Freyne Land

Ten candidates for Chittenden County’s six state senate seats turnedout for a candidates forum at Community College of Vermont in downtownBurlington last night. About 70 students from several classes attended.Few of the students had ever heard of any of the candidates.

Each got up and gave their bio and told how much they want to serve Vermonters. State Sen. Ed Flanagan (D) goteveryone’s attention when he told the students he’d been in "a horriblecar accident" and had "a brush with death" back in November 2005.Returning to Burlington from Montpeculiar, Sen. Flanagan’s car shotoff  the right side of I-89 just before the Richmond exit. He wasn’tfound until the following day and was in critical condition. They gothim just in time.

That’s Fast Eddie with fellow senators Diane Snelling (R) and Jim Condos (D) following last night’s class. Sen. Flanagan wasn't just "looking good," he was sounding good, too!

“I fully appreciate the importance of healthcare reform,” saidFlanagan. “My mission is universal high-quality healthcare. It’s verypersonal.”

Guess who got to ask the last question?

Your favorite local columnist, that’s who. And after 90 minutes oflistening to uncensored politcal BS, we raised an issue some inattendance might actually consider more important than calling forincreased state funding for education or,  in the case of Republicanwanna-be-comeback-kid Dennis Delaney, a invitation to visit the candidate’s website.

But the Delaney remark that stood out to me was something he said about howhe’s just running for the state legislature and is therefore simply too powerlessto deal with a big issue like global warming.

“Could I please get a show of hands from the candidates?" I asked. "How many of you have bothered to go see the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth?"

Only three out of 10 state senate candidate hands went up: Ed Flanagan, State Sen. Virginia Lyons (D), who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, and newcomer Chuck Furtado(R), who said he just wrapped up a military career as a Lt. Colonel inthe Army and in his last job was the Inspector General of the VermontNational Guard. (Bet he has stories to tell, eh?)

The columnist in me couldn’t resist asking a rhetorical question: Howcan you possibly expect these young people to take you seriously if 70percent of you political leaders won’t even see the bedrock, must-seefilm that lays out in great and complete detail the No. 1 problemfacing our human world at this very moment?

Needless to say, that livened things up. In fact, on Wednesday morning,I heard from two of the non-movie-goer candidates who informed me theynow intend to see An Inconvenient Truth as soon aspossible. (It's still playing downtown at The Roxy). One was anincumbent, even admitted in an email to having been “afraid” to see it,just like I once was.

Don’t worry, Senator, you are not alone, but you are in charge. Andbefore you are able to tackle  Mother Earth's man-madeglobal-warming crisis, you have to confront it.

It’s okay to be afraid. So was I last June when I realized that I, likemost friends and colleagues, had also managed to conveniently avoidseeing the heavyweight Gore flick. Maybe that's why the word"inconvenient" is in the title, eh?

It’s 90 minutes in a dark theater with the scariest truth out theretoday. Such an apt title. It is, after all, a very, very inconvenienttruth to accept. That the Earth's temperature is rising as a directresult of the fossil fuel combustion we Earthlings once thought merelyguaranteed we'd always live in "modern" times. That the glaciers arerapidly melting, the oceans are rising, weather patterns are shifting -all with calamatous impacts on the "modern" civilization we take for granted.

Until one really accepts the truth about global warming, one simply won’t be able to effectively address it.

Pretend isn't going to cut it.

*Last Update 4:20 p.m.

Good morning!

Tuesday's my day for writing the print "Inside Track" column in Seven Days. And yes, you're right, there's been a lot happening this week and it's only Tuesday. I think it's fair to say this will be a week GOP Congressional Candidate Martha Rainville will not forget. The Rainville plagiarism story got front page coverage in The Burlington Free Press this morning. Very embarrassing, eh?

However, Marvelous Martha's campaign plagiarism story was completely and totally ignored by Vermont Chamber of Commerce TV News, a.k.a. WCAX-TV - Channel 3. I'm not making this up. Just double checked the Ch. 3 Monday news scripts. The top Vermont political story of the day, a story showing GOP Candidate Rainville in a very bad ethical light, got absolutely no coverage Monday evening by Vermont's top TV news operation, the one I've called WGOP-TV for years!

Hey, if the shoe fits......

But even with WGOP-TV, er, WCAX ignoring Candidate Rainville's problems (and more are coming, folks) the former adjutant general of the Vermont Guard has a very steep hill to climb. Stay tuned.

Over on the gubernatorial side, there was an excellent debate on environmental issues last night between Jim Douglas and Scudder Parker at the Capitol Plaza in Montpeculiar.  About 200 people turned out for the debate which was sponsored by the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC),  Vermont Public Television President John King did an excellent job moderating. A few shaky moments for Gov. Scisssorhands, who was not exactly speaking to a crowd of supporters. From "wind energy" to "wilderness," Vermont's current governor does, at times, seem a bit out-of-touch with mainstream Vermont.

Unfortunately for Candidate Parker, WCAX-TV News did not cover the VNRC debate.

Interesting "news" judgement over there, eh?

Five weeks left until Election Day.

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*UPDATE 10:45 a.m.

Press Coverage Comparison:

Did something I don't do very often these days - I went out to buy the daily newspapers. You now, the ones made out of paper?

Wanted to compare the news judgement at Vermont largest daily newspapers to the news judgement at Vermont largest TV news station - our fave: WCAX.

Worlds apart!

Newswise, both The Burlington Free Press and the Rutland Herald - Vermont's two largest-circulation papers - feature the Candidate Rainville Plagiarism story and the VNRC gubernatorial-debate story on Page 1 - above the fold! Vermont Public Radio did its own original plagiarism story, too, just like the papers. John Dillon had it on the air before 6 p.m. on Monday.

However, both "news" stories were totally ignored by "award-winning" Ch. 3 News Monday night. Not a whisper. Not even at 11 p.m., despite the fact the Rainville plagiarism story moved on the Associated Press wire at 8:29 p.m.  The Douglas v. Parker environmental-issues debate moved at 9:14 p.m.  All 11 o'clock anchor-chair teleprompter news-readers Roger Garrity and Kristin Kelly had to do was rip and read either one. No heavy lifting. 

Hey. Do you think if an aide to a Vermont Democratic congresssional candidate was caught swiping quotes from Republicans to post online in the mouth of the Democrat, that "award-winning" Ch. 3 News would have ignored it, too?

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*UPDATE 4:20 p.m. corrected

In case you missed the broadcasts, as I did, you may not know how WPTZ-TV News covered this Monday. Got this email from Ch. 5 veteran Stewart Ledbetter:

"We had the story on Monday's 5pm newscast. Didn't get Rainville on the
phone until 4:45 so it was tight, and we combined the Welch/Foley story and
plagiarism charge. At 6pm we ran a shorter version only on the plagiarism
and staff employee's responsibility for it."

BREAKING NEWS.....

Last Update: 4:45 p.m.

Plagiarism: n. The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

Say it ain't so, Martha. Please!

The first week of October 2006 begins with dark skies in Vermont (in more ways than one for some in the Vermont political sphere). This blogger has confirmed disturbing allegations from the blogosphere - that new electronic world your gracefully aging “Inside Track” Seven Days columnist is now inhabiting - that Republican Congressional Candidate Martha Rainville has brazenly posted plagiarized policy statements on her campaign website.  She even lifted quotes from Democrats, including Hillary Clinton!!!

In a nutshell - the congressional campaign of former Vermont National Guard Adjutant General Martha Rainville, personally recruited for the GOP ticket by Gov. Jim Douglas, posted several statements and quotations on her website that were brazenly stolen from - are you ready for this? -

1. Former First Lady and current Democratic Sen. from New York Hillary Clinton re: energy policy

2. Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of  Tennessee re: the federal budget

3. Colorado Republican U.S. House candidate Rick O’Donnell re: health care

Thank you, Carolyn in Moretown, for alerting me to this Daily Kos posting from Sunday: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/1/20532/1397

You will find the evidence - the lifted quotations - all laid out right here:
http://reasonandbrimstone.blogspot.com/2006/10/rainvilles-stolen-ideas.html

Also on the Marvelous Martha front this dark Monday from GOP sources:

"Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency will be visiting Stowe in support of US House candidate Martha Rainville on Monday October 16. Christine Whitman is a moderate Republican who is supporting like-minded candidates for office.

"The occasion will be a fundraising luncheon to benefit Martha Rainville’s campaign at the Trapp Family Lodge in the Mozart room starting at 12 noon. The cost is $250 per person for the luncheon, or $500 per person for the luncheon in addition to a private gathering with Martha and Christine.

"Martha and Christine will both make thoughtful remarks at the luncheon.

“Thoughtful,” perhaps, but stolen from whom?

Check back for updates. We have a call into the Rainville camp and her chief opponent Peter Welch has called a telephone conference call with the press for I p.m. to discuss Republican Congressman Mark Foley from Florida who just resigned in the midst of a growing Capitol Hill sex scandal.

Good timing for the Republicans, eh?

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Update 1 -  1:50 p.m.

Asked Candidate Welch at the end of his conference call on Rep. Foley's departure about today's breaking news regarding the Rainville website plagiarism. He said he had heard about it from his campaign manager this morning but hadn't had time to personally dive into Blog Land to read it all just yet.

"I haven’t seen it," said Welch. "Obviously they are serious allegations that rightfully would be addressed by Martha Rainville."

Just before the conference call, we did reach Rainville for Congress spokesman Brendan McKenna. He said he was online checking it out as we spoke.

"Martha Rainville," he told us, "has always taken good ideas because they're good ideas, without regard to the source."

Press Secretary McKenna (nice guy, formerly with the Rutland Herald),  corrected himself and asked if he could replace the word "taken" with "considered."

Sure, whatever you like. I'm a blogger. We're flexible.

Unfortunately, "taken" or "considered," it's still plagiarism when you print it on your campaign website as coming from the lips of Martha Rainville.

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Update 2 - 4:45 p.m.

Rainville Website Shut Down & Staffer Fired

GOP Congressional hopeful Martha Rainville told yours truly Monday afternoon she has fired campaign staffer/researcher Christopher Stewart following an internal investigation of the plagiarism scandal involving Rainville’s website.

“I am incredibly disappointed in him and we have shut down the website,” Rainville told us. “We are reworking the wording of our issues and we are continuing  an internal investigation to see if there were any other cases of this or if anybody else was aware of it.”

Candidate Rainville said she was not aware of the plagiarism until the matter was brought to her attention on Monday morning.  She called it “very disappointing news.” Said Rainville, “It’s not acceptable and we are not going to condone it in any way.”