Friday, April 28, 2006

ANOTHER cool thing done by a g richard blumenthal

and our great state of connecticut

MAKE THE EPA into what it's name stands for! we demand it! it's OUR earth. let's take good care of it NOW so it's still here for a good long while

10 states sue EPA over global warming
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer April 27, 2006
WASHINGTON --Connecticut and nine other states fired a new legal salvo at the federal government Thursday in a long-running court battle over global warming and pollution from power plants.
The states, joined by environmental groups, sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision not to regulate carbon dioxide pollution as a contributor to global warming.
"The EPA has once again sided with industry over the public," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. "The Bush administration continues its destructive and delusional denial of global warming, refusing to act responsibily, even as scientific evidence of climate change becomes indisputable."
New York, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The states, led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, want the government to require tighter pollution controls on the newest generation of power plants.
"We feel it's incumbent on EPA to regulate carbon emissions from those power plants now in order to help us get our arms around global warming," said Spitzer spokesman Marc Violette.
EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said the agency "will review all options and make an informed decision on how to proceed. EPA's climate protection programs continue to exceed the agency's greenhouse gas emissions goals and are on target to meet the president's 18 percent goal to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 2012."......

Thursday, April 27, 2006

ned lamont interview

from truthdig


Ned Lamont: The Truthdig Interview


By Blair Golson
During a speech at a Connecticut state fundraising dinner last month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman had to “shhh” the crowd three times—not because they were cheering him, but because they were ignoring him in favor of their own conversations.
According to the New York Times:
The inattentiveness—as well as the scattered boos amid the supportive calls of “Joe” that welcomed Mr. Lieberman to the podium—convinced some that the three-term senator, criticized for months because of his continued support for the war in Iraq, may be vulnerable in the primary challenge he faces.
That primary challenge comes in the unlikely form of Ned Lamont, a 52-year-old cable television entrepreneur from Greenwich, Conn., who has never held more than local office and who stepped forward only when no other Democrat in the state appeared poised to do so.
“All the political leaders in the state” told him, according to Lamont, “ ‘Ned, if you feel so strongly about it, you do it.’ ”
Although Lamont is not waging a one-issue campaign, even he acknowledges that he probably would not be running were it not to offer Connecticut voters an up-or-down referendum on the Iraq war. Lamont favors pulling U.S. troops off the front-lines of the Iraqi battlefields immediately, whereas Lieberman is perhaps President’s Bush’s most reliable war apologist in the Democratic Party.
As a result, Lamont’s bid to unseat Lieberman in the August Democratic primary has become perhaps the most-watched senate race in the nation. If a political neophyte with scant name recognition and little party backing can use his opposition to the war to wrest power away from a three-term senator who began the race with a 55-point lead in the polls, the upset will embolden every antiwar challenger who is eyeing a seat in the 2006 mid-term elections, or even the White House in 2008.
Despite his anti-establishment pretensions, Lamont was the fifth (yep, fifth) generation of Lamont men to attend the elite Phillips Exeter Academy and then Harvard. He went on to graduate from Yale’s School of Management, and soon after founded Lamont Digital, which builds cable television systems for universities and gated communities across the country.
Before throwing his hat into the ring last March, however, the only elective office he ever held was as a selectman for the town of Greenwich in the 1980s, and later on a town finance board. He ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 1990. Lamont said the desire to spend time with his wife (an investment banker) and children kept him from seeking higher office.
Starting in 1992, he began working for and holding fundraisers on behalf of a succession of presidential candidates—first Clinton in 1992, then Bill Bradley in 2000, and John Kerry during the last cycle. Post-2004 disillusionment with the lack of fresh ideas in the Democratic Party led him to seek out a more intimate form of public service—teaching high school courses on entrepreneurship in the low-income city of Bridgeport—in addition to getting involved with policy debates at the Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank in Washington.
Though observers of Connecticut politics are still calling Lamont’s candidacy a long-shot, Lieberman is taking the challenge seriously—hiring top-gun media consultant Carter Eskew to shake up his campaign; spending money on TV spots for the first time in a decade; and saying publicly that he would consider running as an independent if he lost the Democratic primary.
Indeed, in the progressive blogosphere, disgust with Lieberman for his perceived role as a lapdog for the Bush administration is rife, whereas Lamont is often portrayed as the best thing to hit the Democratic Party since Barack Obama (who is supporting Lieberman, incidentally). In addition to Lamont’s opposition to the war, his support of progressive bread-and-butter issues like gay marriage rights, universal healthcare, a progressive tax code and energy independence have quickly endeared him to many of the kinds of so-called netroots organizers who helped propel Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential bid. According to his latest fundraising filing, Lamont has collected $341,111 from 4,337 donors, more than 90% giving through the Internet. He added $371,500 of his own money to that kitty. Of course, Lieberman has almost $5 million in his campaign account.
Lamont has until May to gather 15,000 petition signatures or 15% of the state’s voting delegates to qualify as a candidate. The formal primary will be held in August.
Truthdig managing editor Blair Golson caught up with Lamont in Los Angeles at the Brentwood home of legendary television producer Norman Lear, where Lear and Internet icon Arianna Huffington were hosting a party to celebrate the book “Crashing the Gate” by Markos Moulitsas ZĂșniga of DailyKos.com and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD.com. When Lamont was introduced as Lieberman’s challenger, more than one person in the room shouted obscenities at the mention of the senator’s name.
Lamont later called Truthdig to talk about his insurgent campaign; about what would have kept him out of the race; and how the law of supply and demand has informed his stance on America’s war on drugs.
Blair Golson: How do you reconcile your relative lack of political experience with your ambition to be a U.S. senator?
Ned Lamont: The Senate should not be a sinecure for career politicians. Somebody who started up a business from scratch and someone who knows how hard it is to be a small businessman in this country, who works with employees over a period of years and knows the trials and tribulations of families, and how healthcare and pensions weigh on them--those are important experiences that are underrepresented in Congress. We have plenty of former attorneys general............

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

i was digging around in the courant (online of course)




and found this column by colin mcenroe. i do read his blog but rarely read the columns (of anyone) in the courant. i especially liked this one because one of the things it has to with is one of MY favorite places (in addition to mr mcenroe's mother's favorite place) elizabeth park. i grew up near it. my popi still lives near it. i learned to ice skate there (thank you queeno family). i remember the pond house when it WAS a pond house and NOT a restaurant. i remember summers bringing my dogs and my guitar and sitting down and singing and playing with the animals and my friends. i remember the wild onions in a patch of the park not many ever went to (or know about). i remember the path to the park from fern street that i think of as a secret entrance. after my sister's VERY small wedding we took pictures in the park as so many do. that was YEARS and YEARS ago and you know, i don't think i've been actually IN the park since. i LOVE that park.


anyway, here is mr mcenroe's lovely column. i sure do like what he has to say about his mom, his son AND the people in the park
Sunday In The Park With Jorge

(pictures from the elizabeth park website)

this is for you erin

(she's a big mets fan). i thought this column was very funny (and right on)

The Real Story About `Macho Doofus'
April 26, 2006 By JIM SHEA, Courant Staff Writer

April 26 2006
Is New York Mets baseball announcer Keith Hernandez a clueless male chauvinist or just a guy who got caught up in his own yada-yada-yada?Opinions are varied in the wake of comments Hernandez made during a game Saturday after noticing team massage therapist Kelly Calabrese in the San Diego Padres dugout."I won't say women belong in the kitchen," Hernandez said, "but they don't belong in the dugout." A short while later, he added, "I stand by those comments. I think this is a man's game, and I feel very strongly about it.""Keith Hernandez is nothing but a macho doofus," said Elaine Benes, a New York City-based catalog copywriter who dated the former MVP several years ago on "Seinfeld.""You know, I always told people the reason I stopped dating him was because he was a smoker," Benes said. "But the real reason was because his bat needed corking, if you catch my drift."..............

i'd like to buy margaret a drink (and her crab cakes too)

sounds like one cool woman! i've never been to pastis but have heard good things about it. seems like this is an incentive to go some thursday.

Margaritas, Margaret's Crab Cakes Keep Her Going To Pastis At 104
By PAT SEREMET

Courant Staff Writer April 26 2006

Every Thursday evening around 5:30, the staff at Pastis restaurant sets the same three places at the bar, with three neatly folded cloth napkins and a brass-plated "Reserved" sign. The Cuervo 1800 and the Grand Marnier are at the ready, the cocktail shaker within reach, the margarita salt poised to circle the rim of a glass.Enter the guest of honor. It's Margaret White of Hartford, who for four years has made this visit a Thursday habit, coming with her longtime friends and next-door neighbors, John and Clara Glynn. White has lovely coiffed white hair, radiant skin, dancing blue eyes that match her dangling earrings, which also pick up the blue in her yellow-and-blue plaid jacket."Sometimes she walks up to the bar so fast, I can't keep up with her," says Debbie Rossitto, Pastis general manager.White is 104 years old.When she grew up in the city, graduating from Hartford Public High School, she recalls, "Hartford was a beautiful place. They had an opera house. You could go downtown to a show, and nobody would bother you. I remember men would go downtown to get their growler of beer. We used to walk 3 miles to work because the trolley would take too long."Her parents, who had five other children, were born in Hartford; her grandparents came from Ireland."Hello, Margaret, I'm Tracy," a bartender says to White as she shakes up her margarita."They know how to make a good one," White says.Most of the staffers know her well and come over to give her a hug or an impromptu back massage.She usually enjoys a couple of margaritas and, of course, has to have the crab cakes that bear her name on the menu - "Margaret's Favorite Seared Crab Cakes." She occasionally tops off the night with a sombrero.White still maintains a house in the city's West End, the same house where she has lived for more than 70 years. She does her own housework. On Monday, John Glynn saw her cleaning around her rose bushes. Three months every summer, she's down at her cottage in Old Lyme.Rossitto describes the beautiful floor in a floral design that White painted on her porch when she was 100. Then there were the Raggedy Ann dolls she made last Christmas from a pattern she hadn't used for 50 years............

of course this reminds me of a story........

(this is NOT giovanna and saturnino but ti IS at the aqua turf)

(cross posted from my other blog)

Official arrested for chewing gum at ceremony

Apr 25, 8:24 AM (ET)
ANKARA (Reuters) - An official in Turkey's ruling party has been arrested for chewing gum while laying a wreath at a monument to the country's revered founder Kemal Ataturk, the state Anatolian news agency said Monday.
Veysel Dalci, head of the local branch of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Black Sea town of Fatsa, was charged with insulting Ataturk's memory during Sunday's ceremony marking Turkey's National Sovereignty Day.
CNN Turk television quoted Dalci, a 38-year-old pharmacist and father of two, as saying he chewed gum to hide the smell of garlic which he had eaten the previous evening.
"After laying a wreath at the monument, I noticed I had gum in my mouth. I am very sorry," CNN Turk quoted him as saying.
Anatolian said Dalci was arrested after a local army garrison commander complained to state prosecutors. It was not immediately clear what kind of penalty Dalci would face........



a few years ago i went to my dear friend saturnino's wedding (he married the MOST lovely giovanna). the church was somewhere down new haven way and the reception was at the aqua turf in plantsville (hey, i don't know where plantsville is either). a few of us went together and to be on the safe side, we decided to rent motel rooms for the night. it rained and thundered and lightening like i have never seen it rain while on the way to the church but it suddenly (and i must say miraculously stopped JUST as the wedding started). we took our seats and a friend, tom, turned to me and said 'i wish i was italian. i have NEVER seen so much kissing and hugging in my whole life. we didn't do this in our family'. i just smiled and shook my head. of course there is LOTS of that going on but what he didn't know is; when it's good it's good BUT WHEN IT'S BAD IT'S WICKED UGLY. no one can hold a grudge or be as stubborn as an italian (in my most humble opinion). oh but i digress. i begged saturnino to be his best man for MONTHS prior to the wedding. i WOULD have worn a tux, cumberbund AND a bow tie. NO SHIRT of course (gotta dig that cleavage) but i WOULD have worn that tux. he just said to me 'a rose is a rose, you KNOW my parents and giovanna's parents and the rest of our families just wouldn't understand so i've asked my ONLY sibling, my ONLY brother, crescenzo to be my best man'. can you feel the dejection i felt? i still reel when i think of the hurt this brought me (although i never forget the words 'NEVER go against the family fredo'). so the wedding ceremony starts. giovanna is the loveliest bride i have ever seen. saturnino starts welling up as she is being escorted down the aisle by her father. i am getting a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside (even though everyone has moved away from me at this point. something about them being afraid to sit next to me in a church). my attention then turns to crescenzo who's up on the alter lighting a candle or something or other. HE'S EFFING CHEWING GUM. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. the best man was ON THE ALTER OF GOD CHEWING GUM. i got through the service (how, i'll never understand) and exited the church to the receiving line. when i got to saturnino i bent over and whispered in his ear, 'you chose crescenzo over ME to be best man. he has disgraced you AND your family by chewing gum. YOU SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN ME ME ME to be your best man. i would NEVER chew gum. of course i would have had a lit cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other but GUM....NEVER NEVER NEVER'.

giovanna and saturnino are now the proud parents of little serafina born 16 months ago. she IS beautiful and i'm not just saying that and every word of this story is true except of course for the names

(look for my next wedding story soon. it involves me (of course) vittorino and tiziana PLUS objects from outer space)

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

and who exactly ARE these 24% i wonder?

President's Rating Drops To 24 Percent In Connecticut

grate



tuesday april 25th 6:00 am part ii




tuesday april 25th 6:00 am


why would ANYONE in their right mind (operative words there)

try to defeat or stop a bill proposing to help keep ILLEGAL guns off of the streets? please notice ALL those opposing this bill were REPUBS. coincidence?

why would the NRA send a lobby here to try to stop the bill?

please also note, the bill HAD the support of (some at least) police chiefs including that of my town, chief strillacci (shout out to him!!!)

Lost and Stolen Gun Law Passes the Senate

by Christine Stuart 09:50:21 pm, Categories: State Capitol, 450 words
A bill that law enforcement officials say will help keep illegal guns off Connecticut's streets received bipartisan support late Friday evening from the Senate.
Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, said the bill makes it illegal for gun owners not to report their guns lost or stolen within 72-hours. Any person who fails to report their gun lost or stolen will face a $500 fine, except if they intentionally failed to make the report within 72-hours it becomes a class A misdemeanor, the amendment to the bill says.
McDonald and other senators saw the House bill 5818 that included this language was stalled in the House so they attached it to Senate bill 105 that prohibits the sale and delivery of “electronic defense weapons,” such as Tasers. .........

and

NRA Dispatches The Troops

by Paul Bass April 24, 2006 09:59 AM
The National Rifle Association has sent its lobbying militia to the state Capitol to try to stop the House of Representatives this week from passing a bipartisan bill to help keep illegal guns off Connecticut's streets. The State Senate passed the bill. Click here to read Christine Stuart's report.........

Monday, April 24, 2006

i've traveled route 4 in farmington many a time

and it IS nasty congested. why they decided to allow an entrance/exit ramp to i-84 in farmington when they were NOT going to allow for widening of route 4 is beyond me. it's a mess to get through there. i understand it's an historic district. you should have PUT THE EXIT/ENTRANCE RAMP ELSEWHERE then you bunch o' mokes. DAMN it's just stupid

Route 4: Going Nowhere Fast In Farmington, Traffic Congestion Clogs A Key Commuting Artery
By GREGORY SEAY
Courant Staff WriterApril 24 2006
About sunrise every weekday, eastbound Route 4 becomes glutted with commuter traffic that lasts until mid-morning. Each evening, the slow procession reverses, snarling westbound Route 4 for several hours.The thousands of vehicles using Route 4 come from Farmington, Burlington, Barkhamsted, Canton, New Hartford and other western points. Traffic is so thick that the Capitol Region Council of Governments lists the 4.2-mile stretch between Route 177 and Route 10 as the most congested arterial road in metropolitan Hartford.According to John Carey, the state's top traffic engineer, as many vehicles traverse the two-lane intersection of Routes 4 and 10 in morning and evening as cross the four-lane intersection of Route 44 and Route 10 in Avon, the scene of a deadly multi-vehicle crash last July.When traffic is light, the Route 4 drive is maybe eight minutes, even with stops for some red lights. During peak times, the journey can take a half-hour.The state transportation department is preparing to spend $10.6 million on a series of improvements along a ¾-mile stretch of Route 4. One includes widening the bridge over the Farmington River to accommodate two continuous traffic lanes from Town Farm Road eastbound to the Route 10 intersection. Work is to begin in 2008, with completion set for 2010.Most of the commuting vehicles on Route 4 have only a driver, each with his or her own ritual for managing the trek - listening to the radio, shaving, putting on makeup, sipping coffee, among other things..........

more on da liebs front

(and i saw my FIRST liebs commercial this weekend. boy he sure must be scared is all i thought)

Connecticut senator too close to Bush
By Susan Haigh, Associated Press Writer April 24, 2006
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. --Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, who once occupied the lofty No. 2 spot on his party's presidential ticket, is too Republican for some Democrats.
The three-term lawmaker, a strong advocate of the Iraq War, proponent of some GOP policies and recipient of a kiss from President Bush, has frustrated several national Democrats and angered enough in his home state to draw a primary challenger.
"I think it's a challenge for Lieberman to reconnect to the rank-and-file of the party and prove he is an authentic Democrat," said John McNamara, chairman of the New Britain Democratic Town Committee.
Bumper stickers spotted in Connecticut read, "Anybody but Joe -- I want a real Democrat in '06." Campaign buttons show Bush and Lieberman in an embrace, with the words, "The Kiss: Too Close for Comfort."
In February 2005, after Bush's State of the Union speech, the president hugged Lieberman and planted a kiss on his right cheek.
Call it the buss that launched a challenge......


(dump joe

Sunday, April 23, 2006

i had THE BEST corn chips i have ever had


this morning.

i purchased a bag of jalapeno chips at whole foods the other day. i bought them because they had a big display and i picked up a bag without even thinking. i sure am glad i did. as it turns out they're made in hartford to boot! the taste is incredible. there's a burst of jalapeno flavor that has a kick YET isn't too strong. it's a clean and light taste leaving you wanting MORE MORE MORE.

they are made by
food should taste good

they also make a whole grain chip which i shall soon taste as well (i'm sure NOT going shopping today. i need to relax)