Take two thick slices of Noonie's day old bread, smear Honey Cup honey mustard
liberally over both. Cover both slices with green leaf lettuce. Then on one slice only lay smoked turkey on the lettuce,
a tomato slice on the turkey and sprinkle it with shredded carrot. Then on the lay a slice of provolone cheese over the
carrot then a green pepper ring on top of the cheese. Sprikle with sprouts. Cover with the other slice, lettuce side down.
The letuce should be stuck to the bread with honey mustard so it doesn't fall off when you turn it upside down to cover the
sandwich. Slice sandwich in half with a knife. Wrap in tightly in plastic wrap. Use too much wrap. Tape on label. Tadaaa!
Weighs one pound. Costs Four Bucks.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed,
to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Ethan Allen Tower
"During the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton
sometimes spoke of a 'twofer' (two for the price of one) presidency,
implying that Hillary would play an important role in his
administration."
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis ligula lorem,
consequat eget, tristique nec, auctor quis, purus. Vivamus ut sem. Fusce aliquam nunc vitae purus.
Whatever things
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis ligula lorem,
consequat eget, tristique nec, auctor quis, purus. Vivamus ut sem. Fusce aliquam nunc vitae purus.
Senate Passes Health Care Bill
Thursday, December 24, 2009
I was lucky enough to watch the final vote on TV this morning. Bernie got there late to some applause from the Democratic senators. He voted "Yes" instead of "Aye."
Moments earlier Harry Reid had accidentally voted no, and threw up his hands to uproarious laughter in the chamber while the clerk gave him a moment to change his vote.
Final vote: 60-39 with all Democrats, Sanders and Lieberman voting yes, all Republicans voting no except one. I'm having trouble finding out who it was that didn't vote.
Despite having given Sanders the OK to kill the bill if he wished, and despite its flaws I'm happy the bill passed, and I would be disappointed the conference bill does not pass in both chambers too.
Sure it's a huge giveaway to the health insurance companies, but it's better than a huge giveaway to the war industry, which always happens. If we're going to borrow obscene amounts from China, we might as well let the money pay for band aids instead of bullets for a change.
I didn't hear it all. I just caught the part where she was bragging about killing nine jobs in archive micro-filming in favor of electronic only record keeping. This reminded me her response to my concerns about the evils of paperless voting in which she cited its "efficiencies." That was a red flag.
She seems a lot like Hinda and Hillary. A lot. She bragged about her Emily's list endorsement and her long list of donors. Her statewide victories as SOS. It seems like an 'inevitability' strategy. And "inevitability" is by definition presumptuous.
I liked Shumlin's appearance on You Can Quote Me better. He said Vermont could "get a piece" of the new economy of environmental manufacturing. That sounded good.
You have to be kidding me. What we might be getting for a health care bill is a mandate to buy crappy private insurance and fines if we don't?
The subsidies offered for those who can't afford insurance would presumably have to be accepted and will come with all kinds of stings attached and hoops to jump through when someone does accept them.
This sucks. This will bankrupt and enslave everybody by turning us all into criminals and it will not produce better health outcomes. It's offensive to both my libertarian and my liberal sensibilities.
Bernie alone can kill this bill. Go for it Bernie. Kill the bill. I say it's ok.
*****
12.17.09 Updated. Here's Howard Dean's Op-ed in Today's Washington Post
I had a post a while back called "Leopold to Personally Repay 17M BT Debt." I was kidding of course, but Shay's tweet today lends credence to the idea that there's a little truth in every joke.
# Whoa: #BTV Telecom lawsuit claims CAO J. Leopold's "conduct constitutes deceit" & holds him "personally liable for the unpaid funds." about 3 hours ago from TweetDeck
Breaking News: Council Scuttles Piper Jaffray Deal
I think now it's safe to say "scuttles." They just voted 8-6 to put out a request for proposal to try to get other funding offers from other money companies. That move essentially rendered moot the resolution that would have authorized the letter of intent for a 61 million dollar funding deal with Piper Jaffray. So moot, it was withdrawn.
(Now as I'm writing they are considering Paul Decelles's resolution to kick the CAO off the board of finance. I'll let Briggs report on what happens with that.)
So will the scuttling of the financing proposal scuttle BT itself? BT's chances of survival are clearly diminished after tonight. It's out of money and another big draw from pooled cash to keep it afloat seems unlikely.
A nice man who couldn't pronounce "legislature" or "nuclear" called just now. He said he was was from Communications Center, Inc. in Spokane Washington and he administered a market research study. It was a straight forward poll that really did take only about five minutes. It wasn't a push poll.
He asked me to rate a bunch of terms on a rather granular 1-100 scale of favorability, with 100 being most favorable.
Then he asked me to rate a bunch of phrases related to the potential re-licensing of VT Yankee "Nucular" Power Plant according to my level of agreement. This time my ratings were to be on a much less granular scale of four possible answers- Very much, somewhat not too much, not at all.
VT Yankee should be re-licensed- Not at all VT Yankee is clean energy- Not at all VT Yankee helps Vermont's economy- Somewhat VT Yankee helps makes Vermont more energy independent- Not too much
Then he asked some standard questions to try to put me in a box. I'm an independent who leans more toward the "Democrat" party than the Republican party. I told him it's the Democratic party and asked how his script was written. He assured me that it was written "Democratic" and that he had just made a mistake.
So basically expect Entergy's big sell to be on the economy and on energy independence.
I am opposed to nuclear energy on principle because I don't think we have a right to tell the next 40,000 years of humanity they have to deal with radioactive waste because we the living of today say so. That's just rude.
One time when I was in high school, me and a bunch of friends lead by the gym coach's daughter climbed up the fire escape behind Henry's to the rooftop above Magram's department store. As I recall the last part of the climb was pretty hairy. The view of Church Street from up there is good. I'm pretty sure there's actually a surveillance camera up there now. Good times.
I watched some of the city council meeting on channel 317 last night. Channel 17 people take note- the audio was terrible. The horrible humming sound made the meeting extremely hard to pay attention to.
One of the things that occurred to me as I watched councilors discuss the non-disclosure agreement they want singed members of the Telecom Advisory Committee (what should actually be the telecom commission if BT were a proper Department) was just how much time and energy councilors are spending on Burlington Telecom. What other issues are getting less attention as a result? (By the way- Having folks sign an NDA is a little silly in my opinion. Do councilors sign an NDA? If a document is confidential, mark it as such. An NDA would be superfluous to that, and it's unenforceable anyway.)
There is always a hidden story. Whatever it is people are paying attention to, it necessarily means their attention is diverted from something else.
It isn't just loads and loads of money that is at risk because of Burlington Telecom. Its cost also includes attention diverted from other priorities, and other potential opportunities we may never even know about. Opportunity costs, they're called.
You know for Jonathan Leopold to state flatly the other night that "Pooled Cash is not taxpayer funds" is so upsetting. That is clearly false.
The only possible way to rationalize that "pooled cash is not taxpayer funds" is to parenthetically insert the word "(only)" between "not" and "taxpayer funds."
It isn't only taxpayer funds, true. There are proceeds from parking fines, impact fees, charges from overdue library books, grants, and whatever the folks at the Boathouse feel like contributing- sure. Of course. But it's the property tax, more than any other source that funds the pool.
If Leopold wants to act like a Stephen Wright joke ("Sometimes you can't hear me because I'm speaking in parentheses.") he can.
Well I missed the dramatic conclusion of the big city council meeting. Marrisa Caldwell walked past channel 17's camera and it suddenly went black. It seemed like she might have kicked a cord out of place or something.
Just before that the administration distributed its confidential written documentation to the council. That disbursement was to have happened in executive session, but the council was tired so they opted to take it and go.
As a consequence the public now knows that what was distributed were two separate pro formas which taken together fit on about seven sheets of paper.
The administration just isn't going to give councilors all the information they asked for. If councilors don't like it, they can vote to kill BT. See my previous post for thoughts on how likely that is.
Note to councilor Adrian- You may share those pro formas with your caucus's staff attorney. I say it's ok.
So the council's big BT meeting is going to start in about 15 minutes. We'll see what kind of information they're given. I'm sure they will hear all kinds of dire warnings about what will happen if they don't take the financing. Leopold will craft projections to assure the council of BT's eventual profitability. People can make numbers say whatever they want them to say.
The good thing about tonight is that the city council is trying to pry open the hood on this baby so as to finally have a look-see at the engine. It's ridiculous that everything has been so friggin' secret. I'm proud of the things Paul Decelles said in the paper today. It's not monopoly money, and I hope he does fight like hell to avoid executive session tonight.
If it's "our network" then enough with all the damned secrecy. It's OUR network!
***
10:29pm- They did the hard scary stuff with Leo and numbers first and got that that of the way- now the BT folks are doing the feel good stuff. The new customer service person Lisa seemed good, however her presentation included the use of "ie" where she actually meant "eg." Oh God, does she make Donnelly's old salary? Jesus Christ. I want to die.
Is it me or did Leopold change his tune a bit from "you don't just walk away from a 33 million dollar debt"a few weeks ago to "no legal recourse" tonight, saying now that if the council decided not to appropriate a lease purchase payment, then Piper Jaffray could only seize BT and no more, and the investors who purchased the certificates of public good will have simply realized the downside of their own risks- taken freely by them. Sure, heh heh- nobody else would want to enter into a lease purchase finance with the city ever again, but otherwise- Scott Free! It was unclear to me what their answer was as to how that scenario might affect the city's bond rating.
It's like I'm watching a game show. You know the contestant is gonna say "no deal!" They're gonna press their luck and they're gonna shoot the works.
There are only two options: kill BT now or keep rolling the dice, and it's simply a political impossibility that they kill BT now. It simply is. It's like fighting gravity. Killing BT would certainly incur painful unknowable fallout and cause many bills to come due immediately. Whereas refinancing... ahhh... the can gets kicked down the road... things settle down... the issue goes away...
Remember kids- no good deed goes unpunished. Suppose a majority votes to pull the plug now. What will they be remembered for? Killing BT. Even if it's the right thing to do, it won't win you any votes, because voters and tax payers would feel the pain immediately. Kicking the can down the road is politically irresistible, because A) if it fails down the road, you don't get the blame B) If BT actually succeeds you can take credit as a visionary, and C) it isn't your money at risk, except for part you might personally have to pay to the city for your own property tax and whatnot.
There are immutable laws of the universe that far surpass what we suppose is our own free will. This issue is done. It is as I have foreseen.
And hey- maybe BT can add the customers it needs and become a success. Who knows? It was me who had the problem with emailing BT and getting called back, by the way. I am all about treating the customer right, especially when I'm the customer.
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Bernie is going to move to block Ben Bernanke's reappointmed as Fed Chair. From The New York Times...
"...Senator Bernard Sanders is expected to hold up the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The move is unlikely to derail Mr. Bernanke’s reappointment, but it could slow the confirmation process and give the Fed’s critics additional opportunity to press their case. As a practical matter, it means Senate Democratic leaders will have to line up 60 votes in favor of Mr. Bernanke rather than a simple majority at a time when the Federal Reserve is under increasing populist attacks from lawmakers on both the right and the left...
“...In this country, there is profound disgust at what happened on Wall Street,” Mr. Sanders said in a telephone interview. “People want a new direction and people are asking, where was the Fed? How did the Fed allow this to happen, when one of their mandates is to oversee the safety and soundness of the banking system?” [Emphasis added]"
Seriously. Where the hell was the Fed? Push back on 'em Bernie. The little guy is gettin' killed out here in America. People's teeth are falling out because they haven't been to the friggin' dentist in 15 years. It's practically third world.
Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is resigning from the Burlington City Council because she is purchasing a house in Ward Three. Her statement is below the row of stars to follow.
This will leave Democrats holding a majority of the remaining 13 members and only two Progressives, both from Ward Three, until after our next council elections in March. ******
Dear Ward 2 neighbors,
I hope all of you had a good holiday last week. As the end of the year approaches, I want to share two important updates as your Ward 2 city councilor.
My first update, which I will elaborate on in a minute, is to regrettably inform you that I need to resign my city council seat as of mid December. I have purchased a home on Front St. which is located in Ward 3 and the moment I move I must resign my seat on the council under the city charter. I am excited to set down more permanent roots in the Old North End, but it is bittersweet given the location.
The city charter requires the council seat to remain open given that we are within three months of the next election (Town Meeting Day). At that time, my term will have one year remaining and will be open for a candidate to be elected to finish the term. My last day in the ward will be December 15.
Again, leaving my seat mid term is not an easy decision—representing Ward 2 has been a great honor and I have learned a tremendous amount about my neighbors from my door-to-door campaign and about city government over the last nine months. I now know how important it is to have strong councilors from the Old North End, who can voice the needs of our neighborhoods within city hall while listening to residents concerns about city affairs. My commitment to the Old North End has only grown from this experience. I have actively been working to encourage other Ward 2 residents to consider running for city council next year, so we can continue to have strong representation on the council.
My second update is to report on some issues moving forward within city government that impact the ONE and working people. These issues include:
#1 Movement with Our ONE Bike Path. Under the leadership of long time and newer local leaders in our neighborhood, we have substantial activity happening with reworking the entrance to the bike path that runs from Manhattan Dr/St Louis St along Rt 127. This effort shows the power of community input and dedication to unite a community vision with city resources to improve our neighborhood. A Community Development Block Grant is being submitted within the next few weeks and great things are on the horizon for this project.
#2 Working People’s Issues. Several resolutions have been advanced by Progressive Councilors from the ONE to support health care for all and real reform within Vermont, to reaffirm and strengthen the city’s livable wage ordinance for city workers and city contractors, and to make sure the Moran Project abides by responsible labor principles such as hiring local labor.
#3 Our Schools. Under the leadership of Edmunds parents and through pure persistence, the city finally applied and received a grant to redesign the crosswalks on Main St. in front of Edmunds. A short term solution is also underway after more parent leaders pushed the council to direct several city departments to coordinate a common sense approach to increased safety until the new plan can be implemented. Also, our two elementary schools were celebrated this fall as they began their new magnet school programs. While we have a lot to still do to address socio-economic divisions in the school, the magnet schools represent a lot of hard work by local parents and educators and a true commitment to our children.
#4 And finally important issues of pedestrian and traffic issues are beginning to be identified and addressed in various pockets of the ONE, most recently traffic calming options for Walnut St where a local child was injured by a passing car.
What these projects show me is the strength of the Old North End, the leadership of neighbors, and the helpfulness of having City Councilors who are strong advocates for our neighborhoods. I have worked hard to make my time on the council help to amplify the voices and existing leadership in our community while helping to get our issues on the table. It has been challenging at times to make progress on important local issues, but also rewarding to start to make headway on some issues I outlined as my priorities during my campaign last winter.
While I am excited to continue to live in the Old North End, I am leaving a great Ward with lots of character and charm in every small neighborhood. Please know I will continue to stay involved in city and local community issues. I am also more than happy to continue to help answer questions and concerns in an unofficial capacity about city or neighborhood issues until a replacement is elected in March. I regret needing to leave my seat, but I know Ward 2 has many dedicated community leaders who will continue to advance issues from our neighborhood on a grassroots level, regardless of who serves as the city councilor. Please let me know if you have any questions.
It's more than an hour to go from Manhattan to the last stop on the A train at Beach 116th Street, but Far Rockaway is still part of New York City.
I have been fortunate to travel to this little peninsula at the edge of Queens many times to visit my friend John whose father Dean Georges is featured is this wonderful new website RockawayMemories.com.
One of the most relaxing night's sleep I've ever had was at Dean's place on Rockaway Beach dreaming away to the lullaby of the rolling ocean. Once while standing outside Dean's house I saw the Concord heading east after leaving JFK airport nearby. It looked like science fiction.
Here's to all my own good memories of Far Rockaway- of all the riding around with John in Dean's floral delivery vans and jumping in the Ocean in January- to that song by the Ramones, to the conception of George Carlin- and the old distant view of the World Trade Center beyond Brooklyn across Jamaica bay.
Windsor Country Assistant Judge William Boardman still refuses to take me off his spam list. I keep getting his crappy spam emails about Vermont courts or whatever. I don't even read them. I've asked him several times to stop sending them to me, but he just refuses. The first time I asked he hinted that because I run a blog I can't refuse his spam. Another time he played cute and asked me what email address he shouldn't keep writing to. All by email mind you. This guy is harrassing me and he's a judge. Tyranny. Even local blog owners with dozens of readers have a right to privacy. That's why I have now blocked Boardman's email address. You're blocked, your honor. Get some manners.
It's been almost seventeen years since the posts on Church Street went from green to black.
The mall sucks. Woolworth's is gone. You can't buy a hammer downtown. The economy of our urban core seems more and more to be premised on the idea that everybody has a trust fund or a government job.
I wish we could put a K-Mart or a Target in what used to be Porteus on Bank Street. Why has that part of the mall been closed for years? Why has McDonald's been closed for years? Nobody wants to run a McDonald's or a Taco Bell right in the center of downtown Burlington?
Maybe our downtown would reverse its decline if it invited back regular people. Wouldn't it be nice to go downtown with twenty bucks, buy a flannel shirt and some socks, get a coffee and still leave with two bucks?
The Internet is a kaleidoscopic time machine. Look at this old page from this blog. Or how about this one? Weird. And how does iburlington still exist? I started a section called "link graveyard" somewhere on this blog a long time ago, but like everything else I start...
That's usually all I do is start it. It's a Potemkin blog people. The one thing I've sort of stuck with is changing the tag line all the time. Fleshing out most of the other features like Blasts from the Past, Link Graveyard or Koko's Photo blog take a lot of work and more time than I have. I need an intern.
One of the things I've wanted forever is... In the mayor's office there are pictures of every Burlington Mayor on the wall. I'd like to somehow reproduce that on my blog. That would be rad.
There are other things I have wanted to do with this blog. I'd love an 24/7 Chat Room open only to city councilors. Identities verified of course. I guess Twitter has kind of come along and filled the void a little there- but it would be cool to have a room dedicated to just them. That kind of thing would change the way we do government in the city.
BT as a city department would have had the credibility to host something like that and make it official. An official online 24/7 city council chat. If only they had shown a little imagination with all that bandwidth instead of sucking and destroying themselves. Sad.
"You don't just walk away from a thirty-three million dollar debt." -Jonathan Leopold
The city of Burlington has always owned the risk for Burlington Telecom. The notion that taxpayer money was never at risk was patently false. Big D or small d department, BT belongs to the City and always has.
Now it owes fifty million and is worth perhaps fifteen. If it died today the taxpayers would have to make up the difference.
So what do we do? Cut our losses or keep rolling the dice and hope it improves?
Here's a poll for Burlington Taxpayers only. If you don't pay property tax to Burlington, please don't vote in the poll:
"A Russian court has effectively outlawed the death penalty in the country, ruling that a moratorium on capital punishment due to expire in January must remain in force."
I was wondering just the other day if Russia had the death penalty. This action by the Russian court is very positive. The death penalty is wrong and immoral in all cases and in all forms.
I would like to follow-up on Karen Paul's letter of the other day and Joan Shannon's letter of today. We have, over a period of time, been asking as individual Councilors for many of the documents that were requested of the Administration at the Council's November 16, 2009 meeting. Some of these requests have been for weeks, some for months and in some instances years. The information contained in these documents will likely range from the mundane to the esoteric. Many of us will need help interpreting and understanding them to do our jobs. In addition, the audit and its off-shoots will require money.
Bob, my understanding is that the Administration will soon be requesting a budget amendment to rectify an "overpayment" of PILOT monies made to the City by BT. The overpayment amount is in the 100s of thousands of dollars. My understanding is that most of this payback will come from the DPW for this fiscal year. I am requesting that since you were able to come up with these monies out of the budget of another Department, that you look hard, and that on or before November 25, 2009, you find another $250,000.00 to be put into a special account, to be distributed by a majority of the Council in obtaining independent and expert review of the many working parts that BT contains.
Bob, without getting all of the documentation that we have requested and without having a third party expert interpret this information for us, I will simply not be able to vote to continue the enterprise of Burlington Telecom in its current construction. If this condition is not met, I will also do my very best to convince others to do the same.
Bob, at the Ad Hoc Committee on Governance for Burlington Telecom, Joe McNeil said that if after asking we were not getting the information that we needed as Councilors from the Administration to make decisions, then we needed to demand that information.
Based on that advice Bob, I am demanding that you provide us with the information requested and that you provide us with the moneys to obtain the resources necessary to make that information relevant.
The City and the people that populate it deserve no less from their elected officials.
Heading in to the Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful for the fact that although we vehemently disagree on how to proceed in this instance, I know that we are all trying to do what we think is best for the City. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. For now, I remain,
It looks like the city council is tired of getting pushed around. Here's a letter Councilor Joan Shannon just sent to Mayor Kiss...
***** Dear Mayor Kiss,
On November 11, 2009 the Ad Hoc Committee on BT Governance requested certain information in order to better understand the current operations of BT and its governance and oversight structure. Among the requested information is the Shanahan report and Business Plan. Chris Burns explained that it is really the Pro Formas that currently serve as a business plan.
Ken Schatz has informed me that BT management and the administration are willing to share this information in Executive Session and then collect all materials at the end of the Executive session. This is not acceptable to the Committee. The Committee does not want to spend our valuable meeting time getting familiar with these items. The Committee would like to receive copies of the Shanahan report for their review in preparation for the meeting. I fully understand the confidentiality is of the utmost importance to the operations of BT. If the administration and BT management would like Committee members to sign Non Disclosure Agreements I am amenable to that stipulation so long as the Agreement is reasonable and appropriate in scope.
In order for the Committee to have time to review this information prior to our next meeting on Tuesday November 24, they need to have this information in their possession before the weekend. Please let me and the other Committee members know when this information will be available for us to pick up at City Hall by the end of today. I know that this may seem like short notice, but really we have been asking for this since November 11 and can no longer wait.
In addition, the Council, as the ultimate governing body is entitled to any information we request in order to make fully informed decisions. The Council also needs all the above information in order to either approve or disapprove of the concept of borrowing $60 million dollars. We also need the ability to consult with independent experts who can advise us on these issues. Certainly anyone who receives this information should be willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement and I would not object to that requirement. I do object to the administration holding information hostage.
Again, I ask that you please respond to this email by the end of the day so that we can move forward in getting the information that we need.
Sincerely,
Joan Shannon City Councilor Ad Hoc Committee on Governance, Chair
"Had I been there I would have voted against splitting the question, and against the postponment of the letter of intent."-Me from the last post
A prominent local attorney wrote to me yesterday to express his belief that Monday's resolution was more binding than I thought. Why a resolution authorizing the pursuit of funding from a lender, with whom a tentative agreement had clearly already been pursued?
Good point.
The bottom line though- can BT possibly repay one-hundred million dollars in twenty years on its own merits? Based on its current track record, a reasonable person could conclude- no. They could not become cash flow positive after spending fifty million dollars and there is no proof they ever can.
Let's look at the facts, OK? BT has 4,500 subscribers (maybe). Comcast has twenty-five million. That's five thousand times as many. What makes the city interested in competing with that? It feels like we're trying to cross the ocean in a row boat with this thing. For what? We might just want to turn back while we can still see the shore. In another year or two Burlington Taxpayers might only be able to dream of owing just seventeen million dollars.
This re-fi makes the city liable to repay 6o million in principle and 40 more million in interest. Sure the city may repay the money with BT proceeds if it wishes, and if they're sufficient to do so, but as far as Piper Jaffrey is concerned repayment is "fungible." That means they don't give a shit where the money comes from as long as we pay them.
No creditor ever gives a shit where the money that pays them back comes from.
And when BT revenues aren't enough- the money will come from the taxpayers.
At this point it's hard to imagine Chris Burns and Jonathon Leopold can slap together a convincing business plan to show how BT becomes profitable. I mean for heaven's sake- they start their customer service reps out at seventeen dollars per hour. Seventeen dollars per hour! That is so much money! They aren't worth it. Richard Donnelly alone took home nearly 70K in FY08. Somebody could have done whatever the hell he did for BT for half of that I'm sure.
Most of the network is already built in Burlington. Wiring the city with fiber was forward thinking, but who really cares who runs the network? And the value of fiber could easily drop with more and more wi-fi available.
The thing is BT is a totally non-essential city service. It could disappear tomorrow and Bob Kiss could still be remembered as a good mayor for creating a rainy-day fund and paving the roads. Who care about BT? Judge Judy is Judge Judy regardless of the cable carrier. So who cares?
"Um is not an answer, sir!"
Is it worth the risk of owning a 100 million dollar dinosaur that eats? I urge my city councilors Paul and Vince in particular to consider that question carefully, since they are the swing votes.
Well that was one of the more entertaining council meetings I've seen in recent years. In the end Bill Keogh couldn't quite keep up with his officiating duties and posed the motion to postpone in such a way as to be unintelligible by all present except city attorney Ken Schatz, and perhaps Jonathon Leopold. The council didn't really understand that they had just voted to kick the can down the road to December 7, but they did.
The administration wanted the council to give its collective signature to a letter of intent with Piper Jaffrey to start working on the 61 million dollar financing deal. The resolution on the table had two parts. Part one said the BT would come into compliance with condition 60 by repaying pooled cash within sixty days. Part two was the letter of intent.
On a motion from Ed Adrian, the council voted to split parts one and two. He and Joan Shannon had attempted to split the "whereas" clauses, as well as the operative clauses in the resolution, but Ken Schatz and Sharon Bushor correctly pointed out that for Shannon to have assigned her notion of which whereas clauses fit which "resolved" clauses, would have in fact created two new resolutions.
C'mon people. Really? Split the "whereas" clauses? You got to be kidding me.
The council passed part one, but then postponed funding it with part two pending more info.
What info? Mainly like a business plan for Burlington Telecom. Apparently the one they've got is two years old. In other words no planning since Nulty left. Nice. Here's an idea to save BT some money. Besides start their CSRs at $2 less per hour- just eliminate Chris Burns. Does he do anything except fill the space between Leopold and the rest of BT?
Anyway. At one point Sharon Bushor was very vexed, red-faced and at a complete loss of words, quite obviously because of Adrian. You could almost hear her wishing Kurt Wright were there to call the cops on him. That was kind of funny to see.
The meeting started sizzling around 11:30 when words started to fly. Some quotes-
"I won't be scolded!" -Nancy Kaplan
"I won't be boxed in by this council!" -Sharon Bushor
"I am appalled!" -Marrisa Caldwell
"You are voting to destroy Burlington Telecom for the sole purpose of embarassing this administration!" -Jonathon Leopold
"I would appreciate Mr. Leopold it if you would not speak to me in a condeceing way!"-Mary Kehoe
"I screwed up the queue." -Bill Keogh
"How is that doing what's right for the city?"- Marrisa Caldwell
"I really don't like be accused of not having the city's best interest in mind." -Joan Shannon
My wife Poosie is all into Peter Shumlin for governor. She likes his appearance, she likes his voice and she likes what he stands for- fiscally conservative and environmentally liberal she says. She loves his nose.
I think p-p-p puttin' on the 'witz has a lock, but I also thought Hinda Miller had lock on mayor of Burlington and that Hillary Clinton had lock on president. Women rarely become chief executives. Markowitz just seems like the best candidate to me right now. But it's early.
Poopsie is definitely not into Racine. She always likes to brag about voting for Douglas over him in 2002. I never had the guts to go all the way and vote for Douglas. I voted for Racine in 2002, Clavelle in 2004, Benjamin Clark in 2006 and Tony O'Connor in 2008. These four votes were made with both increasing enthusiasm and increasing apathy. That's right. Enthusiasm and apathy are not mutually exclusive, as nihilistic as that may sound. Not when it comes to the last three gubernatorial elections in which there was never any question who would win.
I like Jim Douglas. I never voted for him, but I've always liked him. Next year we will elect new governor of Vermont. The first repubic in North America. The fourteenth state in the USA.
Cheif administrative officer Jonathon Leopold keeps pushing the limits of the public's credulity. Take a look at this recent email between Leopold and city councilor Marissa Caldwell in which Leopold tries to defend calling Burlington Telecom a "department" in a recent Free Press Op-ed.
From: Jonathan Leopold To: Marrisa Caldwell Hello Marrisa-
Thank you for forwarding this email to me.
The remark that I have incorrectly or inappropriately referred to BT as a "Department", is not correct. If Mr. Feeney read the article carefully, I did not call BT a "Department".
In fact what the article asked in one question was "is BT the only city department to use pooled cash. By inference one would conclude that I called BT a “department”. The use of a small letter "d" for "department" instead of the capital "D" for Department was intentional since BT is not a formal "Department". I used the term "department" in lieu of more complicated, but technically correct terminology such as "enterprise fund accounting entity" or simply “enterprise fund”. However, then the question would have been phrased "are there any other "accounting funds or other entities" which have used pooled cash. The technically correct language would have been confusing to the public and would have made an already lengthy article even more so. As it was even with extensive editing, the article was more than 50% longer than the normal limit for the BFP. Thus, I used the term "department" as a more meaningful term for the public to understand the use of pooled cash by all of the various entities of the City, including Departments, Divisions, Special Projects, Capital Projects, Enterprise Funds, Special Revenue Funds and Trust Funds, etc.
Finally, Mr. Feeny's incorrectly states that because BT was not a "Department", "allocating funds from the city cash/pool/resources should never have occurred in the first place". Like much of the public "discussion" about BT, this statement is incorrect.
In fact many of the accounting entities participating in pooled cash are not "Departments". I have no idea what Mr. Feeny's alleged expertise is to make such a statement but he is incorrect
Please feel free to share this response with the people in the original email.
**** That's ridiculous! If he wanted to avoid causing confusion he should have used the technically correct language, not wrong, obviously misleading language.
I didn't care for the " alleged expertise" remark, either. What was the point of that?
The Mayor discusses the ongoing controversy surrounding Burlington Telecom at The Prog Blog.
Also, The Burlington Free Press obtained an unauthorized copy of the communications between Leopold and city lawyers. The documents won't officially become public until the resolution to release them, passed unanimously last night by the city council, gets the mayor's signature. The story will be here for a limited time.
Assistant Judge William Boardman from Woodstock will not stop spamming me. I have asked him more than once to kindly take me off of his email distribution list, and he simply refuses. This is not this man's first ethical breach.
I don't want your emails Mr. Boardman. What part of "unsubscribe" don't you understand?
I wonder what Barack and Michelle Obama use for birth control. Think he's snipped? It appears they made a conscious choice to stop at two kids. Kinda weird how the last three presidents have spawned only daughters. And the last president to spawn sons lived to see one of them also become president. Sasha and Malia. Those are ok names I guess. "Malia" is a little weird because of the prefix "mal." but it's also awfully close to my sister's name "Amalia" which I consider totally beautiful. Maybe Michelle is on the pill, or she's had her tubes tied. Why has the media never talked about this? Is it because of some latent, collective puritan ethic? Oh that again. Wikipedia says "Sasha is also the first White House resident born in the 21st century." Michelle is only 45. The NIH says "The average age of a woman having her last period, menopause, is 51." The president himself is 48 but as we all know men can reproduce forever. My father is over 100 years old and he could still get you pregnant. Here's an interesting discussion thread about marital disagreement over how many kids to have.
"equilibrium" 1.A condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others, resulting in a stable, balanced, or unchanging system." -Answers.com
I have said before on this blog that everything is defined by the absence of what it isn't. This pertains to all areas of life and of the universe, and in all dimensions of thought.
Space and Time are closed systems whether or not either expands. You believe in entropy and Newton's third law. You believe that matter cannot be created or destroyed. You know that for every birth there is a corresponding death, and you know that what goes up, must come down. Regression to the mean.
This is pretty basic stuff and I'm not telling you anything new.
Shay lashes out a little at the Dems this week, as if they may end up destroying BT with their bad attitudes, although his column doesn't address how the seventeen million might be repaid. On the other hand, Odum thinks it's the Progs who might end up destroying BT with their bad attitudes. Odum also does not discuss how BT might refinance its debt.
Shay also charges Dems "rallied" for Adam Cate last year. I don't remember it that way. It seems to me that in general, the whole council was trying to figure out what the hell was going on with Cate. I don't recall anyone really 'rallying' for anyone, except perhaps for Bob Kiss who "rallied" for Cate's right to privacy in the whole matter.
Anyhow, the sad fact is BT's death may have been a fait accompli when Nulty walked. He wanted to expand, and obviously he knew what the hell he was talking about. The simplest explanation for what might have happened was Leopold got all up in Nulty's face at some point and Nulty was like "fuck this."
Nulty is a Jedi and Leopold is a Sith. We're left with the Sith. And nobody knows where the seventeen million is coming from. It's nothing to do with bad attitudes. Most new businesses fail. Most experiments fail. Things fail. That's life.
The writing is on the wall. So bring on the finger pointing Shay and Odum and whoever else. I'm glad the city spent ten thousand dollars to run fiber up to my house, but I'm sure I'll end up paying for that myself. And to be honest, I'm not that much of a geek. I'm still running coaxial cable into my high def flat screen, and the computer I'm running is made out of balsa wood and duck tape. It doesn't know cable from fiber. Neither do I.
When I first got Burlington Telecom hooked up, the bill started out at $100 even per month. Now it's crept up to $120 somehow. If Comcast offers me a better deal, I have no compunction at all about jumping ship.
“This is a partisan witch hunt. If I wanted to hide something, why would I put it in the budget? I’m not going to be scapegoated because you can’t read a budget," Leopold added.
Yes. Yes. Exactly. Jonathan is pointing out the city council's weakness. The council does not employ its own budget analyst and it isn't necessarily made up of highly educated people. But the world isn't going to dumb it down for you, council. Time after time you get rolled by the administration, for fear of betraying just how ignorant you really are. The council needs to vote itself the resources necessary to do their job right. You are the civic counterweight to the administration. In fact, it's really the council that calls the shots. Most select boards in Vermont hire the town manager.
This is more than just about politics. It's about civics. I want to see the city council stop sucking. Double pension for Keleher to the tune of a half million dollars! Approved because the council doesn't know what it's voting on! I'm glad that they took at least this pitiful symbolic step, voting 8-6 to suspend Leopold. Although sadly, I have to agree with the mayor that that shouldn't happen. The thought of a Progressive mayor ordering a taxpayer funded paid vacation to an already very rich man makes me nauseous.
Also from Blurt, I guess the council passed this:
The board of finance shall prepare a request for proposals to engage an auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of BT's finances and operations;
The City Council president shall appoint an ad hoc committee to review BT's governance structure and recommend changes; and
The administration shall present refinancing strategies, and other financing options, for BT to pursue. They must present those to the ad hoc committee and the board of finance by no later than November 16.
I guess an audit is necessary, but unfortunately that won't be free. I suggest Tim Nulty do the audit. Bill Keogh, if you're reading- I would be happy to serve on the ad hoc committee if we would really wrap up work by November 16.
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING CONTOIS AUDITORIUM, CITY HALL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009 7:00 P.M.
1. AGENDA 2. REPORT: Mayor Bob Kiss, Jonathan P.A. Leopold, Jr. CAO & Burlington Telecom General Manager Chris Burns, re: Update on Burlington Telecom (oral)
* * * * EXPECTED EXECUTIVE SESSION * * * *
3. ADJOURNMENT
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING CONTOIS AUDITORIUM, CITY HALL THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 20097:00 P.M.
1. AGENDA 2. PUBLIC FORUM: Re: Burlington Telecom 3. ADJOURNMENT
Tonight is Marselis Parsons's last broadcast. The Free Press has a story here. Kate Duffy offers Mr. Parsons retirement advice here.
I was watching this guy just the other day and thinking "I wonder how much longer we'll be seeing him on the TV." Seriously. I was wondering that just the other day. That's the way things always work.
Thanks for the hard work and steady hand Marselis. You did a good job filling in for Gallagher. Cheers.
*****
Update 8:23pm. OK who cried when Marselis signed off tonight? Oh, nobody cried when Marselis signed off? I cried my eyes out.
It's sad because he overlapped the last quarter century of CBS television in Vermont. He was Dan Rather to Richard Gallager's Walter Chronkite. His retirement reminds us of the decline of everying. Not to mention the fact that he's certainly one of the last people in the country to get a job in his early twenties, stay with the same company for forty-some-odd years and retire at age 65. There are no more Dan Rathers and there is no more American dream. Not the way it was anyway. Remember-When- Mar-sel-is Par-sons- oooh- oooh- oooh, oooh-ohhh.
Burlington Free Press reports the entire council, except for Ed Adrian, approved going to the Public Service Board to "relax" the rule that forces Burlington Telecom to pay back money borrowed from the taxpayers within 60 days, a rule they had apparently been violating anyway.
Good on Ed Adrian for casting the one correct vote. Boo to the rest of the council for acting like sheep on this one. What's up with my supposedly 'fiscally conservative' representation from ward 7? Why do we bother electing Republicans if they are just going to vote however Jonathon Leopold wants? Anybody can wave a flag. It takes a little more than that to actually protect the taxpayers from a bad deal.
You know...It isn't as if it hadn't occurred to me to write Deb Markowitz about "Paper Ballot! Paper Trail!" before. I've hesitated to do that because I was afraid of what her answer might be.
Anyway, I finally did write to her yesterday. Her response was helpful and somewhat reassuring, but not entirely satisfying. She said it was already written in Vermont Law which she gave me:
CHAPTER 51. CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS Subchapter II. Ballots § 2478. Number of paper ballots to be printed and furnished (a) For primary elections, the secretary of state shall furnish each town with a sufficient number of printed ballots based on the history of voter turnout in the town and in consultation with the town clerk. (b) For general elections, the secretary of state shall furnish each town with a number of printed ballots approximately equal to 100 percent of the number of voters on the checklist for the primary election. (c) If necessary due to unusual growth of the checklist, a town clerk may request additional ballots from the secretary of state at least 40 days before the election. (d) For local ballots, the town clerk shall cause such number of ballots to be printed and furnished as the board of civil authority shall designate. (e)No voting shall occur in any general election which does not use printed ballots. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 48; 1981, No. 239 (Adj. Sess.), § 15; amended 1985, No. 109 (Adj. Sess.); 1991, No. 127 (Adj. Sess.); 2003, No. 94 (Adj. Sess.), § [emphasis added]
That's great! Thank You to the state reps, senators and governor who made that happen- whoever the hell you happen to be! I love you.
The thing is Deborah Markowitz, I believe, is a genuinely nice person. I think because of this she tried to take an extra step to reassure me, that unfortunately had the opposite effect. She said even if we put the paper trail issue aside, she didn't believe electronic voting would make sense in Vermont because the "efficiencies" that make it "attractive" in other states are not "relevant" here because they are too expensive.
Um...ah, yeah...(I'm doing Bill Lumbergh ) See, the thing is- it doesn't matter how efficient it is or how attractive that efficiency may make it for an elections officer- paperless voting is worthless. It cannot be audited and that is a fact. Look it up- or better yet, just use your common sense. When you use a touch screen and the program inside the machine records the vote falsely, the voter does not know. Nobody knows, except perhaps the hacker responsible for the flipped vote. How can you recount that? What are you counting? Ether? Finger Prints? That vote is in there baby, and that race is over. Look at Florida-13 for crying out loud! Touch screen machines produced an election with 18,000 undervotes under highly dubious conditions. That baby is still in court and Florida is returning to paper. Hallelluya!
And get it straight. A "paper trail" is meaningless unless it consists of a "paper ballot" The vote must be recorded on something physical, AKA, real, AKA paper- and it must be verified by the voter before it cast. It is true that a touch screen voting machine will produce a printed receipt, but as they say "garbage in, garbage out." If a bug or glitch flipped a vote, that receipt would just mimic the flipped vote. It doesn't tell us squat about the intent of the voter. Nobody can verify a vote if no physical record of it exists.
So although I'm glad the Secretary of State has at least some reason to oppose the scourge of e-voting, I'd prefer it if her primary reason for opposing electronic voting had more to do with the bedrock principle of sound, verifiable elections- and less to do with some false ideas about cost and efficiency. If an election is meaningless it isn't efficient and it's a total waste of money. Not only that- it cuts at the heart of democracy.
In any event, Deb was very gracious to respond to my email so quickly and provide me with the text of the Vermont Paper Ballot Law. I like her. She didn't get more votes than Jim Douglas or Bernie Sanders for nothing.
Nothing is too big to fail. Not The Roman Empire. Not the dinosaurs. Not the sun. Nothing. Certainly not a bank. You're telling me the banks have a gun to the head of the United States of America because they, the banks, are too big too fail? That's a joke for suckers.
Ward One city councilor Ed Adrian will be tweeting live from city council meetings starting Monday. His twitter page is here: http://twitter.com/CouncilorAdrian
In related news, I just found out that I've been mixing up the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (the idea that the precision with which one can measure a particle's position is inversely proportional to the precision with which one can measure its momentum) and the observer effect (the idea that the method by which something is observed changes what it's observing).
How embarassing. For years I've been pontificating on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle as if it were the observer effect. Live and learn.
Is the observer effect absolute? Is it possible to observe something without changing it? Certainly not in Ed's case. It's a logical certainty that anything a councilor does in a council meeting changes the meeting. The question is will the change, will the effect of one councilor tweeting a meeting result in something beyond his own distraction?
Lately our friend Rachel Maddow has been talking a lot about "AstroTurfing." We had a blog made out of AstroTurf here in Vermont three year ago Called "Politics Vermont."
Looks like that blog is up and running again, but open to invited guests only. Anybody know anything about this?
I was having trouble accessing my Burlington Telecom account online to pay my bill, and I don't seem to have any paper bills for the last couple of months, so I filled out their online "contact us" email form, and instead of emailing me back- they called my wife at home and talked to her. What is that? I don't even think I left my phone number on the contact form. I left my email. If I write to them, they should write back to me. Am I wrong?
When I was a kid my greatest fear was getting nuked by the Soviet Union. They used to blare the air raid sirens as a weekly test at the Staniford Road fire station when I was a toddler. It scared the shit out of me. The cold war was strong stuff. Even as late as my freshman year of high school I remember being paranoid about Nicaragua becoming the latest domino to fall to the Soviet Empire.
My wife tells me that when she was a kid in the Soviet Union, her greatest fear was of getting nuked my America. As a very small child she waved the red flag at parades.
When the Soviet Union, which was supposed to be godless, fell apart, my wife's city of Baku Azerbaijan was besieged by roving gangs of young Muslim men intolerant of her family's Christian religion and ethnic Armenian heritage. Her family had to flee. First to Armenia, then Russia. Then here to Burlington.
Nearly six years ago now, I placed an ad seeking a roommate in the Seven Days classifieds. My wife took the apartment, and we were engaged within three days. Her family watches this old Russian movie called "The Irony of Fate" at Christmas time.
Any federal public option would presumably be recognized nationwide, which would be a tremendous advantage in a system where one state's private or public policies might not be recognized in a different state. Without to mobility of Medicare, there would probably be fewer retirees in Florida.
Any viable, low-cost public option will of course destroy all but a few exclusive private insurers with astronomical rates covering things like elective rhinoplasty. But that's fine. That's optimal. The more people in the system the lower the percentage dedicated to administration.
Republicans know people will vote with their feet en masse for the public option. Many people would do so automatically having no other prospects of health coverage now. And they are right to say the government is an unfair competitor in the "health marketplace." But that's fine because "Health Care" is not a commodity like gold or sugar. There is no dollar value for a human life. It's the private insurers who attempt to assign a dollar value when they deny coverage for "pre-existing conditions" and many other made-up reasons.
The number of Americans who desperately need the public option to pass (whether some of those dummies know it or not) is in the range of several scores million.
If I were a senate Republican I would be seriously considering the tide of history and my own legacy in it. To kill the public option is to literally kill any number of Americans who will die without it.
If we don't control costs America will decline. There's two ways to control costs. We could go with the public option, or start turning people away at gunpoint at emergency rooms.
Some things are not about money. It's a moral responsibility to care for the sick. It's very immature and self-defeating for public policy not to recognize that.
"What went wrong with the president's sales job on health care?" "Obama sold us out on the public option!" "Why is he praising Chuck Grassley?!" "Why is single payer off the table?!"
Blah blah blah. Will you people relax? Obama knows what he's doing.
It's very repressive to investigate people because of preferences in pop music. It's repressive and in this case it's also discriminatory. Thank you Dr. Maddow for reporting this last night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MADDOW: In this country, we have “American Idol,” and its many spinoffs like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “America‘s Got Talent” and “Nashville Star,” et cetera. In Europe, they have “Eurovision” which, believe it or not, is a way bigger deal.
“Eurovision‘s” been broadcast every May since 1956. It‘s one of the longest running TV programs of all time. Each of 43 countries picks a musical act to represent that country and then millions of people vote for the winner. We have “Eurovision” to thank or blame, depending on your perspective, for Abba, for Celine Dion, for Julio Iglesias, for Cliff Richard and even for the poor river dance who can‘t move their arms.
Although only Europe participates, “Eurovision” has gained fans and grown its audience worldwide because it frankly is an Olympic-grade display of truly over-the-top, “I can‘t believe this is really happening” kitsch.
But there‘s no news about this year‘s Eurovision contest that is way darker than your usual, you know, Belgium versus Holland, sequins versus satin shriek-off. Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war 15 years ago over a region called Nagorno-Karabakh - don‘t worry, there‘s no spelling test here.
The important point is that both countries are still really sore about it. And they‘re right on top of each other and there‘s an Azerbaijan enclave right in the middle of Armenia, everything that is a sore issue between these two.
In the “Eurovision” contest this year, both of these countries did pretty well. Azerbaijan came in third. Armenia came in 10th. Here‘s Armenia from this year.
MADDOW: So good. Sorry. Which of those would you vote for? Hard to choose. But the BBC reports today that now, three months after “Eurovision” - because remember, it happens in May, police in Azerbaijan have called in for questioning people who live in Azerbaijan but who voted for Armenia, the country‘s archrival.
Apparently, they know for sure somehow that 43 people in Azerbaijan voted for the dreaded Armenians. You vote by text message. And the Azerbaijani national security ministry has been calling people who voted for Armenia in for questioning.
The national security ministry has confirmed that they‘ve done this to Reuters. They have confirmed that they are questioning Azerbaijanis for the crime of voting for the wrong song, which is, of course, another reason why “Azerbaijani Idol” is going to stink.
I just saw Lawrence O'Donnell sitting in on Hardball try to give Abram a hard time and get her to denounce Medicare as socialist. She did well not to bite, and he blew an opportunity to follow up on something she had just said which was incredible. That war is so common that it hadn't occurred to her to feel political about it. She said it seemed we were always having conflicts.
Incredible. The treasure and blood spent on war making is so much the background noise of existential hum in our country, as to not elicit a blip from this woman. She's obviously telling us the truth. War is normal. It's health care that's got her riled up.
"Sister of John F. Kennedy dies." How does Ted Kennedy feel when he hears that? Did Joe have any other kids, or is Ted now the last? If he succumbs to brain cancer will Ted be remembered first as the brother of a president, or as a senator? I'm sure it's already been decided and written.
It's too bad I had to go straight back into my life after my trip to Armenia. I haven't had time to do the pure, immediate post journey things that would be ideal. A forenzinc documentation and duplication of every photo and video I took. A lot more writing about it while it's still fresh in my mind. Oragnizing and contacting my contacts there. That sort of thing.
Instead interrupting between Armenia and me now are Morning Joe, the unkempt people on Church Street. My job of course. And all the things about my regular life here in Burlington. And there is something different about everything now, almost as if everything has been replaced with an exact replica of itself. It's the same but different.
I'm at channel 17 right now waiting for Paul Decelles to show up. We're obviously going to talk about that whole pay proposal for city managers thing. I'll ask about his no vote on the budget too. Call in at 862-3966.
John Briggs at Burlington Free Press is reporting on a discussion at the city council about raising the pay for some city employees. I can see it maybe for a couple of really highly skilled and essential engineering positions- if we're not able to fill them now, but I would be highly skeptical about raising pay for anyone else. Especially Leopold! God no!
When I was on the city council I researched what city councils of comparably sized cities pay themselves, because I felt a civic imbalance between the compensation and resources of the mayor and those of the city council. I'll look in records later to see if I can find that info- but I remember Burlington city councilors made far, far under the average- which I think was around 15K. And this was back in 1996 when I was able to live on $8/hr.
If the city council votes to heap even further resources onto the city's executive branch, while continuing starve itself- the body of the people's most direct representatives, they will not be serving the long term interest of Burlington.
They got a little money this year and people got upset because the Dems hired a lawyer with it. I say good for them. The council should have some back up. God knows the mayor does.
I love Bob Kiss. I think he's doing a great job. But institutionally, the council is supposed to be the civic counterweight to the mayor. In practice- the council gets rolled by the mayor every single time.
Hey- I just got to play Associated Press editor again this morning. A top AP story on yahoo looked this way when I woke up today...
With the writer saying
"Yes you can," Barack Obama declared, brushing off his campaign slogan and adapting it for his foreign audience.
So I wrote a very simple email to the writer asking 'Don't you mean "dusting off" his old campaign slogan?' Lo and behold- a little later this morning it looks like this...
Isn't it crazy how easy it can be to change what millions of people are looking at?
I saw Kevin Ryan walking and talking with John Briggs on Church Street this afternoon.
Oh and Robert Hooper has to drop off the school board because he's moving from ward 7 to 4. He narrowly defeated my across the street neighbor Tom last year. Special election in September. Maybe I'll run.
The good worm met a shark and the shark tried to bite the good worm. The good worm tried to run away but the good worm found the cave that has the shark family in it. Now he found an army of sharks!
The army of sharks were after the worm. The worm found a building that has a roof like an hourglass on the top and is made of super shiny Legos.
There's a rescue sticker inside it and the car fell down off the wooden desk taped to the wall. Then the water spilled on the car that the good worm was driving on and the circuits ran out.
The bad worm was cleaning the number block. The shirt sweat was on it then the bad worm was cleaning it just because of that.
The good worm got on Koko's car. He wasn't looking so the bad worm slipped on the number block and ended up on Gabriel's car. But Gabriel's car slipped on a nose. Then he slipped in his house and a boom operation boomed his house and the number block boomed out of there. But the number block got boomed too quickly and died.
Then the chimney hourglass fell from that house we discovered onto the number block. Then the number block got alive again. The yellow one is the one that put people to be dead, but the blue one is good. Then the good worm found a printer and accidentally printed himself. Then he could still walk and wiggle. He accidentally wiggled on the keyboard and he pressed the operation button and every house exploded.
[This is going to be a really great story! When people read this they'll be so excited!]
But the operation boomed everything except the yellow hourglass. Except the blue hourglass was attached to the yellow hourglass. So the worm was half dead, half alive. Now the worm got a bump on his head. But he slipped on a piece of paper and ended up falling into an operation house.
Then the thing he was riding on was a secret thing. It was invisible.
This was the fourth annual Political Barbacue and Hamburger Summit hosted by Vermont Daily Briefing and Green Mountain Daily. Unlike the first three years when the BBQ was at North Beach, this one was in Montpelier. My family and I love this yearly event. Here's some photos from today with captions underneath.
The guy in the hat is Heretic, then clockwise it's me, Philip Baruth, JD Ryan, John Odum, and Julie Waters in the blue tank top. Photo by Poopsie.
Here's my kids and Arnie Gundersen playing with a dog. Photo by Poopsie.
Left to right it's Yanna, me, Poopsie and Koko. Photo by Philip Baruth.
A while back Charity Tensel and I got into a discussion about how to show possession when the noun doing the possessing already ends in s. Should one write 'Bernie Sanders' time as mayor' or 'Bernie Sanders's time as mayor?' It turns out that both ways can work, but I always like to add another s, because I'm a super litereal thinker who clings to procedural consistancy to maintain some semblence of sanity in this cockamamie world.
Anyway- it turns out our good friend, esteemed UVM English professor, blogger, school commissioner, Daysee award winner, Obama delegate, frequent visitor to Sweden and state senate candidate Philip Baruth also adds an s. From his post today on John Edwards :
"...But what does Edwards mean when he says that “time will tell” whether it was a good move to run for President in light of his semi-public infidelity?
That he may yet wind up winning the 2008 campaign? That history will one day realize that Elizabeth Edwards was not an admirable, long-suffering American icon but a figure of immense evil who deserved everything she got and more?
That Edwards’s love child may one day discover a cure for cancer, and dedicate a 2032 Nobel Prize to the courageous, free-loving father who made it all possible?" [Emphasis added.]
If you want to an audience to actually remember something, and especially if you're trying to persuade them to act on that something- you make it the first thing you tell them, the last thing you tell them, and you repeat it a bunch of times in between.
So if you have read this here before, and are reading it now- don't be surprised when you see it here again in the future...
Go read Minor Heresies. In a blogosphere often filled with noise, political sniping and blather, Minor Heresies represents an opportunity to nourish your mind with uniquely smart, forward thinking posts. Go there and read. Bookmark the link.
Oh God. Today is just a weird day. I was hoping to get Paul Decelles on my TV show this afternoon at 5:25pm on channel 17, but he can't make it. A backup plan would have been good. I'll have to come up with something.
If you watch, please call in at 862-3966 and talk live with me about anything you want.
Larry Kupferman was just reconfirmed as CEDO director by the city council in an 11 to 3 vote with only councilors Keogh, Berezniak and Shannon voting against his re-appointment.
Shannon led the effort against Kupferman, essentially saying he lacked the skills and merit for the job, and alluding to specific concerns which she would not enumerate. "I don't see the point," she said about going into specific detail about those concerns.
The rest of the mayor's appointments were confirmed without discussion, including that of current airport director Brian Searles taking over as interim Parks and Recreation Director. Current director Wayne Gross, mayor Kiss explained, will not be an employee of the city as of July 1.
John Briggs at the Free Press has been blogging about how the Dems might not vote to reappoint Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) directory Larry Kupferman at tonight's city council meeting, but he's failed to get any of them on the record about why. So I wrote to council Dem Ed Adrian and here's what he said-
"Haik -
I do not think that at this point the Ds are unanimous on this issue. Some will be voting to reappoint and some will not.
I cannot speak for anybody else, but I will be voting to reappoint. Two weeks ago the public was put on notice that there were concerns that have been raised privately about Mr. Kupferman's ability to do the job. So far, I am not aware of one person going public with their concerns. I was privately contacted by one person asking me to reappoint and one person asking not to reappoint.
I am not going to deny the Mayor an appointment based on private conversations/concerns. If people really are so concerned with the CEDO Director's abilities and they have concrete examples, then they should be willing to publically state what they are. I understand the counter-argument which is that it is the Council's responsibility and not the public's to vote on reappointment, but in this case I am erring on the side of caution since it concerns an individual, rather than a matter of policy.
Best, Ed"
So there you have it. Some folks might not like Kupferman, but they are too shy to say why publicly. Based on that I'd have to guess he'll win re-appointment.
*****
What do you think about the new free press "City Hall" blog by John Briggs? Or Briggs's reporting in general for that matter? He's biased right? Doesn't he clearly seem to hate the mayor? I left a comment on his "Not Exactly" post chiding him a little for injecting his own opinions into the posts, and he still hasn't approved it. Funny how Steve Benen can write a national blog with thousands of comments and he doesn't feel the need to vet them first, but Briggs and the Free Press do. Weak.
If I can't get Paul Decelles on my "live at 5:25" show tomorrow, I'll definitely fill some time on it soliciting callers' opinions on John Briggs's city hall coverage.
Have you ever had a dream within a dream? I napped for three hours this afternoon. I dreamed that I dreamed that I was with my mother again. It was a hot sunny day and I wanted to go to the beach. She kept saying that I better not. That I should just go home instead. In my mind I could see a dozen miniature Mount Ararats in a strange sunny landscape that seemed like it could be Australia. My mother held me like a baby, and kept saying I should just go home. Then I knew it was a dream and tears started streaming down my face because it seemed so real and I wanted to stay with my mother. But I eventually woke up. It was late afternoon. Still sunny but a little too late to get to the beach. I walked up the road and went inside several houses. I was exploring one, looking at layout and the furniture. I looked out the window. On porches and in yards, girls were taking off their outer clothes down to bikinis and sunning themselves. I was watching one, sort of androgenous person who wasn't in a bikini, but rather a very loose pair of shorts that allowed a view of one buttock up a pant leg. Suddenly I was startled by Lamar Alexander and a plump, artsy woman who I knew was the sister of one of my co-workers. They were standing outside looking into the window. Alexander shook my hand and said "Hello Haik" like I was an old friend. His hand was rough. I told him Philip Baruth was running for the Vermont senate, and asked him how things were going in the US senate. He said things were fine, and that they even had a Burlington Pol there now, adding something sort of pejorative about it under his breath. I said I had just seen Bernie at a party the day before (which is actually true in real life) and I asked him how his daughter Kathryn was. He said twice that he had absolutely no idea. I asked how he and my co-worker's sister happened to know each other and they started acting very uncomfortable. "The Opera." She said. "Oh yeah," I replied "Everybody meets at the Opera." Then it seemed like Lamar Alexander wanted the conversation to end, and I was ok with that, because I figured I already had enough for blog post. And then I woke up for real. That was about six hours ago, and I'm still trying to shake it off.
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Jessica Sklar
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