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A Conversation With The Cheshire Herald About Their Misleading Poll

Craig Houghton — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 09:16:27 +0000

Note: This is cross-posted over at the Cheshire Town Post. I’ll often be doing that. This is still my primary blog for local or political issues. The CTP is an open forum for everyone, and over there I’m just another poster (or, I will be once people get used to writing their own posts).

Two days ago I posted a piece on the Cheshire Town Post where I presented evidence that the informal Cheshire Herald web poll, which is then published in print, allows participants to vote repeatedly without detection. No one expects the poll to be accurate — you have to actively visit the site to participate. However, considering the amount of discussion the poll generates, few realize that anyone can vote again and again.

I just spoke to the advertising director at the Cheshire Herald. She was already aware of the problem and does not feel the current disclaimer should change. She’s expressed concern that to do so would be to invite abuse. I consider the current state of the poll to be an abuse of the community’s trust.

She told me that she realizes people will likely take the poll out of context, but it’s wrong to think of this in terms of a potential for abuse. After all, it’s just a web poll. She argued that people will take absolutely anything and run with it. She compared it to the ‘pass a message around the room whisper game’ — in the end a garbled message circles back around and everyone has a good laugh. I think that the message is certain to fail when the information going in is unclear or misleading.

The poll results are published in our local paper, and the staff member I spoke to noted how popular the poll has been. Is it any surprise that a Sean Strollo, a Planning and Zoning commission member, referred to the poll during one of the hearings as proof that the majority of Cheshire residents supported the mall?

The fact is, decision makers in our town government do discuss the polls. Much of that discussion happens on the blog Tim White Listens. The staff member I spoke with acknowledged that some people at the Cheshire Herald actually visit, just to have a laugh. I can only assume that she does not represent the paper in this, but she went on to laugh aloud about blogs in general, stressing that it’s all just opinion. Few bloggers are familiar with, or even attempt to uphold, journalistic standards for reporting, but I do not consider discussion among residents to be worth a good laugh. You don’t need to own a stylebook to speak the truth.

Thankfully, she said that the poll will be changing. She noted that the poll is “very rudimentary,” as it generated ballots via email submission. That is exactly what I pointed out in my post. Regarding my suggestion to change the disclaimer in anticipation of an upcoming change in polling software, she said she would, “pass that by the publisher.”

The main number for the Cheshire Herald is (203) 272-5316.

The Cheshire Town Post is now open.

Craig Houghton — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:10:20 +0000

Please drop by to visit, and register for, The Cheshire Town Post . It’s an open forum where residents provide all the content. Councilman Tim White’s blog, Tim White Listens, has done a great job of bringing Cheshire together for discussion. In that tradition, I am hosting the Cheshire Town Post in order to provide a substantively different forum where any member can easily set the topic of discussion. Post pictures from your local event or bring the town together to address an issue. The CTP is your show.

Why am I hosting this? My goal is to build up the town’s online community and encourage communication. The Cheshire Town Post is completely non-partisan and open to all points of view. If you think the discussion is coming down more on one side of an issue, get posting!

Oh, and if you’re worried about the technical aspects of how to register and contribute, read the tutorial post .

Help save Cheshire by decorating a tree!

Craig Houghton — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:46:14 +0000

Some of you may have seen this house. Follow the example!

A poster on your property is a starting point — people will see it and they’ll want to know more. Be sure to only post these on your own property. My thanks go to Al Sanders for providing the signs, the pictures in this post, and for leading the way!

Download and (Legally) Post These Signs!

Too many in town are familiar only with the propaganda passed out by W/S. They don’t realize what is at stake. If they did, there’d be signs all over town. What is the true cost of the proposed plan changes?

Help tear down the curtain. Let your neighbors know what’s going on! Make some calls! We have the power to turn this around, but it takes information. The police are patrolling the poles for ~~tag sale~~ .. ~~lost dog signs~~ … North-End signs (it is illegal to post on telephone poles, but who encouraged them to enforce this?). The Cheshire Herald only provides token coverage — they want the development and the ad revenue it will bring. This issue is big enough to be front-page every week. Meanwhile, the same position-holding property owners that plan to sell-out the town are running around tearing down signs, harassing residents, and sabotaging debate.

Even if the PZC votes ‘Yes’ to change the laws at the request of the developers, there’s some hope for an appeal.

from the zoning regs

5. Political/Public issue signs:

a. One (1) or more signs per lot, the total aggregate signage per lot not to exceed 8.5 square feet in R-80, R-40, R-20 and R-20A Districts, and 32 square feet in C-1, C-2, C-3,
I-1, and I-2 and Interchange Districts.

c. The responsibility for removal of signs shall lie with the individual or individuals posting said sign or signs.

Get posting!

Why doesn’t anyone want the public to see what’s going on at the P&Z meetings regarding the 400 acre Interchange Zone that will affect Cheshire’s future forever. The meetings are not televised even though the person that runs the camera is already there and the minutes of these meetings are not put on the P&Z Recent Minutes site. There is a total information blackout to 29,000 Cheshire residents. There are more than enough people to blame, the Chair of the P&Z, Voelker, Matt Hall and the Town Manager. All of them support the zone change and the W/C development. Anyone of them could either make these things happen or could sufficently force the issue to make it happen, but none of them want to.
from a post over on Councilman Tim White’s blog

Cheshire Developers are Bending the Rules and Selling-Out the Town

Craig Houghton — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:57:08 +0000

Cheshire, we’re getting screwed.

A handful of local developers have stitched themselves into the political fabric of this town. For years they’ve used their pull to shape Cheshire as one might design a product or grow a brand. People have come for the schools, the very visible and very charming pockets of farmland, the tree-lined low-crime streets, and a departure from the paved sprawl conveniently located a few minutes to the north, south, east, and west of us. It’s an attractive package. And, if they weren’t selling us a product with a tampered expiration date, we’d all benefit from their actions.

Unfortunately, the insiders that crafted this product have been spending an increasingly disproportionate amount of time tugging the political threads to push their special projects through planning and zoning. They bought property low as undeveloped and unattractively zoned land, and now they’re selling high as planning and zoning bends the rules so they can subdivide and watch the zeros fly. They build up the product, bend the rules, and cash in.

This fantastic piece in the Hartford Courant says it well:

For one thing, the only industry besides bedding plants (flora, not sheets and pillows) seemed to be real estate – the buying and selling of homes, the subdividing of land parcels that had been in ancestral farm families’ hands until the great-grandchildren got greedy, and the legal haggling over the outcomes of these proposed developments.

For another thing, the same lawyers and representatives from the same families seemed to always show up at Planning and Zoning Commission hearings, proposing one project after another, in-filling what were once comforting zones of undeveloped pasture or farmland.

The usual suspects are cashing in across town, but the interchange zone provides an exceptionally large take. So big, that the mall is going to tarnish their product a bit faster than their usual residential chop-job, but that’s OK by them. It’ll take a few years for the real damage to surface. So, they’re about to ‘flip’ 400 acres. In order to do so, they have to get planning and zoning to bend the rules (here(pdf) and here) — it’s the same game they’ve played all along. If you thought you settled down in a small town committed to keeping it that way, you’re wrong. Any long-timer can tell you high-tales of what his or her neighborhood looked like a mere fifteen, ten, or five years ago. We’re changing fast. The local real-estate moguls are cashing in. The only thing that’s different about the W/S Shoppes at Cheshire project is the scope.

However, I think they’re counting on you to keep quiet. Actually, they’re hoping you never notice. The police are patrolling the telephone poles. They take down the ‘No Mall’ signs, but they haven’t bothered with the year old missing dog signs near my place (or elsewhere) or the ancient tag-sale marker down the road. They’re busy. The same goes for the Planning and Zoning site where one just cannot seem find any meeting minutes that matter. Although, they do a great job of getting more-recent and less relevant minutes up and linked. Only the most recent minutes are posted there. I guess server space is very, very limited. All the while, the Cheshire Herald tells you not to worry, that the complaints you hear are just from a vocal minority that spend their time huffing and puffing about everything. Who benefits from their half-assed coverage? Well, new shops mean increased ad revenue for the paper. Judging by their commitment to obfuscation, they want that revenue pretty badly.

You bought into the town. Now, act to preserve it before they sell it out from underneath you. Familiarize yourself with the proposed zoning changes. Get to know the interchange area, learn about the rich history of the property, and take part in the discussion over at councilman Tim White’s blog. Whatever you do, don’t fall for the W/S time-elapsed photo essay. Think about what effect the shops will have on the rest of Rt. 10 to the south. Stores attract stores — would you rather put a new shop along a pass-through with sporadic traffic or next to a strip mall where the traffic never dies down. Even if they don’t expand beyond the proposed changes to the charter, the property owners up and down the road are going make out like bandits. I don’t mind local officials and their friends capitalizing, so long as they don’t misuse the power of their votes to get there (i.e. vote against Cheshire for their own sake).

So, what can you do? To start with, make some calls. You don’t have to be an expert or well-connected. You just have to care about your town. Go through the whole damned list if you have time. Tell them you’re a voting resident and you don’t want the mall. If they tell you they’re not on the right committee tell them to get out there and convince their friends. It often only takes a few calls to place real pressure on local officials. Or, participate on TWL. Someof them appear to post there. They share the whacky screen name, ‘anonymous.’

Contact info (from the CheshireCT.org site) so you can get active! Be polite (they’re your neighbors), but tell them how you feel.

Town Council
Matt Hall, Chairman, D 272-5717
Michael G. Ecke, D 272-1351 michaele584@aol.com
David E. Orsini, R 250-0331 david.orsini@cox.net
Matt Altieri, D 272-1935 maltieri@cox.net
David C. Schrumm, R 272-2689 dsschrumm@cox.net
Elizabeth Esty, D 271-3248 elizabeth.esty@yale.edu
Thomas Ruocco, R 272-8135 tomruocco@snet.net
Diane D. Visconti, D 272-7719 Vis1795@aol.com
Tim White, R 439-4394 timwhite98@yahoo.com

Town Manager
Milone, Michael 271-6660 mmilone@cheshirect.org

Please realize that we’re not going to get a Main-St-USA promenade, we’re going to get taken for a ride, just like the good people of Canton did:

from a very relevant story in the Hartford Advocate

There are plenty of Cantonites unhappy about the Shoppes, especially since they morphed into something quite different from what the developers first proposed.

“It was originally going to be a ‘Main Street’ with little shops, maybe some office and residential space,” Sevigny said. After beginning the project, the scope changed. “Then they said they needed big-box stores like Kohl’s and Shaw’s [because] the market wouldn’t support the little shops.” Furthermore, they also “threatened to pull stakes and leave if they didn’t get their changes approved.”

Being left with a half-finished project would have been an expensive white elephant for the town…

The ~~Strip-Mall~~ Shoppes at Farmington Valley

Comedy Central’s Lil’ Bush

Craig Houghton — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:26:53 +0000

I just caught the rebroadcast of the Lil’ Bush premier. Lil’ Condi has a crush on GW, Lil’ Cheney gets lodged in an undisclosed location, and they all visit Halliburton-Land. How could I not love it? Here are a few screenshots:

Has the glittery-one yet batted a lash in the direction of Lil’ Condi? Notice the lil’ ‘flip’?

Lil’ Cheney prepares for his big adventure.

Barbara probably won’t be tuning in.

Really though, don’t forget that there’s nothing loveable about the real family and friends behind the lil’ characters — they’re not incompetent clowns (or even animated 2d icons). The real Lil’ Bush and co. are busy
dismantling the middle-class, trashing the planet, shoving fear down our throats, making us less safe, trampling our rights, driving up oil prices, increasing profits for the oligarchs, and taking over the world PNAC style.

Ahh well. It’s a funny show. I do hope we soon see Lil’ Gonzo.

Newsweek Refers to a Generation of Women as “Prosti-Tots”

Craig Houghton — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:56:39 +0000

I’m sick of consolidated corporate media bowing to the dollar while the country goes to hell for a lack of information. For hours MSNBC ran this headline (It’s also the current cover of Newsweek (in the U.S. at least)):

I ranted about this already on my art blog, but I think there’s reason enough to repeat:

Right now, the U.S. is preparing to knock down the already tottering Jenga tower of international stability in order to score strategy points and barrels of oil in the Middle East as the collective jaw of the scientific community drops before the staggering evidence that man made climate change is going to radically transform our planet. Right now, damning evidence in the Libby trial seems to implicate both the vice-president and the president. But, right now, Newsweek thought it would be great to instead keep alive the age-old premise that failing to meet some standard of purity makes one a “bad-girl.”

If they market it the right way, shouldn’t the climate crisis and the rise of fascism in the United States make for some decent cover stories? I just don’t get it.

Hamden Rallies to Stop Bush’s Iraq Escalation

Craig Houghton — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:10:55 +0000

A Connecticut rush-hour rally in the center of Hamden managed a very impressive crowd today. Organized by MoveOn.org, the gathering was one of many across the country in response to Bush’s ridiculous call last night for more of the same in Iraq. According to CBS, support for an escalation is in the teens, and it shows.

Usually most people pass on honk-if-you-support signs, but the beeping in downtown Hamden made the experience more like Manhattan than a small town in Connecticut. I slapped together a video of the event, so please do check it out for yourself.

Here’s the video I took. Bear in mind, it was after dark.

Or, Right-click the link below and choose Save Target As…
http://www.leversandpulleys.com/hamden_1-11-07.wmv

It’s time for congress to flex and cut the funding. It isn’t ‘nice’ to pull the cash, but if that’s the price, I really don’t mind.

It isn’t nice to carry banners
Or to sit in on the floor
Or to shout our cry of Freedom
At the hotel and the store
It isn’t nice, it isn’t nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom’s price
We don’t mind.

– from It Isn’t Nice, Malvina Reynolds

Radio Blogging on Blog Talk Radio

Craig Houghton — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:40:14 +0000

Last night I did a 15 minute show on Blog Talk Radio. I’m just testing the waters. The archive quality is poor, but the show is posted.

I’ll be back on for a longer (one hour?) show tomorrow. I’m a complete amateur, but there are crooks still in office or barely out the door or begging to break back in — I’d hate to miss an exciting new opportunity to speak out against them.

Once scheduled, the upcoming shows will be listed on my host page. Please do listen and participate. The live call-in number is (646) 915-8938. If you can’t make it live, leave an email and I’ll do my best to answer it intelligently on the air.

Designing for Political and Social Revolution

Craig Houghton — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:21:16 +0000

Writers have always been a vanguard for positive change in the face of political injustice — the same goes for visual artists. On the web, I think that writers/bloggers helping to write us out of this mess have leapt forward so far that the visual artists have yet to catch up. I suppose a lot of this has to do with the nature of the internet and the msm, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Progressive artists should pull together and coordinate a revolution of their own. Strong visual images of every kind can embolden the movement, cement opinion, and motivate a new wave of activists.

Tony Hendra’s article Design For Your Life! in the Huffington Post, highlights a project organized by the Art Directors Club of New York that could be a real vehicle for change.

"If you’re an artist or designer, whether graphic artist, comic artist, art director, poster maker, web designer, animator (sorry if there are categories I’ve left out) and you want to put your skills to use in the struggle for America, join us. Whether you want to get in people’s bloodstream or get in their faces, whether you want to subvert or provoke, chip away quietly at the weak points in the fortress walls or plaster every available urban surface with your brilliance, join us. Design for your life, design for America, design for social change."

Speaking of art, I saw a great painting last weekend. The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001 is an 8 x 18-foot oil painting by Graydon Parrish. I’m still exploring the symbolism and allegory in this Bouguereau-esque piece, but for me, the scattered U.S. documents represent the damage that has been done to our system of government. The real problem is that the responsibility for that lies with the current administration and not with the terrorists. We already had a system in place that would allow us to deal with threats foreign or domestic and move from tragedy to prosperity — those in power decided to cash that in for some political leverage.

The painting is huge, and the link above doesn’t do it justice. This doesn’t either, but here’s a video clip that moves, unsteadily, across the canvas. If you can make it to the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut, please do so.

I’ve already sent the Art Directors Club of New York my letter of interest. I’m hoping they put me to work. Nonetheless, if you’re a writer, editor, webmaster, or so on and you can put my talents to good use, write me! I’m ready to ‘design for social change.’ Let’s throw these fascists out of office!

High-Tech Crowd Control Weaponry VS United States Activists

Craig Houghton — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:21:13 +0000

Last week Air Force secretary Michael Wynne charmed the nation when he suggested that high-tech non-lethal weapons should be tested in domestic crowd-control situations before using them overseas.

RJ Eskow, blogging for the Huffington Post, warns that the situation is, “worse than we heard … much worse.” He’s right. We’re talking about torture. We’re also talking about having your contact lenses fuse to your eyeballs. Methods like these don’t just prevent potentially violent protests from turning dangerous – they spread the sort of fear that can persuade most activists to just stay home.

You really don’t have to actually fire a weapon like this to keep people in line. If there’s half a chance that when assembling peacefully one might experience the sensation of being burned alive, get hit with a beam of concentrated pain, have their skull shaken by sound waves, and loose any electronic recording devices on them to a pulse of energy, most will just stay home and protest quietly. And, by protest quietly, I mean not at all.

And, if you’re forced to stand out of sight of the media within a free-speech zone, why bother going in the first place?

As if destroying the middle-class in America in order to keep us too tired , broke, and insecure to protest isn’t enough, here’s a preview of what’s in-store for any would-be dissenter:

SaberShot Photonic Disruptor (Laser Dazzler) – “a high resolution green laser used to flash-blind and disorient an aggressor at long range” Read more here.

M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition (MCCM) – “a non lethal rubber ball device housed in a casing similar to the Claymore mine”

Active Denial System (ADS) – “The microwave energy penetrates a living tissue (such as human skin) to a depth of 0.5 millimeter and almost instantly produces a heating sensation that within seconds becomes intolerable and forces the subject to flee.”

Long Range Acoustic Device – LRAD – “LRAD can also create deafening noises which can incapacitate people within 300 meters by "firing" short bursts of intense acoustic energy.” Also, NPR reports: “Earlier this year in Jerusalem, the Israeli Army used a device nicknamed "The Scream" to scatter protest groups. The Scream sends out noise at frequencies that affect the inner ear, creating dizziness and nausea. The device can also cause hearing damage.”

Vortex Ring Gun – “Generating high power shockwave propagating at supersonic speed, Vortex ring Guns can generate high pressures which inflict considerable damage to a target, or carry a payload of kinetic or chemical agents over a distance beyond 20 meters.”

Laser Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC)– “The system is designed to stop intruders in a passageway or at a vehicle check point, with a lethal or non-lethal electrical discharge.”

Sticky Pepper Gel – The sticky Pepper Gel is propelled out of the storage canister by compressed air, stick to the target on impact (when hitting the face, it will cause temporary blinding)."

Stunstrike CQSR (Close Quarters Shock Rifle) – “projects an ionised gas, or plasma, towards the target, producing a conducting channel. It will also interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.” The conducting channel is for tasering en masse. The device “will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep.”

http://www.chitown.com/http/art/abchicago-gal/p-sequeira.htmlml

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation."

– Michael Wynne, asshole.