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Crossing the State's Fiscal Chasm: the PSG Report
By John McClaughry

Based on the PSG's 32-page report (net of padding), explained at a January 6 news conference in the Governor's office, one would do well to harbor considerable skepticism about the prospects of the purported savings. ...

After a year of analyzing, designing, renegotiating, streamlining, and strategizing, the Agency would achieve savings of 5% ($18 million). Add up the savings for all of the programs included in the report, and the magic $38 million in savings appears!

How are these magic percentages arrived at? There isn't a hint.
      
The 18 Percent Western Union Message
By Martin Harris

Think, for example, through the implications of Entergy’s recent advice to Vermont’s Golden Dome folks that it proposes to cut its power sales into Vermont meters from 50% of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant output down to 18%, as the 19 December issue of The Rutland Herald reported. For high school grads disdainful of math proficiency (about 2/3 of them, the NAEP tests show) that’s a 64% reduction. The Herald was careful to tell readers that the ratepayer cost would go up 52.5%, but not that 82% of the Vernon plant’s output would now be sold beyond Vermont’s borders and the reach of Vermont’s legislators. Unvocalized Entergy message: "we can pull the remaining 18% if we choose to".  You can’t send a direct verbal message via Western Union any more (money transfers only, please; the traditional telegram service ended in 1999) but non-direct-verbal messages can still be implied by senders and (sometimes) inferred by receivers in such similar venues as movie theaters and legislative-assembly halls.

"Scribblings" An Occasional Newsletter from the Legislature
By Rep. Thomas F. Koch, Barre Town

"Kum-ba-ya, m’ lord, kum-ba-ya…."  Oh what a love fest we’ve been having in Montpelier!  Will it last?  I’d like to think so, but I’m not holding my breath. ...

On the surface, things look warm and fuzzy.  But even if the smiles should continue, it might pay to look at the substance of these issues.
      
Flight 263
By John Stuart

Following the attempted Delta bombing, a steady procession of administration officials have issued statements ranging from the ridiculous ("the system worked") to late but welcomed admission ("systemic failure") in connection with protocols that exist to protect the American public. Subsequently, we are told that security programs are to be re-assessed, new measures implemented and the end product will result in the restoration of safety and confidence for this important mode of transportation. That is reassuring until the next airliner event, which according to the laws of probability, will result in a very bad day for some travelers and those that might be unfortunate enough to be situated under the flight path.

But, playing defense is a very costly and difficult endeavor, particularly when protective measures are either based on a false premise (criminal as opposed to ideological) or constrained by political correctness. Two quotes aptly summarize this dilemma...

"The chronic shortage of good scientists, engineers and other professionals which plagues us is the result of time wasted in public schools which must be made up later on."- by Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (often called the "father of the atomic submarine")

Mullen Salutes Vermont Troops at Deployment
From WCAX-TV, January 8, 2010

Family members weren't the only ones saying goodbye at Friday's deployment ceremony. The country's highest ranking military officer also said farewell.

"We can only do it because of you, so I am incredibly grateful for all you do," Admiral Mike Mullen told the troops.

Admiral Mullen is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He came to Vermont after receiving an invitation from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. Mullen's visit was a first here in Vermont, but a detail that made this send-off bittersweet for the soldiers and their families.

The Rising Tide....In Montpelier
From WCAX-TV, January 2010

Coverage of the "Can You Hear Us Now? Rally/Seminar at the capital and the second annual convention for the Vermont Campaign for Liberty.

Political Bedfellows In Different Bedrooms?
Caledonia Record Editorial, January 8, 2010

It's interesting that several labor unions have demonstrated in Montpelier in favor of relicensing Vermont Yankee. Their championing of Vermont Yankee flies in the face of Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin's and Rep. Shap Smith's rabid opposition to such a relicensing. The leaders of 15 unions broke ranks with the Democratic legislative leaders at a news conference by stating emphatically that they want Vermont Yankee to be relicensed.

Why Vermonters May Fear "Help" From The Feds
From Vermont Tiger, January 7, 2010

Several things spring to mind: First, forgiveness may work on a personal level, but it doesn’t exist on a balance sheet. The money comes from somewhere and since we are deeply in debt as a nation, the $100 billion needs to be borrowed, and those who lend expect to be paid back. With interest.

Mr. Welch is upfront about this and is clear his proposal cannot be considered a bailout. Under law the interest paid on the borrowed money must be paid out of a state’s general fund. His effort would spare the state that expense – for the moment. But the real concern is how the congressman’s intentions could be misinterpreted here in Vermont.

The fear is that legislators would interpret the potential "savings" as a safety valve and not take the action necessary to put the fund on a solid long-term footing.

Gone With The Wind
Caledonia Record Editorial, January 7 2010

For any wind farm vote up or down to be binding, it should include the eligible voters in all of the towns from which the ridge to be despoiled by a wind farm is visible. Without those votes being included, a vote by the citizens of the taxing town, in this case Lowell, is nothing more than a clever public relations gimmick that guarantees that the birthright of the rest of us will be gone with the wind.

Vermont Needs a Reality Check
By P.G. Behr, Vermont Tiger, January 9, 2010

Politics in the New Year should be interesting. Will the Vermont Legislature face reality? With indisputable evidence that our state is facing unprecedented fiscal problems, will our politicians get serious about reducing government spending?

The race for the Democratic nomination for governor will bring many promises from the candidates. Peter Shumlin tells us he already has a website, a Facebook page and will be communicating via Twitter, the better to tell us about his optimism (?) for 2010, his plan for creating new jobs (green ones, of course) and the need for more Vermont health care, since he isn’t sure the federal health care bill will serve Vermonters adequately! But not a word, thus far, about how he believes Vermont’s indebtedness, which is now measured in billions, can be paid off. Hopefully, the other Democrats aspiring to the governorship will be more realistic.

From Elsewhere

John Dewey and the Philosophical Refounding of America
National Review Special: The Progressives
By Tiffany Jones Miller, December 31, 2009

The "progressive" label is back in vogue; politicians of the Left routinely use it to describe themselves, hoping to avoid the radical connotations associated with being "liberal" in the post-Reagan era. The irony in this is manifold, especially because the aim of the movement to which the name refers, the late-19th- and early-20th-century progressive movement, was anything but moderate. ...

It began with a conscious rejection of the natural-rights principles of the American founding and the promotion of a new understanding of freedom, history, and the state in their stead. From this foundation, the progressives then criticized virtually every aspect of our traditional way of life, recommending reforms or "social reorganization" on a sweeping scale, the primary engine of which was to be a new, "positive" role for the state. As the progressives’ influence in the academy increased, and growing numbers of their students sallied forth into all aspects of endeavor, this intellectual transformation gradually began to reshape the broader American mind, and, in time, American political practice. "A new regime in thought," as Eldon Eisenach writes, "began to become a new regime in power."

Third-Rail Shocker

From Investor’s Business Daily, January 8, 2010

Entitlements: While a massive health care entitlement is fashioned in secret, another one, Social Security, is running deficits decades earlier than expected. We've been kicking the can down the road. We're out of road.

Tea Party Activists Gaining Steam Across the Country
From Florida to California, Conservatives Are Challenging Moderate Republicans
By Kate Snow & Kristina Wong, ABC News, January 7, 2010

A political movement is sweeping the country, and taking politicians down.

The most recent victim of "tea party" activists was Florida Republican Jim Greer, who resigned from as state party chairman this week, in part because of the activists' objections to his alliance with Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate. The activists are vocally supporting Crist's opponent -- a young, outspoken conservative, Marco Rubio -- and some believe the tea party group may bring down Crist, too.

Expect Double Dip in Second Quarter: Economist
By Robin Knight, CNBC, January 6, 2010

The U.S. economy will slip back into recession in the second and third quarter of 2010 as the boost from fiscal stimulus measures and inventory rebuilding wears off, James Shugg, senior economist at Westpac Bank, told CNBC Wednesday. ...

"You'll see the boost to growth from fiscal stimulus and inventory rebuilding lose momentum and what's left? A consumer that's still inclined to save more than spend, a banking system still dragged down by one in four mortgages being in default," he said. 

Detroit In Ruins
By Steven Crowder, RightBias.com, January 3, 2010

Comedian Steven Crowder highlights the devastating state of affairs in Detroit that are the result of 49 years of leftists, feel-good policies that have effectively killed a formerly booming American city.

The CO2 Lie
From Investor’s Business Daily, January 5, 2010

Climate Change: A new study shows that Earth's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from all sources, including man, has remained unchanged for 160 years. As it turns out, there may be no carbon to offset.

The Trouble with Harry
Reid's racial comments aren't his worst rhetorical offense.
Wall Street Editorial, January 11, 2010

We can think of several reasons for Harry Reid to resign as Senate Majority Leader, though the flap over his obtuse racial comments isn't one of them....

That prize goes to his all too public comments in April 2007 that "the war is lost" in Iraq, even as the surge was finally making victory possible. That was a betrayal of American soldiers risking their lives in Iraq, and to the extent it emboldened the enemy, it may have cost American lives.