Add hawk

I’m a regular citizen. I love my town, I love my town’s school system. I hate arbitrarily high taxes, and I hate wasting time and money. Like most people, I have ideas on how things in my town could be improved. But I’m not an elected official, or a personal friend of the mayor, and I don’t have access to giant billboards I can place all over town in the dead of night. How can my voice be heard?

Well, according to Town Councilman Pete Bass, I can be part of an ad-hoc committee!

What’s that? It’s unclear if anyone knows for sure. (I didn’t even know what “ad hoc” meant. It’s latin for "For this". It means (according to the online dictionary) “a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and which cannot be adapted to other purposes. Common examples are organizations, committees, and commissions created …. for a specific task.” This committee is tasked with saving the town and school – and tax-paying citizens – money.)

Here is what the Housatonic Times reported back in May of this year:

http://www.housatonictimes.com/articles/2010/05/01/news/new_milford/doc4bda0d7371508046908865.txt

• Town Councilman Pete Bass says the committee would “study issues related to short- and long-terspending and revenue and to try to identify potential savings.”
• New Milford attorney Randall DiBella… said such an ad-hoc committee could make “suggestions” but could “not have a binding edict” for various boards and commissions in town.
• Town Council member Ray O’Brien said that, in addition to long-range goals, the ad-hoc committee should look at the short term, indicating that it would help if, by the next budget cycle, the school board could provide more detailed information to the Town Council on “how much electricity they are using by building and how much oil they are using by building.”
• (This is disturbing: will the focus of the committee be to scrutinize the Board of Education? “I think we’re trying to micro-manage the Board of Education,” [Councilwoman Mary Jane] Lundgren said.)
• Not so! “My motivation has nothing to with micro-managing the Board of Education,” Mr. Bass countered. “We all need to communicate together and come up with ideas and solutions,” he said. “It brings everyone together to study things in a think-tank manner.”
• Mr. Bass and some of his colleagues indicated the committee should consist of members of the Town Council, the Board of Finance, the Board of Education, financial officials for the town and the school district and members of the public, particularly those who work in finance-related areas…. Mr. Esposito and Town Council member Cecilia Buck-Taylor said the committee would benefit from having members who work as financial professionals.

Intriguing.

Here is what has been decided since then:

• The official name of the committee is the Advisory Committee for Efficiency and Cost Savings Ad Hoc.
• Input from the public is welcome, as is out-of-the-box thinking. Fresh ideas. New perspectives. In fact, even though the committee consists of 6 elected officials and one appointee, the mayor could “just as easily” have picked you, or me, or any other budget-minded citizen. Or someone with financial expertise. (But she didn’t.) (But the public is welcome and encouraged to think outside the box.) (And I’m just glad no one said “ruffle some feathers.”)
• The committee membership consists of members of the Board of Education (chairwoman Wendy Faulenbach, Thomas McSherry, Alexandra Thomas), the Town Council (Peter Bass, Cecelia Buck-Taylor, MaryJane Lundgren), and 1 hand-picked mayoral BFF – newly-minted Board of Finance member (Beth Falder). (So much for all that financial expertise.)
• The official political affiliation of these members is: 3 Republicans (Bass, Buck-Taylor, Faulenbach), 2 Democrats (Lundgren, McSherry), 1 New Milford First-er (Thomas), and 1 unaffiliated New Milford citizen (Falder).
• (I could also say, the committee is made up of 2 men and 5 women, or look up everyone’s birth dates or astrological signs, but I think I’ve digressed enough).
• The committee will disband on New Year’s Eve, before the spring budget smack-down begins. (Which, I am told, is the beauty part of it, because no one has “territory” staked out before budget season. Honest…)

Is this making sense to anyone yet? 7 people, 4 months, 0 boxes. 1 transforming set of ideas. Leading to … peace and harmony? An economic miracle? (Or more of the same “town council is good, board of education is bad!” nonsense?) I’m a bit confused. And, frankly, skeptical.

Here’s what I don’t get:

• How transparent will these meetings be? (Hint: posting the meeting minutes in the town Clerk’s office will not meet my definition of “transparent.” How about a special section in the Spectrum, or a web page linked to the town website?)
• How much public participation will actually be allowed? (Please, please, please let it be more than a “public participation” moment between the pledge of allegiance and the real business, where the public is admonished for breathing too loudly). Are members of the public going to actually serve on the committee? (Doubtful. Especially if they’re not deficit hawks. Maybe I should brush up my power point skills and come wearing a suit)
• Will members of the public be allowed to vote on committee proposals? (Good God, let’s hope so! Otherwise, what’s the point?)
• How will ideas be presented, discussed, decided upon? (“Save us money!” is a tall order when faced with a $90m budget servicing 30,000 people. And there are many legal and contractual considerations that must be abided, even if they may appear “costly.”)
• What is the scope of these meetings? (Will everyone sit down with a copy of the town and school budget and reenact that wonderful budget meeting scene from “Dave”? Or will people spend an hour or two bashing tax-and-spend liberalism and tisk-tisk the wastrel youth of today?) I assume the committee will break down into several sub-committees, who will conduct research and present findings to the group. Maybe this is where Joe Citizen can get involved more directly.
• How will ideas be evaluated? (Because I’m pretty sure we’ll here “Get rid of the libraries!” and “Don’t let people take their pensions and retire out of state!”, neither of which is legal, practical, or even desirable.) It’s tough to be both “inclusive” and “realistic.” (And “non-partisan.” But I digress again.)
• What will the committee do with these ideas? (Beyond writing up a report and presenting it to … actually, I don’t even know to whom, exactly.) Will any governing body (say, the Board of Ed or the Town Council) have to implement any of these ideas?
• What, exactly, is the point of this committee? Councilman Bass suggested at the July 12^th Town Council meeting, that the committee would serve as a liaison between the BoE and the TC (and perhaps the BoF too). But the mayor corrected that statement, saying the committee to provide advice and assistance to the BoE (and other committees!), but that the BoE and the TC are not required to take their advice.
• When will this committee actually meet? The inaugural meeting has been rescheduled twice. It’s currently slated to happen August 12, 7pm, in the Loretta Brickley Room of the Town Hall. (Will it change again? Will it be prominently displayed on the town website?)
• Will this really be anything more than a “let’s slap the Board of Education around and ignore anything troubling about the Town side of the budget”? I’m hoping so, but I have my doubts. (Are you a betting reader?)

In any case, I am intrigued. I’ve thrown away my box (the better to think outside of it) and shook myself up and gathered my brain clouds for a storm of ideas. I’m ready to share them at the maiden meeting, August 12^th (or not, if they reschedule it again). I’m hopeful that we will all transcend party and bureaucratic standing and turf wars and petty grudges and do something meaningful. I’m hopeful that the (reasonably sane) public will actually be welcomed and heeded. And I’m hopeful that, come January, the committee will have a positive impact on the budget process. (It could happen.)

But, just in case, I’ll also start a billboard fund.

Dem Dems are Dumb Dumbs

Yep - the local New Milford Democrats are lead by dumb dumbs. Their entire leadership team is continually outmaneuvered and outsmarted by the Republican Town Committee (RTC). Why they seek leadership positions year after year - and why they're re-elected by the membership - is beyond me.

John Lillis and Liba Furhman are so pathetic they claim they couldn't find anyone to take a seat on the Board of Finance. Really? You couldn't find ONE person, among a few thousand registered Dems, who would take a seat on the BOF?

Let's take a look at the record of recent failures to see what the real story is for these dumb dumbs.

The Park and Rec Board has ZERO Dems. 5 R's and 2 U's, but no Dems. The last time an appointment was open, the wife of a Dem elected official asked repeatedly to serve. Because the leadership did nothing, the Mayor put forth another "R." Is this just being lazy - or dumb?

The Board of Ed had an opening in February '10, due to the resignation of Dr. Lisa Diamond. She gave the Dems ample time to find and put up a qualified nominee. In a stroke of unethical genius, the RTC Mayor put up a registered Dem to fill the void. The Dem, Rodney Weinberg, had asked da Dems repeatedly to serve on the BOE or other commission, but his name - or that of any other Dem - was never put up. As usual, Lillis showed up late to the party, and the right-leaning Weinberg was confirmed. Is this just lazy - or dumb?

After months and months of a Dem seat being open on the BOF, the Mayor could wait no more. She put up a "U," Beth Falder, at the last TC meeting (6/28/10). Mrs. Falder might as well be an "R," or a "T" for Tea Party, as she lead the public charge of the anti-school crowd this year. According to a party insider, Liba Furhman claimed there was not one person's name they could bring forward for that seat. Again - lazy or dumb?

If da Dems could lift a finger and type out an email to their membership, maybe they'd get a response from "one or more" volunteers. Or, if da Dems put a two paragraph note in the local papers (just like the RTC does all the time), asking for volunteers for boards and commissions, maybe they'd get a response. Or, if they asked their members to ask their friends and neighbors, I bet dem Dems could get one, sole, single, solitary person to volunteer.

Am I way off base here? Would any of you reading this be willing to step up and take a seat on the BOF, BOE, Park and Rec, or any of the other boards and commissions in town? Let me know.

We don't need to remind everyone of da Dems recent general election success to take a shot at the leadership. They lost control of every board in town, and only by the grace of the Town Charter were they able to cling to a few paltry seats of importance. But, when you run a campaign consisting of nothing, that's what you get. Nice leadership Lillis and Liba!

What do I think is the real problem? Lillis and Furhman are overly controlling, and unwilling to give new people an opportunity. If they don't know you - forget it. If they don't like you - forget it even more. If you have any new ideas... I think you get the point.

If you want a leadership position, then lead. Do something - ANYTHING - to show New Milford da Dems aren't dead.

Movin' On!

Just to the other side of town. :)

I am at the point where I can choose to live in a half empty house with only a computer and a lot of furniture (minus the drawers of "stuff" that are already moved) or live in a house with a TV and no furniture inside (though we do have our patio furniture moved so we can sit outside). We load up the van and take it over every night and so far we have moved most of the small things we have. We rented a small moving truck to move the big things figuring on doing it in two loads but with so much already done we may just get everything left to fit in that one small truck for one last load.

The Root Of The Problem: Education

From former New Milford raised a glass and brewed Todd Umbarger and without further comment since it says enough on its own (and I could add an essay to this BUT...) :

click on this for larger

With previous permission from Todd Umbarger.

Todd is a New York-based illustrator and draws the political cartoon "National Concern."

Is Our Children Learned Yet?

Clearly our town is hellbent on turning out thousands of uneducated kids in the future as New Milford has frozen the school budget for the second year straight. This is from an email that is circulating around and was forwarded to myself by more than one person:

Dear Friends,


Below is a letter I sent to NBC 30 today.


According to emails circulating from the New Milford Town Wide PTO; "The School Board [for the town of New Milford] requested for 2010-2011 school year a budget of 58.73 million. The Town Council only approved 56.945 million -a 0% increase- cutting nearly 1.8 million. This is the second 0% budget increase in a row! The Town Council's cut will have a deep negative impact on the quality of education of our children not only this year, but in future years as well."


As we are all aware, we are in the middle of an economic recession, which has affected not only the economy, but has also changed the job market. Those fields that once insured you a job with security no longer exist. Children need a different set of skills/knowledge to compete in college and in the real world. Skills and knowledge that children will not completely be able to absorb and reapply if they are crowded in classrooms with teachers, administrators, and support staff that are overworked, underappreciated, concerned with meeting standards, and worried about keeping their jobs.


With this budget cut, New Milford stands to lose excellent, highly qualified, talented teachers to not only other districts but other states. Passing this budget will result in the demise of the academics within this town, further increasing the gap of achievement. This lack of increase in the budget will result in larger classes, more stress on Special Ed and ELL students and teachers, as well as a lack of support staff within the buildings.

It is extremely important for the public to know about the possible cuts (38 teachers) to the New Milford Education system. There are two meetings to discuss these issues: March 30, 7:30 at Sarah Noble Intermediate School and April 1, 7:00 at Sarah Noble Intermediate School in New Milford.

The fact that the state of Connecticut has already served up one idiot extremist who we had the great misfortune of watching go on to higher office in this nation is disgraceful enough. Do we really want to be producing thousands more semi-epsilon-moron-minuses' to lead this nation into the future?

My daughter actually mentioned this to me when she got home today and said that "hundreds of students" planned to show up to the meeting tomorrow night. I suspect there may not be enough room for them all to get in there if their taxpaying parents form both sides of the political dance are there, as well. We shall see...

Typically I don't cover local town politics that much. For this meeting? I plan on being there myself. I know that my Blog covers mostly national politics so for most of my readers this post is meaningless but for those of you that are from this town that read this place?

Please do yourself a favor and show up.

There is a Facebook group to help show support for keeping our schools functional and for stopping the right wing from destroying our future while using the present disaster they created and we are going through right now as a reason for it.

And for those of you don't get it... This is all about taking advantage of their free market failures and using it as an excuse to starve Public Education. Then once they have made a Public Education bad enough they will propose privatizing it with vouchers and other free market stupidity. And don't think your kids will benefit from the good private schools unless you are obscenely rich.

You are witnessing - first hand, up-close and personal-like - disaster capitalism at its worst.

12 Connecticut Towns Get Foreclosure Money

From the NewsTimes, 12 towns, including New Milford, will get some money to help fix up and fill many of the empty foreclosed homes:

NEW MILFORD -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell has identified New Milford as one of 12 cities and towns in the state eligible for $3.6 million in federal stimulus money to buy and upgrade foreclosure properties.

The intent is for towns, through their agencies or local nonprofit groups, to make the improved homes available as affordable housing to low- and middle-income families, officials said Friday.

State Department of Economic and Community Development spokesman Jim Watson said Friday it is uncertain how much money any of the towns will receive, but they can make applications based on need and capacity.

This will be in addition to $25 million in mortgage assistance funding Connecticut was given under the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program. While even I view this as a great thing that we need to see done across the country, I just wish that actions like this had been taken early before many of these families had lost their homes. (And yes! I know I am biased in that department because of our experience with Countrywide...)

If you are on the edge of losing your home, HUD has some information that may help you while you wait to find out what sort of help may or may not come down from the State of Connecticut:

Guide To Avoiding Foreclosure

Whether you're in foreclosure now or worried
about it in the future, we have information that can help.

Get Help Now!

	Talk to a foreclosure avoidance counselor
	Talk to your lender
	Find state and local foreclosure resources
	Contact HOPE NOW

Keep Your Home

	Are you at risk of foreclosure?
	Tips for avoiding foreclosure
	Foreclosure scams

Refinance Options

	Learn about HOPE for Homeowners
	Who to call when a lender won’t work with you

If You Can't Keep Your Home

	Redemption period - your last chance to save your home
	Local renting resources
	Rental assistance
	Relocation resources
	U.S. Postal Service Movers Guide

Before you even consider trying to buy a home anywhere or anytime you might need some of this information:

Predatory lending - beware if you're buying or refinancing your home; don't become a victim of unfair lending practices

Stuff that I wish we had known about before we got stuck in the financial death spiral of our mortgage with Countrywide...

NO GLITCHES in ConnPost Article

At MLN they have this up on the front page:

Glitches In ConnPost Article

ConnPost: "Glitches didn't affect election outcome" <read>

CTVotersCount.org: "Not So Fast, Please"

A ConnPost article gives a broad brush feel good assessment of the election. We are not ready to agree that everything went fine. We have no reason to doubt that the results were accurate enough that the voters' intent was realized in the results, however, we will wait for the results of the post-election audit and other analysis. Unfortunately, unless this audit goes much differently than the last three we will still be left with a level of uncertainty.

We also have some comments on the details in the article.

The Article says:

Some individuals filled in circles for Jim Himes on both parties.

"Those votes counted and would register under the Working Families party for qualification purposes.," said Bysiewicz. She said the machines would not reject those votes unless the ballot was filled out incorrectly elsewhere.

There must be some confusion on the part of the Secretary of the State or the ConnPost:

Fact: For voters that fill in bubbles for a cross endorsed candidate twice, they should be counted by the machine as Himes Unk (Unknown). When only one bubble is filled in then they would be counted for Himes Dem or Himes Wkf etc.

So unless the particular machine was programmed incorrectly, the article is incorrect.

There is no glitch in the article... I was at the New Milford Town Hall as the results were coming in and they had the exact same issue. I wrote about that on election night. We had the exact same problem with New Milford results for Murphy.

A couple of machines failed early on in Gaylordsville and at the Hill and Plain polling station. They switched them out and things rolled smoothly after that.

Murphy and Obama won. Appropriate NOs and YESs are winning. And Himes won too!

There has been some minor issues with people voting for candidates on their regular party line AND on the WFP line. The votes are, apparently, counted only once for the candidate BUT the vote is given to the WFP. (or something like that?) The software glitches on...

The ConnPost has it right. The votes were being given to the WFP if the voter filled in both lines for Murphy here. And the machines did not catch it.

Local Voting Info - New Milford, CT

Reposted and in light of an email request from a reader for local New Milford, Connecticut, voting info:

Find out where to vote!
For your local polling place...

Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems

According to the information I found there are no local town issues to be voted on. Just the candidates and the two statewide questions. I phoned the town clerk's office to verify this information to be true:

Warning
November 4, 2008

State Election

The electors and taxpayers of the Town of New Milford are hereby warned to meet at the respective polling places in said town on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, for the following purposes:

I. To cast their votes for Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors, Representative in Congress, State Senator, and State Representative.

II To vote on the following questions for the approval or disapproval of a proposed Constitutional convention and proposed AMENDMENT to the Constitution of Connecticut, a vote of “YES” being a vote for approval, and a vote of “NO” being a vote for disapproval:

1. Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the State?

2. Shall the constitution of the state be amended to permit any person who will have attained the age of eighteen years on or before the day of regular election to vote in the primary for such regular election?

The full text of such proposed questions with explanatory text, printed in accordance with §2-30a of the General Statutes, is available at the Town Clerk’s Office for public distribution.

Notice is hereby given that the location of the polling places is as follows:

Voting District Location of Polling Place
District 1 Northville School, Hipp Road
District 2 Catherine E. Lillis Building, East Street
District 3 Pettibone School, Pickett District Road
District 4 Gaylordsville Fire House
District 5 Schaghticoke School, Hipp Road
District 6 Hill & Plain School, Old Town Park Road
District 7 Sarah Noble School, Sunny Valley Road

Voting machines will be used. The polls will be open at six o’clock in the morning (6:00 a.m. and will remain open until eight o’clock in the evening (8:00 p.m.)

Absentee Ballots for electors and Presidential Ballots will be centrally counted in the Loretta Brickley Room in the basement of the Town Hall at 10 Main Street.

The final tally of the election will be in the E. Paul Martin Room in the the Town Hall at 10 Main Street.

Dated at New Milford, Connecticut, this 17th day of October, 2008.
George C. Buckbee
Town Clerk
New Milford

Please note that if you typically voted at the Lanesville fire department in the past, they have switched that District 7 voting location to Sarah Noble School because of the fact that they dead ended that street.

EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED YET YOU CAN STILL VOTE FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN CONNECTICUT! It is the law. Bring your ID to Townhall where they should have special "presidential ballots" for your use. If you are registered to vote in New Milford, read on...

Also, in as far as the two statewide Constitution questions...

On question 1, most of the Democratic leaning Blogs seem to be in agreement that question 1 (having a Constitutional Convention) would be a bad thing and are pushing for a no vote:

The Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG) urges a no vote on the question. As one of the organizations that has lead the fights to open up our political process (Direct Primaries, Campaign Finance and Ethics reforms) we believe a convention would be a waste of taxpayers' money and could be corrupted by the same special interests that our new campaign finance reform laws are designed to protect us from.

Proponents of a convention either do not understand the process or are deliberately trying to mislead the public by saying that the vote on November 4th is about initiative and referendum. If the vote passes it is then up to the legislature to determine the process for selecting delegates to the convention. This will likely be done through a costly special election and primaries. The convention is then convened, which will result in additional costs to the state. The delegates may or may not propose amendments to the constitution, which would be subject to a future popular vote. There is no guarantee that what the proponents of the convention are arguing this vote is about will be included these proposals.

It is plausible that many of the proponents of a convention would mask their real motivation due to the unpopularity of some of their ultimate goals. Connecticut does not want to ban a woman's right to choose or to allow discrimination against same sex couples. Advocates of these and other radical positions realize that they cannot win enough legislative races to accomplish their goals so they are trying to push a convention to create a new avenue for their fight. Their gambit will have significant costs for the state at a time we are facing a huge deficit. I am confident their stealth agenda will ultimately be rejected.

There is a high likelihood that the delegate selection process will be driven by lobbying and other big money interest. It is not surprising that special interests are looking for new ways to exert influence as Connecticut embarks on the first election cycle under our public financing system. The new system has been a smashing success with over 75% of candidates voluntarily participating. It has been praised across the country and will result in a state government more accountable to voters not special interests.

Costly to the taxpayers and could potentially run counter to the spirit and idea of the many recent campaign financing rule changes in Connecticut, and never mind the tendency of radical right wing groups, like the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), to push costly campaigns on to the ballot that will never pass in the real world. It is no coincidence that the fringe Heritage front group, FIC, is one of the groups pushing this agenda. They have little in state support or participation from Nutmeggers and the FIC is the quintessential example of an Astroturf group. Their sole purpose is to try and create a false perception of "grassroots support" for generally repulsive legislation that the majority does not support. They use money and vocal twits to agitate the process and create those perceptions.

To put it bluntly, FIC has more money... Yet, I have more readers (both in and out of state...) But the FIC uses out of state soft money and out of state sister group members to finance and create a fake movement and to get media access. And they want to amend the Connecticut Constitution?

I suggest using your middle finger on that "Hell NO!" vote for question 1.

When it comes to question 2, on allowing people that will be old enough to vote in the election to vote in the primaries if they are only 17, it seems like a reasonable way to help ensure our younger generation learns the civic responsibility of voting as soon as possible. If they will be able to vote in the elections, they should be able to help pick the candidate they want to vote for.

Those were my long answers... The short of it is to vote:

• NO on question 1
  
• YES on question 2

Just my suggestions and reasoning. :)

[update] I drove around New Milford to check out a couple of polling stations (District 2 Catherine E. Lillis Building, East Street and District 3 Pettibone School, Pickett District Road) this morning to look at the traffic AND there was a little traffic and no real lineups to get into vote this morning. When I stopped to get coffee at the grocery store I reminded everyone I talked with to vote today. One guy said he had already voted at a polling station that I hadn't driven by (District 7 Sarah Noble School, Sunny Valley Road) and he said that voting took less time than paying for his milk and bread at the grocery store. Another young lady that worked at the store said she was excited to be voting for the first time. Much like in the past elections, getting to the New Milford polling stations early will save you a lot of time. Usually, they start to get really busy in the mid-afternoon.

I'll try and update you with more local voting information through the day during the day. HatCityBlog is doing the same thing for the Danbury area.

And from the Working Families Party, a party that you might want to consider supporting because they are issues oriented in darned good way:

Working Families Party Works to Push Candidates Over the Top
Minor Party Pushes Message of Economic Security Across the State

As Election Day begins, Working Families Party volunteers and
canvassers spread out across the state in a final push to make the
difference for Working Families endorsed candidates. Over the last six
weeks, Working Families has knocked on 50,000 doors in an effort to
make the difference for candidates across the state that have pledged
their support for Working Families' priority issues, like affordable
healthcare, good jobs, and reducing taxes on middle class families.

"With everything happening in the economy it's understandable that
voters are angry and frustrated," said Brian Petronella, President of
UFCW Local 371 and a co-founder of the Working Families party in
Connecticut. "Change is the buzz-word this election. But if you want
to vote for change like you really mean it, vote on the Working
Families line."

Established in 2002, the Working Families Party has seen rapid growth
throughout the state by using the unusual strategy of
cross-endorsement. When a major party candidate is cross-endorsed by
Working Families, the candidate's name appears on the ballot twice:
once on the major party line and again on the Working Families line.
Proponents of the strategy say it allows voters to "send a message" to
support the Working Families positions on economic justice issues.

Working Families is supporting more than 85 candidates across the
state – mostly cross-endorsed candidates also being supported by a
major party.

With the nation experiencing one of the worst economic slumps since
the Great Depression, the idea of sending politicians a message to
stand up for working families has widespread appeal – across the
political spectrum.

"I think the Working Families Party offers voters something unique and
appealing in this election – a chance to vote for a party that
champions economic issues that matter to middle class voters while
still supporting a major party candidate – typically a Democrat – who
can really win the election," said Paul Filson, Director of the
Service Employees International Union in Connecticut.

Working Families top priority for Election Day is helping to Democrat
Jim Himes over the top in his hotly contested race against incumbent
Chris Shays. Working Families organizers are hoping to appeal to
voters who are frustrated and worried about the economy and
disappointed with both major parties.

Working Families is a minor political party formed by a coalition of
community organizations, labor unions and neighborhood activists who
united to fight for a fair economy. The Working Families Party was
formed to inject issues like healthcare, quality education, and
livable wages into the public debate, and to hold politicians
accountable on those issues.

[update] I've been going around from polling site to polling site in New Milford. At about 2:30 there was already over 1200 voters in District 2, District 6 had around 1340 by 5:00, District 7 was over 1600 by about 6:00 and all of the other Districts, though I don't have exact voting numbers for them all, are on pace for record voting numbers. At every site there are poll sitters for Murphy and NONE for Cappiello. I have been going from place to place poll sitting with all of them and the "Vote no on question 1" people that are out, as well.

Things are looking good if the large numbers translate into real change...

Prop (H)8 in California

According to skippy the bush kangaroo, California doesn't need to worry as much about Proposition 8 as digby seems to think they should:

let's be clear here: gotv is important, and the anti-prop 8 campaign may very well be having trouble generating excitement (we happen to think the anti-prop 8 commercials are among the worst we've seen). but the latest poll from the field poll online shows it's definitely not a dead heat. california progress report:

the california field poll showing proposition 8 behind with 44% support and 49% opposition that was released earlier today is making the headlines of the state’s newspapers—and in fact is national news. these results are remarkably similar to a poll released last week by the public policy institute of california that showed it with the same 44% support and with a level of opposition--52%--that is within the margin of error of both of these polls. these are the two most respected public polling organizations in the golden state.

Anyone can understand that GOTV is important on an issue like this but I am guessing that GOTV for Obama and other candidates on the left out there in Cali will be enough to kill the (H)8.

More importantly, I think, is that any kind of amendment like the proposed Proposition (H)8 will eventually get killed in the courts as unconstitutional.

It is also important to note that these type of ballot initiatives in California are precisely what worries most of the people fighting against the Connecticut "Constitutional Convention" issue on the ballot here, this year. It paralyzes the ability of legislators to govern, it often creates "laws" that will get kicked back as unconstitutional, and wastes taxpayer money at every turn. And all of this is done as a backhanded way to divide voters on issues, and to feed off of the hate of fringe voters more often than not. And it is often out of state soft money flooding into the state that funds these initiatives through Astroturf groups like the Family Institute of Connecticut.

New Milford Voting - Heads up!

In light of an email request from a reader for local New Milford, Connecticut, voting info:

Find out where to vote!
For your local poll...

According to the information I found there are no local town issues to be voted on. Just the candidates and the two statewide questions. I phoned the town clerk's office to verify this information to be true:

Warning
November 4, 2008

State Election

The electors and taxpayers of the Town of New Milford are hereby warned to meet at the respective polling places in said town on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, for the following purposes:

I. To cast their votes for Presidential and Vice-Presidential electors, Representative in Congress, State Senator, and State Representative.

II To vote on the following questions for the approval or disapproval of a proposed Constitutional convention and proposed AMENDMENT to the Constitution of Connecticut, a vote of “YES” being a vote for approval, and a vote of “NO” being a vote for disapproval:

1. Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the State?

2. Shall the constitution of the state be amended to permit any person who will have attained the age of eighteen years on or before the day of regular election to vote in the primary for such regular election?

The full text of such proposed questions with explanatory text, printed in accordance with §2-30a of the General Statutes, is available at the Town Clerk’s Office for public distribution.

Notice is hereby given that the location of the polling places is as follows:

Voting District Location of Polling Place
District 1 Northville School, Hipp Road
District 2 Catherine E. Lillis Building, East Street
District 3 Pettibone School, Pickett District Road
District 4 Gaylordsville Fire House
District 5 Schaghticoke School, Hipp Road
District 6 Hill & Plain School, Old Town Park Road
District 7 Sarah Noble School, Sunny Valley Road

Voting machines will be used. The polls will be open at six o’clock in the morning (6:00 a.m. and will remain open until eight o’clock in the evening (8:00 p.m.)

Absentee Ballots for electors and Presidential Ballots will be centrally counted in the Loretta Brickley Room in the basement of the Town Hall at 10 Main Street.

The final tally of the election will be in the E. Paul Martin Room in the the Town Hall at 10 Main Street.

Dated at New Milford, Connecticut, this 17th day of October, 2008.
George C. Buckbee
Town Clerk
New Milford

Please note that if you typically voted at the Lanesville fire department in the past, they have switched that District 7 voting location to Sarah Noble School because of the fact that they dead ended that street.

Also, in as far as the two statewide Constitution questions...

On question 1, most of the Democratic leaning Blogs seem to be in agreement that question 1 (having a Constitutional Convention) would be a bad thing and are pushing for a no vote:

The Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG) urges a no vote on the question. As one of the organizations that has lead the fights to open up our political process (Direct Primaries, Campaign Finance and Ethics reforms) we believe a convention would be a waste of taxpayers' money and could be corrupted by the same special interests that our new campaign finance reform laws are designed to protect us from.

Proponents of a convention either do not understand the process or are deliberately trying to mislead the public by saying that the vote on November 4th is about initiative and referendum. If the vote passes it is then up to the legislature to determine the process for selecting delegates to the convention. This will likely be done through a costly special election and primaries. The convention is then convened, which will result in additional costs to the state. The delegates may or may not propose amendments to the constitution, which would be subject to a future popular vote. There is no guarantee that what the proponents of the convention are arguing this vote is about will be included these proposals.

It is plausible that many of the proponents of a convention would mask their real motivation due to the unpopularity of some of their ultimate goals. Connecticut does not want to ban a woman's right to choose or to allow discrimination against same sex couples. Advocates of these and other radical positions realize that they cannot win enough legislative races to accomplish their goals so they are trying to push a convention to create a new avenue for their fight. Their gambit will have significant costs for the state at a time we are facing a huge deficit. I am confident their stealth agenda will ultimately be rejected.

There is a high likelihood that the delegate selection process will be driven by lobbying and other big money interest. It is not surprising that special interests are looking for new ways to exert influence as Connecticut embarks on the first election cycle under our public financing system. The new system has been a smashing success with over 75% of candidates voluntarily participating. It has been praised across the country and will result in a state government more accountable to voters not special interests.

Costly to the taxpayers and could potentially run counter to the spirit and idea of the many recent campaign financing rule changes in Connecticut, and never mind the tendency of radical right wing groups, like the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), to push costly campaigns on to the ballot that will never pass in the real world. It is no coincidence that the fringe Heritage front group, FIC, is one of the groups pushing this agenda. They have little in state support or participation from Nutmeggers and the FIC is the quintessential example of an Astroturf group. Their sole purpose is to try and create a false perception of "grassroots support" for generally repulsive legislation that the majority does not support. They use money and vocal twits to agitate the process and create those perceptions.

To put it bluntly, FIC has more money... Yet, I have more readers (both in and out of state...) But the FIC uses out of state soft money and out of state sister group members to finance and create a fake movement and to get media access. And they want to amend the Connecticut Constitution?

I suggest using your middle finger on that "Hell NO!" vote for question 1.

When it comes to question 2, on allowing people that will be old enough to vote in the election to vote in the primaries if they are only 17, it seems like a reasonable way to help ensure our younger generation learns the civic responsibility of voting as soon as possible. If they will be able to vote in the elections, they should be able to help pick the candidate they want to vote for.

Those were my long answers... The short of it is to vote:

• NO on question 1
  
• YES on question 2

Just my suggestions and reasoning. :)

Avoiding Transparency - Towns Shuttering Websites

Some small towns - like Lyme, Salem, Colbrook, and Harwinton - in Connecticut are shuttering their websites because of new transparency laws:

Bart Russell is the Executive Director of Connecticut's Council of Small Towns.

His group wants the state's FOI Commission to issue an advisory opinion on the law that went into effect Wednesday that requires municipalities to post information from public meetings on the Internet.

Under the new law, meeting agendas must be up twenty-four hours in advance and minutes posted within seven days after a meeting. Russell says the towns want to be transparent but the time constraints aren't reasonable.

I am trying to figure out what would make it so hard to comply here since all it takes is for the webmasters of these sites to add an easy "upload button" somewhere for the town workers to click on and upload files? I can understand some short delays as the code monkeys write up something and add a searchable section of the site to upload them to. If they are too cheap to pay for the sites they could easily do it on Blogger by cut and pasting the agendas and minutes into a Blog. It isn't that hard to do.

Look... It took me all of 20 minutes to set up that Sample Blog for New Milford and another minute to write a title for the post and to cut and paste the information out of an Open Office Document file and into the post.

If you or your town has internet access there is no excuse to skirt posting the information in a timely manner.

Just a video in honor of the many code monkeys that do volunteer to do this kind of community organizing for many towns across the USA for free.

Danbury NewsTimes and New Milford Spectrum Bought Up by Hearst

ctblogger at HatCityBLOG catches a blurb on the sale of pretty much the only source of dead-tree media in the Danbury/New Milford area:

The game of musical chairs is being played again.

Bridgeport (AP) -- Hearst Corp. has purchased the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport and seven weekly newspapers in the state from MediaNews Group Inc.

[...]

The weeklies that Hearst acquired are the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, New Milford Spectrum, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News.

With the acquisition, Hearst also assumes management of three daily newspapers in Fairfield County: The Advocate of Stamford, Greenwich Time and The News-Times of Danbury.

What will this mean for the News-Times? Hearst is a totally different outfit from MediaNews Group so expect to see some changes. As for their on-line content, all the newspapers in the MediaNews family basically had the same format and look so you might see changes in the layout of the News-Times online edition as well.

Whatever the case, lets just say that there's no love lost between bloggers and the shameless MediaNews Group for obvious reasons and I'll take anything other than that company in Connecticut.

To say there is no love lost is certainly no misrepresentation of the truth. The people - left, right and center - have given up on the media. These papers systemic failures grounded in their ideology of putting corporations' needs over the needs and rights of the readers these papers are supposed to be protecting as a crucial and fundamental aspect Democracy in a free nation have allowed a continued corruption of the political system they should be holding in check.

To the great benefit of corporations - and incompetent, criminal and failed politicians and their continued radical policies - these papers have enabled and cheered on failures like: the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq based on a pack of lies; the deterioration of privacy rights in a nation that used to be a model of freedom to be emulated worldwide; the destruction of civil dialog on a myriad of important issues facing this nation - only to be buried by trivial aspects of celebrity pop culture; even further destruction of civil dialog by lending what little space they devote to news - as opposed to the vast quantities of space devoted to advertising, infotainment and further advertisements camouflaged as news - to extremist views that are so far removed from the public interest and meant only to divide the nation further for political purposes.

In the long run, I don't see there being any great benefit for the local area. Perhaps with a new layout online they might incorporate a better system of controlling the constant flow of local bigoted hate-mongers that flood their comment sections? But in the end, it is just one homogenized and sanitized corporate view being replaced by another homogenized and sanitized corporate view.

Unless they seriously invest in local assets to actually cover the local and national news with real, hard-nosed journalism that truly, realistically and faithfully benefits the people they are supposed to serve... The medias' shameful and merited decline into extinction will continue regardless of who owns these papers.

Robocall Watch CT-05 Edition

Apparently a Republican attack dog, Freedom Watch, is planning on running a robocall campaign against House Rep. Chris Murphy:

Freedom’s Watch, the conservative advocacy group that has vowed to spend millions against Democratic congressional candidates this fall, will be running robocalls this week in 16 congressional districts where Democratic incumbents seem vulnerable or where an open seat has given rise to a competitive election.

The robocalls will focus on the issue of high gas prices.

No Nutmeggers... It's not the Enron-esque practices of the oil industry, where the oil industry owns leases on millions of acres of undeveloped oil and refuse to develop them, or unregulated market speculation, nor the lack of refineries needed to actually meet today's demand. And it's certainly not the result of illegal invasions and occupations.

It's that pesky 5% to 10% in taxes (depending on your state) that are the direct result of gas more than doubling in price at the pumps.

And Freedom Watch is out to piss you off with those insane Republican robocalls full of complete and total BS.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Republican Lies About Offshore Drilling

environmentalist from dKos cuts through the GOP's BS concerning offshore drilling:

First of all, there is no "ban".

"Ban" is just more GOPer-speak. In reality, there is a moratorium on drilling in certain coastal areas. Other areas are not only open to drilling but leases and drilling permits have already been issued.

And they are not being drilled.

In fact, only 17% of the leased areas [are] in production. So, with about 33 million acres of offshore areas already available to drill and not being drilled, why does the oil and gas industry need to have access to still more? The fact is that nearly 25 BILLION barrels of oil off the coast of the United States is currently available for drilling...and industry is not drilling it.

Not to mention natural gas. Most of the natural gas occurring offshore (over 328 TRILLION cubic feet – an eleven year supply at current consumption rates) is currently available for leasing and development.

And they’re not going after it.

This is the story throughout the country, more than 44 million acres of onshore public lands are leased for oil and gas development and yet most of it is not being drilled. All told (onshore and offshore), 68 million acres are leased and sitting idle. Over 10,000 permits are currently 'stockpiled' by industry. But still they want more.

Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as [assets] to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money.

Republicans and the oil industry are lying to America out the ying yang on this. Surprised? I didn't think so...

Foreclosures Hitting Record Highs

As I mentioned a while back, my family already lost our home... I hope that many of these homeowners manage to avoid slipping through the cracks of this GOP created mortgage crisis:

"Nationwide, 261,255 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in May, up 48 percent from 176,137 in the same month last year and up 7 percent from April.

According to the RealtyTrac report, one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in May, the highest number since RealtyTrac started the report in 2005 and the second-straight monthly record."

And, meanwhile, back on the corporate ranch:

"Struggling to make ends meet;
CEO pay creeps up only $280K in 2007:

As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard
& Poor's 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4
million. That's a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3 1/2 percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both
workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a
housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food."

Previously brewed in New Milford:

On the Sub-Prime Crisis

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade (Continue reading...)

On the Sub-Prime Crisis

Many of you already knew that we were probably losing our home in the first wave of foreclosures hitting this state and the country. I have been sort of busy the last couple of weeks with this issue and (some of) you may have noticed that my Blog has been dormant because I have been so busy.

The bad news? We have given up trying to save our home.

The good news? Unlike the many American families that are, right now, living in tent cities (from the morgtage crisis and also from hurricane Katrina) we have been fortunate enough to find a house to rent. And we will not have to move from New Milford, either. The kids are happy about that second part. They have made friends and like living here.

Finding a place to live has not been easy. Being in the first wave of foreclosures, many landlords refused to rent to us. This issue will likely resolve itself for others later on as more and more people with foreclosures and bankruptcies on their credit reports will flood the renters market. For now it is still an issue. An issue we that we kind of lucked our way around.

Lemons Meet Lemonade

The house we are renting? It is a little bit smaller than the home we loved but it does have some serious plusses that make this a better place for us. First, it has a nice little wood stove in the living room to curl up in front of on those chilly New England nights. It will also save us money on oil. Second, it has a nice, big and sunny room that I plan on turning into my media room that will look right out over the back yard. Third, it is not on a main street so the kids and the dog will be a little safer playing outside. Fourth, we will be saving hundreds compared to what our original mortgage payment started at, never mind how much our ARM was by the time it doubled.

As for the luck part? Well, we are renting the house from someone that was on the verge of losing it all, as well. She pretty much knows our situtation and, because of her own situtation, was a little more forgiving on our credit check. The lady who owns the house is where we were in the foreclosure process about 9 months ago. She did not have "ARM" or sub-prime issues, but employment/relocation issues. As the real estate agent that helped us find a place said, this is a win/win situation for everyone here. She won't be crushed financially like we were and we will have a roof over our heads.

I'll have more to write on this later but, for now, don't be surpised if my Blogging particiaption is a little bit irregular.

Republican Children Walkout From Congress

If you missed this on Valentines day, the childish Republicans walked away from doing the job they were elected to do. Why? Because the GOP is full of members that are childish and stupid, of course!



Via Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker:

Surprise!

When the Dems finally made a move to get a vote on the contempt resolutions against White House officials for ignoring subpoenas in the U.S. attorney investigations, the Republicans had a walkout all planned out. As Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave a speech haranguing the Dems for "political grandstanding" at a time of dire threats to national security (because work on the surveillance bill has still not been completed). They then filed out onto the steps, where a podium was waiting to complete the photo op.

No political grandstanding, indeed.

I guess these republican children have a problem with the more criminal elements of the GOP machine actually being held responsible for their actions?

The Republicans refused to deal with two of their own being slapped with contempt charges:

The House of Representatives voted Thursday to cite Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, a former White House counsel, for contempt for refusing to testify about their participation in the firing of federal prosecutors.

The measure calls for House officials to seek enforcement of the contempt citation by the courts if, as expected, the Justice Department declines to act on the resolution.

The vote was a lopsided 223 to 32 in favor of the contempt citation, after most Republican members walked out to protest what their leaders called a political move.

Call the whambulance.

This is no different than the supremely stupid and childish walkout of the New Milford Republican BOE members last September:

This last couple of weeks a huge pile of steaming Republican childishness has played out and many in the town have been talking about it:

The five Republican members who walked out of a Board of Education meeting last week say they are disturbed that the action has been misconstrued and politicized when it was a legitimate protest of what they considered to be an improper, imprudent and even disrespectful action.

Like walking out on a vote is not improper, imprudent and even disrespectful action, never mind that it is as childish as taking their ball and going home in the middle of a game because they are losing.

Flying in the face of their own reasoning, they can't seem to even decide whether they walked out because of too much debate, or not enough:

"We simply, quietly, left the meeting at the end when there was nothing further to discuss. We had already discussed it three times, and our input was ignored. There was no reason to stay," said member Julie Turk of the minority Republicans' decision to leave before a second vote on hiring a director of human resources to replace the former director of operations.

snip

But some of the board's GOP members -- the school board has seven Republicans and five Democrats -- were disturbed that so little time had been given to such a key position, which will command a salary in the $90,000 to $100,000 range.

Make up your minds little GOP children... Did you decide to walk out on your job because:

1. Republicans think there is nothing left to discuss.
2. Republicans think there needs to be more time to discuss this.
3. Republicans think there needs to be more time to discuss that there is nothing left to discuss.

And never mind all of the other reasons that they threw at the fan. Several more inconsistencies fly back in their face in that one article. The supposed and incoherent apologies lead one to realize your mea maxima culpas. Simply being wrong, both in thoughts and actions. Get a load of another childish GOP response:

"They changed the rules so they could put something through that had already failed," McLachlan claimed.

What rules did the Board change? Something was brought up in a vote that was a 5-5 tie without all of the board members present in August. A sub-committee, including republicans, originally recommended returning to the issue. Does McLachlan have a problem with putting a vote to the full board just because of the inevitable 7-5 result?

What rules were changed? Don't just pull out "The republican victim card" and leave it out there without any backup. And just because someone too childish or incompetent to do their job and vote on this issue calls it bullying does not make it so, regardless of how the village idiot celebrates the idea:

"Kudos to Joe Failla, Julie Turk, Robin Ruggiero, Bill McLachlan and Joey Vita for having the gumption to stand up for what they believe in, against the odds and the "bullying" as one Member calls it."

Whom, exactly, is guilty of bullying? As a commenter over at your own Blog (Jay Lewin - Juice Box Republicans) notes:

"Interesting that the Operations sub committee "unanimously" OK'd bringing the issue back to the board. That sub committee includes Mr. Failla & Mrs. Turk. Why did they OK this on 9/4, and then reverse course to fight it on 9/11? Hmmmmmmm..."

Kudos for what. Jay? For recommending returning to this issue and then walking out on the vote when it does come up? (The GOP must be guilty of bullying themselves , either that or bullshitting themselves, 'cause we aren't buying it.) And for ignoring the reality of what most of the town's people recognized this childish tactic to be? Is there any doubt why one of New Milford's Board of Education members jumped the Republican ship of fools?

For the coming election, Traisci-Marandola said, she was rejected by the party's leaders for a re-election bid because she did what she promised, although it meant spending money.

Even with that rejection, Traisci-Marandola said she intended to retain her party affiliation.

Yet what she called this past "week of nonsense" has changed her mind. She said she intends to become a Democrat and support that party's slate for the November election.

snip

Traisci-Marandola said she was "appalled" that five of her fellow Republicans -- including appointed member Joseph Failla, endorsed for a four-year seat, and William McLachlan, endorsed for a Town Council seat -- orchestrated a walkout at last Tuesday's school board meeting.

This walk out was a pitiful example of Republican kids behaving badly and the nonsensical apologies and their apologists passing out the Koolaide are as sad as the the original actions. They are just playing little childish games and, in a typically GOP fashion, wasting the tax payers time occupying a job they are unwilling or unable to do in a manner respectful of Democracy.

An Informal Quinnipiac Poll

In an article on New Milford resident Lorella Praeli's activism in support of Barack Obama in New Hampshire you can find what I would call an informal poll of the Quinnipiac students' support for presidential candidates:

With that kind of passion and determination, the freshman cajoled McLean to let her enroll in his semester-long honors political science seminar for upperclassmen which would study and track the 2008 presidential campaign.

Selecting a candidate to endorse and participating in the New Hampshire primary are key lessons, McLean said.

Of the students in the class, he said, six are campaigning for Obama, two for Democrat John Edwards, two for Republican Mitt Romney, one for Republican Rudy Giuliani and three for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"And I'm so proud she's in my class," McLean said.

Besides making door-to-door visits and attending campaign rallies and other events, she has proved to be the "queen of phone banking."

In the past week, Praeli and her Quinnipiac peers have caught the political fever now rampant in New Hampshire. They translated that enthusiasm into conversations with voters, trying to persuade them to see the candidates through their eyes.

It's a far more realistic lesson than anything they might glean from a textbook or lecture, McLean said.

Yes, Obama seems to have generated a lot of support from Quinnipiac's youth... But even more interesting, IMHO, is this realistic lesson in how far the republican party has fallen:

Democratic Supporters - 11
Republican Supporters - 3

Yes, it is a very small polling sample but it can't be much further off than any of the recent New Hampshire polls were.

As soon as the results started trickling in the explanations began as to how the polls could have been so wrong. Was it the voters reaction to the media’s coverage of a show of emotion from Hillary? Or could it have been those damn Diebold machines again?! On MSNBC, WaPo’s Eugene Robinson brought up one explanation that’s now being floated around: the Bradley Effect, in which people supposedly lied to pollsters about whether they would vote for a black candidate.

I wouldn't be surprised about Diebold theories or the Bradley Effect and other possibly racist statements, to be honest... This would be, after all, signs of a pretty freakin' fascist country. Then again? So are the sexist undertones in this campaign.

[minor update] for linkage... And a note: Some of the campaign statements appear to be seriously distorted by the media, IMHO, while others coming from both the media and the campaigns appear to carry genuine racist and sexist over and undertones...

New Milford Planning wants to hear from YOU

The New Milford's Planning Commission wants your input on the direction of future town planning:

New Milford's Planning Commission wants to hear from the public about where the focus of the Plan of Conservation and Development should be in the next decade.

The town's boards and commissions met Oct. 30 to tell the Planning Commission where they think the focus should go.

A session for public input is set for Saturday Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. in town hall.

Consultant Glenn Chalder from Planimetrics said the POCD is a guide for the town's growth; an advisory document "to point New Milford toward a better future."

Bring your good, bad and ugly list and vent, cheer, screech, or just twiddle your thumbs while you listen to other people heap piles of praise and punches on the Commission. You might want to bring a bag of popcorn too... :)

And as long as you are here reading:

As the holiday season approaches, New Milford Social Services would like to encourage the community to help our clients in the following ways:

If you are interested in helping children or families this holiday, please contact our head elf, Nancy Camp at 354-3286.

Through the Santa Fund, she will give you a specific child to buy a gift and clothing for.

Social Services is in need of gift cards of any kind (gas, grocery, clothing store, restaurant, etc.) until Dec. 14 to provide to families at the holidays, and teen gifts (jewelry, music, gift cards, art supplies, computer accessories, etc.) by Dec. 3 for our Sibling Shopping Spree.

Financial donations to the Good Samaritan Fund are always welcome.