Freyne Land

Yes, that was our junior U.S. senator on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric last night giving the Pentagon, specifically the Air Force, a well-earned hard time. So much for his critics who assured us no one would pay any heed to him when he arrived in the United States Senate:

“ The idea that over $200 million in spare parts that has not yet come into the Air Force is already marked for disposal!” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “They’re planning to get rid of it and it hasn’t even come in!”

Sanders wants Congress to cut Air Force funding if it doesn't get a serious grip on its inventory problem.

It costs up to $30 million dollars a year just to store the stuff they don't need.

Nobody at the Air Force would agree to an interview, but told us they're "taking steps" to fix the problems and to "serve the best interest of the American public."

“We have almost $19 billion in absolute waste in spare parts in the Air Force,” Sanders said.

They are taxpayer dollars squandered in the wild blue yonder.

Watch him yourself here.

Then, this afternoon, I bumped into these four gents at the Green Door Studio around the corner off Pine Street. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Four Iraq War veterans...from l-to-r: Eli Wright, served as an army combat medic with the Ist Infantry Division; Jon Michael Turner, 8th Marines; Liam Madden, 31st Marine Expeditionary Force; Matt Howard, two tours in Iraq with the Marines. Wright's the only one still on active duty over at Ft. Drum.

What are they doing?

They're cutting up their old uniforms to make paper and other works of art.

Everybody's got to do something, right?

"I am shredding these uniforms because they are symbols of a betrayal," said Madden, "and I think it’s pretty liberating."

Feels good?

"Feels real good," said he.

Making paper out of old soldier uniforms?

Check it out. I missed the Seven Days story last April, too.

Republican Gov. Jim Douglas told reporters at his Statehouse press conference Thursday that he is not surprised by the gubernatorial candidacy of Anthony Pollina, the distinguished Progressive. Tony the Prog has come out of the candidate closet with a gubernatorial campaign ad in this week's Seven Days. He's looking for money and he's looking for paid campaign staff.

Asked about Pollina's candidacy at his weekly presser, Gov. Scissorhands said he's always assumed Pollina was running.

"He’s indicated he plans to [run] publicly," said Douglas,  "and is raising money, I understand."

Mr. Pollina continues on the WDEV radio airwaves with his one-hour afternoon talk show that airs four days each week. Asked if he thought it was kosher for Tony the Prog to continue with the talk show while running for governor, the current Guv said he was "not a federal official so I don’t know the FCC rules, but I guess I’m not too concerned about his listening audience and what impact it might have on the outcome of the election."

Q. Would you welcome him into the race?

DOUGLAS:  Well, I certainly expect a credible  well-funded opponent. I don’t know who it might be at this point. He’s certainly indicated an interest in running and there may be others. I’m really not worried about that. I’m focused on the immediate future. I’ve got a couple major presentations to the Legislature as you know.  This is a time when we’re putting together a budget in the most challenging time that I can remember.

ALSO:

Yours truly was late to Doug Racine's 11th-hour attempt to keep his name in play as a gubernatorial possibility.  The Ds have been getting desperate to come up with a gubernatorial horse.  Ol' Dougie called a bunch of my press colleagues refuting what appeared in a little item in Wednesday's "Inside Track" about the Chittenden County state senator [who lost to Douglas in 2002] being "not interested" in running in 2008. "Trust me," I wrote.

Funny. Racine did not call me.

Mention of the "Pollina for Governor" campaign print ad, and my comment about Racine not being interested in running [his name had been floated as a kind of last-chance Democrat possibility in the mainstream press the first week of December] made it into a story in Thursday's distinguished Brattleboro Reformer.

I'm flattered.

Here.

It also has been a hot topic over in the Green Mountain Daily Blog which Freyne Land links to column-right [a hot topic that I missed yesterday, sorry, Odum]

However, I stand by what I wrote. State Sen. Racine the distinguished auto/truck dealer is correct when he tells The Reformer I didn't call him about it. That's because we spoke face-to-face at the Statehouse.

Racine is not running for governor in 2008.

Hey, I like the guy!

Sure "looks" like Christmastime, eh?

Nice fluffy dose of the white stuff this morning. There's a shot of the street out front. Burlap's South End - Five Sisters Neighborhood.

Gonna go grab a little coffee then hit Gov. Jim Douglas' weekly press conference - which he hasn't held for a few weeks.

In fact, this one has been moved over to the Ceremonial Office at the Statehouse for a prime photo-op.

There, according to Ol' Jason's missive,  our beloved Guv [left] "will join officials from Medicare and the Green Mountain Council of Boy Scouts to encourage eligible senior citizens to enroll in the federal Medicare prescription drug program.

Thousands of Vermont’s senior citizens have taken advantage of the federal prescription drug benefit implemented in January 2006.  According to officials, however, there are several thousand more Vermonters who are eligible but who have not yet enrolled."

Anybody notice the "Pollina Governor ‘08" ad in the current print edition of Seven Days?

It's now or never time for Tony the Prog...some say.

That's Anthony [right] in a recent shot taken at Uncommon Grounds on Church Street. Think the long hair would be a plus or a minus?

The campaign print ad, "Paid for by Pollina for Governor," says, "We're looking for volunteers, donors and campaign staff to help build this important grassroots campaign."

Interesting.

Started off with an 8 a.m. doctor's appointment up at UHC.

Got the call on Monday morning - the first one from a human, telling me I had the appointment with Dr. Morris, the neurologist.

Hey, I do what I'm told.

In the afternoon, the computer called to remind me of it.

Cool.

Time is money. Got to have patients fill the time slots.

Only problem is, the appointment was a mistake.

It had been six weeks since last I'd seen Doc Morris. But he hadn't wanted to see me for six months. The appointment was a UHC mistake. The Doc said I won't be billed.

Nice of 'em, eh?

Next stop?

Lake Champlain Chocolates on Pine Street. A couple Christmas presents to mail west. Problem was one of the recipients operates through a post office box and the LCC rep  informed me they don't mail gift-boxes to a P.O. box address.

Bummer. Life goes on....

Hey, there's Ho-Ho on with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Looking a little bedraggled. DNC Chairman Howard Dean turned 59 last month.

It's a little after 7 a.m. and +3 degrees in Burlington, Vermont.

Listening to Roger Hill give the weather on WDEV as only Roger Hill can.

Thanks, Roger.

That's a shot taken yesterday afternoon of the fountain in Burlington's City Hall Park.

The days of the long shadows, eh?

Roger says sunshine this morning, too!

Take it when we can.

It's an "Inside Track" Tuesday here in Freyne Land.

Lot of balls in the air.

Was just thinking....that first "Inside Track" hit the street in 1981, soon after that Bernie Sanders fellow took over the mayor's office in city hall.

Whatever happened to him?

"Can't trust that day."

Remember The Mamas & Papas?

Good lord, they were playing them, the music of that era - my era - down at Speeder & Earl's today.

Stopped in there after paying a visit to McCaffrey Sunoco in the Old Neighborhood at North & North. Woke to a little more than snow today - how about a tire that was going flat, too?

Don't panic, I says to myself. If you make it to McCaffrey's, you'll be OK.

Always feel safe in the hands of Ol' Pat McCaffrey. That's his kisser [left]. One of his boyos, excuse me, highly-skilled mechanics, pulled a nail and slapped a new nozzle or some kind of doo-hickey on it and, while waiting, who stops in for some auto service but veteran arts writer Susan Green and former College Street saloon-keeper Pat Finnigan!

Everybody's got a car in the Age of the Auto, eh?

And it's fair to say yours truly is among those who have contributed a wee bit to paying for Finnigan's as well as McCaffrey's.

Ah, the good old days...my pleasure.

AND...

Gov. Jim Douglas didn't get his "Weekly Public Appearance Schedule" emailed out until 4:58 p.m. this afternoon.

Heck, we missed the Vermont Timber Frames Ribbon-Cutting at 10:30 this morning in Bennington!

"Nobody cuts it better..."

Woke to about 5 inches of the white stuff tumbling down in beautiful Burlap. Soft and fine. I could clear the walkway just with a brush of the boot. Heavy overcast. So dark the auto-flash lit up the snowflakes. It's still coming down steady, too.

Work day in Freyne Land.

End-of-year deadline crunch for a couple fine Vermont publications.

And what a year it has been...

A dramatic change at the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vermont.

The coppers have new outfits!

Veteran Capitol Police Chief Dave Janawicz [left] and the other three gentlemen who make up the distinguished Capitol Police Force have bagged the white shirts and gray pants and ties and gone dark blue!

"It's different," said Chief Dave, who has been patrolling the halls under the Golden Dome since 1995. "If you have dandruff, it'll show," he quipped.

Why the switcheroo?

Chief Dave said the idea was to make the Statehouse police "more easily recognizable as police officers."

I don't know. I never had any trouble recognizing him, even with the goatee.

What do you think?

I miss the white shirts. It's the Vermont Statehouse not Detroit.

Best line of the day!

Got it from the lips of the state GOP chairman after the Gaye & Shummy Show today at High Noon in the crowded Cedar Creek Room.

"Healthcare Reform" was the hot topic for the two Democratic boss-types who allegedly run things under the Golden Dome in Montpeculiar: House Speaker Gaye Symington and Senate President pro tem Peter Shumlin.

Didn't they already cave on healthcare reform to Republican Gov. Jim Douglas?

The doomed-to-failure Catamount Plan that started up this fall - a "product" to provide health insurance coverage to the uninsured - won the Republican Guv the AARP award - not the two Democratic leaders.

Look, it's no longer a secret. In America, we pay double what the rest of the civilized world does and get much worse outcomes. Great platitudes today from Gaye and Shummy.

“The Legislature is committed to taking the next step to make sure that all Vermonters have access to the healthcare they need when they need it at a price they can afford," said Symington.

"And I’d just add," said Pistol Pete, "that the Legislature understands that small businesses now need help too, that we’re not just talking about the uninsured. We’re talking about all the Vermonters who are struggling everyday to afford health insurance and do the right thing for their employees and we feel it’s time we do something for you.”

Among those in the pack listening to all this was Rob Roper [waving], the somewhat low-key chairman of the Vermont Republican Party. His reaction?

Chairman Roper had the line of the day - he suggested Shummy & Gaye were trying to squeeze "two pounds of manure in a one-pound bag."

"What they’re offering is extremely vague," said the GOP Chair.  "The one thing Peter Shumlin was not vague about is that taxpayers will be left on the hook to pay for this."

*UPDATED*

Yours truly also asked Gaye & Shummy a question on another hot healthcare-related topic they had chosen to entirely ignore - Jim Douglas, State's Attorney Bobby Sand and criminal prosecution of marijuana smokers.

FREYNE: Where are you guys on marijuana in the coming session?

SHUMLIN: We’re going to need a lot of it to get through.

SYMINGTON: Thanks.

SHUMLIN: I’ve been pretty clear on that issue. I think that we are wasting tremendous resources in small charges and researching small charges to take them to court for marijuana related offenses. We’re going to be asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to find a better way to proceed.

SYMINGTON: I would say that I appreciate the Governor has found a way to retreat from his intrusion into the prerogative of the world of the state’s attorney and that it seemed to have resolved their differences.

SHUMLIN: You know, every once in awhile even the governor is wrong and he was wrong on that one. 

That's what GOP Gov. Jim Douglas would like to find - and find swiftly. The end of the paragraph that closes the public dust-up he's had in the last week with Windsor County State's Attorney Bobby Sand over marijuana prosecutions

Declaring Sand had a "blanket policy" on letting first-time marijuana possessors off with court diversion, Gov. Scissorhands had issued an order that, henceforth, first-time pot cases in that county brought by state police will be prosecuted by the attorney general or the U.S. Attorney.

But Sand [pictured at left],  had no such policy. Ever. Though he has publicly suggested some of our current drug laws may do more harm than good. Sand was a guest on VPR's Vermont Edition during the noon-hour today. I missed it 'cause I was at the gubernatorial ribbon-cutting, but it is available for listening online.

"The end of the paragraph,"  Gov. Douglas told us, "is we should look to the future. We should focus on enforcing the law, confronting the serious drug problems that we have in Vermont, more and more people coming from out of state to prey on our kids, to peddle their illicit wares and we need to focus on that as an important strategy to maintaining public safety. Whatever happened in the past is prologue."

"Did you misinterpret what Sand said," asked Freyne Land, "or did you overreact?"

"I stand by everything I've said, Peter," the Guv replied, "but let's look to the future."

Why not? Especially since looking at the past does you no good whatsoever on this one, eh?

Gov. Douglas spoke to yours truly prior to his remarks at the official ribbon-cutting marking Dealer.com's grand opening on Pine Street in the People's Republic of Burlington. The company gives one a little of that Silicon-Valley feel. There are 150 techie-types. Been operating out of Burlap since 1997. That's Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss the Progressive socialist to the left of GOP Jim and the Dealer.com founders and top executives surrounding them.

Mellow, brainy, laid-back, personable crew. The re-roofed and redesigned former Specialty Filaments factory that produced plastic brush-bristle fiber for brooms, now has an organic cafe and big new gym.

Cool.