Burlington: Take Notice!

Sam Howe Verhovek/LA Times - This big city would rather think small

For believers in a Lesser Seattle, it's been a fantastic month.

First, Seattle voters said a resounding "no" to spending public money on a new professional basketball arena, all but begging the NBA SuperSonics to leave town. Strong opposition has also emerged to the mayor's plans for a Big Dig-style tunnel project along the waterfront.

Wonderful, from the Lesser Seattle point of view. Let the word go out. Who'd ever want to live here?

"Lesser Seattle" was a term coined in the 1980s by late newspaper columnist Emmett Watson, as a puckish play on Greater Seattle Inc., the name of an early group of tourism and growth promoters. It never became a formal organization, but Lesser Seattle is nonetheless a powerful and enduring state of mind.

These Seattle residents pine for the good old days, when nobody thought of Seattle as a world-class city — and, not coincidentally, when an average worker could afford a house here. The city, in their view, had no business hosting the now-infamous World Trade Organization meeting here in 1999, but nonetheless did itself proud by turning the event into a huge anti-globalization protest.

And Seattle, they say, can take or leave the mantle of being an NBA city.

"Seattle doesn't need to have a pro basketball team in order to feel special," says Chris Van Dyk, a co-founder of Citizens for More Important Things, a nonprofit group that won the anti-subsidy vote Nov. 7. "Seattle is special regardless."

These Seattle residents pine for the good old days, when nobody thought of Seattle as a world-class city — and, not coincidentally, when an average worker could afford a house here. The city, in their view, had no business hosting the now-infamous World Trade Organization meeting here in 1999, but nonetheless did itself proud by turning the event into a huge anti-globalization protest.

Plenty of people welcome growth and development. But plenty say Seattle has given up too much of its blue-collar soul in the process.

"Part of our civic makeup is this idea that being too big for your britches is a bad thing," says Knute Berger, former editor of the Seattle Weekly newspaper. "In that sense, Lesser Seattle is due for a resurgence."

Al Runte, a former University of Washington history professor and former mayoral candidate, says he detects an "enough is enough" sentiment among voters in their passage, by nearly 75%, of the initiative barring public funds for a new basketball arena.

"A city of this quality does not need to give incentives to developers," he says. "They should be paying taxpayers for the privilege of being in this city."

Once, the Seattle area seemed quietly tucked away in a corner of the map; now, of course, it's the headquarters of Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon.com, and it remains a magnet for global talent.

City Councilman Nick Licata, a leader of both the anti-subsidies and anti-tunnel forces, says Watson's spirit is alive and well, though Licata wouldn't quite adopt Lesser Seattle as his own slogan.

"I knew Emmett; I certainly understood his concept in a visceral way," says Licata. "It's dangerous for any public official to say you're in favor of Lesser Seattle. It sounds like you're a Luddite. But there's an element of Lesser Seattle that everyone identifies with. It's more neighborhood-oriented. Less glitz, more substance."

Seattle is hardly the only place where the visions of preservationists clash with those of growth promoters. Yet even as Seattle has become known around the world for exporting software, coffee and jet airplanes, the Lesser Seattle mentality remains an important civic force.

I spent a delightful week in Seattle a year ago. Indeed, it's a friendly place; the people are unpretentious and down-to-earth. Burllington could learn a thing or two from Seattle's experience. Although no where near the size of Seattle, Burlington is a small city that would rather think big. Too big for its britches for a city of just under 40,000 inhabitants. Just look at the CEDO manipulations surrounding the Moran Plant and the Waterfront; the lump sum mega-bribes to Waterfront Video and the Mesa stores to vacate their locations so the bankrupt Cornell family can develop that property; the high-class condo and hotel developments on Battery Street; the proposed commercial renewal plans for the Church Street Marketplace to keep the consumers and tourists happy. Can we expect yet another name change for the Southern Connector: Burton Expressway, anyone? Pine Street soon to be Chocolate Boulevard? You'd think we were fucking Houston or New York City. Property tax rises in Burlington have caused many residents to re-consider remaining in Vermont's premier city. Affordable housing is a sham here. With all the new development, it's becoming a city of the 'haves' and 'have-it-alls,' leaving those with unliveable wages to fend for themselves. (Idea for a bumpersticker: "Moonlighting in Burlington/You have to, in order to survive here.") Burlington is losing its soul. And I'm not suggesting, as they do in Boulder, to keep our town 'weird,' because it's not - Burlington's just become a harder, faster-paced city, less down-home Vermont. I'd go for a "Lesser Burlington" state of mind any day.

On a personal note, I knew Sam Howe Verhovek and his family when I lived in Houston. We were members of St Stephen's Episcopal Church, an activist inner-city parish in the Montrose. Sam was based in Houston, doing the Texas and Southwest beat for the New York Times. He moved to the Northwest to cover Seattle for the Times. Still in Seattle, he's now writing for the LA Times. Too bad we don't have as good a reporter on our local (and Gannett-owned) papers.

New think tank for animal rights opens

The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics will act as an international think tank with its own online course, research initiatives and publications. It's focusing in particular on the relationship between animal abuse and human violence. But, with many conflicting views on such issues as experimentation and organic farming, how effective will the centre be?

Guardian story - The centre's director, the Rev Professor Andrew Linzey, an Anglican priest, writer and University of Oxford theologian, is well known for his opposition to animal testing.

The thinktank, which is to open its own centre in Oxford, opposes violence and illegal acts and distances itself from militant animal rights activists who advocate campaigns of violence and intimidation. One of the first issues of debate on its agenda is "the relationship between animal abuse and violence to human beings".

Prof Linzey said: "We must strive to ensure animal issues are highlighted and rationally discussed throughout society - we cannot change the world for animals without changing our ideas about them.

"The centre will promote ethical attitudes and contribute to informed public debate."

Howard Zinn on Democracy Now!

Howard Zinn - "The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism." - I was talking to my barber the other day, because we always discuss world politics. And he’s totally politically unpredictable, as most barbers are, you see. He said, “Howard,” he said, “you know, you and I disagree on many things, but on one thing we agree: war solves nothing.” And I thought, “Yeah.” It’s not hard for people to grasp that.

And there again, history is useful. We’ve had a history of war after war after war after war. What have they solved? What have they done? Even World War II, the “good war,” the war in which I volunteered, the war in which I dropped bombs, the war after which, you know, I received a letter from General Marshall, general of generals, a letter addressed personally to me, and to 16 million others, in which he said, “We’ve won the war. It will be a new world.” Well, of course, it wasn’t a new world. It hasn’t been a new world. War after war after war.

There are certain -- I came out of that war, the war in which I had volunteered, the war in which I was an enthusiastic bombardier, I came out of that war with certain ideas, which just developed gradually at the end of the war, ideas about war. One, that war corrupts everybody who engages in it. War poisons everybody who engages in it. You start off as the good guys, as we did in World War II. They’re the bad guys. They’re the fascists. What could be worse? So, they’re the bad guys, we’re the good guys. And as the war goes on, the good guys begin behaving like the bad guys. You can trace this back to the Peloponnesian War. You can trace it back to the good guy, the Athenians, and the bad guys, the Spartans. And after a while, the Athenians become ruthless and cruel, like the Spartans.

(snip)

One of the things we can learn from history is that history is not only a history of things inflicted on us by the powers that be. History is also a history of resistance. It’s a history of people who endure tyranny for decades, but who ultimately rise up and overthrow the dictator. We’ve seen this in country after country, surprise after surprise. Rulers who seem to have total control, they suddenly wake up one day, and there are a million people in the streets, and they pack up and leave. This has happened in the Philippines, in Yemen, all over, in Nepal. Million people in the streets, and then the ruler has to get out of the way. So, this is what we’re aiming for in this country.

Everything we do is important. Every little thing we do, every picket line we walk on, every letter we write, every act of civil disobedience we engage in, any recruiter that we talk to, any parent that we talk to, any GI that we talk to, any young person that we talk to, anything we do in class, outside of class, everything we do in the direction of a different world is important, even though at the moment they seem futile, because that’s how change comes about. Change comes about when millions of people do little things, which at certain points in history come together, and then something good and something important happens.

Founder of animal rights philosophy supports primate research

Observer/Peter Singer backs primate research - Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton, is renowned for insisting animals should have equal rights with humans but is quoted, on camera, backing research in which experiments on monkeys are carried out to develop surgery for Parkinson's and other patients.

The Oxford Center for Animal Ethics would not agree.

Green Party Takes Control of Richmond, CA

San Francisco Chronicle/Carl Hall writes - ...the election makes Richmond the biggest city in the country with a Green Party mayor -- and apparently the first with a predominately minority population.

About three-fourths of the city's 103,000 residents are African-American and other minorities. The Green Party's traditional base has been among mostly white, well-educated people concerned about environmental causes.

McLaughlin describes herself in her official City Council biography as a "lifelong social activist" for progressive causes. She is the product of a union family in Chicago, and holds an undergraduate degree in psychology.

R. I. P. Betty Comden

Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin sing Comden and Green.



From On the Town

Thomas Hampson sings Lucky to Be Me -



Thomas Hampson sings Lonely Town -

Nope. No hope.

Molly Ivins - While the Washington press corps worried its pretty little head to a frazzle over Nancy Pelosi’s Armani suits and terrible start as speaker of the House (except she hasn’t started as speaker), they forgot to fret over Trent Lott, who had previously been bounced unceremoniously from the Senate leadership team to which the Republicans just reelected him. They seem to have forgotten that he had expressed the wish that Strom Thurmond, the segregationist candidate for president, had won in 1948.

So many of our media mavens have been so wrong for so long that we may yet see a mere modicum of becoming self-doubt from our professional pontificators. And think how thankful we’d all be for that. Their sources, led by Karl Rove, have had them eating Pablum out of their hands for years now.

A victory for the animals

Party for the Animals gains 2 parliamentary seats in the Netherlands


Amsterdam, 11/23/2006 – On Wednesday, November 22, the Dutch political Party of the Animals gained 2 seats in the 150-member legislature in The Netherlands. This makes the Netherlands the first country in the world in which a party for animal welfare is elected into a representative body of the people.

“We are thrilled with such a wonderful result of our campaign”, says party leader Marianne Thieme. “Finally we can start realizing our party’s highest priority, namely ending all animal suffering. We want a constitutional amendment, guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress caused by humans. Let’s begin with easing the suffering of the hundreds of millions of cows, pigs and chickens stuck in factory farming”, she said. Thieme feels success in the Netherlands could help the movement elsewhere. One of the party’s purposes is to be an inspiration for other countries and animal rights activists.

A growing number of Dutch people are wondering why it is necessary to have economic interests prevail over ethical considerations when it comes to animal welfare and the interests of nature and the environment. “The Party for the Animals expresses this concern that so many Dutch have”, says Esther Ouwehand, number two on the party list, explaining the party’s victory.

Happy Thanksgiving

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-- e. e. cummings

Dutch elections

The Guardian - A government is unlikely to be formed for weeks after voters appeared to abandon the mainstream parties in favour of parties on the hard left and right. The former Communist Socialist party appeared to be the big winner. It was on course for an increase in its seats from nine to 25 amid signs that many Muslims voted for the party in protest at the stance on immigration adopted by the main parties.

(Thanks to Qlipoth for the photo.)

The party of permanent war

Alexander Coburn - So the stakes are very high, and the party of permanent war -- represented at its purest distillation in the form of senators like Joe Biden and congressmen like Rahm Emanuel -- are regrouping for a counter-attack, their numbers refreshed by a phalanx of incoming blue dog Democrats. The Democratic foreign policy establishment cannot and will not tolerate the notion of Cut and Run in Iraq. Expect reassertions of the essential nobility of the attack that ousted Saddam Hussein, a deprecation of the destruction of Iraq as a society, a minimization of the outrages committed by U.S. forces. Expect a fierce campaign -- spearheaded by Democrats and the surviving neocons, to wage a "better" war. Expect a presidential campaign waged among warmongers, from Clinton through McCain by way of Giuliani. The voters spoke up, but that's the last chance they'll get, at least at the ballot box, for another two years.

Hersh on Iran

THE NEXT ACT Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

Regarding Iran, the problem is not the president (though he is a problem), the problem is a two party congress. The only way Cheney and Bush could go around Congress is if they let them. It is not enough to have an incompetent president to run amok, you need an incompetent and complacent congress, too.

Cheney would welcome an attack, but what's scary for me is that there are Democratic leaders who would jump at the chance, too.

The Bush Administration, if it does take military action against Iran, would have support from Democrats as well as Republicans. Senators Hillary Clinton, of New York, and Evan Bayh, of Indiana, who are potential Democratic Presidential candidates, have warned that Iran cannot be permitted to build a bomb and that—as Clinton said earlier this year—“we cannot take any option off the table.” Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has also endorsed this view.

"Working beyond the river"

To follow up on my previous post a few days ago, Groundwater as a public resource, some further questions and comments.

Will Vermont's drinking water be safe?
Will there be enough to support people and the environment?
Can an effective water policy be made?
What about climate change?

As the scope and complexity of Vermont's and America's water problems increase, the need emerges for a water resources strategy.

The State of Vermont has a Department of Environmental Conservation under which is a Water Quality Division. Vermont could follow the Dutch example by creating a stand-alone, separate Department of Water.

The Netherlands' Prince of Orange, an expert in water management, said in a speech on November 9th at the global launch of the UNDP Human Development Report 2006 ('The water crisis of the 21st century: how can we turn the tide?'):

Of course, no single sector and no single country can solve these complex problems alone. In the water sector, we have long understood that. Thinking on the matter has led to the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management. This implies that in everything you do, you take account of the many functions water fulfils in a given area and of the people who depend on it. That means working with other sectors, strong commitment from all stakeholders and implementation at the right – often local – level. That is what I like to call ‘working beyond the river’.

From Water in the Netherlands:

The water system approach was introduced in the Netherlands after the Dutch were faced with extreme water related problems: In 1993 and 1995, the Netherlands was startled by extremely high water levels in the rivers. Shortly thereafter, inhabitants and farmers of yet another region of the Netherlands were burdened with water related problems resulting from sustained rainfall. During the 1990s, the Netherlands also experienced several summers of dramatically low levels of precipitation.

Because of climate change and economic trends, the continued existence of the Netherlands requires everything to be done to prevent flooding and limit any damage. It is a good idea to do this now by using more resources, making better use of knowledge, defining responsibilities better and cooperating better. The entire safety chain is central to this, which means that a joint approach to preventing flooding will be examined, as well as limiting any damage, in cooperation with all parties in the Netherlands.

Democratic Party is just as complicit in crimes

And it’s not just the genocidal war against Iraq that the Democratic Party is equally complicit in. They still support the continuing occupation in Afghanistan, and almost unanimously sanctioned Israel’s bombing of Lebanon. They approved and let pass the Patriot Act and the recent Military Commissions Act, which, among other outrages, gives the presidency the power to imprison and torture citizens and non-citizens without charges.

The bad times are over? The evil ones have been vanquished?

There is one primary difference between the Democrats and Republicans: They tell different lies to get elected.

It works like this; if you can't pay the 'dues' you get 'processed'.

"LOS ANGELES, Nov. 16 -- In an unprecedented crackdown on a practice experts say is shamefully common around the country, a major hospital chain was accused by prosecutors Thursday of ridding itself of a homeless patient by dumping her on crime-plagued Skid Row."

R.I.P. Ruth Brown

“Whatever I have to say, I get it said.”

Ruth Brown, the wonderful R&B singer, died on Friday in Las Vegas. She was 78. I loved her old Atlantic recordings, but I also remember her playing Motormouth Maybelle in John Water's Hairspray.

“She was one of the original divas,” said the singer Bonnie Raitt, who worked with Ms. Brown and Mr. Begle to improve royalties for rhythm and blues performers. “I can’t really say that I’ve heard anyone that sounds like Ruth, before or after. She was a combination of sass and innocence, and she was extremely funky. She could really put it right on the beat, and the tone of her voice was just mighty. And she had a great heart.”

“What I loved about her,” Ms. Raitt added, “was her combination of vulnerability and resilience and fighting spirit. It was not arrogance, but she was just really not going to lay down and roll over for anyone.”

On MSM Narratives and Criticisms

It's what these pundits and journalists do. They have pre-conceived, vapid notions about everything and everyone -- all driven by deep self-love for their own superior wisdom -- and they distort reality and crowd out sober analysis of everything that matters. Nancy Pelosi, and really everyone, would be well-advised not to listen to them and, above all, never adopt as a goal trying to please or satisfy them. They are frivolous and out of touch with everything that matters and should be treated as such.

That about sums it up for me regarding the MSM pundits. If you click the above and read all if it, it's clear the Washington media establishment hates and fears Pelosi. (I knew she was in trouble when I read a piece about her in the Style (Style section?) of the WaPo on the Friday, November 10th, just 3 days after election day.)

They all love a down and dirty fight, but it's all a diversion for them, because they don't really do their job. So much for the "Fourth Estate."

Friday Funny

In honor of Trent Lott's return to power, coffee shops are bringing back the popular "Trent Latte."

It's separate but equal parts of milk and coffee.

Groundwater as a public trust resourse

Groundwater is under threats of contamination and depletion. Clean, healthy water is essential for human health and for ecological health as well. Water should be considered a part of the commons, accessible to all for the common good, rather than a product sold for profit. Diversion of groundwater for profit is already occurring in Vermont, depleting the water resource for others whose wells and springs are going dry, and degrading a trout stream nearby. Lack of knowledge of groundwater availability can lead to its depletion when too many people draw upon the same aquifer or source of groundwater.

Groundwater appears vulnerable is the headline in today's Burlington Free Press.

The Rev. Sister Laurian Seeber, a nun and a priest in the Episcopal Church, sat before a panel of legislators and government officials Thursday and made the case for mapping and protecting Vermont's underground water -- soon.

"I suspect some of you believe that concern about groundwater supply is alarmist," Seeber said, acknowledging the abundant rainfall that Vermont has experienced in recent weeks. She argued that many parts of the country and the world are thirsty and looking for places to extract water.

"The Vermont name is a symbol for exactly what people want in water," Seeber said. "It's no accident that the water extracted from Randolph is called Vermont Pure. We are a logical target."

Seeber addressed a committee charged with deciding whether Vermont's underground water should be declared a public trust resource and its extraction regulated. The committee, set up this year by the Legislature, is at the beginning of a two-year study of this question.

About 70 percent of Vermonters rely on groundwater for drinking, several witnesses told the panel. Many have private wells, while others are served by public water systems supplied by wells.

Ray Counter, water superintendent for the Brandon Fire District, said 4,000 residents there rely on the water from three wells. It's top quality water, he said. "We don't disinfect, and the town citizens have been very adamant they would like to keep it that way."

In Williston, some residents in a rural section of town have been unable to obtain sufficient water from their wells, Nellis said. A neighborhood group has called for extension of town water service to the area -- an expensive proposition for individual homeowners and the town.

Act 144 (H. 294 passed by the Vermont Legislature in 2006) establishes an interim groundwater withdrawal permit program to regulate commercial and industrial groundwater withdrawals over 50,000 gallons a day, creates a task force charged with making recommendations on whether groundwater should be declared a public trust resource, and urges the State to obtain funding for groundwater mapping from the US Geological Survey and EPA. Both House representatives from Randolph were among the majority supporting this legislation.

The committee must file an interim report to the Legislature in January. Jon Groveman of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, appointed as a statewide environmental representative on the committee, said the panel should take a stand on mapping in the report.

"What I hear is a fair amount of consensus that we should do it," Groveman said. "It is an information tool that other states have, but it requires money, and that has always been the rub."

The committee didn't vote on including a recommendation on mapping, but Co-Chairwoman Diane Snelling, a state senator from Chittenden County, said, "We have heard enough information to say we think it is essential."

Sen Snelling's email: dsnelling@leg.state.vt.us

Vermonters for a Clean Environment

We must hold our legislature accountable to the concept of groundwater as a public trust resource.