The slightest puff of wind off the starboard bow

and Mitt Romney falls to his knees begging for Tea Partei Support.

Not for nothing but a mere three months ago, Mitt was still running as a sensible grown up centrist.
But that was before Rick Perry got in, and Mitt's old tendency to fold under the slightest rightward pressure once again manifested itself.
At this rate, Mitt will be a full out Falangist by Christmas...but then, it was much the same back in 2007 I assure you....check my postings if you don't believe me.

Citizen Elizabeth Warren...

Just went up a few notches in my estimation, as per the Boston Globe she is agin' casino gambling.

Well so is Humble Elias, you might say he is a little wiggy on this subject.

Rick Santorum is complaining that

"Gays were on a jihad" against him.

The only thing that shocks me about that statement is the realization that I'd forgotten all about Rick Santorum's presidential candidacy.

Ghod what happened to this little wanker eh?
Further to the right than even Ron Paul, screechier than Sarah Palin and even more dimly inflexible than Rick Perry, Santorum has somehow bungled it all and "Gat No Heat" in the current GOP presidential contest.
"High Pitched Rick" is billed down with the cheap acts, the plate spinners and right below Herman Cain.  I"m not even sure at this point if Santorum is a factor in the vital sub-rosa GOP derby to become Secretary of Transportation.

Pretty big comedown for someone once tagged as a Future Dictator of the U.S.A. He can't even gin up a uccessful fight with the gay community, somehow everyone seems to have tuned out Santorum's nasty little whining voice.
Hence he languishes.
Still and all that, I doubt he will bail on the race any time soon, candidates drop out at this point in the game for financial reasons mostly, under the realization that they can drive a better bargain with their endorsement than by persevering in the primaries.
Rick's endorsement is worth nothing, he can't deliver his own state (which everyone has forgotten is Pennsylvania) and what followers he has can be lured away with a free buffet when the time comes.
For all that I'd love to see what kinds of crowds his stump speech is gathering in New Hampshire though...it'd be instructive to say the least.

Michele Bachmann...

was "joking" when she said that "God" was communicating with the USA via earthquake and hurricane.
Fair enough, she was kidding I get that, strange sort of a joke to make when the there is a death toll in play, but lets concede that Michele Bachmann pushes the comedy envelope.
Of course, when Gilbert Gottfried pushes the comedy envelope and makes inappropriate jests about the Fukushima Earthquake or 9/11 he loses work, gets vilified and a host of radio talk show hosts (those TRIBUNES of public virtue) go to work on Gottfried's torso with tire irons.
Bachmann though? She goes nattering on like a teachable, the punditariat pays no mind to her crude and barbaric sense of humor.
Shit John Kerry cracked a joke about pot back in 2004 and came in for worse outrage.

Just sayin'...

Rick Perry actually autographs

Bibles at his campaign rallies?

If it was Obama, the Michael Grahams of this world would scream "blasphemy!"

As it is, it looks like hubris of a Huey Long caliber...
I'd say we've found our Kingfish in the current presidential campaign.
Now some of you may find that comparison chilling but recall please Huey didn't win the Presidency or even the policy argument in the weary wicked end.
***
Then again there is a real "flavor of the month" quality to the GOP Presidential field, six months ago, Trump was the Rising Star, then Romney became "The Inevitable Man", next Bachmann was gonna be the GOP's Gal on Horseback, now it is Perry's turn.
If this keeps up by December Scary Kerry Healey or possibly Andy Card's little brother could be serious playas in this race.

Congressman Capuano is still mulling over a run for the US Senate

per the Boston Globe.

I'm guessing that at the end of the day he'll decline to make the race, but that is mere Sunday Morning Quarterbacking on my part.

So many candidates with so much less to offer have piled in with far more enthusiasm...Humble Elias suspects that for their own reasons the whole of our congressional delegation would rather wager all on redistricting than the hazards of a use-or-lose US Senate race.
Funny how that works, I suppose that seniority even in the minority pays a part in those calculations.
Still if he gets in no one will be happier than I, it makes for a livier primary and I have maintained from the beginning that all the factions within and without the democratic party would benefit from a full debate in a widely contested US Senate Primary.

Eric Cantor sez

congress will only appropriate monies to repair the damage from hurricane Irene if cuts can be found elsewhere in the Federal Budget to cover the overage.
I guess that means that the Washington Monument won't get fixed unless a few more sick veterans get throw out into the streets or something.
Oh well, the East Coast may sink under the sea, but at least our progeny can look with pride at the rubble and say "At least they never taxed Eric Cantor's wealthy campaign contributors!"

I believe Scott Brown when he says

he "dint know nothin'" and Eric Fehrnstrom's bizarre homophobic rants against Alan Khazei on twitter.
Why?
Cuz Scott Brown is thick as a brick and as credulous as a child.
He reminds me very much of the late lamented Warren Gamiliel Harding, well meaning, affable and corrupt in a cheap suburban sort of a way.

I mean, Harding believed his underlings implicitly when they told him they were no stealing or double dealing...just as I'm sure Scott Brown believes Eric Fehrnstrom when he says the twitter thing was "satire".

For the record,

Mitt Romney has now totalled up three distinction positions on climate change since 2004. He told the Boston Globe in May of 2004 that he had doubts about Global Warming.
In June of this year, he was quoted up in New Hampshire to the effect that the planet is getting hotter and that "human beings have contributed to that.
Now, today, likely in response to the rightward gravity well that is Rick Perry, Citizen Romney is now saying in respect of Global Warming "I don't know if it's mostly caused by humans".
So lets total it all up shall we, didn't buy it in 2004, believed it in 2011, and then three months later he sez maybe, sorta, I dunno.
This is Romney in precis, he cannot withstand the slightest pressure from the right, he collapses like a house of cards at the slightest breeze off the starboard bow.
My Boy Mitt, he never fails me, churlish and easily coerced as always.
Otherwise it's the same old same old, this could easily be a Chimes at Midnight post from the fall of 2007.

So let me get this straight?

Under the pseudonym "CrazyKhazei", Eric Fehrnstrom (Scott Brown's Svengali to put it succinctly) has been posting anti Alan Khazei snark to twitter.
This is astonishing, Eric Fehrnstrom and Scott Brown really think Alan Khazei is gonna be their Democratic Rival next year???
Honestly, Scott Brown is as dumb as a bag of hammers if he has sorted thru the current Democratic Senatorial aspirants and come with with the Dire Threat That Is Alan Khazei.
That and it seems clear that Eric Fehrnstrom has a perfectly leaden sense of humor, this tweet in particular stands out: "I promise to devote all my time in office to making gay videos. Shame on Scott Brown for focusing on jobs!’’
"Gay videos" whuzzat all about? The anti bullying vids virtually every pol in the Commonwealth participated in except Scott Brown??
Who knows what he meant, these are people cowering at the thought of running against Alan frickin' Khazei for Ghod's Sake.

Scott Brown's "Jobs Tour" part II

Cornered at a restaurant, the Former State Senator embarrassingly fumbles and blathers his way thru a simple question regarding the state of the current economy.
Well, now we know why he hasn't convened a single Town Hall Meeting since his election in 2010. The poor simpleminded mook would probably need months of intensive training to survive the sort of Q & A that John Kerry, Stephen Lynch or even John Olver can do as easily as falling off a log.
If someone out there does catch up to Scott Brown on this "jobs tour", then it'd be instructive to ask him (Assuming he takes questions) just how many jobs he has brought to Massachusetts since January 2010 or how many jobs he has prevented from exiting the Commonwealth.
Given the above video, his response ought to be interesting to say the least.

Abraham Lincoln once said

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

We have made great strides in the scope of freedom, in science and the arts since the day of the Great Emanicipator, but in the power of applied logic no progress has been since that terrible night at Ford's Theater.
I mean, the above quote is nothing but pure fact from start to finish, only labor creates wealth.
Now, last week, the communications workers at Verizon called a strike to get some leverage with management going into contract negotiations.
I was fine with it even though I'm a Verizon user and could well end up losing service or enduring other such setbacks.
Verizon makes the argument that market conditions have changed and parts of their workforce is obsolete with land line based skillsets.
Isn't it funny though, the workers almost risk "obsolescence", but when has management or capital ever been obsolete?
If you don't believe me, take an appraising look at America's current managerial class as ossified, useless, prideful and innovation-phobic as they were when "Babbitt" was published in 1925.
This is kind of economy gets created when all you can produce is MBAs, Lawyers and the thralls that work for them.
So I'm gonna go on record here, America doesn't have a labor problem, (though labor has problems to be sure), it has a capital problem, too much money chasing too few ideas and most of them, utterly stupid to be sure.

Romney is quadrupling the size of his

Malibu Mansion, didn't even know he had one, but with 250 million large stashed away I'm sure it's a long list of houses, condos, mansions, castles and whatnot.
Allegedly, he is expanding this house to Hearstian proportions because his wife finds the climate sovereign for her ills and the horseback riding most salubrious as well.
I won't argue that point...
However, Mitt has links to Utah, Michigan and Massachusetts all for either political or religious reasons...so why wouldn't he expand "Brand Romney" to California?
Win or lose next year I'll bet he moves out there permanently, it is the "Romney-ish" thing to do.
As to whether or not it's a good idea to be building lavish mansions during a recession while calling for cuts, austerity and reduced expectations on the campaign trail, is another issue entirely.

I pity the poor interns

(Likely impressed from the Bain Capital Group) Who have to work all thru the night to come up with a credible press release claiming that Colonel Moamar Khadaffi's ouster, was all Mitt Romney's idea.
This would be the same Mitt Romney who called the Libyan operation "Mission Muddle" not two months ago.
All "sarcastic rant driven chatter" aside, Humble Elias is intensely curious to see how Citizen Romney handles the fall of Col. Khadaffi...I'm guessing he will say nothing, passivity seems to be his new big idea for persuading people. Last time he said too much too insincerely, now he sez nothing to no one.

***
Meanwhile, Barack Obama sure is a tyrant breaker isn't he? Good thing for a US President to be sez Humble Elias.

John Huntsman...

Y'know the other Mormon who is running for President has uncloseted himself on twitter as a believer with respect to natural selection and global warming.
Honestly illegal Mexican migrant workers poll better with the GOP than Darwin and the disappearance of the polar ice caps....
Josh Marshall thinks Huntsman wants out of the presidential race (whose crazy threshold got a whole order of magnitude higher within hours once Perry parachuted in) and is "twittering" himself to death.
I'm wondering if he has decided that the GOP nomination isn't worth having under the current circumstances and Huntsman is therefore trying to stake out the middle ground as part of a nascent third party candidacy for President.
Here it is, August and we haven't heard word one from any potential third party candidates...usually the punditariat spends the summer dreaming up all sorts of third fourth and fifth party challenges. This year nothing...so far.
on paper, Huntsman has good 3rd party bona fides. He is telegenic, antiseptic, unthreatening, full of milky murky moderate notions and as such has all sorts of appeal to the Scot Lehighs and David Broders of this world.
Can he fundraise? Can he stay the distance...Likely not, but right now it's all about filling up column space and sparking interest...

Looks like

Elizabeth Warren wants in.

In truth she has certain strengths, the local Hilaryistas will no doubt rally to her cause, they still constitute a powerful faction within the state democratic party.
Citizen Warren has name recognition along with a record in politics that is short, mostly administrative and perhaps difficult to stereotype.
It can be of no small advantage in this economy to be perceived from the git-go as a fervent opponent Wall Street and The Banks.
I suspect she can fundraise and possibly develop a strong out of state cash flow a'la Scott Brown.
In sum, this is pretty much as close as John Walsh is gonna get to an answer to his prayers.
That having been said...
Elizabeth Warren is new to the game, she might be able to step up or she might auto destruct, there is no way to know til she piles in.
And all hope aside, the glass ceiling in state politics is as thick as ever, Citizen Warren had better have a plan to deal with it or at least some acknowledgement that the damn thing exists to start.
Lastly she has to wind her way thru a contested democratic primary and that is a situation that doesn't always advantage high name recognition candidates, just ask Tom Reilly if'n you don't believe me.
Still..."Marry in Massachusetts" went to one of the events on her listening tour and seems to have come away impressed.
Well all I can say (Romantic) Arlington has some of the biggest democratic primary turn out in the state, Citizen Warren might wanna drop on by to "Meet the Spartans".

Piss off the Tea Partei

and buy a US Savings Bond....

Rick "The Gift That Keeps On Giving" Perry

has made it clear he thinks Global Warming is some sort of a hoax dreamed up by greedy climatologists.
Fair enough, he is a Republican and cannot expect any advancement by trafficking in facts and hobnobbing with reality.
Then again Texas is in the midst of a terrifying drought, one Governor Perry unsuccessfully tried to remedy via prayer.
So what does this tell us?
Rick Perry doesn't listen to scientists especially when it comes to global warming, he seems quite truculent on that point.
But then again, God does not seem to be listening to Governor Rick Perry and his windy demands for rain.
So I dunno if the Texas Governor doesn't have any pull in the Heavenly Altitudes then what sort of a President will he make?
***
But honestly, right now today, the man is maybe one gaffe away from blowing his own candidacy sky high...I mean he has not said a single sensible thing since announcing for the White House last weekend, it is breathtaking to watch really.

The Day After...

Texas Governor Rick Perry opines Huey Longishly that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is a traitor worthy of some form of lynch law is not a good time for Jeff Jacoby to publish a column praising Governor Perry's libertarian bona fides.
Because cleary Perry's vision of small gummint doesn't preclude the taxpayer shouldering the cost of lynching Federal Officials...
And not for nothing but you'd think Jeff might be moved to come to the defense of a co-religionist, just out of respect for the late and thoroughly lynched Leo Frank if nothing else.
Ah but poor Jeff has a hex on him, his timing as always is appalling...as my late Grandmother would say "He's to be pitied".

The Tea Partei's Approval Rating

stands at about 18% thanks to their attempt to wreck western civilization in the debt ceiling fight.
So I don't see how this advantages the GOP in general and the candidacies of Rick Perry OR Michele Bachmann should either of them get the nomination.
Pretty much the public perception seems to be, the Tea Partei was perfectly willing to touch off a new recession just to get at Barack Obama.
With Mitt Romney it's a different story, he has been waffling and hedging bout the Tea Partei from day one. Then again there is a lot of covert sectarian prejudice in the certain reaches of the GOP, some observers think Perry's appearance at a prayer rally last week was a subtle rebuke to Romney's Mormonism.
So you've got the hammer of the Tea Partei's unpopularity into the anvil of the religious right's electoral and sectarian prejudices. ANd not a single ballot has been cast as yet....

Okay so now Rick Perry wants in....

what is he running for King of the Cavemen or something?
Silly Texas Governor, cavemen don't have elections, they select their chieftains via displays of physical prowess, heaving rocks or wrestling saber toothed tigers bare handed.
Nope, Rick GOP Governor of the most violent, polluted, corrupt and miserable state in the Union, wants to be President.
Seems like as democrats, we've been running against smug aggressive Texas pols for decades now. Just once, I'd like to see some smart capable advert-freaks do to Texas what was done to Massachusetts back in 1988 by Lee Atwater and his pack of porch climbers.
Meanwhile Rick actually has the neanderthal wisdom to run on "jobs" of course most jobs in Texas are miserable low paying and unprotected by even a quaint 19th century notion of workman's compensation...but this is The Lone Star State nobody ever seems to have the stones to call it a shit hole, so Perry is probably safe.
He might just do to Romney what Romney wants to do to Bachmann, so the sheer mayhem factor just jumped up a good ten clicks in the GOP Presidential sweeps.
And to that, let me add this rumor....

Pawlenty bails

What did I tell you?

The stupid credulous mook did not last until Labor Day. Mighod Fred Thompson lasted longer and made a better impression in debate, Tim just looked around wide-eyed worried like someone was gonna give him an indian burn.
Now assuming Pawlenty's political true north now points towards the destruction of Michele Bachmann, his remaining and most potent weapon is his endorsement since he and Bachmann hail from the same state it has some marquee propaganda value.
Likely Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are both on the phone to Pawlenty even as I write this.
Now even a mediocre pol knows that in this situation he has one card to play, his endorsement and he has to play it well, bid things up as high as he can go, the Vice Presidential nomination being the accepted prize.
But this is Tim Pawlenty we are talking about and the poor fool will be lucky to be offered on a wink and nod the Department of Transportation...That is if he doesn't end up being Bachmann's go-fer and doorman.

Yesterday

Mitt Romney blurted out "Corporations are people" to a stupified crowd in Iowa.
While that is sadly a factual summation of the infamous "Citizens United" decision, it also represents the first time ever that a politician literally misquoted himself.
Romney doesn't think corporations are mere people, people to him are dirty simpletons to be cajoled and strung along. No, Corporations to him are August Superhuman entities with God-Like Attributes far beyond those of mortal men.
Per Willard Mitt Romney, the only thing a corporation cannot do, is pay it's fair share of the national tax burden.

Apropos of nothing...

but if Michele Bachmann's weird metrosexual husband told her to become a professional rodeo clown, would she have done it?

Pawlenty awakes...

After six months of wandering Iowa and New Hampshire like a stranded tourist, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has awakened to the ackward notion that if he doesn't stomp fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann quickly in the GOP Presidential contest, he risks humiliation so absolute as to preclude becoming Secretary of Transportation.
So he took off after her last night in the Iowa GOP debate....
Nonetheless, Tim is just too clueless and foggy to last in this crowd, he has no instinct for the jugular, he hasn't got the heart to twist anyone's nose Three Stooges style for that fact.
I'm guessing poor fundraising and gentle pressure from Mitt Romney will usher Tim out of the race by Thanksgiving.
Promises will be made (the Department of Transportation IS an easy gig in a Republican Admin after all, it's like a nursing home for busted dingbats) and for all that, Tim's endorsement will be a sought after biddable commodity...Anything to undercut Bachmann's freak appeal.
If I had to guess, getting Tim to drop out garnering his endorsement is all part of Romney's plan to undercut Bachmann...On one thing can we all depend, Mitt hates women in politics. He will wreck the GOP and make a weapon out of unpromising clay like Tim Pawlenty to get at Bachmann.
Count on it.
Meanwhile Tim is the sort of credulous rube Romney thinks he can manipulate & patronize...

Partei Crashers

5oo protesters "crashed" Former State Senator Scott Brown's fundraiser last night.
Cannily they tweaked him about jobs, which are, in the opinion of Humble Elias the very millstone that will sink Scott Brown for sure.
Too bad it wasn't five thousand protesters...and not for nothin' but Scott Brown has time during his "jobs tour" to do a big money fundraiser on the harbor?
Class all the way Scott, Class all the way.

Predictably,

Mitt Romney came out against last week's debt ceiling deal screeching that President Obama's "lack of leadership" had brought down the S&P downgrade on all our heads.
In this, Romney is running his usual passive playbook, running as a sort of "undeclared" tea partei fellow traveler.
It is worth remembering though, that the only public budget that Mitt Romney was ever responsible for, was in Massachusetts, and he balanced it by ruthlessly raising every single state fee within his gubernatorial reach.
This is why it costs me $45 for my auto registration...
So when Mitt Romney talks about balancing the budget by cutting and capping (or whatever the poll tested buzzword was last week) count on it he is lying.

Former State Senator Scott Brown

traveling the Commonwealth on a "jobs tour", he is apparently investigating persistent rumors that his constituents in fact need jobs to survive.
Q&A with the General public is not scheduled at these events, and as usual, our Junior Senator avoids contact with the working press the way a vampire declines close congress with a crucifix.
So all in all yet another fake-ass bit of nothing from our own Scott Brown.
I'd love to find out Scottie's stance on the Verizon strike, since he is all in a lather to talk about "jobs" with his "constituents".
Of course it occurs to me that this vacuous meaningless tour is Scott Brown's idea of building up his props as "Senator Pot-Hole" because it is either that or being known as Kentucky's Third Senator.

Rick Perry wants...

to run for President even though he could not successfully lobby the Almighty for rain in Texas. The man sure loves his camp meetings and xian revivals doesn't he?
I guess Governor Perry thinks there isn't enough aggressive bumptious christian fundamentalism in the current GOP line up. Watching him and Bachmann speaking in tongues and writhing on the floor in a compulsive bid to ingratiate themselves with the yeoman of Epsom Circle ought to be some fun.
Almost as much fun as watching two uptight passive aggressive Mormon gimps like Huntsman and Romney try to sucker punch each other without looking like a pair of hooligans.
In short, Perry resolves nothing in the GOP Primary, the big conservative warrior-patriot-messiah is nowhere to be seen in 2012. If Pawlenty, Romney, Bachmann, Gingrich and Huntsman don't measure, Perry (who is as soft as puppy dog shit) ain't gonna do no business either.

Well who'd a thunk it?

The stock market is on the brink of crashing.
Well, this is what you get for electing people with the mentality of suicide bombers to the lower house of the US Congress.
Gotta ask you boyos though, was it really worth it? Wrecking the U.S. economy just to get your filthy mitts on Barack Obama's impeccably starched collar?

This is America, there is nowhere to hide, save in stupidity or corruption and neither of those things are a good long term bet.

About two years ago or so

Jeff Jacoby served up a column in the Sunday Globe insisting the Apollo 8 spacecraft got to the moon essentially via divine dispensation.
Today he weirdly backs up that foray into sheer superstition by insisting that achieving energy independence is economically and technologically impossible.
Mind you, he is much more confident in American power and inventiveness whenever some shitkicker book worshipping GOP mook infests the White House, when the democrats are in the Oval Office Jeff turns into a pathetic declinist.
But then annihilationism is really the GOP's favored platform for 2012,look what happened last week, they'll see the country ruined as long as they can rule.
This is all Jeff's way of gettin' along to go along.

I don't know who

Mary Beth Saffo is, but in her letter to the editor in today's Boston Globe she swiftly & accurately zings Joan Vennochi and her perpetual journalistic jihad against Senator John Kerry.
Humble Elias can only add a hearty HEAR HEAR!!

The shootings, beatings, murders, kidnappings,

state sponsored mayhem & repression...are but a prelude to free and fair elections.
Ya gotta give credit to Bashar Assad, the Supreme Opthamalocrat of Syria, he is the very image of Big Brother incarnate.

One thing Mitt Romney is good at,

is raising money on behalf of his own cause. He is bad at almost everything else that requires a tincture of common sense or good judgement, but at fundraising, he is a champ.
So there is an obvious unsustainable tension there, that got a little closer to the breaking down this week when it was revealed that Romney has been taking contributions from false front corporations created simply to launder money.
Well in truth, all this malarky is the Supreme Court's fault that we are living out a Hobbesian nightmare with respect to campaign finance. The Citizen's United decision (A real republic-wrecker if ever there was one) makes corporations into "people" with a right to free speech even though we cannot draft corporations in war time or even tax them at a rate familiar to any strap hanger. That, and a loosening of disclosure rules have created a sort of "Mad Max" political landscape out there, almost any sort of excess can now be envisioned up to and including political donations from entirely foreign sources.
So given Mitt's craven lack of judgement, you can't really expect him to maintain a pose of rectitude in such a temptation rich environment. Anyway by this time tomorrow he will be blaming it all on Barack Obama, socialism or the League of Women Voters, the exact target to be determined by polling.