Dan Malloy scores first in Danbury

Dan Malloy jumping off of the bench of the Danbury Whalers shortly after scoring the first goal in Whalers' history.

[update] I have an interview from after the game at TK's. Let me say, in advance, that he was a bit reluctunt to give it since I am a political blogger... But as a hockey fan I promised to make it about the real story: The first goal in Danbury Whalers' franchise history, his assist, and the team with no more mention about his family than "say hi to'em".  The young man is a team player. (Saw ctblogger at the game, as well, and he had his cam rolling so he may have some footage to add to the game story).

Throwing a Real Tea Party

Funny or Die pretty much sums up what we are dealing with when we talk about the Tea Party:



A slightly misogynist message (Probably a bit NSFW, too) to another aspect of the Tea Party that we have to deal with below...

Passed around on Facebook...

Composer

By:Ben Schmit

Simmons Running Senate Ads

Considering Simmons is running neck and neck with Linda McMahon in the primaries even after he dropped out of the race. Why not? From The Day:

Rob Simmons, who halted his campaign for the Republican Senate nomination after losing the party endorsement to former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, will begin airing TV ads urging voters to "look at the issues" before voting in the Aug. 10 primary.

In a press release on Wednesday, Simmons said he would spend some of his remaining campaign funds on the TV spots.

"For the past two months, I have been travelling the state supporting my fellow Republican candidates," Simmons said. "Everywhere I go people ask me if I am still running for the U.S. Senate. My response has been 'I'm still on the ballot.'"

But his numbers are still as dismal as McMahon's are up when stacked up against any of the Democratic party candidates.  You would think, for that reason alone, that Linda McMahon would be happy to have a reason to argue issues with someone during the primary season? But no... She's as pissed as a wrestler after too many steroid shots.

The Breitbart version of this story featured a badly edited video of disgruntled former WWE wrestlers calling McMahon a racist steroid pusher and photos of Simmons in a headlock while teabagging her.

I don't have that video... But I do have this one:

No Big Surprises In the Latest CT Gov Race Q-Poll

The latest KWIN-uh-pe-ack© numbers are out for the CT-Gov race of 2010 and ctblogger looks at the data overall and the questions a bit, while Ct Bob looks at the inside game of the likely voter numbers.

Needless to say, the numbers look good for the Democratic party candidates no matter how it goes down.

Democrats lead in any possible general election matchups among registered voters:

• Lamont over Foley 45 - 33 percent;
• Lamont over Fedele 49 - 27 percent;
• Lamont over Griebel 49 - 25 percent;
• Malloy over Foley 44 - 33 percent;
• Malloy over Fedele 49 - 26 percent;
• Malloy over Griebel 51 - 25 percent.

"The Democrats haven't won a race for Governor in Connecticut in 24 years. Could this be their year?

"Could this be their year?" Considering the numbers show that the only hope the GOP has is if the Dem candidates start tossing live grenades at each other while simultaneously carrying out Sepukku? Both the Lamont campaign, IMHO the leader in the primary, and the Malloy campaign can point to some good news in it with both improving their favorabilities among their base a lot and in both being able to trounce the GOP opposition.

As far as the GOP side of this? The second paragraph in this snippet from connpolitics.tv pretty much sums it up:

Foley leads Republicans with 48 percent of the vote. Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele garners 13 percent and business advocate Oz Griebel 7 percent.

“The governor’s race is overshadowed by the Senate battle between Linda McMahon and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the controversy over Foley’s arrests is not having much impact,” Schwartz said. “So Foley has been unharmed and voters still don’t know much about Fedele or Griebel.”

Fedele who? Grieber what? As far as Foley? If it were not for the recent news about vehicular assaults and a circus like divorce I think I might be asking who he is, as well.

Checking the ct.gop site, given the latest poll you'd think they would have something up...

But, apparently even Chris Healy hasn't found anything good to write about this poll, either. (Not yet nor as of the time I am writing this, anyways.) Just some mumbling to himself and trying to get mileage out of a relative non-story about an Attorney General going to a meeting of evil American trial lawyers.

In Connecticut, the GOP dusted off their strike at Dick Blumenthal’s character and integrity, asking whether the attorney general would come clean about his weekend jaunt.

“No more lies. Dick Blumenthal owes the voters of Connecticut a straight answer: Did he travel to Canada yesterday to raise money from his fellow liberal trial lawyers, or did he send his bag man Harry Reid to collect his share instead?” asked NRSC spokeswoman Amber Marchand.

Blumenthal spokeswoman Maura Downes would only confirm he attended the event, as did New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes.

Aside from Healy's obvious reasoning (and even more obvious conflict of interests in the GOP candidate race) ranting and raving about Blumenfeld 24/7 over at the GOP site...

Let us look at who Healy is happy to take donations from, OK?

Thank you for supporting the Connecticut Republicans-Federal account. These funds are used exclusively for the purpose of supporting Federal candidates and federal election activities. Contributions from state lobbyists and Connecticut state contractors are accepted and allowed in this account.

So Chris Healy, a former lobbyist himself, accepts lobby money for his party activities, complaining that a candidate on the other side MAY actually be doing the same and taking money from a PAC that wants to lobby him? Hypocrisy much?

Christopher C. Healy is a lobbyist in Hartford at the law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, has worked on political campaigns at the local, state and national level and has served on the Republican State Central Committee.

Should I even bother to check his CT GOP and their candidates for any lobbying interests and their PAC donations? Too obvious to even waste the effort.

As far as the national level equivalent of Christopher Healy? Michael Steele had this to say about the Senate race when he was in town:

Asked about Peter Schiff, the Weston money manager who will primary McMahon on Aug. 10, Healy and Steele said they would support the party’s nominee.

“If he wins we’re behind him just as much as we’re behind Linda McMahon, but your questions were more focused on her,” said Healy, whose wife works for the McMahon campaign.

Steele said he expects Republicans to be competitive in 44 states this election season.

“The people of Connecticut are no different than people anywhere else around the country. They’re sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Steele said. “We’re winning again in the northeast. How crazy is that.”

It is real clear that the GOP isn't winning anything big in CT this year, so it is safe to say that both Healy and Steele are off the charts crazy.

Two Polls and Two Really Bad Jokes

Poll 1.


Research 2000 just pretty much confirmed the state of the Connecticut Senate race between Blumenthal and McMahon:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/24-26. Likely voters. MoE 4% (1/11-13 results)

Dick Blumenthal (D) 52 (56)
Linda McMahon (R) 33 (34)

It'd been a while since we polled Connecticut, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to ever come back to this Senate race (the governor's race is another story, and a race for another day to poll).

Poll 2.

These numbers are pretty darn close to where Quinnipiac had them yesterday:

May 27, 2010 - Blumenthal Pins McMahon By 25 Points In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Most Voters Say Vietnam Issue Doesn't Impact Vote


Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads former wrestling executive Linda McMahon 56 - 31 percent in the U.S. Senate race and tops the Republican candidate by large margins on every character measure, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Joke 1.

I blogged about that Vietnam issue being a pile of hooey, having been planted in the media by McMahon and hopelessly being flung around like poop in the right wing blogosphere and media in a desperate attempt to make a non-story into anything they can over at Connecticut Political Reporter. Probably because the joke of a corporatist media would really love to turn this smackdown of a Senate race into a horse race that they want and need to sell papers:

Despite "supposedly" putting his own foot in his mouth last week, Dick Blumenthal still manages to put a good old fashioned WWE Smackdown on Linda McMahon, where Blumenthal keeps a formidable lead, 56-31, over McMahon in the most recent Quinnipiac polling.

Proving that this was the non-story that it really should have been from the start, regardless of the GOP's McMahon planting it, the NY Times doing a bang up job of corporatist stenography for the GOP and right wing Bloggers desperately trying to make more of it than was ever going to be worth.

When McMahon tries to float one we will flush it...

 In the media you will find that they repeat the same thing about this story yet is a taken from a video that is purposely taken out of context by McMahon and the media can't even bother to fact check it a bit before they go with it....

Joke 2. (And this is a long running joke)

Rasmussen does its nuttiest best to give the right wing something to latch onto:

18 MAY 2010
CT-SEN
Blumenthal D 48.0%, McMahon R 45.0%
Sample:
MoE: 500
4.5
Population: Likely Voters

What planet are they polling likely voters on? Is there some hidden Republican Connecticut on a propaganda producing Perelandra that we don't know about?

This is expected of Rasmussen as they are purely a propaganda arm of the GOP and they always produce polls that are so far out of whack with reality for months leading up to primaries and elections, which the corporate media slurps up like a Jeff Gannon kneeling in front of George W Bush passing this disease (and others) off to readers as "news",  and then suddenly, magically, weeks before an election their numbers start to reflect the real numbers of a race.

Rasmussen followed their typical propaganda pattern when they were constatntly predicting that there would be a "President McCain" coupled with a "GOP gaining in the House"... Right up until a few weeks before the election when it became clear they would be so far out of touch with reality at the end of it. And it is like they don't think people will notice this?

For example, from February to April of 2008, Rasmussen showed John McCain leading by an average of 2.6%. Meanwhile, every other poll of likely voters during that time period showed Barack Obama with a 2.6% lead. So from February to April, there was a 5.2% gap between Rasmussen and everybody else.


From September through election day, however, the gap was significantly smaller. The average Rasmussen poll taken during that time showed Obama leading by 3.8% while the average of all other polls of likely voters showed Obama leading by 5.8%, resulting in a gap of 2%.

So in the early months of 2008, the gap between Rasmussen and everybody else was 5.6% compared with 2% late in the cycle. Another important point here is that early in the cycle, Rasmussen's polling accounted for a far larger share of overall polling, meaning that their results played a more important role in shaping horse race narratives in the early stages of the campaign than they did in the latter stages of the campaign.

They are clearly trying to drive a republican narrative and it shows. Some earlier Rasmussen jokes being compiled by Nate Silver:

Here are the results of statewide polling in the 2000 Presidential Election. Although the pollster ratings will eventually involve some fancier math, the numbers you see below are as simple as it gets: I've simply looked at the average error of the last poll issued by each pollster in each state in terms of projecting the margin between Bush and Gore. (A cut-off is established 21 days prior to the election.)





While 2000 was generally a fairly rough year for pollsters, who had to deal with an unenthusiastic electorate, some third-party challengers, and some late-breaking developments like Bush's DUI charge, Rasmussen was the worst of the lot, missing by an average of 5.7 points. They also called 7 states wrong.** Some of this was the result of bias, as they were 3.5 points too high on Bush's margin in the states they surveyed, on average.

If I were a betting man, and I am not, I could see setting up a pool picking the date when Rasmussen starts to reflect reality in the CT-SEN race OR any other race for that matter. They really are that predictable.

An old empty bottle brewed in New Milford showing how out of touch Rasmussen was (looks like pure propaganda to me) during the healthcare reform debate. Just look at the pic to see clearly how out of whack their numbers are:

All you need to know about healthcare polls:

For now...

The right wing keeps trying to push a Rasmussen poll with bad numbers in it for Obama, the public option and for single payer. I dealt with the single payer numbers and public option numbers a little bit (and other interesting things, to me, at least?) at ePluribus Media a couple of days ago and most of the Blogosphere has seen the numbers for Obama start to rise again. Much of these numbers have all been noted to follow the start of of pressure from teabagging. Briefly numbers across the board dropped... But as people began to realize all of the things the birthers/.deathers/teabaggers were saying were as crazy as the things many of them were doing the numbers for those issues and Obama re-solidified. While pollster.com dealt with many of the numbers in a different way, I just want to show you the picture they put together of what I am talking about:


Yes, this one picture deals with the public option but is easily applicable across the board on almost any issue. And I am not even going to get in to the well known right wing bias of Rasmussen, nor their incredibly ridiculous outlier numbers in previous polls. Just remember that they are the one polling outfit that was predicting major leads for the GOP House early into the last election cycle and have, over time, taken a serious beating from many poll savvy people over many of their crazy outliers and polls bordering on the edge of push polls.

Anyways... Some in the media and the right wing are ignoring recent polls and quoting old stuff and even taking stuff out way out of context in order to fit their talking points and narratives. How the heck can any person call Obama and his policies in trouble when he has approval ratings over 50% in 48 of the 50 states? And an Obama 63% approval rate across the entire country?

6 months in we are talking uber popular, both in Obama's leadership and in many of his policies. If anything, the numbers inside the polls, overall and IMHO, show that the solutions they are seeing are not liberal enough for them.
And we can thank the raging, lying loonies on the right wing for helping to solidify those numbers.

While I am certain that many of the people with more experience in reading into polls will have more important things to say about it all, people like the number crunchers at dKos or Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, but really, and let us be honest here: If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one up there speaks volumes.

Rep. Anthony Weiner Teaches Lieberman To Spell

In his own special way:

Sharp-eyed Ben was reading my story when he noticed something I had missed:

Lieberman managed to misspell the name of Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who, I swear, has uttered the phrase "As long as you spell my name right" in my presence.

Wrote Lieberman: "I fear the people who are advocating the Medicare buy-in are doing so not because they think it will give more help to these Americans than the subsidies and exchanges, but because they see it as a big step toward a single payer system as Congressman Anthony Wiener [sic] and others have explicitly said."

Ben quickly contacted Weiner, who has become one of the most outspoken progressives on health reform.

Quipped Weiner: "Maybe he couldn't spell 'flip-flop' or 'back-stab,' either."

Zing.... More recently? Weiner had this to say about Harold Ford trying to get into the NY Senate race:

"I don't think we need another Joe Lieberman"

Just a short note to Harold Ford:

A short note to Harold Ford, who is brutally trying to flip-flop his way into New York's Senate race:

"Fugghedaboudit"

That is all...

Who the heck is Barry Cafero?

Via ctblogger:

I know it's early to be making this call but I'm almost certain no one topping this comment today:

It's ok that Larry Cafero doesn't know my name. Over the course of the next year, he'll quickly realize that Connecticut voters don't know his, either.

-Connecticut Democratic Party Communications Director Colleen Flanagan

This comment from Flanagan was made in light of a cheap shot from House Minority Leader Larry Cafero's in which he purposely mispronounced her name "Kathleen" (even after being corrected by a reporter.

After being told that the Democratic Party's spokeswoman's first name was Colleen, Cafero said, "I wouldn't know Kathleen Flanagan if she bumped into me on the street."

State Rep. Cafero's latest hissy-hit has to do with the disclosure Thursday that he used his staff to set-up a meeting with The Norwalk Hour to announce that he's running for governor and that the newspaper would embargo the announcement.

Here's the email sent by Cafero's press secretary Patrick O'Neil.

"Larry, we're all set with The Hour," O'Neil's message said. "They'll have the editorial board and a writer waiting for you at 10 a.m. They've agreed to the embargo and were much appreciative of the advance notice and exclusive interview. Jared Ferrari, the managing editor, will be coordinating the deal."

All I know for sure is that if his name is Barry we should be demanding to see his birth certificate - teabaging rules dictate that he can't be 'Murikan - and the rest of the emails in his government account to see if he has been using it for other nefarious reasons because that would be the only sane reaction to this news.

We might want to see his psychological evaluation scores, as well, regardless of whom he thinks he is.

Note to Simmons and McMahon: Crystal Balls and Teabaging don't mix

Smash mouth political commentary from Linda McMahon and Rob Simmons:

"Isn't it sad that after 30 years in Washington, Chris Dodd is still writing letters and putting out press releases after the fact,'' Ed Patru, spokesman for Linda McMahon, said in a press release. "The H1N1 shortage didn't just occur over night - it has been months in the making. Connecticut families deserve to have H1N1 vaccine availability, but they also deserve a Senator who puts timely leadership ahead of late-to-the-game outrage."

And Rob Simmons, another one of Dodd's GOP opponents, compared the government's handling of the flu vaccines to its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

"It is intolerable that H1N1 vaccines have arrived on Wall Street before they found their way to the most vulnerable on the Main Streets of Connecticut where infections grow by the day,'' Simmons said in a statement. "This situation is quickly becoming Katrina-like in its mismanagement, and it is providing an early glimpse at how government-run health care would operate under Senator Dodd's plan."

We could solve the real problems, the shortage of swine flu vaccine, by removing the source of the problem...

The failed free market unable to react to the needed production of vaccine.

U.S. health officials expressed frustration Wednesday with the nation's struggles to produce vaccines against the H1N1 flu strain and told lawmakers they cannot guarantee that supply problems won't resurface.

The new flu strain is spreading faster than the U.S. can make vaccines against it. Equipment problems and the slow pace in growing the new flu strain in laboratories for vaccines scuttled plans to have 161 million vaccines available by October. Today, just 32.3 million doses are available, far less than the 159 million needed to cover all those at highest risk from the H1N1 flu, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said at a House Appropriations subcommittee briefing Wednesday.

Or we could be stupid republicans and ignore the real issues in healthcare. The government does not produce the vaccine. Free marketeers do. If they can't keep up with the demand, perhaps they are in the wrong business?

This is the free markets' bathtub. Let them drown in it.

As for the "letter after the fact"? What the ???

Was Dodd supposed to go all Reagan and ask astrologer Joan Quigley to divine the future on what he should do to solve all of the h1n1 problems before they even existed?

For all of you that advocate crystal balls and teabaging?

"By the time it was over, medics had administered government-run health care to at least five people in the crowd who were stricken as they denounced government-run health care. But Bachmann overlooked this irony as she said farewell to her recruits."

Pick up your teeth on the way home, Okay Teabagrrrs?

Stump and Stumper

After announcing her latest in a long line of quits and on the heels of another in a long line of ethics complaints aimed at her, Sarah Palin inexplicably offered up her witch hunting maverickiness in aid and comfort of "socialist/commie/pallin'around with terrarists" candidates in the conservative coalition of the Democratic party:

The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP's base said in an interview she views the electorate as embattled and fatigued by nonstop partisanship, and she is eager to campaign for Republicans, independents and even Democrats who share her values on limited government, strong defense and "energy independence."

If the "much of GOP's base" that thinks she makes a good candidate for president, all 33% of the ever declining GOP base, aren't as excited about this as the American people in general are then I don't know what will get them going?

But would there be any takers on Palin's career stumpabilities from the Democratic party's conservative bench?

Democrats reject palling around with Sarah Palin

Interviews with a number of the most conservative Democrats in the House and Senate induced an awkward, stare-at-your-shoes unease when the prospect of appearing with Palin was posed.

Some of the members lunged for elevators, others moved to get into meetings (or at least behind closed doors), and a few just chuckled nervously and replied in a clipped fashion that reflected an immense desire to not discuss the topic at any length.

Not asked for reaction to this recent development in her non-political future, Sarah Palin's answer was anything but stumped:

h/t Tengrain for the image.

Note to Jim Amann

Up is not down...

Via ctblogger at MLN, Jim Amann appears to be a slow learner:

Jim Amann on supporters of Ned Lamont August 2006:

"Shame on all of us if we allow a shrieking minority to hijack the primary."

Amann today:

"That's all in the past. During this campaign, I have met many supporters of Ned Lamont who now support us."

As ctkeith notes in the diary:

"Jim Amann, like George W Bush, Makes his own Reality"

The Jim Amann for Governor 2010 campaign song:

Just come back where I came from,
Looks the same as something's wrong.
And all my friends that used to be,
Have gone and turned their backs on me.
Everyone's got different views,
Now I'm all shook up and all confused.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

I've just come back from fantasy,
Right back to reality.
Stayed away too long but now I've found,
My world is turning upside-down.
I don't fit in but I don't stand out,
I should stay cool but want to shout.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.

No one knows where I come from,
(Who the hell are you and what do you want?)
You've thrown away all that we had,
It's down the drain, it's all gone mad.
The word is out, I've seen the sign,
So you go your way, I go mine.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight.
East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright).
It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright, alright, alright, alright).

Are you listening?
(NO!)
Well then, I'll have to do it all over again!

The Kinks, Back to Front