Close Encounters Of The Gubernatorial Kind

For the first time in years, I made a date this (Wednesday) morning to have breakfast away from home while I got my tires balanced (which is not a euphemism for anything, thank you). The Wayside on the Barre-Montpelier Road is a comfy fit; besides, with the average age of the diners usually found there, I can feel pretty damned young!

So after just firing off a letter to the governor's office in Montpelier to complain about his latest veto of anything President Bush wouldn't like, I no sooner step into the Wayside and try to take a seat in one part of the restaurant while my breakfast companion says no, let's sit on the other side. Then he proceeded to choose a seat right behind the counter where Vermont Governor Jim Douglas (R-Bush) was reading the paper and having a meal.

As softly - and sweetly, of course - as I could, I whispered to John, "Uh... are you fucking kidding me? I finally get out to eat and you seat me next to this bloodless Bushie?"

John - having known me only about 20 years so why he'd think I was being "funny" escapes me - thought I was kidding. Then Douglas turned in our direction to talk with someone, John heard the voice, took one look at my face and the way my body was ready to spring, and asked if he needed to move out of the way for his own personal safety. Something about the NEW expression on my face led John (correctly, I might add) to conclude I was serious; that I did not expect to be able to linger another moment without giving Douglas a piece of my mind (something his idol, George Bush, can't exactly offer).

Next, John made the mistake of asking me what I'd call him out for and then sat, bowled over, as I ticked off a list of at least 25 vetoes and other bogus moves he's pulled just in his last term. And I ticked them off loudly enough that the governor - whose entourage was discreetly set aside from him so it appeared the gov was dining alone at the counter - could hear. I mean, I was shaking not only with outrage but perceived self-righteousness; it was my realization of the latter that made me put some brakes on myself.

But there was a bigger reason I behaved (this time!). Douglas - for all my dislike of him - made a point to stop and talk with anyone who was willing to meet his eye contact (except mine.. ahem). When some bratty little kid kept tossing creamers and jelly packages off the table, Douglas kept scooping them up off the floor (later, the mother would brag about how the governor had to keep cleaning up her kid's mess) while he carried on the usual banter. For whatever else he is, and much of it I don't like, much less condone, Douglas was behaving like a Vermonter. And he was being accessible to the people who elected him. Bush has never done this anywhere and, considering Douglas was so faithful to the president, Bush has NEVER visited the state of Vermont as president though many states he has visited hundreds of times (we're ok with keeping the tainted shit out of the state, tyvm). So I have to hand it to Douglas that he, at a time when his popularity maybe isn't so hot, isn't hiding behind his importance.

Now, when Howard Dean (now DNC chairman but then Vermont governor) was gov, I ran into him several times in Montpelier. Even spoke a few times in that brusque New England/Dean way. The state house is right there with every other damned state office building so it's hard not to see your lawmakers and rulers. Loved this about Dean, love this about Vermont.

Where else in America can you get such close access to these people? And if I'd started to blow at Douglas, a lot of things could have happened (after all, I don't know of any governor who doesn't travel with a senior cop, usually in plainclothes, ready to take care of nasty business); the worst of them could be that a man like Douglas would - like Bush - choose to hide away except to attend venues where they handpick everyone in attendance.

Douglas certainly won't have my vote in November when he runs for re-election again. But he gained a smidgen of my respect today while I'm pleased I looked at the bigger picture rather than reacted angrily and rashly and perhaps caused Douglas to stop facing his constituents over a cup of Wayside coffee.

Kudos to UVM: Offering Total Education To Low-Income Vermonters

Hurray for UVM, which happens to be an excellent set of schools.

It's not that UVM isn't feeling the financial stress. But it makes sense for them to want more Vermonters to stay within a state that loses so many of its young adults to other markets (a living wage up here can be damned hard to find).

When Cops Treat Tasers Like A Flyswatter

Well, here's a tale to extend the "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" discussion where Brattleboro, Vermont police felt justified in using tasers on two peaceful demonstrators. I just don't get how using electric shock which, contrary to the Nut Lobby, HAS been implicated in LOTS of deaths and injuries, was a) necessary here b) useful here and c) not immediately seen, before use, as being excessive to the point of being criminal (not to mention heinous).

I'll concede that, unfortunately, stun guns may have some place in security, both personal and professional. But its use has become totally indiscriminate which ultimately will put the people who choose to overuse it perhaps in more danger of being shot before they can shock someone.

Vermont's War To Violate Medical Privacy Wages Ever Onward

This latest widespread abuse of confidential medical drug records is IN ADDITION to a story first broken at Green Mountain Daily a few months back and I noted here - and the invasion continues! - that Vermont State Police, apparently bored (not enough one-day-expired emissions stickers they can ticket?), are going to pharmacies and demanding records on anyone taking painkillers along with antidepressants, etc.

And yet Vermont (ha!) is called the People's Socialist Republic of the U.S.:

Lawmakers Tuesday complained that a new electronic database of prescription drug records goes too far into the private lives of Vermonters. Members of the House Human Services Committee, who worked on the plan creating the state-run database of all prescribed drugs in Vermont, said the program now appears to have powers beyond what they envisioned when they passed it two years ago.

Committee members said the proposed policies of the Vermont Prescription Drug Monitoring Program would allow the state to collect too much information on people prescribed medication and share it with too many other state government employees.Bowing to privacy concerns, the bill passed in 2006 called for the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health "personally" to share that prescription drug data to the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety "personally."

But the proposed rules for the law – the policies created and carried out by the state based on legislation passed by lawmakers – would now allow lower-level officials within the two departments to give and receive the sensitive information.

"I can't remotely think that anyone could construe from the word 'personally' that we meant designees," said Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, who added that the changes had her "beyond stunned." "We had lots of discussions about this here in the committee."

The Vermont Legislature passed the drug-monitoring system two years ago to help stop the illegal use of prescription drugs, which is now the top source of fatal drug overdoses in the state. The system will be maintained by the Vermont Department of Health and information from it can be used by law enforcement officials for investigations into specific alleged crimes.

In at least three cases (and this isn't a case with a warrant for a specific person's records, but just wholesale "give us all you got on anyone" situation), they've gotten it, too, with these being only the cases we KNOW about. Many pharmacies, of course, would never admit to providing this information because this would be a pharmacy that would (guaranteed) lose customers.

But the Vermont Congress can't skate here; anyone who agrees to the establishment of such a database DAMN WELL KNOWS it will be abused far worse than what individuals might do with those meds.

A Vermonter To Her Neighbors In New Hampshire About To Vote In Tuesday's Primary

Dear New Hampshire Primary Voters:

I write to you as the yin to your yang (VT and NH look like two halves of a whole though so few realize how very different philosophically, politically, and even geologically we are from one another).

Dems: vote your very best; don't vote for the "it" candidate if you truly want another one

GOPs: I'm really so very sorry for you; your candidates are so damned bad anyway but hey, I'd vote Ron Paul myself (especially after his people chased and scared the hell out of Sean Hannity of Fox News this past weekend)

Indies: Hey, do you really want more of the Republican trash in YOUR White House? Take out the garbage so we can start fresh.

And to ALL of you: Do NOT LET ANYONE talk you into playing dirty tricks with anyone's vote, including your own

Huckabee: Bright He's Not, But PBS Can't Ask Him Tough Questions?

Posted at My Left Wing (and my blood is boiling!):

Posted at My Left Wing are some questions I think need to be asked AND answered:

[There] is a transcript provided by the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) of Judy Woodruff's interview with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Or you can listen to the audio by clicking here. This interview illustrates why bloggers like myself have utter contempt for the corporatist media. And yes that now apparently includes PBS which is supposed to be a cut above and serve only the public. In a disgraceful display of inept journalism, Woodruff asks one horse race question after the other.

This man may become the Republican nominee and perhaps our next president. I don't think he will but it's not impossible. So why not ask him questions of substance? They're plenty to chose from.

Some clips from Woodruff's piss poor interview (which, btw, hardly fits New Hampshire which, despite its Republican bent, is a far cry from Iowa):

JUDY WOODRUFF: The first question, is you had a lot less money.

MIKE HUCKABEE: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You had a much smaller organization.

MIKE HUCKABEE: Mm-hmm.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you think you did it in Iowa?

MIKE HUCKABEE: I think we did it because we had a message that people
resonated with.

And they wanted to believe that there was still a place in American politics for a person who didn't come at them with a lot of money and razzle and dazzle, but came at them with an authenticity that they felt like was about them, not about the campaign, but about the people, who are supposed to be the very recipients of all this message we create.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think that what happened in Iowa translates to the
state of New Hampshire, where we are right now, a very different state...

MIKE HUCKABEE: Sure.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... everybody has started to point out?

MIKE HUCKABEE: Americans different in some maybe thoughts or emphasis still have the same ideas. They want a government that lets them be free, that leaves them alone, that doesn't interrupt and interfere with every aspect of their life, that lets them go to work and keep more of what they've worked hard to have.

Those are principles that I think are valid anywhere. Now, there may not be as much focus, for example, in New Hampshire on the sanctity of life or maybe even traditional marriage, as you would see in Iowa. But on issues like lower taxes, less government, and then a more efficient government, that'll be a focus here in New Hampshire that I think is universal anywhere.

New Hampshire, as of January 1st, started the first civil union that is identical to marriage. But calling people who believe in choice and freedom less focused on "sanctity of life" or "sanctity of traditional marriage" is just one of a whole huge host of reasons Huckabee should never get any closer to being president than winning the Iowa caucus. However, New Hampshire right now - God help us - is heavily leaning toward McCain and Vermont governor Jim Douglas, a Bush loyalist, just came out endorsing McCain who also should not be allowed anywhere near Washington, much less 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Another Bushie War, on Americans: More Senseless War on Drugs, VT Style

When the Bushie Republican Governor of Vermont didn't like that a (Democrat, I believe) lawyer and part-time judge didn't get serious prison time for possession of marijuana, he didn't just get mad. No, Jim Douglas ordered all state law enforcement officials to send marijuana (NOT heroin, NOT cocaine, NOT methamphetamine) cases to the FEDS directly, bypassing local and state courts.

Now, I'm not excusing the woman lawyer/judge who as an officer of the court certainly knows basic law. And yeah, 2.5 lbs DOES sound like a lot (except that drug cops are taught to pad the weight anyway possible and go to some truly ridiculous extremes to do so, often at the behest of higher ups and prosecutors who want to hit heavier charges as well as confiscate property).

But what the fuck is going on here? The War on Drugs has been such a miserable failure. And if you want proof, look at the Miserable Failure in the White House right now, a cokehead drunk with delusions of grandeur who actually thinks he's president when, you know, it's really Dick Cheney. I'm tired of fighting a war on Americans who as adults can make their own choices for what they consume, good or bad. If being a Bill O'Reilly isn't a federal offense (yet offensive, nonetheless), being a pothead shouldn't be either, I would think. And I say that as someone who hasn't used in God... I can't tell you how long.

No less than the Times-Argus, the Barre-Montpelier, Vermont newspaper that very few accuse of being a liberal rag, is kind of aghast at what Douglas is doing. And ALL American taxpayers should be: it's taking a local problem and, for the War on Drugs - and the war for the Bushie-style Ego, dumping it on feds that apparently need to focus on otherwise law-abiding potheads rather than on Bush corruption and Osama bin Laden and company.

Springfield, VT Wins "The Simpsons" Honor

No, I cannot quite explain how Springfield, VT (Vermont being my "home" state) got chosen as the official Springfield as part of the upcoming The Simpsons movie premiere, nor do I want to.

However, I will ask this question,"Hey, Fox, did you see the size of the Springfield movie theater? You should be able to fit at least 24 people into the premiere!"

Or... "DOH!"

[Springfield is not in my neck of the woods. Thankfully, neither is Fox.]

In The "Insanity Doesn't Run In My Household, It Races!" Department

[Note: Please do NOT refer to me as the "Good Humor" gal. I'm distinctly a Bad Humor sorta salesperson.]

Part of the reason you're seeing more "blurt" types of posts here is preparation to move again (while I have not found the right place to go) and find a new job strangely interferes with my ability to sleep, eat, and cope with the ongoing bedlam that comes with starting an "old-fashioned" premium ice cream business here in Ben & Jerry's backyard (literally).

The ice cream business isn't mine, but it might as well be. I'm the one who decided to try to develop my own from-scratch ice cream just for friends and family and quickly found everyone saying, "I'm not kidding; you could have a hit if you can produce this commercially."

As my partner John said endlessly, "You must sell this!", I kept saying, "Look, I hate ice cream so I only make it when you and/or guests want it. But hey, if you're so sure, then take my recipe and figure out a way to produce it." Uh... for once, he listened (awww....) and the rest will live on in infamy. It's been eye-opening; you can't believe how hard the government makes it for humans to have anything natural in their diet!

Then, with the news we had to find a new place quickly, suddenly the Vermont Milk Company (the producer of various dairy items) called up and said, "We're making the ice cream in the morning." Unfortunately, however, no one mentioned that the "pasteurized" eggs they were including in this recipe (a custard style ice cream like in the old days) had more salt than anything I've ever tasted. Mouth-burning kind of salt.

Once salt goes in, you can't really compensate elsewhere to effectively cure the sodium overdose. Thus we sadly had to torpedo the first batch (all 500 pints) and miss out on Memorial Day weekend sales. VMC has been quite good about working out a solution.

So here we are, in the same 2-3 days in which we need to get moved, with hundreds of pints of ice cream from milk ONLY produced in Vermont, and only from dairy farmers who do not use bovine growth hormone or any of that other yucky stuff. (Fantastic paired with apple pie, cake, root beer for floats, high end milkshakes, atop Belgian waffles with/without blueberries, strawberries, melted chocolate, or whatever your fancy.)

Suddenly, the Suzuki has a freezer installed and we're staying up late in the night, in "clean room" apparel, labeling containers, while we debate the other flavors we may want to add (white chocolate? white chocolate with Rainier cherries? The tasty maple variations with or without nuts? holiday eggnog version or "Dangerously Dark Chocolate"? and with/without roasted pear or apple... or ...?

Hey, at least I'm involved with a product where - thank you my lactose intolerantbelligerent digestive system! - I do not need to worry about eating the profits. Talk about getting one's just dessert.

Vermont Impeachment Movement Showing Its Cracks?

As even semi-regulars here know, I'm way beyond wanting Bush and Company impeached. After all, their crimes LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY crossed the threshold of treasonous acts and they're still racing to do far worse!

After reading this by Odum, who runs the Daily Kos-Vermont version Green Mountain Daily, I'm worried about the impeachment efforts myself. However, as Anon tells us here in Comments, all hope is not lost (600 more days of Bush, God help us all). Namely:

Hi. Yes, there is something that can be done. Two links VT/Odum at GMD may be interested in: When impeachment is not an option/off the table, a sitting President may be prosecuted outside Congress, outside impeachment.

1. Blogswarm: Visit these links, and let others know Bush can be prosecuted outside impeachment/Congress:http://www.haloscan.com/
   comments...a=13945#2389359
2. Commentary/discussion at the end of this blog thread [See the links in the end-comments/blog responses]:http://indictdickcheney.blogspot...comey-
   only.html

If the State/Federal legislators refuse to act -- as they have done with the House Rule 603/impeachment proclamations -- any one of the State Attorney Generals or District Attorneys may prosecute a sitting President. Congress and the states legislators have had their chance, and refused. Prosecution is the only option and remains on the table.

Vermont's Lone House Rep, Pete Welch, Takes Heat Over His Non-Impeachment Pursuits

Today (the 12th), the newly-elected (he replaced Bernie Sanders who went to the U.S. Senate to replace Jim Jeffords) Peter Welch (Dem), Vermont's only House Rep, took serious heat in a public hearing in Hartford, VT because he will not support impeachment efforts against Bush and/or the entire Bush Administration.

People here are NOT happy about Welch (or Sanders, who has also refused to take up the impeachment gauntlet) and statements like, "Impeachment would get in the way of more important things" (I guess a functioning democracy is a bit too much to ask for anymore) and "Impeachment will just drag out the Iraq War longer" (as if Bush is just racing us out of there as it stands now).

As regular readers know, I am NOT a fan of impeachment. However, there are genuine and very legitimate reasons why the Bush Administration should be removed compared with the whole "blue dress" debacle the GOP perpetrated against Bill Clinton in the latter 1990s.

I continue to feel that the charges to be leveled against the Bushies do not spell impeachment, but treason.

Neighbors: Join Journalist Greg Palast and Ben Cohen On Friday

I encourage everyone who can get to this to attend. And for those too far, please think of pulling together your own program. We NEED a fair and accurate count in November 2008 or we're going to get more of the terrible same! Hopefully, I'll see some of you there Friday night.

We know how much you love Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's),
our founder and creative visionary. Well, Ben and Greg Palast, a
hero of the verified voter movement, will be together in Montpelier,
VT this Friday to talk about voting integrity and the work we have
left to do to secure our elections. And you are invited.

When: Friday, May 4th at 7:00pm
Where: Unitarian Church of Montpelier, 130 Main Street (at School
Street) (map)

Greg was a pioneer journalist who exposed the dirty secrets of
electronic voting, and Ben was the creative spark behind
TrueMajority's famous "Computer Ate My Vote" campaign -- which helped
eliminate paperless voting in states across the country. See them together at
Friday's event which is hosted by Vermont voting activist and WGDR's Jim Hogue.

Vermont Senate: Impeach Bush Administration

Here's the details of today's vote in the Vermont state senate, echoing resolutions already passed in many of the Green Mountain state's communities on Town Meeting day last month.

Newt Gingrich's Hefty Speaking Fees Bankrupts Young Republicans at University of Vermont (UVM)

Ah, sweet mystery of life... nothing spells greed like GOPeons named Newt Gingrich. From the Burlington Free Press:

There was a certain irony in the recent demise of the College Republicans at the University of Vermont. What ultimately proved to be the club's undoing was an appearance on campus by a national Republican heavyweight: Newt Gingrich.

When the club invited Gingrich to speak at Ira Allen Chapel on Oct. 6, 2005, he settled for an undisclosed honorarium that was apparently higher than the College Republicans could afford. They took out a $7,000 loan from the Student Government Association to help pay the bill, but more than a year later, when the loan still wasn't fully repaid after several ultimatums, the Student Government Association decertified them. In other words, the College Republicans were removed last month from UVM's long list of "recognized," or subsidized, student clubs.

That left the College Democrats and the International Socialist Organization as two of the more prominent political organizations for students, and it left political conservatives with virtually no formal organizational outlet on campus.

This raises the question of how diverse the political climate is at UVM, a school where liberal or left-of-center views are widely seen as predominant.

High Energy Prices Giving You Gas?

In just under a week, gas prices have gone up on average of six (6) cents per gallon. This brings the national average per gallon to $2.61, considerably lower than what my home state and many others are seeing.

In fact, look at the gas price graphic on my right hand sidebar, and you'll see that most of the blue states pay far more, on average, than their red state brethren.

Funny how that works.

While pundits were predicting around the middle of last week that it was "unlikely" we would see $3+/gallon by summer, California passed that benchmark a few weeks ago. Where I live in Vermont, it's tough to see anything less than $2.60.

From Siberia To Mud Season To Blizzard Yet Again?

For the first time in three months, temperatures here in Vermont hit above freezing which was great cause for celebration. However, we hit aboving freezing here in South Woodbury with well more than two feet of snow still in place from the St. Valentine's Day record blizzard and a big snowstore after that, which meant that Mud Season (one of the two additional seasons Vermont boasts besides the standard four; Black Fly Season is the other one) commenced.

Now, after days of trying to move along dirt roads where the ruts are two-feet or more deep, in a ride that was FAR more harrowing than anything any amusement park can or would dream up, we're back to just over single digit temps, the mud has frozen and now, we're told to expect a possible blizzard starting before midnight.

Oh goodie. More snow. More stuff to melt next time temps hit the seasonal average of a day-time high of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. So we can either stop freezing our asses off or be forced to stay home OR risk a bad accident OR have frozen toes while you're able to get out of the driveway in the car.

Oh joy. Oh bliss. Oh $@*$!

Double Tragedy in Cabot

Those who watch Vermont news no doubt heard of the death by hit-and-run driver of a 27-year-old Cabot man, Jason Bear, Sunday evening, left to die in a ditch along the side of Route 215. The tragedy was compounded when it was discovered that the person who hit this by all accounts sensitive young father of a five-year-old son was none other than his stepfather, a man my age, also of Cabot, William Luther.

I realized I was probably in the same store when the dead young man was looking at DVDs and was traveling along that same road myself that evening. I wish I had some sense of what had happened so I could have gotten this young man assistance since he may have lived for some time after he was hit.

Many locals have criticized Luther for the action - not just leaving the scene of an accident and not trying to get his stepson help - but also for trying to cover up his crime by damaging his Jeep by first running it into a cement buttress and then into trees before he arranged to have the vehicle towed some distance away. But I suspect this was just a very sad case of someone panicking and then, as a result, doing absolutely everything wrong. I doubt those who make such mistakes ever believe ahead of time they would be capable of going to such lengths but, in truth, tragically, it happens all the time.

The only part of this that angers me is that Luther, like so many others, used, "I was drinking" as an excuse for what happened. But drinking and driving is a conscious act, so when you drink alcohol (or take drugs) and then get behind the wheel, "I was drunk" simply is no excuse. It enrages me everytime I hear someone use drugs or alcohol as a defense against an act they commit.

Otherwise, however, this case just saddens me: one life destroyed, another well on its way to such, and the rest of the family and close friends left to grieve for what might have been if Luther had not been drinking or out driving, or if he'd sought help for Bear immediately.

Historian Howard Zinn On Impeachment By The People

On the heels of my post about many Vermont towns voting on Tuesday to begin impeachment proceedings against both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, I happened upon this excellent article by historian Howard Zinn (one of the great minds and voices of our times) entitled, "Impeachment By The People" which I encourage everyone read, regardless of their mindset on the issue.

From Zinn's piece in the February 2007 issue of The Progressive:

Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course.

These are the Democrats who were brought to power in November by an electorate fed up with the war, furious at the Bush Administration, and counting on the new majority in Congress to represent the voters. But if sanity is to be restored in our national policies, it can only come about by a great popular upheaval, pushing both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will.

The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”

The “ends” referred to in the Declaration are the equal right of all to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” True, no government in the history of the nation has been faithful to those ends. Favors for the rich, neglect of the poor, massive violence in the interest of continental and world expansion—that is the persistent record of our government.

Still, there seems to be a special viciousness that accompanies the current assault on human rights, in this country and in the world. We have had repressive governments before, but none has legislated the end of habeas corpus, nor openly supported torture, nor declared the possibility of war without end. No government has so casually ignored the will of the people, affirmed the right of the President to ignore the Constitution, even to set aside laws passed by Congress.

The time is right, then, for a national campaign calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Representative John Conyers, who held extensive hearings and introduced an impeachment resolution when the Republicans controlled Congress, is now head of the House Judiciary Committee and in a position to fight for such a resolution. He has apparently been silenced by his Democratic colleagues who throw out as nuggets of wisdom the usual political palaver about “realism” (while ignoring the realities staring them in the face) and politics being “the art of the possible” (while setting limits on what is possible).

Read the rest here.

A Note About Vermont's Impeachment Vote

There are two things I want to call your attention to in the Vermont impeachment vote on Tuesday.

First, notice that our resolutions called for impeachment of BOTH Bush and Cheney.

Second, while I hear voters in other areas who don't go vote in even presidential elections because they don't have the time, it's raining or cold or "why bother?"... name any other lame ass excuse, Vermont voters came out on a day where the daytime HIGH was around -10 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill in the negative 28-40 range. And town meeting day isn't a quite in-out voting affair; in many towns, it's an ALL DAY affair, where lunch is served and the kids attend. In most, you vote by show of hands, which makes you accountable to everyone in the room.

Town meeting day represents one of the last vestiges of true participatory democracy. Where residents go through the budgets, weigh options aloud in discussions with neighbors, hear committee members talk about different programs, how the local schools run, and so on.

It's an amazing process; towns throughout America should do it.

My Vermont Town Voted to Impeach Bush - How About Yours?

From the Vermont Guardian (and Woodbury is the town I currently call home, while Calais, Johnson, Montpelier, Morrisville, and Plainfield, to name a few, are places with very good people and where I try to spend my money supporting local non-chain businesses):

If there’s a message from this year’s town meeting, it’s this: Vermonters are upset with Pres. George W. Bush, and less so with school budgets.

Voters in three dozen Vermont towns want Congress to begin an impeachment probe of Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney. Two towns, Clarendon and Dover, voted the measure down. Nearly a half dozen towns agreed to not take up, or tabled, the resolution.

...Roughly 20 towns passed measures calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and to care for them when they were back on U.S. soil. Dover also rejected the troop measure.

...Newfane Selectman Dan DeWalt is the major organizer of the impeachment resolutions. His effort has drawn global media attention and scorn. Last year, six towns passed impeachment resolutions.

This year, the impeachment resolutions have passed so far in Bristol, Burke, Calais, Craftsbury, Dummerston, East Montpelier, Greensboro, Guilford, Grafton, Hartland, Jamaica, Jericho, Johnson, Marlboro, Middlebury, Montgomery, Morristown, Newbury, Newfane, Peru, Plainfield, Putney, Richmond, Rochester, Roxbury, St. Johnsbury, Springfield, Stannard, Sunderland, Townshend, Tunbridge, Vershire, Warren, Westminster, Wilmington, and Woodbury according to organizers. Organizers based their information on reports from people in each town.

DeWalt said organizers will use these votes to urge state lawmakers to take up a measure in the House calling for Bush’s impeachment. The bill is currently in the House Judiciary Committee.

“This is clearly not a cry of protest, but the start of action — an impeachment insurrection that will lead to the reclamation of our Constitution,” said DeWalt. “Vermonters are angry and energized. We are taking the power that is sovreign in us and will use it to restore the Constitution. We will show the world that America has not sunk to the depths of violent madness that is the Bush administration.”