Winter Diary of a Demented Snow Shoveler Ever catch the son of a gun who drives that snow Plow, I'll drag him through the snow by his neck and Beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he Hides around the corner and waits for me to finish Shoveling and then he comes down the street at a 100 Miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just Been! By Unknown
Government Reform Term Limits Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. By Email going around
Checking In Keeping On After Holidays The biggest obstacle is usually ourselves and our procrastinating that we will "do it later". Well, we all know how "later" doesn't always happen, so maybe this year skip that part and just go for it. By Linda Fuglestad
After Christmas Green AFTER Christmas First, ask yourself: Is this still good? Can I give it away? Can I sell it? Things like clothing, especially jackets, ski pants and boots may be "old" to you, but if they aren't all worn out and yucky, then they might look pretty good to someone who has none! By Linda Fuglestad
Christmas Not About Money the excitement of children and the warmth I feel at exchanging pleasantries with neighbors or friends and certainly family at this time of year means more to me than ever. Baking cookies, decorating a tree, sledding with the kids, cocoa to warm up after being outside, ahhhh....this is what I love. By Linda Fuglestad
Christmas Greener Christmas Season Buy a live potted Christmas tree and after the holiday, plant it in your yard! By Linda Fuglestad
Barack Obama Wrong Direction Little has really changed for most of us that are not rich and running the country, but are rather living in the fallout of what gets decided without our input. By Linda Fuglestad
Grandmother on Children I already turned Mom into a frog, but she said if I don't change her back, she won't make dinner, so I guess I better go fix her. By Linda Fuglestad
Well folks, it's almost summer in Vermont again. Not that we can tell this from the weather right now--but I want to remind any of you that love gardening like I do, that there are going to be a lot of great farmers markets in local towns sharing a lot of great stuff now--don't miss out! Also, on that note, remember the plea from many areas to "plant a row for the hungry", your local food shelves, your local school, your shut in neighbor, friends, family, whatever you can do to share! Just a few extra plants and a few extra minutes in your garden and you can later have something nutritious and yummy to share with others! Any of you tried those lovely topsy turvey things that you can plant tomatoes upside down in yet? Well if you haven't they are pretty cool, but did you also know that you can make your own of these as well? You can make them out of buckets (like the Home Depot $5 bucket with a handle) or any other container or even a bran sack (remember those, the kind chicken and cow feed comes in?) and hang it, cut a few holes in the sides, stick in your plants, and voila', you have a hanging veggie or fruit planter and it doesn't take up rela estate on the ground! I hung mine from my fence out front, great sunny spot, easy to mow around and I can watch the tomatoes pop out--some baby ones on it already! My blueberries and strawberries are out, the plum and pear trees are loaded with little fruits, and I have high hopes for the apple trees this year! (Last year the frost killed the buds and later, no fruit...sigh). There are organic sprays to keep the bugs off--farm and garden centers have these...and most of all, fellow Vermonters, please plant some flowers in your yard to attract the bees, as without them, we get none of this yummy stuff! Bee Balm, which comes in lots of lovely colors (my yard has red and purple, a neighbors has pink and white) starts out with just a few plants and before ya know it you'll have lots of it and the bees and hummingbirds will be thrilled. It's easy to grow and when it starts spreading, give some away or move it around your yard and summon those busy little creatures to your gardens! A word of caution--when you are spraying for those pesty wasps and other sometimes unwelcome stinging yellow jackets and such, please look for labels that specify that they do NOT KILL HONEYBEES! We need the bees, which have been said to have declined in many areas, and we don't want to accidentally kill the bees while getting rid of some wasps! Please look for the special wasp traps that specifically say they do not attract and kill the bees. I hope you all have a healthy, happy and productive summer and that the rain lessens so you can all get time in for your favorite activities! If you need something while you're gardening to make you smile, plant some extra for area food shelves and also be proud of some of our Vermont schools that are using all natural, all organic foods and veggies, grown and tended by local townspeople--for example, Sharon Elementary School! You'd be amazed what this school does to be so self-sustaining and how the people of Sharon, Vermont do so much to support this school and the health of their children! If you know of local schools using local crops, plant them some, and write and tell us about it! Go gardeners! (And don't forget your sunscreen!) Have a healthy, happy summer!
~Linda~
Everyone knows Peter Shumlin has to break an avalanche of bad news. His campaign and inaugural promises are inspiring and I support them all. At the same time, magic sauce is needed for all those goals to become reality. Some of the real sauce was made public today, when Peter's official website published a "Newsroom" account of Peter's proposal to save $12 million by implementing a series of measures affecting state employment.
Governor Shumlin plans to fund the existing state work force, while simultaneously filling only half the positions that become vacant through retirement, encouraging voluntary furloughs, and instituting an immediate hiring freeze.
The document name on the web story ends with "-hiring-freeze."
Single Payer Healthcare Rally in Burlington, Vermont May 1, 2011
"We are here as healthcare professionals because we absolutely refute the corporate mandate that is stealing lives and stealing livelihood from the middle class and attacking the most vulnerable. So we stand in solidarity with everyone around the world who’s fighting for workers’ rights and for the vulnerable. When we talk about healthcare as a human right and we talk about equity and participation, we mean everybody. It can’t be just white folks like me that get to have it. It means everybody." -Mari Cordes, President of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
Burlington, Vermont - The Vermont Workers' Center is a democratic, member-run organization dedicated to organizing for workers' rights and living wages for all Vermonters.
Logo courtesy of Vermont Workers Center.
We seek an economically just and democratic Vermont in which all residents have living wages, decent health care, childcare, housing and transportation.
more...
Tom Salmon
Opening Doors for Front Line Workers
by Dan Allen
Tom Salmon with Navy Reserve. Photo courtesy of Tom Salmon.
-establishing the bottom up push is first
Then we foster and schedule a 3 meeting work-process to determine what success looks like and figure out the priorities. -Tom Salmon
Tom Salmon, the Vermont State Auditor of Accounts, is enlisted E6, Builder first class, in the Navy Reserve construction battalion 27. He knows how much time, energy, and opportunity are lost at the ground level, as a result of constraints imposed by higher levels in large organizations. That is why he embraces bottom-up efforts to make Vermont and Vermont government better.
Tom Salmon campaigning in the 2010 primary. Photo courtesy of Tom Salmon.
Tom has a unique, potentially historic mandate from Vermonters. In the last election, Doug Hoffer offered Vermonters a clear and legimate alternative to Tom Salmon. Common wisdom might have expected Tom to stand little chance for re-election. Not only did Tom win, but he won by one of the largest margins among the contested constitutional office races. Evidently, Vermonters want Tom's creative approach applied to our government.
I sure as hell do not agree with all the ideas thrown out by Tom Salmon, yet, there is one of his ideas I think outweighs all the areas of disagreement. It is the idea of connecting the troops, the front-line workers, directly with the power brokers. In Vermont, I think it might be a good enough idea to change the course of history.
Fair Fix to Deficit and Debt
Vermont House of Representatives, Montpelier, Vermont
Democracy is Fair We Have to Fix Democracy
As children, we learned and believed all of us are equal before the law. Unfortunately, we believed wrong. If we all were equal before the law, we could use worldwide instant communications to take Democracy to a fantastically effective, fair, intelligent form, not feasible when we started self government. Americans were the first to establish self government of a country. Americans now need to take government to a new step, one that is fair to every soul making a home in America. Fair is what this group decides, through informed Democracy, skilled debate and honest discussion. This group, starting with Vermonters, can figure out the fairest possible way for Americans to put our government's fiscal affairs in order.
"If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont. " Vermonter Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States
We Can Fix Democracy to Balance Our Books
With the right legislation, our online communications could generate a coherent, fair, balanced, legitimate one-person one-vote Democracy.
Resistance to Fixing Democracy
Resistance to this achievable goal reflects power of those who oppose Democracy. To the wealthy few, Democracy threatens to take what they feel they have earned. They are not for fairness, they are for winning at any cost. It's seen as competition to build a family and world view, grounded in the universal falsehood they believe, might makes right. Might inspires some to right. Unfortunately, might goes to enough selfish people, the result in America today is, might makes wrong.
Against Democracy
Top of the list are the people holding $trillions in IOUs from American taxpayers, for dollars that may take centuries to pay back, considering the nessessity to slow down generally and turn around in our war habit.
This is the core of the unfair machine that focuses media, political, public perceptions into a narrow box of interests, all favoring swindlers, bullies, those who feel justified in a belief their interests can come ahead ours in the rationale for our laws.
debt $13 trillion and deficit $3 trillion.
If we are not going to answer the call to liberty now, when are we going to answer?
Fiscal Responsibility has a plan the plan is clear
Traditional marriage, life, and faith based organization that form the core system for the values of the country.
Yes I RRR believe it is true- And I believe this is what is missing. The document also features a small section that is opposed to using tax dollars to pay for an abortion, an issue that has divided many in the health care reform bill. Past that, the document has almost nothing that focuses on the social issues that face the country today, leading many to believe that social conservatives are placing issues such as these costlythings back in the hands of the community and not in the hands of the government. Why should I pay for others moral choices that I do not agree on. We work and work and work and what happened we then have to pay for those who chose not to work like those that chose to do drugs, have
While this is not Righteous Responsible Regina the Republican, people are saying this image might be a possible likeness.
sex out of marriage, and eat bon bons with welfare food stamps money.
I am one of those people that believe Health care reform somehow got turned around and made into Entitlement Reform. When did we as Americans start believing that we are owed something in life. When I grew up my home was one that we worked hard. My folks could not afford shoes for us we did not get new shoes. Just because the Jones' had new shoes didn't mean our family had new shoes. It was difficult and beans were our staple but we made it and we never took a hand out. When my father was unemployed we made it on the unemployment my father received. Each one of us kids got jobs at 16 and worked. Entitlement was we were able to go to school. That was it.
It's All About Money
Public Stress at Highest Level in Living Memory
Ask the oldest people you can find, see what they say
Real incomes for the majority of Americans have stagnated or declined while work hours, insecurity and debt have increased. Wealth has accumulated, but in very few pockets, leading to inequality not seen in more than 100 years. The small group with the money also have nearly all the power to shape society. The one thing they never can have is the vote, but they manipulate the vote by controlling mass media, which they own.
Banks control governments, arranging laws so they can gamble with our money, keep the bonuses for themselves and call it capitalism. Finance reform has made the gambling parlor even larger than ever. Four
banks control 60% of all assets. Wall Street is supported by politicians and economists
Dan Allen, Montpelier, Vermont
mesmerized by myths of Reagaonmics. United States taxpayers are on the hook for huge debts rung up to cover bonuses and record profits for banksters who caused the problem in the first place, then were saved from bankruptcy by taxpayers. They made 10s of billions of dollars. They still have that money. There is no coverup. One of the most extraordinary things about the financial collapse is we know there was a great deal of extremely unethical behavior, and it is unbelievably unlikely that there wasn't also a great deal of criminal fraud, but not a single senior Wall Street executive has been prosecuted. Over 60% of trading is done by computers, using funny money for the banksters, to everybody else's detriment. The capital trades back and forth between banksters who spend their days pressing buttons on a computer, trying to invent things they can then bet on going down.
War to end all wars was a cover for bankers who wanted to get paid back for loans made to British and French
Video of United States white supremicist movement, drawing energy from economic stress the way hurricanes draw energy from warm oceans.
In Afghanistan, money to tribes controls the balance of power.
Michael Hudson understands money and how Americans are being sold to Wall Street cheap
Now for something completely different.
Michael Moore on on Midterm Elections, the Tea Party, and the Future of the Democratic Party
Righteous Responsible Regina the Republican
Agree or disagree? 5 questions for the week
Welfare - If you answer this survey - Please disclose have you ever been on welfare and or on welfare.
Should welfare recipients be allowed to buy a pet after they go onto welfare?
"If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont." - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States
2012 Election Answer to President Obama President Obama's people sent email asking what it would take to inspire me to contribute to his campaign. Here is my answer: call my brother, Sam, and do what he says about health care. By Dan Allen
Truth Matters The research found that actually we often base our opinions on our beliefs ... and rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. By Bill Moyers
Transcript Budget Address "I am committed to making the painful choices today that will help ensure that we are not back here next year making drastic cuts." By Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont
Vermont Government Workers 2011 Kicks Off Loudly Governor Peter Shumlin plans to fund the existing state work force, while simultaneously filling only half the positions that become vacant through retirement, voluntary furloughs, and a hiring freeze. By Dan Allen
Rights for Dummies Foodstamps and Soda Pop
Government-mandated meals of bulgar and kale for people on long term welfare is humane, if you ask me. We might as well start thinking about new standards, while our economy rewinds to the conditions of the 1800s. By Dan Allen
Everything It's All About Money From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent. Real incomes for the majority of Americans have stagnated or declined while work hours and insecurity have increased, along with debt. Wealth has accumulated, but in very few pockets, leading to inequality not seen in more than 100 years. By Dan Allen
Trickle Down Economics By Ronald Reagan These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. By Ronald Reagan and Dan Allen
Net Neutrality Dying Big Media Pushing Others Off the Internet Little sites like this one will still be on the internet, the way USENET and TELNET are on the internet: where normal people will never find them. Democratization of public communications is at its pinnacle now, and looking downhill into the future. By DemocracyNow
Asian Sweatshops Slaves Keep Prices Down for Americans Hourly wages below a dollar. Firings with no notice. Indifferent bosses. Labor brokers that leech away months of a worker's hard-earned wages. Americans justify the system. By Jonathan Adams and Kathleen E. McLaughlin, GlobalPost
GW Bush's admission in his memoirs, that he authorized water boarding, puts a burden of international law on the United States government to prosecute. By Dan Allen
Balancing the Budget Fix Democracy to Fix the Deficit Use worldwide instant communications to take Democracy to a fantastically effective, fair, intelligent form, not feasible when we started self government. By Dan Allen
Traders using high frequency trading programs collect a quarter of a penny rebate for every transaction they make. They're not interested in making a gains from a trade, just collecting the rebate, 4 times per stock purchase. By Dan Allen, adapted from Graham Summers
USA vs. Taliban Just Back from Taliban The Taliban are gaining in popularity, gaining in strength. The leadership of the Taliban acknowledged the targeted killing campaign of senior Taliban leadership has been successful, but they say that it's producing new generations of increasingly radical leaders. By Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley, Interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzelez of DemocracyNow.org
President Obama Owned by Banks and Military Industrial Complex Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the Military Industrial Complex has gone unheeded. As a result, the President lacks the power to create the change promised in the 2008 campaign. By Dan Allen
Recovery Story Giving Up Alcohol "You have an eroded soul." When I heard that, I did not know what my sponsor meant. By Anonymous
Everyday Heros Montpelier Health Center The administration crew at Montpelier Health Center is finer than a Swiss watch, more powerful than 8 men working together. By Dan Allen
VTDigger Nobody Else Does It Josh Larkin and Anne Galloway set the standard for Vermont's in-depth print reporting, provided you see the internet as print. By Dan Allen
Discussion How Honest Is Vermont? Message board discussion from 2007, informal look at Vermont corruption compared with other states. Low development may mean low corruption. By city-data.com
Banksters Goldman Sachs College Scam Goldman Sachs Social Club, New York City Goldman Sachs is the majority owner of a group of for profit colleges, tying our youth into debt for over-priced education. By Mother Jones
Bernie's Contest Rules 500 words or less that explains your ideas for fair and responsible ways to approach these challenges. By Dan Allen
