CIA director resigns

Hmm...seems like the under-reported GOP hooker story is about to get interesting.

CIA Director Porter Goss has resigned, President Bush said Friday. No explanation was made.

Bush called Goss' tenure one of transition.

His tenure is one of transition? Yeah, got'cha...I think we know better as maybe this had something to do with Gorss quitting so quickly.

Ken Silverstein reports at Harper's blog on the spreading Cunningham-Wade-Wilkes prostitute scandal. He says more lawmakers, past and present, are being investigated. Sounds like he thinks House Intel Chair-turned-CIA Director Porter Goss is one of them:

I've learned from a highly-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees -- including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. [emphasis added]

Yowzah.

Yowzah indeed.

Feel the hate

Here's a small video clip of members of the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (CTCIC) and U.S. Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement (USCILE). Watch as these insane people display their racist hatred up and down the street of Danbury at the Immigration march Sunday. Pay close attention to some of the jerks in this group who tried to hide their face once they knew they were being videotaped (cowards). Also, you'll love Uncle Sam as he takes the xenophobe award for being the biggest jackass as you'll see at the end of the clip (note: he's also a board member of USCILE as well as a local television talk show host...don't worry, I'll get into that at a later time).

I didn't post the scenes of these jerks cursing at people in the march (which included children) simply because it's too disgusting but I think you'll get the tone of these people once you see the clip.

I'm finishing up on a full report of this incredible march and I'll have it ready very soon.

Remember these things:

1. These people DO NOT represent the views and opinions of a majority of people who LIVE in Danbury and most of the people in the group ARE NOT from Danbury (including Uncle Sam who lives in Bethel). Most people I speak to in Danbury wish that these jerks would just go away.

2. These are the same sick wackos that Nancy "Rubber Stamp" Johnson met with less than two weeks ago (becoming the FIRST politician in Connecticut who ever met with this racist hate-group...shame).

3. You can thank Mayor Mark Boughton for creating an environment in which racist hate groups like the CTCIC and the USCILE can thrive and bring shame to a wonderful city.

Nancy Johnson: Rubber Stamp Republican

Nancy Johnson: bad for the 5th district, bad for Connecticut, bad for this country.


Two words: Chris Murphy.

Windsor DTC endorse Lamont

Wow, this is big news!

The Windsor Democratic Town Committee voted narrowly tonight to endorse Ned Lamont for US Senate. This vote recommends to the state convention delegates that they support Lamont also. Convention delegate votes cannot be compelled. The Lamont resolution won on a 16-14 vote after spirited and thoughtful discussion, which mostly centered on the Iraq war. No one who spoke, even if they were for Lieberman, endorsed Lieberman's position on the war. However, the argument of Lieberman supporters centered on his ability to deliver on other issues, his tenure in the Senate, and his supposed deciding role keeping the Groton sub base open.

[...]

I continue to be amazed that an 18 year incumbent has such shallow support in the party organization. Previously, Windsor delegates received phone calls from a Lieberman paid-phone bank inquiring about support. A PAID PHONE BANK! No volunteers? Whatever campaign Joe mounts will be whatever his money can buy. And isn't that part of the point? Just another mercenary politician who has lost touch with his political base. If there is to be a primary in August, it will be people against money.

Sweet!

CT Bob unhinged

Ouch! Tell us how you really feel about Joe...please, don't hold back.

Lieberman said he believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for "principled reasons" shouldn't be forced to do so.

"In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital," he said.

Well Joe, that's not very helpful. I mean, I know that you'll never need emergency contraception at two o'clock in the morning after having been brutally raped. So I guess it's easy for you to disregard any woman who is unlucky enough to have gone through that trauma.

You have to go to his site and read the entire post. It's a thing of beauty.

May 4th

Why Kent State is important today.

THIRTY-SIX years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen shot 13 college students at Kent State University who were protesting US incursions into Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Nine victims survived, including one who is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Four students -- Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer -- were killed.

The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings despite the fact that the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed by President Nixon in 1970, found the shootings to be ''unwarranted and inexcusable."

Yearly, since the tragedy, Kent State students, alumni, and others have met on the anniversary of the shooting to reflect and remember. Alan Canfora, who was shot by the Guard, says, ''The students today act as the conscience of the college, and the country . . . just like the students did in 1970."

This year's memorial will come, as the last three have, in the midst of a war that has become increasingly divisive. While the memory of Kent State and other violent clashes from that time between protesters and authorities did not deter the incumbent president from leading the country into another unpopular war, it is important to honor Kent State's spirit of dissent and what it taught about the bloody consequences of intense division.

Lapdogs

This should be a best-seller! I know this is a rather long post but I really feel that this book is important as the mainstream media is just as bad now as it was back in 2004.

In his new book, "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over For Bush," Eric Boehlert dissects the Beltway media's culpability during the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign from the 2004 campaign and concludes the episode "likely delivered Bush the cushion he needed to win in November" and "represented an embarrassing new benchmark for campaign season reporting." "Lapdogs" holds the press accountable for the central role it played in enabling a smear campaign that consumed the crucial campaign month of August 2004 -- "a media monsoon that washed away Kerry's momentum coming out of the Democratic convention."

How, for instance, the Washington Post published 13 page-one Swift Boat stories in 12 days, most of which failed to address the key fact that the Swift boat allegations -- that Kerry lied about his Vietnam War record -- were riddled with errors and compounded by the veterans' fanciful, ever-changing stories. Despite the lack of evidence to substantiate their claims, which were floated 35 years after the fact and bankrolled by partisan Republicans, the press refused, in real time, to call out the Swift Boat allegations as a dirty trick.

[...]

From Boehlert's "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over For Bush":

For several crucial weeks during the campaign, journalists turned away from the pile-up of Swift Boat falsehoods and contradictions, rarely daring to call the Swift Boat attack out for what it really was--a farce. An elaborate, well-choreographed, well-funded farce that not only dragged down the Kerry campaign, but played the press for fools. At every turn, military records proved the Swift Boat veterans to be untruthful. But Beltway reporters and pundits for the most part remained hesitant, too timid to speak up, as they propped up the veterans as serious men. Their conduct during the manufactured Swift Boat scandal, which likely delivered Bush the cushion he needed to win in November, represented an embarrassing new benchmark for campaign season reporting. Rather than uncovering the obvious gaps in the veterans' wobbly allegations and holding the accusers accountable, the press, spooked about being tagged as too liberal, played dumb on an unprecedented scale, much to the White House's delight.

By the time the Swift Boat story had played out, CNN, chasing after ratings leader Fox News, found time to mention the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--hereafter, Swifties--in nearly 300 separate news segments, while more than one hundred New York Times articles and columns made mention of the Swifties. And during one overheated 12-day span in late August, the Washington Post mentioned the Swifties in page-one stories on Aug. 19, 20, 21 (two separate articles), 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31. It was a media monsoon that washed away Kerry's momentum coming out of the Democratic convention.

Embraced by the Republican's far right media noise machine, led by Fox News, the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, and the New York Post, the mainstream media refused to stand up to those forces. Instead, the press played along, letting the right wing set the media agenda, and pretending the media's primary duty was to accurately record the Swifty allegations, call the Kerry camp for comment, and then proclaim the story too tangled to figure out. USA Today, for instance, threw up its hands, declaring, "A clear picture of what John Kerry did or did not do in Vietnam 35 years ago may never emerge, given the fog of war, the passage of time and the intense partisan sentiments of the players." A headline on Aug. 27 for Hotline, the daily D.C. media tip sheet announced, " VIETNAM: JUST LIKE THE WAR ITSELF, THIS STORY'S NOW A QUAGMIRE."

In Time, the magazine offered up a one-page scorecard, "Kerry in Combat: Setting the Record Straight." In each account of Kerry's medals, the magazine accurately reported how the Swift Boat charges failed to hold up under any sort of factual scrutiny. Yet Time dutifully restrained itself from coming to the obvious conclusion: The Swift Boat charges were a campaign hoax. After pouring over the facts, ABC News concluded, "35 years later, we may never know the exact truth."

But was the story really that hard for journalists to decipher? As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting suggested in 2004, what if the situation had been reversed and the shoddy Vietnam-ear attacks targeted Bush's war service? What if all the available documents showed that George Bush had fully completed his obligation in the Air National Guard with flying colors? What if virtually every member of his unit said he had been there the whole time, and had done a great job? And then suppose a group of fiercely partisan Democrats who never actually served in Bush's Guard unit came forward to claim for the first time--and 35 years after the fact--that Guard documents and the first-hand accounts were wrong, and that Bush really hadn't been present for his Guard service. Would the MSM really have had a hard time figuring out who was telling the truth, and would the MSM really have showered the accusers with weeks worth of free media coverage?

But playing dumb about the Swifties had become epidemic among journalists who must have known better. At one point, NBC's Tim Russert asked a guest, "If the substance of many of the charges [from] "Unfit for Command," aren't holding up...why is it resonating so much?" Like so many other journalists, Russert refused to acknowledge the media's integral role in turning the Swifty story into a news phenomenon. Why was it "resonating so much" Russert wondered out loud. Maybe because in the month of August, 2004, NBC network news alone covered the Swift Boat story on Aug. 8, 15, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, and 29. CBS covered the story Aug. 8, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 30, while ABC devoted airtime to it on Aug. 6, 8, 9, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 26. Some of the networks, using different morning and evening news programs, returned to the topic several times in one day. For instance on Aug 23, CBS reported on the Swifty controversy four different times, which, of course, represented four more times than the CBS News division reported on questions surrounding Bush's Guard service during the entire 2000 campaign.

Reporters had the power the knock the phony Swift Boat story down fast and reveal it for the dirty trick it was, but too many chose not to. Relatively early on in the August coverage, ABC's Nightline devoted an entire episode to the allegations and reported, "The Kerry campaign calls the charges wrong, offensive and politically motivated. And points to Naval records that seemingly contradict the charges." (Emphasis added.) Seemingly? A more accurate phrasing would have been that Navy records "completely" or "thoroughly" contradicted the Swifties. But that would have meant not only having to stand up a well-funded Republican campaign attack machine, but also casting doubt on television news' hottest political story of the summer.

Hosting an Aug. 28 discussion on CNBC with Newsweek's Jon Meacham and Time's Jay Carney, NBC's Tim Russert finally, after weeks of overheated Swifty coverage, got around to asking the pertinent question: "Based on everything you have heard, seen, reported, in terms of the actual charges, the content of the book, is there any validity to any of it?" Carney conceded the charges did not have any validity, but did it oh, so gently: "I think it's hard to say that any one of them is by any standard that we measure these things has been substantiated." Apparently Carney forgot to pass the word along to editors at Time magazine, which is read by significantly more news consumers than Russert's weekly cable chat show on CNBC. Because it wasn't until its Sept. 20 2004 issue, well after the Swift Boat controversy had peaked, that the Time news team managed enough courage to tentatively announce the charges levied against Kerry and his combat service were "reckless and unfair." (Better late than never; Time's competitor Newsweek waited until after the election to report the Swift Boat charges were "misleading," but "very effective.") But even then, Time didn't hold the Swifties responsible for their "reckless and unfair" charges. Instead, Time celebrated them. Typing up an election postscript in November, Time toasted the Swift Boat's O'Neill as one of the campaign's "Winners," while remaining dutifully silent about the group's fraudulent charges.

Good grief

My computer is down again so posting will be limited for today.

There is plenty of stuff I have to talk about including the latest polling numbers for the Lieberman/Lamont primary as well as the numbers for the Rell/DeStefano/Malloy race.

I also have video footage of Ned Lamont's appearence at Heritage Village, Nancy Johnson's silly visit to Danbury, and an one to one videotaped interview with John DeStefano.

Ugh. Nothing is worst than defraging a harddrive.

Jury problem at Measles trial

(Relatives of Maryann Measles. Credit: Hartford Courant)
I think it's time to bring in the alternate juror.

The co-foreman of the jury considering the fate of Keith M. Foster, accused in the 1997 murder of Maryann Measles, told the judge this afternoon that he and other jurors are concerned about the psychological well-being of one of the jurors.

The foreman's testimony indicated the juror in question is a man.

The foreman said the juror is not participating in deliberations and other jurors are concerned about his well-being and fear he may harm himself.

"I have concern about one of the jurors and I'm not sure what to do about it," the foreman told Judge Elliot Prescott, who began presiding over deliberations Wednesday in place of Judge Thomas V. O'Keefe Jr.

"And when you say you have concern about one of the jurors, does it go to their willingness or ability to participate in the deliberations?" Prescott asked.

"I believe participate, yes," the foreman responded.

"And in trying to speak in general terms, can you tell me what you mean?" the judge asked.

"I think he's emotionally unstable and unable to come to a decision based upon the evidence," the foreman responded. "That's all I can tell you."

[...]

The foreman said, "We actually have fear for his safety, physically. It is that emotional."

If these people involved in the killing of this poor girl get off the hook because of a juror, it will simply be horrible.

Members of the victim's family stood in silence in the hallway outside the courtroom, apparently stunned at developments.

Litchfield State's Attorney David Shepack and defense attorney Donald J. O'Brien met with Prescott in his chambers to discuss the next step.

That step could mean bringing back one of three remaining alternates, in which case deliberations would have to start anew. If the defense and prosecution agree, the case could continue with 11 jurors, said a court official familiar with the case. Or the judge could declare a mistrial.

A mistrial would be outrageous. This case has gone on too long as it is right now so throw the unstable juror out and lets get this over with. The family of Measles deserve closure.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long...

A Superior Court judge this afternoon excused a juror who said he was no longer able to bear the stress of deliberations in the case of Keith M. Foster, who is on trial in the 1997 killing of 13-year-old Maryann Measles of New Milford.

Three alternate jurors who heard evidence in the case will be summoned to Superior Court in Waterbury Thursday morning and one will be selected to join the jury and continue deliberating Foster's fate. Foster faces a host of charges, including felony murder, murder, sexual assault and kidnapping in the case.

Biagio "Billy" Ciotto stepping down

Not as surprising as Rep. Lew Wallace leaving but nonetheless, he will be missed by all.

Veteran state Sen. Biagio "Billy" Ciotto announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election in November, ending months of speculation.

"My career has soared above and beyond anything I could have dreamed or imagined 60 years ago, when I was just out of school and the perky product of working class, immigrant parents," said Ciotto, a six-term Democrat whose 9th District covers Cromwell, Middletown, Newington, Rocky Hill and Wethersfield.

Ciotto had been close-mouthed in recent weeks about his political future.

"From my parents I learned two things," said Ciotto, who made his announcement at the beginning of an afternoon Senate session at the Capitol. "To cherish the freedoms and opportunities we have here in this country, and second, that there is honor and dignity to hard work," he said. "Any success I've had is simply the result of hard work over time and honest dealings with the people I've met and worked for."

Thanks for visiting

April was a big month at ConnecitcutBLOG. Last month, over 75,000 people visited the site with a record 35,000+ people visiting the site in one day. That's a long way from the early days of this site when it was viewed by under 50 people a day (ah, those were the days).

I have to say thanks for all the positive feedback and support I've received over the last couple of months. It's great to know that people are impressed with the blog as it encourages me to keep the site going.

Check the ConnecticutBLOG often as this site (and Hat City Blog) will be getting facelift that is long overdue.

Shameless plug for politicians

Are you a politician in Connecticut and have a blog? If the answer is yes, consider joining the blogroll here at Connecticut.BLOG Down on the lower right hand side of this site is a listing of various blogs from local politicians and I would like to add more names to the list.

You can add you site to the list my posting your site's URL in the comment section of this post, emailing me at ctblogger@yahoo.com, or IMing me via AOL IM or Yahoo Messenger (username: ctlbogger).

CTBlue receives latest Lieberman mail

I don't think Lieberman's latest letter impressed CTBlue.

It seems to me both mailings are in the too little too late category. We've had five and a half years of Joe sucking up to Bush, so his anti-Bush rhetoric now seems a little forced. What I find interesting about the second is the very explicit pitch that is being made, both to my party loyalty and about Lieberman's. He's gotten Harry Reid to attest to his Democratic bona fides. Yet this is the man who refuses to say whether he will, in fact, be loyal to his party.

Go to CTBlue's site and download the latest mailing Lieberman is sending to the delegates. It's too funny.

Danbury Rep. Lew Wallace not seeking re-election

(cross posting from Hat City Blog)
Didn't see this coming but his reasons for not seeking re-election are completely understandable.

Rep. Lewis Wallace, D-Danbury, announced Sunday he will not seek re-election this year.

The reasons, on the House floor, was to spend more time with his family. He recalled playing a game two summers ago with his then five-year-old daughter Gwendolyn, making faces for "sad daddy" and "mad daddy" — then she asked for "bad daddy."

"Why am I a bad daddy?" Wallace asked.

"Because you’re never home," his daughter responded.

[...]

Wallace was first elected on 1996. He is a financial planner working for the Common Fund in Wilton, which is an investment and financial management firm for non-profit institutions.

Before going to the legislature, he was a mayoral assistant to Danbury Mayor Gene Eriquez and later district director for U.S. Rep. James Maloney’s office in Danbury.

Wallace’s 109th district is in northeast Danbury. He didn’t rule out running for office in the future.

New site, same message

Here's a new anti-Lieberman site worth checking out.

Five reasons to dump Joe

Here are five reasons you should not vote for Joe Lieberman courtesy of Connecticut Choice Voice.

#1 Choice and the U.S. Supreme Court

Joe Lieberman voted for cloture and would not support the Democrat-led filibuster which would have challenged the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Only when it was too late to stop the Alito nomination did Lieberman announce he would cast a meaningless vote against Alito...

#2 Rape Victims’ Access to Emergency Contraception

Joe Lieberman is on record as opposing the proposed legislation in Connecticut that would require all Connecticut hospitals to offer emergency contraceptives to rape victims. According to the New Haven Register, “Lieberman believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for ‘principled reasons’ shouldn’t be forced to do so.”

“In Connecticut, it shouldn’t take more than a short ride to get to another hospital.”—Joe Lieberman, interview, New Haven Register, March 13, 2006

#3 Choice and the Right to Privacy

Joe Lieberman believes it was proper for the U.S. government to intervene in the Terry Schiavo case. He claimed it was “justified to give this woman, more than her parents and husband, the opportunity for one more chance before her life was terminated,” and that government “must honor life.”

“You would have kept the tube in?”—Tim Russert’s question, Meet the Press interview, March 27, 2005
“I would have kept the tube in.” —Joe Lieberman’s answer

#4 Equality in Marriage

Joe Lieberman opposes the right of all women—and men—to marry the person of their choice. Even though he has stated that he supports civil and human rights, he does not support marriage for same-sex couples.

“If you have the respect for gay and lesbian people that you say you do … why not support full marriage rights?”—Josh Mamis’s interview question, New Haven Advocate, January 5, 2006
“Well I think that makes a statement on society’s behalf that I think is wrong. I think marriage is and should be a special status conveyed by society that should be reserved for heterosexual marriage.”—Joe Lieberman, in response

#5 War in Iraq

Joe Lieberman has steadfastly supported the war in Iraq. He has been a vocal, public defender of the Bush-Cheney administration’s decision to continue to wage war and cites the need to “finish the job,” going so far as to suggest that anyone who opposes the war is unpatriotic.

“It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.”—Joe Lieberman, news conference, December 6, 2005

Show some love and check out their new website for more information.

Tim Tagaris joins Lamont campaign

Whoa! Time to whip out the Drudge siren...this is major news!

This is a major catch for the Lamont campaign and Matt Stoller from MyDD explains why things are going to get a lot more interesting in Connecticut.

Tim Tagaris, netroots wizard and ex-Marine, is joining the Lamont campaign. Tim is a brilliant organizer, a dedicated progressive and a fantastic blogger and visionary. To give you a little history, Tim's a netroots pioneer. He managed the first netroots candidate, Jeff Seeman, to a surprisingly good showing. In Pennsylvania, he caught young Republicans outside of a Santorum event on video chanting 'Hey hey, ho ho, Social Security's got to go', a major blow to the privatization scam. Then in Ohio he built GrowOhio.org for Sherrod Brown before providing the crucial link between the Ohio blogs and the national blogosphere that led to Hackett's fantastic rise during the Ohio 2nd race against Jean Schmidt. And since then, he has been instrumental at the DNC as their blogger.

[...]

The key to a great campaign isn't poll numbers or a willingness to try new things, it's the ability to attract great people through shared values. Tim is someone that people want to be around. He's a natural leader, a natural organizer. And he's going to Connecticut to put his values on the line, to topple a giant of corrupted insider politics. I'm very excited about this. Everything I've seen from the Lamont campaign is dead-on; Lamont keeps making the right moves. With this one, Connecticut just got a whole lot more interesting.

As a blogger, I'm very excited that Tagaris is on the Lamont team. Why do I have the feeling that Joe isn't going to like this guy?

Video highlights from Immigration rally in Danbury

Here are some brief video highlights from Sunday's immigration rally in Danbury. Be sure to check out Uncle Sam freaking out and showing his true anti-immigrant colors...truly disgraceful.

I'll post a full report with more photos and video footage once I get this computer problem fixed.

Grr

Oh good grief!

My Mac is down so I won't be able to post as much as I want today. Hopefully, I'll be able to work things out and post later this afternoon.

There is plenty to talk about and I still have the video highlights from Ned Lamont in Southbury, Lamont and John DeStafeno in Monroe as well as highlights from the Immigrant march/protest in Danbury.

Be back soon.

New polling info

I'll talk about the new polling information from Quinnipiac and Rasmussen Reports later today.

Briefly, there are definately good things Lamont can take from the latest polling data but the data clearly shows that name recognitnon is the key to winning this election.

Mission accomplished?

Tell these guys that.
Here are the stats since Bush's "Mission Acconplished" speech.
(Click on image to enlarge. Credit: Think Progress)

Images from Immigration rally

I'll have a full report on today's immigration rally in Danbury including video highlights later. For now, here are a few of my photographs from today's event. I'll think you'll agree that the images are better than what the News-Times had to offer. Hopefully, they'll post better images tomorrow.

UPDATE: I thought the News-Times would fix their on-line photographs...I was wrong. Although they updated the photo section with more images, the low-resolution of the pictures destroy the quality of the photographs. Now, since I'm sure the photographer used a hi-resolution SLR camera, I can't understand why the people at the newspaper can't seem to get the images to display properly.

If I was the photographer, I'd be pissed off. I'll post a full report with more photographs and video highlights later. You'll be shocked and angry when you see the footage of the anti-immigrant hate mongers as they show their true intentions.

Click on any image to enlarge.

Video footage of Joe's bad day

Spazeboy put together a little video clip of Joe Lieberman's hypocritical gas station photo-op Friday. Included in the video are comments from some people who were at the photo-op who weren't too happy with Bush's favorite Democrat. We also have sharp words from Ned Lamont from New Haven earlier this month where he also commented that Lieberman voted for the Energy Bill.

Enjoy.