Democrats.  It would seem even most people who identify, proudly, as being one are loath to much of what they actually do (and don’t do) while in power.  They are all over the spectrum, from the Lieberman’s to Clinton’s to the Kennedy’s to the Dean’s and Edwards’ and Kucinich’s, and hell, the countless who don’t even trust them or identify as one but insist on backing them (often, if not always) because really, what else can an American voter do to keep the regressive proto-fascist modern Republican Party out of power?  Nearly all of us, regardless of political values, parties, ideals, hopes, see the Orwellian horrors of what the GOP has done to this country and this planet not only since Regan, but as well at a frightening pace since taking complete power in 2000. 

I mean, my 88 year old, life-long Republican grandfather thinks Bush is the worst president in U.S. history and that my generation, and my children’s generation, are increasingly likely to live a miserable, poor, war-torn future, if the planet manages to survive the next few years at all.  The neo-Republicans are increasingly representative of pure Evil, but they speak clearly on distractions and they work with what must be the most talented and cunning team of PR people and social psychologists ever assembled.  But they have turned such a huge swath of the public (voting and non-voting alike) against them, and as such we arrive with seemingly our only other option: the Democrats.

But Democrats? We know we prefer them because we know they will not outlaw a woman’s right to have authority and choice over her own body and her own life.  They usually understand that a diversity of ideas, races, creeds, gender-identities, make life more enjoyable, not more Hell-like.  We prefer the D’s because they reject a nationalistic identity of overt aggression, of fiefdom-like tax codes, and outside the legal system domestic spying (they are smart enough to know that the laws allow them to spy on pretty much anyone they want to anyway, why draw attention to yourself by breaking the law needlessly?). 

Still, with control of Congress up until the 1994 GOP take-over, and with Bill Clinton in the White House, the Democrats brought us things like NAFTA, which have driven down real wages not only here but in fact globally; and which, along with the aggressive expansion of things like the IMF and WTO in the post-Cold War Era, is responsible for a shocking Chasm between the wealth and security of rich and poor, have and have-not.  Yes, even the Democrats are engaged in a class war that favors the rich and powerful over everyone else.  But we can say that they are in no way as ruthless and unforgiving and demonstrative as the GOP in how they go about their business (which is in fact big business).  And so we hope for their victory on election day.

But Democrats have not given us affordable, universal health care as a right of citizenship, as with the rest of the post/industrial West.  They have not provided the working person with all the possible luxuries of personal freedom and liberty, as the revolutionary government of “democracy” had promised it would.  There are no “livable wages” and therefore no “livable country”.  D’s can, when those of them choose to do so, speak out against war in Vietnam, Iran-Contra, or war in Iraq.  But they can’t really do anything about it, because it behooves them to allow the forces of State to play-out their economic rules of perpetual and unfettered expansion, development, and “progress”.

Just think of places the U.S. has bombed or gone to war with since WWII: China (1945-46, 1950-53), Korea (1950-53), Guatemala (1954, 1967-69), Indonesia (1958), Cuba (1959-60), Belgian Congo (1964), Peru (1965), Laos (1964-73), Vietnam (1961-73), Cambodia (1969-70), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), El Salvador (1980’s), Nicaragua (1980’s), Panama (1989), Bosnia (1995), Sudan (1998), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (1998, 2001-present), and Iraq (1991-present, including the military enforcement of no-fly zones during Clinton).  Oh, and didn’t we just bomb Sedan again the other day, too?  Can you name a democratic, free society among the bunch?  We stay clear from the GOP because we know their vision for the best that human-kind can do in governing herself is not good enough.  We turn to the Democrats because to not is to assure the Bush’s and Rumsfield’s and Gingrich’s have the power.

Thus, the problem of the Democrats, and so likewise the challenge to them, is that they counter the GOP’s strong, healthy, organized, and passionate lesser-developed worldview with a weak, confused, unfocused, and overly-intellectualized insult to our common sense.  They declare they are going to take congress, work hard, and dissolve the growing divide of America.  Then they give themselves a long weekend after their first few days of work in order to have the day off for the college football championship game (a game that started in the evening, no less).  They give themselves raises at a pace only my property taxes, mortgage and health care premiums can keep up with.  And so, we should be careful not to fall for the weak knees of neo-liberalism.  As considerate, freedom-craving people, we must always be vigilant, weary, and critique-ing of those who would profess to be leading us for some greater good.  They may on occasion have our vote, but they should never have our trust.

Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) and the Buddhist order of Nipponzan Myohoji will coordinate a walk throughout Vermont to support safe sustainable energy and abolish nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Potluck dinners will be followed by discussions of the dangers of Vermont Yankee.
The Vermont State Legislature MUST VOTE NO for the 20-year license extension of the thirty-five year old brittle and corroded Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor in Vernon, Vermont.

(continue) WALKING FOR A NEW SPRING:

Reverend Gyoway Kato of Leverett Peace Pagoda will lead this walk as part of the Mayors
for Peace Project’s month-long walk against nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

It will begin in Putney, Vermont, proceed down Rte. 5 to a vigil at ENTERGY headquarters
on Old Ferry Road in North Brattleboro, and then continue through downtown Brattleboro.

FOR INFO: CAN@nukebusters.org or Deb Katz at 413-339-5781. Both walks will have support vehicles for anyone needing assistance.  Both walks are alcohol free and drug free.

March 24 to April 1, 2007

SCHEDULE:
MARCH 24, Greenfield, MA
MARCH 25, Brattleboro
MARCH 26, Bennington
MARCH 27, Rutland
MARCH 28, Middlebury- public fast 10 a.m.-4 p.m. observing the anniversary of the Three- Mile- Island accident in 1979
MARCH 29, Montpelier – public fasting on state house lawn to oppose 20 year relicensing of Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor
MARCH 30, Johnson State College
MARCH 31, Burlington /University of Vermont
APRIL 1, Burlington – closing ceremony on waterfront.  All are welcome to join!
For further contact: Vermont Yankee Decommissioning
Alliance (VYDA) at 802-476-3154 or
Deb@nukebusters.org or Deb Katz at 413-339-5781.

The old adage is true: busy people get things done. Your help is needed to encourage people to walk, to host a potluck afterwards as well as  finding beds for the out-of towners for the towns listed.  Link up with Hattie Nestal of CAN at hattieshalom@verizon.net and please send the message to your networks.  We’re looking for more college involvement (from those not listed,) including walkers and speaking engagements.  We should also invite all our legislators to attend the potluck(s) and update us on Act 160.  Thanks,  Barbara

Google has become THE search engine.  We need to de-centralize the search engine function which essential to finding appropriate resources on the net.

Money concentrates wealth and power in the hands of the few.  Google is a prime example of how this works.  The more money they make, the more they can spend on development of their search engine(s) and the more faith people have in them BECAUSE they have the money and the power.

Monopolies are the natural result of a money-oriented system.  Some people refer to this as a capitalistic system, but it’s really more about the way money works.  It’s all about quantity without any necessity for quality.
The counterargument is that people will only give their money to a company which provides a quality product or service.  But this isn’t true with Google, because Google doesn’t charge the consumer of their services.

Google is doing evil, despite their company motto “Don’t do evil” because money itself is inherently evil.  It prioritizes money over morality, quantity over quality, and profit over principle.

The principle of a search engine should be to provide users with the BEST resources for their search request.  But profit overrules this in a number of ways.  You can get top placement on the page by paying money to Google.  Why are you the first line on the page?  Quantity.  You have the money to pay for that placement.  Quality is sacrificed for profit.

It’s evil, plain and simple.  It’s why we need to de-centralize the search functions we use on the net.  How can this be done?  Well, traditionally government plays a role in breaking up monopolies and preventing concentration of power in the hands of the few.  But government hasn’t done anything to stop this phenomenon on the Internet.

Government could do a great deal by simply creating a technical data standard for sharing search engine information.  This could be a voluntary standard which programmers like myself would happily comply with if we knew that the result would be distribution of quality data with attribution ( where it came from ). 

The attribution funciton of a government standard requires another standard … a standard internet identity.  Currently you can buy a domain name ( like yahoo.com or google.com ) for about ten dollars per year.  It’s a form of identity, but not a good one.  There are ways to disguise your identity and hide your true identity from users of your domain services.

The government could provide an alternative service for registering your name, whether a personal identity or a business identity, with a government agency.  The government could maintain the database of “who’s who on the Internet” and regulate it so that the public would have confidence that they were dealing with people and businesses who have established a quality identity. ( accurate, reliable and constant )

The third standard needed is one for rating any piece of information.  This would include rating individuals, companies, and even a specific web site or search engine record.  Everything needs to be ratable and the ratings need to be shared in the open, without any copyright protection for the ratings, so that everyone can collect, process and re-distribute rating data without concern of legal liability.

That’s how we can turn the Internet in a new direction, a direction in service of building a better world rather than simply focused on profit and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few.

Steve Moyer
http://stevemoyer.us

Rest assured, Shay’s email box and voice mail is blowing up with angry calls from Andrew Savage (who I don’t know well at all but I like what little I know).

And, this is just the start.

Where is the “new direction” where is the “holding the President accountable”?

http://www.vermontgu…

Where is the ’08 independent/Progressive candidate?

If we’re going to bash politicians for not living up to their promises, we need to acknowledge them when they do. If we’re going to have low expectations for our elected officials, we should acknowledge them when they surprise us and meet those expectations. Otherwise, frankly, we’re just gripers.

The flip side, of course, is when they DO surpass expectation, the bar goes up for the next time.

The US House Dems met their 100 hour goal for enacting several emblematic pieces of legislation; minimum wage hike, 9-11 commission recommendations, ethics reform etc. Most striking to me was the one that got the least attention; the multi-billion dollar smackdown of the oil industry. From Canada.com (hey, why not?):

The U.S. House of Representatives rolled back billions of dollars in oil industry subsidies Thursday in what supporters hailed as a new direction in energy policy toward more renewable fuels.

Democrats said the legislation could produce as much as $15 billion in revenue. Most of that money would pay to promote renewable fuels such as solar and wind power, alternative fuels including ethanol and biodiesel and incentives for conservation.

So yeah, I’m impressed. I guess at the end of the day, I didn’t really expect squat. Now I do, and I will continue to expect more – but not just from Washington.

Democrats in Montpelier have a similarly unfriendly Chief Executive to worry about, but enjoy a far more powerful majority than their Washington counterparts. And as complex as State governance is, it is nowhere near the behemoth that is the federal government. Obviously state lawmakers don’t have the staff support that federal lawmakers do, but I still think it’s reasonable to expect that if Democrats in Washington can accomplish significant, substantive improvements in a matter of hours, Democrats in Montpelier can manage comparable feats over a four month session.

Unfortunately, last session revealed a caucus that was often loathe to walk and chew gum at the same time. Against the roar of health care, other progressive priorities were left by the wayside. That’s not to say other legislation didn’t go through – some of it significant, but often, caucus leadership decided to ration its legislative attentions very cautiously. This presumably irrefutable inability to multitask was one of the prime excuses we heard for letting the Jefferson’s Manual impeachment bill languish and die.

Already the signs are disturbing. This time, climate change is the banner cause – an important one, to be sure, but it shouldn’t be used as an issue to mollify the liberal base and hide from other sticky, but also urgent, priorities. For example, word is that health care will not be revisited. This may be practical (the potentially veto-proof non-Republican majority may not stand up to real, comprehensive reform), or it may simply be a dodge. In either case, the Washington Dems 100-hour priorities may well fall themselves to the veto pen, but it clearly didn’t stop them from giving it their best shot, nonetheless – yet another bar-raising effect that can’t help but trickle down to the local level.

Also, it’s likely only a matter of days before the impeachment debate returns with a new bill on the wall.

And there’s agriculture, Vermont Yankee – and of course property tax will be elbowing itself in.

The Washington Dems have shown us that a lot of balls can be succesfully juggled at once – and quickly. There is no reason to expect anything less from our local representation.

From Welch’s office:

Welch became an original cosponsor of House Joint Resolution 18, sponsored by Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam veteran, which calls for an immediate redeployment of our troops from Iraq.  The first section states that “The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.”

Welch also cosponsored H.R. 353, legislation sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey, that prohibits the President from spending funds to escalate the troop presence in Iraq without prior Congressional approval.

Now I am not someone who expects or demands instantaneous success. I expect more than rhetoric, but I also respect that the process is the process. Welch is a new Representative and he’s dotting his ‘i’s and crossing his ‘t’s, but given that it’s only January 19th of his first term, he’s doing so with relative speed, frankly. In his short time, he’s already taken more forceful action on the war than Bernie did (granted, having control of the House makes that easier).

So if (when) these attempts are ignored (assuming they pass), Welch and the House Dems will be left looking at their Constitutional options; pursestring control and impeachment. Regarding the pursestrings, Welch’s office goes on to say:

Regarding future funding of the Iraq war, Welch says he “will view the President’s expected supplemental funding request with great skepticism and scrutiny.”

That’s a shot across the bow. Whether it’s a bluff or not is impossible to say at this point. I’d like to believe to it’s not, but calling the question at all is still (alas) a touchy subject. Congrats to Welch for being one of the ones to put it out there.

But it was good to see you on Daily Kos today.
I’ve learned what a ‘Tip Jar” is.
I’ve learned what a “Troll” is.
What a nice, productive day it was.

From MoveOn.org:

At the meetings we’ll nail down Rep. Peter Welch’s position on escalation of the war in Iraq-it’s one more way we can show that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to this plan. And we won’t stop there.

We want to make sure the change we voted for is real-on all the important issues. This is the window of time to help frame the political agenda. There are four lobbyists in Washington for every one member of Congress, and they’re working all the time to block real progress on our energy and health care crises. But there are a heck of a lot more of us-and if we make very clear what we want, and hold our representatives’ feet to the fire, we can make sure the new Congress does what it was elected to do.

Here’s the generic petition MoveOn is circulating in advance of their sit-down. Obviously it’s not just Welch they’re talking to, so feel free to share the link with folks outside of Vermont.

Damn! Okay, thing is, my 2-year old has decided to take 2 hours to get to sleep over the last couple weeks, so my blogging has suffered. Here, then, is a rapid fire list of updates – most of which probably deserve full diaries, but what’re y’gonna do, y’know?

Don’t forget the “Bring the Troops Home” rally in Montpelier this Saturday. At 10 am, folks are gathering at City Hall, at 10:30 am there’s a march to the statehouse with a rally, and at 1pm, a showing of ‘Sir, No Sir!” with speaker Liam Madden. Check vtimpeach.com for details

Montpelier resident and political regular Jon Anderson is also interested in retiring Rep. Francis Brooks’ seat, which amends my previous diary on it. That makes four people interested in three slots for gubernatorial presentation. Guess that Dem committee meeting will have to be more than 2 minutes after all. Here’s the Times Argus piece which confirrms Charlie Phillips has backed off, but completely blacks out confirmed candidate Cary Brown and likely candidate Matt Levin. What gives? Based on their other reports on the matter, you have to wonder if the Times Argus editorial board has picked their own candidate…

The Progs have an official blog called the Prog Blog (not to be confused with ProgBlog). Surprised it took them so long. With only a handful of electeds, it’s an ideal medium for them, although as an official “institutional” blog, its impact may be limited. We’ll see.

Speaking of institutional blogs, VNRC has refitted their website through the good work of Union Street Media (thanks guys). It now allows for comments and user story submissions. Currently there’s a poll up on their organizational/environmental priorities. By all means, go vote.

You’ve probably read Allen’s piece on O’Reilly’s continuing obsession with Vermont, which can be found here. What you may not have seen is this first-person account of a Shaftsbury-area dKos frequenter’s encounter with this Fox-hackery. Check it out here.

Middlebury College’s “DigitalBridges2007” conference on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 9:15-6:45 will be focusing largely on blogging and other social networking tools. Among the panelists is Karl Frisch, director of media relations for Media Matters. I can’t find a clean website with info (ironic, no?) but click here for an email contact. Looks like a lot of fun, actually, with workshops all day.

Nationally, Sidney Blumenthal at Salon has an interesting profile of John McCain that’s worth a quick read (it’s short). Here’s the choice bit:

McCain’s political colleagues, however, know another side of the action hero — a volatile man with a hair-trigger temper, who shouted at Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor to “shut up,” called his fellow Republican senators “shithead,” “fucking jerk,” “asshole,” and joked in 1998 at a Republican fundraiser about the teenage daughter of President Clinton, “Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.” As recently as a few months ago, McCain suddenly rushed up to a friend of mine, a prominent Washington attorney, at a social event, and threatened to beat him up because he represented a client McCain happened to dislike, and then, just as suddenly, profusely and tearfully apologized.