Grateful Dead

i am over here in new hampshire and have been hearing a little about what is going on but i didn't know that they don not supply power to vermont. So where does vermont get it's power from?

Some times you have to feel bad for Barak Obama. The poor guy. Here he goes to represent the US in South America at the Conference of the Americas. He already faces an uphill battle on Cuba and the "War On Drugs" and a plethora of other issues and before he even steps off the plane his entire secret service contingent has been recalled to the US because of disputes with prostitutes at the hotel in Cartegena where the conference is being held. This in a country (Columbia) where prostitution is legal. If we're going to rule the empire, can't we do it with a little class and style? Really, it's getting to be embarrassing! It's bad enough that we have a former president and vice president (Bush & Cheney) who can't travel to the EU because they might be arrested as war criminals -- now we have to suffer the pettiness of the imperial guard who want to stiff their whores?

The last month has seen the rebirth of the anti-nuclear power movement in New England. The focus of the movement has been the Vermont Yankee nuclear power generating station on the banks of the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vermont. More than 120 people were arrested in a nonviolent civil disobedience action at Vermont Yankee headquarters in Brattleboro, VT. three weeks ago and yesterday about 1250 rallied on the Brattleboro Town Common with a unified front of Vermont's top-ranking elected officials, including independent Senator Bernie Sanders, giving highly supportive speeches. Vermont has totally weened itself off nuclear power. None of the power being generated by Vermont Yankee is being bought by Vermont utilities. Because of the nature of the power grid, it is impossible to say if any of the power generated is being used in Vermont but at least the citizens of this state can say that they are not electing to purchase power from this corporation. The objections to Vermont Yankee split into two levels: 1. The nature of nuclear power is unsafe and there is no proven method of long-term storage. 2. There is a State's right issue involved -- If the people of Vermont choose to not use the power does the NRC have the right to shove it down their throats through the re-licensing process? Sanders addressed a very key and important point in this struggle. Many people, including the Obama Administration, believe that nuclear needs to be a key ingredient in America's energy strategy. If the nuclear industry were safe then the industry should be able to go on the free market and obtain the seed funding it needs and buy the insurance it needs to fund the dawn of a new nuclear power era. The reality is they can't get it and continue to rely on the Price-Anderson Act to get Federal welfare to fund their boondoggles. Entergy Alabama, owner of Vermont Yankee, is one of the key players in the collapsing nuclear industry. It is a rogue corporation that lies and continues to lie like a rug to every regulator that it has ever encountered. It owns or is part-owner of six operating stations. It has already shown it's propensity to leave everything as it is, including unfunded obligations for decommissioning costs as well as it's long-term employees. The resurgent anti-nuclear movement was an inspiring thing to be part of yesterday. It was like a gathering of druids. Colorful costumes, tie-dyes and sprigs of evergreen adorned protesters heads. The sad thing noted was the total lack of anybody under the age of 35. It was strictly a baby-boomer thing. Can we trust anybody under the age of 35?

Live free or die!

The American Legislative Exchange Council was founded by arch-conservative Paul Weyrich in the 1970s and ostensibly provides "access" to state legislators and legislation that would impact it's corporate donors. However, it has the greater political designs of it's corporate sponsors such as the Koch brothers. Other corporate sponsors include: Pepsi; McDonald's; Kraft; Wendy's; AT&T; Johnson & Johnson; Pfizer; Diageo; the US Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart. A major component of of ALEC is a favorite socially responsible (NOT!) corporate citizen the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhARMA) composed of the all the major big pharma players suck as Merck and previously noted Pfizer. These corporations have been supporting Stand Your Ground laws, voter identification projects (read: disenfranchise black and other minority voting blocks) and electing republicans. Does anybody need more information that these corporations are anti-democratic, extremely conservative and moving our country towards fascism? This umbrella group is being called out and corporate directors are starting to abandon the ALEC ship like rats before their individual companies are boycotted. One thing is sure, if the horse the corporations rode in on (ALEC) is croaked they will find another horse to ride in on. Corporations must be stripped of their person-hood and their ability to influence our elections in any way. Political contributions must be reduced to individuals and then capped at a low level so we all have a level playing field to politic on. If not, the future is here, corporations are it and we are on our own.

> Why do people find it so alluring? They've been taught to find it alluring... > by those holding the appropriate marketing rights ...through the processes of commodification. com·mod·i·fy [kuh-mod-uh-fahy] /kəˈmɒdəˌfaɪ/ verb (used with object), com·mod·i·fied, com·mod·i·fy·ing. 1.to turn into a commodity; make commercial. 2.to treat as if a commodity. Related forms com·mod·i·fi·a·ble, adjective com·mod·i·fi·ca·tion, noun http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/commodification

Of course there's great hue and cry re Titanic. Loads of dosh to be made by those holding the appropriate marketing rights. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

I really can't get my head around all this fuss over the Titanic anniversary. Yes it was an awful tragedy, but one among so many in the last hundred years or more that are not obsessed over in this way. Why do people find it so alluring? I just don't get it.

> a nasty streak of violence and vindictiveness...Maybe that has something to do with the way we settled our country. We, the invaders, had to displace a lot of people and create our own laws and enforce some type of justice... That's part of it, but what's also quite significant is the way in which the US republic was formed. Many US citizens still refer to the war for independence as a revolution, which it was not; British rule was rejected by the colonies, but the British government was not done away with. This rejection took the form of a sequence of illegal acts, which many of the Founders acknowledged were treasonous; hence, the US was illegitimately born. Add to this the subsequent illegal replacement of the original Articles of Confederation with the US Constitution, and you've got a formula for a national neurosis that plagues us still today. We're not legit and we seem to sense this. We stole this place from the people who first stole this place, after which we established the law of the land, which we then illegally replaced with a new law of the land. There's an old Randy Newman lyric that fits here: "It takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend I am somebody else." Violence and vindictiveness seem to be our preferred panacea.

That is a perspective I have never heard before, Mike E. Real food for thought.