(via Ace of Spades Headlines) Executive summary of Malloy Incident: blogger wiserbud of The Hostages went to CT town hall to give Governor Malloy a piece of his mind over Malloy’s proposal to allow non-citizen children of illegal immigrants* the ability to attend college at in-state tuition rates. Due to a bit of luck, wiserbud was able to give Malloy said piece of mind. Malloy, flustered, tried the Look At This Cute Kid, You Evil Person defense twice, leading to this bit:
I interrupt and say “So, your response is that you feel that spending our tax dollars on illegal immigrants is a priority for you in the midst of the fiscal crisis, correct? Thank you for your honesty, sir.” and I turned and walked away from the microphone, as he sputters to answer.
All in all: hilarity, as they say, ensued.
My one technical critique of this moment of speaking truth to power by wiserbud is: he needed to have his own camera on hand to record the event. Particularly if you suspect, like wiserbud did, that there’s no way that the regular media will cover it. Get a camera. What’s that? Video cameras are banned at the event? You mean, like former Representative Baron Hill did? Well… I do not recommend breaking actual laws, of course – but if you’re just dealing with a mere officious staffer with delusions of omnipotence?
Well, then, there’s always the two camera trick. Put one person up with the easily-seen and obvious Flip camera. While that person is being engaged by the counter-media squad you bring in the second camera operator with a much less conspicuous camera. This little baby is the Canon PowerShot SD1300IS, which is pretty much the successor to the SD1200IS that I generally use. 4.5 ounces, size of a business card, one switch video camera conversion with image stabilization. You can’t get the sheer amount of time on this one that you can get with a Flip, but you can store a good amount.
Or you may have other methods that work for you. The point is, get them on the record. Somebody will thank you later.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Important point here: kids born in this country are citizens**; Malloy’s proposal explicitly covers non-citizens.
**You are welcome to argue that they should not be, but the simple fact is that at this point in time children born in this country are automatically considered citizens (with the usual infinitesimal exceptions). Any problems that you have with that are your own affair.