A Survey of the Conservative Movement in Vermont
By Nathan West 

The success of the conservative movement in Vermont has been slight.  There was a momentary victory in 2000 when the GOP took back the state house.  And its most successful political leader has been Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, a Republican who has easily won reelection every time he has run (a rare thing for a conservative to do in liberal Vermont).  His gains, however, have not been replicated in other races as former congressional candidates Greg Parke and Mark Shepard can attest to (unfortunately the GOP has such a shallow bench that this year they were unable to come up with a candidate to run against Democratic incumbent Peter Welch).

Whether the conservative movement can thrive in the future without being a voice in the wilderness remains to be seen.  A few organizations and blogs does not a movement make, but it is a start.

A Tale of Two Villages
By Martin Harris

By far the most important is the modern-highway bypass: Jonesborough has one, less than a half-mile out of town; Brandon doesn’t. The bypass corridor is where large-scale retail has set up, big stores and big parking lots, so that heavy vehicular traffic is kept out of a fairly constricted little business district, while consumer spending and property tax revenues are kept within the municipal jurisdiction.
     
Barack Can’t Handle the Truth
By Rob Skinner

Obama is proving to be just another sliver tongued politician with a mind that manipulates a  malleable truth for his own purposes while he misdirects our attention from one problem that Obama judges as unsolvable to another problem he promises he can fix.  This isn't a "change" for the good Obama loves to lament about. It's the old and the tired  political shell game used time and time against to bamboozle us.   But Obama does it with such style and charm he gets away with it - but for how long ? As with Obama and the other political tricksters when the politics becomes big enough, expensive enough and bold enough even Barack Obama throws the truth under the bus. As goes the adage stated in various ways: "In high stakes politics the truth is the first casualty of political war."

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"We shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace on terms which have been contemplated by some powers we shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends." --Thomas Jefferson

August 22: True North Radio Fund Raiser Spaghetti Dinner. Topic: Vermont’s Energy Future - What are some of the solutions for Vermont’s energy future? Join us for an exclusive discussion with Bill Sayre (and enjoy a spaghetti dinner as well). Trader Dukes Restaurant, Williston Rd, South Burlington, VT. Registration is from 5:30pm to 6:00pm. Dinner starts at 6:30pm. Guest speaker Bill Sayre will discuss Vermont’s Energy Future from 7 to 7:30pm after which we have more speakers for our audience until 9 PM. $30.00 per plate or $300 for a table of 10. Please RSVP your reservation by contacting Paul on his e-mail paul@truenorthradio.com or call 802-782-0141. Three easy pay options: By credit card - click on the "SUPPORT" button on the upper right of this page.  Or mail check to True North Radio LLC, P.O. Box 652, Burlington, VT 05402.  Or pay at the door.  Let Paul know the option you choose when you RSVP. If you wish,  Download Invitation and Sponsor Form here (pdf). 

September 18th (Thursday): 88th AIV Annual Meeting: Economic and Manufacturing Agendas for the Next Biennium with a debate between Governor Jim Douglas, Anthony Pollina, and Speaker Gaye Symington •  Hilton Burlington. Both members and non-members are welcome to register by faxing or mailing a registration form by September 15.  Registration is required for admission to the lunch and debate.  Contact Angelina Beardsley at (802) 223-3441 or email info@aivt.orgfor more information.  For directions to the Hilton Burlington, you can call (802) 658-6500. An agenda and registration form are available on the AIV website, www.aivt.org

October 18: Teens for Life - Summit 2008. The Pro-Life Event of the Year for High School Students. At the Wildflower Inn, 2059 Darling Hill Road, Lyndonville, VT 05851 10:00 am – 7:00 pm. Sponsored by the Vermont Right to Life Committee - VRLC; P.O. Box 1079; Montpelier, VT 05601; 802-229-4885; vrlc@verizon.net
 

If you have an event you would like us to post, send details to: editor@truenorthradio.com

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Good Article, Wrong Headline
From VermontTiger.com, August 17, 2008

The Rutland Herald's Peter Hirschfeld points out the obvious:  people, especially low income people, are going to face a tough winter, with high heating oil prices.  And high gas prices means they're paying more to travel.  They are meeting that challenge by driving less.  How they'll meet the winter heating challenge has yet to be determined. But the article's subheadline (or whatever it is that journalists call it) is:

Vermont's Middle Class Shrinks as Economy Sours

Vermont Must Pass Jessica’s Law
Caledonia Record Editorial, August 15, 2008

Throughout past legislative sessions, the House Judiciary Committee has sat in the middle of the road and killed passage of Jessica's Law. Jessica's Law is based on the 2007 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 7-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida. It makes a 25-year prison sentence mandatory for aggravated sexual assault upon a child....

Enough is enough. Vermont must pass Jessica's law as one of the Legislature's first orders of business next January. We have heard from a lot of decent people that such a mandatory sentence might discourage plea bargaining and make convictions harder to get, but the counter to that legitimate concern is its opposite, as we were horrified to learn from the sentences levied on sexual predators by judges Edward Cashman and David Howard. Cashman sentenced the serial rapist of a 6-year-old girl to 60 days in jail, and Howard sentenced a man who molested a 4-year-old boy to no jail time at all.

Emergency Surgery For Catamount?
From VermontTiger.com, August 13, 2008

As, for instance, Catamount premiums which, "range between $60 and $393 a month depending on a person's income."

If you can find private insurance in Vermont for those rates, please e-mail us so we can enroll.  Catamount is subsidized health care insurance.   And if you want to get off your current private insurance and onto Catamount and save some money ... well, tough, you can't.  That's one reason the state requires a waiting period.  It needs people on private insurance to pay the bills of the people who are otherwise "covered."  This is done through the magic of something called the "cost shift."

And even so, Catamount is failing.  No amount of finger pointing and no new studies – full of precise, if bogus, numbers – will change that.

Governor Douglas and Lieutenant Governor Dubie have taken a strong lead on the question of how to deal with violent sexual predators, calling for a Jessica’s Law for Vermont, civil confinement, and an expanded sex offender registry. This week, Gaye Symington held a press conference to weigh in on the issue. Conspicuously absent from her proposal were all of these measures. 

While her opposition to the first two points illustrates how out of touch Symington and her supermajority in the legislature are with the people of Vermont, her opposition to an expanded sex offender registry is particularly disturbing.  The goal of an expanded registry would be to educate parents and communities with more, easily accessible information about who and where sex offenders are. 

Properly warning citizens about potentially dangerous situations should be a no-brainer. However, Gaye Symington’s proposal shows that she prefers to leave parents in the dark about known sexual predators living in their neighborhoods. Placing the privacy of pedophile criminals above the safety our children is unacceptable. Symington’s lack of trust in parents and Vermont communities is insulting.

But this secrecy and lack of trust is a pattern with Gaye Symington. She clearly doesn’t like it when rank and file Vermonters know too much, whether it’s about her own families financial dealings or the convicted child molester down the street. Like most members of her party, she believes government knows best, and the people can’t be trusted with information or to do the right thing. Unfortunately, when dealing with sexual predators, what we don’t know can hurt us or the ones we love.

In his campaign kick-off speech, Governor Douglas said that Vermonters deserve a government that’s by their side, not on our back. Though he made this comment in the context of economic issues, it is equally applicable to community safety.  Where our children’s safety is concerned, we parents and communities need a partner in government, not an obstacle fighting to keep us ignorant. Republicans have shown that they will be the former, and Gaye Symington and her supermajority are showing themselves to be the latter.

A Familiar Case In Our Courts
Caledonia Record Editorial, August 13, 2008

It has been one of our teeth-grinding observations for a long, long time that Vermont's criminal justice system does not yield sentences on criminals proportionate to their crimes. Over and over, these convicted miscreants get away with a slap on the wrist. 

Come To Vermont And Start A Career In Car Parking
From VermontTiger.com, August 11, 2008

While some may argue that this means government should expand these programs, the simple fact is that the demand for these programs exists because the Vermont economy continues on a slow, spiraling downfall. Without a vibrant economy that provides jobs, incomes, and subsequent tax revenues to the state, we will continue to see a demographic base in Vermont that is well below the national average in terms of income and opportunity, and we will continue to see its citizens reduced to "states of dependence."

From Elsewhere

What Has Happened to Air Pollution Since 1970?
From The Unbroken Window, August 12th, 2008

It should be recognized that the American environment, on the whole, is much cleaner than most places around the world. Certainly the environmental destruction revealed by the unveiling of the iron curtain dispelled any notions that love and central planning are better for the environment than commercial society.

The Global Warming Scare may have Peaked
By Thomas Lifson, American Thinker, August 16, 2008

New Jersey State Assemblyman Michael Doherty has earned a place in the history books. So far as I know, he is the first politician to call openly for repeal of economically harmful legislation deriving from the global warming scare.

Palin's Gas Pipeline Isn't Hot Air
From Investor's Business Daily, August 15, 2008

As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.

ACT scores down, but more students college-ready
By Justin Pope, Associated Press, August 13, 2008

Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam dipped slightly for the high school class of 2008 as the number of students taking the exam jumped by 9 percent compared to last year.

One Way To Get More Oil: Do Nothing
By Thomas Pyle, August 11, 2008

But here's a news flash: If our elected representatives in Congress simply do nothing, three decades of failed anti-energy policies will disappear. A ban on drilling in America's outer continental shelf (OCS) is set to expire on Oct. 1.

How McCain Won Saddleback
By Byron York, National Review, August 17, 2008

This was not your usual political TV show. Warren — Pastor Rick, around here — asked big questions, about big subjects; he wasn’t concerned about what appeared on the front page of that morning’s Washington Post. And his simple, direct, big questions brought out something we don’t usually see in a presidential face-off; in this forum, as opposed to a read-the-prompter speech, or even a debate focused on the issues of the moment, the candidates were forced to call on everything they had — the things they have done and learned throughout their lives. And the fact is, John McCain has lived a much bigger life than Barack Obama. That’s not a slam at Obama; McCain has lived a much bigger life than most people. But it still made Obama look small in comparison. McCain was the clear winner of the night.