Hardly a week goes by in which neither Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, nor Peter Welch appears on Vermont Public Radio’s noonday program known as “Vermont Edition.”  The widely listened to news interview show is replayed each evening at seven o’clock.

As the leading Vermont spokespersons for the American Empire, it is important that their voices be heard ad nauseam by VPR’s elite listening audience.  They are treated by VPR reporters with a deference reserved only for royalty.  VPR adheres to two strict rules when it comes to interviewing members of the Vermont Congressional Delegation.  First, only softball questions are allowed.  Second, never ever challenge anything they have to say.

Take Pentagon Prostitute Patrick Leahy, for example.  While pretending to be opposed to the war in Iraq, Leahy supports every new military appropriations bill, every Vermont based defense contract, and every deployment of Vermont National Guard troops overseas.  He always votes with Israel and supports all of its acts of genocide against the Palestinians.  VPR never utters a peep against Leahy’s bellicose, militaristic stance.  Criticism of the Vermont Congressional Delegation is not considered to be politically correct behavior by neoliberals.  Good Vermonters don’t judge others.

And then there is the darling of Vermont Progressives, Bernie Sanders, who cultivates the image that he is a socialist, which he is not.  Sanders loves to rail against Corporate America, but then does nothing to limit its power.  Currently he is trying to convince a nuclear weapons systems company to move to Vermont.  He always stands behind Israel’s “right to defend itself” against the helpless Palestinians.  No one at VPR would dare challenge anything Bernie does or says.  He is beyond reproach.  Above all, Bernie knows that only the Federal Government can solve all of our problems all of the time.

Since 2007 an out-of-state, left-wing, hate mongering group known as the Southern Poverty Law Center has been waging a CIA style smear campaign against the Second Vermont Republic accusing it and its founder of racism.  The frivolous charges leveled against SVR are based on outright lies, half truths, and guilt by association.  SPLC is the left-wing equivalent of the John Birch Society.  Just as the John Birch Society used to find a communist hiding behind every bush, so too can the SPLC spot a racist a mile away.  A racist is defined as anyone who does not agree with SPLC’s brand of technofascism.

But the real issue has absolutely nothing to do with racism, but rather the state of Israel.  The SVR website frequently posts essays challenging the U.S. Government’s support for Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians.  Any organization which confronts Israeli genocide is fair game for the SPLC.  The SPLC understands very well that the only thing which keeps Israel afloat is the American Empire, and SVR advocates the peaceable dissolution of the Empire.  Need we say more?

Only one statewide media outlet in Vermont has given any credence whatsoever to the SPLC smear campaign waged against SVR – Vermont Public Radio.  VPR talk show host Jane Lindholm could hardly wait to go public with SPLC’s savage, 10-page 2008 attack on SVR.  The Harvard graduate accepted every word of the report verbatim – no questions asked.  SVR needed to be taken out, and VPR was there to do its part!

What is this all about?  Why is there such a cozy relationship between VPR and the SPLC?  During its seven-year history, SVR has been treated fairly by every statewide media outlet but one – Vermont Public Radio, the voice of the American Empire.

Given the amount of national and international media attention generated by the Vermont independence movement, we are often asked whether we have been noticed by the U.S. Government?  The Feds are far too sophisticated to engage in a direct attack against SVR, knowing full well that such action would virtually guarantee our success.  Instead, they use CIA like surrogates such as SPLC and VPR to smear SVR.

VPR is affiliated with National Public Radio, truly a world class apologist for an empire owned, operated, and controlled by Corporate America, Wall Street, and the Israeli Lobby.

The BP oil spill serves as a dramatic reminder that the American Empire is the most materialistic, most fossil fuel dependent, most environmentally destructive empire in history.  To quench our ravenous thirst for oil we have become the most militaristic and most violent empire of all-time with 1,000 military bases in 153 countries.  We are currently engaged in immoral and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are all about oil.  Vermont’s prorata share of the Pentagon’s military budget is over $1.5 billion annually.

NPR’s list of corporate sponsors reads like Who’s Who In Corporate America. The list includes Bank of America, Citibank, VISA, British Petroleum, Dow Chemical, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, and Apple.  Names of private donors are a closely guarded secret.  It’s called “public radio,” but they clearly do not want us to know who is paying for it.

Contrary to the image which VPR successfully projects, VPR is not the benign, kind and gentle, community based voice of the Green Mountain State but rather the voice of an unsustainable, ungovernable, unfixable empire which has lost its moral authority.  A financial contribution to VPR helps promote capitalism for the rich and powerful, illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israeli inflicted genocide on the Palestinians.

As Vermont gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele often says, “The Gods of the Empire are not the Gods of Vermont.”

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

July 12, 2010

When James P. Merriam became a member of the Second Vermont Republic in 2005 at the age of fifteen, he was its youngest member.  He has been actively involved in the Vermont independence movement since that time.

Born in St. Johnsbury and raised in Montpelier , James was a product of the Vermont countryside and the Montpelier Public Schools.  His Valedictory speech at Montpelier High School on “Secession” was a reflection of his early political, social, and environmental activism.

Unfortunately his social activity was not appreciated at a private college located near Philadelphia.  He was expelled from the college for his failure to follow the school’s rigid code of political correctness.

After reflecting on his out-of-state experiences, James returned to Vermont, entered UVM, and decided to run for the Vermont House in his home town of Montpelier.  His goal is simple, to promote and support what Vermont has always done best:  blaze the trail of human progress.  Merriam believes that, “Vermont can never shy away from the responsibility we hold to others.  On the local level for transport, housing, and healthcare.  For energy and food for all.”

Most of all James stands for ending the American Empire and its adventures abroad.  He believes that wars must end and that the Vermont National Guard troops should be brought home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Vermont may be a lifeboat for the next age, but for now it only needs to be home.  Allowing Vermonters to make it home comes before all else.”

Contact information: James Merriam, 610-755-5875 or 7Jacobin@gmail.com.

Thomas H. Naylor

June 30, 2010

Over the Fourth of July weekend there will be three opportunities to meet and support the ten Vermont independence candidates who are running for office in 2010.

All of the candidates will speak at the Big Picture Theater Pond on Route 100 in Waitsfield between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., on Saturday, July 3^rd.  The Meet and Greet event will include live music, a yak burger BBQ, and a cash bar.  Music will be provided by the Phineas Gage Band.  For information contact Rob Williams at 802-279-3364 or editor@vtcommons.org.

Then at 6:00 p.m. Vermont Independenistas are invited to participate in the Montpelier Independence Day parade which begins at 6:00 p.m.  Marchers will assemble at 5:00 p.m. at the Second Vermont Republic banner.  For information contact James Merriam at 610-755-5875 or 7Jacobin@gmail.com.

On July 4^th we will once again participate in the funky, grassroots, seat-of-the-pants Warren parade.  The parade begins at ten o’clock sharp with assembly at nine.  For information contact Gaelan Brown at 802-272-0991 or gaelanb@gmail.com.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor

June 22, 2010

The BP oil spill serves as a dramatic reminder that the American Empire is the most materialistic, most fossil fuel dependent, most environmentally destructive empire in history.  To quench our ravenous thirst for oil we have become the most militaristic and most violent empire of all-time with 1,000 military bases in 153 countries.  We are currently engaged in immoral and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are all about oil.  Vermont’s prorata share of the Pentagon’s military budget is over $1.5 billion annually.

Until Vermont comes to terms with its relationship with a morally corrupt, unsustainable, ungovernable, unfixable empire, discussion of specific environmental policies seems highly speculative.

In general, I would like to see Vermont become the Switzerland of North America – politically, economically, and environmentally.  However, I do favor the immediate shutdown of Vermont Yankee, a continuation of Act 250, and an increase in the gasoline tax to finance a statewide passenger railroad network.

Imagine…Free Vermont

Dennis Steele

June 21, 2010

In what many consider to be an unprecedented historical event, ten avowed secessionists calling for Vermont to once again become an independent republic have been certified to run in the November 2, 2010 election.

Somewhat ironically, though appropriately so, the Vermont independence ticket is led by Vermont Native American gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele.  Steele, who is an Abenaki Indian, a U.S. Army veteran, and a Kirby businessman, is the founder and CEO of the successful international Internet based businesses, Chess Maniac and Radio Free Vermont.  His running mate for Lt. Governor is Shelburne businessman and political activist Peter Garritano.

Seven Vermont Independenistas are running for the State Senate.  They include Addison County business consultant Robert Wagner, Chittenden County attorney Terry Jeroloman, musician Stephen Laible, and security company CEO Mikey Van Gulden; Rutland County businessman William Cruikshank and political activist Dennis Morrisseau; and Washington County businessman Gaelan Brown.  They are joined by House candidate James P. Merriam, a UVM student who lives in Montpelier.

What these candidates have in common is a commitment to bring home the Vermont National Guard troops from Afghanistan and Iraq now as well as a commitment to return Vermont to its status as an independent republic as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791.

Few Vermonters realize that secession represents a return to their early nineteenth century roots when New England secessionists led the opposition to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the national embargo of 1807, and the War of 1812.  New England secessionists also expressed their opposition to a military draft at the Hartford Convention of 1814. Abolitionists in New England urged northern states to disengage from the Union.

What the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reminds us of is that not only is the United States the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful empire in history, but it is also the most materialistic, the most environmentally destructive, and the most violent empire.

Vive Les Vermont Independenistas!

Imagine…Free Vermont

Come Meet the Vermont Independence Candidates for Statewide Office

Vermont independent gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele will appear on the popular Sunday morning interview show “You Can Quote Me” at 11:00 a.m. on WCAX-TV on June 20^th.  The Channel 3 News program is hosted by the highly respected television reporter Kristin Carlson.

Although libertarian writer Bill Kauffman is no secessionist, he has just published the definitive book on the subject.  Bye Bye Miss American Empire is a love story about America written by a loyal American, but, unfortunately, it is a story of unrequited love.

While professing “a deep and abiding love for the United States” and a sentimentalist desire to “keep Upstate New York in the Union,” Kauffman opines that “secession is the next radical idea poised to enter mainstream discourse – or at the realm of the conceivable.”

Kauffman skillfully traces the historical origins of secession back to America’s very first secession in 1776.  As he correctly notes, “We are a nation born in secession.”

“To secede means to withdraw.  It is not self-effacement; the seceding party does not disappear.  It simply removes itself from an arrangement it no longer finds satisfactory and sets up another.”

There is a lot of talk about secession today throughout the United States.  A visit to the highly informative website secessionnews.com will confirm this fact.  As many as 30 states now have active secession movements.  Kauffman takes a close look at some of these movements including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, California, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the eleven states of the Confederacy.  Several new secession movements have emerged since Kauffman completed his research including the Texas Nationalist Movement and the Palmetto Republic.

Kauffman makes a clear distinction between what he calls the “true America,” the America of Mark Twain, Henry Thoreau, and Zora Neale Hurston, and the American Empire, “that cold-eyed death machine that ground American boys into fodder to spit out into the frozen Chosin of Korea, the rice paddies of Southeast Asia, the dunes of Mesopotamia.”  The Empire “has run out of money, out of even the fig leaf of moral justification, out of any international sanction save the specious pule of the coerced and the fraudulent.”  Continuing he ads, “The Empire demands that we pledge allegiance to the distant over the near, to the abstract over the real, to perpetual war over peace and harmony.”

Interestingly enough, Kauffman shows little or no interest in either Alaskan, Hawaiian, or Puerto Rican statehood.  The Alaskan Independence Party’s challenge to Alaskan statehood is based on the claim that the 1958 statehood election was deliberately manipulated by the U.S. government, which wanted to assure an affirmative vote because of Alaska’s strategic military importance in the Cold War.  Both Hawaii and Puerto Rico were annexed by the U.S. as a result of nineteenth century gunboat diplomacy.

Kauffman devotes an entire chapter to California which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says has become “the modern equivalent of the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta.”  With a population of over 36 million and a gross state product of $11.5 trillion, California has the eighth largest economy in the world.  Schwarzenegger adds that, “We have the economic strength, we have the population and technological force of a nation-state.”  Some Californians are calling for secession.  Others would like to see the state divided into three separate regions which could evolve into independent states or nations.

As for the flattering things Kauffman has to say about the Second Vermont Republic and the Vermont independence movement in general, I can only hope that we can live up to his expectations.

Deep in the heart of Texas, in Nederland, Texas, to be exact, lies the headquarters of the fastest growing, most serious secession movement in the United States since the end of the Civil War in 1865 – The Texas Nationalist Movement.  TNM was catapulted onto the national stage in 2009 when Texas governor Rick Perry threatened to secede from the Union while participating in an April 15^th Tea Party (tax revolt) in Austin.

TNM is led by 35-year-old Daniel Miller, the group’s very bright, articulate, charismatic, politically sophisticated president.  The goal of the Texas Nationalist Movement is nothing short of “Independence. In our lifetime.” according to its state-of-the-art website texasnationalist.com.

What truly differentiates TNM from stereotypical Southern secession movements such as the League of the South is its laser-like focus on Texas independence rather than on such spurious, divisive issues as Christian fundamentalism, abortion, and gay rights.  One of the reasons the League of the South has proven to be so ineffective as a secession organization is that it is in too many unrelated businesses – evangelical Christianity, right to life, Southern history and culture, the Confederate flag, and the song “Dixie.”  That’s a lot of inflammatory baggage to carry, and unfortunately, some of it is tarnished by the taint of racism.  The Texas Nationalist Movement is only about peaceable Texas independence.

In a recent article in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram by Dave Montgomery, Daniel Miller was quoted as saying, “We maintain an open-door policy.  If you’re about freedom – individual freedom – and liberty and Texas independence, we call you brother or sister.”  Miller proudly proclaims that TNM “includes Hispanics, African-Americans, women, lifelong Democrats and union members.”  Continuing he notes that, “We don’t argue race; we don’t argue Democratic or Republican.”  And the movement predates the Age of Obama by nearly 15 years.

No sentence better captures the essence of Kauffman’s book than, “The noise is the sweet hum of revolution, of subjects learning how to be citizens, of people shaking off…their Wall Street and Pentagon overlords and taking charge of their lives once more.”

Bye Bye Miss American Empire is a radical book about the new radical politics in America, peaceable secession from the American Empire.  But consider yourself forewarned.  Bill Kauffman is such a disarmingly effective writer that you may be seduced into reconsidering your views on what many consider to be one of the most politically incorrect ideas in America – secession.

The Empire is going down.  Do you want to go down with the Titanic, or do you want to consider other options while such options are still on the table?  Secession is an option which can no longer be summarily dismissed.

Bye Bye Miss American Empire was published by Chelsea Green Publishing, P.O. Box 428, White River Jct., VT  05001, 802-295-6300, www.chelseagreen.com.  The book is available in paperback, contains 320 pages, and costs $17.95.

June 1, 2010

Thomas H. Naylor

On May 10^th Vermont independent candidate Dennis Steele became the first gubernatorial candidate to be certified by the Secretary of State for the November election.  Steele submitted over 625 signatures to qualify for the general election.

Then on May 13^th he learned that State Attorney Tim Allen had decided not to pursue disorderly conduct charges against him by two Barre policemen in conjunction with his intervention at the April 1^st gubernatorial debate held in the Old Labor Hall.

For asking how an independent Vermont might deal with the state’s $150 million deficit, Steele was dragged out of the Labor Hall by two policemen, handcuffed, arrested, taken to the police station, finger printed, photographed, and charged with disorderly conduct.  All of this for suggesting that if Vermont were to become an independent republic, it would be relieved of its obligation to pay the federal government $1.5 billion per year for its prorata share of the defense budget.

For the first time since he announced his candidacy for governor on January 15^th, Dennis was invited to participate in a gubernatorial candidate forum.  On May 13^th he joined the five Democratic candidates at a conference on “Children’s Hunger” at the Green Mountain Club near Waterbury.

As evidence that not everyone likes the attention his candidacy is attracting, Steele was the target of a cheap shot by WPTZ TV anchor Gus Rosendale on the six o’clock news on May 12^th.  In a piece on “Local Radical Groups” Rosendale tried to link the Second Vermont Republic to a convicted sex offender and two unsavory political groups.  He neglected to even mention that Steele was running for governor.  To add insult to injury Rosendale also brought in mean-spirited, Southern Policy Law Center witch-hunter Mark Potak.  SPLC is a well known apologist for the American Empire and its technofascist puppet state, Israel.  It is the left-wing equivalent of the John Birch Society.

Secession is a tough sell in Vermont as elsewhere.

Thomas H. Naylor

May 15, 2010

I am a fifth generation Vermonter, U.S. Army veteran, small businessman, living in the Northeast Kingdom.  I own and operate two successful international Internet based businesses – Chess Maniac and Radio Free Vermont.  My wife, Amber, my two children, and I live in Kirby, Vermont.

On January 15, 2010, I officially announced my candidacy for Governor of Vermont in the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Montpelier.  My candidacy attracted a lot of national and international media attention including Time Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press.

Since I am running as an independent, I have not been invited to participate in a single gubernatorial debate.  To compensate for this fact I have shown up at five of the debates since January to ask questions and make my views known.  The April 1 debate in the Barre Old Labor Hall was the fourth such debate I have attended.

Since I was broadcasting the Barre debate live on Radio Free Vermont, I was there as an official member of the Vermont press corps.  As an ordinary Vermont citizen, as a gubernatorial candidate, and as a radio broadcaster I wanted to participate in what I thought was a democratic election process.  The debate was televised live by Vermont Public Television.  What I had not realized was that Marselis Parsons, the debate moderator, wanted to exercise absolute control over the debate and the flow of questions.  Therefore, when I attempted to ask a question from the floor, Parsons was unamused and became quite agitated.

As I was backing away, Parsons beckoned to the Barre police who immediately grabbed me and dragged me out of the Labor Hall onto the street, handcuffed me, took me to police headquarters, finger-printed me, photographed me, and charged me with disorderly conduct.

What was the big deal?  Why was I dragged out of the Labor Hall?  I was only trying to exercise my First Amendment rights in a free election.  Why was I handcuffed?  What did they think I was going to do?  It seemed like we were back in the USSR.

As a Vermonter, am I not entitled to freedom of speech?  I wanted to know how the five candidates would deal with the state’s $150 million deficit.

The charges against me are frivolous and without basis in law.  They should be dropped.  Furthermore, I am entitled to an apology from the Barre Police Department.

Dennis Steele

May 13, 2010