Freyne Land

Kerm's out and Brooksie's in. It is a changing of the guard under the golden dome in Montpelier as veteran Democratic State Rep. Francis Brooks - first elected to the House when Reagan was president - was elected sergeant-at-arms on Thursday.  That's the position that's in charge of running the Statehouse. Yours truly caught him for this shot as we were heading in for the Guv's presser and he had just been elected and was heading out.

Kermit Spaulding, Republican of Stowe, did a marvelous job keeping the building running in some kind of order and synchron- icity. But Ol' Kerm was more famous for his outside- the-building exploits i.e. his Ol' Vermonter deer-jacking legend. Unfortunately for Kerm, the last couple out-of-season bucks turned out to be Fish & Game decoys.

Damn.

Francis Brooks was born in Washington D.C. in 1943 and educated at public schools in Alexandria, Virginia. He's a graduate of Norwich University in Northfield and picked up a masters at Clarkson. He married and settled down in Montpeculiar where he was a teacher at the high school until retirement.

Francis was elected to the legislature in November 1982 and arrived in the building at the beginning of the Ralph Wright Era.  Speaker Wright was a high school teacher by trade, too, (in Bennington) and Ralph and Francis, two educators, worked quite well together despite their different styles.

As is obvious, Francis is African-American - rare, indeed, in lily-white Vermont, though none of the mainstream news stories reporting his election  makes mention of that fact. Surely, he is the first black sergeant-at-arms in Vermont history?

Does the omission of a race-mention show progress? That in Vermont we've reached a point where the color of one's skin does not matter in any way whatsoever? That we have overcome? That in our state it is only about "the content of one's character?"

Cool.

Different story with Barack Obama, eh?

Not the beach variety, rather the state’s attorney variety. We’re talking Bobby Sand, the state’s top prosecutor in Windsor County. The one who has taken off the rose-colored glasses and publicly admitted the almost 40-year War on Drugs has been an unmitigated failure by any and every measurement. A failure for everyone, that is, - except the private prison industry.

Prosecutor Sand, a Democrat,  is now publicly calling for the legalization of marijuana and a serious examination of the failed policy that treats heroin addicts like criminals, instead of like addicts.

What does Republican Gov. Jim Douglas think of Sand’s proposal?

"Well, I don’t agree with it. And I think, to be perfectly honest, the voters of Windsor County perhaps had a right to know this before he was reelected rather than immediately after that.

"I believe we need to be serious about drugs in our state. We are serious. Our state police, through the heroin enforcement action team, has been very aggressive in rounding up drug dealers and making it very, very clear that we don’t tolerate that.

"So I think that what [State’s Attorney Sand] suggested is the wrong way to go."

Q. Is he fit for the position he holds?

Douglas: "Well , it’s curious, but I hope and assume he’ll be true to his oath of office, which is to uphold the laws of our state.”

Well, what did you expect Jim Douglas to say?

Something along the lines of: I think Prosecutor Sand is demonstrating tremendous courage and his deep, deep concern for the people of Vermont. The War on Drugs has been an unmitigated disaster. "Illegal drugs" are everywhere and we’ve created and we continue to fuel an enormous criminal culture. It’s time for the legislature to listen closely to what this brave law enforcement official is saying.

In the 1970s when he was House GOP leader, yes, Jim Douglas did supportdecriminalizing marijuana and voted accordingly. But that was the 1970s. If anything, JimDouglas is a man of the times - the present times.

But maybe those times are changin'....again?

A lot of folks snowed in today. At least eight barn roofs collapsed, said the Guv. More than 20 cows killed. So will global warming mean more like these?

Driving was a bit hairy, too. Patience was key. Only one accident seen, a two-car smash up around Richmond on the way home.

It's 5 degrees above zero in Burl- ington at 10 a.m. and 14 below with the wind chill. And there's a little snow on the ground, eh? That's a shot of your favorite columnist/snow shoveler an hour ago. Slow and easy.

Looks like we got a little snow. And thanks to the neighbor across the street who I've never even met before, I got the car out.

The "Valentine's Day Blizzard" is how this baby will be remembered. I haven't seen a snowstorm like it since I landed in Burlap in 1979. And my upstairs neighbor says he can't remember one like this since 1971.

Just when world governments finally acknowledge the fact that the Industrial Revolution has speeded up the changing of the planet's climate, that the ice caps and glaciers are melting fast and global warming is for real, we're reminded old-fashioned winter ain't dead yet.

Two other things this Thursday morning.

1. I'm still shaking my head over the fact that WGOP-TV, aka WCAX-TV Ch. 3, "Vermont's Own," did not lead Tuesday evening with the top story of the day - Vermont had led the nation as the legislature adopted a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.

Instead, News Director Marselis Parsons led with:

"We're bracing for a major winter storm -- with one-to-two-feet of snow predicted across the region. ' This store on the Ferrisburgh / Vergennes line reports strong sales of snow shovels and ice melt..."

They gave the storm preview a big. big  blowout and followed up with a Brian Joyce crime story about an habitual offender caught trying to break through window screens at the apartment of several female college students. He was arraigned on attempted burglary charges.

Then, finally, almost 10 minutes into their statewide newscast, the WCAX news team reported that the U.S. House on Capitol Hill and the Vermont House and Senate in Montpeculiar had that very day taken up resolutions condemning President George W. Bush's wicked war in Iraq.

About time.

It was front-page in The Burlington Free Press the next morning and Terry Allen had a story in In These Times that caught the significance of the Vermont action perfectly:

Vermont Legislature: Bring Them Home Now

The state with the highest per capita casualties demands an end to the war in Iraq

By Terry J. Allen
MONTPELIER, VT.—The state that has lost the most troops per capita became the first to pass a resolution calling on Congress and the president to immediately withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. More here.

2. Veteran Windsor County States Attorney Bobby Sand, the courageous prosecutor who has had the guts to publicly question our insane and counterproductive drug laws, is turning up the heat.

The Valley News's Mark Davis reported on Tuesday:

Sand Enlarges Call For Legalization 

Hartland -- Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sandvoiced support for full legalization of marijuana and governmentregulation of heroin distribution last night, his boldest remarks yetin his campaign to decriminalize illegal drugs and abandon what heconsiders the failed “war on drugs.”

In front of asupportive crowd of 60 inside Damon Hall, the veteran prosecutor saidhe has yet to be convinced that marijuana users should be treated ascriminals.

“No one has made the case to me that this isa substance that should be involved in the criminal justice system andall the extraordinary resources we are spending on it,” Sand said.

Onheroin, Sand said Vermont should consider following the lead of foreigncountries that allow doctors in limited instances to prescribe herointo addicts, as a way to wean them from the drug and provide access in asafe environment.

More here

Been awhile since we've seen such an public outbreak of sanity and courage.

Refreshing!  More, more, more! The times are a changin'.

Hey, that'd make a great song, eh?

A regular reader sent us the snapshot taken of the Vermont State House early this morning.

Aw, shucks!

Love was in the air and and in the snow and on the front pillars of Vermont's working, functional granite monument to democracy.

But the snow had a downside. The first program in the 2007 edition of yours truly's Statehouse cable show - "Point-Counterpoint" - was canceled.

Bummer.

Had Vermont Democratic Party Chairman Ian Carleton of Burlington booked to go head-to-head with new Vermont Republican Party Chairman Rob Roper of Stowe.

Also a special Valentine's Day "Battle of the Whips!" between House GOP Whip Patti Komline of Dorset and Democratic Whip Floyd Nease of Johnson.

The third segment was going to involve two members of the Vermont Senate, but I confess, given the current make-up of the Senate - the alleged "upper" body - it's pretty damn difficult to find a pair who can get into a serious "pissing" match.

Plus, it's the day after the U.S House and the Vermont House and Senate all passed anti-Iraq War Resolutions. Once again, Vermont led the nation by being the first state to do such. The momentum is building, folks.

So, improvising a Plan B  to handle the  Valentine's Day Blizzard of '07, I got out the snow shovel cleaned out the driveway and walked around the corner to the Cheese Outlet to stock up on some supplies. They've got a Turkey/Avocado/Bacon sandwich that, I swear, covers two meals.

Then dropped in Speeder & Earls' bare but wired caffeine HQ next door for a few beans and a shot of the student studying in the window. Ella Martin's told us she's a hometown girl and a second-year medical student at the University of Vermont's College of Medicine. Studying for a really big exam coming up next week that will test everything she's been taught in her first year-and-a-half, she said.

And, yes, we do want our doctors to know what they're doing, don't we?

Speaking of which, my doc's nurse called this morning to remind me about Friday's appointment. It'll be my second full-day chemotherapy session. One every three weeks.  And if you think today's Valentine Blizzard has canceled a whole lot of doctors appointments, you're thinking right.

Oh God! George W. Bush, the Liar-in-Chief with the 30 percent approval rating, is "live" on TV holding a White House presser to promote and spin his positively bankrupt war policy. It's ludicrous! But can one argue it's "surprising?"

Ol’ “Weapons of Mass Destruction” George is a Vietnam War draft dodger who used family clout to elbow his way to the top of the list for one of those extremely rare open slots in the Texas Air National Guard.

Way to go, George!

Definitely not a case of “like father, like son.”

His Daddy, President George H. W. Bush, demonstrated bravery at the controls of a World War II fighter in more than 50 combat missions in the South Pacific. And Bush I demonstrated brains, too,  when he called back the troops in 1991 - the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, then the occupier of Kuwait.

Bush I knew an invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent open-ended occupation of Baghdad that would follow, would be disastrous for the United States of America. We’d become an isolated Western power, surrounded, despised and trapped in the center of Planet Earth’s Muslim World.

That was not something Bush II wanted to hear.

Still doesn't.

Too bad for the dead, crippled and maimed who have followed, and continue to follow, his bankrupt orders, eh?

What a beautiful day before St. Valentine's Day. It's 10:50 and I'm watching the U.S. House of Representatives actually debate the Vietnam, sorry, the Iraq War. The crooked, corrupt and positively dishonest Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld War in Iraq.

"No more troops. No more phony intelligence. No more blank checks,"says Vermont Rep. Peter Welch on the House floor (live on C-Span). "Wemust end this war."

And I've got VPR's live feed from Montpeculiar of the Vermont House - live on the computer.

And on today's agenda?

The crooked, corrupt and positively sleazy Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld War in Iraq.

At last. Let the debate begin!

Whereas,in March 2003, the United States initiated a military incursion into Iraq, and

Whereas, every member of the House of Representatives has onlythe greatest respect for our military forces now deployed in Iraq and thesurrounding nations, and any criticism of our nation’s policy in the regionmust not be interpreted as lack of support forthe men and women in our armed forces whose bravery is on display each day asthey risk their lives, and

Whereas, approximately 2,300 Vermont National Guard troops haveserved in Iraq since March of 2003, and 

Whereas, Vermont has had the highest number of soldiers percapita who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives in this war,and

Whereas, approximately 80 Vermont National Guard troops are nowdeployed in Iraq, and more could be deployed in the coming months if the BushAdministration policies continue in the current direction, and

Whereas, at the time the Iraq conflict started in March 2003,the American public was told that the primary reason for this incursion was toeliminate weapons of mass destruction that the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein,had allegedly stockpiled, and it has been since documented that no weapons ofmass destruction were stockpiled in Iraq at the time the American militaryforces entered that country, and

Whereas, it is now apparent that the U.S. Department of Defensedid not develop an exit strategy prior to the invasion, falsely assuming thatthe Iraqi people would welcome United States forces with open arms, and thatwithdrawal would not be a difficult problem, and

Whereas, the continuing and daily onslaught of sectarianviolence and indications of ethnic cleansing in some areas of the nation haveproven disruptive to nearly all aspects of Iraqi society, and

Whereas, over 3,000 American military personnel have died sinceMarch 2003, and

Whereas, many Vermont veterans have returned home from Iraq andthe region with significant unmet physical and mental health care needs, and

Whereas, the cost of this war according to the CongressionalResearch Service is at least $379 billion, and

Whereas, based on the state’s population, Vermont’s share of thecost exceeds $750 million, and

Whereas, these costs will have a significant impact on Vermont households and the Vermont state budget process for years to come, and

Whereas, the Bush Administration recently called for and hasstarted to implement an escalation in the number of American military troopsactively engaged in Iraq, now therefore be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives:

That this legislative body believes that an escalation of Americantroops in Iraq is exactly the wrong foreign policy direction, and that thepresence of American troops in Iraq has not, and will not, contribute to thestability of that nation, the region, or the security of Americans at home orabroad, and be it further

Resolved:  That this legislative body urges Governor Douglas toenlist the support of other members of the National Governors Association tospeak out against the war in Iraq and the announced troop surge and to supporta withdrawal from Iraq of American troops, and be it further

Resolved:  That this legislative body urges the President andCongress to commence immediately the orderly withdrawal of American militaryforces from Iraq, and be it further

Resolved:  That this legislative body calls on the BushAdministration and Congress to fund fully all veterans’ benefits to careappropriately for our brave men and women when they return from this war, andbe it further

Resolved: That the clerk of the house be directed to send acopy of this resolution to Governor Douglas, the President of theUnited States, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the VermontCongressional Delegation.

How would you vote?

Before I went to bed last night, I checked the Tom Torti Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce website to see if a legislative breakfast was on for President's Day Monday morning at the Sheraton-Burlington.

Yep.

The topic?

"Education Costs and Quality Outcomes."

Puullleeese!  I can certainly sleep in Monday morning. I don't do "education."

But then I woke up bright and early this morning, feeling pretty good in the third week of the first three-week chemo cycle, popped out of bed, got dressed and hopped in the jalopy. Got there just as the panel was starting.

Glad I did.

That's because for the first time on the education front in Vermont since I started paying attention back in the early 1980s, there's been an unusual outbreak of courage at the top.

And it's coming from both sides of the political aisle in the form of the Republican Douglas Administration's Education Commish Richard Cate (right)  and the liberal Democratic Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, State Sen. Susan Bartlett (left) of Lamoille County.

What folks heard from the lips of Commissioner Cate and Senator Bartlett Monday morning were straight-forward, plain-spoken proposals on Vermont's education financing front that no Chamber breakfast has heard before from heavyweights like these.

I know I've never heard such sacred cows trashed by such "respectable" people. Here's a taste.

Said Commissioner Cate (Montpelier High School graduate):

"What I’m currently proposing is to reduce down to between 50 and 60 school districts in Vermont as a starting point, knowing you could go further if you wanted to. (Currently, there are 284 school districts in Vermont.}

"I would then eliminate the Carnegie Unit System that we’ve had in place for the past century. And it’s a system that’s been in place all over the country. And basically it says if a student sits in a chair for 120 hours in a year and gets a “D” in a course, they can progress forward.

"I would suggest, instead, that we have a competency-based system that looks at the progress of individual students, as opposed to how long they’re sitting in a particular place. Some students can go through a course in three months, some take 15 months and our system should be flexible enough to take care of their needs."

Shocking, eh?

"I grew up in a small town of 600 kids in Central Vermont. I went to a two room schoolhouse. There were two of us in my class. I understand small schools. I’m just telling you it does not get us where we need to get in this day and age for kids. And, oh, by the way, it’s not economically efficient, either."

Said Sen. Bartlett:

"This past summer I had this epiphany when I realized that there is no one single person in the state of Vermont whose job it is to look at educational spending as a whole.

"That’s the equivalent of the governor not looking at the general fund budget, sending it to the legislature. We don’t look at it and it just gets passed.

"In a budget that is more than a billion dollars, no one’s job is to look at it, understand it, or have any idea about how to control it. And people make the assumption the commissioner does, [but] that’s not his job.

"And I went, no wonder nobody’s got any idea about what’s happening, because no one has ever really looked at it this way."

The Bartlett Solution?

"Okay. I believe we should have 14 school districts in the state of Vermont. Each district would have a superintendent who takes care of the educational aspects. Each district would have a chief financial officer who takes care of the finances.

"You would keep your local school boards and your local schools and your local principal would deal with the education that goes on in that building."

Interesting, eh?

Health Care Reform has sucked the oxygen out of the Vermont political air for the last few years in Montpeculiar. This session it's on the backburner.

Education Reform, i.e. hiring a first-ever statewide cost-control guru and dramatically reducing the number of school districts, has a genuine window of opportunity.

The Cate-Bartlett Team looks determined to get something done.

Cool.

That's yours truly (at right), the shrinking yours-truly, caught at Capital Grounds yesterday. Went to Montpeculiar to meet an old pal. Nice town and what's really nice about it is the fact it isn't Burlington or Chittenden County. Maybe I should move?

Perhaps, when I finish the chemotherapy at the Mary Fanny. This is week three of 18 weeks of treatment for cancer - my surprise for 2007! Dose #2 of the 6 planned all-day intravenous doses is set for next Friday.

So far so good.

And the mail, thank god,  keeps coming. Truly lifts ones spirits:

I’ve counted on you to give me a certain bent to the news for almost a quarter of century now, but this is going a little over the top even for you, don’t ya think?  I mean, sucking up to the hospital and all!

Seriously, I was shocked to go on-line this morning and read about your new relationship with a tumor.  I ain’t religious (born Protestant….like I said…. I ain’t religious) but I do want you to know that there are very positive vibes coming your way from Manchester, Vt.  You’re one of the toughest people I know so I have little doubt that you will come through this just fine.  Besides, you’re just too miserable, caustic, annoying, and a big pain-in-the-ass for some (not me mind you), so that should clinch it right there.

Get back at it.  We can’t have the pols of Vermont thinking that they can kick back now can we?

Get well,

S.

Thanks, S.

Will do.

Especially with the way the Douglas Administration has pretty much hired the Montpeculiar press corps as reported in AP Writer Ross Sneyd's fine feature in the Sunday papers titled "The Spin Doctor is In."

WATERBURY — Public relations under Gov. James Douglas is moving out of a broom closet — figuratively and literally.

Thereare at least 14 people scattered throughout state government whoseprimary responsibility is dealing with the media, earning salariesranging from $47,444 to $80,017. A total of $768,738 is spent annuallyin pay for the "communicators," as they're known in the administration.

More here.

And the 14 spin doctors do not include veteran broadcast journalist Anson Tebbetts who recently left WGOP, er, sorry, WCAX-TV to become a new deputy secretary of agriculture.

The fact is, the press, the Fourth Estate in Vermont, has never been this thin of a line since I started in 1979. And there are no signs the shrinkage is going to be reversed anytime soon.

Gov. Jim Douglas said Thursday that the Public Safety Department under Commissioner Kerry Sleeper has been working with the Vermont Grocers' Association, providing guidance to grocers in dealing with the spike in armed robberies at Vermont mom-and-pop stores.

In recent weeks, Douglas said, there have been 18 armed robberies at convenience stores across Vermont. It’s something we need to take "very seriously."

“The problem, as you know, is drugs,” said Gov. Douglas.  “In many of these cases, I think it’s fair to say most of them, the suspects are apparently going after money to feed their drug habits. In some cases it’s illegal drugs. It may be heroin or crack cocaine. In other cases, it’s prescription drugs that they’re seeking to abuse. That’s the bottom line in a lot of these cases and it just shows how important it is we take the drug problem in our state very seriously.”

But some, like Windsor County States Attorney Robert Sand, say it’s the current law-and-order approach to drugs that is the fundamental problem. Sand, the son of a federal judge, has been a prosecutor for 15 years. 

In a recent op-ed in the Times Argus, Prosecutor Sand wrote:

“As a career prosecutor, I see strong indications that our enforcement model may actually be counterproductive to public and personal safety. Violence spawned by the war on drugs continues to plague our communities. Violence exists in the form of assaults and murder by drug sellers as a result of deals gone awry or territorial disputes. We see violence in the form of robberies and burglaries by users stealing money or guns to purchase or trade for drugs. And, to a much lesser extent, we see random violence caused by drug-impaired people unwilling or unable to control their behavior. Drug policy reform, to include regulated access to drugs, could substantially reduce all three types of drug crimes.”

“Prohibition does not work,”  Sand told the Rutland Herald's Susan Smallheer. “We should have learned that with alcohol”. It’s time “to rethink our drug laws,” says the States Attorney.

Says the governor?

“I don’t agree with that,” Douglas told reporters. “I think it’s important for the safety of our public and their health that we continue to maintain restrictions on illegal drugs. As you can see we’ve taken it very seriously with the round-up in Barre, the St. Albans bar raid, recently. We’re doing as much as we can. The Department of Public Safety is doing a good job.”

But, Governor, don’t more arrests only prove how the "drug problem" has gotten worse under current policy, not better?

Our jails are full.

We already have to ship out-of-state.

"Inmates," that is.

*STATEHOUSE JOKE OF THE DAY:

The Senate President Pro Tem, the one and only Peter Shumlin was not in the building Thursday. Putney Pete's said to be in New York City on personal business for two days.

You know what that meant, don't you?

With Shumlin out-of-state, Jim Douglas was acting governor!

Gay marriage supporters gathered at lunch hour Wednesday outside Montpelier’s City Hall where they announced legislation will be introduced providing full marriage rights for same-sex couples, something, they noted, our neighbors to the south in Massachusetts and to the north in Quebec have granted since Vermont’s controversial passage of the historic first-in-the-nation civil-unions law in 2000.

You remember civil unions?  The law Gov. Howard Dean signed behind closed-doors. No photos were available for use by rivals in his upcoming run for the White House. Or, of course, Ho-Ho could have used them to promote his equal-rights record.

Burlington Democratic State Rep. Mark Larson (at right) is the lead sponsor of 33 in the House. Larson said he has been married to his wife since they paid a visit to city hall 20 years ago.

“We’re glad civil unions have been enacted in Vermont. But we know if we went to city hall today, we still would be treated differently than our friends and neighbors who are gay and lesbian and that’s simply not right.”

Also on hand former Republican State Rep. Tom Little of Shelburne. Little chaired the House Judiciary Committee that wrote the civil union bill. He said there are two reasons to take a look at civil unions this session.

It’s important, said Little, to revisit what he called “very momentous” pieces of legislation 6-7-8 years down the line to see if they’ve performed as expected.

“But the other reason for me,” said Little, “is I have come to believe over the last seven years that full access to marriage for gay and lesbian couples is the most fair effective and honest way of delivering the benefits of marriage to a class of people who’ve never had them before in Vermont. Now is the time to start that conversation,” he said, “to reingage.”

Also on hand Stan Baker, whose name was on the original lawsuit. Stan had the best line:

“In 2000, Vermont decided to legally recognize same-sex couples. Now it’s time to equally recognize same-sex couples.”

Yes, indeed. We have come as long way baby.

They've got a point, eh?

P.S. A few bumps in the road today. First off, I forgot my little digital camera. Readers have been so complimentary of the photos, too. They definitely add something. Sorry, guys.

And second,  by chance, I bumped into two Iraq War Vets who were under the golden dome Wednesday to visit the House Speaker. They're supporting an antiwar resolution which I haven't actually seen yet. Interviewed them for about four-five minutes on tape. Figured I get a WDEV Radio story off it. Twice, I inadvertantly called them Vietnam Vets.

Showing my age?

Then when it was over and they went in to talk to Gaye Symington, I had the displeasure of discovering the "record" button had not been depressed.

Slings and arrows...

Interesting backfield took on the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday. U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy, John Kerry, Diane Feinstein and Bernie Sanders.

Their target: Chris DeMuth (at left), president of the Exxon-Mobil-connected "think-tank." The four senators wrote Mr. DeMuth to express their  "very serious concerns about news reports" AEI offerted to pay scientists up to $10,000  if they’d publicly question the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Report released last week.

"We hope that you will respond to this letter by telling us that the news reports that you offered to pay scientists up to $10,000 are incorrect. If not we trust that AEI will publicly apologize for this conduct and demonstrate its sincerity by properly disciplining those responsible. We look forward to hearing from you on this most important matter."

"It's outrageous," said Sen. Sanders in a release, "that a right-wing think tank with ties to Big Oil and the Bush Administration is trying to twist scientific findings for their political purposes on the pressing issue of climate change. The IPCC report confirms the urgency of the problem and adds to the scientific consensus that global warming is happening now and is human-caused. Is there no limit to the lengths that some corporate-funded groups will go to protect their donors' short-term profits? Is the fate of the entire planet not important enough for them to put the common interest above their narrow self-interest?

"The truth is that this scandalous behavior on the part of AEI is just the latest example of how big money interests distort and undermine honest debate on the important issues facing our country in so many areas.”

Jeezum crow. Ol' Bernardo hasn’t changed his tune one note in the 26 years I’ve been covering him.