*Updated last at 4 p.m.*

Debate: To argue about a subject, especially in a formal manner.

It's about 8:45 in the morning, and at 9:05 there’ll be a gubernatorial debate LIVE on The Mark Johnson Show on WDEV. That’s 550 A.M., and the 96.1 FM comes in fine in Addison County all the way down Rutland way.

Plus, in this modern age, it’s also on the Internet, at www.wdevradio.com.

That’s how I get it down the hill here in Beautiful Burlap!

Feel free to tune in at work!

Check back for updates on Debate Land.

For one thing, we've got the suspicion one of the keys to Gov. Jim Douglas' reelection to a third term on the Fifth Floor, is having as few, head-to-head, big-audience debates as possible with Democrat Scudder Parker, that farm-kid-turned-minister... turned-Vermont state senator...turned renewable-energy expert at the PSD... the guy with the funny first name.

As you may have read in "Inside Track," WCAX-TV NEWS - "Vermont's Own" as they call themselves - is not going to host/broadcast a VERMONT Governor Debate. The "New York Station" - Plattsburg-based WPTZ-TV NEWS, aka "NewsChannel 5," is.

Go figure, eh?

Check out the new edition of Vermont Woman which has a very interesting piece about Gov. Scissorhands ducking debates with women's organizations.

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*First Update*  11:56 a.m.

The WDEV debate was held at a senior citizen center. (Won’t be long, eh, Freyne?)

About 45 minutes into the 55-minute show, "Mark the Moderator" had an elderly resident ask a couple questions. She lives a half-mile off Route 2 in Waterbury, she said,  and she can’t get Verizon to provide her with DSL.

Nice company, that Verizon, eh?

“And one more thing,” she said, “I don’t see why they worry so much about the windmills when every time you try to got take a picture of a mountain or a scene and you’ve got all these telephone and electric wires running back and forth [so] you can’t even get a picture.”

Gov. Jim Douglas and his Democratic challenger, Scudder Parker, see things in Vermont very, very differently. And with a recent poll showing only 19 percent of Vermonters think the good Ol’ USA is heading in the right direction (and I’d love to meet each of them so they could explain why they think that), energy is a major issue with no bright spots down the road....at least at the moment under the current administration.

Hey, if Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie were governor, at least we’d have a "top gun" who, like the vast majority of Vermonters, supports commercial-scale wind-power in Vermont.

Moderator: Let’s focus on that. Is there a point that each of you would agree to that windmills would be acceptable - a height?

Jim Douglas: - "Yeah, I don’t know what the exact footage is, but I certainly support windmills to an extent. To an appropriate degree. I think they should be Vermont-scale. Not huge structures that are as tall as the Bennington Battle Monument. I don’t think that we should industrialize our ridge lines which are what give Vermont a great deal of its natural beauty. That’s why people come here especially this time of year to look at the foliage. To see the natural landscape of our state and I don’t think we should impair it.

"But in certain circumstances - on a small scale - I think wind-power can play a role in our future. I supported the four-turbine demonstration project at East Mountain in the Northeast Kingdom. I thought it would give us a good chance to see how we like it. The Public Service Board, of course, said no.

Scudder Parker - "Well, Jim, actually half your administration supported the East Mountain Project and the other half didn’t. And the other half won. So, I’m not sure which half you are on that one.

"But, the reality is that Jim Douglas has not planned and met the obligation the administration has to plan for our energy future. The wind discussion is always brought up as a kind of aesthetic debate, fundamentally it’s a question about whether we will have secure longterm  sources of energy that help us keep our rates down for businesses and homeowners in the state of Vermont. I think wind needs to be a part of the system. And I think we can start by a partnership among utilities and out Agency of Natural Resources, the Department of Public Service and build systems in place where they respond to community needs and where their longterm contracts make it very clear that the benefit will flow through to the ratepayers in the state.

"In 2012, we’re facing rate increases in the range of 40-60 percent, and Jim Douglas has not been clear with us about the risks that that imposes. And he has not been taking action and investment in the dams on the Connecticut River, on energy efficiency and in wind turbines and other technologies that will help us meet that energy crisis of affordability in 2012."

Check back for more updates.....Got a lunch date, but I'll be back!

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*SECOND UPDATE" 2 P.M.

REPUBLICAN DIRTY TRICKS

Look, I'd like to keep this Vermont-based blog as open and as hassle-free as possible, but it depends on the posters.

This is a very, very small corner of Planet Earth and it really would help-more-than-harm if posters were for real, rather than nasty partisan pretenders like the bogus, pro-GOP, pro-Jim Douglas poster we ID below - one who changes "names" and uses phony email addresses to champion the Republican Party cause!

Hey, maybe his real name is "Jim" and he works in the corner office on the third floor of the Capital Plaza Hotel?  The Vermont Republican Party HQ!  Perhaps he would feel embarrassed if Freyne Land readers knew that his was the commentary of a paid, state-party official using various bogus names to hide his nastiness.

Perfectly understandable. It's dishonest and juvenile to use various phony names to vent your bias. It'd be nice if he could cut that stuff out, eh?

Life is very short, my friend. Just be honest, be yourself, even if you are the state GOP chair or paid staff. Be brave!

Here's this phony-named dube's last two posting "names,"  which makes it look like there's more of him!. His emails bounced back and his last two IP addresses tell us that they originated from the exact same computer.  Small world, eh?

Deceit and dishonesty, are, after all, well-established trademarks of the current Bush White House. Must be where this Vermont Republican picked them up so eagerly, you think?

Name: John
Email: [email protected]
IP: 24.53.113.91

Name: Gareth
Email: [email protected]
IP: 24.53.113.91

The vast majority of posters have been grown-ups. Met some nice folks. And for that we're thankful.

The fewer dishonest partisan sleaze bags like this, the better.

More later......

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*THIRD UPDATE *  3:55 p.m.

Email from Vermont Republican Party Chairman/Executive Director James Barnett:

“I want an apology. that's bullshit what you posted suggesting that I am blogging on your blog under a fake name.  just total crap.  I have posted exactly one blog in my life and it was under my own name in response to one of your buddies who had the nerve to insult then-Rep. Doran Metzger as a "braindead Republican" upon his departure to serve in Iraq.”

Jim Barnett
Chairman
Vermont Republican Party
100 State Street, Suite 308
Montpelier, VT 0560

Thank you for your very professional comments. Didn’t realize the skin was that thin these days, James.

However, it is still the good ol' United States of America, even after six years of Bush-Cheney and all they’ve brought us from a needless war to a record deficit and environmental negligence and on and on.

I merely speculated on the possibilities of who on the Vermont Bush-Cheney Team did not want their name on the nasty, anti-Democrat, pro-GOP missives. Here are the lines I wrote that I believe you are offended by:

Hey, maybe his real name is "Jim" and he works in the corner office on the third floor of the Capital Plaza Hotel?  The Vermont Republican Party HQ!  Perhaps he would feel embarrassed if Freyne Land readers knew that his was the commentary of a paid, state-party official using various bogus names to hide his nastiness.

Perfectly understandable. It's dishonest and juvenile to use various phony names to vent your bias. It'd be nice if he could cut that stuff out, eh?

Life is very short, my friend. Just be honest, be yourself, even if you are the state GOP chair or paid staff. Be brave!

Look, I'd suggest that to speculate in America that any political party big shot might be writing pro-party, anonymous. mean-spirited,  blog emails, even without using a whole name, is not a crime.

You replied quickly, Mr. Chairman, and indicated you’re not the nasty GOP poster. Fine. I believe you.

Any idea who it is?

You might want to tell him to stop, eh? Makes your team look real bad.

Thanks, James.

Always a pleasure to hear from you!

Do write back.

P.S. Given some of the poison-pen press releases you regularly put out, Mr. Chairman, like your recent one sliming Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania upon his recent visit to Burlington, I have a difficult time understanding your definition of "bullshit." Please, feel free to elaborate! I'm sure many readers would be interested.