It had been barely 24 hours since the traditional media widely announced that a bill was in the Senate to move Vermont’s primary earlier in the year before Hallenbeck all but pronounced it DOA:

A bill to move the state’s primary elections from September to August is lingering on the Senate calendar. Moldering, you could say…

…Based on the bill’s lack of movement, I wouldn’t bet on any changes for 2010.

Geez. We’re talking one day. That’s a rapid-fire news narrative, there…

Still, the fact is that any bill that only emerges this late in the session (post-“crossover”) has the deck stacked against it. That’s not to say its dead, but it depends on who’s supporting it.

And Hallenbeck’s assertion that its the bill’s division of support on partisan lines that is making its future uncertain seems weird. Given this governor, this bill was always going to divide on partisan lines (despite the fact that moving the primary is not just a question of improving democracy, but of better government). This idea – whether its coming from Hallenbeck, or whether she’s simply reporting what she’s been told – is akin to someone saying they decided not to complete their shower because they got wet as soon as they stepped in. It was…er… kinda always part of the deal.

So who’d like to see the bill pass? At least three – possibly four members of the Senate leadership may well jump into a primary themselves, so that’s some powerful backing. Our current primary calendar is nothing more than an incumbent protection racket, but on the other hand – if Republicans are hoping for a high-profile, expensive gubernatorial primary to divide the Dems, moving the primary will virtually guarantee a contest. Win-win, eh?

What about the House? Word is that House Gov Ops Chair Donna Sweaney would also like to see the date changed and is in fact “eager” to move on it – as would others in the caucus. And the House may be our opportunity to put June back on the table.

So while reports of its demise are clearly premature, it clearly isn’t healthy either, simply as a matter of timing and placement. I encourage everyone to contact their Senators and Representatives supporting this change. Here’s a link to the House contact page, and here’s the Senate. You can also call the Sergeant at Arms at the Statehouse and leave a message). In fact, we should pull out the stops.

Not passing this change at this point would be a real dereliction of duty and, quite frankly, an act of cowardice. To this point, this legislature has not been showing cowardice at all. With so much at stake, this would hardly be the time to start.

Ever since the veto override, and Jim Douglas’ rather mumbly reaction to it, I’ve been thinking that this may prove to be a watershed moment — not just for equal rights, but for the politics of Vermont. I’ve talked to, and read comments by, people who speculate on how the override may have been exactly what Jim Douglas wanted: that he planned it all out this way.

And I couldn’t disagree more. I see this as a huge defeat for Douglas, from start to finish. And I think we’ll look back on it as the beginning of the end of his time in the corner office.  

As I see it, Douglas failed to chart a clear course on the issue. As a result, he satisfied nobody and made some fresh enemies. First, when the legislative leadership pursued the issue, he made purely tactical arguments against it: too much of a distraction, civil unions are good enough. He never made a moral, legal, or even political case on the issue itself. If he had laid out an argument on the merits (whether we would have agreed or not), he might have persuaded some undecideds. At least he would have appeared to be taking a stand on principle.

Then, when legislative passage was a sure thing, he suddenly announced he would veto. This pissed off a lot of lawmakers  because traditionally, Governors don’t announce vetoes while a bill is before the Legislature. Also, his announcement invalidated his central argument — the issue is a distraction — because all he did was ensure that it became even more of a distraction. If he’d made a previous stand on principle, a veto would have been the logical course.

Then, after his veto, he did nothing to jawbone undecided legislators. He said he was allowing people to vote their own consciences; but he was also unilaterally disarming himself. That’s bad politics. If he’d lobbied within his party, couldn’t he have turned a single vote?

Instead, he was saddled with Vermont’s first veto override in 19 years. It shattered the image of Douglas the Unbeatable Politician. It had to leave the Dem/Prog majority feeling their oats.

There are two arguments for Douglas-as-Yoda, wizarding his way through this issue. One: He wanted it to become law because he didn’t want it to be a campaign issue in 2010 with an outraged, unified Left opposing his re-election. Well, isn’t the Left more unified anyway? And didn’t he spark plenty of outrage, between his untimely veto announcement and the veto itself? Won’t all marriage-equality supporters be bound and determined to get him out of office?

Two: He was maneuvering for the support of the national GOP — either for a run at Leahy or Welch, or for maybe a job as Michael Steele’s right-hand man or (heh) replacement.  Big problem there: the hard right has long memories and very high standards of purity. They will see Douglas not as the man who tried to stop same-sex marriage, but the man who let it happen on his watch. Also, with all the challenges the Republican Party will face in 2010, do you really think they’re going to spend money in Vermont? On a longshot like defeating Leahy or Welch? I just don’t see it.

The only way I can interpret Douglas’ course on marriage equality is that he’s just plain getting tired. He may or may not be planning to step down next year, but he’s certainly lost his edge. For the first time in his long tenure as Governor, he’s let the Left outmaneuver him.  

Vermont had (I believe) two manifestations of the national right wing anti-tax/anti-Obama/anti-Democrat “tea party” demonstration on April 15th (tax day). I walked by at the beginning of the Montpelier event and took some video.

It was a good size demonstration. Not the biggest I’ve seen and not the smallest. Unlike a lot of others, I always thought there’d be a decent turnout (in Vermont, at any rate), but this was a full on good turnout.

Unfortunately, it got stranger after I’d taken the video. When I walked by later, John McLaughry was speaking to the crowd. It’s weird to hear a whole crowd of people start booing at the phrase “universal health care” (no, not “socialized medicine” or “government-run health-care” … simply universal. The very idea of everybody being covered stirred anger.). Unlike most right wing gatherings, these folks (as you can see from some of the signs) were definitely that flavor of hard right that embraces a large degree of selfishness, resentment, and me-first/me-only-ism. I was told a bit later from another passerby that some blatantly anti-gay comments were being said over the loudspeaker, but I can’t confirm that first hand.

At any rate, this was a crowd of the hardcores, with very little effort made to hide that (although a couple explicitly anti-Democrat signs seemed to disappear when I tried to get closer to get a better picture of them, which was strange… did somebody want them to seem non-partisan? As you can see in the video, the Republican Party had a table there, fer pity’s sake.)

Too big too fail, but not too small to notice a little blog. Investment giant Goldman Sachs has filed a cease and desist order against a blog website  for using the Goldman Sachs name on its site. Goldman Sachs received billions in troubled asset bailout money months ago and  now hopes it may be in a position to return the funds if the conditions are right. They also received money through the AIG bailout program.Intellectual property rights also must figure high in their priorities.After all we did for them .

The bank has instructed a Wall Street law firm  to pursue  blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website.

Florida-based Mr. Morgan began a blog entitled “Facts about Goldman Sachs” – the web address for which is  goldmansachs666  just a few weeks ago. According to Chadbourne & Parke’s letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site “violates several of Goldman Sachs’ intellectual property rights” and also “implies a relationship” with the bank itself.

Check out the website to judge for yourself if it might be confused with a Goldman  Sachs endeavor. Here from the blog itself http://www.goldmansachs666.com… “I have started the website to reveal the extent of Goldman Sachs’ part in the current financial crisis gripping the world.”

“We always act to protect our firm,” a Goldman spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Am Law Daily later in the day Tuesday. “This is not about Mr. Morgan’s rights to express his views; it is about his infringement on our trademark.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin…

http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/…

Gov. James Douglas, at podium, announces awards totaling $2.57 million from the Clean Energy Development Fund during a ceremony Tuesday at Northern Power Systems in Barre. Northern Power, as one of the recipients, was awarded $130,000 for the Rock of Ages Wind Turbine Replacement Project.

(Douglas announces energy awards, Times Argus, 04/15/09)

There’s our man … fresh from giving a huge pay raise to one of his many paid tax payer funded spokes apologists/admirers/gushers … Governor “No Windmills In My Backyard” Douglas … getting a photo op at a factory that makes windmills.

Do tell!

According to the Wall Street Journal “The Obama administration is leaning toward keeping secret some graphic details of tactics allowed in Central Intelligence Agency interrogations”. (Obama Tilts to CIA on Memos, Wall Street Journal, 04/15/09)

Once again … why are we even debating this?

Among the details in the still-classified memos is approval for a technique in which a prisoner’s head could be struck against a wall as long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was controlled by the interrogator, according to people familiar with the memos. Another approved tactic was waterboarding, or simulated drowning.

(ibid)

Apparently the “fears” (right … I’m concerned about the “fears” of torturers and torture enablers) focus around alienation of the CIA rank and file and the loss of credibility with foreign intelligence services.

This is one of those issues that could make me ignore a lot of potential good or overlook a lot of potential bad in Obama’s future decisions. Torture is that important in my opinion.

If Obama falls in line with the DC police state status quo on this issue, not only does the CIA lose any credibility with me (you know – a citizen of the United States … apparently second class to other nations’ spook organizations), but Obama does in a huge way too.

We need to clean ourselves of the torturers. They’re immoral and miserable scum.

I don’t see why we are debating this.

Governor Paterson said he is going to introduce same sex marriage legislation. It’s not yet known if there is enough support in the state senate. It’s reported that there probably is enough support in the state house. Same sex marriage has already passed in the NH house, if it passes the senate Lynch could veto it or allow it to become law. Lynch is on record for supporting civil unions but not same sex marriage.

I don’t know about you guys but I feel really proud to live in Vermont. Not only did our legislature pass same sex marriage, we also overrided a governors veto. We are the only state in the union that could have done that and every Vermonter should feel proud of that.

Vermont has once again proven itself a leader which other states will follow.

There will not be a voter back lash in the next election for those who voted for same sex marriage. By the time 2010 comes around a few more states will have passed same sex marriage through the legislature or the court and it will become a noncontentious issue.  

(Oh, yuck. These guys are shameless. – promoted by odum)

A zig, a zag, a job title change,some federal stimulus and poof, a raise for one of Governor Jim’s team.Agency of Transportation John Zicconi’s old title of communication director has been “eliminated.” Artfully done and the only loss is a job title. The old job title was unavailable for comment. Douglas said he was proud of the sacrifice that the old title was making for the state in these difficult times.

Spokesman gets new title, $14,000 raise

John Zicconi, the spokesman for the Agency of Transportation, will now be the Director of Planning, Outreach and Community Affairs.”We decided to have me head that division and eliminate the communication director position,” Zicconi said.

The position is gone but the function remains.

Zicconi said Friday he will keep some of his duties as agency spokesman, but also take over many of the functions of Mel Adams, who was the director of policy and planning. Adams is now working on administering federal stimulus money flowing into the state.

Mel Adams, at an earlier Federal Stimulus seminar in March said “. . . that the goal of the federal funds was to create jobs as quickly as possible.”

http://www.timesargus.com/arti…

http://www.rutlandherald.com/a…

Could a meaningful, functional primary election system be on the way? Long-murmured attempts to move the primaries earlier in the year are now out in the open. From the Free Press:

A contested primary raises concerns that once a single candidate is chosen, there is little time or money left to wage a campaign against the candidate of the opposing party.

Shumlin, leader of the Senate, said in a meeting of Senate Democrats this week, “Let’s get the bill out.”

Predictably, the Republicans are lining up against it, as a dysfunctional primary system benefits incumbents – like Jim Douglas – at the expense of giving opponents a fair shot and voters a fair choice. It’s so painful:

“I just frankly am not at all in favor of lengthening the time, the pain, the cost,” Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, said of the election season.

It’s so weird:

The August date also drew discussion. “It’s a weird time to have an election,” said Sen. William Doyle, R-Washington.

August seems woefully inadequate, though. Talk about a half-solution. Clearly, to allow two complete election processes (which the primary and general elections should be in order to avoid short-circuiting democracy) the primary should move to June (or at the very least July), unfortunately…

The committee considered a June primary, but committee Chairman Jeanette White, D-Windham, said that would force candidates, including those for the Legislature, to file petitions in April, before the legislative session is over and before they’re ready to make a decision on running.

Arg. Oh well… I suppose the glass is half full.

From Louis Porter / Vermont Press Bureau as reported in the Herald:

A computer virus that necessitated the shutdown of information systems at the Agency of Human Services on Friday is still affecting the largest single part of state government.

…officials thought originally that the virus was part of the widespread Conficker… the problem instead appears to be a different virus…

[…]

thousands of work stations used by AHS employees are spread across… cities and towns from Brattleboro to Newport.

The state’s information technology workers will have to visit each of those sites to inspect and get them running again…

I wonder how much money they “saved” by not preparing for this sort of thing in advance.