I try to be optimistic about the fiscal problems facing our state and nation. But the news continues to be bad. Last week, we learned that mortgage delinquencies continue to soar, with nearly one in ten homeowners having trouble making their monthly [...]
What percentage of your home energy comes from electricity? Take a guess.
If you’re like me, you way overestimated. A typical Vermont household gets about 16% of its energy from electricity, 53% from home heating oil, and 31% from gasoline. The estimate is based on annual use [...]
Under the category, “I can’t believe what I am reading,” this appeared on the web site of Fox News:
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq— the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security [...]
I'll contribute something a little different, particularly this year.
My grandparents came to the United States from Albania - and mercifully, they managed to leave before Albania descended into the hell of the rancid, murderous, criminal communist regime of the red fascist dictator Enver' [...]
by Chris Campion
I would like to wish every Tiger reader out there a happy and safe Thanksgiving. This year, I’m again thankful to have a family that is supportive and forgiving. Their support has enabled me to achieve things that would have been unthinkable for me 7-8 years ago.
Happy Gobblin’!
Chris
The early years in Plymouth were hard, with 45 of the 102 settlers dying during their first winter of 1620-21. Governor Bradford realized that the settlement's organization needed to be changed from one based on what today we might call communitarianism to one' [...]
By Daniel Foty
Picking up the thread from yesterday's update, in the comments section following his Monday column, Mr. Monbiot adds the following:
"I apologise. I was too trusting of some of those who provided the evidence I championed. I would have been a better journalist if I had investigated their claims more'" [...]Two weeks ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded that the Treasury Secretary identify financial giants – enterprises that were considered too big to fail -- and break them up. He proposed a bill to dismantle giant banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds that could wreck [...]
This is the game President Obama has been playing and he is using our (yours and mine) money to increase the anti.
AARP was originally against this Healthcare until they [...]
The "Climategate" scandal continues to swirl and build; for today, we'll just note an astounding admission.
George Monbiot has long been one of the fiercest "enforcers" (polemicists) in the warmenista camp. But writing in Monday's Guardian (a British newspaper of the very-left), he pens [...]
Much of what the public “knows” about the bill is inaccurate, fed by distortions, and worse, by defenders of the status quo.
So says our senior senator, speaking to the Burlington Free Press. And he may be correct in the limited sense that most people [...]
Granted, Vermont dairy farmers are in a terrible pickle. Prices for their products are way down (in part due to the tremendous reduction in international demand for milk caused by the financial crisis and economic recession) and their costs keep going up. But it's' [...]
Senator Mary Landrieu has those good Louisiana political genes. Like the Kingfish, Eddie Edwards, and her father, Moon – who served as mayor of New Orleans – Senator Landrieu gets it that politics is about making the best deal you can for your people. As for [...]
Who Can Help & How
by
Hugh Kemper
Last Thursday’s article addressed the imperative need to reduce K-12 education spending to levels consistent with providing a quality education and restoring Vermont’s financial viability. This piece addresses what voters can do to help reduce education spending by doing their [...]
Illinois Democratic Rep. Danny Davis, a member of the Congressional subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service (and, until recently, its chairman), told CBSNews.com in an interview that the agency "is between a rock and a hard place."
Ah, yes. The felicity of the phrasing could come only from a member of the [...]
By Daniel Foty
There's a story developing today that hasn't yet been completely clarified. However, what we already do know is both very interesting - and potentially earth-shattering.
What we do is that unknown hackers broke into the computer systems of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia [...]
So says Susan Bartlett, member of the Vermont Senate and candidate for the job of governor, one of five who appeared at a meeting in Burlington last night where:
Two of the candidates, Racine and Bartlett, pointedly talked about the importance of protecting the environment, then about [...]We made a mistake.
It happens (every couple of hours or so, it sometimes seems) and we try to admit them and learn from them.
In this case, our mistake was pointed out to us by one of our friends in the Vermont press. We have some and we sympathize [...]Hmm....
Hair blows in the wind.That's a little haiku by Herman van Rompuy; he's apparently writing about himself, but that's a perfect ode to Vermont's uniformly follicly-challenged Congressional delegation....
And who is Herman van Rompuy? Apparently, he was [...]
California's dire fiscal problems have led the state to take many actions to try to put its fiscal house in order, including cutting the state's contribution to the University of California system--one of the best, if not the best, public higher education system in [...]
By Montpelier standards, Education Commissioner Vilaseca’s letter to school administrators and board members regarding FY11 budgets was a breath of fresh air, a welcome first step. Its call for fiscal responsibility, however, could have achieved clarion heights had the letter:
(1) made much [...]The associations asked for a 5 [...]
by Tom Licata
Why is the re-licensing of a safe Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant necessary? Just ask President Obama and his Energy Information Agency (EIA).
At an October 15 New Orleans town-hall meeting, President Obama said this: "We need to increase domestic energy production, employ safe nuclear energy like France," [...]
Not quite three weeks ago, Anne Galloway took one for the team. Ms. Galloway spent what had to be a long day recording, by video, the remarks of several people who would like to be the next governor of Vermont. They were in Randolph, speaking to [...]
It seems that the Free Press needs some help with their headlines. One article's headline is
Committee offers grim Winooski budget outlook
with a topic that is pretty clear from the headline. The city's deficit is $630,000 and could be double that by summer.
The [...]
We all know that living on a limited budget means making difficult choices. It means, when the fridge is empty you buy more food... or you eat less. It means when your car is on empty you buy more gas... or you drive less. And, when the house is [...]
So, the public is assured that the stimulus is working just fine and for proof the government provides
data showing hundreds of created jobs and millions of dollars spent in congressional districts that don't exist
One congressman characterizes them as "ludicrous mistakes" and "administration officials" blame "unrealistic data."
If you did this' [...]
By Daniel Foty
Mark Steyn goes boldly forth, looking for "stimulus-created jobs" in non-existent New Hampshire congressional districts....
"I drive around in the forlorn hope that one day on a rutted Class VI [sic (?) - ed.] road deep in the woods, just over the washed out culvert, I'll round the'" [...]Government-run health care means government panels making decisions like this.
"Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it," said Daniel B. Kopans, a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School. "It's crazy -- unethical, really."
Why not let' [...]
The bigdeal Burlington Telecom deal seems to leave many questions unanswered. Not least, if laws were violated when $17 million in city money was secretly ... er, loaned to BT to cover expenses while additional financing was being secured. This, of course, did not happen in [...]
The Burlington Politburo, er, Council, finds time to explore such economically advantageous ideas like providing laptops to all Burlingtonians, because, you know, our children are at risk. Small children needs laptops like I need antlers on my head during deer season. Yet the actions of the mayor result in [...]
Windham County Democratic Senator Peter Shumlin announced this week to no one’s surprise that he is running for Governor. In doing so he took pains to declare that he was a mighty tight fiscal conservative. Well, let’s see.
Two years ago, he told everybody that [...]
Now, when recovery from the worldwide recession is beginning, Vermont has an opportunity to emerge with a stronger economy, a cleaner environment, a broader tax base, and better jobs than we had before the downturn. We also face the enormous challenges of far too many Vermonters out of [...]
Recently, VT became the recipient of a 69 million dollar federal grant from the US Dept. of Energy to implement smart grid technology. As the Freeps describes this morning, the grid will lightly chastise the homeowner for unwise use of electricity. The goal [...]
By Daniel Foty
The things that you find in old file folders while rummaging for something else....
"Life is relatively easy in State government. Your pay check arrives on time every other Thursday. When business is bad, you raise taxes. You don't worry about Act 250 permits or snow conditions. You don't" [...]
An interesting column in Barron’s spotlighted a problem which should concern all Vermonters. States with high taxes are experiencing an exodus of citizens, a significant number of whom are “…productive and wealthy people who don’t believe the services associated with high [...]
unemployment in Vermont is expected to get even worse-- perhaps rising to 8 percent next year. Consumer confidence is still low, so companies are unlikely to hire new workers. And the decline in income tax revenues is going to be tough on state budgets. Jeff Carr, economist
"The news" [...]
The winds are howling, the creek is rising and the roof just sprung a leak. Normally this would be a call to action; fix the things you can and brace for those you can’t. If you hadn’t noticed pretty much everything is [...]
The Vermont Department of Education sent out a letter dated November 10th, addressed to: School Superintendents, Principals, Business Managers and School Board Members. The letter detailed the department's 2011 budget recommendations and could be summed up in the phrase ... please try to spend less money.
The letter does a' [...]
Geoffrey Norman, Chris Campion, Art Woolf, Gregory J. Decker, Daniel Foty, Tom Evslin, Mike Smith
