Ron Paul has a believing mind.
A seeker if you will.
He believes in the powers and principalities of the air, he believes in a Free Market Utopia to which we will all fly in libertarian rocketships...and maybe just maybe he believes Mitt Romney's promises that he will select Dr. Paul's son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul as the Former Viceroy's Vice Presidential Running Mate.
Why else would Ron Paul be holding fire against Romney in debate after debate?
From Romney's perspective this is a slam dunk, he keeps Ron Paul's creepy cultists off his ass, forestalls a possible bolt at the Tampa Convention and keeps his rivals for the GOP nomination nicely divided.
All in exchange for a promise, likely never even uttered, that Romney himself will not keep when the serious dealings begin.
I mean stop and think, Vice Presidential candidates must first and foremost deliver their own states, but if Romney can't carry conservative Kentucky all by himself it is likely game over for the GOP.
No...I've heard Florida Senator Rubio is the big Vice Presidential "get" in the GOP, he can put the Sunshine State back in contention (supposedly) and he is a young photogenic Hispanic who takes the hoodoo of Republican xenophobia.
Anyhow if I was Ron Paul, I would get it in writing.
Mitt Romney's word doesn't mean shit, not with Bain Capital and Good Lawd telling him how to screw you on a deal.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Ghod even when The Viceroy wins
he still loses.
But other than that, my prediction was reasonably accurate, Mitt had to spend millions and throw a lot of nasty haymakers to hold a state he won big a mere four years ago.
Lets face it, there is something about Mitt Romney the GOP just doesn't like...On to Ohio sez Humble Elias, yes Ohio and Glory!
But other than that, my prediction was reasonably accurate, Mitt had to spend millions and throw a lot of nasty haymakers to hold a state he won big a mere four years ago.
Lets face it, there is something about Mitt Romney the GOP just doesn't like...On to Ohio sez Humble Elias, yes Ohio and Glory!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
My Prediction for Today's Arizona and Michigan Primaries
Sigh, all good things must come to an end so I think it'll be Romney in both cases.
I wish it wasn't so, this has been one of the most entertaining presidential political spectacles I've ever seen...and I once had a front row seat to the 1984 New Hampshire Primary!
The main thing I'm taking away from this wingnut circus is Mitt Romney's sheer political ineptitude, his only advantage seems to be limitless money, his only thought as to it's proper use is to buy the political equivalent of a nuclear armed MX Missile to kill the freakish gnat that is Rick Santorum.
I mean, yes the nuclear blast gets the job done, but there are easier, cheaper more subtle ways to put down a twitchy would be tyrant like The Ricktator.
On the other hand, IF Santorum pulls off an upset tonight, all bets will be off come tomorrow morning. A lot of centrifugal forces that have been clamped down til now will come into play, calls for new candidates, a brokered convention, and I guarantee you by noon Richard Viguerie will be screeching for a third partei of pure conservatism.
That is the real danger for Romney, if he can't put Santorum away tonight, a lot of GOP maachers who've been backing him from kerfuffle to gaffe may start openly musing as to what they are getting for their time and money.
In other words a loss tonight or worse the perception of a loss means uncertainty & panic creep back into the process, which in turn undermine Romney's who "I AM INEVITABLE" meme.
But, this is all speculation, the truth is, history favors disaster but not necessarily total catastrophe, and a Romney victory tonight will be disaster enough for us all.
I wish it wasn't so, this has been one of the most entertaining presidential political spectacles I've ever seen...and I once had a front row seat to the 1984 New Hampshire Primary!
The main thing I'm taking away from this wingnut circus is Mitt Romney's sheer political ineptitude, his only advantage seems to be limitless money, his only thought as to it's proper use is to buy the political equivalent of a nuclear armed MX Missile to kill the freakish gnat that is Rick Santorum.
I mean, yes the nuclear blast gets the job done, but there are easier, cheaper more subtle ways to put down a twitchy would be tyrant like The Ricktator.
On the other hand, IF Santorum pulls off an upset tonight, all bets will be off come tomorrow morning. A lot of centrifugal forces that have been clamped down til now will come into play, calls for new candidates, a brokered convention, and I guarantee you by noon Richard Viguerie will be screeching for a third partei of pure conservatism.
That is the real danger for Romney, if he can't put Santorum away tonight, a lot of GOP maachers who've been backing him from kerfuffle to gaffe may start openly musing as to what they are getting for their time and money.
In other words a loss tonight or worse the perception of a loss means uncertainty & panic creep back into the process, which in turn undermine Romney's who "I AM INEVITABLE" meme.
But, this is all speculation, the truth is, history favors disaster but not necessarily total catastrophe, and a Romney victory tonight will be disaster enough for us all.
Jason Thibeault...
has been kind enough to link to yesterday's CaM entry, I guess he finds Rick Santorum as amusing as I do.
Anyhow This, The Little Blog That Cried, rarely comes in for any buzz among the on-line punditariat, so Humble Elias is appropriately grateful.
Anyhow This, The Little Blog That Cried, rarely comes in for any buzz among the on-line punditariat, so Humble Elias is appropriately grateful.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Ricktator at Full Flood
I'm gonna miss Former Senator Rick "High Pitched Rich" Santorum when he finally goes over the hump, his Presidential Campaign has been the gift that keeps on giving from hour one.
Shrill, paranoid, authoritarian and as inflexible as a Stalinist Commissar, the "Old Rick Santorum" has at long last decloseted himself for the final drive to glory or annihilation in the Arizona/Michigan Primaries.
It is like watching Allen Drury's fictional villain "Senator Fred van Ackerman" run for Tyrant.
I love this mook, he never backs down from anything no matter how stupid or malevolent the quote...
Take for Example the revival of his old remarks about JFK's famous speech to the Ministerial Association in Houston circa 1960.
The Late President's ringing endorsement of religious freedom and a strong separation of church and state, made Santorum want to "vomit".
If Romney had made so blatantly provocative a comment, no less than a regiment of attorney's would be deployed to PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Liberal Media misquoted out of context the Former Governor's entirely innocuous remarks.
No Santorum, faced with the proof of his own bitter primitivism, his voice goes up an octave and he starts up ranting and raving that separation of church and state is a nefarious liberal plot to destroy christianity.
The man is a treasure, when he finally hits the auto destruct button I will miss him, Santorum is the biggest shit stirrer to hit the hustings since the Empire Days of George Corley Wallace and the American Independent Partei.
***
Stop and think though, image what would happen if "President Santorum" really did govern according to his own retrograde notions of church & state relations?
I mean after The Pope congratulated him on banning abortion and contraception in the USA, what would the Ricktator do when the Holy Father demanded he also enact unilateral nuclear disarmament, double welfare payments, outlaw Capital Punishment and pursue an even handed policy in the Middle East?
All those things are part of "deeply held catholic doctrine" too...not just the fun authoritarian stuff.
Bet that phone could come to a swift end eh?
Well anyway like I sez before, I think Rick peaked a week too early I suspect Romney will win tomorrow perhaps even handily.
But I could be wrong, if he loses though, literally, Hail Mary!
Shrill, paranoid, authoritarian and as inflexible as a Stalinist Commissar, the "Old Rick Santorum" has at long last decloseted himself for the final drive to glory or annihilation in the Arizona/Michigan Primaries.
It is like watching Allen Drury's fictional villain "Senator Fred van Ackerman" run for Tyrant.
I love this mook, he never backs down from anything no matter how stupid or malevolent the quote...
Take for Example the revival of his old remarks about JFK's famous speech to the Ministerial Association in Houston circa 1960.
The Late President's ringing endorsement of religious freedom and a strong separation of church and state, made Santorum want to "vomit".
If Romney had made so blatantly provocative a comment, no less than a regiment of attorney's would be deployed to PROVE beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Liberal Media misquoted out of context the Former Governor's entirely innocuous remarks.
No Santorum, faced with the proof of his own bitter primitivism, his voice goes up an octave and he starts up ranting and raving that separation of church and state is a nefarious liberal plot to destroy christianity.
The man is a treasure, when he finally hits the auto destruct button I will miss him, Santorum is the biggest shit stirrer to hit the hustings since the Empire Days of George Corley Wallace and the American Independent Partei.
***
Stop and think though, image what would happen if "President Santorum" really did govern according to his own retrograde notions of church & state relations?
I mean after The Pope congratulated him on banning abortion and contraception in the USA, what would the Ricktator do when the Holy Father demanded he also enact unilateral nuclear disarmament, double welfare payments, outlaw Capital Punishment and pursue an even handed policy in the Middle East?
All those things are part of "deeply held catholic doctrine" too...not just the fun authoritarian stuff.
Bet that phone could come to a swift end eh?
Well anyway like I sez before, I think Rick peaked a week too early I suspect Romney will win tomorrow perhaps even handily.
But I could be wrong, if he loses though, literally, Hail Mary!
Friday, February 24, 2012
If it is February
then, as sure as shootin' some busted Presidential Aspirant has discovered that "The Two Party System Is Broken, and a Third Party Is Needed to Break the Deadlock in Washington".
And this February, that aspirant, is none other than Jon Huntsman, who passive aggressively endorsed Mitt Romney a month or so ago, and at the moment is passively aggressively trying to find a third partei to cheerlead.
Mind you, I think Jon Huntsman is too much an unheroic jobber to ever ditch the GOP and run on a third partei ticket, but clearly he fantasizes about that very thing quite a bit.
It used to be, democrats caught the third partei fever in Feburary, Everyone from Huey Long to Henry Wallace, Strom Thurmond & George Wallace either flirted with the idea or took the plunge into electoral obscurity.
These days it is mostly republicans who like to play with the notion (I'm waiting for the annual third partei harangue from conservative fundraising Guru Richard Viguerie, that man just longs impotently and loudly for a pure conservative third party)...almost all of them harmless, charmless politicians with no followers or money to their name.
And that seems to be what the whole third partei option is these days, a way for beaten jobbers to nurse their wounded egos.
And so it seems with Huntsman, believe me he ain't boltin' nothin' this year I don't care what he sez.
And this February, that aspirant, is none other than Jon Huntsman, who passive aggressively endorsed Mitt Romney a month or so ago, and at the moment is passively aggressively trying to find a third partei to cheerlead.
Mind you, I think Jon Huntsman is too much an unheroic jobber to ever ditch the GOP and run on a third partei ticket, but clearly he fantasizes about that very thing quite a bit.
It used to be, democrats caught the third partei fever in Feburary, Everyone from Huey Long to Henry Wallace, Strom Thurmond & George Wallace either flirted with the idea or took the plunge into electoral obscurity.
These days it is mostly republicans who like to play with the notion (I'm waiting for the annual third partei harangue from conservative fundraising Guru Richard Viguerie, that man just longs impotently and loudly for a pure conservative third party)...almost all of them harmless, charmless politicians with no followers or money to their name.
And that seems to be what the whole third partei option is these days, a way for beaten jobbers to nurse their wounded egos.
And so it seems with Huntsman, believe me he ain't boltin' nothin' this year I don't care what he sez.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Congrats to the City Council in Cambridge Ma
For taking only ten ballots to elect Henrietta Davis Mayor.
Hell it took forty four ballots for the democrats to nominate James Cox for President in 1920, and One Hundred and Three ballots for them to nominate John W. Davis in 1924.
Lets hope things work out better for Ms. Davis, of whom I hear good things.
Granted its a mostly ceremonial post (the City Manager shoulders the truly thankless tasks) but it is also a pulpit and well...any pulpit in a storm I always say.
Hell it took forty four ballots for the democrats to nominate James Cox for President in 1920, and One Hundred and Three ballots for them to nominate John W. Davis in 1924.
Lets hope things work out better for Ms. Davis, of whom I hear good things.
Granted its a mostly ceremonial post (the City Manager shoulders the truly thankless tasks) but it is also a pulpit and well...any pulpit in a storm I always say.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Anthony Comstock was a huge
bully of a man, well suited physically for his life's calling as NYC's buffoonish and brutal anti vice crusader.
Despite being smaller and far more beady of eye, Rick Santorum is pretty much cut from the same cloth as Comstock.
Hell Rick finally gave himself over to a full weekend of denouncing the President as a sort of theocrat when he wasn't raging against family planning in a tone of plain hatred unheard since the Watch and Ward Society shut up shop.
I think the Former Senator from Pennsylvania just got sick of playing it like he was Paul Tsongas or Mister Rogers or whatever, clearly he longed to rant and rave and denounce sin and error.
Back when he was in the Senate for a while there, it seemed like Santorum had gay porn on perpetual playback in his head. But then again, it is his bizarre fulminations against bestiality and gay sex that undid him in the end.
And if he keeps it up, especially in the upcoming debate those fulminations will be his undoing in Arizona and Michigan...and alas he'll blow as good a chance as any to make a monkey out of Mitt Romney.
So this is what it comes down to, can Rick Santorum keep a lid on it?
Despite being smaller and far more beady of eye, Rick Santorum is pretty much cut from the same cloth as Comstock.
Hell Rick finally gave himself over to a full weekend of denouncing the President as a sort of theocrat when he wasn't raging against family planning in a tone of plain hatred unheard since the Watch and Ward Society shut up shop.
I think the Former Senator from Pennsylvania just got sick of playing it like he was Paul Tsongas or Mister Rogers or whatever, clearly he longed to rant and rave and denounce sin and error.
Back when he was in the Senate for a while there, it seemed like Santorum had gay porn on perpetual playback in his head. But then again, it is his bizarre fulminations against bestiality and gay sex that undid him in the end.
And if he keeps it up, especially in the upcoming debate those fulminations will be his undoing in Arizona and Michigan...and alas he'll blow as good a chance as any to make a monkey out of Mitt Romney.
So this is what it comes down to, can Rick Santorum keep a lid on it?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
President's Day...
A moment to reflect benignly on Calvin Coolidge.
Yeah I know...
He was a reactionary
And a Union Buster (the BPD, never to be confused with the ADA, still curse his name to this day)
And a torpid President even on his best day.
And he railed against governance thru out a twenty eight year career on the public payroll...
If Warren Harding his predecessor in Office was befuddled by the Presidency, if Herbert Hoover his sucessor was overwhelmed in the White House then Calvin Coolidge was simply bemused by the sinecure. Certainly he was never so bemused as to be roused to any activity while President.
But what the hell, his teenaged son up and died on him in the summer of 1924. All and sundry agree Coolidge never got over the loss.
It is always sad when a stern puritanical Brahmin suffers an crippling emotional loss, a lifetime of withholding behavior leaves them with no defense from the onslaught every time.
You might even say that Calvin Coolidge that Yankee Sphinx, literally died of a broken heart.
And he had the common sense to live out the balance of his days in the prettiest part of the Commonwealth, we should all do so badly.
He was a reactionary
And a Union Buster (the BPD, never to be confused with the ADA, still curse his name to this day)
And a torpid President even on his best day.
And he railed against governance thru out a twenty eight year career on the public payroll...
If Warren Harding his predecessor in Office was befuddled by the Presidency, if Herbert Hoover his sucessor was overwhelmed in the White House then Calvin Coolidge was simply bemused by the sinecure. Certainly he was never so bemused as to be roused to any activity while President.
But what the hell, his teenaged son up and died on him in the summer of 1924. All and sundry agree Coolidge never got over the loss.
It is always sad when a stern puritanical Brahmin suffers an crippling emotional loss, a lifetime of withholding behavior leaves them with no defense from the onslaught every time.
You might even say that Calvin Coolidge that Yankee Sphinx, literally died of a broken heart.
And he had the common sense to live out the balance of his days in the prettiest part of the Commonwealth, we should all do so badly.
Monday, February 20, 2012
I'm not sure it is such a good idea for
Romney to go barnstorming in Michigan citing nostalgia for his old man the late Governor George Romney and Nixon's Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The problem being, that if anyone at all remembers Romney Senior (and that is a dangerously elderly cohort) they mostly remember him as a liberal on social issues and a moderate on whatever was left over.
Meanwhile his ne'er do well son, stumps "the state he loves" running as a "severe conservative", a contradiction that inherently casts an unfavorable light on Mitt's reputation for craven opportunism (ergo "Flip Floppery).
On the other hand, none of this may matter, I'm wondering if Rick Santorum may have peaked a weekend too early to clear the boards in Michigan and Arizona. Some of Santorum's more demented and shrill remarks are starting to circulate and attract unfavorable comment.
Ah but I've written Rick off twice in the past four months alone, he has so many more moments of sheer malevolent insanity to share with us ere' we are done.
The problem being, that if anyone at all remembers Romney Senior (and that is a dangerously elderly cohort) they mostly remember him as a liberal on social issues and a moderate on whatever was left over.
Meanwhile his ne'er do well son, stumps "the state he loves" running as a "severe conservative", a contradiction that inherently casts an unfavorable light on Mitt's reputation for craven opportunism (ergo "Flip Floppery).
On the other hand, none of this may matter, I'm wondering if Rick Santorum may have peaked a weekend too early to clear the boards in Michigan and Arizona. Some of Santorum's more demented and shrill remarks are starting to circulate and attract unfavorable comment.
Ah but I've written Rick off twice in the past four months alone, he has so many more moments of sheer malevolent insanity to share with us ere' we are done.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Brian McGrory is huffing again
trying desperately to blow on the embers from the Chelsea Housing Authority scandal and get it to blaze up into a ethics conflagration that'll consume Deval Patrick.
It seems to me, that the Governor knew something was rotten in Chelsea about the same time as Brian McGrory, Hizzoner referred all and sundry to the rollers and there the matter rests until the trial(s) start.
As for the Lt. Governor, he had a car accident, it is of interest mostly to the Boston News Punditariat and almost no one else in the Commonwealth. I really could not care less who he was or was not talking to on his mobile phone that night...Unless and until something else crops up during any future trials, there the matter rests.
Like seemingly everyone else at the Globe, Brian is desperate to write one of those corny-ass "death of liberalism" political obits for the Patrick Admin...bur right now it'll have to wait til December 2014 at the earliest.
Tough news, Brian will actually have to work until then.
It seems to me, that the Governor knew something was rotten in Chelsea about the same time as Brian McGrory, Hizzoner referred all and sundry to the rollers and there the matter rests until the trial(s) start.
As for the Lt. Governor, he had a car accident, it is of interest mostly to the Boston News Punditariat and almost no one else in the Commonwealth. I really could not care less who he was or was not talking to on his mobile phone that night...Unless and until something else crops up during any future trials, there the matter rests.
Like seemingly everyone else at the Globe, Brian is desperate to write one of those corny-ass "death of liberalism" political obits for the Patrick Admin...bur right now it'll have to wait til December 2014 at the earliest.
Tough news, Brian will actually have to work until then.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
I'm beginning to think that
Mitt Romney's arcane game plan is to deliberately lose the Michigan Primary.
You will recall a scant four years ago, he stumped Michigan on a promise to reopen the auto factories at gunpoint.
Then he came out banging the pots against any bailout for Detroit and for a "managed bankruptcy".
Now he is insisting he was for the bailout all along.
Other politicians can flip flop seamlessly but Romney's special talent to fall flat on his face every damn time he tries it.
There are, in my opinion intangible consequences to a Romney loss in Michigan, politically it is akin to his defeat in New Hampshire some four years ago, a body blow from which he never ever recovered.
Likely such a situation might ignite talk of a brokered convention, right now it is just a fear (confined at the moment to lazy ass pundits)...But if Mitt loses Michigan that fear could become a very earnest desire for a do-over to be executed in public at the Republican National Convention.
Which could provide a very interesting counter narrative come Super Tuesday (where Mitt is still favored to do well...but then again this is Romney and he can screw up a two car funeral nicely).
That having been said, Humble Elias still expects Romney to the nominee, he is C-Lister at best but he has money and that counts in the GOP. There hasn't been a truly brokered convention for either party since 1952, neither party retains the sort of patronage based internal power structure that could force a decision in convention. More than likely the whole shit house will erupt into chaos with no legit nominee being anointed.
You think that is crazy?
Its happened before in 1860 to the democrats, with Civil War hanging over everyone's head they ended up with three nominees from each wing of the party!
Hell it took the democrats 44 ballots in 1920 to come up with a cannon fodder nominee and 103 ballots in 1924 to produce a perfect dead duck.
Something like that could happen again and on live television as well.
Whats to stop it?
Karl Rove?
Fox News?
Rush Limbaugh?
Don't make me laugh.
Still, history rarely favors the most melodramatic outcome, so it'll be Romney in the end, but likely his general election prospects will be severely compromised.
Or so we can hope....
You will recall a scant four years ago, he stumped Michigan on a promise to reopen the auto factories at gunpoint.
Then he came out banging the pots against any bailout for Detroit and for a "managed bankruptcy".
Now he is insisting he was for the bailout all along.
Other politicians can flip flop seamlessly but Romney's special talent to fall flat on his face every damn time he tries it.
There are, in my opinion intangible consequences to a Romney loss in Michigan, politically it is akin to his defeat in New Hampshire some four years ago, a body blow from which he never ever recovered.
Likely such a situation might ignite talk of a brokered convention, right now it is just a fear (confined at the moment to lazy ass pundits)...But if Mitt loses Michigan that fear could become a very earnest desire for a do-over to be executed in public at the Republican National Convention.
Which could provide a very interesting counter narrative come Super Tuesday (where Mitt is still favored to do well...but then again this is Romney and he can screw up a two car funeral nicely).
That having been said, Humble Elias still expects Romney to the nominee, he is C-Lister at best but he has money and that counts in the GOP. There hasn't been a truly brokered convention for either party since 1952, neither party retains the sort of patronage based internal power structure that could force a decision in convention. More than likely the whole shit house will erupt into chaos with no legit nominee being anointed.
You think that is crazy?
Its happened before in 1860 to the democrats, with Civil War hanging over everyone's head they ended up with three nominees from each wing of the party!
Hell it took the democrats 44 ballots in 1920 to come up with a cannon fodder nominee and 103 ballots in 1924 to produce a perfect dead duck.
Something like that could happen again and on live television as well.
Whats to stop it?
Karl Rove?
Fox News?
Rush Limbaugh?
Don't make me laugh.
Still, history rarely favors the most melodramatic outcome, so it'll be Romney in the end, but likely his general election prospects will be severely compromised.
Or so we can hope....
I must say...
The Democrats of Menotomy run an uncommonly tight caucus, finished and done in about forty five minutes and a convention delegation instructed for Citizen Warren as well.
Maybe its a little too tight in the weary wicked end, I have nothing worthwhile to report from my attendance thereon.
Other than the fact that the Hilaryistas are powerful faction in Menotomy, and clearly they are looking to avenge their losses from 2008 and 2010.
They had a slate made up and remorsely filled the room with two-hundred and eight of their own supporters, nothing went to a paper ballot and any additional nominations were conciliated effectively and quietly.
This contrasts greatly with Lexington whose democratic caucus pulled in but ninety people and took three full hours to come up with a delegation.
Like I said, it's good to have a slate prepared beforehand and the votes to get them in free and clear.
***
Well I'm glad everyone is laughing and scratching...but if I had to speculate, then it might be Citizen Warren's game plan to clear the boards at the Convention, prevent anyone else from getting on the senatorial primary ballot with her, and at that point it is game on for the General Election.
Well...that glass ceiling out there is still pretty thick, to get thru it a female candidate needs luck, brute strength or sharp wits...lets hope Citizen Warren has all three in abundance she is gonna need em.
Maybe its a little too tight in the weary wicked end, I have nothing worthwhile to report from my attendance thereon.
Other than the fact that the Hilaryistas are powerful faction in Menotomy, and clearly they are looking to avenge their losses from 2008 and 2010.
They had a slate made up and remorsely filled the room with two-hundred and eight of their own supporters, nothing went to a paper ballot and any additional nominations were conciliated effectively and quietly.
This contrasts greatly with Lexington whose democratic caucus pulled in but ninety people and took three full hours to come up with a delegation.
Like I said, it's good to have a slate prepared beforehand and the votes to get them in free and clear.
***
Well I'm glad everyone is laughing and scratching...but if I had to speculate, then it might be Citizen Warren's game plan to clear the boards at the Convention, prevent anyone else from getting on the senatorial primary ballot with her, and at that point it is game on for the General Election.
Well...that glass ceiling out there is still pretty thick, to get thru it a female candidate needs luck, brute strength or sharp wits...lets hope Citizen Warren has all three in abundance she is gonna need em.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Idle Speculation...
Am I reading the "Blunt Bill" wrong or something, or would it's notional passage and signature into law just make it easier for private businesses to administer their health plans along the lines of Sharia Law?
Okay I know...
That was wrong and cruel and sodden with negativity.
Okay I know...
That was wrong and cruel and sodden with negativity.
Ever since Citizen Warren got on the radar screen
Former State Senator has been jogging back towards the center. He has been so frantic to be associated with GOP Moderate Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snow that he has all but taken to wearing pearls, dresses and heels on the floor of the US Senate.
Then came the current contraception debate and suddenly Brown suddenly found his misogymist bona fides, Backing the Blunt Bill to the point of being a cosponsor (which grants all sorts of medieval special privileges to wowsers and their enablers) and in general manfully grunting like a surly chimp.
Never mind his own checkered history on contraception issues.
Back in 2005 Brown was for a version of the current compromise before bellowing against it today...but then the Bishops were paying him no mind in those days.
Ya gotta love these guys, if it's abortion or contraception or sex ed, suddenly the most wheedling of GOP Moderates morphs into Westbrook Pegler overnight...happens every time.
Then came the current contraception debate and suddenly Brown suddenly found his misogymist bona fides, Backing the Blunt Bill to the point of being a cosponsor (which grants all sorts of medieval special privileges to wowsers and their enablers) and in general manfully grunting like a surly chimp.
Never mind his own checkered history on contraception issues.
Back in 2005 Brown was for a version of the current compromise before bellowing against it today...but then the Bishops were paying him no mind in those days.
Ya gotta love these guys, if it's abortion or contraception or sex ed, suddenly the most wheedling of GOP Moderates morphs into Westbrook Pegler overnight...happens every time.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I wonder just what Scott Brown has to say about
the contraception compromise offered by President Obama on Friday?
He seems to be strangely mute on this topic, you'd a think over seventy two hours he could have found his way to a TV camera to expound on said topic.
Shee-it five days ago, he was all hot under the collar to protect the rights of the RCC to boss around it's female employees like chattel.
I guess maybe he must be frantically polling or something...still Susan Collins and Olympia Snow have come out for the President's compromise, they must have faster pollsters.
Kelly Ayotte, though, is agin' it.
I guess she must think she is gonna be a power in the Romney White House or something, as if Mitt has ever listened to a woman in his entire breathing life.
Update: Per TPM, Scott Brown is still supporting the "Blunt Amendment" that would likely grant all sorts of special rights and privileges to religious organizations regarding contraception while at the same time saying vaguely nice things about the President's compromise proposal. Which means that likely he'll be backing the President by Friday, again Scott's pollsters work slowly.
He seems to be strangely mute on this topic, you'd a think over seventy two hours he could have found his way to a TV camera to expound on said topic.
Shee-it five days ago, he was all hot under the collar to protect the rights of the RCC to boss around it's female employees like chattel.
I guess maybe he must be frantically polling or something...still Susan Collins and Olympia Snow have come out for the President's compromise, they must have faster pollsters.
Kelly Ayotte, though, is agin' it.
I guess she must think she is gonna be a power in the Romney White House or something, as if Mitt has ever listened to a woman in his entire breathing life.
Update: Per TPM, Scott Brown is still supporting the "Blunt Amendment" that would likely grant all sorts of special rights and privileges to religious organizations regarding contraception while at the same time saying vaguely nice things about the President's compromise proposal. Which means that likely he'll be backing the President by Friday, again Scott's pollsters work slowly.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Hang on to your hats folks
Mitt Romney is currently trailing Rick Santorum in Michigan.
My advice for all decent and even indecent citizens out that way, Take Cover Now!!
Romney has a bad habit of going into a sadistic negative advert fugue state when he gets bad polling news. Watching the local news will become a savage war-zone count on it.
My advice for all decent and even indecent citizens out that way, Take Cover Now!!
Romney has a bad habit of going into a sadistic negative advert fugue state when he gets bad polling news. Watching the local news will become a savage war-zone count on it.
An attack on the high cost of college tuition?
Good Idea Mister President.
Next to health care, educating one's offspring has to be the second biggest stressor currently bankrupting the middle class in the USA.
So any attempt to talk up this issue is a worthwhile thing sez Humble Elias.
You'd think in a education economy rigged to produce MBAs and Lawyers some economy of scale would be effected, but ohhh noooo, tuitions skyrocket forcing students and parents into ruinous debt which is turn strongly conditions private innovation in the USA.
After all, if you have run up 100K in tuition loans, upon graduation are you gonna become a drone at IBM for steady money or maybe take a flyer on that anti gravity idea you got in "Comparative Religions" class?
The very picture of a "bubble" waiting to burst.
The other reason I'm living the current pushback on tuition costs is that it obliquely raises the point that mere education itself may not be the most effective method to address chronic income disparities in the USA.
Metaphorically speaking, how can a first class college education change up yr SES if from the git-go you and yours are debtors?
It is more akin to the perpetual of a form of sharecropping conditions in the middle class.
Just sayin'.
Next to health care, educating one's offspring has to be the second biggest stressor currently bankrupting the middle class in the USA.
So any attempt to talk up this issue is a worthwhile thing sez Humble Elias.
You'd think in a education economy rigged to produce MBAs and Lawyers some economy of scale would be effected, but ohhh noooo, tuitions skyrocket forcing students and parents into ruinous debt which is turn strongly conditions private innovation in the USA.
After all, if you have run up 100K in tuition loans, upon graduation are you gonna become a drone at IBM for steady money or maybe take a flyer on that anti gravity idea you got in "Comparative Religions" class?
The very picture of a "bubble" waiting to burst.
The other reason I'm living the current pushback on tuition costs is that it obliquely raises the point that mere education itself may not be the most effective method to address chronic income disparities in the USA.
Metaphorically speaking, how can a first class college education change up yr SES if from the git-go you and yours are debtors?
It is more akin to the perpetual of a form of sharecropping conditions in the middle class.
Just sayin'.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Y'know after Willard's appearance at CPAC yesterday
I'm beginning to think maybe his real problem is that he is coward after all.
Three conservatives standing in front of him is enough for Mitt to fall to his knees in abject terror squealing "Don't hit meeee, I'm one of youuuuuu!!!
***
My thinking about Romney has undergone an evolution, I used to think he was a closet conservative who snuck into office to be La Famiglia Arbusto's Viceroy.
But he wracked up too profligate a record casually betraying the left, the right and the center for that to hold.
Then I thought he was sort of inept egoist whose political pratfalls were in part a consequence of his almighty amateurism.
Now however Mitt Romney has denied all opportunism and stolen a march around me by insisting before CPAC he was a "Severely Conservative" Governor of Massachusetts.
In a word...bullshit.
Did Romney run as a "Severe Conservative" when he promised the Gays in the South End a fair hearing?
When he promised to balance the budget without raising taxes (remaining of course decorously silent on the subject of fees)?
Why was this "Severe Conservative" so strangely inactive and silent on the subject of abortion for four full years of his governorship?
Hell, he gave Obama the idea for Obamacare and bending the Catholic Hospitals to his will on the subject of contraception.
Mitt Romney is a coward, if he had defined himself as a "Severe Conservative" at any time in public debate with Shannon O'Brien back in 2002 he would have lost the election and he knows it.
This just confirms it, the man is a "Severe Opportunist" in extremis.
Three conservatives standing in front of him is enough for Mitt to fall to his knees in abject terror squealing "Don't hit meeee, I'm one of youuuuuu!!!
***
My thinking about Romney has undergone an evolution, I used to think he was a closet conservative who snuck into office to be La Famiglia Arbusto's Viceroy.
But he wracked up too profligate a record casually betraying the left, the right and the center for that to hold.
Then I thought he was sort of inept egoist whose political pratfalls were in part a consequence of his almighty amateurism.
Now however Mitt Romney has denied all opportunism and stolen a march around me by insisting before CPAC he was a "Severely Conservative" Governor of Massachusetts.
In a word...bullshit.
Did Romney run as a "Severe Conservative" when he promised the Gays in the South End a fair hearing?
When he promised to balance the budget without raising taxes (remaining of course decorously silent on the subject of fees)?
Why was this "Severe Conservative" so strangely inactive and silent on the subject of abortion for four full years of his governorship?
Hell, he gave Obama the idea for Obamacare and bending the Catholic Hospitals to his will on the subject of contraception.
Mitt Romney is a coward, if he had defined himself as a "Severe Conservative" at any time in public debate with Shannon O'Brien back in 2002 he would have lost the election and he knows it.
This just confirms it, the man is a "Severe Opportunist" in extremis.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Indeed...Senator Santorum is "right"
It is not about contraception....It is about reinforcing Biblical Paternalism and keeping women in a state of dependent subservience.
Wisely the President let the media pot boil until the end of the news cycle then artfully offered compromise (as I predicted he would).
He even got this out there, before Romney spoke before CPAC today. I wonder if Mitt will address the matter in his speech?
If Romney comes out for the compromise, likely CPAC will run him out on a rail, if he comes out against it, he falls into the trap Obama has laid for him...the smart thing to do would be to say nothing. Alas though Mitt is in crisis mode and when that happens he sweats, starts talking too fast, buys a lot of negative ads and panders.
And if Mitch McConnell denounces compromise, then that is just a win win situation for the President his opponents to a man are made to look like fanatics and witchburners.
Wisely the President let the media pot boil until the end of the news cycle then artfully offered compromise (as I predicted he would).
He even got this out there, before Romney spoke before CPAC today. I wonder if Mitt will address the matter in his speech?
If Romney comes out for the compromise, likely CPAC will run him out on a rail, if he comes out against it, he falls into the trap Obama has laid for him...the smart thing to do would be to say nothing. Alas though Mitt is in crisis mode and when that happens he sweats, starts talking too fast, buys a lot of negative ads and panders.
And if Mitch McConnell denounces compromise, then that is just a win win situation for the President his opponents to a man are made to look like fanatics and witchburners.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
A Democrat (of all things)
Down in the Magnolia State, wants to rename the "Gulf of Mexico", "The Gulf of America".
If this is a sort of nationalist feint, then it falls flat as Mexico is still very much a part of the North American Continent.
Still, Dr. Achmed Sukarno, Dictator of Indonesia once proclaimed that in the year 1966 Jakarta would build a blue water navy and "forcibly" change the name of the "Indian Ocean" to the "Indonesian Ocean".
And then there is Benito Mussolini would spent millions of lira in the lead up to World War II trying to convince the Italians that the blue waters of the Mediterranean was "Mare Nostrum" (literally "Our Sea").
My point when things go wrong, when the hungry riot, when the fires of nationalism start to flicker and dim, there is always a reactionary out there who thinks all can be solved by wantonly renaming stuff on a map.
If this is a sort of nationalist feint, then it falls flat as Mexico is still very much a part of the North American Continent.
Still, Dr. Achmed Sukarno, Dictator of Indonesia once proclaimed that in the year 1966 Jakarta would build a blue water navy and "forcibly" change the name of the "Indian Ocean" to the "Indonesian Ocean".
And then there is Benito Mussolini would spent millions of lira in the lead up to World War II trying to convince the Italians that the blue waters of the Mediterranean was "Mare Nostrum" (literally "Our Sea").
My point when things go wrong, when the hungry riot, when the fires of nationalism start to flicker and dim, there is always a reactionary out there who thinks all can be solved by wantonly renaming stuff on a map.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Santorum Uber Alles (For Now)
High Pitched Rick Santorum, Member in Good Standing of the "Future Tyrants of the USA", took three GOP primaries yesterday without really trying at all.
Y'know the conventional wisdom out there, is to attribute "volatility" to the GOP Presidential Race...but if the race is "volatile" it is of a cartoonish variety.
By this I mean, every time, it looks like Mitt Romney is about to seal the deal for good, some GOP primary electorate sucker punches his credulous self and sends The Former Viceroy reeling back to Square One.
The whole thing has become as predictable as a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon.
If this keeps up, Mitt Romney might be the first GOP Nominee with no real "base" in the Republican "Base".
Of course I suspect that Santorum's sudden surge might have a little bit to do with the President's dabbling in social issue of a kind provocative to christian conservative (ergo Santorum's peeps).
HA!
Thus for now, thanks to natural selection culling the GOP Presidential Herd, Santorum gets the benefit, but who knows by the time Michigan lights up it might be Gingrich's turn again?
After all there is no one more cartoonish than Newt Gingrich
Y'know the conventional wisdom out there, is to attribute "volatility" to the GOP Presidential Race...but if the race is "volatile" it is of a cartoonish variety.
By this I mean, every time, it looks like Mitt Romney is about to seal the deal for good, some GOP primary electorate sucker punches his credulous self and sends The Former Viceroy reeling back to Square One.
The whole thing has become as predictable as a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon.
If this keeps up, Mitt Romney might be the first GOP Nominee with no real "base" in the Republican "Base".
Of course I suspect that Santorum's sudden surge might have a little bit to do with the President's dabbling in social issue of a kind provocative to christian conservative (ergo Santorum's peeps).
HA!
Thus for now, thanks to natural selection culling the GOP Presidential Herd, Santorum gets the benefit, but who knows by the time Michigan lights up it might be Gingrich's turn again?
After all there is no one more cartoonish than Newt Gingrich
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Since 1968
the name of the game in US Politics has been "Divide and Conquer".
So initially, I was wondering why in an election year, the President was so ardent about compelling Catholic Hospitals to issue contraception.
I mean, its sorta divisive if'n yuh think on it.
Then I remembered the Catholic College I attended and counted up all the young women I knew who used Birth Control in seeming defiance of church doctrine.
Now the President's game seems clear...put a little crack in the Catholic Vote and force the GOP to yammer on and on about Birth Control (a topic they ought to avoid like a vampire shuns the sun) and possibly just maybe hand Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich an issue by which to force Mitt Romney into a corner.
Mitt is doing well in the GOP Primaries now, but he cannot debate sensibly on any topic dear to the tea partei, nor has he any sustained powers of resistance to a "right hook" even now.
So likely by this weekend he'll be wavering on female sufferage.
Meanwhile the President goes on, talking about jobs.
Hmmm.
Speculation?
Yes.
But yuh never know
So initially, I was wondering why in an election year, the President was so ardent about compelling Catholic Hospitals to issue contraception.
I mean, its sorta divisive if'n yuh think on it.
Then I remembered the Catholic College I attended and counted up all the young women I knew who used Birth Control in seeming defiance of church doctrine.
Now the President's game seems clear...put a little crack in the Catholic Vote and force the GOP to yammer on and on about Birth Control (a topic they ought to avoid like a vampire shuns the sun) and possibly just maybe hand Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich an issue by which to force Mitt Romney into a corner.
Mitt is doing well in the GOP Primaries now, but he cannot debate sensibly on any topic dear to the tea partei, nor has he any sustained powers of resistance to a "right hook" even now.
So likely by this weekend he'll be wavering on female sufferage.
Meanwhile the President goes on, talking about jobs.
Hmmm.
Speculation?
Yes.
But yuh never know
Monday, February 06, 2012
I do not think
that the so called "People's Pledge" will be honored for long in the current Massachusetts' senate race. We have too few restrains on the power of money in politics as it is with too much riding on the outcome to prevent an eventual abrogation of said agreement.
What enforces said Pledge?
Nothing, and we should count on nothing going forward.
And anyway, we as liberals and democrats are "doing business with religious sonsabitches"(expl. Karl Rove), and when that is the case you need to get it in writing, cuz their word ain't worth shit not with the Good Lord telling them how to screw us on a deal.
In a larger sense though, thanks to the Supreme Court's "Citzen's United" decision, the very Hobbesian war of all against all has been imported into US Elections. Money is a form of free speech so the SC sez.
Or from a purely Jeffersonian perspective, Money has the Right to Free Speech...and therefore a right to the franchise and therefore the right to organize the government if elections are dulty won in it's name.
Where does this all end?
Not in a good place I do think.
The Founding Fathers, almost to a man, feared the concentration of power as being fatal to the survival of liberty.
Thomas Jefferson, if he was alive today, would take one look at "Citizen's United" and immediately come to the conclusion that money is not a form of free speech, but is in fact, power in word & deed.
And power, is a thing that must be constrained in the Jeffersonian view.
So as this election goes forward, we need to look at the big picture...that is to say in a purely Jeffersonian context, are we now locked in a zero sum contest between the Power of Money and the "Rights of Man"?
Start there, tell me what you end up with.
What enforces said Pledge?
Nothing, and we should count on nothing going forward.
And anyway, we as liberals and democrats are "doing business with religious sonsabitches"(expl. Karl Rove), and when that is the case you need to get it in writing, cuz their word ain't worth shit not with the Good Lord telling them how to screw us on a deal.
In a larger sense though, thanks to the Supreme Court's "Citzen's United" decision, the very Hobbesian war of all against all has been imported into US Elections. Money is a form of free speech so the SC sez.
Or from a purely Jeffersonian perspective, Money has the Right to Free Speech...and therefore a right to the franchise and therefore the right to organize the government if elections are dulty won in it's name.
Where does this all end?
Not in a good place I do think.
The Founding Fathers, almost to a man, feared the concentration of power as being fatal to the survival of liberty.
Thomas Jefferson, if he was alive today, would take one look at "Citizen's United" and immediately come to the conclusion that money is not a form of free speech, but is in fact, power in word & deed.
And power, is a thing that must be constrained in the Jeffersonian view.
So as this election goes forward, we need to look at the big picture...that is to say in a purely Jeffersonian context, are we now locked in a zero sum contest between the Power of Money and the "Rights of Man"?
Start there, tell me what you end up with.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Superbowl Halftime Notes
Ghod Bless Madonna, thirty years plus in show biz doing an act uncontaminated by originality. She was made for the Superbowl, say what you like Madonna has the courage of her restrictions. An AARP member slowly running her routines like it's Monday morning Jazzercise in the salt water pool in Fort Myers Beach...that is Madonna at age fifty seven, basically a slower surgically preserved version of the performer she was in 1983.
In short she has always been an imposter, except now she is imitating her own act, and none too well. From the Evita mainstream actress period thru her preposterous Finishing School accent and now back to doing "Like a Prayer"...with a drumline no less!
In short she has always been an imposter, except now she is imitating her own act, and none too well. From the Evita mainstream actress period thru her preposterous Finishing School accent and now back to doing "Like a Prayer"...with a drumline no less!
Friday, February 03, 2012
Collecting the endorsement of Donald Trump
And collecting that endorsement in Trump's own Las Vegas Casino??
Honestly who is making these crazy decisions in the Romney campaign???
I am beginning to think that Mitt Romney thinks he is Ayn Rand's John Galt, barnstorming the nation in the name of oligarchy and wealth worshipping counter revolution.
What else accounts for this sort of dismal scene?
What next, an endorsement from Heliogabalus?
Thursday, February 02, 2012
The Governor signs a two book deal...
(Mighod do any our homegrown pols lack a book deal at this point? There is something in the water here in Massachusetts that seemingly compels politicians to write...)
Governor Patrick's deal though, seems to be stimulating speculation on his post 2014 plans, there is a lot of Potomac talk in there, both the White House and more realistically, John Kerry's seat should the Senior Senator opt to retire or take another job in the Executive Department.
Well as far as the Presidency is concerned (I'll approach all this bluntly) I urge the Governor not to inhale those vapors. Who wants to join the ranks of Teddy Kennedy, Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, John Kerry and now Mitt Romney all Bay State pols who wanted the Big Job and fell short.
Lets face it, there is something about the Commonwealth that the rest of the Federal Republic just doesn't like...Nothing in Patrick's backstory suggests he can overcome such a weird intangible attitude.
On the other hand, the Senate, that is an interesting idea, although its entirely contingent on the political plans of our Senior Senator...and at the moment he ain't talkin'.
Governor Patrick's deal though, seems to be stimulating speculation on his post 2014 plans, there is a lot of Potomac talk in there, both the White House and more realistically, John Kerry's seat should the Senior Senator opt to retire or take another job in the Executive Department.
Well as far as the Presidency is concerned (I'll approach all this bluntly) I urge the Governor not to inhale those vapors. Who wants to join the ranks of Teddy Kennedy, Mike Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, John Kerry and now Mitt Romney all Bay State pols who wanted the Big Job and fell short.
Lets face it, there is something about the Commonwealth that the rest of the Federal Republic just doesn't like...Nothing in Patrick's backstory suggests he can overcome such a weird intangible attitude.
On the other hand, the Senate, that is an interesting idea, although its entirely contingent on the political plans of our Senior Senator...and at the moment he ain't talkin'.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Kevin White, RIP
Elias Nugator Senior used to run into Da Mayor down around City Hall back in the day, as my old man was once of those instantly recognizable civil servants (black eye patch doncha know) he always got a glad hand from hizzoner.
There are two things in my mind that are memorable about Kevin White, his thwarted ambitions to be Governor, to be Vice President to be a playa on the National Stage in the early 1970's. In retrospect, given the specific nature of his gifts perhaps it is best he never made the transition....
The other is that the man had a moral compass, it was well buried as it is with some pols, but when Justice asked for hard decisions, The Mayor did not flinch.
He got little credit for it...but his moral compass swung true nonetheless.
Rest in Peace, Your Honor.
There are two things in my mind that are memorable about Kevin White, his thwarted ambitions to be Governor, to be Vice President to be a playa on the National Stage in the early 1970's. In retrospect, given the specific nature of his gifts perhaps it is best he never made the transition....
The other is that the man had a moral compass, it was well buried as it is with some pols, but when Justice asked for hard decisions, The Mayor did not flinch.
He got little credit for it...but his moral compass swung true nonetheless.
Rest in Peace, Your Honor.
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