Freyne Land

At Uncommon Grounds on Burlington's Church Street Marketplace on Tuesday afternoon. There he was, the Democrat who gave Republican Brian Dubie a scare in Vermont's recent Lite-Gov race.

State Sen. Matt Dunne told yours truly he's "caught up on my sleep," and "made up significant childcare credits with my wife."

What's he got planned for the future?

"I'm exploring a variety of options," said Dunne.

Good answer, eh?

He did say he felt his "service politics" approach was a success and we may be seeing more of it down the line.

Cool.

Certainly Young Dunne, with one statewide race under his belt, will be in the mix in 2008, right?

Stay tuned.

As the Rutland Herald editorial page put it:

"The defeat of Matt Dunne for lieutenant governor was a disappointment to many Democrats who saw him as a bright young leader with an abundance of energy and new ideas. One hopes that Dunne finds another avenue to bring his enthusiasm and ideas to Vermonters."

*UPDATED  11 a.m.*

We swung by the extremely quiet Burlington City Council Meeting last night. Just two members of the public, a representative of the police department, the Ch. 17 videographer and yours truly were in the audience. And it turned out the printed agenda did not give away the most interesting part of the meeting. That item was:

3. COMMUNICATION: Mayor Kiss, re: General City Affairs (oral) (10 mins.)

Yes, Bob Kiss, the tall, soft-spoken former Progressive state rep, is still the mayor of Vermont’s largest city. And Monday night, without fanfare, Mayor Kiss told the Burlington City Council and those in attendance that he had just become “about the 125th” mayor of an American city to sign on with “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.” Kiss said he had attended the recent Northeastern Regional Conference in Boston and put his John Hancock on the organization’s “Statement of Principles.”

Whereas: 30,000 Americans across the country are killed every year as a result of gun violence, destroying families and communities in big cities and small towns, and

Whereas: As Mayors, we are duty-bound to do everything in our power to protect our residents, especially our children, from harm and there is no greater threat to public safety that the threat of illegal guns;

Now, therefore, we resolve to work together to find innovative new ways to advance the following principles:

* Punish - to the maximum extent of the law - criminals who possess, use, and traffic in illegal guns.

* Target and hold accountable irresponsible gun dealers who break the law by knowingly selling guns to straw purchasers.

*Oppose all federal efforts to restrict cities’ right to access, use, and share trace data that is so essential to effective enforcement, or to interfere with the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to combat illegal gun trafficking.

* Work to develop and use technologies that aid in the detection and tracing of illegal guns.

* Support all local, state, and federal legislation that targets illegal guns; coordinate legislative, enforcement, and litigation strategies; and share information and best practices.

* Invite other cities to join us in this new national effort.


______________________________________________
(Signature)

Yes, he signed. When the meeting ended, the city council went into an executive session. Didn’t get a chance to ask da’ Mayor a couple questions regarding the rather stealthy way he let his anti-gun cat out of the bag.

Back last May, in his early days as mayor, Mayor Bob distributed a police press release about a shooting at a press conference he'd called on the budget. He made a passing reference to his gun control views and it stirred up a tempest. Mayor Kiss has since kept the lid on it. Until Monday night, anyway.

Can’t imagine one of his mayoral predecessors signing such a public-policy document without calling a press conference to sign it before the TV cameras, can you? That is, of course, if they would have signed it.

Interesting, eh?

**************************************************************************

*UPDATE*  11 A.M.

Looking for something to do this evening?

"Vermont's Two Year Term: Anachronism or a Bastion of Democracy"

A discussion between Former Governor Madeleine Kunin and University of 
Vermont Political Science Professor Frank Bryan.

Moderated by Emerson Lynn, Publisher, St. Albans Messenger

7 p.m Memorial Lounge, 3rd Floor Waterman Building, University of Vermont.

Also there's this possibility for:

Wednesday, November 29, Ira Allen Chapel, 6:30 p.m.

Who: Laurie David, environmental activist and producer of the 
documentary film An Inconvenient Truth

The lecture: "Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You"

Really?

I think I forgot to mention this, but Bill Simmon, Philip Baruth and I were on Vermont This Week last week talking about blogs. Bill created this handy permalink to the podcast for anyone who missed it and would like to listen in.

I was happy to be asked on the show, but I must admit, I felt a little silly sitting there answering the question, "what is a blog?" I mean, are there really people watching Vermont This Week who don't know what a blog is? Come on. This is Vermont Public Television. These people are probably pretty with it, right?

Very interesting front-page piece in Sunday's Rutland Herald/Times Argus by Louis Porter: "Growing list seen for Ag agency post."

And what makes it interesting is the presence of  Ch. 3 newsman Anson Tebbetts on the list - a list of possible choices to replace Steve Kerr as Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture.

Reports Porter:

Anson Tebbetts has been a reporter for WCAX-TV inside and outside the Statehouse, and he grew up on a Cabot farm where he still lives. His name has been floated as a replacement for Kerr; he's heard the rumors but not actively pursued the post, Tebbetts said.

Still, he can't say he wouldn't take the job, either.

"Agriculture has always been a big part of my life," he said. "It is certainly flattering to be on that list."

Tebbetts said he loves his current job reporting on policy instead of making it, but added that the job would be something he would "seriously look at" if it was offered.

Interesting, eh?

Of course, based on the softball questions Ol' Anson, the Cabot dairy farmer and Statehouse reporter for Ch. 3 has tossed at Gov. Douglas over the last few years, some would suggest he's already been working for the Douglas administration, eh?

Other potential candidates mentioned included: State Rep. Harvey Smith, Clark Hinsdale III, John Roberts of Cornwall, Jackie Folsom, president of the Vermont Farm Bureau and David Lane the current acting secretary.

P.S. Also on the media front, Veteran WPTZ reporter Stewart Ledbetter has been picked to replace Chris Graff as the host of "Vermont This Week" on Vermont Public Television. That's the weekly reporters' roundtable inaugurated by the late, great Jack Barry in the early 1980s. Chris Graff took over in the 1990s and is now moving on to a position at National Life.

Mr. Graff will be Bob Kinzel's guest on "Switchboard" on Vermont Public Radio Tuesday night at 7. He also be Mark Johnson's guest on WDEV Tuesday morning at 9:05.

Hey, we're not getting any younger, are we?

“It is hard to remember today how little we thought of Dean when he assumed the governor’s office in 1991. We now have the perspective of his almost twelve years in office and his presidential run, but in August 1991, most insiders saw him as a lightweight. And a liberal one, at that. "(p.79)

Ah, memories! Thank you Chris Graff for gathering them all up in one marvelous volume titled “Dateline Vermont - Covering and uncovering the newsworthy stories that shaped a state - and influenced a nation.”

The new must-have for Vermont political junkies and history buffs should be hitting Vermont bookshops this week just in time for Christmas. You’ll also find it here and here.

It’s the perfect, long-awaited update to State Sen. Bill Doyle’s  “The Vermont Political Tradition - and those who helped make it.” The new Graff book takes us from the “Difficult 1960s” all the way through his firing last March as the longtime Montpeculiar bureau chief of the Associated Press. And tacked on the end are “The Top 20 Stories of the 20th Century” and “The 10 Most Influential Vermonters of the 20th Century.”

A great read and the perfect stocking stuffer!

Also plenty of  information you haven't heard before. For example, I never knew that when current Gov. Jim Douglas was first elected to the State House way back in 1972, he was driving on a Massachusetts drivers license! (p.30)

Or that Chris stopped covering or editing stories about Howard Dean's presidential quest because he refused the suggestion of his AP bosses to get his son Garrett not to work for Dean for America.

For those of you who lived through it, "Dateline Vermont"  will certainly jog the memory banks.  Well done!

Thanks, Chris.

And Chris Graff will be Bob Kinzel's guest on VPR's "Switchboard" this coming Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.

Miracles never cease.

The standard Thanksgiving Week act of "kindness" by the president of the United States is to "compassionately" spare the lives of a couple turkeys - the kind with feathers. But our current president, George W. Bush, has gone a step farther. He's eliminated hunger!

According to report by Agence France Presse:

"The US government has tweaked its terminology in referring to the nearly 11 million Americans who face a constant struggle with hunger to refer to them as people with 'very low food security.'

"According to a report released this month by the US Department of Agriculture, roughly 35 million Americans had difficulty feeding themselves in 2005 and of those some 10.8 million went hungry.

"But unlike last year's report on hunger in America, which labeled families who don't get enough to eat as having "food insecurity with hunger," this year's report referred to them as having "very low food security."

I'm not making this up.

In fact, it was Vermont's senior senator - Patrick J. Leahy who brought this to our attenton with a Wednesday morning press release. St. Patrick is a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Committee On Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and has long led in Congress on policies to address hunger in America and overseas. Said Leahy:

"Hunger is an ongoing problem, people know what it means, and it should be a higher priority than it is.  I am going to continue to call hunger by its name, and I expect that many others who have long worked on this problem will too.

“Calling it something else is not going to bring us closer to solving it.  We need to be watchful to prevent wordplay from becoming a way to minimize the blight that hunger has on millions of Americans’ lives."

“More important than what we call hunger is what we do about it, and we need to watch closely right now as the Bush Administration sets its priorities for the new budget.  Hunger-relief efforts have been in a holding pattern for several years.  A nation as blessed as ours should not tolerate having millions of its families facing hunger day in and day out, year after year.  The Thanksgiving season is an appropriate time to redouble our commitment to ending hunger sooner, rather than later.”

Wonders never cease, eh?

Republican Gov. Jim Douglas says “affordability” is the No. 1 issue facing the state as the legislature returns to the Statehouse in January. But the new senate president pro tem Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, says "global warming" is the No. 1 issue. Are we heading for a collision? 

Gov Jim Douglas told reporters Tuesday at his 11 a.m. presser in the Fifth Floor conference room that global warming is a very important issue and Vermont has done a lot to address it. Douglas noted he was "the first governor" to sign onto the regional greenhouse gas initiative and just this week lobbied the newly elected governor of Massachusetts to sign on to it as well. But on the campaign trail, Douglas said he heard more from voters about another subject. Said the Guv:

"I have to tell you that over the last six months or so of the campaign, what I hear Vermonters talk most about is property taxes and the other burdens of the cost of living in Vermont. We're always consistent with out strict environmental ethic and will continue to provide leadership on matters like global warming, but what really pinched Vermonters is the property tax bill that comes every year and the high cost of housing, health care and a college education."

Just our luck - Senate president-pro-tem-elect Peter Shumlin was at the Statehouse Tuesday for a meeting with House Speaker Gaye Symington.  They posed for our lens like tourists!

Informed of the Guv’s remarks, Shummy said there’s "no question affordability’s an issue." But he did not back off the bold statement he made here in Freyne Land two days ago that, in his view, "Everything’s related to global warming and the fact public officials are not directly addressing it." Said Putney Pete at the Statehouse today:

"When you see the polar ice cap dissappearing as quickly as it is, you look at the ramifications for affordability in Vermont, the ability to keep snow on our ski areas, job creation, the ability to make maple syrup, the ability for our farms to thrive and the list goes on and on.

In fact, our ability to live and let Vermont remain the great place that it is - it all depends upon our making a serious committment to changing the way we lead our lives and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. So affordability and global warming, frankly, are part of the same agenda."

We asked Democrat Shummy if he thinks he and Jimbo the Republican have much in common?

"I think we have a lot in common. We were all sent here by Vermonters. I can’t remember the public policy challenges that we’re facing in Vermont right now being as difficult and severe as they are, and I know we all want to solve those problems together.

"Take property tax - we’re going to need the governor. We’re going to need the House and the Senate working in a bipartisan effort to try to come up with creative solutions to that problem because there is no undiscovered pot of money to throw out there , no rabbit to suddenly pull out of the hat and say, hey, we can solve your problem, Vermonters, no more property tax heartache. So we’re going to have to work together. It’s going to be a team effort and we’re going to need a lot of help and a lot of gubernatorial leadership."

The governor and the incoming senate president pro tem have their first face-to-face meeting scheduled for next Monday. To be the fly on the wall...

P.S. We hopped in the fossil-fuel burner about 9:20 this morning to head for Montpeculiar. Pleasantly surprised to find Shummy was the in-studio guest on "The Mark Johnson Show" on WDEV. Wished I tuned in earlier because it sounded like he had opened with the global warming issue.

In fact, who is one of the callers?

None other than Gov. Douglas' press secretary Jason Gibbs. He was pleasant and the gist was something about how Gov. Douglas had indeed done stuff on global warming, but the signal in the car was crappy.

Nice to know he's listening, eh?

We'll see. At least it looks like somebody thought it could be a Jim Douglas Tuesday.

The Guv is holding an 11 a.m. presser on the Fifth Floor in Montpeculiar. Looks like it's what we used to call a "regular governor's weekly." They died out, however, back in August when Democratic challenger Scudder Parker started scheduling pressers of his own an hour or two before the Guv's.

Gov. Scissorhands is also booked for Switchboard tonight at 7:05 on VPR to talk about the upcoming legislative session.

Wonder if "global warming" is on his to-do list?

Check back.....

Holy you know what!

State Sen-elect Peter Shumlin is not the only person in Vermont who thinks global warming ain’t a theory, but rather a front-burner issue that simply cannot be ignored a minute longer.

“The fundamental question posed by global warming, is will we be living in a planet, will our children be living in a planet that is hospitable to life by the end of this century?”

Good question, eh?

The questioner was James Moore from the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. He was releasing a VPIRG report focusing on how we could heat our homes in Vermont with less fossil-fuel use, lower heating bills and less pollution - especially the kind that’s heating up Ol’ Mother Earth in a way that’s dangerous to humans.

It is that time of year, isn’t it?

Next to what comes out our car, truck and SUV  tailpipes, home-heating is #2 for causing greenhouse gas emissions into the Earth's atmosphere. Heating costs have skyrocketed - more than doubling since 2002 - as the price of oil and natural gas has soared.

And worse! Those home-heating emissions are also contributing to global warming and climate change and a rather bleak future for our species unless more folks start speaking up like Vermont Senate president-pro-tem-in-waiting Peter Shumlin did in yesterday’s post - and start doing so real, real soon.

Do we really want to pretend any longer? Said VPIRG’s Moore:

“We are incredibly reliant on the tourism industry and the agricultural industry here in Vermont. When you look at climate change and the projected impacts on Vermont, we will not have a ski industry by mid-century potentially. We will not have a maple sugaring industry. We will not have a fall foliage industry.”

Also on hand at Monday’s Burlington Waterfront presser was State Sen. Virginia Lyons of Williston. Sen. Lyons is the favorite to be reappointed as chairman of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee. Lyons cartainly sounds like she's on the same page as Shumlin when it comes to  the importance of the global warming issue and the demand for  legislative action. Said Sen. Lyons:

“We need to pay attention to greenhouse gas emissions if we value our way of life in this state and region as well as in other parts of our globe.”

Don’t we have to do more than pay attention?

“That’s why we’re here. We want to start passing laws that will take us forward, that will help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this state. Everyone should be paying attention.”

To get a taste of what those laws might be like, check out the “Building Solutions” report online at VPIRG’s website.

Also did you see this?

"The inaction by Congress and the Bush administration on the threat of climate change may be seen in years to come as a far greater delinquency than their misadventure in Iraq. The evidence mounts daily that the ecosystems of the globe are undergoing changes more extreme than humankind has ever experienced."

From a very frank editorial in the Times Argus/Rutland Herald. Worth a read here. It's called "Global Delinquency."

Hey, mon ami, you are not alone.

Peter Shumlin of Putney returns to the Golden Dome in January after a four-year absence. Shummy will be the president pro tem of the Vermont Senate once again. Yes, he got his old job back. Yours truly spoke with him on the phone on Friday and, boy, oh boy, did we ever get a surprise.

When asked what’s the top issue facing Vermont, just about every pol we’ve spoken to this fall has answered “high property taxes.”

Not Peter Shumlin. Ready for a surprise?

Q: What’s it like coming back as president pro tem? No one’s ever done this before?

Shumlin: Well, you’re right about that and there are probably good reasons for it. You feel like you have a lot of catching up to do. I’m a little out of the loop, but I’m going to give it my best and I’m really excited about coming back. We have the biggest challenges policy-wise that Vermont’s faced in my memory and we’ve got to get on the job and get it done."

Q: What’s the #1 issue?

Shumlin: Let’s put it his way - I think #1 is global warming and keeping this planet from destroying itself and keeping us from destroying this planet in front of our own eyes. So everything is related to that. Obviously property taxes and health care are big, but I think we make a big mistake if we don’t acknowledge that energy policy, environmental policy where Vermont was once a leader, we’re now laggards. Look at the temperature today. It’s a warm 65 degrees in Central Vermont. We’ve got problems."

Q. So the focus at the Statehouse this winter has to be on global warming?

Shumlin: “Here’s the bottom line. We all have a responsibility to ensure that we’re doing our part in not only conservation, but going to renewable energy  sources and reducing emissions.  And I think there’s a problem when you’ve got someone like ‘The Terminator’ Arnold Swarzenegger leading the country. The most bold initiatives in the country are coming from a governor we know doesn’t tend to be too bold on environmental policy. I applaud his efforts, but when I went into politics 15-20 years ago in Vermont we were a leader on environmental policy. That’s no longer the case.

"And I think that everything that we do is related to the biggest question which is: what do we do to preserve this planet for our children and our grandchildren? This is serious stuff. The polar ice cap is melting. The climate is changing. Our entire survival is on the line:  farms, the ski industry, jobs. Everything relates to this really important question and someone’s got to raise their voice about it.

"I remain baffled as to how anyone - Democrat, Republican, Progressive - can look at the evidence that’s before our eyes, look at the scientific data and  not have this be the top priority of everything that we do, not only in government, but in our own personal and private lives.

We’ve got to come out of the cave on this one.”

"Out of the cave," eh?

Nice to hear someone say it.

What do you think?

Is Senator Shumlin on the right track?