Vermont Secession Advances

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:00:00 GMT
From clairefiles:
"My life, not yours, piss off!" - The Dunedan, definining "libertarian"

From smith2004:

"Say what you will about the American form of government, but I still get all tingly every time I see that Statue of Various Permitted Activities in NY harbor." -- unattributed

# Bill Steigerwald at Pittsburgh Live - Freedom, 'the default position' - an interview with retired judge Andrew Napolitano. [root]

Q: What is the sound-bite synopsis of your book "Constitutional Chaos"?

A: You and I are having a conversation, Bill, and there's no judge, no jury, no courtroom, no stenographer. It is inconceivable that either one of us would go to jail because of what one of us says to another. Martha Stewart was having a conversation with an FBI agent. The FBI agent had a lawyer and she had a lawyer, but there was no judge, no jury, no courtroom, no stenographer. During the course of that conversation, the FBI agent lied to her and she lied to the FBI agent. Somehow he stayed an FBI agent and she went to jail.

What kind of a government prosecutes its citizens for committing a crime which its own agents have themselves committed? One of the reasons I wrote this book, is because in this era of the war on terror, when more and more Americans are having contact with their government, people need to know what their rights are; and people need to know what the government can get away with; and people need to know what the government will do when it wants to get you. Martha Stewart is an unfortunate example of that.

...

Q: Any simple or obvious things we must do to return to constitutional, limited government -- or is it hopeless?

A: I think the present environment is hopeless, because of the sway over Republican members of Congress that the White House has. Can you imagine if a Democrat had proposed legislation that allowed the FBI to break into your house when you're at a basketball game on a Friday night and steal your checkbook and plant a bug underneath your toilet and your kitchen table and you'll never know that the FBI did it? That would allow the FBI to go to your lawyer, your banker, your doctor, your pharmacist, and demand your records without a search warrant? That would allow the FBI to go to a post office and read your mail without a search warrant without you knowing about it? If a Democrat had proposed that, the Republicans in Congress would have railed against it and opposed it to the skies. But yet the Republicans in this Congress go along with it, merely because a Republican president proposes it. I'm speaking, of course, of the Patriot Act, which is the most abominable assault on human liberty by the Congress since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

# Greg Szymanski at The Arctic Beacon - Historic Vermont Meeting in State Capital Passes Resolution to Secede from the U.S. - more than 400 people gathered in Vermont's House Chamber and passed a resolution to secede from the United States. It ain't a done deal yet, and may never be, but I salute the idea. [grabbe]

Although the resolution is the first step in the long process that needs support from the state legislators -- as well as an officially recognized convention - the grass roots group called the Second Vermont Republic passed the following citizen's resolution:

"Be it resolved that the state of Vermont peacefully and democratically free itself from the United States of America and return to its natural status as an independent republic as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791."

Even though critics give the secession group 'a snowball's chance in hell,' organizers are firmly convinced in the present-day tyrannical political climate secession will not only succeed but will prosper.

# Nelson D. Schwartz at Fortune - Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu - wonder why the Busheviks are making such a big deal about bird flu? Follow the money. [grabbe]

# Techcrunch - New Yahoo Maps Shows Power of Flash - there's a new Yahoo Maps, which uses Macromedia Flash as its graphics engine. Very nice! Might win me from Google Maps. Naw... [picks]

# GrowHigh Headshop "is the UK's foremost supplier of bongs, cannabis seeds, pipes and smoking accessories. Choose from a wide selection of products ranging from bongs to pipes, skins, scales, books, tins, grinders and other cannabis related items." Added to my links page.

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