In Michael Moore's new film "SiCKO" there's a brief moment which should bring gladness to the hearts of many a Connecticut democrat. As Moore is railing against politicians bought and paid for by the drug industry he puts a dollar figure over their heads.
Moore voice over: "Here's what it cost to buy this woman."
"She" was followed by Tom DeLay in the clip. And "she" received $45,900 from Aetna alone last election cycle. Who is "she"?
Have you heard this one? A minister and a rabbi walk into the Courant and write an op-ed about torture.
On Oct. 17, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, which was rushed through Congress just in time for the campaign season. By undermining the moral values and legal traditions on which America was founded, this shameful law threatens the soul of our nation.
Three Connecticut Representatives and one of our Senators voted for this law: Chris Shays, Nancy Johnson, Rob Simmons and Joe Lieberman. The new law will allow torture to continue to be carried out in our names. When challenged, these legislators argue that the law explicitly forbids the practice of torture. And indeed, there is language in the law that provides this political cover. But taken in its entirety, the Military Commissions Act allows prisoner abuse to continue. It grants impunity to the civilians who authorized, tolerated and perpetrated torture since 9/11, and makes it much less likely that future torturers will be held accountable for their actions.
Nancy Johnson pulled an old political trick: Introduce a bill that might actually help seniors, then let it die in committee to screw the old bastards, just like your Big Pharma contributors want.
The bill would have eliminated penalties against seniors who missed an enrollment deadline for the new Medicare prescription drug plan. Though Johnson is the chairwoman of a health subcommittee, she never pushed for a vote, Murphy said.
"This was either an intentional bait and switch or shows an inability to lead her committee," said Murphy.
Under the penalty, seniors who missed the May 15 deadline face a minimum 6 percent increase in their premiums, Murphy said.
The House Ways and Means committee and the Health Subcommittee met a total of 12 times, Murphy said, and neither took action on the bill.
A poll commissioned by the National Republican Congressional Committee shows Johnson leading Democrat Chris Murphy by 10 points. A separate poll commissioned by Murphy's campaign says the race is a dead heat.
Both polls, however, show Murphy, a state senator from Cheshire, closing the gap.
Biased though I am, I'd trust Murphy's poll if only because the Republican poll was conducted in the context of testing anti-Murphy negative messages.
Republicans have a history of promoting questionable polls that show their guy way ahead, but I wonder why in this post-Foley moment, when there is a very real possibility that Republican voters will simply stay home on election day, the Republicans are telling people that Nancy is comfortably ahead?
There's been an hue and cry over what to do with political contributions received from pedophile Congressman Mark Foley. The RNCC plans to keep the half milllion they got from Foley to help elect more "family values" phonis to the House.
In Connecticut's 5th District, Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson said she would return $1,000 that Foley's campaign donated to her re-election bid in December. She is running against Democrat Chris Murphy.
What a nice gesture, Nancy. Now he'll be able to use the money for his legal defense. Even the racist pig Senator George Allen will donate the money he got from Foley to an "appropriate charity."
Good grief! Nancy Johnson's response to Chris Murphy telling the truth about how her drug-industry-funded health care policies are screwing Connecticut's seniors is to launch a full-scale Rovian Big Lie campaign.
A crowd of about 15 Nancy Johnson supporters briefly gathe ed outside Chris Murphy's campaign headquarters Friday afternoon holding signs a d accusing Murphy of "scarin
A number of those protesting at the West Main Street site were senior citizens themselves who expressed concern over losing Medicare.
"These seniors here support Medicare," said Ken Hiscoe, campaign director for Nancy Johnson. "Chris Murphy wants to destroy Medicare Part D."
The protesters chanted phrases such as "Shame on Murphy," "Stop scaring seniors" and "Stop the attacks," prompting passing motorists to honk their horns in support.
"He has been scaring seniors for the past year and a half and it's reprehensible that he would use senior citizens for his own political gain," said Hiscoe.
Louis Salvio, Republican minority leader of the Common Council, also held up a sign and took part in the protest.
And editorial in The Day tells it like it is. After citing the use of the "treason" smear by Republicans from McCarthy to Boehner, the writer goes on...
And then there's Congresswoman Nancy Johnson. She doesn't exactly call opponent Chris Murphy a traitor but a Johnson TV ad labels him “wrong on security, wrong for America.” What's truly wrong is the content of her ad.
Johnson to the rescue
“A call is placed from New York to a known terrorist in Pakistan. A terrorist plot may be unfolding,” warns the agitated narrator. “Should the government intercept the call or wait until the paperwork is filed? Nancy Johnson says act immediately. Lives may be at stake. Liberal Chris Murphy says no—apply for a court warrant even if valuable time is lost.”
The ad ends with the stirring sight of Johnson amid a group of aging veterans looking to the heavens and saluting.
The ad is simply not true. The law allows the government to intercept the call first and gives authorities 72 hours to go to court and say why the intercept was necessary. Johnson approved the message and every lie in it but the ad continues to be played several times a day, drowning out “Liberal” Murphy's denial.
It should be noted traitorous charges aren't confined to politicians. Right- wing radio hosts are notorious for making them and in Connecticut, we also have the editorial page of the Waterbury Republican-American.
When Chris Dodd endorsed Lamont, his party's primary victor, an editorial in that paper called the senator “a long time useful idiot of hard-line socialists and communists from the Red Chinese to Fidel Castro to Hugo Chavez, Sen. Dodd is comfortable supporting purges and aligning himself with people of Red Ned Lamont's politics and pedigree.”
To characterize Lamont as Red Ned, an earlier editorial fell back on the old guilt by association device. Corliss Lamont, the candidate's grand uncle, was a very rich Marxist intellectual so it was only logical for the editorial to conclude that “Red Ned may label himself a progressive but when he espouses the goals shared by Marx, Lenin, Castro et al, he gives away his true color.”
Joe McCarthy is long gone but his soul goes marching on in Waterbury.
Ouch! Ken Dixon of the Connecticut Post really lets Nancy have it on her dumb as dirt terrorist spot -- and takes a swipe at Rob Simmons for good measure.
The 12-term Johnson is so desperate to keep her comfy $158,100-a-year House seat, her talons so tightly clutched around a state-record tenure in Congress and her elevated spot in the GOP food chain, that her desperate slashes at Murphy betray an attitude better examined by psychologists than political scientists.
Johnson's SWAT team even stooped to criticize Murphy's spelling last week. His people made the mistake of charging that Johnson "tows" the Bush administration line, rather than "toes" the line. Her vicious attacks at Murphy make three-term U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons's TV bombardment of the open-mouthed Democrat Joe Courtney look like prime-time comedy. I don't think that Simmons, R-2, is any less desperate than Johnson, though he does prove than anybody looks good in a submarine-patterned necktie.
It seems like it was a lifetime ago that a politician could get away with blatantly insulting an ethnic minority. Nancy Johnson apparently didn't get the memo.
Pakistanis in the 5th Congressional District are demanding U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson pull a television ad that depicts Pakistan as a terrorist haven, a spokesman for a Pakistani-American group said Friday.
"This was just a blundering mistake," said Saud Anwar, of the state chapter of the Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee.
He predicted it will cost Johnson many votes in the Pakistani community, which he said has grown sizable in the 5th District and throughout Connecticut.
"We are, as a community, very upset," Anwar said.
(Aside: Anyone know how many Pakistanis there are in the 5th CD?)
Johnson, tone deaf to a fault, defended her campaign's stupidity.
"The spot is accurate and true," Johnson said. . . . Campaigning in Waterbury, Johnson said Friday that she was only using Pakistan as an example. She made no mention of any objections from the state's Pakistani community.
"In the back reaches of Pakistan where Pakistan meets Afghanistan, it is one of the regions in which lots of this communication comes and goes, but there are also parts of Pakistan where known terrorists have lived for quite a long time, and do live. It was just an example. It is not the only place. It is just an example," Johnson said.
What's next? An anti-crime spot featuring Italian mobsters and black teenagers? An ad touting her aid to alcoholism rehab programs featuring Irish drunks stumbling out of the Blarney Stone Pub?
Nancy Johnson is showing her true colors, but she's trying to do it discreetly. Don Michak is on slime patrol.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson on Monday held a much-publicized fundraiser in Danbury with U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican a d possible presidential candida
But Johnson, R-5th District, also is scheduled to hold another fundraiser across the state line next month that is likely to receive far less attention.
That event, a $500-per-person cocktail party at a hotel near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is being sponsored by several associates of former Gov. John G. Rowland and state Treasurer Paul J. Silvester, both of whom were convicted and jailed on federal corruption charges.
Michak goes on to air at some length the dirty linen of Nancy's "hosts." Disgusting.
Chris Murphy delivered the Dem response to Bush's weekly radio address and took the opportunity to slam Nancy Johnson on Medicare.
"The Bush administration announced this week that Medicare premiums will be going up again and could even carry a new, expensive monthly fee," Murphy said. "This new tax on seniors will affect millions of Americans and thousands of people in Connecticut."
The Medicare law is complicated and at least part of the blames lies with Johnson, he said. Johnson heads the House Ways and Means' subcommittee on health.
"She wrote the confusing Medicare law in 2003," he said. "She is also one of many Republicans who opposes allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices - a Democratic idea and, more importantly, a good idea."
Johnson's campaign spokesliar took the position that seniors are too stupid to realize that that the rectal discomfort they're experiencing isn't a holdover from their last sigmoidoscopy.
The Journal Inquirer has a great editorial that absolutely nails the astounding hypocrisy of Nancy Johnson.
First Johnson, who represents Connecticut's 5th Congressional District, the northwest part of the state, raises millions of dollars for her re-election campaign from special interests, particularly from the medical and pharmaceutical industries, over which she has great influence as a high-ranking member of the Republican majority on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Then Johnson's campaign produces and broadcasts a series of commercials portraying her as a caring grandmother looking after everyone. Oh, look -- There's Nancy getting free prescriptions for all the old folks. And there's Nancy attending the memorial service of someone who was killed in the terrorist attack on New York, earning the gratitude of the victim's family and proving that she REALLY CARES.
(Edited slightly for style. - promoted by BranfordBoy)
I sent this article to four newspapers: Lakeville Journal, Hartford Courant, Litchfield Times and Waterbury Republican - none of them published it. Well, maybe here it gets some attention.
While misguided unions across the state are bending over and spreading 'em for Joe Lieberman, the great centrist himself is probably jetting about the world on their bosses' nickel.
In Connecticut, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-5th Dist., lead the way in jetting on someone else's dime. ... Lieberman and his staff took 130 trips, more than twice as many as any other member of the Connecticut delegation during the period covered by the report, with private interests footing the $119,000 bill.
Walter Shapiro, writing in Salon, uses the Murphy-Johnson race in the 5th District as a stepping off point for a discussion of the Dems' chances in the midterm election.
A letter soliciting for a hospital-sponsored fundraiser for Nancy Johnson may have violated the law, reports The Corner Report.
The letter may have violated several federal election laws: While a for profit corporation may hold fundraisers for politicians, they are prohibited from making donations as a corporate entity unless they register as a political action committee. A corporate PAC would be allowed to solicit campaign donations only from executives and stockholders, and a solicitation letter must include a statement that employees will not be punished if they don’t participate.
This message is being sent to folks on the New Haven Democratic Party Meetup list:
We can't remove George Bush, but we can limit his powers in
Congress in 2006. Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government
(www.ctcitizens.org, formerly New Haven for Kerry) is working
toward this goal over the next two years. We start at home,
with the three Republican members of the House: Rob Simmons
(2nd district, Stonington), Christopher Shays (4th district,
Bridgeport) and Nancy Johnson (5th district, New Britain).
Remember, the first vote each cast in the current session
resulted in the election of Tom Delay as the Majority Leader.
Every seat we can change in Connecticut is one less seat for
the Republicans and one more for the Democrats.
We are starting today. The first step is to register more
Democratic voters, then have them vote in the 2005 elections.
We will focus on the 2nd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts.
For the next three months we plan to conduct voter registration
drives in the areas where we stand the best chance of bringing
more people into the fold. In November, we will conduct an
absentee ballot and get out the vote drive using phone banks.
This will accomplish three major results. First, we will get
new voters in the habit of voting. Each voter we register will
be another vote in 2006 and one step closer to reducing Bush's
majority in the House. Third, we will use this as a dress
rehearsal for our activities next year.
Keep an eye out for the first drive.
We can change the government in Washington and we will do it
one vote at a time.
-----
The New Haven Democratic Party Meetup group is now active as
Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government. Visit www.
ctcitizens.org for more information about our group and
listings of area political events, or contact ctcitizens@gmail.
com.
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