“Vermonter” Neil Jensen has been blogging about Barack Obama longer than anyone else I know. This election has been a long haul for many of us, but Neil has really been at it for a long time, and while it’s still not quite over, he has finally managed to at least fill in the little oval next to his candidate’s name. Congratulations, Neil.

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JD labeled this video “part 1…”

…and this one “part 3.” Not sure where part 2 has gotten off to…

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And here, JD tapes Hilary’s historic halting of the roll call…

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Here is JD, as captured by the lens of Philip Baruth, last night in Denver [note the tiny Flip video camera in his hands].

Philip writes:

But even J.D. Ryan, noted skeptic and embedded blogger, grudged a half-smile. And for J.D. Ryan, that’s equivalent to an entire Broadway musical. An entire Broadway musical made up entirely of ABBA tunes.

I spied Philip myself very briefly in a crowd shot on MSNBC last night during Michelle Obama’s speech. He appeared to be with fellow Vermonters Madeleine Kunin and Patrick Leahy, but the shot was only on for a 1/2 second, so I can’t be sure it was actually Pat and not some other distinguished-looking bald man in the VT section.

Here are some unedited clips as filed by JD on his first evening at the convention.  His email was apologetic that he didn’t upload more, but he was going on 36 hours without sleep!  Get some sleep, man!

That last one was an interview with Allison from first-draft.com. I just wanted to get that link in here — we bloggers have to stick together!

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The Democratic National Convention is being held this week in Denver and a strong contingent of Vermonters are in attendance, many of who will be blogging and videoblogging their way through the event.

Exit Voices even has a correspondent on-site!  J.D. Ryan, a Vermont political blogger for Green Mountain Daily and his own Five Before Chaos blog is in Denver this week carrying around a little video camera that we provided for him.  He’ll be posting snippets of his adventures on a (hopefully) daily basis this week, so stay tuned!

J.D. is hartdly the only Vermont blogger to keep your eyes on though.  Fellow GMD blogger John Odum has his own camera and will be video blogging at the behest of zannel.com — his first post is up already, so go check it out!  Vermont Daily Briefing’s Philip Baruth is gracing the Burlington Free Press’ website with his own special convention blog, The Deal in Denver.

Christian Avard is in Denver doing some writing for The Huffington Post, and Kevin Kelly will be blogging about his Denver exploits at Seven Days’ staff blog, Blurt.

There’s more too!  Check out this GMD post for a rundown, and keep a browser tab open to Exit Voices for J.D.’s exclusive coverage.  (Did I just write “exclusive coverage?” That’s so cool!)

Of course, The convention is mostly a planned affair and few surprises are expected, but it will be interesting to follow the perspectives of all of these Vermonters who are so deeply committed to politics.

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It’s late August.  The nominees have been selected in what has been the longest presidential campaign in American history.  The national party conventions are upon us, and here in Vermont, the three-way gubernatorial race is on.

Exit Voices is coming back online, gearing up for November 4th.  Between now and then we’ll be posting about national and Vermont politics as seen through the lens of the Vermont political blogosphere.

There’s lots to talk about Vermont-blogging-wise.  John Odum and JD Ryan will be travelling to Denver next week as official Vermont bloggers, hanging out with the Vermont delegation on the convention floor of  the Democratic National Convention.  Vermont Daily Briefing blogger, Philip Baruth, will be there too as a delegate for Obama.  And Steve “The Carpetbagger Report” Benen  is leaving his 4 1/2 year-old blog on Friday to write full-time for Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog. Congratulations, Steve.

Stay tuned and say hello in the comments!

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Yesterday the Burlington Free Press ran a story about how the state shut down the Burlington Intervale composting operation due to “pollution concerns” and “recently mandated permits.” Today on Green Mountain Daily, a flurry of comments has appeared following blog moderator John Odum’s post on the subject. Odum writes…

the problem was that [Governor Douglas and ANR Secretary George Crombie] were dealing with environmentalists, and unlike their GOP business buddies who might mutter and fume about having to cowtow to the tree-huggers, the folks at the Intervale were fully and humbly prepared to comply - providing, in the process, an example to others.

That would never do for Douglas. So what does he have Crombie do? Revoke the Intervale’s classification as a farm, retroactively making it subject to all the Act 250 provisions it had never built into its business plan. The new, unexpected burdens - particularly ones relating to concerns about possible siting on archeological sites - suddenly dumped never-accounted for costs that, with an unfriendly agency, would clearly go well into six figures.

If you’re still entertaining the notion that this wasn’t a political hit job, consider the rumor in circulation that I was able to confirm with a source close enough to know. In a conversation with the Intervale Director, Crombie openly gloated that he had the Intervale “in a noose” and wasn’t about to let go.

That’s right. He actually said “in a noose.”

There’s an active discussion raging in the comments section of this post, including this comment from author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben…

Shouldn’t this be a big campaign issue? Shouldn’t Anthony Pollina be holding a press conference out on top of the intervale compost pile today? (or, for that matter, Peter Galbraith?). Isn’t this a chance to knock the nice-guy moniker off jim douglas? And to remind folks what an anti-environmentalist he’s proved to be? Shouldn’t there be bumperstickers that say: ’save the intervale–fire douglas’. Shouldn’t everyone be pointing out how this threatens 7 or 8 % of burlington’s fresh food supply? Can’t we have some pictures of what the intervale used to look like (i.e., informal dumping ground)? Can’t we have pictures contrasting the intervale with the kind of development douglas thinks is environmentally sensible (the st. albans walmart). can’t someone organize around this?

This is a freedom-to-farm issue, a local agriculture issue, a revitalized cities issue, a healthy food issue, an abuse-of-power issue. It’s a dirty trick that will impact lots of people. Don’t campaigns pray for this kind of opportunity?

Click here to read the full post and all of the comments.

See also this post by Burlington blogger Charity Tensel and this Vermont Tiger piece by Geoff Norman (which also has a good comments section brewing).

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Broadsides‘ Michael Colby has a post up today that’s critical of the leading Democratic presidential candidates.  According to Colby, Obama’s appeal is all about his rhetoric, but when it comes to issues, he’s just another craven politician.  Colby writes…

There is apparently no end to the suspension of logic. But I guess we already know that since the dominant theme of the apparent winner of the Dem Oz-fest is the “man of hope,” Obama. At least he’s being honest. He’s not talking about accomplishments. Revolution. Systematic overhaul. Peace. Or any such measure of true change. Nope, just hope. And the crowds go wild, tap, tap tapping away….

All this hope comes from a most distinguished place of privilege too. If you’ve got a couple of years to do little but hope you certainly aren’t amongst those who are dodging bullets and IEDs in Baghdad. Or amongst those who are drowning in the financial atrocities of the subprime fiasco. Or amongst those who are so marginalized by the workforce that they no longer even qualify to be counted in unemployment numbers. And just try to send a hopeful note to your insurance corporation seeking an extension on the policy you can no longer afford. Good luck with that.

Sorry, but hope works better on a bumpersticker.

Read Colby’s entire post here.

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With the recent passing of noted conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr., many media outlets and bloggers are looking back on Buckley’s career and offering their perspectives on the man and his legacy.  Here are two Vermont bloggers’ reactions to the news of Buckley’s passing…

JD Ryan from Five Before Chaos writes:

I can’t help but see something symbolic in his death in the way it relates to the conservative movement today.

Norman Mailer:

“No other act can project simultaneous hints that he is in the act of playing Commodore of the Yacht Club, Joseph Goebbels, Robert Mitchum, Maverick, Savonarola, the nice prep school kid next door, and the snows of yesteryear,” Mr. Mailer said in an interview with Harpers in 1967.

Good riddance to a both eloquent and deplorable man.

And Vermont Tiger’s Jon Harrison writes:

Bill Buckley died yesterday. In the second half of the 20th century, Buckley, along with Milton Friedman, was one of the two most influential public intellectuals on the Right. When Buckley started National Review in 1955, the conservative movement in America was fractured and without influence. Twenty-five years later, it rode into the White House with Ronald Reagan. Only Reagan himself deserves more credit for that victory than Buckley.

I grew up watching Buckley’s PBS program, Firing Line. It was for years the best program on TV. It contributed greatly to my intellectual coming of age. Buckley was simply the best thing to happen to conservatism in a long, long time. He will be sorely missed.

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