Jonathan Kantrowitz

Read all about it here.

So, all public financing of campaigns is ended for now. Atty General Dick Blumenthal will certainly appeal, and ask for a stay. But new legislation will be required sooner or later.

Around 150 members of Connecticut’s Working Families Party will meet Saturday Morning for the fast-growing minor party’s Annual Meeting.

Four potential candidates for Governor will be participating in the party’s Gubernatorial Forum, where WFP members will ask questions about Working Families’ priority issues, like healthcare, the economy, education and paid sick days.

Former Speaker of the House Jim Amann, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, State Senator Gary LeBeau and Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy will be participating in the Gubernatorial forum.

The Annual Meeting will be held at CCSU’s Institute for Technology and Business Development at 185 Main St, New Britain, on the 2nd Floor. The Gubernatorial Forum will run from 9:30 to 10:30.

Unlike other minor parties, Working Families often cross-endorses a major party candidate who committed to the party’s priority issues, like affordable healthcare, good jobs and fair taxes.

In the 2008 elections, about 85,000 Connecticut voters cast their votes on the Working Families Party Line – or about 5% of the vote statewide. Many observers say that many votes could make the difference in a close statewide race.

Major party candidates who receive the endorsement of the Working Families Party appear twice on the ballot: once on the major party’s line and once on the Working Families Party line. Votes cast on the Working Families Party line count toward the candidate’s total. But Working Families leaders say, voting on the Working Families Party also sends a powerful message.

“When you vote on the Working Families Party line, your vote counts for the candidate, but it also sends a powerful message to all politicians that it’s time to focus on the issues that really effect working families, like affordable healthcare, good jobs, fair taxes and quality schools,” said Art Perry, political director of SEIU local 32NJ and member of the Working Families Party State Committee.

The Working Families Party has announced endorsements in municipal races around the state. In New Britain, the party is cross-endorsing Tim O’Brien for Mayor, Suzanne Bielinski for Town and City Clerk, Greg Gerratana for Tax Collector, Mike Trueworthy and Paul Catenzero for Aldermen at Large, Marie Lausch for Alderman, Ward 1 and Phil Sherwood for Alderman, Ward 4.

After the Annual Meeting, members of Working Families will hold a press conference in support of Tim O’Brien for Mayor of New Britain at City Hall.

“I have always believed that it is important to stand up for working people – for good paying jobs, affordable quality health care and family-friendly policies,” said Tim O’Brien. “That is why, as the Democratic candidate for Mayor, I am proud to accept the Working Families endorsement.”

The WFP has also announced cross-endorsements in Norwalk, Waterbury/ In addition, WFP is fielding some of its own candidates for Board of Education in Hartford and Bridgeport.

In Hartford, WFP members currently holds two seats of nine of the City Council and one of the four elected seats on Board of Education. In 2008, Working Families made history in Hartford by electing Urania Petit the first minor party Registrar of Voters in Connecticut history.

Working Families is a minor political party in Connecticut formed by a coalition of community organizations, labor unions and neighborhood activists who united to fight for a fair economy. The Working Families Party was formed to inject issues like healthcare, quality education, and livable wages into the public debate, and to hold politicians accountable on those issues.

Three events specifically address health care reform:

Greenwich
Mon, August 31: 6:30-8:00pm
Greenwich Town Hall
101 Field Point Road, Greenwich

Norwalk
Wed, September, 2: 6:30-8:30pm
Norwalk City Hall
125 East Avenue, Norwalk

Bridgeport
Thu, September 3: 6:30-8:00pm
City Hall Council Chambers
5 Lyon Terrace, Bridgeport

And he has agreed to attend a Republican-sponsored forum on health care tomorrow (Saturday), which has engendered a great deal of controversy.

In addition to the specific health care forums mentioned above, on Sunday, August 30, he will be holding more of what he calls Congress on Your Corner sessions where he will be accessible to anyone who would like to discuss concerns with federal issues with me.

Weston
Sun, August 30: 1:00-2:30pm
Weston Town Hall Meeting Room
56 Norfield Road, Weston

Wilton
Sun, August 30: 3:00-4:30pm
Wilton Town Hall Annex
238 Danbury Road, Wilton

Finally, he has a new feature on his website that allows anyone to see where and whenhe will be holding public events across the district. available:

Connecticut Voices for Children, a research-based policy think tank, challenged the Governor’s statement in her news release about her budget proposal that “[o]ver the past 20 years, state spending has far outstripped the ability of Connecticut taxpayers to pay for it.” It also challenged the usefulness of the data she used to support her argument.

A table accompanying the Governor’s news release cited annual state spending figures from 1987 to 2009. However, these figures were not adjusted for many factors, including inflation (particularly the rapid increase in health care costs, a large portion of the state budget), thus exaggerating the extent of state spending growth. The Governor’s table also failed to account for other important factors that affect state spending, such as growth in the state’s population (6.5% between 1990 and 2007, including a growing number of seniors) and the economy (40% growth in Gross State Product, in inflation-adjusted dollars; or 167% growth, not adjusting for inflation).

In 2006, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston ranked Connecticut highest among all states in “fiscal capacity,” its ability to fund needed public investments from its own state and local revenues.

Connecticut lags behind other states’ public investments as a percentage of our state’s personal income, according to U.S. Census data:

On investing in Connecticut’s infrastructure through state and local capital spending, and spending on highways and natural resources, Connecticut ranks lowest (50th);

On state and local total direct spending, Connecticut ranks 2nd lowest (49th);

On state and local spending on all education and on higher education, Connecticut ranks 4th lowest (47th);

On assistance to Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations, Connecticut’s state and local spending on public welfare ranks 5th lowest (46th).

Connecticut enjoys the nation’s third highest median household income ($65,967 in 2007, 30% higher than the national average), according to U.S. Census data.

Over the last two decades, the gap in average, inflation-adjusted income between wealthy and poor Connecticut families and the income gap between wealthy and middle-income families have grown more in Connecticut than in any other state in the country, according to an analysis by Connecticut Voices for Children.

I don’t blame Obama for the health care debacle so far, although Clive Cook says I should.

And Kirby from CT Bob thinks it’s time for him to step up to the plate.

But I agree with Ross Douthat who says Don’t Blame Obama

Health care reform is the Democratic Party’s signature issue. Its wonks have thought longer and harder about it than any other topic. Its politicians are vastly better at talking about the subject than Republicans: if an election is fought over health care, bet on the Democrat every time. And for all the complexity involved, it’s arguably easier to tackle than other liberal priorities. It’s more popular than cap and trade, it’s less likely to split the party than immigration and it’s more amenable to technocratic interventions than income inequality.

If the Congressional Democrats can’t get a health care package through, it won’t prove that President Obama is a sellout or an incompetent. It will prove that Congress’s liberal leaders are lousy tacticians, and that its centrist deal-makers are deal-makers first, poll watchers second and loyal Democrats a distant third. And it will prove that the Democratic Party is institutionally incapable of delivering on its most significant promises.

It’s the Blue Dogs and Purple Cows of the Democratic Party I blame – including all 5 Connecticut congressman who have yet to take the “no public option, no health care reform” pledge.

Governor Rell today presented a “compromise” budget. It still protects the rich.

The Governor’s fourth budget plan cuts spending by $520 million, eliminates the “inheritance” tax, reduces the sales tax from 6 percent to 5.5 percent and exempts small and medium-sized businesses from the temporary 10 percent corporate surcharge proposed in her last budget plan and the Democrats’ last plan.

On the revenue side, this plan calls for increasing the income tax to 6.5 percent on individuals earning $500,000 per year and joint filers earning $1 million or more. The plan would also increase the tax on cigarettes from 2 to 3 dollars.

How outrageous is this? The governor generously agrees to tax family income of the rich she has so hard tried to protect, but only those making, after deductions, OVER $1 million per year. But wait, she gives even that back by ELIMINATING THE ESTATE TAX. The Estate TAX is due only on estates of MORE THAN $2 MILLION.

In exchange, the Governor is requiring that Democrats identify an additional $520 million in spending cuts.

How ridiculous is that? She runs the state government (theoretically). Shouldn’t the people who run the government identify places where spending can be cut, NOT the legislature? This is passing the buck, literally, in a big, big way – and its all politics, nothing else.

Many have already written off Obama as the unemployment rate continues to climb, health care reform continues to founder, a history of prisoner abuse continues to fester, and idiotic attacks on his birth continue to be flung.

But a new nationwide poll of American voters shows President Obama leading major 2012 Republican presidential contenders. The survey, conducted by Clarus Research Group shows Obama leading GOP challengers by margins ranging from 9 to 19 points.

In the poll, Obama led:

• Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, by nine points: 47 percent to 38 percent, with 15 percent undecided.
• Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, by 10 points: 48 percent to 38 percent, with 15 percent undecided.
• Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, by 18 points: 52 percent to 34 percent, with 15 percent undecided.
• Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, by 19 points: 53 percent to 34 percent, with 13 percent undecided.

The Clarus poll also found Romney leading other possibilities for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination among Republicans and independents who lean Republican. Romney captured 30 percent of their support for the nomination, followed by Huckabee with 22 percent, Palin 19 percent, Gingrich 15 percent, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal 4 percent. Two percent of the sample volunteered someone else and 10 percent were undecided.

Obama continues to do well among his base constituencies: African Americans, voters younger than 30 and Democrats, according to the Clarus poll

Clarus conducted the nationwide survey August 14-18, 2009 with a sample of 1,003 registered voters in the U.S. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent. The poll was conducted via telephone by live interviewers.

I wrote recently about the overall benefits of a good diet. I’d like to focus now on specific foods. I try to eat/drink the following foods almost every day: tea (white, green, oolong, each with a little bit of orange juice), red wine (or once in a while, beer), oatmeal (with raisins), apple, dark chocolate, yogurt, a variety of fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish (especially salmon).

I also try to eat at least a few times a week: soy, broccoli, olive oil, and tomato sauce.

For a discussion of the recent research about each of these item, click on the links below:

Green Tea and more here.

White Tea

White Tea vs. Green Tea

Red Wine and more here and here and here and here.

Dark Chocolate

Fish

Nuts

Oatmeal

Yogurt

Apples and more here and here.

Beer (Alcohol)

Broccoli

Soy

I don’t drink coffee, but lots of research on how good it is for you here.

More on alcohol, apples, caffeine. dark chocolate, fish, green tea, oatmeal and red wine.

More on broccoli, fish, green tea, and alcohol and wine.