Since it's Danbury clean-up day, I've decided to take the day off from blogging and get my basement cleaned up (the rain did a number of my storage and I had to throw a number of items out).
Here's a quick list of some upcoming posts:
1. Last night, I made the trip up to Hartford and attended the Democratic State Central's annual Jefferson Jackson Bailey fundraiser and I'll provide a full report of the event (including the usual video).
2. Seems like the drum beat against Mayor Boughton's decision to do the budget process a month early is getting louder and I'll examine the latest round of criticism.
3. Oh, we haven't forgotten about the Dunkin' Donuts nonsense. I'll go into the latest in this idiotic situation.
4. There will be some guest posts popping up on the site pretty soon. I'll get into this later.
5. "People over politics or politics over the people." We'll report and you decide.
6. Tons of new videos are added to the site and wait till you see what I unearthed in my video vault.
I like to take a quick moment to thank all wonderful readers who emailed me recently regarding the HatCityBLOG flyers around town. For those who found this site from the flyers, let me say welcome to my site and feel free to look around. If there is anything in particular that you're looking for, please use the search tool on the upper right hand of this site.
Bloggers at the Capitol series: Energy reform and conservation
Friday, April 20, 2007 Time: 11:40 AM
The next part of the "Bloggers at the Capitol" series focuses on energy reform and conservation in Connecticut.
For those who don't know, last month a groups of bloggers met with several top Democratic legislators at the Capitol and had the opportunity to had a question them over a wide variety of issues that are on the minds of the public. As many people know, people in Connecticut are now paying the highest electric rates in the country. In the following videoclip, State Rep Steve Fontana (D-87th Dist.), chairman of the Energy Technology committee details how state legislators are attempting to tackle this issue as well as other numerous energy problems in the state.
In my small (and rare) cameo appearance, I ask Rep. Fontana what the state is doing in terms of promoting conservation, primarily educating the public about the inefficiency of incandescent lightbulds and the benefits of using compact florescent bulbs.
An announcement fresh off the griddle, Greenwich DTC Chair Jim Himes has just announced that he's filed to run in 2008 against Chris Shays in the 4th CD.
What's more, he's agreed to come by My Left Nutmeg on his first day as a candidate to talk with Connecticut voters and activists to share his thoughts on the upcoming campaign, talk about his professional and public service experience, and answer questions about his goals as Connecticut's next Democratic Congressman!
Jim will be joining us from 1:30 to 2:30pm, and I'd like to encourage lurkers and first-time-visitors to register with the site to participate in the liveblog event: it's free, but it usually takes 15 minutes or so for your password to arrive, so you might want to sign up early to avoid disappointment.
Make sure to check out My Left Nutmeg and check out the preson who's going to hand Shays his pink slip.
If you missed Geraldo Rivera’s dust-up last week with Bill O’Reilly, you don’t know what you’re missing. Rivera, normally a fellow good soldier for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox propaganda machine, actually called out O’Reilly for trying to score cheap political points by linking the death of two Virginia teenagers to the debate about illegal immigration (the driver of the truck that plowed into the girls’ car was in the country illegally, and was allegedly drunk). The heated argument saw Geraldo (who once revealed American troop locations in Afghanistan), smack-down O’Reilly with a simple, “It has nothing to do with illegal aliens; it has to do with drunk driving.”
Incredibly, a similar argument has erupted locally, in the comments section of the Danbury News-Times. Log on to read about how 30-year-old Laudermilson Teixeirawas was arrested for stabbing his 33-year-old roommate, and you can read some of the most hateful trash the internet has to offer this side of Ann Coulter’s blog. Neither Teixeirawas nor his victim were in this country legally, it appears, which in the minds of the anonymous xenophobes of Danbury, renders them inhuman, too. We won’t dignify to reprint the hate put forth by the likes of “JoeyJoeJoeJrShabadoo,” but it is interesting to see how the sewage that a guy like O’Reilly spouts filters down to the knuckledragger level.
It's also interesting how racist comments from the likes of bottomfeeders like JoeyJoe are even published in the first place...but this is expected from a newspaper that stubbornly refuses to report on local government news, palces knee-jerking headlines such as "IMMIGRANT SLAIN" (as if there the victim is not a normal human being), and willfully contributes to the "low-information voter" mentality (to the glee of the mayor and Republican-controlled Common Council).
Go take a read at the hated yourself...you gotta love Big T's audience. (note: Online Editor Elizabeth Putman has removed some of the more disgusting comments as of Thurs @ 9:00 AM).
Blame the Virginia Tech shooting on...immigration?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Time: 3:37 PM
More proof that members of the anti-immigrant movement are completely NUTS.
Thank goodness there are people like Keith Olbermann who has no problem bringing these morons to the public's attention. What's next, an irresponsible, toothless, bigoted local cable show host will allow a "rumored" plan about FIREBOMBING THE HISPANIC CENTER to be broadcast on the air and not punish the coward bigot who made the statement?
Wow, I'm STILL dealing with my basement..seems like the lawn is really saturated with water and it's seeping back into my basement. For the most part, the basement is dry but I don't want to deal with any mold problems so I'm keeping an eye on things.
Well I won't back down, no I won't back down you could stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't back down
Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around and I'll keep this world from draggin' me down gonna stand my ground and I won't back down
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out hey I will stand my ground and I won't back down
Well I know what's right, I got just one life in a world that keeps on pushin' me around but I'll stand my ground and I won't back down
I just ran across this article regarding Maria Cinta Lowe, former head of the Hispanic Center (you know, that place rumored to be FIREBOMBED according to the hate-mongers on BigT's profanity-laced, moronic, bigoted cable show that should be ripped off the air A.S.A.P).
I thought this piece would be of interest for those who only hear the misinformation, lies and distortions from the anti-immigrants who don't like Lowe because she stood up for those who were too intimidated by the voices of hate to stand up for themselves.
Spring 2007 marks 35 years of community service for Maria-Cinta Lowe, a long-term Danbury resident and community leader. Born in Tortosa, Spain, she attended Teacher’s College before coming to the United States with her husband. She has lived in Connecticut for thirty-six years, is the mother of five children, grandmother of 12, and boasts one great-grandchild. Maria-Cinta has worked on behalf of Latino immigrants, both professionally as well as on a volunteer basis and is perhaps best known in the public eye for her professional affiliation as Executive Director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury, a position she held from 1990 to 2007.
But her community work and activism started long before that. Beginning in 1972, Lowe began translating her goals and beliefs into action. Teaching and tutoring Spanish-speaking individuals learning English or helping them to prepare for the GED were contributions that spoke to her strong belief in the power of education to help individuals realize their potential.
Lowe first became involved with the Hispanic Center through its summer programs. Established in 1967, early on the Center was more like a civic group for co-ethnics to meet and to feel connected to their roots. But Danbury’s Latino community grew steadily, coming from Puerto Rico and other U.S. places, from war-torn El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in the 1970s-80s, from economically devastated Mexico, South and Central America in 1990s-2000s, and the mission began to shift. Lowe has seen the change in focus to more language instruction, citizenship education, job-seeking skills, and immigrants’ rights advocacy.
Throughout her career, Lowe has remained a volunteer and activist in other areas, especially that of children’s rights, education, and childcare. She has worn many hats - from the municipal level - including the Danbury School District’s Board of Education meetings and working with special education and ESL coordinators – to the non-profit sector. She has worked with various state and local agencies, among them Danbury-based Children First, a local non-profit dedicated to early childhood issues. Always, she maintains a firm commitment to working at the grassroots level – working with parents’ groups and one-on-one with individual families and students.
The organizations that Ms. Lowe works with today reflect the diversity in her values and commitments – as a civic-minded community leader, as an advocate for immigrants and for children, and perhaps most strongly, her passion for human and civil rights, especially the protection of newly-arrived immigrants.
She is an active board member for: Community Relations Board of the Danbury Federal Correction Institution; the Danbury ConnCAP Collaborative; Community Health Center Board; Community Development Board; CAUSA (CT Assoc. of United Spanish Agencies); Danbury Health and Housing Partnership; GDCCU (Greater Danbury Coalition for a Community United); Blue Ribbon Commission on Immigrants; and DACORIM (Danbury Area Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants).
She is also an advisory member of ASPIRA (An investment in Puerto Rican/Latino youth, Bridgeport, CT); The Latino Scholarship; Regional Commission Child Care Rights and Abuse; and Habitat for Humanity.
Lowe is type of individual thats rarely see nowadays in our country. Never one to hold back her feelings, Lowe has been a symbol of immigrant rights in Danbury (to the displeasure of those who rather immigrants be silenced) for years and was recently thrown under the bus by those who wanted her to STFU.
Lowe's strength and determination in the face of blind racism and bigotry that has infested are area should be admired and I'm sure we haven't heard the last from her as the fight against the anti-immigrant community continues.
As a bonus for those who only know about Lowe from those who simply hated her because she wouldn't bow down to the anti-immigrant b.s., here's a video clip of Lowe's offering her support at last year's immigrant-rights march. ...developing.
So lets see, somewhere in Danbury, a family is in mourning over the loss of a love one and the only thing that comes to the minds of the xenophobes is connecting this crime to illegal immigration. Not only is this classless, it's also heartless, disgusting, and just plain idiotic and just gives further insight into the mind of the bigots in the area.
Hopefully when the Connecticut Post takes over, they'll take a look at the comments section as a whole, do the right thing and rid the city of the feature altogether. They should go back to the old format of reader interaction directed to the forums and place the hate-mongers back where they belong.
UPDATE: Watch this case as the anti-immigrants zealots attempt to make the feeble arguement that this single individual crime reinforces their bigoted view that "illegals" are ruining Danubry.
04.25.22 (RADIO): WSHU Latino group call on Connecticut lawmakers to open a Danbury charter school
06.03.22 (OP-ED): KUSHNER: "Career Academy ‘a great deal for Danbury"
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.
An announcement fresh off the griddle, 
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.
