Crossposted at Blue Hampshire.

New Hampshire state representative Betty Hall (D-Brookline) isn’t calculating the odds, nor is she questioning whether or not HR.24 can succeed. She’s standing up to President George W. Bush and Vice-president Dick Cheney because there’s no other alternative: U.S. Congress will not do stop the Bush Administration’s abuse of power. History may not look too kindly on our Congress but perhaps there will be a footnote for one New Hampshirite’s courageous stand. Blue Hampshire caught up with Betty Hall and discussed the myths of investigations into impeachment, HR.24 efforts, and why NH Democrats should support it. Enjoy!

Christian Avard, “NH Ex-pat”

NH Ex-pat: Tell me a little bit about why you did not support Nixon’s impeachment and why you’re supporting Bush & Cheney’s now. Are their actions more deserving of impeachment than Nixon’s and/or Clinton’s?

Betty Hall: They’re definitely worse than Nixon’s but that isn’t the reason why I didn’t support Nixon’s impeachment. NH state representative, Eugene Danielle of Franklin, introduced the Nixon resolution back then but did it very early in Nixon’s second term. The reason I didn’t vote for it was because I didn’t really understand about a lot about impeachment, at that particular point. I hadn’t been exposed to a lot of discussion about it, it was something that I didn’t understand, but I’m certainly learning a lot more than I did then, and I definitely believe that Bush and Cheney are much worse than Nixon was. This one is much more serious.

NH Ex-pat: It seems that the more people learn about investigations into impeachment, the more likely they are to support it. Do you believe that?

Betty Hall: I believe that. John Nichols, author of “The Genius of Impeachment” is going to be at our event April 14 and when you read it, you come to a very different view of impeachment. You think positively about it rather than negatively. Bill Clinton’s impeachment left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth.

NH Ex-pat: Right and that leads into my next question. It seems that there’s this big stigma attached to investigations into impeachment. Why is that and what do you think is the most misunderstood aspect about investigations into impeachment?

Betty Hall: Many people think this is taking vengeance on someone you don’t like in power. Many were upset that Clinton’s impeachment was a vengeful act by the Republicans and the crime did not rise to crimes and misdemeanors. So people on each side of that issue were emotionally charged. I think that any time we consider impeachment, it is going to be emotionally charged because your dealing with potential abuses of power that’s difficult to face.  

A lot of people are saying that this is not important enough but after a lot of discussion, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is not an option. It’s a duty. It is important because the Constitution mentions it six times and sets up the process for it to happen.

NH Ex-pat: Critics may say this is only symbolic and it will never get anywhere. Aside from sending a strong message, what else could this resolution do to augment investigations into impeachment?

Betty Hall: It has to be an expression of the will of the people the Legislature represents. It’s a process whereby Congress can know what the people are thinking and it’s very clear to me that if the people are thinking that Congress is not doing its job, that’s going to affect how they vote, how elections are conducted, and what kinds of things are candidates have to talk to us about. So there are very powerful implications when the people speak.

NH Ex-pat: One of the amazing things I’ve encountered in the Vermont impeachment movement is the diversity of people involved, not lefty-loonies. You have democrats, republicans, old and young, evangelicals, and much more. How would you describe those in New Hampshire pushing for impeachment? Is the diversity just the same in New Hampshire?

Betty Hall: It is across the board. We had a public hearing where over a 100 people showed up and they were all across the spectrum. There were people from the John Birch Society; there were people on the left and others in between. If you go to my Web site www.hall4impeachment.com, we had a recording from the House I.D. system, split the speeches, and put them on YouTube. You can hear what people at the public hearing said and I tried hard to make sure there were people across the board. I think I got the whole range of people on there. I think if you listen you’ll get a really good picture of how ordinary people feel about it and it’s not just limited to Democrats and Republicans.

NH Ex-pat: I take it you are receiving a lot of support from around the country? Where else have you heard from? What has stood out?

Betty Hall: We’ve had over 3,000 letters from all over the country and the letters are tremendous. They are so impressive it almost makes me want to cry. They’re overwhelmingly in support of our efforts; they have come from all over and I’ve had a couple from overseas and Canada too.

NH Ex-pat: Now you need 202 votes to pass HR.24. What have been some of the biggest obstacles in garnering support for passage?

Betty Hall: Many are taking the position of the National Democratic Party leaderhship, that they don’t want to divert attention to (the 2008 election). My position is (and you can quote me) all our candidates and leaders need to know the truth that’s being hidden by Bush and Cheney now so they can make an intelligent judgments and turn (this country) around. How are they going to turn things around if they don’t know what’s actually happening and what is being conceived by people like Hariet Miers and Josh Bolten at the behest of the White House They won’t honor the subpoenas issued to them by Congress. That’s an impeachable offense in my opinion and only impeachment driven subpoenas are going to get this thing turned around.

Another obstacle is people think is ‘why should we do this today?’ A representative from Londonderry (Al Baldasaro) wanted to add a floor amendment to my resolution. It was in the seat pockets of all the representatives when HR.24 was scheduled to come on the floor and was subsequently put over until April 16. Baldasaro’s amendment was a list of reasons why Carol Shea-Porter should be impeached and it disturbed everybody there. I’m sure that was one of the reasons why it wasn’t taken up then and postponed until April 16. Among other things, it was late in the day and we had a long day getting bills out to go to the Senate. This bill didn’t have to go to the Senate, so it got pushed to the end of the calendar. Everybody was exhausted by the end of the day. So that was another good reason for postponing. There were four others that were postponed too.

I know a lot of people who want to vote for it. I don’t think that Democratic caucus is against it as a whole but someone could table it from both sides too. So that’s another obstacle.  

NH Ex-pat: It seems seems that Democrats think if they pursue this, it will hurt their chances in the next election. Why is that incorrect?

Betty Hall: I don’t think it’s whether or not it’s correct or incorrect it is but I do think across the country there are so many Democrats (and some Republicans) that worked so hard to bring change in the 2006 election and nothing has happened! The changes we worked for hasn’t been made! So I definitely think that will be an issue in this coming election.

I’m hearing there are a number of candidates that will run in the state primary on the impeachment issues. So it will come into the campaign. Cindy Sheehan is going run against Nancy Pelosi in California and there are other people who have announced their run for Congress based on their disagreement with the Democratic leadership to keep impeachment off the table.

NH Ex-pat: Critics say why bother when Bush & Cheney are a lame duck administration that’s going to be gone in less than a year? Why should that not be an excuse not to support HR24?

Betty Hall: If we start now we will get the necessary information to ensure that justice and accountability for the crimes that have been committed, we need to put them in motion. Why should we wait until the next president gets elected and then have to find out what kind of justice will be given for these two guys?

NH Ex-pat: Critics also say it will take too much time. Why is this not true?

Betty Hall: It shouldn’t take long because there’s certainly a lot of evidence already to conduct investigations. There is plenty of stuff out there that we don’t know that needs to be exposed too.

***Note: The Vermont House of Representatives spent a half an hour debating their own impeachment resolution in April 2007.***

NH Ex-pat: Should HR.24 not get enough votes to pass, what’s next?

Betty Hall: We’ll keep working! Other Legislatures are considering similar resolutions and every day the more people that haven’t reached their tipping point, including Senators and Representatives in all Legislatures, I hope that our representatives in New Hampshire will reach the tipping point by April 16 but the tipping point will be reached after April 16 and justice and accountability need to happen. I think demand is going to continue for it. As for me, I will not quit!

NH Ex-pat: There has been lots of discussion at Blue Hampshire over whether this resolution is worth it.

Betty Hall: I know I’ve been following that poll you put up there!

NH Ex-pat: Why should we care and why is investigations into impeachment in the Democratic Party’s and (Blue Hampshire bloggers) best interests?

Betty Hall: Is our country worth it? Is our Constitution worth it? Why is it important to set a precedent of doing the right thing and not just sweep it under the rug? No matter who gets elected president, all of these crimes that Bush and Cheney have committed are still available to use, and no one will be penalized! To me what’s worth it is, following your oath of office and doing what you’re supposed to. It’s certainly going to be worth it if we can get our representatives to do their jobs. Everything we’re doing is worth it and to find the support that’s there is more than I ever would have dreamed of. That helps me very much.

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

– Arthur Schopenhauer

HR.24 will come to a vote on Wednesday April 16. Call your representatives today and ask them to support HR.24. To find out who your representatives are click here.

IT’S OUR STATE AND IT’S OUR COUNTRY! TAKE IT BACK!

One of the first things he told me when we met was that he had been in the Hitler youth.  

The oddest thing about this was how casually he mentioned it.  My first week in College and all the 1st-year students were expected to meet with their advisers for an introductory lunch.

And here I was, face to face with a man who was part of an organization which would have willingly and obediently murdered half my extended family line.

I didn’t understand why he did this at the time.  I did understand that he wasn’t proud of it.  He wasn’t telling me this to promote himself or to show me what it meant.

I knew that he had been a child at the time, and likely had little choice in the matter, but even so, I found it odd that he began a conversation with this, as though it weren’t something to be ashamed of, as though it weren’t something to hide from, to run from.

It was a few years before I really understood what was going on, and it took another story for it to make sense to me.

This is not a story about history, though it is tied to it.  It is a story about today, and what comes next.  It is a story about what we do when we finally acknowledge what we’ve been part of, what it says about our humanity and how we chose to respond to it.

My social psychology instructor, in a class I took some time later, told us a story.  I’m going to render it in first person for dramatic effect, and I’m telling it from memory, so I probably don’t have the details down, so this is the basic gist:

A few decades ago, I took a job on a fishing boat off of British Columbia.  It was difficult work and we were pretty isolated.  We’d spend most of our time out in sea, and most of that time was spent fishing.  

We would joke a lot and socialize, because there was nothing else to do.  There was only one man on that boat that I ever thought of as a friend, and he didn’t speak to me other than to give one- or two -word instructions for the first five months of this work.

When we finally did have a conversation, he told me about his history.  He’d been a soldier in Hitler’s army: a foot soldier; a grunt.  He didn’t understand the bigger picture.  He just knew that he was a soldier and it was his job to fight for his country.  He didn’t know about the concentration camps, the ovens, etc.

When he finally did realize what he’d been part of, it was just before the war had ended.  And he just walked away: he threw down his gun and left his army and left his country and just kept leaving it.  He took job after job, saying as little as possible to avoid having to discuss his German accent.

By the time I’d met him, he’d managed to make it across the Ocean and across Canada.  We didn’t talk about him having been a Nazi much.  It was clear that he was ashamed of it.  It was clear that he didn’t think there was redemption for it.  So he just hid: from himself, his history, the first twenty-five years of his life.  I don’t know why he told me.  He hadn’t told anyone else.  For whatever reason, I think he just knew I was someone who wouldn’t judge him.  

He never left fishing after that.  We continued to write from time to time, and eventually the letter stopped coming.  I heard later that he had died doing that work.  I don’t know whether it was suicide or an accident, but I don’t think he expected to ever do anything but die on that boat.  He never did learn to face what he’d been involved in and that fear of his own past pushed him to become a shadow of a man, someone who could never move beyond it.

It was then that I finally understood my adviser: he knew that what he had been involved in was horrendous and that it was largely viewed as mass inhumanity, the worst of his generation.  And he knew that there was no easy path to redemption from that.

But one way of dealing with it, for him, was to be unflinchingly honest about it: never let anyone know him without knowing what he was part of first.  Never let anyone even get to know him without first knowing who he was and some of what he had done.  For him, he chose not to run or to hide, but he chose to never allow him the simple pleasure of meeting someone new without being seen through a specific filter, one connected with unrelenting evil and horror.

One man chose to flee from his past, separating himself from almost all social interaction, retreating into himself, and having few human contacts.  Another chose to face his past, looking directly at it and not giving others the choice but to face it as well.  

So what are our own soldiers going to chose?  When those who engaged in atrocities come home, what are they going to do?  Hide?  Retreat?

While there are over 4,000 soldiers dead from that event, I’m a lot more concerned about the ones who have been left behind.  What sort of psychological damage will it do to them, long term, to have been put through this?  If they had a clear mission with a moral clarity behind it, it would be different, but they have no clear idea as to what their mission is.

I read GregMitch’s Kos diary, Why did soldier kill herself,  after refusing to torture? and one passage sticks out, with one woman talking about her experience after witnessing torture on the part of her fellow soldiers:

“It also made me think,” Williams says, “what are we as humans, that we do this to each other? It made me question my humanity and the humanity of all Americans. It was difficult, and to this day I can no longer think I am a really good person and will do the right thing in the right situation.”

Imagine this: being put through something that not only challenges your sense of morality, but places you in the position of not being convinced about your own humanity.

What do you think that does to a person?

When our soldiers finally do start to come home, will we have a way of helping them deal with this?  Will we help them know what is and is not right and good?  

Will we help them face their past and learn to acknowledge it and move forward, or will they just retreat out of fear, living a life of quiet desperation, retreating from their friends, their families and their lives?  Will we embrace them and give them the opportunity to heal or will we just see the emptiness in their eyes and turn away, afraid of what it reflects in us?

I don’t have good answers to any of these questions.

Does anyone?

Yesterday for a variety of reasons I was doing something I normally wouldn’t  do(really) ….reading road repair/maintenance evaluation data.This is kindly made available by  Times Argus /Rutland Herald.

Several things struck me right away ….first the dumbly obvious fact …..there are a lot of bridges in the State . All the status descriptions in one way or another get around to one thing ,all bridges need repair/maintenance in some way soon.This is obvious to any one that drives over or wonders around under a road bridge .The data base is searchable by County and you can find your favorite local bridge and check it’s status very easily .Status and overall evaluation text ratings yield some great language .Structurally deficient,functionally obsolete and not deficient are the status categories.The Functionally obsolete status is my personal favorite.

And tucked into that column I found this : Minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is.That is it! That’s how he survives,his essence of management and vision distilled,almost poetic,yet dumbly obvious …. Jim Douglas ..minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is .How perfect to find it in some long grey list .

Vermont Bridges

Search by county for bridges that are critical need of repair or upgrade. The percentage of bridges in Vermont that need major repairs or replacement is the 8th highest in the country, according to msnbc.com. analysis of National Bridge Inventory through 2006, as reported by states in April 2007.

 

here http://www.timesargus.com/apps…  also available are Vt.Food Insp. and Vt. Dangerous Intersections  by county .  

 

Since February, the world’s largest database on reproductive health (including information on STDs, birth control and the like) has been programmed to ignore the word “abortion” in database searches. “Popline” is administered by Johns Hopkins University and if you’re scratching your head, scratch no more – it’s federally funded. The US Agency for International Development expressed concern after finding what a spokesman called “two articles on abortion advocacy.” University officials seem to be up in arms (the dean of the Public Health School has called for the term to be reinstated), and NARAL wants to know who is responsible.

The United States Agency for International Development doles out the federal government’s “non-military” foreign assistance, and as such is an arm of the foreign policy mechanism under the Department of State. It’s administrator is Henrietta Fore, (a former Director of the US Mint, where she was a political player associated with Ohio GOP rare-coin scandalmeister Tom Noe) and was only confirmed by the Senate to the position after her appointment by Condoleezza Rice on November 14th of last year. Even before questions on her proximity to Noe, Fore was no stranger to controversy, having stepped down from Wellsley College’s Board of Trustees after making some ugly racial remarks. From Raw Story:

The Times reported that Fore, then known by her maiden name of Henrietta Holsman and owner at the time of a manufacturing facility in Los Angeles, remarked in a lecture that “she had trouble keeping black assembly-line workers from going ‘back to the street to earn more money’ selling drugs.”

Furthermore, the Times reported that Fore had also said “she had found Hispanic workers to be lazy, white workers resentful of having to work with machines, and Asians, while very productive, likely to move on to professional or management jobs.”

Strangely, though, she doesn’t seem to be among the virulently anti-choice crowd, as she has contributed to an organization that supports pro-choice GOP candidates. In any event, although we’re all familiar with Congress’s reticence to exercise any meaningful oversight, this does seem to be a cause for hearings and a little sunlight.

The action (that NARAL is calling censorship) was caught by a librarian at the UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion, and the matter became public when emails were posted on a UVM Medical listserv here. Excerpts from the email below the fold.

From: Won, Gloria [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 3:51 PM

To: Dickson, Debbie L.

Subject: RE: Popline retrieval discrepancy

Hello Debbie:

I left a message on your voice mail today regarding POPLINE, but

didn’t explain the problem I’m encountering, so here is an email

follow-up.

When I ran this strategy on Jan 18, 2008, POPLINE retrieved 1684 refs;

when I re-ran the same strategy today, POPLINE retrieved fewer refs, ie,

1478 refs.  Usually, when a search is re-run at a later date, the total

number of references retrieved is more, not less.    Has POPLINE

undergone some major change in the past few months that might explain

the decreased retrieval?    What can account for this discrepancy?

(strategy removed)

I also tested a second strategy that was developed in Jan 2008 and had

similar results, ie, fewer refs retrieved this time than previous.  

Puzzling?!?

Appreciate a prompt response —

Thank you, Gloria

Gloria Won, MLIS

H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library

UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion

From: Dickson, Debbie L. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 7:26 AM

To: Won, Gloria

Subject: RE: Popline retrieval discrepancy

Hi Gloria,

Yes we did make a change in POPLINE.  We recently made all abortion

terms stop words.  As a federally funded project, we decided this was

best for now.  In addition to the terms you’re already using, you

could try using ‘Fertility Control, Postconception’.  This is the

broader term to our ‘Abortion’ terms and most records have both in

the keyword fields.  Also, adding ‘unwanted w2 pregnancy’ in place

of aborti*.  We have a keyword Pregnancy, Unwanted and there are 2517

records with aborti* & unwanted w2 pregnancy

I hope this helps.

Debbie

From: “Gloria Won”

Cc:  “San Francisco Biomedical Library Network”

(NOTE: headers edited for space – odum)

Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 12:48:09 PM (GMT-0800)

America/Los_Angeles

Subject: POPLINE – ‘abortion’ is now a stopword

To:  Debra L. Dickson

POPLINE Database Manager/Administrator

INFO Project

111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD 21202

[log in to unmask]

Tel: 410-659-6300 / Fax: 410-659-6266

Hi Debbie –

Thank you for your quick response to my e-mail.  I have forwarded your

e-mail to researchers with whom I am working; I suspect they will be as

puzzled as I about the decision to make “all abortion terms stop

words” in the government funded, publically available “POPLINE”

database.  Even more troubling is the implications for the average user

– eliminating this term essentially blocks access to the reports in

the database and ultimately to information about abortion.  “Unwanted

w2 pregnancy” is not a synonym for abortion.

My colleague, Gail Sorrough and I are also forwarding this e-mail to

several organizations whose members are primarily medical librarians.

We suspect they will also be puzzled by the notion that a perfectly good

noun such as “abortion” should for no apparent reason be classified

as a “stop word” and equated with “a”, “an”, “the”.

A better explanation is deserved – the explanation should also be

posted on the website for all users to know, e.g.,  “The POPLINE

database producers have decided to ignore “abortion” as a searchable

to term because ……. ?

We look forward to a better explanation for why this term has been

eliminated; all of the users of POPLINE deserve to know.

Regards,

Gail Sorrough, Director of Medical Library Services and Gloria Won,

Librarian

H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library

UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion

… the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was on his way to march with sanitation workers demanding a better wage. Later that night in Indianapolis, Indiana, Robert F. Kennedy spoke to the crowd at a campaign rally and delivered an impromptu and moving speech about the day’s tragic events. Riots occurred across America once the news broke but many believe Kennedy’s speech kept the peace in Indianapolis that night. In memory of Dr. King, here’s what Kennedy had to say.

Start the Douglas veto count for the inevitable override session at 2; the campaign finance bill (so he can be sure to keep getting those last minute, six figure infusions of campaign cash from National Republicans) and Instant Runoff Voting, cuz as far as Jim is concerned, the system aint broke, so why fix it? The action, of course, comes on Friday, so it’ll only pop up in the papers on Saturday, which is the lowest readership day and the traditional timing when you’re gonna do something you don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to. Of course, that trick hasn’t always worked for Douglas, as we saw in his attempt to manage the fallout from his Climate Change Commission’s report.

So far, there don’t seem to be any official statements or any background. If anybody has some inside info, by all means write it up, but there probably isn’t much more to add. We knew he was likely to veto both these bills, and now he has. Time for the next steps.

Birdsong & Coffee, a documentary film about the environmental impact of your morning cuppa joe, is coming up next Friday evening at 6:30 pm at 81 Demeritt Place, Waterbury, off Main St. next to Freedom Cheverolet.

Including Vermont's own Paul Ralston of The Vermont Coffee Company, the film describes how open field (vs. shade grown) coffee plantations are devastating the migratory bird population along with other species.  So before you gulp down a cup of Folgers, come and watch Birdsong & Coffee.  Check it out!

What:       Birdsong & Coffee
Where:     Waterbury Train Station
When:      Friday April 11th, 6pm
Why:        Fun!

Donations to benefit the Nature Center as a tribute to Jeanne Fossani are encouraged.  Fossani, birder, educator and environmental “agitator” co-authored the film Bird Song and Coffee. She led tours to Central America for young people in conjuction with the North Branch. Jeanne passed away in October of last year. She was very well known for her passionate efforts to save migratory birds and the tropical forests. She co-taught at the environmental studies part of UVM with Dr. Ernesto Mendez.

A review of the film below the fold.

Abroad View Review:
Every morning, thousands of people all over the world wake up slowly in bed, roll over to smack the snooze button on their alarm clock and groan at the thought of having to face another long day in class or at work. A short time later, these same people reach enthusiastically for a hot cup of coffee, desperately searching for that jolt to get them through the day.

Every day, hundreds of songbirds stand to lose a home and their lives, and nobody spares a thought for their fate.

Birdsong & Coffee: A Wake-Up Call, produced by Old Dog Documentaries, is a film that defines the connection between coffee drinkers, coffee farmers, and songbirds in beautifully rendered detail. It is an even-handed, sober look at today's “coffee crisis,” with riveting commentary from farmers, students, congressmen, Fair Trade representatives, and officials from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

( – promoted by odum)

Next week, General David Petraeus will travel to Capitol Hill and make his report to Congress on the war in Iraq.  If, as expected, he announces a pause in the withdrawal in troops from Iraq, our Congress must say “no” for the sake of our military and of our servicemembers.

We can not pause the withdrawal of our troops because we are seeing, everyday, the absolute devastation our wars, with frequent, long, often extended deployments, are having on our men and women in uniform.

How can we constantly churn our troops like this? How can we consciously compound the wounds of war? We are sending men and women back for fourth and fifth tours of duty when the Department of Defense, by its own estimation, says that with each additional tour, troops are 60% more likely to develop severe post-combat mental health issues.

Today, here at Veterans for America as part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, we are releasing two very important reports. In fact, we are delivering these reports to every Senator and House Member on Capitol Hill so that they can be better informed when General Petraeus testifies and when they weigh all elements of Iraq policy.

Our first new report – The Consequences of Churning” – takes an in-depth, state-by-state look at the toll multiple deployments are taking on frontline Army units.

These units are going through high-intensity combat, are not getting adequate dwell time between tours, and are also being devastated by the fifteen month tours.

Our second new report — “Weekend Warriors to Frontline Soldiers” — examines the toll of repeated deployments on our National Guard, again breaking it down state-by-state.

Here we see that of the nearly 200,000 National Guard members that have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and almost half are returning with post-combat mental problems.

The problems of our troops are real and immediate, and they are getting worse.  The Soldiers who are seeing the most combat are also being sent back to Iraq and Afghanistan the greatest number of times.

As part of our Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, we traveled to Fort Drum in New York State and saw, first-hand, the devastation that is happening right now.  Devastation that gets worse with every tour, every deployment.

We are releasing these reports, and we have a simple message: enough is enough. The greatest threat to our military is the continued deployment of our troops under unfair conditions; it’s as simple as that. As Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, “The well is deep, but it is not infinite…People are tired.”

The withdrawals must continue, our troops must come home, and we must be ready to help them.

We have to continue to assess how much help the 1.6 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan need and what assistance they will need in the future. We know the need will be great; it is our duty to be ready to answer the call of those who answered the call for us.

 This can’t be good a good thing .

It may just be cost trimming but…….

The overall economy is a National issue to a great extent but I can’t help but recall the Jim= Jobs slogan .

Can’t blame act 250 or over regulation. What’s a Gov. to do ?

Bank trims 71 workers in Vermont



Burlington Free Press  

Chittenden Bank announced Thursday it trimmed its Vermont work force by 71 employees — including 37 layoffs — and targeted five bank branches for closure.

The branches targeted for closure include those in Bennington, Brattleboro, and on Bank Street in Burlington, said Chittenden spokeswoman Kathleen Schirling; those branches will close within a month, leaving each community with two Chittenden banks, she said.

Chittenden branches also will be closed in Arlington and West Dover within 90 days …..

Last fall, People’s United shareholders approved a bonus plan for bank executives estimated to be worth more than $170 million. The passage of the “recognition and retention plan” followed People’s April 2007 conversion to a fully, publicly traded company.

Nice touch those bonuses

 

It’not easy branding green

Developing a “green” economy by broadening the Vermont brand

The Snelling Center for Government helped compile the 24-page document that makes recommendations on creating, developing and sustaining a “green economy” in Vermont.

The report states Vermont’s objective should be maximizing the number of companies, organizations and communities that participate in sustainable and “green” operations and practices to produce innovations, products and practices that can compete in the global marketplace.

“Green” business, according to the report, refers to companies and organizations that create products and services that “protect or enhance the world’s natural systems and encourage new sources of clean energy, or those which directly or indirectly reduce negative impacts on the environment.”

“Green represents the largest economic and innovation opportunity of the 21st century,” the report’s conclusion said. “Vermont is recognized globally as a green and sustainable place, green is our brand. Now, Vermont has the opportunity to build upon this brand and create economic opportunity for Vermonters.”

from Burlington Free Press

Intervale Compost to stop accepting waste

The suspense-filled tale of large-scale composting in Chittenden County took another twist Thursday, when the Intervale Center announced it will stop accepting new waste May 1.

Intervale’s decision was forced by a demand from the Attorney General’s Office that the center apply quickly for an Act 250 land-use permit or submit a plan to close, said Don McCormick, the center’s deputy director.

Intervale cannot afford the extensive archeological studies required to obtain that land-use permit, McCormick said. Those studies could cost as much as $300,000.

from Burlington Free Press