Shame on the News-Times.

It's been one day since the revelation that the News-Times ran an incredibly inaccurate story that resulted in Mayor Boughton pulling a permit from a group of Christians who were planning to have a peaceful rally on Tuesday.

Did the News-Times explain to their readers how they allowed this hoax to get in their paper today?

Well, not quite.

While the News-Times explained how the series of events unfolded, they did not explain how the editors let this hoax slip by without checking the accuracy of the claims.

In retrospect, there are were many very clear warning signs that should of alerted the editors of the News-Times and while writer Elizabeth Putnam should get a serious slap on the wrist, a majority of the blame should rest on the editors who obviously forgot the rule regarding doublechecking information before going to print.

Somewhere John Briggs and Lionel Bascom are shaking their heads.

Read this part of today's article.

The brouhaha began Wednesday when The News-Times posted a brief article on its Web site announcing that Minutemen United, an Ohio-based Christian organization, planned a rally on the Danbury Green. The group believes the walls between church and state must be removed.

Shortly thereafter, the man – who identified himself as Rick Renage on the phone and Rick Regado in e-mails – contacted The News-Times to say three busloads of Grey Wolves would show up to support Minutemen United. He described the group as having about 200 members who dressed in "black pants, black boots, red sox with black jackets and the swastika branded on the back."

"I personally am not looking for any confrontations, but if we are provoked, we will react very strongly," Renage/Regado wrote.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States, said Wednesday it had no knowledge of the Grey Wolves. "We follow these things very closely," Mark Potok, director of the Center's Intelligence Project said Friday. "We never heard of this guy."

This is understandable, since the group does not exist except, briefly, in the mind of a man who says he lives in southern Fairfield County.

Now, let's break this down.

1. In the original article, Putnam said that The Southern Poverty Law Center could not confirm that the Grey Wolves were a hate-group BUT in the article on Saturday, we learn that The Southern Poverty Law Center told the News-Times that they have NO KNOWLEDGE of the Grey Wolves. This is clearly different than them saying that they couldn't confirm that they are a hate-group.

2. The man who emailed the News-Times and caused all the mess who identified himself as Rick Renage on the phone and Rick Regado in e-mails and this didn't sound off any of the editor's alarm bells.

3. (MOST IMPORTANT) There is NO information on a hate-group called the Grey Wolves based in America on the internet.

According to Wikipedia, the name (named Grey or Gray) refers to a Neo-Nazi Turkish political group.

Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar in Turkish) is the common name for the members of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party ("Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi", MHP), an ultra-nationalist movement founded by Alparslan Türkeş in 1961.

They are named after a legendary wolf that led captive Turks to freedom. Their formal name in Turkish is ülkücüler (the idealists) and Ülkücü Hareket (The Idealist Movement) (see Actual Idealism). Their female supporters are called Asena.

[...]

Like all other parties, MHP was banned after the military coup of September 12, 1980 and it lost many of its core cadres to the neo-liberal Motherland Party or various vestiges of the Islamist movement.

The founder of the MCP ,Alparslan Turkes is a noted[1] admirer of Adolf Hitler. This organization has a racist and facist ideology with strong Nazi-like ideology.

The Nationalist Task Party ("Milliyetçi Çalışma Partisi", MÇP) was founded in 1983 as a successor to the MHP, and as of 1992 is again known as the MHP.

The para-military wing of the Grey Wolves were covertly supported by the CIA and were invisioned to be used as anti-communist insurgents in an event of a Soviet invasion of Turkey

More info on the Turkish group can be found here.

Again, while there is information on the Turkish group, to this day, I have no been able to find any information on this group in America but read what Elizabeth Putnam wrote about the group in her original article.

The Grey Wolves, a Northeast-based white supremacist group loosely affiliated with the Christian Identity Movement, will bring three busloads of people to the rally, Rick Renage, Grey Wolves spokesman, said Wednesday.

Now, how can this group be "a Northeast-based white supremacist group loosely affiliated with the Christian Identity Movement" if the guy madfe the whole thing up? She also put this important thing in her piece:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization known for its battles with white supremacists and its tracking of extremist groups across the country, could not confirm whether the Grey Wolves is a hate group.

If The Southern Poverty Law Center can not confirm that the Grey Wolves is a hate-group, why did Putnam call then a white supremacist group in her piece (later we find out that they told the News-Times that they had NO information on this group NOT that they could not confirm if the group was a hate-organization). Where did she get this information from?

Today's editorial said nothing about this huge screw-up instead, they focused on "a showdown brewing at the United Nations" between Iran and the rest of the world. Although the Iran situation is serious, they could (and should) explain to their readers how they dropped the ball on this story.

This is irresponsible journalism and the News-Times has an obligation to it's readers to come clean on this matter. Explaining what happened is not good enough and Putnam should not be the scapegoat as her bosses are equally responsible for not double checking this bogus information.

Wow! I'm speechless. This screw-up deserves the Drudge siren!

How could the News-Times not verify this Neo-Naxi allegation before releasing it in the paper? Was their only source an email from this guy? Because of an article that was clearly not verified, the city pulled a permit for safety reasons thus stopping a rally from happening.

One thing is for certain, someone at the News-Times has some explaining to do.

Danbury Police said Friday that the man who claimed to be a member of the Grey Wolves neo-Nazi group made up the entire story. Police said there is no such group as the Grey Wolves, and the man apologized for his behavior.

Because the Neo-Nazi threat has been removed, Mayor Mark Boughton said the city will give a permit to the Minutemen United to hold a religious rally and prayer vigil on Danbury Green Tuesday to support the dissolution of the barriers between religion and government in the United States.

"I apologize to the city of Danbury,’’ said the man, who refused to give his name to the News-Times. "I’m a fool. I’m an idiot.’’

The man, who said he lived in Fairfield County, said he made up the name Grey Wolves because of his indignation over the rally.

"I’m a strong supporter of church and state,’’ he said.

The editorial board of the News-Times have to explain themselves regarding this major screw-up.

The city of Danbury does the right thing.

Organizers of a rally promoting religious rights must find a new location after Danbury officials pulled their permit Thursday to hold the event on public property downtown.

City officials asked members of Minutemen United, an Ohio-based Christian organization, to relocate their rally from the Danbury Green after The News-Times reported that a neo-Nazi group called the Grey Wolves plans to attend the event, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

The city has the right to deny permits for safety reasons.

"We asked the (religious) organization to locate the event to a private property so they can regulate who can attend," said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.

Members of Minutemen United, which is not affiliated with the neo-Nazi group, are worried that the Grey Wolves might derail their plans for a solemn event, but they still plan to hold the rally.

As of Thursday night, the Minutemen United group had not found another site for the rally.

This was a smart move by the city and Mayor Boughton. One look at this email from a member of the Neo-nazi group to the News-Times and you could tell that these wackos were up to no good.

"I am the local spokesman for this society. We are not some super large Kabal! We have approximately 200 people in three states that are active members. We dress in black pants, black boots, red sox with black jackets with the swastika branded in the back. We just want to show our solidarity with the churches who are sponsoring this activity. I personally am not looking for any confrontations, but if we are provoked we will react very strongly!"

Stevie Wonder could see that this rally would only lead to trouble so the city had every right to pull the permit for safety reasons.

Go to Ned Lamont's website and sign up!

“As your senator I will put Connecticut first,” Ned said. “As I travel the state and talk to people, I’m hearing over and over that America is spending $250 million a day in Iraq while we are cutting aid to students and veterans’ benefits. This has got to change.”

Did you miss Lamont the last time he was in the area? Well, he's coming back to the area and here are the details:

Newtown Dems Meet and Greet for Ned Lamont (Meet and Greet)
Ned will meet and address DTC members and supporters from Newtown and surrounding towns.
Time: Monday, April 17 at 8:00 PM
Duration: 2 hours

Host: Ross Carley
Address: 1700's Meeting House (Newtown, CT)
31 Main Street - at the flagpole (Rte 25)
Newtown, CT 06470
(Google map)

Come and see the man who's giving Joe Lieberman a headache.

This is insane.

A rally calling for an end to the separation of church and state is expected to draw hundreds to downtown Danbury on Tuesday, including members of a neo-Nazi group who plan to wear swastikas on their black jackets.

Minutemen United, an Ohio-based Christian organization, is holding the rally Tuesday afternoon, because "the wall between the separation of church and state must be torn down," the group's leader and founder Dave Daubenmire said Wednesday.

Minutemen United expects up to 300 people at the event on the Danbury Green, but that number could increase as word of the rally spreads. Members of other organizations that advocate unity between religion and government say they plan to attend.

The Grey Wolves, a Northeast-based white supremacist group loosely affiliated with the Christian Identity Movement, will bring three busloads of people to the rally, Rick Renage, Grey Wolves spokesman, said Wednesday.

Renage read about the rally at NewsTimesLive.com, The News-Times' Web site, which posted information Wednesday afternoon about the event.

"We just want to show our solidarity with the churches who are sponsoring this activity," Renage said.

Bullshit. This is a Neo-Nazi group and NO church should allow these wackos to attend their rally.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization known for its battles with white supremacists and its tracking of extremist groups across the country, could not confirm whether the Grey Wolves is a hate group.

Still, Frank Caporale, a non-denominational Christian from Danbury who is helping to organize the rally, told Renage not to attend.

"This is not a demonstration. This is a solemn assembly," Caporale said. "This is religious, not political. I want people from all walks of life to feel comfortable attending."

Renage said his group will not cause any trouble.

"I, personally, am not looking for any confrontations, but if we are provoked, we will react very strongly," he said in an e-mail to The News-Times.

Danbury Police Detective Lt. Tom Michael said he would have more information today about how the police department will handle the rally.

The Rev. Bob Cutting, pastor of Mountain Church of God in Brookfield and member of Minutemen United, said he was not aware of the Grey Wolves' participation, but he said all are welcome as long as they do not bring signs.

"It's open to the public. We just don't want any disruption," Cutting said. "This is about the separation of church and state."

Again, this is bullshit and should not be tolerated in our city. For any so-called church to say that a hate-group is welcomed to attend their silly rally is outrageous and unacceptable.

Enough is enough. It's bad enough that we have extremists in this area who are trying to get recognized, now we have to deal with Neo-Nazis giving Danbury a bad name.

What's next, cross burning?

Are you pissed off? We'll have information on how to best express your outrage later.

The funny part is that this place is next to a church. Talk about a srteet that is in need of a Neighborhood Watch program...

The young women came by train and bus from New York City. Several were chauffeured to the house in New Fairfield by Lincoln Town Cars run by livery services.

But they were hardly living lives of luxury.

Authorities believe the Latinas had been transported across the U.S. border by human smugglers called "coyotes," who charged thousands of dollars for their services.

The women paid off their debt by having sex with men, turning as many as 88 tricks a week, according to documents filed in state court.

"What the investigators are looking for is human trafficking," said Danbury police Sgt. John Krupinsky, who in 2005 helped break up a Danbury brothel that authorities have linked to the New Fairfield operation.

Prostitution arrests are not uncommon in the Danbury area.

But there was a twist to last month's raid on the white, Cape-style house on Barnum Road in New Fairfield — federal immigration officials were involved. Law enforcement sources said they thought the women were not true prostitutes but were part of a nationwide trend in human trafficking.

Authorities believe that the people who ran the New Fairfield brothel, the men who patronized it and the women who were forced to work there were, for the most part, immigrants.

The women, said Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury, "think they're going to help their families" by going to America to make money.

"It's slavery and it's worse than death," Lowe said of the forced prostitution. "They're trapped. It's very scary."

[...]

According to the affidavit, "between Sept. 13, 2005, and Oct. 6, 2005, between the hours of 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. on seven diverse dates, a minimum of 84 males, suspected of being 'customers,' appearing to be of Spanish or similar descent, entered/exited the residence. That the average time a customer spent inside the residence was between 15 to 30 minutes."

Men coming to the brothel's door were checked out by a combination doorman-bouncer, who peered at customers through a peephole, according to the affidavit. The men then entered the house, paid the doorman $30, and were given a half a playing card with the word "OK" on it, the affidavit said.

The men took the card to the woman of his choice, according to the affidavit, and the woman kept it for her records. At the end of the day, the woman turned in her cards and got paid $15 for each one, according to the affidavit.

Our on-line question was "Did Mayor Boughton cross the line in verbally attacking attorney Philip Berns at the immigration forum".

If you missed the video, you can view it by clicking here.

Here are the results.

Click image to enlarge

Maybe Nancy Johnson should rethink her plans to meet with an anti-immigrant hate group in Danbury. I think these people just became Chris Murphy supporters.

From Washington, D.C., to tiny Garden City, Kan., the events Monday made it clear that immigration is no longer an issue restricted to border states. Organizers of rallies in Hartford and New Haven said Monday marked a new chapter of the debate in a state with a rapidly growing population of undocumented immigrants.

Although those immigrants in the past preferred to remain in the shadows, organizers said Monday such immigrants joined activists, unions and religious groups in calling for new laws that provide a way for those here illegally to become citizens.

"Today's laws are not only anti-immigrant, today's laws are anti-American," New Haven Mayor and gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano told an estimated crowd of 2,000 on the New Haven Green.

The events yesterday in Connecticut illustrates how support there is for immigrant rights. Hopefully, the supporters can channel that energy into votes come election day.

It's been almost a month since the racist, bigoted, hate-monger Paul Streitz announced that he's running for Senate and his cash on hand has gone from 80 dollars to alittle over awhopping fifteen hundred dollars!

Before the pro-immigrant wackos jump for joy, let's do the math. First, let's round Streitz cash on hand to 1,500 dollars. Now if each person donated 20 bucks to his cause, that would equal a whopping average of 75 people donating to Streitz's campaign and if people donated more cash, the number of people would drop


In other words, Strietz has 75 people (at best) donating to his campaign. To add insult to injury, Streitz proudly displays that 49 people donated to his campaign which is even more pathetic than my average number (look at the thermometer graphic on the right). Wow, I think a group of homeless people can collect double the amount in the same time period simply by collecting soda bottles. Where's all the love from your allies? I guess their to busy writing silly attack letters to the News-Times (which is free of charge)?

Taking a quote from our President, "your doing a heck of a job Paulie".

Maybe Nancy Johnson will endorse Streitz's nomination when she comes to speak to his supporters later this week? That should bring in the cash.

Supporters of immigrant rights plan rallies around the state today. The News-Times has the details.

The immigration debate is spilling out onto the streets of Connecticut as part of nationwide demonstrations in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Connecticut supporters of immigration law reform organized two rallies that were scheduled for Hartford and New Haven Monday afternoon.

The state demonstrations are tied to similar protests and marches that were planned for other cities across the country.

"This is going to be the largest mobilization for immigrants’ rights in our nation’s history," Werner Oyanadel, a legislative analyst with Connecticut’s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, said.

Organizers say protesters have been angered by a tough immigration bill approved by the House of Representatives. The bill calls for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border and would make it a felony to be in the country illegally.

[...]

Organizers in Connecticut say they don’t know what to expect but hope several thousand people attend the events in Hartford and New Haven.

"The tendency of the immigrant community is to keep quiet," John Lugo, an organizer of the New Haven rally with Latinos United in Action, said. "Frankly, we’re standing up for our rights."