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.

Energy bill would hurt Vermont’s economic environment
by Rob Roper

If anything is raising the temperature in Vermont these days, it’s the increasingly heated rhetoric over H.520 and the impending veto session that will decide its fate. It’s ironic that such an excess of political energy is being spent so inefficiently on a bill whose goal is supposed to be energy efficiency and conservation. Maybe it’s time for everyone to take a deep breath of clean Vermont air.

If We Give It, They Will Come
By Martin Harris

Vermont ranks 11^th in the nation for Welfare Recipients as a Percent of Population, at 1.77%, resulting in Vermont also being well above average (3$ nationally) in terms of State Public Welfare Expenditures Per Capita. At $1,769 in ’04-5, the number is well above the US average of $1,248. Since there’s a statistical correlation between welfare spending and minority population percentage (the District of Columbia, for example, at 72.6% minority population, ranks #1 in terms of Welfare Recipients as Percent of Population, and Vermont, at 2%, ranks #49) you’d think that statistically-nearly-all-white Vermont would be spending less than the national average per capita, on welfare, but you’d be wrong.

The Frontier Within
By Robert Maynard

So, contrary to the fantasies of the central planners, the American tradition of responsible individualism is a very important key to prosperity in the 21^st Century global economy. Our individualism and its encouragement of individual excellence is what gave us a significant head start. Are we going to throw that advantage away by humoring our utopian welfare state central planners and their collectivist egalitarian vision? Nowhere in our country is this question more in doubt than right here in Vermont where that creativity crippling vision is most advanced.

Driving a Wedge
By James Black

Vermont Senate Pro Tem Peter Shumlin pushed through his energy bill. To fund the bill's laudable conservation measures, he in effect voided the state's property tax agreement with Vermont Yankee and socked them with an extra $28 million. Imagine your school board paying for a new roof on the schoolhouse by tripling the taxes of everyone on your street only. You and your neighbors would be mighty ticked at this arbitrary, selective use of government's power of the purse. You might just put up a "for sale" sign and leave town. And you would never, ever trust your school board again...

"We, your Vermont Legislature, cannot continue to raise taxes to support every cause we think worthwhile. We must exercise financial discipline and learn to prioritize our spending needs." --Representative Richard Hube

"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader." ---Samuel Adams

The Dark Side Of Multiculturalism
Caledonia Record Editorial, July 2, 2007

Multiculturalism imposes bilingual/bicultural curricula upon people who don't want that, especially Latinos. Multiculturalism pushed Ebonics into inner city, predominantly black schools. Ebonics is a reputed black dialect, but it is really an argot flowing from an illiterate population. It's imposition upon black people in inner cities is not an acknowledgement of its cultural worth. It is another example of the stifling condescension of the white, liberal establishment. Kids who are saddled with Ebonics in place of proper English will be working a full day for an hour's pay for a long, long time.

Wholesale Hypocrisy
Caledonia Record Editorial, July 4, 2007

Libby was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for not remembering what he said several years ago and then was found guilty for lying about what he couldn't remember. Here are some irrefutable facts about the charges. The crime he allegedly lied about, outing an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, never happened. She wasn't undercover at the time of the alleged crime. In fact, she never was a CIA undercover agent. Her husband, later exposed as a public liar, was the origin of the alleged crime, i.e. the outing of his wife. While directly examining Libby before a grand jury, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald knew who leaked Valerie Plame's name in the outing context. He knew that it was not Libby, but he continued his fishing trip for something to hang his prosecutorial hat on, and Libby was his patsy. So, no crime, no criminal, and an understandable faulty memory came to equal two and a half years in prison. Bush's commutation began the reversal of a miscarriage of justice.

Capitol Observations Legislative Report from Rep. Richard Hube
Eagle Times, July 3, 2007

We are headed back to Montpelier on July 11 for a veto session. This historically has been a one day event. I am hopeful that the governor and legislative leadership can reach agreement on the two pending vetoes, and if that happens, I would support extending the veto session one or two additional days if necessary.

Innovation in Wonderland
Vermonttiger.com, July 6, 2007

First, let’s explore the claim that the legislature expanded education funding.  Yep – they aced that one.  The only problem is that there is nothing particularly new (i.e. innovative) about that.  The legislature has been increasing funding for years (never mind that our student enrollment has declined).  Sorry boys and girls – but you earned an F for innovation on that one.

A History Quiz
Caledonia Record Editorial, July 7, 2007

Who said these things: Immigrants should be absorbed into American life so that "by an intermixture with our people, they or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word soon become one people."

John Wayne - A Regrettably Faded American Icon
Caledonia Record, July 6, 2007

May 26 was John Wayne's birthday. He would have been 100 years old on that day. More than anyone else, John Wayne was the icon of American patriotism and of pride in being an American. Through World War II and for 30 years thereafter, The Duke, with his war movies and his manly gruffness, reigned as king in the minds of Americans of all ages.

From Elsewhere

Pence Proposes ‘Broadcaster Freedom Act’ to Prohibit Return of ‘Fairness Doctrine’
By Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters, June 27, 2007

Anyone that has picked up a newspaper, or turned on a radio or television recently knows that liberals are once again mounting a campaign to subvert free speech, and eliminate conservative talk radio. With this in mind, Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) announced on the House floor Wednesday a bill he plans to introduce that would prevent Democrat efforts to reinstate what is somewhat hypocritically called the "Fairness Doctrine."

Related: Diversity Offensive to Liberals

Employers Boost Payrolls by 132,000
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press, July 6, 2007

Employers boosted payrolls by a better-than-expected 132,000 jobs in June, enough to keep the unemployment rate at a relatively low 4.5 percent. It was another sign that the economy is snapping out of a nearly yearlong sluggish spell.

Asia's Crisis, A Decade Later
Investor's Business Daily, June 29, 2007

The Global Economy: Ten years ago, Asia's Miracle became Asia's Meltdown, a financial debacle so crushing that many feared the region wouldn't recover. But it did, by freeing its markets. It remains a beacon for the world.

What Does It Mean To Be An American?
By Steven M. Warshawsky, The American Thinker, July 02, 2007

Patriotic Americans -- those who love our country for its people, its history, its culture, and its ideals -- reject the multiculturalists' denuded, and ultimately subversive, vision of what it means to be "an American."  While the American identity is arguably the most "universal" of all major nationalities -- as evidenced by the millions of immigrants the world over who have successfully assimilated into our country over the years -- it is not an empty, meaningless concept.  It has substance.  Being "an American" is not the same thing as simply living in the United States.  Nor, I would add, is it the same thing as holding U.S. citizenship.  After all, a baby born on U.S. soil to an illegal alien is a citizen.  This hardly guarantees that this baby will grow up to be an American.

Manmade Global Warming: The Real Assault on Reason
By Marc Sheppard, The American Thinker, June 29, 2007

For over 15 years, Al Gore has painstakingly ravaged all non-anthropogenic (NA) climate change theories (solar, cosmic, volcanic, etc) along with those scientists advancing them.  During that same period, he has helped craft a worldwide global warming orthodoxy which holds the misdeeds of homo sapiens sacrosanctto its dogma and has pulverized anyone in its self-righteous path "without regard to the evidence, the facts, or the public interest." (See Gore's Grave New World)

Medicare: $3.8 Trillion Worse
by J.D. Foster American Conservative Union Foundation

The annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees reports released on April 23 discussed changes in the programs that have occurred over the previous year and changes in their overall financial condition as measured in a number of ways. Once again, both reports share a disturbing commonality: The financial condition of both programs is terrible and got significantly worse with another year of legislative inactivity.

Europe's Existential Mourning
By James Lewis, The American Thinker, July 03, 2007

To grasp Europe's pervasive sense of mourning and anomie today you have to understand that two dozen national identities are being systematically ground to dust by their own political elites. All those nation states are dying, or feel they are dying. When voters are consulted, they don't like it -- and as a result, voters are simply no longer consulted. Europe has given up on electoral democracy at the highest and most powerful levels. A central EU government is now emerging, made up of centrally appointed commissions just like the "soviets" (councils) of the old USSR. The whole contraption evades normal democratic checks and balances, on the historically dangerous assumption that the elites can be trusted with centralized power without the consent of the governed.

A Remembrance Of Pardons Past
Investor's Business Daily, July 03, 2007

As Democrat after Democrat in the current Congress becomes embroiled in questionable and sometimes outright illegal behavior, we hear next to nothing from the leadership. Nothing, that is, until Libby's pardon, which fits perfectly into the Democrats' bogus "culture of corruption" campaign against the GOP. By the way, why not go after the real liars in this case? Former Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, former CIA agent Plame?

Related: Pardon Me, But

Reversal of 'Eavesdropping' Ruling Ignored After Bush Loss Touted
By The Media Research Center, July 9, 2007 

Last August, when one federal judge ruled unconstitutional the monitoring of overseas phone calls with suspected terrorists, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts all highlighted the defeat for the Bush administration. But on Friday, after an appeals court overturned the earlier decision, ABC and CBS were silent while NBC again distorted the policy as "domestic spying."