Friday, December 02, 2005

Open Forum

Gov. Rell is already taking a lot of the credit for campaign finance reform. The Courant noted today the lack of GOP support for the bill...

The analysis of the bill continues. There appear to be several loopholes big enough to drive a truck through. Without the loopholes, it's doubtful the legislation would have passed. That must have been part of the deal to get reluctant Dems on board.

Court challenges to the new laws are already starting to appear on the horizon, including those from angry third parties.

The legislature really needs to do a thorough re-examination of the bill in February.

Opinion around here seems pretty divided on the bill. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, myself. If you haven't, yet, go vote in the poll on the sidebar beneath the maps.

What else is going on today?

Update Comments should be working now.

32 comments:

Genghis Conn said...

Testing... comments do seem to be working. Sorry about that.

Gabe said...

Anyone have any information or a link to the evacuation of the CT courthouses? I just got a call about it, but I have no other info...

Gabe said...

Here it is:

A bomb threat prompted police to evacuate the state's court buildings today, abruptly ending trials while sending judges, lawyers and people with routine court business into the streets.

Police and court officials wouldn't say how many of the state's 45 judicial court buildings were evacuated.

...

The telephone threat was made about 10 a.m. on a constituent phone line answered by a staff member in Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office, gubernatorial spokesman David Dearborn said.

Local and state police bomb squads were notified about 11:30 a.m. that state police were requesting a sweep of state courthouses.


I assume more info will follow...

Genghis Conn said...

Bomb scare, apparently. No other information seems to be out there.
AP story here

Anonymous said...

Congressman Simmons in Enfield & Suffield this afternoon...

Anonymous said...

I hear there will be a serious challenger to Congressman Larson next year

Genghis Conn said...

Phantom,

Any name yet? Otherwise, I'll believe it when I see it. Attila the Hun (a close associate) could win in the 1st if he were a Democrat.

Anonymous said...

Funny, didn't Daniels & Pastore bring community policing to New Haven, but then downtown with the Yale police presence is better served than the other areas

Bass's site has other views,

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2005/11/post_29.html#comments

Anonymous said...

Deanfan,
you sound a lot like George Bush in his denial of a problem with the war in Iraq. maybe you both can share a reality milkshake. perception counts. remember those dukakis ads, 'gov dukakis says he will do for the country what he will do for MA,' while showing polution, etc. i dont think the small and medium sized town in CT will be comfortable with knowing that 5 shootings in a week is perceived as doing a good job on crime.

Anonymous said...

Judith Freedman from Westport didn't make it to Geneghis' original list of races to watch in the GA next year but it should have. The only thing she ever does Republican is parrot the party line. There are major disputes in Westport these days amongst the GOP and freedman has shown no leadership in reconciliation. The guy that took the former union teacher with her lucrative benies and entitlement mentality on last election as a Democrat was a businessman that had actually been s a Republican in the past. A lot of the problems the GOP in Fairfield County hve been having actually go to Chris Shays - the Democrat who grew up as a Republican - or shall we just say the Lieberman chameleon

Anonymous said...

My wife works in New Haven. The polyanna view of the liberal inhabitants expressed here is not shared by those who enter the city and keep its major instituions running.

Talking point #1: New Haven is safe
Talking point #2: Iraq will be safe once those nasty Marines all go home

Please le us know what meds you need to believe this

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon351 -

Haha - no freakin way will Freedman's race be one to watch next year. If intelligent, well-financed, well-versed, good looking, pedigreed, moderate Arlo Ellison cant come close, no one can. He was a veritable dream candidate and ran a good campaign.

Gabe said...

Anon 453 - The only people who spout talking point number 2 are republicans attributing to Dems.

Clap harder.

Anonymous said...

Dear Proud Moderate Dem and Edpie,

Please have no fear of the recent crime spree in New Haven.All those involved were black and male and since moderate Dems and Republicans like you guys (and the owner of this site) have so little contact with "that kind" you and yours are perfectly safe.

Have a VERY WHITE christmas boys.

Anonymous said...

well, Gabe, Dean Fan begged off when it was suggested we give Iraq back to Saddam. Are you in favor of that, since he would be running the country expcept for Bush's "illegal war"?

BTW, Point #2 seems to expres the position taken by the new Democrat statesman on Iraq.


"Murtha expressed confidence that terrorist bombings in Iraq would cease once U.S. troops were gone and Iraqis became solely responsible for their destiny.

"Absolutely, we're the target. We're the enemy," Murtha said

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pmupdate/s_396691.html

Anonymous said...

CITIZENS STAY TUNED I AM WORKING WITH A VERY ELECTIBLE AND WELL KNOWN LIBERAL DEM WHO IS FED UP AND IS JUST A HAIR'S BREATHE FROM CHALLENGING REVOLTING DINO JOE....BY JANUARY 31ST LOOK FOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Anonymous said...

the Kos crowd has spent more bandwidth to achieve less in whining about Lieberman than about anything since the Internet was invented.

Watch the "very electable liberal Dem" be some New Haven alderman who wouldn't be recognized at the Hamden DTC meeting

Gabe said...

Anon -
So Cong. Murtha, former Marine DI, veteran of Korea and Vietnam, holder of the Bronze Star, 2 Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross, blamed our problems in Iraq on "the nasty Marines." Is that really the argument you want to go with?

You'll notice that Cong. Murtha did not blame the troops, only the war to put them in harms way to find the WMDs... ummm bring American Style Democracy to Iraq... ummm Declare Mission Accomplished... ummm depose Saddam. Only you blamed the troops and attributed it to him. I think you will find that he already has a speechwriter and probably doesnt need your services, Anonymous (if thats even your real name).

As to your straw man, of course we shouldn't give the country back to Saddam, the only one making that argument is you and you are attributing it to others.

Seriously, tinkerbell is dying, CLAP HARDER.

Anonymous said...

Well, Gabe, Murtha did well in Nam but he will have few fans among current veterans, as he is not singing their praises

Most U.S. troops will leave Iraq within a year because the Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth," Rep. John Murtha told a civic group.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/01/national/w070533S57.DTL&feed=rss.news

So, Gabe, if we leave immediately who should we turn Iraq over to . or don;t you care?

And had we listened to you before the war, Saddam would be running Iraq. I presume that was ok, right?

Whining is not wisdom. I await the inevitable race card, the last refuge of whiote New Haven liberals who run out of arguments

Anonymous said...

Night before last on the Late Show with David Letterman, during interview with columnist, author - and nobody's fool - the very hot Maureen Dowd.

Paraphrasing Letterman: "Explain to me about Scooter Libby and the journalist that went to jail, and Patrick Fitzgerald, and all that. How can a guy like me follow this?"

Paraphrasing Dowd: "You don't need to know all that stuff, you just need to remember two words: 'Cheney's guilty'."

Do you think the Republican Congress will impeach him when he's indicted, or will he resign first? Or will the label "Republican" become radioactive for, like, twenty years?

Anyway, this crowd - and BTW, ever notice they all have nicknames, just like the other kind of mobsters, like you see dramatized on HBO? - um, "misled" us into war. I know, I got sucked in myself. Then, oops, no WMD. Then, oops, no evidence of WMD. And so on.

Saddam, let us not forget, was Bush/Cheney Inc.'s man in Iraq. Recall where he got the means to go to war with Iran? Can you say "AY-A-TOLL-AH"? Can you say [Saudi Prince] "BAN-DAR BUSH"? And that is just the most egregious example and undeniable counter-argument to those who have been forced by the facts to retreat into an argument that Iraq was a good idea because we got rid of Saddam. Bush/Cheney Inc. made Saddam. Saddam went off the Res, and they've wanted to take him out ever since.

Murtha's right, take our guys out of the picture, and the Iraqis will run Al Qaeda out in no time; because, just like us, Al Qaeda have no place to call home in the Sunni triangle, any more than they do in Kurdistan. And, unlike us, they can tell each other apart.

It will be a rough working out for the Iraqi's, but we can't fix it, even if Bush/Cheney Inc. owns it.

And they do.

Gabe said...

he will have few fans among current veterans, as he is not singing their praises

Most U.S. troops will leave Iraq within a year because the Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth," Rep. John Murtha told a civic group.


If you'd take two seconds to stop wrenching quotes out of context, you would know that Cong. Murtha has explicitly criticized the administrations lack of support for the troops in the form of cuts in veteran benefits, VA hospitals, and safety gear; he has not criticized the troops. Or do veterans not appreciate that? And do they not appreciate the weekly trips to Walter Reed that he takes to visit with the wounded?

Straw Man #1 -

if we leave immediately who should we turn Iraq over to . or don;t you care?

Nowhere have I advocated for an immediate withdrawl. All I did was defend an American hero that you crapped on. Anyway, aren't your new talking points all about successful elections and how strong the Iraqi military is now? Maybe we can turn the country over to the them after we figure out what the best, safest, and most expiditious (in that order) way is to get our troops home.

Straw Man #2 -

And had we listened to you before the war, Saddam would be running Iraq. I presume that was ok, right?

Thats funny, I don't know anyone named Anonymous, so I certainly don't remember talking to you before the war started. You seem to be awefully good at arguing against arguments that haven't been made. How intellectually honest of you.

Speaking of listening to people before the war, I don't really remember that we are going to Iraq to remove Saddam. I do remember hearing about how if we didn't go in and get those WMDs, the smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud. How did that one work out?

Had we talked before the war you would have heard me say that war is rarely a good thing for the people and soldiers of either country so we should make damn sure that we are going in for the right reasons and have a plan for victory and getting out with a minimal loss of life. At least now, 3 years later, we have a plan for victory. Or something.

Whining is not wisdom. No shit? Have you ever read yourself?

I await [You haven't waited for anything else in this debate, why not pretend I said it and then argue against it?] the inevitable race card, the last refuge of whiote New Haven liberals who run out of arguments

First of all, it seems like you just pulled the race card.

Secondly, you will be waiting the rest of your life before you hear me make a racially tinged comment.

You don't know a thing about me or where I'm from.

Have you ever heard the saying about when you assume? Its not true - You only make an ass out of yourself.

Anonymous said...

naw, the donkeys are already all over this site. And boy do they whine when anyine challenges their little sheltered world view

I suppose the liberal solution to an ostensible "unilateral" war in Iraq is a "unilateral" withdrawal.

If the new Iraqi government says it's got things under control, well that's victory. But Representatives Murtha and Pelosi do not choose to wait for the agreement of our allies, well, let's call Expedia and start booking flights for the 82nd Airborne to get back to Fort Bragg by (secular holiday held 12/25)

Anonymous said...

Gabe, I do offer one amends. I confused you with another lib who has been attacking any and all Rell and Malloy supporters as racists. My bad.

Murtha and Pelosi are digging their own hole right now and it might end up deeper than the one they think the White House is in. Pointing that out is reasonable debate. Making the same mistake we made in Somalia is a high price to pay to prove a political point about what went on in 2002 and whether the President should have enforced th terms of Clinton's Iraq Liberation Act

Gabe said...

Are you people allergic to dealing with substantive points or just unable to recognize them?

suppose the liberal solution to an ostensible "unilateral" war in Iraq is a "unilateral" withdrawal.

If the new Iraqi government says it's got things under control, well that's victory. But Representatives Murtha and Pelosi do not choose to wait for the agreement of our allies, well, let's call Expedia and start booking flights for the 82nd Airborne to get back to Fort Bragg by (secular holiday held 12/25)


It seems like our allies already agreed and forgot to call you. Also, when half the countries that believed President Bush about WMDs are now pulling out, its a little hard (for people in the reality based universe) to call it a "unilateral" withdrawal.

Go back to fighting the War on Christmas. You'll have to clap really hard for that too.

Gabe said...

Of course, by you people, I meant the Anonymous Family.

Gabe said...

Gabe, I do offer one amends. I confused you with another lib who has been attacking any and all Rell and Malloy supporters as racists. My bad.

It must be really hard to keep all the people whose names are above the posts straight.

Genghis Conn said...

I don't dislike Democrats or Republicans, just extremism. And the fact that the Green Party went nowhere is a neverending source of relief to me, especially after sitting in on a Central Committee meeting. Yikes.

And no, I don't know that person.

Anonymous said...

nobody read the details of Colonel Murtha's proposed strategy - arguing over something that don't exist - so what else is new?

Genghis Conn said...

I'd say that I was much more of a lefty when I was younger, and that I've moved towards the middle since. I once heard someone say he/she was "so liberal I'm conservative," which makes sense to me. The two fringes have a lot more in common with each other than with the center, and they interpret the world with a rigidity which excludes pragmatism and open-mindedness. I found I didn't have much in common with them, at all.

What I want most of all is good, common sense, accountable government, which I believe can be best accomplished through moderation and compromise rather than through strident partisanship and inflexible ideology. There are good ideas on all sides--the task of real statesmen should be to make those ideas workable and acceptable for the majority of people.

If you need a pigeon-hole to put me in, moderate to center-left is it, I suppose. But that really isn't all there is to my political thought.

Anonymous said...

Dean has no political thoughts - the party faithful wish he'd go away quitely or at least just stay quiet and raise money

Anonymous said...

to the Senator Freedman fan: she is definitley vulnerable. Elison may have been a dream candidate but I couldn't even remeber the name.

Anonymous said...

Im the one tagged as the so-called "Freedman fan" and still believe she is not vulnerable. OK, everyone is vulnerable to some degree, but of the current 12 R's in the Senate, I'd rank her 7th behind (in order) Nickerson, McKinney, DeLuca, Roraback and Fasano.