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Post a Comment On: "WE THE PEOPLE"

"ENOUGH OF THE GRANDSTANDING"

17 Comments -

1 – 17 of 17
Anonymous David Duke said...

Kevin...We all know that Mr Cotto wouldnt start a discussion about racism unless there was a job for someone in his family or circle of friends or unless he was receiving some money for the discussion.Councilman Cotto is an embaressment and his utterance of "lily white" is racist.He should start the racism discussion with himself.

September 9, 2010 at 3:14 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aside from all of this nonsense is the fact that the supposed-to-be leaders have a broke and broken city to fix and that should be priority No. 1.

September 9, 2010 at 3:35 PM

Anonymous peter brush said...

Why did Cotto see the need to announce the occasion of an Imam giving a prayer before the September meetings? The explanation is simple, GRANDSTANDING, pure and simple.
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Precisely. But, just because it's pointless doesn't mean it is harmless.
The Courant reports that "his goal in having an Islamic prayer was to protest what he called “the current wave of Islamophobia” in this country." But, where was the wave of bigotry? Here in Hartford? Is it not the case that his proposal has fulfilled (or he's perceived it to have fulfilled) his prophecy of bigots under every bed. Where we had no dispute, he's created one. What's really amazing is the delusions of grandeur of these guys; completely oblivious of their positions as municipal legislators in a run-down little town, population-not-on-the-dole approximately 25,000. The good thing is this play, while not helpful, doesn't hamper the cops or cost us a dime.

September 9, 2010 at 3:40 PM

Anonymous Rich Wareing said...

Sadly, Peter, you are incorrect. The Councilman's grandstanding has cost us a commmodity of which we are already running dangerously low; credibilty. The whole state and a lot of people outside the State know that our house is not in any kind of order and instead of seeing our elected officials getting serious about restoring confidence in City government in the wake of the collapse of the Perez regime and getting our fiscal house in order, they see immature political grandstanding. It has also cost us the time and the energy of the Council and its staff who yesterday were bombarded with calls from around the country and today consumed by the task of finding a Methodist minister to add to the multi-faith service that is being planned in lieu of the Imam's invocation as a result of the barrage of calls.

September 9, 2010 at 5:30 PM

Anonymous Izzy Schwartz said...

Does anyone see the irony in Hartford's elected officials honoring certain religions this Monday, yet the Hartfrd Democratic Town Committee called a meeting for tonight, in effect dis-honoring all jews in Hartford by calling a meeting on their holy day?

September 9, 2010 at 5:54 PM

Anonymous peter brush said...

...consumed by the task of finding a Methodist minister to add to the multi-faith service that is being planned in lieu of the Imam's invocation...
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Credibility?
I think I'm not even half joking in suggesting that we raise revenue by making our muni govt. proceedings into a "reality show."
But, Rich, you caused me emotional pain when you said I was sadly incorrect. I assure you, I'm fairly contentedly incorrect.

September 9, 2010 at 7:36 PM

Anonymous peter brush said...

our house is not in any kind of order
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I think a pretty good name for my "Reality Show."
To return to "credibility" matter. It can't have escaped notice by our state legislature that our muni. govt. has been incredibly non-credible for generations now. Something else is in play that explains why they shovel 2 or 3 hundred million into the district annually. I wouldn't want to say anything bad about white liberals in the burbs, so I won't hazard a guess as to what.
The problem is that the State has been run by the likes of my reps (Gonzales/Fonfara) for a good many year now, and it simply will not have the money to shovel in.
Or, please tell me I'm mistaken.

September 9, 2010 at 9:45 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr Brush...you arent mistaken

September 9, 2010 at 10:28 PM

Anonymous peter brush said...

The wonders of technology: contact your councilman via e-mail...
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... "any and all emails I receive at my City email (cottL002@hartford.gov) are subject to Freedom of Information requests and are, by default, public information. If you want to send me an email at a private email where you are most assuredly guaranteed that no one will see your bigotry, please email me at Idontgiveacrap@gmail.com"

http://www.ionhartford.com/2010/09/08/responses-to-muslims-leading-prayer-at-city-council/

September 9, 2010 at 11:10 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, this interaction is great. Everyone has interesting points of view. Peter you are right that this is indeed grandstanding, However Rich is correct (in my opinion) that this has cost us something, it is often said that any publicity, even bad publicity is good. In this case that is not true. And though it hasn't cost us police costs (yet) someone will likely find a way to sue the city over this. Additionally the cost of employees time and even their mental health as they are being berated and/or even threatened. Izzy, this is indeed a double standard, they have prayer before council meetings (despite seperation of church and state) but indeed schedule a meeting on a High Holy Day. Don't get me wrong, I am very much in favor of prayer and boy does this city need it!!

Kevin, I too think the Iman's offer of changing his appearance date is a class act. I think he is smart enough to know that this could turn into the circus in Gainesville FL now -- was that Cotto's intention? I was appalled by the hateful comments in the media. One of the reasons there is so much violence in this world is that many people can't seem to express thier differences without hateful words or deeds, and unfortunately many of those are in positions of power.

I have a question for you or the other knowledgeable people here. If Cotto posted the notice about FOI in his city email, warning his supporters to go to a private email, would that private email then be subject to FOI review? With the Patriot Act and all I am not sure where the lines are drawn on this.

I love this forum and post as anonymous not because I intend to hide behind that but because it seems as though my information may be shared beyond this forum if I sign on with an account. Not great with computers. I'm Maggie T.

September 10, 2010 at 12:35 AM

Anonymous peter brush said...

Rich is correct
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I agree.

Don't worry about foi at the email address Councilman Cotto so kindly referred to on his blog; doubt anybody home at Idontgiveacrap@gmail.com.
I don't know anything about the imam, but agree he seems to be reasonable about this situation. I think, in fact, he is being used by Cotto in his, Cotto's, self-promoting crusade against an imaginary "wave" of bigotry.

September 10, 2010 at 7:55 AM

Anonymous Rich Wareing said...

After thinking about this for a while, I am of the view that the Council shouldn't have any religious invocations at all. We all know that Thomas Jefferson believed in a "wall of separation" because he thought religion would corrupt government. One of the first people to call for separation was Roger Williams, but he thought that you needed to protect religion from government. I think that Williams' fear is more of what you are seeing here. I don't believe for a second that Councilman Cotto's motive was anything other than to cause a big scene since we already have had Islamic invocations. Is that really how we want religion to be treated in our City? To be used as a tool for cynical politicians to "make statements" that advance their own political agendas? The other thing that has led me to this conclusion is that we have reached a point where it is impossible to accomodate everyone without offending anyone b/c we have so much diversity. It was different when Hartford was a Protestant (Congregationalist) city. It was managable when it was Catholics and different groups of Protestants, and then Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. But look around - Catholics, many, many denominations of Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans, jehovah's Witnesses, Athiests, Mormons, etc., etc. To accomodate everyone without offending anyone is pretty hard, if not impossible. Besides, don't we have a lot more important things to focus on in government than figuring out all the different belief systems we need to accomodate and doing so while not offending the other groups? Let's leave religion at the steps of City Hall and focus our political efforts on getting Hartford out of the ditch and back on the tracks.

September 10, 2010 at 8:35 AM

Anonymous Bruce Rubenstein said...

I agree with Rich...they ought to end all prayer and/or invocations entirely and maybe just have a moment of silence.

September 10, 2010 at 9:20 AM

Blogger KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

Answering the FOI Question:

Councilman Cotto's "official" e-mail address is subject to FOI as well as any other e-mail he uses to conduct business in his capacity as a public official. Opening a g-mail account or hotmail or whatever does not make those documents private, or non-disclosable under FOI as long as they pertain to the the "public's business". This would also include text messages and voice mails if they are stored as required

September 10, 2010 at 8:14 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's a cut and paste from Luis's blog with the exchange by both parties:

Paul: My letter to city council was republished without my consent.
Your in violation of my copyright.
Remove it now.

Luis: Paul, I tried to make sure that there were no names listed. I’ll look through to see if yours is there and remove. Unfortunately for you, any and all emails I receive at my City email (cottL002@hartford.gov) are subject to Freedom of Information requests and are, by default, public information. If you want to send me an email at a private email where you are most assuredly guaranteed that no one will see your bigotry, please email me at Idontgiveacrap@gmail.com

So Maggie, it's obvious that 1) "paul" is not a supporter and 2) that luis is definately not telling him to send anything to a secret account for privacy's sake. The email address is a dead giveaway as well.

September 10, 2010 at 9:47 PM

Anonymous Charge Card Louie said...

Mr Brush..why hasn't councilman Cotto told us the circumstances of his leaving the employment of the Charter Oak Cultural Center?

September 11, 2010 at 1:14 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does the council and mayor know that being gay is a capital offense in Islam?

September 13, 2010 at 8:39 AM

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