As for the budget, presentations sound great but as with anything, the proof is in th details. Democratic minority leader Tom Saadi was quick to touch on this point last night.

Democratic caucus leader Tom Saadi said he and fellow Democrats will evaluate the budget in detail over the next month, but he fears the final numbers will change if the Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed budget is not passed.

"This budget relies on the governor's funds. While that reliance may be 80 or 90 percent right, we are going to have to make up the difference," Saadi said.

The Senate Democrats called for a wholesale rewriting of Gov. M. Jodi Rell's $17.5 billion budget proposal Wednesday, saying they oppose virtually all of her tax proposals and significant parts of her spending plan.

Following their first detailed caucus since Rell announced her proposal last month, the Democrats emerged Wednesday afternoon to say that closer scrutiny of the governor's budget has revealed a series of flaws.

"It turns out that there's a lot less than what meets the eye," said Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, the highest-ranking senator. "This is going to be a very difficult budget year. ... This budget has a lot of flaws that did not reveal themselves immediately."

Standing next to Williams at a press conference at the state Capitol, the co-chairwoman of the legislature's tax-writing committee, Sen. Eileen Daily, D-Westbrook, said Rell's tax plans are "a real gut-punch to the middle class and to the poor."

The Democrats "just couldn't sanction" Rell's 10 percent, across-the-board increase in the state income tax, the repeal of the estate tax, and the phase-out of the popular $500 property tax credit, Daily said. She also cited opposition to the elimination of the personal property tax on cars, and using annual revenues from the casinos to help pay for the car-tax elimination.

Open Letter to the Tribuna: In regard to their 4/16/08 edition.

In their 4/16/08 edition of the Tribuna News, the editorial staff published an article by J. Emilio Flores entitled “Deportation: Sent Home Empty Handed”. At first glance, judging by the title, the article might appear to be an emotional appeal to individuals regarding the harsh and cruel reality of the current system of Deportations. However, as I read on I was lead to question the intention of the editorial staff, as it appeared more and more to gloss over the topic in an effort to make it palatable to individuals unfamiliar with the Immigration System. More disturbingly, it seems to almost contradict the work of many Immigration Activists, and educational facilitators. It appears that while activists are on the street educating Immigrants on their rights and their responsibilities in an effort to curb the damaging effects of Raids and Deportations, and to prevent people from being deported unnecessarily, the Tribuna dedicated their front page to an article which almost seeks to offer false reassurances that the deportation system isn’t nearly as harsh as oft reported.

The article paints a picture of Immigrants who, while certainly facing an unsure future, and a loss of whatever small gains they have made during their time in the US, are for the most part, well treated, in fairly high spirits, and warmly received by their families back home.

While the article makes mention of the detention centers in vague terms, it hardly delves into the failings, corruption, inhumanity, and degradation which is part and parcel to the detention/deportation experience.

Perhaps it would be enough to realize that in April, 2007, and again in June of the same year, UN human rights inspectors were denied entry into two Detention Centers, the first, one of the most highly contended Detention Centers, T Don Hutto Detention Facility in Texas, and the second the Monmouth County Jail in NJ which houses over 150 immigrant men and women pursuant to a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This intentional refusal to allow transparency in its treatment of Immigrants within their care caused enough alarm for the UN inspectors that Jorge Bustamante, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants expressed deep concern that such secrecy “eliminates an avenue for detainees to register complaints about mistreatment or abuse.” (1.)

What possible conditions could exist in these detention centers that would prompt such Secrecy by a facility operated by the the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, a part of the Department of Homeland Security? In August 2007 the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against ICE on behalf of 26 Immigrant Children detained with their parents at T Don Hutto family detention center which claimed that minimum standards of treatment of the children were not met. According to a press release filed earlier in 2007 by the ACLU:

“Approximately 400 people are currently detained in Hutto, half of them children, and many of them are refugees seeking political asylum. What ICE calls a “Family Residential Facility” is in fact a converted medium-security prison that is still functionally and structurally a prison. Children are required to wear prison garb, receive only one hour of recreation a day, Monday through Friday, and some children did not go outdoors in the fresh air the whole month of December, 2006, according to legal papers filed today. They are detained in small cells for 11-12 hours each day where they cannot keep food and toys and they have no privacy, even when using the toilet.

Despite their urgent needs, many children lack access to adequate medical, dental, and mental health treatment, and are denied meaningful educational opportunities. Guards frequently discipline children by threatening to separate them permanently from their parents, and children are prohibited from having contact visits with non-detained family members.

According to 16-year-old Egle Baubonyte, a Lithuanian girl being held at Hutto with her mother and sister, “Conditions for little kids or even babies are really bad. There’s no pediatrician. Nurses don’t care about if babies are sick. They treat us like we’re nothing.” (2.) *

Treatment of prisoners in other Detention centers may be just as bad for adults. In November, 2007, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was charged with the rape of a Jamaican woman while transporting her from a detention center in Miami Dade, to one in Broward County (3.) * While according to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network INC problems of abuse, and neglect of immigrants in detention centers is systemic. According to an indepth study of Immigration Detention Centers, CLINIC reports:

“No Social Workers exist to help identify and accommodate special religious diet needs, mental health or medical problems. ICE detainees do not have access to educational or ESL programs. Recreational and Exercise facilities are often inadequate or non-existant. Medical treatment is problematic. Physical and mental health problems often go undiagnosed or are improperly treated. There is often a reluctance on the part of ICE officials to release detainees for medical treatment. Abuse and mistreatment of ICE detainees is well documented. At times, detention officials have misused segregation against detainees, turning it from a disciplinary tool into an instrument of cruelty. Detainees are often transferred to different facilities with no notice …… the Government also fails to inform attorneys when their clients are transferred”. (4)

So, J. Emilio Flores author of the article “Deportation: Sent Home Empty-Handed”, perhaps knowing of the conditions inside many of these deportation centers, may have felt that many of the deportees felt a sense of release when they finally touched ground in their native countries, and perhaps, for some, there is a sense of release from that bondage. But, far from the almost cheerful tone in Mr. Flores’ article, the Washington post, in a similar story, paints a much more heartbreaking picture of these deportation flights. One which describes passengers being shackled at hand, feet, and waist, and sharing their heartbreaking tales without restraint. (5) However, what happens to many immigrants, once they do finally land in their mother country? According to a Seattle Times Article published April 8, 2008:

“for all the attention illegal immigrants get in the US- from those who believe they're a drain on social services to advocates who say they do the jobs Americans won't — little is known about what happens to them after they're ushered by U.S. immigration authorities through revolving doors into Mexico's border towns.

Once there, they get little help from their government. Many stay, others try to get back to their hometowns. For the most part no one tracks them — not their government, or the U.S., or their advocacy groups in the states. They become largely forgotten — along with the U.S.-born children they sometimes take with them” (6)

Often Jobless, Homeless, and Hopeless, many immigrants attempt to cross again, and again, often getting caught in a revolving door of illegal immigration, and deportation. Others find re-assimilation to be an almost impossible endeavor. Those who have been in the US the longest, obviously suffer the most difficulty.

The entire deportation system, from border crossing, to employment abuses, and racism to arrest, to detainment, to deportation, and to re-assimilation and matriculation is fraught with peril for the Millions of Undocumented Immigrants in the US. In the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and the current Justice System, immigrants do not only return without money in their pockets, but without honor, dignity, and often, without spirit from their time here in the US.

Instead of offering half hearted reprinted vignettes about the flight home for many immigrants in the US, perhaps the Tribuna staff would serve the Immigrant Community better by doing some investigative research of their own into the systemic, all pervasive corruption and heartlessness of the Deportation system as a whole, including the conditions of detention centers, and educating their readership, specifically their non immigrant readership, about the tragedy of the entire lack of justice for Immigrants, and this time, without the kid gloves.

1. http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/29615prs20070504.html
2. http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/28865prs20070306.html

* ICE later settled the suit, releasing a dozen immigrant children held in T. Don Hutto. And the ACLU and other watchdog groups have been heavily involved with improving treatment of detainees in T. Don Hutto detention center.

3. http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/482282.html * Ex Ice Agent William Vasquez was convicted of sexual battery, and in a plea bargain has been sentenced to 7 years inside a Broward County jail.
4. http://www.cliniclegal.org/Advocacy/detention.html
5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072401039.html
6. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004330685_mexicoana06m.html

• Main Street Danbury: One of my favorite local sites has to be Main Street Danbury. If you want to know the history behind the beautiful buildings on Main Street, this site is the place to go. Check it out and learn something.



• Hat City Entertainment: If you're interested in the local music scene and looking for a great source of information on what happening in Danbury, Hat City Entertainment is the place to go. The latest issue centers on the Not Brooklyn Fest happening this weekend at the Heirloom Arts Theatre and it looks like it will be a HUGE hit.



• Ideas at Work and Beyond is a local access show that comes on Thursday nights at 9 P.M. From dealing with the health care crisis, to discussing the Connecticut Film Festival, Ideas at Work and Beyond tackles a wide range of issues, which makes the show refreshing and never boring (hell, even I made a cameo appearance on the show). You can check out all the past episodes on the website (full disclosure: I do the online video archiving for the show).



• The Anonymous WestConn Professor: Last but not least, this site is really interesting. The writer of this blog claims to be a professor at Western Connecticut State University and based on his (or her) writings and my familiarity of what's happening at the university, I have no reason to doubt this person's honesty. The latest post on the bullshit bizarre termination of professor Rosalie Appel is a MUST read.

It feels a little gratuitous to be roughing up "the b-team," as I'm doing today with Cappiello and Sullivan. They're having a hard time getting their campaigns up to speed, and it's a bad year for the GOP as a whole anyway, and Cappiello will have a primary to fight to boot.

But still, I am compelled. The other thing that sprung to my attention when I first saw Cappiello's filing yesterday (apart from the $6900 from Scott Frantz -- who, as a State Senate hopeful, we will certainly be returning to in short order), was that he appeared to have staff working for him in New Jersey. That was silly (Congressional campaign staffers normally come to the campaign), but it's not illegal, so I let it be.

But there seems to be a little more New Jersey going on in the Cappiello campaign than I'd originally thought.

• First, one Alexandra Almour started working for the campaign in January, and has received 5 paychecks of $2000 each along with about $5,000 in reimbursed expenses. Cappiello has two staffers, and it appears that Almour took over from Stamford resident Ryan Wolfe that month. She also worked recently for the NJ Republican Party (see their online contribution form).
  
  



• On March 14th, with two weeks left in the fundraising quarter (and a Q1 total of $63,231 raised so far, which included the Rell fundraiser on 3/10), the committee "Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08" was created, based out of PO Box 225, Colonia, NJ. That's a fun address to look up, because there are all sorts of crazy Republican campaigns being run from there, including the campaign of running joke candidate Andrew Unanue, who's looking to unseat Senator Lautenberg.
  
  



• The Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund is a joint fundraising account -- contributors are giving money to both Cappiello and the Connecticut Republican Party at the same time when they donate. The treasurer is Jennifer D'Autrechy, a Rutgers student who "works full time as a treasurer to several Republican campaigns in New Jersey" -- though she hasn't been paid anything by the Cappiello campaign, the CT GOP, or the joint commitee.
  
  



• Going back to the filing, there are a couple more bits of contact information, including a fax number (732-248-4178) that belongs to former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman's "It's My Party Too" PAC (or IMP-PAC for short). IMP-PAC is a big fan of Chris Shays, and is now folded into the Republican Leadership Council.
  
  Now we're getting somewhere. IMP-PAC can't be found (much to my frustration) on the FEC website, but I found it in a ninja FEC data tool that I have here at home, and when they were in business, they also were found at that same P.O. Box -- #225, Colonia, New Jersey.
  
  So what's in Colonia, NJ? About twenty Federal committees going back to at least 1994 (including GOP Majority Fund 2006, Tom Kean For US Senate Inc, Friends Of Mike Ferguson, Whitman For US Senate, and the provocatively- and familiarly- titled Kean-NJ Victory 06. The common denominator here is one Ronald Gravino. I think we have our man.

Ronald Gravino: Member and one-time chairman of the New Jersey Highway Commission, financial and management consultant for over 15 years. He runs Christine Todd Whitman's PACs, along with work on a cornucopia of others, including the NJ Senate Republican Majority PAC, the NJ Republican State Committee, Mike Ferguson, the Monmouth County Republican Committee, and the Committee for Responsible Government.

For the sake of reference (and for the sake of me writing something else,since I've read a lot on New Jersey campaigns lo these last few hours), this seems to be the way they roll in the New Jersey GOP – check out this article from the '90s discussing the interlocking and incestuous committee structure of the Kean/Whitman NJGOP.

A couple of questions, though – apart from "why is Cappiello's campaign being run out of New Jersey?"

• How are Gravino or D'Autrechy being compensated for the work they're doing? Gravino doesn't give his work away, D'Autrechy is supposedly doing this as a full-time job for a number of candidates, and while volunteer treasurers are unusual on Congressional-level campaigns, I've never heard of one state's fundraising apparatus working pro-bono for another state's candidates – and in this case, not even a neighboring state.
  
  



• Why is Gravino concealing his involvement here? I figured it out, but I can't imagine anyone else that would. They presumably have P.O. Boxes near to Rutgers, so if D'Autrechy were doing the day-to-day collection of checks, I doubt she'd have picked a mailing address or bank so far away from school. (The committee's fax number is Gravino's. Gravino uses Commerce Bank for all his recent political committees. Gravino ran "Kean-New Jersey Victory 06." Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 is really, really, Gravino.)
  
  



• Third... how does this work? The checks are written by Cappiello's Connecticut donors on 3/31, sent to New Jersey, processed, and then a contribution is sent back to Connecticut.
  
  But – the committee-to-committee transfer was sent on the same day that the checks in Connecticut were written. Contributions are filed on the date written on the check itself. So, either...
  
  1) Gravino backdated a check written in April to give the appearance of a 200K+ quarter to Cappiello,
  
  2) Gravino put a $25,000 check in the mail which was drawn against an account with zero dollars in it (the contributions would have arrived a day or two later), or
  
  3) Someone in Connecticut (where we also have Commerce Banks) is handling, depositing, and writing checks on that account.

Trust me when I say that all three of these possibilities have rather exciting legal implications attached to them for our friends Gravino, Almour, D'Autrechy, and Cappiello. I understand that Gabe (a genuine lawyer) is planning to do a little legal update, and I need a break, but one way or another this is a story you'll be hearing more about in the very near future.

My oh my. I noticed one of these over-the-limit contributions yesterday (Scott Frantz from Greenwich giving $6900 to candidate Cappiello), but thanks to Gabe's catch of committee-to-committee transfers, it looks like we've got a bit of a pattern on our hands.

First, as many of you know, the contribution limit for an individual to a political campaign is $2300, a number which rises slightly in each cycle to keep up with inflation (just like -- nah, that's a different fight.) However, the Federal Elections Commission assumes a primary for all Federal races, so the limit is really $4,600, with anything between $2300 and $4600 held in reserve until after the primary date (in September in Connecticut).

So let's have a look at the fabulous fundraising day that David Cappiello had on March 31. You can't tell the players without a scorecard: Cappiello's Q1 report can be viewed here and here.

Mrs Katherine Beattie, a homemaker from Danbury, decided to express her generosity to the tune of $4500, and on the same day, made a new check out to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund for $10,000.

Mr. James Brown Jr, a retiree from Wilton, also hit donation limits that day with his $2000 check, making another $2000 contribution to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

Martha Dean, a lawyer from Avon made out two checks in March -- one on 3/12 for $200, and one on 3/31 for $1000 -- which also put her over the limit. She also happened to give Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 a $1000 check on 3/31.

Ann and Emil Gaspari - a couple from Shrub Oak, NY - found some reason to be quite interested in Connecticut's 5th Congressional District on the 31st of March: they wrote four checks for $2300 each to Cappiello's campaign, and on the same day, each of them wrote an additional check for $7,300 to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

Rodney and Beverly Hawes from New Canaan are similar to the Gasparis, though both of the Haweses appear to be homemakers. Still, they must have a pretty good system in place, because they wrote four checks for $2300 each to the Cappiello campaign, and Rodney wrote two checks for $14,600 each – over twenthy-nine thousand dollars to Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08. All six checks were written on March 31st.

You see a pattern here, obviously: Cassabdra Jabara of Ridgefield, Jennifer Buchanan O'Neill of Southbury, Irene Riebe of New Canaan, Richard Steiner of Monroe, Samuel Vincent of Newtown, and Michael Vlock of Branford all joined these friendly people in writing checks to the Cappiello campaign on 3/31/08 which brought them to or beyond the legal donation limit, and also wrote checks to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

The question of what must have been going on in Cappiello's mind the morning of March 31st, as he prepares to enter the last day of the fundraising quarter with well under $100,000 to show for the quarter, is an interesting one. Panic? Was he nonplussed? Either way, I think it's fair to guess that Mr. Cappiello isn't the type of elected official who likes to prepare ahead for important events – I'd be willing to bet the farm that he'd be the "didn't read the intelligence" type of Congressman.

BREAKDOWN: $217,644.46 from individuals; $12,050.00 from PACs
Total contributions: $229,694.46

Total Cycle-To-Date: $627,354.79

Q4 cycle burn: $70,300.62

COH: $420,316.07
NOTE: Transfer from Cappiello-Connecticut Victory ‘08: $25,000

3rd quarter fundraising total: $70,470 (OUCH!)

4th quarter fundraising total: $131,133.33

Looking at the FEC website, Murphy had 225K more on hand at this time two years ago (653K) than Cappiello does now (420K), and that was when he was on no one’s radar screen. The other big challenger, Jim Himes [Demoratic challenger to 4CD Chris Shays] has over a million on hand right now, 600k more than Cappiello has.

[...]

Murphy was also running against one of the most well-funded and longest-serving incumbents in Congress [Nancy Johnson]. Cappiello should be able to do at least that well against a freshman. He’s not. If the only thing that keeps his numbers up is NRCC fly-in fundraisers, he’s not gonna make much headway.