( – promoted by JDRyan)

crossposted on five before chaos.

Those of you who live in the Northeast Kingdom of VT are indeed living in a beautiful place… lots of friendly people, beautiful scenery and other quintessential Vermont goodness. The one big drawback you have is that the newspaper is the Caledonian Record, whose rabid right-wing op-ed pages are, more often than not, so mind-numbingly short on logic, and chock full of so many double standards, compartmentalized thinking, xenophobia, false 'patriotism' and plain ol' b.s. that they could pass for transcripts for right-wing talk radio…like this one I wrote about a while ago.

Anyways, an anonymous tipster led me to the revelation that not only are the editors of the C.R. op-ed severely intellectually challenged, they're also incredibly lazy. You see, it seems like some of the material from their op-eds come from a rather unlikely source… those stupid right-wing spam emails that your crazy Republican uncle sends you. I'm not kidding. More below the fold…

You know those emails.. usually containing something about God, lazy illegal brown people, terrorist brown people, Hillary Clinton Satanic lesbian conspiracies, etc. And as always, untrue. Well, it seems like the lazy hacks at the CR, like most far-right ideologues, can't be bothered to fact-check. Remember, their patron saint Reagan did say “facts are stupid things“. Here's a few examples.

On Feb. 1st of this year, the C.R. ran an op-ed called “Not 'Fonda' Hanoi Jane”. Yeah, I know, you've undoubtedly seen it on a bumper sticker somewhere, usually next to a “Bush/Cheney” or “Charlton Heston is my President” sticker. Frightfully original, I know. Anyways, it was in regards to some Barbara Walters special where Jane Fonda was selected as one of the “100 Women of the Century”. The C.R. rants about Fonda's well-known controversial visit with the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, but one passage stands out in particular:

“In one disgraceful traitorous act, Fonda went down a line of prisoners who secretly gave her scraps of paper with their identities on them to let their families know that they were alive. At the end of the line, she gave the papers to her North Vietnamese escort. Three of the men died from the beatings that followed this betrayal.”

Now, the lazy part. You're probably familiar with Snopes.com, a site that is dedicated to debunking and confirming certain urban legends, rumours, etc. If you're not, you should be. And Snopes spends a good amount of time dealing with those aforementioned right-wing spam email rumors. And in just five seconds, five seconds which the C.R. editors couldn't be bothered to take to fact-check, because they're too busy watching O'Reilly, Savage and Boortz and reading those crazy-uncle emails, Snopes set the record straight, and yes, it was one of those emails:

[The most serious accusations] that Fonda turned over slips of paper furtively given to her by American POW's to the North Vietnamese and that several POW's were beaten to death as a result, are untrue. Those named in the inflammatory e-mail have repeatedly and categorically denied the events they were supposedly a part of.

“It's a figment of sombody's imagination,” say Ret. Col. Larry Carrigan, one of the servicemen mentioned in the 'slips of paper' incident. Carrigan was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and did spend time in a POW camp. He has no idea why the story was attributed to him, saying, “I never met Jane Fonda.” In 2005, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Carrigan is “so tired of having to repeat that he wasn't beaten after Fonda's visit and that there were no beating deaths at the time that he won't talk to the media anymore.”

Ridiculous? Yes. Surprised? Of course not. But wait, there's more.

It's pretty obvious that some on the far-right end of the spectrum are a bit short in the compassion department in regards to the whole Hurricane Katrina mess (might be that 'lazy brown people' thing). This one is about something that 'crossed the desk' of the op-ed staff at the C.R., in regards to understanding how large “a billion” really is.

• A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
• A billion minutes ago Jesus had recently died and Christianity was in its infancy.
• A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
• A billion days ago no one walked on the Earth on two feet.

Apparently one of them knows how to use a calculator because they then give a few examples of what one billion dollars could buy, such as 50,022 Subaru Outbacks and 43,478,260 seats at Fenway Park. They then point out how  Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), is asking the Congress for $250 billion to help rebuild New Orleans, and then present us with these numbers:

• If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

• If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

• Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012. 

Wow, from destitute and poor to millionaire overnight! What a country! Well, wouldn't you know that Snopes points out that exact same right-wing spam email with the same numbers, the only difference being the Snopes e-mail also has a witty comment at the end suggesting we should all flood our houses so we can be on the “big easy” street the rest of our lives, and the CR has a dig at the Senator about her love of earmarks. Ah, winger wit. Pathetic. And some of the math is wrong, I hear.  Oh, and there are no plans to disperse over 2 million dollars to each family of four, either.

So what is it? Stupid and lazy? Low expectations from the readers or perhaps they take their readers for granted? I can see a typical morning  in the pressroom, where C.R. “columnists” (and I say that with a very loose interpretation of the word), check their emails and whoever can come up with the biggest whopper gets a free donut. Either that or they just pull them off of Snopes, figuring that the readers that agree with them aren't going to be bothered to check the facts anyways. I hear that their next op-ed involves something about how the face of the devil really was in the smoke when the Twin Towers fell, or how huge alligators live in the St. Johnsbury sewers, where they grow to enormous size after being flushed down the toilet by pet owners who think they're getting too big.

So, if you'd like to give them a hand with their fine journalistic prowess, feel free to drop executive editor Dana Gray a line here with your tips, and also, why not drop publisher Mark M. Smith a line here and ask him why he thinks so lowly of the intelligence of the Northeast Kingdom residents he's supposed to be informing. And remember, if it has something to do with Hillary Clinton eating babies or Barack Obama praying in a mosque and firing an AK47 into the air while screaming “death to the infidels!” as he helps illegal gay Mexicans sneak across the U.S. border, be ready to see an op-ed about it shortly. Heck, maybe you'll get a job in the editorial room.

The AP is reporting that Governor Douglas, Senator Shumlin, and House Natural Resources Chair Representative Robert Dostis are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the global warming bill and the upcoming July veto-override session. Right on the heels of that announcement comes this from the Senate Prez-Pro-Tem’s office:

The leadership of the Vermont House and Senate today announced that in light of Governor Douglas’s veto of H.520 and his objection to the source of funding for the bill, Senator Shumlin and Speaker Symington will propose a suspension of the rules during the veto override session on July 11 to consider the same bill with the funding for an all fuels efficiency utility removed. Since the legislation vetoed by the governor stipulates that funding for the all fuels efficiency utility will be needed starting in 2009, this proposal would allow the legislature to consider how to fund the utility when it reconvenes in January.  In the meantime, the planning process for the utility, as well as other key provisions in H. 520, will be enacted

This announcement is one of two things; either another example of our legislative leadership running to move the goalposts and compromise before negotiations have even begun… OR… a(n attempt at a) savvy move to put the Governor on the defensive, and put the media focus of tomorrow's meeting squarely on the content of the bill and not the “dreaded” funding scheme vis-a-vis Vermont Yankee.

My money's on the latter, but its risky. Still, the papers and internet are replete with conservatives claiming that they'd be all for this bill with a different funding scheme. This calls their bluff, and leaves them nowhere to hide if they really are global warming deniers. It also puts the BS to the GOP nonsense line that the bill is all about “getting” Vermont Yankee.

Unfortunately, it also leaves the Dems nowhere to go in a July compromise, but to take actual policy content out of the bill. It’s a good ploy, but the risk seems perhaps disproportionate and the timing dangerously off. We’ll see. The content of the full press release is below the fold, along with a poll as to whether or not you think this is a wise strategic move…

Legislative Leaders Propose Modification to H. 520

The leadership of the Vermont House and Senate today announced that in light of Governor Douglas¹s veto of H.520 and his objection to the source of funding for the bill, Senator Shumlin and Speaker Symington will propose a suspension of the rules during the veto override session on July 11 to consider the same bill with the funding for an all fuels efficiency utility removed. Since the legislation vetoed by the governor stipulates that funding for the all fuels efficiency utility will be needed starting in 2009, this proposal would allow the legislature to consider how to fund the utility when it reconvenes in January.  In the meantime, the planning process for the utility, as well as other key provisions in H. 520, will be enacted as stipulated by the bill.  Senator Shumlin and Representative Robert Dostis, Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, are meeting with Governor Douglas tomorrow to inform him of this proposal.
 
“This bill represents an extraordinary opportunity to save Vermonters money and create jobs while addressing global climate change, and we owe it to  Vermonters to make it law,² said Senator Shumlin. ³We have always said that to have a real impact, this bill needs funding, and we still believe that. We also believe that the provisions of this bill are too important not to pass right now, and that when the legislature reconvenes in January, we can work on the funding source.  We continue to feel strongly that the source of funding in this bill ‹ an adjustment to the property tax handout for Entergy that would still give them the same preferential tax treatment as other electric generators like wind ‹ is fair and just.  While we¹re disappointed that the governor disagrees, that is a conversation we can resume next year.”
 
Chairman Dostis added, “My committee, along with the Senate Natural Resources Committee, worked hard on this legislation, and we produced a great bill. We have heard from opponents about their objections to the funding source, and while we don¹t come to the same conclusion, we believe there is too much good in this bill for it not to become law.  From incentives for renewable energy generation to the expansion of net metering and the creation of a model energy efficiency utility, this bill is important in addressing rising energy costs and promoting Vermont's energy independence. We look forward to hearing the governor¹s response and working with our legislative colleagues to get this bill passed.”

 Loading ...

I really can’t believe I just heard this… NPR this morning run a complete hatchet job on Edwards. I couldn’t find a transcript yet but will try to summarize what was said…

—–
Commentator: Complains about how many candidates we have in USA, one of them, Edwards was on Leno last night.

Leno: Your anniversary is coming up, is it true that since you’re a cheapskate you still go to Wendy’s? blah, blah, blah

Edwards: I can’t spend a lot on dinner whan I spend $400 on haircuts

Commentator: Edwards has been criticized by some recently for paying for his haircut out of his campaign fund, which he eventually paid back, and for having his anti-poverty non-profit fly him to NH, which is an early primary state.
—–

That was it. I thought they would then go into a discussion of these attack points they threw out there, but that was it. What is newsworthy about this? Why did they run it?

Is there really a corporate media effort to discredit the Dem who polls best against any Rep in the general election?

I know what you're thinking. Every time a big business decides to lay people off it's the same old story: it's the bosses, the guys at the top in the nice suits, who bear all the burden.

 Well finally, we have a major Vermont employer with the courage to buck the trend. 

Powdr Corp. refused to disclose the number of employees who were let go, saying only it involved many employees and was across the board and wasn't limited to management personnel.

Yes, the company that was the first to redefine the Vermont life expectancy as two years has again decided to buck the trends, and to stand up for the big guy. 

Great work, Powder Corporation! You do Vermont proud! 

I was in a hurry this morning, and at a glance I thought I was just approving an ad for herbal supplements… which I guess the below ad is, but…wellll…

Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any way to un-approve it. Sorry about that. Won't happen again. I denied an ad from a Fox News talking head pitching their latest anti-liberal screed, and this would've been the second ad I would've denied. Next time I'll pay more attention.

The Vermont media continue to fawn over Gov. Douglas's trip to China. The trip – which shouldn't have registered a blip on most Vermonters radar screen, is a picture-perfect PR success, no doubt crafted by his staff of a gazillion, taxpayer-funded spinmeisters, who had the sense to pad it with high-profile tag-alongs – including Mark Johnson himself, guaranteeing mega-coverage during and after the event for the benefit of his key electoral demographic.

Even the Holy See of unrestricted corporate growth, Forbes magazine, weighed in with some rah-rahs:

Vermont Gov. James Douglas, a Republican Party survivor in one of the country's most liberal states, made a decent push for constituents this week, diverting his attention from Vermont's No. 1 international trading partner Canada to try to nudge the Green Mountain State toward the center of China's international business radar.

The truth is, China's relationship with American corporations is a very big deal these days, and the Governor could have used the opportunity to stand up for the basic workplace protections the Chinese have moved towards implementing (see below the fold):

China is planning to adopt a new law that seeks to crack down on sweatshops and protect workers’ rights by giving labor unions real power for the first time since it introduced market forces in the 1980’s.

The proposed law is being debated after Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s biggest retailer, was forced to accept unions in its Chinese outlets.

State-controlled unions here have not wielded much power in the past, but after years of reports of worker abuse, the government seems determined to give its union new powers to negotiate worker contracts, safety protection and workplace ground rules.

Oh, but, something tells me he's not inclined to feel that way… let's see, why would I think that…?

Hoping to head off some of the rules, representatives of some American companies are waging an intense lobbying campaign to persuade the Chinese government to revise or abandon the proposed law.

The skirmish has pitted the American Chamber of Commerce — which represents corporations including Dell, Ford, General Electric, Microsoft and Nike — against labor activists and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Communist Party’s official union organization.

The workers’ advocates say that the proposed labor rules — and more important, enforcement powers — are long overdue, and they accuse the American businesses of favoring a system that has led to widespread labor abuse.

On Friday, Global Labor Strategies, a group that supports labor rights policies, is expected to release a report in New York and Boston denouncing American corporations for opposing legislation that would give Chinese workers stronger rights.

“You have big corporations opposing basically modest reforms,” said Tim Costello, an official of the group and a longtime labor union advocate. “This flies in the face of the idea that globalization and corporations will raise standards around the world.”

…oh yeah, that was it.

So a great – even obvious question at his next press conference would be something to the effect of “Governor, since you're positioning yourself as a player in international commerce with the Chinese, do you support their attempts to increase worker protections and clamp down on sweatshops, or are you on the side of these big American corporations who profit from such abuses and are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep such opportunities for human exploitation available?”

But don't hold your breath.

No doubt Douglas would rather wax dumbfounded about why on Earth the Chinese would trouble their pretty heads over such nonsense as pollution and global warming (from Forbes again):

(Douglas:) “For whatever reason, they seem focused on pollution reduction, greenhouse gas emission control and energy conservation.”

“For whatever reason” indeed.

Okay, so perhaps that was a bit… superlative.

But David Waldman, aka Kagro X (aka David-DC for those who may remember Bernie's campaign blog last year) was in fact on C-Span's Washington Journal this morning. He and Redstate blogger Robert Bluey had a cordial round of questions and calls for about 45 minutes.

Kags is a busy man, being a Daily Kos front pager, as well as writing for The Next Hurrah and elsewhere. Nobody out there is better, though, and as a former hill staffer and Hotline contributor, he has a unique gift for parsing through procedural (and psuedo-procedural) gobledegook.

And that ability has been on display for Vermonters through the impeachment half-victory activists achieved during the legislative session. Kagro was possibly the most surgically scathing critic of the Vermont House and Senate leadership during that period, and I suspect we haven't heard from him since 'cuz he's a bit put off at how it went down, with a non-603 compliant Senate resolution and no resolution in the House. Can't say I blame him, but hopefully he will grace us again with his skewering blogfare before too long.

In the meantime, Kagro X fans can of course catch his wisdom on dKos, or you can click here to view his C-Span appearence (click on the 6-24-07 program, he pops up about 46 minutes into it, where he is labeled “David Walden”). I did parse out his assessment of how Dems handled the recent Iraq funding battle as an mp3 here. Give a listen!

Nice work Kagro. Now I'm off to craft an email bomb to send you for not finding an excuse to drop GMD's URL out there for national TV (I tellya, what am I payin' you for?).

The latest issue of the New Yorker contains an important article by Seymour Hersh about the suppression of Gen. Antonio Taguba's investigation into the torture at abu Ghraib. As you probably remember, after the public disclosure of the torture of prisoners at abu Ghraib, Major General Antonio was assigned to investigate what happened, and how it could happen.

 What you wouldn't likely know is that there was no way for Taguba to get to the whole truth because he was explicitly prevented from going beyond the low-level MP's who were prosecuted, even though it was obvious that they were not the only ones to blame.

Taguba’s assignment was limited to investigating the 800th M.P.s, but he quickly found signs of the involvement of military intelligence—both the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, commanded by Colonel Thomas Pappas, which worked closely with the M.P.s, and what were called “other government agencies,” or O.G.A.s, a euphemism for the C.I.A. and special-operations units operating undercover in Iraq.

 The other thing you might not know is that when Taguba's findings became too much of an embarrassment for Bush and Rumsfield, the man who fired him was Montpelier native Richard A. Cody, the Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.

In January of 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard Cody, the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff. “This is your Vice,” he told Taguba. “I need you to retire by January of 2007.” No pleasantries were exchanged, although the two generals had known each other for years, and, Taguba said, “He offered no reason.” (A spokesperson for Cody said, “Conversations regarding general officer management are considered private personnel discussions. General Cody has great respect for Major General Taguba as an officer, leader, and American patriot.”)

“They always shoot the messenger,” Taguba told me. “To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal—that cuts deep into me. I was being ostracized for doing what I was asked to do.”

 You should read the whole article, but you should also bear in mind that we here in Vermont are not disconnected from the crimes of the Bush Administration.

Last month, I let you know about how so-called “independent Democrat”Joe Lieberman (I-but-really-an-R-CT) was helping with a fundraiser to re-elect Republican senator and Bush lapdog Susan Collins, of Maine. Well, there's some good news in all of that. Thanks to the efforts of Moveon.org, Lieberman's effort is helping raise cash… for Collins' opponent, as The Swamp reports:

The word went out from MoveOn Tuesday: Donate money to defeat Collins, who could face a tough re-election battle next year, it told members in an e-mail.

Within 24 hours, more than 5,600 members donated an average of $63 each, for a total of $355,000. 

MoveOn, knowing a good thing, decided to keep it going, and Wednesday sent out another e-mail.

“Wow,” the organization said. “In less than 24 hours, thousands of us around the country chipped in more than $280,000 to help anti-war candidates beat Joe Lieberman's pro-war fundraiser. It's amazing.

Must be that “law of unintended consequences” thing you hear about every now and then. Keep up the good work, Joe.

Vice President Harry S. Truman plays the piano as actress Lauren Bacall, perched on the instrument,
looks on, at the National Press Club canteen in Washington, Feb. 10, 1945.

After extensively researching the US Constitution this morning before I attacked the crossword puzzle I have discovered that the term Vice President appears in that revered and trusted document and its amendments no less than than twenty four times. In no instance does the term appear near the words “shall be an employee of the executive department,” however, the term also does not appear near the words “shall maintain an office in the White House where he will hold secret meetings with the various “Captains of Industry” and where it will be convenient for him, from time to time, to pick up the President by the ears for a good corrective shake.”

I guess what we have here is something historians call a “Constitutional Mexican toss up” which will be decided by the courts long after the deaths of the parties involved.

I do believe however, that a cursory study of photograph of the Vice President engaged at his duties above will convince even the most disinclined observer that the Vice President has historically exercised executive functions.

If anyone needs further research on this please wait until later, I still have to deal with that puzzle.

Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust