Bad-Hair-Day Approaching?

On the left, a Vermont legend - Art Gibb.

Art served in the Vermont House and Senate in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, a Republican who cared deeply about Vermont's environmental beauty and integrity and is one of the main reasons Vermont's roadways are not littered with billboard advertising like the other 49 states.

Thank you, Art.

He's also a key reason for Vermont's Act 250, the landmark environmental law that's held back commercial, anything-for-a-buck, development. Art Gibb was 97 when he passed away in 2005. More here.

On the right - the backside, or rather the ponytail of the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, David Zuckerman (P-Burlington). We think it's the longest under the Golden Dome - male or female - not that size matters.

Wavy Davy's Ponytail made the blog because it isn't going to be around much longer. Tuesday afternoon it's going bye-bye. In fact, said Zuckerman, enough $$$ pledges come in and he's SHAVING IT ALL OFF!

To all State House colleagues, legislators, staff, lobbyists, guests:

Some of you may remember that a few years ago I cut some of my hair as a fundraiser for kids with hair loss diseases (locks-of-love). Your generosity helped provide over $3,500 to go along with my wife's and my ponytail “locks”.

This year, on February 12 at 3:30 in Room 10, I will have my hair cut, lopped, buzzed, or even shaved as another fundraiser. Rep. Denise Barnard has been kind enough to agree to do the job. This time I will again be sending my hair out of state, but the money raised will be used for youth services organizations within Vermont. The four groups are Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington, Youth Services in Brattleboro, Northeast Kingdom Youth Services in St. Johnsbury, and 206 Depot in Bennington. The money raised will be divided equally...

Zuckerman says his longest measured hair strand was 35-inches long.

Just won't be the same without it...

Mission Accomplished

Made it. Print column, the ol’ “Inside Track” all done. The Tuesday miracle. Whew!

This, after a topsy-turvy few days that included a car accident in the Mary Fanny parking garage on Hospital Hill. Yes, the one convicted former CEO Bill Boettcher and the boys got built.

Thanks, Bill.

Bob from Huntington in his white 2007 Silverado wagon just threw it into reverse and backed into me as hard as he could. I was stopped on the downslope at the time. Said he didn’t see me. I need a new bumper, headlights and a few other items - $1600 and change is the estimate. Hadn’t even made it to the doctor, yet.

The doctor, by the way, said the blood tests looked good. I'm a healthy dude these days.

Then the furnace in the 27-year-old building I call “home” started banging and clanging and spitting and spewing and leaking and on the way out. “Home” is a three story house on Burlap’s South End. The Ol’ Five Sisters neighborhood. I’ve got the ground-floor/ basement/mother-in-law apartment. Unfortunately, that’s where the furnace, original to the building, is, too.

The owner/lamdlord is on top of it.

Hey, at least it’s not boring, eh?

A pal took that photo of yours truly in Sweetwaters recently. The painting on the wall - by Wendy Copp, right? - includes the Peter Freyne of 1982 eying the Tony Pomerleau of the same vintage. “Inside Track” was running in the Vanguard Press, the “alternative weekly” of those days in Burlap when a guy named “Bernie” was occupying the mayor’s office.

Whatever happened to him?

A few other characters of that era in Burlap were also on the big wall at Tony Perry's "Sweets", including Denny Morrisseau, founder/owner of Leuing’s. Denny sold it in the mid-1990s. Yours truly was one of his early bartenders. What fun!

Time flies.

Anyway, knocked out the column for Seven Days, writing about a surprise on the healthcare front in Montpeculiar and also about marijuana which is scheduled to receive a little attention on tonight’s city council agenda and under the Golden Dome this week, too.

[Hey, if the council meetings are available “live” on BurlingtonTelecom, why the heck aren’t they available “live” online in the People's Republic of Burlington?]

Ward 1 Democrat Ed Adrian [right] wants Burlington voters to have an advisory question regarding the decriminalization of marijuana on the March ballot.

Councilor Eddie’s an attorney and former prosecutor in Franklin County. Currently cashes a paycheck from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office. Even admits to toking up in his younger years.

Besides Gov. Jim Douglas, who hasn’t?

Let's get real.

Sunday Sun

Went on a little laundromat run this sunny Sunday in beautiful Burlap. This was an hour after sunrise.  Main Street in America's smallest largest city of any state.

And that other state - home of the Yankees - across the pond

First laid eyes on this vista in 1956 - a six-year-old in the back seat of a spanking new Mercury with sister and brother. Mommy was driving and Daddy was smoking and holding the map.

Time flies, eh?

Lot of miles since.

Clothes all clean. Ready to catch Gov. Scissorhands on WCAX's "You Can Quote Me."

Anyone else watching?

Changing of the Guard

No, we're not getting any younger.

And this week, two People's Republic of Burlington regulars are moving on.

Michael Monte's been in City Hall since the magical election of March 1981 when the candidate of "poor people, working people and the elderly" he worked for - some guy named Bernard Sanders - won the mayor's race by 10 votes. He started up and ran the Community and Economic Development Office and proved that socialists do indeed know how to do business.

Bright, personable, fair and decent, Michael [right] was a key player [along with Phil Fiermonte who he's about to share a hug with at last night's Community Boathouse celebration], in the political revolution that changed Burlington, Vermont from a dusty, bedraggled town without a decent waterfront into the people-friendly "metropolis" that you see today.

"Well, that was the idea," said Monte. "To foment a small revolution that had some long-lasting value."

Michael starts Monday as the Chief Operating Officer at the Champlain Housing Trust.

Also departing is Chief of Police Tom Tremblay. Tommy Guns has been tapped by Republican Gov. Jim Douglas to be the next commissioner of public safety which will put him in charge of the Vermont State Police.

Maybe Commissioner Tremblay will have a wee chat with Gov. Scissorhands about the Guv's current law-and-order view on prosecuting marijuana cases, eh?

Incidentally, Windsor County State's Attorney Bobby Sand is scheduled to appear on "The Mark Johnson Show" this morning on WDEV AM-FM in the 9-10 o'clock hour.

He's the brave prosecutor who's willing to say publicly our drug laws simply do not work!

Veterans Day 2007

Ol' Bernardo, excuse me, United States Sen. Bernard Sanders, usually does a presser on Mondays at his home base in Burlington and this Monday, a federal holiday for Veterans Day [no mail], was no different.

In this case, however, Sen. Sanders stuck to the theme and offered up a perfect made-for-TV news story about getting an 84-year-old World War II veteran from Barre his medals, including a Bronze Star.

Stanley Sabens was 19 when he signed up and he was a member of the precursor of the Green Berets who won fame during the Vietnam War. Sabens outfit was called the First Special Service Force, also known as "The Black Devils." And it was, uniquely, a half-American/half-Canadian outfit.

"What was so unique about Stanley’s experience," said Bernie,  "is that he fought with our Canadian allies. They fought equally and they served heroically. On behalf of a very grateful nation, we thank you very much."

Stanley will also go into the Vermont history books, we were told, for opening the state's very first motel - The Knoll Motel in Barre. Opened in 1950.

As for recollections from the battlefields where he fought and his comrades died, Sabens told reporters it was "hard to think back."

"I think of the good times," he said, "but the rest of it, I can't do anything about."

Couple things....

Yes, it’s a scary world.

And I’m not just talking about war, fire, hurricane, drought and the melting of the Arctic ice cap.

I’m talking about the Boston Red Sox sitting one game away from winning the World Series. Ah, modern pro baseball! Millionaires on steroids!

In the old days, they just used to drink alcoholic beverages.

Born and raised a Yankee fan was I. Dad may have been the Kilkenny farm boy who joined the IRA in 1920, but mom was raised in the Bronx, daughter of the Galway girl who survived the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and the butcher from Tipperary who keeled over from a heart attack when she was still a kid.

Agnes Cummings grew up on Clinton Place, a dear and devoted Yankee fan and close friend of Yankee relief pitcher "Fireman" Johnny Murphy’s sister. That meant tickets to the games and socializing with the Yankee players. We’re talking mid-to-late 1930s and early 1940s.

Pre-Internet.

Ah, sure they're all gone now, and you and I will join them one day, but the here and now is all we've got.

Happy to say I looked like I needed a haircut the other day. It’s growing back. Couple tests on Hospital Hill this week, but the chemo treatments look like they did the trick.

And also happy to say that Jessica Sidway introduced herself the other day down at Speeder & Earl’s and suggested she’d be the perfect one to do it.

The full treatment including a shampooing. Haven’t had one of these in.....ages?

Gentlemen’s Top Option. Down on the Burlington Waterfront. Upscale price-wise, but worth it.

Life’s short, eh?

And Jessica was great company.

Bernie & Tony

On Friday, Tony da' Pom, sorry, Antonio Pomerleau, celebrated his 90th birthday.

What a guy!

"So you gotta, you gotta take a gamble," he told Channel 3. "You gotta have a vision. You gotta look ahead. Yesterday's gone by. Today's gone by. So you gotta think of tomorrow."

Tony's a rags-to-riches story. Landed in Burlap in 1939, gifted in the ancient art of buying-and-selling. Real estate was his shtick.

Was running the city police commission when Bernie Sanders pulled off that historic, miracle mayoral victory in 1981.

"I owe my victory as mayor to Tony Pomerleau," Bernie told me the other day, "because we campaigned against his disastrous waterfront development!"

Every vote counted and Bernie won by just 10.

"But the truth is," said former mayor, now U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, "as soon as I won, uniquely from the opposition, Tony Pomerleau called me up, came to city hall and said, 'How do we work together?'

"And the truth is," said Sanders, "we worked to make major reforms to the police department, significant reforms."

No lie.

"Tony helped me on a number of key economic issues. We killed a trash-burning plant that would have been a disaster. I appointed Tony to be head of a committee to look into that and he did a very good job on that."

Yes, indeed.

Some may forget that back in those days - the early 1980s - the wall between Mayor Bernie Sanders and the Democratic/Republican establishment in the Queen City of Burlington was both tall and thick, at times resembling an Iron Curtain. And the fact Police Commission Chairman Pomerleau spoke with and worked with Mayor Sanders cost him.

"The Democrats and Republicans who had voted year-after-year for Tony to be a police commisioner abandoned him ‘cause he was working with my administration," said Ol' Bernardo.  "What is not well remembered is that Tony Pomerleau won reelection as a police commisioner with the support of all the Progressives. He got his position because of Progressives!

"Here’s a guy who was in his seventies. Worked with Democrats and Republicans his whole life, and yet he thought that it was more important to do what he believed to be right and stand up to people who had been his political friends and allies. That takes a lot of guts!"

The Supreme Liar

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas' autobiography goes on sale Monday morning October 1. Thomas, a staunch conservative, received a $1.5 million advance. Good for him.

Yet, word is that Ol' Clarence, the second black to serve on the High Court, is a very bitter associate justice and, it appears from the early reviews, a very bitter man.

National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg put it well on All Things Considered on Saturday. Nina had spoken with several people who helped him get confirmed 16 years ago,  "allies who simply don’t understand it because it reopens a wound that’s 16 years old, [a wound] that most people have moved on from, and it draws the Supreme Court into a place where it doesn’t want to be which is into politics.”

Totenberg described My Grandfather's Son as "intensely personal - far more personal that any memoir I have ever read. And it’s language is so vivid that it’s almost uncomfortable at moments to read."

Wrote Clarence:

"What gave these rich white men the right to question my commitment to racial justice? Was there no limit to their shamelessness?"

Which senators was he talking about?

Many, said Nina, among them Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman at-the-time Joe Biden who he calls  "a hypocrite."

And Patrick Leahy of Vermont who dared questioned him on abortion rights and the law. "[Leahy's] bullying was something I just didn't give into," writes Justice Thomas.

Leahy's "bullying?"

St. Patrick's been called a whole of of names, but I wasn't aware "bully" was on the list.

Reached by NPR's Totenberg at his Middlesex, Vermont home on Saturday, Vermont's senior senator had this to say:

"Well, it’s an interesting reaction he had. I simply asked a routine question about whether he ever discussed Roe v. Wade.

"He surprised everybody, Republicans and Democrats on the committee by saying he had never discussed Roe v. Wade or the hearing, even though the decision came down while he was in law school.

"I don’t know any senator who believed that answer, either Republicans or Democrats. Most people were kind of scratching their heads wondering why he wouldn’t tell the truth about something like that."

Here's a taste of the Leahy-Thomas exchange during Thomas' confirmation hearing on September 11, 1991 - long time ago, eh?:

SENATOR LEAHY: You were in law school at the time Roe v. Wade was decided. Was it discussed while you were there?

THOMAS: The case that I remember being discussed most during law school was Griswold. But I did not spend a lot of time debating all the current cases.

LEAHY: I am sure you are not suggesting that there wasn’t any discussion at any time of Roe v. Wade?

THOMAS: Senator, I cannot remember personally engaging in those discussions.

LEAHY: Have you ever had discussion of Roe v. Wade in the 17 years it has been there?

THOMAS: Only in the most general sense that other individuals express concerns, and you listen and you try to be thoughtful. If you are asking me whether or not I have ever debated the contents of it, that answer to that is no, Senator.

LEAHY: Have you ever stated whether you felt that it was properly decided or not?

THOMAS: I don’t recollect commenting one way or the other. There were, again, debates about it in various places, but I generally did not participate.

Source: Senate Confirmation Hearings September 11, 1991

Time Flies!

Was yesterday gorgeous or what?

Followed an impulse and jumped in the jalopy bright and early for a drive out of town. Out to Hinesburg and all the way to Bristol. Back in the early 1980s, when gasoline was "cheap," that was my getaway. It was also my route for distributing that "alternative" weekly: the Vermont Vanguard.

Burlington was but a dusty, crumbling old "city," and it took just a minute or two to get out in the "country." All those upscale housing developments along Spear and Dorset Streets had not yet been built.

Half the shops in Bristol were empty back then. It had a definitive "tiny town that time forgot" feel to it.

Not anymore. Like Burlap, Bristol's all spruced up - no empty storefronts - and there's even a fine coffee shop - the Bristol Bakery & Cafe - that gives Burlington's gourmet coffee shops a run for the caffeine and pastry.

Was on a window stool in the sunlight  when when the bikers showed up shortly after 9 o'clock.  A couple dozen or more had pedaled out from South Burlington - about 34 miles [State Rep. Michele Kupersmith and Deputy State Auditor George Thabault among them]. 

And they were pedaling back, too!

Time Flies!

I'm telling ya, the news last night that Burlington CEDO Boss Michael Monte, 54, is leaving brought back the ol' rush of memories of decades past.

I will always remember seeing Michael, back then the boss at The King Street Youth Center as I recall, in the City Clerk's Office on March Town Meeting Day 1981 - the old City Hall run by Democratic Mayor Gordon Paquette. I also remember Phil Fiermonte being there, and the two Burlington Police Union guys Joe Crepeau and Wayne Hunt. The cops union had endorsed the upstart, loudmouth socialist with the Brooklyn voice who strongly supported "poor people, working people and the elderly." Michael and Phil were also "Sanders for Mayor" folk.

The loudmouth leftist pulled off one of the "biggest" yet narrowest upsets [10-12 votes and 40.1 percent in a lively 4-way] in Vermont political history.

This morning, I'm watching former four-term Peoples Republic of Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders delivering the exact same kind of speech he used to throw at the shocked and stunned Burlington City Council to the United States Senate!

Ol' Bernardo's pitching his amendment to the FY 2008 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, (H.R. 2642). Says Vermont's junior U.S. Senator:

Some years ago, as a temporary budget bandaid, the Congress intitiated the so-called "rounding-down" of veterans disability benefits and a few other catagories of benefits that affect veterans, their spouses and their children.

Under this "rounding-down" process, every year when we calculate the new disability benefits that veterans receive as a result of their COLAs, the resulting amount is rounded down to the whole dollar.

An example: A veteran receives a check, hypothetically, for $200.99. What we have done is say to that veteran, 'We are taking away every month that 99 cents and you’re going to get a check for $200.'

Now, somebody might say 99 cents is not a lot of money. Multiply it by 12 months and you’re talking about less than $12-a-year. What is the problem?

Well, the problem is if you’re a low income veteran, it does matter. But I think even more significantly than the dollars, what we are saying to that veteran who opens that check sitting in a wheelchair is, ‘We are saving 99 cents a month on you, but by the way, we are giving no-bid contracts out in Iraq which cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, or perhaps, billions of dollars! We’re going to balance the budget on your 99 cents-per-month.’

So the amount of money we’re talking about here is not a whole lot. But symbolically, to thousands of disabled veterans, it really says something about how we in the Congress feel about them. ‘We’re saving 99 cent-a-month.’

Well, you know what I think?

I think we can afford to give them that 99 cents...It’s gonna cost all of $20 million in a bill which is over $100 billion.

So Mr. President this is not a complicated piece of legislation. This is a piece of legislation that says to people who have done as much as a human being can do for this country we are no longer going to nickel-and-dime you. And I hope very much the members of the Senate will join me and the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Disabled American Veterans and AMVETS in supporting this legislation.

None of the Republicans wanted to stand up and go on record continuing President George WMD Bush's policy of nickel-and-diming America's veterans.The Sanders Amendment was adopted on a voice vote.

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!

A True Vermont Embarassment

First woke for a morning pee at 5:49. Rang a bell.

“549“ was the number of one of my regular cabs in Chicago back in the 1970s.[Hey, is this the aging process?]  Actually it was “2549.” One of Chicago’s 5000 “licensed” taxi cabs. Most were either Yellows or Checkers. Mine was one of the few hundred “Independents.” A red-white-and-blue Ford LTD. No shield. Twenty-five bucks, plus gas for a 12-hour shift. Sometimes I miss it. You met everybody. 

A great classroom. And a great office. Made up for the street-smarts one isn't exposed to in a college classroom. Expect the unexpected.  Still carry the backpack and the notebooks and pens. Tools of the trade. Guess it’s worked, eh?

Anyway, I didn't cover this earlier in the week - busy week - but, Vermont's Independent U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is blowing the whistle on the Bush-Cheney propaganda machine, aka Fox News, for beating their 24/7 drums for a new war against another country that is not a threat - this time against Iran.

And the ludicrous, dishonest editorial page of the Caledonian-Record in St. Johnsbury, Vermont once again abandons any and all pretense of credibility in smearing Ol' Bernardo, our popular and well-respected U.S. senator, for having the courage to stand up and tell the truth about Fox News, which apparently, is the right-wing "Cal-Wreck's"  TV News bible!

Sen. Bernie Sanders and a notoriously liberal filmmaker have teamed up to produce a three-minute documentary that viciously attacks the Fox News Network as a collection of warmongers leading us into war with Iran. Their documentary is a pastiche of bits and pieces from a dozen sources that add up to a virulently anti-Bush, anti-Republican piece of propaganda.

It is sad to see Sen. Bernie Sanders prostituting his election to the most prestigious body in the world by flacking for the rabble. He plainly doesn't understand that there is a dignity that goes with the office of senator that precludes hawking snake oil. When Bernie was a simple congressman, one of several hundred, making speeches to an empty House at 2 in the morning in order to get himself into the Congressional Record, it was easy to dismiss him, as virtually everybody in Washington and Vermont did. But as Senator Bernie Sanders, joining his raucous voice to a radical propagandist's and attacking a national news network that millions and millions of Americans pay attention to every day, cheapens his high office and is undignified and unworthy.

I'd say the St. Johnsbury daily gets an "A" for propaganda!

The nerve of Landslide Bernie Sanders to be "flacking for the rabble," eh?

Doesn't he know he should be flacking for the banks, the profiteering war-machine, the insurance industry, the polluting oil & coal industries and the richest of our rich?

You know, the folks the Caledonian-Record editorial page has championed for decades?

Writes Sen. Sanders:

Every American should watch Robert Greenwald’s short video, for it shows us that the current Fox drumbeat for war is almost exactly the same as what Fox did, and most of the American media did, in the days before we invaded Iraq.

We know that most of what we were told then in that very loud and determined campaign about the dangers of Iraq turned out to be false. We need to be very, very careful that we don’t follow another loud and determined campaign into another disastrous war.

A Great Escape!

It’s Tuesday morning, which means a lot of balls in the air vis-a-vis the ol' "Inside Track" print column for tomorrow's paper. But this old dog wanted to share a brand new trick.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., yours truly was the 10th person, that’s right, just the 10th, to enter the hallowed halls of the Vermont Historical Society Museum in the Pavilion Building on beautiful State Street in Montpeculiar.

I was heading for some coffee at Capitol Grounds. Quiet street. But there was a “Open” sign out front on the State Street sidewalk and I followed the impulse. After all, I realized, I’ve been to a million gubernatorial press conferences on the Fifth Floor above, but I have never, ever been in the first floor of the building...ever. And these days, trying new tricks is what this gracefully-aging Freyne does.

A marvelous surprise! Top shelf exhibit! Freedom & Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories.

Something for everyone with a taste for Vermont history. And a political junkie’s feast. Great audio and video of the politicians of yesteryear like Phil Hoff, Ralph Wright, Madeleine Kunin and George Aiken and many more. Plus wigwams and old colonial shops, a movie theater and many great surprises. I'm definitely going back.

Mostly the many surprising, informative and mysterious rooms play to a lot of 4th Grade school tours during the week, but let me tell ya’, it’s a precious gem for kids of all ages - and need I repeat, a political junkie's field day? Easy to kill a couple hours and get lost in the old days and the people who made them.

The exhibit’s in the 3rd year of a 10-year-run. Admission is $5 for adults. A great spot on a rainy weekend. Check out the museum website.

Tracky Tuesday

The weekly ritual: writing "Inside Track."

Would you believe I started writing this column in the summer of 1981?  A vehicle to corral all the "stuff" that was going down in Burlington, Vermont's dramatically altered political/social/cultural/media  landscape with that new guy, Bernie Sanders, occupying the office of mayor.

Those were the days when Church Street closed to traffic and became a pedestrian mall. New joints, restaurants and watering holes opened like Sweetwaters and Leunig's. And the distinguished folk musician Tim Whiteford [left] was part of that scene with his band - the Highland Weavers.

Used to bump into Professor Whiteford (he teaches education at St. Michael's College], regularly at the corner of the bar in Leunig's. And a great hang-out it was! Met the two women I married in there [and that's probably why I've stayed out of the place this century.]

Tim and his Highland Weavers were regulars in Burlington's "First Night" New Year's extravaganza.  Performed for more than 20 First Nights. Bumped into him yesterday at Speeder & Earl's on Pine Street.  He told us that last year the band was not invited back. So what did he do?

Started his own First Night in Richmond, calling it "A Celtic New Year"  - sold 500 tickets - and sold out three days before the show!

This year, he said, they'll sell 1000 tickets and have jazz groups and rock and roll, too.

First Night Burlington, he said, did call and invite them back for New Year's 2008, but you know what?

A Celtic First Night is staying in Richmond.

Now....time for "Track."

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

When Irish Eyes...

Belfast’s David Trimble visits Vermont for the first time this weekend for talks with Sen. Patrick Leahy and other senatorial types, and Dublin's Padraig Harrington [left] wins the hallowed Open Championship on the Scottish links at Carnoustie - even after a choke-ridden "twice-in-the-water" double-bogey on the 18th hole?

Interesting times.

All Spain's Sergio Garcia with his new belly putter had to do was par the 18th to win his first major. Just par it, as he had in the three previous rounds.

But his eight-footer lipped out.

Such is life, eh? Maybe there is a God?

Harrington’s home course is the Royal Dublin. It’s located on the “Bull Wall,” a sandbar in Dublin Bay. Yes, I’ve been there. More than a few times in the early chapters of my life.

Yours truly got an early taste of it early because cousins Oliver and Cyril Freaney, All-Ireland Gaelic footballers in the mid-1950s, were members. I caddied for Ollie starting at seven (pulling the hand cart), and played it as a teenager.

Back in “The Troubles” of 1920-21, the Bull Wall was a place dear ol’ dad and others in Michael Collins’ Dublin Brigade took informants and the like for their “last ride.” I heard it as a boy from Daddy's lips, the victims were always allowed to say the Act of Contrition before taking a round in the back of their head.

Back to Carnoustie. Watching Sergio lose the Open, throw away victory, or have god almighty yank it from his grasp, was tragic. Painful to watch, as the tears in Padraig's eyes attested.

I guess that’s why “golf” is just a four-letter word, eh?

Like "life."

Life's Little Surprises

The email came late Thursday from U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy's Washington office. For the 70th consecutive year, representatives of the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress were about to have their face-to-face series of summer meetings. [I confess, I was not aware of them.]

This year, they were being held on this side of the Atlantic, starting with a Friday lunch at the Leahy ECHO Center on the Burlington Waterfront and continuing over the weekend in Stowe.

If he'd agree to it, would Columnist Freyne be interested in a little one-on-one interview with David Trimble?

Pinch me. Is this a dream?

The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland who I watched "religiously" on the TV news during the 1990s?

The Protestant who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with Catholic John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party?

Yes, indeed.

That's Trimble on the left, during the little stand-up presser he, St. Patrick, Conservative William Hague MP, and Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi [who I cropped out for space], participated in after lunch on the Burlington Waterfront outside of ECHO.

And after the presser, Trimble was kind enough to peel off with yours truly for a private, up-close-and-personal, one-on-one along the lakefront.

As some of you know, the Peter Freyne I'm named after, Uncle Peter, was 18 and a member of the Irish Republican Army's Dublin Brigade in April 1921 when he got his head blown off during an IRA attack on the H.Q. of the Black & Tans on Dublin's North Wall.

Frank Freyne, the older brother who led that raid, was captured six weeks later in May as he was departing the Dublin Customs House, a huge structure he and more than 100 of his IRA colleagues had just successfully torched.

A little over six months later, the December truce between the IRA and Winston Churchill established the Irish Free State. That peace treaty saved Dear Old Dad from the execution he was awaiting in an unheated cell in Kilmainham Gaol [now a major tourist attraction]. You might say, it was also a factor in my being here today to write this.

I'll have much more of the David Trimble/Freyne Land interview in next Wednesday's "Inside Track" in Seven Days. He was quite open and insightful on a number of issues. A very special experience for this journalist. But here's a little taste:

FREYNE: Do you think of yourself as Irish?

TRIMBLE: Not in the political sense. You then have to say, ‘What do you mean by that word?’

In terms of my political national identity, I’m British. The British concept is capable of embracing all the people within the British Isles. That’s where it comes from.

Unfortunately, we have some people in the British Isles who've been determined to say they’re different and separate and don’t want to be the same as everybody else. They now form a separate state called the ‘Irish Republic.’  And if that’s what they want to do, fine. That’s okay. I think they’ve made a mistake, but there we are.

Yes, indeed.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Watching Le Tour de France this morning.

Feeling French.

Way back in the Freyne Family genes, pre-Irish, pre-Norman, there was a French connection.

Speaking of the Freyne Family, got a voice mail yesterday from a a lovely lady in Plymouth, Massachusetts who said she knew my dad. She had recently completed an Irish Studies course through University of Galway that included the book My Kilkenny IRA Days by James Comerford.

Would you believe, she informed me, Papa Freyne took the cover photo?

The man I knew as a dad, a Peat-Marwick CPA [and Irish Sweepstakes agent in his 50s and 60s], was also a camera bug. Getting that Leica at Shannon Airport in 1960 made a difference in his final chapter.

About a decade ago before Seven Days was online, back when the Michael Collins movie came out, I wrote up the story of my father's Dublin Brigade IRA days in 1920-21. A story I grew up with. Days that included the death of his little brother, the uncle I never met, Peter Freyne. Peter was killed in action by the Black & Tans in Dublin in April 1921. Born on a Kilkenny farm in 1901, dear old dad died in New York in 1974.

Nice to hear from Ms. Buckley that history lives on!

Old Timers Day?

The thermometer hit 96 degrees again in Beautiful Burlington, Vermont, but the humidity was significantly higher than yesterday and that kept a lot of the outdoor tables empty this noon, downtown on The Church Street Marketplace.

Air-conditioning was quite the "hot" commodity today, eh?

There were exceptions.

Recognize these two dudes at Ken's Pizza?

You'd recognize their voices...if you had been listening to Burlington radio through the 1980s and 90s.

That's Louie Manno of "Manno & Condon" fame on WQCR-FM and WKDR-AM on the left [Jim Condon has ended up representing Colchester in the Vermont Legislature.]

On the right, the one and only Arty Lavigne who year-after-year made 'The Wizard" aka WIZN-FM, rock!

Yours truly was en route to a lunch date at Sweetwaters with an old Vermont reporter-type - Diane Derby.  "Derbs" is quite familiar to Vermont news junkies and was U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords' last press secretary. Ate in the air-conditioned interior on the College Street side and got to watch all my "pals" from the Freeps go out for their lunch breaks.

The conversation was so good I completely forgot I was packing the little camera.

Realized that when I was sitting on the top block an hour later and this "tourist-type"  walked by.

Recognize him?

Let's just say you would if he had the black robe on over the shorts and Hawaiian shirt and you were in the courtroom on the Fifth Floor of the Federal Building during one of the many sessions he presides over.

Looks in pretty good shape, doesn't he?

Nice shirt.

Said he was coming back from his lunch break.

Given the decisions of the Roberts Court this term, I say, when it comes to the First Amendment: Use it, or lose it!

Chemo Wednesday

Up and at 'em!

Don't you miss winter?

Got the Ol' Inside Track done yesterday. I swear, when I started the day, I had no idea what I'd find to fill the space. Amazing how that works.

Was thinking yesterday that since the first "Inside Track"  back in 1981 in the Ol' Vanguard Press, I've pumped out more than 1000 of them.  Never came up empty. Amazing.

No wonder I can't remember it all!

Had fun this week - got to interview Cheney!

No. Not his nibs, the big Dick, but State Rep. Margaret Cheney [right] of Norwich.

Never heard of her, right?

A freshman from outside the Burlington media-market glare, Margaret has a seat on the Natural Resources & Energy Committeee.

She is the Cheney with the rather well-written op-ed in defense of H. 520 that ran in the Rutland Herald and The Burlington Free Press recently. Here's a taste:

In his veto of the bill, Douglas claimed that Entergy was being singled out for unfair special treatment -- when in fact it has been receiving special treatment. Entergy may be the only entity in Vermont whose value has increased but whose taxes have declined dramatically.

Months ago, the governor trumpeted his intention to address the crisis of global warming. This May, he said he rarely hears Vermonters talking about climate change and doubts that it's on their minds. I think he's wrong. Through H.520, Vermonters can slow global warming while saving money and creating jobs. If ever a veto deserved an override, it is this one.

And she was born a Cheney. Has had the name her whole life.

In fact, would you believe, she once worked as a journalist in Washington?

More in today's "Inside Track."

For me, it's Chemo Day #7 up on Hospital Hill.  Every three weeks. Times flies.

Still here.

Thursday Fun

So the Anaheim Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators last night to win the Stanley Cup. I didn't even watch. It's June, fergawdsakes.

I confess to growing up a devout New York Rangers fan. The memories of the old cigar-smelling Madison Square Garden on 49th Street will never die.  Little Canadian guys, big bloody fights, no advertising on the sideboards. No helmets or face masks on goalies.

When John LeClair, the St. Albans Superstar, faded off into retirement (Hey, whatever happened to Big John, anyway?), I faded away from following the NHL.

Nowadays, in ice hockey as in so many other professional sports, they don't play the game, they sell the game. It's no longer sport. It's business. Of course the team from Hollywood, named after a Disney movie, is going to win. (Never saw the movie, either.)

Pictured at right are Kathleen Brown [left] and Helen Scott. Caught them taking down their table outside the Federal Building in Burlington yesterday, just after the 5 p.m. closing. Kathleen's a social worker by trade. Helen, Professor Helen, is an English professor at the University of Vermont. She's also from England.

Such a pleasure to hear her voice, an English voice, and it's "live" rather than coming from a program on Public Television.

They said they set up the International Socialists table for an hour every Wednesday. Said the response from folks passing had been "very favorable." Also were surprised, they told me, by how many Iraq War veterans had passed and expressed support.

That's been the untold story on this one - the ignoring of the voices of patriotic, loyal Americans who answered their country's call to battle.

Those of my generation will never forget the voice of the Vietnam War veterans. The brave, loyal and patriotic young soldiers whose voice could not be ignored. That's starting to change. One of those brave and patriotic voices is that of Bellows Falls native, Iraq War veteran and former Marine Liam Madden. Check this out from today's Rutland Herald:

Iraq vets to conduct bus tour for peace

A group of Iraq war veterans is starting a "Cookout and Speak Out" bus tour to national military installations as an act of protest against the war.

The tour is set to begin June 15 in Washington, D.C., and last until June 30, with stops at almost every military installation on the East Coast, U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden said. Madden, originally from Bellows Falls, is coordinating the bus tour. The tour will include up to 21 stops, extending as far west as Kentucky and as far south as Georgia and will end with a stop at Fort Drum.

"We're going to get 10 vets on a bus and have a dialogue and barbecue with the troops. There's no one better to relate to the troops than us. We're steering away from peace rallies and political panels because the troops tend to shy away from those," Madden said.

An active member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War, Madden launched the Appeal for Redress, to which hundreds of servicemen and women who served in Iraq have signed their names to petition Congress for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from the war zone. More here.

From the Bush-Cheney Iraq train wreck, to the war about the weather.

Republican Gov. Jim Douglas has a regular-type weekly presser scheduled for 1 p.m. today. His veto of H. 520 the big Democratic global warming/climate change bill is now official.

And at 3 p.m. global warming/climate change activist, Oscar-winner and almost-president Al Gore will be speaking to the Vermont Democrat faithful via satellite in support of a veto-override!

The almost-president, the guy who won the popular vote in 2000, can be seen and heard at six Vermont Interactive Television sites. Unfortunately, Big Al, we're told, won't be doing much in the way of interacting.

No questions from the Vermont press.

Bummer.

Oh, and the above picture of Lt. Emmet Helrich on Church Street Marketplace "coffee duty" has nothing to do with global warming. The veteran officer had just asked the bicyclist to get off and walk. Seems to me anyway, that there are more two-wheelers out and about in the Queen City than ever. And more of them are riding on the Marketplace and the sidewalks than in the past. Also, helmets don't appear too popular with the expanded bike riding public.

Heck, bike riding has become chic.

Look at the bright side, Pedro.  At least they're reducing their carbon emissions, right?

Seattle Weather (Updated 4.p.m.)

That's how the Seattle-native behind the counter at Uncommon Grounds described it. Cloudy, rainy, damp. Never been to Seattle. Nice of Seattle to come here, eh?

Hey, bet you didn't know Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders took to ribbon-cutting with as much ease and comfort as Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, now did ya?

This shot was off WCAX's coverage of last week's official grand-opening of the new Missisquoi Bay Bridge.

They say that it's all in the wrist and the eyes and the smile.

That's Democratic Sen. State Sen. Dick "Red Corvette" Mazza to Ol' Bernardo's right and Gov. Scissorhands is two down to his left.

"Inside Track" day here at the keyboard. A few irons in the fire for Wednesday's edition of Seven Days.

Busy day for the Guv on the road today. Crisscrossing the state to hold two bill-signings and two proclamation-signings ["Correctional Employees Week" and "Make-A-Wish Day"]. Not bad for a guy who didn't have time to sign the historic gender-equity bill last week, eh?

Hey, didn't Leslie Wright's front-page piece in the Freeps this morning about the old days of the upscale men-only Ethan Allen Club on College Street bring back some memories?

Jeezum crow. I remember passing it every morning back in the early 1980s about 5:45 a.m., walking up the hill to do the morning drive time news at 1390 WDOT-AM with Big John spinning the records, yes, records!

Things change, in fact, they're always changing, aren't they?

Thank god.

******************************************************

***UPDATE***

4 p.m.

Got the Ol "Track" done and sent in to Pamster, excuse me, co-editor Pamela Polston.   And Thomas Naylor from Second Vermont Republic called to tell us he'll be a guest on Bill O'Reilly tonight.

Cool.

A lot of interest sparked, said Naylor, by the Sunday Associated Press story moved by John Curran, the guy who replaced Chris Graff at the A.P.'s helm in Montpeculiar. Ran a lot of places, obviously, but not in The Burlington Free Press. It's also available on the organization's website.

Didn't have a picture of Naylor, but I did have this one of veteran Vermont journalist Steve Longchamp and his dog Barkley. Took it Sunday on Church Street. That's Steve on the left.

Just kidding.

This August, Mr. Longchamp the Photojournalist will mark his 24th year of being the guy behind the camera, holding it in all kinds of situations for Ch. 3.

Like yours truly, he's been spending a little time this year on Hospital Hill. Steve's bouncing back from a triple-bypass.

Looking good, too, eh?

I mean Steve, not the dog.

All That Street Jazz

This was downtown Burlington in front of city hall about 5 p.m. this evening. The 2007 Discover Jazz Fest now in its 24th year. Runs through next Sunday June 10.  Ah, the fruits of socialism at the ballot box!  New England's Little Havana, eh?

It wasn't just Bernie, himself, aka Mayor Bernie Sanders, elected by 10 votes in a stunning March 1981 upset of incumbent Gordie Paquette  (the old bread-truck driver), it was all the people who strode through the doors Bernie opened in the 1980s. All the "new" things, like the notion of fighting for and establishing a "Waterfront for the People," a Mayor's Council on the Arts, and one on Youth (hey, didn't he marry the boss of that one?), a Community and Economic Development Office, noise control on Budweiser Hill, excuse me, in the student ghetto, and much more, including recognizing and respecting the homeless, starting a shelter, getting government grants etc.

Some would say it's become an industry in itself, eh?

Caught Tina and Jamie on the next block across from the Church Street Tavern.

Declined to give last names, though Jamie, 35,  said he was a "black sheep" in a certain Burlington "Pearl Street restaurant family."

Tina, 28,  said she graduated Lamoille Valley Union High School, and has "lived up and down the East Coast."

Said they got all their stuff stolen from a Burlington campsite about a month ago.

When I asked where the campsite was, all I could get was "towards North Union [Street]."

Tina said they were currently crashing "at a friend's house."

Jamie said they were trying to raise some cash for "a tent and some food." Had collected "about 10 bucks" in two hours.

The cops, they said, had spoken to them. Burlington's "Finest" laid out the ground rules. Were "very friendly."

"We have to stay nine feet from the buildings," said Tina.

"We can't ask for money," she said, "and can't be putting the sign right in people's faces."

Cool.

"The world's going to crap," said Jamie.

"It's a spiritual thing," said Tina. "You've got to open your heart."

The only person to toss some change into their hat in the 15 minutes I hung around, was a gentleman traveling via motorized wheelchair.

Happy Jazz Fest!

Happy Anniversary!

The anniversary, that is, of the execution, the burning at the stake, of a certain 19 year old female on May 30, 1431:

Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly called out in a loud voice "the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise."

After she expired, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then burned the body twice more to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine.The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, later stated that he "...greatly feared to be damned for he had burned a holy woman."

Got the above paragraphs from Wikipedia. Quite an interesting read. I recommend it. The good old Hundred Years War!

Some things never change,  eh?

Joan of Arc, executed in 1431, lives on into our time through the pens and chords of Dublin's George Bernard Shaw and Montreal's Leonard Cohen.

The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'"

The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt.

Notary Boisguillaume would later testify that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." In the twentieth century George Bernard Shaw would find this dialogue so compelling that sections of his play Saint Joan are literal translations of the trial record.

Hey, I grew up in an Irish-Catholic house where anyone who fought the English in the 15th Century and was canonized a saint in the 20th Century was exempt from questions about her sexual orientation.

Then in the 1970s, L. Cohen provided the icing on Joan of Arc's cake:

She said, I’m tired of the war,
I want the kind of work I had before,
A wedding dress or something white
To wear upon my swollen appetite.

Well, I’m glad to hear you talk this way,
You know I’ve watched you riding every day
And something in me yearns to win
Such a cold and lonesome heroine.

Then fire, make your body cold,
I’m going to give you mine to hold,
Saying this she climbed inside
To be his one, to be his only bride.

And deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of arc,
And high above the wedding guests
He hung the ashes of her wedding dress.

It was deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of arc,
And then she clearly understood
If he was fire, oh then she must be wood...

 

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.

War Talk

Downtown Burlington was jumping with out-of-towners this afternoon, many here for tomorrow’s Vermont City Marathon. But not everybody.

I was snapping a few shots at College & Church of The Burlington Free Press building just in case it suddenly gets sold, when this familiar face shouted out my name and hopped out of his outdoor cafe seat at Sweetwaters.

Al Salzman is a now-retired Franklin County art teacher, who’s also an artist in his own right and an actor, activist and much more. And like others I bumped into downtown and chatted with on the bricks of the Marketplace or in the coffee shop, the positively, immoral, shameful, dishonest and utterly stupid bloodbath called “The U.S. War in Iraq” was the 800 lb. gorilla in everyone’s consciousness. Said Al:

You know what I’m waiting for? And it’s going to happen. The insurgency, either the Sunni or the Shia , or al Qaeda, although the talk of al Qaeda connected with this is sheer bullshit, there’s a small number, I’m sure, but, I’m waiting for them to tunnel under the Green Zone and blow up the American Embassy.

But what about Congress voting to continue funding the war - no time lines, no pressure on King George?

It’s disgraceful. It’s absolutely disgraceful. It’s history repeating itself. Georges Santayana was right.

Said Spanish-born U.S. philosopher Santayana in The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

We’re doomed to repeat it and we’re repeating it now.

I like Charlie Rangel. He says let’s have the draft [aka. Selective Service System], I mean, if we’re gonna do this. And if Bush says this is the war of the century, a clash of civilizations, where are the taxes? If it’s so critical and it’s so vital and so important. If this is the end all and be all? Why don’t we have a draft?

Because George “WMD” Bush & Dick Cheney, two successful Vietnam War draft-dodgers, could never have pulled off their treason if they had to rely on a draft to stock their body bags. The American people would have paid closer attention, family-by-family, draftee-by-draftee.

Instead, they got away with using the National Guard. Abusing the National Guard. Decimating the National Guard. And the nation’s governors went along with it like good soldiers. A blank check for “the worst president in U.S. history.”

Some of you may have caught Salzman’s recent letter-to-the-editor that ran in a couple of Vermont dailies - a letter sticking up for the troops, something the White House has failed utterly at doing. Here’s a taste:

It was reported in The New York Times that the military has been purposely downgrading the degree of disabilities among our wounded to a classification that makes many of them ineligible for full benefits - just to save money. A recent study by the Pentagon has concluded that the military does not have the resources to treat mental and emotional trauma suffered by returning Iraq veterans. Such an admission from the military not known for its honesty (think Pat Tillman) indicates a problem of horrendous proportions.

When we, as a society, send our young men and women into battle, there is an implicit moral contract that those of us who have remained behind in safety, with no sacrifice other than to go shopping, must demand that our wounded be looked after with all the resources at our command. That this has not been done violates that moral contract and invalidates any soldier's duty to serve.

To protest this criminal neglect of our wounded soldiers, I am asking Adjutant General Dubie, commander of the Vermont National Guard to refuse to deploy any Vermont Guardsmen into harm's way. Given the betrayal of our service people by our government, it is the only right thing General Dubie can do - even if it means a court martial and the end of his career. General Dubie should take note that in the World Court the explanation, "I was only doing my duty!" is not an excuse for moral irresponsibility.

Al Salzman
Fairfield, Vt.

Down at the end of the block we caught these two members of Burlington's "Finest," getting ready for a busy Saturday Night in the Queen City. Nice bike, eh? Nice cuffs, too.