I'm running for the Vermont House.

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Monday June 09, 2014 · 2:18 PM PDT

2014/06/09 · 14:18

I've been poking around electoral politics here in Vermont since the early 1980s, when I began helping others get elected, chairing the county Democratic committee, and even serving as state field coordinator for a successful gubernatorial reelection campaign. People have asked me from time to time if/when I would take the plunge, but I never could because of my work. However, in the jobs I have had over the past 25-30 years, I have spent a whole lot of time at the Vermont State House. In recent years, it was on energy issues. Before that when I was in state government, it was anti-poverty issues, community action programs and energy efficiency and payment assistance programs too.

Well I retired a year ago, June 2013 to be exact, and one of the two incumbent Representatives in my two-member House district is not running again. He's been asking me for three years when I was going to retire. (Our other Representative is the Speaker of the House.) So last week I made it official with a press release, and this week I'm filing my petitions to get my name on the Democratic Primary ballot in August!

Poll

18 votes Show Results

For Representative, Lamoille-Washington district

18 votes Vote Now!

For Representative, Lamoille-Washington district

itzik shpitzik

10 votes

his alter ego

7 votes

write-in

1 vote

Gingrich and Romney: "Who's on first?"

itzik shpitzik

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Sunday January 29, 2012 · 11:17 AM PST

2012/01/29 · 11:17

This is not a diary. This is funny, however!

The thing about credit unions is: they're co-ops.

itzik shpitzik

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Friday November 11, 2011 · 12:33 PM PST

2011/11/11 · 12:33

Many recent diaries and comments have covered or celebrated the removal of funds from large banks and their transfer to smaller, more local financial institutions, primarily credit unions. I have been unable to participate in this massive funds transfer only because all of our savings, checking, mortgage, loans and MC/VISA have been at our credit union for years. Sincere congratulations and thanks to those who have made the move more recently in response to OWS!

The reason the overwhelming majority (nothing's ever 100%) of credit unions are the kind of place you'd want to put your money in, borrow from or otherwise do business with, is that they are cooperatives., a fact which has not been mentioned very often by diarists posting about the dramatic growth in membership and deposits in the past few weeks.

So, I thought I'd do a diary about what co-ops, credit unions included, are...

Poll

29 votes Show Results

Are you a member of a co-op & if so how many

29 votes Vote Now!

Are you a member of a co-op & if so how many

cooperation is not for me

1 vote

11 votes

12 votes

4 votes

0 votes

1 vote

We come in the age's most uncertain hour...

itzik shpitzik

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Saturday July 30, 2011 · 6:14 PM PDT

2011/07/30 · 18:14

... and sing and American Tune."

As we we were taking a break on the deck, watching the sunset and eating a blessed meal of local and homegrown food, my wife put on Willie Nelson's version of this song. So here's a diary with both Willie's and Paul Simon's renditions.

This in honor of my immigrant parents, patriots to the core. They would have certainly both been distressed by the idiocy and evil playing out in Congress right now. They loved this country, and that's how I still feel about it, somehow....

itzik shpitzik

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Friday July 29, 2011 · 5:11 AM PDT

2011/07/29 · 05:11

Ouch!

This story just out, from Time:

The Weak Speaker: How a Failed Debt Vote Disarmed the Nation's Top Republican
House Speaker John Boehner failed to muster enough GOP votes to pass his plan to raise the debt limit on Thursday night, throwing into question the fate of Boehner's proposal as well as that of his speakership. Republican leaders must now rewrite the legislation in order to attract more conservatives as they try to pass a revised version on Friday. But considerable damage has been done. Boehner's negotiating stance in the ongoing effort to trim deficits and raise the debt ceiling by next Tuesday's deadline is hobbled; any credibility he had in claiming that his restive members could get behind a consensus debt deal has vanished. The Speaker has gone lame.

itzik shpitzik

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Thursday April 29, 2010 · 5:43 AM PDT

2010/04/29 · 05:43

I wrote this a few years ago, and it is precisely that time of year again where I live:

itzik shpitzik

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Friday April 23, 2010 · 10:04 AM PDT

2010/04/23 · 10:04

While commenting elsewhere on Daily Kos earlier, I had a profound realization, about this whole chicken thing which has had this place in a hysterical, irrational frenzy since Tuesday.

While we may laugh and yuk it up here, as usual, the banksters, traders, capitalist robber barons, aided and abetted by their Republican puppets like Sue Lowden in Nevada, are way ahead of us. They have probably reached right into our wallets once again without us feeling a thing, shaking with mirth as we have been these past few days.

Poll

83 votes Show Results

When it comes to corporate greed, Republicans are always smarter than people like us.

83 votes Vote Now!

When it comes to corporate greed, Republicans are always smarter than people like us.

Yes

58 votes

14 votes

Switching parties

11 votes

The wonders of landfill methane! Take a tour right here!

itzik shpitzik

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Tuesday March 09, 2010 · 1:52 PM PST

2010/03/09 · 13:52

Washington Electric Co-op (WEC) has produced a video tour of its landfill methane generating plant in Coventry, Vermont. The ten minute video was recorded during an open house held at the plant on November 4, 2009, and follows the tour actually given to visitors on that day.

Read all about landfill methane and take the tour below the fold.

itzik shpitzik

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Monday January 25, 2010 · 6:25 PM PST

2010/01/25 · 18:25

You can disagree or agree with what's being proposed, in whole or in part, but a freeze built on the big spending increases that occurred in 2010 in the budget and the stimulus bill (ARRA)are not "Hooverism." They are not what McCain or other Republicans proposed in early 2009 when they were fighting against ARRA and the proposed budget increases.

Below the fold, an excerpt from the current AP story.

itzik shpitzik

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Thursday December 31, 2009 · 8:20 AM PST

2009/12/31 · 08:20

A lead story earlier this week in our local paper, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus got me angry at the Boy Scouts of America, and their so-called "policy" regarding gay people.

Two women who are long-time partners, and whose son has been a Cub Scout for a while, were told they could not be "leaders" in scout activities because of their sexual orientation, which (I guess it goes without saying from the BSA's perspective) would undoubtedly result in them "pushing their lifestyle" on the boys.

Our own kids are way past scout age and had no interest in it when they were younger. I'm straight and this story has no direct impact on me other than it pissed me off. It also reminded me of a story from my own youth, where I was almost refused admission to the Cub Scouts because of my religion, or lack thereof.

itzik shpitzik

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Monday December 28, 2009 · 5:40 AM PST

2009/12/28 · 05:40

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released its annual state-by-state survey on the importance of religion, worship attendance, frequency of prayer and belief in God.

Which of the 50 states has the most religious population? Since there are many ways to define "religious," there is no single answer to this question. But to give a sense of how the states stack up, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life used polling data to rank them on four measures: the importance of religion in people's lives, frequency of attendance at worship services, frequency of prayer and absolute certainty of belief in God. Mississippi stands out on all four, and several other Southern states also rank very high on the measures.

I am ~~proud~~ ~~amused~~ obliged to report that the state(s) at the opposite end of the spectrum, .i.e., least religious, are a combo Vermont/New Hampshire. Other irreligious states competing for low rankings are Alaska, and Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut/RI (with the rankings shifting slightly depending on the question

Poll

285 votes Show Results

Are you surprised by your state's ranking?

285 votes Vote Now!

Are you surprised by your state's ranking?

Yes

32 votes

207 votes

Yes and No

20 votes

I don't believe the ranking. There must be some mistake.

0 votes

God's wrath will rain down upon me if I answer.

26 votes

My father the pragmatic socialist doctor....

itzik shpitzik

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Thursday December 24, 2009 · 8:08 AM PST

2009/12/24 · 08:08

...would have been pleased with his adopted country today.

He was basically thrown out of the Bronx County Medical Association in the early 1960s for speaking to senior groups in favor of the controversial new proposal for something called Medicare.

He died in 1972, but I know he would have been frustrated and pissed all these years that we hadn't taken the next step.

He would also have been disappointed that in 2009-2010 we're still unable to go for it all the way. But he was a pragmatist. He became a doctor because of his ideals and his belief in building a better world. I know he would have said "pass the bill!"

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I'm running for the Vermont House.

Gingrich and Romney: "Who's on first?"

The thing about credit unions is: they're co-ops.

We come in the age's most uncertain hour...

Time says: "The Speaker Has Gone Lame"

Springtime poem for a dog

I think we've been bamboozled, about the chickens.

The wonders of landfill methane! Take a tour right here!

This is not "Hooverism." Gimme a break....

F*#!!!g Cub Scouts!

Least & most religious states. Where's yours rank?

My father the pragmatic socialist doctor....