting, at any rate. Roll call follows…

The vote on the amendment to change the bill’s wording from the second Tuesday in August to the fourth was the same as the vote to approve a third reading:

Ashe no

Ayer yes

Bartlett yes

Brock no

Campbell yes

Carris yes

Choate yes

Cummings yes

Doyle no

Flanagan yes

Giard yes

Hartwell yes

Illuzzi yes

Kitchel yes

Kittell yes

Lyons yes

MacDonald yes

Maynard no

Mazza no

McCormack yes

Miller yes

Mullin no

Nitka yes

Racine yes

Scottn no

Searsy yes

Shumlin yes

Snelling no

Starr no

White yes  

I’m kind of happy with some of the photographs I’ve been getting lately.

Ospreys are magnificent hunters, with a wingspan of 5′-6′.  This one in particular flew past me a little while after I’d accidentally scared it off.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube of Ospreys building a nest:

That’s one of my favorite sounds of Spring.  Ospreys are fish hunters, which means they don’t stay in frozen areas.  They hunt by diving from fairly high heights, grabbing a fish, and then flying off with it.  

A note: all these photos are clickable.  Clicking on them gets you to larger versions and/or details about where the pictures were taken.

I have had some very nice opportunities to view Osprey.  These are incredible fliers and hunters.  They nest in giant platforms in huge nests.  

In flight (two separate photos combined into one)

Ospreys will perch in trees, high above open water, watching for movement, such as shown below.

The first of the photos below is three photos of the same bird combined into one just to show some of the neat poses they can get themselves into.

In flight, they are incredible.  Huge wings beat across the sky.  They can fly extremely fast when they want to, but sometimes they will flap in a single location.

Here’s another video I found (I think it’s British– I’m not sure how far they travel beyond the US) of an osprey flying and hunting:

And one more, from a golf tournament:

Here are some still shots of various Osprey in flight:

And here’s one taken just after the bird went into a dive

This photo has a story behind it.  There’s a spot in Western VT called “Dead Creek.”  There’s an access area to the back end which sometimes yields great birds in the Summer (Osprey, Harriers, Black Crowned Night Herons, Bald Eagles, assorted warblers) and some pretty cool winter birds too (Ross’s Goose, Snow Goose, Rough-legged hawk)

There’s this one tree on the access road that just looks like the sort of tree that would have a big raptor on it.  I always look, but never see anything there, save for two times.  Once, I didn’t even have the camera ready and this Northern Harrier squaked at me and flew off.  The other time, a year later, I was headed over there just before dawn and I had the flash bulb set up.  I spotted this bird right above me, and got a couple quick pics before it got pissed off and flew to another spot:

Last year when we camped in Brewster, MA, we spotted this nesting platform and I walked around a bit and was able to get an ok photo of it:

For more about Ospreys, check out Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  If you want regular e-mail alerts whenever I update new photos on my site (daily or weekly), you can subscribe here.

As usual, feel free to treat this as an open birding thread, and don’t forget to check out Daily Kos Environmentalists

…even if the candidate turns out to be one of them (a legislator)?

Since Jim Douglas has been in office, the Dems in the legislature have had a poor track record of providing basic support to their candidates for Governor. Many stayed as far away from Peter Clavelle as they could – in many cases refusing to even endorse him. Scudder Parker had his number one issue – health care – pulled out from under him during the Catamount Health discussions that couldn’t have been better timed and crafted to undermine him if they’d been planned that way. The teamwork and coordination typical of other states in this has been trumped by a terrified me-firstism that gets, frankly, a little pathetic.

This year could be the biggest fail of all, though, because the legislature understands that it has a responsibility, not to support that candidate in a partisan manner, but to recognize the need to act in good faith with the voters by promoting good government and a fair, functional electoral system.

They understand it, but may not act.

I’m talking, again, about the bill to move the Primary election to an earlier date. An action that would recognize that the current date is so close to the General, it is nearly impossible for a challenger to emerge from a tough primary and have the time and resources to turn on a dime and put up a meaningful November contest. Political parties are thereby motivated to quash primary challenges and anoint a winner who can get started running against the incumbent ASAP. All of this is obviously anti-democratic and amounts to an incumbent protection racket. It’s also bad government in that the state has been sued over its handling of federal reporting deadlines that are arguably impractical to meet given the increased burden placed on the Secretary of State in such a short period.

In other words, fixing this is legislators’ jobs – unrelated to partisan concerns. And yet, even under this non-partisan, good-government scenario, the majority may choose to follow tradition and stick it to their candidate.

According to Barlow, the bill to be voted out of Senate today will likely be amended to change the date of the altered primary from the second week in August to the fourth. In other words, the Senate would vote to move the Primary up by a paltry 3 weeks. Good grief. It should be June for pity’s sake. And folks can’t handle the second week in August?

Senator Jeanette White, Chair of Senat Government Operations, says “Some people felt that the second week in August was too early”. What are their concerns? Apparently legislators’ esoteric fretting about moving the filing deadline too close to the legislative session.

In other words, it is – once again – all about the legislators comfort level. Ask recent gubernatorial challengers how they feel about legislators’ comfort level.

At our activist meeting before the session, moving the primary emerged as the groups number one priority. If it doesn’t happen because legislators put an archaic sense of symmetry over what is best for Vermont, that’s not going to go over well. If that’s just a lame excuse, and legislators are simply afraid of enacting what should be a no-brainer of an improvement to our election system, that’ll go over even worse.

For a little context, here were the dates of other states’ primary elections in 2008.

First: FUCK YOU OBAMA!

You want to stand in the way of holding people responsible for subjecting tightly controlled people to torture?

FUCK YOU!

We don’t need our version of the good Nazi running loose in the CIA. The fact some people were willing to justify and authorize torture is in itself great reason for trial, but those without the decency or morality to realize torture is wrong … they need to be in the docks too.

These torturers and torture enablers are sick psychopaths who don’t care about you, you, me or nation … they literally get their thrills from exercising extraordinary control over others.

And what about those who’ve been getting some voyeuristic thrill over just knowing the above mentioned scumbags are drowning someone once much less 180 times in a month?

Sick psychopaths … without a shred of morality or decency.

And these are the kind of people Obama is going to bat for … our good Nazis.

FUCK YOU OBAMA!

(Bumped with update – promoted by JulieWaters)

UPDATE: Sorrell’s not touching this.

Per today’s Brattleboro Reformer (piece by Bob Audette):

A regional activist group opposed to the continued operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has asked Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell to investigate the relationship between a Vermont Yankee lobbyist and the state’s governor and its commissioner of the Department of Public Service.

[…]

A spokesman from O’Brien’s office referred all calls to the governor’s office.

“This is a personal attack by an organization that is desperate to ensure that Vermont Yankee is shut down,” stated Dennise Casey, spokeswoman for Douglas, in an e-mail to the Reformer. “Vermonters know that Gov. Douglas will always put Vermont first no matter what the issue.”

So… how much are taxpayers paying a paid spokesstooge to do this?

But hey, Yankee can play as well:

“We’re disappointed that Jay Thayer has been subjected to a personal attack,” said Larry Smith, director of communications for Yankee. “Jay and Entergy have fully complied with Vermont’s ethics and reporting laws.”

Look!  Matching talking points.

So… does NEC have a case?  Maybe so:

“The spectacle of the commissioner socializing with the key lobbyist of a business that he has a duty to regulate; and worse, arranging the soirée to include members of the Legislature and utility representatives, underscores a growing public perception that both the department and the governor are tainted by partiality favoring the fortunes of Entergy Nuclear,” according to the letter filed with the attorney general.

This actually does sound kind of serious.  I hope Sorrell treats it as such.

Once again, we in Vermont can add another first to our lists of first in the nation. The state that was the first to outlaw slavery in its Constitution back in 1777, then broke tradition long before any other state with the first- ever civil unions law, then expanded this first place with the legislative override of Gov. Douglas’ veto of the gay and lesbian marriage bill. As The Times-Argus, quoting the New York Times, said it makes “Vermont the only state to achieve that progress through legislative action rather than a court ruling.”

In this spirit Vermont can add another first. This is health care reform. It is long past time to sever health insurance from employment and make it accessible to all Vermonters regardless of economic or employment status. So many Vermonters, whether in the public or private sectors, business (small and large) or labor, are struggling with or going bankrupt from health care expenses while the health insurance companies can lavish millions in retirement packages for their top executives. Some 60,000 Vermonters currently lack health insurance, a number that is probably growing (Gov. Douglas probably enjoys ample health coverage through state programs even as he trying to gut the state government) with the thousands of local jobs lost to this newest Great Depression.

On Friday, May 1, thousands of Vermonters from all across the state will be gathering at the Statehouse to protest that policymakers make affordable health care a human right instead of a commodity for profit. The rally, sponsored by the Vermont Workers Center in Burlington, and sponsored by over 70 different organizations, is to demand that health care be considered a human right for everyone. Our health care system is detrimental to our health. We need to change it to include all Vermonters and not just the privileged few.

From Vermont Workers’ Center:

I’m Hoping to see and meet a lot of GMD folks to turn up the volume on this fundamental issue:

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Noon

Statehouse Lawn

Organized by: VWC

From the Senate President Pro Tem's Office: 

Since January 2008, the state has cut $70 million from the state budget and the current FY10 budget contains $28 million in additional cuts. To alleviate the need to make further cuts, which would devastate essential state services and layoff over three hundred state employees, Senator Shumlin outlined a revenue package that would raise roughly $25 million. Vermont is only one of nine states that has the capital gains loophole in place.

“With the capital gains loophole, Vermont is taxing hard working people more than those who live off their investments or trust funds,” said Senator Shumlin. “This is an unfair tax policy and I am pleased to have proposed its elimination today.

By building on the House's revenue package and closing the capital gains loophole, the proposal also lowers Vermonters income taxes by lowering the marginal tax rates. The proposal would drop Vermont's top marginal rate from 1st to 5th nationally. Under this proposal, all taxpayers without capital gains (84% of Vermonters) will have lower taxes.

The following details were included:

$ 8.4 million H.442 Misc. Tax Bill – Accept Revenue Provisions

$ 4.2 million Satellite Gross Receipts Tax @ 5%

$ 2.0 million Increase the Other Tobacco Products Tax from 41% to 92%

$ 4.5 million Increase the Cigarette Tax by 25 cents from $1.99 to $2.24 per pack

$ 6.0 million Increase the Liquor Tax from 25% to 35% of gross receipts

$25.1 million TOTAL

Personal Income Tax Proposal

Lowers marginal tax rates on all types of income for all taxpayers.

Current Law     Proposed Marginal Rates     Rate Change     Percent Change
3.6%                 3.50%                                    -0.10                     -2.8%
7.2%                 7.10%                                    -0.10                     -1.4%
8.5%                 8.25%                                    -0.25                     -2.9%
9.0%                 8.50%                                    -0.50                     -5.6%
9.5%                 8.95%                                    -0.55                     -5.8%

Obviously there's a lot to discuss here, so there'll be more to come.