SEE THE USA IN YOUR CHEVROLET

In the days of yore, Vermonters took great pride in their roads. They were well maintained, smooth, if not a bit curvy. They were also so much better than our neighbors. No more. Why?

Experts tell us that it is estimated that the Deaniacs took $400,000,000 from the highway fund for new program spending. The gas tax is about twenty cents a gallon. Add to that the user fees of diesel oil tax and motor vehicle fees adding up to about $150,000,000 a year. The state had figured spending that much each and every year would keep our highways in fair shape.

First, they took out half a cent to fund the oil tank removal program and four cents for education. Then they looked at lots of little expenses and began to use the highway trust fund to pay for them: legislative travel and pieces of every office budget previously funded by the general fund, i.e. part of the treasurer's budget or auditor's budget and so on were to be paid by the highway fund.

It is not just paving being shorted but structural rebuilding of bridges and roads also. Sinkholes are now appearing as road foundations erode. We hardly now have enough for paving let alone reconstruction. Still today twenty percent of the highway trust fund is removed for other programs.

ROAD TAX AND ROAD RAGE

You grip and hold on as you bounce over the roads. Not only are you paying gas taxes but you now pay a additional road tax for new shocks or struts, sway bars, ball joints, additional tire wear, suspension problems, shortened life of you car, and windshields. Reportedly many people can no longer even buy windshield insurance as their numerous claims have caused the companies to revoke their insurance.

At one point Vermonters understood that good transportation led to increased commercial activity which led to more jobs which led to more income taxes which provided money for social programs. By short circuiting the system, the Democrats have jeopardized the whole system. 

EARTH-SHATTERING CHANGES

Just read the Times Argus/Rutland Herald’s Pulitzer Prize winning editorialist, “In fact, the bill (permit reform) represents the most significant changes to Act 250 since passage of the law in 1970.” Well my gosh! Let’s see, the original bill with its ten criteria was quite short and simple, only a few pages. Years rush by. Check out the two volume Act 250 Summary written by Vermont Law School’s Professor Richard Brooks, et al in 1996 and 1997. The short and sweet law was now almost two inches thick.

Of course none of this represented “significant changes” because almost each and every addition to Act 250 made by rule, law or precedent enlarged its reach, something that perhaps the Herald supported. Now comes a minor change to the appeal process and stop the presses, this represents the most significant change to Act 250 since the writer was in short pants.

Not to be outdone, the following day, the Free Press weighed in, “the measure is the most significant change in Act 250 since the law was adopted more than three decades ago.” At least both the original law and its current changes occurred during Republican administrations. 

REGIME CHANGE

First Spain, next the United States? President Bush new policy is to no longer count among your friends those cozy autocratic regimes. No, they must be working towards more freedoms, more democracy, and more rights for women. All admirable goals.

Last month the Arab League canceled their scheduled meeting in Tunisia because the host put these very issues on the agenda. According to NPR, “There was a difference in proposed reforms of how Arab governments are governed, i.e. government reform, democracy, and women’s rights. President Bush put forth his goals in the new Middle East Project. There is a resistance to importing democracy under orders by President Bush.”

Now the price of gas is at an all time high. OPEC recently announced further cuts in production. Arabs countries must remember the demise of the Carter presidency over gas lines, energy price increases, and hostage taking. Are they going for regime change or merely a warning to mind your own business? Only time will tell. 

IT WAS ALL NADER’S FAULT

The liberals cry fowl or foul or whatever. Nader elected Bush. Not true. If Nader had not been on the ballot in Florida and New Hampshire and those votes had gone to Gore, Gore would have won. But in Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa, and New Mexico, if Pat Buchanan had not been on the ballot and those votes had gone to Bush, Bush would have won anyhow. 

KERRY’S FOREIGN SUPPORTERS

This from the Vatican: “People in Rome are becoming more and more aware that there is a problem with John Kerry, and a potential scandal with his apparent profession of his Catholic faith and some of his stances.” Maybe it was Malaysia to which Kerry was referring. 

VISA WARS CONTINUE

Many Vermont hotels have become accustomed to Jamaican women filling housekeeping, laundry and dish washing positions. The INS last month said no more H-2B visas for 2004, they are all gone.

According to the Stowe Reporter, “The announcement shocked local business owners. For this industry, it could be extremely devastating.” 

THE SKEPTICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST

Three years ago (11/16/01) we described the beating that Professor Bjorn Lomborg took upon publication of his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Though the book had over 3,000 footnotes and its author had a long history as an environmentalist, Lomborg came under withering fire. Easier for the environmental groups to raise money that way.

The Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty found that the book was “scientifically dishonest.” Not so said the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation recently, writing that the “committee’s critique was not backed up by documentation and was completely void of argumentation for its claims of dishonesty and lack of good scientific practice.”

The committee conceded that they had been unable to refute any of Lomborg’s major points and had based their conclusions on the hack job in the Scientific American. According to Matt Ridley of Nature via Nurture, "He was vilified by Scientific American." 

BIGGER IS BETTER

The University of Vermont has made it known that in the future there will be fewer sports teams but better ones, ones built to compete in the national big leagues, NCAA Division I. We should all stand in shock and awe as a new venue is created with our money to watch these kids from afar compete. Hurrah!

That we have risen before dawn for years to take our boys and girls to hockey practice is not relevant. That parents and grandparents may have been part of the UVM sports tradition is not important. That a field and surrounding track is named after UVM track star Archie Post is not relevant when it comes to terminating a long track and field tradition. Or that Gutterson Field House is also named after a UVM track and field notable. Track and Field is not mentioned on UVM’s web site as a sponsored sport. On the web site’s featured links, just after President Fogel’s welcome and Arts, comes Athletics. Big things are coming.

BUTCHERING THE BEAUTIFUL GAME?

One of the universities’s new hires to guide us to greatness is Jesse Cormier, ’95, who comes to us from the Oregon State University. Jesse played for UVM during the period described to us by a former UVM dean. “We worked hard to recruit a talented Vermonter to our academic program. He was the local soccer star. He asked only that the soccer coach take his call before committing to the university. I called the coach who said, ‘If the boy is from Vermont, he could not make our team.’ Needless to say, the fellow did not matriculate.”

During Jesse’s tenure as associate coach, Oregon State was known for its fouls, yellow cards and red cards, the later ejecting one from the game. Generally fouls even out as referees try to be even-handed and players tend to retaliate. However in the last three years, Oregon had 40 percent more yellow cards and 133 percent more red cards that their opponents. A new tradition begins at UVM. 

THOSE BEAUTIFUL DAYS

UVM senior Meghan Fallon was quoted as saying, “It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Those days are gone.” She was of course referring to April 20th, the historic UVM approved marijuana smoke-in outside Bailey Library. Reportedly thousands broke the law and besmirched the university’s reputation with university approval. Those were the days before President Ramaley became former President Ramaley; now April 20th is just another spring day. 

ZERO DIVERSITY

As you all hear, folks keep talking about our lack of diversity, an opinion not shared here. But here is a proven case of the lack of diversity. According to Eyebeam Research, found at http://www.fundrace.org, Vermont was the only state which showed no “balanced giving” but demonstrated a “heavy tilt towards giving to Democrats.” The study cons 

INVADED

Allied Van Lines recently issued its 2003 results showing that Vermont is leading America with the highest percentage of inbound moves. Of course those leaving Vermont via their Bonneville, Caravan, or pick-up would not show up in Allied figures. 

SOME THINGS DON’T CHANGE

Former Boston Celtic great Larry Bird was asked if he was worried about his welcome at the Fleet Center during the Indiana Pacers’s visit during the recent NBA playoffs. “I never had a problem going into the Boston Garden as a coach, and I don't now.”

The Boston Garden, which was opened in 1928 when President Calvin Coolidge switched on the lights, closed in 1995. Bird coached the Pacers from 1997 to 2000. Bird is now the Pacers’s president. He spoke often of his love of the Garden. 

DEMOCRACY EXPERTS

Here we are off promoting democracy about the world. And at home? The National Journal recently listed “Competitive House Races.” Under the categories, most vulnerable Democrat seats, most vulnerable Republican seats, and most competitive newly created seats there were a combined thirteen seats at risk. That is 13 out of 435 seats which are competitive, 3 percent. Want to practice what you preach? 

SOURCES OF CASH

Most annual financial reports include a page, “sources and uses of cash” to identify how your cash increased or decreased. State college Chancellor Richard Clarke was recently quoted, “We have only two main sources of revenue, the state and tuition.” We could suggest another, reduce expenses, make your cash grow. 

MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK

The Times Argus/Rutland Herald pointed out to us a man among men and women who knows how to make democracy work. “Patrick Leahy displays a sophisticated understanding of democracy, recognizing that the public arena must allow for diverse views, even views different from his own.” And the violins played on.

Or you could ask William Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, or Carolyn Kuhl or the nominees Leahy just humiliated and dispatched about his commitment to “diverse views, even views different than his own.” 

ACT IV, SCENE II, KING HENRY THE SIXTH, PART II

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Dick the butcher failed; Vermont now has more lawyers per capita than any other state. Improving the business climate and this fact become mutually exclusive. Having more grist for the mill, i.e. more rules, laws, regulations, and paperwork, dulls progress. 

HOW THE TERMINATOR REINVENTS GOVERNMENT

“We cannot afford waste and fraud in any department or agency. Every governor proposes moving boxes around to reorganize government. I don't want to move boxes around. I want to blow them up.” --Arnold Schwarzenegger, Orange County Register, May 2, 2004 

THEY LOVE ME

Wanna know why? Here is what Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie told the Chamber Breakfast in Randolph. “We are working with our partners in Quebec and also in Canada.” With comments like that, of course they love him in Quebec. 

RUUNION’S SLIPPERY SLOPE

Norm Ruunion for years worked for the Brattleboro Reformer and reportedly staked his fortune with every Democrat candidate. Now a reporter for the Herald of Randolph, he slid down that partisan slope again with the following, “John McClaughry, a conservative activist, engaged in a spirited public hallway denunciation of a Rutland Herald reporter for calling him a conservative activist.” So clever. Often wrong but never in doubt.

As many of you know, McClaughry is no conservative; he is a free-market proponent and a libertarian. He does not share many of the conservative views on issues.

McDONALD’S SO SMART

McClaughry had invited Nina Rees who heads the Office of Innovation and Improvement in Washington to speak at the state house. Though Rees is an Iranian who speaks several foreign languages and studied in the United States, Ruunion described her as a “middleweight.”

Runnion then asked Senator Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, if he had attended Ms. Rees’s presentation. “He said with a grin that he hadn't 'because I wasn't invited.'” Actually nobody was invited. Her host, the Ethan Allen Institute, had left flyers all around announcing the meeting. Mark seems to know all about improvement and needs none. 

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Burlington Schools Superintendent Lyman Amsden has an interesting life. He is not an employee; he is an independent contractor. Those of you in business know if you tried this stunt, you would fail and pay significant payroll taxes and penalties.

To be an independent contractor and for the employer not to pay workman’s comp insurance, unemployment insurance, social security benefits and so forth the person must follow many rules such as having an independent office, phone, business card, and stationery, work independently without direction, have other similar clients, and so forth. Amsden meets none of these definitions of an independent contractor.

Under the Dean administration, there were many employees who became independent contractors to perpetuate the myth that he was not increasing government employment. Many a state employee accepted a buyout and then returned as an independent contractor working at their same desks, doing their same jobs, giving and taking direction as before in direct but unchallenged (except by the State Employees Union) violation of state and federal law.

Amsden was also receiving retirement benefits from the Vermont Teachers Retirement Fund and clearly no longer paying into it. The Teachers Retirement Fund Board and state Treasurer Jeb Spaulding finally came to their senses and changed the rules effective July 1, 2004 to prohibit double dipping. Amsden squealed like a stuck pig petitioning the Board to make an exception so he could collect his $125,000 superintendent’s pay and his pension.

Remember whenever there is going to be a close school budget vote the teachers and their signs are full of slogans such as, “it’s about the children?” Wrong, it is about the money. 

DORTA VENOM ON STATE BOARD SCHOOL CHOICE HEARINGS

Coverage of the State Board of Education hearings on school choice as described by VTNEA president Angelo Dorta in the April issue of VTNEA today...

"As expected, several of the anti public school network’s familiar leaders provided testimony during the brief hearing. They were backed by a small band of their customary minions: a disgruntled parent or two, a couple of sympathetic Republican state legislators, and a sprinkling of ideological 'free market fundamentalists' who always want to privatize nearly everything and who constantly proselytize using tell-tale phrases such as 'government schools,' 'monopoly,' etc. It wasn't even worth the time for Vermont-NEA representatives to attend and to testify, so we didn't."

Read the whole tirade here: http://www.vtnea.org/April04.pdf 

GOING TO THE BIRDS

Wind power, clean, renewable, and lasting forever. Who could be against that? Most of the famous liberal lights along the Cape are protesting a possible wind farm on the shoals near Nantucket and most of the Vermont left are protesting wind generation in Vermont. Just as cell towers will make you skull explode, broken wind turbines will make you house implode.

The latest on the application for an East Haven wind farm is a requested study by Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources about the impact of the four turbines on the bird and bat population, estimated by the agency to cost between $740,000 and $840,000. 

THE LIBERAL BASTION

According to the National Journal’s 2003 vote ratings, the Vermont delegation in Washington is second most liberal group, second only to Massachusetts. 

HEADLINES CONFUSE

Come on, what is new? We know but read this headline in the Times Argus, “More Vermonters face loss of health... Thousands of beneficiaries have lost insurance coverage in the first three months of the program to charge Vermont’s working poor monthly premiums for their state-subsidized health care benefits.” Scary stuff! Bet come fall they will think a new governor is the answer.

If one took the time to read the story, Auditor Elizabeth Ready said, “The number of Vermonters who will lose access to health care benefits for failure to pay is not known.” Recall also the recent article about the young couples with children who were leaving Vermont. Maybe there is a connection.

The Burlington Free Press headlined the same story, “Auditor gives mixed review of insurance premium program.” A bit more informative.  

LEADERSHIP I

The headline on page C-1 on April 16th in the Times Argus read, “Permit reform loses as Dems flex muscles,” only sadly to be followed on April 23 on page C-4, “Senate backs permit reform bill.” Neutered were they?  

LEADERSHIP II

The headline on page A-1 on April 16th in the Times Argus reads “Dems say Douglas misstates record on health care.” The article is all about the compassionate Democrats nice guys and gals against the pro-business Republicans meanies. The headline page C-2 of the Times Argus on April 22nd read, “House passes governor’s health plan.” How sad.  

HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL?

Morning talk host Don Imus called CBS’ Lesley Stahl a “gutless, lying weasel.” Imus had scheduled an interview with Stahl and had planned to ask a question or two about the platform CBS’s 60 Minutes had given terrorist specialist Richard Clarke, not bothering to let viewers know that CBS’s parent owns the book’s publisher. Stahl then failed to show up, leading Imus to say, “Stahl is one of the more dishonest members of the media.” 

NEEDED: EDITOR

The April edition of Vermont Business Magazine contained an article by Colleen Cram entitled Vermont Venture Network. She concluded by referring to new initiatives such as the “Randolf area incubator initiative.”  

EXPERT INFO ON VISAS

»» Jessica Vaughan, Randolph: Regarding the item "Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite," which appeared in the last issue of your otherwise excellent newsletter, I hope you might provide equal space to an opposite analysis on the question of outsourcing and H1-B visas. 

For those unfamiliar with our excessively complicated immigration laws, H1-B visas are available to U.S. employers in need of skilled professional guestworkers. These visas are routinely used by companies (usually foreign-owned, according to a recent report by an RIT professor) to provide cut-rate technology services outsourced by U.S. businesses, like National Life. 

Since H1-B workers usually earn significantly less than American workers, it is highly unlikely that these jobs will ever return to Vermonters. That's not to say that there aren't important benefits to National Life that result from outsourcing, but the prospect of the new contractor bothering to hire Vermonters who were laid off when it can hire cheaper workers via the H1-B program or off-shore is unrealistic. By providing access to less expensive guestworkers, the H1-B program provides a significant subsidy to technology services companies, at the expense of the American workers and the American businesses who would like to compete for the contracts. 

The Patriot Act may have its faults, but driving outsourcing and offshoring, as your article states, is not one of them. The legislation that provided for a temporary increase in H1-B visas was the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act of 2000. That law provided for the cap on regular H1-B issuances to rise from 65,000 per year to 195,000 per year, for 3 years. The figure in your report, 500,000, must refer to the estimated total number of H1-B workers present in the United States in 2000 (H1-B visas are issued for 3 years at a time, so the total number of H1-B workers present at any given time is far higher than the number of visas issued in a year). There have never been 500,000 H1-Bs issued in one year, much less one month, as your article states. 

Your article wrongly implies that these days America is admitting fewer people seeking an education. In fact, the number of foreign students has grown each year since 2001. It grew 6 percent in 2003, and will likely continue to do so. However, thanks to the courageous leadership provided by the Bush administration's Justice and Homeland Security Departments in improving the screening of foreign visitors, it is now much harder for terrorists and prospective illegal aliens to take advantage of our generous visa programs. 

Jessica Vaughan adds, "I am a professional immigration know-it-all. I get paid to harass unsuspecting newsletter editors, reporters and Congressional staff." Actually, she is a policy analyst for an immigration think tank, the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington DC. She mostly does her research and writing "quietly from my home in beautiful downtown Randolph." 

I'LL GLADLY PAY YOU TUESDAY...

»» Jim Daley, Colchester: Always glad to read your stuff! In your first item about Waldo....aka "The Little Corporal" you say folks are asking, "Where'd my money go?"

Channel 3 had an interesting item tonight (3/13/04) in which he is quoted as saying he is disappointed that he won't be able to pay his hard-working Burlington staff while he cranks up another organization designed to keep his name in lights (albeit very low wattage). 

THEY LIKE US

»» Dave Usher, Colchester: We have never met, but I have been a longtime reader. Your latest newsletter is one of the best yet. The segment on student performance and teachers' proclivities is absolutely on target, not describing all teachers, certainly, but many who are not proficient in what they teach in a system that does not encourage rigorous learning, scholarship and performance, particularly in science and math. The system does more complaining about No Child Left Behind than promoting the optimistic view that "All Children Can Get Ahead."  

BRING IT ON 

Ever since his reincarnation on the plains of Iowa, John Kerry has been taunting his Republican opponents to “bring it on”. When the Republicans obliged accusing Mr. Kerry of being “wrong on taxes and wrong on defense,” Mr. Kerry argued, “Americans should not have to put up with eight months of sniping.” --The Economist, March 20, 2004 

NO IRISH NEED APPLY 

Those shameful words were on many a New England business a century ago. Here in Bristol, UK there still apply to a job posting for a curatorial fellow at the Arnolfini Art Center. Those disinvited to apply are all whites. “The post is only open to African, Asian (the continent of Asia from Turkey in the west to Japan in the east) and Caribbean curators.” 

FAIR, BALANCED, AND NOT TOO SMART 

"Importing drugs would save America 30 to 300 percent of the cost, but industry sources say that with this discount come fewer safety controls and a risk to the development of new life-saving medicines." --Fox News Reports, March 19, 2004 

So they will pay us to use them? 

LABOR UNIONS' NIGHTMARE 

"[O]rganized labor spent more than $100 million on behalf of Democrats in the 2000 and 2002 elections. So the one-third of union members who voted Republican in those elections are entitled, under Beck [U.S. Supreme Court in Communications Workers v. Beck, 1988], to at least $30 million worth of refunds." --Joseph Perkins, San Diego Union Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/perkins/20040416-9999-lz1e16perkins.html 

AN ODD WAY TO REDUCE CLASS SIZE 

Fox News reports that among the sponsors of yesterday's March for Women's Lives was the National Education Association, the country's biggest teachers union. Not surprisingly, pro-life teachers are unhappy. "I believe the NEA needs to stick to education issues only . . ., and completely get out of political issues, including this one here," says Connie Bancroft of the antiabortion group Teachers Saving Children.

What's really strange is that the teachers union seems to be acting against its own institutional interests in taking this position. After all, it seems clear enough that more abortions today will mean fewer jobs for NEA members starting in five or six years.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,117944,00.html 

THE END OF THE WORLD 

“In 1968, scientist Paul Ehrlich declared that in the 1970’s the world will undergo famines, hundreds of millions will starve. In 1972, the Club of Rome announced that the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead, and gas by 1993. In 1977, President Carter predicted, ‘We could use up all the proven reserves of oil by 1990.’” --The National Post, May 27, 2002 

WHO CARES? 

"The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequences: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage." --Professor Alexander Tyler, University of Edinborough, 18th Century, though this citation is disputed; see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp 

THE SELF-ESTEEM GAME 

"In the weeks following the Columbine killings, commentators and psychologists filled the air with theories of how Harris and Klebold were victims of bullies. All these theories has one theme in common: that the perpetrators were actually victims, that they had been so oppressed and distorted by society that they struck back...Harris was not bullied. He was disgusted by the inferior breed of humanity be saw around him. He did not suffer form a lack of self-esteem. He had way too much self-esteem." --David Brooks, New York Times, April 24, 2004 

NEW CONCEPT 

"All I can tell you is that I'm totally against increasing taxes. I do not like the idea of punishing people for mistakes made by the Legislature." --Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-CA  

HE SAID, HE SAID 

"I like to hear both sides of an issue. That’s why I listen to John Kerry. I know that sooner or later, I will get both sides of an issue.” --Jay Leno, March 29, 2004 

"If John Kerry is elected, he would be the first president to deliver the State of the Union address and the rebuttal." --Jay Leno, May 1, 2004 

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