An Open Letter to CBIA.com

The following is a letter that I wrote recently to CBIA.com over their new commercial ad-buy:

CBIA.com:

That's a cute commercial you folks are running, and a nice attempt to propagate collective amnesia, misdirected distrust, and general panic.

See, we citizens of Connecticut recognize that it was unchecked, unremitting, unbalanced "pro-business" government that got us to the sticky place we are in currently.

We are tired of scare tactics and top-down solutions.  For all your lobbying and tax cuts of the last decade, the average worker hasn't profited much.  But businesses and business owners have made a heap.  

So you and your folks broke the system and laid people off, and then you tell us that we need YOU as the fix . . . ?!  Please.

Your "scaaary" ad and its jobs figures won't make a dent.  We know who the culprits are: the private and public companies with selfish tunnel-vision, their lobbyists, and the politicians who ask how high when told to jump.

You need to recognize that the times have changed.  The same old tactics won't work.  Have some healthy shame and decency.  Save your money.  Stop running this sorry excuse for an ad and use the money to hire somebody or a bunch of somebodies.

All your commercial is going to do is draw attention to which side you are on . . . the wrong side.

Round and Round We Go

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/05/02/news/metro/c3-_nhbob.txt

Mr. Burns' position and its possible, though unlikely, reinstatement continue to be a matter of great passion and moment here in town, especially among those who simply oppose the current administration.

Sunset for Souter

http://www.slate.com/id/2217434/pagenum/all/#p2

"Souter's current position on the left wing of the court owes much more to movement by the court and the country than to any lurch on his part. The current court, after all, has seven Republican appointees and has been on a steady rightward drift since the Reagan years. The Republican Party has, too. I think Souter is indeed in many ways a Republican; it's just that his sort of Republican no longer really exists."

This expresses precisely the reason I left the Republican Party after my full adult political lifetime (as well as much of my childhood and adolescence).  Those of us in the Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower vein of the party have been more than marginalized.  I suspect this played a huge role in Senator Specter's change of venue, especially following his vilification for his stimulus vote.

The reason I joined the Democratic Party was Mr. Obama, in the interests of full disclosure.  

Justice Souter will be missed as a man whom nobody doubts to have done always what he thought was right on a case by case basis, rather than being overridden by his own sense of ideology.  Farewell, sir.  You've certainly earned your retirement.

CT Gay Marriage Codified

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzpRwGCQ-cTsE0JSAGf3COH_csWgD97NUA700

Connecticut finalizes and codifies gay marriage by healthy margins.  I will argue that this is a healthy and appropriate turn of events.  Gladly, compassion and justice have won out.

Irony of Ironies?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/

This is a survey America will have to contend with.  How is it that certain religious factions are more accepting of torture than others, and especially more than the relatively non-religious?

Qualified Hopefulness?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/30/stocks-big-april-could-be_n_194237.html

Nobody wants to be unrealistically hopeful, but any good news is welcome.  Perhaps, just perhaps, as unpopular as the TARP and its implementation have been . . . perhaps it is working.

Banks aren't lending enough, people are still hurting, and Elizabeth Warren has been warning about waste and corruption, but maybe . . . maybe we've been well shepherded after all.

Maybe.

Aches and Pains

http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/05/01/news/a1_--_arthritis.txt

As a non-baby-boomer who deals with this, I find this troubling and have to wonder what environmental factors might play a part in this seeming epidemic of Arthritis.