sunflower blogging

at the half door

as i have mentioned, only ONE made it through this year but it's a HUGE one. bigger than i've ever grown

et tu connecticut?

where is all of this bullshite nazi facist socialist crap coming from anyway? if ANYONE put the law and the constitution aside, if ANYONE lied, if ANYONE tried to indoctrinate (i.e. suppressing global warming documents), if ANYONE didn't protect it's OWN effing citizens (i.e. katrina) it WAS KING GEORGE AND THE BIG DICK.

my posting on my other blog

Even In Blue State Connecticut, Obama's Speech To Kids Meets Resistance
By GRACE E. MERRITT The Hartford Courant
The firestorm around President Barack Obama's plans to address the nation's schoolchildren Tuesday in a webcast has made only a small ripple in Connecticut.

While elsewhere in the country, some conservative pundits and Republican leaders, including the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, have criticized Obama's speech and accompanying lesson plan as propaganda, Connecticut educators and others say they support or at the very least don't object to it.

The speech, to be broadcast at noon, is expected to encourage students to stay in school, graduate and go to college.

Some school districts in Fairfield County, including Bethel, have decided not to tune in Tuesday because they want to screen the speech first and decide how and when to integrate it into their curriculum.

"We've gotten a surprising number of phone calls from people who said 'This is Nazism, this is socialism or indoctrination.' That isn't it at all. We don't invite guest speakers in without knowing what the message is first," Bethel School Superintendent Gary Chesley said.......

i need to share this story

it's not mine, but it could be mine. i do believe in racial profiling. well i mean to say, i believe it happens. no, i KNOW it happens. i would like to think and believe it DOES NOT happen in west hartford. it seems i'm wrong though.

i have seen it in hartford and i have seen it in avon (witnessed first hand). i've not witnessed it in west hartford and i hope and pray this was a fluke
the blog the following came from hartford imc is published under a creative commons license. so i'm publishing ms lo bue's post in full. it is from august 26th

A Lesson in Privilege From the WHPD
by Lauren Lo Bue
Following the incident detailed below, I wrote this to share with friends. I realized, though, that other people might want to hear it and that it’s really quite relevant as a testimony to racial profiling in Hartford (and in general). So, here it is, in its unedited glory:

Last night, around 10 pm, Opton and I left Hartford for Queens. We passed a West Hartford PD car parked in the Deangelo’s parking lot on the way to the highway and he turned out on to the street behind us and followed us on to 84. About 15 seconds later, he pulled us over. Obviously Opton was going the speed limit; he’s Mr. Safety First. We both had our seatbelts on. He’d used his signals correctly. I couldn’t think of a legitimate reason for them to pull us over, and as my anxiety was building I looked over and saw a sort of resigned, knew-this-would-happen look on his face. The cop came up to the car and shined a flashlight directly into the car – on Opton’s lap, on his face, on mine, and told him that… you ready? The plastic frame around his license plate was obscuring the “Constitution State” on the bottom.

Yup. That plastic frame that nearly everyone has on their rear license plates. Go look at yours. Is it obscuring a bit of the bottom half of your license plate? Of course it is. It does that on nearly everyone’s vehicles. Other than that, the lights above his license plate were working and properly illuminating it, and the license number was completely visible.

He then collected his information, and asked for my identification.

He then asked Opton to get out of the vehicle.

He took Opton to the back of the car and began grilling him. Another cop car pulled up behind us. He had called for back-up. That officer came over to my side of the car and began grilling me. How do I know this man? Where did we meet? Where do I live? Where does he live? What does he do? What did I study in school? Where are we coming from? Where are we heading to? Remember now — the stated reason for being pulled over was the plastic frame on his license plate.

I find out later that he is being asked the same questions at this time.

Obviously, they were convinced that a white girl was being abducted by a black guy. They were trying to figure out whether he actually knew me or not.

After about a 15 minutes of questions, they had nothing left to ask us and no more reasons to detain us. They told him to “remove the frame around the license.” And they let us go.

I can’t say I’m surprised or shocked. But at the time it was the strangest feeling of reality truly matching my theoretical understanding of racism for the first time in my life. As a white girl, I’d never experienced a situation where racism seriously posed a threat first-hand. Last night I was terrified that my boyfriend was going to jail. And he would have if they’d searched the car — a friend of ours accidentally left his knife in Opton’s back seat. The knife didn’t have a latch — it was illegal, and we’d said that there were no illegal weapons in the car. We didn’t know our friend had left it there until Opton found it this morning. Insanely luckily, they did not search the car, but they could have easily contrived some bullshit pretense to do so. I mean, the reason we got pulled over to begin with is complete and total bullshit. (Side note: We have no rights. The police are the worst gang in town.)

I have been pulled over before — for actually doing something wrong. No one shined a flashlight in my face, and no one asked me to step out of the car. I didn’t even get a ticket.

I’m not telling you all this because it’s news to any of you. It shouldn’t be, and I know for most of you it isn’t. But it helps to have real-life experiences and stories from people you know to fuel the fire when it comes to anti-racist activism, so I decided to share this with you all.

i'm incensed

this is absolutely ridiculous. need i remind everyone of phillip garrido? i wrote about what i think about rapists here just the other day.

did campbell get a reduced sentence because the girl was 'challanged'? or was it because she was a girl and after all they don't matter as much as boys? i don't know the reason(s) behind this. there is nothing that could justify this to me. NOTHING

Suspended Sentence For East Hartford Man Convicted Of Sexual Assault

By DAVID OWENS The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD — - An East Hartford man whose trial on charges that he sexually assaulted a mentally challenged girl was to begin later this month was convicted of reduced charges Wednesday in Superior Court.

Shaun Campbell, 21, who faced a single count of first-degree assault, pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to three counts of coercion.

He admitted to Superior Court Judge David P. Gold that he induced the girl, beginning when she was 12 or 13 and until she was 16, to have sex with him by making her fear he'd commit a crime against her. The abuse came to light when the girl told a counselor at East Hartford High School about it.

With an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that the state has enough evidence to win a conviction.........

what up wit connecticut mayors?

east haven and of course hartford's own

oh yesssssssssssssssssssss

arrest his ass! the king of the city is (i hope with all my heart and soul) going down. besides a general dislike of him, i think he really DOES think he's king of the city. the last straw was anointing himself as overlord of the board of ed. hey eddie YOU GOTTA GO. to the good peeps of hartford, this AIN'T providence and eddie AIN'T buddy cianci. why do you keep voting for him?


Perez To Be Arrested Again

By

Jeffrey B. Cohen

UPDATE: Perez says he will not resign, he will fight the charges against him, and that "the truth is on my side."

A state court judge has signed a warrant to arrest Mayor Eddie A. Perez, Perez's attorney Hubert Santos said today.

"I can confirm that a warrant has been issued for the mayor's arrest in connection with allegations involving former state Rep. Abraham Giles," Santos said. "He's going to complete his term as mayor."

Perez and Santos are holding a news conference today at 5:30 p.m.
John J. Kelly, Giles' attorney, would not say whether his client would be arrested. "I will be able to say something when something official happens," Kelly said.

Kelly has previously said in a document filed with the state Supreme Court that the grand
juror investigating the mayor had found probable cause that his client - who he did not name
- had committed two crimes........

When will enough be enough?
By

Helen Ubinas

For all the rumors that El Jefe was going to resign before being rearrested -- and man have those rumors been swirling -- it turns out that so far, it's nothing but wishful thinking.

In one of the shortest press conferences I've ever attended, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez said he wasn't going anywhere because "the truth is on my side."

My question, whose truth? But I digress.
Here are some of the mayor's more telling statements :
"Let me be clear: I will not resign.

"I am confident that I will be acquitted of all charges and my reputation restored."

"I will continue to serve the citizens of Hartford as their mayor and continue to make Hartford a better place for all of us."
.............

'shroom

yes, PINK

julia and spiro got married saturday at

honora winery and vineyard in west halifax vermont. it was wonderful and beautiful and touching and fun. since most if not all of their friends are in the service industry (his from the half door and hers from max's, they got school buses to lug us from the the grand summit hotel at mount snow to the vineyard. wicked smart. it would have been a treatcherous drive even if we weren't a bunch of drunken assholes. dirt roads up and down the green mountains. wow wow wow. anyway we all got there and back to the hotel safely.

the hotel was very nice as well. giant fireplace in the front lobby. it was lit when we got back from the wedding. the fireplace at the vineyard was lit later on as well. both were the middle of the room ones, stone, open on all four sides.

i will say many people (not me this time believe it or not) turned into drunken monsters. i don't mind drunk (as long as you're not driving). i do mind monsters. i do mind when you do bad things or disrespectful things. 'nuff said

i'm not a person who gets star struck. julia has a famous uncle. her uncle happens to be in the rock n' roll hall of fame. we can't ALL say that. he was a genuinely nice and funny man. i know he'll never read this BUT i just wanted to apologize for not GETTING HIS JOKE. i am really not stupid and i really wasn't drunk either. the lightbulb just didn't go on till a day after. yes steven, I KNOW PINK IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR

here are just a couple of photos.

unseal them, CONFESS, clear your souls

and OPEN YOUR COFFERS.

it's our RIGHT to see the files (i believe the victims names should continue to be redacted however. unless they wish otherwise that is)

(ap article so i'm not going to print any part of it. just click on the link)


Diocese loses bid to keep abuse files sealed

Papers part of 23 suits now settled

By John Christoffersen

Associated Press

Colin

Http://www.cpbn.org/program/colin-mcenroe-show

way to go colin!

the only time i used to change my car dial radio from 90.5 (our hartford local npr station) to another station was on the way home from work each weekday. i'd turn it to am wtic (whatever their numbers were). why? colin's program was on. he had an afternoon show. a witty break in a day of drudgery. wtic started firing people a while ago. as it turns out they fired almost everyone who had a brain, including colin. i knew colin and npr were a perfect fit and i knew in my mind from day one, this WOULD happen.

so congratulations colin and you KNOW i'll be listening next week (at work, at my desk as long as i'm NOT in a meeting)


Radio Host Colin McEnroe Gets WNPR Show
By ROGER CATLIN The Hartford Courant
Eight months after having his popular radio talk show canned by WTIC-AM on New Year's Eve, radio host and newspaper columnist Colin McEnroe returns to local airwaves next week, this time on public radio.

"The Colin McEnroe Show" begins Monday on WNPR, the arm of Connecticut Public Broadcasting Inc. with several points on the radio across the state, including 90.5 FM in Hartford.

His daily one-hour show at 1 p.m., originating at the WNPR studios in Hartford, replaces the nationally syndicated "Here and Now."

McEnroe's first guest Monday will be New York Times editorial page columnist Gail Collins, who began her career at the Hartford Advocate.

McEnroe, 54, said in an interview that his new hour will have the flavor of his old show on the commercial airwaves, and distinguish itself from other Connecticut-based WNPR weekday shows such as "Where We Live" and "The Faith Middleton Show" by keeping things light and starting with a monologue each day.

Most shows will be rooted in state issues, he said, though he'll be free to bring in ideas and authors from elsewhere, as well as take calls...........

pic: Colin McEnroe (PATRICK RAYCRAFT, HARTFORD COURANT / September 24, 2008)

dominick dunne, native son, died yesterday as well

his sister-in-law joan didion is one of my favorite writers. i liked dominick as well. his style was different than joan's of course. the subject matter was different as well (although when you think about it, WAS it really????). this is a good write up. there are a few things in here i didn't know (stage manager for howdy doody?). and griffin's (his son) performance in after hours was nothing short of genius)


Writer Found Fame in Celebrity-Crime Tales

By Matt Schudel

Washington Post Staff Writer

Dominick Dunne, 83, a novelist and journalist who chronicled true-crime tales of the rich and infamous, including O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, and in turn became a celebrity in his own right, died Aug. 26 at his home in New York City. He had bladder cancer.

As a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, Mr. Dunne was perhaps the country's foremost chronicler of crimes among the privileged. He developed his journalistic specialty in a painfully personal way, when Tina Brown, the newly installed editor of the magazine, asked Mr. Dunne to cover the 1983 Los Angeles trial of a man charged with killing a promising young actress. The actress was Mr. Dunne's 22-year-old daughter, Dominique Dunne........

Celebrity Author And Hartford Native Dominick Dunne Dies At Age 83

By OWEN McNALLY Special to The Courant

Dominick Dunne, a celebrated chronicler of the crimes of the rich and famous and a best-selling novelist who skyrocketed to celebrity status through his vivid, caustic, openly partisan and dishy coverage of the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan.

Dunne, who had been battling bladder cancer, was 83.

The Hartford native, who kept a home in Hadlyme, grew up in a large, prominent and wealthy Irish-Catholic family in West Hartford. He found success with such novels as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory." But it was his brilliant, controversial, highly readable coverage of the Simpson "trial of the century" for Vanity Fair that transformed him in 1995 into a bona fide, red-hot celebrity.

His owlish, oval-framed glasses, shock of gray hair, diminutive stature (maybe not quite 5-foot-6 or so), feisty presence, often rumpled apparel and smart, razor-sharp commentary made Dunne a hot product on the cool medium of TV.........

pic: FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo, celebrity crime writer Dominick Dunne, left, looks at his son Griffin Dunne during O.J. Simpson's trial in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool) (Jae C. Hong - AP)

you know how i post about stupid connecticut crime

every once in a while? well i'm guessing it's against the law to shoot yourself with a flare gun in a hospital. so i'm guessing this is about a stupid crime

Woman Shoots Flare Gun In Hospital

NEW LONDON - Police are investigating a bizarre incident in which a woman shot herself with a flare gun inside Lawrence and Memorial Hospital.................

YOU (not me) elected him

and he really doesn't GIVE TWO SHITES ABOUT YOU. he's got insurance and you can bet your ass his family has insurance (the GOOD kind too. low if ANY deductables. low if any co-pays). HE JUST DOESN'T GET IT. yet another example of let them eat cake.


(an ap article so you must click the link. i'm personally NOT going to pay them a penny for printing FIVE or more words)
Lieberman says many health care changes can wait
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL
The Associated Press

Lieberman: Recession no time to worry about health care reform

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
President Barack Obama should put off plans for a public health option until the recession is over, because there’s “no reason” to reform health care now, says Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with congressional Democrats, told CNN’s John King on Sunday that “great changes often come in steps. The civil rights movement changes occurred in steps.”

And so it should be with health care, Lieberman argued.............

what is new park turning into a shooting gallery

geeze, a TON of people are in that area. there's a home depot there, the bjs, a furniture store and a market across the street. there is always a lot of traffic too. is it going to be too dangerous for me to buy nails and paint now?

Police Investigate Shooting In Parking Lot Of West Hartford BJ's



By DAVID OWENS The Hartford Courant

WEST HARTFORD - Police continue their investigation this morning into a shooting about 8 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot at BJ's Wholesale Club at 507 New Park Avenue.

A man in his 20s was shot from behind as he and his girlfriend walked into the store. The girlfriend was carrying a small child, police said. The victim suffered a non-life-threatening wound to the pelvic area. Police recovered a bullet from the store's nursery area and believe it may have been fired from a rifle, police said...........

more connecticut domestic violence

but this one rather takes the cake. unbelievable

(have to say 'allegedly' here) ALLEGEDLY - a man puts a mask on, beats up the woman he was going to marry IN FOUR DAYS, marries her, then he gets found out. well she suspected it all along she said. hmmmmmmmmmmm

anyway, seems like she gave him the boot AS SHE SHOULD HAVE. oh and he's an alderman for the town of ansonia.

hope the OTHER WOMAN (allegedly) LEAVES HIS ASS TOO

Masked Alderman Attacked Fiancee: Report

By LEANNE GENDREAU and DOUG GREENE

On July 1, a 32-year-old Ansonia woman came home to a nightmare, and police now say her husband -- an alderman who was up for re-election in November -- was behind her attack.

Keith Maynard, 42, resigned from his position on the Ansonia Board of Alderman on the eve of his arrest, according to the Valley Independent Sentinel.

The man inside knocked the woman to the ground, covered her with a blanket and hit her with a baseball bat, police said. She told police she did not recognize him. He was wearing a mask, the New Haven Register reports.

Police investigated. They were told a man was seen running from the house soon after assaulting the victim but police could not find him. The woman was taken to Griffin Hospital to be treated for minor injuries...............

say WHAT???????????????

i'm telling you the courant better hold on tight to hele ubinas. she's one HELL of a reporter or columnist

A Blight On Housing Director's Record
Helen Ubiñas
City officials have offered lots of reasons why they can't seem to get a longtime housing official I've written about to fix up her neglected property and pay hundreds of dollars in outstanding fines and penalties.

Weak blight laws. Weaker enforcement. Just plain arrogance.

Well, here's another: It's sort of hard to come down on delinquent property owners when Hartford's housing director owns a blighted house.That's right — turns out Yasha Escalera, one-time deputy commissioner of the state's former housing department and now Hartford's $103,000-a-year director of housing and property management, owns his very own eyesore at 39 Allen Place.

Not two years after the city pretty much gave the property to Dresca Construction, of which Escalera is part owner, the city was back putting a lien against it and billing him more than $3,600 for emergency rubbish and debris cleanup.

Over the years, a number of departments have cited the property, and in 2007, the Department of Development Services, the very department for which Escalera now works, sent him a notice of violation for the property, calling it a "menace to the public health" that is "seriously depreciating property values in the neighborhood."............

why am i not surprised he's linked to the fbi?

he's a white supremacist AND a snitch (i could see being an informant and infiltrating white supremacists organizations to rid the earth of their filth BUT to be a judas - the proverbial pieces of silver or gold....) NO

i can see the fbi wanting to infiltrate organizations of domestic terrorists and those they SUSPECT of domestic terrorism (NOT however, the quakers or catholic workers or organizations who c'mon now are NOT terrorists), but to PAY SOMEONE LIKE TURNER, A REAL RACIST is beyond the pale (so to speak)

at any rate, however you look at it, hal turner IS SCREWED

FBI trained white supremacist to incite others: lawyer
Nearly a month after revealing that white supremacist radio host Hal Turner was an FBI informant, his lawyer claimed that the "New Jersey blogger facing charges in two states for allegedly making threats against lawmakers and judges was trained by the FBI on how to be deliberately provocative," the Associated Press reports.

Turner was arrested on June 24 for allegedly calling for the murder of three judges who supported the Chicago gun ban. The confession by his attorney came at a bond hearing last month.

"Attorney Michael Orozco [...] said his client gave authorities information about a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama," reported the Associated Press in July.

His recent arrest came after a complaint about an overt call for the murder of three judges............

Defense attorney: FBI had trained NJ blogger how to incite others when he was an informant

KATIE NELSON

Lawyer Invokes First Amendment
Calls Blogger's Remarks Protected Free Speech

By DAVID OWENS

HARTFORD — - A lawyer for Harold "Hal" Turner, the blogger and Internet radio host accused of encouraging people to "take up arms" against two Connecticut legislators and a state ethics official, said Tuesday that the comments are protected by the First Amendment.

Turner knew just where the line was between protected political speech and criminal conduct because the FBI taught him when the agency used him as an informant, his attorney, Michael A. Orozco of Newark, N.J., said outside a Hartford courtroom.

"Mr. Turner was trained by the FBI," Orozco said. "He was told where the line was — what he could say." Turner, of New Jersey, worked as an "agent provocateur" for the FBI from roughly 2002 to 2007, Orozco said...........

my sunflower

is HUGE still no bloom yet. it's there, but it will be a week or two before it actually opens. only ONE sunflower made it this year but it's the biggest one i've EVER seen. i planted seeds from the sunflowers i grew last year (also record breakers). i grow them at the half door