The Last Track

As you may have noticed, dear reader, the writing stopped in Freyne Land two weeks ago, both here in cyberspace and over there in the print edition of Seven Days in the "Inside Track."

Here's why.

Been covering the Vermont political/news/media scene since autumn 1979. Way back before Bernie Sanders ever won an election and nobody had heard of Howard Dean M.D. other than his patients.

And for most of that time, I simply could not believe they were actually paying me to have so much fun!

But in the last few years, what had been pure pleasure had turned into work - drudgery, in fact.

Not good.

Depression set in. Cancer followed. And, surprise! surprise! - beating the darn cancer did not change things. The depression, which those who've been there know is utter misery, came back. Why?

Because being "successful" at one's job does not mean being "happy" with one's life.

It has not been easy, mes amis, but the lesson learned in the last month has been positively enlightening.

I deserve to be happy - as do you -  and if that means putting the period down, ending the paragraph on the last "Inside Track" then so be it!

Life is short. As my ol' pal Mike always said, "We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time." And as I've come to realize, one cannot begin that new chapter of life until one closes the page on the current one. It's a big step to take, a risky one, but until one takes it, the misery reigns supreme.

Health-wise, things haven't been this good in Freyne Land in decades. And the writer within - the non-political columnist - has a whole lot of material that's been waiting much too long to get out.

Stay tuned. We continue our good relationship with Seven Days as contributing editor and blogger and who knows what's next?

The simple fact is that life is good...and getting better.

And I haven't been able to say that in years!

What a drag...

It is...getting o-o-l-l-l-l-d-d.

Things are different today....I hear every mother say....

Remember that one?

Things were different on Church Street in Burlington this afternoon, too. Not everyday that one can catch the House of LeMay Drag Queens out for a stroll. In this case they were promoting Drag Ball XIII coming up on February 16. More here.

It’s a evening of cabaret at Higher Ground on Main Street to benefit the "People With AIDS Coalition."

The LeMay drag queens were being shot by Tim Kavanagh and his crew from "Late Night Saturday" on WCAX-TV. [No, that's not Marsillyiss Parsons on the right!]

Caught their act because I went downtown this afternoon for the 3:40 showing of Woody Allen’s new flick - Cassandra’s Dream - at the Roxy. Did not check any reviews. Hey, just had a Woody-Allen feeling. One of the leading moviemakers of my youth!

Had I checked a film review, I might have caught wind Cassandra’s Dream was not particularly Woody-Allenesque.

Sure. Very well shot. Excellent score, but...depressing. The women actors are babes, but their characters are not developed beyond the shallowest of veneers.

The male leads...pathetic losers and brothers, a chronic gambler and a hustling, skirt-chasing swindler, and, in this case, first time murderers in “Merry” Modern England do not arouse much in the way of empathy on the part of the viewer.

Hey, money does make the world go ‘round, right?

Charlie & Shummy

Got wind the other day - from a Montpeculiar business lobbyist, as a matter of fact - that 620 WVMT-AM morning radio jock Charlie Papillo, of "Charlie & Ernie" fame, was whining on the radio airwaves about the fact I'd snapped his picture at the Great Harvest Bread Store on Pine Street, but never published it in this blog.

Poor baby!

Charlie, so sorry. The opportunity simply hasn't presented itself. Haven't been tuning in.

But with the Vermont Legislature back in session and you having guests like Senate President pro tem Peter Shumlin, I tuned in this morning.

So here's the shot of your handsome self at long last!

Mr. Papillo leans to the political right. And he challenged Shummy about his support for Rep. Mike Fisher's bill declaring that President George "WMD" Bush's authority to federalize the Vermont National Guard for Iraq duty has terminated.

"The Governor’s already come out and said that any bill that would suggest that, he would veto it in a minute. You’re going to continue on that fight?" asked Charlie.

Shumlin: I have really strong feelings about the war in Iraq. I also think it’s a great example of why Americans are turned off by politics-as-usual. All these folks running around saying we’ve got to get out of Iraq, we’ve got to end this war. Nothing happens.

And the fact is the Vermont Guard has made the most extraordinary sacrifice for their country and they are fighting hard in Iraq and I think Adjutant General Dubie has done an extraordinary job. I am proud of the families and the Vermont Guard.

However, the resolution that was passed by Congress six years ago, in my judgment, has expired. It was based upon three tenets:

1. That the government of Iraq was a threat to the United States. Well guess what? Saddam Hussein is not longer a threat to the United States.

2. We had to get those weapons of mass destruction. Well, haven’t found them yet [because they do not exist].

3. That it was punishment, in effect, for their complicity in 9-11, which we know also didn’t happen.

So either Congress needs to authorize a new resolution saying we’re gonna mediate a civil war in Iraq, or we should bring our Vermont Guard members home.

Good point, eh?

P.S. Good bread, too.

This & That

A treat to see the smiling face of Bridget Burns yesterday on the Church Street Marketplace in Big, Bad Burlap.

Usually the only place we catch Bridget is behind the front desk at a certain successful local Vermont weekly where she's the office manager. But Seven Days has a week off!

In her free time, Bridget's been busy in the fight against the truly anti-American Bush-Cheney Iraq War. She's a reminder to this gracefully-aging Vietnam War protester that the "younger generation" of today is not silent.  If anything, they're ignored by the "mainstream media."

Take a look at how 18 different panelists on Vermont Pubic Television's "Vermont This Week"  rated the year's "top" stories as compared to 39 "viewers."

To the press, the action by almost 40 Vermont towns to back resolutions calling for the impeachment of the current president of the United States was no big deal. Here we are, once again, leading the nation at the grassroots level and the story just barely squeaked onto the press' list in 10th position.

To the VTW viewers, however, it came in 4th.

Hmm.....

Compare for yourself:

As selected by "Vermont This Week" panel members (18 votes)

1.    Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse causes alarm         
2.    Federal Court upholds Vermont’s emissions law            
3.    Climate change dominates much of legislative session            
4.    Democrats fail to override Governor’s vetoes          
5.    Leahy assumes leading role in battle with White House    
6.    Catamount Health begins                      
7.    PSB OK’s industrial wind project for Sheffield            
8.    Verizon seeks to sell landlines to FairPoint               
9.    Valentine’s Day blizzard sees up to 30” fall          
10.  Communities back impeachment resolution               

As selected by "Vermont This Week" viewers (39 votes)

1.    Democrats fail to override Governor's vetoes            
2.    Leahy assumes leading role in battle with White House
3.    Vermont Yankee cooling tower collapse causes alarm
4.    Communities back impeachment resolution   
5.    Rep. Welch targeted by anti-war activists
6.    Federal court upholds Vermont's emissions law
7.    School spending caps increases
8.    Climate change dominates much of legislative session
9.    Valentine's Day blizzard sees up to 30" fall      
10.  Catamount Health begins

New kids in town...

Did you catch 'em on the box last night at 10 O'Clock?

First impressions?

Vermont's brand new TV news operation, finally kicked off on Fox 44 [that's Ch. 9 on Comcast] with a half-hour nightly news - seven nights a week.

Hey, the snowstorm made it easy on Opening Day, eh?

It's been a little over four years since ABC22 pulled the plug on their local news operation. It's been just WCAX vs. WPTZ since. Seems the whole Vermont news biz has been shrinking.

I sat down the other day with the folks behind getting our new TV news operation up and running. The folks behind the camera.

I'm saving that for tomorrow's "Inside Track."

Very interesting.

Good timing!

Was sitting on a window stool at Capitol Grounds on State Street in Montpeculiar yesterday while the House Democrat Caucus took its lunch break.  Commiserated with Steve from Chelsea. Old dudes lamenting the absence of a voice of any kind emanating from the youth of today.

And sharing a smile over how sweet it was to pick up the Gannett-chain daily paper - Le Freeps de Burlington - and read the story about the high school kids protesting the Iraq War at the National Guard recruiting office in Williston Friday afternoon - 13 arrests for trespassing. The Freeps even has some excellent video of it all on its web site.

It was a Sixties flashback for the two old guys sitting in the window sipping coffee and swapping stories about the Vietnam War protests of our younger days.

Finally.

Then comes more good news this morning from Montpeculiar!  Montpelier High School has not only been picked 5th best in the friggin' country by US News, but grad Garrett Graff's first book has hit the street!

Yes, that Garrett Graff. The high-school "kid" who set up Gov. Howard Dean's first website 10 years ago in 1997 when all this internet stuff seemed so new,

Garrett's book is titled The First Campaign.

Subtitled: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House

As his book website notes, Graff:

"comes from a long line of journalists: His grandfather, Bert McCord, was the drama critic for the New York Herald Tribune; his father, Christopher Graff, was the long-time bureau chief of the Associated Press in Vermont, and his mother, Nancy Price Graff, is a historian, children's book author, and former magazine editor."

Bravo!

The Montpelier kid also has an interesting article in today's Washington Post.

Deja-vu all over again...

Wednesday morning on your Champlain Valley FM radio dial: Louie Manno & Jim Condon, the star radio duo who took the town by storm in 1986 on Q-99 will be together again - though only for a day.

Manno's recently slid in behind the mike at 102.3 FM "Best Country" WLFE as the replacement for the late, great G.G. Griggs, killed in an untimely single-vehicle accident in Swanton a couple weeks ago. His pickup slammed into a tree. No seat belt, said the police.

Manno & Condon hit The People's Republic of Burlington during Bernie Sanders' third term as mayor in 1986. The boys were the hot morning duo on Burlington's radio dial well into the 1990s. They finished up on the AM dial at1390 WKDR with former Burlington Free Press city hall scribe and talk-show man Mark Johnson in 2001.

Jim and Louie next started up and operated the Radio Deli on Pearl Street in Burlington for a few years. They sold the deli.  Condon [whose almost 20-year-old intro still prefaces Mark's morning talker on WDEV, 550 AM and 96.1 FM] has found a second life in politics - he's a successful Democratic state representative from Colchester!

Wednesday morning it'll be Louie & Jim - together again on WLFE/St. Albans, Vermont...

Use it, or lose it...

Funny how this works.

Scary, actually.

Do you think if The New York Times and the Washington Post and CBS and CNN and the rest of the nation's corporate-owned-and-operated news crowd had actually done their journalism jobs right, we'd be in such a mess?

A senseless military bloodbath in Iraq. Environmental crises locally and globally. A crumbling dollar. And the crooks and liars still in command.

First Amendment?

Use it or lose it, eh?

Vermont's one-of-a-kind Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders was recently the keynote speaker in Atlanta, Georgia at the annual convention of The Democratic Socialists of America annual convention.

Did the American corporate media notice?

Are you serious?

The only press coverage we could find was on the website of the Atlanta Progressive News:

"We’re not radical. You know who’s radical? George W. Bush," Sanders said in his remarks. "Bush says we can’t afford money for food stamps... but we can afford $10 billion a month in Iraq, we can afford to repeal the estate tax. If anybody tells you we can’t afford health care for all or getting all children out of poverty... you look them in the eye and say Bernie Sanders is on the Budget Committee and it just ain’t so."

More here.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Ever wonder why they made it the very "First," eh?

Another Tracky Tuesday...

Yep.

Up an at 'em on this icy, damp, snowy morning in the Queen City of Burlington, Vermont. An "Inside Track" column to pump out, as they say. [Those watchful eyes are around the corner on Pine Street.]

And this blogger didn't learn until yesterday afternoon that "Freyne Land" had been quoted in the editorial in the distinguished Rutland Herald last Wednesday. It was a Rep. Peter Welch quote taken from our blog coverage of Welchie's meeting with anti-Iraq War folks in the Barre library. Yours truly was cited and identified as "columnist and blogger" [though Seven Days wasn't mentioned].

I confess that now, in the Internet Age, when the Rutland Herald "hard copy" is no longer delivered to Big Bad Burlington, I don't read it as thoroughly as in the olden days when I held it in my two hands.

Then, yesterday, in a Louis Porter story in the Rutland Herald and Times Argus on continuing reaction to Gov. Jim Douglas' intervention in Windsor County marijuana prosecutions, "Freyne Land" got quoted again. Apparently the Guv was not available, so Louis used a quote from Gov. Scissorhands that we got last Wednesday out at the Williston rest area. Mr. Porter gave me credit as "columnist," but, unfortunately, did not mention the existence of the bloody blog!

Hey, c'mon Louis, it's the 21st Century. The brave new world of high-tech.

Got to go with the flow.

Big News on College Street

Everything changes.

Sooner or later, eh?

The Gannett chain's top man in Vermont, Burlington Free Press Publisher Jim Carey, a hometown boy and the man in charge on College Street since 1991, is being replaced.

Today's edition breaks the news:

Bradley I. Robertson, formerly vice president/advertising at The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, has been named president and publisher of The Burlington Free Press. He replaces James Carey, who will become chairman of the Free Press.

Robertson began his Gannett career in 1994 as a circulation analyst for The News Journal at Wilmington, Del. He moved to the Fort Collins (Colo.), Coloradoan as a manager of circulation sales, then became manager of sales and marketing at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader.

In 1999, Robertson became director of circulation sales for the Detroit Newspaper Agency. He was named director of business development at Des Moines in 2003 and vice president of business development there in 2004. He was named vice president of advertising for Des Moines a few months later. Robertson is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a bachelor's degree in communication.

"Tough and gruff" would be the way to describe Carey. Hasn't spoken to yours truly since he hung up the car phone on me 10 years ago right after he made the mistake of answering it. [His secretary had "mistakenly" given me the number.]

Carey was an ad sales guy. He also was a social conservative who'd been known to drive a car [his wife's?] that bore a "Jesus" bumper sticker.

But Jim Carey will be remembered most as the publisher who forbade his editorial page from taking a stand or even commenting on the great Vermont battle over same-sex marriage during the 2000 Legislative Session that passed the landmark civil-unions law.

Meanwhile, down Route 7, the editorial page writer at the Rutland Herald, David Moats [caught here on the Church Street Marketplace a few weeks ago], won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials on the gay marriage debate, an issue Vermont, and the Rutland Herald, led the nation on.

Unfortunately, Burlington's local daily - the state's largest -  was silent.

Welcome to Vermont, Brad.

And best wishes, Jimbo!

Really.

None of us are getting any younger, but there's always room for "wiser," eh?

Now we know....

Caught in the act: Burlington Free Press political reporter Sam Hemingway and his, until now, unidentified source.

Captured on film Saturday afternoon in Burlington's Battery Park.

Sam's the one on the left.

More in the Sunday Freeps....

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina!

The truth is, I'm on "vacation." And I already live in vacation land. So instead of going somewhere far away, I'm getting my travel bug scratched by someone who is far away - Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Received this e-mail from University of Vermont grad [1998] and former WCAX-TV Reporter Brian Byrnes.  Brian's in Buenos Aires these days and just became a daddy -"Terrence Bautista Byrnes ("Bauti"), was born on August 30th. He's cute as hell and we're thrilled."

Brian's also been having a blast covering the Argentine presidential election - you know, the one we heard little about from our mainstream press. Writes Byrnes:

We had a interesting presidential election here in Argentina on Sunday. The First Lady was elected to the Casa Rosada! Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been called the "Hillary Clinton of South America," and in many ways the comparisons ring true: she's a lawyer and senator who accompanied her husband from the governorship of a backwater state....all the way to the presidential palace. 

 

On Sunday she became the first female elected to top office in Argentina and is looking to become the new Evita. The same happened last year next door in Chile: Michelle Bachelet went from political exile under Pinochet to being "Presidenta." I wonder if this wave of female presidents will make its way from the south to the north???

Brian reported on the election for CBS Radio and CNN International.

If you're curious about what really happened in the Land of Eva Peron - and much more, check here.

Yes, there are other countries out there besides Iraq and Iran.

Downtown Vermont

Did downtown Burlington today.

So did a lot of people, and French was still being spoken.

People were dancing, too.

Dancing on their heads.

Literally.

Kinda reflects the current condition of the political system here in the United States of America, eh?

Which made it all the more encouraging to find one United States Senator making a book run. 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a U.S. Senator who does his own reading!

Bumped into Sen. Bernie Sanders at Borders. He was after the latest hot Blackwater book that's climbing the charts. Yes, indeed - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army!

Encouraging sign, eh?

An information-gathering member of the U.S. Senate working on the weekend.

Yes!

Then strolling down the street, I bumped into this "power couple" on the city-hall block.

The Vermont career cop and the Vermont career anchor-babe!

The professional law enforcement official and the television journalist.

Lt. Helrich of BPD and Anchorwoman Kelly of WCAX-TV.

Emmet and Kristin.

Recently wed.

Legit at last!

Couple cuties.

There's a TV series there, folks....

A Finished Fred

Fred Lane is one of those wireless-laptop-in-the-coffee-shop guys. Southend of Burlington. Speeder's.

Some do homework or write mail - Fred writes books!

The other day he completed his latest [4th, I think]. He's also an expert witness and serves on the school board. More here.

Lane's latest, which will be published by Beacon Press in Boston, is titled:

The Court and the Cross: the Religious Right's Crusade to Reshape the Supreme Court.

It'll hit the streets next May, Fred tells us. He began writing it in early July.

Cool.

Can't wait.

Ledbetter Responds

Just got off the phone with “Vermont This Week” host Stewart Ledbetter.

He said he did not care to respond directly to Progressive State Rep. David Zuckerman’s charge that he had engaged in “irresponsible journalism” on Friday evening’s Vermont Public Television program. [See "Irresponsible Journalism" post two down.]

Ledbetter suggested Zuckerman hadn’t told the truth in “Inside Track” last week when he said Democratic Senate Boss Peter Shumlin had on two ocassions suggested Democrats and Progressives have mended fences and Progressive Anthony Pollina might be a candidate the Ds could back in a race against incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Douglas in 2008.

“[Zuckerman] can say what he wants to say,” said Ledbetter.

Though Shumlin still hasn’t returned our calls, Stew said he spoke with him around lunchtime on Friday via phone, and "because of that conversation," Ledbetter told us, he said what he said on the Vermont Public Television airwaves about someone “not telling the truth.”

“Shumlin said he was trying to be diplomatic about how the Democrats and Progressives could work together,” said Ledbetter.  Shummy told him, he said, that he had been “very clear and careful” in talking to Zuckerman that he was not backing Anthony.

Shumlin did have nice things to say about Pollina, said Ledbetter,  including “that he was articulate and a good speaker.”

Ledbetter said Shumlin also made other “off-the-record comments” to him which he did not share with yours truly.

“I wasn’t there in Montpelier,” said Stew. “It’s a ‘He said-He said.’”

Media Notes

Started the "Media Notes" item in the Ol' Inside Track column way back in the 1980s. The local daily pretty much ignored the existence of the local TV news operations and their staff - they could buy ad space if they wanted to - but that was about it.

But there's no business like show business, folks,  and TV News is definitely show business, eh?

Haven't been doing a good job keeping up with the turnover, so let's catch up in Freyne Land, eh?

Bianca Slota is a new reporter over at WCAX-TV, our local CBS affiliate.

Bianca, a Maryland native, arrives after a couple years breaking into the TV-News biz in Anchorage, Alaska. She studied journalism at the University of Maryland.

That's former Ch. 3 videographer Kika Bronger (a St. Mike's grad), now with New England Cable News, behind Bianca, giving her the "V" sign.

Welcome to Vermont, Bianca!

And someone who needs no welcome to Vermont is Reporter Rachael Morrow.

That's Rachael with the microphone in St. Patrick's gob at a recent presser regarding AG Alberto Gonzales' resignation. She's got a few months in already at WGOP, er. sorry, at WCAX-TV News. Been mostly on the early-morning news shift.

Rachael studied journalism at Lyndon State College and worked at the Caledonian Record in St. Johnsbury.

Also we hear there's another new reporter at WCAX this week, but we haven't crossed paths yet.

Stay tuned.

We don't want to be strangers...

Listening to the Radio Rangers on WDEV, live from the Tunbridge World’s Fair on "The Mark Johnson Show." Listening on the Internet. Modern world, eh?

And as the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reports this morning:

He's been known as Buster the Wonder Dog's companion, the guy who hosts "Music to go to the dump by," a radio-station owner (WDEV in Waterbury) and personality, a longtime auto racing broadcaster and Thunder Road part-owner.

Now Ken Squier can add a new title to his highly varied resume: 2007 Vermont Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce picked Squier, of Stowe, to honor his extensive service for the communities within Vermont.

Bravo! There’s only one Ken Squier.

Full disclosure: Yours truly’s been a news stringer with ‘DEV, The Friendly Pioneer at 550 AM & 96.1 FM since....1981.

Bernie Sanders winning the mayor’s race by 10 votes is what triggered it.  All of a sudden, Burlington, Vermont had something, and someone, that demanded news coverage, and boots on the ground in the Queen City.

Still have the same microphone.

Hey, it works.

Surprise!

Don't think I can take the talk shows this Sunday morning. Watching John McCain or the ex-generals or the same old talking-head bs'ers coming up with some more twisted reasons to continue our Iraq War is simply too depressing.

And, may I say, my Sunday online edition of The Burlington Free Press is the perfect antidote.

Seriously, folks.

It's been my local daily newspaper since Jimmy Carter was president. And yes, indeed, there's been plenty to criticize over the years at the Gannett-chain's Vermont outlet...plenty.

But this dark and damp Sunday morning in beautiful Burlap, the local daily's packing four or five good long Vermont news stories. The special effort is both noticed and appreciated. After all, I've been newspaper junkie since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

Freeps Courthouse Reporter Adam Silverman's front-pager on the young Iraq War veteran back home in Winooski and in trouble with the law is top shelf. It's a side of Bush-Cheney Iraq War the Administration, no doubt, would prefer we did not see.

Another beauty is veteran writer Candy Page's feature on how Gov. Jim Douglas is NOT measuring up to his 2003 goal of cleaning-up Lake Champlain's toxic algae blooms.

Oopsie!

And that older guy with the white hair who covers Burlington City Hall has a tasty, long tale that ought to satisfy the appetites of those wondering where the big zoning-reform struggle lies.  Many a good line in John Briggs' piece, such as:

Several councilors faulted Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss for his silence on the rewrite, with one observing that Kiss told the council at its last meeting about the hurricane damage to Burlington's Nicaraguan sister city, Puerto Cabezas, but said nothing about the rewrite.

"A weather report," said Keogh. "Why he's not there (on the rewrite), I don't know. If (former Mayor Peter) Clavelle were in there, he'd be leading the charge. The council's well ahead of Kiss on this. I think he's still catching up on his job description. I don't think he's exercised much leadership on this whole thing."

"He needs to communicate with councilors at the meeting," Gutchell said. "And he doesn't come across forcefully enough in saying we as a council aren't doing our job."

"I think there's a role for the mayor in making his vision known," said Montroll, adding he didn't understand Kiss' vision "completely, at this point."

Who does, eh?

Enjoy.

Media Notes

So I'm sitting at the top of Church Street last evening. Taking it all in and appreciating the magnificent changes my eyes have seen on Church since the "ancient" 1970s.

And a familiar face - a flash from the past - walks by. Meg Dennison was a reporter at The Associated Press' Montpeculiar bureau (1984-93). Grew up in Hinesburg. Married reporter Tim Peek [Addison Independent and Vermont Times]. With her are daughters Alison [13], in the middle, and Molly [11]. Home these days is South Orange, New Jersey.

Meg's parents still live in Hinesburg, and they ski Killington a lot in the winter, but she told me she hadn't visited downtown Burlington in years and was amazed  by how much it's changed.

Tim and Meg departed Vermont at the end of 1993 when he took a job as a producer with Inside Edition. Tabloid TV was just coming in. But Peek got fed up with Inside Edition and moved onwards and upwards to Dateline NBC.

Now, says Meg, he's directing some new digital gig at NBC called Channel One.

Stay tuned.

Never, ever, will I forget that phone call I got from Tim, then Vermont Times editor, in 1992, asking if I'd be interested in reviving my Ol' 1980s Vanguard Press "Inside Track" column after a three-year absence?

Are you kidding?

Music to the ears of Blacklisted & Penniless Pete, who the very next morning was going to officially abandon his writer/journalist quest and start a brand new job selling life insurance. Honest to god.

You have no idea how good it felt to call the insurance guy and tell him I wasn't going to take the job!

Vermont Leads - USA Follows?

Cheer up, folks.

The voice of this little Green Mountain State continues to catch the nation’s ear. The tide is turning, not as fast as we'd like, but it is turning.

CNN’s John King aired a nice little feature on the CNN “Political Ticker” Wednesday afternoon about “President Bush's forgotten state?”

They’d actually had it in the can for a couple weeks - bumped by the Minnesota bridge-collapse story and the mine cave-in.

C’est la vie, eh?

And not only the usual suspects appeared before the camera like Bernie Sanders, our “self-described socialist” senator and UVM Political Science Prof. Garrison Nelson. Garrison told CNN that he "sees no upside in the president paying a visit to Vermonters."

"It is a photo opportunity he does not need," Nelson said. "I cannot imagine any assemblage in the state of Vermont that would give him an unalloyed positive reception."

But CNN also noted:

Vermont does have a Republican governor, Jim Douglas, but he is a throwback to the moderate breed of Republicanism that once thrived across New England. Douglas notes the first President Bush visited Vermont last among the 50 states, and predicts the son will do the same — despite his low popularity.

"He can take it," Douglas said of a potential Vermont visit. "He has certainly taken a lot of hostility and tough questions and I am sure he can do that here."

More to come, too.

A crew from one of the original "Big 3" networks (psst: ABC) was in town yesterday. Curious, they were, about why this president won't set foot in this state.

Too bad they weren't as curious when the crooked Bush/Haliburton/Fox News Team led us into war on such fraudulent evidence, eh?

Bush, Babes and Berryman?

America's dishonest and dangerous national leader, President George "WMD" Bush, spent all of three hours on the ground in Minneapolis on Saturday demonstrating to the nation that, even though he's not running for reelection, he can still do a photo-op!

Unfortunately, America's renegade regime leader is not the most articulate president we've had. In fact, he's the least articulate of my lifetime, making Ronald Reagan appear borderline brilliant. Said George our Liar-in-Chief:

On behalf of the citizens of America, I bring prayers from the American people to those who suffered loss of life as a result of the collapse of the 35W bridge here in the Twin Cities. I bring the prayers of those who wonder about whether they'll ever see a loved one again.

So now the man who presided over the deceitful and dishonest scheme to start a war he can neither win nor end has dubbed himself a prayer-carrier?

Bush told the cameras he had met with the police chief and sheriff and, "people who represent men and women who are working as hard as they possibly can to save life and to find life; to go under these murky waters to find the facts."

Facts?  Facts?  Everybody knows after five years of an illegal war in Iraq that facts are this bloody tyrant's #1 enemy, ferchrissakes.

The Minnesota trip was to cover his PR butt after blowing it on Hurricane Katrina. Those Cable TV News Babes really do count, right Mr. Rove?

His remarks, all 500 words, lasted four minutes. Our president did not take any questions from the press.

He doesn't have to, does he?

Way to go Mr. President!

Meanwhile his visit, picked up live on the cable news channels, took me back to the next vehicle-span downriver on the Mighty Mississippi - the Washington Avenue Bridge. It's a two-decker, pedestrians on top (with a heated, enclosed inner section for winter), and motor vehicles on the bottom. It cuts right through the middle of the University of Minnesota campus, the largest in the country at that time. A little memory lane here.

Autumn 1971. A quiet, early-in-the-week kind of night. The bar was called Caesar's. I was 22. She was 27. He was some old wasted academic-type on a stool in the dark corner.  She'd been talking to the old fart, then apparently had her fill and asked the young guy - me - if I wanted to shoot a little pool.

You never say "no," right?  Not at 22, anyway. After three games we went back to her place. The old drunk, 57,  was in the same spot the next few times I dropped in. Usually quite hammered. Someone said he was a famous poet. Never got much of a conversation going, he was usually pretty sloshed.

A few months later in January he waved to whoever was nearby and jumped off the Washington Avenue Bridge. Death by suicide.

It was UM Professor/Poet John Berryman, winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize.

From Berryman's 77 Dream Songs:

I'm too alone. I see no end. If we could all
run, even that would be better. I am hungry.
The sun is not hot.
It's not a good position I am in.
If I had to do the whole thing over again
I wouldn't.

John Berryman

What's it all about...?

Don’t know about you, but I haven’t quite got it all figured out yet. However, I am certainly enjoying the quest. And I am very glad to be here...still.

The 17-year-old gals with the musical charms on the Church Street Marketplace yesterday around dinner time also seemed glad to be here. Hana Kornbluh [left] and Emma Nelson hail from Lincoln, Nebraska. Hana’s got a guitar in that case. They were playing some great indie-folk.

Only in Burlap for a week. They're staying at Camp Common Ground in Starksboro. Rang a bell.

Like almost everything these days, it has a spot in cyberspace, too.

Worth a check. And do watch the movie.

And lookie here at who we bumped into en route for a little Speeder & Earl’s caffeine?

Why it’s Ch. 3 Reporter Jack Thurston and veteran videographer Shelly Holt Allen!

Holy ____!

They were doing a piece on a show at Pine Street Art Works. And Ol’ Jack was giving me some friendly “BS”  for not having announced his arrival at WGOP, er, sorry, WCAX-TV in “Media Notes” in the Inside Track column...five years ago.

Jeezum crow, these Middlebury College graduates are so sensitive!

I’ll admit I’ve kinda gotten away from keeping steady track in Inside Track of the local news media turnover - unless it's a firing of a Burlington Free Press editorial page editor like David Awbrey [back when Vermont’s Gannett-chain outpost had free parking for employees], or a move to Boston by a longtime Ch. 3 news anchor like Sera Congi.

Sorry, Jack.

Hey, at least they have free parking at WCAX, eh?

A Sanders Sunday

Off to Montpeculiar bright and early this Sunday morning for a Senator Bernie Sanders town meeting at the high school on: Global Warming. It starts at 10:30. I know, competing with church. [No big deal, but Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, in his best George W. Bush impersonation to date, vetoed the global warming bill the Legislature passed. The showdown on a veto-override vote is Wednesday.]

Of the four committees Sanders of Vermont sits on, one is Environment and Public Works and one is Energy and Natural Resources.

He's connected and appears to love his new areas of responsibility: energy and the environment.

He's also competing with himself since he'll be the featured guest on WCAX-TV's "You Can Quote Me" at 11. It was taped on Friday. Marselis and Andy Potter ask the questions. Do let me know if anything newsworthy happens. WCAX is too stingy to post video, audio or transcripts of its "premier"  Sunday Morning News Special. In fact, it's the station's ONLY news/public affairs program outside of the regular news.

Meanwhile, did want to share this photo of a rainbow over The Burlington Free Press, Gannett's cash-cow in Vermont. Took it last Monday after we were tipped off about Publisher Jim Carey's decision to end the free parking for employees and remove the bottled spring water cooler from the newsroom.

Tough economic times, you know.

Our report in Wednesday's "Inside Track" got picked up last Thursday by "Romenesko" - a website that covers all the inside poop in media and journalism.

Caused such a traffic flood to "Inside Track" that it crashed the Seven Days website for an hour!

Somewhere, over the rainbow!

"Battlefield Breakdown" Update

Just got home from Montpeculiar and checked the ol' email and learned that this weekend's premier of "Battlefield Breakdown" the CNN Special Investigations Unit Special Report yours truly highlighted in this week's "Inside Track" column in the print edition of Seven Days had been canceled.

The powerful one-hour investigative report was produced by Rice High School and UVM grad Laura Bernardini, with veteran CNN news guy John King and Jung Park and Doug Schantz who work the camera/sound angle.

The first email indicated the powers that be at CNN had pulled the program early this morning "due to breaking news regarding the foiled London terror plot."

You know, the green Mercedes packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, and discovered parked outside the Tiger Tiger night club in Haymarket last night? London police say hundreds of innocent people could have been killed.

Ah, yes, what a wonderful world it is.

Great leaders.

The news, I confess, bummed me out. Finally a major mainstream U.S. news network was going to tell it like it is on how this administration has treated its fighting men and women and they pull the plug at the last minute to fan the ol' 9/11-type War on Terror flames.

Hello?

Then about 2:45, "Freyne Land" got word that CNN had changed its mind - a little bit. The "Battlefield Breakdown" documentary will air this weekend after all!

Only it won't be in prime time as originally scheduled.  Here are the new times:
Saturday 6:00AM – 7:00AM, 3:00PM and Sunday 6:00AM and 2:00PM.

Don't know about you, but I am an early riser these days.

Tonight's "Vermont This Week"

That's what it looks like from the "far-left" panelist seat on the "Vermont This Week" set at Vermont Public Television at Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester.

In fact, that's exactly what it looked like at the taping at 3:30 this afternoon with Sweet Sue Allen, currently the editor of the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus on the left, filling in for WPTZ-TV's Stewart Ledbetter, the regular host. Then that's Freeps Statehouse/political writer Nancy Remsen next to Susan and John Flowers from Middlebury's Addison Independent next to Nancy.

With things kind of day-to-day in Freyne Land due to chemotherapy, I can't predict just how things will go, but I was in great shape today. Pumped up. Delighted to be on the program with Sue Allen, who I've known since the Reagan Era when she landed at the Freeps [and tangled with when she was Ho-Ho's esteemed press secretary during his gubernatorial chapter]. And also excited about the opportunity to confront a bit of the Freyne Past - the Roman Catholic Church.

It's been front-page news all week -  the big civil lawsuit that began in Burlington in which a former Vermont altar boy is suing the Vermont Roman Catholic Diocese for damages due from being sexually assaulted by a Vermont parish priest way back in the 1970s.

Sam Hemingway at the Freeps and Brian Joyce at WCAX-TV have been all over it.

Yours truly has deliberately avoided this one, not because I was molested by a priest, but because when I walked out the door at Maryknoll 's college seminary in Glen Ellyn,  Illinois in early June of 1969,  I also walked out the door on the Roman Catholic Church. Quite simply, I was no longer believing it all anymore. And I could not accept the answers I got when I dared to asked questions.

Though the church-lawsuit story wasn't on the original VTW headline list Producer Joe Merone e-mailed out around noontime, yours truly insisted we address it.  It's reality and that's supposed to be the business we're in, right? 

Especially when you have Susan Via, a top prosecutor from the 1980s, testifying that Roman Catholic Bishop John Marshall had told her boss,  Roman Catholic States Attorney [and now judge] Mark Keller, a Notre Dame grad,  it would be "a sin of scandal" if he opened a criminal investigation into the child-molesting priest's conduct.

Give me an effing break!

That's NEWS.

And it's also a dramatic window into the religious establishment of the past, and the power once enjoyed by it's priests, monsignors and bishops, who were experts in the world of sin, eh?

Vermont Governor Missing? (UPDATED)

According to the e-mailed official ”Public Appearance Schedule of Governor Jim Douglas,” the Republican Governor of Vermont is supposed to be in Los Angeles, California, as I write this at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday (6:30 PDT), delivering the “Keynote Speech” at the National Notary Association’s 29th Annual Conference.

Cool.

Given our curiosity and the accessibility to information provided by the Web, I went to the website of the organization, the National Notary Association, to learn more about a group that would want the current Republican Governor of Vermont to give its 2007 “Keynote” conference speech.

Couldn’t find a mention of Gov. Scissorhands, excuse me, Gov. Douglas of Vermont ANYWHERE.

What I did learn, however, was that Gov. Jimbo's 6:30 p.m.  listed appearance (Pacific Time) would put his entrance at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel smack dab in the middle of the 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. “Reception,” (i.e. cocktail hour?), which is followed, by a three-hour banquet.

The Notary Association describes its Saturday Night as:

An evening of elegance is planned for our Conference grande finale with fine dining, entertainment, and an inspirational and compelling speech delivered by Judge Marilyn Milian, the spunky firebrand who presides over The People’s Court. The evening concludes with the presentation of the coveted Notary of the Year and Special Honorees Awards.

What happened to Jim Douglas, governor of Vermont?

What did they do to him?

Not even a mention of the "Keynote Speaker's" name???

Stay tuned.

***UPDATE***

Sunday evening: Now we see a screen on the organization's main page that has a picture of Gov. Scissorhands and identifies him as the "Keynote Speaker" for the conference's Saturday night extravaganza in Los Angeles that is now over.

Didn't see it there before the above post, noting the absence of any acknowledgement of Gov. Jimbo despite his "Official" Vermont Public Appearance Schedule listing him as the "Keynote Speaker" Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Damage control?

After all, Vermont's Gov. Douglas was not mentioned on the "Official" National Notary Association conference program for Saturday night.

Very interesting.

Clinton Does Middlebury

The most popular wife-cheating, skirt-chaser to occupy the Oval Office since John Fitzgerald Kennedy was in Vermont on Sunday to give the keynote address at the Middlebury College Graduation.

William Jefferson Clinton.

I was able to catch a chunk of the speech live online [right] on Sunday morning. That's GOP Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas [left] on Ch. 3's "You Can Quote Me."

Quite a doubleheader, eh?

Of course, Big Bill does have a Middlebury connection - sort of.  Middlebury College grad Ron Brown was President Clinton's Secretary of Commerce.

And before that, Sec. Brown had the job fellow New Yorker, former physician and once-upon-a-time Vermont Gov. Howard Dean now performs so well - chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Brown, a native of Harlem, as opposed to Ho-Ho's Upper East Side roots, was killed in a plane crash on an official mission in wartime Croatia in 1996.

Remarkably, President Clinton, unlike the current occupant of the White House - George "WMD" Bush - does have first-hand experience with impeachment, but I did not see it mentioned in the news coverage.

What was his alleged "high crime and misdemeanor?"

No bombshells here, folks. President Clinton the Ist lied under oath in a civil lawsuit about living out his sexual fantasies with Monica, the twentysomething White House aide. Of course, that happened before most of the Middlebury graduates seated before him on Sunday had even entered puberty. Besides, as long as his wife Hillary stayed with him...?

Press reports of the Clinton speech are, for the most part quite, similar as they should be. Bill was there to preach "community," urging the grads to recognize our similarities rather than our differences. He noted we human animals are genetically 99.9 percent the same!

But only Ch. 3's Andy Potter put Clinton's line connecting that "99.9 percent similarity" to right-wing radio talk show motormouth Rush Limbaugh [left] in his report. The Dinglebury grads of 2007 may not be aware, but Ol' Rush built his gazillion-dollar radio talk show empire off of what some would call Bill's "zipper problem."

Said President Clinton the First:

"I met Rush Limbaugh the other night in New York, and I was tempted after all the terrible things he said about me to tell him we were 99.9 percent the same." -- long laughter -- "I was afraid the poor man would run weeping from the restaurant, and so I let it go."

***UPDATED Monday 10:30 a.m.***

Inspired, no doubt, by my interesting 2007 engagement with cancer, I've heard myself saying frequently of late that life is all about how well you play the cards dealt you. Not many of us get four aces in their opening hand, and many of those that do end up blowing it all anyway.

And that thought was back in the center square of the Ol' Freyne Brain this morning when my Memorial Day plans ran into a roadblock. [Painting at right is Galisteo by sister Maureen in Santa Fe. Nice, eh?)

I was going to shoot down to Vergennes to catch the Memorial Day Parade there. It's an annual event on my political calendar because it usually draws an interesting crew of pols even in a non-election year. Gov. Scissorhands will march. 'Course this year, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch (his designated successor?) are on a Middle East congressional info-junket and won't be there. Still, I assume Sen. Bernie Sanders would show, doing his proverbial, independent,  one-man march and wave. And  Mr. Mainstream Vermont Radical is always good to take a few questions.

Plus, I'd heard representatives of VT Veterans for Peace were going to march - carrying a casket to represent the 3435 of their comrades who died for the Bush Administration's Big Bad Iraq Lie.

I always bring my bike to cover the Vergennes March. Mobility. Gets me around to take as much in as possible. But not this year. I took the wheels off the bike and toss it in my trunk. But still I need to get the back seat to fold down to make the necessary space.

Only one half would. Believe me, I tried.

Then I tried lowering the bike seat.

The latch, however, like half of the car back seat, simply would not budge!

The appropriate profanities followed, as well as one of those "light-in-the-brain" realizations that maybe there's a message here, Pedro?

Maybe you're not supposed to cover this year's Vergennes Parade. Maybe you'd fall and crack your skull (since you can't find your bike helmet), or maybe there'd be another similarly unfortunate circumstance?

In fact, before falling asleep last night, there was a seed of doubt that sprouted out of nowhere about today's Vergennes plans.

Interesting, eh?

That's what I thought.

These "tea leaves" seemed obvious. We'll go with the flow. Besides, I have a Vermont Business Magazine column due today. This will make making that deadline a lot easier.

Ah, life!

One day at a time.

Freeps for Sale?

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?

Vermont vs. Fox "News"

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 

VT Guardian Shutting Down

This Just In from a "reliable source" who got it from the Vermont Guardian's Shay Totten:

"I'm sending this note out to some close friends and associates before I
make it official on the website this afternoon.  I'm enclosing the
press release I will post from the Guardian, and the one that Chelsea
Green is releasing today as well.

"It's been great to work with and collaborate with many of you on this
list, and I'll still be in Vermont working away in indy publishing, so
I won't be far or unreachable by e-mail or cell phone (324-XXXX * see footnote below).

"I want to thank everyone for helping to make the Guardian such a great
asset in the media landscape while it lasted. Perhaps it can be
resurrected by some enterprising young journalists with more energy
than I have to give anymore, but we'll see. As you'll notice, the
website will remain active, though not actively posted to, for an
indefinite amount of time."

Vermont Guardian Editor/Publisher put that out to close friends within the last hour.

The accompanying press release stated:

This week's issue will be the paper's last, and will largely be
comprised of a "best of" retrospective of some of the most important
stories the paper published in its two-and-a-half year run, Totten
said. The Guardian's first weekly print edition hit the streets in
September 2004, and its circulation topped 10,000 readers statewide.

Au revoir, Vt Guardian.

Next?

______________________________________________________

*** Received from Mr. Totten on Wednesday afternoon:

"Just wonder if you can take down my phone number (a private cell phone number) from the website on Peter's blog. That e-mail went out to a group of friends and colleagues whom I don't mind having it, but it's not for general consumption."

Thanks,

Shay

Gee whiz! Mine's in the fricken' phonebook!

Didn't think you'd want to be 'hard to reach' by interested, concerned parties.

Oh, well. Your wish?

My command!

- PF