Party Like It’s 2008 - New York Times (by Frank Rich)

While I often disagree with Frank Rich, this piece is a very incisive analysis of this year's political realities missed by many pundits and cable talking heads. An excerpt follows, but the whole column is worth reading.

"...For five years boomers have been asking, “Why are the kids not in the streets screaming about the war the way we were?” The simple answer: no draft. But as Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais show in “Millennial Makeover,” their book about the post-1982 American generation, that energy has been plowed into quieter social activism and grand-scale social networking, often linked on the same Web page. The millennials’ bottom-up digital superstructure was there to be mined, for an amalgam of political organizing, fund-raising and fun, and Mr. Obama’s camp knew how to work it. The part of the press that can’t tell the difference between Facebook and, say, AOL, was too busy salivating over the Clintons’ vintage 1990s roster of fat-cat donors to hear the major earthquake rumbling underground.

Party Like It’s 2008 - New York Times

Vermont Chamber of Commerce- Legislative Summary

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has stated the following at the close of the 2008 session. I have inserted my comments within theirs.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce began the 2008 legislative session with hopes that important issues confronting Vermont businesses would be addressed, and that the legislators would enact:
· Meaningful workers' compensation reform
· A lessening of the tax burden
· An improvement in the cost of doing business in the state
· Housing Incentives
· Solutions to the shortfall in the transportation fund

While the issues of workers' compensation and housing were addressed by the legislature, the legislation that was produced, falls far short of the actual needs of the state and businesses. [Absolutely correct!] Furthermore, while there were several budget cuts, work on serious government spending reductions was left behind. [The present Legislature does not have the stomach for serious reduction in the budget.]

It is widely known that Vermont faces substantial and difficult financial choices in the near future. The shortfalls in: Medicaid funding, transportation infrastructure, and anticipated shortfalls in the education fund all require a need for hundreds of millions of dollars [Where is the leadership in the executive or Legislative branch to really get serious. It seems elections are more important that the welfare of Vermont].

The focus this past session was on increasing revenue for the state. While Vermont has a tax problem, [Vermont has no rational tax policy; every funding scheme seems to be ad hoc.] the state has an equally harmful spending problem [Vermont's legislative culture for the past few years has been to 'find revenue' rather than deal with the issues that can help us to have a health economy].

  The actions of state government do not take place in a bubble, and tough decisions must be made - soon [The Legislature missed an opportunity last session to deal with real issues].  It is imperative that the decisions bring with them a heavy dose of public program prioritization and spending cuts, if Vermont's business climate is to improve in the years to come. [Absolutely correct; we need to elect legislators who understand and believe this in their bellies.]

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce appreciates the effort made by the Administration and Legislators, and we realize that it is not an easy job to balance the wishes of all groups. We look forward to implementing the good work that was done this year and will continue to advocate for businesses, with the reduction in government spending at the forefront. [Palaver and salve will not help the cultural and ideological problem. Different legislators are needed]

The Cognitive Age - New York Times

David Brooks continues to display the keen insights that many other commentators miss. As he points out, the free flow of capital and information worldwide is inherently responsible for the phenomenon we call 'globalization,' Sure, countries like China and India have an advantage of cheaper labor, but more importantly, they are absorbing and capitalizing on the notion that education and creativity lead to economic growth.

They struggle, too, with the cultural and political upheavals that the new wealth creates. I believe they will continue to do so. But the U.S. must embrace the reality that if we squander our young people or ourselves by embracing the Hollywood or TV entertainment beast or allow our education system to founder on the shoals of bureaucracy we will quickly become second rate among the world's nations.

"The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.

The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches — the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information? Does he or she have the training to exploit it? Are there cultural assumptions that distort the way it is perceived?

...If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner."

The Cognitive Age - New York Times

Douglas Proposes Economic Stimulus Package

Below is from the Burlington Free press on April 20. 2008. The hopeful sign is that our government in Montpelier is finally, if belatedly, recognizing that they should be focusing on important economic and fiscal issues, rather than dithering about minutiae and global issues over which they have little or no control.

DOUGLAS' ECONOMIC PROPOSAL

Highlights of Gov. Jim Douglas' proposed economic stimulus package, which he released Saturday: $80 million in new bonding over five years for road and bridge repairs; $17.4 million in bonds purchased by the state retirement funds to help fund purchases of manufactured homes, downpayments, closing costs and repairs for first-time home buyers; a weekendlong sales-tax holiday at a cost of $1.9 million to the state; a weeklong sales-tax holiday on energy-efficient appliances at a cost of $100,000 to the state ; opportunity zones where employers could lease vacant industrial facilities tax-free; up to $10 million in economic tax credits for businesses that use environmentally friendly processes or create environmentally friendly technology; $18 million in low-interest loans for business expansion and creation; payroll tax credits for manufacturers in areas of the state with the highest unemployment; increased sales of timber from state land to help Vermont's wood-products industry; toll-free advice at 888-568-4547 for Vermonters who face foreclosure and help in negotiating a 60-day grace period with lenders.

AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010 - CNET News.com

I can't believe this statement by Cicconi at AT&T can be true. There must be a misprint. It's certainly true that bandwidth demands are increasing rapidly, but not this rapidly! Further follow up in a story in USA Today has the quote referring to the "...the entire Internet in 1995." This is more realistic because the Internet was far less pervasive 13 years ago.

"The surge in online content is at the center of the most dramatic changes affecting the Internet today," he said. "In three years' time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today."

AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010 - CNET News.com

The Low Country of South Carolina - Edisto Island

We were guests at The Old Brick House location beside Russell Creek, a tidal arm on Edisto Island outside Charleston, SC, on Saturday and Sunday, April 13-14, 2008. What a wonderfully, peaceful place where the tides and the sun determine the pace of life under the live oaks.

Thanks Bill, Marguerite and others for your hospitality and welcoming!!

More on the Old Brick House Plantation here.

Nomads at last | Economist.com

This piece aptly point out how the world is changing based on its embrace of internet access and all that implies on small mobile devices. Broadband access via Verizon's EVDO Rev. A service while traveling in our RV has been really good and getting better since 20o6.

However, I use a laptop for access. What I really want is a handheld device that will allow me to access Gmail and a host of other Google apps while traveling at Interstate speeds, if need be.

I know this will come, but right now I have not found the solution I want. Perhaps a new generation of devices and Verizon's deployment of 4G LTE using its newly acquired 700 MHz spectrum is what I must wait for. Four years seems an eternity!

Nomads at last | Economist.com

Tech.view | Going, going, gone | Economist.com

The Economist has a dim view of the recent FCC spectrum auction because, in their opinion, it results in the airwaves being not open enough compared to conditions elsewhere in the world.

It remains to be seen if they're right.

Tech.view | Going, going, gone | Economist.com

2008 VT 39

2008 VT 39 Vermont Supreme Court Rules on Aerial Surveillance as an Intrusion on Privacy

Justice Dooley argues that the Supreme Court's decision is flawed by its overly broad interpretation of law in a marijuana conviction (overturned). The case involved a low level helicopter flight (no warrant for the flight) that identified plots of marijuana grown by the defendant close to his home on private property adjacent to a national forest.

Dooley is right that this broad decision is not serving the interests of law enforcement nor anyone else. I was particularly struck by the quote from 'Professor LaFave' that Dooley uses:

"My disagreement with the majority lies in its assertion that it has written “narrowly” by refraining from ruling based on the altitude of the helicopter and by  relying instead upon the totality of the circumstances.  By relying on a multitude of factors, most of which are irrelevant to whether a search occurred here, and by refusing to assign any particular weight to any factor, the majority has painted with the broadest brush imaginable, far broader than any other court in the land.  Every factor the majority introduces into the analysis makes the grounds for its decision broader.  This is not narrow decision making.  Increasingly, we are using rationales in Article 11 cases that require the intervention of this Court before it can be determined whether law enforcement conduct was lawful, because no law-enforcement officer, citizen, or trial court judge could ever predict what we will ultimately decide.  Professor LaFave has explained the problem with an approach like the majority’s as follows:

  The basic premise is that Fourth Amendment doctrine, given force and effect by the exclusionary rule, is primarily intended to regulate the police in their day-to-day activities and thus ought to be expressed in terms which are readily applicable by the police in the context of the law enforcement activities in which they are necessarily engaged. A highly sophisticated set of rules, qualified by all sorts of ifs, ands and buts and requiring the drawing of subtle nuances and hairline distinctions,  may be the sort of heady stuff upon which the facile minds of lawyers and judges eagerly feed, but they may be literally impossible of application by the officer in the field.

   If the rules are impossible of application by the police, the result may be the sustaining of motions to suppress on Fourth Amendment grounds with some regularity, but this can hardly be taken as proof that the people are secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Rather, that security can only be realized if the police are acting under a set of rules which, in most instances, make it possible to reach a correct determination beforehand as to whether an invasion of privacy is justified in the interest of law enforcement.  In short, we must resist the understandable temptation to be responsive to every relevant shading of every relevant variation of every relevant complexity lest we end up with a [F]fourth [A]mendment with all of the character and consistency of a Rorschach blot.

2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 5.2(c), at 448-49 (2d ed. 1987) (footnotes and internal quotations omitted).  The rule announced by the majority today falls into precisely the trap Professor LaFave outlines.  No one, be it the trial courts, law-enforcement officers, or the citizens of this State will consistently be able “to reach a correct determination beforehand as to whether an invasion of privacy is justified” under similar circumstances.  Id.   I do not think we administer justice with such an approach, and we hardly guarantee to “the people” that they will be secure in “their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”  Id. (quotations omitted).

¶  64. I would reverse and remand, but on a much narrower rationale, fully consistent with the precedents from this Court and courts in other jurisdictions, thus giving better guidance to trial courts, ordinary citizens, and law enforcement.  Thus, although I concur that the helicopter observation violated defendant’s rights,  I cannot approve of the majority’s mode of constitutional analysis or of the remedy it imposes.

(Emphasis added by dju)

2008 VT 39

Bravo Freep!

Today's editorial in the Burlington Free Press exposes the flaws in the affordable housing bill under discussion in the Legislature.

"...Housing within the reach of a broad range of incomes is key to ensuring prosperity in Vermont. Too often, we hear the cost of housing as among the reasons why an employer is unable to attract employees to fill an available job.

The only way housing prices will come down is if the supply increases or the demand falls. The latter would signal trouble because an economic slowdown is the usual reason behind falling demand. That leaves building more homes as the preferred solution.

Vermont has done a pretty good job of balancing the need for growth and protecting open lands that help define the state's character and image. That must continue. But in order to deal with the state's housing problem, those Vermonters who see growth as somehow diminishing the quality of life here need to get over the notion that development is a dirty word. "

Kudos to the Free Press editorial board for getting it right!