………For trying to Tarrant Vermont! That’s right, I said it! What were they thinking? TV ads minutes apart for months and Vermont still said no. Did they actually think they could just dump a bunch of money into advertising and get their way? I’ve never been so proud of Vermont’s Public Service Board, way to stand up to the big guys.

Regardless of Maine’s acceptance of Fairpoint’s terms, our state did the right thing. Monopolies of any utility especially statewide is asinine, just too much power for one company to possess. The simple fact is Vermonters asked for things, issues that were side-stepped or minimized by Fairpoint.

There was no negotiation or middle ground. Fairpoint pretty much said here this is what we’re going to do, approve it. For someone to already act like a monopoly in the state when they’re not even yet, makes me wonder what the future holds? It’d be nice if they were at least fair and to the point with Vermont.

Those ads on TV look like anywhere small town Vermont, but what are they really telling us? How financially they will be able to do this……How financially this will help them. What about us? Where is the promise to Vermonters not to start jacking prices once they take over? Where’s the promise that when there’s a storm of significant proportions that they’re going to get out and get the lines back up in a timely manner? With a monopoly there aren’t any competitors for service, so why bother? What if it made better financial sense for the company to wait a week? They tell it to you straight in the ads, its all about the company finances.

Is all hope lost? Not really. If Fairpoint will come to the table, and Vermont’s Public Service Board holds steadfast, than an understanding can be had. In this case Vermont needs to think less like government and more like a corporation. What do we want to get from this, and how will it benefit us? The Public Service board should negotiate for better rates and increase caps from the start. Time will tell if the company is fair and to the point, and this was a good thing for Vermont.

Think ice fishing in Vermont is as simple as grabbing some gear and bait and going? You’d certainly be wrong this year. Vermont Fish and Wildlife has enacted a rule that they hope to have the legislature approve as law this session. Good luck, you’ve got to have a degree to understand language put into this one. Certainly not something written for the average Vermonter.

Please go to www.vtfishandwildlife.com to read it yourself. It’s very confusing and leaves a person with nothing but questions. I was only able to glean several things from it myself, but what I did, alarmed me. There is to be NO PERSONAL BAITFISH COLLECTION, all those traps I went and bought will have to sit and collect dust. The money and time I spent on the art of collecting ones own bait. Nothing like making people have to go buy bait, fishing used to be a poor mans sport. How can a minnow on the approved species list, caught in Lake Champlain, be bad for use as bait in Lake Champlain? KEEP YOUR RECEIPT for your bait with you. But don’t forget that it’s only GOOD FOR 48 HOURS. No longer do you just have to remember your license, but lose or forget that receipt for your bait and you’re fined. So much for setting up a tub of water in the house to keep your minnows alive during the derby, Now you have to run to the baitshop and wait in line like everyone else in the morning. THE MINNOWS MUST BE DESTROYED WHEN YOU LEAVE THE ICE, no more bringing them home and using them tomorrow.

Intrigued yet? All this and more because Fish and Wildlife is all up in arms about this new fish disease that they think might be coming, or might already be here. Well which is it? It seems more like a knee jerk reaction to me than, just like a few years ago with not baiting deer because of Chronic Wasting Disease.

Why the hoopla and drastic steps? Why not just ban importing bait from places where the disease is known. If it’s here, it’s here, and there’s not much we can really do about it. How is my catching minnows in the lake, and using them as bait in the same lake going to make a difference?

Wouldn’t it have been easier to create a baitfish trapping permit? Make people sign off that they read a pamphlet and have them pay a couple bucks, then turn them loose. Nobody, nothing is a heck of attitude to have, especially when license sales drive your agencies budget. Who will want to buy a license, go wait in line, and still be afraid they didn’t dot their i’s and cross their t’s. F & W went and made things way too complicated.

I encourage everyone to contact the government that supposedly represents us. Legislators, senators, the Governor, everyone needs to know how many people this will affect. Tell them you want to go fishing, but it’s too complicated, and it shouldn’t be. Vermont Fish and Wildlife needs to have a better, less complicated plan for bait regulations in Vermont.

The department is likely to strong arm this into law by “educating” legislators on the issue, stand up to the propaganda.

If the Fish and Wildlife department is trolling for fines, then this Vermonter is not biting!

( – promoted by odum)

Regardless of how the nomination fight comes out, I think the Iowa caucus will go do in history as a historic moment.  Clearly, the fact that a bunch of white folks trundled out in the cold to support a black candidate for president is a historic moment, but there is another less momentous, but not unimportant shift: from the Boomers to GenX.

GenXers have always grown up in the shadow of the boomer generation.  We grew up with the fights about Vietnam, civil rights and the culture wars echoing in our ears even though we were too young to be involved in them.   We were frequently critiqued for being uninterested in politics and civic life.

Yes, it is true, GenXers as a group seem a lot less interested in going to protests and sit-ins.  Voting trends have largely been in decline among young people. While that was seen as apathy among many liberal Boomers, it masked a more subtle civic engagement.  Starting in the early 90s and continuing to today, community service rates soared among young people.  GenXers weren’t, as a group, terribly interested in protesting, but they were keen on helping their neighbors.  

I think the Iowa caucus will go down as the day Generation X roared for the first time.  The candidates who drew younger voters not only had a message of change, but they also engaged voters in new ways.  Edwards has been an impressive machine that relies quite a bit on community service.  Obama’s transcendent message resonates about the need to stop arguing and get the job done.  Even Ron Paul’s call for getting the government out people’s lives embodies a very GenX view of conservatism.

It is easy to overstate generational values, but I do think there is something to this.  Huge numbers of people under the age of 35 are now participating in the process for the first time.  I think that is because, for the first time, we have candidates that are articulating messages that resonate among young people.  For the first time in my adult life, we have presidential candidates that are not re-fighting the Vietnam war or the culture wars for the 10,000th time.  We have a black candidate who is not all about civil rights.  We have a woman candidate who is not about feminism.  About time!!!

This time round the roar may not be enough to carry the day, but I feel that at last there are political leaders speaking to our generation.  Boomers are a large and vocal bunch, so I have no doubts that they will continue to dominate the political scene, but at  least now we have a seat at the table…  

Vermont’s network of hospitals announced Friday a new statewide policy not to seek payments from patients or insurance companies for medical errors that result in serious harm.

. . .

Representatives of the hospitals outlined eight areas of medical error that they would not collect payment for, such as performing surgery on the wrong body part or wrong patient or injuries arising from being prescribed incorrect medications.

(Vt. hospitals change policy on medical errors, Times Argus, 01/05/08)

That’s a relief! Next time they cut off my leg when I’m in for stitches to my hand I’ll still have pocket cash for a night on the town.

Of course one would think we wouldn’t be charged for gross negligence in the first place … but … ***sigh*** … that’s the medical business folks.

But I don’t know if that’s the most ridiculous part of the story. Farther down we find

Under the surveillance program, hospitals will report to the state all medical errors to determine the root causes and to get a handle on the total number of cases, according to Jill Olson, the vice president of policy and operations quality for the hospital association.

“Under this system, the hospitals will report to the Health Department any medical errors and then will work with them to determine if there are any root causes,” she explained.

Well Rama told me it is really annoying to be charged for crappy ‘news’ reporting.

“It is really annoying to be charged for crappy ‘news’ reporting,” Rama explained.

I guess it’s fair. If I lose the wrong limb it’s a freebie. If they lose their journalistic capabilities it’s on my dime … damnit!

(Host) Progressive Anthony Pollina says he will be a candidate for governor this year. Pollina says he's planning a campaign that will present a clear alternative to the policies of Republican incumbent governor Jim Douglas.

No surprise, eh?  

This is a brief follow up to my prior diary regarding canvassing on Saturday (tomorrow) morning across the bridge from White River Junction, VT.

Canvassers are still needed/welcome/appreciated and to all of you who are already planning to be in Lebanon tomorrow, thank you for volunteering.  I can't wait to see the GMD crowd thread out into voter rich Lebanon neighborhoods.

I am really excited to say that John Edwards will be speaking in Lebanon at 1:00 p.m.

The details are:

Saturday January 5th at 1:15 pm
Lebanon “Fighting for our Families” Town Hall w/ John Edwards and his parents Bobbie and Wallace Edwards
Lebanon High School
195 Hanover St.
Lebanon, NH

Hope you will be there.

sláinte,

 — cl

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( – promoted by odum)

When you drive up and down Vermont’s roads and scenic byways, you have Theodore M. Riehle, Jr. to thank for the beautiful views.

http://mulishbehavior.blogspot…

Mr. Riehle was a Vermont Republican who, in 1968, authored the legislation forbidding billboards on Vermont highways. Although controversial at the time, the bill passed thanks to a different breed of Republican. At the time, Mr. Riehle and other environmentally conscious Republicans were in the vanguard of environmental thinking and stewardship. While not as far reaching in terms of size and scope as Act 250 – Vermont’s landmark planning and development law (signed into law by former Gov. Deane C. Davis, also a Republican in 1970) – it is hard to think of anyone who has had as much impact on what we see (or DON’T see) as we drive around the state than Mr. Riehle.

Mr. Riehle died peacefully after a brief illness on New Year’s Eve. To be sure, the billboard law was not his only accomplishment, but it may be what he is best known for – read his obituary for more about the man.

All in all, not a bad legacy.

(I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's got a bit of relevance here, considering the history with GMD. Plus it's a nice distraction from Iowa overload.)

crossposted at five before chaos.

What, besides languishing in obscurity? Not a heck of a lot. But apparently, Second Vermont Republic's Thomas “Obviously a Good Confederate” Naylor isn't getting his “neo-con” fix enough from his recent appearances on hate talk radio. He has two events planned next week, that exemplifies the strategy that did them in last year…play nice with the lefties as though nothing's wrong, while sucking up to neo-Confederates simultaneously. More below the jump.

As Rowley at VT Secession tells us, SVR has two events scheduled on January 15th, as part of his “Vermont Independence Day” celebration. The first is a banquet in Montpelier with the theme, “The Vermont Village Green: Alternative to Empire.” This one has a few speakers, including Kirkpatrick Sale (winner of an SPLC award that I'll get to in a minute), and is obviously in the vein of the sympathies of left-leaning Vermonters, whom they were able to successfully exploit until last year.

As Rowley points out, last year's event was promoted and sponsored by its sister organization, Vermont Commons. The Commons also took a beating last year with its digging in in its heels in support of Naylor. This year, they're nowhere to be seen in regards to the event. In fact, the only other promotion of this event is over at the white-supremacist Vanguard News Network site by someone listing their location as “Mount Zion – Jew York Shitty” (I'm not linking to them). Simultaneously, Naylor is also hosting a 2-day “North-South Secession Summit” in Charlotte:

The North-South Secession Summit meeting will include senior representatives from the Middlebury Institute, the League of the South, the Southern National Congress, and the Second Vermont Republic. Recognizing that the American Empire is immoral, illegal, unsustainable, ungovernable, and unfixable, these secessionists have called for the peaceful dissolution of the United States of America. Through a “Genteel Revolution” they hope to help save America and the rest of the world from the American Empire.

Yeah, who better to save us from the American Empire than a bunch of Neo-Confederate hacks led by a guy who swears he's not a racist but seems incredibly comfortable around them? And a big congrats to Naylor's co-conspirator Kirkpatrick Sale, of the Middlebury Institute. Sale was the recipient of one of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch's “1st Annual Smackdown Awards”:

7. Weirdest Political Alliance Award The honors here go to Kirkpatrick Sale, director of the New York-based Middlebury Institute, dedicated to secessionism. Known for decades as a left-wing intellectual, Sale last year buddied up to the white supremacist League of the South (LOS) — a group that opposes racial intermarriage, defends segregation, and calls for a return to “European cultural hegemony” in the South — to the point of actually co-sponsoring the Oct. 3-4 Second North American Secessionist Convention in Tennessee with the LOS. Now, the left-right love affair promoted by Sale has turned positively torrid, with a “North-South Secession Summit” planned for January. Attending will be top officials of the Middlebury Institute, LOS, the Southern National Congress, and the Second Vermont Republic, to seek “the peaceful dissolution” of the United States.

One really has to wonder what keeps these people even bothering in Vermont, having very little, if any, support. As it's been pointed out before by odum, perhaps due to our high percentage of white people here in VT, it's a lot easier for these people to fly under the radar.

I may be late to the game on this one, but today noticed for the first time a Christmas themed “Pray for Our Troops” car ribbon.

What’s next, “Happy New Year” ribbons sporting both “2008” and “5 Years and Counting”?  

UPDATE: Lots of analysis this morning, but the long and the short is this: Obama brought in new voters and won with them (with Clinton in second among that group), which is interesting because that trick never works. Among returning caucus-goers, Edwards led, meaning the predictions of many were spot on: had the turnout been at traditional levels, it may well have been Edwards’. If its not just a one-time thing, and all the independents and first-time voters show up in the Democratic primary in NH, that’s a trend that’ll scare the begeezus out of Republicans…

So Iowa is playing out the way many were expecting in recent days, and in light of the Des Moines Register poll. The big question now is who comes in second. It’ll be a photo finish between Edwards and Clinton, but the bragging rights matter, especially for Edwards. Edwards needs to be able to lay claim to second place to stay in this, even though his overall chances just took a big hit (despite the fact that Iowa doles out its delegates proportionate to the vote).

Clinton, however, will stay viable with a third place finish, if for no other reason than the fact that the media primary narrative has been all about her. If she’s top two, that narrative stays more or less the same, but with her as the new underdog. If she’s in third, it’s all about voters’ rejection of her. In any event, the media story will still be about her, and therefore, she’ll still be a player.

Progressives who have put their hopes on Edwards as the only viable candidate who has clearly and unequivocally embraced their values should take heart: Clinton lost. That is no small thing, and it likely means that – when the dust settles – the worst-case scenario, with all its previous inevitability, is hopefully in the past. As with Dean, Iowa Dems flirted with the unapologetic lefty, but went for the one they thought would be most appealing to the center and shallow right – and it is significant for the Party and the nation that they did not decide that that person was Hillary Clinton.