As goes NH, there goes the nation?

NH Republicans elect Tea Party activist to lead them to 2012.

At least there is the Connecticut River between the two states to distinguish us... VT gets thinner at the bottom, NH thinner up at the top. Make of it as you may :)

Lord have mercy on us all.

Venting

So the conservative block in the House wants to cut education, Amtrak, foreign aid, the Washington Metro... cuts that would put Amtrak out of business and education???

And people wonder why the US falls behind so many other countries in educational standards and has such feeble public transportation?

At least there still are the Senate and President to put an end to such nonsense... if the House Republicans are serious about cutting the deficit they can take the symbolic step of cutting out their health insurance and cutting their salaries to levels that most people get.

What is beyond me is why people vote for quacks like this... just where and when did the deficit come from? Hm?

Pathetic. it is going to be a very long two years.The old depression pre-2009 is back again full force.

Is this any surprise?

No point in wasting energy or emotion in invective. Suffice to say that I think the party in the majority is way, way, way off course. Next they will vote to reinstate DODT. After that, make sure all those people who make a ton of money get more tax breaks... and on and on. Pathetic.

Grismal January

This silly flamingo has a brief sojourn outside but given the absolutely awful weather outside, I brought it back into the garage to winter over until the weather is more temperate.

Said flamingo is a gift from someone up north... now the giver is talking about finding company for the bird. Oh my.

Just some brevity and levity on a grismal day when the promised snow turned out to be sleet and freezing rain instead.

Still alive

Just not posting all that much...

A grey day in Vermont after a mid-week snowfall — not nearly as much as folks got down in Connecticut or even southern, southern Vermont (Wilmington VT got 36 inches whereas we got 10 or so). There is talk of rain next week, oh joy.

Ruminating on the events of the past week, realising that Vermont only gets a score of 8 from the Brady Foundation (as in James Brady's group for gun control), thinking that trying to have a reasoned, sane and non-visceral conversation about gun control is about as successful as having one about marriage equality.


I think about how such carnage could happen anywhere, here in Vermont. Here's a photo taken last July of my talking with Vermont's lone representative, Peter Welch. Given how loose Vermont's gun laws are, the same sort of thing could have happened, though the rhetorical temperature is much lower here than in Arizona.


What a difference several thousand miles make. Both states are border states but there is nowhere near the anxiety about it because it is true, who wants to come into Vermont? I still marvel at the open border that we crossed when we walked into Canada in September.

In any event, I don't hold much hope for the tenor of political discourse cranking down. And off on a slight tangent, I don't know how I am going to be able to stand two years of the Speaker of the House boohooing all the time. Get a grip.