Free Republic

...So let’s set aside for a moment the fact that the website does not work, a whole month after Obamacare launched. Here’s the breakdown on what Vermont was given to create its exchange: $270 per man, woman and child. $654 per household. $3,928 per uninsured Vermonter. $177,000 per newly insured person so far. $284,000 per person enrolled in exchange plans so far....

America is turning into an oligarchy — that was the message Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s self-styled socialist U.S. senator, preached to more than 100 progressive activists last Saturday at the annual fall getaway of the S.C. Progressive Network. Sanders had been on a week-long romp of the former Confederacy, and during his tour, he hit up the Progressive Network gathering taking place among the live oaks, Spanish moss, and scattered cabins of the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island. Sanders said he had never spoken publicly in the South, but it’s been something the New Englander had always intended to...

<p>MIDDLEBURY, VT. – A Vermont college student who removed American flags set up to commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks has been suspended for a year. Middlebury College students set up about 3,000 flags every year to remember 9/11 victims. This year, a handful of people removed the flags and put them in garbage bags. The college said in an Oct. 11 news release one of the people was a student who acknowledged her participation. Another was a Canadian political activist who was invited to campus by the student. The others weren't known. The college's community judicial board found the student, whose name wasn't released, responsible for violating policies of conduct and respect.</p>

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says global warming poses "a far more serious problem than al Qaeda" and accuses energy companies of being willing to "destroy the planet" for profits. In an interview with Playboy magazine, Sanders targets coal and oil companies who he says have outsized influence over lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Big business is willing to destroy the planet for short-term profits,” Sanders said. “And because of their power over the political process, you hear a deafening silence in the U.S. Congress and in other bodies around the world about the severity of the problem. Global warming is a...

Vermont has the highest rate of illicit drug use in the country with 15% of people saying they've used within the past month (compared to 4.2% in Utah, where illicit drug use is the lowest), according to 2010-2011 surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Northeastern state ranked high for almost every type of drug, from marijuana to cocaine. This trend is a consequence of factors including weather, politics, and proximity to big cities, according to Barbara Cimaglio, the Vermont Department of Health's deputy commissioner for alcohol and drug abuse programs. "You have everything from the...

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (Independent) slammed the Koch brothers on MSNBC this morning, alleging that the billionaire businessmen behind the Tea Party were partly responsible for bringing about the government shutdown. Sanders is the Senate’s sole Independent senator, and he typically caucuses with Democrats. But the Vermont lawmaker lashed out at what he says is the unchecked and damaging influence of Citizens United on American governance, the House of Representatives in particular, during an MSNBC appearance this morning. Sen. Sanders addressed the current government shutdown, saying he believes the Kochs are behind the gridlock that ground the House to...

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he will push legislation to end the NSA's controversial program to collect records on all U.S. phone calls. He argued that the program invades Americans' privacy rights while doing little to thwart terrorist attacks. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, argued that the phone data program is critical for protecting national security. "I will do everything I can to prevent this program from being canceled," Feinstein said during the hearing....

The protesters who uprooted a 9/11 memorial display at a liberal arts college in Vermont claimed they were defending Abenaki tribal lands and taking a stand against U.S. imperialism.The Abenaki tribe’s response? “Disgusting.”Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, said his tribe did not approve of the actions taken by five people–including one student–at Middlebury College last week. (RELATED: Student destroys 9/11 memorial, citing U.S. imperialism)“We didn’t know anything about this and if we had we certainly wouldn’t have sanctioned it,” he said in a statement to The Addison Independent.The 9/11 memorial display consisted of 2,977 flags placed in...

Two of five unidentified protestors uproot flags dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in a midday protest. (middbeat/Rachel Kogan) A 2,977 flag memorial was ripped out of the ground in front of Mead Memorial Chapel shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11 by a group of five protestors claiming that the flags were on top of a sacred Abenaki burial site. The flags — meant to commemorate each of the 2,977 lives taken in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — have been posted in the grass between Mead Chapel and the Davis Family Library annually in...

More than 200 colleges and high schools across the nation participated in Young America's Foundation's 9/11: Never Forget Project. Students came together to establish an American flag memorial on campus consisting of 2,977 flags representing each person murdered in the terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, five student protesters at Middlebury College ripped the flags out of the ground before 3:00 pm. The 9/11: Never Forget Project has been an annual nonpartisan event at Middlebury College for the past ten years. By participating in the 9/11: Never Forget Project, students honor the victims of the attacks, as well as honor the American principles...

UPDATE (9/12/13): Here is part of a statement written by Amanda Lickers, the woman Shireman-Grabowski claimed to assist in removing the flags. Lickers says she is a member of the Onondowa’ga Nation, which is a part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The statement was posted in an article on the website Climate Connections: yesterday i went to occupied abenaki territory. i was invited to middlebury college to facilitate a workshop on settler responsibility and decolonization. i walked across this campus whose stone wall structures weigh heavy on the landscape. the history of eugenics, genocide and colonial violence permeate that space so...

A 2,977 flag memorial was ripped out of the ground in front of Mead Memorial Chapel shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11 by a group of five protestors claiming that the flags were on top of a sacred Abenaki burial site. The flags — meant to commemorate each of the 2,977 lives taken in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — have been posted in the grass between Mead Chapel and the Davis Family Library annually in a joint effort between the College Republicans and Democrats for nearly 10 years. Ben Kinney ’15, president of the College Republicans, spent...

As of right now, Bill de Blasio is the man to beat in the race to be the next mayor of New York City. The latest polls put him at 43%, which is enough to avoid a run-off in the Democratic primary, and it is widely believed that whoever wins the Democratic primary will sail into office. For the most part, sitting mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has stayed out of the race, but in an extensive interview with New York Magazine the term-limited Independent ripped de Blasio's campaign as "class-warfare and racist":

President Barack Obama faces a clear uphill battle in swaying skeptical lawmakers of the merits of military action in Syria, as top officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill Sunday to make the administration’s case. For example, Senate Democratic aides are drafting new language for an authorization of military force in Syria, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Sunday. The administration’s proposal is too open-ended — a complaint many lawmakers have — Leahy said after leaving the classified briefing. The current version wouldn’t garner his support, but he indicated that a more tightly written draft might. “I know it’s going to be...

In a week when we celebrated one of the greatest speeches in history, we also saw discrimination win over science. Again. Ideology defeated reason. As a scientist, I was saddened in a way I am not usually wont. The Great State of Vermont threw away cheap clean energy this week out of ignorance and fear. Vermont chose to be stupid, and will hurt the environment as a sidebar.

Former Vermont Gov. and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean showed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) irritates the left as much as the Republican establishment when he declared that he was fearful that Cruz would one day become president. "God help us if he ever gets to be anything more than the senator from Texas," Dean said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Dean was responding to an interview CNN's Candy Crowley had done earlier in the week with Cruz in which Cruz said that he would do whatever he could to encourage a "grassroots tsunami" that would...

A Unitarian church in Middlebury Vermont has been attempting to induce people to give their guns to the Government to be destroyed for a price far below market value.  From wcax.com: Minister Barnaby Feder says he recognizes that guns tend to sell for much more than $50 online, but that he hopes this incentive will at least make people aware of the option to dispose of firearms. So far no guns have been brought to the police department for cash. I do not see anyone organizing massive protests over this clear Church/State cooperation.   The money has been turned over...

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Bosnian immigrant accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago pleaded not guilty on Friday. Prosecutors allege Edin Sakoc, who has been living in Burlington, the state's largest city, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992. An indictment says he raped a Serb woman and aided in the killing of the two elderly people she was caring for and the burning of the house they were staying in. ... Vermont has a sizable Bosnian community. Between 1993...

On Friday, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry put forth a theory as to why Detroit inevitably went bankrupt — terminal lack of government. We’ll do our best to explain. While discussing Detroit’s downfall, Harris-Perry and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean agreed that “you’ve got to have a government to run the place.” Harris-Perry noted Detroit’s declining population, and in turn its tax base. The population of the city has declined dramatically over the last 10 years. Mediaite’s Noah Rothman, who calls the MSNBC host’s assessment “delusional,” provides some analysis and facts: Harris-Perry presents this fact as though former Detroit residents left –...

Danilo Lopez will be allowed to stay in the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says. Lopez, a Vermont migrant-worker-turned-activist from Mexico, advocated for a new law allowing people without legal status to get drivers' licenses. Lopez was scheduled to be deported on July 5. In 2011, Lopez was traveling in a friend’s car when a police officer pulled them over for speeding. Lopez was turned over to Border Patrol, detained and released. Since then, he’s helped Vermont’s migrant worker community get access to driver's licenses. Earlier this year, Lopez said that the campaign for driver's licenses is really...