Newsweek and Budget Travel have included Collinsville among their 10 coolest small towns. Collinsville is the home of Fanzter, Inc, and the ax factory mentioned in the article is our building. We’re in one of those commercial lofts. I’ll have photos of our space up later today.

Do we really have that many people who leave behind 2 million dollar estates in this state? While I agree that perhaps 2 million dollars is a bit low considering inflation, the estate tax fuels the creation of charitable foundations and organizations that fund a lot of the charitable work in this country. Avoiding creating a permanent overclass of Paris Hilton-like spoiled children is a nice side effect, too. The federal minimums for estate size, before an estate would have to pay a dollar of estate tax, btw, are $3.5 million and $7 million for single and joint couples respectively. Those numbers make more sense as limits, but I still don’t understand what the uproar about this tax is about… there’s nothing here that affects most people. I don’t understand how it’s a popular issue…

She’s our state representative and neighbor, and she gave a very personal and touching testimony about what this act means to her. Take a look:

It baffles me how the basic, human side of this debate gets lost in high-minded rhetoric from the religious right. This is a simple situation, fairly common and obvious to those who know any gay people.

So, I’ve got a couple of Lieberman predictions that I’d like to set down in print so that if I’m right, I can point out that I wasn’t just pulling a Lieberman and feeling which way the wind is blowing.

First, I think Ned Lamont will pull out a surprising, but very narrow victory on November 7th. I base this on two things. First, my drive to work goes through a very, very Republican section of Bristol. I’ve NEVER in 3 years of working there seen a Democratic candidate on a lawn sign. There are now 2 Ned Lamont lawn signs in Bristol on my way to ESPN which is shocking to me.

Second, every single person I’ve talked to, including some 2004 Bush voters are annoyed by Joe Lieberman. They’re voting for Lamont and that can’t hurt. So, even though Lamont is down 12% in the last ARG poll, I still think there’s a decent chance that this will turn around.

Based on the poll, it’s obviously a long shot. So, let’s say that Lieberman wins, which brings me to the next prediction. If Lieberman wins, he will caucus with whatever party holds the majority in the Senate. If the Republicans hold a majority, he will caucus with them. If the Democrats win a majority, he will caucus with them. I also believe that if the final tally sits at 50-49 Democrats, he will caucus with the Republicans (thus tossing the Senate to the Republicans).

I again realize how wacky this is based on the conventional wisdom, but my suspicion is that he will caucus with whoever gives him the best shot at taking a committee chair. We’ll get some speech about how he’s bringing the parties together. On top of that, I’m guessing Joe’s new donors will want something back for their troubles and cash, and giving the Senate back to Republicans would sure make a nice present.

So, there it is. I really believe that he’s going to flip, and that the only way he’ll caucus with the Dems is if they have the majority without him. Seven seats are tossups according to Cook, so there’s a chance that they can do it without Lieberman.

While I wouldn’t be surprised if you could take any war supporter of this war and line the quotes up, the Nixon quotes do sound like Lieberman.

Update: The Lamont campaign put together this video to highlight the similarities:

(via Atrios)

This is why I’m not a fan of Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT). He seems like he would be a good representative and one that could represent the “grown-up” Republicans of yore. But then he’ll just turn around and bend to the party spin and say some stupid things. It’s become pretty clear that he’s not really focused on any principle. How else could he describe electrocuting prisoners as not torture, but “a sex ring?” Watch:

He doesn’t deserve to be in Congress and I hope the people of the 4th District elect Diane Farrell. Consider donating if you’re in her district.

(via TPM)

This was Gen. Clark yesterday:

“The truth is, (Lieberman) didn’t control the steering wheel, but he was sort of supporting the elbow of the guy who drove us into the ditch.”

No, he was in the passenger seat telling all of us in the back to shut up.

Vote Ned Lamont in 2006! Consider donating if you can.

Via LamontBlog (unaffiliated with the campaign).