Freyne Land

For those who at one time or another have felt the desire to “stick it in my ear,” I offer this shot of Nurse Colleen from Graniteville doing just that yesterday up at the Mary Fanny, aka Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Busy day in Cancerville. There are four four-chair sections, two nurses per section, and, I’m told, a room with three more chairs.

“Chairs” are where "it," i.e. $$$, is at. That’s where folks park their butts while getting the chemo fed into them intravenously. Time is money. My butt was in the chair for more than six hours getting five different drugs. The others were occupied as well. There are individual little cable TVs that come out of the wall, but not many viewers yesterday. Lot's of chit-chat. On my sixth tour, I'm quite the chemo veteran now.

Outpatient chemotherapy is a booming business. And baby-boomers are a booming market, make no mistake about that.

Ah, life! What’s it all about?

This morning I woke with that ol’ nausea feeling I haven’t felt since my John Power Irish Whiskey days. Actually, this one couldn’t hold a candle to the whiskey one.

No problemo.

It’s a beautiful morning, another fantastic avian symphony here in Five Sisters Land, and the Doc says we’ll take a CAT scan in two weeks and see if the drugs are continuing to shrink what’s left of my non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma tumor. Was fist-sized in January. Now teeny-weeny, about 3-4 cm.

Hey, things could be a whole lot worse. I could be in one of the military units on King George “WMD” Bush’s list for shipment to Iraq?

To fight for:

a. oil companies like Exxon-Mobil
b. oil company stockholders
c. defense contractors like Haliburton and GE
d. their stockholders
e. other

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SPEAKING of IRAQ:

Vermont’s lone congressman certainly appears in synch with the majority of his constituents this week.  Democrat Rep. Peter Welch put the word out yesterday:

"I am deeply disappointed that there is no deadline for troop withdrawal in this bill and will therefore vote against it."

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Peter Welch issued the following statement announcing his opposition to the conference report for the Iraq war supplemental.  He will vote against the Iraq funding legislation when it reaches the floor later this week.

...Welch has measured each bill on the Iraq war based on whether it would hasten or delay an end to the war.   He has cited that, for his support, any legislation must impose strict accountability on President Bush and Iraqi leaders, revoke the President's blank check, and include a timetable to end the war:

"I am deeply disappointed that there is no deadline for troop withdrawal in this bill and will therefore vote against it.  Regrettably, the President continues to stubbornly dig in his heels and cling to a failed policy.  He has led this country into a catastrophic foreign policy failure and he continues to thumb his nose at retired generals, the will of the majority of Congress, and the majority of the American people.

"While I am profoundly disappointed, I remain determined to end this war.  This vote will not be the final say.  Regrettably, the President continues to isolate himself on this war.  The day of reckoning for this President is coming as more and more members of his own party find their voices and demand a change in course.  I have great hope that in the coming months a veto-proof majority emerges in Congress that can stand up to the President to end this terrible war."

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Not Good Enough?

Welchie’s "no" vote on the latest Iraq War funding bill is too-little, too-late for a couple of the folks who’ve organized Vermont’s statewide “Impeach Bush & Cheney” Campaign.

"This bill, that has the support of Democratic Party leaders Pelosi and Reid, funds the war without any limits,” said Iraq War veteran Adrienne Kinne. "The Iraqis want this occupation to end. The American people want our soldiers home now. I fear Peter Welch's no vote is too little too late. Peter Welch has been going along with that failed Democratic Party leadership for too long, and this terrible bill is the result."

"We call on Peter Welch to speak out against the Democratic Party leadership that talks peace and makes war," said Kinne. "We call on Peter Welch, Patrick Leahy, and Bernie Sanders to initiate investigation of Bush and Cheney, not just underlings like Alberto Gonzalez."

"This bill, sponsored by the Democratic Party leadership, forces us to ask how Peter Welch and Pat Leahy can remain in a party that accepted Bush and Cheney's demands to fund the war without any meaningful conditions," said James Marc Leas. "A party that talks peace but makes war has lost credibility. Peter Welch and Patrick Leahy can do much more to end this war if they stop supporting a pro-war party. Just as Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party, Peter Welch and Patrick Leahy should leave the Democratic Party."

A radical suggestion?

Check this:

“YOU VOTE FOR IT, YOU OWN IT”

That’s what political pundit/author/columnist and former Bernie Sanders’ press secretary David Sirota writes:

“Bottom line - if the Democrats do not vote down the blank check Iraq War supplemental bill they are proposing, they will be complicit in the war, and should expect to feel the consequences.”

For the whole shebang, hit the Sirota link in our political blog roll - column right.

Just snapped this one of UVM’s Old Mill out the car window as I was coming home yesterday. The sun was setting. Over a century-and-a-half standing there and still looking as magnificent as ever, if not more so?

Just read Matt Sutkoski’s news story in the morning Freeps about the first public informational meeting on the latest schemes for constructing or not-constructing the Williston-Essex leg of the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway. Mention the CIRC and I think of moon-landings.

I don’t know if it’s funnier than it is sad? The road to nowhere! A feedlot for lawyers!

Shifting gears to local media....

Got a little item in “Inside Track” today about our local Fox affiliate starting up a local news operation. Hurray! Nude anchors!

Just kidding.

About the nude anchors.

Things change. And the world of news, from print to electronic to online, is a swiftly changing world. In fact, one friend was wondering if Gannett would ever sell The Burlington Free Press?

You’re dreaming?

Well, the idea was prompted by the published report Tuesday that Gannett is selling its local "award-winning" daily in Marion, Indiana. Gannett's owned it since 1971. No buyer has been named as yet, but the sale is expected to a done-deal in a month:

President and Publisher Juli Metzger said the paper's 75 employees will maintain their benefits pending the sale, and that operations will continue as normal in both the print and online product.

"This is a great newspaper and a great community," she said. "It's the people who make up the Chronicle-Tribune, not who owns it."

Juli Metzger? The assistant managing editor at The Burlington Free Press back in the early-mid 1990s?

Indeed. The same Juli Metzger who admitted on the witness stand in Chittenden County Superior Court that she had she had lied under oath to protect Gannett’s interests. It was in a lawsuit brought by a fired Freeps city hall reporter. Remember Paul Teetor?

After Metzger’s admission to lying under oath, Gannett proposed an out-of-court settlement Teetor accepted. Metzger was rewarded, apparently, with a transfer/promotion to an Ohio Gannett-chain paper and in 2000 won Gannett’s “Editor of the Year” prize! She moved to the Chronicle-Tribune in 2005.

Hey, everything's for sale, right?

Anyway, my story for today is that I am for the first time in memory going to miss the opening of the Vermont Business Expo at the Sheraton. The 23rd annual. One can always get a sense of the strength of the Vermont economy by the quality and quantity of the freebies. I'm a pen guy.

But it's Chemo Day #6 pour moi up at the Mary Fanny. Takes all day. So far so good. And I picked up Al Gore's latest at Borders yesterday for my chemo read while on the IV.

The Assault on Reason.

Where was this guy in 2000?

"Inside Track" writing day.

Yes, those old-fashioned "paper" papers still exist. Got a few things on my list....

But did want to share this one with you. Yes, the sun is shining in beautiful Burlington, Vermont, but George "WMD" Bush, Dick "America" Cheney, and Karl Rove are still running the United States.

Their war based on lies, a war that required the deception of the American people, rages on in Iraq.

And Alberto Gonzalez is still the Attorney General of the United States.

However, "impeachment" is a word one hears everyday now and Alberto's credibility meter, like that of his boss, is on empty.

This website, we're told, went up yesterday: www.impeachgonzales.org.

Enjoy!

ReCycling Day in my part of the People's Republic of Burlington.

Remember when we just threw it all away?

Or rather the "garbage men" came and took it all away. It was the only time I - Kid Freyne - saw a black face in my white New York suburb.

On today's agenda: Mayor Bob KIss is doing a City Hall presser at 11 with AARP. They're releasing a report:

The report, "A Great City for Older Adults -- An Action Plan for Burlington," will outline the key findings of city-wide surveys and focus groups, and represents the work of some 30 organizations dedicated to creating a community that accommodates, embraces and serves a fast-growing aging population."

Might be a couple aging reporters there, too?

And a few annual rituals on the schedule this week. The Vermont City Marathon this weekend and the Vermont Business Expo at the Sheraton kicks off Wednesday. Gov. Jim Douglas will be there to cut the ribbon, but I don't see the usual presser on his weekly public schedule.

Certainly, he'll use the occasion to land a few blows in the Great H. 520 - Climate Change Veto Fight of 2007?

Burlington's Church Street was hopping this afternoon, what with UVM graduation and all the relatives in town to witness it. Good vibes in the air. Look at the two romantics on the left of the photo. Just don't see enough people do that in public anymore.

So within a minute of snapping this photo,  two old friends pop up from different directions. Remember Chainsaw Liz, a.k.a. Democratic State Senator and later State Auditor Elizabeth Ready?

Alive and well is she. Son Kevin graduated UVM today. For over a year, Elizabeth has been the director of the John Graham Emergency Shelter in Vergennes. Seventeen beds and usually full, including homeless folks with jobs, said Liz.

Thirty seconds later, up pops Steve Goldberg, my favorite Burlington jazz trumpeter and playwright.  Known them both more than 20 years, so I was surprised they really weren't familiar with each other.  Different worlds - politics and jazz. But it turns out Chainsaw did know Steve's late, great wife Rachel Bissex, the songwriter/singer/performer who passed away from cancer in February 2005.

So I dragged them both into Uncommon Grounds for some coffee. Good chat, too.

Ol' Steverino will be playing in the Discover Jazz Festival this summer (as always?), and plans a revival of his play Curbdivers of Redemption in August.

Cool.

Just a tease.

Take a look at these blossoming crabapple trees. Right in front of Washington County Superior Court this afternoon. State Street, Montpelier, Vermont - the one and only. Just after the Vermont Progressive Party's State Committee meeting which was held in Rooms 10 and 11 under the golden dome. [No coffee allowed in Room 11, so they stayed in Room 10 longer than originally planned.]

A whole lot of gracefully aging former hippies and anti-Vietnam War protestors. Look, I've been going through this "Peter finally feels like he's aging" chapter of life and covering the Progs did not help it. More on that later...and, yes, they adopted an Impeachment Resolution. Voila:

Whereas George W. Bush and Richard Cheney have:
1. misled the nation about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
2. misled the nation about ties between Iraq ans Al Qaeda.
3. used these falsehoods to lead our nation into a war unsupported by international law.
4. not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture, and
5. have directed the government to engage in domestic spying in direct contravention of U.S. law,

Therefore, the Vermont Progressive Party State Committee requests Vermont's representative to the U.S. House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment to remove Bush and Cheney from office.

'Course, Welchie has the same position on impeaching the crooks as our senators, St. Patrick and Ol'Bernardo, have: let's not.

Here's a shot of Ch. 3's crime-beat reporter Brian Joyce interviewing Progressive Party Chair Martha Abbott.

Should have a bite on the Six O'Clock, assuming there is a Six O'Clock News tonight.

Not sure what her crime was?

A couple of surprises, too.

One was the fact that Anthony Pollina, a Prog Party co-founder, gubernatorial candidate and WDEV talk-show host was a no-show.

Bummer.

Another surprise was that they had a press panel on their program - two old-timers, Sam Hemingway and Ross Sneyd, telling them what they thought of the Progressive Party and how fairly it's covered.

More on that later....

So, I'm off to drop by the Vermont Progressive Party state committee meeting in Rm. 11 at the Statehouse.

What fun!

Yes, there still is a Progressive Party in Vermont. Maybe even radio talk show host Tony, er, Anthony Pollina will be there!

Speaking of Progs, have you seen Vermont's on-again, off-again Socialist lately? The alleged "father" of the Progressive Party?

You remember Bernie Sanders, right?

Check him out here.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/05/do_tell_a_talk_with_the_senate.html

Later.....

House Speaker Gaye Symington and Senate Top Dog Peter Shumlin, pictured at right,  just made public the letter they've sent to Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the Fox News Channel. I have it for you below.

They also talked about it at their Thursday afternoon presser. At issue, the "O'Reilly Factor" crew's ambush of House Judiciary Chair Bill Lippert in the Statehouse cafeteria.

"There’s no comparison between what we do in Vermont in journalism and what O’Reilly’s crew did in the cafeteria," said Shummy.  "It’s a different business. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. They virtually attacked him, not only their equipment, but their questions. Didn’t ask for an interview, but shoved the interview onto him. Wouldn’t let him get up out of his chair, surrounded him and froze him there. And their questions were more commentary than objective questions. We don’t do it that way in Vermont."

But that's commentary?

"Right, I agree with you. It’s a different beast,” said Shumlin. "We don’t mean to smear the Vermont press corps in any way. They [O'Reilly Factor]] are not news.”

"It’s un-News," said Da' Speaker. "In fact, Vermont has very tough sex-offender laws. We have very tough legislation around sentencing, around special investigation units and we toughened them this year.

"Fox is worse than entertainment. It’s conveying something that’s absolutely untrue," Symington told reporters.

Their letter:

STATE OF VERMONT
115 STATE STREET
DRAWER 33
MONTPELIER, VT 05633-520

May 17, 2007

Roger Ailes
Chairman and CEO
Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Dear Mr. Ailes:

Last week, a media crew dispatched by the Fox News program “The O'Reilly Factor” confronted a member of the Vermont General Assembly in the Statehouse cafeteria.  The incident was witnessed by several members of the Legislature and later reported on the O'Reilly program.  The news crew asked misleading questions that deliberately mischaracterized Vermont laws and our determination to protect our children. 

The Vermont Legislature has a long history of being open and accessible to all who wish to participate and observe, and has always recognized and granted access to the press to perform its important role.  However, the tactics employed by the producers of this television program are unacceptable and have no place in Vermont's statehouse or Vermont politics.  The camera crew came at Representative Lippert in such an aggressive manner that several bystanders thought he was under attack.  Their questions were meant to provoke, rather than to elicit information. 

As the leaders of the Vermont Legislature, we condemn in the strongest terms these hostile tactics and stand with our colleagues in the Legislature in support of the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

If it was the goal of your producers and Mr. O'Reilly to create a reaction among your viewers that would lead to intimidating threats against our colleague, they succeeded.  Because of your program, Chairman Lippert has received numerous threats of personal injury and physical violence from your viewers.

If, on the other hand, it was Mr. O'Reilly's goal to intimidate the Vermont Legislature into considering ineffective and misguided legislation or to weaken the Legislature's steadfast support for our colleague, your tactics had the opposite effect.  We hope the bipartisan opposition to your channel's tactics of intimidation will serve as a reminder that while Vermont welcomes a healthy and honest debate on issues, we will not be bullied by outsiders whose primary interest is provocation and political theater.

Sincerely,

Gaye Symington                                       Peter Shumlin
Speaker of the Vermont House                President Pro Tem, Vermont Senate 

Mark your calendars.

May 17, 2007: the day the Great Global Warming War of the 21st Century officially erupted full-bore in the Green Mountain State. "Shots" fired.

In Burlington, the two leaders of the Vermont Legislature told reporters they still had hope Vermont's governor would see the light and not veto H. 520, the landmark Climate Change Bill that was the product of their session-opening spotlight on the global warming crisis confronting Mother Earth and her occupants.

They held a presser in the library at former Gov. Phil Hoff's Main Street law firm (over the bike shop). Phil was Vermont's first Democrat in the governor's office, elected in 1962. Maybe they were hoping for some luck to rub off?

Said State Sen. Peter Shumlin, the senate president pro tem from Windham County:

"We ought to be celebrating the fact that the Vermont Legislature had the courage to pass a really tough bill.  Is it really controversial?

You bet.

Do we have a sales job ahead?

You bet.

Does that start yesterday?

It should have.

Will it continue tomorrow?

Yes.

But, Vermont should be proud of the fact that their Legislature has been willing to go to an area that no other legislature has been will to touch!"

In Montpelier, Republican Gov. Jim Douglas made it perfectly clear hewill, indeed, veto H. 520 the big, landmark climate change bill. To the Guv, however, it's a Democratic tax bill not a climate-change bill. 

The GOP governor of a state most think of as comprised of a bunch of antiwar, left-wing tree-huggers, had hinted at a veto of the global-waring legislation for months. But Gov. Scissorhands finally made himself perfectly clear, telling Terri Hallenbeck of the state's largest daily newspaper, The Burlington Free Press, that his mindis made up:

Douglas said... that no amount of persuasion will change hismind about the bill.

"I feel very strongly about it," he said. "It's aterrible message to send to the business community."

Really?

But name one tax any business ever celebrated, eh?

Speaker Symington, a native of upscale Tuxedo Park, New York, who also packs a Cornell M.B.A., is not exactly the sort of person who reflects insensitivity to the "business community."

Said Madame Speaker:

"You already see other states looking to Vermont to learn from our energy efficiency utility. You see Canada looking to learn from what we’ve done in our energy efficiency utility that’s confined to the world of electric energy.

"That’s not enough. We’re trying to move from there to an all-fuels electric utility.

"I find it interesting to hear some of the comments from the business community about their discomfort with this bill. I bet if you go through who Energy-Efficiency Vermont has actually provided service for, you’d find a fair number of those businesses having taken advantage of Efficiency Vermont, realizing some real savings in the last five or six years as a result of Efficiency Vermont."

Speaker Symington said all they're trying to do is extend that benefit beyond the electric-heat crowd to an "all-fuels" statewide energy-efficiency utility.

"The governor can be a real national leader here and an international leader," said Shummy, "and that’s what we need to communicate to him. He’s flying off to China in just a few weeks to promote energy efficiency in China based upon the experience here in Vermont.

"Why this governor would go to promote efficiency to the Chinese in China, when he doesn’t have the courage to support it at home is puzzling to me."

Puzzling to you?

Downtown Burlington was on the deserted-looking side yesterday, probably will be today.

The damp chilly weather keeps a lot of folks inside, but not these loyal antiwar troopers - the 5 p.m. peace people at the top of Church Street.

Wonder how much longer they're going to have to keep doing it?

On the Vermont political front, House Speaker Gaye Symington and Sen. President pro tempore Peter Shumlin have scheduled a joint presser for this afternoon at Phil Hoff's law office on Main Street in beautiful Burlington.

We're told they'll "review the accomplishments" of the recently completed legislative session.

What fun!

And if we have energy left after that, Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss will host an Old North End presser to address what some consider Burlington's #1 problem - graffiti!

"Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss will host a press conference to recognize and unveilthe combined efforts of the City’s Graffiti Removal Team, Burlington youthorganizations, and local youth to create a “Community Art Space” to helpcombat graffiti. The press conference will take place on Thursday May 17at 4:30 p.m. at the corner of North and North Union streets (with a raindate of Friday May 25)."

Bring your magic markers!

Just kidding.