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True
North Archives - September 15, 2009
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Featured
Articles
Health
Care is a Human Right—And Must be Preserved
By Deborah T. Bucknam
 To
the Vermont Workers’ Center members, their slogan means that health care
is a benefit that government must bestow on its citizens. That is the opposite
of what human rights means in the U.S. Constitution....
Because Americans understand
that the God-given right for each of us to control our own health care
is a part of the fundamental rights that cannot be taken from us by any
entity, no matter how powerful, many Americans recoil at the proposals
for government controlled health care. Americans instinctively appreciate
that this type of government benefit is inexorably linked with government
control, and government control of such intimate and personal decisions
violates one of our most sacred and fundamental rights.
 The
Vermont Republican Party Welcomes Tom Salmon
By Rob Roper
It has become increasingly
apparent that there is no room for fiscally responsible leaders like Tom
Salmon in today's Vermont Democratic Party, but there will always be room
for leaders with Tom Salmon's character and commitment to service in the
Vermont Republican party.
"I
Do Not Choose to Run"
By Martin Harris
 A
Rutland Herald LttE-writer put it well, recently: "…Douglas will have for
the first time in his political life the opportunity to do what he thinks
is right and not what will get him elected. It will be interesting to finally
find out what he thinks is right". Split infinitive aside, the writer is
right, even though he’s careful not to say what he himself thinks is right.
I choose to be more specific, drawing on an Internet humor-piece which
went the rounds a year ago: In it, President George Bush said to his tormentors
something like "I’m done putting up with you guys, and I’m outta here.
If you’re so smart, you run things". It was a 2008 riff on a 1976 theme
at the heart of the film Network, in which news-anchor Howard Beale announces
that "I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more". It led
to a rash of copy-cat situations in which ordinary folks threw open their
windows and announced similarly to a (mostly-uninterested) world.
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Quotable
"Without Freedom
of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as
public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech."
- Ben Franklin The New England
Courant, July 9, 1722
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Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
A
Man Of Integrity and Intelligence
Caledonia Record Editorial,
September 9, 2009
John McClaughry stepped down
this summer from heading the Ethan Allen Institute, a uniquely Vermont
think-tank that he founded in 1993. The Institute embraces a free-market
philosophy developed from the philosophies of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson,
Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. John has been its center since its
founding.
John has been the voice of
responsible conservatism since he came to the Northeast Kingdom forty plus
years ago. His commentaries and reports before and since the founding of
the Institute have been characterized by half a dozen McClaughry earmarks.
They have been factually accurate. John does his research carefully, and
his analyses are always consistent with the facts. His conclusions are
inescapable logical imperatives from his research. His voice is understated,
never embellishing his narrative with hortatory rhetoric. And, his analyses
and presentations don't care whose sacred cow is gored if that is where
his research leads him.
Governor
Wanted
Poor Pay; No Friends;
Lots of (Bad) Press
From Vermont Tiger, September
11 2009
Our CEO-elect must, must
have what it takes to drive policies that create private sector jobs and
raise the associated tax base. Folks, in case any of you have been
on Neptune for the last two years ... we need the money and national sentiment
is not likely to yield another Vermont bailout from D.C. Every governor
in this country, except maybe one, awakes and thinks, "How do I get industry
and jobs in my backyard?" The answer is commitment. Commitment
of time, resources and political capital. Ask the next candidates
how they will resolve our looming financial problems. If the answer
is a bold, national marketing of Vermont’s limited but superb assets, this
might be our guy. If you hear things like, "Soak the rich!" or "Washington
will solve it for us" toss ‘em back into the pond.
Fiscal
Reality Sets In For Tom Salmon
Caledonia Record Editorial,
September 12, 2009
Given the way the liberal
wing of the liberal party has treated Salmon, it is no surprise that he
jumped ship on them. They have snubbed him since he showed their leadership
that he is not "one of their kind of Democrat." Most recently, Shap Smith,
that political neophyte serving an internship in leadership skullduggery
under Peter Shumlin, publicly rebuffed Salmon's effort to help get Vermont
through its fiscal crisis.
Behr's
Den
From Vermont Tiger, September
13, 2009
Newly emboldened, perhaps,
by Governor Douglas’ decision to step down after his present term ends,
Vermont’s Progressives have made H.100 and S.88 – bills to establish a
single payer health care system covering all Vermonters – their top priority
for the forthcoming legislative session. Not content with the ObamaCare
legislation now being considered by Congress, Vermont’s Democrats and Progressives
want VermontCare – their very own system.
Vermont's
Foreclosure Rate Rises, Still Lowest in Nation
From VermontBiz.com, September
10, 2009
Vermont continues to have
the lowest foreclosure rate in the nation as foreclosure rates here and
across US continue to be near their all time high in July. RealtyTrac(R)
(www.realtytrac.com),
the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released
its August 2009 US Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings
- default notices, scheduled auctions and bank
repossessions - were reported on 358,471 US properties during the month,
a decrease of less than 1 percent from the previous month but still an
increase of nearly 18 percent from August 2008. The report also shows one
in every 357 US housing units received a foreclosure filing in August.
Vermont's rate was one in every 9,437. However, in July it was only one
in every 28,312, a 200 percent change from July and an 83.3 percent change
from August 2008.
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Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
The
War on '9-11'
By Dr. Walid Phares The
New Media Journal September 14, 2009
With the change of American
administration in 2009, the clock was turned back completely: Damascus
and Tehran are to be engaged, Iran's democracy uprising is not to be "meddled
in," the Muslim Brotherhood is to be partnered with, the good Taliban is
to be invited to sit downs. And at home there is a cascade of retreats:
the term War on Terror was dropped, Jihad becomes Yoga, and dismantled
jihadi cells are ignored. That brought the push back close to the big bang
where the whole national awareness began, the commemoration of 9-11.
Gradually, 9-11 symbolism
may be on its way to a museum, or perhaps to cold storage. On Tuesday September
8, three days before the eighth anniversary, the US President addressed
the school population of America. These little folks will carry the collective
memory of this aggression into the next decade. Not one word mentioned
the September Jihad. Is this is where America's classroom needs to go now:
to erase those eight years from its memory? We'll see.
Taliban
announces surrender in Swat Valley after leader Maulana Fazlullah 'arrested'
The Taliban has announced
its surrender in Swat Valley, one of its major strongholds until a Pakistan
Army offensive regained control earlier this summer.
By Emal Khan, Telegraph
UK, September 12, 2009
Its announcement, made on
one of its pirate radio stations, came as its charismatic leader Maulana
Fazlullah was reported to be surrounded by Pakistani troops, and there
were claims that he had in fact already been arrested.
Beslan:
Jihad Against Children Must Trigger Global Response
By Dr. Walid Phares, Family
Security Matters, September 9, 2009
Children, too, have been
murdered during these ghazwas (jihadi raids). In the post 9/11 era, al
Qaeda, the Taliban, Indonesia’ Jemaa, the Janjaweed in Darfur and the Shabab
of Somalia, among others, have bombed and slaughtered kids. The al-Muhayya
bombing in Saudi Arabia, the Amman bloody wedding, and the Baghdad’s surreal
infanticides are only examples as to how Salafi jihadists and Khomeinist
operatives have gone in their devastation of children’s lives.
Wake-up
Call: Islamists Insert Themselves into Healthcare Debate
By Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser,
Hudson NY, September 9, 2009
What is remarkable and at
issue here, is certainly not the right of MPAC’s leadership to have a personal
opinion on health care policy. But what is most telling is how these Islamist
organizations have a way of finding a way to worm themselves and their
Islamization agenda into every political issue related to government under
the name of Islam and Muslims. As is typical of Islamists, they exploit
Muslim faith based organizations and their often unsuspecting supporters
and members for their own very specific domestic and foreign policy agenda
of the day. This agenda clearly and malignantly crosses the line of mosque
and state in an aim to impose the Islamization of every topic related to
the domain of government and public policy upon the Muslim community and
ultimately the greater American community.
Does this ring a bell? It’s
the modus operandi of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). They are a well known
political party in Egypt with a specific political platform that has now
metastasized around the world into hundreds of splinter groups with a
headquarters also in London. Ultimately that political platform
is Islamism (a.k.a. Political Islam). Islamism is specifically the
desire to somehow put shar’iah law (Islamic jurisprudence) into
place in government through a legal system not based in reason but rather
based in clerical exegesis of Islamic jurisprudence. The Brotherhood
is the predominant global face or front of that movement.
Afghanistan
Matters
By John Byrnes, American
Thinker, September 7, 2009
George Will has thrown down
the gauntlet. While a few conservatives have always been reluctant
about our efforts in Afghanistan, Will’s September 1, column
advocating withdrawal has opened a rift on the American right with conservatives
taking sides. George Will says it’s time to quit Afghanistan.
As a soldier who was in Afghanistan for most of 2008 I say unequivocally
George Will is wrong; Afghanistan matters.
Yet
Another Foreign-Policy Fumble - Throwing Missile Defense Under the Bus
By Peter Brookes, Family
Security Matters, September 9, 2009
The Obama administration
is getting ready to throw the proposed Eastern European-based US missile-defense
system under the bus. The move is a sop to the Russians (and to lefties
here at home) – but will render us increasingly vulnerable to the growing
Iranian nuclear/missile threat.
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From
Elsewhere
Conservative
Woodstock Rocks the Capital
Patriotic anti-big-government
taxpayers blast through the million protester mark
From Looking at the Left,
September 12, 2009
I think this gathering should
be appreciated as the extremely important historical event that it is.
This is the first great conservative anti-statist manifestation in American
history. The conservative movement, which developed in the post-WWII, Cold
War environment has now fully matured into the most significant political
movement of the 21st century. I believe that this day could be referred
to in the not too distant future as the day that changed America. This
was the day the great silent conservative majority finally found
its voice.
Marxism’s
Last (and First) Stronghold
By Samuel Gregg D.Phil.,
Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty, September 9, 2009
But perhaps the most significant
reason for Marxism’s lingering background influence on much West European
opinion is an Italian philosopher who died 72 years ago. If you ever doubt
the power of intellectuals, the case of Antonio Gramsci is a useful corrective.
A rather unconventional Marxist
by 1930s Stalinist standards, Gramsci argued that the key to power lay
less in controlling the economic means of production than in capturing
the engines of "cultural hegemony" – the universities, the media, the arts,
and religious institutions. Gramsci recognized that the Russian Bolsheviks’
violent seizure of power in 1918 had been the exception to the rule. This
tactic had failed everywhere else. A protracted ‘war of position’ for control
of the culture was, Gramsci believed, the most effective way of establishing
a leftist stranglehold over society.
Sun-Caused
Warming
From Investor's Business
Daily, September 08, 2009
Climate Change: A
team of international scientists has finally figured out why sunspots have
a dramatic effect on the weather. It shows the folly of fearing the SUV
while dismissing that thermonuclear furnace in the sky.
School
Day Subjugation
By Jeannie DeAngelis, American
Thinker, September 9, 2009
Seemingly oblivious to the
fact that the last thing children want to do on the first day is be lectured
to, President Obama believed his
presence so essential to scholastic achievement that postponing it
until things calmed down was not an option. For instance, what student
on the first day of school wants to be harangued about the dismal things
Obama finds necessary to persistently broach? Even he admitted, "...no
matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still
summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning."
An
accurate assessment especially after students found out last week that
a hot, sweaty assembly, brought to you by Principal/President Barack Obama,
was scheduled for the first day.
After
Census Severs Ties, ACORN May Face Scrutiny of Housing Grants
ACORN Housing Corporation
received $1.6 million in federal money to provide housing services to low-income
communities in this fiscal year
From FOXNews.com, September
12, 2009
Conservatives have cheered
the Census Bureau's decision to sever ties with ACORN because it had lost
confidence in the group, but the hidden-camera videos that prompted ACORN
to fire four workers this week could raise more questions about the federal
funding ACORN receives for housing outreach.
Related: Special
Report: ACORN Exposed
The
Tea Party Movement: How We Got Here
By
Dana Loesch, Big Government, September 3,
2009
Something curious happened
during the summer of 2008. Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shut
down the House and C-SPAN cameras with a resolution that passed by just
one vote, smack in the middle of an energy crisis. Afterwards, Madame Speaker
jetted off on a week-long book tour while gas prices soared.
The Republicans stood in
the dark and refused to leave. A few officials, including John Culberson,
took out their phones and began Twittering the action to America, this
spawning the #dontgo movement. It was the first nudge to the hibernating
conservative constituency who were excited about having something over
which to be excited in their party. Netroots activists seethed at the realization
that Democrats left America in limbo rather than vote against reducing
energy costs and drilling stateside - though the majority of the population
approved of such. They rallied around the legislators that had the brass
to stay and urged them to "Don't go!"
Obama's
Tire Tariff
The president imposes
a 35 percent tariff on car tires imported from China.
By Irwin M. Stelzer, The
Weekly Standard, September 13,
2009
Meanwhile, [Obama] has sent
a signal to the Sino-Franco-Russian et al. anti-dollar bloc that for all
his talk about international cooperation to fight the recession, he is
in the end willing to go it alone if domestic politics so dictate. That
will increase their resolve to find some replacement for the dollar as
the world's reserve currency. Obama might indeed turn out to be the "transformative"
president he intends to be, but not quite in the way he intends.
Public
Trust in Media Accuracy Fairness Plunges
Liberal v Conservative
Bias Gap at 28 Points.
By Brent Baker, The Media
Resource Center, September 14, 2009
“The public’s assessment
of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than
two decades of Pew Research surveys,” a new poll from the Pew Research
Center for the People and the Press, embargoed for release at 11 PM EDT
Sunday night, discovered.
Related: Massive
Conservative D.C. Protest Buried and Dismissed, But Smaller Liberal Rallies
Hailed
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