So much more I wanted to include but Huff Post only allows me 1,200 words. We talked about A LOT of stuff. – Christian

UPDATE: Tune in tomorrow on 1490 WKVT. Steve West will talk with Perrin during the 11 am to noon slot!

Crossposted at Off the Bus.

Is the Democratic Party really a party of peace? Not according to satirist Dennis Perrin. In his latest book, Savage Mules: The Democrats and Endless War, he writes that the Democratic party has long been a party of war. Perrin, a former joke writer for Bill Maher, offers curt revelations about Democratic Party idols such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. He shatters the myths associated with past Democratic Presidents, their stubborn attachment to war, and a party unable to stand up for the ideals they claim to stand for. He ends the book with a humorous account of last year’s Netroots Nation conference and the idea that politics will change for the better, if we only elect more Democrats. OffTheBus caught up with Perrin to discuss his new book, his perceptions of the Democratic Party, and alternatives to bringing about social change.

More below the fold.

OTB: You begin your book with the following: “We’re not inflicting pain on these fuckers. When people kill us, they should be killed in greater numbers. I believe in killing in great numbers. I believe in killing people who try to hurt you. And I can’t believe we’re being pushed around by these two-bit pricks.” That was Bill Clinton reviewing his options in Somalia in 1993. To me, that was one of the more shocking aspects of your book. Was there a lot of similarly shocking material you cam across as were researching the book?

Dennis Perrin: I don’t know if shocking is the word. I was pre-conditioned to not being surprised by it. I knew a lot about the Democratic Party history in the 20th century. But when I read about the 19th century Democrats, I only knew so much about them. When you go beyond Andrew Jackson and the “Trail of Tears,” you find the Democrats were the leading American Indian killers of the 19th century. It began as a war party. It hasn’t changed. Later on there were anti-war and social justice movements that came up through the Democratic Party, or at least were co-opted by them, but that never defined the party itself. The party began in war and is still very much involved in war.

You do a good job in breaking down the myths associated with the Democratic Presidents. Barack Obama is drawing people like a magnet and people keep comparing him to JFK. How does Obama compare to JFK?

There still seem to be people who think JFK was going to pull out of Vietnam. They’re isn’t any serious evidence of that. There was talk about withdrawing troops from South Vietnam, but it was contingent on what they considered success in Vietnam. The idea that JFK was going to unilaterally pull U.S. troops out of South Vietnam is antithetical to the actual history. Maybe he would have eventually pulled the troops out, but there is no indication of that. Keep in mind, JFK also ushered in the modern death squad state in Central America through the Alliance for Progress in reaction to the Cuban Revolution, among other things. In a sense, Obama is like JFK. only he is saving his militaristic rhetoric for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea that he will pull completely out of Iraq, well, I’ll believe that when I see it. I can’t believe he is going to go in and unilaterally pull the troops out after all this money and blood that went in and out of Iraq, that he’s just going to call it quits. Maybe I’m wrong. But look at FISA. He fully expects to be elected as he wants to have all the power that goes with that. I don’t know of any newly elected president who came in and diminished his power.

It’s clear a lot of American elites want Obama to be the president because he’ll play the same role that Carter and Clinton played before him: arriving after an era of Republican excess. He’ll come in and be the uniter and supposedly bring the country back together again. It’s an ongoing cycle and he’s the latest version of that. The problem is that most liberals will go along with it like they did with Bill Clinton. But let’s say Obama expands the war in Afghanistan or bombs Pakistan or Iran, will we see a significant liberal protest? I doubt it.

What would you say are the biggest roadblocks for the Democratic Party preventing it from embracing or enacting at least real liberal-progressive policy or reform? You mentioned the corporate elite.

It’s just the reality of our situation. There is no place in the current economic political make-up of the United States for a true peoples Democratic Party. This is one of my main arguments with liberal bloggers. They seem to think electing better Democrats is the answer. It may make a difference in small ways, but I just don’t see the Democrats being reformable at all. It’s impossible under the current conditions.

You wrote about your experience at Netroots Nation. What was revealing to me in your book was the line “I thought the whole point to blogging was to democratize political expression.” Can you elaborate?

Of course blogs could have a tremendous effect, but that has to come from within the minds of the people blogging… [bloggers would have ] to think beyond the boundaries given to them and that’s just not happening. They’re using a narrow form and existing corporate parties to try to effect change. That’s impossible. So when I see Netroots Nation and online activism, it’s primarily the domain of white college-educated people. Working class poor people are not part of the Internet conversation. I talk about that in the book. If I mention Daily Kos or Atrios to them, they wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. That’s how far removed it is.

I’m not saying there aren’t possibilities. I don’t think what we can see what this technology can do. We’re still in the silent film stage of the Internet. We haven’t gotten to techni-color or wide-screen yet.

[…]

I have never ruled out serious political and social change. It’s possible, but what I’ve experienced it’s going to have to go through a different avenue. Voting for better Democrats just gets us more Democrats. All it does is keep the system in place. What should we replace it with? I don’t know, but to know what that will look like [ahead of time] is insane. The whole process of social change is that you don’t know how it’s going to end. All you know is what your hopes and desires are in the present, and you build towards something. There will be plenty of defeats and roadblocks along the way, but you have to experiment, not get demoralized, not give up, and simply hope that Obama will change it for you. You have to see beyond the immediate structure. As they say, “no guts, no glory.”

Check out Dennis Perrin at www.dennisperrin.blogspot.com

With prior references to Vermont Yankee having 30% more fence line radiation, how much of a change is that really?

I wrote about this in a prior comment, but I think it needs to be addressed in a little more detail.  This post will be partially a repeat of an issue I raised in the comments and some more depth about what that concern is.

Everything I’ve read suggests that the calculation method has changed.  Today they multiply the output level by 71% in order to reduce the measured amount.  So the 18 millirems (i.e., the 30% increase amount) listed are definitely used to include that fudge factor, but is that 30% increase based on a change from a number calculated using the old calculation method or the new one?

I.e., if the radiation level was 14 millirems under the OLD method of calculation and then the NEW method of calculation indicates 18 millirems (after multiplying the old calculation method by .71), well, that’s not really in the area of a 30% increase.  It’s more in the area of an 80% increase.  

The problem is, the stories we’ve seen about this so far do mention the change in computation method, but don’t mention when the variation was applied.

But I can guarantee you this much:  if it were reversed, this would be made clear.  Vermont Yankee would make certain that if the calculation method changed in order to make the numbers artificially higher, and we reported an 80% increase based on a low reading under one method of assessment and a high reading under a different method, they would be all over that story.

So why am I the only one asking questions about whether or not it might be 80% when it’s being reported as 30?

Is anyone able to shed light on this?  I’ve been researching it, but I need more sources to be certain about the answer.

UPDATE I may have found my additional source.  I’ve got a very knowledgeable source who requested anonymity who’s informed me that last year’s dose was calculated under the old method, and this year’s under the new method.  That means that I was right: the actual increase is around 80% not, as has been reported, 30%.  

This source also informs me that this is not a result of a 20% power increase.  When last year’s measurements were taken, there had already been a 12% increase.  So this 80% difference is based on less than half of that 20% increase in power output.

Wow.

As a word junky, and most writers are, every day I receive the Dictionary.com word of the day via email.  Occasionally the words pile up and sit waiting for review, or like yesterday, they strike a chord in me worthy of shared reflection.

Sempiternal (sem-pih-TUR-nuhl), yesterday’s word of the day, is an adjective meaning “of never ending duration; having beginning but no end; everlasting; endless.”

For example:  The continual attack by Bush and his cronies upon our civil liberties is sempiternal, in other words, a never-ending nightmare.

Case in Point:  “Photo ID Hassle Puts One Mom’s Vote on Ice” also caught my eye yesterday.  Published in Monday’s Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), it is an expose of how the new Georgia voter ID laws disenfranchise voters using the author’s mother as an example.

To quote author Ed Newbaum, from Marietta, GA:

Until I read her opinion column, I didn’t know Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel was looking for a voter harmed by the photo ID requirement (” ‘Partisan bullying’ unfounded in state photo ID requirement).

   My 73-year-old mother is one.

   After moving to Georgia from Florida, we attempted to obtain a Georgia ID. Based on the then-published requirements on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) web site, we gathered proof of her new address (bank statement), birth certificate and valid Florida driver’s license.

At the DMV, we where told that as of May, the secretary of state required her marriage certificate because the name on her birth certificate did not match her driver’s license. They would accept a passport with her married name, something she has never applied for.

   The harm:

   Tracking down and paying $40 for a copy of her marriage certificate.

   Two trips to the DMV, time and gas.

   Missing the July 15 primary.

   Fortunately, Mom was savvy enough to track down the marriage certificate and had an extra $40. It is interesting to consider that the requirements for obtaining a U.S. passport are not as stringent for married women as the Georgia requirements for a photo ID.

   So, based on Handel’s column in the AJC, I know she will want to mitigate the harm done to my mother and me. Why doesn’t she drop a check in the mail for the cost of the marriage certificate (the process really does seem to discriminate against married women) and the time and gas I spent for the extra trip to the DMV.

   I think $75 should cover everything.

   Thanks so much. Apologies accepted.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/con…

In the original AJC commentary to which Newbaum was responding, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel said,

The tirade cannot obscure one undeniable fact: Opponents of photo ID have failed to produce even one voter who has been harmed by the requirement, despite nearly three years of scouring the state in search of such an individual. Further, our state’s photo ID law allows voters who arrive at the polls without ID an extra 48 hours to obtain a free photo ID card, and return to their county registrar’s office to have their vote counted. Voters can also choose to cast an absentee ballot by mail without a photo ID.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/07/18/handeled.html

Handel went on to note that…

Even U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who dissented in the recent decision upholding Indiana’s photo ID law, hailed these positive differences in the Georgia law.

Positive Differences?

I don’t think so!  Instead, we are confronted with the sempiternal truth that there is a concerted effort across the country to systematically and endlessly demolish voting rights, and this effort is being aided and abetted by the Republican appointed and controlled US Supreme Court.  The same court that erroneously installed GW Bush as president in 2000.

Be on guard.  We in turn must be sempiternally vigilant in our protection of the Bill of Rights and US Constitution.

Finally, as I mull over these challenges to our very freedoms, I remain thankful for Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz’s continual efforts to protect and expand the voting rights of all Vermonters.  

According to the dictionary, voting and the right to vote represent the true meaning of democracy:

Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives

.

The words in our constitution and the words in law are not static, and as such require action.  

Get out and vote, or you may no longer have the right to do so.

Today’s Burlington Free Press reports that Jim Douglas stopped by to say a few words about various issues.  Notably among them are the following, linked from Mike Townshend’s Blog.

On the budget:

“There will a further decline in the revenue forecast. We are prepared to tighten up.” Where I asked? “I have to figure that out. I do not know the cuts. I am not ready to say.” The numbers will be available next week.

What do you think the odds are that any of that tightening up will actually involve cuts to Douglas’ PR staff?

On Vermont Yankee and other energy:

Last week the governor again expressed concern about safety issues in a Free Press storying [sic]. Friday he said,  “They left me no choice.” It’s like “Homer Simpson is running the place.” Yet, he noted, “with the exception of missing rods, all safety issues have not related to radiation concerns. This is a management issue   … .   W e are past the point of telling Entergy, ‘You’re not doing yourself any favors’ ” with the continuation of public blunders. ”

The safety issues present an ironic possibility for Vermont, Gov . Douglas pointed out. “If we close Vermont Yankee ,   we will buy coal-fueled electricity from Midwest energy sources that we are suing to reduce pollution costs in Vermont.”

[…]

The governor also said, “We need to move away form oil and provide access to wood on state land.”  The state has legal and distribution issues to deal with. “We will decide in the  next  week or so.”

Hey, I have an idea:

Invest in renewable resources that don’t produce greenhouse gases.  Invest in wind and solar technologies.  Invest in moo power.  Invest in job programs which bring people who produce these things to our state.

Invest in Vermont rather than engage in practices likely to damage our forests, our wildlife and our economy.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

Imagine for a moment (and maybe you don’t have to imagine it): your young children and you don’t live within 1000 feet of Barre City’s schools, parks, registered day care centers or other restricted location. Thanks to fearful reaction to a crime that wasn’t related to the ordinance passed, your children will now have a greater chance of being surrounded by individuals the Barre City council and apparently a great majority of city residents don’t think should be near children.

But so what? As Barre goes, apparently goes Rutland.

Cities such as Barre and Rutland are responding to the murder of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett and the arrest for kidnapping of her uncle, a convicted sex offender, by considering curbs on where sex offenders can live.

Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras said in an interview earlier this week that his proposal to restrict sex offenders might have the effect of driving them from his city into the surrounding communities. Louras said it was not the law’s intent, but a “byproduct.”

The city’s proposal would mirror curbs on convicted sex offenders just approved in Barre, forbidding them from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park or day-care center, a category that leaves little of the city uncovered. The law would not affect the 125 sex offenders already living in Rutland.

Said Rutland’s mayor, “Our concern is to protect the residents here,” noting he was not concerned with whether sex offenders would be pushed into the surrounding community.

(Rural officials wonder whether ordinances will drive sex offenders into their towns, Times Argus, 07/26/08)

Hell, you don’t have to be living outside of Barre or Rutland to feel the effects of this one.

But will it have the hoped for effect? No. A response to the TA article quoted above (same web page) says it better than I could ever have:

Laws such as this are rather useless. Restrictions on where sex offenders could live wouldn’t have protected the latest victims in the Randolph case for instance, as they were family members; only proactive family could have possibly prevented what occured. Within a short distance from my home have resided at least three sexual predators of the pedophile variety- only one was “registered” and he has subsequently been arrested for more offenses. The others were not known previously as offenders and preyed on their own family. None of these are/were living within a proscribed distance from a school, park or day-care facility, and none of their actions involved such entities. Proposed regulations such as these will not protect children but will in fact likely drive more offenders into rural locales without such laws. Instead of passing meaningless laws such as Barre and Rutland are considering, we need to confront how we as a society wish to deal with this matter and how best to protect our children. Laws such as this are just “window-dressing”.

Personally I would feel much more comfortable if we were dealing with: a) the reality of intra-family abuse sexual and otherwise; and b) violence as a way of life … after all “the uncle” had already been in prison for a violent kidnapping and rape. Why was he not either still in prison or very closely supervised?

And then there is the downstream demon making that occurs. Today it is this despicable group. Who knows who will be tomorrow’s despised?

Our governments have a truly nasty habit of taking extreme measures and applying them broadly. Take, for example, civil forfeiture. This was originally intended to make sure high level mobsters couldn’t make use of their unlawfully obtained millions to defend themselves in court. It worked so well by the end of the ’80s people were literally losing autos and boats over marijuana joints and seeds.

Now civil forfeiture has become a major funding source for police around our nation.

“The first thing I think about – is it constitutional to tell people they can’t live there?” said Bill Bonsignore, who lives in a Pittsford apartment complex. “I’m not condoning what they’ve done. You just start thinking, so they do that to that group, what individuals might be the next group who can’t be there.”

(ibid)

(I was just about to write this up, but apparently someone beat me too it.  Good work. – promoted by JulieWaters)

Entergy’s Vermont Yankee continues to radiate bad headlines for Gov.Douglas’s favorite out of State corporation.Power up 20% radiation up 30%.The levels could appear worse if the method of measuring hadn’t been recalculated .I am really weary of Entergy …but ,but  our electric rates are so low ,and ,and it’s one third of our power and it’s cleaner than coal and ……….What is the condition of this aging plant going to be like in 20 yrs. with dry cask storage on site and Entergy’s “crack” maintenance style ?

BRATTLEBORO – Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it boosted power production by 20 percent two years ago, according to a study from the Department of Health released Friday.

The increase in radiation is larger than what was expected, according to William Irwin, radiological health safety chief for the health department, but is still within state limits.

Irwin said Entergy Nuclear would have been in violation of the state regulation if the state hadn’t adopted a new way of calculating radiation exposure, which in effect reduces the levels by 40 percent.

Irwin said the increase to 18 millirems is within 10 percent of its state limit of 20 millirems per year. But he said the rate is expected to go slightly higher because Friday’s report doesn’t include expected increases in radiation from Vermont Yankee’s decision to store high-level radioactive waste outside the reactor building in air-cooled concrete and steel casks, as well as a decision to store low-level waste on site as well.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps…

Remarks of Gov Jim Douglas to Burlington Free Press Friday  

“They left me no choice.”

It’s like “Homer Simpson is running the place.” Yet, he noted, “with the exception of missing rods, all safety issues have not related to radiation concerns.

This is a management issue

… We are past the point of telling Entergy, ‘You’re not doing yourself any favors’ ” with the continuation of public blunders. ”

Are these the remarks of someone that has anything but a cozy relationship with this company? He is disappointed in a dear friend.It is the public aspect of the blunders not the blunders themselves he comments on ! The entire emphasis is on the position he has been left in ,not the safety concerns or the future of the plant.

edit from Julie Waters: the link to the Governor’s comments about VY can be found here

Once again, another U.S. leader snubs Palestine on his trip to the Mideast. Barack Obama’s trip was all about Israel, “its needs” and “its security.” He even made a trip to the Western Wall that’s making headlines around the world. Except he forgot to visit the other one. One that symbolizes oppression and a violation of human rights.

Someone told me today, “Yo Christian… Jewish voters are another important bloc in American voting just like Latino voters, Asian American voters, union voters, anti-war voters, etc. politicians do what they feel is in the best interest of the groups whose support they are seeking.” Well then Arab Americans should be treated just as important. But more importantly, leader after leader makes this about Israel and their security needs. I didn’t see Obama talk about Palestine’s needs to the press. He didn’t talk about the refugee crisis. He didn’t talk about the “security fence” that violates human rights and the ICJ ruling. He didn’t say Jerusalem also belongs to the Arabs but maintained it should all belong to Israel. If he goes to the Western Wall, then shouldn’t he also go to a mosque or another sacred worshipping place? Why didn’t he? There’s a lot more but the point is Palestine’s needs should be put on the same level as Israel’s and he should emphasize that in public, not leave it behind closed doors. That’s the bold change we need in the Mideast.  

I caught this video today on Huffington Post. It pretty much sums up my feelings about Obama’s trip to the Mideast. Sorry y’all, but I had to get this off my chest. Palestine always touches a nerve in me.

The Burlington Free Press successfully buried the lead when its article about Chittenden County candidates casually noted (in the second paragraph) that Burlington City Councilor Tim Ashe would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state Senate. But perhaps the BFP missed the story because it didn’t even realize it had one. The article never mentions that Mr. Ashe was elected to the City Council as a Progressive!

Apparently Third Place Tony isn’t the only Prog jumping ship. But Mr. Ashe didn’t just leave the Progs, we joined the Dems, or so it seems.

Until David Zuckerman fills us in – we know he reads this blog, after all – I’ll go ahead and speculate about the inspiration for the move:

1. Tim Ashe wants to win. He knows the Democratic Party label is more powerful county-wide, and he is making a pragmatic maneuver. Sure, it’s entirely self-serving and transparently opportunistic, but it just might work.

2. Tim Ashe wants to help build the Progressive Party in the State Senate. He doubts he’ll be successful in a county-wide primary, but he knows it will give him some additional name recognition. He’ll also mount a write-in campaign on the Prog ballot, so he is assured of their nomination. If he loses the Dem primary, he will at least have had his name in front of the Chittenden County voters once before November. If he secures one of the six Democratic nominations, he can run as a Progressive/Democrat, which would boost his general election chances significantly (but of course, if he won, he would caucus and vote with the Progressives exclusively, and probably not seek the Democratic Party nomination two years later). This tactic would look decidedly less opportunistic to the casual observer, but would of course generate a lot of resentment among people who caught on.

3. Tim Ashe feels that he has more in common with the Democratic Party and the issues it promotes, and so has made a genuine conversion.

4. Typo by the Secretary of State’s office. But if this were the case, I’d have expected it to be fixed by now.

Given Mr. Ashe’s behavior on the City Council (such as voting for ultra-conservative Republican Kurt Wright for Council President over Democrat Russ Ellis, just like the other “Progs”), it seems unlikely he’s really interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with the Democratic Party. And since there hasn’t been a story about him leaving the Progressive Party at the city level, this smacks of a blatant attempt to abuse the primary system. If so, the only question left is whether Tim Ashe is working to promote Tim Ashe or the Progressive Party; but in either case, it would be one of the more cynically motivated political plays we’ve seen at this level.

Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation has come up with a great way to deal with the high cost of healthcare, and sudden loss of income due to catastrophic illness… from the front page of their website:  

What's New Thank you for your interest in donating to the "Tony Snow Family Trust." Click here to make an online contribution >> You may also send donations by check, made payable to the “Tony Snow Family Trust” to: Center for Health Transformation Attn: Tony Snow Family Trust 1425 K Street, NW Suite 450 Washington, DC 20005

 According to the website, the fund is for the educational expenses of Tony's children.    That Newt is quite the thinker and innovator – it's pure genius, actually.  If people will donate to this, they'll donate to pretty near anything.

Mission not accomplished:

According to Washington Post Staff Writer Michael D. Shear, McCain Still Waiting for His Turn at Good Luck. [Thursday, July 24, 2008; Page A06 Washington Post] http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

It seemed like a great way to counter Obamamania. Sen. John McCain would board a helicopter in New Orleans today, skim quickly over the Gulf of Mexico and land on an oil rig — a made-for-TV moment to highlight his call for offshore drilling, an issue that Republicans believe will be a big winner in November.

Then came Hurricane Dolly, a Category 2 storm that made a helicopter ride impossible. And then, improbably, a 600-foot oil tanker collided with a barge on the Mississippi River, creating a 12-mile oil slick and causing diesel fumes to waft over the city’s French Quarter. The trip was off.

Shear concluded with

In this campaign, it seems, McCain just can’t catch a break.

Unless one counts CBS News….