Saturday night with RUN-DMC

Greatest X-mas song ever!

Judith fired

Oh, this is SO funny (and long overdue).

ossip had the rumor, NYT has the confirm: Judith Regan was fired late this afternoon, officially, by publisher HarperCollins, the parent company for her imprint, Regan Books, "effective immediately." The termination was confirmed this evening by HarperCollins president and CEO Jane Friedman in a two-sentence release, according to the Times.

The annoucement comes in the wake of the outcry following Regan's planned publication of the O.J. Simpson 'confession' book, "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," which Regan had also produced as a planned two-hour special to run on Fox during November sweeps. After the public recoiled in distasted and revulsion from the crass, sordid attempt to capitalize on the decade-old tragedy, Rupert Murdoch-owned parent company NewsCorp. pulled the special and recalled the book.

The NYT says it is "unclear whether Ms. Regan has been dismissed only from HarperCollins, or terminated entirely from the News Corporation," but Jossip, which had the unconfirmed rumor of Regan's firing shortly after 7 p.m., reported hearing that Regan had been fired by Murdoch "after an intense back-and-forth following the O.J. Simpson book scandal." Given the above, it seems highly unlikely that Regan would remain at NewsCorp in any capacity after being removed from the head of the company that bears her name. There was speculation about Regan's tenure following the Simpson scandal (not to mention her bizarre justification for it, published in the Murdoch-owned New York Post), but conventional publishing industry wisdom held that she made too much money for NewsCorp. to let go. Rupert Murdoch, however, made a point of putting morality over money when he canceled the O.J. special and book despite taking a hit on NewsCorp's original investment, in a move that may be seen to continue that trend.

One month old today...

and CTLauryn sleeps with her hand to her head just like dad when he passes out on the couch (click on image to enlarge).

Daddy's girl indeed!

Blog Wars

Woo hoo!!

Just got my advanced copy of the BBC documentary Blog Wars. It's really too bad I didn't get my personal diary stuff to the BBC guys. Maybe if I can find the tape inthe mounds of crap in my room, I'll post it here.

Hats off to the BBC crew across the pond, the movie looks GREAT! If I known I could curse like CTKeith did, I would have let the four letter words fly during the interviews I did during the primary :-)

Flip-flopping Joe

This is too easy.

The fake Joe Lieberman saying anything to get re-elected:

The real Joe Lieberman:

Backed by Sen. Joe Lieberman, Sen. John McCain took his controversial proposal for curbing Iraq's sectarian violence to Baghdad on Thursday, calling for an additional 15,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops and joining a congressional delegation in telling Iraq's prime minister he must break his close ties with a radical Shiite cleric.

Lieberman, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they agreed with the Arizona Republican's call for a troop increase.

"We need more, not less, U.S. troops here," Lieberman said.

Why do I have a feeling we'll be able to pull more video of lying Joe from the archives...

Hat tip to Tagaris who's back on the scene.

Moody misled officials

Oh, this is SOOO shocking.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, "misled" a legislative committee by giving sworn testimony that was "not credible" regarding a Rell fundraiser last year, according to a draft copy of a new legislative report.

The report, obtained Wednesday by The Courant, also says that state elections enforcement chief Jeffrey Garfield should face "some form of reprimand or censure" because he deleted important information from an investigative report and released the unedited version only after hearings were completed last spring.

Garfield "exhibited poor judgment and allowed personal relationships to impact his investigation and reporting" of the investigation into Moody's involvement in a Rell fundraiser in December 2005 at the Marco Polo restaurant in East Hartford, the report says.

Neither Moody nor Garfield would comment Wednesday night.

The report, written by Democratic staff members and leaders of the government administration and elections committee, will be considered at a Democratic caucus at 1 p.m. today at the state Capitol complex in Hartford. The document contains 16 recommendations for legislation in an effort to prevent future instances of impropriety and coziness that Democrats said was present in the case.

Moody was suspended by Rell for two weeks after admitting that she handed out invitations to commissioners on state time. Her actions led to seven days of often-contentious legislative hearings in May. Sixteen of Rell's commissioners or deputies were fined $500 each to settle a case under a state law that prohibits those officials from soliciting campaign contributions from their subordinates.

The 14-page report quotes Moody as telling at least one senior staff member, "I am not twisting your arm, but I am," regarding the fundraiser.

The report also states that Moody told one deputy commissioner that "this meeting isn't happening" and another that "it's after 5" - meaning that the workday was officially over for state employees.

[...]

"Based on the entire record before this committee, we conclude that Ms. Moody's sworn testimony before the GAE Committee was not credible," the report states. "We conclude that Ms. Moody consciously and repeatedly distributed fundraising invitations to gubernatorial staff members and to state commissioners and deputy commissioners with full knowledge that her actions violated the governor's own ethics policy and would result in illegal campaign practices."

Once again, the governor gets away with this type of nonsense without a scratch.

Rowland-Rell.

To CT Bob with love

In honor of CTBob's favorite blogger...

The last honest Republican standing

From this evening's Hardball, here's Chris Matthews interview with Republican Senator Gordon Smith. As you recall, Senator Smith was a strong supporter of the war who finally saw the light and spoke out against the Bush administration's God-awful handling of this insane war.

If there were only more Republicans like him, this war would be over much sooner.

Peter Boyle

Another great actor has passed away
(FYI: this image of Boyle is from one of my favorite movies, OUTLAND).

Peter Boyle, the actor who transformed from an angry workingman in "Joe" to a tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and finally the comically grouchy father on "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.

Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.

Too many great performances to name...he will be dearly missed.

The bubble boy

Although I can't wait for Democrats to start holding hearings, I wish they just skip that step and go straight for impeachment.

This President's handling of the war in Iraq is outrageous...Olbermann breaks it down.

Worse President ever

No kidding.

Danbury Republican-majority insults our intelligence regarding local government braodcasting

(a people powered media RED alert cross post from Hat City Blog)

Okay, now they're just insulting our intelligence folks.

For those who think this site is only about going after Republicans in the area (which is laughable), here's a topic that everyone should be able to agree and find common ground regardless of your political views.

When it comes to your local government at work, I can not stress to you how important it is for people to know what's happening in Danbury. It's simple...people NEED to see their the people they voted into office at work and see how things are done at City Hall. For a area the size of Danbury NOT to have their government meetings on television is downright embarrassing given that smaller surrounding towns such as Bethel and Ridgefield seem to have no problem providing their citizens with government broadcasts. 

Instead of just hearing about the passing of bills and ordinances, the public would be better informed about the pros and cons surrounding any issue if the meetings were simply broadcasted. That way, the public would be allowed to see their local government at work and make a better-informed opinion on any topic. Unfortunately, because of a local newspaper that historically hasn't done a great job covering local government news, many people in the area are unaware of what's happening behind the scenes at City Hall which results in people making uninformed decisions on topics that they actually know little about.

After many months of watching this situation unfold in Danbury, it is this blogger's honest opinion that Mayor Mark Boughton and the Republican majority of the Common Council is simply stonewalling the public and offering any excuse that comes to their mind when it comes to broadcasting local government meetings on public access and enough is enough. Form day one, the Republicans in power have gone out of their way to block the ability for City Hall to simply broadcast local government meetings on public access and enough is enough.

To illustrate just how bi-partisan this topic is, I'm going to do something that will make locals in Danbury who know both of these individuals fall off their chairs: present a issue that Democrat Lynn Taborsak and Republican Lynn Waller agree on (for the most part).

Although I don't agree on many things Waller raises on her public access show, I do respect her for not drinking the kool-aid when it comes to the excuses receiving regarding the problems with putting the meetings on television. She's been doing her Friday night public access show for too long to know that broadcasting anything and placing it on cable television shouldn't be that big of a deal and definitely shouldn't cost the outrageous estimates coming from the Mayor's office (figures ranging from 60,000 to 90,000 dollars). She's been on her show for the last five months alerting the public about this issue and recently had a pretty heated exchange (for her standards) with Common Council Republican President Joe Cavo where he basically she told every ridiculous excuse in the book.

Now, Lynn Taborsak has been a political figure in Danbury for quite some time and she's another person who you can't fool. Taborsak doesn't have a hard time cutting right to the chase and calling it like she sees it and when it comes to the nonsense surrounding the Republican's excuses, she doesn't fail to disappoint. Calling the broadcasting excuses from Boughton, Cavo, and the Republican majority a classic case of stonewalling; Taborsak echoes the opinion of many including myself who have had enough of the excuses and political dishonesty.

For those of you shaking your head and saying, "CTblogger has to be kidding," here's what I'm going to do just for you.

From now until either the meetings are broadcasted or election day (whichever comes first), I'm going to devote a good chunk of my time alerting the public to the endless list of excuses the Republican-majority is putting the citizens of Danbury through regarding this silly issue.

Broadcasting meetings on public access should be a no-brainer. Shouldn't we all know exactly what's being said at City Hall?

As usual, I've created a video that will somewhat get people up to speed surrounding the nonsense those who want local government meetings on television are being put through by a Republican majority which has given every indication that they want to keep the public in the dark when it comes to their decision-making. Trust me, when you watch the video, you'll better understand why this issue is driving so many people in Danbury nuts.

Okay, of you just watched the video, pick you mouth up off the floor and site back in your chair...everything presented in the clip is 100 percent true and trust me, this is only the beginning in a LONG SERIES of videos exposing the hypocrisy and arrogance the republicans are displaying to the public at large.

To up the ante, I'm going to create a special section of my blog, which will be devoted exclusively to this topic, but I need your help. Please, send an email to Common Council President Joe Cavo (j.cavo@ci.danbury.ct.us) demanding that the stonewalling stop and broadcast local government meetings on public access. When you email him, PLEASE send a CC: or BCC: to hatcityblog@yahoo.com and I can keep an ongoing list of the public's emails to Cavo on my site for all to see (don't worry, your email address will not be posted). This way, Mr. Cavo cannot say he didn't receive any feedback from the public (which he has been stating for the last couple of months).

I know this sounds silly but Danbury is a silly city, which is controlled by a political party that has gone out of their way to insult our intelligence on so many topics that it's hard to keep count, and enough is enough.

People-powered media to action!

The Ned Lamont interview with Campus Progress

Campus Progress interviewed Ned Lamont and got him to open up about his future plans.

It's a pretty good interview and worth the read.

Obama ends the speculation

Hat tip to the great Scarce

Al Gore for President '08

Please, please, PLEASE run.

Al Gore is waging a fierce campaign for recognition and an Oscar statuette for his global warming documentary, while reviving talk that he's pursuing a bigger prize: the presidency.

[...]

"I am not planning to run for president again," Gore said last week, arguing that his focus is raising public awareness about global warming and its dire effects. Then, he added: "I haven't completely ruled it out."

I'll say it again...please, please, PLEASE run.

UPDATE: This is why I'm pleading that Al Gore run for office. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE run.

Licking each others wounds

TParty says this is not a joke.
So let me get this straight. The Republicans lose the election and Bush and his buddies meet together to see how they can save themselves.

Shameless.

Don't blame me, I voted for Lamont.

Chris Dodd does Fox News Sunday

Chris Dodd was on FoxNews Sunday offering his views on the Iraq War, the Iraq Study Group Report, and deflecting Chris Wallace's screwballs.

The fighting first family

God Bless the Jesus General!

Just another day in Bush/Lieberman War

Stay the course Joe?

Gunmen killed nine members of two Shi'ite families in Baghdad on Sunday a day after militias raided a mixed neighborhood and forced dozens of Sunni families to flee in a serious escalation of sectarian violence.

Officials and relatives of the victims said about 30 gunmen stormed a home in a mostly Sunni area in southwestern Baghdad and killed five brothers from one family after separating them from the women. A father and three sons from another family, all of them policemen, were also killed.

"The gunmen broke into the house. They locked the mother and the sisters in one room and killed the five brothers in another room," a cousin, who identified himself as Haider, told Reuters. Haider, who spoke to the women after the attack, said the brothers were all Shi'ites.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf confirmed the attack in Jihad neighborhood and said he was unaware of the victims' sectarian affiliation. A source at Yarmouk hospital said all victims were Shi'ites.

The attack came a day after gangs of Shi'ite militiamen burned homes and killed at least two people in broad daylight in the religiously mixed Hurriya district in western Baghdad, officials and witnesses said.

Don't look at me, I voted for Lamont.