like the disgusting little bastard that he is...
Ah Ken, a prize specimen of American Conservative Manhood, deeply closeted he presided over George Bush Jr. "triumphal" 2004 re-election campaign which features a nationwide campaign of homophobia and sexual fearmongering...All orchestrated and orchestrated well by a gay man.
Ah but this is America, assuming he plays ball with the GOP moneymen, doesn't embarrass an incumbent Republican President, he is allowed to creep out of the closet a mere six years later once he has done all the damage he can to the US electorate.
Ken is exactly the sort of shameless bastard who is never ever called to account for his misdeeds, he will grin through this life, order champagne at the finest gay clubs and live off his rolodex for the rest of his life when he isn't questioning the patriotism of some democratic interlocutor on CNN.
Granted the republic cannot punish him for a being a ruthless self hating bastard but for Ghod's Sake can't the gay community at least cut him off?? Why should Ken Mehlman of all people enjoy the very rights of openess and freedom he struggled so hard to deny to so many?
A little old fashioned West Point style shunning would do wonders for the man's perspective.
Let him dwell in exile...he can finger his rolodex on Friday nights and wonder what went wrong, a fitting fate sez Humble Elias.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
I would like to put paid to the a certain awful untruthful rumor
It is evil and wrong and spoken of in terrible whispers designed to whip up religious intolerance in the U.S.A.
The worst sort of people traffick in this rumor, people who want power by way of the incitement of hysteria, it is in a word contemptible.
I speak of course, of the entirely fictitous rumor, that Junior Senator Scott Brown is a Catholic, and even more ominous a Roman Catholic.
Nothing could be further from the truth, Scott Brown is a lifelong Calvinist Evangelical a member of a Protestant sect so safe so respectable that they even let real living people join up.
It is a LIE that Scott Brown spent any time at that Jesuit Madrass otherwise known as Boston College...I mean yes he went to the Law School but it's not like he inhaled any lingering Falangism in his Contract Law class.
Undoubtedly he met and talked with Roman Catholics of many different persuasions while he was there but that is all part of the rich and diverse exposure to other cultures Scott Brown received as a youth.
It made him a better person, comfortable in strange cultures unfamiliar to the West.
It certainly doesn't make him a radical covert adherent to the One True Apostolic Church of Rome or a secret Jesuit Acolyte or a closeted Novitiate of Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Honestly, these rumors are false and utterly malicious...the way people talk about the guy you'd think he was Bishop Sheen's bitch or something.
Terrible
Just Terrible.
The worst sort of people traffick in this rumor, people who want power by way of the incitement of hysteria, it is in a word contemptible.
I speak of course, of the entirely fictitous rumor, that Junior Senator Scott Brown is a Catholic, and even more ominous a Roman Catholic.
Nothing could be further from the truth, Scott Brown is a lifelong Calvinist Evangelical a member of a Protestant sect so safe so respectable that they even let real living people join up.
It is a LIE that Scott Brown spent any time at that Jesuit Madrass otherwise known as Boston College...I mean yes he went to the Law School but it's not like he inhaled any lingering Falangism in his Contract Law class.
Undoubtedly he met and talked with Roman Catholics of many different persuasions while he was there but that is all part of the rich and diverse exposure to other cultures Scott Brown received as a youth.
It made him a better person, comfortable in strange cultures unfamiliar to the West.
It certainly doesn't make him a radical covert adherent to the One True Apostolic Church of Rome or a secret Jesuit Acolyte or a closeted Novitiate of Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Honestly, these rumors are false and utterly malicious...the way people talk about the guy you'd think he was Bishop Sheen's bitch or something.
Terrible
Just Terrible.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Glenn Beck would have us believe
that he occupies the "Father Coughlin" position in the cosmology of the Obama Administration.
If that is the case, clearly that makes Sarah Palin the "Huey Long" of our era.
Except that "regression to the mean" must take hold even of authoritarian whackjobs, and so instead of the late Father Coughlin (a man with a keen brain despite his pro-Hitler bluster) we've got the aforementioned Glenn Beck a dangerously marginal mentality who likely could not get job a headlining in the local "Bozo the Clown" TV franchise a generation ago.
And Sarah Palin, she could not handle the responsibility of being the head waitress at a "Ground Round" back in the day.
But for TV's metastasis and the need to be reporting something every hour of the day these two would dwell in obscurity.
But today, they are stars, for however long it lasts.
If that is the case, clearly that makes Sarah Palin the "Huey Long" of our era.
Except that "regression to the mean" must take hold even of authoritarian whackjobs, and so instead of the late Father Coughlin (a man with a keen brain despite his pro-Hitler bluster) we've got the aforementioned Glenn Beck a dangerously marginal mentality who likely could not get job a headlining in the local "Bozo the Clown" TV franchise a generation ago.
And Sarah Palin, she could not handle the responsibility of being the head waitress at a "Ground Round" back in the day.
But for TV's metastasis and the need to be reporting something every hour of the day these two would dwell in obscurity.
But today, they are stars, for however long it lasts.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Palin v. Brown, round one:
Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin took some pot shots at Former State Senator Scott Brown this week, tarring him as a weak knee'd moderate of uncertain GOP vintage.
Predicatably, the Boston Herald "thinks" this will rebound to Scott Brown's advantage in the Bay State.
Me? I'm wondering as to what positive effect this dust up will have (if any) on Brown's polling in New Hampshire.
Palin's goals here are as usual transparent, bloody up Brown and by extension serve notice that Mitt Romney can expect much the same come campaign 2012.
Humble Elias wonders though, what are Brown's goals in all this? Sure the teabaggers have turned on him, but likely they are akin to the Silver Shirt Legion or Pet Rocks, a flash in the pan in other words, Scott can safely keep them at a distance. What he wants and needs now is well heeled friends at the topmost of the GOP's heirarchy, people who can fills his coffers for any sort of a campaign in 2012 be it re-election or a flyer in the NH primary.
Sounds crazy I know. But Brown is vain, ambitious and ludicrously prideful, he knows the longer he tarries in the US Senate the dimmer his national prospects, the ranks of defeated presidential candidates are swollen with US Senators nigh these last forty years.
Barack Obama did not hang around the Senate Chambers for more than three years before bolting down the street to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Granted Brown would have to sell out his sponsor Mitt Romney, but that is small beers in the grand scheme of things...Nobody really likes Mitt Romney, they'll hardly shrug if he gets knifed in the back and prize Scott for his "discipline and focus".
Meanwhile Palin will stump NH and lose crowds from Antrim to Moultonboro, she will labor fatally under the mistaken impression that the squinty yeoman of the Granite State have the same political DNA as the surly mendicants of Alaska.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is, New Hampshire has a healthy suspicion of big ticket out of state Upper Case Conservatives...Especially if they are a little glitzy and silly like Sarah Palin,
Remember, Pat Robertson came on like Sarah and New Hampshire voters simply laughed at him
Could go likewise for Sarah.
Meanwhile all Brown would have to do is drive around in his God Damned gas guzzling truck, grin and wave.
Think about it....Might be the best way to get rid of his ass.
Predicatably, the Boston Herald "thinks" this will rebound to Scott Brown's advantage in the Bay State.
Me? I'm wondering as to what positive effect this dust up will have (if any) on Brown's polling in New Hampshire.
Palin's goals here are as usual transparent, bloody up Brown and by extension serve notice that Mitt Romney can expect much the same come campaign 2012.
Humble Elias wonders though, what are Brown's goals in all this? Sure the teabaggers have turned on him, but likely they are akin to the Silver Shirt Legion or Pet Rocks, a flash in the pan in other words, Scott can safely keep them at a distance. What he wants and needs now is well heeled friends at the topmost of the GOP's heirarchy, people who can fills his coffers for any sort of a campaign in 2012 be it re-election or a flyer in the NH primary.
Sounds crazy I know. But Brown is vain, ambitious and ludicrously prideful, he knows the longer he tarries in the US Senate the dimmer his national prospects, the ranks of defeated presidential candidates are swollen with US Senators nigh these last forty years.
Barack Obama did not hang around the Senate Chambers for more than three years before bolting down the street to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Granted Brown would have to sell out his sponsor Mitt Romney, but that is small beers in the grand scheme of things...Nobody really likes Mitt Romney, they'll hardly shrug if he gets knifed in the back and prize Scott for his "discipline and focus".
Meanwhile Palin will stump NH and lose crowds from Antrim to Moultonboro, she will labor fatally under the mistaken impression that the squinty yeoman of the Granite State have the same political DNA as the surly mendicants of Alaska.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is, New Hampshire has a healthy suspicion of big ticket out of state Upper Case Conservatives...Especially if they are a little glitzy and silly like Sarah Palin,
Remember, Pat Robertson came on like Sarah and New Hampshire voters simply laughed at him
Could go likewise for Sarah.
Meanwhile all Brown would have to do is drive around in his God Damned gas guzzling truck, grin and wave.
Think about it....Might be the best way to get rid of his ass.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Without Moral Equivalence
specifically the type that assers that Both Political Parties Share Equal Blame in the Nation's Current Problems...Joanie Vennochi would be struck dumb.
She'd have to give up her gig at the Globe, that constitutes 80% of her weekly copy.
Today she went on a long snarky meandering ramble indicting the democrats and republicans for not standing up for Religious Tolerance vis a vis the "Ground Zero Mosque".
Ho Hum, same old Joanie, wallowing in false consciousness, never a word betrayed to her fast shrinking audience that it is the same old GOP thugs who created the whole phoney-ass issue in the first place.
***
However today's column contains this magnificent howler:
It’s a version of what happened to Bush. Due to the circumstances of Al Gore’s loss in the 2000 election, Democrats worked hard to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush presidency.
"The circumstances of Al Gore's loss in 2000"? You mean when he had the election STOLEN from him while the Joanie Vennochi's of the media kept their fat yaps shut or else whimpered and snarked about "Moral Equivalence" between the two parties???
A more obtuse sentence hasn't been written by Joanie in the last eight years, normally she is a sarcastic little middle school alpha except when she needs to obscure the stark nature of the Great Election Steal of 2000, then she is all about soft words.
By the way Joanie democrats did NOT work hard to "undermine the legitimacy of the Bush Presidency" we were in facr fighting for our god-damn lives while a aggreived mental midget and his goonsquad worked to turn this country into a de facto One Partei State.
And what did you do for all those years? Snarked off at the Kewl Kids Table...Useless as usual.
She'd have to give up her gig at the Globe, that constitutes 80% of her weekly copy.
Today she went on a long snarky meandering ramble indicting the democrats and republicans for not standing up for Religious Tolerance vis a vis the "Ground Zero Mosque".
Ho Hum, same old Joanie, wallowing in false consciousness, never a word betrayed to her fast shrinking audience that it is the same old GOP thugs who created the whole phoney-ass issue in the first place.
***
However today's column contains this magnificent howler:
It’s a version of what happened to Bush. Due to the circumstances of Al Gore’s loss in the 2000 election, Democrats worked hard to undermine the legitimacy of the Bush presidency.
"The circumstances of Al Gore's loss in 2000"? You mean when he had the election STOLEN from him while the Joanie Vennochi's of the media kept their fat yaps shut or else whimpered and snarked about "Moral Equivalence" between the two parties???
A more obtuse sentence hasn't been written by Joanie in the last eight years, normally she is a sarcastic little middle school alpha except when she needs to obscure the stark nature of the Great Election Steal of 2000, then she is all about soft words.
By the way Joanie democrats did NOT work hard to "undermine the legitimacy of the Bush Presidency" we were in facr fighting for our god-damn lives while a aggreived mental midget and his goonsquad worked to turn this country into a de facto One Partei State.
And what did you do for all those years? Snarked off at the Kewl Kids Table...Useless as usual.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Congrats to the Governor
he reeled in 250 million large for the Commonwealth's schools. This seems like a pretty good "get" in a campaign season, I can only image the sort of whining carping petulant press release that the Baker Campaign put out as a response.
Little by little, day by day, Deval Patrick is making his case for re-election, right now his odds still stand at 50-50, but compared to where he was in January these are palmy numbers indeed.
Little by little, day by day, Deval Patrick is making his case for re-election, right now his odds still stand at 50-50, but compared to where he was in January these are palmy numbers indeed.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
This is just hilarious...
Mitt Romney is making a twenty five state mid term election trip this fall.
There are two things I know about Citizen Romney the Commonwealth's former Viceroy;
1.) The more voters seen of him the less they like him. Proof of that lies in the unctuous yet servil two minute long campaign commercials that likely lost him the New Hampshire Primary in 2008. He is still the same cold arrogant opportunistic rich man that the GOP rejected back then, no amount of "message tinkering" can change that. He is not and never will be "a people person".
2.) Mitt cannot withstand the slightest pressure from the right. Having risen to prominence in Massachusetts where movement conservatism is a wan wasted thing. Here he could afford to be the right wing gold standard, but out the national hustings it's a different electorate given to bizarre religious fixations and paranoid political ideations. At the moment Brand Romney is all about job creation and phoney deficit hawkery, but give him a month on the GOP chicken dinner circuit and he will come out for Locking up all queers and shooting the poor on sight. Don't look for courage from Mitt Romney especially when if it demands defiance of a powerful cohort from within the republican party.
So by October, we can expect Romney's popularity to drop to the mid thirties as he finishes off his campaign tour as the Bitch of the Tea Partei.
There are two things I know about Citizen Romney the Commonwealth's former Viceroy;
1.) The more voters seen of him the less they like him. Proof of that lies in the unctuous yet servil two minute long campaign commercials that likely lost him the New Hampshire Primary in 2008. He is still the same cold arrogant opportunistic rich man that the GOP rejected back then, no amount of "message tinkering" can change that. He is not and never will be "a people person".
2.) Mitt cannot withstand the slightest pressure from the right. Having risen to prominence in Massachusetts where movement conservatism is a wan wasted thing. Here he could afford to be the right wing gold standard, but out the national hustings it's a different electorate given to bizarre religious fixations and paranoid political ideations. At the moment Brand Romney is all about job creation and phoney deficit hawkery, but give him a month on the GOP chicken dinner circuit and he will come out for Locking up all queers and shooting the poor on sight. Don't look for courage from Mitt Romney especially when if it demands defiance of a powerful cohort from within the republican party.
So by October, we can expect Romney's popularity to drop to the mid thirties as he finishes off his campaign tour as the Bitch of the Tea Partei.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Guilt by Association is a bad thing
or so everyone claims in calmer times.
But when the usual ass-holes sense a chance to profit from raw xenophobia, then it is Katry-bar-the-Door"!
Such is the case with the Islamic Center some poor starry eyed souls wanna build in lower Manhattan, it is two blocks from the former World Trade Center and that just doesn't sit well with some people.
Specifically power-hunger people like Former House Speaker New Gingrich who ejaculated this gem on Fox News this weekend: "Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington..."
Well duh...This is guilt by association we are talking about the arguments tend to the simpleminded. Nazis are one thing, but what if German Lutherans wanted to put up a church next to the Holocause Memorial? Would we refuse it on grounds that too many German Lutherans formed the ranks of the SS during World War II? Would we turn down the Cardinal Archbishop of DC from building a cathedral two blocks from said Holocaust Memorial because the RCC clearly played footsie with the Nazis before and during the war?
So you see, Guilt by Association.
Frankly, if Newt Gingrich wants to save religious feeling in this country he'd best stop inciting mob rule against toleration and the First Amendment. On the other hand this is a mass market U.S. conservative we are talking about the god-damned fool really expects the mob to be on his side now and forever amen.
Meanwhile, Mike Lupica (of all people) reports that Newt has converted to catholicism, which just takes the rag offa da bush given the diversity of Gingrich's divorces and all.
,
But when the usual ass-holes sense a chance to profit from raw xenophobia, then it is Katry-bar-the-Door"!
Such is the case with the Islamic Center some poor starry eyed souls wanna build in lower Manhattan, it is two blocks from the former World Trade Center and that just doesn't sit well with some people.
Specifically power-hunger people like Former House Speaker New Gingrich who ejaculated this gem on Fox News this weekend: "Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington..."
Well duh...This is guilt by association we are talking about the arguments tend to the simpleminded. Nazis are one thing, but what if German Lutherans wanted to put up a church next to the Holocause Memorial? Would we refuse it on grounds that too many German Lutherans formed the ranks of the SS during World War II? Would we turn down the Cardinal Archbishop of DC from building a cathedral two blocks from said Holocaust Memorial because the RCC clearly played footsie with the Nazis before and during the war?
So you see, Guilt by Association.
Frankly, if Newt Gingrich wants to save religious feeling in this country he'd best stop inciting mob rule against toleration and the First Amendment. On the other hand this is a mass market U.S. conservative we are talking about the god-damned fool really expects the mob to be on his side now and forever amen.
Meanwhile, Mike Lupica (of all people) reports that Newt has converted to catholicism, which just takes the rag offa da bush given the diversity of Gingrich's divorces and all.
,
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pray for Christopher Hitchens...
poor guy has throat cancer and is like to die.
Besides if we all light candles and start praying the rosary for the restoration of his health, it'll piss him off to no end.
Who knows if we send him enough spiritual bouquets he might rally out of sheer fury.
Besides if we all light candles and start praying the rosary for the restoration of his health, it'll piss him off to no end.
Who knows if we send him enough spiritual bouquets he might rally out of sheer fury.
Friday, August 20, 2010
I'm gratified to see that
Senator Judd Gregg (R, NH), has gotten over that terrible case of aphasia that afflicted him for all eight years of the Bush Jr. Administration.
It was an awful situation, poor Judd couldn't intelligibly pronounce the words Federal Budget Deficit at all, moreover he was also badly dyscalcular, no matter how hard he tried Senator Gregg couldn't begin to total up all the money Bush was spending on the Afghan/Iraq wars and tax cuts etc etc.
But sure enough, Judd is back in the saddle bursting with statistics and stern warnings to the Obama Admin about the terrible public debt, truly The Senator is an inspiration to us all.
It was an awful situation, poor Judd couldn't intelligibly pronounce the words Federal Budget Deficit at all, moreover he was also badly dyscalcular, no matter how hard he tried Senator Gregg couldn't begin to total up all the money Bush was spending on the Afghan/Iraq wars and tax cuts etc etc.
But sure enough, Judd is back in the saddle bursting with statistics and stern warnings to the Obama Admin about the terrible public debt, truly The Senator is an inspiration to us all.
Has a wingnut radio ranter ever
truly lost their job because of on-air race baiting?
Don Imus said horrible racist shit about the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team got dumped by his network, quivered with either palsy or false indignation and was back on the air in six freakin' months.
It will be the same for his White Power Sister, "Doctor" Laura Schlessinger, who used used the N-word last week live on the air and most now clip coupons til winter comes and she can sneak back on while all sensible souls are out shoveling snow.
These are all examples of radio talk show tyrants who largely see the First Amendment as an instrument of torture, and being sadists and bullies they scream like stuck pigs when they can't use to torment smaller weaker targets.
Boo freakin' hoo.
The only question in Humble Elias' mind is just who will replace her on the airwaves?
Since AM radio slavishly follows the rule of wingnut devolution, likely Dr. Laura will likely be supplanted by General Queipo De Llano or Achille Starace or maybe Tokyo Rose...Class Acts to be sure.
Count on it though she will be back on the air by February 2010.
Don Imus said horrible racist shit about the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team got dumped by his network, quivered with either palsy or false indignation and was back on the air in six freakin' months.
It will be the same for his White Power Sister, "Doctor" Laura Schlessinger, who used used the N-word last week live on the air and most now clip coupons til winter comes and she can sneak back on while all sensible souls are out shoveling snow.
These are all examples of radio talk show tyrants who largely see the First Amendment as an instrument of torture, and being sadists and bullies they scream like stuck pigs when they can't use to torment smaller weaker targets.
Boo freakin' hoo.
The only question in Humble Elias' mind is just who will replace her on the airwaves?
Since AM radio slavishly follows the rule of wingnut devolution, likely Dr. Laura will likely be supplanted by General Queipo De Llano or Achille Starace or maybe Tokyo Rose...Class Acts to be sure.
Count on it though she will be back on the air by February 2010.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
If Barack Obama has a problem
it lies in the fact that he has what amounts to a Lincolnian view of the US Constitution. Ergo that if there are flaws within our democracy then the constitution provides the means to mend those problems. Armed with that notion, Lincoln took to the hustings and proclaimed that while the Government could not abolish slavery, the Congress did have the authority to limit it's spread as various states entered the union.
And that splendid, Newtonian, well thought out, perfectly logical argument, incremental and sane to a fault was enough to blow the Union sky-high come 1860.
Which brings Humble Elias to Barack Obama's real problem, he does not understand the character of his opponents, he discounts the degradation and corruption of movement conservatism and denies that the same would rather the republic in ruins than for the democrats to succeed.
Normally no one would think twice when a US President democrat or republican came out for the sanctity of private property and freedom of worship, but that was before Obama spoke up in favor of a paltry Muslim "prayer room" in lower Manhattan. Whereupon a corrupt religiously hysterical clique seized on this idiotic notion of a malevolent "Ground Zero Mosque" making dangerous arguments that could easily blow back on their asses in any town across the land.
That is the character of the President's opponents, desperate in a low bestial way to get their hands on his collar at the expense of every liberty they allegedly hold dear.
They can do this because they see no hypocrisy in opposing what they championed last week (namely religious liberty)...because in truth they do not believe in Freedom of Religion as the First Amendment defines it.
When they talk about such matters it is largely as a cover to obscure their true desires to set up a Xian Theocracy among us. Baying after the "Ground Zero Mosque" is simply a tactic in that larger goal.
Crazy?
It is no crazier than thinking another prayer room in Lower Manhattan is a threat to anyone at all...
And that splendid, Newtonian, well thought out, perfectly logical argument, incremental and sane to a fault was enough to blow the Union sky-high come 1860.
Which brings Humble Elias to Barack Obama's real problem, he does not understand the character of his opponents, he discounts the degradation and corruption of movement conservatism and denies that the same would rather the republic in ruins than for the democrats to succeed.
Normally no one would think twice when a US President democrat or republican came out for the sanctity of private property and freedom of worship, but that was before Obama spoke up in favor of a paltry Muslim "prayer room" in lower Manhattan. Whereupon a corrupt religiously hysterical clique seized on this idiotic notion of a malevolent "Ground Zero Mosque" making dangerous arguments that could easily blow back on their asses in any town across the land.
That is the character of the President's opponents, desperate in a low bestial way to get their hands on his collar at the expense of every liberty they allegedly hold dear.
They can do this because they see no hypocrisy in opposing what they championed last week (namely religious liberty)...because in truth they do not believe in Freedom of Religion as the First Amendment defines it.
When they talk about such matters it is largely as a cover to obscure their true desires to set up a Xian Theocracy among us. Baying after the "Ground Zero Mosque" is simply a tactic in that larger goal.
Crazy?
It is no crazier than thinking another prayer room in Lower Manhattan is a threat to anyone at all...
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
If Scot Lehigh can't....
Scot Lehigh can't quite venerate him as this years Moderate GOP Man on Horseback. This is the same Scot Lehigh who marked out hard for freakin' Mitt Romney and to a lesser extent for Scary Kerry Healey...the pundit who is convinced that if Moderate Republicans can't be found then they must be Invented, by force or fiction if necessary.
And trust me, it doesn't take much to get Scot to start swooning, just some palaver about sensible taxation, a speech praising the first amendment, no evidence of membership in the Silver Shirt Legion of America and Lehigh will proclaim you an American Prophet and successor to the vacant throne of Dwight Eisenhower.
And Citizen Baker can't even manage that mangy old trick...
Honestly, Charlie is running about as well as molasses uphill, he excites no passions not even freeperish outbursts, his voice hums like an amp with a slight feedback problem, he has raised millions and that would seem to be his sole qualification for high office.
For all that, don't underestimate the man, ambition has made a beast of better candidates to be sure, when the time comes this thing will get ugly count on it.
And trust me, it doesn't take much to get Scot to start swooning, just some palaver about sensible taxation, a speech praising the first amendment, no evidence of membership in the Silver Shirt Legion of America and Lehigh will proclaim you an American Prophet and successor to the vacant throne of Dwight Eisenhower.
And Citizen Baker can't even manage that mangy old trick...
Honestly, Charlie is running about as well as molasses uphill, he excites no passions not even freeperish outbursts, his voice hums like an amp with a slight feedback problem, he has raised millions and that would seem to be his sole qualification for high office.
For all that, don't underestimate the man, ambition has made a beast of better candidates to be sure, when the time comes this thing will get ugly count on it.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
We started out as citizens,
now we are consumers, soon enough we will all be commodities.
And so Steven Slater blows his stack on a JetBlue flight and slides down the escape chute to glory.
Was he faced with incivility and unwarranted aggression?
Yes.
Did he over react and behave in a dangerous fashion?
You bet.
Did either party have any sense of personal restraint or were they aware of the mere basics of common courtesy?
Clearly not.
My primary point here is, we live in a culture wherein being nice, or even being civil is increasingly seen as a confession of weakness to be ruthlessly exploited by all and sundry.
We see it every day from the US Senate down to the street corner.
We see it celebrated on TV for that matter.
So let me ask all seven of my loyal readers this, how long can any well constituted republic last if the polity has no sense of restraint towards one another?
Thomas Hobbes (him again!) talked about "the war of all against all", and it is in my opinion a big step down that errible road when people act out in the fashion of Steve Slater etc.
So Steve may have "slid to glory" but he is no freer now than when he boarded that flight, unless you define freedom as the opportunity to bid up your notoreity on some "reality" TV show.
Just a thought on a hot summer's day.
And so Steven Slater blows his stack on a JetBlue flight and slides down the escape chute to glory.
Was he faced with incivility and unwarranted aggression?
Yes.
Did he over react and behave in a dangerous fashion?
You bet.
Did either party have any sense of personal restraint or were they aware of the mere basics of common courtesy?
Clearly not.
My primary point here is, we live in a culture wherein being nice, or even being civil is increasingly seen as a confession of weakness to be ruthlessly exploited by all and sundry.
We see it every day from the US Senate down to the street corner.
We see it celebrated on TV for that matter.
So let me ask all seven of my loyal readers this, how long can any well constituted republic last if the polity has no sense of restraint towards one another?
Thomas Hobbes (him again!) talked about "the war of all against all", and it is in my opinion a big step down that errible road when people act out in the fashion of Steve Slater etc.
So Steve may have "slid to glory" but he is no freer now than when he boarded that flight, unless you define freedom as the opportunity to bid up your notoreity on some "reality" TV show.
Just a thought on a hot summer's day.
Monday, August 16, 2010
What did I tell ya?
Steroids will be Connecticut GOP Senatorial candidate Linda McMahon's downfall. If Chris Dodd and the democrats wanna play some serious hardcore hardball on belhalf of Citizen Blumenthal then they ought to introduce a bill in DC mandating that pro wrestlers be tested for illegal steroid use.
I mean watch the fur fly on dat bad baby...Just the spectacle of the WWE lobbying against such a measure would be enough to put Linda McMahon in deep kimche.
I mean watch the fur fly on dat bad baby...Just the spectacle of the WWE lobbying against such a measure would be enough to put Linda McMahon in deep kimche.
GOP Fundraiser and reputed singer
Alya Brown is in concert at the Regent Theater in Arlington this friday. Having attempted the corporate pop star route on "American Idol" and avoided her father's bizarre election night attempts to arrange her marriage, she is now hazarding all on a bid to "go country".
I wonder how her fresh new C& W persona went over at the Jim Bender for Senate up in NH fundraiser, for which she was allegedly hired.
Ah well...Why be small minded?
Ayla's father, former State Senator Scott Brown couldn't find Arlington on a map so we should be grateful for small favors.
Besides the Regent Theater is an excellent venue, even if the only people in the aud are local BC alums who are under the mistaken impression that Scott Brown is a Catholic and a Triple Eagle.
I wonder how her fresh new C& W persona went over at the Jim Bender for Senate up in NH fundraiser, for which she was allegedly hired.
Ah well...Why be small minded?
Ayla's father, former State Senator Scott Brown couldn't find Arlington on a map so we should be grateful for small favors.
Besides the Regent Theater is an excellent venue, even if the only people in the aud are local BC alums who are under the mistaken impression that Scott Brown is a Catholic and a Triple Eagle.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Not only is
Former State Senator Scott Brown an out of-shape pretty boy, but he is a cheapskate as well.
First John Kerry (a sixty six year old cancer survivor) beats Brown's bony ass in last weekend's Pan Mass Bicycle Challenge (which raises money for cancer research) but the Senior Senator raised 106K USD compared to a paltry four thounsand raised by Junior Senator Beefcake.
Waaa-al shee-it...I thought Brownie was popular with a fifty five percent approval rating, you'd think that would transfer over to a no-brainer stunt like cancer fundraising, but I guess not.
I mean this mook could've auctioned off his damn autograph on Ebay for more money...But this is Scott Brown whose pride swollen head holds few original thoughts or so it seems.
Oh well, kudos to Kerry he at least can stand the pace.
First John Kerry (a sixty six year old cancer survivor) beats Brown's bony ass in last weekend's Pan Mass Bicycle Challenge (which raises money for cancer research) but the Senior Senator raised 106K USD compared to a paltry four thounsand raised by Junior Senator Beefcake.
Waaa-al shee-it...I thought Brownie was popular with a fifty five percent approval rating, you'd think that would transfer over to a no-brainer stunt like cancer fundraising, but I guess not.
I mean this mook could've auctioned off his damn autograph on Ebay for more money...But this is Scott Brown whose pride swollen head holds few original thoughts or so it seems.
Oh well, kudos to Kerry he at least can stand the pace.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
If the Big Dig is any measure...
then the current recession will be a memory before any of these proposed casinos are up and running in the Commonwealth.
And their cost will double during construction, the ceiling will fall in and the damn things will leak as well.
Just sayin'...
And their cost will double during construction, the ceiling will fall in and the damn things will leak as well.
Just sayin'...
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
We live in an era of disposable politicians...
Case in point, Matt Amorello who got seriously pinched for DUI this weekend.
As bad a Big Dig Manager as Matt was, it is worth recalling that he was appointed to the sinecure by Governor Jane "Jingle Money" Swift mostly as a sop to the State Legislature. Her logic being that Amorello, a popular former democratic state senator was hired mostly to keep the Great and General Court's grubby investigatory mitts off the Big Dig.
Amorello was willing to play ball with Jingle Money and her crowd and the quarter of a million large didn't hurt either...and to the extent that he kept the lid on, Amorello was a success at the Big Dig til the roof caved and the damn thing sprung leaks like a depth charged submarine.
That was his job, keep the lid on, not to tell the truth to the governor or the electorate or the legislature, he certainly wasn't hired for his Herbert Hooverian management skills.
Eventually, Matt was fired, and then he got divorced, and lost his house and now is lying in the UMass Medical Center before being dragged before a judge.
It used to be a man in public live could survive even this, but no more. I'm not exactly sure why I suspect natural selection is at work in the public sphere in ways we can't yet catalogue.
As bad a Big Dig Manager as Matt was, it is worth recalling that he was appointed to the sinecure by Governor Jane "Jingle Money" Swift mostly as a sop to the State Legislature. Her logic being that Amorello, a popular former democratic state senator was hired mostly to keep the Great and General Court's grubby investigatory mitts off the Big Dig.
Amorello was willing to play ball with Jingle Money and her crowd and the quarter of a million large didn't hurt either...and to the extent that he kept the lid on, Amorello was a success at the Big Dig til the roof caved and the damn thing sprung leaks like a depth charged submarine.
That was his job, keep the lid on, not to tell the truth to the governor or the electorate or the legislature, he certainly wasn't hired for his Herbert Hooverian management skills.
Eventually, Matt was fired, and then he got divorced, and lost his house and now is lying in the UMass Medical Center before being dragged before a judge.
It used to be a man in public live could survive even this, but no more. I'm not exactly sure why I suspect natural selection is at work in the public sphere in ways we can't yet catalogue.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Whatever happened to...
Charlie "Ziplips" Baker?
Wasn't he running for somerthing?
School Committee? Public Exploder?
I forget.
These days Charlie is lucky to make page B-3 of the Metro Section of the Globe, he'd likely do better in Herald except somebody's pit bull terrier got loose in East Boston and as they say in Skowhegan "Fust things fust".
***
Okay okay I kid I kid!
I kid because I love...I love, to kid!
Likely this is calm before the storm, so far Ziplips has made little impression on the voting public, his audiences he has bored the once star struck punditry are disenchanted.
But remember he has money, lots of it, and GOP Gubernatorial aspirants are used to winning the day on the airwaves come September and October.
He has already said this campaign will be won or lost on TV so watch for it mah frenz.
Wasn't he running for somerthing?
School Committee? Public Exploder?
I forget.
These days Charlie is lucky to make page B-3 of the Metro Section of the Globe, he'd likely do better in Herald except somebody's pit bull terrier got loose in East Boston and as they say in Skowhegan "Fust things fust".
***
Okay okay I kid I kid!
I kid because I love...I love, to kid!
Likely this is calm before the storm, so far Ziplips has made little impression on the voting public, his audiences he has bored the once star struck punditry are disenchanted.
But remember he has money, lots of it, and GOP Gubernatorial aspirants are used to winning the day on the airwaves come September and October.
He has already said this campaign will be won or lost on TV so watch for it mah frenz.
Monday, August 09, 2010
There is a lot of palaver out there
about how Former State Senator Scott Brown introduced Elena Kagan to the Senate Judiciary Committee and then last week proceded to vote against her confirmation to the Supreme Court. The usual suspects in the local punditariat are all stroking their chins and theorizing.
Adrian Walker in Today's Globe thinks Brown is too enamored with his status as a political celebrity-blah-blah-blah and for that fact the Former State Senator does give off the faint whiff of having won the seat off of some ass-clown reality show.
I think this is the same sort of clumsily amateurish opportunism that characterized Mitt Romney's political career to date. Back when the Former Viceroy first seized power on Beacon Hill, I thought (along with dozens of other bloggers) that Mitt was essentially a closet conservative waiting for his moment to ideologically colonize Massachusetts.
The reality is though, that Romney is so cravenly self interested that mere ideology is a rhetoric that needs only be "gamed" in order to win.
This accounts for Romney's twists and turns on gay rights, abortion and a host of other issues, the ideological spectrum he spanned from the night he lost the New Hampshire Primary to the night he won the Michigan Primary is sets the national standard for brazen flip-floppery.
I'm wondering if Brown falls into the same category?
Neither a moderate or a conservative just a supremely selfish man with a preening ego that must needs be fed. It makes sense the only other successful Massachusetts Republican Brown could conceivably model himself on, is Romney, and Mitt is out for himself always and everywhere.
Hence the Kagan flip flop... and Like Romney, Brown couldn't care less about the appearance of cupidity because he and the Former Viceroy don't think anyone is paying attention.
Which is a sign of dangerous amateurishness to Humble Elias.
Adrian Walker in Today's Globe thinks Brown is too enamored with his status as a political celebrity-blah-blah-blah and for that fact the Former State Senator does give off the faint whiff of having won the seat off of some ass-clown reality show.
I think this is the same sort of clumsily amateurish opportunism that characterized Mitt Romney's political career to date. Back when the Former Viceroy first seized power on Beacon Hill, I thought (along with dozens of other bloggers) that Mitt was essentially a closet conservative waiting for his moment to ideologically colonize Massachusetts.
The reality is though, that Romney is so cravenly self interested that mere ideology is a rhetoric that needs only be "gamed" in order to win.
This accounts for Romney's twists and turns on gay rights, abortion and a host of other issues, the ideological spectrum he spanned from the night he lost the New Hampshire Primary to the night he won the Michigan Primary is sets the national standard for brazen flip-floppery.
I'm wondering if Brown falls into the same category?
Neither a moderate or a conservative just a supremely selfish man with a preening ego that must needs be fed. It makes sense the only other successful Massachusetts Republican Brown could conceivably model himself on, is Romney, and Mitt is out for himself always and everywhere.
Hence the Kagan flip flop... and Like Romney, Brown couldn't care less about the appearance of cupidity because he and the Former Viceroy don't think anyone is paying attention.
Which is a sign of dangerous amateurishness to Humble Elias.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
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