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Bad Blogger!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

That’s as in, or similar to, “bad dog!”, for I have been very bad indeed.

I did not watch the Blumenthal debate. I did not watch the Malloy debate. A Bad Blogger, indeed.

I actually have an excuse for part of the Blumenthal debate. I watched the first several minutes and couldn’t take it anymore. This was a result of the combination of the stupid questions and Blumenthal’s poor start. Blumenthal is not a street fighter. He’s perfectly capable of fighting in the halls of the Senate or in a court, but he’s temperamentally unsuited to standing next to someone and engaging in the kind of brawl that has been dignified by the name of “debate” in this country. I think he’s sincere, if a bit (a bit?) stiff and I’m afraid he is still infected with that Democratic belief that a debate should be discussion of the issues. Anyway, I decided to spare myself the frustration of listening to him fail to give the answers that popped so easily into my head, and left the room. And then, a miracle occurred. We lost our power, thereby legitimizing the action I would have taken anyway.

Last night I had a meeting in Waterford, and by the time I got home, it was too late to watch. I would have been more than happy to watch Dan, because unlike Dick, he is a street fighter, and if I’d had to bet on that face-off, my money would have been on Dan. From what I hear, I would have won some money on that bet.

But, no excuses, I really should have watched them both. I’m a bad blogger.

Moving on, my wife informs me that according to the messages flying back and forth in the twittersphere, or at least the #CTSen and #CTGov portion of it, all four candidates won, with Linda’s paid minions pushing their tweeting point (apparently they only have one) at a pace both fast and furious.

I’m sure that twitter serves some purpose. I, in fact, have an account, and have actually tweeted on rare occasions. But the political side of it strikes me as a bit like the old Compuserve forums. I was in two kinds of forums. Back then, I was a computer hobbyist, in that I wrote programs in Visual Basic. The forums dedicated to that were great. If you had a problem you could post something about it, and people would reply with helpful suggestions. Everyone was nice to each other. I also joined one or two political forums. One was about the American presidency, and I actually was deluded enough to think it was for people interested in history. But, in fact, it was a forum for people dedicated to insulting one another. Since Clinton was president most of the threads involved invective against Clinton or his forum dwelling supporters, countered by more of the same from those supporters. So far as I know, Clinton himself took no part. No one actually engaged in any kind of meaningful discourse, no one changed anyone’s opinion. Indeed, no one really expected or wanted to change anyone’s opinion. Twitter, political style, is much the same. I’m not sure if the brevity requirement is a blessing or a curse. All that being said, I do get a kick out of the clever stuff emanating from the people with whom I agree. The other guys are all idiots.


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Shameful behavior on the campaign trail

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Joe Courtney is one of the nicest politicians I’ve ever met. Some might say that’s damning with faint praise, but Joe would be on the nice guy side of the scale in any group you’d care to name. So it is with heavy heart that I must call him out on the devious campaign tactics in which he is obviously engaged.

Last week the Peckinpaugh campaign issued a press release, calling attention to a video that made Peckinpaugh and Rob Simmons look like– well, it made them look like the assholes they are. Today, we hear of yet another press release from the Peckinpaugh campaign.

Searching for a breakthrough in its run against U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Republican Janet Peckinpaugh’s campaign issued a press release Friday encouraging voters to make her “the first woman elected to the U.S. House from the 2nd Congressional District.”

Just one problem: She wouldn’t be the first.

The first woman elected to represent Connecticut’s 2nd District was Chase Going Woodhouse, a Democrat who served in Congress from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1949 to 1951.

There is only one logical conclusion to draw from all of this. The Courtney campaign has placed an operative deep within the Peckinpaugh operation, which operative is engaged in an orchestrated campaign to make Peckinpaugh look like the biggest horse’s ass to come along since–well, since Rob Simmons. This is the sort of thing that would make Karl Rove turn green with envy.

Don’t try to tell me this is just incompetence. No one could be so stupid as to issue such a press release without even checking to see if the central assertion made was true. I mean, how long would it take to check that fact through Google, or on wikipedia? Two minutes, three maybe if you’re using a PC? What competent campaign worker wouldn’t foresee that someone would check it once the release was issued. And, looking back, is there a person alive who could possibly believe it would be a good thing if voters watched that video, or, given the squirm factor, tried to watch it?

No, I refuse to believe anyone is that stupid, so there is only one explanation. Well, Democrat or not, nice guy or not, I’m crying foul. There’s some things that you just don’t do. After all, Peckinpaugh is way behind and this type of loathsome campaign tactic is totally unnecessary. Joe should apologize to Peckinpaugh, remove his operative from Peckinpaugh’s campaign, and insert him or her into the McMahon camp where he or she belongs.

Sure I’ve got principles, but they’re flexible.

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Friday Night Music-Something Completely Different

Friday, October 1, 2010

Despite my godlessness, I do like various kinds of sacred music. A few weeks ago I thought it might be fun to get various versions of Amazing Grace, but very few really struck my fancy until I found this. One could make a compelling argument that the repertoire of the bagpipe begins and ends with this song, so how better to hear it than played by massed bagpipes in Moscow? Well, massed bagpipes in Edinburgh might be better, but then again the international character of this performance adds something that a purely Scottish performance might lack.


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You can’t always have it both ways

Friday, October 1, 2010

Linda McMahon doesn’t quite understand that some questions can’t be ducked.

Ted Mann, The Day: Should it be reduced now? Since businesses are struggling, as you all described? Would you argue for reducing the minimum wage now?

McMahon: “We have got minimum wages in states, we have got minimum wages in the (federal) government, and I think we ought to look at all of those issues in terms of what mandates are being placed on businesses and can they afford them. I think we should get input from our business community. We should listen to our small business operators and we should hear what it is they have to say and how it’s impacting their businesses and make some of those decisions.”

Her strategy has been to avoid talking about issues, going so far as saying it would be inappropriate to tell people what she thinks about social security. She must have figured that using her standard response: let’s listen to the people, would serve her just fine. But the only “people” she mentioned were the folks who want to cut the minimum wage, so despite herself, she answered the question. Even some American voters can see through this one.

Location:W 42nd St,New York,United States

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The way of the world, local edition

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

As regular readers, particularly my fellow Grotonites, know, the Groton Long Point police issue is a bit of a hobbyhorse for me. A few months back I was feeling great (and vindicated) because the Representative Town Meeting voted to end the Town’s long time subsidy of this unnecessary service to the most affluent of our local citizenry. Given the deep cuts inflicted on the really important items in the budget, getting rid of this boondoggle seemed like an obvious thing to do.

But some things are universal, apparently, and one of those things is the ability of almost any legislative body to feel the pain of the rich:

The Town Council will try to restore money cut from the Groton Long Point Association’s police budget, voting at its next meeting to spend $128,000 from its $350,000 contingency account.

The appropriation would then go to the town’s Representative Town Meeting, which last spring voted to strip the subdivision of the $208,000 it had initially requested, the equivalent of what it would cost the town to police the area with its own force.

“We do pay our fair share of taxes, and we receive very few services,” said Groton Long Point Association President Bob Congdon, speaking at the Town Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday night. “This was one of the very few services we did receive.”

The empathy was bi-partisan. In fact, the only vote against was from a Republican, which speaks volumes about the fact that this part of Connecticut may be one of the few places in the country in which rational Republicans still reside. But, I digress.

The last time I looked, we allow the children of Groton Long Point in our schools. We plow and maintain their roads. We let them in our library. In fact, when a real crime is committed there, as opposed to the crime of entering Groton Long Point when not a resident, we provide police services. There is probably not a single service the town provides that they don’t get, except, possibly, whatever scant services are provided to the poor. Of course, we are not providing any of those services to anyone as well as we used to, because we have been cutting the budget, urged on by “taxpayers” organization consisting mainly of residents of Groton Long Point. So, as in the nation, so is it in our little town. The rich demand and get their perks, while insisting that the rest of us make sacrifices.

But, hope remains. Maybe the RTM will stick to its guns. Stay tuned.

Postscript: I should add that the contingency fund, as I always understood it, is supposed to be for unforeseen expenses, not to reinstate a line item intentionally removed from the budget. There are probably a thousand things that money would be better spent on, such as teachers, but the rich must be served.


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Let’s get serious

Monday, September 27, 2010

In my last post I said I didn’t feel like ranting, and I still don’t, at least not about anything political, but I must put in my two cents about a recent development in the world of the Ipad.

The New Yorker now has an app. I just downloaded it, but unfortunately there’s no free issue, which is the norm for magazine apps. No matter, there’s a short sample, and it appears to be laid out well.

Here’s the rub. The cost per issue is $4.99. That’s a dollar off the newsstand price, which isn’t bad, if you are only going to buy an occasional issue. But there’s no subscription option. We subscribe to the print edition, and I’d gladly pay the New Yorker the same price for an Ipad edition, but there’s no way I’m paying over $250.00/year for the New Yorker. How can they expect to make money with that kind of business model?

And, while we’re talking about Ipads and magazines, here’s hoping that the New York Review of Books will release an Ipad edition. Again, I’d be willing to pay what I paid for a paper subscription.

I’ve read in various places that Apple is holding up long term subscriptions for Ipad magazines. That really makes no sense, if it’s true.

End of rant.

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Ella Grasso Leadership awards

Monday, September 27, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my wife, among others, was going to receive an Ella Grasso Leadership award.

The awards breakfast was today, and I had to post something about this lady, who also won an award.


Her name is Anna Harding. She is from Winsted, and here’s the write up about her from the program:

Anna’s dedication to her community goes beyond the political sphere. One of the first women to hold leadership positions and break down barriers from women, Anna served on various commissions and boards working to make her lifelong home a better place to live. Her time spent helping her church, the Catholic Women’s Club, the Democratic Town Committee and the are soup kitchen have made her indispensible to her community. Having recently celebrated her 100th Birthday, Anna hasn’t let anything slow her down; she continues to be active on the Board of Directors for the Open Door Soup Kitchen and the Winsted Area Health Center.

Okay, I didn’t think she looked a day over 80.

Here’s the winners from the second district, my wife, Mary von Dorster, and Shiela Hayes of Norwich.


Numerous politicians were on hand, as you might imagine. I must hand it to Dan Malloy, he can get an audience fired up.

Anyway, that’s it from me for today. I just don’t feel much like ranting lately.

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Friday Night Music-Take Five

Friday, September 24, 2010

Back in the long ago, at least before Bitches Brew came along, if there was one jazz album in what was otherwise a collection of 60s rock, it was likely to be Time Out by Dave Brubeck. The album has certainly passed the test of time. It’s still great. The signature track was Take Five.


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Socialism rears its ugly head

Friday, September 24, 2010

I sure can understand why that Wall Street fellow felt that Obama and his administration were using him and his ilk as pinatas. Just take a look at this morning’s Times:

The initial public stock offering by General Motors will be smaller than previously suggested, and the federal government will most likely sell a relatively small portion of its 61 percent stake in the company, according to people with knowledge of the preparations.

To fetch the highest possible price for the government, G.M. is planning an overall offering of stock valued at $8 billion to $10 billion, which is lower than previous internal targets, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of restrictions on public comments before an offering.

Earlier, there were suggestions the stock offering could rival the largest in United States history, when the credit card giant Visa raised more than $19 billion in 2008. G.M. and its bankers had been pushing for the largest possible offering because that would mean higher fees for the bankers and a larger pool of investors for G.M.

But the Treasury Department has made it clear to G.M. and its underwriters that the government is more interested in setting the highest price possible for the stock rather than maximizing the size of the offering. While both G.M. and the Treasury still hope to reduce the government’s stake in the company to less than 50 percent and rid the company of its Government Motors nickname, that goal may not be met, one of the people said. (Emphasis added)

I’m heartbroken. Those poor pinatas are getting gypped out of yet another chance to loot the taxpayers to inflate their fees and bonuses. And GM is going to be deprived of “a larger pool of investors” which is certainly a higher priority than realizing a top dollar return for the current investors, being as those investors are us scum of the earth taxpayers. Since when has the general interest topped the special interest of the pinatas and the business failures? Sounds like socialism to me.

Speaking of business failures, and I realize this is off the point, but this is my blog so I can opt for stream of consciousness if I want, I must note that Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy this morning. I am far too lazy to prove this by a link, but I take it as gospel that the CEOs running Blockbuster over the past 15 years were highly compensated due to their business acumen and all around John Galt-like irreplaceability. You know- they had the god given right to make more in a year than the rest of us make in a lifetime, because they were so smart and everything. And yet…, Blockbuster apparently failed to foresee the coming demise of the big box video rental model; failed to appreciate the implications of the internet and failed to react quickly enough when the threat to their business became all too clear. Failed, in other words to become Netflix before Netflix had a chance to get going. Now, you and I have an excuse if we missed this coming (and yet, lots of us did see it coming), because you and I weren’t paid millions to see it coming, and we had better things to think about, like getting from paycheck to paycheck, but what’s their excuse? Pity those poor CEOs, who now probably must make do with a few paltry millions a year sitting on the boards of other corporations that are awaiting their turn to be destroyed by these Titans of industry.

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Obama Fatigue?

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

As pretty much all the world knows, a woman named Velma Hart gave voice to what a lot of people feel when she spoke to Obama at a forum:

Quite frankly, I’m exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the man for change I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I’ve been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir, I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet.

Over at Hullabaloo Digby’s take is that she was giving voice to a feeling engendered by constant right wing attacks on Obama, a feeling characterized as Clinton Fatigue back in the 90s.

And that brings me to the exhaustion part of her statement yesterday. Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It’s when the right’s ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead — and even scare them a little.

In Clinton’s case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. It was called Clinton Fatigue, the sense that even people who were sympathetic to the president’s political plight and understood that his enemies were rabid and insane, just wanted it to end.

Of course, I can’t speak for the woman at the forum, but if what Digby says is true, that we are exhausted from having to defend Obama, it’s partly because the Democrats in power don’t defend him or themselves. They walked tall for about a month after the inauguration, and then retreated to the old defensive crouch, afraid to stand up for themselves or for what they believe, always anxious to court approval from the Republicans. This has been the case from the passive Obama on down, and to this day they are more comfortable attacking their own supporters than going after Republicans. The Republican base has their cheerleaders in the ranks of the politicians, but we have to go it alone. The Democrats largely ran away from Clinton during his (self inflicted) troubles, and they’re now running away from Obama and themselves in these (Bush inflicted) troubles.


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