VA Details Health Care Needs

WASHINGTON, July 16 – The Department of Veterans Affairs needs $17.6 billion to hire 10,000 doctors, nurses and other health care providers and make other reforms in order to meet the needs of a growing number of veterans and reduce long waiting times for health care, Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson told the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs today.

Gibson was responding to a question by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the committee chairman, about what the VA needs to address a large influx of veterans needing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other health care needs.

Without the resources to deal with veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gibson said, “the wait times just get longer.”


Brattleboro Food Coop Board Member Resigns

An open letter to the shareholders of the Brattleboro Food Cooperative and the general community:

Last week I and another individual resigned from the Board of Directors of the Brattleboro Food Cooperative. It was made clear to us that seven of the nine other board members believed that we had violated the board code of conduct and their trust. While we disagreed with the majority of the board, we did not believe we would be able to change their minds.


Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes

In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes.

Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.


Primary Election 2014

The primary election is upon us. According to the Vermont Secretary of State website “Your town clerk will receive ballots for the Primary election by Friday July 11, 2014 and early voting may begin. You can vote at the town clerk’s office during normal business hours or request that an absentee ballot be sent to you. If voting absentee, ballots must be returned to the clerk before the close of the polls on election day August 26th.”

With Early Voting in the town clerk’s office or on Primary Election Day you must select a voting ballot envelope from one of three political parties: Progressive, Democrat, or Republican. In the 2012 election we had 76, 263 voters who Voted Early, not on Election Day itself.


Sanders Statement on Meeting with VA Nominee McDonald

WASHINGTON, July 9 – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after meeting on Tuesday with Robert McDonald, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with Mr. McDonald and was impressed by what he brings to the table. I believe that his years of military service will make him a very strong advocate for veterans, and that his corporate leadership gives him the experience to bring about the management changes – in terms of accountability and transparency – that the VA needs.


Not An Optimist

Chris Martenson is a guy from nearby Montague Mass. He appears from time to time in Brattleboro. He’s a very bright guy with a PhD in neurotoxicology, but his real strength is economics.

Currently he is a writer and trend forecaster interested in macro trends regarding the economy, energy, finance and the environment. He is the founder of PeakProsperity.com and creator of the “Crash Course” which is available free on his website: www.peakprosperity.com (you can buy it on DVD as well).


Senator Sanders Statement on Court Ruling on Workers

BURLINGTON, Vt., June 30 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Supreme Court ruled that some home health care workers cannot be required to pay fees to cover the costs of collective bargaining:

“Today’s Supreme Court decision by Justice Alito and four other extreme right-wing Republicans is another attack on the rights of workers to collectively bargain for higher wages and decent benefits. Make no mistake: this decision will lead to an increase in income inequality, a further decline in the wages of middle-class workers and an increase in poverty.


Welch Reacts to Hobby Lobby Supreme Court Decision

Washington, DC (June 30th) – Congressman Peter Welch made the following statement after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius:

“The Supreme Court got it wrong today. A woman’s access to health care should not depend on the religious views and conscience of her employer,” said Welch. “Decisions about the use of contraceptives should be between a woman and her doctor. The Court’s misguided decision in this case is a good example of why Congress should have included a public option in the Affordable Care Act, which would have removed employers from the equation of health care coverage.”


Coop Union Vote

The vote to ratitify the contract is happening on Wednesday. I must admit that I do admire the committment and effort that the union organizers have shown. And I love their devotion to their vision of the best interests of the Coop community. I don’t agree with their opinion that we need a union. But I am posting this because the vote is premature.


Criticism Worth Reviewing

I was  and I came across a comment that deserves repetition in light of our current and yet unsolved budgetary crisis. Though this post is about a “Y”, much of its criticism is worth reviewing:

Why does Brattleboro instead nickel and dime our tourists and shoppers at the parking meters, fix $65,000 ice machines to make a skate rink when we live in VERMONT, New England, and could have an outdoor rink that would also attract winter visitors, why does this town build gyms for 14 MILLION dollar police and fire stations with a few dozen employees rather than invest in a “Y” for ALL the (taxpaying) residents?


Koch Brothers

If you haven’t heard of the Koch Brothers by now, you mustn’t be breathing.

It’s not their wealth that is bad, it’s the way they are using it.


The Skatepark and The Return of the “Waiting Sharks” on Elm Street

My friend, Josh Werner, who passed away several years ago, used to go to Turning Point, when it was on Elm Street, before it moved out to Putney Road. 

I shared with him that I had seen people, wating across the street from Turning Point, calling out to clients and members of Turning Point such quaint  lines as, “Hey Jimmy, wanna party ? Come on over to my place”. 


Senators Call for Emergency Action to Stop Price Spikes Caused by Oil Speculators

WASHINGTON, June 26 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to make federal regulators invoke emergency powers to stop speculators from taking advantage of turmoil in Iraq to drive up oil prices and make motorists pay more for gasoline.

“I am getting tired of big oil companies and Wall Street speculators using Iraq as an excuse to pump up oil and gas prices,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate energy committee. “The fact is that high gasoline prices have less to do with supply and demand and more to do with Wall Street speculators driving prices up in the energy futures market.”


Progress Trumps Fear

It’s really too bad that the skate park in Crowell Lot was shot down. Elm Street simply won’t have the same character, if it ever happens. We should learn to have faith in our youth. Otherwise fear trumps progress.


House Passes Welch Legislation Advancing Energy Efficiency In Schools

WASHINGTON DC—Last evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Peter Welch’s bipartisan legislation to encourage schools administrators to make cost-saving energy efficiency upgrades. The Streamlining Energy Efficiency for Schools Act, modeled after Vermont’s school-based energy efficiency efforts, is the second Welch-authored energy efficiency bill to pass the House this year.


Congressman Welch Joins Overwhelming House Vote To End Some NSA Activities

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch voted in favor of defund some of the NSA’s spying on innocent Americans yesterday. He added his support to a bill that stops the backdoor searches of information collected under the Section 702 program and blocks the NSA from mandating that tech companies add backdoors in their software or hardware.

The Senate and White House will need to approve, but a vote of 293-123 shows that the House, at least, is ready to curtail some of the NSA’s unnecessary activities. It’s the first time that Congress has acted to defund NSA activities since Edward Snowden gave documents to journalists just over a year ago. It’s a pretty solid vote, too, across party lines.


Oil Speculators Use Iraq as Excuse to Drive Up Prices – Sanders’ Bill Would Invoke Regulators’ Emergency Powers

WASHINGTON, June 19 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today accused oil companies and Wall Street speculators of using unrest in Iraq as a phony excuse to artificially drive up crude oil and gasoline prices.

The price of oil today rose above $115 a barrel – a new nine-month high on the New York Mercantile Exchange – ostensibly because of concerns that sectarian violence in Iraq could cut off the country’s exports. The price of regular gasoline rose to $3.67 a gallon today, up a nickel in the past month. That was despite the fact that today there is more supply and less demand for gasoline than five years ago, when the average price of a gallon of gas was just $2.67 a gallon.


The Great American Drug War: “A Problem That Will Not Go Away”

Getting inebriated is an intentional human behavior — it is not a mistake or an accident. Neither is it a mental health crisis. It is, in fact, perfectly normal human behavior well within the range of good mental health. Just like the drugs themselves, it is a question of degree (or percentage) of usage and effect.

Deeply ingrained in the desired effects of drug use is another perfectly normal human behavior: Moderation. In fact, moderation is the largest component of drug use behavior. It represents the behavior of up to 85-95% of all human drug use (…with one glaring exception – cigarettes, which run roughly at a 98-100% addiction rate).


Sanders Votes No as Senate Panel Backs Tar Sands Pipeline

WASHINGTON, June 18 – Over staunch opposition by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 12-10 for the construction of the Keystone Pipeline which would transport oil from the tar sands region in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

Sanders said extracting and refining “the dirtiest oil imaginable” would spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and worsen global warming.

Completing the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, would send a signal that the United States is unwilling to lead the way toward reversing global warming.