Last week Martha Aasen stepped down from chairmanship of the Westport DTC. This week brings news that John Stafstrom Jr.has stepped down from the chairmanship of the Bridgeport DTC. While the municipal elections will be the focus this year, these changes may have an impact on the race against Chris Shays. Shays, followed through on his unwavering support for the Iraq occupation by voting against the non-binding resolution that the House passed last week.

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On Wednesday February 21, State Senator Bob Duff will be hosting a forum along with 1000 Friends of Connecticut on the importance of ‘smart growth’ initiatives in the state. The 100 Friends of Connecticut group is an advocacy group focused on legislation in hartford. From their web site:

One way would be to advocate that regional planning agencies, which exist by statute, should be able enforce regional land-use plans. Another way is to put teeth (read enforcement) in the State Plan of Conservation and Development. Many are not even aware that the state issues such a document every five years, There are no enforcement provisions, nor does the state even have to abide by the plan

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I suppose that Alex Knopp can’t envision himself in any other job but that of Mayor of Norwalk. He’s tried of course, seeking something to do professionally after losing the mayor’s office while Democratic council members went on to win big. But it really must be something deep within him that forces him to make the rounds of the Democratic Social Clubs, hoping that he can dance again with the Dems that brung him to the office in the first place. Well there’s another saying about foolishness and the second time around that seems a bit appropriate here. But you never know. I’m sure Alex can take solace that even Richard M. Nixon managed a comeback or two.

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Maybe it’s an offshoot of having hundreds of digital television channels to choose from, but scanning the news these days reveals a scatter shot of issues that drive political discourse. Forget the partisan bickering that fuels political conversations in D.C., Connecticut suffers from the see-no-connection to these “solutions” that crop up as bills in the legislature. Even Governor Rell is guilty of tendency to solve for an issue instead of solving for a problem.

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The Courant reports on the ongoing disaster that the I-84 construction project. The Federal Highway Administration, which financed 80% of the project, may want a refund. The State is battling with the insurance companies over who is going to pay for the repairs, estimated in the range of $17-29 million. It wasn’t that long ago that Rell was warning about the loss of federal transportation earmarks. What Rell needs to do is get a real reformer to sweep through the CT DOT and fix an agency that has been broken for years.

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Hardcore political junkies were riveted by the unfolding John Edwards campaign story about a religious nut, 2 women bloggers and a presidential campaign. The religious nut is Bill Donohoe, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Donohue has asserted his claim to being a but by promoting the following:

O’REILLY IS RIGHT: OLBERMANN IS A “SMEAR MERCHANT”

France doomed to anti-Semitism

According to the latest report from the Barna Group, “American Lifestyles Mix Compassion and Self-Oriented Behavior:”

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It wasn’t long for parents with pitchforks poked and prodded at the school board enough times that the members, sensing that in an election year, the “stick a fork in it it’s done” earnestness, might cause a competitive campaign or two. It still might, as the sting of imperious decree tends to rub people the wrong way. So last night they voted to restore the rights to bake sales, limited to special events and after school hours. But that’s not why, as they see in the education industry, they earned an F. The F is for Failure to submit a purchase request for computers where the numbers added up correctly. No, that’s not a figure of speech here, it is, according to the The Hour, a sad observation that our board of ed cannot demonstrate the very same math skills that Norwalk students are expected to learn. The details though sketchy resulted in one common council member abstaining from voting:

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Saturday, when I wrote about us being a nation of sheep, I thought I was merely expressing a cynical take on the world is too much with us meme going on in our local news sphere. Little did I know, that sheep was in the air, and that the estimable Seth Godin crafted a sheep themed post, relating to corporate culture rather than politics on the same day. Seth wrote:

It’s ironic but not surprising that in our age of increased reliance on new ideas, rapid change and innovation, sheepwalking is actually on the rise. That’s because we can no longer rely on machines to do the brain-dead stuff.

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Below is an excerpt from Senator Dodd’s website about a bill that he will be introducing today to restore Habeas Corpus rights that were eliminated during last year’s passage of the Military Commission Act. Habeas corpus essentially requires that a person in custody brought before a court to determine if that imprisonment is lawful, basically that they have been charged with a crime and thus could answer those charges in a court of law. Dodd has also set up a website www.restore-habeas.org which outlines the background on his bill, Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.

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Gregory Djerejian over at Belgarvia dispatch posts about Lieberman’s advice to President Bush a few weeks ago. That advice was, “Mr. President, I have two words for you…Be bold. “. Okaaaaay.

Naturally his comments quickly filled up with the usual “is he crazy” critiques. The crazy one is Bush, Cheney, Franken-Bush-Cheney-stein. I don’t mean crazy in a reckless way either. I mean insane, disconnected from reality, deep in the bunker, or as Joe Biden said about Cheney; “every single person out there that is of any consequence knows the vice president doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

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