Let’s turn our attention to the Congress for a bit. I was going to wait another week or so, but news reports of Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Chuck Schumer’s remarks to the press call for rapid response. The most surprising detail is the fact that Schumer has turned the Committee’s guns on Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KS):
McConnell is hitting back with this ad:
Before they pick off McConnell, they anticipate picking up Virginia (Warner), New Mexico (Udall), CO (Udall), NH (Shaheen), & NC (Hagan). Less of a lock but looking good are AK (Begich) & OR (Merkley).
My personal favorite is MN, where comedian Al Franken could actually pick off Norm Coleman. If you don’t want to see this guy become a United States Senator, to paraphrase Don Imus, you just have no sense of humor. Less likely but possible are MS (Musgrove), and GA (Martin). Martin knocking off Saxby Chambliss would be very, very sweet – Chambliss took down Vietnam War triple-amputee Max Cleland six years ago by impugning the war hero’s patriotism.
Does this have anything specifically to do with us here in Connecticut? Other than the fact that former Virginia Governor and soon to be Senator Warner is a Connecticut native? Well, maybe. Right now, Senator Joe Lieberman is out campaigning for John McCain and Sarah Palin. With the Democrats picking up five seats at a minimum, he’s likely to be out of a Chairmanship when he gets back to DC in January. But if the Democrats get to 58 (they call it 59 with Independent Bernie Sanders - VT) then guess who can give them that crucial ability to invoke cloture, thereby enabling their new President to implement his agenda?
With the Dow plunging nearly 700 points today, or in a better perspective closing at under 8,600 when 365 days ago it was at 14,164.53, I wanted to to review the events stored in my brain about the run up to the Great Depression. And then I remembered, I slept through those classes. Which is about where I think the policy wonks over in the Bush administration must be also, because what we are seeing is a replay of bone head policy that didn’t work in 1929, and certainly won’t work in 2008.
The Hill reports on comments made at a breakfast by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Here is an interesting tidbit at the end of the report [emphasis added]:
[Adm. Mullen] … expressed surprise that there were no questions about the situation in Iraq during the hourlong breakfast discussion.
“Isn’t it amazing that there were no questions about Iraq? Clearly, the trends are in the right direction in Iraq. I am very hopeful that we will continue to draw down forces there,” he said. “It is still fragile and not irreversible.”
Interesting that the reporters were focused on Afghanistan rather than Iraq; and that Mullen wanted to bring it up.
Mullen made his remarks at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, according to the report linked above.
The Monitor’s online presence posts an account of Iraqi efforts at reconciliation that buttresses Mullen’s statement. It is definitely worth a few minutes to read it. Excerpt:
This push has been enabled by improved security and a dramatic fall in violent attacks over the past year due to several factors: the US military surge, the decision by Sunni militants to join the US in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and a stand down of the Mahdi Army, the main anti-American Shiite militia.
Not to disagree with this assertion, but the Monitor gives no attribution for it. Does this constitute an editorial remark (by either the journalist or his editor) in the middle of a journalistic piece? Continuing:
“When we start this tribal reconciliation, it should be the seed of reconciliation for all of Iraq,” says [Sheikh Fayeq Hassan al-Taiee, a Shiite peacemaker], who began his efforts five months ago. “The Shiite and the Sunni people, each one stole the rights of the others, and now must solve that in a peaceful way. They should return to their senses; they found that killing is not a good way.”
Recall the use of the word “fragile” in Adm. Mullen’s remark in The Hill piece quoted above. The following appears a little further on in the Monitor’s piece [emphasis added]:
“The people realize more and more that they do not want to return to the ethnosectarian violence that had their country on the brink of civil war,” the former US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said in Washington Tuesday of the national trend. “With each passing day there is a little bit less of that fragility as progress takes on a slightly more enduring nature.”
Then another unattributed assertion:
It was only the deployment of the Iraqi Army and US-backed Sons of Iraq militia across Taji Province, that includes Tarmiyeh, that has enabled any chance of reconciliation.
With increased ridership on the Metro North trains daily, it was only a matter of time that Norwalk’s SoNo train station parking garage would be full to capacity. Well, actually it took about 3 years from when the garage was first built in 1994, and the recent gas prices have only added to the demand. Much like the rest of the towns along the train line, parking at the station is coveted.
With all the muck floating out there on presidential race analysis, it is difficult to find concise spot-on commentary. And yet I have discovered the exact reason why this presidential race is so disturbing. Yes, it is like the old Star Trek episodes. Hopelessly mired in a plot that leaves little room for serious policy discussion. So it’s only appropriate that someone figured it out and did an illustration that breaks down the race elegantly we are choosing between Captain Kirk and Spock running the country.
The Norwalk Historical Society and Crystal Theater present
The 2008 Colonial Harvest Festival
Saturday, October 18 & Sunday, October 19, 2008
Mill Hill Historic Park, 2 East Wall St., Norwalk
Ticket prices: $15 for adult NHS members, $20 for adult non-members. All children (12 & under): $7. NHS member families (2 Adults & 2 children 12 & under): $35 and non-member families, $45.
To reserve tickets, download a Ticket Order Form here. Fill out and mail to NHS with payment in full. If you have questions, please call the Norwalk Historical Society at 203-846-0525.
It’s hard to believe that it would take 5 years to figure out that the contractor who installed one of those famously “repaired leaky roofs” is totally on the hook for fixing the now “totally leaking roof.” The pace of government is exasperating at times, and this is one of them. But maybe its something in the water over there. At the last Common Council Meeting, Council Member Rick McQuaide mentioned that at the time, none of the Naramake phones worked. Apparently, the phone lines were not connecting to the phone system, and the backup Nextel phones were not in service either.
Some federal pork is good, like the $1.8 million heading Norwalk’s way to upgrade traffic signals. The proposed area is West ave., according to the Hour report:
”Since the major goal of this project is to improve traffic operations along this corridor by upgrading the traffic signalization, this project proposes to update the existing traffic signals along West Avenue by installing new traffic signal controllers, video detection systems and (a) new fiber-optic communication system,” wrote Michael Yeosock, senior civil engineer in the city’s public works department, in a memorandum outlining the project.
I truly appreciate the user contributions that make this site a great community hang out. Here’s another excellent clip form last Saturday’s Norwalk Fire Department Open House:
Gay Online Tv… it`s a 24h broadcasting... 
