Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is once again

threatening the nation with a Presidential campaign.
"I have never been this serious" or so he told the Associated Press.
Amend that to read "I have never been serious" and you get the real scope of the picture, Newt doesn't have the guts to run for President not with the many many dancing skeletons in his closet. He does love phat speaking fees as well as seeing his name in the newspapers. Hence his annual flirtation with the White House.
He is akin to a fat spoiled brat who keeps threatening to run away if he doesn't start getting chocolate cream pie for Breakfast immediately.
He won't do it, trust me, there is a deficit of guts there.
Still, if he did, it would be glorious mah frenz.
Imagine a debate where Mitt Romney jammed between Gingrich and his sophomoric intellectualism and Sarah Palin's light as ashes phony populism, the Former Viceroy won't know who to pander to...
Meanwhile Rick "High Pitched Rich" Santorum is clearly running for President while Jeb Bush has taken himself out of the race.
I suspect Jeb might wanna go his Dad's route and maybe try to grab off the Vice Presidential nomination, but then again I have a hard time believing a Made Member of La Famiglia Arbusto would ever take orders from Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney for that fact.
But sweet Jesus the GOP debates that are shaping up!
Romney v. Palin v. Santorum v. Gingrich they may as well book the auditorium at the Concord New Hampshire State Mental Hospital now...It'll be that good.

Casinos v. Slots

Two bad ideas for the price of one.
Sadly twenty four hours ago, it looked like gaming wasn't gonna pass this session now everyone has gone bubbering down the aisle weeping and coming to Jesus.
Good Ghod on this rubbish they come together and compromise!
Can't get these mooks on Beacon Hill to do shit about C.O.R.I. reform or the scandals at the Probation Department but they will go all night in extraordinary session to save blackjack and roulette.
We've outlawed dog racing in the Commonwealth and yet we are about to legalize the running people into bankruptcy by way of casinos and slot machines....am I the only one who sees the irony?
Slots at Suffolk Downs by the way will be the death of horse racing in Massachusetts, the ponies will become irrelevant and downscale in every way, they are poised on the brink of that now but trust me, slots will send them right over the edge.
Massachusetts is about to jump off a cliff hope everyone is ready for a long long fall mah frenz.

Thought for the Day....

Whatever happened to Bill Weld?
Is he still haunting the streets of the Upper West Side of Manhattan like the Ghost of GOP Past?
Will he come back to Massachusetts to try and jumpstart Charlie "Ziplips" Baker's moribund gubernatorial campaign?
Schedule a few appearances in North Cambridge so as to make Last Call at the Summer Shack?

Honestly, Ziplips the nearest thing to a protege' Bill Weld has...He can't cut Baker dead can he?

To paraphrase the late Earl K. Long,

"Scott Brown loves money the way a hog loves slop".
And like a hog, Scott couldn't care less how he gets his $lop or where it comes from.
Which is why, he voted against a mere disclosure law yesterday in the US Senate, something that would have simply increased transparency, not addressed much less restrict the malignant sources of Big Time campaign finance.
Nope..."Keep them $lop$ a comin' "cries Scott.
Are these the actions of a "true independent voice for Massachusetts"?
No, they are the actions of a toady for Mitch McConnell and sundry Malefactors of Great Wealth.
Granted Scott can be bribed and bamboozled as we have seen in other cases, but this is about $lop$ and there Scott votes his conscience or in this case his campaign account.

"A Good Five Cent Cigar"

Is what the country needed or so opined the late Vice President of the United States, Thomas Marshall.
The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts takes a different view, they say that what we really need is casino gambling.
And as you can see here, every mook, chowderhead, skygrifter and porch climber on Beacon Hill has an opinion about casinos that they are desperate to share with the Boston Globe.
This stands in stark contract to This Article about the alleged chiseling, mismanagement & patronage abuses that are allegedly rampant at the Commonwealth's Probation Department, not a single member of the state legislature is therein quoted on this serious sitation.
They got quotes from Da Governor (all the way from Kabul) the Acting Commissioner of Probation, the Inspector General and various relevant solons...but the lege?
Nada.
Dead silence.
Well I guess none of them folks wanna out Cousin Billy or Uncle Goddamn or whoever else they shoved behind a desk over at Probation.
If they aren't willing to discuss with the Boston Globe then it's sure as God Made Little Green Apples that they will never call a hearing on any of this mishaugas.
I would speculate, that absent such a hearing, that certain persons on Beacon Hill have too much to hide with respect to the matter.

Yesterday...

The Boston Globe ran a fourth Spotlight Team expose on the widespread chiseling, payroll padding and allegedly corrupt goings at the Commonwealth Probation Department, chicanery that totals up to tens of millions of dollars being wasted if the allegations are true.
Meanwhile the Boston Herald ran a caricature of John Kerry on it's front page depicting the Senior Senator as a pirate complete with the usual snarkage from GOP fundraiser and comedian Howie Carr.
I leave it up to my readers (all seven of you) to calculate which daily newspaper is serving the public more faithfully and honestly.
Meanwhile four bombshells have detonated on the front page of the Globe regarding the Probation Department and still the State Legislature hasn't held so much as one hearing into the allegations nor even scheduled the Governor's bill to reform said institution for a vote.
We can't even run the Probation Department without some two hundred and fifty deadheads swarming in and millions of dollars being wasted, and Beacon Hill is actually panting to introduce casino gambling to the state.
Good Lord image the patronage and chiseling opportunities that will afford...

On the other hand...

imagine how much fun the 2012 New Hampshire Primary would be, if say Jeb Bush, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich all piled in?
With Piyush "Bobby" Jindal along to play the Bob Denver role and provide some poetry and jazz?
Geezus I think I'd move up there for a freakshow like that!
Nothing but over-class warfare and division twenty four-seven, each vying with the others thru the daily news cycle to proclaim the stupidest and crudest wingnut sound byte.
Shit Romney versus Bush alone would be worth the price of admission, Mitt has always been a faithful lackey of La Famiglia Arbusto (remember when he scored Jeb's endorsement in 2007) imagine his resentment at Jeb's turnabout...and here Mitt wanted to take Jeb on as his VP candidate in '08 and all!
HA!
Well, Mitt has always been a amateur at politics, even now. He still doesn't realize that La Famiglia Arbusto is out for themselves and themselves alone, they demand loyalty and return nothing comparable in return.
That would be a very entertaining primary all told here is hopin'.

"Why Not Jeb?"

I've been waiting to read that headline for six years now. The inevitable first stirrings of a "Lets Run Jeb Bush fer President" movement, Joshua Green outlines the former Governor of Florida's strengths in an op-ed piece in today's Globe.
Jeb is a perfect GOP candidate for President, selfish and ruthless he comes of a long line of opportunistic scoundrels, the name alone is worth fifty thousand votes in New Hampshire where the republican electorate has a high opinion of raw power-worship.
And in a republican party where power is fragmented and ideology contradictory, the promise of a slam bang well funded Bush campaign for President run by the usual feckless thugs & covered by the usual dickless lackeys in the media must have some in a lather of anticipation. Never mind that the two other Presidents Bush brought war and recession down on America, twice...just focus on the liberal-hatred and get on with it!
And no doubt we can expect another war and an even worse recession from Jeb should he somehow seize power in 2012...It is in the family genes doncha know.
And then there is just that perpetual look of injured innocence on Jeb's otherwise expressionless pie shaped face, it is a good counterpart to his brother George's eternal smirk. Like all members of the Bush family Jeb is worthless but he is good at expressing a feigned horror of ruthless behavior on the part of his rivals, and the press falls for it every time.
Just for fun, (I have no illusions as to whether or not this would shift the outcome) it would be fun to ask Jeb Bush at a press conference "What do you say to people to insist that the Bush Family is out for themselves at the expense of all others including the Republic itself?"
Failing that:
"Just how much more of the Bush Family's Leadership can America be expected to withstand?"
His responses will be both entertaining and enlightening to say the least.

Ever the ditherer...

Former State Senator Scott Brown votes against extending unemployment benefits for thousands of his currently jobless constituents.
And all the while Scott is scratching his head wondering why the US Senate didn't take so much as look-one at his bill to extend unemployment benefits (a bill that even Mitch McConnell disdained to read). Scott is finding out just how obscure and constrained life really is for a Freshman Senator, every day takes his further and further away from the euphoria of election night and towards the unknown terrors of  re-election where his face won't be quite so fresh will it?

When legislators have the mentality of

ten year old boys, these are the sorts of laws that get imposed on a much abused electorate.
Yes indeed, if you have a gun permit, you get to skip the metal detectors in the Texas State House in Austin.
What is wrong with that picture, can't quite put my finger on it...?
Texas takes the cake, crime ridden, polluted, ruled by porch-climbers, corrupted by oil money, pestered by skygrifters and insufferable gun worshippers, a sensible idea is usually lynched there at the rate of one a day. School books are bought en masse by the State and subject to a preposterous veto wielded by a fanatical witchburning minority whose opposition to elementary scientific fact is legendary.
Fifty years from now, the oil patch down thar is gonna run out for good, no amount of bluster and "drill baby drill!" sentiments will revive it. Watch these skeezers lobby congress for relief, slush funds, public monies, welfare if you will when it happens.
They've made no preparations for this sad eventuality, but Texas didn't get to be Texas without a heapin' helpin' of shamelessness mah frenz.

They may go deaf and they might go blind

but they sure as shit never shut up do they?

***
Glenn Beck claims to have eyesight problems, trust me as long as he can find his sightlines, nothing will prevent Glenn from ranting and raving on the congressionally licensed airwaves like General Gonzalo Quiepo De Llano.

In case you haven't heard

The Boston Police Patrolman's Association has rosily endorsed Tim Cahill for Governor.

Of course, to get that lovely green traffic-detail moolah back in their pockets, the BPPA would happily come out banging the pots for Idi Amin or Achille Starace for Governor, if certain pledges were made.

The Freeper's Apprentice...

Irving Stone once famously observed that some men are mere containers, while others are content itself.
Dunno if Charlie can get elected governor, but if he loses he can always hire himself out as an on-air stooge to some class act like Jay Severin or Michael Graham. At the very least he can go on the Howie Carr Show and grovel with gusto assured that he and his host are simpatico when it comes to keeping down Liam and Bridget and Raul and Rosita...
However I would point out to Citizen Baker (as I once pointed out likewise to Scary Kerry Healey) that it is nigh impossible to be rich in Massachusetts and not have some contact with the illegal immigrant community, someone somewhere with a mortal fear of the I.N.S. has been clipping your hedges, walking your dogs, minding your kids or vacuuming the stairs, count on it.
So Ziplips had better been examining each and every green card in that landscaping crew...thass all I kin say.

Per the Boston Globe...

Former State Senator Scott Brown is agin' Campaign Finance Reform...Then again two weeks ago he was against Financial Regulation Bill that Barney Frank wrote, and in the end, Scott voted for that bad baby.
So just give Scott two weeks, he'll change his mind, you can put money on it.
Frankly I think President Obama and Senator Reid have got Scott and his bloated sense of vanity sussed out, they got him boxed in on HCR, Financial Regulation and who is to say they won't do the same with him on the Kerry-Lieberman environmental bill and campaign finance reform?

Does anyone at all copy edit Jeff Jacoby's column for the Boston Globe?

Because someone credible needs to creep into That Laughing Young Senescence's cubicle and suggest that the best way to build up pseudo populist anti-tax outrage is to avoid pimping sympathy for an overpaid All-Star NBA lout.
Weeping bitter tears of remorse at the tax woes of obscenely overpaid athletes seems just a tad er...counterproductive.
And quoting Rush Limbaugh as a public revenue expert?
And all in defense of LeBron James possibly the most hated man in pro basketball today...
Yeesh a slow news week indeed.

The Cowardly Lion Roars...

Newt Gingrich is "very seriously" considering a run for President in 2012.


I'm laughing so hard right now, someone will call the cops on me.
It is July before an election, so it's the biannual "I'm Maybe Gonna Run, I Am really I Might" routine from the Former House Speaker, he does this every two years and never ever jumps into the race.
He knows better, most cowards do after all.
Maybe he could run like Pappy O'Daniel used to do down in Texas with a Gospel Band made up of his kids, except Newt could take to the stump as "Newt Gingrich and his Ex-Wives Orchestra".
Newt is good at exactly three things, getting elected from some shitkicker district in Georgia that care not for it's fate save that dirty books be burnt, impressing stupid credulous bastards like David Broder with his entirely sophomoric erudition and intimidating enough congressmen from similar shitkicker districts to elect him Speaker of the US House.
None of these skills will stand him in good stead if he decides to run for real.
Hilary Clinton was salivating at the thought of running against Newt in 2008 he is exactly the sort of petty Captain Queegish dickwad she and her husband had been putting away for over a decade. Shit Dennis Kucinich could beat Gingrich, Walter Mondale dotage and all would beat Newt's fat ass like a red headed step child. Gingrich talks this way every election cycle because his enablers in the Punditariat haven't yet caught on that Newt loves attention not risk...And running his mouth off like this keeps his speaking fees nice and fat
Of course as a lover of classic political buncombe, I am praying Gingrich somehow gets in for 2012, a four way between him, Romney, Sarah Palin and some naive jack off like Piyush "Bobby" Jindal or (dare I say it) Scott Brown would be the maddest tea party on record in the past twenty five years.
The New Hampshire Primary will finally reach it's logical conclusion as a political circus from start to finish, right down to the clown show. The spectacle of Ex Speaker Gingrich lecturing the slack jawed undergrads at Saint Anselm College about the occult wisdom of Alvin "Future Shock" Toffler is a consumation devoutly to be wished!
I for once cannot wait, Run Newt Run!

All I kin say is

"Sometimes a US Attorney General Has To Do what a US Attorney General Has To Do"...

And I don't give a good gawd damn what is worrying other democratic governors, the Federales have a vested interest in preventing Arizona from imposing a irksome and unconstitutional regime of racial profiling on a minority of it's citizens.
Yeah yeah I know, "secure the borders", well shee-it, the mutha-lovin' US Army is in Afghanistan last I checked so everyone is gonna have to mellow out.
Which is I know a forlorn hope.

Yuh see how these

shitkicker Governors abuse the Commonwealth's hospitality?
Mississippi's Governor Haley Barbour, came to town for a National Governor Association conference hosted by our own Governor Deval Patrick, so of course as Republican Governor's Association Commissar, he just had to show up with an attack advert de-nouncing our Incumbent Governor.
Ghod is he an ungrateful shit or what?
His own state is covered with ten inches of toxic crude oil, which Ayn Rand, Grover Norquist, Benny Hinn and the rest of those chowderheads assured him would never happen and still Governor Barbour has time to come up here to stab Deval Patrick in the back.
Whenever there is some gross breach of public decorum, you can bet some porch-climbing pol of one of the Former Confederate States lies at the heart of it, happens every time.
Honestly if Deval Patrick flew off to Biloxi with a attack advert proving Haley Barbour worshipped Vaal the Star Trek Godzilla Head and happily laundered money for the same the State Militia would hit the streets before sundown.
But this is Massachusetts, and we are polite to the point of having problems asserting our pride.
Shit we've even got some prize specimens who'll cheer this sort of gruesome behavior (Jeff Jacoby with pout and thrust out his lower lip and mumble something about the First Amendment while Howie Carr will twitch his flabby ass and shake his pom poms for sheer joy).
Haley Barbour is a shit, plain and simple, self righteous, selfish and contemptuous of those providing him with hospitality.  If he wants to act like a barbarian let him do it atop his own dung heap and steer clear of the Commonwealth.

I don't know if

Martha Cloakley will be re-elected (the auspices look good but this is Martha we are talking about)...But I do think she just "earned heaven" with her spirited attack on DOMA in the courts which got the damn thing struck down yesterday.
Now would be a good time to do a "gut check" with Ziplips Baker, it has been eight whole weeks since his last windy pronouncement of fealty to gay marriage. For Charlie Baker and his political courage that is a long time, it'd be curious to get his views on the Downfall of DOMA.

Geez I guess they must've been

spies after all, otherwise why would the Russians want their pin up girls and chowderheads back?
This is an old intelligence game that must have a few greybeards at the Central Intelligence Agency sweeping tears of nostalgia out of their eyes, "we'll give you six of your mooks back for the two snitches you caught".
Nonetheless, I feel bad for the kids they found out their parents are espionage agents and are now gonna have to finish off high school in Moscow.
I mean like Yeesh.

Brown v. Kagan

The Globe is all a dither over which way Former State Senator Scott Brown is gonna vote in the upcoming nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
I got it down pat, if it is a close vote, Scott will vote no with a horrible little smirk on his face in full view of the TV cameras from FOX and CNN, if it is a blow out he will vote no and slip away quickly for a two week vacation up on Winnipesaukee til the dust settles.
Scott Brown is a conservative, and today's conservative is corrupt and thoroughly untrustworthy in every way, he has nothing to declare but his bad intentions to paraphrase the late William S. Burroughs.
His word ain't worth shit, not with Grover Norquist telling how to screw you on a deal....

***
Meanwhile when did this oaf become pro-choice? The above linked article claims on no substantiation that Brown is just that, last time I checked, Scott was for abortion only to save the reputations of his daughters or some such rubbish like that.
If he is pro-choice then why were groups like "Priests for Life" all squealing for joy and shaking their pom-poms when Scott won in January?
Well?

"Chasing Mamacita"

Down in Rhode Island, the staties have the authority to arrest alleged illegal aliens and bind them over for deportation hearings.
Today's Globe outlines the whole process in detail.
My question is, in a state where organized crime allegedly has all kinds of chummy links with the state legislature is this a good allocation or law enforcement resources or is chasing down Liam and Bridget and Pablo and Rosita merely a red herring while local Don's double bill the Public Works Commission?
So of course, a idea like this has seized the noggins of Tim Cahill and Ziplips Baker with a death grip, they want the staties in the Commonwealth to round up the wogs too!
Because rounding up the pool man and the au pair is sooo much more important than State Law Enforcement dealing with this trivial situation....

Willfully craven versus willfully ignorant

On the front page of Saturday's Globe Sasha Issenberg had an article entitled "Faith Still Sticky Issue As Romney Mulls Run".

I can't link to it, it's three days old, take it on faith so to speak that Mitt's high command is inured to the notion that there is cohort within the GOP base he cannot reach because they have problems with his Mormonism.

Fair enough but we can also say that Romney dealt with this sectarian resistance by promising said cohort power beyond imaging over their fellow citizens, the right to fag bash, to exclude, to loot the Federal exchequer on behalf of their individual tabernacles, and more atop that as long as they overlooked his religion and voted for Romney.

Why should they take even a lucrative deal like that? Their very own slave in the Oval Office.

Well, the truth of the matter is, Mitt Romney could promise them all free hookers and unlimited book burning privileges and they wouldn't go for it. Because it only partially his religion, mostly it is about them establishing a religious qualification for the GOP Presidential nomination, Mormons need not apply.

True they couldn't hoist that giddy lightweight Huckabee onto the ticket, but they were willing to compromise on McCain and not with Romney.

Why should these these book worshippers dicker with Romney? They sandbagged him good in Iowa and New Hampshire packed the dirt down good on his political grave. Nothing has changed within the GOP to alter that dynamic except that the base has drifted even rightward into areas where the famously malleable Romney dares not go.

Frankly if Mitt wants the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination, he may need to change his religion, otherwise he can run as a disgruntled independent or flip to the dems with a Hail Mary pass in 2016 on a ticket with Joe Lieberman or Arlen Specter.

Okay pure speculative fiction I know.

I don't think Romney quite grasps the situation, if he did he'd realize he and country have bigger problems than any looming Presidential contest...The sort of problems a man would need to ponder, alas pondering ain't Mitt's strong suit.

 This is all vaguely akin to the situation last winter with the special US Senate election, whereas Romney thought he could buy off the religious right in the GOP Primary, AG Martha Cloakley chose to pretend that there is no glass ceiling in Massachusetts politics and she kept pretending just that until she smashed into it head on and was knocked sprawling.

Which approach is better? Truckling or willful ignorance? Well you can judge both by their respective outcomes, dead losses both of them with no prospect of doing better in a subsequent election.

So Humble Elias' point is (and he has one for once) it is best for candidates to address the Big Unspoken Bad early and decisively, because the two other options just don't work.

40,000 unemployed here in Massachusetts just got

left in the lurch because our well compensated painfully high minded Junior Senator refused to extend their benefits in a US Senate vote this week.
Apparently he had his jockey's all in a bunch because the extension wasn't "funded", although last week he was desperate to pass along the cost of financial regulatory reform to the American People rather than levy any taxes on the bankers and financial profligates that touched off the current recession.
Well you can't say Scott Brown isn't consistent, he was been all about "I got mine Jack" from the moment he was elected, why a churlish move like this should amaze anyone is beyond me.
Still 40,000 is a plurality in a tight election, so if any of those unemployed unfortunates wanted to pick up and say set up a "holiday weekend shanty town" down in Wrentham this weekend, just to nudge the Former State Senator in the ribs well, I'd say godspeed and good luck.

One Small Step for the State Senate, One Giant Leap for Penury...

The Upper House on Beacon Hill votes for a Casino Bill that forbids smoking in gaming rooms and enjoins all notional gambling houses from employing illegal immigrants.

Humble Elias shits you not, that was one of the amendments tacked on yesterday, no lung cancer and no pit bosses named Liam or cocktail waitresses named Rosita from "Arizona".
Sheer genius, the greybearded solons in our State Senate have pondered deeply and at length and this is the path they've discerned that'll lead Massachusetts back to prosperity.
And not for nothing, but the State Senate spent almost a month polishing this turd to a high Marine Corps Shine, meanwhile not one hearing has been called to answer allegations of boodling, chiseling, kickbacks and payroll padding at the Probation Department.
Not One!
Hell I'm ready to flee to the Baja, at least the crime and corruption there is served straight up without any sugary hypocrisy or blovation about prosperity.
I say this with sorrow, I didn't see a spot of blood on the moon last night, nor any other harbingers but some of these people in the state legislature are gonna lose their phony baloney jobs this fall, and casinos will be their lifelong gift to the Commonwealth as a consequence.

Governor Patrick signs an austerity budget...

to which Charlie Baker carps that the budget should've been tighter while Tim Cahill sez that he loves that austerity budget and wishes he could sign it.
Meanwhile Former State Senator Scott Brown simply breathes a sigh of relief that he interdicted 160 million in Medicaid payments destined for Massachusetts and thus preserved the Commonwealth from the tentacles of Socialism.
It is gonna be hot as hell this weekend per the weather, but if you can head down to Wrentham Scott Brown's prideful swelled head provides nearly everyone with cooling shade.
How is he polling in New Hampshire?
Ten points up on the Former Viceroy I will bet.