save a sato

(spay and neuter ALL pets. just do it)

if you're up for a new cat or dog, why not think of adopting a SHELTER ANIMAL. they can give you just as much love and pleasure (if not more) than any dog or cat from a breeder (or goddess knows elsewhere)

New Life For Strays Rescuing Puerto Rico's Street Dogs From Unspeakable Cruelty

By ANN MARIE SOMMA Courant Staff Writer

The dogs arrive into Bradley International Airport on an American Airlines flight in the dark of night. They've endured a long journey in crates in the belly of the plane, but their search for food, water, shelter and love is over.
They were rescued from the streets of Puerto Rico by volunteers, and having landed in the United States mainland, they are headed to an animal shelter in Danbury where they will be put up for adoption. The San Juan-based Save A Sato organization (sato means mixed breed in Puerto Rican slang; it is pronounced saw-toe) has been rescuing homeless and abused dogs on the tropical island, a commonwealth of the United States, and giving them a second chance at a good life on the mainland. ................

what data is da liebs looking at?

certainly NOT what everyone else is looking at. hundreds of iraqis dead every day. our troops NOT safe, even in the green zone. story after story of dispair and gloom and death and other tragedy.

reid is right, we lost. we lost a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time ago. MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED. yet da liebs is living in candyland
(i do NOT want ONE more of our men and women to be injured or killed)

Lieberman Scolds Reid For 'War Lost' Remark

By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman rebuked Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Friday, saying he strongly disagreed with Reid's assessment that the Iraq war is "lost.""This is exactly the wrong time to question our strategy in Iraq," said Lieberman, "or that our new strategy has failed."
Reid Thursday triggered an avalanche of Republican protest when he said that "the secretary of state, secretary of defense and -- you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows -- [know] this war is lost and the surge is not accompolishing anything…"Friday, after Lieberman made his remarks, Reid struck again..............

on april 28th

take back the blog
As announced, this page will host the April 28, 2007 Take Back the Blog! Blogswarm in support of the rights of women to participate fully in all aspects of our society, including specifically online in the world of blogging but indeed everywhere and at all times, day and night, without fear of harassment, intimidation, sexual harassment, online stalking and slander, predation or violence of any sort.

our bodies

please be happy with WHO and WHAT you are on the OUTSIDE because that is the part of you that is NOT important at all. be comfortable with yourself and NEVER let anyone tell you differently OR make you feel uncomfortable with how you look.

i will never 'blend'. i do NOT look like anyone else (as a matter of fact, when i was with my little sister last time, little as in big brothers/big sisters, she asked why i made up my eyes in a particular fashion. in addition to the colors i use and 'doe eyes' i draw, i also draw little straight lines under my eyes, rather like a clown but of course NOT that bold. i told her i did it on purpose. i told her i did it so i would be different than everyone else. i told her it was ok to be different. i told her it was ok to be who you were. i told her she should be PROUD of who she was. not to worry though, that kid has NO problem in the self-confidence aisle). i'm not skinny and i came to terms a LONG time ago i was NEVER going to be skinny. i wear funky clothes and i LOVE my clothes. some people look at me like i'm the devil, yet many smile when they see me. not smiling because they think i'm nuts but smiling like there goes a woman who is her OWN damn self and not afraid to show it. the OLDER i get, the MORE comfortable i get with myself. sure, we all have some doubts about ourselves. that's normal. we all have a thing or two we're self-conscious about. that's normal too. i won't let it get to me though. if it's something that is REALLY bothering me i'll attempt to work on it and change it. i do it for ME though. i don't do it for anyone else.

The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body

By Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet. Posted April 18, 2007.

This article is excerpted from "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters" by Courtney E. Martin. Copyright 2007 by Courtney E. Martin. Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.There is a girl, right now, staring in a mirror in Des Moines, scrutinizing her widening hips. There is a girl, right now, spinning like a hamster on speed in a gym on the fifth floor of a building in Boston, promising herself dinner if she goes two more miles. There is a girl, right now, trying to wedge herself into a dress two sizes too small in a Savannah shopping mall, chastising herself for being so lazy and fat. There is a girl, right now, in a London bathroom, trying not to get any vomit on her aunt's toilet seat. There is a girl, right now, in Berlin, cutting a cube of cheese and an apple into barely visible pieces to eat for her dinner.Our bodies are places where our drive for perfection gets played out. Food is all around us, as are meals and the pressure that goes with them. Well-intentioned after-school specials teach us, from a very young age, how to purge our snacks. We are inundated with information about "good" and "bad" foods, the most effective workout regiments, the latest technological advancements in plastic surgery. We demand flawlessness in our appearance -- the outer manifestation of our inner dictators.....................

bob nappe is going to get his job back

and i personally couldn't be happier. hey, the man left the force to VOLUNTEER to go to iraq to train police. putting aside my feelings for us being in iraq, the man did a wonderful thing. he DESERVES his job back on the east haven force!!! (thanks to the judge). although it does seem like the town may continue to put up a stink. geeze, bob nappe was an officer for 19 years!

Judge Rules East Haven Officer Must Get Job Back

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A judge has ruled that East Haven must give a former police officer, who retired to train police in Iraq, his job back.
The decision supporting former officer Bob Nappe comes three years after the 19-year-veteran retired. He stepped down after the police board refused to grant him a leave of absence to volunteer for a one-year job training Iraqi police in Baghdad.

from our friends at

the cool justice report

a celebration of writers and poets on may 6th at 10:30 am at fiddleheads in litchfield

details at the link above (do click it!!!)

May 6 / Fiddleheads Natural Supermarket
For More Information Contact Fiddleheads Market
55 Village Green Drive
Litchfield, CT 06759
860-567-1900

Presenters* Barbara Parsons, Couldn't Keep It To Myself, Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters, Harper Collins, edited by Wally Lamb; forthcoming: I'll Fly Away; Further Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters, HarperCollins, edited by Wally Lamb.
* Martin Schiller, Bread, Butter And Sugar: A Boy's Journey Through The Holocaust And Postwar Europe, Hamilton Books.* Shouhua Qi, New: Red Guard Fantasies and Other Stories (San Francisco: The Long River Press, 2007); When the Purple Mountain Burns (San Francisco: The Long River Press, 2005). Forthcoming: a novel about American Korean War POWs who chose to go to China at the time of armistice (1953).
* Sharon Charde, Bad Girl at the Altar Rail, Flume Press; Four Trees Down From Ponte Sisto, Dallas Poets Community Press; editor, I Am Not A Juvenile Delinquent, anthology by the creative writing students of Touchstone, a residential treatment facility for female adolescent offenders in Litchfield, Ct.Forthcoming, Branch In His Hand, Backwaters Press.* Oscar De Los Santos, Hard Boiled Egg (Fine Tooth Press, 2004) and Infinite Wonderlands (Fine Tooth Press, 2006).* Jessica Treat, A Robber in the House (Coffee House Press) and Not a Chance, stories and novella (FC2, 2000).* Louis Colavecchio, forthcoming, You Thought It Was More: The Real Providence Brought To Life.* Franz Douskey, Rowing Across The Dark, University of Georgia Press. Forthcoming, The Unknown Sinatra.The readings follow a reception at 10:30 a.m. by the Litchfield High Jazz Combo.

tonight on pbs

two hour long documentaries
(note: most stations are going to edit operation homecoming - thank the threat of fines from the fcc for that)

warriors
Filmed in 2005 in some of the most dangerous areas in and around Baghdad, WARRIORS profiles a handful of Army soldiers: five men and one woman.
They range from a squadron leader just weeks into his first combat command to a seasoned sergeant on a night raid in an insurgent hotspot.
WARRIORS opens a compelling, harrowing, and at times humorous, window on some less familiar sides of a soldier’s life: a look at who they are, what they do and why.
and

operation homecoming
OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. The film is built upon a project created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of servicemen and women and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

cptv in connecticut
and
wgby in western mass

our thoughts and prayers

are with the family and friends of cmdr. philip a murphy-sweet

Former Groton sailor dies in Iraq

(Groton-WTNH) _ Cmdr. Philip A. Murphy-Sweet of Caldwell, Idaho, died April 7th in a vehicle that was struck by a roadside bomb near Baghdad.
Murphy-Sweet, a 16-year veteran with the U.S. Navy, attended the Naval Submarine School in Groton in 1992.
Murphy-Sweet had volunteered for six-month tour in Iraq and was killed with less than a month to go before his return home.

just so you know

traffic is going to be A MESS tomorrow (i think it's tomorrow) on farmington avenue and surrounding areas. guess i'll be taking ANOTHER route home from work

First Lady Laura Bush To Visit Connecticut

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- First lady Laura Bush will be in Connecticut next week, making stops in Bridgeport and Hartford, according to a White House spokeswoman.Bush will be in Bridgeport Monday to join the city's "Big Read" celebration, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts...........

.................Bush will talk about the national program that promotes reading during a stop at the Barnum Museum, then will travel to the Mark Twain House, a national historic landmark in Hartford.................

i wouldn't live there

(people in glass houses............) but i sure as heck want to see it. wicked cool!

Into The Looking Glass A 58-Year-Old Connecticut Masterpiece With A View To Thrill Is About To Open To The Public - And The Rush Is Already On

By STEVE GRANT, Courant Staff Writer

Architects say it is a masterpiece. The public is practically pounding on the door to see it. After 58 years, architect Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, maybe the most iconic modern home in the U.S. and a pioneering residence of the International style, opens to the public for the first time April 30.It is a house that delights both architects and the general public, though until now the public has essentially known it only from photographs...............

image: graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/01/26/magazine/26cnd-johns.2.650.jpg

voices in conflict is indeed going to be performed

OFF-BROADWAY! (so take that you members of the wilton school board)!

i'm so very happy for the students and teacher-advisers who are involved with the play

High School play, canceled in Wilton, heads to off-Broadway

WILTON, Conn. --A high school play about the Iraq war and canceled by the school's principal is headed for an off-Broadway production in New York.
The students are set to perform "Voices in Conflict" at The Public Theater and The Culture Project in June.
The play, a collection of readings that students in an advanced theater class assembled from interviews, letters and blogs from war veterans, was canceled by principal Timothy Canty after a student whose brother is serving in Iraq complained that the production lacked balance.
Canty and Gary Richards, Wilton schools superintendent, have said the students' script did not provide enough context to explore a complicated subject and may hurt families who have lost loved ones in the war.
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, which was founded by Joseph Papp as a Shakespeare workshop in 1954, said he believed it was important to provide a venue for the students.
"Just the fact that you have high school students who are willing to take this kind of leap and actually engage in the big issues of the world, they have to be supported," he said.
The play fits the theater's mission, Eustis said. The theater is staging a play, "In Darfur," about the conflict in Sudan.
In 1985 it put on Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart," about AIDS in New York City.
Bonnie Dickinson, who teaches the 15 students who created "Voices in Conflict," said they were honored to be offered a chance to perform in New York............