Swiftboating health care reform

Tonight President Obama will make what some are calling his "make or break speech" for health care reform.

As much noise and confusion we've been subjected to by the rabid corporate foes of reform over the last several months, I'm sure it will pale in comparison to the hysterical response we're going to see from the extremely vocal minority of corporate conservatives in the next few days.

Groups like "CPR" (aka Conservatives for Patients' Rights) have been keeping busy employing the very same tactics used by the Swiftboaters from the 2004 presidential election. And it's no wonder, when CPR is closely associated with the very same conservative backers who funded the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, the organization who quite successfully besmirched Sen. John Kerry's honorable war record with saturation ads and rampant mistruths.

The swiftboat techniques being used in the health care reform debate are comprised of the same two tenants of the anti-Kerry ads:

1. Advocating for an unpopular status quo.
2. Lying.

So it'll come as no surprise when the anti-reform hysteria is further fanned by a bombardment of TV ads, talk radio smear campaigns, and Fox News cheerleading. It's gonna get ugly out there.

Here's a noxious little example of the corporate anti-reform groups' agenda. See if you can count all the baseless assumptions and lies of omission:

Gov. Rell is so obviously over this "governing" thing

OK, so let me get this straight...

Gov. Rell said she hated the budget passed by large majorities in the State House and Senate, but she refused to veto it.

Then Gov. Rell said she'd get rid of all those items she considered "pork" by using the line item veto. Then she didn't do it.

So, Jodi wanted to abstain from being responsible for any part of the budget, even without doing a single thing within her power to change it.

I'm reminded of a lyric from the classic Rush tune Freewill:

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Apparently, she chose mediocrity.

Really, is there anything that Governor Relic still likes about the job, besides marching in parades and opening shopping centers?



(...and while I was never a major Rush fan by any means, it's kind of cool to see that Geddy Lee can still rock out. Must be because of that great health care they have in Canada!)

Milford kids drop out en masse

In a shocking turn of events this afternoon, every single Milford public school pupil has dropped out of school!

Evidence suggests the children, who were just denied the opportunity to watch President Obama's "Back To School" speech (including a stay-in-school message) by Milford's Superintendent of Schools Harvey B. Polansky, didn't understand that they should stay in school rather than quit.

As a result, every single Milford child has now dropped out, and they are currently roaming the streets causing a noisy ruckus.

* * * UPDATE: Apparently my information was somewhat incorrect. Milford students haven't dropped out...yet!

We apologize for the error.

----------------------------

But really, was it absolutely necessary to politicize a talk from the President just because you don't agree with his politics? Has the partisan divide the conservatives are so feverishly working for finally reached this level? It's really getting silly.

Picard defends blocking WH Bob blog

(Mayor John M. Picard; image from his Facebook page)
In an article in Friday's New Haven Register, West Haven Mayor John M. Picard defended the move to block the political blog West Haven Bob:

“People are supposed to be working, not doing other things,” Picard said. He added the city is in the process of restricting Internet access for employees in an effort to cut down on people surfing the Net on the clock.

[..]

The creator of the blog, Robert Symmes, says the move amounts to blatant censorship.

“I think it’s simply because Picard does not want my personal viewpoint available on city computers,” Symmes said.

Symmes's blog is frequently critical of the mayor and his administration. Symmes claims that other blogs, including this one, was available to computers on the city network for a time after his blog was banned.

Mayor Picard already experienced a controversy this year, when he briefly dropped his bid for reelection, and then promptly flip-flopped on that decision with little plausible explanation.

My guess is that Picard didn't like what Symmes was writing and decided to block his site from the city network. When we started reporting on this story, the mayor needed to go back and block all blogs in order not to appear heavy-handed in his censorship. Somehow I'm sure there's a way to determine if Symmes was singled out for banning before Picard apparently took steps to cover up his treachery.

The issue of blocking blogs, social networking sites, and media sites is a very tricky thing. Too often, a political blog may be banned while an obviously partisan media website will still be allowed. Censorship of this nature is nearly impossible to enforce fairly, which means you should either allow all of them, or block literally >everything that isn't a city-related website.

Plus, the mayor apparently has a Facebook page for discussions and events. Should we assume that it will be blocked also?

Let's Get Our Terms Straight

Since words are being thrown around to describe the president and the health care plan, I thought I would provide this public service by providing actual definitions of these terms so you can use them correctly. Consider it our gift to you.

Nazi: a member of the National Socialist German Workers' party of Germany, seized political control of the country, suppressing all opposition and establishing a dictatorship over all cultural, economic, and political activities of the people, and promulgated belief in the supremacy of Hitler as Führer, aggressive anti-Semitism, the natural supremacy of the German people, and the establishment of Germany by superior force as a dominant world power.
Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of goods in the community as a whole. A socialist is one who advocates socialism.
Socialized medicine: any of various systems to provide the entire population with complete medical care through government subsidization and regularization of medical and health services [the way Medicare provides care for seniors]
Fascism: a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. And don't many of Obama's critics on the right find fault with the fact that he has apologized for prior policies and actions that offended people of other countries? Hardly belligerent nationalism -- my country, right or wrong. And, um, isn't it censorship to want to ban the president from speaking to school children to encourage them to do well?

Just askin'.

Q&A with Jim Himes

Prior to Wednesday's town hall meeting in Norwalk, Rep. Jim Himes (CT-04) met with members of the media and bloggers to answer a few questions. Listen for Special Correspondent Tessa Marquis to ask a question during the Q&A.

Stamford Bishop heckled at town hall meeting

Rep. Jim Himes (CT-04) held an open town hall meeting in Norwalk last night to share ideas about the current health care issue.

During the meeting, Stamford Bishop Emilio Alvarez asked a question in Spanish. The bishop knows that Himes is fluent in Spanish, having been born in Peru and spending some of his childhood in various South American countries.

The town hall audience of roughly 1,200 people were made up of a clear majority of voters who support health care reform. But there was a very vocal minority of anti-reform people who reacted loudly to Bishop Alvarez's question.

Fairfield County, which comprises a large part of the 4th congressional district, has roughly 11% Spanish-speaking residents, and according to the 2000 census only 76% of the population considers English their first language.

Yet throughout the course of the evening, only a single question was asked in Spanish, and it elicited a near-hysterical reaction from the anti-reform crowd. Listen to the anger in the video, and Himes's measured response to their naked hostility:

City of West Haven blocks dissenting blog

West Haven Bob, a blog which occasionally criticizes city officials and policies, has been blocked from every computer on the City of West Haven municipal system, according to R.J. Symmes, the blog's owner:

The word came out today...West Haven Bob is blocked from all City-owned computers! I guess I pressed one too many buttons....

Of course, the West Haven Voice is not similarly blocked...probably because little Billy (ed: the editor of the Voice, Bill Riccio) prefers pulling to pushing (when it comes to buttons, AND punches, that is!)

This is actually a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, as (repeatedly) upheld by the Supreme Court. The right of any citizen to read any opinion is inviolate...and censoring some opinions while permitting other opinions...well, let's just say Stalin would approve.

Apparently, hearing a point of view (besides that spewed out by our benevolent overlords and parroted in the Voice) is a waste of time...

If the above is true, it appears that Symmes's blog was blocked for purely political reasons. A quick read of the blog doesn't turn up any obvious instances of profanity or sexual content, which are the usual reasons given for blocking a blog. This seems to be simply an effort to silence a voice of dissent from being heard by city employees and administrators.

The current West Haven mayor, John Picard, is a frequent target of the blog. Recently Picard stunningly dropped out of his campaign to win reelection, and almost as quickly jumped back into the race, without much explanation.

Symmes has also been targeted by an anonymous pamphlet campaign, and his car was vandalized recently.

So far, city officials haven't given a reason for the censoring of the blog. I'll post updates as they come in.

What we did on vacation

I know it ain't politics, but really...don't you occasionally want something a bit different mixed in with all this dry, boring political stuff?

Here's some highlights of our vacation last week to the North Fork of Long Island. Now you'll see why we love our boat so much!

Spellbinding

House Minority Leader Lawrence C. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, obviously enthralls his House colleagues Monday night.

That Spider Solitaire game is really hard to beat, too.

(AP photo via The Hartford Courant)