You hear it routinely during congressional events involving defense issues, when a defense secretary wants to protect his budget (or his legacy), and when candidate...

“What the Fukashima?” and dozens of other anti-nuclear messages graced the bridges of the Interstate Highway from Northampton, Massachusetts, to Burlington, Vermont, reminding Columbus Day weekend leaf peepers that were passing close to the evacuation zone of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, still operating past it’s 40-year design life.

“What the Fukushima?” refers to the basic...

Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2011–12: 

The Police State and Civil Liberties Cluster 

-Read the FBI Memo: Agents Can ‘Suspend the Law’

"The FBI discovered the document, removed it from its curriculum, and allowed aides to the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine it as part of a...

Watch here on Vermont Commons You Tube Channel or play a few choice presentations below!

...

The most prominent effect of a major increase of money in the defense budget since 2001 has been decay in our forces. It has consisted of fewer combat units (such as Air Force squadrons and battleforce ships), aging of our major weapons inventories, and declining readiness of fighting personnel, such as pilots and tank drivers. It has actually been occurring for decades, as some insightful people have been pointing out for a...

Public opposition to basing the F-35 first strike bomber in Burlington, Vermont, is intensifying on three fronts: legal, political, and public health.

With the Air Force’s final decision probably little more than a month away, the Stop the F-35 coalition has signed up dozens of people as co-plaintiffs in current and future legal actions, including a potential multi-million-dollar...

Imposing itself only infrequently on the consciousness of the noise-makers who dominate presidential campaign coverage on TV and in the newspapers, the defense budget has been a second-tier issue in the 2012 elections.

That may properly be so, but the inattention of the top of the line political pontificators, who can be excused for not understanding the issue except at the most superficial level, has not elevated the quality of the debate at the lower tier.

Leaving the discussion to people like the chairman and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees...

            I received your response to my request for a CDP appeal on my 2007 taxes.  Your determination is correct:  My disagreement IS a “moral, religious, political, constitutional, conscientious, or similar objection to the payment of federal taxes that reflect a desire to delay or impede the administration of federal tax laws.”

Since you are threatening me with a $5000 penalty if I don’t withdraw my hearing request, what choice do I have?  That is usually called blackmail and I resent it.  I would like to address the issue...

Burlington- In a move bound to anger many Burlingtonians as well as the broader community of activism in Vermont, the Burlington Police Commission unanimously decided not to recommend an independent investigation to Burlington City Council of events earlier this summer when police in riot gear were deployed with force against unarmed protesters.

Police Commission Chair Jerome O’Neill stated “I believe the burden was on the protesters” and that he believed an independent investigation of the police violence unleashed during the New England Governor’s...