Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Open Forum

The Manchester Democratic Town Committee finally produced its long-awaited resolution on Joe Lieberman's Iraq stance. The full text of the resolution, with commentary, at My Left Nutmeg. I wouldn't be surprised if a few other DTCs passed similar resolutions in the coming months. Don't expect Lieberman to pay much attention to them, though.

Apparently, our budget surplus keeps growing. I'd like to see us pay down debts with at least some of that money.

Lisa Moody is back at work.

What else is happening around the state?

30 comments:

Aldon Hynes said...

Bloggers will drink at Drescher's Thursday evening at 7 PM.

I hope a bunch of you can make it.

Genghis Conn said...

Alas, I won't be able to this time...

Anonymous said...

Can someone expalain how it is we
have elected officials in Hartford who are so simple that they've named a line item in the budget after an old perry Como song?

refrain:
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day

For love may come and tap you on the shoulder some starless night
Just in case you feel you want to hold her
You'll have a pocketful of starlight

refrain

For love may come and tap you on the shoulder some starless night
Just in case you feel you want to hold her
You'll have a pocketful of starlight
(Pocketful of starlight, hm,hm,hm,hm,hm,hm)

refrain

(Save it for a rainy, save it for a rainy, rainy, rainy, day)

For when your troubles start multiplyin' and they just might
It's easy to forget them without tryin'
With just a pocketful of starlight

refrain

(Save it for a rainy day)
Save it for a rainy day

Anonymous said...

interesting to note Moody is back.. any status on the investigations?

Anonymous said...

Hey BDRubenstein888 ,

You can Read all about the Manchester Dem Town Committee Metting and even read the resolution they passed at Myleftmutmeg.com (linked on this sites homepage).

Fox 61 WTIC even has a video link to the news story they had on their 10 oclock news

Anonymous said...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/03/colo.gov.ap/index.html

I found this link to be very interesting, especially since both the right and left seem to have purity tests that drive good people away from government service.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous needs to learn how to embed a link. He's making us look bad!!

Anonymous said...

Anyone have any advice for a Republican that wants to run against John Larson this year???

I am seriously thinking about running for Congress.

Anyone have any thoughts???

Anonymous said...

Bysiewicz has pulled the plug on new voting machines ...

Genghis Conn said...

Weicker Liker,

Good for you! I like to see people step up. My Democratic friends will forgive me for offering advice to a regular commenter.

The 1st District is a very, very steep hill for a Republican. It's a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a huge margin, and the independents tend to swing to the left. The RNC will ignore you, like they did with Phil Steele and John Halsted, so you'd be on your own. Halsted raised something like $2,000, while Larson will raise a ton of money from every company in Greater Hartford who wants access to power. Really, you'd almost be better off running as an independent, for all the good the GOP would do you.

...Having said that, anyone running against Larson would do well to be aware that Larson has been in a competitive race exactly once in his career (the 1994 gubernatorial primary), and he lost. To Bill Curry. I would study that race. Larson was a heavy favorite there, too, but lost because of his detatchment and apparent lack of personality. If he has a weakness, it's there. Also, he probably won't be paying close attention. Potential challengers may also want to study Charlotte Koskoff's 1996 race against Nancy Johnson, when another longtime "safe" seat was almost caught asleep at the switch.

It isn't much, really, and the odds are stacked against you. You'd be giving people an alternative to Larson, but probably little else.

Let us know what you decide!

Anonymous said...

I know this isn't local stuff but I just read this online and had to vent. It looks as if the idiot George W. has a hand in this mining tregedy as well! Already on the defensive. When is this country going to wake up?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- "The White House defended the administration's record on mine safety rules."

Asleep at the wheel once again. I'm tired of this. The intelligence of the Republicans and the damage they are doing to this country is truly horrifying. It just makes me irate when W. does his act to console the nation when bad things happen...especially when these tragedies would probably have been prevented if he were not the President.

Anonymous said...

I dislike W as much as the next guy, but you'll have to give me more than one line from the AP to support your argument that W is responsible for the mine collapse. I think this type of accusation causes all of us Bush-whackers to lose credibility when we truly have an issue worth bashing him over.

Aldon Hynes said...

Random thoughts:

Weicker Liker: I'm with Genghis on this. As much as I am a hardcore Democrat, I am perhaps even more of a a hardcore democrat. We need to encourage people to get involved and to run for office no matter what party.

From my perspective, set up a website. Set up a blog. Talk about the issues that are important to you and why you think you are better at addressing the issues than your opponent. Most importantly, get out and talk to as many people face to face as possible.

(BTW, are you coming to drinks tomorrow night?)

Other stuff: I've heard from a bunch of people that are planning to attend tomorrow night. I hope we have a good turnout. Also, some people can't make it, but want to know about future drinking opportunities. If you have thoughts about when and where the next drinking event should be, let me know. I'm sure we'll talk about round two at the bar.

As to the news of the day. I think the Manchester DTC resolution is big news. It will be interesting to see if more DTCs pass similar resolutions.

Also, the news of Bysiewicz pulling the plug on the new voting machines is very big (IMHO). I look forward to hearing more about ths.

Anonymous said...

I see a Republican State Central guy took a pretty nice hit at Kevin Sullivan in todays Courant editorials.I have to admit, he makes a good point. Sullivan sometimes shoots from the hip and that can land him in trouble.

Anonymous said...

Just one comment on John Larsen ... he did have one other very competitive race, the 1998 1st CD primary against Miles Rapaport. Miles was favored by the progressives, John by the mod/conservative dems. I wasn't involved at all, but I wonder if anyone remembers who ran the various campaigns.

Anonymous said...

A few electoral updates:

As Aldon hinted above, Susan Bysiewicz has been forced to scrap the RFP process for new voting machines and is back to the drawing board. This provides an opportunity for her to open the door to optical scan voting machines, which are far cheaper than the tocuh screen voting machines that she has stubbornly insisted upon. The True Vote CT coalition, the CT Conference of Municipalities, and the Registrar of Voters Association have all expressed a preference for opening up the bid process to optical scan machines. As with her opposition to voter verified paper ballots, Bysiewicz has a pattern of backing herself into a corner, alienating others and politically isolating herself, then reversing her position at the last minute. This may be another example.

With even less fanfare than he generated in entering the race, obscure Green candidate Bill Davis has dropped out of the 5th Congressional District contest against Nancy Johnson. As of September, he had $25 cash on hand and $278 in debt.

Henry Genga, (pronounced Jenga) Democratic candidate for state rep in the 10th district special election on January 23rd, has received the endorsement of the CT Working Families party, meaning that he will appear on two ballot lines.

Middletown election officials should be more careful this time in inspecting voting machines in preparation for the January 24 special election for city council, which was mandated by the CT Supreme Court after one lever on a voting machine repeatedly failed to register votes since 2001 (unnoticed despite previous inspections).

The Journal Inquirer reports on the Manchester Democratic Town Committee's resolution against Joe Lieberman.

As MVD notes above, Jack Abramoff donated $1250 to Rob Simmons.

Anonymous said...

Congressman Simmons donated to charity the $1250 he received from Abramoff in mid December.

Anonymous said...

His neighbor from RI, the gazillionaire Patrick Kennedy, is keeping his sirty Abramoff loot

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, citing his support for American Indian causes, says he has no plans to return any of the $42,500 he took from tribes represented by GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

....

Kennedy, D-R.I., was the top congressional Democratic recipient of Abramoff-linked funds, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign watchdog group that analyzed contributions from 1999 to 2005. He was eighth overall among members of Congress....

Anonymous said...

Sullivan took a hit? I can't find it. Would somebody please post it? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Nice try anon 10:38,

Unfortunately for you and all the other very slimy Republicans about to be indicted Money donated by the tribes is not illegal and not what this scandal is about.

You'll find out soon enough when all those Republicans members of the house are indicted that this is stictly a ONE PARTY SCANDAL and thats the REPUBLICAN PARTY.

It's hard to peddle influence and accept bribes to get legislation passed when you have NO influence and thats exactly the position the Dems in the house have been for a very long time.Hopefully when the people of this country come to understand just how your party sold them out you'll pay dearly in 06.

Anonymous said...

Setting aside his Abramoff donations for a moment, one of the best political documentaries I've seen was Taking on the Kennedys, about the mudslinging race that got Patrick Kennedy his seat. (And in unrelated news, check out the Wal-Mart movie if you haven't already - it's phenomenally well done.)

Anonymous said...

If you think Abramoff gave Kennedy $$$ because he was a nice guy then you really are clueless.

Most Capitol Hill scandals (see Keating 5) are bipartisan. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

So Susan is losin' again; this time on running with the choke out on the new voting machine selection. She is a lousy administrator. What does she do in real life as an attorney? Mediate divorces?

Larson is lackluster as a Member of Congress but nobody in his district is going to go for change.
And Genghis is right; the GOP won't get behind even the most qualified of candidiates. Rowland, Rell, Shays, Simmons and Johnson have always been about themselves and not a unified state GOP with some kind of bold GOP type goals for the state's future.

ctkeith said...

NOT ONE DEM TOOK MONEY FROM ABRAMOFF,

That myth and any idea that this is a bi-patisan scandal is a lie.If you can prove otherwise show me the link.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Moodygate isn't going to go away slowly...anyone know if Rell likes cigars too

Anonymous said...

Don't know if Jodi likes a good stoggie, but I hear she knocks down champagne in a hot tub like there is no tomorrow.

Really folks, can't you come up with something better, like all the problems witht the performance of virtually every stae agency. Guess not; then you'd have to admit not every state worker performs equally to their assigned task.

Anonymous said...

ctkeith, there is no question that this is much more a Republican corruption scandal but the issue is not taking money from Abramoff personally, but taking it from his clients as he was a bundler, and there are quite a few Dems who did.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/12/18/national/20051219_LOBBY_GRAPHIC.html

Anonymous said...

40 of 45 members of the Senate Democrat Caucus have taken money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his associates and Indian tribe clients.

Abramoff pled guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion. He also plans to implicate a number of U.S. lawmakers and congressional staffers in a bribery scandal.

Among those named by the NRSC as the worst examples of "Democrat hypocrisy" for taking money from Abramoff and his associates are: Sen. Byron Dorgan, (D-N.D.) who received at least $79,300; Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who received at least $45,750; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who received at least $68,941 and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who received at least $6,250.

Dorgan is among the lawmakers who have already returned campaign donations or given those donations to charity.

Anonymous said...

Until PACs and ad books and that time of nonsense is limited locally and federally, campaign finance is nonsense. All politics is not local, it is sponsored by the wealthy corporation or special interest.