please vote tuesday the 8th

it's one thing to SAY you're going to vote for ned lamont, it's another thing to do it. use your RIGHTS as an american AND VOTE in the primary on tuesday. tell the WHOLE COUNTRY (YES, THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS WATCHING US) the king and his court ALL MUST GO.

ned lamont, next senator from connecticut

Lieberman falls farther behind in Connecticut race

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate now dragged down by his support for the Iraq war, trails a challenger from his own party by double digits ahead of a key political test next week, a poll released on Thursday showed.
Lieberman, a three-term Senate veteran, has been pummeled by millionaire cable television executive Ned Lamont over Iraq and for his willingness to work with Republican President George W. Bush. He is behind by 13 percentage points among likely voters, the Quinnipiac University poll found.
The increasingly bitter primary campaign has drawn national attention and is an early gauge of anti-war sentiment among U.S. voters before November's elections that will determine control of the U.S. Congress. ......

i'm still going to vote for ned lamont

but having al sharpton and jesse jackson stand for ya ain't no good thaing in my eyes. i think al is an ass and jesse is a pompous second tier wanna be big mouth (not as big a mouth as al's though). i really DO NOT like either of those men. AT ALL (oh and da liebs blackface cartoon in huffington post was in WICKED POOR taste too. i know the lamont campaign had NOTHING to do with that. what WAS that woman thinking?)

Raising Their Voices

Sharpton, Jackson Praise Lamont
August 3, 2006 By CHRISTOPHER KEATING Capitol Bureau Chief

BRIDGEPORT -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton urged Connecticut voters Wednesday night to send a message next week to the nation about the direction of the Democratic Party by choosing Ned Lamont in the U.S. Senate primary.The two former presidential candidates drew a crowd of more than 200 into the basement of the Mount Aery Baptist Church and told them to vote for Lamont over the incumbent, Joe Lieberman, and for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano for governor.
"The nation's eyes are on Connecticut," Jackson said. "This is a battleground state about the direction of our nation."Sharpton delivered a fiery speech that brought more supporters to their feet with each sentence as he raised an analogy about a bird and the direction the nation is taking..................

i'm cranky today

well crankIER today i should say. i'm staying at my dad's for a couple of days due to the heat. i live on the third floor of a three family with NO ac so i think i would literally die if i were to sleep home this week.

last night i went to bed (in my OLD bed from when i was a teenager) and suddenly awakened a short time later. my dad wasn't home but my sister (who lives with him was). turns out i woke up because there was no power in my room. my sister was running all of the lights, the tv, the fans AND the ac and the washer and dryer and blew a fuse. not all of the power was out just the power that would keep me cool. she tracked the old man down who finally came home and after another 30 mintues found the blown fuse. of course he didn't have any that size so he had to go find one. ANOTHER 30 or 45 minutes later, he was back. well he eventually replaced the fuse and i was cool again, but day um, i got LESS than my normal 3 or 4 hours. so if you know me STAY AWAY FROM ME TODAY (it's for your OWN good)

Heat Wave Scorches State

Ted Lamont Stumps on Colbert Report

two quotes stand out:

it's our OBLIGATION to stand up as citizens!!! (on king george)

and

we can't do it for 'em with the barrel of a gun (on iraq)

even the nyt knows it's time for da liebs to go

and time for ned lamont to be a senator from connecticut.. the war HAS TO STOP. we have NO BUSINESS being in iraq and we have NO BUSINESS goading other countries into war in the middle east. we have NO BUSINESS torturing prisoners. we have NO BUSINESS standing by and letting the people of the world die. hell, the king and his court cannot even care for their OWN citizens (katrina for example). a change must come and it must come now. and no, i'm NOT a hysterical anti-war blogger trying to oust a bipartisan senator. i'm trying to oust someone who supports a war we have no moral, ethical or ANY reason to be in. our men and women are dying every day. FOR NO REASON. the iraqis did NOT blow up the world trade center. why are we killing them?


A Senate Race in Connecticut

Published: July 30, 2006
Earlier this year, Senator Joseph Lieberman’s seat seemed so secure that — legend has it — some people at the Republican nominating convention in Connecticut started making bleating noises when the party picked a presumed sacrificial lamb to run against the three-term senator, who has been a fixture in Connecticut politics for more than 35 years.
But Mr. Lieberman is now in a tough Democratic primary against a little-known challenger, Ned Lamont. The race has taken on a national character. Mr. Lieberman’s friends see it as an attempt by hysterical antiwar bloggers to oust a giant of the Senate for the crime of bipartisanship. Lamont backers — most of whom seem more passionate about being Lieberman opponents — say that as one of the staunchest supporters of the Iraq war, Mr. Lieberman has betrayed his party by cozying up to President Bush...........

.........If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support. ...............

ned lamont

i didn't get a chance to see ned lamont speak at 2:00 in hartford yesterday. BUT when i returned home yesterday at about 6 or 7, he was on the steps of my neighbor's house across the street, speaking!!! i believe he was then going to head to the irish festival in glastonbury.

i came across this article in the nation on ned and da liebs. great article with a bit of background on ned's family.

i am so very happy ned is running. it's so important to me to have someone speak out on this horrible war. of course ned is MORE, MUCH MORE than a one note singer. every day more and more people realize this. yes, ned doesn't have much political experience but that isn't important to me. what is important to me is getting ned elected. the experience will come after.

A Fight for the Party's Soul

Never mind the internecine Democratic politics of Connecticut and the role that ethnic, labor and local sentiments will play in deciding the primary contest between centrist Senator Joe Lieberman and liberal challenger Ned Lamont. Never mind that the contest has made Connecticut the front line in an increasingly bitter brawl involving MoveOn.org and the liberal blogosphere on one side and the Democratic Leadership Council and a substantial contingent of the party's Washington elite on the other. Never mind that both sides spend inordinate amounts of time debating whether George W. Bush thanked Lieberman for the senator's unwavering support of the Iraq War with a slobbering kiss or merely a peck on the cheek when the two embraced at a State of the Union address.
When the votes are counted on August 8, the whole of the Connecticut primary, and much of the national debate over the direction of the Democratic Party, will be boiled down to a one-line pronouncement. It will either be "Antiwar challenger trounces Lieberman" or "Lieberman prevails over war foes." The reduction of this complex contest to a headline may not be entirely fair, or entirely accurate. Yet it will be understandable, because to the surprise of just about everyone, the man Democrats nominated for Vice President in 2000 is in a fight for his political life with a previously unknown candidate who decided a few months ago to surf the wave of anger stirred by Lieberman's emergence as the loudest Democratic defender of the occupation of Iraq. ................

............When Lamont offers his critique of "George Bush and Joe Lieberman's" foreign policies to the business owners who have gathered at the Indian restaurant in Stamford, several of whom make favorable references to "the House of Morgan," every head in the room nods. And when he quotes former Connecticut Senator Abe Ribicoff's Vietnam-era suggestion that America is strongest not when it brandishes arms but when it earns the respect of the world, the nodding heads are smiling............

ned will be in hartford today at 2:00

i talked to my sister yesterday (she lives with my pops). they have both decided to vote for ned. i'm WICKED HAPPY about that! only a few more days until august 8th.................VOTE

Join Ned for a press conference tomorrow (it's TODAY, this was sent to me yesterday)at at 2 p.m.
Michael Schiavo, whose wife Terry's death shocked and galvanized the nation, will travel to Hartford tomorrow to endorse Ned for the US Senate.
The press conference will be on the steps of the Connecticut Supreme Court Building at 231 Capitol Avenue in Hartford.
"Politicians in Washington DC and Florida abused their public trust by forcing the government in the middle of my family tragedy," says Schiavo, who has formed a political action committee.
Schiavo and Lamont will both attend the press conference.

ned lamont

i'm personally FOR banning foie gras

and for that matter veal. most people aren't going to be eating foie gras, but most people will eat veal. i'm not sure they know WHAT veal is or how a veal calf is raised. i don't think people know where gelatin comes from or what rennet is (it's in cheese) either.

Cruelty Claims May Foil Foie Gras
July 25, 2006 By WILLIAM WEIR, Courant Staff Writer

In the kitchen of Grants in West Hartford Center, chef Eric Sass holds up a couple of pounds of foie gras. Before it gets fancied up for customers, this delicacy isn't much more than a plastic-wrapped shapeless lump. It's so underwhelming that it's surprising that it would be the center of the latest food controversy. In fact, this shapeless lump would be banned from restaurants and stores in Connecticut under a bill to be offered in the General Assembly next year.
The way to bring attention to this is to ban the sale," says Rep. Diana Urban, R-North Stonington, who plans to introduce legislation in January. "I know that that's going out on a limb, but what I want to do is generate discussion - and I'm sure we will."By January, it may seem less of a long shot. Chicago's city council has already passed a ban on selling foie gras (pronounced "fwah grah"), and California will restrict its production starting in 2012. Regulations are also being considered in Philadelphia, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois...........

the avon mountain crash

i have posted on this before but i wanted to post on this subject again for a few reasons.

i used to drive over avon mountain to go to work daily for MANY years (our office moved into the main hartford office so i no longer drive over avon mountain daily. my doctor and some of my friends live in avon, so i still frequent the town).

my boss is the cousin of one of the people who perished in the horrible crash.

mark robinson is a friend of mine (he's writing a book on the subject)

EMERGENCY PERSONNEL gather at the accident scene on the morning of July 29, 2005. At the bottom right is Mike Cummings’ dark-colored minivan, crumpled and shoved against the side of a commuter bus, near the bus’s open front door. The runaway dump truck is on its side at the top of the photo. The vehicles hit by the truck and its load were waiting at a red light at the Route 44-Route 10 intersection, just beyond the lower right corner of the photo. (BOB CHILD)

A Horrific Crash That Changed Lives

A dump truck plows into commuters one Friday morning. The death toll is four. But the emotional toll is inestimable. Survivors wonder why they lived. Rescuers wish they could've done more.
BY DANIEL P. JONESJuly 23 2006Mike Cummings can't get the sickening sound of metal on pavement out of his head. If a truck pulls up alongside him in traffic, he quivers with fear.His broken ribs, punctured lung, broken collarbone, and torn knee and ankle have healed. But he still has 6-inch scars on both sides of his lower right arm from surgery to repair a compound fracture, and he still suffers stinging pain in the chest where his seat belt tore cartilage around his sternum. Just days ago, he had dental work done on several broken teeth.Despite all that, Cummings, 36, considers himself lucky to be alive.A year ago, he survived the catastrophic 20-vehicle crash at the foot of Avon Mountain, when an American Crushing & Recycling dump truck hurtled out of control down the hill and smashed into cars and a commuter bus waiting at a traffic light, killing four people and injuring 11.Other survivors also feel the same profound sense of gratitude. And, like Cummings, they don't want to dwell on their suffering."I should be dead," said Mark Robinson, who barely missed being crushed by slabs of concrete from the dump truck's load that crashed through the windshield and sunroof of his black 2001 Cougar.Those who survive catastrophes in which others die often deal with guilt, remorse and post-traumatic stress. The Avon Mountain crash last July 29 has caused its share of such anguish...........

i can't wait to see the completed mural

i haven't been out winsted way in a few years. i used to take many a drive up rt 44 and just keep going. i think it may be time again

Ellen Griesedieck, a professional photographer and artist, stands on a ladder in front of a her painting that will be but a part of mural that, when finished will measure about five stories tall and be 120 feet in length. She is coordinating a massive art project The American Mural Project (formerly Wall of America.) (RICHARD MESSINA)


American Tapestry Gigantic Winsted Mural To Portray Country At Work
Story By JESSE LEAVENWORTH The Hartford Courant July 23 2006

The planned mural - about 1,000 square feet bigger than a basketball court - includes a 47-foot-long section of blown-glass ocean waves and rocket flames, human figures more than 20 feet tall, soaring cuts of marble and metal, and one of the largest collections of sports autographs anywhere.Central to this Mount Rushmore of interior art is a tiny woman who says her grand vision is inspired by the American worker's energy and creativity.From her Sharon studio, Ellen Griesedieck is coordinating the American Mural Project, a three-dimensional work to be placed on permanent exhibit in a former textile mill in Winsted. Before she started the project, Griesedieck, 58, spent years photographing and painting pictures of steel and foundry workers, miners and oil riggers, football coaches, surgical teams, jet airliner assemblers and many others who make the engine of America run."This is really a portrait of this country," Griesedieck said of the mural. "Before this is over, there's one thing I can guarantee: You walk into this thing and you will find yourself."Eight years into the effort and still several years from completion of what is estimated to be a $4 million project, Griesedieck said she's about to launch a major fundraising push. About $400,000 is in hand, she said.The project has attracted some prominent benefactors, including actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, artist Frank Stella and cardiovascular surgeon and frequent Oprah guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz...

fairy places in my neighbor's front yard

stop the war now

i knew it would happen; ned lamont is AHEAD of da liebs!

in a quinnipiac poll

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- A new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday morning shows that challenger Ned Lamont has pulled ahead of Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
The poll shows Lamont with a razor-thin lead of 51 percent to 47 percent over Lieberman.
The poll looked at likely Democratic primary voters...........

they're EQUALLY guilty in my eyes

this story made me cry. a nine month old baby with TWENTY SIX broken bones? some already healing, they were that old. a woman who was eight months pregnant assaulted / threatened with a box cutter by her 'boyfriend'. he goes to jail and does MINIMAL time, gets out AND SHE LETS HIM BACK IN WITH HER and the BABY? i don't care if he physically broke the baby's bones and she didn't - THEY BOTH ARE GUILTY and MUST pay. a nine month old is going to pay for the rest of HIS life AND he is INNOCENT. what kind of people live in this world?

Baby's 26 fractures lead to parents' arrest


By Heather Nann Collins , Journal Inquirer
When told in June that his 7-month-old son had 26 fractures, Hartford police say, Jimmy Smith didn't even flinch. Rather, the Massachusetts man - who was on probation for assaulting his son's mother last fall when she was eight months pregnant with the boy - didn't say a word, police say.
"He did not change expression or affect when he was told that his son has 26 fractures throughout his body," a detective wrote."It should be noted that Smith never referred to the baby as his son, or child, or even by his name ... calling the baby 'it,' and 'the kid,'" the detective, Sabine K. Nyenhuis, noted in an affidavit.On Tuesday, Smith, 41, was arraigned in Hartford Superior Court on 26 counts of first-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault, and a single count of risk of injury to a minor.Prosecutor Sandra Tullius said the state filed one first-degree assault count for each of the baby boy's fractures. The charge is filed under the statute's "extreme indifference to human life" section, she noted.Smith is being held in lieu of $750,000, and returns to court July 31.The baby's mother, Drucilla Thomas, 38, of Fales Street in Hartford, also was charged. She was arraigned on single counts of first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, and risk of injury to a minor. .........

cool!!

georgia is my kind o' babe too. my friend eric has a deaf dalmation. i believe it's genetic with the breed but don't know for sure.

Talking to dogs through sign language
(Killingworth-WTNH, July 18, 2006 5:00 PM) _ Dr. Dolittle had his own way of talking with the animals and now it can be as easy as sign language.
Two deaf Dalmatians are doing something totally unexpected. They're helping people learn sign language.
"You listen to your friend okay."
It's a sight to behold. Southern Connecticut State University Students are using sign language to talk with Georgia and Hogan.
SCSU student Timothy Edwards says,"I figured it would be difficult communicating with them."
Hogan and Georgia are Dalmatians and both are deaf.
Owner Connie Bombaci says,"Being deaf the belief was that deaf dogs should be destroyed."
The dogs were rescued by Connie and Jim Bombaci. She decided to teach both the American Sign Language.
"They're very intelligent. For Hogan to understand 65 signs when most dogs don't understand that many verbally, that says a lot."
Connie says,"Georgia. We think that she understands most of them but Georgia has a very different personality and if she doesn't want to listen to it she turns her head away." ............

picture: www.jasperfforde.com

wow, babs and i have something in common

who would have thunk it?????????????

Famous names on Lamont's donor list
Streisand, Newman & Soros support Leiberman's senatorial opponent

HARTFORD, Conn. - Some famous people are trying to help Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont defeat three-term U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in next month's primary.
Entertainer Barbra Streisand, actor Paul Newman, billionaire financier George Soros, television producer Norman Lear and singer Jackson Browne all contributed to Lamont's campaign, according to campaign finance data filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission.......

picture:
Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

it's not so much a party affiliation

with me. it's what i believe is BEST for the PEOPLE. until now, i've not been affiliated with a political party. i am now. i registered as a democrat when i found out ned lamont was going to run in a primary. lieberbush MUST go. period. it's not that he is going against the democrats, it's that he supports this horrid unjust war based on lies and vengeance and who knows what else. rest assured all of the other democrats who support lieberbush will be remembered as doing so by THEIR constituents (barbara boxer for one). it would be like me supporting tony soprano just because he is italian, as i am. well i wouldn't support tony soprano. ever CONTEST FOR CONGRESS War support drags Lieberman into primary dogfight Political neophyte closing in on veteran Connecticut senator - Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief Sunday, July 16, 2006 (07-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Six years ago, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman was the Democratic Party's choice for vice president and the man seen as most capable of helping Al Gore defeat George W. Bush for the presidency.
Today, Lieberman's support for the war in Iraq has put him in jeopardy of losing his party's nomination for re-election, a threat so real he has already taken steps to run as an independent if he does not win the Democratic primary next month.
That a nationally known Democrat who has served more than 30 years in elected office could be rousted from his seemingly safe seat by a political neophyte has attracted attention around the country.
Some are calling it a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, a potential death knell to the hawkish "Scoop Jackson'' wing of the party, named for the late Washington Sen. Henry Jackson -- and a test of strength for the party's Internet-based advocates, who are unrelenting in their criticism of Lieberman.
Others caution against hyperbole, noting that one conservative Democrat's trouble in a Northeast state one-thirtieth the size of California with a population roughly half that of the Bay Area hardly qualifies as a national trend.
But nearly all observers agree that Lieberman would not be in trouble if he had displayed two attributes seen as critical to success among most Democratic voters: fierce opposition to the war in Iraq, and even fiercer opposition to Bush.
As members of Congress from both parties prepare for the November elections, and at least a dozen potential contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination begin to position themselves for the 2008 primaries, what is happening in Connecticut is being closely watched as a barometer of the political potency of Bush's Iraq policy.............

if you knit

why not consider knitting caps for newborns. a friend at work and i have done it for local hospitals but i just became aware of this.

Campaign to knit baby caps aims to save lives

By John Christoffersen, Associated Press Writer July 15, 2006
STAMFORD, Conn. --Beverly Stevens, a 67-year-old retired nurse, stays up to the wee hours of the morning knitting baby caps. She can't stop stitching, determined to save lives.
The Ohio woman is among the volunteer knitters around the country who are planning to send thousands of baby caps to developing countries.
The grassroots campaign comes after a global report on newborn mortality in May found that about 4 million babies die in their first month of life, including about half of those in the first 24 hours. Simple measures, such as knit caps to keep babies warm, could help save many of those lives, according to the report by Save the Children in Westport.
"It seemed like such a simple, satisfying way to help somebody else," Stevens said. "I'm touching something that's going to touch a baby, a mother who I never met."
Save the Children, which is working on the initiative with the Warm Up America Foundation, set a goal of enlisting 75,000 knitters. The caps will be sent to Washington, D.C., by January and then to Malawi, Bangladesh and possibly other countries, said Eileen Burke, a spokeswoman for Save the Children.
"We felt this was an incredible opportunity to connect women in the U.S. with women and babies overseas," Burke said.
Stevens has recruited some 20 volunteers alone, though she's still trying to convince her husband. She sat by, frustrated over what to do, when Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters struck........

Details of the campaign can be obtained by calling (800) 728-3843 or on the Web:
http://www.savethechildren.org/
http://www.warmupamerica.org/

please keep these women and men

in your thoughts and prayers (along with everyone else serving)

Two Connecticut National Guard Units Heading Overseas

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Connecticut National Guard said two units from eastern Connecticut are being mobilized for duty in Iraq.
About 30 soldiers from the 134th military police company of Norwich will be deployed for up to 18 months.
State Guard officials said about 20 soldiers from the 1109th Aviation Classification and Repair Depot in Groton are also being mobilized.
There will be a send-off ceremony Wednesday in Groton

tell me how this piece of (alleged) STINKING FILTH

can have a dozen supporters? or even ONE for that matter. the DNA EVIDENCE SAID HE FATHERED THE CHILD OF AN ELEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL. why would ANYONE, ANYONE support a man who could do this? WHY (he's not gone to trial yet so i will hold back a bit. ). anyone who supports him (with the dna evidence proving he indeed fathered the girl's child) should ALSO be thrown in the slammer

Minister Pleads Not Guilty To Rape Charges

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A Pentecostal minister accused of fathering the child of an 11-year-old member of his congregation pleaded not guilty Tuesday to rape charges.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Miano set bond at $750,000 for Modesto Reyes and ordered him to have no contact with the victim or her family.
Miano also admonished a group of about a dozen of Reyes' supporters for waving at him during his arraignment.
"In 30 years of doing this, I've never seen an outpouring of support like this," said Bill Gerace, Reyes' attorney.............