Kudos to Boston/Watertown PDs, Mass State Police, the FBI, et al.

They got him!

More to come soon on the despicable behavior of Vermont secesher losers regarding the matter of the Boston Marathon bombers.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

"Dear 'Baghdad Rob' ..."

(Recently, Rob Williams, the Vermont secessionist leader, groupie and America hater, had a hissy fit over one or more of my posts.  I'm not linking to his screed because it's, well, embarrassing to him and it might seem like I was kicking him when he's down lower than he has ever been since the Vermont secesher movement began 10 years ago this month [an anniversary that I can't find him noting somewhere, anywhere, in his ongoing, incessesant, ineffectual promotion of his neo-Confederate cause]).

I've taken to calling Vermont secessionist, Rob Williams, "Baghdad Rob" because he shares so many of the unhinged qualities of the former Iraqi Propaganda Ministry mouthpiece during the outset of the war in Iraq, Baghdad Bob.

Like Baghdad Bob, "Baghdad Rob" has little to no sense of irony.  Baghdad Bob announced to the world press that Americans were commiting mass suicide at the gates of Baghdad while in the the background of the camera shot of Bob's announcement, American tanks were rolling through the Baghdad city square. Not unlike Baghdad Bob, "Baghdad Rob" would like to sell his independence hokum to a group larger than his (and I'll use Second Vermont Republic co-founder Ian Baldwin's salient comment about the size of the Vermont secesher group) "small community" of secesher hoopleheads like Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau, Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner, Jim Hogue (an unconvincing Revolutionary War reënactor), Gary Flomenhoft (promoter of a seditious plot to secretly reconstitute an unelected group to restore the long disband Council of Censors, a plot that came to a screeching halt when I exposed it on this blog here during their failed 2010 election debacle), Gaelan Brown (a secesher "expert" on UFO's, chemtrails and the US military "plot" to obtain secret alien technology in exchange for resources on the dark side of the moon), Vermont Commons web editor and anti-Vermont National Guard sham activist, Juliet Buck, and Matt Cropp (whose efforts to install secessionists or himself in a variety of public and non-profit offices has been a complete and more than utter failure).  Most, if not all of these low achievers, declared their "provisional capitol" to be a B&B in Hancock, VT after their dismal showing in the 2010 election cycle, which was first only to their even more miserable showing in the 2012 election cycle.

Other than the dead guy and your Brooklyn flack, have I left someone out, Rob?

In a juvenile post that employed thinly veiled homophobia and a scatological reference, "Baghdad Rob" launched into tirade about his criticisms of this blog based on his unbridled hatred for blogs that (1) write the truth, (2) don't drink the secesher Kool-Aid and (3) don't accept direction from a media master like "Baghdad Rob," who drove his print journal into a financial ditch and then a year and a half later blamed Tropical Storm Irene and not his own shortcomings, and who is left with a cheesy blog that is little more than a nest of conspiracy theorists (Rob's a 9/11 Truther) whose latest includes a despicable, parent and child hating Sandy Hook Truther; the usual anti-Vermont National Guard hate rhetoric in pursuit of fixing a bad personal property gamble; delusionist, anti all of Vermont's statewide and legislative elected representatives; fake, uncredentialed "journalists" like William Boardman and Christopher Ketcham who routinely fail to disclose their personal, extremist agendas; as well as anti-Semites, segregationists, misogynists, racists and homophobes.

"Baghdad Rob's" irony meter must have been on mute when he wrote this:

"Or, haters (a k.a. "Thomas Rowley"), you can just keep on keeping on with hating on the Vermont independence crowd. Anonymously. With no transparency or accountability for your words. It is easier that way, of course. And safer. To be anonymous. In the closet. Hidden."

That's rich. That's coming, Baghdad Bob-like, from the guy who seemed to be in charge of the 2009-2010 super secret secesher Free Vermont Listserv, populated by candidates and, um, co-conspirators in the effort to hide from Vermont's electorate all that the Vermont secesher candidates intended to do if elected to office. They talked freely when they thought no one was listening, yet when I exposed their nonsense on October 3, 2010 they chose to shutdown their listserv on October 4 and I don't believe that they've ever fessed up to their activities there to date.  So much for transparency, eh, Rob? Naturally, their Great White Godfather, Thomas H. Naylor, excused their activities on the listserv as being thought to be private and that they were merely "Internet cowboys," although I've yet to hear a peep from their blowhard leader, "Baghdad Rob."  Wassup with that?  And what exactly does "Baghdad Rob" mean by "safer?"  Of course, it's not like Vermont secesher leaders, neo-Confederates, Vermont Commons'anti-Semitic bloggers and their ilk haven't haven't threatened  perceived opponents in the past, is it, Rob?

"Baghdad Rob" oversaw conversations for more than a year on the listserv amongst racists, conspiracist nutters, economic whack jobs, immigrant haters, homeless haters, women haters, lesbian haters, including his own posts about the "Israeli Mafia" and about his having bragged that he'd,

"spent 4 years defusing the SVR/(racist)LOS (not so) nonsense and it is finally done, even in the blogosphere."

Yet he never tried to shutdown the extremists.  So how'd that work out for you, "Baghdad Rob?"  Didn't your "Independence Party," as you like for one day in 2010 called it, lose every friggin' race it entered?

And I'm not even going to drag up his "Don't Ask, Don't Care" policy that he's maintained for his hategroup allies since February of 2007.  Hell, he's even continued his association with hategroup League of the South bigwig, Donald Livingston, by contributing to his neo-Confederate throwaway collection of essays as recently as 2011.

In his deranged post "Baghdad Rob" called me out (again!) with his not so vaguely homophobic,

"Your call. We're here when you are ready to come out of the closet."

Ya see, Rob, I don't meet in bars (as you've previously suggested) with racists, homophobes, misogynists, Jew haters or their persistent allies, like you.

Unlike you, "Baghdad Rob," I've never, ever sat down with convicted felons, the neo-Confederate, racist, hate group, League of the South board directors, anti-Semites, the virulently anti-gay and led by neo-Confederate, hate group members, Christian Exodus.  Ya see, hate insinuates itself into many of "Baghdad Rob's" willing associations, so much so that he sees it in everyone else, especially those who, like me, find his chosen, hate enabling, out of state friends to be so repugnant.

Perhaps this is the reason that, according to published reports, Williams' wife "does not agree with secessionism."

"Baghdad Rob" has never responded to my earlier suggestions as to how we might mend fences and engage by his first renouncing the extremists he so willingly embraces.  Perhaps, since his movement is so off-the-rails, he may be willing now to publicly cull his nest of hateful bloggers and his still active association with national neo-Confederate and hate group principals, as an opening act of good faith.

In the meantime, warmest regards Rob,
Rowley


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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Will Vermont Jurisprudence Be Joining The Discussion of Expanding Voir Dire to Include Probing Potential Jurors About Their Feelings Concerning the Confederacy?

There's an important discussion that has begun concerning the biases that attach when a potential juror is sympathetic to the Confederacy, the modern neo-Confederate movement and its ideological sympathizers. While much of the work and research is Southern oriented, it has relevance to Vermont.

Proponents of the Vermont secessionist movement have long had significant ties to the Southern neo-Confederate movement, most particularly the racist League of the South (LoS). Starting in 2007, the leadership of the Second Vermont Republic (SVR) (the still quite dead SVR founder Thomas H. Naylor and his then SVR co-chair and present VTCommons propagandist Rob Williams) launched a purge of members who'd voiced concern about associating with indisputably racist groups. Committed Vermont seceshers have repeatedly and publicly expressed support for the acts of the Confederacy and the modern neo-Confederate movement.

In addition to presenting research on the racial bias of potential jurors, the researchers, Edward H. Sebesta and Dr. Euan Hague, PhD, have a piece published at The Black Commentator entitled The Confederacy and Jury Selection,

"The historical record irrefutably shows that the Confederacy was formed for the purpose of preserving white supremacy and slavery. Such sentiments are expressed is the declaration and resolutions of the seceding states, in the speeches of the leaders of the Confederacy, and in innumerable other sources, typically being expressed in a straight forward manner.

It would be reasonable, therefore, to ‘challenge for cause’ potential jurors identifying with the Confederacy because of their identification with a white supremacist regime that sought to keep (its) African Americans enslaved. These potential jurors identifying with the Confederacy might object that they would not be biased as jurors, but elements of the pro-Confederate Lost Cause mythology inherently lead to bias. One element is that African American slaves were well treated and content as slaves, and that slavery was like being a part of a large family, rather than that it was a grave and often horrific condition. At some psychological level, Lost Cause rationalizations are embraced and accepted because for that individual, an African American’s freedom and humanity are valued less than their own."

Alan Bean at the Friends of Justice blog has a piece, Probing the Subtleties of White Racial Bias, and there's a New York Times Op-Ed piece by a senior editor at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates, on the topic of ingrained racism here.

Vermont has a growing immigrant population, as well as an increasing population of color located in Vermont's small urban areas. Racial profiling has been a recurring issue that has found its way to the courts and that's not likely to end. White Vermonters who have embraced the white, racist neo-Confederate movement, while an admittedly small group, are still eligible for jury duty.

Vermont secessionists have sought to legitimize their endeavor by claiming that (1) Southerners had a "right" to secede and that, similarly, (2) Vermonters do as well because there once existed a Vermont republic. Vermont republic mythology is a staple for Vermont secesher water carriers like Rob Williams, Juliet Buck and two time Vermont secesher legislative candidate in Franklin County, Todd Pritsky. Pritsky was a member of what was thought by the surreptitious group to be a super secret listserv where some Vermont seceshers, including a neo-Nazi, could engage in racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, seditious and abusively misogynistic (sounds redundant but it's not) "chat," while other invited members, like Pritsky, remained largely silent. The racist leader of SVR later referred to this group as "Internet cowboys," with the usual CIA/Mossad paranoid delusions here.

Juror bias is an issue that needs looking at in Vermont where secessionists and their sympathizers, who embrace the neo-Confederate meme, can potentially contaminate the jury with an element of racial bias.

If you believe, as I do, that the Vermont judicial system needs to examine this issue, please consider contacting the Vermont Judiciary Court Administrator Robert Greemore by writing to him at 109 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05609 or calling him at 802-828-3278; contacting the President of the Vermont Bar Association, Amber L. Barber, at abarber@drm.com or by writing to her at P.O. Box 100, Montpelier, VT 05601-0100; and Attorney General William Sorrell at 109 State Street, Montpelier VT 05609-1001 or calling him at 802-828-3171. This is one of those occasions where I would strongly urge you to put your concerns about this issue in writing.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

White Nationalism Comes to Montpelier, VT

My copy of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report arrived in the mail today and, as I always do, I looked for what might be new in hate groups, like the Second Vermont Republic and its hate blog at the Vermont Commons website, that have nestled in the Green Mountain state.

Lo and behold, there's a new (well, not so new - it's third anniversary arrives in ten days) white nationalist website that's been operating in Vermont's capitol, Montpelier called the Crocker Post (scroll down to Vermont in the SPLC list of active "white nationalist hate groups").  The website operator is an admirer of such hate sites as the Council of Conservative Citizens (formerly: the White Citizens Council), VDare and the Occidental Observer, as well as scumbags like Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter.

The blogger, Warren Crocker Herrick, would rather not say where he works but he's written:

I live in Montpelier, Vermont and am a professional waiter by trade, so I meet a lot of people to write about. 

Source

Just so you don't end up on this white supremacist website for the wrong reason, you may want to consider ordering the white rice for your side when at the New England Culinary Institute restaurant in Montpelier.  Oh, and I'd play it safe and stay away from the Black Eyed Peas because you never know who might be listening.

It should come as little surprise that Herrick also gets quite a raging, bigoted stiffy about the issue of gays or marriage equality on his blog.  He regularly goes on and on about it.

Oddly, this up and coming hate blogger isn't a fan of Vermont secessionists - give him time.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau Reaches A New Low

It probably wouldn't come as much of a surprise to regular readers of this blog that I consider the perennial loser candidate for various state offices, Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau to be a lowlife and a scumbag. Denny's never found a conspiracy theory that he couldn't embrace, no matter how outrageous or ridiculous. Denny's used chicken wire engineering to explain how the discredited 9/11 Truthers got it right, basing his junk science on the work of cabal of anti-Semites from American Free Press, VeteransToday.com and Jim Fetzer's 9/11 Scholars for Truth. There's more on Fetzer here, as well as a piece that he had published (he's a regular contributor) at the anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying and anti-American website maintained by the Iranian Ministry for Propaganda, Press TV, entitled "Mossad Death Squads Slaughtered American Children at Sandy Hook."

Fetzer's a proponent of the conspiracist notion that those scores of Newtown, CT parents are faking the real grief we were all witness to. In particular, he's got a conspiracist stiffy for one parent, Robbie Parker, whose daughter was murdered by Adam Lanza. Setting aside for the moment the cognitive dissonance of first accusing the Israelis of perpetrating the massacre while then accusing the parents of the murdered children of being a part of vast governmental conspiracy to concoct a fake massacre for the purpose of creating just the right climate to push through legislation to seize American's guns, let's take a look at who this nutter is citing as a compelling authority on Robbie Parker faking it. It's stunningly offensive to the parent and other families. Take it away, Denny:

Jim Fetzer January 26, 2013 - 7:24 am

Here’s another example, where Dennis is far from alone in believing a lot of acting was going on:

Dennis Morrisseau · Top Commenter · West Pawlet, Vermont "I can buy a few of the writer’s explanations of some parts of this event and the questions surrounding it. But I also agree with Jim Fetzer’s and Julie Banda’s remarks below. AND, since I have done some stage acting, and also seen a large slice of reality in my 70 years on the planet, I am just going to tell you that ROBBIE WAS AN ACTOR, delivering remarks for TV off a card, and very clearly…….he had to work hard to get into character for his performance after his slick joking repartee before he had to go “ON”."

Source

Ah, yes. In addition to his roles as one of the most failed candidates in modern Vermont history, as an enemy of Vermont's homeless, as the advocate for a hit list of prominent Jews and as the self-anointed "Very Foreign Minister" of the lamentably misnamed Second Vermont Republic, Denny now presents himself as a thespian of such caliber that he can tell from 3 to 4 seconds of tape that someone is faking emotion about their deceased child like so many of the whack job conspiracists do. It's impossible to look at the vid and not see the true cross of emotions that naturally move across the face of the truly grieving unless, of course, you're a sick conspicracist whackjob like Denny.

Naturally, fake "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin'" Wagner considers Denny to be his "friend" and serves as tech support for Denny's now defunct campaign website, 2ltmorrisseau.com - if Denny should ever turn his website back on maybe he'll post a "Hi! Let Me Tell You About My Court Martial Proceeding!" explanation of his betrayal during the Vietnam War.

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: 2LTMORRISSEAU.COM Created on: 12-Aug-05 Expires on: 12-Aug-13 Last Updated on: 14-May-11 Registrant: Dennis Morrisseau PO Box 177 West Pawlet, Vermont 05775 United States Administrative Contact: Morrisseau, Dennis dmorso@netzero.net PO Box 177 West Pawlet, Vermont 05775 United States 8026459727 Technical Contact: Wagner, Robert robert@senatorwagner.com 2LTMorrisseau.com PO Box 174 Ripton, Vermont 05766 United States +1.8029899673

It's always been clear that Denny's a viciously misogynistic, anti-Semitic, conspiracy addled nutter whose hatred for so many people - the poor, the homeless, virtually all of Vermont's legislators, reality based Vermonters, Jews and women - was such an attractive combination for Vermont's secessionist movement but I just never realized that he could be this despicable in pursuit of his completely dishonest worldview. And why would "Senator" Wagner ever call a longtime dirtbag like Morrisseau his "friend?" And will self-identifying with a hateful Truther like Morrisseau improve or screw up Wagner's next campaign? We shall see. And let's see if Vermont secesher propagandist, Rob Williams, at the thoroughly defunct Vermont Commons journal blog puts any distance from himself and his emerging independence movement book selling enterprise, and his hater of mourning parents and conspiracy blogger, Dennis Morrisseau.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Anti-Semistism? Racism? Thomas Naylor Made It A Convoluted Twofer As He Trotted Out His Anti-Obama, Anti-America Dog and Pony Act for Iran's Propoganda Service in the Wake of the 2012 Election

Much as Saturday Night Live did in the fall of 1975 regarding the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, I can confidently report that the baas of the Second Vermont Republic and Charlotte, VT washashore, Thomas H. Naylor, "is still dead... but he's feeling better every day."

Late last year I'd mentioned that the Vermont secession movement was maintaining it's embrace of anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying elements at home and abroad, whether that be by promoting the notion that Israel is a criminal enterprise (the "Israeli Mafia" meme has been advanced by Naylor and his gubernatorial stooge, Dennis Steele, and "agree(d)" with by Naylor's heir apparent and former Second Vermont Republic (SVR) co-chair, Rob Williams) or that Israel can be "undone" (SVR co-founder and now a South Carolina delegate to the racist Southern National Congress) or that as one secesher leader (SVR's self-described "Very Foreign Minister" and decades long losing, as in usually running last, congressional and Vermont legislative candidate, Dennis Morrisseau) has recommended that there should be a hit list of prominent Jews or one member of the small, super secret nest of seditious Vermont secesher plotters of the group exposed by this blog just before the 2010 election who'd posted many, many times at the neo-Nazi messageboard of Stormfront.org (White Pride Worlwide!) using the nom de Nazi, "Donnachaidh" or making a number of appearances on the racist, anti-Semitic, virulently homophobic, misogynistic and Holocaust denying Political Cesspool (Naylor & Sale) or Naylor's own numerous appearances on the anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying, anti-American website of the Iranian Ministry of Propaganda, er, "Information" called Press TV - well, you get the idea.

In October of 2012, less than a week before the general election, Naylor, sensing as almost anyone did whose last name wasn't Romney, Rove, Morris or Gingrich (as well as not being a Faux News clone) that President Obama was poised to get a second term, took the occasion to dip his toe once again into the barely concealed racism pool so much a part of the secessionist movement, even in Vermont, and in another of his tiresome, self-important essays, Naylor engaged in his usual anti-Semitic dog whistling and inferences of Jewish domination of the world and U.S. foreign policy.  Interestingly, in the second piece by baas Naylor, the supposed man of peace, he makes an argument of sorts for further nuclear proliferation:

"Israel maintains almost vice-like control over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.  It tells Washington what it wants and, give or take a bit of face-saving waffling, usually gets what it wants.  It actively supported the war on terror against Muslims, two wars against Iraq, and the NATO attack on Libya.  And since Israel is the “exceptional” nation in the Middle East only it is entitled to have nuclear weapons, and Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons project must be taken out."

Okay, that Naylor is a Jew-baiting anti-Semite is a given (more on that below in the stuff I've got on his most recent appearance with the Iranian propaganda douchebags at their Holocaust denying website, PressTV), but in his first screed Naylor clutched at an obscure remark about President Obama being "cool" and constructed an attack that ended with:

"Above all, what Obama was about was being “cool.”  And it worked in spades."

"Spades?"  Really, Tommy?  Couldn't he have summoned up a little more resistance to his moth-like attraction to the flame of racially loaded double entendres?  Maybe it was because for too many years he palled around with his friends at the racist League of the South and at the Southern National Congress where he liked to sing Dixie?

The dust had hardly settled on one of Naylor's last remaining politically wishful Vermont secessionist boneheads, Senator Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's disastrous last place showing in the 2012 Addison County senate election, when up pops another interview that Naylor did for the genocidal, Holocaust denying folks at Iranian's Propaganda Ministry's online "news service" Press TV. Naturally it contains references to Naylor's racist Obama screed and his usual anti-Semitic dog whistles, a staple for the folks at the Holocaust denying Press TV, including the their mutual anti-Semitic mainstay about the illegitimacy of the State of Israel concluded with what Naylor had to know is a racially charged statement, especially with Naylor's past race-laced writings and his long history of cozying up to racist groups like the League of the South and the Southern National Congress, both directly and through his association (Naylor's big on guilt by association) with SNC delegate and SVR co-founder with Naylor, Kirkpatrick Sale.


'Course, if the Press TV propaganda vid doen't open, use this link: http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/271010.html

It is interesting that after all the years of my pointing it out that the "crack" propagandists at Press TV haven't figured out that the skyline of Charlotte, NC has nothing to do with Charlotte, VT, Naylor's former residence. Maybe some of his ashes will get sprinkled there on his way back to his beloved state of Mississippi. And I doubt the Iranian hate scrum will pick up on the pronunciation differences.

"I am cool, and I know that you know that I am cool", says Thomas H. Naylor, founder of Second Vermont Republic about Obama's public persona. Naylor thinks that Obama lacks a "vision of the future".

In a phone interview with Press TV's U.S. Desk on Wednesday, Naylor said, "He would speak of a jobs program throughout the campaigns but the reality was that he had no jobs program. The United States does not have a coherent foreign policy; it has four different foreign policies. One for the middle-east, one for China and Russia, one for the NATO allies, and one for the rest of the world ... There is really no glue that holds the Obama administration together other than a kind of notion of what's above all, the most important thing is for Obama to appear to be cool."

Obama, 51, faces governing in a deeply divided country and a partisan-rich capital, where Republicans retained their majority in the House and Democrats kept their control of the Senate. His re-election offers him a second chance that will quickly be tested, given the rapidly escalating fiscal showdown as indiatimes.com reports.

Naylor's longtime relationship with the genocidal maniacs at the Iran Propaganda Ministry's outlet Press TV puts the lie to his commitment to secession when you factor in that the Iranian regime has murdered more than 10,000 Kurdish separatists in Iran, not to mention displacing (as in rendering homeless) 200,000 "Iranian" Kurds.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Look! Up In The Air! It's A Bird... It's A Plane... Nah, It's Just Another Drone.

Taking a break from his normally useless movie and book reviews that always seem to come to the same conclusion that even though the subject covered rarely is even remotely associated with secession, that it is, in fact, all about secession, Vermont Commons journal blog publisher Rob Williams launched into a muddled piece here about drones and a whole lot more. Apparently, law and jurisdictional issues aren't Rob's strong suit - kinda like his complete inability to meet any of the Vermont secession movement goals set years ago by he and his still dead (as they use to say on SNL) compatriot, Thomas H. Naylor; secessionist supporters serving in the Vermont General Assembly to advance Articles of Secession by 2015 or the plan to have secession discussions going on at 200 Vermont Town meetings in 2012 (there wasn't even one!). The piece veers off into a number of seemingly disconnected areas that is reminiscent of a writing style often employed by Vermont secesher "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner. Whatever.

This time Rob or Robert's panties are in a knot over drones and aerial surveillance. "He" writes,

"Drones like the ones in these pictures have been seen flying over Vermont. A local citizens organization, The Watchers, has earned a solid reputation for gathering facts, for watching the money. The Watchers obtained the evidence that you see here. Using airborne evidence, the State Police sometimes make a follow-up visit to determine exactly what a crop is, as has happened in Addison County. As the Addison Independent has printed, the police produced no warrant. In spite of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees our rights against warrantless searches and seizures."

Of course, we aren't given a links to "The Watchers" or the Addison Independent story. A website calling itself Drone Watchers is thin on substance and if The Watchers has such a "solid reputation" for "watching," Google has little evidence other than the Drone Watcher website which, by the way, has no information about done usage in Vermont. Probably this story from the March 2008 archive at the Addy concerning a Goshen, VT resident and neighbor to Ripton, VT's repeatedly failed Vermont senatorial candidate, Robert Wagner is the one being referred to by Rob/Robert. Nor is there information about the warrant or lack thereof in the secesher piece but the facts are probably contained in this Vermont Supreme Court decision.

Typically, Rob or Robert got the facts all screwed up. The Vermont State Police produced a search warrant when they physically searched the property. It was the probable cause used to obtain the warrant that was defective. Oh, and what was also not made clear in Robert's (er, or was it Rob's piece?) is that there was no drone involved. The surveillance aircraft used was a helicopter, but, hey, what's the dif? Well, given the emphasis on drones in this piece, a lot. But since when have facts ever stood in the way of a meme that the seceshers were trying to promote?

It comes down to this: While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Florida v. Riley that aerial surveillance must be above 400 feet, Vermont's rules require that such surveillance must occur at more than 500 feet. Beneath that, plain view doctrines do not apply and a warrant is required. That shouldn't be too hard for anyone, even a secesher, to understand but it seems that their standard of surveillance elevation is infinite. And that's legal crap.

Unsurprisingly, the legal eagles in the Vermont secesher camp seem to have missed the most important issue in the case. The VSC held that,

"¶7. Based on the evidence presented at the suppression hearing, the court found that the helicopter circled defendant’s property for approximately fifteen to thirty minutes, well below 500 feet in altitude, and at times as low as 100 feet above the ground. Although both the trooper and the pilot testified that the helicopter remained at least 500 feet off the ground at all times, the court did not find their testimony to be credible. The court further found that pilots doing MERT (Marijuana Eradication Team) flights in Vermont are told to stay at least 500 feet above the ground and that, according to a National Guard pilot who testified for the State, the reason MERT pilots are so directed is to avoid invasions of privacy."

Despite the discussion 10 years later in the Vermont legislature about marijuana legalization in this session, maintaining a pot patch was notoriously illegal in 2003. Wagner's been railing on about hemp and helicopters for years. Certainly, potential constituents of this self created public figure can fairly speculate on what he's been fussin' about.

But why isn't/aren't the Rob/Robert more concerned about the Court's finding that the state trooper and the guard airman's testimony are not "credible?" That would seem to the more significant issue here. R'n R's contention that they "can do something about"... "domestic surveillance in Vermont" is total bullshit, yet they've been completely silent on what the Court defined as unacceptable testimony from a police agency representative. I guess that's what gets missed when a would be pol is busy carrying water for a dope growing constituent.

If that doesn't convince you that these seceshers are assholes, consider their commentary offered about Rutland:

"This discovery has emerged in the wake of surveillance cameras recently deployed in Burlington, Rutland and smaller towns."

Vermont cities and towns have been increasingly under attack by vandals, drug addicts, thieves and strong arm merchants of terrors for years. There has been no offer of a solution from Vermont seceshers to this date for the crime situation for anywhere in Vermont. Rutland, in particular, has suffered incredibly yet the secesher silence on crime issues has been deafening except for when they're expressing admiration for headcase vandals like Roger Pion who have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to public property.

Rutland has followed the prescriptions of the bipartisan Constitution Project regarding community oriented implementation of public surveillance systems. The "core principles governing the creation and design of public video surveillance systems" outlined by the Constitution Project are not the heebie jeebie legal premises of the seceshers. They recommend,

"1. Create a public video surveillance system only to further a clearly articulated law enforcement purpose. 2. Create permanent public video surveillance systems only to address serious threats to public safety that are of indefinite duration. 3. Ensure that public video surveillance systems are capable of effectively achieving their articulated purposes. 4. Compare the cost of a public video surveillance system to alternative means of addressing the stated purposes of the system. 5. Assess the impact of a public video surveillance system on constitutional rights and values. 6. Design the scope and capabilities of a public video surveillance system to minimize its negative impact on constitutional rights and values. 7. Create technological and administrative safeguards to reduce the potential for misuse and abuse of the system. 8. Ensure that the decision to create a public video surveillance system, as well as major decisions affecting its design, are made through an open and publicly accountable process."

Recently, a single group of vandals was responsible for more than $50,000 in damage in Rutland and it was as a result of evidence provided by privately maintained surveillance video that the three perpetrators were caught, and that was just a single grouping of vandalism sprees that have plagued Rutland for more than a dozen years. Murders in public spaces of Rutland that all should expect, no, demand, to be safe, have repeatedly occurred; one huffing scumbag, while driving in an neighborhood now demanding surveillance protection from public officials, crushed a teen between between her father's car and a building while her father helplessly witnessed the murder from his driver's seat, yet there has been no outcry from the Vermont secesher community about this case. Could the knowledge of surveillance equipment in that public, crime ridden area have deterred that outrage? We can never know, but seceshers don't want to find out. Their belief is that the 4th Amendment constitutes a suicide pact that reaches beyond the scope of prohibited governmental activity. Properly executed "plain view" searches in public areas where there can be no expectation of privacy have long been permitted by the courts. The secesher candidates, including two Rutland county senate candidates in 2010 and 2012 never once mentioned the crime crisis in Rutland. Instead they complained that the "Israeli Mafia" was the problem in Vermont; that a Jewish "hit list" was needed; that legislators should be subject to capital punishment for misfeasance (probably, no, especially the Jews; and that, ya know, the Jews were involved with 9/11.

The fact is that there are many benign, labor-saving uses for drones: in the arts, archeology, mining, ranching (yes, they're even used to herd livestock), crop observation (by farmers, not cops), traffic monitoring, even animal rights activists use'em (although the hunters they were trying to observe eventually shot their drone down), to name only a few of such uses. Hell, even FedEx and UPS are considering adding drones to their shipping operations. And who can forget the Occupy Wall Street drone buzzing Zuccotti Park on behalf of, yup, the Occupiers?

So thanks, Rob or "Senator" Robert or whatever nutjob may have written the most recent muddled post on Rob's blog under his name. To paraphrase what Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley said in 1968, the seceshers aren't "there (just) to create disorder; the (seceshers are here) to preserve disorder," confusion and, apparently, crime. If I were a secesher I might even call it a conspiracy but I don't think that they're smart enough to pull something that badly contrived off.

Meanwhile, in another matter related to Wagner's conflicting positions, there's been no word yet about whether Wagner will be returning the $288.30 Federal subsidy he received while flying out of the airport in Rutland, VT, which is exactly the kind of Federal subsidy that he "is strongly opposed to" and has argued harms Vermonters that I revealed he'd hypocritically availed himself of (as in sticking his snout in the federal money trough) here. Wagner must publicly give back that subsidy money or he'll be exposed for the hypocritical fraud that many of us Vermonters now know him to be.

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"The Ghastly Idea of ‘Equality for All’"

Just when I thought that Vermont secessionists and their very close allies with the racist Southern secesher movement couldn't bite down just a little harder on the hateful, discriminatory bag of shit that they're so very fond of, Kirlpatrick Sale, a co-founder of the Second Vermont Republic, an "editor-at-large" of the Rob Williams' Vermont Commons journal blog, a longtime sufferer of Lincoln derangement syndrome (see right column for current definition) and a present day South Carolina representative to the racist Southern National Congress which is strongly affiliated with the white supremacist League of the South, has blurted out this "pernicious" bullshit at the secessionist website LewRockwell.com:

"Equality is a pernicious and dangerous political policy..."

"..."equality for all"? What could that be? And would you want to live in such a place?"

Really, Kirk? Do you wake some days and say to yourself, "What kind of outrageous crap can I spew out today that my pals at libertaritard, paleofascist LewRockwell.com will promote as though it's comprised of lucid though?"

That Sale should come out against striving for "equality for all," no matter how imperfect the result may be along the way, is no surprise. Afterall, it was Sale who, abetted by Rob Williams, promoted the lie that the South didn't secede over slavery; you'd think that at least one of those two "scholars" might have taken the time to read the Southern state's various articles of secession and to have considered the arguments presented in the various Southern legislatures. The number one issue for the Southern secessionists was slavery.

If you'd like to read Kirk's screed regarding hatred of the struggle for "equality for all," it's here.

What a sad, hateful group of people Kirk Sale and the Vermont seceshers have come to be. Hate has become the foundation of the modern secession movement.

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"The White House Has Answered No to the Secession Petitions."

When right wingers flooded the WhiteHouse.gov We The People petition website with secession petitions created by extremist, fringer elements of the Tea Bagger/Republican sore losers who were unable to accept the fact that the majority of Americans voted to reëlect the United States' first black president, I waited to see how Vermont's own tiny secessionist movement might react.

The person who authored the Vermont petition was a New Yorker and the Vermont petition got barely 10% of the 25,000 required to get a response from the White House, and of that small group a mere 68 of the signators identified themselves as Vemonters.

Vermont seceshers have known for years that because of their early ties to racists that they've maintained through the years, as well as to murderously inclined anti-Semites, misogynists, homophobes and misandrists, including a segregationist as one of their own Vermont Commons blog writers, theirs is probably the most disliked and unsuccessful Vermont fringe groups to come along in decades.

My opinion in November, and it remains today, is that Vermont secesher propagandist, pseudo-historian, faux journalist, and who also suffers from

a chronic case of Lincoln derangement syndrome, Rob Williams, as well as his sidekick, the sham radical and anti-Vermont Army and Air National guard activist, Juliet Buck, have, inspite of their usual stoopid in such matters, somehow managed to correctly assess that the time wasn't exactly ripe for such an unconstitutional challenge to the Union and kept their big mouths shut, sparing Vermonters another embarrassment at their expense from the unhinged secesher camp. That's probably the only thing that they've gotten remotely right in years. Perhaps it's because the handful of secesher candidates that Williams has backed normally finish last and poll in the single digit (or less) percentile; or that none of the one hundred and eighty (150 representatives and 30 senators) members of the Vermont General Assembly's two houses supports even the discussion of secession; or that no statewide office holder or local legislative official supports their call for such a secesher discussion; or that no member of Vermont's congressional delegation will give them the time of day, let alone engage in such an "absurd" discussion; or maybe it's the utter lack of success in getting even one town, let alone the two hundred that they've promised to have by 2015, to put a secession article on a Town Meeting warrant for discussion. You'd think it might have dawned on these clowns that after 10 years of pitching their ridiculous secesher plan that Vermonters (other than their own self-described "small community) aren't buying what the seceshers are trying to sell. Now comes the White House to set back the secesher plans much, much further.

On Saturday the White House responded and the news ain't great for the barely existent Vermont secesher movement. I'd intended to post about the White House response, the constitutional references contained therein and what it was likely to mean for the local secesher dingbats but I don't think I could have said it better than anti-neo-Confederate expert and activist, Ed Sebesta, did in this post. Ed was kind enough to authorize reproduction of his essay from his blog - he said there:

The white house has answered no to the secession petitions. You can read the White House reply here:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/our-states-remain-united

The reply to the petition quotes Lincoln from both his 1st inaugural address and his "Gettysburg Address," refers to the Civil War and secession in 1861, asserts that the Union is indestructible. These issues are brought up in two paragraphs in the White House reply. Links are provided to Lincoln's "1st Inaugural Address," "Gettysburg Address," and the Supreme Court ruling on Texas vs. White in which the court rules that secession violated the U.S. Constitution. In this blog I will discuss the response after the quotation of these two paragraphs with historical references which follows:

Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States."

Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics.

It should be noted that the White House could have given a reply that didn't have historical references or just limit it to the Supreme Court decision Texas vs. White, but they choose to anchor the reply historically, and specifically in Lincoln's speeches, the Civil War and the secession of slave states in 1861 and one of the most emotionally charged events in American history both then and now.

I don't know if this response will get much coverage in the media, but it is in some ways very historic. I did a study in 2011 and 2012 of presidential statements regarding the Civil War and associated issues, such as the terminology they used, for example "War Between the States" versus "Civil War" back to Herbert Hoover.

Presidents have avoided the issue of the constitutionality of secession since the 19th century as far as I have been able to find. Presidents have avoided saying anything that can be construed as a rejection of the Confederacy in the 20th century since President Hoover who used the term "War Between the States" in the fall before he lost his bid to be re-elected.

However, President Obama White House response directly rejects the constitutionality of secession or any justification for it and thus directly rejects a key argument of the neo-Confederates and the Lost Cause historical mythology. It is a direct rejection of a core belief of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans and millions of Americans many of concentrated in the region of the former Confederate states. It is indirectly a rejection of the Confederacy, the leaders of secession and the supporters of secession in 1861. It directly rejects the very phrase "War Between the States." Though presidents haven't used this term since President Clinton used it once in 2000. Importantly it isn't just a rejection on some general reasoned principles, but a rejection based on the arguments used in the Civil War against secession by Lincoln the president who defeated the Confederacy. Obama is using specifically the historical narrative of the Union in the Civil War to reject these petitions.

Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address contains a lengthy argument of secession which though is an argument that would apply to any effort at secession, is specifically applied by Lincoln to the secession of slave states in 1861. It is a rejection of the secessionists, such as Jefferson Davis, secession convention delegates, and many others.

The response with its reference to the "Gettysburg Address" implies that the defeat of the Confederacy was a great and heroic thing for the world and not just America, for as Lincoln said in that address:

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

In an earlier post I referred to some opinion polls taken about the issues of secession. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/12/tagging-republicans-as-secessionists.html

It refers to an opinion poll that were taken on secession in Georgia. http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/georgia-miscellany.html

I also had an early post on another opinion poll on secession. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/01/charles-m-blow-new-york-times-columnist.html

Which referred to the following Pew opinion poll result.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/

The Georgia opinion poll said that 42% of Georgia Republicans would be willing to secede.

When you look at who identifies with the Confederacy in the Pew opinion poll you see that they are primarily white people who identify themselves as Southerners and they mostly live in a former Confederate state. I would hazard to guess that what white votes Obama got in the former Confederate states were largely not from whites who identify themselves with the Confederacy. In short those Obama might antagonize are very unlikely to vote for him anyways.

I blogged on how Obama would respond to these secession petitions at:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-will-obama-respond-to-these.html

Basically I predicted that Obama would make a response that was provocative without seeming to be provocative. His hope would be to provoke the Republicans to respond in a way that would identify them with secession and the Confederacy. I don't know for a fact that Obama's response had this intent. However, if you wanted to get a reaction that would identify your opponents with secession and the Confederacy without seeming to provoke, Obama's reply would be the way to do it.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy will certainly have response to this White House reply. Whether Obama's rejection of secession gets a wider response it remains to be seen.

Incidentally the link on the Politico reporting of the response goes to the wrong petition and response.

To keep a record of this White House reply I quote the entire reply following:

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. and 8 other petitions Our States Remain United By Jon Carson Thank you for using the White House's online petitions platform to participate in your government. In a nation of 300 million people -- each with their own set of deeply-held beliefs -- democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that's a good thing. Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted. But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart. Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in order to form a more perfect union" through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. They enshrined in that document the right to change our national government through the power of the ballot -- a right that generations of Americans have fought to secure for all. But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. As President Abraham Lincoln explained in his first inaugural address in 1861, "in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual." In the years that followed, more than 600,000 Americans died in a long and bloody civil war that vindicated the principle that the Constitution establishes a permanent union between the States. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Supreme Court confirmed that "[t]he Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States." Although the founders established a perpetual union, they also provided for a government that is, as President Lincoln would later describe it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- all of the people. Participation in, and engagement with, government is the cornerstone of our democracy. And because every American who wants to participate deserves a government that is accessible and responsive, the Obama Administration has created a host of new tools and channels to connect concerned citizens with White House. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of the We the People platform is a chance to engage directly with our most outspoken critics. So let's be clear: No one disputes that our country faces big challenges, and the recent election followed a vigorous debate about how they should be addressed. As President Obama said the night he won re-election, "We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future." Whether it's figuring out how to strengthen our economy, reduce our deficit in a responsible way, or protect our country, we will need to work together -- and hear from one another -- in order to find the best way to move forward. I hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about the President's ideasand share more of your own. Jon Carson is Director of the Office of Public Engagement.

The Huffington Post has more on the secessionist, "petulant, tantrum-throwing children" here.

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You Can Help to End the Practice of the Federal Government Honoring Neo-Confederates

A petition effort has been launched at the White House We The People website that asks the White House to end the practice of sending a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument and to end the involvement of white supremacist groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy with the activities of units of the U.S. military.

From the petition:

"This normalizes secession and honors violent secessionists. Stop honoring violent secessionists."

Please take a few minutes to go to the White House website and, if you've yet to do so, register so that you can sign this worthwhile petition that was created by a longtime critic of the neo-Confederate movement, Ed Sebesta.

The link to the White House website is here.

Thanks.

I'll have a post up shortly about the White House response to all those secession petitions (Petition Response: Our States Remain United) that were created by the racist right when they learned that our black president got re-elected. The White House response pretty much screws the pooch for the Vermont seceshers and their dream. It's over, folks.

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Roger Pion, Hero of the Vermont Secessionist Movement, Found by the Vermont Superior Court to be Incompetent

Late last summer what passes for the brain trust at the remains of the Vermont Commons (VC) news journal blog was all atwitter about the convict and would be domestic terrorist, Roger Pion.

In a post promoted by the Vermont Commons web editor, sham

radical, anti-Vermont Army and Air National Guard (VTANG) activist
and trusty sidekick of the Vermont secesher mouthpiece, faux journalist and Lincoln hater Rob Williams, Juliet Buck promoted an absurd piece by another relatively unknown radical, Jasna Brown:

What do Roger Pion, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King have in common? a Guest Post by Jasna Brown, promoted by VC web editor Juliet Buck
Fri, 08/17/2012 - 2:23pm

"I can’t seem to stop believing that Pion, most probably in all of his ignorance, may have started a movement. Could his act, of crushing the whole fleet of Police Cruisers with a giant tractor be a wake-up call for VT farmers..."

[snip]

"The question is when will our farmers get sick of being messed with? When will they get tired of seeing their land stolen by the banks, by Monsanto and the gang? Will Roger Pion be remembered as the first farmer who ignited the spark with his foolish and impulsive act? Maybe not, but I’ll sure remember how big and powerful his tractor was."

The [snip] was of a completely and utterly irrelevant comparison of Pion's violent act of the destruction of $300,000 worth of taxpayer owned property, motivated by his peevish reaction to the local Deputy Sheriff's doing their jobs, to the protests of European farmers over prices. Only a delusional secesher fool would compare Roger Pion's focused act of violence to two of the greatest martyred promoters of non-violent protest, Martin Luther King and Mahatmas Gandhi.

Like the Vermont seceshers at VC, another like minded group that has a reputation for promoting anti-Semitism, anti-miscegenation, segregation, homophobia and racism, the neo-Nazi website known as the Vanguard News Network (No Jews, Just Right) got some serious wood over Pion's terroristic (note that I don't say "alleged" since his supporters and family don't really dispute the known facts of his actions) attack here.

Vermont Commons blogger, fringe activist and self-anointed media critic, William Boardman also prattled on about Pion's terroristic act at VC, noting that one Vermont Senate candidate called Pion a political prisoner. One needn't wonder for long why the self-anointed critic of Vermont's media didn't name the senate candidate since it might have further derailed the "Senator's" already doomed campaign. You see, Boardman is a little regarded activist whose media critiques are only taken seriously by the unhinged crew at VC.  He chronically whines on and on about what he perceives to be conflicts of interest in Vermont media, with little regard for his own crass promotion of the radical, fringe politics of Vermont seceshers while writing about them and their various hobby horses.

This week we learn via the Burlington Free Press here that Pion appeared in Superior Court sporting a new "Travis Bickle" look this Tuesday rather than his late summer, post arrest, "tweaker," ah, ambiance.

Man Accused of Crushing Cruisers Found Incompetent for Trial Prosecutors seek another evaluation in 90 days 5:57 PM, Jan 9, 2013

Pion’s attorney, David Sleigh, said a hospitalization hearing should be held, and that should lead to the dismissal of the charges against his client.

State’s Attorney Alan Franklin said he could not assume Pion’s incompetency is permanent. “The state is not going to dismiss at this time,” Franklin said.

He asked Superior Court Judge Howard VanBenthuysen to order another evaluation in 90 days.

VanBenthuysen said the court will schedule a hospitalization hearing, where the court will determine how and where Pion will receive treatment.

In September, documents filed with the court stated Pion was suffering from mental instability and was being driven to action by voices in his head.

At that time, both the state and Pion’s father and court-ordered custodian, Armond Pion, asked for an emergency mental health evaluation.

Deputy State’s Attorney Jim Lillicrap wrote at the time that he’d obtained information that Pion was being “told by god to harm someone by noon today,” referring to Sept. 14, 2012.

In an attached affidavit, State Police Lt. Kirk Cooper wrote that Pion had told an employee of his family that he was “advised by the gods to start shooting people.”

The man, Josh Hall, told Roger Gagnon, who told sheriff’s deputy Kyle Ingalls that he was getting nervous around Pion because he was “going off the deep end again.”

Why does it come as little surprise that an seemingly unhinged domestic terrorist is a hero to a wide array of Vermont's unhinged secesher movement, not to mention neo-Nazis who've in the past have praised VC's dead godfather and baas of the just about dead Vermont secesher movement, Thomas H. Naylor?

The Vermont secessionist movement has a long history of advocating violence against those they dislike; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Rutland County state senate seat, Dennis Morrisseau, in addition to advocating shipping Vermont's homeless out of state while repeatedly expressing anti-Semitic sentiments, has also proposed a hit list of Jews; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Washington County state senate seat, Gaelen Brown, advocated for capital punishment for Vermont legislators presumed guilty of a non-violent crime; Vermont secessionist candidate for a 2010 Addison County state senate seat, Robert Wagner, who although he's never been elected to any Vermont office prefers to call himself "Senator," has outrageously proclaimed that an African-American mother with a substance abuse problem who'd committed a robbery "Needed Killin'" while at the same time ignoring a similar crime committed by a white male. You get the idea.

Williams likes to promote the crap that he spews as "journalism" but don't expect much from his blog or his new venture, Vermont Independence Press, to get anywhere near the whole or even partial truth on this case.  It's not what he or his clown journalists/bloggers/nutjobs do.  I mean by that that Williams, VC's publisher cum journalist, hasn't ever broken a story himself that I can find.  His forté seems to be journalistic and historical fiction.

Much like Pion, Williams' secesher movement seems "incompetent."

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To Secede or Not to Secede?

What remains of the Vermont secession movement since the death of Thomas H. Naylor is a blog run by Rob Williams and his "web editor," the sham radical and anti-Vermont Army/Air National Guard and its F35 program "activist," Juliet Buck. Other than a poorly attended event stunt in September, Williams and Buck's dream of leading Vermont out of the Union is now dead in its tracks. All that remains is a little read blog called Vermont Commons that publishes the pinings of, what has been been described by a founder, Ian Baldwin, the "small community" of Vermont seceshers.

 So, as a New Year's suggestion intended to offer a method whereby they might breath some new life into their moribund movement, as well as really putting their money where their mouth has been for far too long. They could look at my suggestion as "personal secession" with some real skin in the game. And all that they'd have to do is take a two hour drive to Montréal; and, oh yeah, renounce their American citizenship.

 The State Department provides the outline for their "personal secession" process here.

Williams and Buck both know in their hearts that their grandiose dream of Vermont leaving the Union is more than over; virtually no one turns out for their stunts any longer and the tiny group of anti-VTANGers (despite efforts meant to inflate whatever support that they do have) seems destined for the same fate.

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Keith Preston: A Tribute from A Secessionist Bigot for the Late Thomas H. Naylor

This one comes from Keith Preston, an anarcho, pan-secessionist, anti-immigrant, racial "realist" (Read: racist), anti-Semitic, segregation affirming homophobe who, naturally, has a few issues with women as well.

Preston has a history of supporting extremists like Naylor. Preston was a contributor to the white nationalist conference held by the National Policy Institute (NPI) in 2011. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NPI is an active white nationalist group based in Georgia; there's more from the SPLC here. Here's NPI's website (and don't forget to wash when you're done). A project of the NPI on the web called Alternative Right which calls itself Euro-Centric (and we're not talking about currency) identifies Preston as a part of their editorial collective of white guys here.

He's been described as a "fascist in anarchist clothing," but I liken his style, both personal and in writing, as more like the Comic Book Guy, if the Comic Book Guy wore a swastika armband around the comic bookstore.

The website One People's Project has more on Preston's racist ties with such low-lifes as The Political Cesspool's James Edwards and American Renaissance's Jared Taylor here, here and here.

At his website, Attack The System, Preston wrote:

"It is with great regret that I must inform our readers of the passing of Thomas H. Naylor, founder of the Second Vermont Republic. I received word earlier this evening that Tom passed away last night after a sudden stroke at the age of 76."

"Fortunately, I was able to interview Tom for my podcast on Voice of Reason earlier this year..."

"Tom was the author of thirteen books, including three on secession, and one of his books, Downsizing the USA, was crucial in the development of my own political outlook. It was largely due to Tom’s influence that I came to realize that decentralized micronations achieved through pan-secession are the most viable alternative to the Leviathan mega-states that plague us today. I cannot recommend Tom’s voluminous body of writings of these issue(sic) highly enough..."

Yes, "Tom" was an inspiration to a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and plainly misogynistic dirtbag.

Figures.

Here's an obscure, little known fact: Preston is the Secessionist Outreach Officer for Sebastian Ernst Ronin's (see post immediately below for more on Ronin) white supremacist Renaissance Party of North America, according to this post at Preston's website:

Mr. Ronin is the Chairman of the Renaissance Party of  North America (RPN), for which I am the Secessionist Outreach officer.  This is a brand new party, having been formed only in December of 2009, and it is the only political party in North America that I would even consider becoming involved with at present.  The party’s mission statement and philosophical outlook is light years ahead of any of its competitors, as it combines syndicalist/distributist economics, radical decentralization, “archeofuturism” and other ENR-inspired ideas, anti-globalism, peak oil theory, anti-Cultural Marxism, anti-political correctness, anti-imperialism, a Spenglerian view of history, pan-secessionism, race-realism, a strident yet reasonable environmentalism, a social conservatism that is measured and libertarian, neo-paganism within a wider spirit of religious toleration, and criticism of mass immigration in the name of civilizational survival and self-preservation.  In other words, all of the best and most far-sighted contemporary ideas are being pulled together into a unified and syncretic whole.

Not many people know that; fewer still care about these assholes.  These Naylor mourners are typical of his scumbag followers.

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Before His Death Thomas H. Naylor Collaborated in a Proposal to Create a White Homeland in Vermont

Thomas H. Naylor, founder of the unsuccessful attempt to secede from the Union called the Second Vermont Republic, had a long history of cozying up to racists, Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites, secessionists and white separatists.

What is not so well known was his involvement with a Canadian racist and anti-Semite, Sebastian Ernst Ronin, and of their plan to make Vermont part of a "White Homeland." Ronin, much as Naylor was on the American and Vermont political scene, is an extremist nobody on the Canadian political landscape.

I'd first noted Naylor's ties to the "New Acadia" or "Novacadia" proposal that a new confederation be formed from upper New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and the Canadian Maritime provinces after an appearance he'd made in June, 2007 on FOX TV's Bill O'Reilly dreck here.

Naylor then began to conspire with Ronin, who was well known even then as a Canadian racist, in April of 2008 to create this new confederation of New England states and Canadian provinces, according to Ronin. Naylor wrote about these discussions concerning the new confederation here, and even urged that Vermonters contact this Canadian racist pig.

Hell, they'd even made a map of the White (10), Native (3), Hispanic and Black (New Ebony? Really?) Homelands.

They never (particularly in Naylor's case) got around to making clear how the relocations might have been accom- plished, but given Ronin's fondness for WWII Nazis and Naylor's hatred for the State of Israel, I'm sure that there was some sort of operational "final solution" that they had in mind.

In his tribute to Naylor this week, Ronin referred once again to their plans for a White Homeland in Vermont that can be found here. Ronin wrote (and it was never declaimed by Naylor):

"Novacadia:captures the three Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, and the three New England states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and part of northern New York; Second Vermont Republic in place and Novacadia Independence Party pending; this is new nation #4 that defies an international boundary; White Homeland Six"

Ronin's piece makes explicit that they'd brook no dissent from the blacks, the browns, the natives and the Jewy types.

"The designations of Native, Negro and Mestizo homelands does not mean that we have to make either the RVI or RPN friendly to Native, Negro or Hispanic input, although some may be inevitable as per federal legislation (witness the example of the British National Party); it simply means that we retain our political position to speak on behalf of Whites and negotiate on their behalf, but within a political context that recognizes all other continental ethnic/racial players, except for Zionist Jews and non-Jews."

What wasn't clear is how they'd deal with the fags, although subsequent to the enactment of the Civil Unions law in Vermont, Naylor said that'd still be up for re-discussion in his SVReich.

One of Naylor's toadys, Rob Williams, recently described Naylor to the press as being "irascible." If Williams were being honest, he'd have described Thomas Naylor as a lying, hateful, insane prick. Clearly, from what we know of Naylor's expulsions of the insufficiently obsequient secesher drones and his condemnations of the vast majority of Vermonters (99%+) failure bow to his every dictum, Naylor would have become, like similarly deranged autocrats, more than a tyrant in Vermont, Novacadia or whatever other fictional principality/republic that he sought to create out of nothing.

Despite their professed regrets regarding his passing at his memorial service today in Charlotte, VT, no one in their right mind will possibly miss the crap that he's done in the furtherance of his secesher, racist, anti-Semitic vision for Vermont. Real Vermonters will have no trouble putting Naylor out of their thoughts - forever.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Thomas H. Naylor: The Extreme Makeover Begins

When I saw last week in the Seven Days political blog, Off Message: Vermont Politics & News, the piece on the passing of secessionist

Thomas H. Naylor from Vermont's political scene, a scene that he'd had virtually no impact on whether the subject was office holders, public policy or, frankly, being a politically relevant "mover and shaker." His moving and shaking consisted of endlessly repetitive essays that he published at his own website, as well as at a number of other anti-Semitic and racist websites, and an ever evolving series of plots and schemes that usually consisted of a half dozen to a score of similarly addled secesher cohorts in costume of some sort. Naylor's own personal favorite was a green blazer with a Vermont National Guard battle flag pin that he'd purloined for use as his own Second Vermont Republic standard, all topped by his affected Quaker Oats guy hairdo. When he was feeling particularly frisky, in a Gilbert & Sullivan kind of way, he'd top off his costume, over the shoulders, with a full-sized, regimental Vermont National Guard battle flag. Unfortunately, the 7Days piece had the whiff of tribute about it, right down to the secesher book plug for the source, Vermont Commons blog publisher, primary Naylor reputation and secesher activist fluffer, and likely heir apparent to the throne of the "emerging" principality of Vermont or whatever these assholes intend to call their Empire next, Rob Williams.

The tone of the 7Days piece, right down to the journalistically unusual headline, "R.I.P. Thomas Naylor," prompted Naylor's groupies, running the gamut from sciolistic to snarling partisans, who were already desperately trying to burnish the Thomas Naylor image, to wax apoplectic when commenters at the blog weren't, in their estimaton, sufficiently mournful or barfing up praise for possibly one of the most mean-spirited and hateful individuals in Vermont, their hero Thomas Naylor. In a post that did a far better job of summing up the life of Thomas Naylor and his impact on Vermont politics at a different political blog, Green Mountain Daily, right down to the lump of coal that Naylor's conduct here in Vermont has so richly earned, publisher jvwalt wrote:

(A lump of coal for) "(t)he late Thomas Naylor of the secessionist group Second Vermont Republic, for leaving a legacy of lies and bitterness behind him. Some may say it's unkind to speak ill of

the recently deceased; my view is that we should speak plainly of their lives for good and ill. And in Naylor's case, primarily ill."

"When Naylor first formed SVR, he attracted a variety of Vermonters from across the political spectrum, including quite a few leftists who were disgusted with the Bush war on terror. Turned out that he had allied himself with some southern neo-Confederate types, and had some very questionable views on the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. And when confronted about his views and associations by blogger "Thomas Rowley" and front-pagers here at Green Mountain Daily, he reacted with angry denials and furious counterattacks, and an attempt to undermine the career of at least one of his critics."

"And in the process, he made it clear that he held some pretty noxious views. Afterward, a lot of his associates broke ties with him and SVR. The group continued to sputter on, but it ceased to be a meaningful force in Vermont politics. And in the immortal words of Louis Armstrong:"

"When you're lyin' six feet deep,
no more fried chicken will you eat,
I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal you."

I could not have said it better. Plans are underway over at Vermont Commons for remembrances about Naylor, in what'll likely be an effort to gloss over his many negative qualities and to commence a canonization process. I intend to speak truth to that effort. Yesterday I received an email from a prominent neo-Confederate researcher who wrote,

"(Naylor) had lived a long time in Virginia and in (the) community in which he had lived for years (he) search(ed) for a white fantasy republic in a strange land. (Naylor) fled Virginia to flee African Americans and Vermont was to be his white refuge."

"He descended into madness."

So true. Vermonters are about to witness a small, perfect storm of the false consensus effect as the minuscule remains of the Vermont secesher movement whip themselves into a wailing frenzy over their now quite dead baas.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.

Thomas H. Naylor: The Dog-whistler

Wikipedia: Dog-whistle politics is political messaging employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has an additional, different or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup. [1] [2]

According to Thomas Naylor, he'd been entranced with the vision of a secessionist state of Vermont for more than a score of years. He'd said that in the first dozen or so years that his was a lone voice, and, like much of what he'd like Vermonters to believe, that isn't true. However, it is true that in this period, and likely before, he had associates who were up to their eyeballs in the South Will Rise Again movement. This association would reveal itself when Naylor launched his own movement that he'd call (despite the very real question that there'd ever been a first one) the Second Vermont Republic (SVR).

In putting together his advisory board he included very few Vermonters but instead he packed the group with neo-Confederate ideologues and white supremacists like Franklin Sanders, a convicted felon and a League of the South (LOS) member of LOS's board of directors; the Lincoln hating, Union hating, unions hating, as well as the hater ofthe Constitution's pesky 14th Amendment with its due process clause that applied the Bill of Rights to the states and its citizenship clause and its equal protection clause that was used to dismantle institutional segregation practiced in Southern states, and Big Tobacco whore, Thomas DiLorenzo; the present day South Carolina delegate to the white supremacist Southern National Congress, Kirkpatrick Sale; the former first director of LOS's historical revisionist Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History before founding the "Lincoln loath(ing)" (Time, 2005) Abbeville Institute, so named for the plantation of John C. Calhoun, a mid-19th century slavery and "states rights" (white supremacy dog-whistle), Donald Livingston. There were others including a member of Italy's racist Lega Nord. [3] Naylor's ties to the national secession movement (an oxymoron?) elements that are the most racist, most committed would be restorers of institutional segregation in the states, and most committed to patriarchy and homophobia is indisputable.

Naylor, just like Teabaggers and racists would do when their world caved in on the evening of November 6, wrote another of his essays titled Obamaland: Vision Free, But Very Cool that was intended to demean his better, President Obama.

You see, in Naylor's alternative universe, the president merely strives to be "cool."  Nevermind the conflicts in the Middle East, the fiscal cliff, congressional pissing contests, real terrorist threats against Americans at home and abroad, nah, he's just into a nigga thing about being "cool."

Don't believe it?  Just consider Naylor's racist, dog-whistle close to his essay:

"Above all, what Obama was about was being “cool.” And it worked in spades."

Truly pathetic, even for a self-described scholar and Dixie singer like Naylor.

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For the archive of the Free Vermont Framework listserv, click here.