Terry Cowgill

All In A Lather

Update 7:30 a.m. Saturday: Colin says  Stop the GOP Whining.

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Jake is torqued off at CNN (and really the entire MSM) for the Clinton operatives who were allowed to ask questions at the YouTube debate Wednesday night. CNN, of course, did not disclose the questioners’ connections with the Clinton campaign.

Jake and others are convinced that CNN deliberately allowed Retired Brig. General Keith H. Kerr to ask a pointed question about gays in the military (click on the Kerr image above to see it) just to embarrass the Republicans. This is presumably because CNN wants Hillary to win or because liberal news executives want to show the nation what homophobes and bigots the Republicans are. The controversy has also become fodder for humor, generating yet more free publicity for Google.

I don’t think it’s quite that neat, however. I saw the post-debate analysis and when a guest pointed out the association between the general and the Hillary campaign, Anderson Cooper seemed genuinely taken aback. I really don’t think CNN executives thought, “Hey, we can get some partisans Dems to expose the Republicans for the [expletives deleted] they really are.”

Continue reading All In A Lather…

Slow Going

Sorry for the sparse blogging since the holiday weekend. I have been swamped and, frankly, I just haven’t felt up to writing much in this space.

I’ll have a post up soon on the big story in the LJ this week (penned by yours truly) on the relatively last-minute move by Hotchkiss to offer a new 50-year lease for the town of Salisbury to keep its transfer station right where it is.

Click here to listen to my appearance on Marshall & Mike this morning. It’ll give you a pretty good run-down on this week’s top stories. I also appeared on the Journalists’ Roundtable this morning on WAMC. Evidently, they didn’t think enough of my brief appearance to put my voice up on the program’s podcast page.

Stay tuned and thanks for your patience …

Cardinal Sin

Someone help me, please. I’ve got a minor problem.

For about four years now, a male cardinal (hard to tell if it’s the same one) lights in a lilac bush near a first floor window of my house. Then the dopey bird looks over at the window and dive bombs it repeatedly.

Happens once a month or more. No kidding. He flies 3 or 4 feet and crashes right into one of the panes. He does this 15-20 times before giving up and going — where? — to another house and doing the same thing?

He started out a few years ago crashing into a garage window facing south. Recently he has settled on a living room window facing west (see photo above). A deranged bird with a death wish? It had occurred to me and my son that perhaps the cardinal could see his reflection in the window and assumed it was an intruder, and so attacked (repeatedly and unsuccessfully).

Anyone ever heard of this before? Short of covering up my beautiful Pella windows, what can I do? Will repeated smackings damage the window or hurt the bird?

Rich Or Richer?

I’m always amused when my Democratic friends tell me the Republicans represent the rich, while the Dems are the party of the downtrodden and the working class. It was probably true at one time. Indeed, before I came to my senses a few years ago, I believed it, too.

It reminds me of the story about former NBA great Charles Barkley, who while contemplating a run for governor of his native Alabama, was berated by his own mother. She said (and I am paraphrasing here), “How can you belong to the Republican Party? They only care about rich people.”

To which Sir Charles replied, “Mom, we’re rich.” But I digress …

This study by the conservative Heritage Foundation takes a look at the hard numbers and concludes just the opposite. The Dems in Congress tend to represent wealthier people than the Republicans.

The foundation’s findings are consistent with what I see here in the Northwest Corner. The Democratic Party used to represent laborers (and their unions), but now the GOP has more working class supporters and the Dems are becoming increasingly elitist. I know committed liberals who deny this, but the numbers don’t lie.

[BTW, I suspect the migration of the working class to the GOP has less to do with economics than with social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.]

Witness the Dems joining the bandwagon to eliminate the alternative minimum tax and their reluctance to replace it with a tax hike on hedge fund managers. No, I’m not making this up. Democratic congressmen and senators, particularly those in the northeastern states (and even Charlie Rangel), know their constituents.

Next thing you know, Teddy Kennedy will be calling for an extension of the estate tax repeal …

Thankful For What?

I know there are occasional cultural differences between the newcomers and those of us who have lived here for awhile, but I love it when people move to a town and fall in love with it. Good for you, Dan. I’ll bet there are a lot of people in Falls Village who are thankful you’re there, too.

As for me, these are my thoughts at Thanksgiving 2007. Now it’s time to watch my beloved Cowboys and let my meal digest. Cheers!

Tuesday’s Musings

Thoughts that crossed my mind as I watched the recent Dems’ debate:

Ever wonder what a Hillary presidency would be like? I’m not looking forward to it, if indeed it ever comes to pass. And it’s not enough to say, as so many have, that at least she’ll be better than GWB. Is that how low the bar has drifted?

So in addition to planted questions, endless triangulating and the vaunted attack machine that rivals anything the Republicans can put together, we have this humorous first-person account of what it’s like to cover her campaign. I’m beginning to wonder if she can beat Mitt Romney, who at this point is best positioned to be the GOP nominee.

The media can’t stand her because she is profoundly cynical and manipulative, many on the left don’t like her because she is unprincipled and we all know the right sees horns on her head (see image above). If Mitt runs as a fiscal conservative (while distancing himself from GWB’s profligate spending) and a tough-on-terror candidate who could act as a counterweight to the Dem Congress, then he just might beat her. Oh, and a secret plan to end the war might help.

As for her positions on the issues, it’s hard to know where she stands on most of them. Hillary proposes new spending but (to my knowledge) has not proposed any new taxes, except possibly on “the wealthy.” Will she be a centrist president, as she appears to be now, or will she turn sharply to the left once she gets in office? Only she knows the answer … well, maybe not.

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I wonder if the Dems can hold on to their fragile majority in Congress. If they keep pulling moves like Nancy Pelosi has recently, they just might be in trouble, as Dem Majority Leader Steny Hoyer himself has complained.

It’s counterintuitive to argue that employers should not be able to require that their employees speak English on the job. Far from being “symbolic of “bigotry and prejudice,” I’d argue that it’s consistent with the spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation. What better way to keep Latinos socially segregated from English-speakers than to be an enabler of those who refuse to learn our language?

Continue reading Tuesday’s Musings…

Wheat From The Braff

Update 5 p.m. Saturday: Here is a link to the complete text of today’s Waterbury Republican article on Braff. This blogger has copied and pasted the entire story into his own blog. Don’t know whether what he did is legal or considered “fair use.”

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What an interesting case this is. A student newspaper editor at a major Connecticut university could lose his job for speaking out against that institution.

[Aside: Unfortunately the Waterbury Republican has put half of the above linked article behind a pay wall. Plus, today’s front-page print edition update article doesn’t seem be to anywhere on the Rep-Am.com website and there’s nothing I could find in any other publications, so you’ll have to take my word on some of it.]

Here is the Cliff Notes version: Jason Braff, editor of the Quinnipiac Chronicle, is on the hot seat for going public with his disagreement with university administrators. But those same administrators don’t even have the guts to tell Braff they don’t like his criticisms. They insist that in granting an interview with the Republican (published Oct. 30) that Braff merely violated the university’s policy of not allowing students to speak to the media without prior approval from Quinnipiac’s PR people.

In that interview, Braff branded the school’s policy of not allowing the Chronicle to post articles on its website before the the print edition comes out as “ridiculous.” Pretty strong stuff, eh? So administrators, who have suggested Braff reconsider whether he should continue in his role, have scheduled a meeting with the student editor for after Thanksgiving.

Continue reading Wheat From The Braff…

LJ 11.15.07

There’s a relatively late-breaking story leading on the front page that Hud Connery is out as CEO of Essent Healthcare, which bought Sharon Hospital five years ago and which Connery himself founded in 1999. And the Luke-Fitting Committee has recommended the purchase of its namesake properties as a site for the new Salisbury-Sharon transfer station.

Karen Bartomioli has penned a gem of a profile on Cornwall’s Dave Cadwell, who is one of the subjects of Tom Brokaw’s new book, “Boom: Voices of the ’60s.” Karen also had an interesting email exchange with Brokaw.

In other town news, the Salisbury Board of Selectmen honored Peter Oliver for his long tenure on the board (link not available). Connecticut’s hideous minority representation law has created a problem for the Board of Finance. And John Thornton will speak at this weekend’s Salisbury Forum at Hotchkiss.

The recounting has been completed in North Canaan and the new Board of Selectmen is now in place. See also our editorial on the aftermath of the election and yet another letter to the editor another on … Lime Rock Park (link not available).

Speaking of North Canaan, the new State Line Package Store opens today as the first tenant of the new plaza next to the Super Stop & Shop. And from Karen’s photo, it looks like the store will have a great selection of wines.

In Cornwall, an idiot has vandalized the tower on Mohawk Mountain, while in Kent, the town is preparing yet another response to the Schaghticokes. In sports, the Housatonic Valley Regional High School volleyball team has advanced to the state semifinals, while the football team walked all over Windsor Locks 49-22.

In Compass, look for Judy Linscott’s feature on baking apple pies, Marsden Epworth’s visit to McEnroe Organics‘ turkeys and Alex Taylor’s film review of ‘Lions For Lambs.”

Earthquake Over The Border

No, we’re not talking the San Andreas Fault, but there’s a chasm near us!

There’s been a lot of chatter about our elections here in Connecticut’s Northwest Corner, where there were too few challengers and where almost all the incumbents were returned to office. But if you want to see a town where politics is lively and where incumbents beware, look no farther than our neighbor to the wild, wild west.

When I worked at The Millerton News from 1996 to 2001, I covered the town of Amenia, N.Y. I went to virtually every town council meeting and most planning board meetings. I got to know the movers and shakers in a town has been divided ever since the 1970s, at least.

All of our local towns go through quiet and noisy phases. Falls Village, for example, which has been described (by me) as “the Amenia of the Northwest Corner,” is currently in a quiet phase after years of noisiness during the administration of former First Selectman Gabriel Seymour in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And Salisbury, Sharon and North Canaan do perk up from time to time.

But if there’s one political constant in these parts, it’s that Amenia is a fascinating place where deep divisions rear their ugly heads at every turn and where major-office incumbents almost never go unchallenged. Last week’s elections are a case in point.

Continue reading Earthquake Over The Border…

Monday’s Thoughts

For all those who have fretted repeatedly about our loss of civil liberties during the GWOT, how about a little perspective? THIS is losing your civil liberties in the fight against terror. Even lawyers in three-piece suits have been demonstrating in the streets and getting arrested. Quite a sight …

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I am sad to report that a school voucher program in Utah that I have blogged about before has failed in a referendum after having passed in the state legislature. It was an innovative program that would have actually increased the per pupil state aid for public schools even when students choice out to a private school.

But teachers unions opposed it nonetheless. Any threat to the power of the NEA and its locals prompts dire warnings about uncertified teachers in the classrooms and a lack of “accountability” in private schools. From what I can tell, Pete duPont and Michael Barone got it right in today’s WSJ and RCP, respectively.