Free Republic

At least common thieves don't destroy an entire health care system and socialize the American economy when they commit their felonies. Too bad we can't say the same for our illustrious Democratic senators who sold out the nation. In exchange for criminally unconstitutional favors for their respective states, they voted to pass the Senate health care bill just 38 hours after it had been made available to the public for review. Everyone knows about Sen. Mary Landrieu's negotiating $300 million for her state in non-guaranteed Medicaid payouts. She was even cocky about her institutionalized larceny. Sen. Bernie Sanders finagled $10...

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont's highest court is being asked to decide what a dog's love is worth. The state Supreme Court on Thursday was to hear a case that began in July 2003, when Denis and Sarah Scheele, who were visiting relatives, let their mixed-breed dog wander into Lewis Dustin's yard and he fatally shot it. Now the Scheeles are asking the court to carve out a new legal doctrine that a dog's owners can sue for emotional distress and loss of companionship, just like parents can when they lose children. "We're still working toward having the courts recognizing the...

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont's highest court is being asked to decide what a dog's love is worth. The state Supreme Court on Thursday began hearing a case that started in July 2003, when Denis and Sarah Scheele, who were visiting relatives, let their mixed-breed dog wander into Lewis Dustin's yard and he fatally shot it. Now the Scheeles, of Annapolis, Md., are asking the court to carve out a new legal doctrine that a dog's owners can sue for emotional distress and loss of companionship, just like parents can when they lose children.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. For almost 100 years, the multicolored image of St. John the Divine has gazed down from a stained-glass window in the choir loft of First Baptist Church. "When you see the sunlight coming through it on a Sunday morning, it's just spectacular," said church member Karen Davis, 59. Now, the church may have to cash in on the value of the window -- a Tiffany original. Strapped for cash because of declining donations, attendance and collection-plate revenues, church leaders voted recently to seek bids and sell the 9-foot-tall, 33-inch-wide window, using the proceeds to sustain the church and...

Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S.. Constitution as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere. Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gun-owners and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun. Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as...

Despite being down two points and having its kicker miss a 46-yard field goal as time expired, the Jericho Mount Mansfield high school football team won a game last weekend thanks to one of the craziest, and boneheaded, plays you'll ever see. To set the scene, Vermont's Jericho Mount Mansfield high school lined up to kick a field goal with 1.3 seconds left in an attempt to win its game over Otter Valley. Two Otter Valley players went back to the endzone to catch the potentially short field goal. And then this: (Click on link for video)

On Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who was a teenager in Queens during the Sept. 11 attacks, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. This is a scary story. Police stopped and searched Zazi's rented car on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks loomed and President Obama was about to join world leaders at a U.N. confab. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bombmaking instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bombmaking...

I was looking up Vermont politics this afternoon, to ponder how awful it is for Republicans in the state that has elected a self-avowed socialist to the United States Senate, however, when looking over representation in the Vermont House of Representatives, I received the shock of my life. Let me explain this in numbers. The New York State Assembly has 150 seats, as does Vermont, 41 Republicans are in the State Assembly, and the Democrats have a coalition of 108 representatives (one seat is vacant, a Democrat resigned due to defrauding the public, 108 to go). That equals to just...

MONTPELIER — Democratic Vermont Auditor Tom Salmon is switching parties to the GOP. Salmon announced his plans today, saying he is frustrated with the Democrats’ handling of the budget, and says the party has moved too far to the left. Salmon says he plans to run for auditor next year, but says if Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie does not run for governor, there’s a very slim chance he might. Salmon says he’s been considering switching parties for some time and says the Republican party is the closest to accepting the realities of the times. He says when he returned...

As of this week- Stimulus Spending is at: $20,726,309,285.22 At the link on the upper right will be a listing: *American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Report* Updated as of 9/4/2009. New contracts signed this week are for design and construction of 10 land port of entry buildings for customs and border protection. 6 In North Dakota,1 in Vermont, New Mexico and Montana (The one in Vermont isn't even near the border, in Killingly.)

Does anybody know if there is any effort going on to reverse the open primary system that gave us John McCain? According to Wikipedia the following states have open primaries: * Alabama * Arkansas * Georgia * Idaho * Indiana * Michigan * Minnesota * Mississippi * Missouri * North Dakota * South Carolina * Tennessee * Texas * Vermont * Virginia * Wisconsin I've run a google news search and come up with blanks.

Ben & Jerry’s is temporarily renaming popular “Chubby Hubby” ice cream “Hubby Hubby” beginning today to celebrate the start of legalized gay marriage in its home state of Vermont. “The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction, and something worth celebrating with peace, love - and plenty of ice cream,” Ben & Jerry’s CEO Walt Freese said in announcing the sugary switch.

Chittenden County State's Attorney Thomas Donovan said the allegation that Flanagan was seen masturbating in a men's fitness area at the Y has been referred to a police sex-crimes unit. Sources inside the YMCA told Totten of several instances that concerned them, including one incident where Flanagan allegedly was running on a YMCA treadmill wearing only shoes, socks and a watch. Totten also outlines a previous story published by Seven Days in December. That story outlined some of Flanagan's statehouse behavior

July 14, 2009House Leadership's Health Care Plan Pushes Top Tax Rates Over 50% in 39 States Couples Earning More than $1 Million Hit with 5.4% SurtaxWashington, DC, July 14, 2009 - A third updated Tax Foundation report shows that 39 states would see top tax rates exceed 50% under a health care funding plan announced today by House Democrats.The latest proposal—one of several floated on Capitol Hill in the past few days and the third analyzed by the Tax Foundation since Friday—would impose a surtax of 1 percent on married couples with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) between $350,000 and $500,000...

Oh boy, Congress is upset.... Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, have called for action to avoid a repeat of last year’s run-up in crude oil prices to a record $147.21 a barrel, which they blame on speculators. Oil has climbed 44 percent this year in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, even amid a drop in demand and high levels of fuel in storage. “Our first hearing will focus on whether federal speculative limits should be set by the CFTC to all commodities of finite supply, in particular energy commodities, such as crude...

Strange sighting on Lake Champlain

BOSTON (AP) — A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday. Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., was to appear in federal court later Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew after disrupting United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The flight, with 182 passengers and 12 crew members, landed safely with the escort of...

The Vermont Workers Center lost a $30,000 grant from a Catholic group because it would not take a stance against abortion and assisted suicide as part of its "Healthcare is a Human Right" campaign. "It's a major challenge for us, $30,000, we make it go a long way," Vermont Workers Center Director James Haslam said. The money represents a quarter of the group's total budget. The center has received the grant in years past, but it must be approved by the Catholic Diocese of Burlington every year. The Vermont Workers Center planned on using the grant to help fund the...

The problem with stolen art is that once you start to sell it, word gets out. When the art involved is a hundred or more bronze religious medallions, each worth perhaps $1,000, eventually somebody will notice, call the FBI, and there go the profits. Which is apparently what happened with a haul of bronze medallions that took a 237-year journey from Spain to Anguilla to Vermont and then back to the Caribbean. Shortly after midnight on June 8, 1772, the Spanish vessel El Buen Consejo smashed into Anguilla in the Leeward Islands, stranding passengers and crew on a voyage to...

'Champ' Has Been Spotted 300 Times, Local Watchers SayHas the so-called Loch Ness Monster of North America reared his head, again? For hundreds of years, residents of New York and Vermont have swapped stories of a mysterious underwater creature living in the expansive Lake Champlain. Although locals say it has been spotted more than 300 times, it has only been caught on camera once, decades ago. So skeptics abound, wondering how so many people can believe in something that has never provided proof of its existence. But a cell phone video taken earlier this week of a creature apparently swimming...

Not just content to win elections, the Left is trying to destroy its political opponents by calling for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for political and legal decisions the Left does not like. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is leading this banana republic style campaign to criminalize policy decisions made by a duly elected previous administration.

HIGHGATE, Vt. – A room off the milking parlor of a sprawling farm near the U.S.-Canada border offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the changing face of Vermont's dairy industry. A Spanish-language soap opera plays on a small TV atop the refrigerator. Bags of corn flour for tortillas are piled high in a basket across the room from bunk beds. "Dios bendiga esta casa" (God bless this house) is scrawled above the door of the room, home to a Guatemalan man and a Mexican couple. A pregnant Mexican woman still in knee-high rubber boots is visited by Nancy Sabin, a volunteer...

Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship By Emily Pierce Roll Call Staff May 7, 2009, 12:43 p.m. Leahy Raises Questions Over Specter Subcommittee Chairmanship Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday appeared to throw a little cold water on the Democratic leadership’s plan to give recent party-switcher Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) a plum subcommittee chairmanship. Though Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced earlier in the day that he would relinquish the Crime and Drugs subpanel and take over a reconstituted Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Leahy told reporters, “Nothing’s been worked out.” Leahy indicated that...

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers. In the last two weeks, two states have legalized same-sex marriage. First, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Then Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. When it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

These are dark days for traditional Americans, folks who believe that the Judeo-Christian principles of right and wrong should be considered when making public policy. The other day, former "Focus on the Family" founder James Dobson actually told his crew that the culture war was being lost in America. And it is hard to argue with Dobson's opinion. All over the USA, secular progressives are on the move promoting gay marriage, legalized drugs and unfettered abortion, and attacking almost all judgments on personal behavior. And nowhere is the movement more intense than in the nation's most liberal state: Vermont. The...

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

West Rutland resident Jon Wallace is moving ahead with plans for Wednesday's Tax Day Tea Party in Main Street Park, despite being denied a special event permit by the Board of Aldermen this week. When it comes down to it, he said, he's been told he doesn't really need the permit. And he doesn't see how the aldermen think they could deny protestors' First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly anyway, he said. "My gut feeling was that 'thou doth protest too much,'" Wallace said of the board's decision to deny the permit. Wallace was not at Monday night's...

We cheer the reddest. We corn the hardest. And, apparently, we grin the widest. Because Nebraska is the happiest state in the U.S., a new study says. The survey — conducted by personal finance Web site MainStreet.com — ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia from fiscally happiest to saddest based on a few factors of economic well-being. These included foreclosure numbers, unemployment rates and the ratio of average debt to average annual income. “It reflects the attitude of this state,” said Gov. Dave Heineman. “We are a positive people with a can-do attitude who are focused on...

When the Iowa Supreme Court kicked off last weekend by approving same-sex marriage, conservatives across the board were saddened. Needless to say, Vermont’s decision as the fourth state to join the team, so to speak, is nothing less than a slap in our faces. Tuesday morning the Legislature voted to override Republican Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill permitting homosexuals to marry. With an override vote of 23-5 in the Senate and 100-49 in the House, Vermont is the first state to legalize gay and lesbian marriage with a legislature’s vote. It’s time to wake, Conservatives. The madness doesn’t...

Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote, the minimum needed, to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.Vermont was the first state to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples and joins Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa in giving gays the right to marry. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.Tuesday morning's legislative action came less than a day after...

Are you ready for a FReepathon!!? Well, it's a new quarter and a new president and he's everything we knew he would be. In less than 90 days he's managed to take an economic downturn and turn it into an unmitigated disaster for good old American capitalism. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The government is now printing money as fast as they can run the presses. Our federal budget is doubling and tripling and the Fed is running with no controls or oversight whatsoever from the congress, pumping trillions more into the "economy." The government now spends...

Enrollment in Vermont's public schools is down for the 13th straight year. Public schools in Vermont have lost nearly 13 percent of their students since a high of more than 106,000 in 1997. recent reports showing Vermont with one of the lowest birth rates in the country, it could be some time before the number of students reverses.

MONTPELIER, Vermont, March 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas said today that he would veto a bill the Senate passed Monday that would open the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, reports the Associated Press (AP).Douglas had indicated earlier that he thought the state's civil unions for same-sex couples were enough, and that he was against same-sex "marriage."  The Democratic-dominated Vermont Senate voted 26-4 Monday in favor of the bill, S. 115, which would redefine marriage as "the legally recognized union of two people."  The House is now considering similar legislation.The AP reports Douglas also...

Vermont Senate panel approves gay marriage bill MONTPELIER, Vt. – A Vermont Senate committee has unamimously approved a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-0 on Friday to advance the measure that was the topic of an emotional public hearing on Wednesday that drew hundreds to the Statehouse. The full Senate is expected to take up the bill next week. Gov. Jim Douglas has said he opposes the measure, but has not indicated whether he would veto it. If approved, Vermont would join Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only U.S. states that...

WEST PAWLET, Vt. – Four years ago in this remote valley hamlet, the last eight members of the financially strapped United Church of West Pawlet voted to disband the congregation. Tad Perry remembers the wrenching vote as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” But now on a nine-degree Sunday morning, a steady plume rises once again from the chimney behind the steeple. Inside, nearly 50 people singing catchy hymns with piano accompaniment help make the tiny sanctuary feel close to full. And the voice from the pulpit bespeaks what’s taking place—not only here, but in formerly...

By now you’ve probably heard that the Senate approved an amendment a few days ago to outlaw the “Fairness Doctrine.” Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s amendment passed by a comfortable margin of 87-to-11. Although one would think it’s important to know which senators cast their votes in favor of censorship, we can’t find a single news report that calls out their names. So we’ll do it:

Guys, just like most of you I have been interested in the 10th Amendment "State Sovereignty Resolutions"..but I have one criticism of our tactics (while I agree that some of the momementum for this movement has been opposition toward the big-Socialism that Obama, and the Congress is pushing)..Remember Bush, W. PUSHED for big-government too. I seem to recall (not being a Vermontor.sp (Orwhat they call themselves..)? myself) I remember that Because Bush and the Republican Congress voted for the war in Iraq, there was a "strong push" in Vermont (really liberal, anti-war) state to push for "Secession"..well I know the...

Vermont waterfowl hunters will get an opportunity to hunt snow geese next month as part of an effort to reduce the population of birds.A special "conservation order" was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow the season, which will run from March 11 through April 15 in Vermont.Similar seasons have been authorized in five other states.

The Democrats campaigned on the promise of an era of post-partisanship. That was the campaign. Their governing style, however, is as rigidly partisan as ever, as these remarks made by Senator Pat Leahy demonstrate.

Senator seeks Bush-era "truth commission" Mon Feb 9, 2009 2:05pm EST By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. "truth commission" should probe Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called for the commission as way to heal what he called sharp political divides and to prevent future abuses. He compared it to other truth commissions, such as one in South Africa that investigated the apartheid era. "We need to come to a shared understanding...

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Comedian Ben Stein has withdrawn as the University of Vermont's commencement speaker because of complaints about his critical views on evolution in favor of intelligent design. UVM President Daniel Fogel said he chose Stein based on the warm response to a lecture he gave on campus last spring. Fogel said, however, he was deluged with e-mail messages from people offended by Stein's views of science. When told about the criticism, Stein — who was to be paid $7,500 — backed out of the May 17 commencement, Fogel said. "I did not ask him not to come," he...

There is a Governor who fully supports Obama's stimulus package, and no it's not Sarah Palin..It's Governor Jim Douglas from Vermont, read this and prepare to vomit..Enclosed is a link to a blog he wrote where he not only praises Obama but practically kisses his ass http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog_post/what_governors_know/ President Obama welcomed the rare Republican supporter of his economic stimulus bill today when Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas arrived in the capital to lobby GOP senators to vote for it. Douglas, who is vice chairman of the National Governors Association, is bucking his party over Obama's massive economic bailout plan. In a brief...

President Obama welcomed the rare Republican supporter of his economic stimulus bill today when Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas arrived in the capital to lobby GOP senators to vote for it. The Senate Republicans are prepared to fight the current package.Douglas, who is vice chairman of the National Governors Association, is bucking his party over Obama's massive economic bailout plan. In a brief photo op with Douglas, Obama said, "What we can't do is let very modest differences get in the way of the overall package moving forward quickly." Douglas sat next to Obama in the Oval Office and said, "If...

Washington-- Want to be almost certain you'll have religious neighbors? Move to Mississippi. Prefer to be in the least religious state? Venture to Vermont. A new Gallup Poll, based on more than 350,000 interviews, finds that the Magnolia State is the one where the most people 85% say yes when asked "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" Less than half of Vermonters, meanwhile 42% answered that same question in the affirmative. Joining Mississippi in the top "most religious" states are other notches in the Bible Belt: Alabama (82%), South Carolina (80%), Tennessee (79%), Louisiana (78%), and Arkansas...

GRAND ISLE, Vt. (AP) — Authorities say a Lake Champlain ferry has crashed at a dock on the Vermont shore, with injuries reported.

Police say a poodle mistakenly left for nearly three weeks inside a van in a Vermont airport parking garage has survived. The 12-year-old miniature poodle lost half its body weight and endured subzero temperatures. Police believe it was without food and water for 19 days. Police say the dog is recovering and not available for adoption. The male dog was discovered Jan. 6 after someone reported a foul odor coming from the vehicle.