Obama's "never gonna tell a lie and hurt you"

Yeah, OK. I'm feeling a bit disheartened by the whole Edwards revelation news...

On the other hand, in his latest speech, Obama says:

We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment is what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

That's right -- you been Barack-Rick-Rolled!

NY Times gets it all wrong on poor ol' Joe (surprising?)

Today's New York Times carries an article about the Joe Lieberman backlash (and the Joe Must Go movement), but manages to neglect THE most salient fact -- namely the broken promise Joe made during his Lieberman For Lieberman campaign in 2006. Let's go to the videotape of his debate with Ned Lamont for review:



Takeaway is simple here; when he endorsed McCain for President he broke a promise made to voters during the campaign, namely that he wanted to see the Democrat win the 2008 Presidential election.

Plain and simple.

That being said (of course not in today's NY Times), it seems fair that people should ask questions along the lines of "Did he make that promise just to get votes from Democrats?"

Perhaps more importantly, "Is Joe Lieberman a man of his word, or not?"

I'd say the answer to that question might be fundamental to answering the question "Why are CT voters mad at poor ol' Joe?"

Now why can't the NY Times manage to mention this aspect of the story?

Yes, Let's End the Woe -- Joe Must Go!

You may have heard the story on WSHU radio, or read about it on the techPresident blog -- here's a quote:

Lieberman Must Go is an online effort pressing the Senate Democratic Steering Committee to relieve Joe Lieberman of his gavel as the head of the chamber's Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee.

Now here's the video highlight real of just a portion of the litany of woes for True Blue Dems here in Connecticut:



If that leaves you shaking your head in disgust, there is one small thing you can do about it -- click through to the LiebermanMustGo website and sign the petition today!

Indeed, Hope Is Coming...

Yeah, just playing with Photoshop there... but that IS what I think every time I pass this spray-painted message at a construction site on Park Street in New Haven!

Mapping Political Tweets

Check out this mega-nifty GoogleMaps & Twitter mashup:



Ain't it 'Tweet!

Say No to Joe!

Isn't it nice of Joe Lieberman to implore us all to support the man he believes should be President? (Never mind that slur "Democrat Party" -- he still aims to convert us apparently.) Perhaps we should all let him know how we would like to help him out with this new work of his? Well, here's one idea -- take a look.


Wonder if his minders will add us to the mailing list when they see our write-in sentiment? Hhhmmm... maybe they'll have to write a programming macro to get us out of the database? (Democracy can be messy, eh?)

Getting right up there

Interesting (dare I say, "enlightening"?) weird little blog out there, Is Obama the Messiah? Can't tell if this is serious, sarcastic, literal, figurative, or what -- maybe all of the above?

But interesting, yes.

“...a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany ... and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Obama"
-- Barack Obama in Lebanon, New Hampshire on January 7, 2008

Obama - The Transfiguration
Obama at fund-raiser at Steven and Judy Gluckstern's home, April 9, 2007. George Soros is seated to the right of the stairs. (Published in "How Barack Obama Struck Fund-Raising Gold, New York Magazine April 16, 2007; Photo-credit: Michael Edwards (note that this is the actual photo as published by New York Magazine, and contrary to the claim of William Lowther @ Telegraph, has not been doctored by this blog; (via "Daily Speculations" | What is the "Transfiguration"?)

Interesting blog, interesting (from an iconography standpoint anyway) set of images. Like this one:

Obama deals with attacks by former Democrat from the fair state of Connecticut

You may have seen tell of some of the statements Joe Lieberman has been making, trashing the Democrat's presumptive nominee for President on behalf of the candidate he has endorsed (photo at left, if you need the reminder). Well, just have to quote (and link) to Talking Points Memo today on "the Conversation" between Barack Obama and the Senator from the CT For Lieberman Party:

06.04.08 -- 3:18PM

From Roll Call ...

Furthermore, during a Senate vote Wednesday, Obama dragged Lieberman by the hand to a far corner of the Senate chamber and engaged in what appeared to reporters in the gallery as an intense, three-minute conversation.

While it was unclear what the two were discussing, the body language suggested that Obama was trying to convince Lieberman of something and his stance appeared slightly intimidating.

Using forceful, but not angry, hand gestures, Obama literally backed up Lieberman against the wall, leaned in very close at times, and appeared to be trying to dominate the conversation, as the two talked over each other in a few instances.

Still, Obama and Lieberman seemed to be trying to keep the back-and-forth congenial as they both patted each other on the back during and after the exchange.

Afterwards, Obama smiled and pointed up at reporters peering over the edge of the press gallery for a better glimpse of their interaction.

Obama loyalists were quick to express their frustration with Lieberman's decision and warned that if he continues to take a lead role in attacking Obama it could complicate his professional relationship with the Caucus.

--Josh Marshall

Gotta love that -- GObama!


PS> OK, now there's video of the "dragged Lieberman by the hand" portion of this encounter, as caught by CSPAN no doubt. What a riot! Check it out:

LWV-Amity holds "State of Our Towns" event

The local chapter of the League of Women Voters sponsored an event held in the Woodbridge Senior Center tonight, where representatives of Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge spoke to the "State of Our Towns" and answered questions posed by an audience of a dozen interested citizens.

On hand were our own Ed Sheehy, First Selectmen of Woodbridge, as well as Jim Zeoli, First Selectman of Orange and Janet Brunwin, Chairman of the Bethany Board of Finace. Questions ranged from budget referendums, attendance at Annual Town meetings, the status of District Animal Control, tax relief for seniors, support of local education budgets, and even some more fiery questions about Stew Leonards (Orange), use of town property for community farming or ball fields (Woodbridge), and changing to a full-time salary for First Selectman position (in Bethany).

You will be able to read more about the event in both local papers next week or by tuning-in to WGATV to see the entire evening's program, on Cablevision channel 79, or by visiting the WGATV blog for a link to Google video (I'll post that as soon as it's up).

Democratic candidates

Annual Town Meeting convenes in Woodbridge

Good thing I snapped this picture quick -- the ATM was over in just about 7 minutes this year! The shortest such gathering I have witnessed in my decade or so here in town. No one had any questions -- or even gadfly-style comments? Hhhhmmmmm... I don't know about that... At any rate, I feel almost like an anthropologist, documenting a soon to be extinct species here.

Outside Rosa's Convention

That's right -- the name of the game now is Unity! And here's a great example from the parking lot of the CT 3rd Congressional District Nominating Convention, which took place in East Haven tonight. Look closely -- it seems Hillary and Barack supporters have equally colorful bumpers, eh? And there's room in the party's parking lot for everyone -- Go Dems!

Inside the convention, the Woodbridge contingent of delegates and supporters was as vocal as ever!

Amity budget referendum results

The Amity school district budget was approved tonight by a total vote of 968 yes to 611 no. That breaks down as follows:

Woodbridge 366 yes to 181 no

Orange 388 yes to 244 no

Bethany 214 yes to 186 no

So, OK the turnout here was a bit anemic -- but results are results, and these are good. Hooray!

'Talking up public education' at the Preliminary Budget Hearing in Woodbridge tonight

My public comment to the annual Preliminary Budget Hearing, submitted here for your reading pleasure ;->

Good evening. My Name is Sheila McCreven and I serve as Chairman of the Woodbridge Board of Education.

At this time of year, the WBOE is beginning an overall review process with an eye toward assessing its work over the past year and preparing to revise its goals for the upcoming academic year.

It is through this yearly process that the elected board of ed shapes overall strategy and harnesses the energetic vision of our Superintendent, Dr. Guy Stella, to continuously improve the public education offered the town’s Pre-K through grade six students at Beecher Road School. I’d like to publicly thank Dr. Stella and his team (Chuck, MaryLou, and Carol, who are here with us tonight), as well as all the teachers and other staff who have been so dedicated in their work with our students.

As you probably know, the BOE has three major responsibilities:

• To establish and oversee the school’s budget;


• To evaluate our Superintendent (who then oversees the evaluation of all other school employees);


• And to set official policy, which is then used by the administration to drive various procedures that guide the educational initiatives that benefit the children of Woodbridge.

We are known as a high-performing school district and that reputation helps sustain all our property values.

In looking over the budget process that has led us to tonight’s hearing, I just want to express my appreciation to the spirit of collaboration we have enjoyed this year. I’d like to thank all the members of the Board of Finance and the Board of Selectmen for their open communication, support, and their efforts to help rebuild trust between our three boards, as we have together created our budget for this year and have begun to turn our eye to long-term facility work.

We are asked some probing questions when we present our budget request, for both Operating and Capital expenses. It is through hearing these questions, and doing our best to provide answers, that we developed this document in your hands tonight. And I want to assure you that we will continue to examine the issues raised, particularly around the ways we can measure the success – and the challenges that remain -- for our school district. We look forward to a continued atmosphere of collaboration between “critical friends.”

And lastly I want to say how much we have appreciated the leadership of both BOF chairman Matt Giglietti and First Selectmen Ed Sheehy in working with our Superintendent and the Woodbridge Board of Education as a whole, in support of excellence in education here in Woodbridge.

Thank you.

I also gave a quick shout out to our own Mrs. White's China Blog -- check it out for photos and narrative from her trip, which follows up on our China Sister School project begun by Dr. Stella last fall. She and Amity Middle School Principal, Dr. Dellinger (who was also a 'bloggin away), together with a contingent of fellow Connecticut educators, are due to arrive home from the trip tonight. This growing partnership is just another example of the 'Golden Age At Beecher' that has returned to our community. Hooray!

WE can solve it (Yes, we can!)

Did you see the fantastic new ads on TV? They are superbly weird cameos of unlikely pairings; Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson and then Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, sitting on a sofa together to talk about the climate crisis? How crazy inventive -- we can solve it, together!






Please consider clicking through and joining WE (this is Al Gore's new project, if you didn't know that already). Let's see what this group can do!

A Pole in the Field?

No, we're talking about a Poll in the Field, here in Woodbridge to be exact.

Did you get a phone call last week? Mine came on Thursday (4/10) -- it seems someone is awful interested in the electoral inclinations in lil' ol' Woodbridge. Right before my phone rang, someone told me about the call they received, so, curiosity aroused, I was sure to catch the name of the polling firm. It was Mountain West Research (and, for what it's worth, the caller did not seem to be a native English speaker, so it certainly seems possible that the call center is located outside the US, as has been surmised in the past with this company).

The poll ran through questions regarding Obama, Clinton and McCain; asked if I considered myself a Democrat, Republican or "Independent" and then asked state-level questions (was my opinion of Governor Rell very favorable, favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or unfavorable). I was asked what my voting priorities were (the list was lower taxes, health insurance, education, etc.) and then what the likelihood of my voting in November would be (I could not persuade the caller to mark me as "definitely going to vote" -- she insisted I pick between very likely, likely, not very likely, will not -- or somesuch nonsense!).

The remaining questions then clearly settled in on the state representative race in our little district. I was asked if I was familiar with a certain potential Democratic candidate, and then what my opinion of her was, and my opinion of the current office-holder.

After it was all over, I did a quick Google and came up with this illustrious history of Mountain West Research in CT -- the notorious alleged "push poll" calls, believed to be from Joe Lieberman just before he jumped ship/the shark on us during his campaign against Ned Lamont. And before that, Mountain West apparently did some polling for Bob Dole's presidential bid in 1996 as well.

So (although I didn't need the research to tell me this, based on the way issues were phrased with a decidedly GOP-slant to them), the call I received sounded like it was a Republican-sponsored poll. Now the question is; who could be asking such detailed questions about our local race for State Representative, while simultaneously badly mangling the pronunciation of the first name of our current (GOP) representative?

Well, those (Republican!) call center polling companies aren't perfect, you know!
Yeah, that's the motto at the Mountain West Research website -- I'm not making that up!

Obama CT 3rd CD meeting - GObama!

I attended a meeting of CT-3rd Congressional District Obama supporters last night at the Afro-American Center at Yale. Jen Just and her team had gathered together key 3rd CD volunteers for some group affirmation and as a way to encourage and reinforce the work of various threads of efforts (phone calling and postcard writing to Pennsalvania, canvassing opportunities there, ObamaWorks neighborhood clean-ups in New Haven, etc.). More on that in my next post.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro was a featured participant, revving up the gathering with her personal insights and passionate support of Barack's candidacy. She began by recounting to us her roots in New Haven as a community organizer, her efforts to help get Chis Dodd elected to the US Senate way back when, and her pioneering work as his chief of staff at a time when very few women were offered such roles in Washington. By way of emphasizing the need for women in politics she also noted her work heading up EMILY's List, just before her own election to the House of Representatives.

Rosa then told us how she began the 2008 presidential campaign as a dedicated supporter of Dodd's run, and highlighted his commitment to the constitution as what she considered to be his most important contribution to the primary race. (A bit later she expressed disgust over the recently revealed Yoo memo on torture, saying "How can this guy be a university professor, with this kind of take on our constitution? I don't understand that!")

When Dodd's candidacy came to an end in January, she initially thought she would stand back and simply observe. But then she said, "That's not something I can do! I just can't stand on the sidelines!" She described two phone calls she had to make, one to Hillary Clinton and one to Bill Clinton, to tell them that she would be supporting Barack Obama for president.

Rosa told us why she choose to endorse Obama, saying "He has the potential to change the way things are done. He is unique. He will get people involved who have never been involved before. When you listen to him, you believe that HE BELIEVES in what he is saying!" In Rosa's experience, this is what makes all the difference -- and we can't pass up the chance to elect a president who believes in us this way.

She took questions from the group then and gave her opinion of when the nomination would be wrapped up. The group corrected her when she said "If Obama wins Pennsylvania..." with a hearty "No, you mean WHEN Obama wins Pennsylvania!" But Rosa wants us to be clear-eyed, and she described how we must keep going even if we might face disappointments along the way. And, she added, if Obama comes even within a few points of winning in Pennsylvania, he will in effect have won because of how far he was able to progress having trailed by up to 20 points in the state's initial polling. This kind of impressive drive, combined with his showing in North Carolina will carry the day. She also talked about the Super Delegates and how we should expect to see more and more people weighing in now, in support of Obama. "It's happening," she said. "And it will keep happening."

Rosa encouraged us to "plug-in" and make a difference outside of CT, after explaining how during the last election she and John Larson (CT 1st CD) decided to ask their pumped-up constituents to help in the three other Congressional races in CT, since she and John were not facing significant challenges. Of course, the Democrats won two of those three other races, and Rosa was proud that the people of her district helped make that happen.

Rosa ended her talk by noting the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. She spoke of Dr. King's vision that in the future we would judge our children not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. She said, "This progress is what is happening with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. It's about his character -- and people are responding!"

Celebrate Earth Day in Woodbridge - let's Rid Litter

What better way to celebrate Earth Day 2008 then to get together with friends and neighbors in Woodbridge to pick up litter and beautify our town?


So why not join a crew to pitch in and help out a good cause. We'll pick an intersection and time on Saturday to meet... stay tuned here for more details!

Cross promoting (or as they say out there on the wild, wild web: "blog-rolling")!

Some of you may already know about Aldon Hynes' blog, Orient Lodge.


But for all the others, here's a link to a recent post by Aldon describing our Democratic Caucus/Woodbridge DTC meeting held last Thursday.

Aldon and his wife Kim are new to town -- so I thought I'd just give a shoutout and hearty Woodbridge Dem welcome! And check out his blog when you have some time...

Disintermediation is alive on YouTube!

What is disintermediation, you ask? The term originates in economics and refers to the removal of intermediaries (such as a distributor, wholesaler, or agent) in the supply chain. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, disintermediation 'cuts out the middleman' in more familiar terms.

What does it mean when applied to politics? Let's review a principal communications challenge for any campaign:

Great speeches don't matter if no one hears them.

Back in January, Barack Obama gave a speech on MLK Day. Ari Melber wrote about it at the Tech President blog:

"While cable news shows gorge on campaign sparring, Obama's uplifting speech is absolutely dominating YouTube. The 34-minute address from Ebenezer Baptist Church is currently the fourth most viewed video in the world on YouTube, trailing two Britney Spears clips."

That's some impressive disintermediation there -- remember this was a high point in coverage of Ms. Spears!

But now it seems, YouTube views of Barack's recent "A More Perfect Union" speech on race have even topped the reach of cable TV -- again, from the Tech President blog:

About 3.8 million people have now watched Barack Obama's Philadelphia address through the campaign's official YouTube channel... another 520,000 people watched excerpts of the speech uploaded by random YouTube users. Taken together, the total YouTube viewers for Obama's speech over the past week beat all the cable channels combined. Last Tuesday, about four million viewers tuned into one of the three cable channels to watch the speech.

That's right -- so why not watch it the 'disintermediated way' for yourself (remember, YouTube counts views only when you let the entire video play to the end!):