Sat 29 Dec 2007
I put together some video from last night’s Hope Out Loud Coffeehouse at La Paloma Sabanera. Some of the A/V quality is not the greatest, but I think it’s still a nice testimonial to the musicians who have helped make La Paloma the best venue of the Coffeehouse yet.
Eric Paradine:
Thu 27 Dec 2007
President Bush may have condemned today’s assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, but his administration has done little to curb the corrupt rule of Pervez Musharraf. Bush and company are happy to keep friendly relations with Musharraf’s regime as an ally in the war on terrorism, despite what now is clearly a terror-inspired state where political opposition will be violently suppressed. There have been reports that Bhutto feared assassination at the hands of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani counterpart to the CIA. Now conveniently, al-Qaeda and/or other extranational extremists are blamed for the killing. (more…)
Thu 27 Dec 2007
The white nationalist organization North East White Pride has announced that it plans to hold a meeting in Meriden, Connecticut on Saturday, January 12.
http://www.newp.org/bbs/index.php?topic=4729.0
Fri 21 Dec 2007
This morning a stick-figure drawing of a lynching was discovered in a CCSU men’s restroom. In a letter to students and faculty, CCSU President Jack Miller called the drawing a “racial insult” and said the incident would be treated as “a hate incident.” (more…)
Fri 21 Dec 2007
From Workers World:
New Orleans City Council incites brutal police attacks and tear-gassing of public housing tenants and their allies
Today, Dec. 20, in the City Council chambers in New Orleans, public housing tenants and their allies gathered to exercise their democratic right to speak against the vote to demolish their homes.
The city council’s response was to call in the city council security, the NOLA (New Orleans, LA) swat teams and police force to forcibly remove, arrest, beat, drag, brutalize and tear-gas those who wanted the to express their opposition to the loss of stable housing stock.
An elderly woman with a cane was seen being dragged across the city council parking lot by the police. Media persons, tenants and community supporters were tear-gassed at rapid fire by an over zealous NOLA woman cop as if she was on the battle field in Iraq.
[To see the video footage of cops using pepper spray and tasers to force back protesters, click here.]
Powered by ScribeFire.
Fri 21 Dec 2007
I like to bash the Courant as much as the next newspaper junkie. But I have to give them credit for running a series of weekly articles called Hartford Faces. Each week a different person is profiled, people who are taking matters into their own hands, making a stand, stirring things up, cultivating community in Hartford, a place that is often held up to the Big Apple and Beantown and found wanting. The Hartford Faces are not concerned with woulda, coulda, shoulda or wannabes. They’re making it happen here. The first person profiled was Dave Rozza of Food Not Bombs . This week it’s Julia Rosenblatt of Hartbeat Ensemble.
Thu 20 Dec 2007
We Beg Your Pardon Governor
(“re-mix” of Gil Scott-Heron’s We Beg Your Pardon America)
We beg your pardon Governor because the parole you took away this time, was not yours to take.
You call it due process yet some people were well overdue,
We beg your pardon Governor,
Somebody said “brother-man gonna break a window, gonna steal a hubcap, gonna smoke a joint, brother man gonna go to jail,”
The Governor who took away brother-mans rightly earned parole does so without any consequences,
“Get caught with a nickel bag brother-man, get caught with a nickel bag”, says the lady on your way to get your hair fixed,
“You’ll do Big Ben, and Big Ben is time,”
But the people who try to fix Connecticut do not talk to the families of those who did Big Ben and earned their right to parole. (more…)
Thu 20 Dec 2007
Mi gente…I’ve been sequestering myself in New Haven with Mercedes preparing for the baby (coming on Jan. 16 - cesarean) and I’m buried in City Council stuff so I was not a little surprised myself to see that we put the sign up at La Paloma. I honestly don’t know what “under new management” means but will impart info as soon as possible. The main loan of the store is under my sisters name with her house as collateral so I had no say in the choice of whom to sell to. I did however push for us to close due to financial reasons which have been present since day one. This, combined with a couple other thingys, brought us to the inevitable conclusion.
I’ve been preparing for this since the middle of October (when we first made the decision) so this might sound very ‘matter of fact-ly’ but trust when I say, that the family is bumming about this as much as y’all can know.
peace,
http://www.lapalomasabanera.com/
Thu 20 Dec 2007
Today’s Courant has a brief piece that talks to the Racial disparities in Assets within Connecticut. The Courant piece, as usual does not do this report justice. This report released by CT Voices for Children should alarm all of us in Connecticut, where our state has dropped from an A to C ranking (regarding Family Assets) since the 2005 Scorecard. This is especially alarming as our Governor and Legislators discuss increasing prisons, related increased financial expenditures, as well as aggravating the already disparate system of injustice in Connecticut. I encourage all to read the detailed report which can be found at the CT Voices for Children website. If the CGA wants to call a special session in January, I cannot think of a more important topic to discuss than the alarming disparities noted in this report.
Wed 19 Dec 2007
Word just came in that La Paloma Sabanera is closing.
The last day is Friday, December 28.
This is a huge loss for this community. Please spend some time (and money$$$) there before the 28th.
There is supposed to be new management in the spring, but I don’t have details.