Knock, knock open-up

Aggressive tactics for the Final Approach. On Saturday Team Dubie headed out to areas of the state they are likely to win. While rallying the base it seems they have cast aside any subtle efforts at persuading un-decided voters and are now going for the hard sell. Dubie’s green shirts are vowing to visit 100,000 homes with a mildly aggressive final message. Dubie said,

“We have a simple message. ‘Knock, Knock. Are you for Brian Dubie?’”

Activity during the final week of October’s campaign has seen a libel suit filed against Dubie for Governor among other RGA campaign related legal battles that have heated things up even further. Dubie has received a raft of criticism from friends and foes about the damage nasty campaign tactics have had on his “nice guy” reputation. In rebuttal his staunch ally Barre Mayor Tom Lauzon had some supportive comments yesterday. Appearing at a rally on a cold and rainy day clad only in a jacket, he was asked if he was cold. The Barre mayor claimed to be warm and toasty

“…I’m basking in the glow of the Brian Dubie campaign,”

Is there a light under that bushel after all?
Continuing his glowing praise and maybe in a muddled attempt to address questions about the Lt governor’s character as presented by his campaign tactics Lauzon made this claim:

“Character is defined by what you do when the camera isn’t on you.”

Kind of an odd observation from the mayor that once, during a meeting (off camera) threw a city councilman’s cellphone across a room hard enough to shatter it. So we will have to take his word for this one, it’s a judgment call based on character.

Dubie “busting his ride” for governor?

Vermont Republican Brian Dubie’s no holds barred what ever it takes gubernatorial campaign has drawn plenty of criticism and hand wringing. According to reports Republican office holders in Vermont have urged him privately to cool it, claiming he is doing more harm than good.

While wondering about his character I searched back and found an AOPA magazine puff piece about Dubie from early in 2010 at the start of his campaign. Naturally AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots) magazine highlighted his being a pilot .They mention (Vermonters have heard this ad nauseum) that Dubie sees a direct parallel between the qualities of being a pilot and the skills needed to be a politician and assuming leadership role in government.

Here from the AOPA piece is one incident Dubie strangely brought, up an example from pilot training of parallel lines that may exist between the qualities of a pilot and useful leadership skills.If a student pilot “busts three rides ,he is washed out Some might see parallels between his story, his campaign and his remaining reputation.It’s actually surprising he brought this up at all, but he must be quite proud of his accomplishment.

One way to bust a ride was to get airsick.

Dubie climbed into a T-37 for his first military training flight on a hot summer day. After flying the pattern for a while with his instructor, he began to feel the effects of the heat. On the last pattern, the instructor turned to him and asked him how he felt. Increasingly queasy, he set the switch to “cold mic.”

“At that moment, I blew chow,” Dubie said, telling the story in his Montpelier office. “I filled my cheek.” But he didn’t acknowledge to the instructor that he was sick.
“I swallowed hard and said, ‘I’m feeling great.’ … I didn’t bust that ride. I didn’t bust any ride,” he said.

Vermont’s Lark Bunting, Dick Mazza

In a five year study of the Lark Bunting, scientists found the birds seemed to select companions for varying traits from year to year. One year they found selections were based on beak size, and the next year this choice was based on plumage. Following years it was smaller body size and the next year the trend might be reversed. Researchers also think this behavior might be found in other species.

Dick Mazza a middle of the road Vermont state senator from Colchester is displaying some of the distinctive traits of the female Lark Bunting, but all in one election year! In September, he let it be known he didn’t expect to weigh in for one Vermont gubernatorial candidate or the other.
Eventually, but with no commitment made, he took to displaying a little Democratic Shumlin plumage on his lawn in the form of a yard sign.

Now the Burlington Free Press observes his behavior takes another turn after a courting visit to Mazza’s General Store:

Mazza agrees to let [Republican Brian]Dubie plant his own sign in the yard. While Dubie is outside doing that, back inside the store Mazza says he’ll be supporting Shumlin.

The following field observation might have been made from afar with binoculars.

Dubie heads to the back of the store, where Mazza is in his office. After they chat about the need to extend the Amtrak rail line from St. Albans to Montreal, Mazza gets firm with Dubie about the tone of the governor’s race.

Back in the minivan, asked what he thinks of Mazza’s support for Shumlin, Dubie says, “I’m glad he said I could put a sign out.”

A wee bit of the old glow in the dark?

Vermont Public Radio reported this week Entergy's Vermont Yankee has another leak. A high pressure emergency coolant system is leaking small puffs of steam, mild levels of radioactive steam. If it’s not exactly the same as many other times it’s at least a very familiar chain of events.

"We're talking about relatively mild levels of radioactivity coming out of here. This is a system connected to the reactor obviously but any radioactive liquid flowing out of here would be at low levels."

There was a notable delay in reporting the news to the public as often is the case. Remember as Vermont PSD Commissioner David O’Brien said recently

“How many days until the election?”

The leak (called minor by the NRC) was discovered almost a month ago, September 24th and reported to the NRC.

"Our maintenance department put a maintenance patch on this drain line to make temporary repairs and we have permanent repairs that will be made sometime in the future. But the high pressure injection coolant system is operable.

We have no issues whatsoever with the operation of the system and we're considering this routine maintenance

that our maintenance department would perform at a nuclear plant on a day to day basis."

Tuesday VPR reported poll results showing that statewide 44 percent of those surveyed said they want the plant to close, 39 percent supported re-licensing and 17 percent undecided with an error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Li’l Dubie Dirty Tricks?

Nixon had Zeigretti and the Rat F@%kers, George H W “Poppy” Bush had Lee Atwater but what has Brian Dubie got going?

We cling to the idea that Vermont campaigns are different but could Dubie’s green shirted supporters, or though unlikely his campaign manager Cory Bliss have taken a page from those days or maybe the more recent exploits of conservative activist James O’Keefe?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/politics/27landrieu.html?_r=1
Saturday the Bennington Banner reported about a man dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit sporting a fake swastika tattoo claiming to be named “Horton” (an obvious reference to Lee Atwater’s infamous Willie Horton ad) showed up a Shumlin rally. The man carried a sign saying “Convicts for Shumlin”.The Dubie campaign for several weeks has been fear mongering and making questionable at best and perhaps false arguments against Shumlin’s proposed plans for the corrections department.

The man in the prison outfit, who identified himself as "John Horton," claimed to be an ex-con who had served time for possessing "a small amount" of marijuana. However, he also was in attendance at a campaign event several weeks ago for GOP gubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie at the Bennington County GOP headquarters on South Street.
"Horton," who appears to be Kurtis Stevens in a profile on the social network Website Facebook, claimed he was a supporter of Shumlin's because Shumlin, the Senate president pro tem, would release inmates early.

Peter Shumlin spoke briefly with “Horton” at Democratic headquarters after speaking to supporters at the rally. Dubie campaign officials denied any knowledge of any of this disturbing performance. Interestingly though there is a connection to the Bennington GOP to another stunt at the event.

A second man parked a large camper outfitted with Dubie signs directly in front of the Bennington County Democratic headquarters for several minutes shortly before Shumlin's event. He also has been present at previous Dubie events in Bennington.
The camper is owned by Kirby Wright, who also owns the building housing the Bennington County GOP headquarters.

Flu tracked by cell phones

Reliable systems and mechanisms for charting patterns, habits and movements of crowds have been of interest to researchers for years. One crowd pattern of dubious value to researchers was the persistent tale municipal sewerage systems being damaged by widespread simultaneous use during popular television broadcast such as the final episode of M*A*S*H and the Super bowl. This story has largely been debunked.
A more hopeful area may be cell phone usage patterns which are now being studied to using new techniques.
Disease outbreak change mobility patterns and now an MIT researcher has developed a software system to monitor cell phone data looking to track flu outbreaks by changes in the patterns of phone calls and text messaging.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827824.800-cellphones-reveal-emerging-disease-outbreaks.html

Epidemiologists know that disease outbreaks change mobility patterns, but until now have been unable to track these patterns in any detail. So Madan and colleagues gave cellphones to 70 students in an undergraduate dormitory. The phones came with software that supplied the team with anonymous data on the students' movements, phone calls and text messages. The students also completed daily surveys on their mental and physical health.

A characteristic signature of illness emerged from the data, which was gathered over a 10-week period in early 2009.

Students who came down with a fever or full-blown flu tended to move around less and make fewer calls late at night and early in the morning. When Madan trained software to hunt for this signature in the cellphone data, a daily check correctly identified flu victims 90 per cent of the time.

Public health officials could also use the technique to spot emerging outbreaks of illness ahead of conventional detection systems, which today rely on reports from doctors and virus-testing labs. Similar experiments in larger groups and in different communities will have to be done first though.

Pure Leadership RV Tour: Behind the Scenes

Current Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas came to the aid of gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie this past weekend on a two-day tour across Vermont. It consisted of eight rallies in seven counties. Together they promoted Dubie’s vision as outlined by his 26 page ,ten-point plan for growing jobs and building Vermont’s economy.

Take a look now behind the scenes at the Dubie/Douglas Pure Leadership RV Tour and inside Governor Jim Douglas’ imagined thought bubble.

"I believe strongly in Brian's candidacy," Douglas said of Dubie. "I believe he's the best person to lead our state for the next few years."

Right .I believe strongly he wins only if a miracle happens and that’s the only reason I let them haul me out here on this Pure Leadership RV Tour. What’s with all this creepy ‘pure’ stuff anyway? Suppose that language must bring in the fringe money. That Texas money guy Brian had dinner with, Crow was his name, the one with all the statues of dictators he must like that. Why did the Dubster get hooked-up with this out of state campaign crew? They don’t know Vermont from Texas or Virginia anyway.
Next few years’ .Oh hell if Brian tanks young Gibbs will be all set to glide in after his grooming tour as Vt. Secretary of State.
Note to self: remember to tell Jason to watch that late night driving. Can’t afford to lose anyone our line-up is pretty thin now.

Douglas noted. "What we need is balance in Montpelier,"

Man that’s Brian, pure Brian all right, a great big counterweight, door stop, or anchor.
That’s balance.

Douglas said, citing Shumlin's proposals for government-run health care and universal preschool. "I think we know what happens when politicians make promises."

Heh,promises,promises yeah I’ve been there, Jim=Jobs, E-State up and running by 2010, man, the stuff that I pulled off in this office.

Asked whether Dubie ever lobbied him on issues, Douglas couldn't provide an example, but he said, "Brian is not at all reluctant to tell me how he feels about things in a respectful and cordial way.”

Provide an example! Ah, the remaining Vermont press. They want an example! I should give it to them. Lord, I don’t think I had a serious conversation with Brian in eight years. He always drones on about how he’s an airline pilot and then I zone out and almost doze off. How long is this RV tour for eight stops?
Ugh,paid my dues, the stuff I do for this party… going to owe me big-time after this Pure Leadership RV Tour.

Unimagined quotes from Burlington Free Press

Washington State’s online voters guide experiment

Vermont rarely has statewide ballot referenda because they need to be legislatively initiated, but in Washington State this year there are more than a few up for approval. Voters in Washington are almost overwhelmed by nine complex statewide ballot measures, a bond measure for school upgrades, and an effort for their first income tax since the 1930’s. Layered onto this complicated ballot voting situation is this season’s heightened nationwide level of distrust of newspapers, media and government in general. Confusion may rain in Washington come November.
Searching for a solution that would bring in the public and involve them in the process, the University of Washington and the City Club civic group, a Seattle non-profit, searched for a solution and developed an online model

“which aims to spark a civil and objective discussion among Washington voters by letting them work together to write their own voters guide”

. Adapting something along the lines they describe might prove useful here in Vermont given the small media market and struggling local papers. Complex policy information might be examined and debated in a tightly structured public format online. An accessible, organized exploration of the implications of the Challenges for Change process during this last legislative session might have been helpful. The effort and expense would likely be a deterrent, but it might lead to more constructive public involvement than questionable reader’s surveys and online polls have.

The Living Voters Guide (www.livingvotersguide.org) is a twist on the traditional voter's guide, with statements for and against. The tool takes the format of a pro-and-con list. In less than two minutes, users can choose an issue, slide a scale to indicate where they stand, and list pros and cons to support their stance, either by writing their own or picking from points added by others. Each pro or con is limited to just 140 characters, the length of a text message or Twitter update (though a longer, 500-character explanation is optional).
Users must agree to ground rules that include using civil language, representing individual views rather than those of an organization, and registering for only one account.
All this is meant to cut down on the grandstanding, trolling, flaming and other rude behavior that has become the norm on newspaper comment boards or discussion sites, as well as on gaming the system to strategically boost one point of view.

The Dubie 2000

As many in the Vermont state media and others tear at their garments and cry; ‘the tone, oh, the tone of this campaign for governor’ lets look back to when Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie first developed his campaign habits in a statewide race. Maybe his Virginia and Texas media gang are just simply building and expanding on what has been there from the first. What was pure Dubie style from the start?

Dubie stood by both the commercial and his website.
Yesterday? Nope this is from an incident in October 2000 when Brian Dubie was campaigning in a statewide race.
He was in his first race for lieutenant governor and fellow Republican Ruth Dwyer was running for governor in a rough race against Howard Dean. It was Take Back Vermont at its peak and Dubie ultimately lost but what lessons did he take away.
Two years before in 1998 Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Vt. Senator Patrick Leahy had written Dubie gracious letters of recommendation when he applied for a Harvard Fellows program.
Later, in 2000 he decided they could be made useful for something other than what they had been intended for, his political campaign. He repurposed the letters of recommendation and with a small print disclaimer included them in his campaign literature, TV ads and webpage. Dubie denied he was using the letters for political gain and claimed he only wanted them to show voters that he was a “proven leader”.
Dean and Leahy who both supported his Democratic opponent requested their two year old letters of recommendation for the fellows program be removed from his campaign.

"While the commercial includes a small and brief disclaimer, Vermonters could very well be left with the impression that we support his candidacy, which we do not," Dean and Leahy said.*

Tens years ago in 2000 when confronted with a legitimate request Dubie refused to remove questionable material from his ads. Inadvertently showing more about his future behavior than he may have known Brian Dubie said in part at the time

“We're talking about the character of someone that the people of the state of Vermont don't know. I'm trying to show what kind of person Brian Dubie is."

Stubbornly he stood by the letter’s repurposing and refused to honor the author’s request for their removal as long as he felt they served his needs. He was trying to show what kind of person Brian Dubie is.

*follow link to cross-posted diary with link to PDF news article source

That's what makes them Democrats

But when it comes to voting, when we only have two choices, you've got to grow up and realize there's a big difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy. Of course the Democrats are disappointing. That's what makes them Democrats. If they were any more frustrating they'd be your relatives.
But in this country they are all that stands between you and darkest night. You know why their symbol is the letter "D"? Because it's a grade that means good enough, but just barely.
You know why the Republican symbol is "R"? Because it's the noise a pirate makes when he robs you and feeds you to a shark.

from Bill Maher's News Rules segment