LETTERS FROM THE OLD COUNTRY

This is the final DPR from the old country with our return to the USA expected next week. In that a day in politics can seem like a year, some of this report will read like History 101. We apologize but we have been engaged in other work. Once we settle back in Vermont, we expect to visit with you more often. Thank you for your continued support, your reading of our efforts, your responses, and your participation in Vermont’s political process. 

IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER

It took awhile but the fat lady finally sang in the last days of spring as the legislature was called in for a final day to vote not to override the governor’s veto of a single piece of legislation, and to absorb another $21,000 from the general fund.

It was not a momentous session with issues such as civil unions or equal opportunity education schemes. Editorialists gave them their due, praising their solid job in Montpelier. Consider Mark Twain’s warning; “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in sessions.” It was not so bad.

ROW ROW ROW THE BOAT

At the beginning of the session in January, 2003, Speaker Freed changed tradition by appointing a Republican of chair of each committee and a Democrat vice-chair. With only seventy-three Republicans out of one hundred and fifty legislators, Republicans not only did not have the votes to drive legislation, they did not even have a majority on many committees.

In time, in spite of their reputation for not being quick at math, the Democrats learned that they controlled some committees and that by expanding definitions of legislation, could make many a legislative concept appropriate for a committee which they controlled. A good example to our benefit was the Fish and Game Committee’s work on addressing the stormwater runoff problem. 

THE WATER FLOWED

With balance, many logjams were broken: permit reform, workmans’s compensation reform, stormwater runoff, Act 60 reform, deer herd management, and medical marijuana. Some on both sides decried the half-to-quarter-a-loaf result. But issues which demanded some compromise and movement were decided.

Not all logjams gave way. Issues both popular and of concern to voters languished including school choice, parental notification for minors to receive abortions, tougher action on drunk drivers, and four year terms for statewide elected officials. 

THE SCHOOL BOARD THANKS YOU

While legislators took credit for no new taxes, you might disagree when you next renew your drivers’ license or receive your fuel bill or have to pay some other fee or buy a permit. The biggest tax effort though was to reduce the property tax requirements under Act 60. You may recall that in 2003, over fifty school budgets went down to defeat because of the back-breaking jumps in property tax. This year with hardly a murmur school budgets zipped through town meeting.

One disappointment was the feeding frenzy over the $33,000,000 freed up by Judge Sessions’s ruling that the Circ could not yet expand. Taxpayers were totally overlooked as, being piglets at the trough in Montpelier, each representative fought to bring home the bacon in order to renew their lease on their seats in Montpelier this fall. It is not that our roads and bridges are not in deplorable shape. That is the result of stealing gazillions from the transportation fund over the years. But they could have thrown us a crumb. 

WORK TO DO

The bigger disappointment was the lack of movement on controlling health care costs and allowing greater and fairer access. The Democrats miss former Governor Howard Dean’s drive for state guaranteed and financed health care and were not able to deal with the realities of affordability. The philosophical difference was never bridged; Republicans looking for a private sector solution with a state safety net and a process to control costs, and Democrats insisting on a straight public sector solution, dam the cost.

Conrad Meier of Health Care News wrote of Dean’s public sector try, “His effort to make health insurance universally available in Vermont has in many ways backfired. What have become ‘universal’ are high health insurance premiums and a heavy tax burden needed to support the growing number of Vermonters covered by the state.” 

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

The Douglas administration believes it has made efforts to control costs of health care delivery. Their chronic care efforts to prevent and manage chronic disease, which accounts for up to eighty-four percent of the over-65 medical costs, has continued with a recent day-long conference on chronic care at the Sheraton in South Burlington. Their efforts with pharmaceutical buying groups have reduced cost increases. Their efforts at making health care consumers more active in their health care decisions, and more active period, may help reduce demand. Their healthy kids initiative may in the long run reduce demand as well.

Yet legislative action is still required to re-activate the private sector after almost all private insurance companies pulled out of Vermont after community rating and an increasing number of increasingly unpredictable mandates. 

WHAT WAS THE WHY OF IT

A veteran state house observer told DPR, “Mainly we are concerned not with what the legislature does for us but what they do to us. This year they did very little to us so for us it was a success. The session was organized, productive and gentlemanly. This is the result of the absence of former Governor Howard Dean and Senate pre-tem Peter Shumlin. Not only were these two always changing their minds, they would not do what they promised to do.

“It worked well because Speaker Freed was a lame duck, Mayor Peter Clavelle had no traction in Montpelier, and no member for the first time in memory was running for higher office and just trying to make political points.” 

THE HORSE RACES

According to insiders, nobody expects Governor Jim Douglas or Lieutenant Governor Dubie to lose. “The Democrats are just giving lip service to Clavelle. The ‘boys’ are hoping that this race will get rid of him to open up space for themselves in the future. Though they expect former Senator Cheryl Rivers to win the primary, nobody here wants her back and everybody likes and is not threatened by Brian Dubie.” 

THE NATIONAL PARK

Years ago and far away, Governor Madeline Kunin took a drive into the country. She was astounded at how serene and bucolic the Northeast Kingdom was. “This must be preserved,” she announced. Locals snickered and quietly protested; maybe we would like a little development up here too. Maybe the kids would like a mall, Blockbuster, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, or Barnes and Noble to hang out at.

Now the New York Times has joined the save-the-state drive citing the recent news release from the National Trust for Historic Preservation naming the whole of “Vermont to its 2004 list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. The threat to this vital piece of America’s heritage...” is Wal-Mart.

This puts us in the same category as the Ridgewood Ranch the home of Seabiscuit, the Gullah/Geechee Coast off South Carolina and Georgia, and the Nine Mile Canyon in Utah complete with petroglyphs. No Wal-Marts there! 

THE PREMISE

We are being asked to further impoverish ourselves by denying ourselves access to easy and convenient low-cost one-stop shopping in favor of overpriced shop-to-shop marketing with little or no parking or convenience in order to satisfy wealthier flatlanders’ rights to visit the Vermont National Park to reinvigorate themselves in pristine surroundings.

As Northeast Kingdom’s Derby Selectboard Chair Tom Bailey put it to the Free Press, “Why should people in the Kingdom who have the lowest incomes have to pay the highest prices? Why should somebody pay $2.00 for a tube of toothpaste that costs $1.00 at Wal-Mart?” 

WE SHALL OVERCOME

Even liberal columnist Darren Allen, Chief of the Vermont Press Bureau, eschews downtown merchants to shop at Wal-Mart “when I need an air compressor or a Shop Vac, grateful that a testament to Sam Walton’s retail vision is a mere five-mile drive away. But I always feel bad when I leave. I feel bad that my money is headed to an out-of-state mega-corporation. I feel bad that I have not supported local merchants. I feel bad mostly because I know that the cheap prices are possible only on the back of an underpaid and poorly cared-for work force...”

That’s four “feel bads” yet our hero, Darren, with effort, overcomes guilt to save a few bucks. His employer editorially “Sounds an alarm.” They write in stark militaristic terms, “In establishing its beachhead in Vermont, Wal-Mart...is a serious threat to the integrity of Vermont’s small towns...savings can be significant. But those savings come at a high cost: The blood is sucked from communities... Vermonters have a devil’s bargain to consider...”

Burlington has a Wal-Mart in its neighborhood but has its lifeblood been sucked dry? Hanover has a Wal-Mart in its neighborhood but has its lifeblood been sucked dry? Montpelier has a Wal-Mart in its neighborhood but has its lifeblood been sucked dry? 

OUR CAPITAL

Take Montpelier. With a population under 8,000 it has forty-two restaurants. A major impediment to development appears to be monopolistic high rents, not Wal-Mart. The streets and shops are busy. There is almost no space available. 

DAS CAPITAL

Many of our visitors decide to make Vermont their home. Many come to Vermont to retire, contributing their ideas, energy, experience, and investment to make more vibrant out communities. Others come to Vermont to throw a spanner into the works, a veritable Monkey Wrench Gang donating money, energy, and legal tactics to make our communities less vibrant but more soothing to their needs.

Younger folks come to raise children, build businesses, and try a hands-on efforts to put more meaning in their lives. They have repaired and re-energized homes, farms, neighborhoods, and communities. 

MY HOUSE IS MY CASTLE

Most flatlanders come with more capital than the average Vermonter. They or their families have worked in places where similar efforts and investments yield greater returns. It was no surprise when the Valley News recently ran a story, Upper Valley Home Prices Climbing. “The dream of buying a home may be slipping away for those making less than $70,000 per year... The median price of a home in MLS in the Upper Valley is $400,000 and the average price was $490,000.” In the 2000 Census Vermont per capita income was $20,625 and average household income was $40,856. Can you make these numbers work for us?

Reading Woodstock's Vermont Standard, its real estate pages are horrifying. A basic starter home, similar to a Hauke house in Burlington which sold for $10,000 in the 60’s, is listed for $295,000. The average price of twenty-four homes advertised in the centerfold of their real estate section is $1,057,625. Virtually nobody born and raised in Vermont, however hardworking and frugal, can move to this community and buy a home. 

TRAIL OF TEARS

Soon the Vermonter in a Trail of Tears will be pushed through Beecher Falls and out of Vermont. Perhaps the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the New York Times should be more concerned about the indigenous people of Vermont than their need for R&R. 

MONTPELIER NUMERACY

Montpelier’s school board’s math confuses. Because of declining enrollment, Montpelier is considering closing its Main Street School and consolidating teaching at its Union School. However, “the city’s tax rate would still rise” according to a report in the Times Argus.

But how could it? There is interest by developers in acquiring the Main Street School for residential and office development. The sale would not only increase the cash flow, but so would the increase of the city’s tax base. There would be a reduction in maintenance of an old building, decreases in janitorial and office personnel, decreases in professional staffing, decreases in administrative staffing, a reduction in lawn care and snow removal, and decreases in electrical and heating charges. But your taxes will still go up. 

FAHRENHEIT 9/11

Whenever reality is different from expectation there is surprise. Such was the case with Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11; it did not persuade. At best it preached to the choir.

Moore made President George Bush look bad. This is not heavy lifting. He cut and pasted video clippings from the last twenty-six years. With such an archive, you could make a fool of anyone.

Moore claimed that the Bush family was more loyal to the Saudi Arabia because of financial links, representing that the President’s oil losses were subsidized by the Saudis. Moore claimed that the bin Laden family was allowed to leave the United States when no other planes were flying, a claim disputed by facts.

Moore is most impressive showing perhaps ten African-American congresspeople pleading with the joint assembly to contest the balloting in Florida. One after another appeared in the well of the House to submit such a request but each time Mr. Vice President Al Gore denied the request as it did not contain a signature of a senator. The congresspeople did not care. “You may not care,” Gore said, “but the rules care.” For Gore even rules have feelings. 

MOORE GETS LUCKY

The closing scenes were about the horror of war. No debate there. He followed a woman from his hometown of Flint, Michigan whose love of country never wavered. Her doubts about the war did after her son was lost in the deserts of Iraq. It was a moving tragedy. 

PALME D’OR

Do you know anyone who ever received a nineteen minute standing ovation? Maybe the Pope, Mr. Mandela, Mr. Havel, Mr. Jefferson, or your high school champions? Nobody? That is what Mr. Moore received when he won the Cannes Film Festival top film prize award, the Golden Palm from the Europeans and Hollywood denizens in house.

Why? Here are a few of Moore's collected comments to his European audiences courtesy of the New York Times’s David Brooks. “(America) is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe... Don’t be like us... We are possibly the dumbest people on the planet...we suffer from an enforced ignorance. We do not know anything that is happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing. We’ve got that big f...g grin on our face all the time because our brains aren't loaded down.”

His books sell better in Europe than in America. Stupid White Men sold over 1,100,000 copies in Germany alone. 

WILL IT HELP?

William Schneider wrote in the National Journal, “Normally the GOP has the edge in intensity, but angry Democrats might be catching up.” If Moore’s intent was to persuade, he failed. If his intent was to rally the faithful, he succeeded. Moore said in defense of his film, “I will not just stand by and let them f... it up like they did in 2000.” 

CAMPAIGN 201

It is hard to persuade. Campaign tactics suggest that first a campaign should spend money in four other directions before trying to persuade. This is always in contradiction to the candidates’ wishes who firmly believes that if he/she could go one-on-one with any voter, the voter will be persuaded.

First, a campaign identifies and motivates “latent partisans.” Second, a campaign attempts to reinforce its core message. Third, there are many empty heads out there that do not need persuasion, just information. Fourth, there are many whose pump just needs a little priming. 9/11 is a valuable tool at each step. Best of all, there is no campaign expense. A campaign buys 100 points of advertising to have the viewer see his 30-second commercial once. The campaign buys 1000 points to have the viewer remember the commercial.

In Moore’s case, people are paying to see a political ad for a continuous two hours. Not bad. But if the Democrats were really organized they would be outside the theater at the end of each showing to register any unregistered voters and to request volunteers and names of newly minted activist. Perhaps in the battleground states they are, but there were not outside the Savoy in Montpelier. 

THE FLEECE CENTER

What were they thinking, holding the Democrat National Convention in the Fleet Center, which astrides Interstate 93, Storrow Drive, the Sumner Tunnel, North Station, the Mystic River Bridge, the financial center, Fanuiel Hall, the Patriot Trail, Bunker Hill, and a major hospital?

Lobbied as injecting $154,000,000 into the Boston economy, losses are now expected to exceed $50,000,000 as most of the transportation hubs will be closed. There is the older Hynes Convention Center and the brand new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center which could have accommodated the convention and are relatively out of the way. 

DEAN IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME

Though Dean was brilliant putting Ralph Nadar in his place as a farcical retread, he also said that it is a big mistake to turn Saddam over to the Iraqis where he might escape. Saddam had not been physically turned over to the Iraqis, only legally. Then Dean says that if Saddam escapes the “war would have been entirely in vain.” Yet, he said that catching Saddam did not make the world safer. On balance it appears that the Kerry team does not yet have full confidence that Dean is balanced. 

KERRY FACES THE WORLD

In Senator John Kerry's search for a secretary of state, "speculation focuses primarily on Ambassador Richard Holbrooke" according to the Atlantic Monthly. One reason is Kerry’s interest in nation building. According to Holbrook, "Most of them (in the Bush Administration) don't have a real understanding of what it takes to do nation-building..." Of course the Democrats do. Take a look at Haiti, a Democrat initiative from the beginning, and ask Ambassador Holbrooke what happened. Not the definition of success. 

IT DOESN’T COMPUTE

According to the National Journal, in the last three years government workers’ pay increased by 9% while private sector workers’ pay increased 5%. So where do tax dollars come from? Right, private sector workers. So how can they earn less while public sector earns more? 

THE HEART OF A CONSERVATIVE

Conservative Senator Barry Goldwater, R-Arizona, ran for president in 1964, ripping the nomination from moderate Governor Nelson Rockefeller, R-New York, and ending the blue stocking moderate hold on the Republican Party by the eastern establishment. Goldwater's slogan was "in your heart, you know he's right" and right he was in more ways than one. He realigned the Republican Party from moderate to conservative. He realigned it from northeastern and western to southern and south and rocky mountain west. This shift gave Republicans effective control of the Electoral College ending an almost thirty-six year Democrat hold on the Whitle House.

Ronald Reagan pickup up the message cudgel in a special broadcast from Salt Lake City that fall, using the momentum to win two terms as California’s governor followed by two terms as America’s president. No more was heard in the Republican Party from the Lodges or the Rockefellers. Only George Herbert Walker Bush survived. He only survived by changing his stance on abortion, accepting voodoo economics, falling in love with pork rinds, and being forgiven by Reagan.

When Bush went blue stocking in 1992 by asking for a splash of coffee, conjecturing that low voter turnout might be due to debutante parties, and not having a clue about check-out scanning machines, he was tossed out on his keister. 

YOU’RE FIRED

The Air Traffic Controllers agreed to not strike, struck, and were fired en mass. You can not do that came the cry from the gored PATCO Union. You will not be able to control the skies. Reagan ordered the military to manage the air traffic control until new controllers could be hired and trained.

Reagan was a man of principle. You could travel to the smallest hamlet in the world, pose a hypothetical question, and people could guess what Reagan’s response would be. He was clear and consistent, he stated his ideas and stuck to them, and painted them on the international consciousness. 

TRUST BUT VERIFY

In his 1980 campaign even while losing to Bush in Iowa, Reagan ran no negative commercials. He bolstered the country following Carter’s malaise and the Iran hostage crisis with the same upbeat positive message. With contempt he stated that Marxist/Leninist theory would end up on “the ash-heap of history.” In his 1984 reelection campaign, issues of his opponent Walter Mondale were consistently ahead in polling by a 60/40 margin. Yet the American people voted 59/41 for Reagan. He led with instinct, an inspirational sense of what American is. And we responded. 

SOME THINGS JUST DO NOT CHANGE

There was a Norman Rockwell type painting on the cover of a Saturday Evening Post on the wall of a barber shop in downtown Clifton Village. It was the January 26, 1946 edition. Only ten cents. The lead story on the cover was "How we botched the German occupation." Go to: http://www.instapundit.com/archives/012288.php 

IT’S THE 60’s

England’s Labor government blames the continuing rise of violent disorder, mugging, rape, common assault, and gun crime on the “collapse of values that began during the permissive 1960’s. Mr. Blair said ‘While the decade brought about a breakthrough in terms of freedom of expression and lifestyle, it failed to convey the concept that with freedom came responsibility. Young people were brought up without parental discipline.’”

Mr. Blair offered no programs or advice on the problem, a decline in values. He offered a tinkering with the penalties and processes of the judiciary system. 

A PARTS CAR

Speaking of values, couples have won the “right to create a perfect genetic match for their child” in order to create a perfect blood type for transfusions to help a blood disorder in a sibling. The parents are allowed to “screen the embryos” to insure that their part’s kids had the right parts.

Coincidentally, abortions for kids in the United Kingdom fifteen and under rose five percent. These kids were not the parts kids. Abortions may also be used to insure no minor birth defects. 

PETA WINS, PEOPLE LOSE

Oxford University’s construction of a new research laboratory halted despite backing by Prime Minister Tony Blair “after a campaign of intimidation by animal rights extremists. The development of medical treatments that could save or improve the lives of millions of people could be delayed or even prevented…” 

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The class was too noisy. The children asked the teacher to tape their mouths shut as a “bit of fun.” A parent sued. The judge dismissed the charges saying, “It was clear that his was no more than a jocular way of reinforcing to the children that if they did not obey the teacher’s instructions, there would be consequences.” 

DRIVE YOUR CHEVROLET

“Engineers at Lancaster University said that inter-city trains bring no benefits for the environment as they had failed to keep up with the motor and aviation industries in reducing fuel needs. Some new trains are ‘total lardbutts’ while new cars appeared ever more efficient. Assuming the continuing dominance of fossil fuel based electricity; trains would require twice as much fuel as a Volkswagen Passat and much more than a short-haul aircraft.

“Roger Ford of Modern Railways said, ‘I know this will generate howls of protest, but a family of four going by car is about as environmentally friendly as you can get.’”

Note: The above snippets were taken from reports in the Daily Telegraph. 

THOSE WHO CAN’T FIGHT, TRAIN

Even in Afghanistan where NATO has a continuing commitment, they cannot commit. Recently they agreed to increase “the inadequate 6,500 troops to an inadequate 8,000” as the Economist put it.

To help out in Iraq, NATO agreed to train a few Iraqis. Rome was suggested as a training site by French President Chirac. 

AN UNTOUCHABLE RIGHT

President Chirac “described the 35-hour workweek as the French workers’ untouchable right.” That companies are encamping for Central Europe where the work ethic is stronger is not relevant. 

HANDWRINGING

It was amazing to listen and read comments by our leaders about how the behavior of a few at the Abu Ghraib did not represent our values or character. Implicit was the undercurrent that, while others might use despicable methods in prison, Americans are not like that. 

SLIPPERY SLOPE

Recall just after September 11th the hypothetical question common in the media: if our intelligence or police agencies had a person in captivity whom they knew had information about pending terrorist incident, how much torture should they be allowed to perform in order to save thousands or hundreds of thousand American lives? The answer seemed to be: what ever it took.

In this environment, the Patriot Act was passed mortgaging the Bill of Rights and the American way of life. Circumstances demanded action. The media was part of the cheerleading section. The media then created the “American Taliban” while the government railroaded Mr. Lindh to twenty years in prison while suppressing information, holding him without access to a lawyer, denying him his rights, and “torturing” him in ways similar to Abu Ghraib. Other than the Vermont’s senior senator, the New Yorker, and these pages, whose voice of protest was heard?

To its credit, the Rutland Herald/Times Argus editorial asked “Where’s the outrage?” on March 17, 2004 well before the scandal broke in late April, 2004. 

SLIPPING ON THAT SLIPPERY SLOPE

This was not the work of a “few hillbillies” as the media portrayed them. This was the result of a slippery slope of fear driving a usurpation of rights leading to a sense of righteousness-above-the-law behavior in order to protect America’s citizens and soldiers. When the military transfers the general in charge of the out-of-reach, out-of-touch Guantanamo prison to run the Iraqi prison, what would you expect? 

MOHAMMED SPEAKS

“Who are you to say that you hold yourself up to higher standards? You are ones who allow your women to parade semi-naked. Go to any mall in the West and see your women and girls demonstrating that there is no longer intimate apparel. Women and girls are strolling with bras, bustiers, garters, girdles, thongs, or camisoles showing in all or part. Women and girls are unchaperoned. More than half of your marriages fail. 

ELIVS SHOOK HIS PELVIS, DIDN'T SHOW IT

“Children are on drugs. Children are pierced and tattooed. Children are allowed, even encouraged to have pre-martial sex. Children conceive children. Children have abortions without your consent or knowledge. In the name of women’s right, you give your children to strangers to raise, dump your parents with strangers for care. You create children for parts. And you say and imply that you are better than we are, that you are modern and we are archaic, that you are civilized and we are not. 

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

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HOW DO YOU DO THAT?

“Ray Charles was the father of seven children with nine women.” -- Rutland Herald Editorial, June 14, 2004
http://rutlandherald.com/Archive/Articles/Article/85162

MEDIA’S FLAGALATION OF AMERICA

There could hardly have been a worse three months of news for President Bush. The war in Iraq is not going well, the prison scandal is an embarrassment, and Afghanistan is on the cusp of chaos.

But take a minute. A mere fifteen years ago, all of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe were in totalitarian hands. Germany was two states, one daily informed upon by the Stasi, the other free. The secret service used torture and terror daily. Yugoslavia was a mess. Now most are free and prospering.

Africa had more tyrants and despots. Nelson Mandela was still in prison busting rocks. Central American was a junta or at war. South America was a recovering dictatorship. Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and even India were hardly democracies.

Our foreign policy has seen many triumphs. Investment risk is lower in every country reported in the Economist except Hungary. Sure there are many challenges. But the victories and the opportunities created in the last fifteen years far outweigh them. This is more than the “cat is stuck in a tree story.” Yet from Central Europe we read of Mafia, from Africa AIDS and famine, from South and Central America drugs, and from Asia slave trade. There is good news, though hard to find in today’s media. 

RAIDING THE HIGHWAY FUND

»» Shane Sweet, Vermont Fuel Dealers Association: "First, they took out half a cent to fund the oil tank removal program " You lost me on this. The Petroleum Cleanup Fund assessment is a penny a gallon. 

»» Sara Nevin: I hope you will publicize former Gov. Dean's dipping into the transportation budget, because Governor Douglas would not come out and blame the past administration for the shortfall and the road conditions. 

TALKING ABOUT HISTORY 

"If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are.” -- Ronald Reagan 

IN CONTRAST, THIS FROM HIS FRIENDS 

“'My Life' is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull - the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history... In many ways the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton’s presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration.” -- New York Times, June 19, 2004 

MR. CHARISMA 

“Mr. Kerry could put a hummingbird into a coma. If Mr. Kerry remains the political equivalent of Valium, Mr. Edwards cannot rectify that. He might even make things worse by showing him up.” -- The Economist, July 10, 2004 

WORDS 

“While one must deplore the Vice-President’s choice of epithet, many of us nevertheless find it difficult to think of anything else we would like to say to the Senator from Vermont.” -- Mark Steyn, June 24, 2004 

FROM THE GOP CONVENTION 

“Look, John Kerry couldn't find Main Street with both hands. You can't make a chicken swim and you can't make John Kerry anything but an out-of-touch ultraliberal from Taxachusetts.” -- Prime time convention speaker Senator Zell Miller, D-Georgia 

PAGING DOCTOR FREUD 

“As I was telling my husb... as I was telling President Bush.” -- The Economist, National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, Newsweek, March, 2004 

FIVE DAYS IN FALLUJAH 

“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 

ARE YOU LISTENING? 

“It was a good system of government, because most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone...” -- #1 Ladies Detective Agency  

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