Memo To Me:
Remind stepdaughter Kaitlin to stop using my deodorant. With all the kitties on this blog she could catch cat scratch fever.
Ask OIB readers for vice presidential suggestions for John McCain and Barack Obama.
In light of the boa constrictor that was found in the State Elections Enforcement office, ask Democratic Registrar Sandy Ayala if she’ll keep one around her office the next time State Rep. Chris Caruso walks in with petition sheets minutes before the submission deadline.
Ask Max Medina if he had to do it over again, would he be president of the Board of Education.
Contact City Councilman Carlos Silva about the rumor that he’s aborting his run against Caruso.
Ask State Rep. Don Clemons if former State Senator Ernie Newton will endorse him from the joint. Ask Clemons’ challenger Bill Stewart if Joe Ganim will do the same for him.
Query former Mayor John Fabrizi how many votes Chris Caruso received in last year’s primary loss to Bill Finch because Fabs wanted Caruso to prevail.
Check in with Mayor Finch’s Chief of Staff Adam Wood about when a director of economic development will be hired. Also ask Woody if the hire is being shipped via continental drift.
Ask OIB reader Con Filardi if he’s starting a Cons For Himes campaign.
Remind OIB readers that we’ll be hitting 100,000 pageviews very soon. Another contest awaits. The winner will receive dinner for two, plus my Otisville ID card.
Wish OIB fathers a happy happy papa day.
Maybe you should get Kaitlin some BAN deodorant.
I hope Obama does not take Hillary as his VP.
He should pick Hillary.
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia will help Obama overcome the “no experience” and “weak on security” claims as well as help him secure Virginia’s electoral votes. Senator Webb served in Viet Nam as a First Lt. in the Marine Corp. and was the recipient of the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. He’s a graduate of Anapolis and also has a law degree. He has served as Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Secretary of Defense. Obama could not have a better VP to supplement his talent. By the way Jim Webb’s father was a veteran of WWII flying B-17s and also took part in the Berlin Airlift. Better than that you couldn’t have.
By the way Lennie, re: my “Cons for Himes campaign”: Didn’t you get your invitation?
www .connpost.com/localnews/ci_9589925
marlys
What a joke article by the Connecticut Post. Pretty soon the Compost will be nominating themselves for a Pulitzer for investigative journalism. They should have been so diligent during the campaign and questioning Finch on his $600.00 tax program.
I guess some of those ballots weren’t washing up on the shores of Seaside Park. They were being whitewashed and dry-cleaned in the voting machines.
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads and we remember every day ours who are no longer with us.
What a disgrace by the registrars of voters in Bpt. Number 1, Bpt is the only city I know in CT that doesn’t tell its residents when is a primary or election going to be because if you look at the registrars of voters page in Bridgeport it says next election is November 2006. I think somebody needs to run against Ayala for a registrar of voters seat because she has not done shit and she sure would not get my vote she is a lazy ass just like Finch.
Saw the article. Where were these facts when Chris presented his side of the issue to the Supreme Court? Sounds like somebody dropped the ball.
Con
The Judge and the legal system dropped the ball. The Caruso challenge was a civil case with severe time constraints. It was not like a typical civil case where you may have up to two years to prepare and discover.
Both legal sides were challenged by time and lack of election case law. The Caruso lawyers tried to amend the complaint several times as more and more discovery took place. They did try to get in the evidence that Cummings writes about but were knocked down every time. Judge Blawie even rejected the argument that more votes were cast than checked off; claiming they were trying to get a recount.
Caruso always claimed that because of these many inconsistencies that there was no way to fairly determine who really won or lost this race. Caruso accepted the decision of the State’s High Court. He has been very silent in any criticism of Mayor Finch. I guess based on Finch’s performance he doesn’t have to because to borrow a legal phrase that was used ad nauseum during the Caruso trial. Finch’s performance or lack thereof “speaks for itself”.
Tom: Thanks for the explanation. The fact remains we have three and a half more years of malaise, no direction, and taxpayer abuse. All I can say is that I hope I’m proven wrong — I’ll be the first to admit it and apologize.
Obama will not offer the vice presidency to Hillary Clinton and should he do so she will decline. Would you want the “Big Dog” roaming the halls of the White House?
How about a “Big Pussy?”
The Governor of Kansas would be a good V.P. pick.
Being she is from Kansas and Obama’s propensity for hoops it could be a classic Pick ‘n Roll.
Your Otisville ID Card? They’re collector’s items Lennie hold on to it. Lennie in the past you have reminded yourself of things to do and we never hear about the outcome later. You still haven’t asked Finch if he gave Sal D. his money back or if the Zoo received bird’s donation yet?
Tom Kelly, that article on the post is the one I made reference to last week. That’s just the tip of the Iceberg. There are City Employees who live out of town, who vote for other relatives living in Bridgeport (at least according to the voters list) and people who voted for other family members who have moved. Many people who voted by absentee ballots who were in town and not sick or unable to go to the polls. The voters list is totally out of wack and outdated. Will elections enforcement do anything about it? NO. Tom on February 14, 2008, I filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission regarding Finch’s State Senate campaign reports. SEEC stated that the statute of limitations had expired and there was nothing they could do. The fact is that they had the evidence right in front of them, they supposedly audit these reports and could not give me an explanation as to how or why the obvious violations were not noticed and looked into before the expiration of the statute of limitations.
McCain, Powell 2008!
Here come the NObama supporters again. You guys are quick to give an opinion as to who his VP should be, but you all are dodging my question below. I’d like to see if NObama will pick a VP who supported the war. Hillary’s support of the war is the main obstacle to NObama’s desire to get Clinton on the ticket.
This is the question that NObama’s potential VP candidates should ask themselves.
We all know where most of our candidates stand in regards to the war in Iraq. Nobama supporters, let me pick in that “O” in your Brain. NObama has all his supporters believing that he can bring peace to the world by bringing the troops home and talking with foreign World Leaders. Remember Reverend Wright? Nobama knew him for 20 years, he baptized his children and presided over his wedding. For 20 years Reverend Wright was his spiritual leader. We all saw what happened to that relationship and the scene they created. Ultimately NObama decided to drop out of Reverend Wright’s Church.
I have a question for all you NObama supporters.
Do you believe that a man who would not settle a disagreement with his pastor of 20 years, will be able to settle complex issues, with many far-away nations with thousands of years of different political and religious views and issues?
NObama used God to further his political aspirations. He used the churches in Illinois to become a Senator and never failed to point out his 20 years of going to the same church. He knew of the sermon in which Reverend Wright said, “Damn America”, and when it became public he distanced himself from the church. NObama takes great pride in being the Senator who voted against the war. Does NObama really know who started this war and in whose name 911 was carried out? This war was started by Terrorists who used God’s name. A real Christian would not think twice to eliminate anyone who uses God’s name to kill innocent people. In fact you don’t need to have any religious beliefs to respond to such an attack on our Democracy.
Nobama has been successful due to the Millions of Dollars in Political Contributions. Do you think he has taken the time to look in the back of one of those bills and read the sentence printed in the back?
One would think that a U.S. Senator from Illinois who spent 20 years in the same church, would first go to his Minister and Congregation to work together and restore prayer in our schools. I don’t need to tell you about the lack of values and respect in the part of students all over the country.
When Reverend Wright receives the donations from his congregation, do you think he gives it back and shouts, “Damn That American Currency”? When Reverend Wright “Damned America”, he damned the principles of religion in which this nation was founded and he damned all the hard-earned U.S. curency that his congregation donated to his church. On the back of all that U.S. currency it reads: In God We Trust.
Joel
Mayb the SEEC should erect a statue of the Statute of Limitations. A lot of pols could hide behind that statue
Joel: You mean like George Bush?
Joel is more than a bit like W — all hat, no cattle.
A comment or two on Obama’s VP choice – I agree with Con that Virginia Senator Jim Webb would be a good choice. I also like former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Both would appeal to the more conservative, blue collar wing of the Democratic Party and both would probably deliver Virginia for Obama.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Obama can choose either of these men unless Hillary comes out and enthusiastically supports the ticket. He needs Hillary to bring not just her blue collar supporters but also the millions of women who rallied behind her in the hopes of electing the first woman president.
I don’t believe Obama can make Hillary his VP choice. She and Bill just have too much baggage. But without their enthusiastic support Obama will have an extemely hard time winning over Hillary’s core primary supporters. The Clintons need to tell their supporters that a vote for McCain is vote against virtually eveything Hillary’s campaign was about. If the Clintons do this Obama can get away with putting a somewhat moderate southern male on his ticket.
How does Obama get Hillary and Bill to work hard for the him without putting her on the ticket? I’m not sure but perhaps he could put her in charge of making universal health care a reality. Perhaps he could even adopt her position on mandatory coverage for all. Which, in my opinion is a better way to go. Or maybe he promises her a Supreme Court appointment and pays off her campaign debt. I’m confident he and his staff can come up with something
On the other hand, Obama may feel he can win with only tepid support from the Clintons and that he can win back much of Hillary’s core support by putting another qualified woman on the ticket. In that case, I think Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas or Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri would be excellent choices and the more I think about it the more I like this option. This is the year for change so let’s be bold and put a woman on the ticket.
Politics aside – In addition to electing the first black President, let’s elect the first woman Vice President and with a little luck she will become the first woman President in eight years. I’m in the mood for some real and long lasting change.
As far as McCain’s pick for VP, I don’t really care. I think this is our year and it really isn’t going to make much difference who he chooses. McCain represents the tired past and Obama is the future.
John from Black Rock: I understand your logic but going for Claire McCaskill would be a direct slap in the face to Hillary and I don’t think her enthusiastic support would be forthcoming.
1) Obama cannot pick Hilary; he would look weak and not “his own man.” I think Richardson would be great – experienced and from the southwest. Although Edwards might help in the south as well. Obama needs a person experienced in foreign policy and able to pull the blue-collar southern vote.
2) I’d be more impressed if the Secretary of State made the determination regarding the votes in the primary rather than Bill Cummings or any other writer at the Post for that matter. The only way you can really determine if there is an error in the vote count is to make sure there were no errors in checking off of names at the polls. If the polls were so short staffed as Caruso claimed, it is very possible that names didn’t crossed off when people came to vote. If the Post was going off copies it is possible that pages were missing, the wrong name got crossed off or done lightly in pencil and not picked up by the copier. It is sad to say but in every election there are these types of errors occur. For the most part the checkers at the polls are volunteers of all ages, and different abilities. Some are at it for more than 12 hours and mistakes happen. So forgive me if I am unimpressed by the Post’s job of serious investigative reporting because I don’t think Bill Cummings could find his way out of paper bag.
Does anyone else tune out Joel, or is it just me?
Tiger out of the Woods and now between a Rocco and a first place.
clichebpt-I never promised you a rose garden type variety errors.
clichebpt – I definitely tune out Joel and his rambling writings that make very little sense. All he ever does is talk about himself and his so-called accomplishments. I also agree about Bill Cummings, everyone knows he and Caruso are buddies and his reports always favor Caruso. Mistakes do happen, especially with people who don’t remember to check off names. A lot of people doing that job on election day are seniors and with all due respect, people get tired after working at a poll for 12 or more hours and maybe drop the ball here and there.
I didn’t think I’d be posting on this topic again but given the Cummings article I will one last time. In last year’s mayoral primary many mistakes were made at the polls and, I believe, some votes probably were stolen – enough to affect the final outcome? I don’t know, but probably not. Be that as it may, Caruso should have won anyway and had he (we) run something other than a one-issue negative campaign Chris would be mayor today.
Given the performance of the Finch administration so far, this is the real tragedy for Bpt.
Ditto.
Ditto that ditto
clichebpt wrote:
“For the most part the checkers at the polls are volunteers of all ages, and different abilities.”
Poll “workers” are just that. They are not volunteers and are paid by the City. Some are selected by the candidates and if they fail to do so, the Registrar of voters selects them. Abilities? How hard is it to sit on a chair, ask voters for their name, address, I.D. and look it up on the voters list, then place a line, highlight or mark by the name? All workers who worked at schools where there were “mistakes” should be banned from working on the polls again.
Shitty Kitty:
How can you agree with someone who states that they have shut me out and yet she mentions my name? You make no sense.
Ok now to all you NObama suporters. On March 18, 2008, Nobama held a press conference to explain the Reverend Wright dilemma. In a part of his smooth (not smooth enought for me) talking speech, he said,
“I can no more disown him (Wright) than I can disown my white Grandmother.” A month later, he disowned Reverend Wright and dropped out of his Church.
Did he not disown his white Grandmother, whom he discribed as a “typical” white person who had racist views?
Why should Hillary Clinton help NObama win the White House. It’s to Hillary’s advantage to see NObama lose. A defeat of NObama will leave the door opened for Hillary in 2012. If Hillary helps NObama she might as well forget 2012 or 2016. Bill clinton knows that if Hillary could not beat Nobama as a Senator, she won’t beat him as a President. A defeat of NObama will allow Hillary to say, “I told you I had a better chance of winning the White House.”