Freyne Land

Meet Buddhist Sister ICHIKAWA. She's the one on the right beating the drum.

Shot her around 11 a.m. today in Montpeculiar, Vermont. She is, god bless her,  on Day Six of a Nine-Day "WALK FOR A NUCLEAR FREE FUTURE." Started March 24 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. At Johnson State College on Friday and in Burlap this weekend.

That's Hattie Nestel seated behind the good sister. Hattie's with Citizens Awareness Network. More here.

I'm telling you, Sixties flashback-fever starting to break out all over.

"End the War in Vietnam, Bring the Troops Home!"

Ooops, Iraq.

However, inside the Statehouse, not a single soul was aware of the good sister's peace protest out front. It was the usual political, Inside-baseball soap opera, and Republican Gov. Jim Douglas was in the zone.

The tiny six-member House Progressive Party Caucus tried to upstage Gov. Scissorhands' one o'clock weekly with a nooner of their own in Cedar Creek. Their message?

According to Burlington Prog Rep. Chris Pearson, "The Governor is a master illusionist. He talks circles around issues and has been beating on the legislature - getting away with half-truths, empty promises and clever phrases."

Pretty catchy, eh?

That's Progressive Reps. Dexter Randall (Troy) and Susan Hatch Davis (Topsham) behind the rather cutesy "shell-game" prop.

The "Master Illusionist," himself,  was around the corner wowing the fifth graders from Fair Haven. The State of Vermont's most successful Republican then proceeded into his weekly face-off with the press in his State House Ceremonial Office, and in the first two minutes got in every one of those clever phrases that make Jim = Winner.

The Douglas "Affordability Agenda" and the Douglas "Pathway to Progress" and "Promise Scholarships" are all part of what make Jim Douglas successful.  Redundancy, repetition and catchiness produce results in politics.  Just ask Bernie Sanders, eh?

Look, the fact is neither the Democrats nor the Progressives under the Golden Dome are going to change that. What they have to do is come up with a few catchy phrases of their own.

Washington County Sen. Bill Doyle's annual Town Meeting Day poll results are out.

Question 12: "Do you believe Governor Douglas is doing a good job?

50 percent answered "Yes."
29 percent answered "No."
21 percent were "Unsure."

Press: "Put any credence in the Doyle Poll numbers?"

Gov. Douglas: "Well, it's not scientific, but I think it's always over time an interesting reflection of the views of Vermonters who respond to it, who go to Town Meeting and take it up. So it's instructive but not dispositive."

Press; "50 percent think you're doing a good job.  Do you have a problem with that?"

Gov. Douglas: "Well, I think probably statewide it's even a little better than that, but it's well above the General Assembly's approval ratings, so, I'm pleased with that."

Yes, indeed.

Doyle Poll Question 13: "Do you believe the VT Legislature is doing a good job?"

38 percent "Yes."
35 percent "No."
27 percent "Not sure."

So I'm minding my own business in beautiful downtown Burlington late Wednesday afternoon, and this wise-guy cop, a lieutenant, approaches.

He's pulling money out of his pockets and mumbling something about, 'Do I have any marijuana I can sell him?'

Actually, Lt. Emmett Helrich was kidding, something he's very, very good at. Instead of weed, he bought the coffee at Uncommon Grounds.

Couple Burlington old-timers are we. I landed for good in 1979; Emmett in 1981.

Babyboomers.

We remember Martin Luther King Jr. and Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy. JFK, too.

Next, month, said Lt. Helrich, he'll mark his 26th anniversary as a Burlington copper.

And I've been here for all of them plus some!

Ah, yes, memory lane is long and deep. The town has, ah, changed a bit, hasn't it?

Back in 1981 when Emmet first wore the Burlington Blue, that screaming leftist with the Brooklyn accent was serving his first term as mayor of Vermont's Queen City.

Now, I flip on C-SPAN2 and Bernie Sanders, excuse me, Senator Bernie Sanders, is presiding over the Wednesday debate on the floor of the United States Senate.

Cool.

And Sanders' Church Street senate office is today's target of antiwar protesters.

Cool.

Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan says he will not bring charges against the eight patriotic peace people arrested Wednesday for trespass at Ol'Bernardo's office. Got better things to do.

Bernie agrees. The peace people, he argues, are his people. He's opposed the Iraq War from the get-go and currently supports the bill with the deadline for withdrawal.

Also, just heard a pro-impeachment radio spot on WDEV. And here's a link to a Vermont-specific impeachment website.

The times, they are a changin'.

Just talking about the impeachment of George W. Bush makes ordinary folks feel good!

How long before the Democrat leaders in Congress and Democrat leadersof the Vermont Legislature - Speaker Gaye in the House and PresidentPete in the Senate - wake up and realize it?

It's all about truth, justice and the real American Way.

Bush and Cheney lied about Iraq.

Everybody knows.

He said what?

Hey, that's Oklahoma Republican United States Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. on C-SPAN late Wednesday morning and he's got an amendment to the "Emergency" supplemental $100 billion-plus spending bill that's supposed to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and more, including a little "pork."

Only Sen. Coburn's amendment is designed to remove a certain porky "earmark" attached to the spending bill currently on the floor by an unnamed senator that would send $2 million of U.S. taxpayers money to the University of Vermont to establish an academic chair in education quality named for former U.S. Rep. and Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

Coburn, the Oklahoma physician-turned-politician (like Ho-Ho?), called the Vermont earmark:

"An earmark for which we don’t have the money. We’re not going to be able to pay for it...

"It's another $2 million to a university that’s already gotten $400 million of taxpayers' money (since 2000). I don’t think there’s any question in the average American’s mind in regards to that.

"Let me just read what the University of Vermont has gotten:

2000 - $54 million

2001 - $60 million

2002 - $69 million

2003 - $76 million

2004 - $70 million

2005 - $68 million

"There’s a lot of money that’s already gone up there. A lot of it borrowed. At the present time the University of Vermont has an endowment of $282,594,000.

"Now, interest on that at 6 percent gives you about, close to $15 million-a-year, just the interest off that endowment.

"I believe they’ve got plenty of money to fund this chair to honor Senator Jeffords.

"The endowment grew 16 percent last year. It’s growth last year was 20-times the amount of this earmark.

"Certainly not an 'emergency.'"

Coburn's got a point, eh?

“When we queried the University of Vermont about this earmark, we asked what were the estimated costs of the project longterm?

“They couldn’t give us an answer.

“Who was going to finance it after the program was established?

“They couldn’t give us an answer.

“How will the federal funding be expended?

“They couldn’t tell us that.

“Did the university request the funding?

“We don’t know the answer to that either. None of these questions have been answered by the University of Vermont."

Plus, $400 million to UVM since 2000?

How come no football team?

Just heard via email (1 p.m.), from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy's veteran Press Secretary David Carle.

Yes, the $2 million for the Jeffords Institute is a Leahy earmark.

AND it looks like Coburn's won the day.

"At this moment," Carle informs us,  "there’s still hope of finishing the overall bill this week – which includes the earmarks - for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"To raise the chances of that being possible there are efforts by the leadership to thin the remaining issues that have to be debated and voted on, and to further that process," writes Mr. Carle, "Senator Leahy this afternoon has agreed to the leadership’s request that the Coburn amendment be accepted by voice vote, and he plans on resuming the effort [to get the money for UVM's Jeffords Institute] in the FY08 appropriations bills."

How's that song go?

"You've got to know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away,
and know when to run.....

Almost a quarter-century ago, the antiwar protesters were upset by U.S. policy in Central America. In fact, Phil Fiermonte, pictured here in the white shirt at left, was himself an antiwar protester back in those days. Even got himself arrested for unlawful trespass in 1984 as part of the infamous Winooski 44 occupation of GOP U.S. Sen. Robert T. Stafford's Winooski office in the Champlain Mill.

Ah! The good old days.

Today Phil heads up U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' Burlington office, and it was Fiermonte, a former Progressive city councilor, too, who gave the word to the peaceful Iraq War protesters earlier this evening that they'd be arrested if they did not leave Sanders' Church Street office.

Eight, including some veteran Vermont peace activists like Marmette Hayes, 82, were arrested by Burlington cops, removed from the building and released on citation after Sen. Sanders office officially closed for the day.

Sen. Sanders did not speak with the demonstrators by phone from Washington, but his Capitol Hill Chief of Staff Jeff Weaver did.

Weaver told "Freyne Land" that the protesters (getting the word to clear out from Deputy Police Chief Walt Decker, at right), had called and asked for an appointment with Bernie, "but nobody else demands attention on less than 24 hours notice."  Weaver noted the Burlington crew had kept Ol' Bernardo's Burlington office open an extra half-hour to accomodate the antiwar protesters.

"Even our hard-working staff has to go home at some point," he told us.

Weaver, a former Marine, also noted he had been arrested back in 1986 for protesting apartheid at Boston University. Got suspended from school for it and he returned home to Vermont where he went to work for an Independent gubernatorial candidate named Bernie Sanders. Was his driver. The dude didn't win the governor's race that year, but he stayed in the game. Has been in Congress since winning a U.S. House seat in 1990 and holding it until he won the U.S. Senate seat Jeezum Jim Jeffords retired from last November. 

Weaver's moved up a bit from driver, too.

The antiwar protesters say Bernie the Senator should not vote for one more penny to fund George W. Bush's Iraq War.

"The Vermont delegation is united," said Weaver. "We want the war to end as quickly as possible. We're all on the same page."

As for the protesters demands, Weaver told us, "It's easy to be on the outside and criticize. We're on the inside trying to get something done."

Stay tuned.

Look at these two guys, will you?

I've been looking at them for 20 years!

This shot taken the other day in the Statehouse cafeteria. Nice place. Lots of "light."

On the left, Rep. David Deen (D-Westminister), chair of the House Committee on Fish, Wildlife & Water Resources.  A trout-fishing guide and protector of the Connecticut River and all things in Mother Nature's bosom.

Seated on the right, a veteran Statehouse business lobbyist, Gerry Morris. "The Gerr" has been working the building for 20 years with his sweet South Boston twang, flashing wit, and gift of the gab. Also an A-list of corporate clients (Vermont Yankee to Viagra to Budweiser and more), plus two talented female associates to lobby in the places he simply cannot go, if you know what I mean.

As "Morris the Cat," of Morris, DeMag & McCarty said with a smile, he and David Deen have never agreed on any bill!

Go get 'em, boys.

I'm here at the ranch all day - "Inside Track" Day - any last minute tips accepted before noon: 658-9555.

Interesting. Just noticed the Tuesday Freeps, aka The Burlington Free Press, is playing Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch's upcoming, early April trip to Iraq and Afghanistan on Page One.

Over on Ch. 3 last night, Marsillyiss Parsons buried that story on the 6 O'Clock News. Vermont's only congressman heading to the war zone and it's not news in WGOP Land, eh?

Hmmm.

Hey, for the last two hours, MSNBC's been nothing but this (right) as the news story, the only news story, the world needs to know: Anna Nicole Smith died from an accidental drug overdose.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I can go on with my life now! And so can George "WMD" Bush, too, eh?

I know, I know, I'm just procrastinating while I delay writing the "Under the Dome" column for the April edition of Vermont Business Magazine. Things have changed "under the Dome," as they say. But isn't change inevitable?

I just think I'm showing my age.

Also inevitable, is it not?

And having the sudden, personal engagement with cancer that 2007 has brought me, has certainly sharpened many of my senses.

And when presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton made note of the fact on "Good Morning, America"  that two-thirds of the American people who DO NOT have health insurance DO have jobs, one's ears get pricked.

I'm lucky. I have insurance, but still, the U.S. health care system is one big boat anchor, is it not?

Do check out David Sirota's well-deserved, sizzling sizzle of Katie Couric for her "60 Minutes" crotch-diving last night into the motives of  John and Elizabeth Edwards for going public with Elizabeth's cancer recurrence.

Since I first noticed my "lump" on January 1, I have entered a new "society," a beautiful one, too,  that's crowded with good and decent people and many a familiar face. In many ways, it's been a new beginning in life, an up-tick, rather than a downturn.

Once upon a time, cancer was something one kept in the closet.

Fear ruled.

No more.

We're all in this together. The more talk, the better!

U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat from Vermont and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was front and center Sunday morning on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

And, sure enough, the tall, bald, one-eyed Montpelier kid gave great face while offering up Bob Schieffer and the TV-tuned-in nation some great lines like:

"Our founders devised this system of checks and balances. Thisadministration’s been used to going unchecked. The balance has kickedin last November and they’re going to have to deal with that reality."

"Deal with reality?"

Has a ring to it, eh?

And the reality this Sunday morn' is that even Republican members of Congress like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who appeared with Leahy via satellite, wish the Bush White House would get real when it comes to "telling the truth" about the firing of the eight U.S. Attorneys for political reasons, reasons that track bread crumbs all the way back to political whiz Karl Rove's door.

Sen. Graham - "The attorney general [Alberto Gonzalez], has been wounded because of his performance, not because of politics.

"And he is willing to come before the Senate and explain himself under oath, and I think he should and we should allow him to tell his side of the story....I’m very disturbed by the way this has been handled."

Schieffer: Eventually, is he going to have to leave if he can’t explain this to your satisfaction?

Sen. Graham: "Well, he has said some things that just don’t add up. I like him as a person, but he has been wounded. He’s going to have to  come to the Senate and reestablish his credibility."

Schieffer noted Republican Rep. Heather Wilson and Republican U.S. Sen.Pete Domenici "called the prosecutor out there and wanted to know whyhe wasn’t prosecuting Democrats. Is that out of order?"

Sen. Leahy: "Yes. That’s totally out of order. During the years when Iwas a prosecutor if an elected offical called me and told me toprosecute somebody or not to prosecute somebody, I would have just hungup the phone on him. I would not allow that kind of political pressurein my office as a prosecutor."

Republican Sen. Graham was on the same page.

Sen. Graham: "What I’d like to find out is what happened. There is an absoluteobligation to treat this as a co-equal branch situation. The problemis, you can get a US Attorney dismissed for almost any reason, but youcan’t dismiss them because they failed to prosecute your enemies, orwill not leave your friends alone.

"So Leahy’s right. Senators Leahy and Specter are right to find outwhat happened. We were misled, apparently, by Department of Justiceofficials."

As for President George "WMD" Bush's adamant refusal to have Rove testify before Leahy's committee under oath, Leahy was clear as glass.

Sen. Leahy: "On the question of whether these people can testify or not, we haveample precedent during the Clinton Administration and previousadministrations of White House officials testifying. For the BushAdminsitration to suddenly waive the Constitution?

"They’ve ignorded theConstitution for six years and now they suddenly want to use it?

"Thatdoesn’t fly. The American people ought to know what happened here...

"The White House has said they’d only allow them to come if it’s behindclosed doors, no oath, no transcript, limited number of people askingthe questions and a limited agenda. That’s a non-starter. I want themin the open, under oath, publicly, where both Republican and Democraticsenators can ask questions."

Afternoon Update:

And the sun came out, didn't it?

Went downtown for a little caffeine & newspapers at Uncommon Grounds. Sat with Bruce the Banker, another Church Street old-timer.  All the tables there have four chairs and many people in our modern 21st Century society are solo flyers - single types comme moi. If it's packed, I always ask another solo flyer if I could join them and they always say "yes." Often leads to good conversation.

Picked up a few things at City Market and then, walking up Orchard Terrace, I came upon the first outdoor barbecue of 2007. Yes!

Didn't get to the Iraq War Protest at City Hall in Burlap until it was over - been running late, a little out-of-sync. I figure it's the lingering effects of Wednesday's six-hour chemo.

Hey, doing fine. And the Freyne Brain looks like it's not a cause for concern. The MR Spectroscopy "actually didn't show much," says Dr. Penar, the neurosurgeon. It was "not technically an adequate diagnostic study." Some problem on radiology's end. He suggests we may well be able to get a refund from FAHC because of it.

Cool.

As things stand, no other seizure-related symptoms.  Eating well, energy's decent. Up and at 'em.   

Burlington Police Cpl. Ray Nails (above left),  at Church & Main, told us that "about 300 people" participated in the antiwar demonstration. There was a march and rally on the steps of Burlington City Hall. In a state with about 75 percent of the population against the war and the White House that's running it, you'd think there be some top name pols playing to the receptive crowd, eh?

Think again.

No Sen. Patrick Leahy (stayed in Washington D.C. to appear Sunday morning on CBS News' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer, which airs at 10:30 a.m. on WCAX). No Sen. Bernie Sanders (nothing on his website indicating what he's up to this weekend and no Sanders schedule in our in-box.) No Congressman Peter Welch (dittos on schedule).

Cpl. Nails, born and raised in Chicago, "My Kind of Town," where my memories of the anti-Vietnam War protests in Grant Park and along Michigan Avenue during the 1968 Democratic National Convention will always be fresh, said State Rep. David Zuckerman, the ponytailed,  Burlington Prog who chairs the House Agriculture Committee in Montpelier, was the highest ranking Vermont politician to address the protest crowd.

Zuckerman for ___________?

Although Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss (right, in the blue), also a Prog, was in attendance, Cpl. Nails said he did not speak to the gathering.

Ah, yes, that's Kiss - a man of few words.

He is still the mayor, isn't he?

And also on hand a contingent of Iraq War Veterans Against the War.

Their presence makes a powerful statement.

One that supporters of the war choose to ignore.

Perfectly understandable, eh?

As folksinger/songwriter Phil Ochs sang it in Grant Park way back when:

"Oh, we're fighting in a war we lost,
before the war began.
We're the white boots marching in a yellow land."

The snow was melting fast on the Statehouse lawn Friday under a blazing bright sun and a clear blue sky. And there was plenty of sugar on snow in the form of fresh maple syrup over crushed ice, as top state officials were on hand for the ceremonial tapping of the “first” sugar maple by Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas. Joining in the pre-tapping speechifying with Douglas was fellow Republican, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie (standing between the Guv and the tree), a fella who flies jet airliners and taps Vermont sugar maples, too.

"Us sugarmakers," said Dubie, "we really don't appreciate sunny days like this. We kinda like the clouds. We like the extremes."

Maybe it was the politician in him that then made him say, "We'll take whatever weather we will get, and we're appreciative of any of it, but we're hoping for a great season."

Next, Doobie-Doo threw out a line that sounded downright gubernatorial:

"And I'm gonna challenge you to do something for us sugarmakers, too. When you go into a high-falutin' hotel or restaurant and they serve you something that's brown and it's sweet, don't accept it if it's not the finest maple syrup grown in the world from Vermont. So I'd like to make you active consumers and to give the feedback if they're serving some table syrup or some corn syrup  or something else because we have to tell the great story that we have!"

Gov. Jim Douglas was, as usual, right on message and "global warming" was not in his remarks:

"Maple sugaring is an important part of our culture, our histroy, our tradition. It defines in many ways what we are as a people. It's also an important part of our economy. Estimates are that direct and indirect expenditures total nearly a quarter-billion dollars in our state on an annual basis. So we hope that we'll have another great year. We hope it'll be a good crop. We hope that the sap will flow generously and prodigiously."

As long a Jim Douglas occupies the Fifth Floor in Montpeculiar the "sap" will flow "prodigiously." That's for sure, eh?

And, apparently, our Guv doesn't read The New York Times, which reported in a March 3 feature titled "Warm Winters Upset Rhythms of Maple Sugar":

Dr. Tim Perkins (director of the Proctor Maple Research Center at UVM)  and Tom Vogelmann, chairman of the plant biologydepartment at the University of Vermont, said that while newsap-tapping technology is helping sugar makers keep up syrupproduction, for now, at some point the season will become so short thatlarge syrup producers will no longer get enough sap to make itworthwhile.

“It’s within, well, probably my lifetime that you’llsee this happen,” Professor Vogelmann said. “How can you have the stateof Vermont and not have maple syrup?”

Experts say gradualwarming has already contributed to a shift of syrup production toCanada, although other factors may be more responsible, includingCanadian subsidies, improved technology, and a decline in New Englandfamily farms.

“In the ’50s and ’60s, 80 percent of world’smaple syrup came from the U.S., and 20 percent came from Canada,” saidBarrett N. Rock, a professor of natural resources at the  University of New Hampshire.“Today it’s exactly the opposite. The climate that we used to have herein New England has moved north to the point where it’s now in Quebec.”

That's what following in the footsteps of Vermont's Republican Gov. Jim Douglas looked like about 1 p.m. today as he confidently strode into his large State House ceremonial office to face off with the press corps for about 45 minutes.

Piece of cake.

Nobody does it better. On message and supremely careful not to say that which he does not wish to say.

Oh, and that's Chief of Staff Tim Hayward to the Boss' left. Tim's been an in-the-trenches, behind-the-scenes Montpelier-type most of his political career. Hayward was a Marine Corps captain before getting a dude named Jim Jeffords elected to Congress in 1974. Subsequently, Tim was a right-hand man to the one-and-only King Richard, Earl of Shelburne, also known as Gov. Dick Snelling (before he dicks you!).

Since those Snelling days that faded away in the mid-1980s, Ol' Tim been with the Vermont  Bankers Association, their Statehouse lobbyist and recent president. He knows the game only too well and, it shows. Even brings a bag lunch to work. Hey, in his third term running a Republican administration in liberal/progressive Vermont.

Not bad!

In Washington the showdown of the day is between Vermont's Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and President George "WMD" Bush. Leahy wants Karl Rove and other White House aides to testify under oath regarding the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys for political reasons - like who they prosecuted and who they didn't.

President Bush says "No way."

The Emperor obviously lacks access to a mirror.

At today's presser we asked Gov. Scissorhands about the matter.

Press: “Obviously, you’re one of the leading Republicans in New England. I wondered if you agreed with Republican Sen. Sununu of New Hampshire who has already come out saying it’d be best if Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez resigned.  Where are you on that?”

Gov. Douglas: “Well, I’m very concerned about the politicizing of United States Attorneys Offices. That’s inappropriate. We have to have federal prosecutors, just as we need state prosecutors, who are doing their jobs enforcing the law, seeking justice, not being subject to political interference. I feel very strongly about that. I think it’s appropriate for the Congress to ask questions and to get some honest answers about what happened. I think we should let that process play itself out before, ah, before joining that kind of call.”

Press: “Do you believe there has been apparent lying. It’s been pretty well documented."

Gov. Douglas: "Well, I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. I think it’s appropriate for Congress to get the information.”

Press: “Do you think Karl Rove should have to testify under subpoena (i.e. under oath)?

Gov. Douglas: “Well, I don’t know what the right method is, but the Congress is entitled to get some honest answers.”

Press: “But you won’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ about whether he should have to appear under a subpoena?”

Gov. Douglas: “Well, I guess I’m not going to get into that much detail.”

Good guess.

As St. Patrick and nine other Democrats on the Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to WH Council Fred Fielding on Thursday:

"Despite the initial White House statements to the contrary, it is now apparent that White House officials were deeply involved in the planning and execution of the firings, the consideration of replacements, and the subsequent misleading explanations from Justice officials."