( – promoted by odum)

The freedom of the internet is at stake right now in Congress.  Voting will be soon; we don’t have much time.  We need to ensure ‘net neutrality,’ otherwise network owners like AOL, Comcast and Verizon will be able to choose the content and websites for us, and our favorite sites (like this one) may become unaffordable or just disappear.

Yes, sign the petition: http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet — but don’t stop there .. call Leahy, Jeffords and Sanders and tell them to stop this now.

Further, AT&T and BellSouth want to merge.  Ma Bell was busted in 1984, and that was just telephone service; they intend now to control  telephone, television and internet service today, and of course, to raise their prices yet again.

I know from personal experience, as do many others, that AOL blocks e-mails that mention AOL or impeachment in the subject line, and small providers like Sovernet  are threatened with  being shut down if they do not heed these complaints from AOL.  They, in turn, threaten their customers with being shut down  and advise them not to direct e-mails to any AOL customer.  The big dog barks, and the little dog jumps .. how high?

AOL lines run through many small isp’s, so many won’t be able to switch to another provider.  It’s called a monopoly ..  (we used to have anti-trust laws back in the good old days; remember?) ….AOL is suggesting something like ‘certified e-mail’ to their customers; pay an extra fee and your mail will go through faster.  If people are cowed into going along with this other isp’s will surely follow.

It’s Freedom of Speech, folks … use it or lose it!

Barbara

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

We may not get a vote in the Legislature on impeachment, but they are no longer silent. According to this story seventy Vermont legislators have signed a letter demanding the impeachment of George W. Bush. So far the letter has been signed by 57 House members and 13 Senators.

Guess what: no Republicans!

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060421/NEWS/604210369/1003&template=printart
Rutland Herald
  Article published Apr 21, 2006
State solons join revolt Letter signed by 70 Vt. legislators

NEWFANE — Nearly 70 state legislators have signed on a letter penned by a Windham County representative calling on the U.S. Congress to begin investigations and possibly impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

The letter written by Rep. Richard Marek, D-Newfane, asks that hearings be held on issues such as Bush’s domestic surveillance program and the Iraq war to determine if censure or “setting in motion the constitutional process for possible removal from office” are necessary.

Fifty-six members of the Vermont House and 13 members of the Senate have signed onto Marek’s letter, which will be sent to Vermont’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. A majority of the Democratic and Progressive caucuses have signed on, although no Republicans have endorsed it.

“Vermonters from across the state have expressed concerns with the president’s actions and have displayed that through resolutions, meetings and petitions,” Marek said.

“I thought it was important to put our voices down as supporting an investigation and possible censure and impeachment,” he said.

Some towns have called directly for Bush’s impeachment, while Marek’s letter alludes to that outcome, the exact word is never used. He said he tempered the language because he believed the constitutional process, which begins with hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives, should be followed to ensure “due process.”

In addition to questioning the justification of the National Security Agency’s wiretap program and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Marek’s letter also questions the legality of the “enemy combatant” label, which strips detainees of many of their judicial rights.

Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, said she signed the letter because Bush’s policies need to be investigated.

“I feel as an American that what is happening is not right,” Emmons said. “This administration needs to be investigated fairly and openly because what has happened has raised many questions.”

Rep. Daryl Pillsbury, I-Brattleboro, said he signed the letter because “the president is not bringing this country down the right path.” But he said he hoped for more aggressive language, including the use of the word “impeachment.”

“We need to do something and I hope more and more communities take this issue up,” he said. “If we keep it up, maybe the right people will finally listen.”

Meanwhile, Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, is circulating a resolution that would trigger an obscure parliamentary procedure created by Thomas Jefferson allowing a state legislature to call on the U.S. House to begin impeachment hearings.

Zuckerman, who is expected to formally introduce the resolution early next week, said he signed onto Marek’s letter, but wanted to keep open the option of triggering an investigation on the state level if the Democrat’s effort fell on deaf ears in Washington, D.C.

“The ramifications of this administration are having an effect on our state budget and citizens,” Zuckerman said.

Newfane, the Windham County town Marek represents, was the first to call for Bush’s impeachment via a warned article at town meeting in March. Since then, six other towns have followed suit and earlier this month Democratic Party leaders signed onto a resolution supporting impeachment.

Dan DeWalt, a Newfane Selectman who proposed the first impeachment question, said he still is receiving inquires from residents of other states asking how they also can call for Bush’s impeachment.

In Vermont, residents of Westminster and Middlebury may also organize town votes on the matter, he said. The impeachment movement has snowballed since Newfane residents voted 121 to 29 by paper ballot to remove Bush from office on March 6.

“After I put the first resolution out there, other towns really grabbed onto the idea,” he said. “It’s a good gesture to show that we will not acquiesce to the president’s power grabs.”

The original copies of the resolutions endorsed by the seven Vermont towns will be delivered to the U.S. Congress by Ellen Tenney, a Saxtons River resident who spearheaded the impeachment effort in Rockingham, when she travels to Washington on May 1.

Tenney said she will give the originals to the clerk of the U.S. House, who is then expected to pass them along to Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois.

“I’m honored to do this,” she said. “I’m taking the will of the people of Vermont to someone in Washington that hopefully can do something.”

Jeff Weaver, a spokesman for Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said the congressman supports any effort to investigate the alleged misdeeds of the Bush administration, but doubts any effort could be successful under Republican control of the House and Senate.

“As long as the Republicans control Congress, there won’t be any meaningful oversight,” he said.

Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.

(Matt Dunne continues to hit the blogs hard this week. We definitely appreciate it at GMD. Here’s the beginning of his piece at VDB and a link to the rest. Now if only we can get him to stop referring to himself in the third person (heh – shades of Bob Dole). We’ll be having more posts on health care throughout the week. – promoted by odum)

Healthcare Legislation: Current State of Play

Last Friday the Senate passed what could be called a conciliatory and solid step toward healthcare reform.

Acknowledging the fact that the Governor is not interested in systemic changes that could lead to lasting cost-containment, the bill that began in the House and was then fine-tuned in the Senate accomplishes three major goals: expanded coverage, pushing large employers to cover their employees, and better ways to manage the cost and quality of chronic care.

Here are some specifics on how these three goals are met through this piece of legislation, the passage of which will be negotiated in the coming weeks by House and Senate leadership and the Governor…

See Vermont Daily Briefing’s full posting of Matt’s health care update here.

From the blog Proviso Probe via Kagro X at Daily Kos:

Today, Thursday, April 20, 2006, Rep. Karen Yarbrough introduced into the Illinois General Assembly House Joint Resolution 125, which calls for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Want to know why I’m posting this here? Check out the first paragraph of the resolution:

WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature

Looks familiar, eh? Despite all the expressed reasons not to take this step, which are at least as valid in the take-no-prisoners venue of Illinois politics, a proud Democratic legislator has stepped forward. Go give her a contribution, she’s got an election this year too (and tell her GMD sent ya!) Check the link for the complete resolution:

WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature; and

WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without warrant; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and

WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; and

WHEREAS, the Republican-controlled Congress has decline to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

If you’ve ever worked on a campaign you know the stress of running on a budget, and wondering from week to week whether you’ll have the money to do your next piece of literature, or order your yard signs, or place that important ad the week before Election Day.
The big guys are no different, it’s just a matter of scale. Fortunately, though, their resources are also different. For instance, when Richie Tarrant needed a slug of cash he had to go, hat in hand, to his biggest backer. One can only imagine the sweaty palms, the pounding heart, the stammer, the dry mouth as he threw himself on the one man he has turned to time and time again when things lookd tough. Would he come through again, or would this be the limit? Only one man would know the answer, and that man was . . .

Richard Tarrant.

I know, I know — it’s been a whole week since any Vermont impeachment news. And after Philip Baruth sang our praises for our coverage! After daily hits from places like michaelmoore.com and google searches aplenty, all looking for impeachment news! Well, at GMD we aim to please…

…and there are several bits of information to report, mostly from the rumor mill. I prefer to wait until things have clarified, but what’s a blog without a little gossiping?

First of all, contrary to reports of a massacre, grassroots efforts to call for the impeachment of the worst President in history as loudly as possible continue. And though Democrats in the Legislature have opted not to take the matter up collectively, the grassroots push is finding other avenues…. (click link for who’s doing what in Vermont, Maine, Washington, etc.)

Key points:

* Mighty Burlington may be the next Vermont municipality to tackle a Newfane-style resolution. There’s rumbling…

* There seem to be mixed emotions on the matter among the Democratic caucus post-State Committee meeting. Rep. Dick Marek, who supported the Newfane town resolution but spoke out against the Section 603 resolution (with an argument debunked below) is now circulating a letter calling on the Vermont Congressional delegation to push for “investigation”, and it has 56 legislative signatures! It seems many of the Dems are comfortable calling for action individually but not collectively — and they remain deathly uncomfortable with the word “impeachment” outside of a town meeting. Could be a lot of reasons for this — some of them reasonable, some of them not-so-much. Marek is a good guy, though, so GMD will give him the benefit of the doubt. Still wish he didn’t feel the need to suggest that a 603 resolution would be somehow “unconstitutional” though. Obviously folks a bit closer to the source of that founding document didn’t think so (the procedure is from the Jefferson Manual after all — a manual compiled of procedures based on early precedent not idle fantasies — impeachment proponents hardly made it up).

* On April 30th, the Progressive Party State Committee meets, and I’ve heard from three seperate sources that they will be looking at passing a “Rutland Resolution” with the Section 603 language intact. There’s continued suggestion that Rep Zuckerman may retrofit his existing impeachment motion to include such language. At the end of the day, though, consensus is clearly that any action on April 30th would meet everybody’s definition of “too late” to act upon, so the motion wouldn’t have any immediate impact — beyond that of another body of Vermont citizens calling for the Congress to throw the bum out (which is certainly a good thing).

* Vermont continues to inspire! As this post from an earlier diary passes on from Maine:

-OGUNQUIT — If a group of Ogunquit residents have their way, the warrant for the June 13 town election will include an article that asks voters to request senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to call for the Senate to censure President George Bush. The residents are circulating a petition to collect the signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot.

“Part of what prompted this was an article in the paper about some towns in Vermont that passed [resolutions] to impeach,” said Paul McGowan, one of the leaders of the petition drive. “What struck me about this was, what a great way to have a voice. It brought some focus to people’s concern and worry about the direction of the country. It’s about a way that a small town could have a voice and raise questions about the actions of the President.”

Jack Leary, another member of the group, said it was time for local action. “Nothing’s happening from the top down,” Leary said. “So, we thought we’d go from the bottom up.”

Cool, huh?

* Supporters of the original Rutland Resolution intend to honor signatures on the online petition for Vermont Legislative action under Section 603 by keeping up the push for a critical mass of signatures, both online and in traditional hardcopy. Supporters are aiming for 5000 signatories and expect that number to be enough to trigger review under the Vermont Constitution — but instead of scrambling to get something in before the Legislative Session ends, they’re targeting the first week of the next Legislature. Should be plenty of time to collect names, and the “too late in the session” excuse will be a little harder to repeat.

* Regarding the Town Impeachment efforts, rumor is that supporters and representatives from the towns may gather in Washington to present the motions directly to their respective Representatives on or about May 1st — which means that by deflecting the issue away from the State Legislature, the spotlight will now shine even more brightly on Bernie Sanders himself. Which is a bit ironic because…

* …Vermont’s delegation to Washington clearly doesn’t like this impeachment business. Bernie has been all over the map, starting with calling it impractical after the Newfane resolution, turning around and signing onto the impeachment bill currently circulating in the US House, and then going back to talking about what a loopy idea it is. In addition, before the Dem State Committee meeting on the 8th (and again at the meeting itself), Democratic National Committeeman and Leahy staffer Chuck Ross made an 11th hour attempt to convince supporters on the State Committee to abandon the key Jefferson Manual language.

The final arguments from the Washington direction seem to boil down to two things, both of which were echoed by State legislators. One: that Section 603 of the Jefferson Manual does not require a State legislature initiated impeachment motion to be taken up by the US House (uh-oh, I hear another impeachment advocacy argument coming on…duck!). Of course, more than a cursory glance at supporters’ arguments will show that they never made that definitive claim. That, again, the whole idea was that principle demanded they make as loud a noise as possible, and the Jefferson Manual simply provided for an extraordinarily loud megaphone. Whether the motion actually got to the House floor or not was, frankly, secondary.

Two: That such a motion would somehow rob Bush of his fundamental right to “due process.”

Let’s set aside for a moment that this suggests impeachment is a judicial procedure rather than an administrative one. It is not a court of law, but a rather pointed job review, after all.

Still, if one still insists on making a judicial analogy, then let’s make it completely. In such an analogy, the US Senate is clearly the “court of law.” The US House, as the body that draws up the “indictment” plays the role of the “investigative officers” and the “district attorney.” What does that leave for a State Legislature under Section 603?

Simply the role of an aggrieved complainant filing a police report. The police hardly turn away a citizen filing a police report because the subject of the report hasn’t yet been offered their due process. Obviously that comes later — it is in fact initiated by the complaint.

So — thin reasoning. Unnecessarily so. Especially when the real reason for resistance from candidates running for local, state or federal office is fairly straightforward and easy to understand and appreciate:

1. Elections are strategic endeavors.

4. So they don’t like it.

Simple. Straightforward. Reasonable. Understandable.

And an explanation that would’ve gone over a bit better, and not resulted in several people scratching their heads a few days later after they had time to think about the excuses they were given.

So we continue to agree to disagree, with impeachment proponents still feeling ethically compelled to speak as loudly as possible, and through as many avenues as are available to them. Maybe they’ll get a little farther next session, maybe not.

That’s Democracy for ya.

3.03.2006 Vermont, Impeachment and the Democratic Party

3.04.2006 VT Dems to Push For State Leg. Initiated Impeachment

3.07.2006 Bernie: Impeachment Talk “impractical”

3.08.2006 Catamount Tavern: First Round’s…

3.15.2006 Impeachment?

3.16.2006 The Impeachment/Censure Synergy

3.16.2006 Catamount Tavern: Neighsayers drink with the Horses

3.24.2006 VT Impeachment Train: Juggernaut or…

3.25.2006 Brattleboro Town Meeting…

3.28.2006 Add Washington to the List

3.28.2006 Impeachment PS: Online Petition and Progressives

3.28.2006 Standing Against Bush Good for VT’s Economy

3.29.2006 Do It Yourself Impeachment…

4.04.2006 Articles of Impeachment

4.07.2006 A Taylor in Two Cities

4.08.2006 Will Somebody Please Impeach This Guy?

4.09.2006 …a Two Minute Clip (Maryscott O’Connor)

4.10.2006 VT Impeachment: Not Quite Dead Yet?

4.13.2006 What Happened and Where To?

4.20.2006 What’s That? You’d like another… Update?

4.21.2006 Illinois Dems Accept… Vermont Counterparts Declined

4.22.2006 VT Legislators Speak Up

4.23.2006 VT CATAMOUNT TAVERN: Random Musings…

4.24.2006 California Legislators Join Illinois…

4.24.2006 VT Legislators to Introduce ‘603’ Impeachment Resolution…

4.26.2006 VT Legislators’ Impeachment Letter

5.1.2006 …Resolutions Presented in Washington – Statement from Dan DeWalt

(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

I’ll admit it, and Jack or mataliandy or Ed may disagree, but as a working class sort, this Vermont gas tax proposal makes me crazy. As I watch the price go back up over $3.00 a gallon, I try to imagine the Dem caucus conversations where they decided this was a good idea, here in the most rural state in the nation, and I just don’t see it.

But just as my own team has me pulling my hair out, along comes dependable Jim Barnett to pull the heat right onto himself.

Republicans, seeking to capitalize on Democrats’ support of a gasoline tax increase, launched an automated telephone campaign late last week against supporters of the proposal.

Robocalls! Robocalls! Ohhhh people just looooove those.

I may not understand what the Dem caucus is thinking, but I find Barnett even more mysterious. Sometimes it seems he’s sitting around dreaming up ways to make himself and the GOP look tackier while patting himself on the back. Weird… he’s like Vermont’s political Simon Bar Sinister

There was a time when I considered using robocalls in such a manner in my county when I was the Dem County Chair. Then I sobered up. Think I’m being unfair?

As of the end of the day, Democratic Party officials had received no phone calls and just one e-mail, which executive director Jon Copans said was supportive

Now how many annoyed phone calls do you think GOP HQ has received? Betcha it’s more than zero…