No big surprise here, just more compassionate conservatism in action. From the AP:

After a $4 billion increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head, even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly — by more than 10 percent in many years. White House budget documents assume that the veterans’ medical services budget — up 83 percent since Bush took office and winning a big increase in Bush’s proposed 2008 budget — can absorb a 2 percent cut the following year and remain essentially frozen for three years in a row after that.

The proposed cuts are unrealistic in light of recent VA budget trends, sowing suspicion that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better, critics say.

And it sounds like there’s a lot of smoke-and-mirrors in the name of a balanced budget, as well:

“Either the administration is willingly proposing massive cuts in VA health care,” said Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas, chairman of the panel overseeing the VA’s budget, “or its promise of a balanced budget by 2012 is based on completely unrealistic assumptions.”

Edwards said that a more realistic estimate of veterans costs is $16 billion higher than the Bush estimate for 2012.

In fact, even the White House doesn’t seem serious about the numbers. It says the long-term budget numbers don’t represent actual administration policies. Similar cuts assumed in earlier budgets have been reversed.

Par for the course, I guess. As more and more young men and women come back from Bush’s little war of choice, unable to cope with the traumas they’ve had to deal with, this is the support they’re getting.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which means it’s time for the V-Day Movement once again.

I learned about the V-Day Movement from my daughter-in-law, who’s an actress and V-Day activist, so, Leney, this post is for you.

V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.

There are V-Day events all over the world, including here in Vermont.

The Vagina Monologues is also being presented at Montpelier’s own Lost Nation Theater.

Meanwhile, in Florida, a theater presenting the Vagina Monologues has succumbed to pressure and changed their sign, so that they’re now advertising the Hoo-Ha Monologues.

I guess some people are a little more willing to have their eyes opened than others.

I was a draftee during the Vietnam era and a strong supporter of VVAW and the Winter Soldier Organization when I came back (from Korea, as luck would have it) and I never thought I would get to this position, but I am starting to think we should reinstate the draft.  I HATED the time I served, and used to say that the only reason I might re-enlist was to keep my hatred of the US Army from becoming stale.

Here’s why: 
1. A standing professional army is a temptation to use it.  Advancement in peacetime is slow and hard; you need a war every now and then to get promoted.
2. Professional soldiers want to try out all those toys, and I suspect you could track the incidence of war against the depreciation rates of weapons systems and find a close correlation.
3. The defense companies need a periodic war to use up old stuff and manufacture new  stuff, so there is a ready made industrial policy constituency that favors war.  Plus, a lot of retired colonels and generals work for those companies.
4.  As Michael Moore showed us in Fahrenheit 9/11, the recruiters lie to and mislead the poor kids who enlist, and they wind up as cannon fodder.Professional armies breed dishonest recruitment.
5.  Professional armies breed an “us” and “them” mentality that was well-ilustrated by Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men.”  A professional military becomes an exclusive group with its own culture, separated from the general population.

So I would cut back to a small core professional military, capable of maintaining readiness, quick response and training of recruits when called upon.  Saves a lot of money, too.

Now the case for the draft.

1.  A citizen army is a powerful check on the eagerness of government to initiate wars. I doubt that Iraq would have happened if GWB had to call on average American families to sacrifice their sons and daughters for a lie.
2.  A citizen army pretty much ensures that a war must be supported by the people.  The Vietnam War was ended by the people turning against it, and resistance began as an anti-draft movement.
3.  A citizen army is democratic.  In the barracks I mingled with people from all over the country, all races, creeds and religions,and all economic classes. We were all equal before the base barber and I learned a lot about diversity, tolerance and understanding.
4.  Student deferments kept a lot of kids in school, and even though there were class and racial discrimination involved in that process, the overall impact on America was probably positive.

So there you are…

( – promoted by odum)

Then I screamed at my daughter to get out of the house…

… and leapt toward the fire extinguisher.  The tiny bits of flaming foam insulation that had landed on me had gone out without any damage, but the fireball had also ignited the foam along the crack I had just filled, and the masking tape around it.

Thus our experiment in low-carbon living has taken a short hiatus.

We live a very strange life.  As an example, on the first multi-day car-less bike trip my husband and I took, we had to buy a lawn mower. It’s a long story…

So people who know us in real life, would not be surprised to hear me say that we’ve moved in with Dad for a short time because our refrigerator became a blow-torch. They’d just wait for the story, and try very hard (well, maybe not) to not double over laughing.

As my daughter shivered in the 14 degree air, short-sleeved and sock-footed, I sprayed the fire extinguisher at the flames, then raced to the main gas shutoff for the house. I have no memory of covering the territory between the refrigerator and the gas shut-off, but I remember brushing the snow off the protective cover so I could open it and get to the knob.

So what happened?  It was actually much less dramatic than it sounds.

The weather report indicated the next day would be below zero. We had a couple of spots with discernible air leaks, which had resulted in frozen pipes the week before, so I grabbed some spray foam insulation and started filling those gaps.  Alas, it turns out that the air from the last gap on the list just happened to flow directly to the pilot light on the refrigerator, several feet away. It also turns out that the propellant in the spray foam was butane.

“Wait,” you ask “a pilot light on the refrigerator?” Yep. We’re off the grid, so our now former refrigerator was propane-fired.

Butane is flammable – very flammable, which is why it’s used in cigarette lighters. As a result, when enough of the stuff reached the pilot light, the refrigerator morphed from an ordinary appliance into the “Killer Refrigerator of Doom (Dun, Dun, Duuuun…).”

The actual experience was one of those surreal compressed-time moments: The was a “FOOOF!”, a blast of heat and light, a spattering of flaming foam bits, then the soft hiss of flame. The little bits of foam went out pretty much instantly as they landed. The big snakes of fresh foam, however stayed lit, as well as the stuff that was still coming out of the can, and a small blow-torch style flame – about 6″ tall – continued to burn just above the pilot light.

Luckily, our insurance company insists that anyone with a woodstove have a big honking 20 lb fire extinguisher installed in an easily-accessible location. So as soon my brain registered the thought “it’s not going out,” I was able to grab the fire extinguisher and blast the flames.

It was a definite “two-steps-backward” moment.

We were in this situation because we had decided to try an experiment: reduce our carbon footprint to as near-zero as possible.  It’s a huge challenge. We probably would not have tried the experiment if we hadn’t been enjoying “Fun with Dual-Unemployment and Huge COBRA Payments.” We weren’t interested in homelessness, and had hoped not to have to do the cliched “move in with the parents” thing (heh). So we started planning, sold the house, bought some land, and began the oddyssey to build a straw-bale active- and passive-solar house.

We got the foundation footers in. There’s a story to go with these, but it’ll have to wait to another day… then ran out of time before the cold set in. We were close to running out of money, so we decided to build what we call the “energency backup cabin.”

It’s supposed to be a pottery studio, but for now, it’s home sweet home.

It literally comprises 2 garden sheds (for Monty Python fans, we can now use the “Arthur ‘Two-Sheds’ Jackson” joke in real life). The small part on the left was delivered whole, and the rest was built from plans.

It’s super-insulated. In order to reduce the cost and the energy impact of a new building, it uses low-e windows, and most were gathered from building material recycling centers, some are from the “bargain barn” at the local builder’s supply – customer returns.

So anyway, we made the best of it, building sleeping lofts in the bigger shed, putting a composting toilet and sink in the small one. We have a gas range, a woodstove, a recently-added instant-on water heater (water heating was done on the woodstove in cold weather), and, until now, a refrigerator.  It’s powered by a combination of 2 solar panels, 4 batteries, and a backup generator (there’s a story there, too). We squeezed in a sofa, a recliner, a dining table, some storage, clothes, bedding, 4 people, and 4 cats. We have 320 square feet (not including the lofts). All in all, it’s been very “Little House on the Prairie.”

There have been many moments of frustration, and many moments of joy. The location is beautiful, the neighbors are typical no-nonsense, get things done, independent souls with a real sense of community (some day I’ll have to write about the snow plow incident).

We’ll be elsewhere until we can afford to replace the refrigerator. I do NOT want a propane one again. So we have to get not only an electric refrigerator, but the solar panels, batteries, and charger needed to power it. Ugh.

Interestingly, we have learned that the best Energy Star refrigerators use less electricity than the most common “off-grid” refrigerator used by our friends. So we can buy a conventional refrigerator and associated solar panels for about $1000 less than a refrigerator designed for off-grid living and the associated panels and batteries. I guess it pays to do your research…

And our biggest lesson-learned in the latest adventure? If you have any gas appliances in your home, and you plan to use spray foam insulation: Turn off the gas first.

No time to blog, but here’s a quick Freeps excerpt:

Vermont legislators face a vote next week on U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.

“This is very much a Vermont issue,” said Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, lead sponsor of a nonbinding resolution that urges an immediate start to the orderly withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq.

The House and Senate have scheduled debates on the resolution for Tuesday. In the Senate, the resolution has been reviewed by the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee, which recommended it unanimously Friday.

“It will make for great debate,” said House Republican Leader Steve Adams of Hartland. “I expect I’ll vote no,” he continued. “We all want our troops home as soon as possible, but I personally feel if we were to undertake an immediate withdrawal, it would be disastrous.”

No Republicans signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution in either the House or Senate,

Vermont’s legislature will be the first in the nation to pass such a resolution (yay!).

Why this debate is ok and the impeachment issue isn’t is beyond me, but that’s another issue…

The Grammys stood up for freedom of speech tonight.

You probably remember the big fights the Chicks have had the last few years: the death threats, the boycotts, the hostility. All because they aren’t big Bush fans, and had the temerity to say so.

This is from 2003:
Country stations across the United States have pulled the Chicks from playlists following reports that lead singer Natalie Maines said in a concert in London earlier this week that she was “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

Station managers said their decisions were prompted by calls from irate listeners who thought criticism of the president was unpatriotic.

Thigs have turned around a little bit since then, but not necessarily in the world of country music. The Grammy awards are on tonight. A big, big night for commercial music of all kinds. And get this: the Dixie Chicks have won three awards–UPDATE–MAKE THAT FIVE–, including Record of the Year for their song Not Ready to Make Nice. A big ovation in the room, and Don Henley was visibly elated to announce their win, but as the cameras scanned the country music contingent the reactions seemed to range from stony silence to polite applause.

Here are some of the lyrics:

I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don’t mind saying,
It’s a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice,
I’m not ready to back down,
I’m still mad as hell

Do you think it’s wishful thinking to say that this is politics at work? I sure don’t.

The AP gives us an interesting li’l tidbit of an article today. A simple listing of communications staff in the Douglas administration and their salaries (emphasis mine). Here are the first few:

–Jason Gibbs, communications director, governor’s office, $62,004.80.

–Vacant, communications director, Agriculture Agency, range of $40,000 to $55,000.

—David Mace, principal assistant, Commerce and Community Development, $61,339.20.

–Heidi Tringe, principal assistant, Department of Aging and Independent Living/Human Services Agency, $62,379.20.

—Darren Allen, communications director, Natural Resources Agency, $61,000.

—John Zicconi executive assistant, Transportation Agency, $55,016.00.

(I’d post all of the names, but there’s really nothing more to the piece than the list itself and I can’t legally do more than excerpt a chunk).

Interesting, eh? The bold names are former Vermont press professionals. If you checked the link, you’ll notice the rest of the list shows a greater salary range – from $47k to $80k, putting Jason Gibbs in the low-to-middle range. Odd, huh?

But the fun game is to guess who from the Vermont press is going to fill that vacancy in the Agriculture Department… whaddaythink? Wanna place any bets?

cross-posted at
http://rip-and-read….

The Speaker’s Plane…A Fable with No Moral

Once upon a time, in a little town called Washington, there was nifty little tempest in a teapot when someone asked for a new plane for Speaker Nancy Pelosi while she tried to make a case that we should do something more about climate change.

Oh what a fun little story it is…

Really, the whole thing is a merry little game of “Hypocrite, Hypocrite, Who Is the Hypocrite”.

Here’s what happened, at least, here is what happened according to the AP story:

Yesterday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went before the House Science committee to testify about the need to take action on Global Warming. (I think now that Democrats are back in Congress, it is legal again to refer to it as “Global Warming” rather than “Climate Change” – which is the term Republicans prefer… I personally like the term “Malignant Climate Change” … but I digress.)

The Irony was just tooooooo delicious to pass up for the embittered losers (whoops, I’m not sure that came out right…I meant the Republicans) on the other side of the aisle.

You see, THEY had just noted that a request had been made that the Speaker of the U.S. House (that’s Pelosi) be granted access to a much bigger (or, as Bernie Sanders might put it: “A [h]’Uuuge “) plane.

The AP actually uses the term “swanky” to describe the aircraft.

The AP quotes Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican of North Carolina: “The jet that Pelosi has produces 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide an hour, far more than the previous speaker used,” (This puts good old Former Speaker Dennis “Don’t-think-about-what-he-is-doing-to-that-boy-or-what-Jack-Abramoff-is-doing-to-the-taxpayer-and-maybe-it-will-all-just-go-away” Hastert in the highly unusual position of FRIEND to the ENVIRONMENT…but I digress…again.)

So there was Nancy, forced to defend herself from the charge of Hypocrisy…”By commandeering a huge government plane for her personal transport to California, this is totally contradictory to the alarm bells we heard her ringing in the Science Committee just a few hours ago,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. was quoted in the AP story.

“I have never asked for any larger plane,” was the substance of the Speaker’s argument, “I have said that I am happy to ride commercial if the plane they have doesn’t go coast to coast.”

….No, I requested the plane…quoth House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood (if you read this line in your best Dudley Dooright voice, this story starts to get EVEN funnier.) It was a matter of SECURITY! The only problem with taking that one at face value is that the Sergeant At Arms is elected by the members of Congress (and with a Democratic majority lead by Speaker Pelosi…well, you do the math. Of course, as a loyal Democrat, I am suggesting NOTHING! Still, it is just possible that Livingood request the plane because…well, you’re a grownup, you figure it out.)

And this is where it gets really good– because once the SECURITY card got played the cavalry rode over the Hill (so to speak) to rescue the “San Francisco Liberal” Speaker from the clutches of the nasty Republicans. And who was this masked hero…it was…now hold your breath….none other than….drum roll, please……

TONY SNOW!!!

White House Spokesman. Yes, that White House, the George W. Bush White house…because, while fun is fun and all, when those nasty little Republican congressmen criticize the speaker on the question of SECURITY…that’s when somebody looses an eye. You see, if you question the Speaker’s SECURITY (she is, after all, second in line for the Presidency after Dick Cheney) then you question the validity of the WAR ON TERROR, and, if you assert that there is not that much need for SECURITY for the Speaker, then you begin to see that the people might start to wonder about the WAR ON TERROR and that would be BAD…because of course, if we don’t have a WAR….then we can’t have a WAR PRESIDENT….

and that’s why the White House came to the rescue of Nancy Pelosi…..

Isn’t that a good story?

I’m hoping that the Debate on Malignant Climate Change fairs better in Vermont.

(Re-Bumped to the top, as the issue seems to be gaining steam again – promoted by odum)

A few weeks back, I received email from an anonymous blogger asking if I’d ever looked closely at Vermont’s small but high profile secession movement, the Second Vermont Republic (and its companion publication, VT Commons). Despite the fact that many high-profile Vermont activists have associated themselves with the organization, I had dismissed them largely over sentiments I thought brushed into anti-immigrant territory. This particular blogger, however, had a deeper concern.

He (or she) had just heard SVR spokesperson Rob Williams on Switchboard passing on a revisionist historical portrait of Abraham Lincoln which the blogger (who follows hate groups) recognized as part and parcel of what the Southern Poverty Law Center (the premier anti-hate group advocacy and tracking organization in the country) refers to as the Neo-Confederate Movement. The blogger considered the possibility of a connection and looked into the SVR and VC websites.

What he found was shocking for two reasons; one, that there seem to be no degrees of seperation between SVR and leading neo-confederate thinkers and activists specifically discussed on the Southern Poverty Law Center website. These people are serving on SVR’s advisory board.

And two; that there seems to be no effort to hide the fact, given that groups such as the flagship neo-confederate organization The League of the South are linked to prominently, and the work of LOS activists cited and praised repeatedly.

The anonymous blogger has posted the first of his findings at vermontsecession.blogspot.com, and the work he’s done is prodigious. It is as well cited and linked as any research document, and as such virtually impossible to refute. From the anonymous blogger who is using the psuedonym Thomas Rowley after one of Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys:

As I’ve read and learned more about the group at Second Vermont Republic and its publication, Vermont Commons, I’ve become concerned about some of what they say and even more so about things that they aren’t saying. My purpose in this blog won’t be to gevaltize about the various people and their connections to organizations that promote ideas (or as they would have it, “Truths”) that are inimical to generally accepted Vermont values of inclusion and respect for others. I’d simply like for my neighbors to have additional facts not being presented by those who are proposing secession.

I strongly suggest a visit to vermontsecession to review what is only the beginnings of his case (there is much more coming). In the meantime, I’ll try to provide some highlights below the fold, including the results of some of my own digging.

There are some names that might raise eyebrows on the Advisory Board. Marco Bassani is associated with Italy’s Northern League, a fracturous political entity that has faced charges of xenophobia, and Jason Sorens is the founder of the Right-Libertarian Free State Movement that settled in New Hampshire – a movement that has also dealt with charges of xenophobia and racism. Interesting, but there’s hardly enough out there to make for any kind of indictment, frankly.

There are, however, several people connected with the League of the South (LOS) who are either directly involved with or promoted by SVR. In fact, the LOS is directly linked to from the SVR site here. This is just some of what the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has to say about LOS:

a group that has grown to include 9,000 people organized into 96 chapters in 20 states. Despite the group’s claims that it will brook no racists, the League is rife with white supremacists and racist ideology.

One key LOS figure … a man who is the former head of the LOS chapter in Tuscaloosa (Ala.) County where the League got its start, was even blunter than his leader in his own AlaReb posting about black-on-white crime.

“You see the day is coming when we will NEED a new type of Klan,” G. David Cooksey wrote after the Central Park incidents in June. “Yes I said Klan!! If push comes to shove I’m for it! … Time has come to stop this crap now!

“Or would you all like to see your daughters raped???”

And J Michael Hill, the group’s founder is a veritable font of such statements as:

Let us not flinch when our enemies call us ‘racists’; rather, just reply with, ‘So, what’s your point?'”

And the SPLC goes on:

And the League runs the Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, an organization headed by Donald Livingston that offers seminars “dedicated to combating the demonisation of the South.” It is supported by members’ dues and an LOS foundation.

The name Donald Livingston may look familiar if you’ve been clicking on the links earlier in this diary. That would be the same Donald Livingston on the advisory board of the Second Vermont Republic. Here’s a screenshot:

The vermontsecession blog spends a lot of time on Donald Livingston, whose SPLC profile can be found here. Rowley is actually far more kind to Livingston at the blog than SPLC is.

If you checked the link to Livingston’s profile, you may have noticed this:

At a 2003 “Lincoln Reconsidered” conference (see also profile of Thomas DiLorenzo), he said that “evil is habit-forming” and no habit is as evil as believing that Lincoln acted out of good motives.

This, of course, a reference to the Lincoln revisionism that permeates the neo-Confederate movement. What you also may notice is another name from the SVR Advisory Board – Thomas DiLorenzo.

At this point, Rowley doesn’t discuss DiLorenzo – but that’s only because there is so much to digest and process on the man, he is still working on it. Like Livingston, DiLorenzo is specifically highlighted on the SPLC site. His name is not merely attached to the SVR, but his work is repeatedly promoted (here under VTCommons’ “essential readings” and here, in a book review by Rob Williams as two examples).

Rowley’s DiLorenzo entry will likely dwarf the others in quantity and impact, as he is a big player in the hate group circuit. DiLorenzo is an enthusiastic proponent of radically unrestrained markets. For example:

One of the oldest myths about capitalism is the notion that factories that offer the poor higher wages to lure them off the streets (and away from lives of begging, stealing, prostitution, or worse) or away from back-breaking farm labor somehow impoverishes and exploits them. They
are said to work in “sweatshops” for “subsistence wages.” That was the claim made by socialists and unionists in the early days of the industrial revolution, and it is still made today by the same category of malcontents – usually by people who have never themselves performed manual labor and experienced breaking a sweat while working. (I am not referring here to the red herring claim that most foreign “sweatshops” utilize some kind of slave labor. This is an outrageous propaganda ploy designed to portray defenders of free markets as being in favor of slavery).

Finally, perhaps one of the strongest virtues of foreign “sweatshops” is that they weaken the hand of American labor unions. With few exceptions, American unions have long been at the forefront of anti-capitalist ideology and have supported virtually all the destructive tax and regulatory policies that have been so poisonous to American capitalism. Unions believe that they cannot exist unless workers can be convinced that employers are the enemies of the working class, if not society, and that they (the workers) need unions to protect them from these exploiters.

DiLorenzo, whom even far-right absolutists like Randian Libertarian activist Timothy Sandefur calls “an unusually bad scholar, whose incompetence at history is only exceeded by his poor grasp of basic Constitutional theory” is the source of much of the Lincoln revisionism, and as such a key source for the rhetoric of these groups. From SPLC again:

A recent headline on
WorldNetDaily, a far-right Web site, showed what neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups believe is at stake: “‘Taking America Back’ Starts with Taking Lincoln Down.” The anti-Lincoln campaign is not simply another series of shopworn arguments about the past. Instead, Lincoln is blamed for everything far right-wingers believe is amiss in the America of 2003: big centralized government, welfare giveaways, rampant capitalist greed, shrinking civil liberties and reckless imperialism.

Rowley even forwarded to me the following Google search link which shows DiLorenzo’s multiple postings on a neo-nazi website with the heading “No Jews, Just Right” No doubt Rowley’s far more extensive work on DiLorenzo over the next couple days will be damning.

But returning to the quote above, “reckless imperialism” is a key phrase. The neo-confederate movement represents a marriage of sorts between old-line, traditional white supremicists and the fringe of the paleoconservative movement. Rowley believes that suporters of SVR are not secret racists, but have rather been duped by carefully presented rhetoric. The paleocons passionately hate the neocons, whose statist, imperialistic visions they find anathema. As such, the conversation with genuinely progressive or left-libertarian activists can stay on common ground if carefully nuanced.

His view is reinforced by the appearence of so many genuinely progressive activists on both the Vermont Commons site as well as the Second Vermont Republic site. People like Dan DeWalt, Bill McKibben, Will Linder- these folks are clearly the good guys. I did give the ones I knew a heads up to what Rowley had discovered. DeWalt responded immediately that he had no idea of these connections, and would certainly take a look and re-evaluate, depending on what the results are. Rob Williams himself seems like a very genuine, progressive activist, and it’s hard after meeting him to imagine that he would have any part in this.

But as a historian himself, it’s also hard not to give him some responsibility for promoting the neo-confederate propoganda that passes as “history.” Or for giving  VT Commons print space to the likes of Franklin Sanders, whose work appeared in the copy of VT Commons recently included in Seven Days. From vermontsecession:

Like a number of members of Second Vermont Republic’s advisory board, Sanders has a long association with the League of the South [1] , a hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. [2] He serves on the LoS Board of Directors. [3]  He spoke at the First North American Secessionist Convention in Burlington that was sponsored last fall by Kirkpatrick Sale’s (also an SVR advisory board member) Middlebury Institute

Sanders has a criminal record, as well as having attempted a foray into writing:

a fictional account set in the now near future of a Christian Pol Pot-like character who decimated the non-Christian, city folk/population with a neutron bomb/device or some such nonsense.  If you like your action heroes white, preachy and definitely not Jewish then Heiland is for you. Customer reviews at the Amazon link included the mention of “a few good reviews of the book” from two (surprise!) fellow LoS board members, although that fact isn’t noted in the customer review.  One is from the racist president of the LoS, Michael Hill:

“Heiland presents a chilling portrait of what could be in store for America should the secular-statist agenda become reality. A death-dealing, anti-Christian Establishment holds sway over a blighted urban landscape, while Christian patriots control the countryside. The epic showdown between the forces of light and darkness is not to be missed.”

Dr. Michael Hill
Montgomery, Alabama

Disturbed yet? And there is more, more, more. Rowley has amassed sources – including YouTubed video recordings – and with much more to come. It runs so deep and the connections are so omnipresent, it’s hard to imagine that the SVR is truly salvageable, and that truly progressive secession advocates might want to consider dumping the organization and starting over.

But just as disturbing as these contacts themselves are the fact that it took so long to notice them, despite the fact that they have been on display for all to see. As overwhelmingly white as Vermont is, I can’t help but see this as a result of our pronounced lack of diversity. African Americans, Jews – any minority group with a history of being oppressed – have a culturally imbedded radar for bigotry that we in the majority lack. I can’t help but wonder if we were a more diverse state, if this sort of mischief wouldn’t have been spotted immediately and nipped in the bud.

Whatever the case, some very ugly tendrils have infiltrated themselves into the progressive community right under our noses, and Rowley should be given a medal for bringing it out into the sunlight before it spreads any further. I strongly urge readers to check out the definitive record at vermontsecession.blogspot.com and return frequently over the next couple weeks. It’s time we called it out.

UPDATE 2/10, 9:40 PM: Well. I guess people do read this site.

Quick notes:

1. Those defending the inclusion of the radical right wing, white supremicist element are probably wasting their time doing so by attempting to attack the reputation of the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are super-credible. The Nation cites them all the time. It’s possible to disagree with anyone, but when, instead of disagreeing, you try a smear without any backup, it doesn’t look good.

2. To everyone reading – this post was not about the concept of secession. I have mixed feelings on the issue myself. It appeals to my left-libertarian streak in theory, but I do worry about the practice. In any event, I’m not touching the merits of secession and don’t intend to.

3. On the “guilt by association” thing, setting aside that we take politicians to task for much looser connections to shady interests, if proponents feel that these alliances don’t matter – that it’s really okay with you and you’re comfortable with it – hey, just say so. Heck, say it proudly. I disagree, and said so. Others may disagree with me. Everybody’s different. It’s my opinion that most people will be as shocked as I was – certainly most in the GMD community will be. Some people will feel very threatened. What’s important is that it’s out there for discussion and there are no secrets.

4. As to the charge that the vermontsecession.blogspot.com poster and myself are simply wrong, again, make your case. I’ve mea culpa’d before, and have no problem doing so again. But just saying it’s wrong or calling me names is not a case.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

No, it’s not Iran. George Bush’s latest war is another example of his “compassionate conservatism’. This time, it’s budget cuts and low-income housing programs.  In an article in the SF alt-weekly, BeyondCron:

The Bush budget plan for fiscal year 2008 announced on February 6 slashes key low-income housing programs, while increasing America’s mammoth defense budget by 11%—an increase that does not include funding for the Iraq war.

While the Bush Administration sends public relations staff like Phil Mangano around the country touting plans to end chronic homelessness, the President continues efforts to cut housing programs for the poor. The new Bush budget plan would reduce the vital Project Based Rental Assistance Program, which currently funds about 1.2 million project based subsidies, by $163 million. Public Housing funding would be cut by nearly $400 million.

A glance at the ‘Rundown of the FY 2008 Budget’ from the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ shows levels in a few programs staying in place, a few modest increases, and many substantial cuts. I guess the free market’s nipped that poverty problem in the bud, right?

A look at the  budget proposal shows among other things, an 18% decrease in LIHEAP heating assistance – I guess with the global warming those poor people won’t need it as much, right? The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), which funds job training and
other services in low-income communities, would be eliminated completely. Housing for the Elderly, cut $160 million. Housing for People with Disabilities cut $112 million. Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention program ,eliminated. There are also cuts to the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and for Health Care for the Homeless.

Now, before the trolls accuse me of just pointing out the negative, yes, as I said before, there are a few modest increases, such as a 10% increase in Homeless Assistance Grants, and 4% increase in operating subsidies for public housing. Maybe they’ll hand out some cardboard refrigerator boxes as a gesture of good faith, perhaps? By and large, looking at the budget, there’s mostly huge cuts. Gotta pay for this stupid war right?

Some of us can remember a time when another president, although severely misguided like our current one in matters of foreign policy, declared a ‘War on Poverty’. That’s a war that I could actually support, as could most of us on here.

Now, where does Welch stand on this particular issue? His latest press release does address the recklessness of the newest budget, but with emphasis on the war.

“The budget released by the President today is both fiscally reckless and demonstrates upside-down priorities at odds with the needs of Vermonters.  Through rosy economic revenue projections and a failure to account properly for the war in Iraq, the President creates the mirage of a balanced budget.

“In November, voters in Vermont and across the country told the President that it was time for a new direction.  Yet the President’s budget contains nothing but more of the same.  The President continues to insist on the extension of trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.  He continues to incorporate into the budget his misguided plan to privatize Social Security.  And, instead of expanding access to health care, he cuts programs for the elderly and children and proposes increasing costs for veterans.

Welch’s positions on the war lately have been encouraging, as most of you know. But it is really important for him to take a bold stand and, apart from the war – important as it is, to speak out forcefully on the actual impact this reckless budget is going to have on our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.