HUGE hat tip to Danbury's Pete Walrath and Sean Morits. I stil can't believe these guys are bringing George Clintion to Danbury this weekend (and the show is free)!
George Clinton will headline a three-day music festival this weekend, featuring a free concert by the legendary funk musician and his band, Parliament Funkadelic.
Presented by Hat City Entertainment, the festival runs today through Sunday. Organizers expect 2,000 people to spend the weekend dancing on the Danbury Green.
"Who better than the master of funk himself?" asked concert organizer Sean Morits.
Morits and Pete Walrath are partners in Hat City Entertainment, which produces music events at several downtown venues.
"We want to give Danbury residents a great time and draw in fans from outside the area," Morits said.
Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television earlier this week.
Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."
The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the casing helps the VeriChip bond with living tissue and stay in place. A special RFID reader broadcasts a signal, and the antenna in the VeriChip draws power from the signal and sends its data. The VeriChip is a passive RFID tag; since it does not require a battery, it has a virtually unlimited life span.
RFID tags have long been used to identify animals in a variety of settings; livestock, laboratory animals and pets have been "chipped" for decades. Privacy advocates have long expressed concerns about this technology being used in human beings.
So now, we're thinking about treating human beings like cattle...will Danbury be the first test city?
What a beautiful day for a parade. I was on the scene today at the Memorial Day parade on Main Street and lets just say that it was something to remember. I must of lost ten pounds from all the running up and down Main Street taking photos but I think you'll agree after viewing my pictures and video (compared to what the News-Times had to offer) that all my running around the city was well worth it.
UPDATE: I just made a DVD of the entire parade. If anyone wants a copy, please email me and I'll get it to you. Since DVDs are so cheap, I'll only charge ya one dollar which should cover the cost of buying and burning the DVD...now that's a deal!
Video highlights and photographs
Here are some video highlights from today's parade.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.