Oh man, I wished I could of watched this episode of "Ideas at Work" live because I would of gave their guest a piece of my mind.

Tonight's episode was on African-American Issues in Danbury and I think their guest is living in a alternate universe. I mean talk about someone "out of touch" with reality, their guest Dallas Gardner must be the most out of touch African-American in Danbury. I had to pick up my jaw off the floor after listening to some of the comments he made regarding the condition of the African-American community in the city. Simply incredible.

I'm so upset that I can't even properly address the various outrageous statements he made tonight. I'm working on the video from the show and once I get everything uploaded, I'm going to unleash on Gardner.

Where did Ivon and Greg find their guest? If you're going to talk about African-American relations in Danbury, maybe you should go into the African-American community and talk to people who can give you an honest opinion about the subject.

Obviously, Garnder was clearly a bad choice as you'll see when I post the video.

Man, am I pissed.

Look who just gave Dan Malloy the thumbs up.

Yesterday, Joseph DaSilva, the Democratic Town Committee Chairman of Danbury formally announced his endorsement of Democratic Candidate for Governor Dan Malloy, Stamford's four-term mayor.

"After 12 years of Republican rule, we have seen our state deteriorate across just about every measure -- jobs and the economy, education, transportation, health care, and the list goes on. I believe we can win the gubernatorial election by choosing a Democrat who can actually defeat the Republican regime in November. That candidate is Dan Malloy," said DaSilva. "Throughout his 20 year public service career, Dan Malloy has never lost against Republicans, in the second largest Republican stronghold in the state...With outstanding big city credentials and a socially progressive but fiscally responsible record, Dan Malloy will run well in cities and swing suburbs alike."

"I'm very grateful for Joe DaSilva's support," said Malloy.

Let me get this straight. I live in Danbury and I had to learn about this from a press release. Good grief...I need better sources.

Good going News-Times. It seems like Johnson isn't fooling you guys when it comes to Medicare.

As Medicare recipients struggled to meet the May 15 deadline for enrolling in the new drug benefit, U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson kept insisting that all was well.

She knew better, of course. As one of the primary authors of the legislation, Johnson knew Congress approved a program that is much too bureaucratic and that the bureaucrats had failed to ensure the program was ready to go on Jan. 1, as required by law.

With the May 15 enrollment deadline now passed, Johnson has changed her tune. She is now advocating a change in the law that levies severe, lifetime financial penalties against Medicare recipients who didn't sign up for the drug benefit by May 15.

"The bottom line is this is a democracy, and the Congress responds to the people and shapes the program so it's good for them," said Johnson. "I think it's fair and reasonable to eliminate the penalty."

It's good to see that Johnson, who represents Connecticut's 5th Congressional District, is finally responding to problems with the Medicare drug program.

But she needs to do more than promise reform. She needs to deliver it.

According to Johnson, Congress will get around to legislation to eliminate the penalties in the fall.

That is much too late. The elderly and frail Americans who have been threatened by these financial penalties deserve better. They should not be left hanging over the summer, wondering what Congress will do to them next.

Congress may be interested in going on yet another vacation, but it cannot do that until it fixes this Medicare drug benefit.

Where's the love guys?

The bad blood between the city and its police officers was front and center Wednesday.

The city held its Meritorious Awards Program at City Hall, but only four top-ranking police officers attended.

The rank and file and their families skipped the City Hall program.

Instead, police officers met at the Masonic Hall on Main Street, where the local union handed out awards. More than 100 officers and their families then had lunch.

"We decided that this is our day. We decided on a family-oriented thing," said Mike Farrell, president of Local 891 of AFSCME Council 15.

The union sued the city in April over the binding arbitration award handed down March 15. The city and union negotiated to a stalemate over the last three years.

[...]

Police Chief Al Baker knew his officers were boycotting the official awards ceremony, but he showed up anyway with Deputy Chief Terry Shanahan, Capt. Robert Myles and Detective Capt. Mitch Weston.

"There is still some very bad feelings about the contract and arbitration award," Baker said. "This isn't supposed to be a political event. It's about recognizing our officers for outstanding achievement."

Baker said the department will work through the morale problem. He said at his former department in Racine, Wis., officers also boycotted an awards ceremony during a labor dispute. Baker said he will hand out the department's awards during roll call over the next few days.

[...]

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, who was present in the council chambers to hand out the awards, said the ceremony is a long-standing Danbury tradition and it is time for the officers to stop thinking about the labor contract.

"The contract is done," Boughton said.

He said the city is ready to begin meeting with the union over the issues of reorganizing the department.

This has been an on-going situation for years and it's safe to say that the bad blood between City Hall and the police department won't be resolved any time soon.

Monday night was a big moment for Chris Murphy.

The fifth district Democrats nominated Murphy as the Democratic challenger to Republican Congresswoman Nancy Johnson at their state convention held at Crosby High School in Waterbury.


Addressing an audience of over 300 people, Murphy pledged to run a positive campaign against Johnson focusing on issues that are important to people in the fifth district such as health care and education. For the most part, Murphy's speech was very positive as he let the other speakers rip Johnson apart (don't let it be said that Democrats can't throw out the red-meat).

Murphy wants to keep on a positive note distancing himself from the negative attacks that have been launched against Johnson in the media. Although I don't see a problem highlighting the hyprocisy of Johnson nor do I have a problem attakcing politicians (it's pretty obvious), one must respect the way Murphy is running his campaign and hopefully voters will notice this as well during as the election season heats up.

I arrived several minutes late (I’m not familiar with Waterbury) but I was able to videotape all the speeches as well as meet with several readers of my site (sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk in more detail. I hope you all understand that running around video taping and taking photographs takes a great deal of energy and if I don’t stay focused, I’ll miss something). Although I was unable to get an interview with Murphy, I was very pleased with what I saw from the young challenger and I’m looking forward to covering his campaign as he travels across the district over the next few months.

Sadly, the mainstream media wasn't present to witness Murphy do his thing. Even the Waterbury-Republican skipped out on the event and the convention was held in Waterbury. As far as I can tell, I was the only "media" person on hand which is a shame since there are several newspapers in the area that could of sent a reporter to the scene instead of being lazy and picking up the story from the AP wire (look here, and here).

It’s funny how newspaper editors and publishers wonder why their circulation is decreasing. Here's a hint: maybe if you cover the news instead of writing endless feature stories, fluff pieces, and AP stories (which you can read anywhere), and focus on hard news and stories that mean something to your readers, people might buy your paper(s) again.

(UPDATE: I was wrong, the Waterbury Republican did cover the convention. My appoligies to the paper).



Due to events today and tomorrow, I not going to post all the highlights from the convention now but here is the video of Murphy's acceptance speech. Due to the large file size, the video was broken into four parts (if you experience any playback problems, hit the pause button and give you computer a couple of minutes to download the file). I’ll add the video from the other speakers at a later time.

Murphy acceptance speech part 1:

Murphy acceptance speech part 2:

Murphy acceptance speech part 3:

Murphy acceptance speech part 4:

Oh do I love to watch a car wreck in progress.

I've been keeping everyone up to date on the laughable Paul Streitz campaign and I have some good news to report...Paul raised money. Bad news, he can't find 100 people to suppport his silly cause. Since my last report on April 10th, Streitz has been able to collect a whopping 3,220 dollars from 78 supporters!

You're doing a heck of a job Paulie!

I'm begging everyone to please support this xenophobe as I would hate to see him drop out of the race (I'm having so much fun watching his campaign).

Great post from Matthew Gertz sheds light on the hypocrisy of Nancy Johnson.

Midnight on Monday is the deadline for seniors to sign up for prescription drug coverage through Medicare Part D. Once the enrollment period ends, seniors seeking access to the program will face higher premiums.

Medicare was written by and for the benefit of the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies, and passed in the middle of the night after a three hour vote that saw significant arm-twisting by the Republican leadership.

[...]

Yesterday, 5th district congresswoman Nancy Johnson appeared with Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt at the New Britain Senior Center to support the program and urge seniors to join up. But Johnson, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, couldn't resist distancing herself from part of the bill.

But Johnson said she does support the elimination of penalties for those who delay enrollment. Under current rules, those who wait for the next sign-up period in November face a higher Medicare drug premium.

Who is Nancy trying to fool? She WROTE the damn bill, and now she's complaining about the effects? She knows why that provision is there: to push people into the program as quickly as possible, and make an extra profit for the insurance companies in the process. She's raised over half a million dollars in the last six years from the big drug companies; does she actually think she can convince us that she's acting in the best interests of seniors?

Nancy Johnson thinks she's pulling a fast one...we know better.

Last Monday was a big day for Joe DaSilva and the Democratic Town Committee.

Lets start with the good news:

As you well know by now, State Rep. Lew Wallace will not be seeking re-election this year. Looking to spend for time with his family, the former mayoral assistant to Mayor Gene Eriquez and district director for U.S. Rep. James Maloney made a visit to the meeting and gave an emotional goodbye speech and thanked the committee and fellow Democrats for their support over the years.

With State Rep. Bob Godfrey doing the introduction, Wallace says good-bye to his fellow Democrats (for now) in the following video clip.


With the convention fast approaching, Democratic candidates are traveling across the state meeting delegates at the various monthly town committee meetings. Since both candidates know that in this tight primary race and since every delegate votes counts, it came to no surprise that both Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano paid a visit to the Democratic Town Committee and each candidate made their case to the committee while looking for support from the public.

It was a rare chance to see both candidates in person and it gave the committee and the public who attended the meeting a opportunity to hear each candidate make their case get them to answer questions on a wide range of topics. If you couldn't make the meeting, don't worry because we recorded the entire meeting just for you.

Here are some video highlights from both candidates:

First candidate: Dan Malloy:

Clip 01: Malloy stump speech:

Clip 02: Malloy explains how he can beat Gov. Jodi Rell:

Clip 03: Malloy addresses health care:

Clip 04: Malloy tackles immigration:

Clip 05: Closing remarks:


Next up: John DeStefano:

Clip 01: DeStefano stump speech (1 of 2):

Clip 02: DeStefano stump speech (2 of 2):


Clip 03: DeStefano explains how to beat Gov. Rell (or DeStefano meets Lynn Taborsak (1 of 2):

Clip 04: DeStefano explains how to beat Rell (2 of 2):

Clip 05: DeStefano answers question regarding health care: