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May 12th, 2009
Posted by Benjamin at 12:59 pm
Check us out here!
http://connecticut.metromix.com/restaurants
A great little photo write up! Thanks Jessica
Posted in BSC in the press, Blue State Coffee news, General news, New Haven/Wall St. Store, News round-up | 
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January 28th, 2008
Posted by Drew at 5:54 pm
…on charges of war crimes, perjury, and obstruction of justice. Vermont is the only state President Bush hasn’t visited since he was first elected in 2001.
Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.
The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning.
According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, organizers of the Bush-Cheney issue gathered enough signatures, and it was up to the Select Board whether Brattleboro voters would consider the issue in March.
Cappy said residents will get to vote on the matter by paper balloting March 4.
Kurt Daims, 54, of Brattleboro, the organizer of the petition drive, said Friday the debate to get the issue on the ballot was a good one. Opposition to the vote focused on whether the town had any power to endorse the matter.
“It is an advisory thing,” said Daims, a retired prototype machinist and stay-at-home dad of three daughters.
So far, Vermont is the only state Bush hasn’t visited since he became president in 2001.
Daims said the most grievous crime committed by Bush and Cheney was perjury — lying to Congress and U.S. citizens about the basis of a war in Iraq.
He said the latest count showed a total of 600,000 people have died in the war.
Daims also said he believed Bush and Cheney were also guilty of espionage for spying on American people and obstruction of justice, for the politically generated firings of U.S. attorneys.
Read the rest of the article here. Â
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Posted in General news, Humor, News round-up | 1 Comment »
October 12th, 2007
Posted by Alex Payson at 7:35 am
On winning the Nobel Peace prize with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Keep up the good work. While the path to a more ecologically minded world has just begun, thank you for your role in boosting awareness of climate issues.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
September 19th, 2007
Posted by Drew at 12:01 am
Too funny for words:
The defendant in a state senator’s lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He’s everywhere.
State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he’s trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Posted in General news, Humor, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
June 23rd, 2007
Posted by Drew at 2:25 pm
Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ government secrecy project, said that if Cheney’s office is not part of the executive branch, “they’re going to have to rewrite the textbooks.”
Vice President Cheney’s office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee yesterday.
Since 2003, the vice president’s staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney’s staff this year proposed eliminating it.
The dispute centers on a relatively obscure process but underscores a wider struggle waged in the past 6 1/2 years over Cheney’s penchant for secrecy. Since becoming vice president, he has fought attempts to peer into the inner workings of his office, shielding an array of information such as the names of industry executives who advised his energy task force, costs and other details about his travel, and Secret Service logs showing who visits his office or official residence.
Read the entire article here.
The White House has come to Cheney’s defense:
The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office’s refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney’s office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”
Read the article here.
Congressman Emanuel is hitting back hard: he introduced an amendment that would cut off funding to Cheney’s office until Cheney acknowledges that he is part of the Executive branch. In an email to supporters, Emanuel wrote:
“The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President’s funding is consistent with his legal arguments. I have worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue to pursue this measure in the coming days.”
All Americans should be thankful that the Democrats now control Congress. Otherwise, the Vice President would have been able to continue defying the law, completely unchallenged.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
May 20th, 2007
Posted by Drew at 9:55 pm
Former President Jimmy Carter has been speaking his mind on President Bush lately:
Britain’s support for the war in Iraq was a “major tragedy” for the world, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Saturday, as he criticized Tony Blair’s unwavering support for President Bush.
Asked how he would judge Blair’s support of Bush, Carter said: “Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient.”
“And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world,” Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Carter also told an American newspaper that Bush’s administration is “the worst in history” in international relations, taking aim at the White House’s policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.
The article continues:Â
“I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper’s Saturday editions. “The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.”
Read the entire article here.
The White House fired back:
White House spokesman Tony Fratto shot back Sunday from Crawford, Texas, where Bush spent the weekend.
“I think it’s sad that President Carter’s reckless personal criticism is out there,” said Fratto. “I think it’s unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.”
Read this article here.
We agree with you 100%, Mr. Carter.
Posted in General news, News round-up | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2007
Posted by Drew at 8:57 pm
When Democrats claimed last fall that the Republicans had created a “culture of corruption” in Washington, even then they were correct. The news about Mark Foley, chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children’s caucus, had just come out. Other scandals included Plamegate; Abu Ghraib; Haditha; “Bin Laden Determined to Strike…”; illegal domestic spying; Guantanamo; Cheney’s secretive Energy Task Force; Abramoff; Bob Ney; Randy “Duke” Cunningham; the missing billions allocated to Iraq and Hurricane Katrina reconstruction; “Heckuva job, Brownie!”; Tom DeLay; and no-bid contracts for Halliburton. It seems that the results of the 2006 midterm elections haven’t phased the White House, though: new scandals continue to be uncovered.
Campaigning in 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush would repeatedly raise his right hand as if taking an oath and vow to “restore honor and integrity” to the White House. He pledged to usher in a new era of bipartisanship.
The dual themes of honesty and bipartisanship struck a chord with many voters and helped propel Bush to the White House in one of the nation’s closest-ever elections. Americans re-elected him in 2004 after he characterized himself as best suited to protect a nation at war.
Now, with fewer than two years left of his second term, the Bush administration is embroiled in multiple scandals and ethics investigations. The war in Iraq still rages. Bush’s approval ratings are hovering in the mid-30s. And Democratic-Republican relations have seldom been more rancorous.
The article continues:
What ever happened to restoring honor and dignity?
“From the very beginning, this administration emphasized loyalty over competence. And at some point, that catches up with you,” said Paul Light, a professor of public policy at New York University. He said the increase in scandals and investigations also reflects the “natural decay” that happens late in a second presidential term as many experienced people have already left and those remaining start focusing on their financial futures.
Read the rest of the article, which discusses some of Bush’s recent scandals, here.
Had the Democrats not taken back the House and Senate in November, many of these scandals would have gone unnoticed.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
April 14th, 2007
Posted by Drew at 7:44 pm
Boosted by donations from celebrity friends, Al Franken is on his way to becoming the funniest Senator in Washington:
Scores of actors, writers, producers and others from the entertainment industry have contributed to Al Franken’s Senate campaign, helping the Minnesota Democrat get off to a strong fundraising start.
Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” star who hopes to take on GOP Sen. Norm Coleman next year, raised the maximum $4,600 from actors such as Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jason Alexander and Larry David, according to a campaign finance report filed Friday.That helped Franken pull in $1.35 million in the first quarter of the year — despite not beginning his fundraising effort until Feb. 14 — just behind Coleman’s $1.53 million.
Read the rest of the article here.
Meanwhile, today marks Nancy Pelosi’s 100th day as Speaker of the House, and she celebrated by passing legislation setting a deadline for withdrawing our troops from Iraq. Things are looking up for the Democrats.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
March 25th, 2007
Posted by Drew at 10:30 am
As more evidence comes to light showing that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales played a role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, two influential Republican senators–Chuck Hagel, a possible Republican presidential candidate, and Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee–questioned his integrity, and Senator Dianne Feinstein called for his resignation. Two of the fired attorneys served in Feinstein’s state, California.
 ”We have to have an attorney general who is candid and truthful. And if we find out he’s not been candid and truthful, that’s a very compelling reason for him not to stay on,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.
Specter, R-Pa., said he would wait until Gonzales’ scheduled testimony next month to the committee on the dismissals before deciding whether he could continue to support the attorney general. He called it a “make or break” appearance.
To Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Gonzales “does have a credibility problem. …We govern with one currency, and that’s trust. And that trust is all important. And when you lose or debase that currency, then you can’t govern. And I think he’s going to have some difficulties.”
Hagel cited changing stories from the Justice Department about the circumstances for firing the eight U.S. attorneys. “I don’t know if he got bad advice or if he was not involved in the day-to-day management. I don’t know what the problem is, but he’s got a problem. You cannot have the nation’s chief law enforcement officer with a cloud hanging over his credibility,” Hagel said.
Additionally, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for Gonzales to step down over his conflicting statements on how involved he was in the dismissals last fall. Democrats contend the prosecutors’ firings were politically motivated.
Feinstein, whose state lost two U.S. attorneys in the purge — in San Diego and San Francisco — joined a growing number of Democrats and Republicans in calling for Gonzales’ ouster. She said she now believes Gonzales has not told the truth about the firings.
“I believe he should step down,” said Feinstein, also on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And I don’t like saying this. This is not my natural personality at all. But I think the nation is not well served by this. I think we need to get at the bottom of why these resignations were made, who ordered them, and what the strategy was.”
Gonzales has said he participated in no discussions and saw no memos about plans to carry out the firings on Dec. 7 that Democrats contend were politically motivated.
His schedule, however, shows he attended at least one hourlong meeting, on Nov. 27, where he approved a detailed plan to execute the prosecutors’ firings.
My prediction? After Gonzales’ testimony next week, Senators Specter, Hagel, and other Republicans will join Democrats in calling for his resignation. It will be hard for even the top prosecutor in the country to defend the firings he approved.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
March 21st, 2007
Posted by Alex Payson at 8:43 am
If you have not heard already, Gore is giving testimony on Capitol Hill today (March 21st) starting at 10AM EST regarding his favorite subject: climate change.
You can watch his remarks live on the House website (link is on the right hand side).
We will post a link to a taped version for those who missed it as soon as it is available.
*Update (2PM 3/21/2007): Personally, Al Gore gave an exciting, important speech today. I hope you all get a chance to watch the video or read the text of the speech.
You can watch a recording of his opening statement here courtesy of AlGore.com.
Posted in General news, News round-up, Politics | No Comments »
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