Floating casinos in Vermont ?

Vermont casino gambling, it’s a zombie of an idea that lives on in good times and bad. Auditor Tom Salmon last floated the idea but now Vermont lawmaker Rep.Ron Hubert in a Burlington Free Pressarticle says he too thinks its time to start a conversation about legalizing casino gambling in Vermont. Despite the that more competition and the great recession have driven casino revenues to lows nationally for several years he says: “I thought there was certainly no harm in getting the conversation started” Why? Well customers at his market “…head to the Mohegan Sun and Akwesasne Mohawk casinos in nearby states. They grouse about how Vermont loses out on their businesses [sic] by not having casinos.”
Hubert has support for this bill from sixteen other reps, most of them are republicans. Ideas under consideration include floating casinos on Lake Champlain or in trains out of White River Junction.

Casino revenues are down for their fourth straight year in Atlantic City due to competition from neighboring Philadelphia, New York and Delaware. Connecticut casinos laid off 300 workers in the past year to cut costs due to five year drop in gambling.This increased profits for one quarter despite continuing low revenue. Iowa opened casinos in 2006 and they are suffering stagnant revenues. An attempt by Iowa to increase their tax on casinos is causing threats from casino operators of cutbacks, job losses and ultimately closure of these gambling operations which are heavily in debt.

No harm in getting this conversation started? Here in Vermont the chairwoman of the house committee which received the bill notes worries about casinos may complicate the efforts of the Abenaki to gain tribal recognition.
Tactful permitting! Surprisingly, Hubert sees Vermont’s development and permitting laws, normally maligned by Republicans offering a check on casino development should it be allowed. “With Vermont’s permit regulations, there should be sufficient constraints to make sure any casino is tactful, he said.

Almost 20 degress below,1/24/11in Vermont

Well ...almost twenty degrees below zero in Central Vermont at 5:20 AM January 24,2011.

Salmon takes a turn,again

My father often reminds me, writes Vermont State Auditor of Accounts Tom Salmon:

"It's not what you say, it's what they hear," so I'm hoping you hear what I say in the spirit intended.

So begins Tom Salmon’s rambling Burlington Free Press My Turn op-ed feature Blame no one and engage everyone.The opening quote used here like some type of editorial Miranda warning puts the reader on notice that any possible misreading is the fault of the reader not the author.

Auditor Salmon keeps demanding to be listened to. People may still be listening, but what is he saying ?
A few years ago as states' revenues fell dramatically nationwide, he proposed that Vermont allow in casino gambling to cover budget shortfalls, ignoring that gambling revenues were in drastic decline. More recently, as the desire for government transparency has grown, he proposed boundries be placed on public information requests.

Salmon’s recent My Turn winds like a car out of control swerving down several paths,veering at, then away from, topics as they might come into focus and ultimately running up on the sidewalk.

Blame no one. He notes post-election opinion columns popping up titled ‘Where do we go from here?’ then proceeds to blame Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post for misreading the political situation surrounding the President’s Commission on fiscal Responsibility and Reform report. Marcus says both sides must listen to what they don’t want to hear. Salmon asks: What if there are more than two sides? Reform Salmon declares will require new players. He hints that he may be one of these players because, as Vermont Auditor of Accounts,

I warn of dangers, and the loss of "listening" is a real danger.

Will his next party be a tea?

Then spinning his tires and laying a little more blame on the pavement, he says:

Ms. Marcus fell prey to the same inclination many big brains do; they speak of the problem as if it lay under a glass case .

Salmon then steps on the gas and speeds away to other issues.
Clutching a favorite quote:

"People do not lack strength, they lack will."

Salmon now steers our attention to single payer health care, claiming he didn’t hear much about the fact that 70 percent of our health care costs are attributable to preventable causes. (Was he not listening?) While vaguely alluding to preventable causes of illnesses(lack of will?) he fails to engage us with any positive proposals but finds fault with those who find it easier to blame: teachers, schools, MacDonalds and soda for childhood obesity for missing the mark.

He sums up by looking over his shoulder back to the campaign and shouting,

“I could dazzle you with financial facts that are all big and bad”.

Engage everyone. At last, braking to a shuttering conclusion of sorts, he posses several unanswered policy questions in rapid fire,demands more involvement, and skids headfirst into a dire warning:

We need participation, and the time of good intentions and "hoping for volunteers" is over. It's time to get in the game, or watch our country, as we've known it, vanish.

Has the airbag mercifully have gone off ?

Testing:“Everything associated with an actual disaster”

The headline Monday read: NRC Report Vt. Yankee hasn’t done all promised.
However the article reads as if Entergy had done nothing at all. According to the NRC, Entergy had promised after the tritium leak a year ago to do more studies on radioactive tritium and groundwater contamination.

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that Entergy Nuclear had promised to do more studies on the issue of the tritium and other radioactive contamination and groundwater protection, but hadn’t carried out all those promises.

“No significant findings were identified,” Sheehan said Friday. According to the[NRC] report, Entergy “has yet to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program.”

While noting that Vermont Yankee failed to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program as they had promised ,the NRC obligingly employs a little of its faith based regulatory rhetoric, Sheehan said the NRC believed that Entergy

“effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater with respect to off-site effluent release limits, and the resulting radiological impact to public health and safety; and complied with all applicable regulatory requirements and standards pertaining to radiological effluent monitoring, dose assessment and radiological evaluation.” Emphasis added

Well as long as the NRC believes they have effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater, no doubt it will be too busy this week to work on past promises as today they start a simulated radiation leak exercise.
A control room simulator will “create blueprints for everything associated with an actual disaster” Once the plume is originated by the computers, plant employees will use wind patterns to track which way it would travel and state hazardous material technicians will be sent out to various sites to collect simulated measurements.

William Irwin, chief of Radiological Health for the Vermont Department of Health, said.

"We’re going to hold companies and people more accountable as a state. Vermonters should be proud of the systems in place."

"They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable."

Digby at Hullabaloo wisely referred back to this speech.Here is a little more.

The Remarks by President Clinton below were made in 1995.Clinton was reflecting on freedom of speech and responsibility in the wake of bombing at the federal building in Oklahoma City and the atmosphere of anger.

In this country we cherish and guard the right of free speech. We know we love it when we put up with people saying things we absolutely deplore. And we must always be willing to defend their right to say things we deplore to the ultimate degree. But we hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate.They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable.You ought to see - I'm sure you are now seeing the reports of some things that are regularly said over the airwaves in America today.

Well, people like that who want to share our freedoms must know that their bitter words can have consequences and that freedom has endured in this country for more than two centuries because it was coupled with an enormous sense of responsibility on the part of the American people.

If we are to have freedom to speak, freedom to assemble, and, yes, the freedom to bear arms, we must have responsibility as well. And to those of us who do not agree with the purveyors of hatred and division, with the promoters of paranoia, I remind you that we have freedom of speech, too. And we have responsibilities, too. And some of us have not discharged our responsibilities. It is time we all stood up and spoke against that kind of reckless speech and behavior.

If they insist on being irresponsible with our common liberties, then we must be all the more responsible with our liberties. When they talk of hatred, we must stand against them. When they talk of violence, we must stand against them. When they say things that are irresponsible, that may have egregious consequences, we must call them on it. The exercise of their freedom of speech makes our silence all the more unforgivable. So exercise yours, my fellow Americans. Our country, our future, our way of life is at stake. I never want to look into the faces of another set of family members like I saw yesterday, and you can help to stop it.

The House of Boehner: members not leaglly sworn in

Not very impressive at all.
But on the bright side maybe the clown show image will be seeing a lot of use in the coming weeks.(years?)

Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.
The Republicans, incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in because they were at a fundraiser in the Capitol Visitors Center. The pair watched the swearing-in on television from the Capitol Visitors Center with their hands raised.

Heh!‘But I raised my hand at the TV, isn’t that in the constitutional?’

Boehner and the resulting embarrassment on the House Rules Committee vote.

They have to ask Pelosi if she will allow this retroactively by consent.
The Rules Committee hastily recessed when Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) found out Sessions never took the oath, and Speaker John Boehner interrupted speeches on the floor this afternoon to swear in Sessions and Republican freshman Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (PA). But any votes either of them participated in during the last day-and-a-half could be null.

Rep.Dreier is now waiting for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to agree to allow a unanimous consent motion to the floor to retroactively allow everything these two members have already done to stand.

Speaking of standing...there's more! They aren't exactly putting their best feet forward...

Issa marches on despite 'multiple' broken toes
Newly appointed Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is charging ahead this week with plans to investigate a bevy of issues, from WikiLeaks to food-safety regulations.

And he's doing it all while suffering from "multiple" broken toes.
A spokesman for Issa confirmed that the lawmaker recently bumped into "a corner in the house he's lived in for more than two decades," resulting in fractures to more than one of his toes.

Another Chicagoan for Obama?

Rahm Emanuel,the president’s former chief of staff has gone back to run Chicago and speculation is that Obama may be about to name fellow Chicagoan William Daley as his chief of staff.

Guess he won't be missed by some.
Former VT Governor Howard Dean weighs in as only he can .

The atmosphere of what he called contempt “will change dramatically especially if Bill Daley comes in,” Dean said. He added that he disagrees with Daley on a “lot of stuff politically, but I do think, A, he is a grown-up and B, he gets that you don’t treat people like you know everything and they don’t.”

A president's chief of staff is a personalized accessory item that reflects the style and particular needs of a president. The position has been described as "gatekeeper", "the power behind the throne" and even "co-president".
Styles vary from extremes,H.R. Haldeman Nixon’s chief palace gatekeeper who described himself as the president’s son-of-a-bitch all the way to the Bush family retainer Andrew Card, G.W. Bush’s Chief of Staff who once sniffed primly about Oval Office etiquette after Obama took office: "there should be a dress code of respect....I wish that [Obama] would wear a suit coat and tie."

What is President Obama needing these days in a chief of staff?

William Daley brother of the Mayor of Chicago and son of the former mayor Richard J.Daley as described by longtime Chicago journalist Ben Joravsky:

William Daley has picked up his brother’s [Richard M.] affinity for Republicans. So much so that if young William had not been raised in the household of his father, the legendary Democratic Party chieftain, Mayor Richard J. Daley, I doubt he would even be a Democrat.
Examine William Daley’s resume, and you’ll see he’s essentially a businessman who would fit in well with what’s left of the moderate wing of the Republican Party.

William Daley, 63 was vice chairman of Amalgamated Bank, a corporate lawyer and Sec. of Commerce to Bill Clinton and helped with the North American Free Trade Agreement. He was also advisor to VP Biden’s early 1988 presidential run, chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 campaign and later did legislative lobbying for San Antonio based SBC telecom. Currently he is a top official with JPMorgan Chase.

Obama deploys Gorgon Stare

In Afghanistan the US Air Force is deploying an airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare. Yes Gorgon, sounding like something from mythology,horror movies and /or comics got it’s name from a Greek god, the word itself derived from gorgós, which means dreadful. Unlike the god for which it is named it can only see and cannot turn those it views into stone.

It is a video system that monitors and transmits real time images of physical movement over an entire town. It employs some of the latest sports video techniques and one Air Force intelligence officer while recognizing limitations says. "Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we're looking at, and we can see everything."

Consisting of nine video cameras the $17.5 million unit mounted on an aircraft has the capacity to provide 65 different images for analysts and soldiers on the ground. Currently drones videos (once billed as game changers themselves) called “soda straw views” are the size of a building .

It [Air Force] is working with Harris Corp. to adapt ESPN's technique of tagging key moments in National Football League videotape to the war zone………The Air Force placed a contractor on the set of a reality TV show to learn how to pick out the interesting scenes shot from cameras simultaneously recording the action in a house. And taking a page from high-tech companies such as Google, the Air Force will store its reams of video on servers placed in used shipping containers in Iowa.

Reservations are being expressed and it is acknowledged that seeing an entire city is of little value without improved human intelligence,eyewitness reports and the capacity to sift through mountains of data. Still yesterday’s headline declared: With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything' and officials speculate that Gorgon and technology will "…allow us to do is remove more and more ground forces and replace them with sensors where we normally would have to rely on people going somewhere to find something out,"

Long ago in another long confusing war, hearing and smelling the enemy with sensors along the Ho Chi Minh trail in South East Asia was the whiz-bang solve-all. Along the shadowy jungle supply trail a network of 20,000 sensors were dropped by US forces. The US military while limited to operations in the South needed to stem the flow of supplies from North Vietnam and much of this took place illegally in Cambodia and Laos.

The program called Indigo White in the early years enlisted the latest high technology and most powerful IBM computers.
Sensors in strings of six or seven (to be sure at least three would survive) that ran on batteries which operated for one week when replacement sensors were dropped by parachute. At a top secret location the best computers available collated and processed the data for targeting use. Many vehicles were destroyed but generally the program wasn’t successful, as a determined enemy challenged and even outwitted the high tech campaign.

The challenge for the seismic sensors (and for the analysts) was not so much in detecting the people and the trucks as it was in separating out the false alarms generated by wind, thunder, rain, earth tremors, and animals—especially frogs.
There were other kinds of sensors as well. One of them was the “people sniffer,” which chemically sensed sweat and urine.

The North Vietnamese were aware of the Igloo White sensors and took countermeasures. They destroyed some and tried to induce false reports by others. Among other techniques, the North Vietnamese drove animals up the trail and hung buckets of urine in the trees to foil the sensors. North Vietnamese forces had bypasses unknown to the Air Force, and they were very good at clearing the blocking points.

Commenting about this effort in his memoirs former MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) commander Gen. Westmorland said in his memoirs: “As any experienced military man would know, the concept had a basic flaw in that no fence—electronic or otherwise—would be foolproof without men to cover it by fire, which raised the specter of tying down a battalion every mile or so in conventional defense.”