Monday, September 28, 2015
Was someone asking after the health of his sex organ? Sort of. The man, presumably circumcised, was responding in loud disagreement to a clutch of roadside activists protesting circumcision. They dressed to stop traffic in all-white clothing with blood-red patches over their crotches and signs showing babies and bearing slogans such as: "How Dare You Cut His Penis!"
Circumcision is performed on males, typically when they are newborns, and entails cutting the foreskin from the penis.
Concern about the practice and shifting recommendations from public health experts contributed to a drop in rates of circumcision in the U.S. between 1979 and 2010. It fell from 65 to 58 percent of male newborns over that time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Now the rate appears to be climbing back, possibly in response to research showing that circumcision can help reduce the spread of HIV and other STDs. Three years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its position on circumcision to offer stronger support. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also chimed in, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.
The anti-circ squad on the streets Monday remains dead-set against the practice. "It's really barbaric and harmful and babies scream like hell," said Franny Max of Montreal, as she stood in a white outfit waving a sign at traffic.
Tags: circumcision , south , burlington , american academy of pediatrics , centers for disease control , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
A worker there who flies a large Confederate flag on a personal vehicle is upsetting some coworkers who don't want the flag in the department's employee parking lot.
City administrators, though, say the flag is within the boundaries of free speech. The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union agrees.
When an employee started flying the flag recently, people noticed. It's a symbol of racism and hate, and it shouldn't be allowed in a city employee lot, said Tim Ahonen, a department code enforcement officer. He asked his boss, public works director Chapin Spencer, to order the flag removed.
Spencer replied that the employee has a right to fly the flag.
"I have checked with others in the city and we do not believe that we can prevent an employee from having a flag on their private car," Spencer told Ahonen via email. "The flag is a political statement that is in a public area as opposed to an enclosed work environment where employees are required to be to do their work. The analysis would be different if the employee wanted to put it on a plaque on his/her desk, for example."
Tags: Confederate , flag , Burlington , free , speech , Image , Web Only
Friday, September 18, 2015
But when Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton, emailed opposition research on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to the Huffington Post on Monday, it evidently failed to secure an agreement with a reporter that the source of the information would be kept off the record.
HuffPo wrote about the oppo dump — "A Pro-Clinton Super PAC Is Going Negative On Bernie Sanders" — and Sanders pounced.
"Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton's most prominent super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously," Sanders emailed supporters Tuesday, adding that it was "the kind of onslaught I expected to see from the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson." He called on supporters to "make the super PACs pay for attacking us" by contributing to his campaign.
They did. Within 48 hours, Sanders' campaign announced Thursday, it had raised $1.2 million off the attack.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Correct the Record , David Brock , Hillary Clinton , Huffington Post , government reform , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Thursday, September 17, 2015
According to a new poll conducted by the Castleton Polling Institute, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is tied for first place in the presidential race among Vermonters who identify as Republican or leaning Republican. The poll, conducted over the past three weeks, found that Sanders, businessman Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson each drew 12 percent of the GOP vote.
"He's the native son, so you expect a lot of support," institute director Rich Clark, who conducted the poll, says of Sanders. "But I didn't expect it to be as high among Republicans."
To be sure, Sanders is hardly walking away with the Republican vote. More than twice as many Vermont GOPers — 28 percent — say they're undecided. The rest are split between a fractured field, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who drew 8 percent, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who drew 6 percent.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Castleton Polling Institute , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Monday, September 14, 2015
No, not that one! It was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose liberal, secular worldview surely isn't shared by many students at the Lynchburg, Va., school founded by the late reverend Jerry Falwell Sr. The founder's son and successor, Jerry Falwell Jr., acknowledged as much when he introduced Sanders onstage at the school's weekly mandatory convocation.
"People have been asking, 'Well, are you going to be able to find any common ground with the senator?' And I think I did," Falwell said as he handed Sanders a Liberty soccer jersey. "I think, in the future, he's going to be a fan of the Liberty Flames. So we've already found some common ground, I hope."
Some, but not much. No sooner had Sanders thanked the chancellor for inviting him to Lynchburg than he articulated his differences with the school's conservative credo.
"Let me start off by acknowledging what I think all of you already know, and that is the views that many here at Liberty University have and [mine], on a number of important issues, are very, very different," Sanders said. "I believe in women's rights and the right of a woman to control her own body. I believe in gay rights and gay marriage. Those are my views and it is no secret."
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Wednesday, September 9, 2015
"There’s certainly an insurgency. An attractive candidate is basically calling out the Democrats, much the way I did in 2004," Dean told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday. "Bernie is a real phenomenon, not just a quirk of the polls."
Dean predicted Sanders' support eventually will wane — as Dean's did when he ran for president in 2004 — and Clinton will win the nomination.
"The problem with candidates like that — and like me — is that as you get closer to election time, you’re more careful about how your vote’s going to be used," Dean said. "You’re going to tend to want to see somebody who you think looks presidential as the nominee of your party. That’s one of the things that sank me. I knew that as an insurrectionist, I wasn’t going to get elected by my party to be the nominee. I just had a lot of trouble turning a corner from being an insurrectionist to being somebody who people could see as president."
The Washington Post is keen on the Dean camp's perspective on Sanders, having interviewed former Dean aide Joe Trippi a few weeks ago. Trippi indicated that establishment Democrats don't fear Sanders as they did Dean, which could help Sanders. "If they hadn't feared us ... and they hadn't all gone on the attack, we probably would have won Iowa," Trippi said.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Bits , Bernie Sanders , Howard Dean , Presidential Campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Friday, September 4, 2015
All the frivolity is meant to entice people to a serious cause: influencing Vermont’s elections and ultimately, its public policy. The event, from 2-6 p.m., is the launch party for Rights & Democracy, a left-leaning nonprofit organization that aims to bring a “political revolution” to Vermont in 2016.
Once the music has stopped and the barbecue has been digested, RAD plans to hit the streets and knock on doors with paid canvassers to support like-minded political candidates, said director James Haslam. He left his job running the Vermont Workers’ Center in July to start this venture.
“We are very much looking to have as big an impact as we can on the election next year,” Haslam said.
If Rights & Democracy succeeds, political candidates who sit anywhere right of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could find themselves in a fight.
The organization’s viewpoint might make some Republicans choke on their Cheerios. “The last thing we need is to continue in the direction we’re going and shifting further to the right,” Haslam said.
Tags: cannabis related , James Haslam , Peter Shumlin , Rights & Democracy , Senator , Shap Smith , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Burlington crossing guard Steve Norman says he has launched the group to spread the word about his favorite presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
"There are 50,000 school crossing guards in the country, mostly retirees, single moms and disabled folks — few if any [are] millionaires," Norman said, tapping into Sanders' man-of-the-people message.
The longtime lefty activist moved to Burlington in 1983 and has known Sanders since. Norman plans to take the first step toward spreading the word at roughly 4 p.m. Monday during the launch party for the new advocacy group Rights & Democracy in Burlington's Battery Park.
He should be easy to spot: He'll be wearing a bright orange vest and holding a stop sign.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , crossing guards , presidential campaign , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
When he was the mayor of Burlington, a congressman, and even after he became a U.S. Senator, this tidbit didn't lead to any raised eyebrows: Bernie Sanders applied for conscientious objector status back during the Vietnam War. Hardly seems out of character.
Now that Vermont's independent senator is vying to be president, that's getting a little more attention. The president, after all, has his or her finger on the button.
Can a conscientious objector be the commander in chief of the United States? That’s the question Vietnam veteran Steve Wikert of Iowa asked in a column published Tuesday in the Des Moines Register. Some national media outlets have picked up the story.
Sanders' application for conscientious objector status was denied — but not before he was too old to be drafted. That’s not breaking news, having been included in a Burlington Free Press profile in 2006, the year Sanders won a seat in the U.S. Senate. CNN also has included it in a list of “fast facts” about Sanders.
Sanders’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, confirmed that Sanders applied to be a conscientious objector. He told ABC News that Sanders was a pacifist as a college student in the 1960s but no longer is today.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , pacifism , conscientious objector , Vietnam War , Presidential Campaign , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Monday, August 31, 2015
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is closing in on Hillary Clinton in Iowa, according to a poll released on Saturday.
A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll shows 37 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers named Clinton as their first choice for president. Sanders got 30 percent. Vice President Joe Biden, reported to be contemplating entering the race, was at 14 percent. In May, the same pollster put Clinton at 57 percent and Sanders at 16 percent.
"It looks like what people call the 'era of inevitability' is over," said the pollster, J. Ann Selzer, according to Bloomberg Politics. "[Clinton] has lost a third of the support that she had in May, so any time you lose that much that quickly, it’s a wake-up call."
Sanders on Saturday appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and largely ducked a question from host Jake Tapper about the poll results.
"Not only in Iowa and New Hampshire but all over this country we are generating enormous enthusiasm," Sanders said.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Iowa , CNN , gun control , Presidential Campaign , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Video , Web Only