[Originally published in the Vermont Journal. No linky, as they’ve done something weird to the site. This is my final column, as the paper’s been sold and – temporarily, at least – mothballed. Thanks to editor John Bauer for the fun (if brief) experience as a print-person.]

The question of Presidential impeachment was thrown around before November, and it’s a question that won’t go away in the election’s aftermath. A question as to whether or not the breaking of more than 750 duly passed laws (according to the Boston Globe), and the trampling of the 6th, 4th and 8th amendments (according to the Courts) through acts such as the reserved “right” to declare any citizen an “unlawful combatant” and lock them up indefinitely without charges or access to counsel, rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” specified under the Constitution as grounds for – what amounts to – the ultimate job performance review and disciplinary hearing for our nation’s number one employee.

It’s a question that begs an answer.

I’m a blogger, which makes me an internet geek of sorts. As a geek, I know the old Star Trek series a lot better than I probably should admit to. To this day my favorite moment in the series was when Captain Kirk explains to an evil, bearded, doppelganger version of Spock the simple logic of social activism.

“If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial – doesn’t logic demand that you be a part of it?”

It’s a powerful line that speaks to the responsibility of all of us not simply to be spectators of history, but to take part in it. Unfortunately, Democratic lawmakers have a tendency to head directly for the calmest waters in the interest of stability for stability’s sake. Of course, it’s no coincidence that the calmest waters are usually also the shallowest.

I share the belief that our responsibilities demand we act on what is right, even if that action is inconvenient. The transgressions of this administration show no signs of abating under the new Congress in light of the President’s self-appointed “signing statement” authority, through which he brazenly rewrites congressional laws to suit his own agenda and dares any and all to challenge him otherwise.

But that’s not even the point, is it? If the standard of impeachment is the Lewinsky scandal, this President has left the line in the dust. If we’re to be concerned with the integrity of process, of fairness, and of the basic tenets of law and order, it seems clear that an accounting must be made if the Constitutional impeachment provisions are to have any meaning.

It can’t be enough, to simply wipe the slate clean and pretend nothing happened, any more than it would in a court of law. To do so would be to cast impeachment forever as a purely political process – and if that’s truly all it will ever amount to, we should be doing away with it altogether.

Whether or not the US Congress will step up to the plate remains to be seen, but the responsibility not simply to watch from the sidelines but to act demands that we all do our part to defend our nation and it’s laws. For me and most people I know, that means speaking out.

For the Vermont House and Senate, it means much, much more.

A little known, seldom-used but recognized Congressional procedure allows impeachment proceedings for federal officeholders to be initiated in a state legislature. Activists urged the Vermont House and Senate to take up the matter, but were rebuffed despite a groundswell that drew headlines across the country. “There isn’t enough time” we were told. “It wouldn’t go anywhere in a Republican Congress” we were told.

This session activists will doubtless be dismissed with the reciprocal argument; that since Democrats are in power, there is no need to bring the matter up.

Poppycock. If we hold our American principles in any esteem, we must demand accountability of our chief executive when he acts contrary to those principles. Without accountability, there are no principles. Without principles, there is no America. And if America is all of us, we all have a responsibility to defend it by whatever tools we have available to us. As a private citizen, I do not have the tool of impeachment available. By virtue of their offices, our State Representatives and Senators do.

“Push `til it gives” Kirk admonished.

I, for one, choose to ask no less of my elected representatives

Frequent national blogosphere usual suspect, Next Hurrah front pager and GMD regular Kagro X has attained the lefty blogosphere holy-of-holies, as he has just been named by Kos to be one of the Daily Kos frontpagers for 2007.

Congratulations on the lofty perch, the groupies, the fame, fortune and derision-to-come from the wingers. Ah, it seems like only yesterday that Kags was considering being one of GMD’s original, startup front pagers before he decided a Vermont conflict of interest made that dicey (perhaps a tale you’ll regale us with someday, KX…)

So, we’ll all be watching, but we fully expect you to continue participating here at li’l bitty GMD (and we know you’ll keep coming back, as Vermont is about to become once again ground zero for your cause of the year – State-initiated Presidential impeachment, what with the soon-to-be-launched vtimpeach.com within a few days).

So don’t forget to write. Or to link to us from the front page of dKos…

Noting that a number of court cases have gone aganst Bush’s claims of omnipotence, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all those conservative judges that the Repubs fought so hard to get appointed turn out to actually believe in the Constitution and effectively overthrow John Woo and Cheney?

( – promoted by odum)

Property taxes, K-12 education spending, health care costs, transportation spending, higher education grants, lake pollution, disappearing family farms … all these problems face Vermont as front-burner issues that demand attention.
The Democratic Senate Caucus elected returning State Senator Pete Shumlin as the next President Pro Tem of the Senate. The Democrats hold 23 of 30 Senate seats, so his election will be a formality when the Senate reconvenes in January.
Shumlin’s first announcement was that in his opinion, the most pressing issue facing our state is … Global Warming.
Is this guy nuts? Is he out of touch with the needs of Vermonters?
Not by a long shot.

Shumlin realizes that slowing the advance of Global Warming is a lot like stopping a freighter or landing a jet – you have to plan far ahead to get the desired result when you arrive.
Shumlin readily admits that there will be discussion of the bread and butter issues facing the state. Property taxes will be front and center, along with the attendant cost of education. All the usual causes will be looking for more money to spend on their valid and pressing issues. It is a given, much like the sunrise.
What he said loud and clear is that if Vermont does not lead on the issue of Global Warming, much of what we hold dear – skiing, sugaring and foliage will disappear in a haze of warm wet winters and hot dry summers punctuated by torrential rain.
He has a point. Most of Vermont’s pollution does not come from industrial sources that are easy to address. Smokestacks are easy to police and it is relatively easy to monitor them and reduce emissions. We don’t have many.
Over 60 percent of our electricity comes from Hydro-Quebec and Vermont Yankee and does not contribute to Global Warming, yet the contracts come due in less than ten years and we don’t have a plan to replace them.
VELCO is making it easier to import power to Vermont, power that many times is generated by coal and gas plants – major contributors to the problem. There is a 40 mW gas plant proposed for Derby, a 10 mW “peak” plant on the way to approval for Swanton. Vermont is on the way to increasing its contribution to the problem in the name of short-term economic savings.
Our biggest contribution to the problem is the increasing use of the automobile. If this small, rural state can find a way to decrease exhaust pipe gasses, then there will be a model for rural and urban areas to emulate.
If Shumlin can focus the conversation now on how Vermont contributes to Global Warming, we will have a chance to do something about it before Vermont becomes a semi-tropical paradise of ticks, mosquitoes and a year-round growing season.
Some would argue that our social climate is as threatened as the atmospheric climate – a theory we didn’t ascribe to until we saw the movie “Borat.”
Crowds have thronged to see this movie, touted as one of the funniest, most innovative comedies in years.
The plot is a faux-documentary of a Kazakhstani TV talking head named Borat who is sent to New York City to make a documentary about the United States to help Kazakhstan improve as a country. The movie is revolves around his backward understanding of human relations and the racism he encounters as he journeys across the country.
“Borat” is a racist film that vilifies Jews, making it funny to hate them. Is this desensitizing any different than Germany 70 years ago? At what point in America’s history did the repeated denigration of a race of people become funny? There is a reason that blackface comedy is no longer funny. We thought it was in poor taste, but perhaps we are mistaken. Perhaps it is has merely become passé.
“Borat” is also in extremely poor taste not with sexual innuendo, but with blatant, graphic scenes that had us cringing in our seats. Incest, pornography, graphic sex – the only thing missing was bestiality. The relentless sex jokes were not troubling – just gross.
It is a sad indication of morality that a movie so over the top is popular. We may be called prudes for objecting to a movie that allegedly makes fun of bigotry through exaggeration, but if the success of “Borat” is an indication of our social climate, our atmosphere is truly poisoned.

Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution

TOPEKA, KS-In response to a Nov. 7 referendum, Kansas lawmakers passed emergency legislation outlawing evolution, the highly controversial process responsible for the development and diversity of species and the continued survival of all life.