Connecticut Local Politics

I can’t stay quiet about this anymore. It’s too disturbing, and it’s frankly frightening.
I’ve been wondering for a while: what, exactly, is all the anger about the health care plan all about? Where is the anger that fuels the tea party protests coming from? Objectively, what’s happening is that there’s a watered-down health care bill [...]

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Hoo boy, long week. Here are some stories that may have slipped under the radar.

Chef Alice Waters raised some hackles at the Connecticut Forum in May when she ordered shark fin soup. She now says, “I support Humane Society International’s efforts to end this unsustainable practice, and I encourage other chefs and culinary industry leaders [...]

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This is an update on a post I did a couple months ago, with graphs containing the current data.  Click on each one for a better look.
The graphs above are generated using publicly available site information via Sitemeter from each of the three sites, MyLeftNutmeg, The Everyday Republican, and CTLP. 
I’m certainly willing to add other [...]

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The Hartford Courant ran an impassioned op-ed piece by Lucie McKinney, widow of late U.S. Congressman Stewart McKinney, today, which is highly critical of the impact of Rell’s budget cuts on supportive housing, which provides housing and services to families and individuals with confronted with complex challenges like homelessness, low income and mental illness, substance [...]

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During the middle of a sunny Wednesday afternoon, a 29 year old man girded himself for horror.  He disguised himself with a wig and other false features before taking a gun into his hand and walking into the middle of Red & Black Books just off Wesleyan University’s campus.  He shot Johanna Justin-Jinich, a Wesleyan student working at the [...]

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Former Congressman Rob Simmons’ campaign is pushing a new fundraising widget today, encouraging potential donors to make their online contributions while the campaign keeps score.  As of 9:30am on Tuesday, they have raised $28,394 on their way to $50k.
There is no word on when they started keeping score or what the deadline is for raising [...]

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Back in February 2006, Genghis did a ‘State of the ’Sphere’ Address, commenting on where things stood in the Connecticut blogosphere and where he thought we were headed.  It was an interesting post, not only as a snapshot of how the landscape looked, but also as a marker for how the blogosphere has evolved since that time.
The current makeup of the [...]

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Many Americans from all walks of life have found themselves increasingly frustrated in recent months as a painful economic recession has taken hold, precipitated by corporate avarice, the failures of administrative oversight, and individual poor choices.
In response, the federal government – first led by President Bush, and now continued by President Obama – has used the crisis to [...]

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Yes, there will be tea parties tomorrow across Connecticut.
Is anyone here going to one?

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@GovernorRell has quickly been building some impressive social networking infrastructure over the past few months.  She’s got nearly one thousand friends on Facebook and more than 300 followers on Twitter.  Check out the interview with the Gov.’s Public Affairs Director, Adam Jeamel – conducted via Skype - with Fox61’s @rickhancock.

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An Enfield blogger wrote on his site recently that by being against the idea of liquor sales on Sunday, Sen. Tom Colapietro was basically telling Enfield, on the border with a state where Sunday sales are legal, to “drop dead.” The push to allow liquor stores to remain open on Sundays is being led by [...]

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Yesterday, I linked to a NYT article that quoted Mayor Finch talking about his experiences running a blog. I thought it was about Quote of the Day speed, but it bothered me enough that I felt it was necessary to flesh it out a little bit. Here is the quote from the Times:
Bill [...]

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Okay, so I’m not all that great with predictions. But hey, they’re fun, so here we go again! In 2009, here’s what I think we’ll see:
1. The governor’s race: Richard Blumenthal decides not to run, and just about every other Democrat who is considering running will jump in. An all-out fracas will begin to determine [...]

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It’s time once again to go back and review the year that was.
January
1/3 – Iowa caucuses. Chris Dodd’s presidential campaign expresses hope that he’ll do well. Dodd does say that if he doesn’t finish higher than fourth, he’s done.
He doesn’t, and drops out. I take a look back at why his campaign failed.
In retrospect, [...]

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A disturbing piece of mail was sent recently to a member of the Fairfield County clergy, urging him to devote a sermon to the connection between Same-Sex Marriage, Obama, Islam, and Child Sacrifice (Oh, you didn’t know? Duh.). Enclosed in the package was a DVD copy of the widely ridiculed anti-Muslim propaganda film, [...]

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I am taking a day off from politics today. I walked down by the Scantic River in Enfield, and snapped a few pictures. Here’s one:

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I did note that I saw a lot more Democratic signs while wandering around Enfield today than Republican ones.
What’s happening today?

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If the bonds of traditional marriage start weakening, can someone make sure to tell CTBob so he can tape and set it to music?

I’ve been to a lot of wedding receptions and the happiness and excitement in the Kerrigan afterparty were the equal of any of them.
I’ll have more on the decision when I get [...]

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I found this cool site called Wordle which lets you make word clouds. Plus, I was bored. So I thought I’d see what different campaigns’ press releases look like in a Wordle word cloud. Here’s the last month of 2nd district releases (click to see larger image):
Joe Courtney

Sean Sullivan

Admittedly, Courtney’s campaign people haven’t put out [...]

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Two things jumped out at me when I looked at the Secretary of the State’s Press Release with the new voter registration numbers, one serious and one fun.
First, the serious:
Of the nearly 69,826 new voters between the ages of 18 and 29, 30,792 registered as Democrats, 30,683 registered as Unaffiliated and 7,876 registered as Republicans. [...]

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Something that I see from time to time is the theory that Americans are, because of increasing partisan bitterness, our extraordinary mobility as opposed to peoples of other nations, and the idea that living near like-minded people makes life a little easier, increasingly segregating ourselves politically.
This theory, which popped up again in this week’s [...]

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