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Obama rally at the Hartford XL Civic Center – Video and Pics

Craig Houghton — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:31:57 +0000

Note: This is cross-posted over at the Cheshire Town Post.

The XL center was packed. The first image is a panorama of five images stitched together. All photos my own. Video is from CTBob.

I went into the rally as a recovering Edwards supporter strongly leaning towards Hillary. I left in exactly the same state. Obama sounded great. The audience cheered and beamed. It’s just that I’m looking for real change, more than either of the two remaining candidates provide. Between the two, I’ll take Hillary.

Full Size 8100×2300 (Huge, 5 megs)
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amongst the crowd

chris murphy, rosa delauro, barack obama, john larson, ted kennedy

Video of the event from CTBob

murphy and delauro

Obama is a centrist. So is Clinton, but in the end I think she’ll stand up better to the heat. My position has less to do with Clinton having passed through the gauntlet already than it does this: Obama wants to unite the two parties. That usually translates to a one-sided compromise in favor of the republicans. He’s not even setting his sites on real universal healthcare, so what will his plan look like after the republican machine whittles it down? Hillary has a progressive voting record (aside from the war), a decent platform (better on paper than Obama’s), and a proven ability to walk through fire (well, it improved over time).

I would love to feel the magic. I just get the feeling he’s more likely to head to the right than he is the left. More than a leader, we need a politician that will act when the people demand change. Hillary isn’t perfect, but I see her pushing through more progressive legislation than Obama.

Although I have a lot of respect for Ted, Robert Jr’s endorsement matters a whole lot more to me:

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire. ~Charles Bukowski

Video of Cheshire Town Council meetings now available

Craig Houghton — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:21:14 +0000

While the list of available videos is rather short right now, you’ll find a link to the new video index located on the navigation bar over at The Cheshire Town Post. Each meeting will have its own post. The video index page will tie them together.

Here’s the first video page: Cheshire Town Council Meeting Video 06-26-07

This isn’t the fanciest way to get these up, but you can watch them full-screen, skip around through the videos using the slide-bar, and reference specific agenda items using the provided content index. For $0 down and $0 recurring, that’s a good deal. Google-Video is a fantastic host. Unlike YouTube, the videos do not have a 10 minute limit and the files can exceed 100 megs in length. In the future I may divide the videos strictly into agenda items. However, I think you’ll find the current system to be quite adequate.

What is not adequate, is that I’m the one providing this content. Hey, I don’t mind, but that’s far from the point. Tim White shouldn’t be the only one pushing for this. How long will it take for the town to provide web-based video (and hopefully it won’t be too expensive)? Will there be an archive or will they only provide the video from the previous meeting, as they do with the minutes?

So, until that time…

UNOFFICIAL Video Catalog of Town Meetings

Cheshire’s UNOFFICIAL Town Document Archive

Freedom River 1971

Craig Houghton — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:27:47 +0000

Freedom River (1971) is narrated by Orsen Welles and written by Joseph Cavella (screenplay) and Warren H. Schmidt (parable). I’d bother convincing you how timeless and relevant this short film is, but Schmidt drives home the point well enough on his own. Let’s not throw it away — democratic freedoms cannot last when they are taken for granted, reframed, or traded away.

Freedom River (1971)

Anyone seen “Is It Always Right to Be Right?” by Schmidt? I haven’t either, but it’s his only other work listed on IMDB, and I’d like to view it.