connecticut stop of the day

bloodroot restaurant

(and YES you can go if you are male and YES you can go even if you are a carnivore)

.....A NY Times article called Bloodroot "A Salon for Activists". Yes, lively political conversation is usually as close as the next table, posters for animal and women's rights are in clear view, but mostly people come from all around to eat our good food and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere.
There's no cash register and no waitressing. Place your order with a woman seated behind a desk after making your choice from the blackboard menu. Enjoy your food either in our comfortable dining room or on our patio in good weather, and bus your own table when you are through.
Things are a little different here. It's evident from the moment you step inside the door. This is a feminist vegetarian restaurant. ...

the road up mt equinox

Certain rows of dubious flapping tongues
Have questioned what is termed 'your happiness'
But I stand mute
For I see
You hold the gift of mirth
And that is worth more than
All the lines of tears
That can be licked from analytical lips

i believe that is how the poem went. i am certain i have a copy of it somewhere. perhaps in my parents attic. it was written for me while i was in high school by my best friend (at the time and for many many many years afterward. we haven't spoken though in well over ten years) phillip

(i had told him a story of how my parents brought me and my sistettes, while we were all little grrrls, on a road trip to mt equinox. it was NOT a pleasant trip)

super

chick sisters

(a game on the peta website. pam anderson goes after kfc and frees a bunch o' boids in the process)

whew!

pilar maria aureliana buendias can rest easy now! (well at least where the appellate court of connecticut is concerned)
awwwwwww poor poor downey. it was a 'difficult time' for him (i do NOT blame his family though. the sins of the father are NOT my sins and all. so i DO have sympathy for them)



Rell Pulls Judge's Name
Downey Opts Out Of Appellate Bid



By MARK PAZNIOKAS And CHRISTOPHER KEATING Courant Staff Writers



Gov. M. Jodi Rell withdrew her nomination of Judge John R. Downey to the Appellate Court on Wednesday, one day after Downey's views on illegal immigrants roiled his confirmation hearing.Downey asked Rell to withdraw his name in the face of a legislative inquiry about his statements in Superior Court that undocumented immigrants had no right to the state's civil courts."I respect Judge Downey's decision," Rell said in a terse statement released shortly before 6 p.m. "I'm sure it was a difficult one for him and his family."...........

so does this mean if my name was pilar maria aureliana buendias

i would have to have PROOF of american citizenship BEFORE judge john downey would hear my case?

would he demand proof of my american citizenship BEFORE hearing my case if my name was suzie phelps?

i think we ALL know the answer
what i don't understand is WHY is he still being questioned. obviously he is NOT a fit for the position

Confirmation hearing continued for controversial judge

by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark DavisPosted Aug. 21, 2007
Hartford (WTNH) _ The nominee for the state Appellate Court fielded questions this afternoon from state lawmakers during his confirmation hearing, but will be continued as lawmakers review new information.
Judge John Downey, 56, has been on the Superior Court bench for over six years and the things he has said on and off the bench are coming back to haunt him.......
....But Downey has bigger problems. In a court transcript of a wrongful death case from last year, Downey questions a lawyer:
DOWNEY: What was the person's name?LAWYER: Juan Ricardo Brito was the full name. DOWNEY: I presume he had all his documentation as to his being legal here in the U.S.?LAWYER: I believe so. That hasn't been raised as an issue by anyone. DOWNEY: Well, it might be an issue in Judge Downey's court because I believe that no one has a right to sue in the State of Connecticut court system unless they're authorized to sue. .............
..........Under questioning today, Downey said he was aware of the Supreme Court ruling and was just playing verbal intellectual tennis with the lawyer.
"It was just an intellectual position I took with another bright, able attorney to see what his response would be before we launched into the rest of the case.
But lawmakers on the committee say they have other transcripts from other trials. One divorce case Downey refused to hear because the couple did not have documentation of citizenship. ..........

he's trying to dance but guess what? downey NEVER paid the piper!

Nominee In Doubt
Apparent Discrepancy Stalls Downey's Confirmation

By MARK PAZNIOKAS Courant Staff Writer
The nomination of Judge John R. Downey to the Appellate Court stalled after legislators questioned whether Downey had misled them earlier Tuesday by downplaying a suggestion he made last year that illegal immigrants had no right to use the courts.The legislature's judiciary committee postponed action on Downey's confirmation after obtaining two transcripts in which the judge, in 2002, emphatically stated that illegal immigrants have no right to the state's civil courts. Legislators say he ignored case law and the state constitution.The transcripts raise questions about his truthfulness and his command of the constitution and the law, said the committee's Democratic co-chairmen, Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford and Rep. Michael P. Lawlor of East Haven............

this to me is not only unbelievable

but UNACCEPTABLE

four teenagers SHOOTING BB GUNS at passing cars - hitting a police car AND jeff hawke IN THE EYE (blinding him in that eye, perhaps temporarily perhaps for good) AND three of them GET PROBATION AND HAVE TO WRITE AN ESSAY? (the fourth is yet to come before the judge). i wish they published the judge's name in this story. i sure would have liked to put it in this post. she or he made one hell of a LOUSY DECISION here.

and parents, why the f**k are you buying your kids bb guns in the first place? there is NO reason on this goddess' earth a kid or a teenager should HAVE a bb gun. NONE
(oh and mr hawke i'm very sorry this happened to you. both the shooting AND the guilty parties NOT being properly punished. shite, at the VERY LEAST the judge SHOULD HAVE sentenced ALL OF THEM to do things for you. wash your car, mow your lawn, do chores FOR A VERY LONG TIME. but nope, AN ESSAY)

Man shot in the eye expected harsher punishment for suspects

by News Channel 8's Jamie Muro
New Haven(WTNH) _ A Guilford man shot in the eye with a BB was ready to turn the other cheek until the punishment for the culprits came down. Jeff Hawke of Guilford was expecting a harsh punishment, but now he says he would at least like to sit down with the teenagers and ask them why they felt they needed to shoot at passing cars. Meanwhile, he continues to wonder if his left eye will ever get back to the way it once was.
"My vision is still blurry, I'm having a tough time driving," says Hawke.
Hawke never thought it would be driving that would lead to so many problems with his sight. Last month, North Branford Police arrested four teenagers atop a hill on Foxon Road who had opened fire on passing cars with automatic BB guns. ....

i KNOW we all have at the very LEAST

some USED DVDs we can spare FOR OUR TROOPS!

Operation DVD of Connecticut

In an effort to further support our troops, AMVETS Department of Connecticut is joining with AMVETS across the nation in launching Operation DVD to provide a safe form of entertainment and distraction for our troops overseas. Safe entertainment is a concept that is difficult at best for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even baseball and softball games are no longer possible because of snipers, mines, bombs and other terrorist activities. Through Operation DVD, AMVETS has a goal of collecting 1 million new and used DVDs for our troops. If you have not heard of the program, please take a few minutes to check it out at www.OperationDVD-ct.us .

les fleur du mal

i think these are morning glories but i don't know for sure. they did close up by about 11:00 am. taken sunday morning august 19th 2007

(note: looks like they ARE morning glories and their name is "milky way")

seven families, seven stories

including one from connecticut

this is from 2005, but it could very well be from TODAY. we must remember those lost (not just in this war but all wars before) and we MUST demand an end to this insanity

Coming Home: Seven Families Lay Their Fallen Soldiers to Rest. A Photo Essay

Anthony Swofford

For a moment, imagine the coffins empty, the burial grounds free of people, free of despair. Imagine the young men and their young bodies doing the work of youth. Imagine the parents watching a television drama or chatting on the porch with their neighbors. Pretend the death-folded flags are stacked on a sergeant’s supply shelf, gathering dust rather than grief.This is, of course, a foolish and dangerous game. It’s the game the Bush administration would prefer we play, but more corpses are en route, and more broken bodies, shattered psyches, damaged souls.My combat death fantasies began before I joined the Marine Corps. They started with Platoon, and the not-so-friendly-fire casualty of Sergeant Elias, his arms outstretched in martyrdom and splendor. Willem Dafoe’s character had fought both the Viet Cong and the Army’s own demons with veracity and courage. Good men die tragically, and the best die in combat. I’d grown up around the military, and, without being aware of it, internalized the military’s obscene power and culture. I had pallets full of honor and sacrifice waiting on the docks, manifested for shipment to lands foreign, dangerous, and strange. My father had survived combat in Vietnam, but I might go fight for my country and die, tragically and heroically—I’d die in the storied bloody fields of American history where my father had not.By the time I arrived in Saudi Arabia to fight in the 1991 Gulf War, my fantasies had been replaced by the very real facts that surrounded me, in the buildup of troops and the matériel carried on my body: rifle, pistol, grenades, a radio with which I might call in 500-pound bombs. I was here to kill, and people on the other side of that sand berm wanted to kill me. The romance of a combat death evaporates when combat arrives.......