In the midst of our fleeting lives, one sometimes feels called to take a stand. A meaningless but symbolic stand. Two towns in Vermont, Brattleboro and Marlboro, about two hours northwest of Boston, passed resolutions calling for President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney to be arrested if they ever enter the towns' jurisdiction in southern Vermont. The ballot asked voters to indict our nation's executives for "crimes against our Constitution." The vote......

Jim McCue Book Launch Party Comedy Connection Faneuil Hall (T: Government Center) Sunday, December 16, 8:00 pm, $15 Free for veterans and military personnel Official Jim McCue Site AnySoldier.com The troops could use a lot from us right now, whether it be body armor or sunblock. But one local performer is using his specific talents to make the lives of the troops a little bit better. Comedian Jim McCue, who is also co-founder of the......

-- 18 protesters were arrested during yesterday's Veterans Day ceremony at City Hall Plaza. They were members of Veterans for Peace, an organization of former soldiers opposed to the Iraq War. The American Legion had placed the group in the rear of the Veterans Day parade and told them that they could not carry signs protesting the war. The Veterans for Peace responded by blocking the official ceremony podium with gags in their mouths and......

The Pentagon has announced that Army Specialist Christine M. Ndururi, 21, of Dracut, died on Tuesday. The military has stated the cause of death was an "unspecified illness." Her family wants to know what happened now because it was the first day of her first overseas mission. Her father told the Eagle-Tribune that she hadn't been sick: "I’m waiting for them to tell me what happened. She was not ill, unless she was ill after......

--Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley and police commissioner Ed Davis were able to be in the same room this weekend despite their ongoing public spat. But someone has BPD detectives have been distributing flyers around Government Center denouncing Conley's actions. The flyer pulls no punches and even likens Conley to a feudal lord: "Dan Conley is a politician who only wants to flex his political might over the serfs beneath him." Can everyone involved in......

Steve Almond's (Not that You Asked) will be sold in bookstores starting today. He will be reading at Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, September 13, at 7:00 pm. Almond spoke with Bostonist right after Karl Rove resigned, so we caught him when he really raging against The Man. He resigned from Boston College when BC invited Condoleezza Rice to speak at their commencement, so he didn't mince words when it came to Rove or any other......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

--More details have emerged about the stabbing death of Adam Rich at The 6 House Bar in South Boston. The fatal fight started over spilled beer. A witness, the victim's best friend, said someone spilled beer on the victim, and the fight got out of control. The victim's best friend is also an Iraq War vet, and he saved some choice words for the murderer: “Whoever did this is the new breed of scumbag who......

Michael Beschloss will read from Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19, at 6:00 pm at Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tickets are $5 and available at Brookline Booksmith. When a president dies, who are the networks gonna call? Historian and brainy talking head Michael Beschloss. Beschloss' latest book evaluates the moments when a president made a lonely, unpopular, and ultimately correct choice. Many of the leaders we admire were......

We hear Mitt Romney doesn't do caffeine. That's a Mormon thing, but it's not unusual – plenty of non-Mormons eschew caffeine. But there's more to the no-caffeine-Romney connection than dietary choices. Now that Romney has taken the lead in the New Hampshire polls, people are starting to wonder if he is the real deal – or if he's like caffeine-free Coca-Cola. --Whether he's the real deal or not, he's launching a soda-pop-worthy ad campaign and......

American troops keep dying in Iraq, and that includes several troops from Massachusetts. A Lawrence family is left wondering if their son is dead or captured, and a well-known BU professor who spoke out against the war lost his son. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence is one of three soldiers who are missing after an ambush in Mahmoudiya that left four soldiers and a translator dead. One soldier who has died has not been identified, which......

Today a tremendous crowd* turned out in Boston to protest the Iraq War, to support our troops who are risking their lives, and to express their anger at the Bush administration for starting it. Many of those in attendance didn't stop with Bush, Cheney, & Co. - they also railed at the Democrat-controlled legislature, whom they feel aren't working enough to stop the war. At first, it seemed as if the rally would be......

Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. 3,200 troops have died. The following are the soldiers from Massachusetts who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as listed in the Washington Post: Sgt. Glenn R. Allison - Pittsfield / Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo - Randolph / Spec. David J. Babineau - Springfield / Staff Sgt. Joseph P. Bellavia - Wakefield / 2nd Lt. Joshua L.......

Ned Lamont has bounced back from Joe-Mentum by accepting a spot at Harvard. Lamont defeated Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic primary for Connecticut senator. His anti-Iraq war led to his primary victory (wonder why?), but he lost in the final race because Lieberman reinvented himself as an Independent. And maybe there is something to "Joe-Mentum," although Bostonist hasn't the slightest idea what that could be. Lamont will join ex-lieutenant governor Kerry "sourpuss" Healey as a......

Honorary Degrees are worthless documents, printed at a premium on fancy paper, and signed by the president of the university. Well, they’re not worthless. The honorary doctoral degrees don’t give the holder any academic credentials (they can’t use PhD after their name or call themselves Dr. whatever, either) but they do serve as official acknowledgement from the granting institution to an individual of their accomplishments in life that fit with the mission of the university.......

Saturday was the third anniversary of the war in Iraq and was marked, as you might expect, by marches and vigils in the more liberal corners of our liberal Commonwealth. Today, the Globe reports that "a small but crucial number" of Guantanamo detainees - many of whom have been there since before the Iraq war began, make up a "hard-core group of firebrands" who have "called down the wrath of God on U.S. officials." And......