If you’re tired of this, my apologies, but I know some of our readers are still following it, for it involves GMD. Cathy Resmer has a great article in the new Seven Days about the downfall of the Second Vermont Republic:

The mood was more somber last Sunday, when seven SVR supporters – including founder Thomas Naylor, his son, and Jim Hogue, dressed in period garb as Ethan Allen – huddled in the snow around Allen’s gravesite in Burlington for a second mock funeral. Naylor opened the short ceremony by playing a recording of Chopin’s death march.

Turns out the deceased may as well have been SVR itself. The drop in attendance and change in tone is the result of a recent controversy; as reported here last week, in early February, Vermont bloggers began questioning SVR’s ties to white supremacist groups such as the League of the South. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies LOS as a hate group.

R.I.P.

[UPDATE — by Vermonter] And don’t forget to attend this fun event at UVM tonight:

Wednesday, March 7, Campus Center Theatre, Billings, 7 p.m. – Vermont Humanities Council

Who: Frank Bryan, professor of political science, and Paul Gillies, former deputy secretary of state, moderated by Mark Johnson, WDEV radio host

The lecture: “The Great Debate: Is it Time for a Second Vermont Republic?“

From the Capital Press Bureau:   Gov. James Douglas, acting as Middlebury’s moderator, tried to stop a vote on a resolution calling for President Bush’s impeachment and withdrawal of troops from Iraq at the town’s annual meeting Monday night, according to several residents who attended.

Ok folks: time for the Democrats to become “rubber stamps” in the name of law & order and to uphold their constitutional oath and function.  If the Republican Congress could do it for kleptocracy, the Democrats can do it for the national interest.

The Libby trial was the functional equivalent of an impeachment. 

It outlined the espionage and treason condoned and conspired to by Mister Bush and Mister Cheney. It is therefore time for the House to “rubber stamp” the trial record and send articles of impeachment to the Senate.  The House of Representatives could effectively conclude impeachment proceedings in less time than a typical 6 hour GOP House controlled work week.

It is no longer useful for Congress to bother with discussion of Libby’s deceitful felonies.  Time to call for resignations, impeachments, demand necessary criminal trials (perhaps some deportations/extraditions) and conduct real EXPOSURE HEARINGS (no need for much Congressional investigation – kinda’ missed the boat on that one) into the administration’s espionage, which the media still refers to dismissively as a mere “leak.”

After the full General Assembly takes up the impeachment measure, I hope it does not need to re-send the uncontroverted evidence of espionage and treason to the House as well. 

Rubber stamping is one thing, spoon feeding the distinguished constitutional servants is another.

slainte,
cl

WCAX is reporting that voters in 32 cities and towns passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and 9 towns voted to withdraw from Iraq. While we didn’t get enough signatures to get on the ballot in Montpelier, maybe this will get Leahy, Sanders, and Welch to listen to what their constituents are saying.

crossposted on Evolving Peace (http://evolvingworld…)

Birds of a feather flock togther: I hope that now Scooter Libby has been tried and convicted in the Valerie Plame-CIA leak case we can visualize the convictions of Vice-President Dick Cheney, Presidential Chief of Staff Karl Rove and President George Bush. While one man (and more) has willfully aspired to defraud the people of the United States by discrediting a critic of the administration’s faulty evidence to invoke war, the nation of Iraq burns in turmoil from the occupation by a foreign power, and thousands of American soldiers have died.

To the critics of this judgment, this is more evidence to on how the Presidential administration purposely manipulated evidence to wage war on Iraq. While, there is so much debate about the recent troop surge in Iraq very little attention has been given to the initial claims and justifications for the war. The administration claimed that “Saddam Hussein” was attempting to purchase aluminum tubes and yellow cake uranium from Niger, which is no known to be a lie.

Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Valerie Plame’s husband) fully disputed that claim and the administration was on a full attack mission like a pack of raging pit bulls. No one could dare and stop them. So while they pursued their full attentions to war, anyone who crossed their paths was deemed an enemy. Presidential logic, “that you are either with us or against” is demonstrated by the administrations full scale policy of discrediting its opponents. I suppose that was the same rational that allowed the spying on innocent Americans, and keeping close watches on peace groups such as the Quakers in Pennsylvania.

While many Americans repeatedly saw fabricated evidence that supported the administrations claims for war, a movement of individuals was silenced from debate and discredited by proponents of war. The purposeful and willful policy to discredit war’s critics is a dangerous precedent that shall never be allowed to take place again. Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders and Congressman Welch all need to step it up a notch and press harder on the Presidential Administration.

Yes, all three have been a strong force countering the Presidents resolve, however there needs to be more. Failure to act upon this administration’s crimes is a dereliction of duty by failing to protect the Constitution. As for the Constitution states:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Around the world, America claims to be spreading democracy, but unfortunately there has been a doctrine propagated by this Presidential administration that places itself higher than the laws they have been sworn to protect. The duty of our members in Congress is to call for the impeachment of the President and Vice-President, anything else is not democracy.

Peace
Robb Kidd

“That said, if we allow ourselves to be intimidated and silenced by the liars, our democracy will not survive. We have to continue to confront them.” Joseph Wilson, Ambassador