WHAT WE DID ON OUR SUMMER VACATION

Not much writing, that is for sure. It is not that we intended to take the summer off. We would have announced that in our last issue, June 21, had it been our plan. Nevertheless we did take the summer off. Too much work, children at play, little league playoffs, travel, the omnipresent heat, rain, and of course the dog ate our homework.

Many of you wrote to ask about our health, or to ask if we had lost your email address. Nope, just lazy. Or a slow news summer. Or writer’s block. Well here we are, so to speak, back in our lonely writer’s garret, words flowing.

WILL ROGERS, EAT YOUR HEART OUT

Will was quoted, "I do not belong to any organized political party, I am a Democrat." Times have changed, at least here in Vermont. We went online to check the times and places of the required party caucus this week. On the Democrat and Progressive web sites, there were click and go icons to show you when and where you caucus would be held. On the Republican web site, lost in transition. There is an icon but more than half the towns appear to have no listing of the time and place of the caucus meeting.

As John Zicconi wrote in the Stowe Reporter in the last millennium, Republicans are all dead old white guys anyway. Maybe the young Turks at party headquarters think that us old guys cannot connect access the web? Check out www.vtdemocrats.org, www.progressiveparty.org, and www.vermontgop.org

THE RACE IS ON

We are not sure that there are enough gates at the start for all the fillies. For the lieutenant governor seat that Brian Dubie appears to be relinquishing for a run against Bernie, ambition makes the GOP bench look ready for the World Series. Senator Mark Shepard, R-Bennington, has already announced his intentions to run. Senator Diane Snelling, R-Chittenden, has inquired, as has former Speaker Walter Freed of Dorset. Senator Phil Scott, R-Washington, is reportedly interested and the House team of Minority Leader Peg Flory, R-Pittsford, and Whip Dave Sunderland, R-Rutland.

The administration is represented by Pat McDonald formerly of Motor Vehicles, Personnel, and Transportation, and now Commissioner of Labor, Industry, Employment and all that stuff. Last but not least Commissioner of Public Safety Kerry Sleeper has expressed interest. Quite the field! We did not know that there were that many people willing to stand up and be counted as Republicans in Vermont.

Ronald Reagan’s quote comes to mind, "I did not leave the Democrat Party, it left me." Vermont Democrats are more akin to a socialist party than the party of Jefferson or Jackson. They have left about everybody behind. When they cannot run against Bush, they may find their going harder.

Senator John Campbell, D-Windsor, is expected to take the plunge as is radio talk host Progressive Anthony Pollina.

THE LEGISLATURE

The Republicans were shellacked in 2004 on the coattails of Bush hatred hardly any GOPs are apparent in the senate and a mega loss in the house. The house is reported to be active, raising money, recruiting, and showing signs of life. Traditionally, they have had the Group of Eighteen recruiting, motivating, and organizing.

The senate on the other hand has flat-lined. "There is no group of 18, not even a group of 1.8," we were told. Reportedly the only sign of heartbeats rest in Senators Mullin, Wilton, and Coppenrath. The governor is making calls and is receiving some interest. But clearly more must be done.

THE UNITED STATES SENATE

The Tarrant Express has yet to leave the station. It appears though that Rich has been loading up on fuel, maybe $400,000 worth of Washington consultants, well trained in placing a vacuum in rich boys’ pockets. Local folks, folks who have actually helped to elect dozens of Vermonters, cannot even get the calls returned while the Washington boys who have elected zero Vermonters are the belles of the ball. Tarrant reportedly told one of the locals who was trying to help him by offering an honest opinion, "I do not usually have people talking back to me!"

FULL TIME CONSIDERATION OF ANOTHER ENDEAVOR...

Might be in order," to quote the Harry Chapin song, Mr. Tanner. Listening to Mr. Tarrant’s presentation, one comes away with the thought, well he was a basketball star and now he is a millionaire, but why should I vote for him now? He is very comfortable talking about business. His eyes light up, his hands stop shaking, and he looks you in the eye. He is investing in other health related projects, projects that on their surface appear wise and necessary. He is excited about these investments.

He is enthusiastic about his philanthropic efforts, kind and generous. And then there is politics. He clearly does not like Bernie. He relishes a fight with Bernie. But sadly for him, it does not appear that he will have one. Bernie will not get in the ring with any opponent until he/she is nominated, just eight weeks before the election. And then only once or twice.

THE SUGAR MAKER

Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie, R, who is all but announced will surely win a primary between himself and Tarrant. He has the organization, the name recognition, the political savvy, and the experience. But Tarrant has a role to play. He says that he will not run a negative campaign against Dubie. He could come to the aid of his party and run a negative campaign against Bernie.

Here’s why. Traditionally, the voter looks at the incumbent, in this case Bernie. The voter asks, why should I not vote for him/her? If the voter does not find any reason, he/she usually does not look further and will continue to support Bernie. Recall that Bernie won his last four races with 63, 69, 64, and 68 percent of the vote respectively. One may not be a Bernie fan but lots of people are.

Somebody has to rough him up a little, knock him from that high horse. It should not be too hard, he has been asking for it for a long time. However, no one likes the person who points out how another stumbled. Therefore, if Tarrant could point out Bernie’s elemental fraud and hypocrisy, folks will give the alternative a good hard look. But the alternative needs to be clean and decent. Who is cleaner and more decent than the man who cannot make up his mind and share with us his intentions, Mr. Dubie.

We have yet to hear from the Progressives and Democrats in this race. Folks are stirring, but uncommitted.

MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE

General Martha Rainville, R-Williston, has officially formed an exploratory committee. She is smart, strategic, and almost a "babe." Representative Dave Zuckerman, P-Burlington, has his congressional campaign web site up and running. He is friendly, cheerful, savvy, and true to his beliefs. Senator Peter Welch, D-Windsor, has announced his ambition to be the oldest freshmen legislator. He chases ambulances.

Former Senator Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, says that he is in. At the same time, never shy, he has offered himself to Governor Douglas as a candidate for a Windham County senate seat. Senator Rod Gander, D-Windham, has not been well. Shumlin jumped anyway. How could he think that Douglas would welcome him into the senate? Hubris.

ATLAS IS NOT SHRUGGING ANYMORE

China is Ayn Rand’s revenge. Rand, born Alyssa Rosenbaum in Saint Petersburg in 1905, escaped Communism in 1925 arriving in New York in 1926. She wrote about the "rebirth of man's spirit" in the novels Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

Howard Roark walked off the pages of Fountainhead and into the streets of Shanghai, designing the most amazing structures, each different, each unique, each bold, each well lit. One is greater than the next. No gargoyles here. Curves, drop offs, cup cakes, tiers, undulations, and gravity defying buildings.

BERNIE’S WORLD

Traveling in the land of sweatshops, we found none. Each factory visited could have been in Vermont. Woodworkers with the same lathes, shapers, sanders, and routers you would encounter here. Each factory with dust collection, paint booths, and workers with masks where needed. We were told that Bernie had visited before us, had seen similar well-run factories, and acknowledged that he was surprised. That of course does not stop that fraudulent fickle fellow from returning to Vermont to criticize the big corporations’ abusing the natives in sweat shops around the world.

MOBILE PHONES SHALL CAUSE CANCER

Only in Vermont. Even hiding a mobile phone tower in the steeple of the Catholic Church in Newport is opposed, opposed in spite of a signed contract. A recent ten-year study published in the British Journal of Cancer concluded, "'The results of our study suggest there is no substantial risk in the first decade after starting use (of a mobile phone),' wrote Anthony Swerdlow of the Institute of Cancer Research."

Yet the no-growthers, we like it just the way it is folks, say that mobile phones are the death of us. Economists do not agree. They write that mobile phones are the greatest engine of economic growth today.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Driving through a Chinese village, a wide part in a small road filled with chickens and goats, the mobile phone giggled into action. "Hello. How is the weather in Germany? Oh, you want to increase your order? No problem. I will call the factory. Best to everyone." Even when passing through a long tunnel, the signal did not diminish. Eat your heart out Northeast Kingdom; not in your lifetimes.

Stopping in another factory in the village, we found broadband service. How else do you do business? Not in and about Vermont.

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

Democrat Representatives and Senators may have sent a legislative summary to your home recently. They did ours. Not exactly a truthful summary; their spin perhaps.

The gang which cannot shoot straight extolled their flagship scheme, alleging a broken health care system that denies access to people, an annual 10% increase in costs, and the specter of increased numbers of Vermonters finding insurance unaffordable. The real story is that the system is not broken, but badly skewed due to the lack of private health insurers available in Vermont, a direct consequence of government driving away competition. Even the Editorial Board of the Burlington Free Press agrees.

The Democrat’s argument on lack of access is refuted by visiting your local hospital. Gifford Medical Center or any of the clinics they operate posts the Patient’s Bill of Rights and the law regarding the required provision of care regardless of ability to pay.

DEAN’S COST SHIFT

Our runaway Medicaid program has transferred the costs of health care to the private insurers and the uninsured taxpayers with substantial cost shifting to the insurance providers, leaving the providers little recourse but to increase the cost of health care to offset the price controlled government plans that pay far less than the actual delivered costs.

They then make an irrational logic fault, by prescribing "H.524, an act related to universal health care and cost containment." You might well ask why a further state takeover of health insurance would improve delivery or reduce costs since greater reductions in payment for health care can only result in reduced services and increased waiting for services. This has happened in Canada, Britain and every other country that has adopted this socialist approach. The Supreme Court in Canada poetically found that access to a waiting list is not access to health care. In Britian, they kindly wrote a post card saying that if you have not died, your operation will be soon. Peachy.

IT IS YOUR MONEY

They then turned their attentions to the FY06 budget. Somehow Article 18 of Chapter I of the Vermont Constitution seems to have eluded them. It begins, "That frequent recurrence to fundamental principles, and a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality are absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty, and keep government free..."

Then they extolled their efforts in energy with a two pronged boondoggle. Yes, they extorted Entergy for a fee to have dry cask storage of spent fuel, but of course, Entergy will simply pass that cost on as an indirect tax. Second was renewable energy. Other than wood and water Vermont has no reliable energy source. If global warming is a concern, wood is not too great; if fish are a concern water is not too great. Of course, there is wind, but it is neither reliable nor predictable and opposed by most of their friends.

YOUR HOME IS YOUR CASTLE, NO MORE

It seems like long ago your Supreme Court took away your property rights, deciding by a thin margin that government, which already has all the legal tools of coercion, has been given the legal right to your property, however dear to you, however long in your family, however profitable for you, however lovely. If they say they can make a good public use of it, give them control of the means of production to the government, why not? It has never worked elsewhere, but here lies the virgin territory Karl Marx had in mind for his philosophy.

It does not comfort one to read that Justice Stevens now says that this is a horrible decision, one in which he cast the deciding vote, yet a correct constitutional decision.

Recent history has shown again and again, that governments are quite fallible in making the decision to grab your property for public purpose. Below is an example from John Tierney of the New York Times.

"Pittsburgh has been the great pioneer in eminent domain since its leaders razed 80 buildings in the 1950's near the riverfront park downtown. They replaced a bustling business district with the Gateway Center, an array of bland corporate towers surrounded by the sort of empty plazas that are now considered hopelessly retrograde by urban planners trying to create street life.

"Bulldozers razed the Lower Hill District, the black neighborhood next to downtown that was famous for its jazz scene. The city built a domed arena that was supposed to be part of a cultural "acropolis," but the rest of the project died. Today, having belatedly realized that downtown would benefit from people living nearby, the city is trying to entice them by building homes there.

"In the 1960's, the bulldozers moved into East Liberty, until then the busiest shopping district outside downtown. Some of the leading businessmen wanted to upgrade the neighborhood, so hundreds of small businesses and thousands of people were moved to make room for upscale apartment buildings, parking lots, housing projects, roads and a pedestrian mall.

"The city managed to clear out shops and an office building to make room for a new Lazarus department store, built with $50 million in public funds, but Lazarus did not live up to its name. It has shut down and left a vacant building. Meanwhile, the city's finances are in ruins, and businesses and residents have been fleeing the high taxes required to pay off decades of urban renewal projects and corporate subsidies."

Refer to either, Email: tierney@nytimes.com or Death by Wrecking Ball: Pittsburgh and the Politics of Eminent Domain by Bill Steigerwald, Reason Magazine, June 2000.

THE FIRST ADMENDMENT

Many in the media appear to believe that the first amendment was created for them, enabling a distinct class, a step above the unwashed. Recent court decisions in Washington and in Montpelier have concluded otherwise. The media should rejoice; the courts said that they are citizens, the highest honor. They therefore enjoy all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities so bequeathed to them by their forefathers.

Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper was told by his employer that he was not above the law after the Court ordered him to testify before a grand jury. Judith Miller of the New York Times decided that she was above the law and found herself in the can, where she no doubt deserves to be until she accepts the responsibilities of being a citizen.

Ms. Miller lived by the sword and died by the sword, metaphorically. She wrote story after story fed to her by her White House contacts and printed by the Times about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. Those in the Democrat Party who believed the Times remained gagged by their gullibility.

VERMONT’S OWN

Last fall, WCAX television filmed about forty minutes of a riot at the University of Vermont after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. Therefore, not only did they witness a crime, they had documented evidence of a crime or crimes. The law enforcement officers asked for a copy of the tape. WCAX declined, citing the First Amendment. Law enforcement went to court. The court once again said that WCAX is a citizen, no special breeding there.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT, WE QUOTE

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Where is the part about not having to comply with a grand jury order, a court order, or a judge’s opinion? Not here. And what could possibly be wrong with being a citizen. Is there a higher calling?

YE OLD GOOSE AND GANDER

There are Democrats and then there are the rest of us. The Brattleboro Reformer issued an editorial criticizing "Marvelous Martha’s" suggestion that she could run for office while maintaining her current gig as Adjutant General of Vermont’s National Guard, another elected position.

"If Rainville wants to run for Congress, she should step down as adjutant general. What Vermonters need is a candidate who isn't compromised between her duties..." opined the Reformer. They of course did not apply the same standard to Congressman Sanders’s running for Senate while filling another elected post.

Nor did they opine about Senator Peter Welch’s running for Congress while the senate pro-tem and the deleterious effects on his constituents.

The Bennington Banner published a quote from Senator Sears about his seat mate, Senator Mark Shepard, and his announcement that he was running for United States Senate, or if Mr. Dubie runs for Senate, for lieutenant governor. How could Senator Shepard’s constituent service not suffer if he ran for statewide office?

No comment was made about Senator Welch or Congressman Sanders. They are both ambidextrous, can speak fluently from either side of their mouths, and are well practiced in slight of hand. Or maybe the press is biased. It is a close call.

CUTTING HISTORY 101 CLASS

The Best of the Web pointed out that the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia missed a class or two. They appealed for a moderate to be appointed by President Bush to the Supreme Court, "Chief Justice Earl Warren was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, then transformed America with profound rulings long sought by Democrats, such as abolition of school segregation."

Meanwhile in missing that history lesson, the Gazettes editorialists failed to learn that their own Democrat Senator, former Klu Klux Klan member Robert Byrd, filibustered for hours, perhaps days, along with his fellow Democrats to prevent the passage of the very same abolition of school segregation "long sought by Democrats."

WALDO'S DEPARTURE

»» Ed Wilson: A commentator on a Fox program opined that Howard may be purposely trying to get fired as DNC chief after improving his name recognition with the more active and aggressive left wing of the Democrat party. I thought that the idea was silly because Dean would enjoy having the national spotlight. However, upon reflection I realized that Dean may be ripping a page from Bernie's playbook by becoming even more of an outsider.

Most political candidates (all parties) tell voters "there are people who are better off than you are and if you elect me I will try to make it easier for you to be better off like them". Bernie says "there are people who are better off than you are and if you elect me I will take from them to give to you because you deserve it and they don't." This tactic and other "class warfare" ploys have been amazingly successful for Bernie and Dean has watched this work up close for over 20 years.

Could this be part of plan or even a "plan B" to further his career? If he is successful as DNC chief with his abrasiveness his national prospects look a lot better, if the DNC fires him he comes back to Vermont as a reformer that the "privileged" could not put up with and then runs as an underdog a la Bernie.

»» Ralph Colin, Dorset: This week’s report is one of your best. Well done. As to Waldo’s departure, I haven't the faintest idea although I couldn't possibly argue with the dates given by many of my friends whose guesstimates you published this week. All I know is that for most Democrats, it probably can't come soon enough, but for we Republicans, whenever it happens, it will be too soon.

»» Gary Richardson, Perkinsville: I don't think people realize how far to the left the Democrat Party has lurched. The majority of Democrats, I believe, love Dean and hate Republicans. I don't think he'll be gone from a Democrat Party that has changed so much.

»» Michael Colbourn: August 1, in the afternoon to avoid news coverage.

»» David E.Cain, Fayston: My bet is that Waldo "mean" Dean, will resign by Jan '06 and enter the race for Senate; however his recent "mean" track record that includes many instances of planting his foot in his mouth will cripple that run... he'll be hamburg.

»» Thom Serrani, Montpelier: I subscribe to a recently publicized theory that Howard Dean will be ousted by a faction connected to Hillary Clinton, which will claim that Dean is too far left and extreme for the Democratic Party. This follows perfectly the recent scheme of positioning Hillary Clinton to the center. As long as Dean is out there in the news, every other Democrat, including Hillary, appears sane and reasonable.

The best timing for such an ouster of Dean would be in February of 2006, a year into his term and just two years before the first Presidential Primary. Enough time to make the case that Hillary has saved the Democratic Party from the whackos.

DO AS I SAY...

»» Bill Adamson, Charlotte: In the last issue the editor pointed out that Vermont liberals tend to buy foreign made cars despite the purported harm this causes American workers. Bernie himself now drives a Chevy, although for years during the early 80's he toodled around town in a tiny gray Honda Civic while he was mayor of Burlington. During the late 70's, militant UAW members had taken sledgehammers to a used Toyota before burying it. That anti-foreign demonstration apparently had no immediate effect on Bernie's car buying habits.

POWER GAMES

»» Representative Gregory Clark, Addison-3: The "outrage" expressed by several Democrats on the House floor the day of the special legislative session [to reconsider the vetoed budget bill] was in itself an outrage. Politically motivated, hypocritical statements by legislators vying for press time. The Governor was right to call us back. Language in the budget concerning State College faculty negotiations was inappropriate and everyone knew it, comments about the Governor's abuse of power not withstanding! I refused my pay for that day. I wonder how many of my vocally "outraged" colleagues did the same. Now there's a pool question for you!

EQUAL TIME UNUSED

»» Richard Werner, East Dover: What a great report you put out -- but one comment -- I noticed that Representative Kathleen Keenan, D-Saint Albans, took your report to task for not reporting the wonderful legislature that her committee and others from her party passed, however I noticed that she did not enlighten your report on what they did do -- I wonder why?

Editor's Note I replied and asked her to list a few items but alas, she declined.

THEY LIKE US

»» Harriet Slaybaugh Goss, Montpelier: I appreciate reading your newsletter with its insights on Vermont's political scene. Must say that it is distressing for this moderate-conservative Republican to realize how far down the slippery slope to becoming a Socialist Empire this formerly great state of Vermont has fallen over the past two decades.

Is there any hope of turning things around?

DESCRIBING VERMONT, 2005

"What we see here is a political structure that no longer corresponds to its economic base, a society where productive forces are hampered by political ones." --Ronald Reagan, June, 1982

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone." --Frédéric Bastiat

ONWARD CHRISTAIN SOLDIERS

"Howard Dean warned Friday that Democrats are losing Hispanic voters to the Republicans. Advertising makes it happen, Howard. They have not been here ten years and already they want to be white Christians who never worked a day in their lives." --Argus Hamilton

PREDESTINATION

"But if you have paid any attention at all to the Democrats in Montpelier this legislative session and you have even an ounce of skepticism at all in your psyche, then you will know that the Commission on Health Care Reform has no interest at all in anything but legitimizing single-payer, state-owned and -run universal health care....The Commission on Health Care Reform is completely bogus as a forum for seeking an objective solution to Vermont's health care question." --The Caledonian-Record, 7/7/05

WHILE LONDON WAS BURNING

"The House, led by self-described socialist Bernie Sanders, was voting to prevent terror investigators from looking at library records. Rep. Charles Rangel was likening the liberation of Iraq to the Holocaust. Dick Durbin, the No.2 Democrat in the Senate, was urging the administration to treat al Qaeda terrorists as civilians and comparing American servicemen to Nazis." --Best of the Web, 7/7/05

GOD SPEAKS

"Local government can bulldoze Grandma's house because it's in the way of a future strip mall that will add more to the tax base? The Ten Commandments can appear on public land but not in a courthouse, but Moses, who received the Ten Commandments can appear in the frieze of the House but he'll be sandblasted off the Supreme Court?" --Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 6/29/05

SAY IT AIN’T SO

A major source of chemical contamination in the Arctic turns out to be bird droppings. Wind currents and human activities long have been blamed for fouling the pristine Arctic. But a study by a group of Canadian researchers found that the chemical pollution in areas frequented by seabirds can be many times higher than in nearby regions. --AP, July 14, 2005

THE FREE MARKET WORKS

"At the end of the day, the best remedy for high gasoline prices is...high gasoline prices, which provide all the incentives necessary for motorists to conserve, for oil companies to put more product into the marketplace, and for investors to look into alternatives fuel technologies. Government has never demonstrated an ability to do better." --Peter Van Doren

http//www.cato.org/dailys/10-22-04.html

WOULD A SKUNK BY ANY OTHER NAME...

"Calling itself an education association is like calling the United Auto Workers union a driving association." ­ Columnist Patrick Chisholm, referring to NEA. (August 24 Christian Science Monitor)

http//search.csmonitor.com/2005/0824/p25s01-cogn.htm

BUT HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL?

"When Patrick Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974, he was a relatively moderate Democrat. ... But once re-elected, Patrick Leahy veered steadily to the left on every issue. He has now become the willing attack dog of the pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-racial preference, anti-religious, radical left. One can scarcely doubt that the Patrick Leahy of 1974 would view with dismay and even disgust the pathetic creature he has become in 2005." --Editorial, Caledonian Record, 9/7/05

THE HEARINGS

"Senator Boxer, the Constitution says 'Advice and Consent,' not nag and meddle. If you want to be involved in the nominating process, run for president." --Duane Patterson (From The Federalist, 7/21)

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