Avowed Lobsterman & Democratic Senatorial "Candidate" Ed O'Reilly...

has opened up a $400K line of credit for campaign to unseat Senator John Kerry.

Four hundred G's? O'Reilly must've fetched up some mighty big lobsters from the ocean deep to qualify for that kind of scratch in these credit starved times.

This is the bit I love though, When asked about his fundraising to date, the Gloucester Times quote this response from O'Reilly:
"I had to make a choice of whether to use my own money or lock myself in a room and not meet people," O'Reilly said."

Given what I saw of O'Reilly's snarky insolent performance before the Arlington Town Democratic Committee I can only say that Ed might wanna think about locking himself in that room and scaring up some more cashola.
For one thing O'Reilly can spend it on a good speech therapist to show him how to wipe that shit eating smirk off his face and make use his "indoor voice" when talking to intimate groups.

Just sayin'...

Steve Stark,

the Boston Phoenix's national politics guy, has definitively run out of ideas in April of a Presidential election year.
That is a sad indictment of the man's ability as a pundit...bereft of material, otherwise why would he be shilling for a dark horse presidential candidacy from Al Gore???!!!

The problem with most of today's punditariat is that they are over-paid, under talented, decadent and lazy to a fault.
Steve wants Al in the race because he thinks it'll perk up his own lame-ass copy...I mean has the guy had anything worthwhile to say since January?
Besides the voluptuary in Steve wants to spend the fall rehashing Love Canal, Who invented the internet and provided the inspiration for "Love Story".

The fact that the rest of us are on the cusp of paying $10 a gallon for gasoline at the pump gats no heat with the Steve Starks of the world.
The world is falling apart out there, and all Steve can think is reliving the glory days of campaign 2000.
No Steve's ilk are bored...life isn't exciting enough for them, with no third party harlequinade on the horizon they are reduced to shilling for their favorite whipping boy, Al Gore.
Fortunately the former Vice President is too smart for this lot, granted that isn't say much...but it is clear Al doesn't want in. He fully understands the debased character of the national media as it relates to democrats in general and Al Gore in particular.
So look for Steve to start shilling for Ralph Nader or Roger Clemens or Pat Paulsen or cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch next week.
Anything to relieve the boredom...

Whenever....

the wind departs movement conservatism's sails and destiny ceases to caress their fevered brows, whenever the true believers, Buckley's proverbial happy few feel desperate, they start up with the "guilt by association meme".
Such is the case with Jeff Jacoby's column in yesterday's Sunday Globe in which the laughing young senescence insists that having an ex-weatherman for a neighbor makes Senator Barack Obama a bad persom.
It is a low tactic from Jeff who as usual cuts a clumsy comical figure in the public prints with this new attempt to gain a seat at the senior bully's table in Cafeteria USA.
I really don't care what an old fool like William Ayers thinks, he is obviously a man of the past as much as John McCain or Jeff Jacoby for that matter.
What I do care about is whether or not Barack Obama can prevent me from reverting to the status of an ill-paid drudge with a temp agency.

And anyway...Jeff Jacoby ought to be grateful to the Weather Underground, it was the fear of dingbat outfits like them that helped Richard Nixon cement his hold on power.
Hell, the Committee to Re-Elect President Nixon used to hire faux hippies to picket the White House sporing "McGovern in 1972" buttons.
Ah but that is Jeff Jacoby and the modern conservative sensibility, disloyal to those what helped them back in the day.

Sick
Demented
Typical.

It is a nice day out...

Let us spend a thirty two seconds or so imbibing the wisdom of Adlai E. Stevenson.

It is appalling to note that most of what he is discussing bedevils this republic some fifty two years later.

Never fear Judge Scalia

I'll get over it,...when you and your pals who voted in the majority on "Bush v. Gore" have been dragged off the court and sent packing back to private life with a boot print on your asses.

I'll be way over it quite frankly.

Have to give Scalia credit, he'll be the last praetorian out of the District of Columbia even as the rest of his class are running for cover clutching the last of their ill gotten gains.
As such he remains a beacon of hope to every conservative who believes in winning at any cost and a shining example to every bully in the republic.

The TSA is in da house

over at the Alewife Red Line station, sketchy details to be found at Channel Zero.

4th Middlesex state senate update...

retird firefighter Arlington resident Kenny Donnelly has apparently taken out papers to run for the democratic nomination for state senate in the 4th middlesex district, a seat currently held by Arlington's own James Marzilli.
Ken Donnelly joins Arlington selectman Jack Hurd in the usual bid to oust Jim Marzilli (who has by now endured multiple challenges to his incumbency from within the democratic party since 1990...battle tested doesn't begin to describe the guy).
On the surface this is good news for Marzilli, both Donnelly and Hurd will draw heavily from the 30 to 40% of Arlington voters who hate Jim with a passion. Moreover this obliquely points to a split within the eternally anti-Marzilli town hall gang between the nascent Hurd and Donnelly factions. One wonders though with whom state representative Garballey and selectperson Mahon will line up?
I'm guessing Donnelly, he was their man on horseback last fall nothing much has happened since then to change that.
It'll be an interesting primary contest to say the least, three candidates from Arlington on the hustings and we haven't heard from Lexington, Billerica, Burlington and Woburn yet.
Donnelly does have some cashola left over from the special election and no doubt his "volunteers" are tanned rested and ready. On the other hand, he did give Marzilli a rousing endorsement last November after the primary he is gonna have to explain to the democrats of the district just what has changed to send him back onto the streets braying for change.
Hurd has excellent name recognition in Arlington (he comes from an old political family within the local democratic organization) but is congenitally laid back and has never expressed himself on some of the great controversies of the day. If he can raise the money he could be formidable though....hard to see what kind of business he will do in Lexington and beyond.
Frankly I'm a little nonplussed at the ongoing anti-Marzilli jihad in Arlington, after eighteen years you'd think it would abate, but no it flames up worse than ever.
It is also a little odd to note that Donnelly and Hurd both turned down a chance at the open state rep's seat this winter to make this dubious race...thus clearing the way for young Sean Garballey to carry the day.
The regulars and the town hall gang in Arlington make weird decisions that is all I can say.

This is just glorious

Randi Goldklank, the General Manager at Channel Seven, and by extension NewsPanic 7's capo d' regime, was arrested after an alleged drunken brawl with the staties at Logan Airport.
Oh this is just too good to be true...Randi allegedly screamed at everyone within earshot that she'd "ruin" them all.
"I'm a big shot in Boston, and I'll have your [expletive] jobs," so she is quoted in the Boston Globe this morning.
Oh lord if the state police contingent at Logan had a dime for every time they heard that dire threat during some embarrassing freak-out.
The part that I just love though, is this bit of Noel Coward byplay:

The defendant's demeanor changed and she became quiet," the report says. "After a few minutes she leaned toward Sergeant Luce and stated, 'You think I'm cute and I think you're cute, just drive me home.' "

Nothing so perfectly illustrates the dangerous regressive tendencies inherent in tabloid trash local news reporting...I mean what grown adult really thinks a Mickey Spillane scene like that will get them out of serious trouble with the rollers? If you promulgate a cartoonish pulp fiction view of institutions and laws then you end up trying dumb-ass come-ons that would be laughed out of a "Simpsons" script conference.

Sorry, Randi...live by the tabloid sensation, die by the tabloid sensation sayeth Humble Elias.

Well, if I was Channel Seven, I'd fire Randi, decimate the news-room and replace them all with serious hard news journalists...I'd raise standards and keep them high.
Ah but that ain't happening now is it? Hell we demand more of our schoolchildren than we do our local news media.

Randi if you are reading this, I say go all out if it goes to trial, bring your prize pink pekinese to the courtroom, get skanked out to the max, effect giant sunglasses, dance atop the cab when get to the hearing...I mean what the hell, in for a penny in for a pound eh?

Populists and Pseudo Populists

Ed O'Reilly wants to displace John Kerry in the fall democratic senatorial primary.

To hear him tell it, Ed O'Reilly is a progressive democrat with authentic populist bona fides. O'Reilly proclaims himself a lobsterman, volunteer firefighter and a Gloucester stalwart indeed, you have to shade your eyes from the gleam off his white wife beater as you inhale the aroma of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
And yet for all that O'Reilly is allegedly slavishly devoted to the Massachusetts Democratic Party Program, an unsuspecting layman might think Ed fairly invented gay marriage the way he carries on.
What O'Reilly doesn't tell you is that he is also a well to do attorney living in a million dollar heap up there in Gloucester...ether that or he has divined the secret of making mad phat cashola out from the contents of lobster traps.
What O'Reilly also doesn't mention is that his biggest donor to date is one James Demetri a Romney highbinder and GOP fundraiser.
What O'Reilly doesn't tell you that he has taken out loans using his expensive home as collateral, because otherwise the money has hardly been rolling into his coffers.
And lastly what O'Reilly doesn't tell you is that if he gets on the ballot it'll be mostly a function of Hilary Clinton's Bay State supporters wanting to pay back John Kerry for endorsing Obama. Oh don't worry they'll abandon O'Reilly populist bluster and all come September they just wanna dig JK hard in the ribs.
Taking it all together the self financing, the casual acceptance of GOP money,the boorish desire to punish John Kerry for losing in '04, the back room politics with the phony populist blather and O'Reilly looks less like a true believer and more like a political adventurer.
I can't say I think much of such zanies, in this breathing political world there are front runners, dark horses, long shots, old shoes and then there are the angry posers like Ed.
Normally a first time candidate like O'Reilly could vent his rage running for State Representative or Registrar of Deeds, but the lack of turnover in the elected classes in Massachusetts prevents any such option and leaves him to attempt a spiteful state wide race.
Senator Clinton may have enough supporters at the upcoming state democratic convention to shove O'Reilly onto the ballot, but I urge them to think twice about it. The man has demonstrated little electoral strength within the party and his fundraising to date has been confined to GOP mischief money and self financing. I recommend the convention decline to put so trivial a candidate on the ballot.
Sure Joanie Vennochi will squawk, but I can't see a downside to keeping Ed O'Reilly off the ballot, the man is a tedious vengeful fake.

Cultural Notes from California...

This is San Francisco City Hall....If Tom Menino ever sees the baronial splendor in which Mayor Gavin Newsom works, Hizzoner will be laying the demolition charges in that shanty of his on Cambridge Street before sundown.

Which raises an important point, the public spaces in San Francisco are by and large very well maintained. UC Berkeley is huge and even nigh palacial, UMass Amherst is chicken coop by comparison. The Panhandle and Golden Gate park make the Public Garden look puny in every respect.
Golden Gate Park in particular is just god-damned gorgeous, on any given Suday one half expects to meet cavorting Eloi in the Japanese Tea Garden.
Part of it is the weather, the climate favors more outdoor activities on a year round basis so the parks get more use and more upkeep. Some of it is the ethos which regards such spaces as a public good...it is just a different mentality, not necessarily better, but a different one nonetheless.

Blog Left gathering in Lowell

I am sworn to secrecy with respect to our subtle and cunning plans to bring about the liberal-progressive eschaton by writing stuff for free on the internet.
However I received some assurances from Sco that he will be updating the .08 and Donkey blog very soon, as soon as his infant son gives back the "enter"' key from the family laptop.

California Notes II

I think just possibly, the San Francisco Chronicle qualifies as the most trivial and useless newspaper in the USA. Wire service cop is copiously and badly re-written to cover stories emanating from the State Capital!
There is no discernible editorial page let alone any local or syndicated columnists. The whole paper is about as locally oriented as your average Starbucks.
Imagine "USA Today" with a prefrontal lobotomy and you'll have the Chronicle's style down pat. Opinions of any kind are non-existent which suits the whole "offend no one, inform none" editorial line. In five days of relentless tourism from the Haight to the Fish Pier I never caught a single native San Franciscan actually reading the damn thing.
San Francisco is a one newspaper town and it shows....the Chronicle is naught but an overgrown Shopper.
One hopes there is an active blogging community out there, otherwise how exactly the natives inform themselves on a daily basis remains a frightening mystery.

"Refusenik" (2007) duly reviewed

by the simple folk over at Channel Zero:

Fourth Middlesex senate district notes...

Jack Hurd a long serving selectperson in Arlington has announced that he will seek the democratic nomination for state senate this fall for the seat currently occupied by James Marzilli.
This is unfortunate but entirely predictable, most of Marzilli's career path in public life has been peppered by incessant primary challenges going back to 1990, a good 30 to 40 percent of the electorate in Arlington just won't stand by the guy for some reason.
Hurd is a personable low key guy from a storied Arlington political family. He has also been a town hall fixture since 1996 or with many friends town-wide, if he can solve the fundraising riddle then he will run hard come September.
There are larger questions about his candidacy though, to my knowledge Jack has never dealt with any questions relating to casino gambling, choice issues or same sex marriage. He also contesting the seat during what will be a hot presidential campaign which is bound to bring out a host of liberal voters who may not think much of his centrist democrat townie orthodoxy.
Moreover, Hurd served as chair of the Town Democratic Committee in the mid nineties at a time when the membership consisted of no-shows and dead-heads. Quorums were hard to come by especially on nights when the Red Sox were playing and an air of torpidity hung over the proceedings.
There are also some rumors abroad in Arlington to the effect that there is split within the ranks of the Town Hall Gang, this would be the faction that helped put Sean Garballey over as State Rep this winter. Clearly they'd love to go for a two-fer and eject Jim Marzilli their longtime bete noir from the senate but whether or not they have the unity on hand this time is an open question.

If...

John McCain feels he must promise a temporary repeal of the gas tax in April...then what sort of malign utopian nonsense will he be spouting by October?
Dunno, but The Hero suddenly sounds desperate perhaps maybe even Mitt Romney desperate.
Shutting the gas tax down will cost the treasury ten billion in revenues most of wehich get sent to the states to subsidize public transport, speaking from personal experience the Red Line can ill afford such a sudden cut. Moreover, big oil pays the tax out of the price at the pump, nothing in McCain's current proposal ensures the savings will be passed along to the consumer.
But the big game is afoot, McCain is making promises no man is safe, it will be "Every Man a King" before labor day.

California Notes...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger after much hemming & hawing came out against a proposed anti-SSM ballot initiative, the local wowsers all screamed like stuck babcon and vowed to do awful evil things to him post-haste.
Schwarzenegger is still listlessly talking up repealing "no foreign born citizens" requirement to the Presidency, but you can tell the wind has gone out of his political sails. I mean does Orrin Hatch even call him anymore?
Arnold looks old and tired, coping with the recession sired by his pal George Bush must take up a good sixteen hours of his day.
A mere two years ago the man was the GOP's best hope going forward...now he is a hack and worse a hack caught between witchburners and small gummint fanatics.
He tried governing as a conservative, that gat no heat now he is discovering that the GOP centre is pretty stony ground all of itself.
So be it, the man seized power in a legal coup engineered by the late Enron Corp, he should have problems.

Note to the Laity

from Pastor Elias, I'm on vacation starting tomorrow thru Tuesday next. Updates will be at best sporadic and capricious, however since I'm going to San Francisco the change in the air might inspire some writing, yez never know.

Condi for Veep?

The latest rumor off the Potomac is that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, that lofty and inert vegetable, is interesting in the GOP Vice Presidential slot.
Well...it is a slow news week and Secretary Rice is clearly jonesing for some positive publicity after months out of the spotlight.
Either that or McCain's dumb-ass advisors actually think a black woman will trump all the democrats in the fall election...they are just credulous enough to believe this.
I on the other hand would relish even the most cursory cross examination of candidate Rice with respect to the endless bricks of money we've throw at Maliki the Mooch in Baghdad or even a brief discussion of the contents of her hope chest.
Ohhhh that was nasty...sometimes Humble Elias can't help himself.
Rice is a bad idea all around, lord knows what actual state she could deliver (I mean has anyone even seen her in California since 2004?) and her rep as Bush Family lackey will do naught but make enemies for McCain this fall.
In short, I hope she has a lock on it, nothing could provide more amusement.

A Clean Veep for Barack...

It is probably premature to start sifting thru candidates for the Vice Presidency with Senator Obama, but I'm bored and willing to indulge sheer fantasy.
The Vice Presidency is a charmless inert position, one collects a salary for the mere potential of work much akin to certain obscure elected positions in Middlesex County before those offices were abolished.
And the office hasn't changed much since Thomas Jefferson had it and spent four years perfecting his solitaire game.
The main and eternal Vice Presidential qualification is to not be a buffoon and to have a clean record otherwise uncontaminated by the sort of vices that get Fox News all exercised.
The ability to deliver your home state is also nice and a penchant for clear concise english is welcome as well.
Because lets face it, if Senator Obama is the nominee he is gonna have to fetch Florida and Ohio all by himself, gaming the system by way of a VP nominee will avail him nothing in those two battleground states.
The big fight is the senator's to win or lose.
That having been said, it is about time we tried to do some business in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, a veep nominee with some props in those states might make the difference in a close race.
This is where Bill Richardson governor of New Mexico comes into play, also governor Bill Ritter of Colorado or McCain's home state governor, Janet Napolitano.
If they speak clear concise spanish, their value goes up even further...
If this is the scenario, Richardson with his long DC resume and excellent spanish seems like the most obvious candidate.
But that is just a thought....the other advantage to a governor is that the delicate balance of the US Senate is not disturbed by such a nomination, and one gets to keep your populist outside credentials for a while longer.

As of Last Friday

John McCain said that he made a mistake in his initial opposition to making Martin luther King's birthday a holiday.

So can we say that He was Against MLK Day, before He was For It?

And if so, will Chris Matthews and Don Imus even notice?

Twilight of the Fraud...

A month or so of dedicated toadying yields Mitt Romney exactly nothing by way of getting on McCain's Vice Presidential short list.

This particular passage from off the above link to the Boston GLobe, is particularly instructive:

But a group of social conservatives threatened to pull its support from McCain if he picks the former Massachusetts governor, citing Romney's former positions favoring abortion rights and gay rights.

The group has bought a full-page ad in tomorrow's local newspaper in Prescott, Ariz., where McCain will be campaigning that day. "For us, the bottom line is this," the ad states. "The unvarnished facts of Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts make him utterly unacceptable as a vice presidential running mate. . . . If governor Romney is on your ticket, many social conservative voters will consider their values repudiated by the Republican Party."

The group, calling itself the Government is Not God PAC, includes Paul Weyrich, Moral Majority founder, who endorsed Romney during the primaries.

I seem to recall not two weeks ago, Joan Vennochi was insisting in that humorless way of hers that Mitt Romney was a strong vice presidential possibility because he so appealing to the social conservative wing of the GOP?

All I can say is, HA!!!!

This looks like the end of the road for the former viceroy of Massachusetts, too phony too cold and too selfish for even the debauched reaches of the Republican Party.
Well with any luck IF McCain gets in, he can nominate Romney as Secretary of Health and Human Services, which is exactly as high as Mitt's Dad George Romney went in national politics.
Otherwise President Obama can reach out in a bid for bipartisanship and send Romney to our embassy in ohhh say I dunno....Pakistan.

The Veep Post is delayed once again, whilst a Fatwah is Imposed...

The Washington Post proclaimed this past week that the Blue Mass Group is the best political blog in Massachusetts.

The Blue Mass Group!!! I used to help those rug rats with Long Division!!!!

Just because those guys built up a huge on-line presence, drafted volunteers, drove the debate, brought new voices into the process and helped the democrats in Massachusetts in 2006...doesn't mean they are hot shit or anything!

What about Humble Elias!??? Hell I'm th' grand olde man of the local liberal bloggers, I got in back when Colin Powell still had integrity!

What about Glorious Adorable ME!!!????
When am I gonna get some luv????

Well, the Washington Post can just kiss my phat Irish arse! They haven't done a lick of good for the nation since Woodward and Bernstein! These days The Post is naught but sort of toadyish publication given to a cartoonishly solemn respect for every fraudulent hack in DC and their patently absurd ideas.

Anyhow...congrats to BMG...they earned it.
But the Washington Post, they are on thin ice with Humble Elias.

Gonna put the Veep discussion on hold in order to remind the laity

that Jeff Jacoby is a screechy bitchy little war-whooper.
Alone seemingly among the American punditariat, Jeff breathed a howl of sheer relief when McCain promised to keep up in Iraq for the next one hundred years.
Such is the way of the chickenhawk.
Well...by my rough calculations his eldest progeny the much discussed young Kaleb ought to be of "draft age" in about twelve years, 2020 on the calendar, which means we will be in the the seventeenth year of McCain's proposed one hundred year occupation of Iraq.

Will the lad join the army and give teeth to his father's truculence?

Will Jeff ever find a war he can't get behind with beating tambourine and a voice, throbbing with false patriotic bluster?

The world wonders....

The first "Gotcha" Commercial

irony of ironies it was at the expense of Richard M. Nixon....

Tomorrow, barring unforeseen circumstances we start conjuring with Vice Presidential Nominees for Barack Obama.

Should be fun in a senseless, heedless, antic sort of a way.