The anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6 and Nagasaki, August 9 are remembered this year in Burlington Vermont in a city wide declaration. Burlington City Declares August 6 - Nuclear Disarmament Day.
This is the first such day to exist in the United States.
With awareness and energy perhaps citizens around the country will compel their local leaders to do the same.
The bombs were dropped 63 years ago. The world needs to learn from history. Nuclear weapons do not lead to world peace.
Today, now more than ever, we need to pressure the Department of Energy, the Administration, our local officials and spur dialog in our communities to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to honor the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

In an interview with YES! Magazine, former Secretary of State, member of the Reagan cabinet, George Shultz explains why he believes nuclear abolition is possible, and what can be done to make a nuclear-free world a reality.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=2692

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Burlington Telecom (BT), A local municipal cable provider started carrying the station a little over a year and a half ago.
In late May of this year BT said they would take AJE off the air due to an "inundation of phone calls" - the exact number of calls is unknow.
They have since said that the reasons for wanting to pull AJE off the air are due to "contractual issues".

BT advisory committees held a public forum in response to volumes of community input on June 10, 2008.
Over 50 people attended the meeting, 6 people spoke out in favor of removing AJE and over 35 spoke in favor of keeping it on the air.

In the interest of maintaining their space on the BT line up, AJE Managing Editor, Tony Burman and Military and Current Affairs Correspondent, Josh Rushing, visited Burlington to inform the community about AJE.

Governent Access Television Station CCTV, Channel 17 hosted them on June 11, 2008.

Here are excepts from the live show and public forum -

To watch the Full live program you can go to cctv.org

Burlington Telecom will come to a decision on whether to pull AJE or keep it on the air by June 17th.

Bill Moyers questioned by O'Reilly Factor Fox News Producer at the National Conference for Media Reform. June 7, 2008.
Taped by Sam Mayfield, CCTV.

Al Jazeera English on Burlington Telecom

The proposed pulling of Al Jazeera English Network from the Burlington Telecom lineup has created fanfare in recent weeks in the Burlington, Vermont Community.

It is revolutionary that we have a local municipal outlet for cable in our small city. At this hour in telecommunication history it is more important than ever to have diversity in our cable providers and in the content we view, listen to and read.

Such diversity exists with Burlington Telecom (BT) and indeed this diversity is exactly why it stands to do so well in our community. BT is one of two cable providers in the United States that airs Al Jazeera English Network (AJE). At a time when our news is delivered to us through corporate filters providing us with less and less information we are obligated to seek alternative sources for news. While AJE surely pushes its own agenda, it indeed gives us world news that is entirely unavailable on other platforms. A media without diversity does not strengthen our democracy or our community.

Burlington residents support BT because we support local businesses, we can see programming that it absolutely not available on satellite or corporate cable outlets, we can request programming and, by investing in this municipality, we get to invest in our own community.

The municipality is accountable to its committees, made up of community members. The decision to pull the network was made by one man without consulting the Cable Advisory Committee or the Telecommunications Advisory Committee. There is a glitch in their system if they have these committees intact and still one person was able to make this decision unilaterally.

Per Mayor Kiss’ request, both committees met May 27th to hear one minute testimonials from citizens. They will hold a public forum Wed. June 10th to hear all public comments.

BT television carriage policy clearly states: “All decisions of channel carriage are ultimately conditioned by cost, demand, and value”.

Al Jazeera English (AJE) network does not cost Burlington Telecom money, thus it does not cost subscribers money. When AJE first approached BT with the prospect of airing their station, BT looked at the vitals to determine feasibility – does it cost money, are channels available so it does not take the place of other programming, and they considered the content of the station. They found that it is free and that the content of the station is entirely within the framework of what is deemed appropriate programming. And since there are more than a 1,000 channels available on BT, it is not taking the place of say MTV, The History Channel or a local access station.
The venue existing here for alternative media is gorgeous and rare. Now more than ever we need to let Burlington Telecom know how invested we are in local businesses and diversity in our media. We need to let them know that pulling AJE from their lineup perpetuates the bias and lack of diversity rampant in corporate media. We can have something better in Burlington.

You can send an email to www.burlingtontelecom.net. Click on Contact BT. Or, send in a letter in care of Burlington Telecom to 200 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401 to

For more news on the story - http://tinyurl.com/6avvbv
http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com/2008/05/burlington-debates-dropping-al-jazeera.html

Interview with Amy Goodman

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Occupying General Dynamics, May 1, 2008. Burlington, Vt.

Eddie Mims in New Orleans

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Driving to the airport with Eddie Mims in New Orleans.

He talks about the storm, his children and life.

Protesting 5th year of the occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan

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Citizens protest the occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan at General Dynamics in Burlington, Vermont on the 5th year anniversary.

Shutting Down Military Offices in Vermont

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Counter recruitment demonstration at National Guard Office and Armed Services Career Center in Williston Vermont. November 30, 2007.

In 1971 Soldiers from the Vietnam War gathered to give testimonies of what they encountered, this event was called the Winter Soldier.

Today and tomorrow, March 14 and 15, in Silver Springs, Maryland, hundreds of vets and active duty soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq gather tell give testimonies of the occupation, this is the 2nd Winter Soldier hearing event in history.

They will be giving testimonies of what they did and what they saw while in Iraq and Afghanistan. These testimonies will be aired live on TV, web, and radio - links to follow. The testimonies will be given all day March 14 and 15.
You can watch the testimonies live on the web at the Iraq Veterans against the War website - http://ivaw.org/
If you have Dish Network You can watch the event live on Free Speech Television http://www.freespeech.org/fscm2/genx.php?name=home
You can listen on the radio at KPFA, or listen to their audio stream - http://kpfa.org/

I hope that you find time to listen to just five minutes of this hearing. History is being made, the soldiers are speaking out.
You can support them by listening to thier stories.