Saturday, November 28, 2009

Vermont’s $40,000 Taser payout


Ever so quietly in a Thanksgiving Day news story Vermont State gives notice of an out of court settlement and payout in a taser related incident from 2006.The $40,000 settlement is called “frankly ,a business decision” to avoid risk of trial .
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has paid $40,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a man who claims he was Tasered in 2006 by state police as he was having a seizure that was mistaken as an attempt to resist arrest.
State police deny wrongdoing, state assistant attorney general J.J. Tyzbir told the Valley News. He said he agreed to the settlement to avoid the risk of trial, where a jury could have awarded more money.
“We still believe Mr. Fairbrother was not actually in the throes of a seizure,” Tyzbir said. “We believe Mr. Fairbrother was actually trying to evade the officers and was resisting them and was noncompliant. But whenever you go to trial, you risk not getting a favorable outcome. This was, frankly, a business decision.

A wise business decision might include continued review of the Taser policy as local police continue to equip themselves with the Tasers.
This October the Taser Company issued a training bulletin warning that 50,000 volt tasering could cause an “adverse cardiac event” when shot in the chest. Avoiding the chest, face and neck is now strongly advised .Suggested shot placements currently include back abdomen and thighs.
A Vermont State Attorney General Taser policy report of 2008 in its conclusion suggests room for further review of their safety.
There remain questions about the safety of the taser’s use in certain
situations and on certain categories of subjects. These
questions are particularly important in situations when
multiple tases or extended continuous tasings of a subject
are inflicted and when subjects are manifesting a condition
called “excited delirium”. Continued study of the safety and
health effects of tasers is warranted.

also posted on Green Mountain Daily

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving interests


The 2009 cost of a Thanksgiving meal for ten according to the American Farm Bureau agribusiness trade group is $42.91. This is down slightly from last years average $44.61.
Maybe that tells only part of the cost as lobbyists in Thanksgiving related industries work hard all year to ensure there’s a butterball on every American’s table .We should be thankful for the clear eyed and heroic efforts lobbyists put in on behalf of our Thanksgiving.
"We don't want to even create an appearance that we're mixing our members' government affairs business with the business of making sure Americans enjoy their holiday."
said Joel Brandenberger, president of the National Turkey Federation.
Should we be thankful for the clear eyed and heroic efforts these lobbyists put in on behalf of our Thanksgiving? Where would we be without armies of industry lobbyists?
The National Turkey Federation spent $240,000 in lobbying this year .Keeping an eye on agriculture appropriations bills, avian influenza and climate change legislation.
There must have been little pending legislation that could have affected potatoes this year as the National Potato Council only forked over $30,000 in lobbying this year.
2008 was the United Nations International Year of the Potato so a quiet year may have been in the cards .

The cranberry lobby proved more active than potato interests in 2009 .The Cape Cod Cranberry Association and the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association managed to gain $1.25 million in federal research funds in an agricultural bill. The powerful Ocean Spray company spent $300,000 lobbying free trade and federal dietary guidelines that mention the benefits of cranberry juice.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Three Mile Island & 53 new nukes worldwide


At Three Mile Island this past weekend it seems Exelon was too busy for five hours to notify the state about a radiation leak and Gov.Ed Rendell is making some appropriate noises in the form of a strongly worded letter.
Amid renewed criticism from Gov. Rendell for a five-hour delay in telling emergency officials of a weekend radiation incident.
Ventilation fans probably caused the release of a small amount of radiation inside one building on Saturday afternoon, Exelon officials said. They said that the ventilation system had since been modified and that the 150 workers stationed in the building had all returned to work.
"Things are back to normal," site vice president Bill Noll said yesterday.

Indeed-------No reason this all won’t work out for the best, right ?
Meanwhile The Washington Post explores the new positive attitude environmentalists worldwide have toward new nukes as part of a well rounded clean energy strategy. Obama is prepared to prop-up a whole new generation of nuclear power plants with new tax dollars and incentives.
The Obama administration and leading Democrats, in an effort to win greater support for climate change legislation, are eyeing federal tax incentives and loan guarantees to fund a new crop of nuclear power plants across the United States that could eventually help drive down carbon emissions.
From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide, with Poland, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia seeking to build their first reactors, according to global watchdog groups and industry associations. The number of plants being built is double the total of just five years ago.

An industry expert does not see the lack of long term storage as a problem and claims traditional business factors will determine nuclear industry plans . Says Steven Kraft the Nuclear Energy Institute group’s senior director for used fuel management in an interview this past Fall “Whether or not you build new nuclear plants in this country will be determined by traditional business factors,” he says. “We have to have a plan to deal with spent fuel, but we do not see it as an impediment.”

Friday, November 20, 2009

Smart meter slowed by lawsuit


My electric co-op meter reader had not heard of smart grid and the smart meters coming to Vermont. That he was amazed to hear about it may illustrate a point. As the electric system in Vermont quickly changes,are the utilities, the State and even the media doing enough to educate the public about what changes to expect? A recent article in the Burlington Free Press titled 'Listen up, bonehead:' Smart grid prepares to talk back may be an indication of the quality of an educational effort underway already.
California already is getting some experience with the smart grid and some of it isn’t going too well. A class-action lawsuit against PG&E alleges that the utility falsely advertised its smart metering program and is benefiting from unfair competition (namely, that it has none, giving consumers no choice in the matter).An original plaintiff filed suit after his bill tripled from $200 to $600 a month right after smart meter installation.
As a result of the suit PG&E has slowed distribution of smart meters in its system.
One energy technology reporter and expert suggests those promoting all this have their task cut out for them. Heavily regulated utilities with long histories of viewing their customers only as “rate payers” or “loads” will have to change attitudes and view them differently.
……The PG&E Bakersfield hullabaloo is just the beginning of the backlash against smart meters and smart grid technology, which will only grow as smart meters continue to be installed throughout the country. The public concern reminds me of when digital voting booths were introduced, or when consumers first started to online bank. There’s some real concerns about keeping digital information private and secure in these systems, but ultimately it’s the responsibility of the organization that’s leading the switch to the digital two-way system to keep the line of communication open


What are the lessons to be learned from Pacific Gas & Electric's unfortunate experience with customers who blame their new smart meters for jacking up their power bills?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Too much Salmon or arrested development?


Republican Vermont State Auditor Tom Salmon has called a Friday press conference according to The Rutland Herald reporter's blog Vermont View .
After his recent interview on VPR's Vermont Edition with Jane Lindeholm and airing his "fiddler's fart" comment perhaps he hopes to strike another note at this press opportunity,or just clear the air.
His press release notes that he "respectfully invites all perfect and imperfect people" to the presser.
No note on what the presser is about, but a wild guess is that it might involve Salmon's DUI arrest last week.

In the spirt of the invitation here are two helpful quotes from my favorite self help writer
The easiest way to save face is to keep the lower half shut.

Even a fish wouldn't get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut. ~Author Unknown

Also posted at Green Mountain Daily

Rebutted :Graff’s 10 Reasons Brian Dubie could be Vermont’s next Gov


An election analysis appeared this week with ten reasons Vermont’s Lt.Gov.Dubie might win election to governor .Most of the ten are not based on Dubie’s strengths but on waiting for weakness in the Democratic candidates. Others rely on lame duck Gov. Jim Douglas pulling well hidden magic out of his bag of tricks .If Douglas had any magic left I maintain he would be using it for his own re-election . Dubie a weak but supposedly likable candidate laying low attempting to run below the fray perhaps even tapping his Adjutant General brother’s connections for help is hardly an image of strength that voters are looking for .Waiting for Democratic disarray although perhaps the best bet is a very passive strategy.
1. Democratic disarray: With five Democrats lined up and ready to battle for the gubernatorial battle – and I mean battle – attention will be focused on the Democrats for much of the next year and their arguments with each other. Dubie will be able to remain above the fray. The Democratic primary means there will be no head-to-head debates featuring Dubie until after the primary. In 2002 the gubernatorial candidates debated 36 times, with many coming during the summer. That won’t happen this time.


Democrats in disarray this is #1 ? Dubie above the fray strategy,a Vermont Rose Garden candidate? Out of the fray and avoiding getting into it appears weak. As a candidate for LT.Gov ducked debates and made repeated claims of schedule conflicts to avoid appearances. The fray is unavoidable this time.
There is an array of Democratic candidates .Early on all five are running a respectful primary. This past legislative session and two veto overrides presents a competent image for Democrats statewide. Waiting for disarray in your opponents isn’t the hallmark of a strong candidate.

2. Dubie’s personality: Brian Dubie is hard to pigeonhole. He takes some pragmatic stands – cows to Cuba – that show he is not your traditional conservative. He also comes across as a nice guy. And in the end personality matters more than party affiliation in choosing a governor. Vermonters want to feel comfortable with their governor, more so than in whom they might elect to the US House or the US Senate.

Dubie’s pragmatic personality: His conservative social views are out of step with many Vermonters. His 2006 visit with Bill O’Reilly is an example.
Was Vermont ever strongly anti-Castro? The cows to Cuba gambit; his Nixon to China moment, quirky but it won’t win him the election. The nice guy role may not play that well given the tough range of problems ahead for the state. Nice guy image, even quirky perhaps but is he up to the challenge?

3. Sense of balance: With the Democrats holding such a dominant position in the Legislature – strong majorities in both chambers, most all of the committee chairmanships and all of the top leadership positions – Vermonters may want to inject some balance into the political equation by having a Republican chief executive. Governor Jim Douglas has worked hard to promote his belief that only he stands between the Democrats and financial ruin for the state. That argument may work as well for Dubie.


Dubie as balance to Dems: Does he have enough gravitas to be seen as a balance. No doubt he will try this line of argument which supposedly worked for Douglas. But he is not Douglas and voters know that. Douglas could lay claim to having been the responsible sec. of state for many years .Dubie has little to no government management background to support this claim.
4. The state of the economy: In tough times some surveys have shown that voters feel more comfortable with a fiscal conservative in the governor’s office. In the 2008 election Douglas won 51 percent of the vote of those who said they were worried about economic conditions.


This is basically # 3 again What worked for the Douglas will not work for the Dubie .Co-pilots do not generate the same comfort level as pilot. In tough times surveys show voters want experienced leaders.

5. The election calendar: The 2010 primary is the latest possible date – September 14 – while the general election is the earliest possible date – November 2 – which means the Democrats will have the shortest possible time to rally around their nominee and focus their fight and their money on Dubie.


This may be reasonable .But it again takes primary disarray as a given.Just hoping for an opponent’s disarray is not a winning strategy.

6. The Douglas factor: If Jim Douglas had run in 2010 the odds were that he would have won. It would have been messy and expensive – and close, but he probably would have won. Dubie doesn’t have Douglas’ stature, and has miles to go before he has Douglas’ command of the issues and knowledge of the state, but he will be helped if Douglas is out there campaigning for him.

In 2010 Douglas might have just squeaked in had he chosen to run. The stature of the man that could barely win cannot be magically transferred to Dubie.

7. Energy issues: I think a case can be made that the state is not as liberal as the Democrats in the Senate and not as conservative as Douglas. Vermont has a very strong and vocal progressive streak, but there is a wide band of moderate Vermonters who make the difference in key elections. In the 2008 election 44 percent of voters self-identified as moderates and when asked party identification, 40 percent said they were independents. Nationally, by comparison, only 29 percent say they are independent. Several of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates have been outspoken on issues like the shutdown of Vermont Yankee and time will tell if those positions are shared by independent and moderate Vermonters.


Shutting down of Vermont Yankee is not the radical step it may have once been .It isn’t just for dirty hippies anymore .Entergy’s record of the past year has soured many former supporters .Gov. Douglas even compared the management of the plant to The Simpson’s cartoon. The decommissioning fund and cleanup costs that may fall on the state are clear to many .Dubie’s support of wind power is hardly an energy platform.

8. The Dubie network: Each of the Democratic candidates has a map to victory, building on networks that have been years in the making. Deb Markowitz, for example, is counting on backing from the local officials she has worked with as secretary of state. Dubie has developed his own network as lieutenant governor, but he also has the potential of benefiting from the connections of his brother Mike, the state’s adjutant general.


Injecting the Adjutant General’s connections and by extension the National Guard into a gubernatorial race might strike many as a bad move .Remember the Adjutant General is elected by the legislature ,currently controlled by Democrats .

9. The political line-up: Neither US Senator Patrick Leahy nor US Representative Peter Welch appears likely to face any opposition of significance, which means that neither will be doing the level of fundraising or building the get-out-the-vote operation they would if they did. That means Democratic turnout will not be at the fever pitch it would if Leahy and Welch faced contested races.


Low turnout is a potential danger for both sides. Dubie hardly sets the Republicans on fire. The winner of a well fought primary may hit the general election with a fired up base

10. The Progressive factor: And then there is the question of a whether a Progressive candidate will get into the race. If one does, the odds of a Dubie victory go up significantly. A Democratic-Progressive split is what allowed him to win office in 2002 with just 41 percent of the vote. Peter Shumlin received 32 percent and Anthony Pollina received 24 percent.


Always a danger, but several high profiles P’s have made noises about entering Democratic primaries and running as P/D’s. The signs are good the D/P split may not materialize this election .It is actually Dubie’s best bet.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Somewhere in America a can of chocolate soup is opened



Right now, someone in America
is pushing an electric squeezer...

...down a garbage disposal
and saying it's busted.
Someone else is opening
a can of chocolate-flavored soup...

...because the car wouldn't start to eat out.

They really wanted a cheeseburger.

We eat when we're not hungry,
drink when we're not thirsty.
We buy what we don't need
and throw away everything that's useful.

Why sell a man what he wants?
Sell him what he doesn't need.
Pretend he has eight legs,
two stomachs and money to burn.


It's wrong. Wrong! Wrong!

A wonderful rant by Allie Fox the main character from Mosquito Coast Good book and a reasonable movie .
It's a rainy gray,November Saturday a fine day for a hearty rant.
Note it is borrowed from a major motion picture.
Coming soon...irony rant.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

My grand parents always called it Armistice Day



Tomorrow is Veterans’ Day, my grand parents always called it Armistice Day, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."
I have never taken the time to list the number of family members that have been in the military but now having done so I am surprised at how long and varied a list it is.
My father and late father in-law, a disabled vet served in the Army in the Philippines during WW2. Four of my uncles and one aunt were in the Air Force, Navy and Army in WW2.One of the uncles, a chief petty officer was in the navy from 1932 to 1968.My sister’s late husband joined the Navy and was sent to Vietnam in 1968. Two cousins are Air force Colonels.

From the Guardian UK a Remembrance Day editorial this past weekend lamenting the erosion of the original purpose behind the Cenotaph war monument.
But it is also a corruption of the original intention of those who commissioned the first, temporary, Cenotaph and put it in the heart of Whitehall.
Their ambitious purpose was to impose on the very centre of imperial power the memory of the millions who had died in order to end war. It was to be a daily warning to the politicians who sent them to fight of the awful cost of war, an ambition whose futility was exposed in 1939. Instead, the dead were recast as soldiers in a just war, defenders of a free world.

A letter from the war to end all wars…………
What follows is part of a 92 year old letter I found in some family papers .
This letter was written in reply to my English great grandfather living in the USA from his brother Amos, fighting with the British Expeditionary Force in France March, 1917.
One final winter still remained in the war to end all wars.
I am hoping that this terrible war will soon cease and & I can settle down again, I think the news are looking fairly well soon [sic] & I sincerely hope this summer will see the close ,for I’m sure I don’t want to spend another winter out here ,the people here say it is the worst winter they have witnessed for many years & I can tell you what with the hard weather & the conditions we have had to put up with has been terrible, but still we must keep smiling & hope ,we long to come out victorious.

Dear Brother you ask me if there are any small comforts you could send me? It seems almost impossible for you to send me anything out here seeing that I was more than 5 weeks getting this letter, but I thank you very much for your offer as anything we receive out here from relatives are a luxury. I am pleased to tell you I get a box from home every fortnight which help me out considerably.
…… but I guess there is scarcely a family in England not represented here, but I do hope we shall see a speedy& victorious conclusion………

I think I must now close for this time with fondest love & best wishes from your loving brother, Amos

Monday, November 9, 2009

Coca-Cola ? Ask your AAFP family Doctor Or the Underground buskers! Updated below


This past May the Senate considered a possible tax on soda.President Obama was quoted as saying "It's an idea that we should be exploring.There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else."
Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said at the time .
"Soda is clearly one of the most harmful products in the food supply, and it's something government should discourage the consumption of,"

The American Beverage Association the lobby group representing Coca-Cola ,Pepsi ,Kraft foods and other companies claimed the tax might hit lower-income people would be unfairly hit and would fail to change behavior.

In October the Coca-Cola company made a large six figure donation to the the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) .To provide the development of “consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners,” The AAFP nationwide membership is 94,614. Vermont has 240 active physicians 84 student members.

The Huffington Post reports
Dr. Douglas Henley, executive vice president and CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians, returned my call to contend, "We don't believe this consumer alliance impugns our integrity.Dr. Henley insisted that Coke's high six-figure grant will "enhance the content," that "Coke has nothing to do with writing the material" and that the AAFP has set up a "firewall" to prevent any conflict of interest. "...The development of content is evidence-based and not influenced by the funder [Coke]," he insisted.
.........."It's a disturbing trend throughout medicine... when medical organizations and researchers accept support from a [company] with a vested financial interest... in a product [such as Coke], drug or device," Dr. Blackburn, a University of Minnesota public health specialist and epidemiology professor, said in a phone interview. This means, he added, that "it's unlikely" that the academy will speak out against soda."

Live positively:Coca-Cola
"Our partnership [with AAFP and FamilyDoctor.org] will help provide Americans with credible information on beverages and enable consumers to make informed decisions about what they drink based on individual need.”
-- Dr. Rhona Applebaum
Vice President & Chief Scientific and Regulatory Officer
The Coca-Cola Company

If you can by a family doctors trade group certainly you can buy London's Underground buskers
A deal was struck withLondon underground to brand 33 busking pitches at Tube stations from November 30 to the New Year.
The Coca-Cola Great Britain spokeswoman said: "We are in discussions with London Underground about incentivising buskers and giving them the option to include festive songs in their repertoire during their set, which could include the 'Holidays Are Coming' tune from the Coca-Cola Christmas ad.
Currently, around 240 buskers perform at 21 central London Tube stations.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Udall’s nuclear “silver buckshot”




Colorado Senator Mark Udall and other lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would authorize research and development of small-scale, modular nuclear power plants to help meet energy needs. Unlike coal and gas power plants, nuclear plants don't emit greenhouse gases.
The Colorado School of Mines could be well-positioned to receive new federal research funds, Udall said.

Still with out a national plan accepted for long-term storage the nuclear power industry is slipping back into vogue on little modular sized feet.A sleeping uranium industry in Colorado may be awakened by a Senator’s “silver buckshot” approach to energy resourcing. Claiming that we need nuclear power included for the widest possible range of energy solutions to meet our needs Senator Mark Udall says of his bill “In other words there is no silver bullet that can solve all of our energy challenges; we are going to need silver buckshot.”
This silver buckshot may be aimed more to wooing votes as he also says political reality dictates that energy legislation capping carbon emissions "will not pass" unless it also includes strong provisions for nuclear power .

“The first wave of nuclear power plants will go a long way towards telling us whether new plants can be built on budget and on schedule in the United States,” Udall said.
He suggests “working out the costs" of electricity from small scale modular nuclear plants while studying how to store the waste long term is a practical approach.
He does acknowledge though that the National Academy of Sciences puts the cost of electricity from new nuclear plants at between 8 to 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, a big range given the average national price of electricity from all types of energy was 10.42 cents in July of 2009, according to the DOE Energy Information Administration.

Currently there is 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel awaiting permanent disposal, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, and the nation’s power plants produce 2,000 tons more each year. According to csmonitor.com even if work on Yucca Mountain had continued, it wouldn’t have solved the problem: By the early 2020s, when it would have been completed, the nation’s nuclear waste would have already exceeded the repository’s 70,000-ton capacity.
“If you don’t have a credible endpoint for spent fuel that deals with the long-term safety and security issues, you really have to wonder if nuclear power is a reasonable choice,” says physicist Edwin Lyman, a senior staff scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in Washington.
also posted at Green Mountain Daily

Do YOU know what the hell is happening ?

Monday, November 2, 2009

Wal-Mart,caskets,urns and Enoughism


Well ,what don’t they sell ?
Wal-Mart to sell caskets and burial urns.
Wal-Mart's Web site lists 14 caskets that start at $895. All are less than $2,000 except for the Sienna Bronze Casket which lists for $2,899.
The company also offers a variety of styles of cremation urns. A child or infant urn lists for $99.99, while the Web site advertises dozens of adult-sized urns ranging from $140 to $242. Wal-Mart also sells several styles of pet urns that range from about $59 to $79.

A Canadian business reporter tells of other efforts the retail giant is making.
Under pressure from Wall Street, Wal-Mart suddenly is taking on the world — igniting price wars with Toys R Us, pharmacy giant Walgreen and consumer electronics colossus Best Buy (owner of Future Shop in Canada). It seeks to replicate the growing prowess of Amazon.com Inc. as an online general merchandiser – a discipline that Amazon itself hasn't yet mastered – while going after niche operators like Michael's Stores, the top U.S. vendor of arts-and-crafts supplies……………..
Over a three-year period ending in fiscal 2011, Wal-Mart will have spent about $40 billion to add a staggering 186 million square feet of new selling space.

World: There’s only one Wal-Mart .How do you account for that?

People: It knows what it wants .Don't you Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart: Sure

People: What's that?

Wal-Mart: Well, I want umm, more ...more yeah that's it I want MORE!

World: Will you ever get enough?

Wal-Mart: No, I guess I won’t.

imagined conversation adapted fromKey Largo Johnny Rocco (Edward G.Robinson) and Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart)and James Temple (Lionel Barrymore)