The mayor should take a lesson in hubris from Oedipus Tyrannus before he pokes his eyes out.

From the mayor's blog, here's the great one beating his chest over his appearance on a local television show.

Last night I was on a cable access show here in Danbury. Most of the 1/2 hour was taken up by a discussion of illegal immigration, the final few minutes were dedicated to development in Danbury.

It was interesting to see that some of the callers were local Democratic activists who are passionate about their beliefs (including one Democratic Councilwoman who forgot to turn down her T.V.), but don't always have all of the information at their fingertips.

I learned long ago as a candidate and as a public servant to always do your homework. I never ask a question that I don't already know the answer to. I'm not bragging, it is just necessary for my own political survival to make sure I have a mastery of the issues.

* This comes from a three-term mayor who couldn't remember the two short sentences from the city charter regarding his voting rights during the common council meetings.

Section 3-2 PRESIDING OFFICER.

With the Mayor presiding, the Common Council shall meet at eight o’clock p.m. on the third Monday in November, 1977, for the purposes of organization, and biennially thereafter, and shall choose one of its members to be President of said Common Council. The Mayor shall preside over all meetings of the Common Council and shall have no vote except in the case of a tie.

* This comes from a three-term mayor who is STILL lying attempting the mislead the public by saying that his parade ordinance can be used against spontaneous parades. This despite EVERYONE else (including his own Parliamentarian) who repeatedly stated (SINCE THE FIRST AD-HOC COMMITTEE MEETING) that THIS ORDINANCE WILL HAVE NO IMPACT ON IMPROMPTU PARADES.

* This comes from a three-term mayor who wants the public to believe that he was "running late" to the studio, refused to have a debate on the ordinance (or any topic) with a Democrat, and filibustered a majority of the show with long-winded answers (to the frustration of the host) in an effort to eat up time on the clock.

* This comes from a three-term mayor who apparently has no problem using the "immigration card" and brags about his conversation with the usual band of anti-immigrant callers who phone into every public access show (and are die-hard fans of BigT's show), while smearing the previous administration and/or smearing callers who challenge him because they probably showed up at the meetings and refuse to drink from the mayor's kool-aid.

Typical short-fused, arrogance from a politician who's been in office for too long and is out-of-touch with the city he governs.

The mayor said that he did his homework...fine, lets put the former history teacher to a good old fashion exam. We'll take a look back at the videotape, stack up his statements against the facts and let you, the reader, decide whether not not the mayor did his "homework."

...unbelievable.

Oh man...this is rich!

My email inbox is full and phone has been ringing all day with sources (on both sides of the political aisle) commenting on the "statements" Mayor Boughton made during his interview on last night's edition of Ideas at Work and Beyond.

There is simply too many things to bring up from his interview with News-Times Online Editor Elizabeth Putnam...I simply do not have the time to go into what was said as I'm dealing with a host of other local issues right now (as well as my campaign to remove Tom Bennett's "BigT's Talk and Variety" off the air). I'm going to hold off on saying anything else until I finish collecting the mountain of information debunking many of the mayor's claims and pick the interview apart later down the road.

Amazing...simply amazing.

This isn't 2005 and HatCityBLOG will do it's part to bring the era of the low-information local voter to a quick and sudden end.

As you know, I'm starting a campaign to place pressure on Comcast local access to enforce their rules and do something about the profane and indecent language which is used by Tom Bennett and his co-hosts on his show BigT's Talk & Variety Show.

Now, local access isn't the only place where BigT(urd)'s spouts his nonsense, Bennett decided to join the YouTube community recently and spread his insanity to the masses. The difference between Bennett's local access show and the YouTube community is that people on YouTube don't have a problem smacking right back in the face when you say STUPID stuff.

I've been contacted by several people on YouTube who want to offer their assistance in alerting Comcast to discipline Bennett and have produced videos which repeatedly debunked all of BigT(urd) accusations.

Case in point, watch this video clip from YouTube User Crosisborg as his comments on Bennett's "theory" on homosexuality. You'll get a chuckle out of it (NOTE: A couple of words that are used in the clip got pass Crosisborg bleep button).

I'll provide my case against Tom Bennett and why I feel that his contract should be terminated, everyone associated with the show be banned from the studio, and his show should be removed from public access immediately very soon.

this is not a drill...this is not a joke.

over the comments Mayor Boughton made last night regarding the parade ordinance as well as other bizarre statements he made during his "filibustering" interview with Elizabeth Putnam on lat night's Ideas at Work and Beyond (you could see the strain on Putman's face as she attempted to interrupt the mayor's long-winded talking points...I felt bad for her).

Trust me, if the interview was conducted in a manner where BOTH Mayor Boughton and Democratic Minority Leader Tom Saadi were face to face, Boughton's talking points regarding the ordinance would have been ripped to shreds (in fact, I'll bet the house that the mayor wouldn't have joined the program if a Democrat would sit next to him and allow a HONEST debate on the ordinance as well as a whole host of issues he brought up).

Well, I'm not going to let the mayor get away with what he said...not by a long shot. I'm in the works on doing a major education project regarding this so-called ordinance and once I'm done, politics in Danbury will not be the same. The statements from the mayor last night is the final straw. Something needs to be done about the misinformation that being toss about from the mayor and his supporters and I and the supporters of HatCityBLOG are going to do something about it before it's too late.

Again, hats off to Putnam for conducting a great interview...you were just going up against a seasoned textbook Republican politician who knows how to control an interview as well as run the clock. We're tearing the interview apart now and we're going to show you why 1.) You should always question anything mayor (or any politician) says to the public; and 2.) WHY IT'S CRITICAL THAT ALL LOCAL GOVERNMENT MEETINGS BE BROADCAST ON THE GOVERNMENT CHANNEL.

Well, she's smiling because she did an EXCELLENT job as a guest host on tonight's Idea's at Work and Beyond.

Tonight, The News-Times Online Editor Elizabeth Putnam interviewed Democratic Minority Leader Tom Saadi as well as Police Chief Alan Baker and Mayor Mark Boughton and was able to touch on a couple of topics that we've been talking about on this site.

We'll recap some of the rather interesting comments made by the Mayor (including a rather lengthy Boughton had with a person who obviously did his development homework), as well as some very good points Saadi brought up during his interview (which the mayor avoided).

Good job Elizabeth...you definitely have a future in broadcast journalism!

* Seems like last night's EIC meeting reinforced the very point I've been saying for the last year, the number one issue in this year's election WILL BE DEVELOPMENT. Since local government meetings are not broadcasted yet, I'll give you the next best thing and provide interviews from people who were on the scene and let them tell you the story.

* The parade ordinance situation is far from over and the Democrats are raising the stakes on Mayor Boughton and his supporters on the Common Council.

* I managed to convert the footage from last week's Danbury Live and I'll be able to show you everything that happened at this month's Common Council meeting including the comments from Elise Marciano, the recent votes/attendance history of Mary Teicholz's, and other observations that readers should be aware of.

* I'm going through my footage and uploading various meetings I've attended that will give you a better understanding on how upset residents are over the out-of-control developmental projects that are happening under the radar at the Zoning, Planning and EIC meetings (if you want to know what's really going on in the city, these are the meetings you should ALWAYS attend).


* Finally, for those who were not attendance (which is 99.9 percent of the residents in Danbury), I'll going to bring you more LIES highlights from the anti-immigration forum and show everyone ONCE AND FOR ALL why everyone should be HIGHLY skeptical of anything that comes out of Elise Marciano or John McGowan's mouth.

Stay tuned...

Since the start of my site, I've been criticized by politicians and anti-immigrant radicals who say I offer nothing but biased reporting.

Case in point, while claiming that they're only against illegal-immigration in interviews to the press, the anti-immigrant xenophobes in Danbury show their true colors and have attacked ALL immigrants during their various forums, meetings, and rallies.

The Vice President of Elise Marciano's the United States for Immigration Enforcement, John McGowan, has been highly critical of my coverage of his rants and during the organization's forum held at Western Connecticut State Univeristy, he challenge to me to factually report on the group's "well attended" anti-immigration event.

The following videoclip is my reply...


Lets recap:

1. Marciano's Vice President issued a challenge:

2. Members of Marciano's group as well as members of other anti-immgrant organizations are in attendance.

3. A member of Marciano's group (and a World War II vet) suggest following the Hitler's model and round up immigrants and place them into concentration camps.

4. The audience applaud in agreement.

5. This comment is not picked up in the News-Times write up on the event BUT is picked up on my site and BACKED UP with video of the moron making the statement, followed with the audience applauding in agreement.

nuff said.

As you know, the students at Danbury High School have been on the frontlines in alerting the public about the situation in Darfur. Their movie, entitled "The Promise" has received national acclaim and the citizens of Danbury should be proud of the work the students put into their effort.

A huge supporter of the movie is Mia Farrow who's help promote the film across the nation and has led the effort on placing pressure on our political leaders to take action against the atrocity in Darfur.

One of the countries that is currently blocking effort to place pressure on the government of Sudan is China. Basically, since the Chinese get a large percentage of their oil from Sudan, they look the other way while the government gets away with genocide.

Now, China is going to host the next Olympics and there is a new effort underway (led by Farrow) to boycott the games as a sign of protest against China supporting the government of Sudan.

Farrow and Danbury High School assistant principal Tim Salem made an appearance on Ivon Aclime's local cable show, "Ideas at Work and Beyond" and talked about the situation in Darfur. You can watch the interview by clicking here.

If you want more information about the DHS movie on Darfur, please visit their website.

Good news: The kids got a day off.

The bad news: The kids have to make up the day at the end of the year.

Here's the latest on today's school bus walk-off in New Milford from today's WTNH's 5 o'clock news braodcast.
New Milford school officials are making plans for classes tomorrow and you can find out the details on their website.

I've been following the events following this morning's ICE raids in Danbury. I'm hearing several conflicting stories on whether nor not all the individuals arrested were picked up on warrants as well as what role (if any) the Danbury P.D. had in the rounding up of the individuals.

I'm checking with a number of sources in the state and will update everyone at later. In the meanwhile, here's a comment from the News-Times that deserves attention (unlike the views of simple-minded buffoons as the infamous voiceofreason who's just as moronic in print as he is in person).

Take close not of the section in BOLD.

Posted by: StopHatinOthers Tue, May 08 2007
To be honest, this article doesn't provide much detail.

My first question is what were they picked up for? Was it for being here 'illegally' or were they suspected of committing a crime. If for a criminal warrant, why not have them arrested by the police? Once booked, if they were found to be here without proper documentation, they can be processed over to the Feds.

So I guess this begs the question. What is the purpose of these raids? To round up 'illegals' or to prosecute suspected criminals?

If they were meant purely as immigration raids, then they are entirely for show and won't solve the problem. Tensions will continue to rise and someone will have to deal with the aftermath once Boughton moves on.

If they were meant as criminal arrests for outstanding warrants, then why ICE? Why not arrest them, process them and move them to the Feds like usual? Again, ICE is deployed in a very contrived situation here. Hopefully someone will start asking some questions soon.

J_Whizzle,

Boughton is a central player in all this. He set the playing field for all this stuff to go down. His methods and politics are harming our community in ways he can't even understand because he's tone deaf. In the end, he will have solved nothing with respect to undocumented immigrants in Danbury and he will have created a great deal of division, hatred and animosity between residents for someone else to patch up.

Lets keep in mind that without Boughton's consent ICE wouldn't be using Danbury as a poster board for the 'lets pretend we're doing something about immigration' project. This way Boughton can throw his base some red meat and the White House can claim they are making progress toward enforcement.

These raids aren't happening in New Haven for a reason. That community has opted for other solutions and I hope we'll do the same come election time.

Now, just like I mentioned during the Danbury 11 case, all one needs to do whenever these raids take place is FOLLOW EACH INDIVIDUAL CASE AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS. I'll bet the house that many of these individuals will be released and back in Danbury my June.

In fact, I challenge the News-Times to do more than report on these "raids" but do follow-up stories and show what really happens to these individuals and report on the case until conclusion. If the alternate media, such as Tribuna and Danbury's El Canillita, can do it, so can a major newspaper such as the News-Times.

You have a responsibility to report on the story, not just publish news flashes. How about doing a report on how effective (or ineffective) these raids are as well as comparing the amount of arrests by ICE in Danbury versus other cities which have a large amount of immigrants such as New haven or Stamford.

Since I've interviewed know both Mayor John DeStefano and Dan Malloy, I'll be more than happy to step up to the plate if your too busy reporting on such hard-hitting stories as "Bethel native out to steal heart of 'Bachelor.'"

UPDATE: From what I learned there were five warrant and ICE arrested five other individuals on alleged "immigration violations." All individuals are currently in Hartford which means they'll be on the move soon.

HatCityBLOG will follow these cases and report on how many people will actually be deported and how many people will be back in Danbury.

The names of those arrested are as follows:

Segundo Joiqua
Evenilson DeSosa Gomez
Manuel Castro
Manuel Minchala
Marcos Sosa
Jamie Sandoval
Carlos Gonzalez
Marcia Gonzalez
Nadson Ferrera

AH...I finally have the free-time to spend reporting on this site. Now that I can turn my attention to this blog, I can get everyone back up to speed on the dishonesty surrounding use of immigration to sell this god-awful parade ordinance.

I've been contacted by several media outlets who are taking an interest in my reporting on this ordinance as well as and video footage from City Hall and hopefully, more attention will be paid to this ordinance as well as other issues that are not being addressed and falling under the radar of most residents.

Again, I must thank all my new readers for visiting the site. The readership is going through up with each passing week and I contribute that not only to the fliers placed around the city, but to readers who are other residents about this site. I am in definitely in your debt.

Off to do more reporting...can't waste a single moment as there is too much on the line.

People from around the world (yes, this site is read by former residents of Danbury worldwide) have been emailing and asking me about the walrus man with the strike going through his head. For those who don't have the honor of living in the great city of Danbury, the person I'm launching a crusade against is no other than one Tom Bennett. Known to his rabid fan base as Big T (or as I like to call him the BigT(urd), he has a show on public access which has turned into the most indecent television show in the history of public access.

This individual and his cohorts have had a long history of spreading profane, vulgar, and indecent language to the public for a number of years and the so-called immigrant situation has taken his venom to a new and alarming level, which the citizens in Danbury should not have to tolerate (seeing that were paying such alarming prices for our cable service.

Now here's what I'm going to do.

Although HatCityBLOG has been in existence for almost two years, by reporting and collecting of material on everything related to Danbury has been going on for three and a half years...this includes ALL of Tom Bennett's shows dating back as far as 2003 (gotta love Tivo huh?). You see, as a student of Western Connecticut State University, I learned real early (like the late 1980s) that you should never rely on the News-Times as your source of information (thank you Lionel Bascom and Dr. Briggs for that advise) therefore, I always made sure that when I did any type of reporting, that I actually go out and get the facts for myself (call it the journalist in me...but that's another story).

The BigT(urd) has been getting away with just about anything he wants on local access for years BUT that's going to change, and CHANGE drastically very, very soon.

BigT(urd) has already received a taste of this on Youtube as he had the nerve to go up against a colleague of dare him to provide evidence that to back up the claim that he's a 1.) racist; 2.) homophobic; 3.) hate-monger; and/or 4.)a xenophobe. Since making the challenge, my colleague (who I will introduce you to later this week) unleashed on of the most damaging videos in the history of YouTube which basically scared the hell out of BigT (I'll get into that later also).

Now, my mission will be simple and it will be to the point. I haven't the time to get into name calling or slinging mud as it is a waste of time and will only hurt my case. The only goal of my presentation will be the following:

1. Place pressure on the management of public access at Comcast cable to terminate Tom Bennett's contact,

2. Immediately cancel the show, BigTs Talk & Variety show; and,

3. Expel everyone associated with his show from the Comcast studios.

How will I do this you ask...well, you'll just have to wait a little but longer to find out but the process is so simple that anyone can do it...it's a simple case of a person (in this case, BigT) not following the law (in this case, it's the rules and regulations of the station and of the F.C.C). I've checked, double-checked, consulted with attorneys, and contacted various other cable outlets so I'm very serious in what I'm doing here so trust me, I'm deadly serious and I'm not the typical blogger that you want to mess around with (just ask Joe Lieberman).

As a sneak preview of the type of person I'm talking about, take a look at this video clip and ask yourself, should this type of language be tolerated on a 9 P.M. show on Friday night on television?

Background: On last Friday's show, Bennett, the Vice President of the anti-immigration group known as the United States Citizens for Immigration and law Enforcement, John "Uncle Sam" McGowan, and a regular to the show who goes by the name "Bones," were babbling on and on about the so-called parade ordinance and the impromptu celebrations among the immigrant community during the World Cup games which fueled the anger among the illogical anti-immigrant extremists. Take a look at this clip you'll know EXACTLY why Bennett's show and his contract should be terminated.

Lets just call this videoclip a minor shot across the bow...

Are you getting the picture?

Now...DO YOU THINK LANGUAGE LIKE THAT IS PROHIBITED ON TELEVISION?

DON'T YOU THINK THAT TYPE OF LANGUAGE IS NOT PROTECTED UNDER FREE SPEECH (A.K.A. screaming fire in a movie theater)?

DON'T YOU THINK THAT VIDEOCLIP VIOLATED SOME TYPE OF RULE AND/OR REGULATION OF LOCAL ACCESS PROGRAMMING ON COMCAST?

DOESN'T IT MAKE YOU WONDER WHY COMCAST WOULD ALLOW THAT TYPE OF SPEECH TO GO ON AND ON (AND ON AND ON AND ON), WEEK AFTER PAINFUL WEEK ON TELEVISION (AT 9 P.M. ON A FRIDAY NIGHT).

Whoa, let me hold back, I almost forgot, this is only suppose to be a small shot across the bow...you'll have to wait for the full-course meal.

If you think that was outrageous, wait until I'm at full force, present my case in full, and show you the true power of People-Powered Media.

this is not a drill...this is not a joke.

Danbury State Senator Republican David Cappiello recently announced that he's challenging newly elected Congressman Chris Murphy for the 5th District Congressional seat.

The Danbury native and loyal supporter of former Congresswoman Nancy "Queen of shaking the special-interest money tree" Johnson recently made an appearance on WTIC's "Beyond the Headlines" to explain why he's throwing his hat into the race just a few months after Murphy was officially sworn into office.


Now, although Cappiello has about as much chance in beating Murphy as me cutting off my hair, his logic in throwing his hat in the Congressional race makes common sense when you see what he's going up against.

Just three months into his first two-year term, Chris Murphy has had 11 fundraising events that have helped net him $419,700 for a 2008 re-election campaign.

[...]

The first campaign finance reports of 2007, which cover the Jan. 1-March 31 period, showed Murphy, D-5th District, had $440,048 on hand; Courtney, D-2nd District, had $286,784; and Shays, R-4th District, banked $185,397. These sums indicate what they've raised this year, anything left from their 2006 campaigns, minus what they've spent on re-election efforts.

[...]

Democratic leaders have made it clear they want a lot of cash and they want it now. In a Jan. 23 memo to "interested parties," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told such vulnerable members as Murphy and Courtney, both of whom won close races last year, to have $650,000 to $1 million in the bank by June 30.

Given that the 5th district was a battleground district in 2006, expect the Democrats to fight like hell to keep the seat in 2008. Cappiello knows this and therefore, his only choice is to announce his intentions now and basically cross his fingers.

Hell, I'm more interested in which person JK's will endorse?

I just recorded last night's edition of Danbury Live.

For those who don't know, I'm not the only person videotaping events at City Hall. Two volunteers from Comcast are offering their time and energy to record meetings from City Hall and broadcast them on public access. What's great about this is that they were able to catch the meeting from a different angle and show you a different view on the entire parade ordinance debate as well as fill in the gap created when I had to change tapes.

As I noted earlier, I'm pretty busy today so I'll try and get to the Danbury Live footage at a later time but you'll see for yourself several things that shocked those in attendance that I was unable to capture with my camera (as well as the infamous ill-informed head of the anti-immigrant whack pack, Elise Marciano, who exposed AGAIN that she HAS NO IDEA WHAT IN THE HELL SHE'S TALKING ABOUT and reinforces the point that no one should take her and the rest of her rabid bunch of xenophobes seriously).

This article in Sunday's News-Times makes the case so I don't have to.

Parades are supposed to be fun, a time to celebrate important events and honor those who came before us.

But over the past year, parades in the Danbury area have been surrounded by controversy and fraught with stress.

The city of Danbury is struggling to have a parade ordinance passed due to an impromptu parade of hundreds of Brazilians last June following a Brazilian win in the World Cup soccer competition that tied up traffic in downtown.

This entire situation is a classic case of the Boughton administration using immigration to pass something THEY want which has NOTHING TO DO WITH immigration or controlling impromptu parades such as the one we witnessed during the World Cup games.

Ask yourself this question:

"If it wasn't for the immigrant situation in regards to impromptu parades and a deep anti-immigrant resentment among a segment of our population, would Boughton's ordinance had a chance in becoming reality?"

If your answer is no, then you win the BIG PRIZE.

To put it simple, if it wasn't for the impromptu parades, this ordinance wouldn't make sense to anyone in Danbury and the Mayor and all those who supported this measure knew this from the beginning which is WHY YOU NEVER the mayor or the Republican elected-officials who support this ordinance mention to the public AT ANY TIME.

Take a look at this thing...it's page after page after page of nonsense that the Danbury NEVER needed in the history of the city. AGAIN, this whole thing was sold to the public as a response to the spontaneous celebrations BY IMMIGRANTS and was proposed with careful timing to the World Cup games. If fact, a first year law student WOULD TELL YOU that there is no way one can constitutionally control a celebration that's not planned because it's PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION. You government can not stop me from going out of my house after a win and run up or down the street. Breaking traffic laws is another matter (blocking traffic, car violations) BUT they can not stop me from celebrating....it's called freedom of speech.

The lawyers at corporation council aren't stupid; they knew they there wasn't any law they could draft to control spontaneous celebrations from the very beginning. It's the elected officials who knew that focusing on immigrants could be used as a smoke screen for this ordinance so they played that card for all it's worth and it's downright disgraceful.

Lets turn back the clock and witness the deceit.

From HatCityBLOG (dated June 28, 2006). Take a close look at the third point I raise in my list of complaints surrounding the ordinance.

Like I said, I was unable to get the other people who talked at the meeting but all had something to say about the permit requirement ordinance and centered their comments around noise the immigrants made during the world cup celebrations.

Now think about it.

1. The world cup games Mrs. Mitchell talked about was in 1994 which means this was a "problem" in 1998 as well as 2002. Why wasn't this issue addressed back then?

2. This permit requirement ordinance proposal came into existence two month before the start of the 2006 World Cup games. Since the proposal was sent to an ad-hoc committee, it would take some time before the proposal came to a vote because the council meets monthly. The World Cup games started in June while the proposal was in an ad-hoc committee. Coincidence?

3. Mayor Boughton issues a statement blasting the World Cup parades and mentions the permit requirement ordinance in Wednesday's News-Times article. Coincidence?

The whole proposal was a setup from the beginning and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. The moment I heard about this proposal, I said "great timing" and knew that this proposal centered around the parades which occur during the World Cup games. The parades were sure to create an outrage as the celebrations clog up Main Street and can bring traffic to a standstill. When the people start complaining, the people at City Hall can say "hey, we have this proposal in committee that will solve all the problems. Show your support, write letters to the editor, speak out on the subject at the next Common Council meeting and show your support, call into local radio and public access shows, yada, yada, yada."

Next thing you know, the powers that be can say, hey, this is what the people want and bang, the bill passes. Democrats would be put into a corner because they would be seen as weak on this issue and out of touch with the emotional response of the public. The Republicans would use this to their full advantage because they can turn around and say that the Democrats are giving us a hard time with this proposal.

Checkmate.

Now, if this ordinance was presented earlier (lets say last fall), people wouldn't give it a second thought. We live in a fast-food society and people forget things as soon as the 30 second sound bite is completed. Since the timing of the proposal was setup perfectly, people on the Common Council who are in support of the measure will have the anger of the "short attention span" public behind them (ah, I can see Pauline Basso holding up a News-Times article right now).

Remember, this is your local government at work and this is politics 101 at it's best.

Danbury News-Times editorial dated Nov. 28 2006 (after it was widely known that the proposed ordinance would not impact impromptu parades).

Parades are great fun, when properly organized. So are politically inspired marches. But no one should have the right to disrupt traffic and commerce on the spur of the moment with no consideration given to others.

Earlier this year, impromptu parades after World Cup soccer victories underscored the city's need for a parade ordinance.

Vehicles filled with people, with horns blaring, stopped traffic and created hazardous conditions for pedestrians, those in vehicles and even the police officers trying to maintain order.

The U.S. Constitution protects the rights of people to gather to express political and other opinions "" even opinions about the victory of a favorite sports team.

The purpose of the parade ordinance under consideration by the Danbury Common Council would be to bring order to the process "" not to stop parades.

[...]

Properly written and enforced, a parade ordinance will bring order to these events while preserving the constitutional rights of all.

Again, was their NO ORDER to the parades in Danbury before the "immigrant problem" occurred?

Again, this editorial was dated NOV 28 2006, well after it was known by those at City Hall that there was NO WAY ANYONE COULD CONTROL SPONTANEOUS PARADES yet this exactly the story that sold to the public (and The News-Times) in order to get support for this so-called ordinance.


If the origins of this ordinance stemmed from impromptu parades, and the ordinance won't have an effect of the very problem which gave rise to the creation of the ordinance, WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR THE ORDINANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Is this what the public really want?

Is this what the people expected when they gave their blind trust and support into the hands of the elected-officials who are attempting to ram this ordinance down our throats?

Why wasn't the public notified by those very same elected-officials who tried to ram this ordinance down our throats that the new law would in NO WAY impact those impromptu parades that had everyone up in arms?

I guess if Republicans can convince the public that Iraq had something to do with 9/11 in the run-up to war, they can use use their slight-of-hand and give the impression that this ordinance would solve the impromptu parade "problem" (a.k.a. using immigrants for their political gain).

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WAKE UP FROM YOUR REPUBLICAN-INDUCED COMA DANBURY!

Even certain members of the public (a.k.a. Elise Marciano's anti-immigrant whack pack) who supported the ordinance showed their outright ignorance regarding the details of the proposal during May's Common Council meeting.

Here, watch them get up and speak again.

These people who spoke in support of the ordinance are backing the mayor's plan for one reason and one reason only...in their twisted mind, it would put the immigrant community in it's place...PERIOD. Their hatred towards ALL IMMIGRANTS has blinded their minds from the reality of the situation...that they're being used like a pawn on a chess board.

NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY LOCAL GOVERNMENT MEETINGS SHOULD ALL BE TELEVISED?

Thankfully,not everyone was fooled...here's at least two people who didn't drink Mayor Boughton's Kool-Aid.

From January's Danbury Democratic Town Committee meeting:

Look, I could go on forever but I have a pretty busy schedule today. Make no mistake about it, this ordinance was dishonest from day one and only came into existence by elected-officials using the immigrant situation for their own political needs.

SHAME on everyone who was fooled by this nonsense and SHAME on those who now know the truth don't come out and criticize those elected officials who bamboozled the public from the beginning.