Can't you take the fifth?

A Vermont judge sent his sheriff to the mall to round up a jury that could fairly try a child molester.

They stopped passers-by and asked if they were residents of Caledonia County; a "yes" answer won a summons to appear at the courthouse for jury duty immediately, right now, this minute. They rounded up 45 people that way in all, to join the 34 already at the courthouse.

Most people apparently did not mind being summoned for surprise jury service. According to the sheriff, "99.9 percent were just excellent" about being summoned on a sidewalk and ordered to report to the courthouse immediately." Deputies were also dispatched to the local post office and supermarket.

[snip]

Dredging malls for juries is a surprisingly common tactic for judges in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Next time you see a sheriff in the mall, walk the other way unless you want an impromptu civics lesson.

Um.... Wouldn't this make the jury just a bit hostile? Or somewhat hasty to reach a verdict?

Message from Vermont to Bush and Cheney

Happy New Year and up yours:

Montpelier, VT (AHN) - A group of activists in Vermont want President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest for war crimes. A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to have an item put on a March town meeting agenda that would make the two subject to arrest and indictment if they were to ever visit the community.

The item would require about 1,000 signatures to put it on the agenda, where it would be voted on. The item asks for indictments against the president and vice president for crimes against the Constitution.

The Vermont State Senate voted earlier this year to support impeaching the president. Vermont is the only state in the U.S. President Bush has not visited during his presidency.

Can California sign up for this, too? This includes the airspace over the state, right? I want all the neocons to have to have a really zigzaggy flight pattern when they travel.

Canadian terrorists read books?

Bryan of Why Now? catches the important work our Border Patrol is up to:

DERBY LINE, Vermont (AP) — Step through the front door of the Haskell Library and you’re in the United States.

Walk across the carpeted floor to the circulation desk and you’re in Canada. But if you sit down on the couch, you’re back in the U.S.

The 106-year-old Romanesque building, which straddles the international border, has enjoyed a kind of informal immunity from border restrictions through the years.

But a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown focusing on three unguarded streets linking Derby Line with Stanstead, Quebec, across the border, could soon change that.

What illegal activity? Like trying to walk over the border line drawn on the library floor without showing your passport each time?

I was always suspicious of those overly-friendly Canadians! They can't have been up to anything good!