{First, a cheap plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

While I typically focus on Senate races, the special election in New York’s 20th Congressional district is an excellent opportunity to stick it to the Republican Party.

NY-20 is a Republican leaning district in voter registration, but has been recently represented by now-Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and even narrowly supported now-President Barack Obama over John McCain.

The Democratic nominee, Scott Murphy, has turned a deficit in the polls into a narrow four-point lead over Republican Jim Tedisco.  Momentum is on our side!  A victory in this special election wouldn’t just be a nice Democratic hold, but, since it is a Republican-leaning district, it would also be a major embarrassment for Republicans, particularly new RNC Chair Michael Steele.

How desperate are Republicans in this race?  Well, they’re very literally reduced to going with a noun, a verb, and 9-11 in flailingly attacking Murphy.  And how loathsome is the Republican nominee?  Even the Libertarian candidate, who was booted from the race after – it would appear – Republicans made a concerted effort to get enough Libertarian ballot signatures overturned, has endorsed Scott Murphy.  (And it’s one hell of an endorsement.)

The special election is this Tuesday!  So what can you do to help?

Phone bank for Scott Murphy!

This is a special election, so GOTV is everything.  On Monday or Tuesday, if you can spend literally one single hour making calls, that could be the difference in a Republican pick-up versus a Republican embarrassment.

The Burlington Free Press’s story on the same-sex marriage rally at the State House, and the meeting with the Governor, includes the following classy quote from Smilin’ Jim:

“I think many Vermonters who agree with me don’t have the time to come to the Statehouse to rally.”

Nice, very nice. I guess what you’re saying, Jim, is that hardworking productive Vermonters support traditional marriage, while the layabouts, the unemployed, and the rabble are causing the “distraction” over this issue.

One more thing to remember in 2010, when Douglas again pulls out his good-guy moderate act.  

I was thinking it might be very powerful if a crowd of people stood (or sat) silently in a places like downtown Burlington, all holding placards that read:

What do you think?

(How can I/we not promote this? – promoted by Christian Avard)

For the 30th anniversary of the “worst accident in American commercial nuclear power history”, Arnie Gundersen and Steven Wing were asked to testify for the Pennsylvania Legislature on what really happened there in 1979.

Three Mile Island Alert has posted video of the testimony here.

http://www.tmia.com/march26

Well worth the time.

Gaza's over, and we don't have to think about it anymore. Whatever happened, Israel successfully defended itself against the terrorists and life is back to normal.

Right?

Sorry. There's news out that we need to pay attention to. While the Israeli war in Gaza was going on, I was unwilling to describe it as a war of genocide, or a war of terror, or a war on civilians. Apparently I was wrong.

The news isn't coming from anti-Semites here, or Arab or Palestinian organs in the Middle East, but from legitimate Israeli news sources.

You should read or listen to the NPR story in its entirety, but here are some highlights:

WESTERVELT: Shaul says some of the soldiers he's interviewed also say they destroyed civilian property and homes, actions that seemed to have little or no tactical purpose or necessity. Some soldiers, he says, called it gratuitous and stupid.

The rabbi's office passed out booklets during the war that among other things urged soldiers not to show mercy to the enemy. The army's chief rabbi, Brigadier General Avichai Ronsky, is from Itamar, a West Banks settlement with a history of right-wing activism. Former soldier Yehuda Shaul says the picture that emerges is of a chief military rabbi promoting the fight in Gaza as a holy war.

Human Rights Watch has also reported on Israeli atrocities, including Israel's use of white phosphorus weapons.

Of course, it's not easy to get the information, because Israel blocked access to Gaza by human rights investigators. Still, it is clear that, whatever official Israeli policy was, it was Israel's widespread practice to target and slaughter Gaza civilians.

The latest on the Senate Government Operations Committee consideration of  moving the primary earlier in the year is in the BFP today .The thinking is that an earlier primary gives the winner time to regroup and marshal resources for the general election .The second Tuesday in  August was the date considered .It was noted that a June primary 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.” said committee Chairman Jeanette White, D-Windham.

 Republican committee member Sen.Randy Brock believes democracy is painful ,expensive and apparently something to be avoided . “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.

Doug Racine favors delaying this move until 2012 but other possible Democratic candidates favor the move .

“It’s hard if there’s a primary contest to bring supporters back together for the general election,” said Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, who has announced he intends to run for governor in 2010. Racine said he would support delaying implementation of the change until 2012 if people are going to argue that the move is tailored for the 2010 governor’s race.

In the Senate Government Operations Committee, support for the bill — which would move the primary from the second Tuesday in September to the second Tuesday in August — falls along party lines, and the bill is expected to pass out of the committee in a 3-2 vote Tuesday. Republican members don’t like it.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

(crossposted at five before chaos)

…simply refuses to go away. I got to hand it to Joe, though, for an idiot who's managed to turn the art of saying moronic, uninformed things into both high art and a career, he's doing something rather brilliant in that regard.  His most recent topic, even though he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, is rallying against the EFCA legislation (the legislation that will make it easier for workers to unionize and will NOT do away with the secret ballot option no matter how many times opponents lie that it will):

Joe the Plumber is hitting the campaign trail again! He’s been pressed into service to do a series of events throughout Pennsylvania rallying opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, the organizer of the events confirms. Mr. Plumber will speak at rallies against the measure in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia on March 30th and 31st, according to a spokesperson for the anti-EFCA group Americans for Prosperity.

“The public loves Joe the Plumber,” the spokesperson, Mary Ellen Burke, claimed to me. “They see him as a role model.”… Pressed on whether Joe the Plumber has any particular claim to being a spokesperson on the issue, Burke replied that “he represents the American worker.”

Where, oh where to to begin? Hmm, a correction is apparently in order, about “representing the American worker”. First off, before the campaign happened, if I remember correctly, “Mr. Plumber” was unemployed. I know, a nitpick. But to be more accurate, the quote should have said “represents the thoroughly uninformed, uneducated worker incapable of critical thinking or factual analysis who buys into the perceptual victimhood portrayed by the WATB GOP”. Or something like that. Apparently, real plumbers are pissed about this, too. From, Rick Terven, the political and legislative director for The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada:

“Joe the plumber is selling out real plumbers. Right now, labor law is stacked against real plumbers. Real plumbers want and need the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to empower themselves to join a union, without fear of intimidation or losing their jobs. Joe the Plumber doesn’t speak for real plumbers.”

And about the spokesman saying how “the public” sees Joe as a “role model” (although I'd be hard pressed to find anyone to admit that an unemployed, uninformed dunce who knows nothing except how to shill for people who work tirelessly against his own interests is somehow a “role model”)… I'm curious as to who else they may consider a “role model”. Howzabout this guy? He's not funny either, isn't really what he says he is, and makes a career out of being ignorant (although, admittedly, his is just an act):

I can't fight the nagging suspicion that if the GOP were still in charge, Larry'd be in charge of the FCC or something. They do things like that, you know. They can't help it.

(h.t to The Political Carnival) Have a great weekend, folks.

The Vermont Economic Stimulus Recovery website which claims to be the primary place to find information about Federal recovery funds has a blank news event calendar for the day.

A recent posting from March 24th: Welcome and Thank You for bearing with us as we strive to get our website up to speed with the most up to date, helpful information available.

The press release can be found here: http://governor.vermont.gov/

Governor Douglas at Microstrain in Williston Wednesday announced what he is calling a bold new economic plan. The proposals will invest $17.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) to leverage nearly $160 million in direct support to new and exciting companies looking to grow and expand in the Green Mountain State as well as much needed support for existing Vermont employers. Initiatives will be largely administered by the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) which leverages private capital to maximize opportunities and investment in our struggling economy.

“..Truly exciting and groundbreaking” Douglas claims the proposal will “position our state to charge out of this recession” However the Vermont Recovery transparency site has nothing available about it. Was this announcement just a rushed effort by the Gov. to change the topic or is the Vermont Economic Recovery Office and its tracking website  at the edge of the Governor’s loop?

http://governor.vermont.gov/to…

http://recovery.vermont.gov/

Imagine Guv Douglas standing at the podium, bloody nose being held in handkerchief after being removed entirely from our collective face via a fine scalpel job. “These are tough times,” opines the guv, “And yes, that means we need to spite our faces!”

After all, who gives a crap about tomorrow when we have today to mess up?

An administration proposal to gut staff at the Agency of Natural Resources’ solid-waste program could be a serious setback to trash-reduction and recycling initiatives around the state, according to agency personnel and environmental watchdogs familiar with the plan.

(Waste program faces dramatic cut, Times Argus, 03/27/09)

The article goes on to explain how the job of running the state’s solid waste programs would simply be driven down to a lower political level … no mention of additional funds being made available to help those down the political ladder perform their job.

So here’s trick: to make the state budget look better, Douglas and company will gut programs dealing with how we manage our trash (so it doesn’t pollute our streams, fill up our countryside, spread around our roadsides and more) by pushing the job down a couple political levels to folks who don’t have the time or resources to do the job.

And Douglas will wave our collective nose high in the air proclaiming how he absolutely had to cut that damn thing off to spite our collective face.

This is identical to what Douglas and company want to do to our education budgets: pass off a state responsibility (teacher retirement funding) to the towns without worrying about the reality that towns are having a hard time paying for what they’re expected to pay for.

From a letter I just got from Vermont Democrats:

Governor Douglas said he will veto the Marriage Equality Bill passed by the Senate and about to be debated and voted on in the House. Douglas is wrong on this issue.

He says the debate is a distraction. Forcing a vote to over-ride the veto will distract our legislators from other important work.

He says separate-but-equal is acceptable. It wasn’t acceptable 50 years ago in the South and it’s not acceptable in Vermont now.

Amen.

The e-mail also includes several action steps from the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force:

1. Come to the Statehouse tomorrow, Friday, at 8:45 a.m. We need to thank the Legislators for their leadership and to urge Gov. Douglas to change his mind. The Governor has a Legislative Open Door from 9am-9:30am. We’ll give you more instructions at the Statehouse.
2. Call and email Gov. Douglas to express your outrage and urge him to change his mind. It’s not too late. Ph:802 828-3333 (toll-free in VT only: 800 649-6825) Email Gov. Douglas now.
3. Contact your own Representative. If your Rep co-sponsored the House bill– thank him or her for his support, and urge your Rep to hold firm in moving S.115. Click here for a list of Representatives.
4. Volunteer for Vermont Freedom to Marry: we need help with phone banks, local events, and many other things. Contact Robyn atfield_director@vtfreetomarry.org
5. Make a donation. This is going to be a longer and costlier slog than we’d hoped. Please, donate generously. Together, we CAN get this done!
6. Rally with us! We’re planning a series of events around the state this weekend– most on Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned for details!