Thanks to Seven Days, Vermont's liveliest alternative weekly newspaper, for giving Bill McKibben (arguably Vermont's most prominent intellectual) a platform to hold forth on Vermont independence this week. in his "Independence Fray" article.

I could spend time quibbling with some of Bill's observations here. To name but three:

1. His selective re-telling of the winter 2007 SVR/LOS brouhaha and Mr. Odum/GMD's role in it...(no comment - time to move on.)

Read the fascinating results of a brand-new Zogby Poll on secession here, sponsored by our colleagues at the Middlebury Institute.

Perhaps Americans are finally beginning to realize that the U.S. Empire is in deep trouble, and that the best way forward is peaceable decentralization and the dissolution of the United States as Empire.

As we've suggested here for more than three years:

From my media colleague Peter Phillips, who oversees the annual Project Censored project with his journalism students at Sonoma State University.

While I am not in agreement with his solution of impeachment (we're less than four months away from Election Day - time to let go the "impeachment" chimera), his article serves as a sobering reminder of the consequence of U.S. occupation for Iraqi civilians more than five years later.

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JULY 20, 2008 - Gubernatorial Debate Questions - and Candidate's Closing Statements.

A 5 minute video mash from Eva of Seven Daze's "Stuck In Vermont" Fame.

Featuring our own blogger Jim Hogue/Ethan Allen.

Enjoy - and free Vermont! 

Good to see Christian Avard at Green Mountain Daily raising questions about Barack Obama's recent flipflop on the FISA situation.

Just the tip of the iceberg, I'd suggest.

I am currently reading Obama's Dreams From My Father - a compelling story about race, class, and the American Dream - very moving.

Surprised?

Do you think the "liberals" here in Vermont will catch on?

Nah.

Seven Days columnist Shay Totten provides his "take" on SVR founder Thomas Naylor's decision to issue an ultimatum to the League of the South today, along with some breaking information about the LOS response to Naylor's missive.

Interesting.

Seven Days "Fair Game" columnist Shay Totten spells out the Intervale's woes.

So let's get this straight - we've got a community-managed agricultural resource that is a global model for relocalization, and state government is making it as hard as possible for it to survive?

In an interview with Seven Days' Suzanne Podhaizer, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser said this of the Intervale:

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”