updated
9:29 a.m.
(crossposted from Green Mountain Daily ) Vermont's Northeast Kingdom has lost another young soldier to war. Yesterday, in Hardwick, Sgt. Tristan Southworth was laid to rest with full military honors, following his funeral, which was attended by about 1400 people, at Hazen Union School, from where he had graduated in 2007 after joining the Guard in 2006. Tristan was a three-spo...
DailyKos (Vermont) - 6:21 a.m.
This article, written by Joanne Poyourow (initiator of Transition Los Angeles), connects the big issues confronting us, which cannot be handled separately. The original article (with active links) can be found here or here . To the 1Sky board of directors: In your open letter to all people and organizations working to combat global warming, you ask how to move forward with urgency and c...
Vermont Commons - Wed 7:49 p.m.
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Vermont Commons - Wed 1:00 p.m. - 4 clicks ![]()
Thanks to independent journalist Christopher Ketcham and the Huffington Post for this article about our emerging independence movement here in the once and future republic of Vermont. Free Vermont! Long live the UNtied States. Dennis Steele and young Vermonter at the Warren 4th Parade. --- snip --- read more ...
Vermont Commons - Tue 3:45 a.m. - 5 clicks ![]()
There is an important difference between a principled philosophy of decentralism, and a self-serving ideology of libertarianism. In this week's New Yorker magazine, an illuminating and disturbing article by Jane Mayer profiles the billionaire Koch brothers and their massive influence on right wing politics. read more ...
Vermont Commons - Mon 12:24 p.m.
If you oppose the basing of the F-35 in South Burlington, Vermont, please follow the link and sign and then forward the petition to other concerned Vermonters! STOP THE F-35 PETITION ( http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/stopthef35 ) read more ...
Vermont Commons - Sun 8:48 a.m. - 10 clicks ![]()
A brief history, for non Vermonters: Vermont's 5-way race for governor has resulted in a an election with no candidate getting more than 1/4th of the vote and two of them within a fraction of of a percent of one another, with a third about 1% behind the other two. The difference between the top two candidates is less than one vote per county. There is argument over whether or not a recou...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Sun 6:40 a.m. - 8 clicks ![]()
Press release from the campaign of Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Racine ( here ): ...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Fri 6:09 p.m. - 6 clicks ![]()
Crossposted to Vermont's Green Mountain Daily Per today's Rutland (Vermont) Herald : When Republican state Sen. Kevin Mullin voted to support same-sex marriage in 2009, some of his supporters in Rutland County vowed to get revenge at the polls this year. "This isn't about moving on," said Steve Cable, a Rutland resident opposed to same-sex marriage, shortly after the April ...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Fri 7:43 a.m. - 7 clicks ![]()
Considering everything at stake, it is my hope that Doug Racine and his campaign gives serious consideration to requesting a recount as concerns the Vermont Democratic gubernatorial primary election. Some rank and file Democrats and also others who voted in the election as well, including some supporters of Peter Shumlin, had stated online that a recount should be done when final unofficial re...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Thu 2:22 p.m. - 9 clicks ![]()
It may that everyone has gone to bed, but I find the Vermont race for the Democratic Nomination for Governor fascinating. Update 1:57 This is my last update. This is also not in the AP tally yet. Racine nets 33 votes from Middlesex. Shumlin now leads by 54 votes with 235 Precincts reporting. Until the last few results I thought Racine was going to win. But with...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Aug 25 - 5 clicks ![]()
Here are 3 opt-out forms to prevent your or your child's high school from sharing your private information with military recruiters. Only one of these 3 forms is needed. Click here for the parent's form. Click here for the legal guardian's form. Click here for the student's form. You ALSO need to send THIS FORM to the Pentagon's Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies office (whose...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 24
On July 27, the Burlington Free Press printed replies on Vermont's energy future from the five Democratic (primary) and one Republican candidate for governor. Here are their statements regarding wind, with commentary following in italics. Dunne and Bartlett did not mention wind. Dubie: Last November, Bolton Valley became the nation's second ski area, and Vermont's first, to install its own wi...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 23
Overview of High Frequency Trading - What’s Driving the Markets? Introduction to High Frequency Trading read more ...
Vermont Commons - Aug 22
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Vermont Commons - Aug 17
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Vermont Commons - Aug 17
Those who followed the results of my experiment in heating water with a special mound of composting wood-chips will be glad to hear that my mound is up to 115-degrees, a full year after we first built it. See my previous posts on how we made our "Jean Pain Mound" at http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/10/02/energy-optimist-bro read more ...
Vermont Commons - Aug 16
Which by an estranging yet commodious rictus brings us westward ho, which is southbound, again, as it’s been said with a smile, and, if given to belief in all the signs that bedevil the toothless, tongueless, gaping beyond, the north and east, too, all of it together and around again if the mystic’s you thing, also if not: silver highways that, if you obey the recommendations of their contingently...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 14
From The Free Press, Rockland, Maine, Aug. 12, 2010: "Wind turbine noise is becoming a bigger issue in the U.S.," said Patrick Moriarty, an aeronautical engineer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. NREL belongs to the U.S. Department of Energy and is the primary research and development site for energy efficiency and renewable energy, including wind power. M...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 14
Despite the fact that I don’t plan on supporting any of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the general election, the Democratic primary is, nonetheless, the most contested and important race which will be decided on August 24th. Fortunately, since Vermont doesn’t require party registration, all Vermont voters are eligible to vote in that race, if [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Aug 13 - 2 clicks ![]()
And hear our most excellent home-grown, all-Vermont Funk band, Electric Sorcery !! Playing 2:00 PM at the historic Gathering Inn, Hancock, Vermont ! The doors of sound have been ripped off the hinges by Electric Sorcery who routinely electrify Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Towns are regularly woken out of their slumber by the by the wicked sound of this power trio. Electric Sorce...
Vermont Commons - Aug 13
Monique Aniel writes in the Bangor Daily News: Wind power in Maine is a chess game, a chess game for those protected by multinational companies and allies in the current administration. It is a game that took 20 years to design, a game that redefined new rules for state and federal agencies, reshaping their mandates of protecting America’s citizens and majestic lands into doing the exact oppos...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 13
As gossip becomes rumor becomes rule of Law, then eventually discredited, dismissed, overturned, it’s difficult to know what to do besides stand aside, sleep our dreams, wake, walk, and whisper, monger our gossip into rumors, while letting the course of events inhuman enact whatever punishment it is that might appease the anger of a God; render unto and all that — let the Lord exact the AlmightyÆs...
Kirby Mountain - Aug 1
From CNN: Police evicted 200 Bedouins from their homes in a southern Israeli village on Tuesday and demolished their dwellings, an act decried by residents who said they are on ancestral land. The move occurred five miles north of Beer Sheva in a village called Al-Araqeeb, an enclave not recognized by the state of Israel. Witnesses told CNN that the Israeli forces arrived at the village acc...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 31
Vermont Commons - Jul 30 - 2 clicks ![]()
DailyKos (Vermont) - Jul 27 - 2 clicks ![]()
Too early for morning, too late for regret, the air veined in lightning, the sun a clouded clot. Thunder. Gods are being born in the sky. This is why we left the Garden and moved out to Siburbia, as we're always explaining, most of all to ourselves. My boy, look around you, listen, sniff the air and taste the bread your mother bought, you're sure to understand: this is why we lit out, bringing o...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 27
Corrupted by wealth and power, your government is like a restaurant with only one dish. They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side. But no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen. —Huey Long (Via The Progressive Review ) ...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 22
A New Zealand–based farmer who gave the go ahead for wind turbines to be built on moorland he owns above Rochdale [England] says he would be unhappy if a windfarm were built close to his home. Jeremy Dearden, Lord of the Manor of Rochdale, told his local newspaper there had been a ‘NIMBY’ – Not In My Back Yard – aspect to the campaign against plans to build a dozen 400ft turbines at Crook Hill an...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 21
Here is the transcript of the translated portion of the video posted earlier ( click here ): Netanyahu: Turn off the camera so that we can elaborate on this. Narrator: A few minutes later... the camera is turned on again and Netanyahu begins to speak without quotation marks and without masks Netanyahu: Now we're beginning to understand the meaning of the slogan 'Yesha Zeikan Judea, Samaria, a...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 20
... At the time [9 years ago] Mr Netanyahu had taken a short break from politics but was soon to join Mr Sharon’s government as finance minister. On a visit to a home in the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of a man killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, he makes a series of unguarded admissions about his first period as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999. S...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 20
From A Word in Your Ear: How & Why to Read James Joyce's Finnegans Wake , by Eric Rosenbloom, pages 29–39: Saints Giordano and Giambattista Besides characters, there are a few informing spirits behind the work, most notably Giordano Bruno (of Nola) and Giambattista Vico. Giordano was a determinedly independent philosopher burned in Rome by the Inquisition in 1600 after 8 years of impri...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 15
Promises, promises. Northern Power Systems says that Bolton Valley ski area's "Northwind 100 [kW] will produce about 300,000 kilowatt-hours per year, the equivalent of the electricity consumed by 40-45 Vermont homes." Since October 2009, however, it had produced only 114,309 kWh as of 10:00 p.m. on July 9, 2010. At that time, it was producing power at the rate of less than 7 kW, equivalent to ...
Kirby Mountain - Jul 9
Vermont Commons - Jul 2 - 2 clicks ![]()
As reported by Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (click the title of this post for the complete article): From 5:30 am to 9:30 am, over 800 labor and community activists held a militant and spirited protest in front of four gates of the Stevedore Services of America, with people chanting non-stop, “Free, Free Palestine, Don’t Cross the Picket Line,” and “An injury to one is an injury to all,...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 21
COMPETITION : An event in which there are more losers than winners. Otherwise it's not a competition. A society based on competition is therefore primarily a society based on losers. — John Ralston Saul ...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 21
Vermont Commons - Jun 17 - 2 clicks ![]()
Click the title of this post to read the story. ...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 14
In Bili’in, Palestine, protesters played a soccer game near the Israeli barrier that divides the village, kicking several balls over the barbed-wire fence onto land still owned by villagers. The Israeli soldiers fired several tear-gas canisters and then arrested six journalists, continuing to detain two of them. While people worked to put out the fires in an olive grove caused by the tear-gas bom...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 12
Green Mountain Daily - Jun 12 - 2 clicks ![]()
Israeli Attack on the Mavi Marmara // Raw Footage from Cultures of Resistance On the night of Sunday, May 30, showing a terrifying disregard for human life, Israeli naval forces surrounded and boarded ships sailing to bring humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. On the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, Israeli commandos opened fire on civilian passengers, killing at least 9 pas...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 11
Some astute observers of the Israeli video showing the passengers of the Mavi Marmara fighting back in the assault on their ship noticed that details of the ship in the video didn't quite fit those of the Mavi Marmara. Most obviously, the name of the ship should be prominent on the side of the deck where the filmed events are taking place, but it is absent in the Israeli video. (Click here for a ...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 11
TUCSON, AZ—Cheers, laughter, and applause filled the big top tent at the Ringling Bros. Circus Saturday as children of all ages were captivated by the savage enslavement of Topsy the elephant. ... [ click on the title of this post to read complete story ] tags: animal rights ...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 6
Also residing under Mrs. Matchless's roof were the boarders of the establishment, of whom there were four - or five, depending on how one viewed that fifth lodger, who was something of a special case. There was a Miss Rivers, a young woman of character and refinement. She had russety locks, a creamy face given to blushing, and quenched-looking bashful eyes, like a Little Bo-Peep in a nursery-book...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 6
(Press Release, via palestinelibre ) In a harbour in the Mediterranean a small vessel is waiting for a special mission. She will be sailing to Gaza during the second half of July. In order to avoid sabotage, the exact date and name of the port of departure will be announced only shortly before her launch. "Our purpose is to call an end to the siege of Gaza, to this illegal collective punishment...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 4
We were driving in the NEK yesterday, and encountered this beaut… ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Jun 4
Two essays: "The myth of Israeli morality", by Lamis Andoni "The real motive behind the Gaza flotilla attack", by Rannie Amiri tags: human rights ...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 4
'Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer Am...
Kirby Mountain - Jun 4
This is a talk that I delivered to the Vermont Campaign for Liberty’s annual convention last January; I just realized that I’d neglected to post it to the blog, so enjoy: Recently, the health care debate has been one of the most salient issues for both Statists and advocates of liberty. As a result, it [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - May 26 - 2 clicks ![]()
Vermont Commons - Apr 30 - 2 clicks ![]()
DailyKos (Vermont) - Apr 27 - 2 clicks ![]()
An article released today by Chris Hedges presents an interesting, largely favorable picture. Choice excerpt: The movement correctly views the corporate state as a force that has so corrupted the economy, as well as the electoral and judicial process, that it cannot be defeated through traditional routes. It also knows that the corporate state, which [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Apr 26
Vermont Commons - Apr 23 - 2 clicks ![]()
Vermont Commons - Apr 23 - 2 clicks ![]()
Vermont Commons - Apr 22 - 2 clicks ![]()
DailyKos (Vermont) - Apr 22 - 2 clicks ![]()
Vermont Commons - Apr 22 - 2 clicks ![]()
The events of the last month have powerfully revealed the descent of the campaign for Vermont Governor into the realm of farce. While the anointed Republican Brian Dubie sits idly on the side-lines waiting for a Democratic front-runner to emerge, the five Democrats have initiated a whirlwind “consensus-fest” tour of the Vermont, holding forums across [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Apr 8
According to the Boston Globe, Traditional Wall Street investors have taken note. Iraq is … nearly on par with the State of California, according to Bloomberg statistics on credit default swaps, which are considered a raw indicator of default risk. “Compared to California, I’d rather bet on Iraq,’’ Daher said. “Iraq is a country where [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Mar 26
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What's the Point? - Mar 23