(Bumped, with some edits. This is outrageous, and its not the first time Douglas has acted aghast (ha) at the actions of some underlings taking inappropriate electoral action on his behalf (remember the “Sandinista” schtick?) – promoted by odum)

Earlier during the budget cutting the Douglas talk was of shared responsibility and doing what had to be done for Vermont and Vermonters. Now a letter blaming cuts on the legislature has been  mailed from the State of Vermont to more than a 1000 seniors receiving state aid as part of the “Choices for Care” program without approval of “higher-ups” according to Jason Gibbs, Spokesperson for the Governor.

Passing blame may be just another tool in Governor Jim’s re-election tool box. The cuts will save $500,000 I am not sure how that stacks up to which is roughly the pay for his team of public relations spokespeople. The Choices for Care program is described this way on the DDAS web page.

The program assists people with everyday activities at home, in an enhanced residential care setting, or in a nursing facility.

The Douglas administration letter attempted to let these older Vermonters know where to pass the blame.

The letter in part, “The Vermont Legislature has directed the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living to reduce every Choices for Care program participant’s assistance with Instrumental Activities of Daily Living by one hour per week.”

The decision to cut the care was part of a series of budget rescisions the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee made with the Douglas administration. Gov. Jim Douglas touted the bipartisan work during an election debate Wednesday

Jason Gibbs, spokesman for Douglas, said the wording of the letter was a mistake and that Administration Secretary Neale Lunderville apologized to Joint Fiscal Committee Chairwoman Susan Bartlett when she brought it to his attention.

Gibbs said the letter went out without approval from higher-ups, including the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living commissioner, the Agency of Human Services secretary and the Governor’s Office. The letter was written by a Medicaid waiver manager.

The cut in service will save $500,000 and means 1,300 elderly will receive one hour per week less in support services such as grocery shopping and cleaning that helps seniors remain in their own homes.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress…

When I went to the Welch interview two weeks ago, I had a handful of questions, many of which I didn't get time to get to, a few from other FP'ers. I had a few given to me about nuclear energy, which I emailed and got a response from Peter. I'm going just go ahead and print the questions as posed, as well as the answers. Below the fold.

The questions:

Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Trust Funds now account for more than Three Trillion dollars nationally.  Given what is happening here in Vermont, as well as the collapse of the stock  market, would you consider holding Congressional hearings on the national implications of the investment of these funds and the proper assessment of decommissioning itself?

Peter, as a lawyer, do you think that Vermont Yankee should be owned by a limited liability corporation?  Are you in favor of the spinoff to Enexus, a limited liability Corporation with $4.5 Billion dollars in debt and junk bond rating by Reuters?

During the purchase of Vermont Yankee by Entergy (2002), you were President Pro Tem of the VT Senate.  Knowing what you know now about the Decommissioning Fund Gap and the current market conditions, would you have done anything differently to guarantee the safety of the Decommissioning Fund?  For example, making contributions from Entergy to the decommissioning fund a mandatory condition of the sale and/or requiring that the Decommissioning Fund remain in the State of Vermont, where it originally was located?

The answers: 

A deal is a deal. The nuclear power companies have agreed to bear the cost of decommissioning. They should honor that obligation, not outsource it to the ratepayers and taxpayers who, in effect, have already paid this in their monthly bills. The Vermont legislature is the defender of the rate payer and the taxpayer. Any proposal by Entergy that would, directly or indirectly, alter its current obligation to pay the costs of decommissioning should be scrutinized carefully to protect the taxpayer and rate payer from bearing what is Entergy's obligation. Entergy also must bear the consequences of its own investment decisions, not reserve the upside to itself and offload the downside to the ratepayer.

I was not President Pro Tem in 2002. I was in 2003-2006 when Vermont passed the most progressive states right initiative to give citizens a say in the future of nuclear power. Vermont is the only state in the nation where the General Assembly has the right to vote up or down on the extension of an existing license application for a nuclear facility located within its borders.

This from Ben Smith @ politico.com (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Dept_of_fraying_tempers.html):

October 23, 2008

John McCain’s brother exchanged sharp words with a police operator after calling 911 to complain about traffic.

His call, and a call back to reprimand him for an inappropriate use of the service, were recorded by City of Alexandria Police, WJLA first reported.

Here’s the exchange:

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It’s not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: “Fuck you.” (caller hangs up)

The operator then called back, and received this message: “Hi this is Joe McCain I can’t take this message now because I’m involved in a very … important political project… I hope on Nov. 4th we have elected John.”

McCain then apparently called 911 again, to complain about the message.

You can listen to the call here (.wav): http://share.ovi.com/download/…

I think this speaks for itself:

My quote from the press release:

“Jim Douglas equals failed leadership for Vermont. If he spent half as much time focusing on improving the lives of Vermonters as he does blaming others, Vermonters would be much better off,” said Adam Quinn, representative for Democracy for America. “When Vermonters vote for change on November 4th, Jim Douglas will join a record high number of unemployed looking for work.”

What would your quote for this ad be?

(Full disclosure, I work for Democracy for America. Adam Quinn)  

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Lots and lots and lots to report. Here's a smattering:

• If you've been wondering where Julie's been lately, she's having some serious health issues and today went into what may be the first of a few surgeries. Doesn't sound like anything life threatening (besides the risk of surgery in general) as long as she's treated, but very significant nonetheless. So, send healthy thoughts and we'll try to keep you all up to speed with her condition.
• Funny math. At the end of debates, Anthony Pollina has been suggesting that if everyone who voted for him in '02 (when he came in third with about 25%of the vote) were to vote for him again this time and bring one friend, then he would win. I suppose he figures 25% plus 25% equals 50% but… well… you see where I'm going with this. The number of voters is likely to be markedly higher this year than in 2002, so all 25%s are not created equal. Pollina got 56564 votes in '02…. double that and you get 113128.

  Of 418718 voters on the checklist, 56% voted, or 232993. At the Presidential Primary this year, 46.6% of 421987 voters turned out, which is nearly 20% up from the 27.8% in 2004, giving you a sense of the increased enthusiasm. If that enthusiasm increases the turnout in November "only" 10% to 66% (which is, I think, a likely minimum increase), that would come out to 284876 voters as measured against the voter registration count from the September primary of 431631 (which will in reality be markedly lower than the final registration totals). This will give Mr. Pollina a maximum vote percentage under this scheme of 39.7%, and almost certainly lower – perhaps significantly so. Maybe if all those '02 voters bring 2 or 3 people…

• In other Pollina news, the Prog-turned-Indy is making extraordinarily good use of the Facebook social networking site. He's seriously maximizing its potential to do some viral organizing by aggressively “friending” new people (even me, for god’s sake… does that count as “reaching out” to a dubious Democrat?) and keeping the communication steady and personalized, rather than making it blandly institutional in flavor, keeping with the feel of the Facebook system (at least to all appearances – and its the appearances that matter in this game). Kudos.
• Over in Symington land, the hits on Douglas have been coming daily, along with doses of policy for those looking for a little more meat. Here's the YouTube video from her press conference at Flatbread in Burlington rolling out her economic development ideas:

• Lastly, Democracy For America has weighed in with another anti-Douglas ad, and this one is a big improvement over the first, VT Yankee-based one. DFA has invested a significant amount in this race on Symington's behalf, including this ad which is part of a $40,000 media buy. We'll see if it pays off:

This is officially yesterday’s news, but I didn’t catch it until this evening.

  Chris Matthews does a good job calling out Senator Michele Bachman when she uses the words, liberal, leftist and anti-American as meaning the same thing.

The meat of the interview starts around the 9:40 mark, but the unbelievable quote is the eleven-second span between 10:22 and 10:33.  

According to Senator Michele Bachmann:

"…the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look, I wish they would, I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out if they're pro-America or anti-America.  I think people would love to see an expose like that."

Holy McCarthyism!  This is a direct quote, no joke.  Let's just hope the American media starts with Bachmann.  

The html code for the video was a little screwy, so here's the link to MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27317976#27317976

Question: What do Walmart and Wall Street have in common?

Answer: The execs get fat contracts while the workers get shafted.

A week after Wall Street bankers collected taxpayer-funded golden parachutes, Walmart announced that it was shutting down its first shop in North America that had successfully unionized.

Brian White at Blogging Stocks reports on the shuttered store in Gatineau, Quebec:

“The retailer would rather see the operation shut down entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power. … Was the global retailer trying to get a message out to any other Wal-Mart location in North America — “unionize and we will shut your doors?” If so, that’s no way to run a business, right? Is Wal-Mart so afraid of unions in its stores that it would rather shut them down (or pieces of them) instead of continuing to operate?”

Walmart would rather see the operation shut down “entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power.”  

That kind of power?

As White notes:

“Many Wal-Mart employees are apparently so underpaid that their only recourse is to try and unionize their stores in order to negotiate a better wage.”

Meanwhile, four of the Waltons, who control Walmart, were named to the Forbes’ top 10 richest Americans list.  Jim Walton ranked No. 6 at a net worth of $15.7 billion, right behind Warren Buffett and Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Do the Waltons really feel threatened?  Are they really worried about some workers organizing to make an honest buck to take care of their families?

This is disgraceful.  Boycott Walmart.  

Wince: 

Senate Democrats on Tuesday subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey for testimony and documents about the Justice Department's legal advice to the White House on detention and interrogation policies since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., complained to Mukasey that after five years of efforts to glean the information, the committee still has seen only a fraction of the documents it is seeking. “There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee,” Leahy wrote in a letter to Mukasey that accompanied the subpoena.

The document compels Mukasey to appear before Leahy's panel on Nov. 18 and bring with him documents from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concerning the legality of White House policies toward military detainees.

You probably didn't hear about this, did you? Wasn't that long ago when a congressional subpoena of a major administration figure would've been front page news and pundit fodder for days – even weeks. Now? Nothing. Because it means precisely nothing, so where's the news? This congress will not play the kind of hardball needed to make these things worth the paper they're printed on. They're committed to the honor system in dealing with a dishonorable President who couldn't care less – as has been shown now over and over and over again.

The Democratic leadership in Washington has opted instead for a political Waiting for Godot strategy of just sitting tight until an Obama administration arrives, restores honor in the executive branch, and by extension restores their relevance for them. In the meantime, what should be a major event is a complete non-event.

Please, Senator – as a longtime and sincere supporter, I'm begging you – don't bother with any more of these “subpoenas.” They're… well, a little embarassing.

So you know the story the R's have been trying to sell: Sarah Palin is a new kind of Republican; not as corrupt, more mavericky.

The news of the last few days, which may not seem too important taken separately,  really seem to reveal that she is every bit as venal and self-dealing as the old Alaska hands like Ted Stevens. I think these stories about the expense accounts and so forth are not a side show at all, but reveal the candidate's character.

Big money first. The story that broke overnight tells us that the Republican National Committee dropped $150,000 on her, spending money at Nieman-Marcus, Saks, and Barney's. Obviously she needs to look good, but $150K? That's what Josephine the Plumber spends on clothes? Sure, they eventually cooked up the story that they're giving the clothes to charity after the campaign, but I'd like to see that in writing from before the shitstorm started, wouldn't you?

Then, we also get the story that in her job as governor of Alaska, Palin charged the people of Alaska over $20,000 to fly her kids around the country on various jaunts, put them up in hotels, and otherwise show them the high life. Then, when she gets caught on it, she goes back and doctors her expense reports to they look like official state business, but those claims are particularly transparent.Possibly the worst of it was when she flew her kids to the National Governors' Association convention.Expense forms describe the girls' official purpose as “NGA Governor's Youth Programs and family activities.” But those programs were activities designed to keep children busy, a service provided by the NGA

to accommodate governors and their families, NGA spokeswoman Jodi Omear said.

 In other words, she takes her kids to a convention, puts them up in the babysitting service they set up for governors' kids, and then claims that they were on official state business because they got in on the babysitting program. Nice, huh?

And, following the rule that three data points make a trend, we can go back to earlier in her career as governor.   Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

So what do these incidents have in common? In each case, what we see is Sarah Palin using her official position as an elected official (or candidate) to enrich herself. You could argue that the thing with the kids is just because she's a devoted mother who wants to spend time with her family, and I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with charging the state for what is a purely personal expenditure.

How is this any different from Ted Stevens letting someone build a house for him?

I guess it's a good thing that the McCain-Palin slogan of the week is “Country First”, and not “State First”.

This HAS to stop!

From the Burlington Free Press:

October 22, 2008

Vermont Yankee evacuates workers

The Associated Press

VERNON – Federal regulators are investigating the cause of radiation exposure that forced the evacuation of 25 workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Officials say the unsafe levels of radiation were released on Monday after the top of the reactor vessel was placed too close to a fan as workers prepared to refuel the plant.

ntergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams said the workers were evacuated from the top floor of the reactor building for four hours, inspected for contamination and later went back to work.

“There was never any issue of public health,” said William Irwin, of the Department of Health.

The incident happened during the nuclear plant’s regular refueling and maintenance outage, which is scheduled to last three weeks.

The workers, both Entergy employees and contractors, were exposed to a “very minor” amount of radiation, which was below their yearly exposure limits, Irwin said.

Such contamination incidents occur when a reactor is taken apart for refueling, he said.

“It was a minor contamination event. You don’t really want them to happen, but Entergy handled it well,” he said.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said the incident is being investigated.