Connecticut’s new governor, Dannel Malloy, gets no honeymoon as voters disapprove 40 – 35 percent of the job he is doing, with 25 percent undecided, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Voters are optimistic, 55 – 39 percent, about the next four years under Gov. Malloy, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. And they say 89 – 7 percent that Malloy’s town hall meetings to discuss the budget and the economy are a good idea.

But they disapprove 51 – 32 percent of the way he is handling the budget and turn thumbs down on his budget plan:

• 66 percent say the plan increases taxes too much, as 3 percent say too little and 19 percent say the tax level is about right;
• 39 percent say it cuts spending too little, with 17 percent saying too much and 29 percent say about right;
• 16 percent say it increases taxes on the wealthy too much, as 48 percent say too little and 24 percent say about right;
• 68 percent say it raises taxes on the middle class too much, with 1 percent saying too little and 21 percent saying about right.

Malloy’s budget proposals are unfair to “people like you,” voters say 56 – 31 percent. Democrats say “unfair” 45 – 41 percent and Republicans agree 65 – 25 percent and independent voters agree 59 – 28 percent.

Ouch. Frankly, I’m not really surprised by these poll results. Gov. Malloy has $3.4 billion budge gap to close and has proposed the largest tax increase in state history.

The simple truth is you can’t tax your way to prosperity, if Gov. Malloy and the state legislature are serious about closing the budget deficit they’ll scale back the proposed tax increases and make real meaningful cuts — some of them draconian in the budget. It’s the only way to ensure the states long term prosperity.

• Greenspan Says Government ‘Activism’ Hampering U.S. Recovery – Bloomberg News
• Connecticut bill seeks to unconstitutionally restrict political and religious speech by employers – Washington Examiner
• ATF Let Hundreds of U.S. Weapons Fall into Hands of Suspected Mexican Gunrunners – Center For Public Integrity
• ATF Orders Immediate Review of Gun-Running Operation – Center For Public Integrity
• Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico – CBS News
• 4 Dems join GOP fight to block EPA climate rules – Associated Press
• Democrats keep misleading on claimed budget ‘cuts’ – Washington Post
• Immigration Wars: More States Looking at Arizona-Style Laws – ABC News
• Border Agents Forced to Face Down Bullets With Bean Bags, Critics Say – Fox News
• Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight – Arizona Daily Star
• Just 32% See Democrats’ Agenda As Mainstream – Rasmussen Reports
• Some Democrats joining GOP in fight against union privilege – Washington Examiner
• Wisconsin governor issues letters on possible layoffs to unions – CNN
• Eric Holder: Black Panther case focus demeans ‘my people’ – Josh Gerstein, Politico
• American Bar Association Executive Council Vows to Fight Anti-Sharia Law Measures – CNSNews.com
• Lowering U.S. Corporate Tax Rate to 10 Percent Will Create Jobs, Spur Economic Growth, Study Says – CNSNews.com
• Public Workers Join the New Reality – Froma Harrop, Creators.com
• Busting the Birth-Control Myth – Kirsten Powers, The Daily Beast
• Judge blocks bail bond bid by church and Rangel for ‘preppy gun moll’ – New York Post
• Rep. Rangel Causes Stir In Courtroom, Gets Reprimanded By Judge – CBS New York
• Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and the spotlight-chasing candidates of 2012 – George Will, Washington Post
• George Will Rips Gingrich, Huckabee and Malzberg – Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters.com
• The Weekend Interview with Paul Johnson: Why America Will Stay on Top – Brian Carney, The Wall Street Journal

Feel free to add you own links in comments.

A Connecticut town must provide their union workers free coffee and milk, according to a ruling from the State Board of Labor Relations.

The board also ordered town leaders to reinstate “Dress Down Fridays” for the union clerical and custodial workers.

The dispute involved the town of Orange and the local chapter of the United Public Service Employees Union.

The board determined the town retaliated against the union members for comments they made at a finance meeting in 2009.

Maybe I’m just a crank, but this incident should be the last straw. This is not the little guy fighting the man, this is just flat out extortion. Do we really need any other examples of why public sector unions need to go the way of the Dodo?

Related

• Union coffee war in Orange percolates, taking fight to TV? – New Haven Register
• Wisconsin one of 41 states where public workers earn more – USA Today
• Amid Wisconsin battle, Labor Secy joins union planning call: ‘Let’s keep fighting’ – Byron York, The Washington Examiner

In what has become one of the stranger twists in an already bizarre Governor’s race, a bag of uncounted ballots was found in Bridgeport Thursday night.

Republican officials were approached by Democratic operatives and told about the surprise ballot bag, according to Bridgeport GOP Chairman Marc Delmonico.

Delmonico said Democrats asked to have several people deputized to count the uncounted ballots, but Republicans objected, claiming that wasn’t proper procedure in the vote-counting process.

Instead the GOP asked police to take custody of the bag of ballots until the matter could be sorted out.

Heh, never assume malice where incompetence will suffice… I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation, but the cynic in me wants to know the whole who, what, when, why and how of that bag before it’s counted.

More from WTNH:

Edit: I should add regardless who ultimately wins the Governors race here, there are going to be lingering doubts in about legitimacy of the election because of ballot boondoggle and the actions outgoing Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. In short Ms. Bysiewicz shouldn’t have made any public statements about the outcome of the race until all the counting was finished and the final tallies were delivered to her office.

Related

• Cost cited in Bridgeport ballot shortage – WTNH TV
• Voter Fraud In Bridgeport? Video shows ballot bungling – Jim Vicevich

From the Hartford Courant:

The state’s largest insurer has been approved to raise health premium rates by 41 percent to 47 percent for some of its policies sold to individual buyers, in the largest price hikes yet seen in Connecticut since the adoption of national health care reform.

For all of its individual market plans, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has received approval to raise rates by at least 19 percent — including a range of 30 percent to 44 percent for the brand of plans in the individual market that was most popular in 2009, Century Preferred.

The reason for the increases is the new federal health reform mandates, according to Anthem and the state Department of Insurance, which is defending its approval against charges by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Those reforms took effect Sept. 23.

These increases shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone with even a bit of common sense… The thing liberal politicians never seem to grasp is Newton’s third law of motion, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”, applies as readily to economics as it does to physics… Simply put, as Anthem spokeswoman, Sarah Yeager explains these costs are directly attributable to new benefits mandated in ObamaCare:

“Our [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] compliant individual products include expanded benefits such as elimination of lifetime dollar maximums, no cost share for preventive coverage, and extension of dependent coverage to age 26. With this enhanced coverage, pricing levels have also been adjusted to make sure that the cost of claims incurred is offset by the premiums collected, and that we anticipate the cost of future, expected claims. Low cost low benefit plans experienced a higher rate adjustment because with the health care reform provisions the plans now offer richer benefits. Other plans that already offered rich benefits did not experience as much of an adjustment.”

All the new benefits mandated in Obamacare mean insurance companies are assuming higher risks, those higher risks have to be offset by higher premiums or eventually the insurance company will go broke.

Ed Morrissey sums the situation up pretty well over at Hot Air:

Well, Obama’s been busy getting an education at public expense, hasn’t he?  We know what the economic consequences of mandates and broader regulation are.  The political consequences will depend on who’s in charge.  Either Congress will roll back ObamaCare and replace it with a reform that attacks the true cause of escalating health-care costs — the third-party payer structure that is a relic of World War II wage freezes — or the Obama administration will push for price freezes that will utterly destroy the private insurance market.

That’s what makes this election so important, and why conservatives have to ensure that Democrats do not retain control of the agenda in the 112th Session of Congress.  We won’t be laughing if they keep enough of a grip on power to create the final act of nationalization of health care.

This election is one of the most critical in American history, if we can’t break the Democrats hold on Congress and restore some fiscal and regulatory sanity in Washington we’re doomed to years of high unemployment, limited economic growth and diminished liberty.

Related

• Judge lets states’ healthcare suit go forward – Reuters

Democrat Richard Blumenthal now leads Republican Linda McMahon by just five points in Connecticut’s race for the U.S. Senate in a survey conducted two nights after their third and final head-to-head debate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Blumenthal, Connecticut’s longtime attorney general, picking up 51% of the vote. McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, earns the vote from 46%. One percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, while three percent (3%) are undecided.

Which one is right? We’ll find out on election day… I tend to put a little more faith in the Rasmussen poll than I do in the Quinnipiac poll just because I’m not convinced Dick Blumenthal has opened up that big of a lead at this point… I suspect this is going be very close race that’s fought down to the wire. Personally, although I’m not fan I’m pulling for Linda McMahon simply because as Ann Coulter notes “If the Bush administration ever treated terrorism suspects the way Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal treats law-abiding citizens and small businesses, even conservatives would have blanched.”

Note: in the spirit of full disclosure I should mention I was one of the 750 likely voters polled by Rasmussen last night.

Previous

• NYT: Blumenthal Lied About Vietnam Service

Related

• The Other Blumenthal Scandal – Wall Street Journal

"Betty Jane" a World War II era North American TP-15C Mustang.

The Wings of Freedom tour a living history display of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and North American P-51 Mustang… The backbone of American air power in World War II is coming to Connecticut.

Sixty years after their use over the skies of enemy territory, they embark on a new mission over the skies of America to honor our veterans of World War II, promote education of our future generations about the role of the aircraft and the flight crews of World War II, and to preserve these treasures of American aviation history where they belong: the sky.

The aircraft will be available for ground tours and flight experiences at Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport from September 7th to September 10th, and at Waterbury-Oxford Airport between September 10th and September 13, 2010.

Visit The Collings Foundation web site for exact times and locations or to book a flight.

Following a New York Times report that he exaggerated his military record, Democratic Senate hopeful Richard Blumenthal has lost ground in match-ups against all his potential Republican challengers in Connecticut.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Connecticut finds Blumenthal with just a three-point advantage over Linda McMahon, 48% to 45%. Two weeks ago, he led the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment by 13 percentage points. The New York Times story broke late Monday; the survey was taken Tuesday evening.

When matched against former GOP Congressman Rob Simmons, Blumenthal leads by 11 – 50% to 39%. Two weeks ago, the longtime state attorney general held a 23-point lead over Simmons.

Blumenthal now leads Peter Schiff, a high-profile Wall Street investment banker, 53% to 37%. In the previous survey, he posted a 54% to 29% lead over Schiff.

Still, just 26% of voters say Blumenthal should withdraw from the Senate race. Only nine percent (9%) of Democrats hold that view.

Ouch, this is a good news bad news thing for Blumenthal and Democrats… The bad news is that his lead over McMahon has basically evaporated, the good news is he still has a lead. Normally revelations like this will destroy a political career in hours, but Blumenthal seems to have stopped or at least arrested the bleeding. I still think he’s toast, but to be honest I think the story may have broken to early for it to have any real impact in November. Time and the polls will tell whether he rebounds or continues to weaken.

Realated

• VFW leader rips Blumenthal – Politico
• Blumenthal’s Lesson – The New York Sun
• Breaking: Blumenthal’s Soldier Supporter On Stage Today Is a Phony, Too – Gateway Pundit

The court’s 7-0 decision found that Bysiewicz’s duties as secretary of the state did not qualify as the practice of law, meaning she does not have the minimum 10 years of experience required under state law to hold the office of attorney general.

The ruling comes just four days before state Democrats meet to endorse a candidate for attorney general and other statewide offices, apparently throwing the nomination to George Jepsen the only other Democrat in the race.

Related

• Supreme Court Rules Against Bysiewicz – Hartford Courant
• CT high court rules against Bysiewicz – WTNH, News 8
• Bysiewicz Says She’ll Abide By Court’s Ruling – WFSB, Eyewitness News 3
• Supreme Court Delivers Twist in AG Case by Reversing Bysiewicz Decision – WVIT, NBC Connecticut

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut rose and spoke of an earlier time in his life.

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

The deferments allowed Mr. Blumenthal to complete his studies at Harvard; pursue a graduate fellowship in England; serve as a special assistant to The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Graham; and ultimately take a job in the Nixon White House.

In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he enlisted in the Marine Reserve, landing a coveted spot in a unit in Washington, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. The unit conducted part-time drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.

Mr. Blumenthal’s campaign manager, Mindy Myers, called the Times article “an outrageous distortion of Dick Blumenthal’s record of service.” She noted his six years of service in the Marine Corps Reserve and said he “received no special treatment from anyone.” Ok, fine he did serve honorably in the Marine Corps Reserve for six years, but what’s this then:

Mr. Blumenthal’s words couldn’t be more clear (emphasis mine):

In fact, we are failing many of our veterans again.  We are failing them just as we did after the Vietnam War, just as we did our World War II and Korean [sic] veterans.  This nation has a way of sending young men and women to war, and then forgetting them when they come home.  And that is unforgivable.  And I know Congressmen like Chris Shays are working hard to change that situation.   We have learned something very important since the days I served in Vietnam, and you exemplify it.  Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it, Afghanistan or Iraq, we owe our military men and women unconditional support.

He didn’t say “Since I served during the Vietnam era” he said “… since the days I served in Vietnam”. I’d be willing to cut Mr. Blumenthal a little slack if this was one off incident that could be dismissed as a slip of the tongue, but as the Times’ story makes clear, Mr. Blumenthal has long used ambiguity and omission to obscure that he served during the Vietnam era not in Vietnam.

Time will tell, but I think it’s safe to say the race to replace Sen. Chris Dodd just got a whole lot more interesting… This was Mr. Blumenthal race to lose, right now he’s attempting to argue that his repeatedly “misstating” that he served in Vietnam is not a big deal,  and for the moment at least every prominent Democrat in the state appears to be agreeing with him… the question is how will voters react and what other shoes are waiting to fall?

Personally, I think he’s toast. Actually in a sane world, where  honor and integrity still mattered, he’d resign as Attorney General and quietly withdraw from public life, even Paul Begala calls his lies “indefensible” and “a catastrophic mistake”… but then this isn’t a sane world and it appears he intends to say in the race.

Update (5:50 p.m.): Former Congressman Chris Shays, friend of Mr. Blumenthal’s interviewed by the New York Times says he “that he had watched with worry as Mr. Blumenthal gradually embellished his military record over the years.”:

Former Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a Republican who says he is a good friend of Richard Blumenthal’s, said in an interview Tuesday that he had watched with worry as Mr. Blumenthal gradually embellished his military record over the years…

Mr. Shays said the change occurred gradually in statements made over time.

“More and more it kept creeping in,” he said. “And it was very different than when he first described his service. I’m not surprised, because he just kept adding to the story, the more he told it. I think what happens in a case like this, it’s a tiny increment of change, but when you haven’t heard him in years you say, that’s a big difference.”…

Mr. Shays said he grew uncomfortable only last month, when he and Mr. Blumenthal attended a memorial for survivors of a building collapse in Bridgeport in 1987, and Mr. Blumenthal again brought up the Vietnam War. “He didn’t say he was there; he said, ‘when we came home’ and talked about soldiers being spat upon,” Mr. Shays said. “The inference was that he was in Vietnam.”

To be honest I don’t think Mr. Blumenthal set out to consciously deceive anyone about his service, he did serve honorably for six years in the Marine Corps Reserve. Unfortunately, it appears over the years he gradually started to embellish his record, and through ambiguity and omission and left the impression he’d served inVietnam when he hadn’t. That’s not excuse though, Mr. Blumenthal needs to be held accountable for the statements he’s made, regardless of whether they were made inadvertently or not.

Related

• Vietnam service claimed by Conn. Senate hopeful Blumenthal is challenged – The Washington Post
• Blumenthal’s service during Vietnam era under scrutiny – News Times
• To the rescue: Dodd defends Blumenthal’s honor – Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
• Connecticut Democratic Senate Candidate Toast? – Jennifer Rubin, Contentions
• Phony Vietnam Vet In Connecticut Senate Race – This Ain’t Hell