WHY I BECAME A POLITICAN
by Howard Dean

Dean, a recent guest on the Jay Leno Show, told the nationwide audience why he became a politician. “I liked teaching, had done some student teaching, and thought about teaching as a career. But I can not stand on my feet for four hours without going to the bathroom.” And that’s how we got Waldo. 

Actually, his appearance went well. He was relaxed, likeable, and easy going particularly for the tempestuous fellow that he can be. 

DO FOR USA WHAT I DID FOR VERMONT

Unfortunately the Dean Legacy continues to build. A South Barre high-end tile and countertop manufacturer is preparing to move to Lebanon, NH. International Stone Products of Barre announced that fifty employees will lose their jobs when the firm terminates its manufacturing operation. International used to be called Rouleau Granite Co. 

According to the Times Argus, former employee Aaron Reilly had just contracted to have a foundation put in for a new home he and his wife were planning to build in East Montpelier. Whoops.

Hattig Building Products of Sharon announced that it will cease manufacturing early next year laying off at least twenty. Another twenty will probably continue to work in the distribution end of the business from Lebanon or White River Jct. Getaway Marketing of Rochester just sort of disappeared leaving ten folks scratching their heads. Getaway sold time share via telemarketing.

Last year while Dean was on his presidential tour, Vermont lost nearly 5,000 jobs with manufacturing leading the way. It was the first loss in a decade and the first year that Vermont was without a governor. The press often chided him for his absences and he would retort, “Name one thing that would have been different had I been here?” Now we know; more people would have not had their lives disrupted by losing their jobs. 

THE DOUGLAS LEGACY BUILDS

Some good news on the Vermont job front for a change. An intervention by the Douglas Folks and lots of energy from former gubernatorial candidate Bill Meub have saved the Tubbs business in Brandon. But not without the loss of approximately sixty workers from the level of unemployment when Tubbs announced that they were going out of business. 

Chesapeake Hardwoods in Hancock will continue after announcing that it planned to close unless a buyer could be found. Dan Davis of West Burke signed a purchase agreement and VEDA approved a $640,000 loan. The company will be known as Vermont Hardwoods. They too will be operating with about half the staff that Chesapeake had, approximately fifty losing their jobs. Vermont Hardwoods hopes to hire back twenty within two years.

Our trusted business publication of record, Vermont Business Magazine, wrote in September that "Chesapeake Hardwoods had left the state to go to Virginia." Guess they forgot to call to confirm. 

WHO WOULD YOU PREFER: A MUDSLINGER OR A NICE GUY?

Jan Backus announced last week in Seven Days that she will run for Lieutenant Governor in 2004. She is making Tricky Dick look good. While first describing Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie as "a very nice guy", Backus immediately smeared him by stating that he "has a lot of right-wing conservative friends". Dubie's circle of friends is a private issue, and it is doubtful that she actually knows the details of Dubie's personal life. 

Some may remember how the Backus U.S. Senate campaign in 1996 tried to paint James Jeffords as a right-wing racist nut. The Backus camp must be the only one in politics that was ever able to see Jeffords as a right-winger. Sadly, Backus would appear to have so little ammunition that she can only fall back on name-calling. 

Backus then dropped the "Dubie is very a nice guy" routine in saying, "Who would you rather have? A progressive Democrat or a right-wing conservative?" Within seconds Dubie apparently morphed from a nice guy who must have right-wing friends, to a complete right-winger himself.

Does Backus have any positive ideas of her own or does she expect voters to fall for a smear campaign? Her opening salvo is not a promising one. In her comments, Backus called herself "a progressive Democrat with a small ‘p.’" Are not progressives, whether with a large or small "p", supposed to believe in diversity and tolerance? If Backus wants to run a serious race she would do well to apologize and start over. 

In other breaking news, the Free Press reports that fellow liberal traveller Cheryl Rivers, former senator from Windsor County, is on the edge of throwing her hat into the ring for the Democrat nomination for lieutenant governor as well. 

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

Unfortunately, it appears that the Republican Senate campaign is not. This is tragic. That leaves a Republican governor and house but then a solidly Democrat senate to block many of their moderate and reasonable efforts. The GOP is not only a minority, effectively they have less than a third of the senate seats. The problem has been the lack of concerted consistent effort through the years on the part of the Republican minority leader Senator John Bloomer of Rutland.

Even worse, those who want to make things happen are worried about stepping on Bloomer’s toes. In spite of Douglas’s appeal in 2002 in counties where we now find Democrat senators, recruiting we are told is not great. Motivation is short, money is non-existent.

The House GOP effort on the other hand is robust. GOP Whip Rick Hube of Londonderry is busy recruiting, raising money, traveling, and motivating the team. Maybe he will have enough energy to give the senate folks a lift. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

That is the question, to be a Progressive or not. Mayor Peter Clavelle has made his decision and has announced his historical and current comfort in the Democrat Party not withstanding his decades long sleeping with the Progressives. Bernie Sanders, not a real card carrying Progressive, believes himself now to be an icon. The pressure is on Anthony Pollina to run next year in the Democrat primary for lieutenant governor to finally consolidate the left. Reportedly former Senator Peter Shumlin will let us know his intentions by Halloween.

Some observers believe that the only reason that Republicans have succeeded in Vermont recently is because of the proud but misguided statewide campaigns by the Progressives. Though we do not agree with this belief, we encourage theirs. Ending the Progressive Party and herding them into the Democrat Party will strengthen their minority position but pull them further from the mainstream. This would give the Grand Old Party a unique chance to enlarge their base by reaching our to the conservative Democrats, the business Democrats, and the practicing Catholic Democrats. 

DEAN SPINS CALIFORNIA 

Now that California has been through the Governator spectacle everyone is trying to spin the story their way. Bill Clinton and Howard Dean were among the many Democrats who rushed to the side of Gray Davis. Both angrily denounced the recall election as a right-wing plot and urged voters to vote to keep Davis. While Dean's advice to Californians was obviously not heeded, it has not kept Dean from trying to claim the election was actually the harbinger of a victory for him. 

"Come next November, that anger might be directed at a different incumbent - in the White House," said Democratic candidate Howard Dean (NY Post). Election over, suddenly it was no longer a right-wing plot but rather a sign that voters are angry and want to throw out incumbents and put in insurgent campaigners. 

Of course one fellow who fought an insurgent campaign and gained the respect of many is Senator John McCain. This year all the challengers want to get some of Senator John McCain's charisma. It was interesting to read in the Times this week that McCain had harsh words and scorn for Dean. In McCain's view Dean's national security positions "are way out of the mainstream". 

"Mr. McCain cited Dr. Dean's remark that 'the ends do not justify the means,' in reference to the death of Saddam Hussein's sons. 'I was astounded,' the senator said. 'The ends were to get rid of two murdering rapist thugs and the means was the use of American military intelligence.'" 

McCain, asked on MSNBC for his thoughts on Dean's reaction to the killing of Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai said, "I am astonished. A lot of people have compared me with Governor Dean. I could not disagree with him more to say that the ends don't justify the means… Mr. Dean does the nation a great disservice when he doesn't recognize how wonderful an event this is and how important it is to the morale of the troops." 

URBAN LEGEND CREATED

Dean vented his fury on New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, author of the McCain Times piece. "I never said that. I never said that. McCain claimed I said that on television. We called the station and said we never said that. This is the problem with LexisNexis. It's great, but it circulates urban legends and creates them and I had never said that…" Safire did a quick Internet search and he found the answer. 

This from an Associated Press dispatch by Holly Ramer from Manchester, N.H., dated July 22, 2003: "Questioned about the deaths of Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai in Iraq, Dean dismissed suggestions that it was a victory for the Bush administration. 'It's a victory for the Iraqi people ... but it doesn't have any effect on whether we should or shouldn't have had a war,' Dean said. 'I think in general the ends do not justify the means.'"

Safire's conclusion on Dean is surely a familiar one to many Vermonters: "By repeatedly denying the words ever came out of his mouth thereby imputing inaccuracy to the AP reporter and blatant dishonesty to McCain he compounds the original blunder..." 

DER GROPHENFUHER

The Los Angeles Times so dubbed their governor-elect, after having placed their attempted hatchet job on Arnold clearly in their own head, revealing their own bias and ignorance. The following is a collage of clippings from around the world assembled mostly by Mark Steyn and Bret Stephens.

"To elites, the problem is that the public, which selfishly does not want to be taxed at confiscatory rates, keeps revolting. It keeps imposing by initiative what state leaders will not do: namely, place restrictions on taxation and remove the most craven politicians from power.

"It is not just the restrictions on taxation that bother the elites; it is the nerve of the peons for sticking up for their money and freedoms.

AUSTRIA SAYS COOL BUT PLEASE NOT HERE

"'Despite our pride over Mr. Schwarzenegger's election,' wrote Austrian journalist Anneiliese Rohrer in the New York Times, 'there is open agreement, and relief, that it would have been impossible here.' Whew!

"Continentals could hardly wait for the polls to close to throw up their hands and shriek 'Quelle horreur!' Der Spiegel put Arnold on the cover over the headline 'Das verkommene Paradies' - the rotten paradise. Le Monde warned of 'le danger Californien'. In L'Humanité, Claude Cabanes turned in a column headlined 'The American Bad Dream' and declared that the election of a 'cardboard Hercules' was merely the latest stage in the 'decomposition of a completely worm-eaten political system'.

NOT FOR ENGLAND EITHER, THANK YOU

“The Independent called Arnold's election a 'profoundly depressing day for those who believe in democratic ideals'. The Guardian wrote 'the biggest joke in politics since Hartlepool elected a man in a monkey-suit. (Arnold) has no experience of politics and no discernible policies'.

DEMOCRACY WORKS

"Cheer up, lads. Voter turnout was up; the electorate quickly winnowed 135 candidates down into three credible contenders, Arnold piled up more votes than Davis got last November: why is that incompatible with 'democratic ideals'?

"'To accept civilization as it is,' wrote George Orwell in his essay Inside the Whale, 'practically means accepting decay.' George Bernard Shaw wrote in Maxims for Revolutionists, 'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.' 

"As for the freak-show candidates Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, Mary Carey and so on, they garnered none of the vote. That's a far cry from the 18 percent Le Pen captured in France in 2002, or the 27 percent Haider's Freedom party captured in Austria in 2000 where former Nazi Kurt Waldhiem was elected president. 

"The comparison is instructive: In Europe, quasi-fascist parties have made a comeback in large part because mainstream parties offer voters so little to choose between. In the more raucous political environment of America, where supposedly anything goes, a Le Pen-type candidate is unthinkable.

"As Austrian president Thomas Klestil gushed in his moment of national pride, 'It just proves that everything is possible in America.' Indeed everything is possible. Isn't that just grand?" 

BACK TO THE FUTURE REDUX

Last month we wrote about the London judge who awarded a sorry stockbroker $1,761,000 for suffering stress on his job. This month there is a bit of salvation for the judicial profession. A local court awarded $6,885 to a five-year old boy who fell from a swing and broke his arm after his mother had left him on the school playground to go shopping. The High Court reversed the lower court’s decision.

The lower court wrote, “The school had been aware of the hazard posed by swings and should have immobilized them.” The High Court wrote, “Playing fields cannot be made free from all hazard. We must keep in mind a sense of reality and common sense.”

The decision outraged the mother. “It seems ludicrous to me. People who think that we are just money grabbers can say what they like. What was at stake here was a matter of principle.”

Back in Vermont, court rulings caused insurance rates at Green Trails Inn in Brookfield to skyrocket into the six-figure range, forcing them to prohibit sledding on their hill. In years past, collegiate ski jumping died as insurance rates made that sport too expensive.

RISK IS GOOD

School officials were thrilled at the decision. Compensation and legal costs are now costing English schools over $325,000,000 a year. The chair of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools Simon Carder said, “Children risk growing up unable to stand on their own two feet because they are being smothered in cotton wool by overprotective adults. Children need risk to develop independence.”

SMOKING IS BAD

In the UK, cigarette packages contain minute print which you need opera glasses to read, warning, if you are operating farm equipment while pregnant, smoking won't help.

In the States, on both sides of cigarette packaging in bold black letters are a series of anti-smoking suggestions such as: smoking kills, smokers die younger, smoking seriously harms you and others around you, stopping smoking reduces the risk of fatal heart and lung diseases, smoking may reduce the blood flow and causes impotence, smoking when pregnant harms your baby, and smoking reduces your life.

While we are not sure that these messages prevent smoking, they should prevent lawsuits by smokers’s claiming that they just did not know that smoking was bad. Well, unless they cannot read. 

A NEW TOTALITARIANISM?

A new book, Therapy Culture, argues that the English have become addicted to counseling. There are now 500,000 therapists in a country of 60,000,000.

Reviewer Damian Thompson suggested a connection between state socialism and counseling. “Like state socialism, the detailed management of emotion requires a formidable bureaucratic apparatus. No government can hope to build such a structure on its own. It requires professions and large sections of the public to willingly submit to ideological control. That is how totalitarianism works. 

DIVERSITY

Webster defines diversity: 1) the fact of quality of being diverse: difference; 2) a point or respect in which things differ; and 3) variety or multiformity. Our 1960’s liberals in government, academia, and the media define diversity in black/white terms.

Take the recent Burlington Free Press headline, Diversity Conference Scheduled. The article stressed “people of color.”

Darren Allen of the Vermont News Bureau used his Sunday column recently to write “Lack of diversity affects Vermont’s quality of life. Adults who didn't grow up among blacks, Asians, Native Americans or Latinos can tend to be insular in their thinking.” If that were true, Southerners would be the least racist and insular among us. 

WE ARE ALL RACISTS

Here is a shocker: we are all racists, even Jesse Jackson. Recall a decade ago when crime in our nation’s capitol was huge? To paraphrase Jesse, “I was walking home at night and I heard footsteps behind me. I looked over my shoulder and relaxed when I saw two white boys.” He took lots of grief for this from his brethren but there it is; white boys in Jesse’s mind were less likely to cause him harm than two black boys.

Mr. Allen’s column was prompted by his six-year-old son’s asking, “Why are there no black people in Montpelier?” Notwithstanding his own Representative Francis Brooks, he goes on, “For as long as I could tell, my children were color blind, as were most of their friends.” Hello. Only the color blind are color blind and they are not black/white color blind.

Kids at least are honest about this. Your editor’s five-year-old daughter went into an agricultural fair in Bermuda. She quickly said the obvious, “There are certainly a lot of black people here.” Hush, hush went the embarrassed adults. Really, why? It is hard not to see that someone is white or Black or Asian or Hispanic or Eskimo.

It is almost impossible not to associate some stereotypes with what you see, be they white variations or part of the rainbow. Just because you have vision, information, knowledge, and experience does not mean however that you have to behave in a racist manner. But to not recognize color is not realistic.

INSULAR VERMONTERS?

Back to Mr. Allen’s claim of our being insular. The Scandinavians until recently lived with minuscule numbers of minorities. Yet they have been the most outward, proactive, and generous donors and participants in trying to improve the lives of sub Saharan Africans. So how insular are they?

We wrote about the lack of diversity in Vermont media and government, the almost non-existent native Vermont participation. Should this be Alabama, there would be a hue and cry and lawsuits to insure that our institutions represented our diverse community.

WE ALL LIKE PEOPLE LIKE US

It is not that Howard Dean and others intentionally discriminate against the native Vermonter. More likely they associated with and appointed people who were like them. This is only natural, Davis Brooks wrote in the September Atlantic Monthly, People Like Us.

“Democrat lawyers who work in Washington tend to live in suburban Maryland, Republicans lawyers tend to live in suburban Virginia... we are increasing our happiness by segmenting. Middle and upper class African Americans families tend to congregate in predominantly black neighborhoods...

WHEN WILL UNIVERSITIES PRACTICE DIVERSITY?

“It is striking that the institutions which talk the most about diversity often practice it the least... If elite university faculties reflected the general population, 31 percent of professors would be Republican, 32 percent would be Democrat and 40 percent would be evangelical Christians. But a recent study found that 90 percent of arts and science professors who registered to vote were Democrat...

“In fact, any registered Republican who contemplates a career in academia is both a hero and a fool. People want to be around others who are roughly like themselves.”

Dean, Kunin, Snelling, and others did not come to Vermont to discriminate against the native. They tended to stick to their own kind, other flatlanders. The legislative council according to the most recent published book on state government officials published in 2001 is almost all flatlanders. The judiciary is almost the same, only one native on the Supreme Court. The result is legislation and rulings which do not reflect the common sense and frugality of the indigenous people. Mr. Allen is right; we are all less for our own lack of diversity in the halls of power.

CALVIN COOLIDGE WAS NO FLATLANDER

The appeal in part which attracted flatlanders to Vermont was not that it was filled with people just like them, but that it was filled with people whose character, history, and traditions were different. Calvin Coolidge spoke of his brethren when leaving Vermont in the last year of his presidency.

“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our eternal hills. 

“I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”

In the last twenty years, the Vermont NEA and the legislature have taken advantage of a people willing to “beggar themselves to serve others.” Vermonters have gone along and supported school budget increases which called for hiring more and more teachers at higher wage and benefit levels, beggaring themselves in the process without a return for their generousity.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR HOME GROWN DIVERSITY

There is plenty of diversity in any town of Vermont. Not necessarily the black-white kind, but of the “difference” kind. Here is some diversity for Darren Allen to consider: poor-rich, old-young, native-flatlander, cool-uncool, college bound-jail bound, smokers-non smokers, athletes-non athletes, handicapped-able bodied, stutterers-loquacious, traveled-insular, protestant-catholic, Christian-non Christian, or native speaker-English as a second language.

There is so much to learn amongst ourselves. Having relationships with folks of color is a benefit. But why not also move forward into diversity with what we have by learning about fellow students, workers, or community members in our midst? 

THE MEDIA DOES NOT HELP 

Racism cuts both ways. Here in the UK, the media piles it on as well. “Black community needs its own schools,” from the Guardian. “Scared white teachers fail black students,” from the Observer or “Schools have let down black pupils,” from the Independent.

A black school teacher, Katharine Birbalsingh, wrote in an op-ed, “The media’s shouting institutional racism exacerbates the problem by encouraging the…community to distrust their children’s teachers. This trust between parent and teacher is vital if the child is to succeed. 

“Black children argue, in spite of the statistical improbability, that they are likely to become another Ronaldo (the Michael Jordan of soccer) and therefore do not need good grades... When teachers turn to parents for support, they find suspicion, derision, or downright hostility.

“The media by shouting racism unwittingly destroy the respect parents and children should have for their teachers. That respect is strong in the Chinese and Indian communities and helps to explain why children of both outperform their white counterparts in getting good grades.” 

THE ETHAN ALLEN INSTITUTE - TENTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Celebrating the first decade of the Institute's advocacy for liberty, property, community, limited government, lower taxes, less regulation, competitive free enterprise, personal responsibility, constitutionalism, and economic opportunity for all.

Monday, November 17, 2003
Sheraton Burlington conference center, South Burlington (I-89 Exit 14W)
Social Hour 6:00 - Dinner 7:00 

Tickets are $75 in advance, $100 at the door. Send ticket reservations to the Ethan Allen Institute, 4836 Kirby Mountain Road, Concord VT 05824. Questions? 802.695.1448 or email eai@ethanallen.org. 

ONLY IN VERMONT

Over the past week in particular, good news on the economy has been all over the newspapers. Stories have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, and hundreds of other papers. The economy is exceeding expectations, inflation is low, after-tax incomes are rising, home ownership is at record highs, productivity is high and rising, factory orders have been rising for several months... 

The front page headline in today's Burlington Free Press? "Dean blasts Bush's economic record" with the Dean quote, "At the end of the tax cut, there's nothing to show for it." 

WHAT’S THE RUSH

"In the current tempest in a teapot over what Rush Limbaugh said about the National Football League, neither ESPN nor Rush himself will pay any serious price. 

"What matters enormously is whether people lose the freedom to say what they think. That loss is a loss to all of us, those who agree and those who disagree." --Columnist Thomas Sowell 

CHEAP SHOT

"The Los Angeles Times used a large-print front page story dealing with Arnold’s supposed admiration of Hitler. Later there was a page 22 story that the quote was taken out of context." -- News & Views, October 6, 2003 

WHAT ABOUT JIMMY THE GREEK?

Last month, Chicago Cubs Manager Dusty Baker said "Blacks and Latins take the heat better than most whites, and whites take the cold better than most blacks and Latins. That's it, pure and simple. Nothing deeper than that." 

While the ignorance in this statement is shocking, neither resignation nor apology were necessary. --Horace Cooper, Centre for New Black Leadership 

BILL PARKER RETURNS!

Those who read and loved Robert Pittman's "Legislative Body" will be delighted to learn that "Bill Parker", former Vermont State Representative, is back in a new book by the same author. "Still Waters" recounts new adventures in ProgDem land as Parker inadvertently uncovers evidence that the death of a close friend and fellow trout fisherman, Dick Obrist, may not have been an accident. 

We're still reading it and hope to publish a review soon. If you don't want to wait for us, order your copy today: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0741415844/act60whatvermosh

SPENDING GAP

»» Rob Towle, Rutland City: First of all, welcome back. Even monthly is a good thing.

If we are spending over $10,000 per student for education, why are we happy with only the block grant being raised to over $7000 per student? How much is being used for non-student issues such as union administration, health care for union officials, advertising against President Bush, and the many Saddam Hussein-like palaces that the various Boards of Educations have made us build for them. Then add up the many Supervisory Union buildings, etc. Overall, I agree we should full-fund education but I think we need to full-fund with the money already being spent first!!! 

NO NEWS NOT GOOD NEWS

»» Tim Dienst: I was very happy to see the DPR in my in-box today. Thank you, thank you!!

For what ever reason, the 32 people laid off at Specialty Filaments in Burlington never made the news. Maybe the Mayor didn't want any bad press before his announcement that he will run for Governor.

I hope you are enjoying your sabbatical and will come back all refreshed. How is the crime rate there? I hear that the crime rate has skyrocketed since the Government took away the guns. 

AIR FRANCE SUED?

»» Steve Cosgrove, Rutland: Please buy 10,000 copies of Robert Kaplan's book OF PARADISE AND POWER and distribute to the French population, so they know who maintains their "xenophobic, statist, anti-competitive mindset". 

THEY LIKE US

»» Dee McGrath, Georgia: I cannot tell you the joy in my heart at seeing a new report from you. I truly missed your wise and interesting analyses of the trying times true Vermonters are experiencing in this state. Thanks sooooo much for coming back - maybe not so often as before, but sometimes to give us an honest analysis of the news here in Vermont. God bless you for your courage and fortitude - and caring so much about the truth and getting it out.

»» L.A. Leonard, Rutland: Gee, what a nice surprise to see The Dwinell Poitical Report again. Glad to see it may become a regular monthly report. Will look forward to it again.

»» Laurie Morrow, Montpelier: What a delight to open my email and find a DPR waiting!

»» Russell Spreeman, Indiana: It's great to see a new edition of your report online. We need it now as much as ever, what with the hypocrisy taking place politically in VT as well as nationally. The other day the Free Press ran another editorial about 'why can't the Federal government and the other states balance their budget, as Vermont does?' I sent them a note saying 'Please, no more of these editorials. Vermont lives on pork and unlike many other states, gets more from the Federal government than it sends in taxes. I live in a state that sends more than we get back and thus we are subsidizing Vermont and supporting the Federal government. Perhaps if we weren't paying for your empty Champlain Flyer and your other pork projects we could make ends meet better.' We need you and your site! Even if it's updated every few weeks or only monthly.

»» Martha Hanson, St. Johnsbury: Great to see you show up on my e-mail. Enjoy your perspective. Get yourself an AGA [British stove brand] like mine. Bring it on home. Let's swap recipes. 

»» Rep. Loren Shaw, Derby: I can't tell you how much I miss your letters! I for one don't mind paying for good coverage such as yours. I really wish that you would reconsider. With pay, it should help quite a bit! It certainly was rewarding to read your straightforward articles this week. 

THE FLATLANDERS AND THEIR KING
by Jonah Goldberg 

The following is a teaser, Cliff Notes if you like, from a piece which appeared in September 21st National Review. To see the real deal, and we suggest that you do, go to: http://chapination.blogspot.com/2003_09_21_chapination_archive.html (it's the fifth post on the page).

"The statehouse in Montpelier is pretty much what you would expect, except one painting that is unlike the others. It looks more like the multihued cover of an L. L. Bean catalog. It depicts a man in an open-collared flannel shirt with dark khaki pants and sneaker-like hiking boots. With the exception of his ostentatiously shiny wedding ring, virtually every item on his person begs to have a page number pointing to where in the catalog you can find out if you can get it in Tuscan olive or burnt sienna. 

"This is Howard Dean. Dean typifies what many call 'the Flatlander invasion,' the massive influx of urban professional liberals who have taken advantage of Vermont’s famous tolerance and don't-tread-on-me individualism. Dean is their king.

"'The Flatlander invasion represents perhaps the most complete case of internal American colonialism since the destruction of the Indian,' says Hal Goldman, a historian and lawyer who has studied and worked in Vermont. Hundreds of thousands of highly educated, well-off people invaded a state with a unique culture and history. 

"They seized control of its resources and institutions, demeaned and destroyed the indigenous values of its people, altered the landscape, and drove many of the natives from their homes as a result of their activities. If this happened in Africa, the same people would call it colonialism. The colonists are arrogant, disrespectful, and hypocritical. Those who are not liberal are looked upon with disgust and bewilderment. Liberals in Vermont truly believe that conservatives are evil.

Once again for the complete story, go to: http://chapination.blogspot.com/2003_09_21_chapination_archive.html (it's the fifth post on the page). 

THE OLD GRAY HIPPIES AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE 

”Things have been running for too long here where ideology is more important than reality, and the old gray hippies (who have not a bit of real world experience of any kind) instead try to push ideology onto the remnants of the commercial sector.” -- Dan Henninger, Opinionjournal.com (re. California) 

CANADA GOES TO POT 

”Official government marijuana, supplied by Health Canada the government health system, is the worst pot ever I have ever smoked. 

"They're sending it back to Ottawa, and they want a full refund. ’It's totally unsuitable for human consumption,’ says Jim Wakeford, an Aids patient in Gibsons, British Columbia. 

"One of the reasons I'm in favor of small government is because there's hardly anything the government doesn't do worse than anybody else who wants to give it a go. When the government of a G7 nation can not run a small marijuana sideline as well as a college student with a window box, this sets an entirely new standard for official under-performance.” --Mark Steyn, The Hollinger Group, 9/29/03 

WALDO THE ULTIMATE PANDERER 

"Ultimate panderer: Dean. The former Vermont governor once referred to "us rural people" during his remarks. Right. (Born to a wealthy family in small-town New York City, Dean attended that one-room prep school, St. Georges in Rhode Island, before donning his manure-caked boots and heading to that great land-grant college, Yale.)" -- David Yepsen, The Des Moines Register http://www.dmregister.com/opinion/stories/c5917686/22505808.html 

LYING LIARS 

"It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." --former Clinton diplomat Joe Wilson. 

He later recanted, "I freely admit I got carried away. If I left the impression that Karl Rove was the leaker or approver of the leak, I didn't intend to." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27207-2003Oct1.html

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