(An exceptionally well written and clearly stated state-of-the-world post from vtpeace with an appeal to participate in an upcoming demonstration in NYC. Good reading. – promoted by odum)

Republicans currently outnumber Democrats 231-201 in the (US) House and have a 55-44 advantage in the (US) Senate.  They will continue to take away our rights and deficit-spend as long as they hold the majority in both Houses.

Vermonters have the opportunity to add one Democrat to each chamber in November.  We can’t change the national numbers but we HAVE to protect ourselves.  Apologists like Douglas, Dubie and Rainville must be faced with the knowledge that we know how many ways Republican policies have hurt Vermonters and that they are out of the mainstream of Vermonters’ thinking. We face darker days ahead without massive changes in both our state and national governments.

Jim Douglas was perceived as fairly moderate until he ran for Governor, and was sucked into the vortex of evil by out of state campaign donors and the Republican power-brokers to become mini-me to his hero Bush.  His roles as Secretary of State and State Treasurer didn’t have much impact on national issues, but he did learn how to deflect the tough questions with his ‘oh, shucks’ persona firmly in place.

He advocates ‘fees’ instead of ‘tax increases’ .. sucks up to the Right to Lifers, controlling state employees’ right to testify to the legislature, sealing formerly public records .. mini-me!  Another puppet on Bush’s knee.

Rainville fell (too) easily from a campaign statement that  ‘some of the Republicans in control of the House seem to have lost their way,’  then quickly proceeded to accept the money and help from those same people.  BEWARE!  She’s saying what you want to hear, but if elected will follow the Republican agenda without question. ‘Moldable’ ethics .. Money talks. Picture a Trojan horse.

Republicans are big on secrecy (unless it’s in their best interest to selectively leak) .. and privacy (unless it’s someone else’s) … Justice William Brennan gave a lesson on the American Revolution. “A main precipitating cause of our revolution,” he said, “was the general search warrant that British customs officers wrote—without going to any court—to break into the American colonists’ homes and offices, looking for contraband.” 

Vermonters are seeing our privacy diminished again, but on a scale undreamed of by Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the other patriots in the Committees of Correspondence.  Our (reasonable) expectation of privacy that was part of our rule of law is vanishing.  We (the new Committees of Correspondence) blog to alert our fellow citizens to the scams and the Orwell-speak used by the Republicans to soothe us so we don’t question or dig a little deeper into what they’ve done or what their agenda really is.  Google the ‘Project for A New American Century’ for the military roadmap.  Note how all the authors were given power by Bush when he was selected by the Supreme Court in 2000. Note how their agenda has progressed in the past 5 years, and see where they want to go in the future.

“There was, of course, no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. . But at any rate they would plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and except in darkness, every movement scrutinized”. George Orwell

The Patriot Act allows the FBI to collect, — and share. — (without a judicial warrant) all kinds of personal information about you, from your doctors, your schools, your internet provider, your telephone company, your tax returns, your library book borrowing and bookstore purchases, to opening your personal mail; and then threatens to jail you (or your providers who were asked for that information) if you tell anyone about it, even your attorney.  Big Brother Bush has the ability and the chutzpah to see and listen to everything that goes on in your life.  You can’t stop it if you don’t speak out and change the regime to one that serves your own best interest.

‘These are the times that try (wo)mens’ souls’ .. we need to publicly put our bodies on the line to stop the dissolution of democracy and the next pre-emptive war with Iran. We can’t sit back and wait and then complain about it. 

Bus tickets are still available for the April 29th peace and justice demonstration in NYC.  Call Andy at 447-0829 or e-mail capnandy@adelphia.net  ($30 and leaving from Bennington at 7 a.m. that day),

or send a check for $50 made out to:  Central Vermont Peace and Justice, PO Box 845, Rutland VT 05701-0845 and include the following information:

The name(s) of the rider(s), The address(es) of the rider(s) — The email(s) of the rider(s)
  — The phone number(s) of the rider(s)and preferred pick-up location: Rutland or Middlebury

Peace,
Barbara