lamont vs lieberman

as i've said before, lieberman has lost my vote based on his iraq war stance (alone).

this from the la times

War Stance Could Mean a Primary Battle for Lieberman
Businessman Ned Lamont emerges as a possible protest candidate for the Senate.By Ronald BrownsteinTimes Staff WriterJanuary 27, 2006WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who rose to national prominence as the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, appears likely to face a serious primary challenge this year that could measure the depth of his party's discontent over the Iraq war. Ned Lamont, a businessman and war critic, last week began publicly seeking support for a run against Lieberman in the state's August nominating contest. Lamont is attracting interest largely because of Democratic grumbling — in Connecticut and nationally — about Lieberman's unflinching support of President Bush's policies in Iraq. "The indications I have is that a primary would be good for the party and very doable," said Lamont, 52, who founded a cable television company.Lieberman, 63, said he was prepared for a fight. "I am totally energized by this," he said. "I'm proud of my record and I'm ready to defend it.".............

movie review: the land of the college prophets

i ran into my friend phil yesterday AND he FINALLY brought me a copy of his (collaborative effort) movie, ‘the land of college prophets’. filmed on location in connecticut, it’s a little indie gem. i have wanted to see it for a while but at the same time i was apprehensive. what if i didn’t like it? what if it was a piece of steamin’ shite? well it’s not. it is fairly well written. funny even. the score was most excellent too. i liked the red meat speech scene on the empty crates at the college campus. if i HAD to describe the style i'd have to say it's the a-team meets salvador dali. thanks phil for sharing your movie with me!

‘IT’S NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND HANDJOBS IN THE LAND OF THE COLLEGE PROPHETS’

here are some sites with reviews:

creature corner reviews

review rotten tomatoes

amazon (review and ordering information)

dommed moviethon review

the land of college prophets imdb entry

hale manor, production collective

this took me aback (but in a GOOD way)

Lieberman joins Dodd in opposing Alito's confirmation
By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer January 26, 2006
WASHINGTON --Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Thursday that he will vote against Samuel Alito because he fears the Supreme Court nominee would fail to safeguard vital civil liberties.
"I am left with profound concerns that Judge Alito would diminish the Supreme Court's role as the ultimate guarantor of individual liberty in our country," Lieberman said.
Lieberman, whose vocal pro-war support for President Bush has rankled fellow Democrats, joins Connecticut's other senator, Democrat Christopher Dodd, in opposing Alito..........

avon, thursday january 26th 5:00 pm

i went to avon yesterday afternoon to see my friend beth whom i LOVE (thanks for the raven beth-y, i ADORE it. my love to my boyfriend, your husband as well! cass, show this posting to your moms otherwise she'll NEVER see it). i miss working with her SO much and i miss BEING in avon too (i worked MANY years there). even though avon doesn't look like it did when i first started, it's still a cool little town.

as i was driving over avon mountain at about 2:00 pm, i DID notice a difference in how people were driving. they were obeying the speed limit of 40 for the most part and they were all (with the exception of ONE commercial van) in the right hand lane. how refreshing to see people NOT driving like asswipes. unfortunately, it was a way different story on my way home.

anyway, these pictures are from the parking lot of the double down grill my old stomping grounds! it was nice to see tom again too and e t (if asked, he always says it stands for extra testicle) and yes, even kurt with a k

instead of worrying about the flag being at half mast or not

why don't we concentrate on getting our connecticut women and men HOME who are serving in this UNJUST war based on LIES? well let's worry about getting ALL of our people home no matter what state or territory they are from (don't misunderstand me, i DO think we should honor ALL of our war(s) dead and wounded)

State lawmakers want U.S. flag lowered for fallen soldiers
By Susan Haigh, Associated Press Writer January 25, 2006
HARTFORD, Conn. --A group of state lawmakers wants to make it clear that the governor can order the U.S. flag lowered when a Connecticut service member dies overseas.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell has called for only the state flag to be lowered to half-staff for the 27 Connecticut soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the national American Legion, the federal code for flag etiquette allows a governor to order the U.S. flag lowered.
But lawmakers and Rell's office say the rule is vague and they welcome a proposed state law that clarifies it........

hartford 3:00 - 3:30 am thursday january 26th

the cemetery in front of the quaker meeting house in west hartford
general pulaski (there is an entry on him on my OTHER blog ravings of a semi-sane madwoman and the state capital (note: i cannot get the link to my blog archive on pulaski to work. if interested, it's from 7/26/05)

what is the date today?

i believe it is JANUARY 25th.

as i was driving home from work today, MINDING MY OWN BID-NEZ as i am KNOWN to do, a GIANT yellowjacket flew in front of my face. of course i immediately freaked out and stopped my car almost causing one hell of an incredible accident. eventually i got him out (without ONE horn blowing mind you and without killing it. thank you EVERYONE who was in back of me) but i am still reeling from the experience.

i am in no way a grrrly grrrl. i can get down with the best of them. i am not afraid of snakes or rats (rodents in general) but bugs...........of ANY kind put me over the edge. i am absolutely phobic. even ants. yes ants. any bug EXCEPT lady bugs (my friend erin calls me lady bug - different reason though).

please light a candle for me so i don't have to see another bug in my car this winter

i'm sorry i missed this at west hartford town hall (as usual i'm clueless)

this talk was at MY town hall and i had NO idea it was going on nor did i have any idea the group west hartford citizens for peace and justice existed (i'm going to cross-post this on my other blog ravings of a semi-sane madwoman)

Arms Expert Sees Iran War Ahead
By TOM PULEO Courant Staff Writer January 25 2006
WEST HARTFORD -- Weapons expert Scott Ritter said Tuesday that President Bush is using the Iraq conflict to rush the nation to war with Iran."The Bush administration has its sights set firmly on Tehran," Ritter told a group of more than 200 people. "The same deception is taking place right before our eyes and most Americans remain blind. It is going to happen. It is happening as we speak."A former U.S. Marine officer and ballistic missile expert, Ritter said only a reinvigorated U.S. Congress can stop Bush from going into Iran. The Bush administration has said in recent days that Iran is using an energy program as a cover for developing atomic weapons - something Ritter said is not borne out by the facts on the ground. Iran has insisted its uranium enrichment research will be used only to produce electrical power."Unless we can find a way to get people elected to Congress who respect the Constitution," Ritter said, "we're headed to war in Iran, ladies and gentlemen."Ritter received a prolonged standing ovation after his one-hour talk in the town hall auditorium sponsored by West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice.Ritter called Bush an "imperial president" who holds himself above the law in a misguided attempt to spread U.S. influence in the Middle East. Ritter said Iraq is not better off today than before the 2003 invasion."It's worse off economically, educationally, with health care, and worse off because 138,000 American citizens are illegally occupying a sovereign state.".....

oh my goddess, you HAVE to be kidding me

i remember initially reading about this incident. if it's true (and it appears it IS true since they have the 911 recording) this woman should be........well YOU fill in the blank. in the stories i read the police and fire fighters were far more credible. (however, i HAVE been wrong before). i am very interested to see how this case goes. if it is decided the woman DID want to go home to get the spare keys to her car instead of agreeing to let the fire and police officials break her windows, then she should have her AUDI IMPOUNDED FOR LIFE (not even mentioning what i think should happen to her as a 'mother'). i hope i'm wrong......
Arrested mom targets police and fire officials
January 24, 2006
STAMFORD, Conn. --A woman who was arrested after her toddler son was accidentally locked in her car on a hot summer day has notified the city she intends to sue police and fire officials, claiming she was defamed.
Guita Sazan Silverstein, 43, was arrested after she allegedly refused to let rescuers break the window to free him. She was charged with reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor.
Her attorney, Matthew Maddox said Silverstein should not have been arrested after the July 25 incident. Maddox said police and fire officials should take the blame for any delay or difficulties extracting the boy.
Thomas Cassone, director of legal affairs, said he will investigate.
"It's a serious charge when you're charging the people who respond to save your child who you've locked in the car, that they've basically lied about her," he said.
Police and fire officials have said Silverstein did not want firefighters to break the window of her 1999 Audi to extract her son, telling them she would drive to her home to get a spare key.......

....Police recordings of the call indicate Silverstein said that if the dispatcher sent police to watch her child, she could go home and get another key.
The dispatcher told Silverstein that firefighters would break into the car, but Silverstein said she didn't want her window smashed.
"Would you rather your child died?" the dispatcher asked.
Firefighters broke the window and the 23-month-old boy was taken to Stamford Hospital, where he was treated and released..................

once again, dodd does the CORRECT (i almost said right) thing

anyone wonder why liebs is silent?

Dodd will oppose Alito; Lieberman mum on decision
January 24, 2006
WASHINGTON --Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd said Tuesday that he will vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because his judicial philosophy is "outside the mainstream."
Dodd's decision came hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved Alito on a party-line vote. The panel's 10 Republicans supported Alito while the eight Democratic members opposed him.
Alito also won commitments from a majority of senators, assuring his confirmation and a likely tilt of the court to the right.
"In Judge Alito's America, the president would act with radical new powers -- unchecked by either the Congress or the courts as envisioned by the framers of our Constitution," Dodd, D-Conn., said in a statement...........

another child dead in connecticut (from what appears to be abuse) at TWO MONTHS OLD

why wasn't the mother charged with MURDER too? the article says she also refused to bring the baby for medical help. to me, THAT IS MURDER NOT MANSLAUGHTER. i often wonder why it's so EASY (for some) to procreate.

Parents charged in death of 2-month-old girl

January 24, 2006
WATERBURY, Conn. --A city couple were arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of their 2-month-old daughter.
Hector Camacho, 45, was charged with capital felony, which carries the possibility of the death penalty, and was held on $2 million bond. Nancy Torres, 36, was charged with first-degree manslaughter and held on $750,000 bond.
Amanda Camacho died Monday. The chief medical examiner's office performed an autopsy Tuesday and ruled her death a homicide from blunt traumatic head injury.
Waterbury police said it appears Hector Camacho inflicted the fatal injuries during the early morning hours on Monday. Authorities also said both parents knowingly refused to get the child medical care.
Police and emergency medical crews responded to 115 Walnut St. shortly after 10:30 a.m. Monday on a report of an unresponsive child. She was transported to St. Mary's Hospital and pronounced dead, police said.
Both parents were also charged with giving false statements to police for allegedly lying about the circumstances surrounding the child's death.
The couple's four other children were placed in the protective custody of the Department of Children and Families, police said.
Police declined to release more information.

blue early morning january 25th

Blue, songs are like tattoos You know I’ve been to sea betore Crown and anchor me Or let me sail away Hey blue, here is a song for you Ink on a pin Underneath the skin An empty space to fill in Well there’re so many sinking now You’ve got to keep thinking You can make it thru these waves Acid, booze, and ass Needles, guns, and grass Lots of laughs, lots of laughs Everybody’s saying that hell’s the hippest way to go Well I don’t think so But I’m gonna take a look around it though Blue, I love you Blue, here is a shell for you Inside you’ll hear a sigh A foggy lullaby There is your song from me = joni mitchell

my spindle came!

i ordered a beautiful spindle made by cascade spindle company. it's the mount shuksan model. as you can see i also got their niddy-nosty.

along with that, i got some hand painted silk roving (beautiful, no???). i just LOVE the colors.

the company i ordered it from (on the net) coincidentally is a CONNECTICUT company - it's the wheel thing. REALLY nice woman i exchanged emails with. a very good assortment of items on their website. easy to order from and easy to deal with! that counts for a lot in my book.

of course i've never used a drop spindle (or spinning wheel for that matter) nor have i ever spun anything other than a tall tale! i'll make my first attempt this weekend. at any rate, i am VERY HAPPY with my purchase!

am i missing something or isn't human trafficking ALREADY a crime

and isn't it called SLAVERY? everyone just turns a blind eye to it - well NOT everyone, but lots do

Report recommends new laws to combat human trafficking
January 24, 2006HARTFORD, Conn. -- Following isolated reports of human trafficking in Connecticut, a task force is expected this week to recommend legislation making the practice a crime.The Connecticut Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons intends to increase public awareness and educate law enforcement and domestic violence advocates about how to recognize a trafficked victim, typically an immigrant who has been tricked and ultimately forced into the sex trade or low-skilled, manual labor."I really look at this as pro-active legislation," said state Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford, who began working on the issue three years ago. "We need to have some laws in place. And most important, we need to train and educate our police on both the local and state level as to how to recognize it and what to do about it."The task force, which Stillman heads, is scheduled to unveil its report at a news conference at the state Legislative Office Building on Wednesday. The legislative session begins Feb. 8.The report comes after a Connecticut businessman pleaded not guilty in federal court last week to charges of illegally recruiting Portuguese immigrants to work excessively long hours for low wages in his Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and home......

i call this one - my cigarette languishing on the no smoking sign at work

one of the BEST shows i have ever seen was squeeze at the agora ballroom

(tilbrook left, squeeze album cover right)

way back when (don't know exactly). i still listen to their cds. love annie get your gun and cool for cats and pulling muscles from the shell, another nail in my heart. good stuff all (and i STILL miss the agora and the sting and how great toad's USED to be)

'I'd film him brushing his teeth' When Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook was reduced to touring in a camper van, one fan sold everything she had to record the results. By Caroline Sullivan Tuesday January 24, 2006The Guardian
Glenn Tilbrook's three sons are too young to remember when he and Squeeze singer/guitarist Chris Difford were briefly hailed as the cockney Lennon and McCartney, responsible for 21 picaresque UK hit singles and able to headline New York's 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden. To them, Dad is the dude who, when he hits the road, does it with a staff of one - manager/wife Suzanne Hunt - and a 1988 mobile home, which he drives from gig to gig, where he plays to a few hundred people a time.



'I'd film him brushing his teeth' When Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook was reduced to touring in a camper van, one fan sold everything she had to record the results. By Caroline Sullivan Tuesday January 24, 2006The Guardian
Glenn Tilbrook's three sons are too young to remember when he and Squeeze singer/guitarist Chris Difford were briefly hailed as the cockney Lennon and McCartney, responsible for 21 picaresque UK hit singles and able to headline New York's 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden. To them, Dad is the dude who, when he hits the road, does it with a staff of one - manager/wife Suzanne Hunt - and a 1988 mobile home, which he drives from gig to gig, where he plays to a few hundred people a time.

"I'm perfectly able to look at my career and see an attitude here where I'm a sad old git who continues to tour at age 48," says Tilbrook, deftly beheading a filter-tip cigarette and lighting up the unfiltered remnant. "But while I was still successful, I had the certainty that I would always do this, no matter what, because I have an absolute love of music."
Despite the cheeriness, it's hard not to see the poignancy of his situation. There's the contrast, for instance, between the studio's fancy recording gear - presumably bought when he was minted - and the fact that he now lives in what he calls a "more downmarket" patch of south-east London than he once did. But American indie film-maker Amy Pickard saw it differently. A "music anorak" and Squeeze nut from her days as a teenage VJ on her local Ohio cable station ("like Wayne's World, but with music"), she perceived Tilbrook as heroic for carrying on despite every indication that the world wasn't listening. Believing he'd been dealt a shabby hand by the music business, she embarked on a kind of one-woman "Justice4Tilbrook" campaign. ...........

snow early morning january 23rd

a cool root cellar (no pun intended)

my maternal grandparents (they died when i was young, but i remember them) had a root cellar. i remember it fondly. it had a dirt floor and all sorts of tuberous and root vegetables and the walls were lined with rickety shelves. on those shelves were canned fruits and vegetables of EVERY variety. it was always dark down there too. they had a great little flower garden and all sorts of fruit trees. cherry (sweet and sour), two kinds of apples (green and red), pear, a grape arbor and rhubarb planted around the garage. they also had a bunny hutch but i don't want to talk about that..........where was this veritable land of plenty? IN THE NORTH END OF HARTFORD. clark street to be specific.

Root Cellar History Studied

Underground Railroad Site?

By JAMES LOMUSCIO
The Advocate

January 23 2006

WESTON -- Like historic stone walls, root cellars have survived in Fairfield County as monuments to 18th- and 19th-century New England farmers who persevered despite the harsh terrain.

The cellars, fieldstone structures built into hillsides, stored root crops, such as potatoes and onions, and served as ice houses.

But the root cellar on Ellen Strauss' Weston property may have protected more than crops. Strauss, other town residents and the state archaeologist think this structure from the Revolutionary War era may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad, used by slaves heading north to freedom.

"I always heard rumors about it ever since I moved here in the late 1960s," said Strauss, a lawyer, as she walked the perimeter of the roofless structure on her 2.3-acre property on Ladder Hill Road North.

Neighbor Mary Ann Barr, who grew up on the road, said she recalls talk when she was a girl that the structure, 30 feet long by 15 feet wide, had been used by slaves en route to Vermont and Canada.

"It's been a legend on this road since I was a kid," she said. "Now, we want to document it."

The late local historian Jim Daniel, a former Weston first selectman, also speculated that the cellar could have been an important stop on the Underground Railroad.

Last summer, Strauss applied to the town's historic district commission to restore the cellar.

Barr, a trustee of the Weston Historical Society, suggested she contact state archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni to verify that the cellar was used to hide runaway slaves. Bellantoni visited the site, conducted studies and in August sent a team of a dozen archaeologists and students to conduct excavations.

"What we were impressed with was that this root cellar has a peculiar shape to it," said Bellantoni, who works out of the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology Center in Storrs...

shays spouts what seems to me to be gobbledy gook in greenwich

Shays stays the course


By Michael DinanStaff WriterJanuary 22, 2006Despite calls from some constituents to check what they called President Bush's abuse of power, Rep. Christopher Shays yesterday defended the commander in chief's order of warrantless spying on Americans and supported the soon-to-expire Patriot Act.Shays, a 10-term incumbent Republican, also called for Congress to debate the president's constitutional powers during war time as he hosted a lively discussion with more than 150 Greenwich residents packed into the Town Hall meeting room."I believe the president has very significant constitutional powers as commander in chief. That's what I believe," Shays said. "And I believe the Consti-tution trumps laws and if you don't believe in the constitutional powers of the commander in chief, you have to change the Constitution in order to limit. You can't change the laws to limit a president who has constitutional powers, and that's the debate we need to have."Several attendees said Bush has abused his power by circumventing the courts and ordering the National Security Agency to spy on Americans as part of the war on terror."The question is: Should the president be allowed to ignore the law and spy on Americans without oversight from the courts or Congress? And this is what really scares me," said John Howard, 40, of central Greenwich."And for the Republicans in the room, if you're not scared with Bush doing this, I want you to imagine President Hillary in five years," Howard added, drawing laughter from the overwhelmingly graying crowd...........

but then shays says........

...........Following Bush's recent example, Shays conceded that he was wrong in supporting the invasion of Iraq on the premise that the country had weapons of mass destruction. He also admitted that he grossly underestimated the cost of the war in Iraq........

then he goes back to the gobbledy gook