(I've been reporting on the ongoing stupidity among the xenophobes who come out of there spider holes and pollute our city with their garbage. Now, I'm not talking about the people who address the topic of immigration with common sense (trust me, I know many people who are concerned about illegal immigration who I have no problem with and make very valid points), I'm talking about the out-of-touch morons who spew out racist rhetoric every time they get a chance thus making their entire cause look like a joke.

From the stupidity of Paul Streitz's senate campaign, to the outright insanity of several members of the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (CTCIC) and U.S. Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement (USCILE), these nutjobs have done nothing but babbled to their small core base of goons, annoy most other people in Danbury who have learned to simply ignore them. In the end, they only make themselves look like complete jackasses to the rest of the state as they've been unable to attract a respectable following or increase their membership to anything approaching significant although they've been around for over two years now.

No wonder the two Republican State Rep candidates who attempted to use illegal immigration to their advantage had their tails handed to them in the last election.

Although I could fill up this blog's frontpage with the amount of video footage I have in this issue, I'll just offer this one flashback video from earlier this year).


Here's a small video clip of members of the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (CTCIC) and U.S. Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement (USCILE). Watch as these insane people display their racist hatred up and down the street of Danbury at the Immigration march Sunday. Pay close attention to some of the jerks in this group who tried to hide their face once they knew they were being videotaped (cowards). Also, you'll love Uncle Sam as he takes the xenophobe award for being the biggest jackass as you'll see at the end of the clip (note: he's also a board member of USCILE as well as a local television talk show host...don't worry, I'll get into that at a later time).

I didn't post the scenes of these jerks cursing at people in the march (which included children) simply because it's too disgusting but I think you'll get the tone of these people once you see the clip.

I'm finishing up on a full report of this incredible march and I'll have it ready very soon.

Remember these things:

1. These people DO NOT represent the views and opinions of a majority of people who LIVE in Danbury and most of the people in the group ARE NOT from Danbury (including Uncle Sam who lives in Bethel). Most people I speak to in Danbury wish that these jerks would just go away.

2. These are the same sick wackos that Nancy "Rubber Stamp" Johnson met with less than two weeks ago (becoming the FIRST politician in Connecticut who ever met with these goons).

3. Pay particular attention to WHAT the xenophobes SAY to the crowd as they make no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants (the final scene is a gem). While you're at it, look at how these anti-immigrant wackos are outnumbered and take that into consideration whenever someone tells you that a MAJORITY of people in Danbury express the same feeling as these dolts.

I'm so close to switching to the DirectTV.

(I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend. As we wrap up 2006, lets continue to look back at the numerous events that happened in Hat City.

If you didn't know, Ned Lamont held his final rally right here in Danbury. This was a really special moment for me since I had the pleasure to follow Lamont around since day one. When no one knew him or gave him a chance against Joe Lieberman in the primary, Connecticut bloggers stayed by his side and never gave up as Lamont went from one small town to another spreading his message (that seems like a lifetime ago).

Generating over 250,000 dollars in online donations in a short time span, bloggers receive national notice because of their campaign coverage, as well as their fundraising ability (a quarter of a million dollars for a state campaign is very impressive). To put this into perspective, during one online fundraising day, in the span of three hours, I was able to raise over 700 dollars for Lamont from readers of my sites. As the state and national campaigns gear up again for 2007, and 2008, because due to the efforts of Lamont campaign and blogs, expect People-Powered Media (PPM) to play a central role in political campaigns.

Portions of this rally were presented in the BBC documentary Blog Wars, which will be broadcasted again today on the Sundance Channel (it's the scene when Ned gets off the bus and walks towards the crowd at the Portuguese Center). Here's the report I filed the day before election day).


I tell you, no matter what happens tomorrow, I'll never forget the amazing time I had following Ned Lamont's campaign.

Whether it's the first time I met Lamont at the New Haven library in January, or watching his first speeches at DTC meetings, I knew back then that I was witnessing history happen right before my very eyes. With each passing day, more people joined the Lamont bandwagon and changed what was once a barely noticed campaign into a national phenomenon. Now, with Election Day near, Lamont ends his campaign in my neck of the woods and I couldn't be happier.


Well over 200 people came out in the middle of the afternoon to show their support for Lamont and it was a fitting way to end to an amazing campaign.

Without further delay, here's my video on Ned Lamont's final rally.

(Here's a very humble crosspost from ConnecticutBLOG)

Now I know how Sally felt.

I'm a big fan of Steve Gilliard's popular national blog The News Blog, so it came to a pleasant surprise that he picked little ol' me as one of his favorite state/local bloggers for 2006.

Juan Melli and CT Blogger-They do the dirty work of local and state politics, which will never lead to glory or riches, but is needed because if you think federal government has problems.....these guys are heroes to me

"blush"

Seriously, thanks to Steve for the recognition. To be placed along side award winners You Tube , Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Matt Stoller, Howard Dean, Sasha Baron Cohen, Morgan Spurlock, Amanda Marcotte, and Ned Lamont is quite a honor.

I really have to give props to all the other Connecticut bloggers as we all worked our tails off trying to stay one step ahead of the mainstream media (PPM baby) as well as keeping people informed on what's happening in the nutmeg state. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't ask Connecticut Bob to help me set the white balance on my camcorder and shoved my digital camera into Spazeboy's hand back during the memorable Lamont event at Naples in New Haven...

Hopefully, political campaigns will take notice of the great reporting we did on the Connecticut races and understand the importance of blogs.

Case in point...

Trust me, if you like what we did in 2006, wait till you see what the Connecticut bloggers have in store for 2007.

Again thanks to Steve for recognizing my work.

UPDATE: Oh man, The Great Scare, ConnectucutBob, and my favorite drink from New Milford made me blush all over again :-)

(Okay, I'm back to archiving my system so I'm going back to the HatCityBLOG vault and re-posting the most popular posts from this year. The following is a requested video report from earlier this year FYI: I'm also cleaning up the CSS code so might notice a change in the layout).


Seems like someone is trying to re-start the Young Dems chapter in Danbury and after almost 30 years, it's about time.

Billy Taylor, Emmanuel Omokaro (Senior Class President at DHS) and Leighton Roye (Board of Governors representative at DHS) introduced themselves to the Danbury DTC on Monday night and I grabbed them for a quick interview.
For more information, you can reach the guys at the following email address.

Billy: bbt426@yahoo.com

Emmanuel : emmanuelomokaro@sbcglobal.net

Leighton: bonecrusha44@sbcglobal.net

Drop them an email and thank them for getting involved in politics. The youth is the future.

You can also get more information on the Young Dems on the Danbury DTC website.

I've received several emails from people who were disappointed with the lack of Christmas displays in the city. I guess from what I heard and read, the majority of gripes are from the lack of displays on Main Street. Many people pointed towards Main Street in Ridgefield, looked at the display on the trees, and wondered why Danbury didn't do something similar this year.

To get a better understanding, here's a picture of the two Main Streets.

Ridgefield (click to enlarge):


Danbury (click to enlarge):


From my understanding, Main Street during Christmas time didn't always look this dark and I do recall a time when the trees in the middle of the street were lit. You might not be able to make it out in the photo but the only thing lit up on the street in Danbury this year was the light poles.

I guess most people I talked to wondered why the city couldn't do more than place some decorations besides lighting street poles on the street which bulbs need to be replaced either because they went out (as in the case with the pole on White Street in the photo) or they were probably stolen.

I had to dig through my old pictures of Main Street from several years back but I did find cases when the street was noticeably different. Unfortunately, since these photos are not dated, not digitized, and my scanner is down, I unable post them nor am I able to give you a time period (given that these photos were taken with by film SLR camera, the photo is at least 4 years old since this I bought my first digital camera in 2002). I also did some research while I was out and check out a couple of places that had photos of Main Street during Christmas seasons in the not-so-far past and it also showed a Main Street which was very different from what we see today (due to copyright reasons, I'm also unable to post these images but they're not hard to find).

Now when I talk about decorations on Main Street, were not talking about buildings such as the library or churches, we're talking about the road itself and after traveling around the area, I can see their point.

I guess this all the gloom from people I talk to could stem from the disappointment from several families that First Night was cancelled, which brings me to my next point.

For years, my wife and I were one of the rare couple without children who went to the First Night celebrations and it's really too bad that the whole thing was cancelled because it truly was a HUGE hit with families. The sad thing is that First Night has been on life support for years and it's a shame that the city couldn't find a way to work out the kinks. It's not like people didn't know what the problems were as it was the same ol' thing year after year: 1.) lack of volunteers and 2.) lack of funds. Maybe with more aggressive advertising campaign, an earlier call for volunteers, as well more support from all politicians (on both sides of the political aisle), Danbury can get it's act together for 2008.

If people would work together for the common good of the area, then there is no reason First Night couldn't be a success every year. If the Taste of Danbury is any indication (which was a amazing success), families will come out of their homes if you give them a reason to step out (FYI: I will post by video and photo footage from the Taste of Danbury later this weekend to give you an idea of what I'm talking about in case you missed it).

It's really a shame that a city the size of Danbury won't have a great event like First Night, which brings together families and neighbors in the area. I know I'm going to miss it as well as many other people I met over the years at First Night events. Hopefully, the city will take notice about this and the issue on Main Street and make the necessary changes in the future.

Wouldn't everyone be better off if this place was just torn down?

As this holiday week and 2006 comes to an end, I'm going to wrap up these series of flashbacks from this year with starting with a man who needs no introduction in Danbury...

2006 marked Lew Wallace's last year as State Rep for the 109th.

Rep. Wallace is one of those rare political person's who really cared about his community's concerns. Known for the great level of communication he had with the people he represented in Hartford, Rep. Wallace is considered by many neighbors on both sides of the political aisle as a very honest kind-hearted politician who will be missed. Wallace's seat is now occupied by Danbury native Democrat Joe Taborsak who will be sworn into office next month.

Here is a video clip of Rep. Wallace's last address to the Danbury DTC back in May.

Wow, the feedback I'm receiving on the flashback videos are amazing. Since there 2006 is almost at an end, I'll keep rolling out the clips while I deal with the God-awful task of archiving.

The blogging community received a great deal of attention in Connecticut because of the campaigns of Ned Lamont and Chris Murphy. Both candidates understood the power of the internet and were credited for having two of the most informative sites around.

I had the pleasure to follow both Lamont and Murphy around the state and I made it a point to interview them whenever they came to the area. Here is my first interview I did with Chris Murphy in Danbury and the last interview I did with the Congressman-elect after his huge win.

My first interview with Murphy (Portuguese Festival):


Murphy's comment about blogs during an interview at JKs the day after the election:

Come back for more clips.

From Main Street, video footage of Danbury's 2006 Memorial Day parade.

Oh boy, the day has finally arrived.

Back in January, I heard about a man named Ned Lamont who was thinking about challenging Joe Lieberman for his senate seat. Since he was planning on giving a speech in New Haven, I decided to take a drive down to the Elm City and see what this guy had to say. As I was about to leave me place, I happened to see my videocamera on my table and thought to myself "maybe I should bring my camcorder just in case." Well, that decision changed the way people viewed blogs in Connecticut, as my video posting of Lamont's speech was the first video blog post done at that time.

Throughout the early days of the Lamont campaign, I followed the man who defeated Lieberman in the primary as he went across the state talking to people in every small town imaginable. My video work attracted several other bloggers who purchased a camcorder and followed one of the most watched senate primary races in recent memory. As time went on, my blog and several others gained national attention and the BBC paid a visit to Connecticut and followed me and the other bloggers as we reported on the activities of Lamont and Lieberman. The result of the BBC videotaping all of us came to become a documentary called Blog Wars which will air for the first time tonight at 10:00 on the Sundance Channel.

Now unfortunately, although the BBC crew followed me and the other bloggers from Connecticut around for the entire summer, a great deal of the footage didn't make the final cut since the film covers much more than the senate race and expands to the entire inner workings of blogs in general. Although you won't see the interview they did with me, you will see me doing my thing at several events and see the people behind the other blogs in Connecticut. Hell, I didn't do this blog to be famous or anything and I'm just happy that I people from across the nation as well as England knew the stuff I was doing.

If you're not doing anything tonight, tune into the Sundance Channel and check the documentary out. Trust me, I'm not hard to find in the flick.

In the ongoing drama with overdeveloped land, I bring you this letter from today's News-Times regarding the god-awful idea to place a diner on the busiest section of North Street.

Would someone please tell me how permission was ever granted to build a diner on the site at Padanaram Road?

The front sits slightly off one of the most busily traveled and congested roads in Danbury, while the back is practically in the brook. I see very little room for parking or for safe access and exit from the site.

Maybe I am missing something. But I have been wondering, since I saw their sign advertising that a diner was coming, how that particular site ever got through the zoning process?

I would really appreciate it if someone would be kind enough to enlighten me.

You're not missing anything. The diner is a complete idiotic idea and an insult to the many people who have to drive back in forth and deal with the ridiculous traffic on North Street everyday.

With more developments being proposed on North Street/Padanaram Road, the traffic problem is only going to get worse and the addition of a diner at the busiest section of that street isn't going to help things.

To give you a better idea about the problem on North Street, here is a video clip I took from a year ago which highlights the problem. Now mind you, this is on a non-busy day and I'm on a corner where traffic has a chance to break up a bit. The diner in question is going to be placed about a quarter mile down the street going to your right (notice the cars at a standstill under the traffic light in the clip).



Once again, this is EXACTLY the reason why 1.) ALL local government meetings should be broadcast on public access and 2). people should be more informed about what's happening at City Hall. These types of developments are brought up at Planning and Zoning and/or EIC and that's where the public should make their stand, not after the fact when the foundation has been poured and the walls have gone up.

Too many times we see people write letters to the editor in which they express surprise that a development is going up in their area. Broadcasting meetings and community involvement will go a long way in terms of making sure that people are kept informed and not surprised with new buildings popping up all over the place.

The number ONE complaint I hear from people via/email and/or in person about Danbury is NOT illegal immigration but overdevelopment and traffic woes. The volume of traffic in Danbury is out-of-control yet every time we turn around, people hear of YET another condo development popping up OR additional units being added to already irritating developments (i.e. the new units popping up at Stetson Place on Padanaram Road).

The people who are complaining the most are the people who live right off of North Street/Padanaram Road and have to travel that road everyday. Over the past couple of years, the traffic problem has spilled over to other streets such as White Street/Newtown Road and Main Street yet there has been to this date, no plan to properly address the concern and adding new cameras above signal lights don't really help the situation when the ENTIRE STREET is jammed for miles.

Due to popular demand, over the next few months, I'll be interviewing several people in that area who are fighting back against developers who are destroying their neighborhood and following their fight from community meetings, to confronting developers (and their lawyers) at City Hall meetings.

UPDATE: I received several emails from people who live around the North Street area asking for more info on the latest development being proposed at City Hall. Since I'm in the middle of archiving my videos to DVD (which takes a long time to accomplish), I simply don't have the time to report on this story as of yet. Also, sine this is a holiday week, I'm devoting more time to going back and reposting some of the more popular posts from 2006 while I take a break from the action.

I already shot the video for the new development proposal story but I simply don't have the computer space to produce the videofile at this point. Once the post is completed and uploaded, all the contact information will be presented.

Thanks for the emails.

(Here's another videopost from the 2006 HatCityBLOG archives. Of all the videos I've posted during the last year, this clip received the most attention with several people across the nation requesting copies of this exchange between Mayor Mark Boughton and Immigration lawyer Philip Burns. This report was originally filed in March 2006. Enjoy).



Did Mayor Boughton go too far personally attacking immigration lawyer Philip Berns? Did Berns get under Boughton's skin when he commented that Danbury does not care about the immigrant population?

The topic of conversation among many who attended the forum on immigration Wednesday night wasn't the immigration issue, but the sharp verbal exchange between Boughton and Berns. The two people were invited to speak about illegal immigration in Danbury but things quickly degraded and became personal with each taking verbal shots at each other. Things seem to reach a boiling point when Mayor Boughton personally attacked Berns' career as an immigration attorney.

You missed the forum? Upset you missed the fireworks? Heard about the exchange and want to see for you if Boughton or Berns went over the line? Well, don't worry; we have the videoclip so you can judge for yourself.



One thing is certain, this issue has angered people on both sides and if last night is any indication, this topic (and the anti-immigration rhetoric expressed by the radical members of the audience) will not go away any time soon.

Oh this is too funny. The wingnuts rabid commenters from the News-Times are attempting to enter the blogosphere. Everyone, please welcome the last radical conservative in the area, DanburyDan to the scene.

I would place a link to his site but it seems he's little blog still has the training wheels on and I don't want my readers to go to his site and goof on how bad his site looks (like his pitiful use of hyperlinks, idiotic failure to use blockquotes, crappy photos he probably found via a google search, his use of a blogger template that's been used by about 1,000,000 other blogs, etc, etc, etc, etc).

Just another person who thinks he can read the News-Times in the morning and babble his jargon through his keyboard. Expect to see more of these sites as we approach 2007. Personally, I could care less, the more stuff about Danbury online the better it is for everyone BUT time will tell if these blogs have anything to say besides repeating the same garbage they spout on the News-Times boards (which is mostly radical conservative garbage). In a Democratic majority liberal city like Danbury, people like DanburyDan/BigDawgDan and the foaming at the mouth readers who pollute the News-Times board are of the minority opinion who usually meet at the Concordia Club for their anti-immigrant meetings. Again, I not wasting my time or giving him one bit of traffic by posting his link (his two way conversation with rydon is quite amusing).

And Dannyboy, if you claim is to give us the real truth about Danbury, how about starting with not lying about when you started your site? Last time I checked, it's still December 2006. Just sayin'

Nothing to see there, lets move along...

UPDATE: From DannyBoy: It [his blog] will not be a shill for the local Democratic Town Committee as the other blog is, nor will it be a cheerleader for the local Republican Party.

Links from DannyBoy's blogroll (Danbury and Political Links to soothe your soul...in this sea of blue.) include Danbury GOP, Michelle Malkin, Media Attache, and Real Clear Politics...all right winged wacked sites. Not that I don't have a problem with those sites because they individuals don't have a problem labeling themselves as conservative unlike a person who claims to be balanced YET claims a "left-winged" conspiracy and links exclusively to conservative sites.

You're not just a cheerleader, you're the captain of the squad...and oh, it's nice to see that you realized that it's STILL 2006. Now if you can only fixed the 20 other amateur problems with your site, maybe you could lose the training wheels label.

I'm not holding my breath...welcome anyway.

UPDATE 2: Okay guys, enough with the emails and comments bashing Dannyboy and his site. I don't need screenshots of his site before and after he fixed his errors and please don't even send me anymore stuff as I'm just going to block it. You guys are simply too funny with all the background info on this guy (wow, I didn't realize about his past posts on other sites and his rant on a post on CTConservative that I ripped apart earlier this year).

This isn't going to turn into a gutter match folks, save that type of talk for the News-Times board, it's childish and not needed. The internet is a vast place where everyone is entitled to their opinion and I've said my peace. There's simply too many issues in Danbury to cover so lets move on and keep the conversation going.

Again, I'm in the middle of archiving my database which takes forever to get finished. In the meantime, I'm going to re-post various video clips from 2006 for your viewing pleasure.

Staring things off is Democratic Town Committee Chairman Joe DaSilva first televised interview after becoming the new chairman. On the public access show "Ideas at Work and Beyond," DaSilva goes over a host of local topics which should be a factor in the upcoming 2007 mayoral election.

DaSilva on Mayor Boughton and illegal immigration:


DaSilva on the Democratic Party's role in Danbury and his analysis of the Kennedy Park condo project:


DaSilva critique of Boughton's seven year tax abatement plan for the Kennedy Park condo complex:


DaSilva on the Police contract:

In honor of one of my favorite Christmas movies ever, A Christmas Story, I'm devoting this thread throughtout Christmas with some of my favorite moments from this great holiday flick. Of course, you can be like me and watch this movie all day tomorrow on TNT TBS but it's also cool to watch clips from the movie.

For a little Chrsitmas fun, try this online game based on the movie. FYI: here's a screen shot of my high score:



Happy holidays to all!

Video clip 1: Chinese Christmas dinner.


Video clip 2: Farkus Gets His


Video clip 3: Schwartz Get His!


Video clip 4: Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Pin!


Video clip 5: Pink Bunny Costume (I promise CTLauryn never to give her such an awful present).