| . |
True
North Archives - June 05, 2007
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
Vermont's
New 15-year School System
by John McClaughry
 In
his state of the state message in January 2006, Gov. Jim Douglas observed
that the 2005 legislature "added a provision into the final budget bill
that I fear will lead to an unacceptable outcome: adding two more pre-kindergarten
grades to the already stressed K-12 education system and putting taxpayers
on the hook to fund it." He asked the legislature "to reconsider the decision
to further increase the cost of education and the growing tax bills that
accompany those costs." On June 1 Gov. Douglas signed H.534, Strangely,
this bill will add two more pre-kindergarten grades to the already stressed
K-12 education system, and put taxpayers on the hook to fund it. Welcome
to the new 15-year public education system!
Good
Comments from Shakespeare
By Pete Behr
The Legislature has adjourned
for the year, unless they are called back in July to try to override Governor
Douglas’s veto of the silly "environmental" bill creating a new bureaucracy
to tell Vermonters how to insulate their houses, and taxing Vermont Yankee
$25 million or so to pay for it. This bill caps a legislative session which
has been one of the least productive ever. A quote from the Bard seems
an appropriate description of the efforts of Mr. Shumlin and Ms. Symington-
and their local abettors Messrs. Campbell, McCormack, Chen et al, and Ms.
Clarkson- "… full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
 US
Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Partial Birth Abortion
By Mary Hahn Beerworth
Today, Gonzales v Carhart
places the truth about abortion in plain view for those willing to read
it. The case is also an irrefutable and accurate record of this terrible
chapter in the history of our great country and our children and grandchildren
will hold us to account for it. To view the decision in its entirety, see
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-380.pdf
Follow
the Money
By Martin Harris
Just when you’ve become
convinced that the MSM are hopelessly and predictably biased in a leftist,
pro-government direction, along comes a Main Stream Media member, the Washington
Post in this case, to prove your sweeping generalization wrong. About a
month ago, the Post reported in both specific detail and general background,
that a lot of the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program
money has been going to areas which non-USDA folks might deem pretty much
non-rural. USDA has spent more than $70 billion on "rural development"
since 2001, the Post reports, and a lot of it has gone for what you and
I might call "non-rural development."
# # #
This
Week’s Mail Bag
Illusion
vs. Reality
To those for whom a contract
may be viable only for so long as it is convenient or desirable for and
to them alone, it is easy to propose solutions which fly in the face of
both reality and a previously agreed to modus operandi. I refer specifically
to his rather outrageously advanced support of the Shumlin Anti-Business
in Vermont bill, which would currently apply, for all practical purposes,
only to the Entergy Corporation and would arbitrarily increase the tax
on the energy generation derived from the company’s operation of Vermont
Yankee in the town of Vernon. ... Full
letter here
Ralph Colin, East Dorset
* * *
Quotable
Senator Joe Biden:
"As long as there are troops who are in a position where, if we don't fund
them they are going to be hurt, I'm not going to cut off funding ... that's
what the other [Democrat Presidential] candidates said too, but they changed
their minds." (Thomas Beaumont, "Biden Says Rivals Who Are Senators
Switched Positions," The Des Moines Register, 5/30/07)
# # #
Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
Public-Private
Pre-K Works with New Rules
By Terri Hallenbeck, Burlington
Free Press, June 2, 2007
The legislation's goal of
encouraging collaboration between schools and private providers is one
of the few good things Retta Dunlap of Woodbury sees in the bill. The executive
director of Vermonters for Better Education said she will watch the upcoming
rule-making process closely to make sure private providers really are protected
from being put out of business by school-run programs. Dunlap opposed the
legislation because she believes it ignores the notion that children are
better off at home with a parent. Supporters of the bill often acknowledge
that parents are the best child-care providers, she said, but they quickly
leave behind any efforts to help make that possible. "The next 500 sentences
are about how we get them into second best," she said
The
Children Are Disappearing
Caledonian Record Editorial,
May 30, 2007
In these few months before
our wind generators go back to Montpelier, but especially in the ramping
up to elections in 2008, let us sincerely hope and pray that those we elect
pay attention to Vermont's problems, an alien idea this session, not to
trying to design messianic solutions to global problems. To paraphrase
a political slogan of several years ago, "It's affordability and retention
of youth, stupid!"
When
Words Mean What They Say
Caledonia Record Editorial,
June 2, 2007
If there is any place where
words not just ought to, but must, mean what they say, it is within the
law. The left is totally ignoring the political process that produced the
law. The 180-day limitation was clearly a compromise worked out by the
give and take of the legislative process. It is entirely likely that the
law never would have been passed without this safeguard from exploitation
of employers by disaffected employees. That's the nature of democratic
lawmaking.
Veto
of campaign finance bill is good for Vermonters
S.164 is a "Big-Money
Wolf" in sheep’s clothing
Vermont GOP May 31, 2007
Vermont citizens owe Governor
Jim Douglas thanks for his veto of S.164, An act relating to campaign finance.
This was a principled decision to protect the First Amendment rights of
all Vermont citizens, the democratic process, as well as the wallets of
Vermont taxpayers.
My
Turn: Immigration from another perspective
By Michael P. Schaal, Burlington
Free Press, June 1, 2007
The proposed immigration
bill that was agreed upon by the White House and some members of the Senate
uses education rather than uniting families as one of the priorities in
deciding who will be allowed to legally immigrate to the Untied States.
If adopted as is, it would make the separation of families a matter of
policy and law.
The
Real Worst President In The Nation's History
Thursday, Caledonia Record,
May 31, 2007
Just a few days ago, Jimmy
Carter - the worst president in the past one hundred, perhaps two hundred
years - labeled President Bush the worst president in our history. That's
some distinction, to be labeled by an absolute incompetent to be more incompetent
than he.
# # #
Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
Jihad
Training in Southern Virginia?
The Jawa Report, May 31,
2007
I imagine a lot of people
got this report e-mailed to them from Dr. Paul Williams. I usually don't
do this kind of thing--reprinted a report e-mailed to me--but Paul is begging
people to reprint it. The report recounts how he and a few others, including
Egyptian journalist Jamal Babour, visited the compound of Jamaat Al Fuqra
which is located on Mahareen Roadin in what seems to be one of the more
rural areas of Prince George's County.
I'm going to go ahead and
distance myself from a couple of the claims--such as the notion that Hezbollah
leaders one time got together with al Qaeda leaders for a secret meeting.
But, other than a few claims like that--which don't seem to have much to
do with the point of the story--the encounter Paul and his colleagues have
at the Jamaat Al Fuqra compound are downright scary. It's worth
the read, just for that.
Terrorized
By Fred Thompson, National
Review Online, May 30, 2007
"Let me ask you a hypothetical
question: What do you think America would do if Canadian soldiers were
firing dozens of missiles every day into Buffalo, N.Y.? What do you think
our response would be if Mexican troops for two years had launched daily
rocket attacks on San Diego — and bragged about it? I can tell you, our
response would look nothing like Israel’s restrained and pinpoint reactions
to daily missile attacks from Gaza. We would use whatever means necessary
to win the war. There would likely be numerous casualties on our enemy’s
side, but we would rightfully hold those who attacked us responsible.
From
Surge to Sustain
by Austin Bay, Strategy
Page
The military component of
the "surge" consists of change in operational and tactical emphasis designed
to achieve the original strategic goals. Iraq as a strategic project is
and has always been about choice. A free, economically and politically
stable Iraq creates a democratic choice in the politically dysfunctional
Muslim Middle East, a region trapped in the terrible yin-yang of tyrant
and terrorist -- which is no choice for those who value life and liberty.
Sept. 11 made it clear that economic and political development -- the expansion
of the sphere of economically and politically liberal states -- was key
to America's 21st century security. Continue
reading "14,000 increase in Iraqi Army since beginning of May "
An
Iraqi Tet Offensive?
MAJ Greg C. Reeson, USA,
Senior Writer, The New Media Journal, May 30, 2007 m
The Guardian (UK) reported
in its May 22, 2007 edition that Iran is working to establish ties with
al-Qaeda elements and Sunni insurgents in order to launch a major summer
offensive against coalition forces in Iraq. The intent of such an operation,
if the factional elements could pull it off, would be to undermine the
President's security plan for Baghdad and al-Anbar Province, the so-called
"surge," just as General David Petraeus was scheduled to return to Washington
to brief the Congress on military and political progress in Iraq.
Iraq
Residents Rise Up Against al-Qaida
By Sinan Salaheddin, Associated
Press, May 31, 2007
A battle raged in west Baghdad
on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S.
military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors
and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district
council said.
Al-Qaeda’s
Waiting Game
Bush isn’t winning
in his battle against our real enemy.
by Michael Scheuer, The
American Conservative, May 21, 2007
Americans tend to forget
that while we were surprised by the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda was not. The
attacks’ exact date was known to bin Laden and two or three others only
six days before Sept. 11, 2001, but they had long known the attacks were
coming. Thus al-Qaeda was able to move important operatives, archives,
materiel, and other assets out of Afghanistan in advance.
|
From
Elsewhere
It
Takes a Socialist Village
By Cal Thomas
Thursday, May 31, 2007 Townhall.com
Senator and Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton has unveiled her economic vision. Should she
be given the power to implement it, we can say goodbye to the prosperity
and opportunity we have enjoyed since the Reagan years.
The
Dem High Tax Triangle
RNC Research Wednesday,
May 30, 2007
Obama and Clinton join Edwards
in calling for higher taxes on Americans. One by one, the democrat candidates
are calling for higher taxes: ...ABC news headline: "No lip service: Dems
trade higher taxes for social programs". "The democratic presidential candidates
want to raise your taxes." .... Obama's tax hike would hit at least 1 million
taxpayers and would also include a new tax on small businesses."[Obama]
is calling for the tax cuts pushed by President Bush to expire in 2010
for upper-income earners -- an effective tax hike for more than 1 million
taxpayers -- and is proposing a new tax on small businesses that don't
provide health care to their employees." (ABCNews.com,
5/29/07)
Berger's
Eternal Secret
New York Post, May
27, 2007
It now looks like the American
people will never learn how - and why - Bill Clinton's national security
adviser, Sandy "Sticky Fingers" Berger, stole and destroyed classified
documents from the National Archives. That's because Berger - in a significant,
but little-noticed, move - has short-circuited the last investigation into
his sordid little burglary.
Comprehensive
Immigration Reform II
70% likely Latino
voters support border security first
By Martha Zoller, Human
Events Online, May 29, 2007
Since addressing this topic
in HUMAN EVENTS in April, debate on a "compromise" bill on immigration
reform is being taken up in the United States Senate. This compromise is
more conservative than the McCain-Kennedy bill passed last year in the
Senate but it is still a long way from the border security first passed
in the House last year. The American people do not trust the government
to do anything comprehensively, they want to achieve immigration reform
with border security first.
Hugo
Opportunity
By Fred Thompson, National
Review Online, June 1, 2007
We'll never know if Afghanistan
might have rejected al Qaeda if America had actively engaged that country
as we did those Eastern Europeans. We can't know if Venezuelans would have
chosen liberty over the false security of authoritarianism if they had
been challenged to face the issues. I do know, though, that it's time for
a new generation of Americans to stand up for freedom — like others before
us. And this time, we’ll have a whole new set of media technologies.
Obama's
Health-Care Plan: Wrong RX
by Michael D. Tanner, Cato
Institute, May 30, 2007
Barack Obama's presidential
campaign is supposed to represent a new politics that transcends traditional
partisanship, open to new ideas from all sides, and leavened with optimism.
But if Obama's new health-care plan is an example of this new politics,
give me old fashioned partisan bickering and gridlock anytime.
Related: HillaryCare
Blooms
* *
*
|
