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The Prize Surprise
By John McClaughry

On Friday five liberal Norwegian airheads decided that Barack Obama ought to get the Nobel Peace Prize for his nine months of eloquent speechmaking about peace and other stuff. Many were surprised.

I thought back to when pitcher Bobo Holloman won baseball’s coveted Cy Young award.
                      
Tom Salmon Was Right: Democrats don't understand the economic crisis we're facing
By Rob Roper

When Tom Salmon left the Vermont Democratic Party he said, "As many of you know, in the face of the enormous fiscal crisis, I have sounded the alarm for new thinking, responsible budgeting, meaningful long-term planning and prioritization." Salmon concluded after many conversations with Democratic party leaders that, "It is my belief that the VT Republican party is closest to accepting the realities of our times; and is therefore the party best equipped to manage the very real and troubling economic and social conditions which confront us not only today, but in the coming decade."

The Rod Clarke Voluntary Enrollment Health Insurance Plan
By Martin Harris

Several decades ago, I visited the governmental operation in Montpelier to watch a small part of the statutory sausage-manufacture process in action. As it turned out, the street theatre out front that day was far more enlightening and entertaining than the under-the-Golden-Dome committee room proceedings. Perhaps some of the following details of my time-fuzzed recollection are not historically precise, but I present them only to provide background for, and support of, what I learned there, which seems increasingly to have a lot of relevance (albeit zero recognition by The Very Important People) in the contemporary furor over whether and how we should pay for each others’ health care, in accordance with the fourth inalienable-right principle set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the mandatory prescription (medical pun intended) for governmental-action obligation set forth in Article VIII of the US Constitution.
 

"I am not sure the public and even our membership has a firm grasp on the problem we are facing," 

State's financial affairs: A Crisis Written in Red
By Louis Porter, Vermont Press Bureau, October 6, 2009

"I am not sure the public and even our membership has a firm grasp on the problem we are facing," said Michael Obuchowski, D-Bellows Falls, the chairman of the Joint Fiscal Committee of lawmakers that oversees budgetary issues when the full Legislature is not in Montpelier. "It is a problem that is going to demand our utmost attention and some painful decisions."

Risk
From Vermont Tiger, October 7, 2009

Policymakers often forget that entrepreneurs take risks.  When risks pan out, they are rewarded, sometimes handsomely, and when the risks of a new venture are underestimated, the endeavor goes belly up and someone has to pay--the entrepreneur, investors, or lenders.  If you see businesses only as a guaranteed cash machine, you forget about the ones that never make it.

Vermonters Want Education Choice
Caledonia Record Editorial, October 10, 2009

It’s time for a statewide referendum on school choice. Whenever the question is asked the general electorate, in Vermont or virtually every other state, whether in an opinion poll, over a country store cracker barrel, or at any impartial forum, the people in the street want education choice.

Related: Georgia Residents Want School Choice!

Putting Vermont Back on Track, October 15
From VermontBiz.com, October 9, 2009

Lawrence Reed is the founder and for twenty years President of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, long considered the most influential free-market state think tank in the nation. His address October 15th, part of the ongoing Sheraton Economic Series, will focus on how the ideas of individual liberty, private property, limited government and competitive free enterprise can be packaged to promote increased economic opportunity and prosperity for Vermonters.

Vermont’s Tax Challenge
From Vermont Tiger, October 8, 2009

If half a company’s revenue came from five percent of its customer base, the CEO would begin each day with the same ritual: prayer. 

That’s a narrow base upon which to build hope, let alone a sustainable business. To an extent, that’s Vermont’s issue, not at the corporate level but with state government. We have a spending level that is disproportionately dependent on a progressive income tax structure and a paltry number of taxpayers.

FairPoint Expands high-speed Internet in Southern Vermont
From VermontBiz.com, October 9, 2009

More Vermonters can quickly e-mail photos, download music and surf the Internet now that FairPoint Communications has expanded access to high-speed Internet service in southern Vermont.  The service was recently expanded to reach 2,000 more customers in the towns of Dummerston, Hartford, Stratton Mountain, West Dover (Timber Creek) and West Windsor.

In 2008, FairPoint increased access to high-speed Internet service from 65 to 76 percent of its Vermont lines exceeding its commitment to the state for 75 percent broadband availability. 

From Elsewhere

Less Religion Means More Government
By Anthony B. Bradley Ph.D., Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty, October 7 2009

Soviet communism adopted Karl Marx’s teaching that religion was the "opiate of the masses" and launched a campaign of bloody religious persecution. Marx was misguided about the role of religion but years later many communists became aware that turning people away from religious life increases dependence on government to address life’s problems. The history of government coercion that comes from turning from religion to government makes a new study suggesting a national decline in religious life particularly alarming to those concerned about individual freedom.

Is the Dollar Going to Collapse?
By Mark Skousen, Human Events,October 9, 2009

Rumors are flying that secret meetings are taking place between Arab states, China, Russia, Japan and France, to dump the dollar and replace the U.S. currency’s role in the pricing of oil.  The dollar fell against the euro, yen and Swiss franc, while gold hit new highs of $1,041 an ounce. 

Is there any truth to the rumors that the dollar is being replaced by a basket of foreign currencies, and what will be the impact your investments and the U.S. economy? The fact is that this rumor has been making the rounds for years. It has been repeatedly denied by officials, but that doesn’t mean foreigners are happy with the falling dollar. 

Related: The Demise of the Dollar

Firefighters Stood to Lose Grant to ACORN
Sen. Vitter wants $1 million returned to Homeland Security.
By Audrey Hudson, Washington Times, October 7, 2009

Nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN before Congress signaled that it intended to cut off federal funding to the embattled group.

The grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public in September before the House and Senate voted to cut off ACORN funding after employees were caught on video advising a fake prostitute and pimp on scams.

Soak-The-Rich Strategies Backfire in State After Deficit-Ridden State
By Steven Malanga, Investor’s Business Daily, October 7, 2009

When David Paterson became governor of New York after Eliot Spitzer's hooker escapades, the former state senator from Harlem shocked New Yorkers by declaring that taxes were too high and that he had many friends who had left the state because there were better opportunities elsewhere.

New York had to grab control of its spending rather than continue raising taxes, said the former state senator with a long tax-and-spend track record, in what amounted to the equivalent of ideological heresy.

Pollsters Push People to Accept Obamacare
By William Tate, American Thinker, October 7, 2009

Gallup has unintentionally revealed how they, and other polling organizations, have been pushing the public to accept Obamacare. 

The revelation came in a report late last month which revealed that a significant majority of Americans believes that individuals themselves, and not the government, should be responsible for ensuring they have health insurance. According to Gallup, 61% of folks they surveyed believe that health insurance should be left to the individual, not the nanny state. Unsurprisingly, 89% of Republicans held that view, but so did 64% of independents. Only Democrats, at 62%, wanted Big Brother to shoulder the responsibility.

Obama's Safe Schools Czar Slams Schools for Promoting Heterosexuality
Wants Pro-gay Curricula For Kindergartners (Video).
From the Gateway Pundit, October 7, 2009

Another Kook in the White House. Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings slammed US schools for promoting heterosexuality.

Leahy's Bench Press
Senate Democrats try to pack the federal courts.

Under the Senate Judiciary Committee as run by Patrick Leahy, even plans on which the two parties have previously agreed to collaborate disintegrate into partisanship. Witness his effort to expand the federal judiciary now that President Obama can pick the new judges.

Obama aide accuses Fox of operating as GOP arm
The Associated Press, October 12, 2009

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday that Fox News operates "almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." It's another sign of the White House's aggressively going after Fox.

Great Moments in Socialized Medicine

Daughter Saves Mother, 80, Left by Doctors to Starve
Sarah-Kate Templeton, Health Editor, The Sunday Times, October 11, 2009 

An 80-year-old grandmother who doctors identified as terminally ill and left to starve to death has recovered after her outraged daughter intervened. 

Related: Iraq Veteran Dies of Cancer after Lung Transplant from Heavy Smoker