The Courage Of the Vermont Congress

Many of us that support Marriage Equality didn't think they would have the votes to accomplish this...

VICTORY! Vermont votes for marriage equality!

Moments ago, the Vermont House voted 100-49 to override the marriage bill veto! The House vote, which followed the Senate voting 23-5 this morning to override Gov. Douglas’s veto, means that Vermont becomes the first state to OK marriage equality through the legislative process.

Vermont has now recognized the same Marriage Equality that Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa have already recognized.

[update] The NY Times explains why this is a bit of a surprise:

Approval had been expected in the Senate, where the vote was 23 to 5.

But the outcome in the House of Representatives was not clear until the final moments of a long roll call, when Rep. Jeff Young, a Democrat who voted against the bill last week, reversed his position. In the end the vote was 100 to 49, just slightly more than the required two-thirds majority of members present.

[udate deux] The Iowa Senate Majority leader, Mike Gronstal, is effectively blocking efforts to undo the recent decision of the Iowa Supremes:

One of my daughters was in the workplace one day, and her particular workplace at that moment in time, there were a whole bunch of conservative, older men. And those guys were talking about gay marriage. They were talking about discussions going on across the country.

And my daughter Kate, after listening for about 20 minutes, said to them: You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care.

I think I learned something from my daughter that day, when she said that. And I've talked with other people about it and that's what I see, Senator McKinley. I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other, and want state law to recognize that.

Is that so wrong? I don't think thats so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife. You know Ive been married for 37 years. I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other.

No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you.

The video:

Good day for equal rights. Daughters and sons of miscegenation legal arguments past can cry me a river.

Some Vermonters uderstand the real issues...

The important ones that our Congress should have dealt with years ago:

Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.

Surprisingly, "Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001." And just in case you are wondering if this might actually happen should the voters decide to pass it... The local police supported the petition drive to get this voted on.

"Everybody I talked to wanted Bush to go," [Kurt Daims] said, noting that even members of the local police department supported the drive.

snip

The article goes on to say the indictments would be the "law of the town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police ... arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro, if they are not duly impeached ..."

They might want to consider adding the names of everyone that has served in Congress under the criminal years of the bush administration and showed no effort or inclination to put impeachment on the table...

On Secession and Seperation

CT Blue on the Vermont secessionist movement:

The Vermont Secession movement is alive and well. I think it’s terribly selfish of them to not invite the rest of New England along. We could detach Fairfield County if they wanted, so our sole Republican Congressperson would feel more at home.

The folks in Vermont have it right:

“The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable _ it’s too big, it’s too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

“We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war,” Williams said. “If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what’s left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire.”

In truth, this country can’t last forever. Someday it will disintegrate, or descend into tyranny. Disintegration is certainly preferable.

Since we all know that nothing lasts forever, most of us would agree that at some point, this country will no longer exist, at least in anywhere near its present form.

I lived in Vermont for a few years and was surprised at how many people take that topic seriously, and have for a long time. It wasn't as large or as vocal as the separatist movement in Quebec, or as violent. I lived in the heart of the October Crisis, since the kidnapped Pierre Laporte lived a couple of blocks from our house, so I remember the military on every corner, and monitoring our local parks, and every ones' daily movements... Not an ideal situation for the average kid. For those of you not familiar with Canadian politics, here is a "Wiki quickie" rundown of the basics:

Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970), was a Canadian politician who was the Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec at the time he was kidnapped and murdered by members of the terrorist group, the Front de Libération du Québec (Quebec Liberation Front).

snip

On October 10, 1970 Laporte was kidnapped from his home in Saint-Lambert, Quebec by a cell of the Quebec terrorist group known as the FLQ. They dubbed him the "Minister of Unemployment and Assimilation," and held him hostage in an anti-government protest. The events that followed became known as the "October Crisis" when the War Measures Act was invoked and Pierre Laporte's dead body was found in the trunk of a car seven days later on October 17. He had been strangled. His kidnappers were subsequently captured and sentenced to long prison terms for his murder, but in fact only served terms ranging from 7 to 11 years.

The secession issue has always been there in Vermont. And I don't doubt that it is getting more vocal these days.

Can't say I blame them given the situation in Washington over the last 10 or 20 years. "Empire" and the size and corruptibility of the US government are things that too few Americans will even acknowledge as real issues that need some serious attention. At this time there is no party that is willing to hold every politician accountable. Even the Democratic party has only a few "people candidates" that are consistently labeled as on the fringe by the media now. The bulk of Democratic candidates are beholden to the same corrupting agents as the bulk of Republican candidates. Though, the Democratic ones are for the most part less extremist in their corporatist views.

GOP Sen. Snowe has had enough of Iraq, And so has Vermont

At least the bush league version of it:

In another sign of Republican unease with the president's Iraq policies, a third GOP senator expressed support Thursday for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq under certain conditions.

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe announced she would sponsor a bill to require American commanders to plan a withdrawal within 120 days of the bill's enactment, unless the Iraqi government meets a series of benchmarks.

"The Iraq government needs to understand that our commitment is not infinite," said Snowe, a moderate from Maine who frequently departs from the party GO Fline.

BUT leaving no doubt that she won't get off the pot OR shit:

Snowe is not backing a Senate Democratic plan approved last month that would require the president to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days and would set a nonbinding goal of complete withdrawal by March.

Why don't you just continue to sit there and read a fucking magazine as more American soldiers and Iraqis die because you are too busy riding the political porcelin fence...

You know, Olympia... (Can I call you Olympia, or would you prefer "vile sack of republican of shit"?) There is another party that IS IN CHARGE now. Your pathetic attempts to pretend to lead prove that you really do need to take crap. You are full of it.

As for Vermont:

The Nation -- The Vermont Senate voted 16-9 Friday morning to urge the state's congressional delegation to introduce and support articles of impeachment against President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Dozens of communities across the country -- including forty towns in Vermont -- have urged that Congress begin the process of impeaching and removing Bush and Cheney. But this is the first time that a state legislative chamber has done made the call.

The move, which is the latest win for Vermont's large and active impeachment movement, puts pressure on freshman Democratic Congressman Peter Welch.

Welch has met with impeachment backers, but has been cautious about challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's declaration that impeachment is "off the table."

The overwhelming vote in the Senate will make it harder for Welch to dodge the issue, especially since the measure was introduced by the Democratic leader of the Senate, Peter Shumlin, along with state Senator Jeanette White.

My advice to you Welch: GO FOR IT!

Your constituents want it, and there are a lot of others across this nation that want Democracy and The Constitution restored in this country... We got yer back.