Rep. Anthony Weiner Teaches Lieberman To Spell

In his own special way:

Sharp-eyed Ben was reading my story when he noticed something I had missed:

Lieberman managed to misspell the name of Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who, I swear, has uttered the phrase "As long as you spell my name right" in my presence.

Wrote Lieberman: "I fear the people who are advocating the Medicare buy-in are doing so not because they think it will give more help to these Americans than the subsidies and exchanges, but because they see it as a big step toward a single payer system as Congressman Anthony Wiener [sic] and others have explicitly said."

Ben quickly contacted Weiner, who has become one of the most outspoken progressives on health reform.

Quipped Weiner: "Maybe he couldn't spell 'flip-flop' or 'back-stab,' either."

Zing.... More recently? Weiner had this to say about Harold Ford trying to get into the NY Senate race:

"I don't think we need another Joe Lieberman"

Just a short note to Harold Ford:

A short note to Harold Ford, who is brutally trying to flip-flop his way into New York's Senate race:

"Fugghedaboudit"

That is all...

Score One For The Working Families Party in NYC

Score two, actually... Via The Gotham Gazette, The Working Families Party, a political party that has made significant contributions to Connecticut's political landscape, has taken over New York city:

Both Liu and de Blasio had the endorsement of the Working Families Party, yesterday and in their original primaries two weeks ago. De Blasio’s ties to the party are particularly tight.

The victories yesterday continue a very successful election year for the Working Families Party. In the Sept. 15 primary, challengers backed by the party toppled four sitting council members.

“The Working Families Party, once derided as a ragtag collection of Brooklyn progressives, is now the pre-eminent political force in New York City politics, replacing a forlorn, disorganized Democratic Party,” Michael Barbaro observed in the City Room.

The kinds of issues that the Working Families Party pursues?

This:

Billionaires for Budget Cuts is a diverse group of insurance company CEOs, bailed-out Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers, united to stop even a pay increase in taxes on the very rich, even if it means slashing healthcare and education.

See the Billionaires' recent press clips.

Join the Billionaires for Budget Cuts Facebook group.

That:

Our healthcare system is broken. Costs are through the roof, and yet we still have hundreds of thousands of families in Connecticut without coverage. It's time for a high quality public health option. Read more.

And the other thing:

Paid Sick Days. Between the outbreak of swine flu and the recession, it's clearer than ever that working families need paid sick days. We're leading the fight. Learn more.

I don't expect that they will see a lot of corporate money flooding their coffers as they endorse candidates from every and any party that has a proven record of voting for the little guy.

In The News:
Read the our great CT Post Op-Ed on why people are voting Working Families and help spread the word:

"When you vote for a Democrat or a Republican on the Working Families line, you're vote counts for the candidate just the same as a vote on the major party line. But a Working Families vote also sends a powerful message to all politicians that it's time to put working families first again.

The real work to fix our economy will start the day after Election Day. Our elected officials will have to make difficult choices to put our country and our state back on the right track.

Voting on the Working Families line is a small way that each of us point our politicians in the right direction -- and give them a little push."

More details here.

West of the Border Bigot

A storyline that has come to typify republican hate is going on just west of the border from North-Western Connecticut:

During a July 2nd meeting of the Pawling, NY town board. Republican town supervisor Beth Coursen called town republican chairman Glenn Carey a "faggot" and said "everybody knows it". The town of Pawling sits about 70 miles North of New York City. This wouldn't be the first time Ms. Coursen has used such language against Mr. Carey.

Lucy Watson, wife of Democratic Councilman David Watson, said, while she did not hear the July 2 exchange, it was familiar to her.

Watson said she was present in late 2007 at a restaurant and in May 2008 in town hall after a board meeting when Coursen referred to Carey in the same manner.

Cross Posted at Political Newsline

Of course, ctblogger is still being kept busy documenting the worst that Connecticut has to offer:

Would you like some death threats with that racism?

Danbury News-Times=all the comments that's fit to print.

And ctblogger is right... It does sound familiar.

The Widening Income Gap In Connecticut

Via rba at ePluribus Media:

Lisa Lambert/AP: Poor get poorer as recession threat looms: report
In Connecticut, incomes of the wealthiest 20 percent are eight times those of the poorest 20 percent, according to the report. New York has the greatest disparity, with incomes of the top 20 percent 8.7 times the bottom ones, followed by Alabama, where the top are 8.5 times the bottom.

Just when some thought the economy was getting better in Connecticut:

Only recently has Connecticut begun recovering from the downturn of six years ago, according to Douglas Hall, associate director of research for Connecticut Voices for Children, who participated in the call. By August 2007 the state gained enough jobs to make up for those lost in the last recession, he said, but now it is losing them again.

Buckle up Nutmeggers... It is going to be a rough ride.

What do Spitzer and Rove have in common?

Indictments...

Karl Rove:

Responding to a question about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s outing, Rove, seemingly joking, added:

I haven’t been indicted yet, but I fully expect to be by the end of the year.

The University paid Rove $40,000 for the speech and had to agree to limit “recording equipment and flash photography” to “the first five minutes of the lecture.” At the end of the talk, an audience member shouted at Rove: “Can we have our $40,000 back?” Rove replied: “No, you can’t.”

Elliot Spitzer:

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.

snip

An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and a booking agent for the Emperors Club.

Meanwhile, the AP reports:

The House Judiciary Committee has filed suit to force former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten to provide information about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

The lawsuit filed in federal court says Miers is not immune from the obligation to testify and that she and Bolten must identify all documents that are being withheld from Congress.

snip

The lawsuit says executive privilege -- intended to protect the confidentiality of advice from the president's closest advisers -- does not cover documents that don't involve the president.

The privilege also does not cover documents whose contents are widely known, previously released or that were the subject of extensive, previously authorized testimony, the lawsuit adds.

Gallante buddy Jeremy Everett sentenced to 15 months

And a fine:

Federal prosecutors say a sales manager for a trash company has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for racketeering conspiracy, the latest sentencing in the investigation into former Danbury trash magnate James Galante's Allied Waste trash hauling company.

Jeremy Everett of Shelton was sentenced in federal court in New Haven and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine.

In February, the 32-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Just a reminder of the ties that bind all of these republicans from a February AP report:

Their pleas before Judge Ellen Bree Burns in U.S. District Court, bring the number of defendants who've admitted guilt to either racketeering or related charges to 13. A total of 29 people, including Danbury trash magnate James Galante, were indicted by a grand jury last June. Galante, whose Automated Waste Disposal is at the center of the investigation, faces 72 criminal counts, including tax fraud, racketeering, threatening and extortion.

In December, alleged Genovese crime family boss Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, 86, acknowledged in court that he participated in a so-called property rights scheme in which trash haulers carved out routes for each other and agreed not to poach customers.

Companies owned by James Galante of Danbury allegedly paid a quarterly "mob tax" to Ianniello, prosecutors said. In exchange, Ianniello provided mob muscle to stifle competition. Trash haulers who tried to challenge the system allegedly faced physical and economic threats, prosecutors said.

Just remember these Republican names as you see these mob stories: Louie DeLuca, David Cappiello, Mark Boughton and Joe neoCON Lieberman.

Contributions from associates and friends of now-indicted garbage executive James Galante to the 2004 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman have sparked the interest of federal investigators.

Lieberman's bid for the White House took in at least $14,000 from Galante, his associates and their relatives in the fall of 2003, according to a Courant review of campaign records.

The contributions to Lieberman, a longtime Democrat who became an independent in 2006, are similar to allegedly bundled contributions to three Republican officeholders that earlier this month led to state charges against Galante, who is also facing a 2006 federal racketeering indictment.

What's more, people familiar with the campaign matters say, the names of Lieberman, the three Republicans and about a dozen other Connecticut and New York politicians have turned up on what the FBI loosely refers to as a "ledger" that agents seized from Galante's office while investigating mob influence in the trash industry.

The so-called ledger, a subject of interest to a legislative committee investigating state Sen. Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury, summarizes information provided to Galante by his lobbyists on fundraising goals set by a number of candidates, the people familiar with the documents said.

A little on SOME of the donors:

A small number of 2003 donations to Lieberman, who at the time was running for president in the 2004 election, follow the same pattern.

Federal records show that $10,000 in donations for Lieberman's presidential campaign came in on Nov. 25 and 26, 2003, from donors - or their associates or relatives - who made at least one of the 38 PAC contributions mentioned in the affidavit that state investigators filed to justify Galante's Oct. 13 arrest.

Those 2003 donations to Lieberman included:

$2,000 on Nov. 26 from Mary Walkovich of Danbury.

She is the sister of Galante's local lobbyist, Joseph Walkovich.

Joseph Walkovich had written one of 15 checks for $1,000 that the investigative affidavit says were received Oct. 10, 2002, by Cappiello's PAC, the 24th District Republican Committee.

Joseph Walkovich also made donations of $500 and $1,500 to Lieberman on Sept. 30 and Nov. 14, 2003, records show.

$1,000 each on Nov. 25 from Ciro and Kim Viento of Mahopac, N.Y., each of whom gave $1,000 in 2002 to DeLuca's PAC, called 32 GOP.

Ciro Viento has worked for years as the operations manager for Galante's garbage companies, and was sentenced in August to 2½ years in federal prison after a March guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge.

$2,000 each on Nov. 25 from longtime Galante employee Paul DiNardo of Danbury - who gave $1,000 each in 2002 to DeLuca's and Boughton's PACs - and from Mona Russo of Danbury, one of the 15 people who donated $1,000 to Cappiello's PAC on Oct. 10, 2002.

DiNardo was sentenced Sept. 12 to 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last December to a racketeering conspiracy charge.

$1,000 each from Nicholas and Linda Maraglino of Danbury on Nov. 25 and 26, respectively.

Nicholas Maraglino was one of the 15 who gave a $1,000 check to Cappiello's PAC on Oct. 10, 2002, as cited in the Galante arrest affidavit. Maraglino, owner of a tire company who has done business with Galante, acknowledged the contributions in an interview with the Courant, but said he gave the money himself and was not reimbursed by Galante or anyone else.

None of the other 2003 donors to Lieberman could be reached for
comment.

Revisiting the arrest of the protesters in NYC

Just some video for you to think about...

"Think our government wouldn't suppress our right to peacefully protest? Think again!"

"If you just can't bring yourself to believe that our government authorities would even think of suppressing the legitimate protests of peaceful demonstrators - look at the record of court cases recently coming out of New York."

Cheney Flagged For Hanging With Racists

As we all watched New Orleans drown, was there ever any doubt about bush and cheney's views on race:

Although Cheney did not shoot anyone on this hunting excursion, the New York Daily News reports that the trip still managed to stir up problems for the Vice President:

Nobody got shot, but Vice President Cheney still fired up controversy Monday when he went hunting at a private club that hangs the Confederate flag.

A Daily News photographer captured the 3-by-5 foot Dixie flag affixed to a door in the garage of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, N.Y.

“It’s appalling for the VP to be at a private club displaying the flag of lynching, hate and murder,” said Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s the epitome of an insult.”

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said, “No one in our office was aware there was such a flag. The vice president did not see a flag, nor did anyone on his staff traveling with him in New York.” The Daily News photographer who took the picture, Howard Simmons, said “the flag was plainly viewable in the strong sunlight streaming toward the garage”, but he also “said it is conceivable the garage door could have been closed when the vice president and his guests were there.”

Sorry, but I am not buying that cheney would not have a clue about the kind of people he chooses to hang around with. Especially after NOLA, Jena, and immigration issues have exposed the hidden agendas of the average GOP supporter.

Previously brewed here:

This is by no means a "Heads up!" I really mean "Duck and cover!" Like your life depends on it.



A word of warning to everyone in the area:

The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York reports that “Vice President Dick Cheney is coming to Dutchess County again to go hunting.” On Monday, Cheney is “expected to leave Poughkeepsie and head to the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club.” No word on whether the Vice President will be drinking beforehand this time.

Dutchess County, NY, is next door to a good part of Litchfield County in Connecticut. And with the weapons that warmongering neoconservative idiot has in his arsenal we can never be too careful! There is nothing more dangerous than a hunter with a beer hat on his head and a deadly can opener in his hands...