*** NEWS AND ANALYSIS ***

HOME ALONE

We looked forward to our return home. Almost a year on foreign shore left us longing for friends and family, home and hearth. It was not the long journey our Pilgrim forefolks made. We flew, though it felt as if the British Airways flight had an al Qaeda bull’s eye on its side. Yet worse was landfall and picking up our first Burlington Free Press.

It was must be the worst trade since George Herman Ruth went to the Yankees in 1918. The Burlington Free Press had traded David Awbrey, thoughtful and gentlemanly, producing opinion pieces which for the most part were well researched and logical with Mr. Awbrey marshalling his facts to make a point. In other words a breath of fresh air. They had traded Mr. Awbrey for Governor and presidential wannabe Howard Dean’s press spokesperson Sue Allen.

WAITING IN THE WEEDS

Surely Awbrey’s first pro school choice editorial must have knocked Angelo Dorta, mouth of the VTNEA, on his ear. And many of his fellow travelers as well. None of them had just fallen off the back of the turnip wagon. Certainly they gathered their forces including key members of the Free Press and bided their time. A misstep here, a fact wrong there and kapowie, and the front office made the trade.

In our first newspaper there was an editorial chiding Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie for the appearance of a conflict of interest for scheduling a political fund raiser in proximity to a National Guard fundraiser. The gentle ladies of the Free Press editorial pages entitled their complaint “Political faux pas.” Oh my.

IN FROM THE COLD

What another less biased editorial writer might have brought to our attention was the loose lips of Howard Dean. Loose lips sink ships. There was Dean charging that the Bush Administration only raised the terror alert to slow Kerry’s momentum coming out of the Democrat convention.

Our speculations follow based on the chronological facts. In response to Dean some idiot gave the press the name of the al Qaeda computer operative, Mr. Mohammed Neem Noor Kahn, who was singing like a canary and from whom we had learned of the casing of the financial sector of New York. Mr. Kahn was cooperating with the CIA leading one prominent terrorist after another into a trap.

By releasing the name, all possible future arrests stopped. Terrorists who would have been in prison will now continue to terrorize and kill. In our view, this was the consequence of Dean’s loose lips. Did the Free Press suggest that our Waldo might have zipped his lip? But he was my boss, how could I?

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO

An unfortunately result of liberal hegemony on opinion in Vermont is that the quality and diversity of the editorial pages suffer. One does not have to look beyond the Labor Day offering of the Times Argus: "The Last Two Months".

“Kerry supporters (that’s us) have grown nervous at the vicious attacks-and let’s be truthful, (we all know the truth here, we were there in the Mekong Delta), the lies-unleashed against their (our) candidate by President Bush’s supporters.”

WHO DUNNIT?

Many law schools use a ruse to demonstrate the recollection vagaries of an action drama; they stage an altercation in the classroom. Then they ask the students, proven to be perhaps above average in both memory and intelligence simply by their acceptance into a law program, to “testify” as to what happened. Invariably, nobody recollects the same thing.

Now thirty-five years later, there are different recollections about what happened under fire during Lt. Kerry’s watch. That is not surprising. But to call them “lies” does not honor anyone.

A SEARING EXPERIENCE

Certainly the incident “seared...seared” into Senator Kerry’s mind about being in Cambodia Christmas 1968 while Richard Nixon was enjoying Christmas in the White House is not true. Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and Kerry was not in Cambodia. This was not the “lie” the Times Argus was writing about.

After deriding the Republican Convention in general, the editorial astonishes, “bin Laden remains at large, and Bush said nothing about how he intends to capture him.” Neither did John Kerry, Tony Blair, nor anyone else. If Bush knew how, he would have done it. If he has a strategy, is the Times Argus advocating that he lay out his plan so that bin Laden could respond?

WONKY WORDS

While the Democrat Convention could not find any issues to discuss as they never intersected their theme, Bush addressed education, health care, pharmaceuticals, job training, job creation, energy, trade, litigation, tax loopholes, opportunity zones, health savings accounts, medical liability reform, affordable housing, and more. “A litany of minutiae” claimed the Times Argus. But then they condemned Bush for not discussing how “to fund his new initiatives.” If they are ‘minutiae,” they can be funded with pennies.

HOW DID WE GET THIS WAY

Sloppy biased editorials are a result of having no one remaining in the professional conversation about serious political issues in the Vermont media. Give me the long list of media folks voting for George W. Bush? How about the short list? One maybe?

There was a moment between the conventions which the Times Argus might have considered. George Bush began a needed conversation by telling the Today Show, “I don't think we can win (the war on terror).” The Times Argus’s hero, John Kerry, might have taken this opportunity to continue the conversation. But no. His response, elect me and I will win the war against terrorism.

IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE

He does not look like Bush. He does not walk like Bush. He does not talk like Bush. He does not act like Bush. But of course, Douglas is Bush: just ask governor wannabe Peter Clavelle. “Clavelle reiterates two fundamentals of his campaign to unseat the first-term incumbent: He’s too closely aligned with President Bush and he is unwilling to buck the president on prescription drugs,” according to Darren Allen of the Vermont Press Bureau. Douglas even accepted the White House request that he serve as Bush’s Campaign Chair in Vermont. Let’s see, who was his chair in 2000? Does that Bush look-alike Jim Jeffords come into focus?

For months, repeating the mantra thousands of times, Clavelle said Douglas is Bush. That their stated opinions on abortion or civil unions, the environment or pharmaceuticals are different does not persuade Clavelle of a difference. Same goes with the media which keeps repeating the charge.

PINK ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HER UNDERWEAR

Frustrated and short on patience one day, Vermont GOP Chair Jim Barnett mumbled to a reporter, well you know Clavelle went down to Nicaragua to see Daniel Ortega. Does that make Clavelle Ortega?

Oh me oh my. You would have thought the world was about to end. Front page headlines followed detailing the “GOP cleaning up after gaffe... Douglas, Dubie engage in damage control...” and how Douglas had to take Barnett to the woodshed. The Times Argus, silent on the Clavelle slander, titled their editorial, “Guilt by smear.”

Fair response from the GOP? Sure, of course, in the real world. Double standard by the media? Naw, they were hoping to put some air under Clavelle’s wings. Now the Douglas Campaign is running an ad about Douglas suing Bush over clean air and pharmaceuticals. That leaves Clavelle as a one note Petey and 20 points behind Douglas according to sources familiar with the Democrat polling.

DEMOCRACY NO MORE

The National Journal in their August 28th issue lists only five vulnerable seats in the House of Representatives, just over one percent of the 435 members. Not much democracy there.

Their take on the governor’s race is not reassuring, “Vermont is an unpredictable state...Republican strategists think that Douglas is in good shape but acknowledge that they will pay very close attention to the race.”

57 VARITIES

Just yesterday Kerry/Edwards’s yard signs festooned the neighborhood in patriotic colors with the slogan “A Stronger America.”

Americans were asked by the pollsters during the Republican Convention about their desires. Seems that the Kerry/Edwards team was 11 points down, projected to win only Vermont and the District of Columbia surpassing Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and George McGovern in futility.

With a call from President Clinton that the message is “the economy stupid,” the Kerry/Edwards folks without a blink changed their campaign rally signs to “A stronger economy.” As talking head Rich Galen wrote, you will try to anything when you need to ketchup.

KERRY ENDORSEMENTS

"Bush is a wild eyed zealot and an evil fanatic whose departure from the Oval Office will mark the beginning of the decline of the forces of extremism and the rise of the forces of moderation. --Al-AhramWeekly,August12-18,2004,Cario,Egypt

"Arab Americans should not make the very mistake they made in the past when they gave their votes to Bush. A vote for Kerry would be a wise one." --Syria Times, August 4, 2004

"Don’t vote Bush." --Al Hayat Al Jadeeda, Palestine, July 27, 2004

"Bush and his neo-conservatives are “neo-Nazis who have created a stinking heap of a mess. Kerry is exactly what the United States needs right now." --Tehran Times, June 17, 2004

"The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a matter of time..." --al-Zawahri, Al-Jazeera Television, September 9, 2004

According to a survey by the National Jewish Democratic Council, "75 percent of American Jews back John Kerry while 22 percent support Bush." --Jerusalem Post, August 31, 2004

"Jewish voters tend to have conservative interests and liberal values. For decades, Jews have been voting their values. That tendency will really be put to the test in this year’s election." --William Schneider, National Journal, May 29, 2004

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

They found no WMD. Bush and company have been pounded, ridiculed, and harassed by Democrats, Europeans, and the United Nations.

It was therefore with some incredulity, that we read the AP dispatch of September 9, 2004, “A closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting, members discussed a report which stated that UN weapons inspectors had found that Iraqi authorities have been shipping thousands of tons of scrap metal including at least 42 banned missile engines and other equipment that could be used to produce (weapons of mass destruction) for over a year.”

TEFLON TAKE TWO

From his hospital bed, President Clinton also advised Kerry to throw some mud, bring it down to the gutter. Funny though, lots of people like George Bush, fewer like John Kerry. Kerry throwing mud will make fewer people like him.

YOU CAN THE BOY OUT OF THE COUNTRY

There he goes again. First the vice president requested our senior senator attempt a difficult advanced yoga position. Then he suggested that not voting for President Bush might lead us to be “hit again.” Cheney was right but politically stupid.

If you do not learn from history, history repeats itself. One can follow the litany of unanswered al Qaeda attacks leading up to September 11th: Kenyan embassy bombing, Cole bombing, Saudi barrack bombings, and so forth. On whose watch did these take place? Whom did Kerry send out to attack Cheney? Madeline Albright, Al Gore, and the New York Times. These were the folks on whose watch the wind filled al Qaeda’s sails. If they had attacked al Qaeda with the same ferocity as they did Cheney, there may not have been a September 11th.

PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY

The Abu Ghraih scandal is still creeping through the military courts. It appears that the pooh baahs that set the table will walk. It also appears that the CIA will avoid scrutiny. At least the hand wringing has stopped.

There has not been an investigation of the Boston Red Sox. Reportedly, the veterans required the rookies to do a walkabout in ladies attire. Rookie third baseman Kevin Youkilis and pitcher Jamie Brown were “required” to travel from their hotel rooms in Toronto through the lobby, to the airport and onto the plane, fly down to Tampa Bay and again travel to the hotel through the lobby to their rooms in Hooters’s waitress uniforms.

Senator Zell Miller, D-Georgia, put it, “Why is it that there is more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all?”

Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts added, “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture changers reopened under new management, U.S. management.”

WHERE’S WALDO

That may be one reason why Ted Kennedy was only a blur at the Democrat Convention. In fact there was no red meat at all. It was a love in. Will Rogers was right when he said that he did not belong to any organized political party, he was a Democrat. The whole effort was phony.

Protesters were in a cage a mile from the Fleet Center as opposed the protesters who marched past Madison Square Garden in New York. The gays were kept in the closet. The unions were bought off and silenced. The teachers danced badly while singing Karaoke. Hollywood hit the podium in prime time. Hard to believe any of the rock and roll Hollywood style went down well with Middle America. Kerry is already a phony. To highlight it to the American people was not so cool.

KAKEWALK RETURNS

And then there was the salute. “I am reporting to duty.” At first the urge was to hurl. But then it was to laugh. As with Walter Mondale declaring in San Francisco in 1984 that he was going to raise taxes and went on to win one state, for Kerry to chose to run on the one issue Bush has wrapped up, national security, is nuts. Karl Rove must have been kake-walking across the Lincoln bedroom.

CROSS DRESSERS

As the convention ended, some of Reverend Al Sharpton campaign staff formed the National Faith Based Coalition and transferred their affections to President George Bush according to a report in the August 21st National Journal.

DUMBING DOWN

Professor Caroline Hoxby of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University was concerned about the apparent brain drain in the public education. Since the 1960’s she found that “high aptitude women, those in the top 15 percent of college graduates eschewed teaching” according to a report in Harvard Magazine.

Her question was: are teachers “pulled” out of the profession by other opportunities or are teachers “pushed” out of the profession by low pay. Using federal data for about 21,600 public school teachers from 1961 to 1997, she concluded that only 1 percent left because of “teacher wages” and nine percent left because of “greater opportunities.” Eighty percent left because of “pay compression.”

In 1963 teachers with the “highest aptitude” were paid 38 percent more than teachers with the “lowest aptitude.” In 2000, the difference in wages between the best and the worst was only 3 percent.

Hoxby said that before 1963, when President Kennedy authorized the unionization of government workers under an executive order, teacher unions were not legal. Unions have pushed for one-size-fits-all contracts. As one respondent said, “If I choose law and I am the best lawyer in the firm, I will be paid more than the worst.” Not so with teaching.

The study appeared in the May issue of the American Economics Review. Professor Hoxby can be reached at: choxby@harvard.edu. The study appeared in View Professor Hoxby's biography here: http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/caroline_hoxby.

DIVERSITY WHERE WE DO NOT NEED IT

Zell Kravinsky had not just one Ph.D. but two according to a report in the New Yorker. “According to Maureen Quilligan, graduate chairperson of the University of Pennsylvania’s English Department, ‘It is one of the best dissertations that I have ever read. He was a fantastically successful teacher. The students responded to him with the wildest enthusiasm and they worked hard for him...’”

When Zell applied for work, “He was told ‘you have a spectacular portfolio, both your Ph.D.s are relevant, but we are looking for diversity.’ Only the University of Helsinki offered him a job.”

MODERNITY FOR AMERICA

According to the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, the United States is way behind in bill paying technologies. For example, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands all use the checkbook for transactions less than 5 percent of the time. Here in America we reach for the checkbook for 68.6 percent of our transactions.

SAP RUNS FROM THE MAPLE

The Naval War College’s Tom Barnett posits that the new political fault line lies not between the rich and poor, but between those who accept modernity and those who reject it.

In that vein, Vermont is populated by three groups.

1) People who use Vermont for holiday and recreation while benefiting from modern life.

2) People who use Vermont to run from modernity and seek to enforce a permanent home away from modern life.

3) The poor saps who try to make a living in Vermont and pay for the previous two groups.

SELL MY SOUL TO THE COMPANY STORE

From liberal reporter with an attitude to company shill. Who woulda believed? Dapper David Mace, formerly of the Vermont Press Bureau, is now flak for Central Vermont Public Service’s President Robert Young, protecting his annual take of over $1,200,000 taken out of your hide.

Long time Waterbury resident Bob Murray wrote an op-ed in the Stowe Reporter describing the days of yore when in a more peaceful time residents cavorted in the settlements of Ricker, Cotton Brook and Woodward. Green Mountain Power and the State conspired with the United States Corps of Engineers to flood these communities to build a power dam. Later, the state annexed the surrounding land to the west and north for the exclusive affordable housing of those non tax-paying non septic-tank-using layabouts, forest creatures.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE MR. MACE

Mr. Murray had the impudence to suggest perhaps that VELCO might run its 115kw, 90 foot high, 50 foot wide power line through the forest creatures’s homeland and not his. Along came David Mace the following week with a Guest Perspective and he maced Bob Murray.

“We believe that it would be irresponsible to spend ratepayer’s money to pursue an option (of placing the power line through the state forest) that has virtually no chance of being permitted!” So chivalrous!

“VELCO is a corporation that has little interest in whether the transmission line into Stowe is upgraded or not... VELCO would build an underground line if someone is willing to pay... VELCO is a private, for-profit company.” Gee what about the poor suffering ratepayer?

Suddenly you are just a money grubbing public service board manipulating cash cow providing Vermont’s non-competitive companies the highest kilowatt charges in the land for the purpose of increasing your boss’s benefits? And you, Mr. Mace, former do-gooder, all liberal causes are great, media man and now corporate water boy, do you feel our pain?

MILITANTS MY ASS

The continuing reports from Beslan Russia spoke of the “militants” who had taken over an elementary school. Russian women were quoted, “The militants have our children.” Webster speaks of a militant as a “civil rights activist.” The New York Times wrote of “the band of militants.” Were they playing the trombone? Singing We Shall Overcome?

Scum of the earth would be too kind. They are extremist Islamic terrorists. Understanding that one man’s terrorist may be another man’s freedom fighter, they were not. Freedom fighters do not shoot, torture, terrorize, and shoot children in the back. They could be called renegades, traitors, butchers, baby-killers, molesters, mobsters, malevolent whack jobs, evil doers, crazed butchers, Nazis, sadists, ghouls, and more. But certainly not a “band of militants.” There is nothing nice, inspiring, patriotic, or commendable about terror. Only fear. Using air brushed vocabulary is a road block to a solution. Calling evil by another name does not help.

FIVE DAYS IN FALLUJAH

»» Rep. Gene Sweetser, Chittenden 6-1: Hi Jim, glad to see your coming home. I really enjoy your reports. When I am gone my marker will reflect "LCPL USMC" not my 30 plus years in the Army Guard. The proudest moments (besides my children) in my life was having served our nation as a Marine rifleman. Although I never saw combat, both my brothers did as Marines and now my daughter Virginia is serving in Iraq. Virginia is a member of the Army Reserves and is a Heavy Equipment Transport driver serving out of FOB Spicher. Virginia has the strength, loyalty and courage, and would have been a fine Marine if she had chosen to do so. Despite those words I am glad Virginia listened to my advice and did not join the Marines. We are very proud of Virginia and Virginia has every reason to be extremely proud of herself. Susan and I pray every day for her safe return as we do for all our military personnel.

"As the weeks rolled on and I had gotten to know the '1/5' Marines as the individuals they were, I had started deluding myself that they weren't much different from me. They had soft spots, they got sick, they complained. But in one flash, as we charged across Michigan amid whistling incoming shots, I realized that they were not like me; they were Marines." -- Five Days in Fallujah, by Robert Kaplan, Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2004

Semper FI

MORE DOUBLE STANDARDS

»» Lynn Francis, East Middlebury: Welcome back to the U.S.

I just want to know why no one has commented about Charlie Rose's interview with Michael Moore [in July]. I thought it was interesting that he didn't let Moore off the hook for telling "untruths" and making assumptions about "connections" regarding the Bin Ladens and Bush family members. Rose also pointed out that Moore is wrong about the Carlyle group and that the investment firm is led by a Democrat. Awfully generous of Rose. He also said that as an opinion piece, his movie was just all right. I'm sure he meant as "propaganda".

I know how much you like information that "others" don't like to talk about or have out-in-the-open for public consumption. I thought this interview was interesting and I'm surprised it's not ever mentioned.

WAL*MART FOE

»» Christopher Sirr, Rhode Island: Your reports continue to carry a good message and as a Republican Conservative I appreciate them. However I would suggest that you conduct a little more research into Wal-Mart's operation before you assign them the good citizen of the year award.

While I appreciate the rights of all Vermonter's to enjoy reasonable prices when it comes to Wal-Mart they need to understand who they are dealing with. It's not the old Sam Walton organization. The following topics should be investigated before they run roughshod over Vermont.

1. This is the company that once advertised "Made in America" until they got caught.

2. This is the company who has been blackmailing American Manufacturer’s by charging “fines” for being even slightly late with deliveries or for missing pallets. The company who has cancelled orders for special packaged goods leaving the manufacturer stuck with the cost. The company that has intimidated large vendors; to the point that they are afraid to complain, for fear of loosing future orders. What does this do to GNP?

3. The company that continually grinds American Supplier’s into the ground to cut costs.

4. The company that is contributing to an overall degradation of quality.

5. The company that is causing their vendors to cut benefits while they in turn ill treat their own workers.

6. The company that is causing the destruction of their vendors.

7. The company that imports substitute goods from China of substandard quality made by slave labor; in effect, supporting a potential, future enemy of America; one with stolen American secrets.

8. The company that is not only causing America to loose jobs but the skills and ability to make even simple things never mind high tech. Example: When the going gets rough who will be able to supply the military with shoes? Who will be able to make the machinery that makes shoes; Nike or Wal-Mart?

9. The company that, in some cases, moved into small-town America, destroyed local business, then decided to shut down their own operation.

THEY LIKE US

»» George Murdoch, Middlebury: I hope that the Dwinell Political Report will soon reach us on a more regular basis. It and the Addison Eagle are necessary alternatives to the liberal media if one is to maintain an objective perspective.

»» Ralph F Colin, Jr, Dorset: Hooray! You're coming back. We need you.

FORTY MORE YEARS

Since LBJ’s election in 1964, no Democrat has won more than 50 percent of the vote for president except Carter’s 50.1% squeaker in 1976.” --John Fund, Political Diary, August 30, 2004

"Did you see the pictures in the paper today of John Kerry windsurfing? He's at his home in Nantucket this week, doing his favorite thing, windsurfing. Even his hobby depends on which way the wind blows!" --Jay Leno

Our government is to blame. They do not protect their citizens. In the United States after September 11, there were not any more attacks.” --Russian Policeman Valery, New York Times, September 5, 2004

“God knows what they do. They never do it right. They come back and do it again.” --Avery Rifkin of Stone Soup in Burlington on the Clavelle’s attempt to repair his sidewalk, Burlington Free Press.

“What is needed is consistent political and military willpower, publicly demonstrated and explained. Without this, the media will create the future.” --Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph, May 11, 2004

“Taxes are continuously raised and lowered for a variety of reasons as voters and political leaders adjust to changing circumstances...” --Rutland Herald, Taxed by war of words, August 22, 2004 responding to 40-day parade of Clavelle tax increases by VTGOP

“Dean told the Kerry team that he will not gallop off the reservation in his convention speech. Dean said that he had not seen the text that he is supposed to deliver.” --Kerry placed the Vermont delegation, in gratitude to Dean, in the nose bleed section. --National Journal, July 30, 2004

“Eighty percent of those who came into my court were there because of substance abuse, drugs or alcohol.” --Judge Paul Hudson, Vermont’s Commission on Prision Overcrowding, August 26, 2004

Do you enjoy the Dwinell Political Report? Think of a voluntary subscription. For $25, you can receive the newsletter for a year and help offset the costs of production. Make checks payable to JDLS Publishing, LLC and mail to 610 Mason Road, Randolph, VT 05060.

The Dwinell Political Report is published weekly by JDLS Publishing, LLC.
Portions of the Dwinell Political Report may be reprinted with attribution.

Contact the Editor with news & comments at: dwinell@comcast.net or 802.728.4793

The mission of the Dwinell Political Report is to give readers another view of the news that is refreshing, provocative and sometimes irreverent.