Sanders: Let States Require GMO Food Labels

WASHINGTON, May 22 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today proposed an amendment to the farm bill that would let Vermont and other states require clear labels on any food or beverage containing ingredients that have been genetically modified.

“All over this country, people are becoming more conscious about the foods they are eating and the foods they are serving to their kids and this is certainly true for genetically engineered foods,” Sanders said. “I believe that when a mother goes to the store and purchases food for her child, she has the right to know what she is feeding her child.”


Tip Jar Stolen from Top of the Hill Grill

I took my family to the Top of the Hill Grill for dinner on Tuesday night around 7:00 pm. Just before we arrived, apparently someone walked off with the staffs tip money, jar and all!

If anyone at that time noticed that happening, I would hope that they would tell someone anything that might bring the theives to justice. Maybe a description or a licence plate #.


Sanders Calls for Gas Price Probe, Emergency Action by Oil Market Regulators

WASHINGTON, May 21 – With gasoline prices rising rapidly, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today proposed an amendment to make U.S. federal regulators follow the lead of Europeans and investigate oil and fuel price manipulation.

Sanders also proposed a 30-day deadline for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to use its emergency powers to curb excessive speculation in crude oil markets.

“We must do everything that we can to make sure that oil and gasoline prices are transparent and free from fraud, manipulation, abuse and excessive speculation,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate energy committee.


If Our Re-elected Prez is WarCriminal, What Are We? King Would Have Asked!

Cornel, how am i doing?

TITLE:
IF Our Re-elected Prez is WarCriminal, What Are We? King would have asked! by jay janson

DESCRIPTION:
Cornel West, most outspoken anti-imperialist and defender of Black and minority civil rights since Martin Luther King now says Obama is a war criminal, a black puppet of corporate plutocrats, head of the US killing machine. Will West tell us that King said America, Americans, are responsible for the atrocity wars, being capable of making them unacceptable and inoperable through non-participation and conscientious objection?


Guatemala’s Ríos Montt Genocide Conviction Omen for US Presidents and Their Hired Assassins

DESCRIPTION:
 Presiding Judge, “he knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out.” US President Ronald Reagan also had the power, greater power, to stop the massacres being perpetrated by dictator General and President Ríos Montt.  Instead visited him in Guatemala City and praised Rios Montt as “a man of great personal integrity and commitment. Who was more guilty?


Vermont Doctor Assisted Suicide Becomes Law Monday- I Don’t Think It’s Right – Do You?

t

Shumlin’s List

If the ” Nazi’s”  over at the Vermont Board of Medical Practice and the “Nazi’s”  “we” elected to the Vermont State Legislature would stop telling doctors how much prescription pain killers they can (and can NOT) prescribe, and stop hounding and stalking patients and trying to falsely accuse them of “selling” the scant few prescription painkillers they are allowed, while simultaneously the Police are scanning the Vermont  Prescription Drug Monitoring plan  patient history so they can harrass the patients; if all this wasn’t going on, do you seriously think people would want a Lethal Injection if they had enough prescription painkillers to be comfortable?


Sanders Welcomes Pope Francis Statement on Poverty

WASHINGTON, May 16 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today applauded Pope Francis for condemning a “cult of money” in the world that he said was oppressing the poor.

In a major speech at the Vatican on Thursday, Francis said the global financial system has worsened poverty while benefiting the wealthy few. “While the income of the minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority of the majority is crumbling,” Francis said.


Tree Committee Looks at Skatepark

Referring to front page article in today’s Reformer 5/15/13 “Clements also said that the plans are only on paper at this time and machinery or changes in drainage could have a further impact on the trees. These two trees will be trashed. I don’t see any other way around it, ” said Clements. The Reformer article neglected to mention one of the trees to be removed as a consequence and unlikely to survive the construction of the proposed skatepark project is the majestic Norway Spruce many have come to identify with Crowell Lot as one of the original estate trees that has up to now survived at least two major hurricanes, Irene most recently, and has often been the center of this contoversy and a primary example of what’s at stake for those wanting to defend the right to preserve the park as a green area and natural tree lined setting void of excess concrete. 


Sanders: As Deficit Declines Don’t Forget Working Families

WASHINGTON, May 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, today issued the following statement on a Congressional Budget Office report that the federal deficit is expected to total $642 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30:

“It is very good news for our country that we are making progress on deficit reduction. President Obama inherited a $1.4 trillion deficit when President Bush left office more than four years ago. This year, the deficit is on track to be cut by more than half from what it was in January of 2009.”


But What Can I Do?

“But what can I do?”  It’s a question that comes up a lot in conversation and one I’ve grappled with in recent months as  I’ve tried to figure out a response to it.  When nothing we do seems to make any difference, why should we even care what’s going on let alone try to do something about it?  Or to put it another way, what is an ordinary person to do in the face of the kind of unsettling news that has become routine in the last ten years?    


Slow and Steady

Minnesota has just passed a law legalizing gay marriage! We now have 12 states plus the District of Columbia -that are embracing marriage equality for all of it’s citizens. It has taken a long time to get this much momentum but now it feels like a wave of hopefulness that can not be stopped. Slow and steady progress. Nevada may be next!


Antiwars Belatedly Cry Meaninglessly “Hands Off Syria!” Never “Nuremberg Trial for Americans!”

DESCRIPTION:
Antiwar leaders do not call for the prosecution of US homicidal crimes against humanity ALREADY committed in Syria, nor of crimes committed in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba, Lebanon, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Congo, Korea and Greece. Crimes committed without arrest, arraignment, indictment, punishment, imprisonment, or hanging

TEXT:
 Antiwar leaders protest, “Hands off Syria!”, but do NOT call for the prosecution of US homicidal crimes against humanity ALREADY committed in Syria by CIA, State Department, Congress, the Executive branch and investment bankers.


Governor’s Misguided Views On Gun Control

A recent LTE from Putney resident Elan Moses contained too much misinformation to be useful (Governor’s misguided views on gun control).

While his point that Vermont’s lack of gun legislation opens the door to many abuses, his suggestions for curing this were naïve and disingenuous.

“It does not mean we do not make efforts to make it harder to acquire semi-automatic weapons here in
Vermont”. I don’t think he has any idea what a Semi-Automatic firearm really is. (Unfortunately, this attitude is widespread in America. The very word “semi-automatic” has a high scare factor despite the fact that the
overwhelming majority of hunting rifles used in the USA today are semi-automatic).


Why No Vermont Women in Leadership Positions?

This may seem a strange time to bring this up as there is no election looming, but for better or worse now is when it is hitting me.

Our New England neighbor, New Hampshire has an all woman congressional delegation – Senators Shaheen and Ayotte and Congresswomen Shea-Porter and Kuster, plus Governor Maggie Hassan. Vermont has never its whole history put a woman in one of those seats.


Police Fire Petition & Questions of the Legality of the Town Representative Vote

The citizens of Brattleboro had rejected the Police Fire Station proposal at least three times, as I best remember, over a ten year peiod. I was aghast again to find not only was the town and Slectboard was pushing this, the town and Selectboard knew that if they gave it the voters it would be rejected. This was the opinion of the Selectboard.

They then had the town representatives vote on it.  When I spoke to representives in my district, he  said, “I’ll vote the way I want, regardless of what you would like.”  This is the most egregious example of the town representatives. He was absolutely in favor of the Police Fire station regardless of what the people in his district wanted. I aksed him if he would reconsider and put this before a town wide vote, and he said, “No, I have made up my mind. And the citizens don’t have the information they need to make an informed decision.” 


Building a Better Business Culture

I just had the quintessential bad experience trying to return a rug to Macy’s; hard to reach customer service, no call backs, endless e-mails, and then being told the rug was not returnable because the 30 day period had expired (due to Macy’s own unavailability and failure to respond).

Because our struggling little hamlet is not without her own public relations and customer service issues, I am with the hope that it will hit a mark and make a difference for the better.


In History Reversed, Vietnam’s Crimes Against Humanity In America Would Be Prosecuted

A reverse-history brain-twister to provoke imagining what victims of US firepower must feel. A ubiquitous, war criminal media, steeped in latest techniques of psyop constantly programs a reverse-reality that justifies undeclared wars meant to maintain high profitability for predatory investments and a confidence in the exceptional goodness of Anglo-Saxon America that obviates compassion for the wars designated enemies.

If Vietnam had bombed the United States for fifteen years bringing death to some three million Americans in cities, towns and countryside across America during a brutal occupation by a half-million heavily armed Vietnamese soldiers, there is no way that the US would not have brought Vietnam before the International Court of Justice.


F Troop in the People’s Republic of Vermont

F Troop in the People’s Republic of Vermont

Yup, I was born in Vermont, but through no fault of my own, I wound up living in the People’s Republic of Vermont. As that poet said, “Brattleboro is a socialist experiment gone deeply awry.” I would add, it is a socialist experiment, greased with payola, and incompetency that makes the F Troop look like an efficient organization.