Vermonter.com

Welcome to the new boss. Same as the old boss?

IBM takes the money and runs. Americans, don’t you really feel sorry for IBM? Apparently, the feelings aren’t mutual. Here comes that great “sucking sound” again, of jobs leaving the USA that Ross Perot warned us about a few years ago:

Washington – Computer giant IBM plans to cut a “large number” of US employees in its business services unit and transfer their duties to India, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the situation,” said that IBM generally avoids public disclosure of layoffs and the number of US jobs being eliminated could not be determined.

It said that earlier this year, IBM sent notices of layoffs to around 4,600 employees in its software, sales, semiconductor and finance groups.

The Journal, citing an internal document, said the global business services group targeted for layoffs is the largest at IBM in terms of revenue and employment, with 180,000 employees worldwide.

The newspaper said IBM had 398,500 workers worldwide at the end of 2008 and 115,000 in the United States, down from 121,000 at the end of 2007.

IBM is one of the few major corporations to have weathered the global economic showdown and ended 2008 with 12.9 billion dollars in cash and marketable securities in hand.

Battlestar Galactica (the new version, not the campy old 70′s series) debuted it’s final show last Friday night, after a 4 year run. It was arguably the best show on television and ranks right up there with the Sopranos and many other classic TV shows. Now it’s gone and there isn’t much reason to stay home and watch TV.

Hmm, maybe that’s why people drink so much and frequent the bars on the weekend? Unfortunately, many great TV shows have passed on replaced by crap like all those so-called reality shows and a dozen variations of CSI and those other medical shows. All of which are about as enjoyable as appendicitis.
So what are we left with? The Ghost Whisperer (aka the “Boob Whisperer”)? Sorry, not worth the wait. Fortunately, warm weather is around the corner and it’s a great time to get our fat butts off the couch.
Can Tony Soprano and Admiral Adama do for the American weight problem what others could not? Maybe. With the crap that’s on TV these days, we may all have to just close the refrigerator door and go out for a walk.
So say we all!

On February 20 members of the Vermont House of Representatives voted 88 to 50 not to take a 5-percent pay cut. Fast forward in time and now there is a bill in the works that, if passed, will pay for a laptop for every legislator – apparently from the pockets of taxpayers.

During the debate about whether to accept a pay cut, most of those who spoke in favor of the cut insisted that in such dire times, when so many Vermonters are making sacrifices, that legislators should also make sacrifices. However, of those who voted against the cut, most of those who spoke insisted that they work far too hard for anybody to think they should be paid any less than the pay they already earn serving in legislature.

There is now a bill creeping forward, which if passed, will provide each legislator a laptop computer – apparently courtesy of Vermont taxpayers. House bill 385 is sponsored by four Democrats, all who voted against the pay cut. They are Ken Atkins of Winooski, Richard Howigan of Fairfield, Tim Jerman of Essex, and Kathy Keenan of St. Albans City. The following is the “statement of purpose” as recorded on the bill.

“This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.”

If this bill comes up for debate on the House Floor it will certainly be interesting to know why the legislators promoting this bill think we all need a laptop computer at taxpayer expense when many taxpayers can’t afford their own.

To find out how your legislators voted on various “roll call” votes, votes that are recorded, go to www.leg.state.vt.us.

The author of this article, Scott Wheeler of Derby, represents Brownington, Charleston, Derby, Holland, and Morgan in the Vermont House. He serves this district along with Representative Robert Lewis of Derby.

Unbelievable. Despite a deepening recession and 100′s of people losing their jobs in Vermont, the Democrats refused a pay cut and now want Vermont taxpayers to buy them laptops. To add insult to injury, Democrats are also proposing new taxes to take money from YOUR pocket. I guess it’s ok for Vermont legislators to take your hard earned money but they certainly don’t want to part with theirs!

From the VTGOP newsletter:

Just 2 weeks ago, House Democrats voted against cutting their own pay by 5%, but now some in the Democratic caucus want you, the taxpayer, to buy them their very own laptop computer. See the text of the bill below. You just can’t make this up.

BILL AS INTRODUCED
H.385
2009
Page 1

1 H.385
2 SHORT FORM
3 Introduced by Representatives Atkins of Winooski, Howrigan of Fairfield,
4 Jerman of Essex and Keenan of St. Albans City
5 Referred to Committee on
6 Date:
7 Subject: Appropriations; legislature; laptops
8 Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to appropriate sufficient funds for the
9 purchase of laptop computers for every member of the general assembly.
10 An act relating to laptops for legislators
11 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
12 (TEXT OMITTED IN SHORT-FORM BILLS)

Please forward this to your friends and family or take the time to contact your legislator. It is up to us to show Vermonters how out of touch the Democrats in the Legislature really are.

The Dandelion Run is a competitive and recreational half marathon relay event for runners of all ages and all abilities along roads passing through the Northeast Kingdom’s world famous fields of dandelions – one of ten geotourism areas in the world specially designated by National Geographic. To some, there is nothing more beautiful than the sight of uncut green fields blanketed with thousands and thousands of dandelions. It’s May! It’s time to run! Just for the fun of it!

This is a charity run to support the Orleans County Victim Assistance Fund and to support free, public access to IROC’s 1/10th of a mile padded, low impact, Rotary Walking Track.

The run will start at the Derby Beach House on the 4-H Road at Lake Salem, in Derby, Vermont. Runners will head east on Route 111 toward Morgan, South on the Gore Road, and then West on Route 105 to the Village of Derby Center and back to the Beach House. Total distance: 14 miles even. Relay stations will be available at 3.5, 7, and 10.5 mile points. Run the whole event, or enter as a team of 2 or 4 runners.

Registration is open now. Early registration is encouraged to help us plan the event. Register by May 1st to get your free T-Shirt commemorating the event. The run will start promptly at 9:00 am on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at the Derby Beach House on the 4-H Road at Lake Salem in Derby, Vermont. Sign in starts at 7:30 am.

Most everyone in Vermont is familiar with Green Mountain Coffee, Starbucks, etc. but one of the best VT gourmet coffee roasters you may not have heard of is Brown & Jenkins Trading Company, located in the small, picturesque town of Cambridge, VT. I had the opportunity to visit with the owners a couple weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by their freshly roasted and brewed coffee. The moment you walk in the door, the aroma of flavored coffee beans grabs your attention.

They’ve been in business since 1984 and sell most of their fresh coffee online at www.brownandjenkins.com. They have a “coffee club” and offer private branding, which is a great way to start a mini-coffee business of your own. If you’re driving through Cambridge, they’re up on the hill at the curve. Prepare yourself for a “damn good cup of coffee”!

It’s that most wonderful time of year again, or so the nation’s retailers would like to believe. Santa Claus is going to have some rough sledding this year along with the rest of us. Fortunately, he hasn’t begged for a bail-out like the rest of the corrupt institutions have.
What’s with this Secretary of the Treasury Paulson guy anyway? Looks like he slid one in under everyone’s noses to allow the big-wig bankers to line their pockets yet again with bonuses…courtesy of the taxpayers and folks about to lose their jobs. Is it time to warm up the tar and feathers yet?

Merry Christmas to all who can afford it. For the rest of us, maybe it’s time to get back to basics and forget about all the commercialized, politically correct, generic “holidays” they’ve replaced Christmas with. If you’ve got a job, a warm place to stay and are holding steady, consider yourself lucky.

I was watching Little House on the Prairie the other day and was amused by the presents they received on Christmas Day. A sweater, a scarf and a couple other items…that’s it. The most interesting part of all was that the kids were actually excited and thankful for what they received. Can you imagine giving out gifts like that these days? After all, everyone knows that anything less than a $200 iPod or $400 Wii would be a major disappointment. Might this cause junior to wreak havoc upon his schoolmates or prompt the Hannah Montana crowd into dressing like pre-teen prostitutes? Hmm, I forgot. We already have that anyway.

Maybe 2009 would be a good year to get back to basics and be thankful about what we already have and how to keep it. For a long time now, people have been buying too much of what they don’t need with money they didn’t have in the first place. Companies and families don’t need a “bail-out”. They need a “reality check”.

If you’ve driven along Rte 7. through Shelburne Village during fall foliage season, you’ve probably seen the (in)famous “Leaf People”. They were a sporadically placed group of colorful scarecrows strategically placed close the the roadside by business people in Shelburne. During the day, the leaf people with their beads, hats and clothing from what appeared to be a thrift shop, welcomed people to town with a stationary wave and a smile. The problem is (according to local news reports) that they were within the highway right of way and therefore illegal. I’ve always said that most criminals are dummies but in this case, its entirely true. However, the leaf people weren’t a malicious lot and were probably a lot safer than some of the human “dummies” walking or biking along the roadside in a careless manner.
I can see where CCTA bus drivers would occasionally be fooled into thinking that the leaf people were flagging them down for a ride. With the leafy folks so close to the road, often times, they looked like real people.
(Read on …)

More bad news from IBM in Essex Jct. as (at least) 100 people lose their jobs. Rumors are that more layoffs are on the way but only Big Blue knows for sure. Election Day this year will mark a much more personal experience for some than the Presidential election. The local talk is that IBM’s days in Vermont are numbered but discussion with some who work at IBM say they are busier than ever. In any case, the layoffs might be a bellwether of things to come, which doesn’t look promising for any Vermonter. As anyone in Vermont knows, good paying manufacturing jobs are on their way out and low paying service jobs don’t pay the mortgage.