Author: Connecticut Man1

There was quite a bit of talk yesterday concerning the RNC’s interesting expense account… Obviously spending the money people donate to the Republican National Committee on a night out at an expensive Hollywood bondage and lesbian themed sex club was not exactly what the donors would hope for, never mind the $17,000 on private jets and the other booze as well…

But relax folks! It is just the good old fashioned way that Republican leadership wants to help raise your kids:

One California blog, Red County, reports that Brown isn’t the staffer. Instead, they say, Brown paid the bill (and submitted it to the RNC as an expense) after a staffer’s credit card was declined, according to anonymous sources.

The blog also reports that the excursion took place after a recruiting event for the RNC Young Eagles at the Beverly Hills hotel.

This makes it all OK, right? Right…

From BarbinMD:

A group of RNC “Young Eagles” were escorted to a bondage-themed nightclub by an RNC official to blow off a little steam after a rough night of partying in Beverly Hills, the RNC accidentally picked up the tab but they’re getting their money back. It could happen to anyone.

Young Eagles, by the way, are the next generation of big money donors to the Republican party … and it should be noted that the GOP defines “young” as anyone under 45, a sad little attempt to lay claim to the youth vote … whose mission statement is to:

Define the future leaders of tomorrow by creating a vibrant base of young, conservative oriented members that can and will take an active role in shaping the party’s message, as well as that of the country, well into the future.

Well, mission accomplished, Young Eagles.

And what lessons can we all take away from this? First, that it’s a good day when you can write a headline that says, “RNC featuring lesbian sex acts,” and second, that the RNC’s explanation that the brain trust in their financial department accidentally paid out $2000 for a night out for the “boys” at a strip club isn’t going to inspire their donors. That they had to put out a statement assuring those donors that Michael Steele doesn’t go to bondage-themed strip clubs was just a bonus.

Still waiting on word from Rell on whether or not she will be running – presumably she is having trouble forming an opinion on whether or not to run without Dautrich first poll testing the idea –  but, via Paul Bass, it looks like Lamont is getting ready to run for Governor:

Ned Lamont, who took on U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman three years ago, has formed an “exploratory committee” for a challenge to Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2010. He plans to talk about Moody’s, not Moody.

Lamont planned to start informing past supporters of his move Wednesday morning, a day after the polls closed on the 2009 municipal elections and attention officially turns to the already crowded 2010 campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate.

h/t to TPMDC for the full press release from Ned Lamont:

NED LAMONT ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE

Norwalk, CT – Ned Lamont, successful businessman, co-founder of the state policy center at Central Connecticut State University, and Democratic nominee for US Senate in 2006, announced that he will be filing papers today with the State Elections Enforcement Commission establishing an Exploratory Committee for statewide office:

“As I have continued to meet with citizens across our state over the last three years, as co-chairman of President Obama’s Connecticut campaign and on behalf of health care reform, I have been constantly reminded that Connecticut is not living up to its potential and that too many of our families are being left behind,” said Lamont.

“Like businesses, states thrive with strong executive leadership, and they fall behind with weak leadership. As measured by the loss of jobs, young people leaving our state, and the never-ending budget crisis, Connecticut’s Chief Executive is simply not getting the job done.”

Since the 2006 campaign, Lamont has continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of Campus Televideo, a Connecticut company he founded twenty-five years ago. He is also a distinguished professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University, where he co-founded a policy center which has brought together leading business, labor, and non-profit leaders to formulate a strategic plan for the state of Connecticut. In addition, he serves on the boards of Conservation Services Group, a leading provider of energy efficiency programs, Teach for America/CT, and Mercy Corps, an international non-profit organization that focuses on job training and small business start-ups around the world.

ctblogger at MLN says that Susan Bysiewicz is looking at the race, as well.

I had thought I lost this video but I found it in the darned camera:

At the end of the blogger outreach on Saturday, September 26th, ’09, I talked to Senator Dodd on the Kucinich Amendment Protecting States’ Rights to move forward on Single Payer. Essentially, Dodd refers to Senator Bernie Sanders’ efforts and Sanders legislation to deal with Erisa laws and allow Single Payer in States that want to start an SP system. Dodd makes no commitment to support it, but he will look at it. Sanders had previously introduced a partial fix to the system and it was rejected in the Senate HELP committee BUT if we can get him to reintroduce it, or even a stronger fix? One possibly more sympathetic and newly minted Chairperson may have the will to twist a few arms:

This entry is from Dr. McCanne’s Quote of
the Day, a daily health policy update on the single-payer health care
reform movement. The QotD is archived on PNHP’s website.

Senate HELP Committee

July 14, 2009

Sen. Bernie Sanders just offered an amendment to the Senate HELP
health care reform bill that would allow a limited number of state
experiments with single payer systems. The proposal would have provided
waivers from federal regulations such as ERISA, and would have
authorized current federal spending on programs such as Medicare and
Medicaid to be transferred to the state to be used in the single payer
program.

Those voting for the amendment:

Bernie Sanders

Tom Harkin

Sherrod Brown

Jeff Merkley

All Republicans and all other Democrats voted against it.

Notably absent in support of that was Senator Dodd. I have 10 videos in my YouTube archives from this one event alone.

Flushing out Boehner’s lie on Meet the Press and a David Gregory that doesn’t follow politics well enough to be able to call him out on the obvious:

Communists. Socialists!

Boehner is no different then any other Bircher whackjob.

Might not be safe for work… But FUCK IT!

DFH by joeyess

Brought to you by MoveOn.org & R.E.M.:

We Can’t Afford to Wait

“Socialism stifles creativity! Profit and the free market are why we are number one in drug research.”

You’ve heard it OR some variation of it from faux patriots waving faded flags, right?

Turns out it never was true and never will be unless we get our sciences back on track…

It is widely believed that the United States has eclipsed Europe in pharmaceutical research productivity. Some leading analysts claim that although fewer drugs have been discovered worldwide over the past decade, most are therapeutically important. Yet a comprehensive data set of all new chemical entities approved between 1982 and 2003 shows that the United States never overtook Europe in research productivity, and that Europe in fact is pulling ahead of U.S. productivity. Other large studies show that most new drugs add few if any clinical benefits over previously discovered drugs. I discuss ways in which Congress, employers, and insurers can increase the value of drugs and revitalize the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

Fact is we never caught up to those socialists in Europe and – probably because they base decisions on science a little more than the average American – they are pulling out further ahead now… I am truly shocked to find out that what the right wing teabaggers/birthers/deathers have been screeching about is the exact opposite of reality. Not really surprised, either, are you?

And yes… I know it is not really all because of science… It is just one of many disasters in America, right now, that have collided to kill good research.

Jane Hamsher kicks stupid’s butt here:

As Emptywheel notes:

Look at what was happening here. Mitchell was trying to talk down to Jane, to suggest that she was being naive for suggesting that Bayh, and not progressives, should back down and accept the public option. In doing so, Mitchell was committing journalistic fraud–anyone presenting these issues and pretending this is about Bayh’s “conservative Democrats in his state” and not his wife and donors is simply committing journalistic fraud. So Jane turned it on Mitchell, suggesting Mitchell was the stupid one.

I am still waiting for Blue Cross Dems to come out doing their insurance corporation choreographed Kabuki dance to explain how flipping a few Senators is impossible but flipping a hundred House Reps. is easy…

I wanted to share this with all of you that did not get to see it first hand. There is a few minutes missing at the beginning when I was getting my camera out and in the middle when I had to change a battery and I broke it up to more viewable sizes. All 9 parts of the video from the meeting in Hartford on Monday between Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Sen. Chris Dodd and small business leaders in Connecticut:

Part 1

It is in 9 parts. FYI: Part 8 contains a Doctor advocating for single payer. (Please let him out there when you are finished watching!)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8 – Single Payer Advocate/Doctor alert!

Part 9

An exclusive interview with Senator Dodd on healthcare, single payer, the public option and a bit about Senator Jeff Merkley’s recent statements. Sorry if it is just a wee bit shaky… I am just an amateur. Thanks to the Connecticut State Democratic Party for sneaking me into this event.

I still have a bit over an hour of video from the meeting in Hartford that I wrote about earlier to edit and process

Previous post on this:

I will have an interview with Senator Dodd coming up soon, as well as a little over an hour of footage from a meeting in Hartford between Dodd, Sebelius, DeLauro and some small business advocates that I was at today. Thank you kindly to the Connecticut State Democratic party workers that snuck me in there – it was closed to the public – and to Senator Dodd for giving me the time to take some shaky and slightly comical footage. 🙂 (Note to my amateur self… Next time, open the lens protector for the camera BEFORE starting an interview)

Sadly, and though she had said she would give me few moments, I missed out on putting some questions to Rep. Rosa DeLauro because she had to go while I was interviewing Dodd.

I think you’ll find the questions I put to him pretty good. The kind of of questions he probably does not typically get from others out there.

Final notes: I was even asked for a statement from a Tea Party representative there. I’ll see if I can find the message on the net (might be at the Dump Dodd site?) since after making the statement in conversation he asked me to record it for him. Not sure if he agreed OR not… But he said he would put it out there unedited. We’ll see.

As well, a FOX news correspondent, Shelly Sindland, took some information from me after my interview with Senator Dodd. She said she would try to send me some pics that she had (Ed. Note: updated with a photo and attribution link now), as well. And I bumped into Ken Kreyeske there, covering the event either for his Blog or a paper. I did not get much of chance to say more than hello and shake his hand.