| . |
True
North Archives - January 26, 2010
Radio
| Editorial | News & Views
Radio
Archives
Radio
archives are here! Use the controls on our radio archive page to
listen to past shows of note (archived shows are available for a limited
time only). True North Radio airs daily on WDEV AM & WDEV FM from 11
am to noon.
Featured
Articles
Three
Prescriptions for Vermont Education
By John McClaughry
 In
the past six weeks three major reports have appeared on the future of Vermont
education. One, by far the least valuable, was produced by a legislative
committee created by politicians. The second came from a commission created
by education professionals assembled by the State Board of Education. The
third and far most interesting came from a private sector commission that,
unlike the first two, actually discovered a way to bend down the education
spending curve for the benefit both of students and taxpayers.
Converting
Tea-Party Energy into Sustained Results
 By
Mark Shepard
Surely we need to remove
the statists, but for real and lasting gains we must also expose the fraud
and holes in their ideology and that requires a better set of ideas, based
upon a foundation that does not have holes so it can win in the public
square. Not until this point are we likely to see people in large
numbers shift away from their dependence on government, which I believe
is the real goal of most tea party folks.
Conjugate
This
By Martin Harris
 You’ve
noticed, I’d guess, that human laws are less predictable than natural laws.
No one has yet improved on the three laws of thermodynamics, even though
some physicists are now arguing for a fourth, which, in an effort at language-cuteness,
they want to call the "zeroth". The realization that energy can be neither
created nor destroyed is more reliable than the so-called "law" of unintended
consequences, which wryly observes that human decisions at one point in
history frequently come back to bite their descendants in unexpected ways
at a later point. Lots of such decisions were made in the ‘60’s, the more
elderly in this readership will recall, while younger cohorts, most of
whom have chosen to be non-students of any history before their birth,
won’t ever quite grasp why the world they will have inherited is the way
it is. Here’s a pair of examples, which aren’t quite as dissimilar as they
might, at first glance, seem.
An
Occasional Newsletter from the Legislature
 By
Rep. Thomas F. Koch Barre Town
Absent some real shenanigans
in Washington (probably unlikely for practical political reasons) or a
new-found working relationship between Democrats and Republicans (even
more unlikely), the election of Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts spells
the death of health care reform in Congress. That death will
probably give new life to similar efforts in Montpelier.
The Senate health and welfare
committee has already announced that it will be looking not at whether
a single-payer system should be adopted, but rather how such a system
would work. And last week, that committee and the House health care
committee held a joint public hearing attended by about 300 Vermonters,
who expressed their views on health care reform.
# # #
Quotable
"Your love
of liberty - your respect for the laws - your habits of industry - and
your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest
claims to national and individual happiness." --
George Washington
# # #
Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
Common
Level of Confusion
Vt. Towns Spend Less,
but Watch School Taxes Rise.
By Susan J. Boutwell, Valley
News, January 23, 2010
The lesson at some school
district meetings this year won't focus on ABCs. Instead voters will get
a quick course on the CLA -- the shorthand name of a formula that's helping
to drive up property tax bills in a number of Vermont communities.
Most years, taxpayers don't
hear about the CLA. But this year, voters in Norwich, Hartland and West
Windsor may need a crash course to understand why their school tax bills
may increase as school budgets go down.
Vermont
to Borrow $58 Million to Pay Unemployment Benefits
From Vermont Business Magazine,
January 21, 2010
The Vermont Department of
Labor announced today that it has requested a $58 million advance on a
line of credit from the US Treasury to pay unemployment benefits through
the end of March 2010. Vermont is currently paying out more than
$4 million a week in unemployment benefits and expects to deplete its unemployment
trust fund in early February. The line of credit will enable the
department to continue to pay benefits to Vermont’s unemployed workers.
From
One Blue State to Another: Voters Are Angry
Emerson Lynn on Politics
From Vermont Tiger, January
21, 2010
The deep blue state of Massachusetts
Tuesday sent a message to the deep blue state of Vermont. Voters are angry.
They are frustrated with the political inertia that piddles around the
edges of issues that matter most. They may not have precise answers to
the problems, but what they see before them doesn’t work and they will
respond at the ballot box until things change.
Related Article: Vermont
Can Be Next
Owner
of Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner to File Bankruptcy
From Vermont Business Magazine,
January 21, 2010
The owner of the Brattleboro
Reformer, Bennington Banner and more than 50 daily newspapers
across the country, including the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News
will file for bankruptcy protection. Affiliated Media, Inc of Denver has
announced that it has obtained the approval of its lenders for a financial
restructuring of the company that will sharply reduce its debt, boost its
cash flow and allow greater financial flexibility. The plan will
be implemented in the near future through a "prepackaged" chapter 11 filing.
This is a similar type of filing that FairPoint Communications recently
undertook, in which it gives up most of the ownership of the company in
exchange for significant debt reduction, but without a change in management.
A
Victory For Ordinary People
Caledonia Record Editorial,
January 19, 2010
The Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources' decision to allow ATV use on state land is a victory for the
blue collar population of Vermont as opposed to the elitists who don't
want plebeian entertainment within their sight or sound. It was courageous
of the agency to make their ruling because it flies in the face of some
lawmakers who recently expressed their opposition to ATV use of state land.
Key lawmakers said Wednesday they were expecting soon to file bills to
reverse the agency's decision. Critics maintain that the agency adopted
the rule without the needed authorization from the Legislature, a contention
the agency disputes.
Vermont
Unemployment Rate Rises Half-Point to 6.9 Percent
From Vermont Business Magazine,
January 22, 2010
The Vermont Unemployment
rate rose a half-point in December to a seasonally adjusted 6.9 percent,
according to figures released today by the US Department of Labor. This
is the highest rate since last spring, when the rate peaked at 7.4 percent
last May. The December 2009 rate is exactly one-point higher than the December
2008 rate of 5.9 percent.
Vermont
Sits Out First Round in Race to the Top Competition
By Molly Walsh, Burlington
Free Press, January 25, 2010
The grant program being touted
by President Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan gives points
to state applicants that promote reforms including charter schools, teacher
merit pay and the linking of student performance data to teacher evaluations.
Vermont has no charter schools
and is dominated by a union-negotiated compensation system for public school
teachers that typically rewards educators on the basis of longevity, education
level and national certifications.
# # #
Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
It’s
the Enemy, Stupid
National-security
strength lifts Scott Brown.
By Andrew C. McCarthy, National
Review, January 20, 2010
It was health care that nationalized
the special election for what we now know is the people’s Senate
seat. But it was national security that put real distance between Scott
Brown and Martha Coakley. "People talk about the potency of the health-care
issue," Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s
Robert Costa, "but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue
here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants."
There is a powerful lesson here for Republicans, and here’s hoping they
learn it.
Iraq’s
New Crisis
From Front Page Magazine,
January 22, 2010
Iraq has steadily improved
since the U.S. launched the "surge" of 2007. Security has increased, the
economy has grown, democracy is taking hold, and cross-sectarian reconciliation
is underway. All that could change, however, with the Iraqi government’s
decision,
supported by Prime Minister Nouri
Maliki, to ban 500 politicians for allegedly having ties to
the outlawed Baath Party of the late Saddam Hussein.
On January 14, the Iraqi
government’s Independent High Election Commission sided with the Justice
and Accountability Commission in its decision to ban over 500 politicians
for allegedly having ties to the Baath Party. The earliest reporting said
that these were nearly all Sunni politicians, indicating that the Shiite
government was trying to minimize the strength of its sectarian rival ahead
of the parliamentary elections on March 7, but Reuters received
a copy of the list and found that two-thirds of those banned were Shiites.
Many observers forget that, as Prime Minister Maliki has pointed
out since the crisis began, 70 percent of the Baath Party membership
was Shiite.
Criticizing
Islamists Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
By David J. Rusin, Islamist
Watch, January 22, 2010
The first goal of Islamists
is to silence all who counter their ideology. But while most radical Muslims
in the West are content to intimidate anti-Islamists through smears
or lawsuits,
some do resort to violence, as in the 2004 slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo
van Gogh.
Death threats and attacks
against public opponents of Islamism have escalated in recent months. Exhibit
A: the New Year's assault by an ax-wielding Somali on the home of Kurt
Westergaard, known for drawing the most
recognizable of the Danish
Muhammad cartoons. Shot by police, the young jihadist faces
charges of attempted murder and terrorism — because, in
the words of the prosecutor, "trying to kill Kurt Westergaard had a bigger
purpose than just killing him."
Killing
Muslims
America needs to publicize
al Qaeda's main 'achievement'.
By Ralph Peters, New York
Post, January 23, 2010
AL Qaeda does one thing extremely
well: killing Muslims. Between 2006 and 2008, only 2 percent of the terror
multinational's victims were Westerners.
The rest were citizens of
Muslim countries. Even as al Qaeda claims to be their defender.
I've long complained that
we fail to capitalize on al Qaeda's blood thirst in our information operations.
Al Qaeda (as well as the Taliban
and other insurgent groups) slaughters Muslims -- yet we let the
media flip the blame to us.
Chile's
Shift To Right Is A Bellwether
From Investor’s Business
Daily, January 19, 2010
Chile's story is an unusual
one in Latin America. Ruled by a level-headed, center-left coalition called
Concertacion since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990,
its leaders nevertheless pursued free-market policies.
Instead of blaming the gringos
and waging class warfare in Che T-shirts, they balanced their budget and
respected private property. Instead of squandering a $19 billion state
windfall from soaring copper prices, they managed it. They continued Pinochet's
free-market privatization of pensions without reflexively opposing its
origins, and signed free trade pacts with any nation that asked. ...
Much of this was done by
a party of the left, whose outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet, is leaving
office with an 80% approval rating. Amazingly, Concertacion's center-left
candidate, Eduardo Frei, lost the election — not to a Hugo Chavez-style
leftist demagogue calling for expropriation of wealth, but to pro-free-market
Sebastian Pinera, a self-made billionaire who vows to expand free markets
even more. Following his exuberant 52%-48% victory Sunday, Pinera vowed
to make Chile "the best country in the world."...
The implications for the
region are enormous.
Already countries with big
capitalist bases and left-leaning leaders — like Brazil and Argentina —
appear to be shifting toward the right in anticipation of upcoming elections.
Uruguay is already governed by a moderate, and free marketers are in the
saddle in Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.
Chile's example is a force
to be reckoned with. As more nations join its camp, they may soon form
a majority in a region long dominated by the left and remake the face of
Latin America.
Israel's
'Super-Hero'
By Jane Jamison, American
Thinker, January 19, 2010
Single-handedly, this intense
miniature bull of a man,
a son of Russian survivors of the holocaust, may be keeping the
Middle East a safer place. Dagan
leads the most effective and mysterious intelligence agency in the world,
Israel's Mossad, which has that reputation because of him.
This weekend, the official
Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, wrote an unusual story
praising Dagan's accomplishments. It is unusual because Israel has
historically been "coy" about Dagan's exploits and because Egypt is not
necessarily a friend to Israel. Al-Ahram calls Dagan "the Mossad
Superman."
# # #
|
From
Elsewhere
Forgive
Us Our Deficits
By Samuel Gregg D.Phil.,
Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty, January 19, 2010
As 2010 unfolds, many countries
are confronting a public deficit crisis of disturbing proportions. Since
2008, countless politicians have underscored that a cavalier attitude to
debt on the part of Main St. and Wall St. contributed significantly to
the recent financial crisis. It’s therefore ironic to observe these contemporary
preachers of thrift plunging developed economies into an abyss of public
liabilities.
It’s
Marcuse, Not Alinsky
By Michael P. Tremoglie,
Tremoglie's Tea Time Blog, January 19, 2010
This past year Saul Alinsky
replaced David Ayers as the radio talk show host’s favorite radical liberal
professor. They inveigh against his ideas repeatedly during their monologues.
I would like to proffer the
name of another liberal college professor – Herbert Marcuse.
Far
Left Has Taken Over Democratic Party, Sen. Bayh Says.
From the LA Times, January
19, 2010
As The
Ticket noted first thing this morning, the blame game has already
started in the startling Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, operating on the
always dangerous assumption that someone has won (Republican Scott "I
Drive a Pickup, You Know" Brown) and someone has lost (Democrat Martha
"Ewh, Shake Hands with Those People?" Coakley) before the votes are
counted.
But, hey, why not? If staunch
lifelong Democrat and son of a staunch lifelong Democrat Sen. Evan Bayh
of Indiana is doing it, then it must be OK. ...
But he is warning that, assuming
Coakley the Democrat is electoral toast come balloon-dropping time tonight,
Democrats need to learn an important lesson -- and learn it quite quickly.
Bayh, who is one of those gutless moderates who just keeps on winning because
he listens and stays connected back home, says his party and president
have simply abandoned moderation to push a far-left agenda that alienates
moderates and, hello, independents, who happen to make up about half of
the Massachusetts electorate.
‘AstroTurf’
Tea Party Has Roots, After All
By Sean Higgins, Investor’s
Business Daily, January 20, 2010
Tuesday’s special election
in Massachusetts represented the emergence of the tea party movement as
a recognized political force. For the first time, reporters and pundits
are taking note of the fact that this is a real grass-roots movement and
not a phony AstroTurf one.
Obama
Health Plan in Doubt as Dems Reject Fast Fix
Obama's health care
bid hangs in limbo as dispirited House Democrats reject quick fix
From the Associated Press,
January 21, 2010
Though reeling from a political
body blow, House Democrats rejected the quickest fix to their health care
dilemma Thursday and signaled that any agreement on President Barack Obama's
signature issue will come slowly, if at all.
Justice
Roberts Hints He Could Overturn Roe
By Theodore Kettle, NewsMax,
January 24, 2010
Chief Justice John Roberts
last week made it clear that the Supreme Court over which he presides will
not hesitate to sweep away its own major constitutional rulings when doing
so is necessary to defend America’s bedrock governing document. The announcement
of that guiding core principle means two very big things. First, Roberts
and his fellow strict constructionists on the court are now armed and ready
with a powerful rationale for overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion
ruling if Justice Anthony Kennedy or a future justice becomes the fifth
vote against Roe.
NBC
Trumpeted the Launch of Air America, Skips Demise of Radio Network
By Scott Whitlock, Media
Research Center, January 22, 2010
When the liberal radio network
Air America debuted on March 31, 2004, NBC trumpeted it as the “counterweight”
to the "right-wing bent" of talk radio. Katie Couric enthused that Al Franken
and his colleagues hoped “to break into what has been a conservative lock
on the radio.” However, when the beleaguered Air America announced bankruptcy
on Thursday, both the Nightly News and Friday's Today skipped the story.
An
Economic Time Bomb
Even if Congress does
nothing, tax hikes will hit hard a year from now.
...next year there will also
be substantial tax increases for a great many Americans. The first reason
will be the expiration of the Bush tax cuts . The top personal income tax
rate will rise next Jan. 1 to 39.6% from 35%, a hike of nearly one-eighth.
The dividend tax rate will rise to 39.6%, more than 2½ times the
current 15%. And the capital gains tax rate will rise by a third, to 20%
from 15%. If the House health care bill had passed, all three of these
rates would have risen to 45%.
# # #
|
