Free Republic

Friday's state Supreme Court decision granting same-sex couples extraordinary marriage rights changes nothing. And everything. The 4-3 vote mirrored the razor-thin margins of high-court rulings that imposed homosexual marriage upon Massachusetts in 2004 and California in May. One would have hoped in each instance, justices would have paused to consider the magnitude of their decisions and sought unanimity. After all, marriage between a man and a woman has been civilization's bedrock institution for millennia. It was society's acknowledgment that for every child, there is a father and a mother, accountable to each other and the child. But no more. Now,...

UPDATE: US Sen Dodd To Introduce Consumer Protection BillBy Patrick Yoest Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said Tuesday that he plans to unveil a legislative package including consumer protection measures pertaining to credit cards, predatory lending, bankruptcies and subprime mortgages. Dodd, D-Conn., said that he will seek passage of the package - either on its own or as part of an economic stimulus bill - as soon as mid-November, when the Senate will hold a lame-duck work session after the Nov. 4 election Dodd framed the package as a counterpart to a...

O'jahnae Smith is ready and registered to vote this November. There's only one problem: She's 7 years old. The Connecticut girl is 11 years too young - and nobody in her family knows how she ended up on a voter registration form submitted by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "She's registered to vote?" said a surprised Jerome Smith, O'jahnae's teenage brother. "She's too young to vote." But that didn't stop someone from forging the child's signature on a voter registration card and giving her a fake birth date that upped her age to 27. The family...

Meeting with the General Assembly's Banks Committee last Monday, state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier said the state pension fund had lost more than 10 percent of its value in recent months. But, she added, the people covered by the fund -- state employees, municipal teachers, and retired state employees and teachers -- shouldn't worry about it. For state government's obligations to them are set by law and contract, and so the beneficiaries are not on the hook -- only Connecticut's taxpayers are. Over the rest of the week the stock market fell more than another 10 percent. Nappier didn't quite...

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage yesterday, ruling that it "discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation" in violation of the state constitution.

Floridians, when you cast your ballot on the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment this year, look at Massachusetts, California – and now Connecticut. Contrary to claims of the liars attempting to scare Floridians into voting against the marriage amendment because of the false assertions that the measure is about everything other than marriage, the Connecticut Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling today legalizing “gay marriage” is the latest reminder of why we need Amendment 2. This is not an academic, esoteric debate. The Florida Marriage Protection Amendment (also known as Amendment 2) is Floridians’ chance to settle the definition of marriage in our...

Los Angeles - Emphasizing the urgency of California’s Proposition 8--ProtectMarriage.com, today the Connecticut Supreme Court legalized gay marriage by a narrow margin, 4-3. Close votes also defined gay marriage in the states of Massachusetts and California. The State of Iowa was also scheduled this week to hear arguments on same sex marriage. In answer to today’s decision, the Protect Marriage Coalition and its volunteers are stepping up efforts and continuing their unprecedented grassroots campaign across the state of California. This weekend hundreds of thousands of lawn signs will appear on lawns in every community. Church services in some African American...

The state Supreme Court's 4-3 decision Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry swept through the state with the force of a cultural tidal wave. While lead plaintiff Beth Kerrigan and her partner -- soon to be wife -- embraced and sobbed after learning of the ruling, opponents vowed to pursue a long and complicated route to change the constitution to ban gay marriage. The Supreme Court released its historic ruling at 11:30 a.m. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory and that the state's "understanding of marriage...

HARTFORD - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions. The divided court ruled 4-3 that gay and lesbian couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry under the state constitution, and Connecticut's civil unions law does not provide those couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples. "I can't believe it. We're thrilled, we're absolutely overjoyed. We're finally going to be able, after 33 years, to get married," said Janet Peck of Colchester, who was a plaintiff with her partner, Carole...

Do you agree with the State Supreme Court's decision on same sex marriage?They ruled that the ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

A deceptively simple question on Connecticut’s ballot next month (Nov. 2008) is stirring up rallies against gay marriage, counterdemonstrations, demands for direct initiatives and fears of big-money lobbying campaigns by right-wing groups. Voters will be asked whether the state should hold its first constitutional convention in more than 40 years. Those in favor want to change the Connecticut Constitution to allow for direct initiative, which would mean voters could call for ballot measures on any legislative matter. Those opposed believe voter-driven initiatives in other states have been misused by special interest groups. [ snip ] Those opposed to gay marriage...

Same-sex couples won the right to marry in Connecticut in an historic ruling by the Supreme Court today. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory. In a 4-3 decision released at 11:30 a.m., the majority wrote that the state's "understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection." "Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,"...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry.

Do you think John McCain's latest statements about Barack Obama and William Ayers are fair?

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism. Since the 1930s, U.S. banks were the flagships of American economic might, and emulation by other nations of the fiercely free-market financial system in the United States was expected and encouraged. But the market turmoil that is draining the nation's wealth and has upended Wall Street now threatens to put the banks at the heart of the U.S. financial system at least partly in the hands of the government. The Bush administration is considering a partial nationalization of some banks, buying up a portion of their...

HARTFORD, Conn. - The State Elections Enforcement Commission is looking into a complaint alleging that a community advocacy group submitted fraudulent voter registration cards in Bridgeport. Joseph Borges, Bridgeport's Republican registrar of voters, filed the complaint. He said he has found problems with numerous voter registration cards submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which works to register low-income people. In one instance, he says a card was filled out for a 7-year-old girl, whose age was listed as 27 on the card.ACORN filed more than 8,000 cards in Bridgeport. The complaint involves 10, but...

Rep Shays Wrong is being done. It's getting worse. Socialism stabilizes nothing. It is just a power grab. So, it does not matter what is the best answer for dealing with this country's financial mess (Thank you, ACORN and the 5 million illegals who own homes). It is only about who has power, who is given power. In the best spirit of the Duma (Russian Parlianment in case you didn't know), you have voted astonishing centralization of financial power. What you don't realize is that increases the chances of catastrophically bad decisions based on wrong premises for how to "stabilize"...

CT officials admitting they know of at least 8,500 dead people who are registered to vote next month. Say they can't get to it until after November 4. Anyone smell an ACORN here? People, this election is being stolen.

Chris Dodd, the populist hero? Chris Dodd, the protector of taxpayers? Chris Dodd, the Sheriff of Wall Street? Puh-leeze. How about Chris Dodd, the guy who helped steer us into this mess in the first place? Or Chris Dodd, the guy who spent a career passing laws friendly to banks and taking gobs of their money whenever election time rolled around? [snip] But Dodd's record is marked by votes to loosen controls over the banking and securities industries that his Senate Banking Committee was supposed to be overseeing. Most notably, Dodd voted to repeal the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, therefore allowing...

Banking on DoddRalph Nader blames "The Senator from Wall Street" for the financial mess we're in Thursday, October 09, 2008 By Andy Bromage Chris Dodd, the populist hero? Chris Dodd, the protector of taxpayers? Chris Dodd, the Sheriff of Wall Street? Puh-leeze. How about, Chris Dodd the guy who helped steer us into this mess in the first place? Or, Chris Dodd the guy who spent a career passing laws friendly to banks and taking gobs of their money whenever election time rolled around? Connecticut's senior senator enjoyed a moment of collective amnesia last week when pundits and the press...

FULD, RICHARD NEW YORK,NY 10285 LEHMAN BROTHERS/MANAGING DIRECTOR 4/9/07 $10,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte (D) FULD, RICHARD NEW YORK,NY 10019 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 1/28/08 $2,000 Reed, Jack (D) FULD, RICHARD S GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 5/29/07 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/CHAIRMAN AND CEO 10/19/07 $2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 LEHMAN BROTHERS/FIANCE 5/30/07 $2,300 Obama, Barack (D) FULD, RICHARD S JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 8/28/08 $-2,300 Clinton, Hillary (D) FULD, RICHARD S MR JR GREENWICH,CT 06831 10/22/07 $10,000 National Republican Senatorial Cmte (R) FULD, RICHARD S MR...

HARTFORD — A Connecticut immigration judge Monday ruled there is sufficient cause to hold hearings to determine whether the arrests of illegal immigrants last year in Greater New Haven violated constitutional protections. Attorneys for 11 of 31 undocumented residents picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in two incidents, one in New Haven, one in North Haven, were pleased with the ruling.

Torrington (AP) -- Electronic messages show Torrington officials believed the high school's principal created fake classes last year to help another employee gain retirement credits. The e-mails show school district officials were reviewing the allegations against Torrington High principal John Metallo when he resigned in August. The Republican-American of Waterbury obtained the messages under the state's open records law. The messages indicate officials accused Metallo of ordering a secretary to establish classes for a popular athletic director without assigning students to them. That would have satisfied rules that the employee had to teach at least three classes per semester to...

Hartford (AP) – Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz says a review of state voter lists for names of dead people won’t be finished by the November 4 election. The review has been going on for six months, ever since University of Connecticut journalism students found that about 8,500 dead people were registered to vote in the state. State election officials have found no evidence of election fraud. Bysiewicz says 5,300 people on voter lists have been confirmed as having died, another 1,300 are under review and the rest of the errors were corrected through the normal voter registration...

An in-depth look at voter rolls across the state by a group of University of Connecticut journalism students earlier this year found that about 8,500 dead people were registered to vote, and that clerical errors made it appear that 300 of them actually had voted. A closer look by state election officials thus far has found no evidence of election fraud, though the review is ongoing. The students' effort focused attention on weaknesses in public record-keeping at the local level that allowed thousands of mistakes to go undetected. After the report appeared in The Courant in April, Secretary of the...

Don Wheatley is standing outside an abortion clinic in Hartford, his rosary beads trailing through his 73-year-old fingers, talking about why he supports John McCain for president. Part of the reason, he says, is the presence of pro-life candidate Sarah Palin on the ticket. Wheatley is Catholic, and avidly pro-life; he comes out here to pray for an end to abortion every week, he says. But it's more complicated than that, of course. There's also his late wife, Lana Sue. Wheatley begins to talk about Lana Sue, and his focus seems to drift away slowly, until his voice falters, and...

We are really desperate here in Bergen County, NJ to get Sarah Palin and Johm McCain to agree to a Rally at Liberty Park, In Jersey City, NJ. In light of Sarah's remarks today on the possible pullout from Michigan, and her stated desire to go there despite things not looking good, we think that if presented with the following letter she might see the advantage of possibly shaking up a few more votes and getting her message out to the people of NJ/NY/CT. They have to pull out all the stops now. . . We are sick of just...

Media bias? Nah. The Hartford Courant last week reported the results of the latest poll of Connecticut voters' opinions on Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Christopher Dodd, and the presidential candidates. The article focused primarily on Sen. Lieberman, whom the Courant once worshiped, but now despises for failing to follow the Democrats into the Land of the Loopy Left. Sen. Dodd, meanwhile, continued to get the benefit of the Courant's lapdoggery. Sen. Lieberman's numbers were reported every which way, and the poll's director capped them off with his two cents: "He's really polling as a weak Republican."...

Wall Street was still dealing with uncertainty about the economy Tuesday, a day after the $700 billion financial bailout plan failed in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, the ripple effect of the nation's financial instability has caused heartache for many middle- and upper-middle-class Americans, and for good reason, said Nick Perna, an economic adviser to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Webster Bank and a visiting lecturer at Yale University. Right now, he said, it's tougher than it has been in decades for the average person with a middle-of-the-road credit score to get approved for any kind of loan — whether to...

Hamden (WTNH) -- The economy affects all of us, including the people who hope to join the business world in the near future. But what does it mean to students in our area? It's the talk of the campus - the economy, the bailout vote and what it means for the future. "It's unfair that the situation is falling down upon us," said Quinnipiac University freshman, Samantha Kline. At QU's School of Business, the average study group quickly turns into a seminar on applied economics. Some feel that Wall Street and Washington have dug a hole that won't be filled...

I am writing on behalf of a group of McCain/Palin volunteers who met last week in Ramsey, NJ, in order to try to get out out the vote and garner support for the 2008 Campaign. . . the most important Presidential Campaign in recent memory. We were wondering if any thought has been given to holding a rally at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, NJ sometime in October? In light of the enormous crowds Sarah Palin has been generating (most recently last week in Florida), we thought a perfect venue for a rally would be right on the Hudson...

Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings. A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. He was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the Republican Party’s evangelical base, opponents of gambling. Mr. McCain was betting at a casino...

With markets continuing to swoon, the next shoe to drop is likely to be hedge funds. That means tough times for hedge-fund filled Greenwich, Conn. (As Nick Paumgarten wrote in the New Yorker magazine recently, “If New York City is the heart of the marketplace, Greenwich is the liver, where toxins are processed and rich bits collect.”) Greenwich collected so many rich bits in recent years that its small population of about 60,000 contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006. In other words, Greenwich pays 13% of all state income taxes in Connecticut with only 1.8% of...

The white lady at the dry cleaner wanted to talk politics, specifically Barack Obama. She liked the Illinois senator, she said, but there was just something she couldn't quite express that was preventing her from voting for him. "I just don't know about him," she blurted. What, I asked her a bit exasperated, did she not know about the man. He's a 47-year-old African American raised mostly by a single white mom. He graduated from Columbia and Harvard, has been a state and U.S. senator for 11 years, has lived in Hawaii and Indonesia, written two books and endured a...

As the nation shuddered upon hearing the gruesome details of Wall Street conniving and how working-class taxpayers would pay the price, John McCain temporarily suspended his campaign to go to Washington. McC strode the halls of Congress working to out-maneuver Dodd/Pelosi/Frank/Reid. So far so good. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson came up with a cockamamie bailout that he claimed would end up making money for the US Treasury. However, backroom Democrats connived to siphon off any repayment of the people’s money back to the treasury by adding one small inocuous line to the agreement----a line that would end up stealing money...

I am writing on behalf of a group of McCain/Palin volunteers who met yesterday in Ramsey, NJ, in order to try to get out out the vote and garner support for the 2008 Campaign. . . the most important Presidential Campaign in recent memory. We were wondering if any thought has been given to holding a rally at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, NJ sometime in October? In light of the enormous crowds Sarah Palin has been generating (most recently yesterday in Florida), we thought a perfect venue for a rally would be right on the Hudson at Liberty,...

New Haven (WTNH) -- The flying of a Mexican flag in the Elm City has angered one group and they've made their thoughts public. The city says their messages sound more like hate. Preparing hot and fresh food from his native Mexico was Felix Rayas' dream. "My dreams is open a grocery store not a restaurant," Rayas, of "El Amigo Felix" restaurant said. But Rayas ended up with a restaurant and enjoys cooking as a head chef. And, thousands of New Haven foodies are glad he went with the restaurant. After 15 years, Rayas is a fixture in New Haven....

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The decision of the Mayor’s Office to put a Mexican flag on its space downtown has caused protesters to storm the area and set off a flurry of racist remarks. Dozens of letters and e-mails recently bombarded the office after the Mexican flag was put up last week for a pair of observances, officials said. People of all races were protesting in the area Thursday, stating that flying the flag of a foreign country won’t be tolerated. "It outrages not just the city of New Haven but people that live in this community, because New Haven...

TV ALERT! - COULTER ON HANNITY & COLMES, THURS, 9/25

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Local Democrats debated a resolution Wednesday to censure Sen. Joe Lieberman. One of the creators of the resolution called Lieberman's speech at the Republican National Convention the final straw. Audrey Blondin introduced a resolution to the Democratic State Central Committee that would censure Lieberman and ask him to resign. "It upsets me, it angers me," Blondin said. "I feel that Democrats have one set of positions, Republicans have another, and that if you are a Democrat, you should be supporting the Democratic ideals and positions." While some in attendance cheered Blondin on, others called the resolution a...

Hartford, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut Democrats are considering whether to ask Sen. Joe Lieberman to leave the party for speaking at the Republicans' convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain. The party scheduled a debate Wednesday night on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask the veteran politician to resign from the Democratic Party. Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in 2006 to businessman Ned Lamont, but while he calls himself an "independent Democrat" in the Senate he remains a registered Democrat and has said he has no plans to...

A group of 10 states, including Maryland and Delaware, are taking steps to monitor global warming. The coalition is called the "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative." They'll conduct the nation's first carbon auction. The auction would put limits on carbon dioxide emissions from utility plants and make them pay for each ton of pollutants. The auction is set for September 25.

The chair of the Connecticut College history department, Catherine McNicol Stock, has suggested that Sarah Palin is somehow associated with Pacific Northwest hate groups such as Posse Comitatus and the Aryan Nations. Her proof? Well, because Palin lived in areas with low "diversity." I kid you not. Here is the professor's "learned thesis" presented in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion column melodramatically titled, "Intolerance thrives in Palin's Pacific Northwest" (emphasis mine): Despite her efforts to portray herself as an average, small-town, "folksy" American, Sarah Palin's political views - ardently pro-gun, pro-censorship, antichoice and antigay - make John McCain's conservative credentials pale...

Blame Rests With Dodd Sen. Christopher Dodd's tiresome tactic of affecting outrage when his integrity is questioned is getting stale. Typical is his questioning the oversight of the Bush administration in relation to the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac debacle [Commentary, Sept. 14, "Rein In Fannie, Freddie? Not Dodd"]. Despite numerous warnings, over a number of years, about the weakness in Fannie and Freddie's capital structure, our senator, chairman of the Senate banking committee, did nothing. He, of course, did have the time to collect more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Freddie and Fannie and managed to get himself a sweetheart...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Mark Poveromo feels ripped off twice over. A judge ordered him to repay money he collected from a builder convicted of stealing from him — and told him to kick in the thief's attorney fees and court costs, too. Legal experts say the case, in which a criminal matter in Connecticut intersects a bankruptcy judgment filed in St. Louis, shows a need for Congress to revise the nation's bankruptcy laws to better treat people who are awarded money as part of a ruling in a criminal case. "This is an outrageous decision," said Anthony Sabino, a...

In early June 2008, Americans learned of a VIP loan program provided to influential politicians by Countrywide Mortgage at the direction of its chairman Angelo Mozilo – and that one of the so-called ‘Friends of Angelo” was none other than Jim Johnson, a former CEO at Fannie Mae who had just been tapped to head Barack Obama’s vice presidential vetting committee. Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. These...

Taxpayers face a tab of as much as $200 billion for a government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the formerly semi-autonomous mortgage finance clearinghouses. And Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has the gall to ask in a Bloomberg Television interview: "I have a lot of questions about where was the administration over the last eight years." We will save the senator some trouble. Here is what we saw firsthand at the White House from late 2002 through 2007: Starting in 2002, White House and Treasury Department economic policy staffers, with support from...

TORRINGTON — A police officer flirted and had sex with female dispatchers on duty for four months, and he and the two dispatchers involved, with whom he had separate affairs, used a city messaging system to exchange sexual suggestions and arrange their encounters. Nearly 700 pages of messages and internal reports revealed that Donovan had sex with the dispatchers in the women's locker room at the Torrington Police Department while on duty. He and Goodfield, who began having sex in February or March, arranged for trysts in the parking lot of Torrington Middle School and the Torrington Industrial Park. Donovan...

In this 2008 presidential season, Republicans are the masters of victimhood. Clearly, Republicans are more masterful at the politics of victimhood than the Democrats, the Independents and the parties-too-small-to-be-presently named. And, because all victims need a boogeyman, fall guy and scapegoat to hang their victimhood on, they have designated this election season's evildoers as none other than that group of people who belong to what is called the Fourth Estate: journalists. That would be folks like me. Commencing with the Republican National Convention, no one has come close to the Republicans in bombastically, self-righteously and ridiculously sounding the alarm against...

On his way into work Tuesday morning, a member of our editorial board saw something odd. The Valero station on Watertown Avenue in Waterbury was selling gasoline for $3.79 a gallon. A few hundred feet down the street, the sign at the Cumberland Farms advertised gasoline for $3.99. For many years, the stations have sold their fuel for the same price or within a few pennies of each other. If their price differential was 20 cents all the time, Valero would have all the gasoline business on that busy road and Cumberland Farms' pumps would sprout cobwebs. Customer loyalty is...