Sounding the claxon of fear

What’s a supposedly nice guy like Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie doing in a campaign like this? He is running around saying IBM told him they will leave Vermont due to higher power rates. However in the Free Press IBM spokesman Jeff Couture clearly denies that.

“I don’t think we’ve said anything about moving jobs specifically around the electricity goals,” Couture said. “There was nothing specific, or an ultimatum.”

Dubie’s recent radio ad says that Peter Shumlin will “fire three hundred correctional officers ... and release close to 800 nonviolent criminals from prison,” This new fear based effort comes a day after the Vermont Troopers Association endorsed Shumlin over Dubie.

Why wasn’t our man Dubie sounding the claxon of fear in 2009 when this was proposed:

“We need to continue to identify and implement new strategies that will protect our families and the safety of our communities by focusing on reintegrating property and drug offenders into the community and preserving prison beds for the most serious offenders,”

That is from a Douglas/Dubie administration plan which you might think the Lt. Gov would have passing familiarity with.

Will credibility be an issue if Dubie and his win-at-all-cost campaign team keep this up?
He is running on empty if all he has to run on is fear.

Brian Dubie and the company sandbox

"We call it a creative sandbox for the company,"said Brian Dubie.
Sandboxes get all kinds of uses, just ask the neighborhood cats.

So let’s take a look at a corporation Brian Dubie has invited into what he calls his “creative sandbox” (Vermont): TerreStar, not exactly a shining example of a stable, ethical corporation, but one example of the out-of-state businesses Dubie chooses to import to Vermont.

In August of this year, short of funds and verging on bankruptcy, TerreStar Corp engaged a financial restructuring firm. Not many Vermonters will have heard of TerreStar Corp (integrated satellite and terrestrial telecommunications systems) of Reston VA. However it was promoted and actively boosted by Brian Dubie as a savior for the Northeast Kingdom (NEK) cellular communication problems. He learned of TerreStar and helped the company extensively in his roles as Lt. Governor, chairman of the Aerospace States Association, and as head of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce sponsored Vermont Aerospace Association (VAA).

After Dubie aided the NASDAQ traded company in accessing transmission frequency rights they agreed to pilot its groundbreaking service in Vermont. Specifically how access to these rights was accomplished isn’t clear.
It didn’t go unnoticed by TerresStar’s chairman who said

Vermont officials are so enthused about the satellite plan that they're drumming up interest among other state governments, which face their own sets of issues around getting broadband access to some of their citizens and workforces.

In the Fall of 2007 (shortly before being turned down for a position in the FAA) Dubie, in his capacity as chair of the ASA, flew to California to tour Loral space systems facilities. He met with executives to discuss easing homeland security related export control issues. The connection between these export controls (meant to keep terrorists from getting hold of weapons technologies) and the satellite were not mentioned or explained. This was all in preparation for a March 2008 mock Capitol Hill hearing dealing with issue.

As part of the visit he viewed the TerreStar satellite under construction. His travel on behalf of the ASA is normally paid by Vermont as part of his Lt.Gov. duties. Dubie’s chief of staff described this as a thank-you tour of sorts for the successful development of TerresStar’s satellite. TerresStar’s president later singled out Dubie specifically for those efforts as ASA chair.
Frequent flyer miles or just thanks?

In 2009 TerreStar paid for Dubie’s flight to Karou, French Guiana

, to view the launch of the Arianne rocket carrying the satellite. The Times Argus wrote it up, but no reporter asked who paid for Dubie’s flight.

Troubles at TerreStar
Bankruptcy or similar problems may have been in the cards (or stars?) for TerreStar Corp from the start. Its executives, and its former parent corporation Motient, have a lengthy history of questionable business practices.
In 2005, an institutional shareholder lawsuit described TerresStar’s corporate culture this way:

"Unfortunately, what TerreStar fails to acknowledge in its self-description is how its tattered past of mismanagement and poor execution, alleged Board self-dealings and conflicts of interest, and governance failures resulted in a stock price that has fallen steadily since February of 2005."

Two company officials the brother of the acting chairman and the former chairman of the board (and here) are known to be under investigation or have been convicted of multiple counts of fraud, racketeering, money laundering and other crimes.
The shareholder lawsuit continues:

the operation was run by “a group of hand-picked insiders, which includes other sitting directors, executive management and affiliated consultants and industry service providers,”

What did Dubie know?
It isn’t known whether Dubie knew this history when he was flown in to Kourou, French Guiana to watch the rocket launch. He mentioned a technological risk and weighed engineering questions raised by analysts against $1 billion worth of investments from what he referred to as

"people who think this thing is going to work."

Does he think investor’s money can overcome any problems? Dubie said

"This is hopefully going to result in people up in Newport having cell capability."

But contrary to that glowing prediction, the only immediate benefit of the 15 year life span satellite would be some first responders - if the system works at all - and only after that might others in the NEK see any potential improvement in cell service. In addition TerreStar won’t market cell and broadband service directly to consumers; instead it will sell the technology to other providers.

Given the history of those involved with TerreStar, the first question he could have asked was: what are the chances of success? Sadly, we may be on the verge of learning the answer: in 2010 TerreStar is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.Who may have benefited from Dubie's dual role boosterism as Vermont’s Lt.Gov. and VAA head for the Chamber of Commerce? How much time was taken from his Vermont Lt. Governor duties by literally being flown around the nation and the world lending assistance to promote a test project for this rogues’ gallery of corporate executives running a soon to be bankrupt corporation? What kinds of question would an effective leader have asked from the start?
Dubie’s question:

"I asked them, 'what's in this for you?'" said Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie.
"They said, 'we are going to launch a billion-dollar satellite, and when we turn this thing on, we're going to need a place to use it.'"

TerresStar’s “promise”:

"The value proposition is to eventually use a wholesale model, where we can leverage the assets to allow existing customers to sell new features (in the future),"chief marketing officer Doug Sobieski

GMD was unable to reach Mr. Soboieski to ask him whether the executives of TerreStar Corp considered Vermont's Republican Lt. Governor to be a "leveraged asset" or a "new feature." Perhaps that is question for Vermont voters.

Also posted on Green Mountain Daily

VSP wants 260 Tasers

After what is being described as a successful test period the Vermont State Police want Tasers, two hundred and sixty of them at a “range” of about one thousand dollars a piece and will come from the state.
Vermont State Police Captain Robert Evans said

“It has been a successful testing and evaluation period, and we’re now looking at purchasing Tasers for all of our uniformed troopers at the rank of lieutenant and below,”

The study commission mentions a successful test period but did Times Argus forget or just fail to mention the $40,000 dollar pay-out made quietly on Thnaksgiving 2009 as a result of State Police Taser misuse back in 2006?
Recently several Vermont towns and citys have had Taser related incidents.

Evans noted there will be a significant amount of training and education for both the public and police officers if the Tasers are funded.

I hope they provide specific details and define what training and education the public needs.
But for now always be compliant and obey all commands speedily and make certain to avoid being Tasered in the chest, face or neck.
Because 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.

His nibs: young Jason Gibbs

Jason Gibbs is allegedly running for Vermont Secretary of State but when the bulk of his ideas in a recent press release involve correcting what he sees as problems with the legislative openness it makes for a transparent swipe at his opponent.
To read his proposals for transparency as Secretary of State one would be forgiven for getting the impression that office dictates only rules for the legislature.

Maybe an old habit of hitting the legislature just dies hard for the protégé and former executive branch communication spokes-flack for Governor Douglas. Gibbs, an administration insider is perhaps as much or even more the heir apparent to Douglas than gubernatorial candidate Dubie.He may already think he is running for governor and in some sense he may be.



Also mentioned in the press statement is one old favorite principle of innovation, to reduce(government) reliance on taxpayers .

“…the best way to achieve these results is to make government more efficient, more productive, and a more valuable partner in the creation of economic activity.”

But no matter how many out of the box ideas explored it still costs money to run the Secretary of States’ office.
He often highlights his brief time at Vermont Forests and Parks where he had the ability to lease and sell State Forest resources to mitigate costs. What resources are available to be leased or sold by the Secretary of State?
The federal Mineral Management Service that oversees and inspects oil rigs relied on royalties and fees from the industry it regulated and was a valuable partner in creation of economic activity. We see how well that worked.

Worthy of note also are six really gee-wiz-outside-the-box ideas that must have originated in the mind of the guy that was so overzealous at promoting Vermont State Parks he got kicked off Facebook for abusing the email list rules.

Gibbs said the Secretary of State can also explore opportunities that will enhance civic participation by:
• Publishing voting information and dates on all tax bills and correspondence sent to Vermonters.
• Partnering* with cell phone carriers to send text messages to Vermont cell phone subscribers**.
• Utilizing the Vermont Lottery to scroll voting messages at retail locations as well as print the voting dates on lottery tickets.
• Printing voting information on hunting and fishing licenses.
• Asking regulated utilities to include voting information on billing inserts.
• Deploying the Agency of Transportation solar-powered “variable message boards” along roadways to display voting information leading up to elections.

*Partnering? paying a fee to them?
**Given the cell phone coverage here in Vermont under Douglas’ years old e-state initiative the second idea might reach a half dozen people.

Involuntary part-time labor days

Double dip,single scoop or just a long slow climb out of recession some job conditions are likely to remain in place. Problems faced by hourly, low-level workers and others struggling to make ends meet on reduced or uncertain hours are unlikely to go away as the recession ends. The extended period of high unemployment has driven down wages for some low skilled outsourced services. It was reported that some outsourced jobs, such as call centers have become as cheap to fill in the US as in India.

An AARP bulletin based on recent bureau of labor statistic says that The number of people working less than they would like, due to their hours being cut back or their inability to find a full-time job, held steady at about 8.6 million
In addition to being susceptible to reduced, irregular and fluctuating hours, hourly and part time workers are sometimes not eligible for employee benefits from employers.Part-time workers may not receive unemployment benefits when laid off.

“Certainly the current recession is contributing to underemployment, as evidenced by the proportion of American workers classified as ‘involuntary part-time,’”

said Susan Lambert and Julia Henly in their forthcoming paper, “Work Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions.LINK ”.

The Census Bureau uses the term for those who work less than 35 hours a week because they could not find a full-time job or those who work reduced hours due to “slack demand.” In November 2009, 9.2 million workers fell in this category, the highest level in recorded history

People are talking about it. A series of four regional forums are planned by the White House on the issue of workplace flexibility in low wage and manufacturing sectors.
Henly and Lambert expect the needs of workers for stable adequate hours and benefits will be discussed.
An increasingly large part of the work force has stake in these job issues