The "Very Foreign Minister" of Thomas Naylor's Second Vermont Republic, ...

... or the "VFM" as Dennis Morrisseau sometimes signs his communications to his subordinate political aspirants on the Free Vermont Framework listserv, has ideas for the new, proposed Second Vermont Republic that should give every thinking Vermonter pause.

Much of their plan is more than a tad frightening.

Here's a small taste from one of Morrisseau's listserv messages regarding his education proposal:

From: dmorso1 at netzero.net (Dennis Morrisseau)
Date: Sat Dec 19 01:13:40 2009
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] 30 Position Papers 8. Education

"Let me add to this, fundamental hands on skills....."shops" and everyday living skills have to be gained by all.....in community settings. I see kids in shops, in stores, in libraries and hospitals, interning on the farm in tents and with guitars and campfires and guest "lecturers".........

"I see distance learning techniques in place in use heavily in all classrooms and some just marvellous things being taught to kids at a very early age. Small schools with multiple ages present, kids mentoring kids. (K)ids not isolated from, but integrated into their communities. And learning about the world will fit our kids to visit and understand it as well as any others."

--the VFM

All of this in lieu of, well, a real education plan. Nothing about trained educators in any of that, nor of his background in education and development for children. Much of this is what parents normally decide upon for their children but not in Morrisseau's "Brave New Republic" apparently.

Senate candidate Robert Wagner weighed in with a hearty,

From sticomythia (one of the pseudonyms used at the listserv) at gmail.com Sat Dec 19 11:24:17 2009
From: sticomythia at gmail.com (Sticomythia)
Date: Sat Dec 19 11:24:19 2009
Subject: [Free Vermont Framework] 30 Position Papers 8. Education

"...This is a great vision. I could not say this better. Would you mind cloning yourself please and becoming Minister of Education :) ?"

Yah, cool.

Connecticut native Dennis Steele, Thomas Naylor's hand-picked gubernatorial candidate, was asked by one Vermonter at a recent Vermont forum, just how do the SVR self-styled education experts intend to square their various proposals to return education responsibilities entirely to local communities, and to fund their local, extremely pared down, walk-to school programs throughout the state, with the Vermont Supreme Court's Brigham decision and the Vermont General Assembly's resultant Act 60? Little surprise that Steele completely ducked the question. He was asked,

Question: "Reliance on purely local resources for schools ignores the fact that across Vermont the funding capacity for individual towns varied by 99 to 1 prior to the passage of Act 60. That's one of the strongest reasons why the Vermont Supreme Court held that school funding based principally on local only resources was unconstitutional. How would Mr. Steele expect to reconcile his proposal with the Vermont constitution?"

Steele: "The fact is we have a $60 to $90 million dollar budget shortfall. Decentralising our schools... locally owned and locally funded schools, is important to the communities. I am the father of two young children. I would love nothing more to be able to work with the community, the parents and the teachers, to be able to come up with a curriculum for my children. I don't have that say in this, in the school. The only thing that we can control... we control very little as far as the local school control goes... It's important for that to be there... We need the diversity. If someone wants to in Burlington, if they want to teach their children musical arts, they should be able to do that. If the Northeast Kingdom decides that they want to go agriculture, then they should be able to do that. It's based on what the community wants and what the community needs. We're going to have to look at taking control of our local schools. It's important... centralizing our schools is not the answer. Decentralizing back them to the community and giving the power back to the community is whats important. That's what has to be looked at, especially with these budget shortfalls that we're facing and the fact that the schools are just too big now, and they don't meet the needs of the students. It's important."

Wow! I don't think that Sarah Palin could have ducked the substance of the question, that is, reconciling Steele's proposal with the Vermont constitution and Act 60, as badly or quite as inarticulately for what is basically an unsupportable, poorly thought out, unconstitutional reorganization.

There's a lot that Steele and his group aren't telling Vermonters about their intentions for governance, education, the courts, the constitution and the many institutions that Vermonters rely on for the social and safety network. Actually, the SVR, VTCommons, Free Vermont crowd have been taking steps to address all of this but have made little or no effort to inform the public of their acts. I will post next week about a particularly assuming, overt act.

But back in Morrisseau's "Brave New Republic" he,

"... suggest(s) that the VT Republic limit personal assets to $1,000,000 and personal annual income to the same $1,000.000.

In perpetuity."

Morrisseau has a history of making such screwy, arbitrary proposals. Nearly 22 years ago, one such proposal earned him national notoriety for his idea to give one-way tickets out of town (Burlington) for the homeless and immigrants.

From the New York Times:

Homeless Get Ticket To Leave
By Sally Johnson
Special to the New York Times
November 20, 1988

BURLINGTON, Vt., Nov. 15— Church Street Marketplace is a merchant's dream: a cobblestone mall ringed by the sort of trendy boutiques and cafes that attract the affluent shoppers of this prosperous city. But the area also attracts street people, who are not so welcome.

Dennis Morrisseau, who owns Leunig's Old World Cafe, has devised an answer to the aggressive homeless people he says have harassed his customers and his staff.

His plan is to get rid of the problem, literally: he offers those he people a one-way ticket out of town. A homeless man who Mr. Morrisseau said ''was terrorizing people in town every night'' has taken advantage of the offer.

''He had a long arrest record,'' the cafe owner said. ''He was usually blind drunk and often violent. We called the cops, but often the incident was over before they arrived.''

'It Didn't Seem So Crazy'

The proposal has called attention to a problem that everyone seems to agree will not go away on its own. The proposal has drawn both opposition and support. Recently, 30 opponents of the plan demonstrated in front of Mr. Morrisseau's cafe.

''The problem of homelessness is national tragedy caused by major cutbacks in Federal spending,'' said Bernard Sanders, a socialist who is Mayor of Burlington. ''The solution is not transporting homeless people from one end of this country to another. The solution is to provide affordable housing and counseling.''

Mr. Morrisseau said the idea of relocating the homeless man came to him over dinner with his wife, Laura Thompson. ''At first,'' he said, ''we thought the idea was crazy, but a couple days later, it didn't seem so crazy.''

Their idea became a nonprofit organization, Westward Ho!, which consists of Mr. Morrisseau, Ms. Thompson and Tim Halvorson, another cafe owner on the Marketplace. The group set up a checking account of a few hundred dollars, mostly the members' own funds, along with some donations. Through intermediaries, the group offered the offending homeless man a one-way airplane ticket to Portland, Ore., his hometown. He accepted.

Lucille Bonvouloir, executive director of the Committee on Temporary Shelter, a private, nonprofit organization that operates shelters in Burlington, said she feared that Westward Ho! was part of a growing backlash against the homeless, who number as many as 300 in Burlington, a city of 38,000.

''It's frightening,'' Ms. Bonvouloir said. ''As the people who have more continue to have more, it's harder to be tolerant of the people who have less and less. There are never good economic times for people who don't have a home.'' Practice May Have Precedent

Mr. Morrisseau insists that the relocation effort he expounds is an unofficial policy in many states. ''Law-enforcement people and social workers do it all the time,'' he said, ''but Vermont is normally on the receiving end.''

A woman who has spent several years working with refugees confirmed that the practice exists. ''It's done,'' said the worker, who spoke on the condition that she not be identified. ''I've had one person sent here from New York, and I've heard it talked about at national conferences. The cases are troublesome, and they want them out. But I don't know of any social worker who's done it who would admit to it.''

Mr. Morrisseau estimated that there were ''probably one to two dozen people causing the problem at any given time.'' He insists that their lack of housing is irrelevant to his effort. His goal, he says, is to curb abusive behavior.

Jon Svitazsky, director of the Burlington Emergency Shelter, said: ''I don't think he's a bigot toward the homeless. He is a frustrated man who is trying to raise some important issues. He knew he would sound like a fool and it was worth it to him.'' Support for Proposal

Mr. Morrisseau is not alone in his complaints. While some other Marketplace merchants have said they do not like his idea, he says others have donated money. And William Bradley, vice president and general manager of WVNY-TV, the local ABC network affiliate, supported the idea in an editorial.

''Westward Ho! is an idea that should be welcomed,'' Mr. Bradley said. ''It's being distorted and misrepresented as some sort of Machiavellian plan to force undesirables to leave our city. It's no such thing, but we're not surprised that our local bleeding hearts have chosen to vilify a respected local citizen who's doing something constructive about a real problem.''

While Mr. Morrisseau pointed to complaints of assault and harassment in making his proposal, his critics cite police statistics showing that homeless people are responsible for less than 10 percent of the cases of disorderly conduct and assaults in the Marketplace.

''I don't feel there have been clear distinctions made here,'' said Ms. Bonvouloir of the Committee on Temporary Shelter. ''I don't doubt there are some people on Church Street who are disruptive and anti-social, but that is a police matter.'' Ms. Bonvouloir's group operates two shelters for the homeless in Burlington. One of the committee's shelters, the Waystation, is at the lower end of Church Street. A third shelter in Burlington is operated by a coalition of churches.

Despite the adverse reaction to his proposal, Mr. Morrisseau is undeterred. He indicated he may offer as many as four one-way tickets a year.

Ms. Bonvouloir said her group would not object to a fund to relocate people who truly wanted it, if the offers were made in a spirit of generosity.

Mr. Morrisseau said one such arrangement is in the offing for a homeless woman. ''I had a friend approach me about transporting a refugee from El Salvador, a woman who had been badly tortured, to a torture rehabilitation center in Minnesota,'' he said. ''We agreed to do that.''

Apparently, in addition to some folks being too rich for the liking of the "Very Foreign Minisiter" Morrisseau, some are too poor and disadvantaged. Add to this sort of sentiment SVR's proposed population cap for the state and you have to wonder, who will SVR's Very Foreign Minister Morrisseau come for next?

Rather than a "Brave New Republic," think of it more as a "Back to the Third World" plan. With a ruritanian ruling elite. On steroids.

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

He-e's Ba-ack!

Second Vermont Republic honcho and the self-described "Very Foreign Minister" of the secessionist movement, Dennis Morrisseau, has been keeping a very low profile for months. Yesterday he popped up at the Vermont State House to protest the General Assembly even having a hearing on proposed gun control legislation. Morrisseau went so far as to threaten the removal from office of any legislator who dared to support such legislation.

"Anyone voting ‘yes’ for that bill, according to opponents, will pay for it with their political lives. On the Statehouse lawn, an orange, 10-foot-tall sign greeted people arriving at the hearing Tuesday with a message: “We will vote you all out.”

“And it means everybody – all of you,” Dennis Morrisseau said, waiting in line outside the House chamber before the hearing. “These bills need to disappear.”
Source

You see, in Morrisseau's world of crazy the only thing that counts is his point of view - no discussion.

This isn't Morrisseau's first or even second time to the "vote'em all out" rodeo. In 2009, 2010 and 2012 he secretly conspired with secesher candidates to replace all of Vermont's senators. He called his plan "The 30." He never recruited more than a half dozen half-hearted candidates. He's also repeatedly claimed to have a plan to "Fire Congress." He's failed at that too. You can read some of his crazy about all of that here. Morrisseau has proposed capping the number of children that brown people can have in Vermont to two; he's given free one way (out of town) tickets to Burlington homeless people in the 1980's; he proposes capping income and assets in Vermont; he proposes replacing teachers with older students.

You can read much, much more about Morrisseau's desire to be the "Very Foreign Minister" of SVR here.

But what should be a concern to legislators and the security staff at the Vermont State House is Morriisseau's history of advocating for "hit lists" of people he hates. I wrote at length about that here. Here's just a small sample of what Denny had to say then:

"I have suggested here and elsewhere that we should begin to post the perps’ names and physical addresse on a permanent electronic board somewhere, so that nature can begin taking it’s course. [On the thoery(sic) that a few such take downs would have some chance of stopping what is coming if we do not act.]"

"I include “international financiers” and certain Likudniks and media moguls on my personal list."

To me, a nationwide assault on the entire sitting Congress en masse, and known to all, pitched to all as the only possible peaceful revolutiong(sic), does have a shot if presented right that might allow us to regain the power of we the people. Thus it could defeat what I agree is a massive and evil zionist design. And it would save decent people of all cultures……" d m, w pawlet, vt By: dennis morrisseau . February 12, 2012 . 5:35 pm

Morrisseau has been wildly unsuccessful in all of his various elective runs during the past four decades and was 100% unsuccessful in replacing any of the members of Vermont's Senate in 2010 and 2012, his candidates finishing in the single or less percentile but he has been a threatening presence and State House security would be wise to take note of his visit.

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

Eye On "The 30" - Their Senate Campaigns Are To Be Buttressed With Sappy Glurges

Oy!!

After running two of the most lackluster, over-the-line stoopid campaigns for the Vermont Senate in 2010, the neo-Confederacy of Dunces comprised of "Senator" Robert Wagner (Addison-I) and the Second Vermont Republic's "Very Foreign Minister", Dennis Morriseau (Rutland-I), apparently think that a mawkish strategy based on sheer bullshit about the past is now the way to go.

Their distorted view of the 1960s is so appealing to these two secesher Mad Men that Denny passed along an urban legend, commonly called a "glurge," that's been getting chain emailed everywhere during the past six months. It's about recycling and such, and is called "The Green Thing." The "Senator" asked for the author of the original email chain letter to contact him so he could provide attribution for the piece. This one is so new that Snopes.com hasn't written about it yet but already, as the "Senator" could have easily found for himself, you get 230,000 hits for "The Green Thing."

Email chain letters like "The Green Thing" often have a sappy ring of truth to them that ignores the reality of such times. The "Senator" goes so far as to suggest that court ordered reapportionment in the 1960s, designed to eliminate disproportionate control of the legislature by small towns, was a bad thing and mistakenly suggests that it was the legislature that "usurp(ed) the authority of Town Meeting." No, "Senator." It was as a result of a "one person, one vote" ruling and order from the federal court in Buckley v. Hoff (1964) that the stranglehold of small towns like Ripton, VT on the legislature was eliminated.

Some of the other cool things that the "Senator" and Denny have forgotten or misremembered about the 1960s that don't get a mention in "The Green Thing" are: both Kennedys, Malcom X and the King assassinations; anti-miscegenation laws to protect against race mixing, something that at least one major SVR financial supporter, James Duncan, has a problem with even today; Jim Crow Laws; riots everywhere, from Detroit to Stonewall; the treatment of women (more on that below); ramping up the Vietnam War; raw sewage being piped directly from individual homes and businesses into Vermont's streams and rivers, as well as untreated waste and industrial chemicals, so much so that in many areas the streams and rivers had ecological "dead zones"; lesbians and gays being legally proscribed and medically defined as mentally ill; job and housing discrimination was legal; poll taxes; "Hey Jude"; the Voting Rights Act (the "debt crisis" political fight of its day); and, smokers were everywhere. Good times, eh guys?

You can find handy tips about how to spot an urban legend here.

Regarding women, it appears that Denny's views about them haven't evolved much since the 1960s. On February 16 of 2010, as he became aware that Anne Galloway at VTDigger was not going to agree to publish promotional material on behalf of the views of the "Very Foreign Minister" of the Second Vermont Republic, he wrote in that ALL CAPS way of his of her publication:

"WITH OUT A DOUBT, Digger is excrescence of CIA.......
Still....we gotta use the MAN'S media to extent that we can.
While biulding(sic) our own internal and external communications..."

On May 27, Denny wrote in response to a sexist nickname used by the "Senator" who had referred to Galloway as "VT GoldDigger":

"The Lady is CIA, and if she wants to sue me for the remark, she is welcome to."
DM/VFM (Very Foreign Minister)

On May 30, VTCommons publisher/editor Rob Williams chimed in about Galloway:

"CIA spook that she is..."

In a later exchange on June 1, between the "Senator" (who complained that his pithy comments were being deleted from VTDigger) and VTCommons publisher Rob Williams, Williams wrote something that explains the lack of any objective quality at his propaganda rag:

"Most reporters regurgitate press release as "fact," and call it objective journalism, friends."
"When they dare to have an opinion, they put it on the OP/ED pages."
"It ain't right, and we need to challenge it (as everything else...)"

Following in his "she's-a-CIA-operative" theme, Morrisseau responded about Anne Galloway:

"a sycophant or sucking for a job......or earning her little stipend now......What's the difference?"
"Spooks come in many varieties as do the rest of us.

But this tone had been set back on February 16 when Morrisseau wrote of how to handle VT Digger publisher, Anne Galloway:

"We will seduce her."

To which James Duncan, the racist and homophobic contributor to Dennis Steele's campaign responded:

"You are such a womanizer Denni."

But the real Morrisseau, vis-à-vis how he today sees a professional journalist who happens to be a woman, shines through in this comment to the rest of what Dixie singing Thomas Naylor likes to call his "Internet cowboys":

"Because I savaged her in our first few exchanges."
"Now I am making nice. And she likes that better. So she is liking me better......"
"Before I punched her, she did not know me or care a fig........"
"Now she sees I can laugh, I am playful....possibly intelligent...and I differ with her........"
"She begins to be intrigued."
"We have to be lovers to these sorts...... I know that is a little crass....but it's DO OR DIE time."

And so on May 28, under the subject line, "I've had enough of Galloway. VT GoldDigger" Morrisseau wrote:

"No reason for her to breathe OR DO WHAT SHE DOES.....unless she is a SPOOK."
"NOBOCY(sic) is that venal from stupidity."

To date, not one of Naylor's "Internet cowboys" who were active recipients on the secesher listserv has made any public statement condemning Morrisseau's outrageous, violence laced, sexist diatribes. Not the publisher of VTCommons, Rob Williams; nor Washington Senate candidate Gaelan Brown; nor educator & rocket scientist Gary Flomenhoft; nor the very strange Franklin County perennial loser, Peter Moss; nor homophobe and racist bigot James Duncan; nor the failed lite guv candidate, and now the present day candidate for a Chittenden County Senate seat, Peter Garritano; nor, of course, Morrisseau's self-described "friend," Addison County's Senate wannabe, "Senator" Robert Wagner.

Unless the secesher boys club take steps to address their indisputable sexism problem, they are destined for another round of exceptionally failed electoral campaigns. No doubt that VTCommons' anti-Semitic blogger and sometimes ardent feminist when it suits her agenda, Carol Moore, will be taking the boys club to task over their vile, long-running wallow in misogyny - yeah, right.

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

Eye On "The 30"

Beginning this month I'll be updating, as circumstances warrant, the efforts of "Senator" Robert Wagner (I-Addison) (yes, yes, I know that he's never been elected to a senatorial post but the guy's so friggin' needy that he calls himself "Senator," so let's humor him) to take over the Vermont Senate in 2012, as well as his cohorts in the Vermont secesher movement.

So far, it's only him and perennial electoral loser, Denny Morrisseau, "The 30's" token candidate for Rutland county who've recently publicized their intentions. A couple of the others of Vermont's perpetual loony candidates have indicated a desire to run but it may have just been their recent 2010 losses that prompted those claims - let's see if they come to their senses before treating their "one-more-time" candidacies for every office under the sun at the same time seriously. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann would have a better chance of taking Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco congressional seat than Morrisseau ever has of making a decent showing in Rutland county. In true fringer fashion, Morrisseau, who likes to call himself "The Very Foreign Minister of the Second Vermont Republic," garnered a whopping 1.8% of the vote in his 2010 senatorial bid.

Now to today's installment of "Eye On 'The 30'": over the weekend "Senator" Wagner posted another of his poorly considered choices for issue analysis (no, not another Teabagger this time) from a contributor to a racist, neo-Confederate publication that is loosely allied with the League of the South called Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, as well as to that incubator for neo-Confederate thought and theory, The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Justin Raimondo, here. You'd think that the "Senator" would have started to do a little homework to ensure that he doesn't make the same mistake that his associates at SVR and VTCommons have repeatedly made by tying themselves to neo-Confederate, white supremacist groups and individuals. A quick Google search reveals scads of material in which Raimondo is described as "an American neo-Fascist," as virulently opposed to marriage equality and is an oddly long-time supporter of the homophobic and openly racist Pat Buchanan:

Gay Buchanan Backer Defends His Candidate
San Francisco Chronicle
Jim Herron Zamora
February 23, 1996

Justin Raimondo is an openly gay man who believes that "Pat Buchanan is absolutely the best thing for America."

A longtime activist in conservative and Libertarian circles, Raimondo headed Buchanan's operation in San Francisco in 1992 and is volunteering for the 1996 campaign.

"I see no conflict between my political beliefs and my personal life," said Raimondo, 44. "Being homosexual is not like being a Libertarian or a socialist."

Raimondo's political affiliation flies in the face of the the views of many gay people, who consider Buchanan a bigot and hatemonger.

Buchanan has said he will keep openly gay people out of top White House positions if elected. But, according to Raimondo, the candidate knows and apparently doesn't care that his San Francisco supporter is gay.

"The whole gay agenda is just a sham," Raimondo said.

"The whole thing they say that Pat Buchanan wants to round us all up and send us to concentration camps is just a bunch of crap. It's a lie and a smear. He welcomes gay workers in his campaign.

"He does not think that homosexuality is all that great a thing. But I don't need his approval. Why does any gay person need anyone's benediction?"

Raimondo said a person's sexual orientation should be a private matter and that gay or lesbian people should not "force their sexuality on an unwilling public."

He also said he does not believe that gays and lesbians need "special protections" against discrimination.

Raimondo said he agrees with Buchanan on most issues.

"I'm a right-wing populist," Raimondo said Thursday.

"I support this political platform. I support America first."

He also endorsed Buchanan's opposition to U.S. intervention in Bosnia, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Raimondo, a New York native who has lived in San Francisco for 24 years, does not agree with Buchanan on every issue.

"I am pro-choice. But I agree with so much that Pat stands for. He has really gone beyond right and left to revitalize this country."

Raimondo, an analyst at the Center for Libertarian Studies in Burlingame, is the only Republican on the March primary ballot seeking the opportunity to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, in November.

In the 1992 campaign, Raimondo worked from his home handling media, organizing rallies and recruiting volunteers for Buchanan. This time around he hopes to help Buchanan "go all the way to the White House."

Buchanan wrote the foreword to the second edition of Raimondo's 1993 book, "Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement."

Raimondo's perception of Buchanan's stance on gays does not sit well with San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who is gay.

"He has a history of comments like this and is shunned by the gay community and their supporters," Ammiano said of Raimondo. "He loves to see his name in print. He's so contrary to what the perceptions are that it makes him so different people will write about him."

Buchanan has drawn the wrath of the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican organization, Log Cabin Republicans, with 10,000 members in 30 states. Its executive director, Richard Tafel, in Washington, is urging members to help defeat the conservative commentator.

"The Republican Party is beginning to reap the harvest of pandering to the far right," Tafel said. ". . . Buchanan's irresponsible rhetoric about gays and lesbians should cause all Americans to shudder. Stopping Pat Buchanan now should be the goal of every gay and lesbian American."

"Senator" Wagner lauds this nutjob Raimondo as a "conservative voice" whose "good analysis... illustrates what the Independen(ce) movement in Vermont is all about."

Here is how conservatives describe "Senator" Wagner's nominee for an out of state "conservative voice" Vermonters need to hear.

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

The Second Leg of the Vermont Secessionists 2012 Election Cycle's Two Legged Stool

In early July of this year the seceshers began their second attempt at a takeover of the Vermont Senate with the announcement on perennial electoral loser and the self-described "Very Foreign Minister" of the Second Vermont Republic's Denny Morriseau's, and up and coming loser Robert Wagner's, various websites, called grandiosely, The Vermont 30: The Unleashing, here and here.

After their less than successful independent entries for various state offices, where their electoral percentage showing was never greater than a low single digit or, as in the case of their gubernatorial candidate, Dennis Steele, barely more than three quarters on one percent, you'd think they'd want to find a way to suppress somewhat the nearly universal perception here in Vermont that these guys represent the extreme, delusion, irrelevant political fringe.

But that not being the case, the Wagner/Morrisseau tag team followed up a week later with a blistering attack on the Vermont legislature that calls all of its members thieves and corrupt here and here:

"Here’s a quick education on how the corrupt politicians sitting in the Vermont Legislature are stealing from us."

What followed was a long attack on their Vermont neighbors, many of whom, unlike Wagner or Morrisseau, have contributed untold hours, days, weeks, months and years of selfless service to their community rather than spending virtually all of their time condemning the many contributions of their neighbors. (And no, Denny, offering to pay for one way tickets to rid Burlington of its homeless population doesn't strike most as public service, any more than your plan to cap assets, income and population for Vermont)

In his post, Wagner describes a "letter" he received from Matt Hawes in Virginia:

"Here’s a letter that I received from Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, illustrating how Montpelier’s brand of sleazy politics has been adapted to Texas…"

The misleading use of word "letter," as well as a loosely correlated assessment of the similarities of the Texas and Vermont legislatures (not even remotely the same), for what was a blast email from an operative of a Tea Party group for whom Hawes serves as Vice President and Executive Director, Ron Paul's Tea Party organization, Campaign for Liberty, reveals Wagner's craving for importance and relevance. In truth, thousands of teabaggers like Wagner received this Tea Party spam.

Wagner's is a head shakingly sad attempt to fool Vermonters and inflate his importance to the national teabagger movement by saying he had received a letter email from the organization of a "flagrant racist," Ron Paul, the so-called "Godfather" of the Tea Party. If Wagner had spent just a few minutes looking into the Virginia teabaggers associated with Hawes' group, as I did, he'd have learned that they'd been involved in multiple acts of political intimidation and, some say, terrorism, when a VA blogger and Tea Party county capo doubled down on an incident tied to his release (mistakenly) of a Democratic party congressman's relative's address in March 0f 2010 by less than two months later calling the congressman "a target." Or maybe Wagner did check and found such rhetoric so compelling that it inspired his own inflammatory, broadsided attack on every legislator in Vermont.

It seems that the Wagner/Morrisseau campaigns are off to the start of another campaign that may prove to be just as disastrous as their last, where their underlying strategy seemed to be to insult and malign virtually every office holder in Vermont. Kinda like when Wagner went to an opening ceremony for the new bridge in Middlebury to piss all over a local, community effort that built a new, needed bridge and which created local jobs - not exactly a savvy, classy or particularly smart, vote getting move.

In closing, I was stunned yesterday to a see a huge, garish campaign sign for Wagner's 2012 campaign on a trailer parked in the state right-of-way in front of The Gathering Inn Hostel on Rte. 100 in the tiny hamlet of Hancock, VT, with the sign nearly protruding into the roadway. Readers of this blog will recall Wagner's announcement of his creation of a "provisional capital" for a secesher Vermont last fall. The innkeeper at The Gathering Inn, Kathleen Byrne, was reported by Wagner to have conducted a ribbon cutting of some sort for the "provisional capital" and/or "Center" or whatever last December here.

A huge campaign sign on a road traveled mostly by people who can't vote for Wagner certainly isn't the smartest campaign strategy but to do it more than 15 months before the election... Really???

Hopefully, despite it being one of the rules of "the Empire" that Wagner so despises, it is a campaign law none the less that he can abide by for the safety of all Vermonters and, so, "respect the rule of law" as he demands of our legislators as a part of our "government" that he so despises. (The Guide to Placement of Political Campaign Signs for Candidates is available for public viewing at the Vermont Secretary of State's website here.)

Oh, and no sign of the seceshers registering their legislature PAC yet.

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

It's Independents Day!

No, that's not a typo although I make my fair share. Sometimes it takes years to notice and correct them but the point here is to mention a few, if not all, of the independents running for congressional, statewide and legislative offices in the 2012 election cycle.

First though, as many of the regular readers of this blog know, I've been poking fun at the wouldbe "Senator" Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner's boast that he had 6 people lined up to run for the Vermont Senate (although he could only name 5) and that he was seeking 24 more to replace the whole Senate with secessionists for the past year. Wagner never got around to naming his sixth person but he has spent a lot of bandwidth spouting off about topics where he clearly has nailed down the fringe position, such as his Marxist-Lenist-Stalinist-lite economic pablum called Georgism. But more on that at another time.

The Vermont Secretary of State's Office has just released its draft list of independent candidates here containing the typical 30+ names of many well intended sorts who'd like to make a difference but who are for the most part clueless as to how to go about doing so. True, there's the occasional political tiger like Bernie Sanders but he's very much the exception to the rule.

This year's slate contains a mother and son congressional duo; a few candidates seeking multiple seats, one of whom favors acronym encrusted solutions while another claims disability from an STD; others are bona fide independents who have contributed to their community and serve in the legislature; and then there are others who'd just like to get to play politician too but haven't figured out the system is geared to Duverger's Law.

"In political science, Duverger's law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a two-party system."

The only secesher that I can find thus far in addition to Wagner is his pal Peter Moss. I've gone over the Secretary of State's draft list here and can't seem to find the three other names that Wagner had listed for the past year as being part of his "The Vermont 30" scheme - the murderously anti-Semitic Dennis Morrisseau, the very angry Peter Garritano

"My name is Peter Garritano. I am constanly pissed off but don't show it. I bite my tongue quite often and vent by writing and screaming at other drivers while alone in my car..."

Source

and the nobody Michael Patno who is a longtime pal of the baas of the Second Vermont Republic, the Dixie singin' Thomas H. Naylor.

From Wagner's website:

I'd thought that I'd be spending the next four months introducing Vermonters to "The 30" secesher wannabes with facts that they'd rather Vermonters not know about them but I guess that's not to be. Looks like I'm left with one befuddled old man and Wagner's raging id - he's announced that he's targeting Addison County's senator who has an impressive personal history of contributing to her community and county, Claire Ayer (D-Weybridge) with what he's promised will be one of the most negative campaigns in recent memory. It'll do.

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 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 Federal subsidy money or he'll be exposed for the hypocritical fraud that many of us Vermonters know him to be.

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

Of Petitions and Polls

By now most readers have heard me comment at length about Second Vermont Republic's Thomas Naylor's methodologically flawed polls. If you haven't, check out the polling box in the right column.

Rob Williams, the propaganda minister for the would-be rulers of the future Second Vermont Republic and High Poobah for the secessionist rag, "Vermont Commons" set up a petition back in March devoted to getting signers for a petition to free Vermont, or some such nonsense. As of Sunday, September 26, 2010, there're an overwhelming 39 signators for his petition (40 if you count the guy who signed twice as from CA and VT), 25% of whom don't live here and, it seems, more than half of the rest are the usual suspects comprised of VTCommons bloggers, well-known local secession dead-enders and some, but by no means all, of the 10 candidates supposedly running on the secession ticket. Hell, Vermont secessionist gubernatorial candidate and Connecticut native, Dennis Steele, as well as his campaign manager, Matthew Cropp, haven't bothered to sign it! [1]


"The 39." I kid you not. 39 signers in six months (not counting the guy who signed twice). Here they are:

#40 16:14, Sep 22, Darick Duquette, VT

#39 04:44, Sep 21, Greg Fox, VT

#38 12:18, Sep 18, Eric Rosenbloom, VT.

#37 09:52, Sep 18, Tina Tarani, OR

#36 10:08, Sep 07, Denny Lane, VT

#35 17:07, Sep 02, Preston Wright, NY

#34 08:22, Aug 17, Adam Mitchell, VT

#33 17:58, Aug 12, Jeff Ramsey, VT

#32 18:20, Aug 11, Steve Miller, VT

#31 00:41, Aug 10, Diana Licht, VT

#30 19:03, Aug 08, John Gelineau, VT

#29 03:15, Aug 08, Christopher Mattogno, VT

#28 12:53, Jul 29, Antonio Paoletti, Italy

#27 00:36, Jul 23, George Loehwing, VT

#26 13:58, Jul 16, Charles Sebrell, NC

#25 08:04, Jul 13, Wes Dunn, VT

#24 13:25, Jul 07, Shaun Sintic, NJ

#23 07:13, Jul 04, William Fielding, VT

#22 06:46, Jul 04, Sam Shulman, VT

#21 08:32, Jul 01, Cheryl Diersch, VT

#20 05:47, Jun 30, William Ritke-Jones, VT

#19 08:44, Jun 28, Alec Chalmers, VT.

#18 14:53, Jun 23, Peter McDonald, VT

#17 14:05, Jun 11, Chellis Glendinning, Bolivia.

#16 21:56, May 19, Hector Labbé, Canada

#15 04:59, May 13, Christopher Sol Cruz, MA

#14 18:32, May 09, Charles Sebrell, FL

#13 10:40, May 08, Name not displayed, NC

#12 16:54, Apr 28, Rusty Shackleford, VT

#11 16:52, Apr 28, Rusty Shackleford, CA

#10 12:24, Apr 23, Timothy Lebron, VT

#9 05:34, Apr 23, Maria Korogodsky, VT

#8 19:37, Apr 22, Robert Wagner, VT

#7 11:37, Apr 22, bailey osborne, VT

#6 18:23, Mar 26, Ian Baldwin, VT

#5 15:26, Mar 26, Dennis Morrisseau, VT

#4 14:14, Mar 26, Susie Snow, VT

#3 13:58, Mar 26, Rob Williams, VT

#2 12:55, Mar 26, Cameron Chapman, VT

#1 12:04, Mar 26, Timothy Guiles, VT

Is it any wonder then that I've learned via The Source that former VTCommons publisher, Ian Baldwin, refers to the Free Vermont crowd as "our small community of secessionists."

No doubt, Dennis Steele's backwoods, low-end George Stephanopoulos, Matthew Cropp, who seems also to be afflicted with the Vermont secessionist recessive gene, will plant his foot firmly on his... (well, you know... best to leave the overt, potty mouth stuff to my rumored alter ego) and spin this as a harbinger of the great, great things yet to come since "the only way is up!" Yazz!!!

Vermont Secessionist Robert Wagner's Campaign Finance Hanky Panky

Vermont secessionists have a well deserved reputation for playing fast and loose with the facts and the law. Usually what they assert as fact is a convoluted misrepresentation. On February 16 the announced secesher Vermont senate candidate for Addison County, Robert Wagner (who likes to call himself "Senator" despite never having served in the office and who has set up his provisional capitol in Hancock, VT for his secesher nation) unleashed a tirade of misinformation and invective against his Ripton, VT neighbor, Rep. Willem Jewett (D-Ripton) and Rutland County incumbent Vermont Senate member, Sen. Kevin J. Mullin while voicing his opposition in a matter of public policy before the legislature, a bill know as S.199.

It's an interesting charge since while Wagner makes no claim that a law has been violated by Rep. Jewett or Sen. Mullin, Wagner has been and is presently in violation of at least two campaign laws, in particular that which requires he register as a campaign committee due to his advocacy in opposition to S.199 as well as his urging support of other legislative bills and/or proposed legislation while trolling the legislative halls of the Montpelier Capitol building on behalf of his myriad pet causes. Since Wagner can not yet register legally as a candidate and may not do so until May 14, he is therefore not, in the official sense of the word, a candidate. His website and actions would very much seem to fail under the statutory definition of a lobbyist:

§ 261 (9) “Lobby” or “lobbying” means:
(A) to communicate orally or in writing with any legislator or administrative official for the purpose of influencing legislative or administrative action;
(B) solicitation of others to influence legislative or administrative action;

Since in his post Wagner sought to inoculate himself from the charge of being homophobic, I thought I'd take a crack at that nut first before I get to Wagner's violation of state campaign fundraising law.

"Kevin Mullen(sic)... was re-elected last year to the Rutland Senate District with $28,005 in campaign contributions. Only $1,628 of that was traceable to Vermont, according to FollowTheMoney.org. Why should a single Vermont Senate Race be so important to out-of-state contributors?"

"In 2010, Mullin’s safe seat was in danger from two Independents in his district, Dennis Morrisseau and Bill Cruikshank, part of the Vermont Thirty. Somebody took this threat seriously!"

First off, Wagner's allegation that "only $1,628 of" Mullin's campaign contributions "was traceable to Vermont" is untrue. Perhaps if Wagner' mind hadn't become so addled processing 911 Truther falsehoods he'd have an easier time with actual records.

The not-yet-and-highly-unlikely-to-ever-be "Senator" Wagner suggests erroneously that Sen. Mullin's seat was under threat from two seceshers political wannabes in the 2010 election. That's shear crap. The only danger to Mullin was from radical right-wingers incensed over his vote on Vermont's groundbreaking marriage equality legislation. Secesh fringer candidates Bill Cruikshank and his neighbor, an anti-Semite of the worst kind and serial misogynist, Dennis Morrisseau, were never a threat to any of the other candidates for Rutland County's three senate seats. The suggestion that they ever could have been is laughable and confirmation of Wagner's delusional nature. Here's the truth: Cruikshank came in last with 1.7% of the vote, cheating Morrisseau of his usual showing in an election. Morrisseau got a whooping 1.8% of the vote, securing the next to last place slot. Oh, and Mullin finished first.

What Wagner didn't choose to say was that Mullin's largest contributors in and out of state were gay and lesbian. There is no gay issue before the legislature this year nor likely to be in coming years. This was a generous act on a part of a grateful community from across the country and that's why "a single Vermont Senate Race (was) so important to out-of-state contributors." Wagner may not be overtly homophobic (although given his range of hatreds I can't be so sure) but he's undoubtedly a willing nitwit whose accusation gives aid and comfort to the homophobic opponents of Mullin that did seek to unseat him in 2010. Maybe he can add to his phony charges against Mullin (someone he isn't even running against) that he's in the pocket of Big Gay - not that there's anything wrong with that.

This past Sunday, in an editorial regarding Vermont's healthcare system system, Mullin's hometown newspaper, often described as "left-leaning" and occasionally dubbed "The Russian Herald" described the senior member of Rutland County's senate team of three thusly,

"Mullin may be the most influential Republican working on behalf of health care reform. Republicans are few in number in the Senate, but Mullin has assumed a constructive, positive role."

Wagner would do well to consider how a negative, extremely divisive and personally repugnant campaign will fair in Vermont over likely opponents with a reputation for honesty and comity. The Vermont political boneyard is littered with the remains of campaigns such as his - the similarly hateful Take Back Vermont crowd, the equally negative Six Pack, etc. In Vermont, successful politicians run for something, not at or against someone.

Recently at a legislative breakfast Wagner was called on one of his falsehoods by his neighbor and legislative representative, Willem Jewett (D-Ripton), specifically, that Vermonters don't have the same access that lobbyists have to legislative committees. Apparently the "Senator" didn't care for being challenged over one of his myths so he's now taking on another member of the legislature who's had it with his bullshit, as, I suppose, have most of his Ripton neighbors. When Rep. Jewett last ran he received 1,595 votes in the six towns that comprise the Addison-2 district he represents, 257 of which came from Ripton; non-Senator Wagner received only 1128 votes from the twenty-four towns of the Addison County senate seat (which includes Rutland County's Brandon), of which Ripton gave the anger challenged Wagner a total of 37! or 7% of his hometown vote. Perhaps a part what's made Wagner such a disliked figure in his hometown is his baseless and scurrilous attack on Ripton's selectboard that I reported on here.

Wagner has also used information that he obtained from an out-of-state website (all the while complaining about out-of-state financial support for candidates that he hates) that specifically precludes the Wagners of the world from using the information as he did. Directly beneath the information that Wagner quotes from Project Vote Smart about Rep. Jewett (information that is true for virtually every legislative member in Vermont who does not see the value in submitting to questionnaires from Texas as Wagner does) is this admonition in bold to political sleaze balls like Wagner:

Project Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity including advertising, debates, and speeches.

Putting what he found on his campaign website and using it as he did would certainly be a violation of Project Vote Smart's prohibition but I don't think that'll trouble what's already coming to be seen as the ugliest, searingly pessimistic and most negative campaign in the 2012 election - Robert Wagner's ill-fated campaign to wreck the Vermont's Senate, The Thirty. And just so there's no room for Wagner to try to weasel his way out of what he was doing, using Project Vote Smart in furtherance of his campaign, here's what he said about Jewett:

"My house rep stands for nothing but his political career, and votes as required to keep the corporate money and federal handouts flowing. Jewett must go."

Of course, I'll be keeping track of the totals, Wagner's dismal excuses and the lines he'll cavalierly cross in 2012, as well as his numerous hypocrisies and lies, but here's what this phony critic of his fellow Vermonters has done in the way of a blatant violation of Vermont's campaign law. I've learned from a source (two can play that game "Senator") that a complaint was submitted this fall to the Vermont Secretary of State's office regarding an illegal campaign solicitation that appeared on Wagner's fringer website.

Here's the scam that Wagner's pulling: candidates are permitted to “'passing-the-hat' at a fundraiser" but apparently Wagner is saying that his website is a "fundraiser" and that he's creating a new wrinkle to the public financing mess by claiming that he's merely passing his e-hat. On August 23, 2011 he had this pasted campaign donation box on his campaign website that also had next to it, under his mug, an admonishment that government should "respect the rule of law":


It's clear though that Wagner was willing to take donations in any amount from anonymous donors no matter what the law since, in fact, "the rule of law" doesn't really matter so much to him. His act was illegal no matter how he now spins it. After the complaint was made to Vermont Secretary of State's office, Wagner reduced the amount that he was willing to accept illegally to $50 or under. According to the Vermont Secretary of State's Campaign Finance law brochure, the law doesn't seem to include Wagner's self-serving thinking:

"Note that no individual can put more than $50.00 in cash into the hat because contributions in excess of $50.00 must be by check, credit card or debit card."

With all the problems today over fundraisering sleaze, it figures that Wagner would be the one to come up with calling a website a hat.

But I guess if you're an aspiring political wannabe, details like following the law, as well as its spirit, don't really matter when the ultimate goal is to smear others who've not violated the law. Wagner's really just following the lead from July of last year of his mentor, Thomas Naylor, who sought to act as a super-PAC until it was revealed on this blog here. You see, Naylor offered to send a free book of his (Amazon stats reveal that Naylor's books can't sell except in the category of +1,000,000 others sell better than his) to $100 contributors to the 2012 Vermont secesher legislator's campaign. Naylor illegally solicited funds without registering as a PAC (political action committee) via this on his website:

Support Us
"Please help us save Vermont, America, and the rest of the world from the American Empire by helping tiny Vermont lead the nation into disunion. If SVR is to move to the next level, electing members of the state legislature who are open secessionists, we need your financial support. Those who contribute $100 or more receive a complimentary copy of Thomas H. Naylor’s provocative, 100-page, unpublished monograph Rebél, a philosophy of peaceful rebellion against the human condition and the American Empire."

"Complete this form and return it with your check to The Second Vermont Republic, P.O. Box ***, *********, VT 05***."

Shortly after I revealed Naylor's electoral impropriety in July, he took that legislative campaign solicitation off of his website.

I wonder how long it'll take Wagner's "The 30" campaign to also come into complete compliance with the letter and as well as the spirit of the law, rather than the self-serving and most likely illegal interpretation that a hat can be passed on a website.

Meanwhile, in closing, there's still been no word yet about whether Wagner will be returning the $288.30 subsidy he received while flying out of the airport in Rutland, VT, which is exactly the kind of 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 hypocrite and fraud that so many of us Vermonters now know him to be.

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

"Senator" Wagner Is Digging In on His More Than One Month Old Lie

It's fascinating to watch as Ripton, VT's Robert Wagner, the primary organizer of a campaign to throw out every Vermont state senator for being "corrupt," for "stealing from us," and for being "pathological liars," repeatedly lying on his own website about the number of Vermont secesher, er, independence candidates. Thus far, the list includes only five of the usual secesher losers whose electoral showings are normally single digit or often just a fraction of that - loopy Dennis Morrisseau, nasty Peter Garritano, flaky Peter Moss, newbie but longtime secession promoter and Second Vermont Republic honcho Michael Patno, as well as his own sorry, unaccomplished self, a member of Rob Williams' stable of headcase bloggers at "Vermont Commons", Robert Wagner.

"... we must vote out the incumbents, starting with the Vermont Senate. 30 seats. We can do it, will you run with us? I’m recruiting senators… the pay’s decent, we’ve got six so far."

Although I'd normally link to "Senator" Wagner's post, this one contains photographs that gratuitously conflate the violence in Libya with some of Wagner's usual cheesy arguments. The guy is becoming a true asshole.

5 ≠ 6





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

The Vermont Secession Movement Winds Down

It's been apparent for some time that what remains of the Vermont secession movement is drawing justly to a close. Long a movement founded in deception and of lies and of hatred it could only go this way.

Some trace the beginning of the end to the first revelations in 2007 that the Vermont secesher movement was joined at the hip to racists at the anti-Semitic, white separatist group called the League of the South, which is affiliated with the KKK and the Council of Conservative Citizens (formerly known as the White Citizens Council and commonly called the "Uptown Klan"). Like the LoS the Vermont seceshers, who call themselves the Second Vermont Republic, are vehemently anti-Semitic. That is a fact, as well as the racist, segregationist and conspiracist leanings, that has been exposed here at this blog by way of the writings of SVR bloggers like the Dixie singin' founder of SVR Thomas Naylor who had fantasized about creating an anti-Semitic white homeland, convicted felon and LoS Board of Directors member Franklin Sanders, neo-Confederate Lincoln historical revisionist Thomas DiLorenzo, failed secesher candidates for the Vermont Senate Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau, Gaelan Brown, a conspiracist loon, and Robert "Needed Killin' " Wagner, Kirkpatrick Sale (who argues that Israel should be "undone"), Robert S. Griffin (UVM's own white nationalist professor), conspiracist anti-Semite Jacqueline Brook and Carol Moore, to name only a few.

Over the past year or so the SVR publisher, Rob Williams (who is also a member of the adjunct staff at Burlington's Champlain College), has been busy rhetorically cleansing his various secesher sites of the grossly bigoted posts of his bloggers. There are now a zombie like collection of rotten links that abound at his sites but he just can't help himself since new anti-Semitic posts have found their way onto his site, along with increasingly vicious anti-American, and in that way anti-Vermont, posts.

I had to smile when he posted a false claim that he had "invented" the idea that Vermonters get outdoors to enjoy the snow by attaching a numerical requirement to be recognized for doing so. He's calling his effort "#VT99". In doing so he betrays his roots from away since apparently he's unaware that such numerical recognition for how much a Vermonter might be enjoying the outdoors has been a part of the Vermont scene for many, many years. Probably the most notable was the Vermont 100 Club at Killington from a couple of decades ago that had to do with how many days a year that you used your season pass. He calls for 30 minutes of snow related activity on 99 days - sound familiar? Around Vermont that's called getting the mail and taking out the compost. He's even created a euro style bumper sticker to go with it that he's offered for free to his readers, for which, I have it on good authority, that there have been few, if any, takers. That's just a small measure of how mammothly unsuccessful his secession related endeavors - his print journal distribution and conventions featuring bigots from out of state and his plan to get secession articles on 200 Town Meeting ballots by 2015 (so far zero) and his constitutional convention scheme - have been for years. SVR founders Naylor, Ian Baldwin and Williams were all famously unsuccessful in getting their families, spouses and local communities to join them in their secesher delusions.

Hilariously, on Wednesday Rob posted the ironically titled "Secession, the Reasonable Option Everyone Resists" by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., a neo-Confederate founder of the League of the South. Rob signs off his post with his trite "Long Live the UNTied States," to which I'd ask, "Exactly what state or states are those, Rob?" - delusional asshole.

Rob Williams is now pretty much all that remains of the membership of 20 or nutjobs in the SVR. Don't forget to shut off the lights as you leave, Rob.

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