Love him, hate him, Ralph Nader is a presidential candidate running for an immediate end the war in Iraq. More than I can say for Barack or Hillary.

 

And if for nothing else than that, seat belts and air bags, the Harvard Law grad deserves a listen. So, mosey to the intersection of filth and slime, the Brass City:

 

Sunday, April 27, 6 pm, 193 Grand Street, Waterbury, across from City Hall.

 

Mr. Nader will speak on ending the war in Iraq and making the actions of government and corporations accountable to citizens.

For more info, call Pete at 203-435-1577

There is free parking on street and in public garage on Bank Street.

Why Waterbury? It looks like Ralph is trying to build an alliance with the Independent Party, which has a few city council-level elected officials in Waterbury, Winsted, East Hartford and maybe one or two more places I'm missing.

With the CT Greens solidly behind Cynthia McKinney, (although their ability to run a state-wide petition drive is questionable), Ralph, too, will need help petitioning onto the ballot.

I helped him in '04, I'm not sure what I am going to do this year. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go see him speak Sunday because I am studying for law school exams. But, hey, if you've never seen Ralph, go give him a chance. He's a fellow Nutmegger.

Link...

 

Life is change. We can embrace it. We can ignore it to our detriment. Or we can question it in the hopes that we can alter its inevitable march.

 

When pondering the changes proposed by the Quinnipiac University administration for the Chronicle, I want to see the proposals as fruitful and courageous, but I see the changes more as an abdication of duty.

 

The University has proffered a seemingly rational plan to cut the Chronicle free of its institutional support. This way, the Chronicle can finance itself and join as a full-fledged member the venerable Fourth Estate, with all the obligations attendant the First Amendment.

 

The exact funding mechanism is a bit of a mystery, but the University is giving itself more than a year to confront the budgetary concerns and logistics of the divorce.

 

QU won't send the Chronicle out into the big bad world by itself. If QU severs all fiduciary ties with the Chronicle, and then this 79-year-old student paper fails, the Bobcat will wear egg on its face.

Link...

 

It's what I'd feared: those of us who want to tear down the Aetna Viaduct – the decked portion of I-84 that slices through downtown Hartford – are likely seen as wackos, according to former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist.

 

Norquist was in town last week to discuss his wacko-ness: He led the successful effort to rip down a few miles of elevated highway in Milwaukee, thereby creating a few billion dollars in real estate and less pollution, less cars, less traffic, etc.

 

His outside voice validated our compass headings regarding transportation. After he finished, I asked him about another Hartford challenge: how to deal with crime and public safety.

 

"Bill Bratton and Rudy Guiliani," Norquist said. Plus, everyone needs to be serious in the fight against crime.

 

I'm not sure I agree 100 percent with Norquist's assessment of the Big Apple as a beacon for crimefighting. Nor would Amadou Diallo or Abner Louima. But the crime rate in the five boroughs has dropped while Hartford's seems to rise.

 

And isn't Hartford already employing Bratton's revolution in computerized crime tracking and community policing? Sure it is.

 

As part of the effort, HPD created Conditions Teams, mobile groups of police officers who can shift duties in neighborhoods to respond to the largest gathering threats.

 

At this time, the looming storm clouds hang over Weaver and Hartford Public High Schools, so that's where the Conditions Teams are stationed.

Link...

 

G ood thought: I am going to kick major ass on my law school finals this semester. I have been working and studying hard. Law school is opening doors for me. Hopefully someday I can get paid to think about the Constitution.

 

Bad thought: Law school sucks. The grind is killing me. It is outrageously expensive. I have limited time for friends, for blogging, for bicycling, for anything other than property law, the 14th Amendment and the National Labor Relations Board.

 

Good thought: Cornell West is awesome.

 

Bad thought: Media that keeps his message from being heard hurts us all.

 

Good thought: The City of Hartford is willing to invest heavily in employee development. The Courant recently revealed that the city will spend $60,000 for a two-month business management course at Harvard University for a lucky city worker.

Link to more good and bad thoughts...

 

Connecticut leads the country in imprisoning African-American and Latino boys. This incarceration policy doesn't help anyone. It merely manifests rampant institutional racism.

 

And it seems that this condition of state-sanctioned hatred makes life at the $57-million Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown hell not just for inmates, but also for some staff members, too.

 

For example, last Saturday night, Freddy Ramirez, 27, of Bridgeport took a gunshot to the torso and died. On Sunday, police arrested Jermaine Buster, 17, in connection with the killing, according to Channel 3 news.

 

Less than 24 hours before the crime, Buster had been released from CJTS, where he spent two years. What could have moved Buster to resort to violence less than a day after finishing a two-year bid? Is it the behavior modeled to him at CJTS?

 

This past Friday, April 11, 2008 at the Federal District Court in Hartford, a civil rights lawsuit (.pdf h/t Ctnewsjunkie ) alleged that in Dec. 2006, when Buster would have been an inmate, Brian Bendig, a white male CJTS supervisor punched in the head Joan Goodwine, a black female instructional assistant.

 

Following the assualt, the suit contends that a concerted management team protected the attacker and retaliated against Goodwine, who has worked at DCF since 1995, and Joseph Cardillo, her union rep and the Vice President of AFSCME Local 318, for complaining of the unjust trespass.

Link...

 

O kay. In the news business, when someone beats you to a story, generally, it's nice if you acknowledge that you got your ass kicked.

 

For example, Ed Vargas, a soon-to-announce candidate for John Fonfara's seat for Senate, called me the other day. Ken, he said, I know that you've written a lot about franking privileges, so I hope you saw the story in the Courant about John Fonfara using tax dollars to promote a corporate event.

 

I won't give the for-profit giant Fonfara shilled for the benefit of being named. Suffice it to say that their logo looks like the Death Star. But, hats off the Courant for beating me to the punch.

 

Now only if they would do the same when we bloggo-terrorists scoop them on real news reporting. See, I'm kind of sick of not be treated as an equal.

 

And oh yeah, one more thing about Josh King of The Hartford: he was an advance promo man for President Bill Clinton. It explains the ooze coming off of him at the NRZ meeting Monday night. There is always room for members of the DLC at the corporate table...

Link to more on War, Torture, Bikes and Broadwater...

 

F irst, the good news: The Hartford has promised it won't knock down 40,000 square feet of 1926 Georgian Revival office building formerly owned by MassMutual in Asylum Hill, nor will it create any more surface parking at the site, according to Josh King, a PR flack for The Hartford.

 

King swore to these edicts at the monthly meeting of the Asylum Hill Problem Solving Revitalization Association (aka the NRZ) Monday night April 7, 2008 at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church.

 

To refresh the NRZ's collective memory, King explained that in December, The Hartford negotiated an option to purchase the historically significant property. At the same time, it applied for a 90-day waiting period for a permit to demolish 600,000 square feet worth of office edifice on the 16-acre campus.

 

For those with long memories, we can recall MassMutual's promise to stay in Hartford forever when it tore down Fraser Place row houses for surface parking, only to leave a year later.

 

The NRZ, like a vacant lover vacuuming a partner's identity, listened to The Hartford's coy, careful whispering.

 

"Let's be clear," King said, "The manner in which the news broke was less than optimal."

 

Translation – The Hartford failed to foresee the angry reaction to its proposal, and now it needs to make peace with upset neighbors. Now it wants a stamp of community approval for its profit-mongering.

Link...

 

Sweet Jesus, thank you! To the god of the Old Testament who said he would punish those who stood by and watched acts of good and did nothing, thank you for acting! Justice flows like a mighty river!

 

Or maybe its just publisher Josh Mamis coming to his senses and realizing that dumping editor Alistair Highet is a smart move. Yes, the Hartford Advocate is undergoing some major personnel changes, starting with the forced departure of Highet, according to sources deep inside the Tribune Company walls. Apparently, Reporter Jennifer Abel and photographer Nick Lacy are being shown the door, too.

 

The day of reckoning when they all leave is apparently April 11, from what I've been told.

More...

 

Green Hartford is upon us!

 

First things first: John Norquist, the former Milwaukee mayor who led the charge to demolish one mile of elevated highway slicing through that downtown will speak at the Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Streert, Tuesday, April 15 at 6 pm.

 

Second, biking - CCBA annual dinner Wednesday night at 6:30 pm at Adam's Mill in Manchester. Bike part II Thursday night at Hartford Public Library to give input on Capital Region Council of Government's bike/ped plan.

 

Next, acquire compact flourescent bumbs and energy saving lamps cheaply at a taxpayer-subsidized sale at City Hall Thursday, April 24, 2008 from 11 am to 6 pm.

 

Finally, a Keney Park Clean-up Saturday, April 26, starting at 9 am. Here's more from a City of Hartford’s Department of Health and Human Services news release:

 

"Earth Day Clean-Up Needs Your Help"

 

Various community organizations, groups and individuals will be joining the Department of Public Works this year in the 'Keep America Beautiful' Campaign on Saturday, April 26, 2008.

More on gloves and trash bags and why they're needed...

 

Update 4/7/8: France has established contact with the pirates, the crew is safe, yet still on board, but more news soon.

 

H oly cow! Pirates on Friday seized a huge luxury yacht off the Somali coast. Le Ponant, a three masted schooner, can hold 64 passengers and is designed for cruising in some style.

 

According to the BBC, the French government has not had any contact with the captured vessel or its 30 crew members being held hostage. Le Ponant was apparently headed from the Seychelles to the Red Sea, most likely to a formerly French port in Djibouti.

 

The crazy part for me is that in Kuramathi in the Maldives, Maverick II, the yacht I was on, was anchored next to Le Ponant. I waved to crew members as they ferried guests to and from shopping on the island. I hope everything turns out well for them.

 

The BBC said that there have been 27 pirate attacks off the Somali coast in the last year. I'm thanking my lucky stars because Maverick II passed through Bab El Mandeb, the straights separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden, where Le Ponant was hijacked.

 

We stayed to the eastern, Yemeni side of the straight, because of the regular piracy on the Somali coastline. It seems like le Ponant's course took them up the western side of the Gulf. And it was a bit scary for us when tiny fishing boats would pass close to us, because we weren't sure if they were pirates.

 

Apparently, Maverick II wasn't big enough prey, because the Beeb said that pirates recently tried to board a 600-passenger vessel.

 

While we had plans to fend off a pirate attack - shotguns, rocket-powered line launchers, flares - it seems clear we wouldn't have been able to defend ourselves, if the pirates could board le Ponant, which was huge compared to Maverick II.

 

W hat can I say when Amy Goodman says it so much better than me? In her weekly column, this time called "Where Do We Go From Here?":

It has been 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. King was there to support striking sanitation workers, African-American men who endured horrible working conditions for poverty wages. While King’s staff was opposed to him going, as they were scrambling to organize King’s new initiative, the Poor People’s Campaign, King himself knew that the sanitation workers were at the front lines of fighting poverty.

I went to Memphis on Dr. King’s birthday. There I interviewed Taylor Rogers, one of the striking sanitation workers who marched with King. He told me:

"Back in 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers-we were tired of being mistreated, overworked and underpaid. We decided that we were just going to stand up and be men and do something about our condition. And that’s what we did. We stood up, and we told [Mayor] Henry Loeb in the city of Memphis that 'I am a man.'"

Link to the Rest of Amy Goodman's Column ...

 

O kay people. Gas is approaching $4 a gallon. Diesel is already over that benchmark. With the attack of a major pipeline in Iraq this week, prices are bound to rise.

 

There is no getting around the fact that the days of cheap oil are over. The answer: simple, beautiful, bicycle.

 

Come help the Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance celebrate using the bicycle as transportation at our annual dinner:

 

When: Wednesday, April 9 at 6 P.M.

Where: The Adams Mill Restaurant 165 Adams, Manchester

How Much: $45 per head/ $40 if you bring a table of 8

Register online here.

What else: Silent Auction, Awards for Super Commuters, Volunteers and a whole lot more.

 

This is the third time CCBA will be having said feast, and we want you to come support bicycle and pedestrian advocacy in Central Connecticut.

 

A bunch of us from Hartford are going to ride out there, so if you want to join us in a bicycle caravan, let me know.

 

Link...