See our event on Facebook here

Fletcher Free Library, Community Room, Main Street, Burlington, VT

Decommissioning and Accountability: A Future Without Vermont Yankee

Panel with:
Deb Katz, Executive Director of the Citizens Awareness Network

Chris Williams, Organizer for Vermont Citizens Action Network

Robert Stannard, Citizen Lobbyist for the Vermont Citizens Action Network

The overwhelming vote in the Senate to reject VY as part of Vermont’s energy future and the legislature’s refusal to return to the issue in 2011 was a great victory, but the debate continues with Entergy winning its court case to continue operation. Citizens must remain engaged and demand continued legislative action to support a successful transition to sustainable energy and stricter decommissioning and operational standards going forward. As citizens work to close Vermont Yankee, Entergy is trying to keep it open. How Entergy will address the issues of transition, closing, and decommissioning is more significant than ever. Recently questions have been raised about how the local community will be affected as well as the state and even the region.

Vermont Yankee’s power has already been replaced. But questions remain. Can we survive without Vermont Yankee? Can citizens play a role as Vermont Yankee is properly dismantled, cleaned-up and radioactive waste safely stored? With the slow motion Fukushima disaster highlighting the vulnerabilities of Mark 1 reactors, how will the state deal with the increased vulnerability of this aged reactor?

“The decommissioning of the Entergy Vermont Nuclear Power Plant will be one of the most significant undertakings in Vermont’s history,” said Bob Stannard, lobbyist for Vermont Citizens Action Network.

Free and Open to the Public

Presented by Occupy Burlington and the Environmental Working Group of Occupy Burlington and Burlington Against Nukes.

Contact: yesearth1@gmail.com

Sponsored by: International Socialist Organization, Pax Christi, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Peace, Justice and Earthcare Committee of Burlington’s Religious Society of Friends, Fomite Press, and the SAGE Alliance, the regional alliance against VT Yankee

Facebook event here

Please join a broad coalition of Vermonters in taking a peaceful stand against his New Year’s Eve signing of NDAA; signing the Patriot Act extension into law with no reforms when all he had to do was not move a pen to let it expire; extending Bush tax cuts for the rich when all he had to do was not move a pen to let them expire; re-opening the Gulf for offshore drilling after the BP spill with no new safety measures; not closing Guantanamo; expanding three-fold Bush’s drone bombing of Pakistan; undermining the Copenhagen climate talks; not getting us out of Afghanistan while expanding massively the use of Blackwater style contractors; extending Bush’s military tribunals; authorizing the extrajudicial executions of American citizens; a backroom deal with Big Pharma promising that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices; giving retroactive immunity for telecom corporations involved in warrant-less wiretapping; bombing Libya without congressional approval overstepping the UN mandate and seeking regime change, violating the War Power Act of 1973 and rendering hypocritical his criticism of Bush going to war without congressional approval; capitulating (again) to corporate America on EPA air-quality standards; immunizing all members of the Bush administration from prosecution regarding torture: the members of the Bush administration who ordered it, the lawyers who legally approved it, and those in the CIA and the military who tortured within the confines of the permission slips they were given by those officials and lawyers; authorizing the extrajudicial murder of American citizens including 16 year old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki; and more…… lots more

Occupy Burlington/UVM Mic Checks UVM’s Board of Trustees over Bill Ruprecht being on the board. After hearing about there being a protest, Ruprecht cancelled plans to be at the Board of Trustees Meeting.

Occupy Burlington General Assembly – Sunday Jan 29 at 2pm, location: UU Church 152 Pearl Street Burlington, VT

Two of Vermont’s three congressional delegates voted against the NDAA.

Senator Leahy violated his oath of office by supporting the NDAA.

What the Press Says

Writing for Salon, Glenn Greenwald, constitutional attorney, named one of the 25 most influential political commentators in the nation, said: “No question that this bill codifies indefinite detention without trial.” “….The bill contains terrible new measures that will make indefinite detention and military trials a permanent part of American law.”

In a NY Times editorial, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, retired four-star Marine generals, had this to say:

“Right now some in Congress are all too willing to undermine our ideals in the

name of fighting terrorism. They should remember that American ideals are

assets, not liabilities.”

Learn more about :THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR 2012, PASSED BY CONGRESS AND SIGNED INTO LAW THIS MONTH:

• Authorizes the US military to detain US citizens indefinitely, without charges or trial;
• Expands the war on terror to include the territorial United States, permitting military operations on US soil;
• Provides no absolute safeguards against its misuse to target dissent, groups,or individuals.

What You Can do to Help, Right Now

Contact Senator Leahy’s office and urge him to introduce and support legislation that will undo the damage to our civil liberties caused by the NDAA.

(802) 229-0569

(800)-642-3193,

or e-mail from this

page: http:// leahy.senate.gov/ contact/

Sign our online petition and add your voice to the growing

tide against the un-American provisions in the NDAA.

Senators from as divergent political backgrounds as Bernie Sanders and

Rand Paul, agree on the dangerous excesses codified in the NDAA.

“…Indefinite imprisonment of

American citizens…”

“It puts every American at risk.”

Undo the NDAA

When President Obama signed it is asking for into law, he issued as signing statement that he claims protects Americans from potential abuses of government power in the NDAA.

The validity of signing statements is controversial, and has no authority over the actions of subsequent administrations, whatsoever.

Senator Leahy voted for the final draft of the bill, fy 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. We, the 99%, ask him to make it right, by introducing and supporting to its enactment, with the full might of his office, legislation that will remove all of the offending provisions.

Why this is important

The US Constitution and Bill of Rights are the birthright of every American. The liberties granted in them are guaranteed forever and non-negotiable.

The un-American provisions of the FY 2012 NDAA must not be allowed to stand; they endanger the hard-fought, time-honored principles of Due Process, Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus, enshrined in our Constitution and reaffirmed by

court decisions. This bill codifies the unthinkable.

What Senator Leahy’s

Colleagues say

“With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates..

“Senator Al Franken (D,

MN)

“Detaining citizens without trial is not American.”

“We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantanamo Bay and held indefinitely…,”

“It puts every American at risk.”

…Senator Rand Paul (R, KY)

NDAA pamphlet

Two of Vermont’s three congressional  delegates voted against the NDAA.

Senator Leahy violated his oath of office  by supporting the NDAA.

What the Press Says

Writing for Salon, Glenn Greenwald,  constitutional attorney, named one of the 25 most influential political commentators in the nation, said: “No question that this bill codifies indefinite detention without trial.” “….The bill contains terrible new measures that will make indefinite detention and military trials a permanent part of American law.”

In a NY Times editorial, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, retired four-star Marine generals, had this to say:

“Right now some in Congress are all too willing to undermine our ideals in the
name of fighting terrorism. They should remember that American ideals are
assets, not liabilities.”

Learn more about :THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR 2012, PASSED BY CONGRESS AND SIGNED INTO LAW THIS MONTH:

• Authorizes the US military to detain US citizens indefinitely, without charges or trial;
• Expands the war on terror to include the territorial United States, permitting military operations on US soil;
• Provides no absolute safeguards against its misuse to target dissent, groups,or individuals.

What You Can do to Help, Right Now
Contact Senator Leahy’s office and urge him to introduce and support legislation that will undo the damage to our civil liberties caused by the NDAA.
(802) 229-0569
(800)-642-3193,
or e-mail from this
page: http:// leahy.senate.gov/ contact/

Sign our online petition and add your voice to the growing
tide against the un-American provisions in the NDAA.

Senators from as divergent political backgrounds as Bernie Sanders  and
Rand Paul, agree on the dangerous excesses codified in the NDAA.
“…Indefinite imprisonment of
American citizens…”
“It puts every American at risk.”

Undo the NDAA

When President Obama signed it is asking for into law, he issued as signing  statement that he claims protects Americans from potential abuses of government power in the NDAA.

The validity of signing statements is controversial, and has no authority over the actions of subsequent administrations, whatsoever.

Senator Leahy voted for the final draft of the bill, fy 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. We, the 99%, ask him to make it right, by introducing and supporting to its enactment, with the full might of his office, legislation that will remove all of the offending provisions.

Why this is important

The US Constitution and Bill of  Rights are the birthright of every American. The liberties granted in them are guaranteed forever and non-negotiable.

The un-American provisions of the FY 2012 NDAA must not be allowed to stand; they endanger the hard-fought, time-honored principles of Due Process, Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus, enshrined in our Constitution and reaffirmed by
court decisions. This bill codifies the unthinkable.

What Senator Leahy’s
Colleagues say

“With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates..

“Senator Al Franken (D,
MN)

“Detaining citizens without trial is not American.”
“We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantanamo Bay and held indefinitely…,”
“It puts every American at risk.”

…Senator Rand Paul (R, KY)

NDAA pamphlet