10th Anniversary...

And I don't know what to do, it has been a very very fun ride to be sure, but lets face facts shall we, the Chimes at Midnight is the very picture definition of an acquired taste in a niche market. I think Humble Elias has a hiatus coming to him, six days a week for ten years seems like a good time to sound the klaxon for a coffee break so to speak.

The conservative punditariat is in a lather

because the normally circumspect Congressman Ed Markey went out to Pittsfield Ma and compared the wrongfulness of the Supreme Court's "Citizen's United" decision to the wrongfulness of the "Dred Scott Decision". It was hardly Lincoln's "Peoria Speech" on the part of Citizen Markey but he made plain his opposition, Abe Lincoln was much more graphic about "Dred Scott" BTW he went up and down Illinois saying in effect that Slavery was being Imposed on the North by Southern Judicial Fiat. Just in case any of you were wondering... I abolsutely guarantee you that for the past thirty years Ed Markey has had to sit at his desk in the US House and listen politely to GOP Demagogues ranting and raving like rabid fisher cats to the effect that "Rowe V. Wade" was every bit as wicked a Supreme Court ruling as "Dred Scott". I myself have heard more than a few Catholic Priests utter the exact same sentiments in various pulpits from Florida to Menotomy Mass and up to Goffstown New Hampshire before I finally threw in the sponge on that habit. So to me, no harm no foul, but then Markey is no skilled user of rhetoric and never has been so the usual suspects are lyaing for him hoping for easy eats'.

The Globe for Sale...again?

Who is gonna buy it? Cashman's wife? Ernie Boch Jr....Bill Cosby, Ben Affleck? Its a question of who is local and has "mad money" to spend on what is after all, a much beloved antique. I think sometimes we forget that Boston is dug in and holding the last nigh desperately on a glorious lost cause, which to say the Two-Newspaper Town...There are few of them out there these days and all are doomed to extinction at some point or another. So we have been lucky but soon enough our luck runs out, exactly what replaces the newspaper template I cannot say, there are tons of sources of news out there, but how many are credible? Its a cold wind out there blowing for anyone in the floppy news biz today, for all my "sarcastic rant driven chatter", y'all have my sympathies. Hang in there....

The Globe AND The Herald have both

fallen like a ton of bricks for the current buzzfeed about Cardinal Sean O'Malley's pontifical chances at the upcoming Conclave. It is nothing but cheap heat of the Herman Cain variety, the Cardinals for reasons of geopolitics alone would never go for an American Pope, unless their backs were up against the wall. But Morrissey Blvd and One Herald Square are naive that way and so they fall for the bait, hell I can recall Cardinal Medeiros coming in for a little of that positive buzz prior to the two Conclaves in 1978. The College of Cardinals historically eschews transparency so these sorts of stories have to be expected, the Italian Media are past masters of tossing Potential Papacies around with airy abandon, the local papers of course eat it up. I still think the fix is in, exactly who I can't say...But Pope Benedict is a consummate Vatican Insider (and a bit of a sneak) and I doubt he'd abdicate without having secured the succession in a manner that safeguards his own interests.

Four Days until

This, The Little Blog That Cried's tenth anniversary. Dunno kids it might be time to quit while I am ahead. Look at all the other serious Massachusetts political blogs they've either evolved into social media sites or gotten monetized or whatever, single combat blogging such as practiced by Humble Elias is sheer anachronism. Four once I invite input from my aud, all seven of you....

Late word comes to us that the

NH State Legislature is conjuring with legalizing casino gambling in the Granite State thus to chip off a few high rollers from the affluent communities of Lowell & Chelmsford with a nice second rate gambling joint in the Southern Tier. I have to ask, is there a state legislature left in the USA that is NOT infected with this "pimp mentality" when it comes to casino gambling? And not for nothing but the NH State Legislature normally violently rejects any SENSIBLE policy laid down in Massachusetts, why do they have to glom onto this legalized gambling nonsense? The answer to that is simple from the days of the Five Hundred that Ruled Athens in the age of Socrates til Today no sovereign legislature has ever resisted the lure of easy revenues...even if it means paying unknown costs social and political down the line. "Money now, beats money later" or so the chorus goes up from freeper and progressive alike...well I wish all and sundry the Joy of It.

Take a look at this picture of

Harry Truman campaigning for re-election in Boston back in 1948. For a man presiding over a three way split in the democratic party, Truman managed to effect some unity in Massachusetts, that is John McCormack, James Michael Curley and Paul Dever all smiles and Wild About Harry as well. Normally that lot all hated one another... My Mother and Late Father, (back when they were merely affiance'd) tried to get into the big rally in Mechanic's Hall that night, damn thing sold out, packed house, they had to be content watching it on TV in a nearby tavern. Which is when my Father openly predicted that Truman (then rated a "dead duck") would beat Dewey like a rented government mule. If you think on it, we've all got our "Presidential Stories"...so Happy President's Day to All.

Okay so far...

the GOP has Dan Winslow, Gabriel Gomez and likely District Attorney Michael F. Sullivan all running for the US Senate. Winslow has incurred charges of disloyalty as he was fiddling around with a third party presidential candidacy last year instead of getting his ticket punched with Mitt Romney. Gabriel Gomez is terminally weird by all accounts and unready for prime time despite his Navy SEAL Bona Fides...That leaves Michael Sullivan as the most creditable potential US Senate candidate the GOP has at this point. He has a prosecutorial background (hey it worked for Bill Weld), some gravitas and he has proven himself in Norfolk County wide elections....that is something to start with to be sure. Right now though, its even money if any of these mooks can get on the ballot they have a few short blizzard struck weeks to amass 10,000 signatures to get on the ballot (in fact you need 20,000 to provide for disavowals)...which raises the chilling possibility that the republicans won't have anyone on the ballot come the summer and will be forced to wage a write in campaing for the US Senate. Which puts a great deal of pressure on the democrtic primary and might mean that ticket-splitting "Reagan Democrats" having no Scott Brown to beguile them might rally to Stephen Lynch... Think about that why doncha.... ?

The irony is just killin' me

Mitch McConnell the Senate Minority Leader is filibustering the nomination of fellow republican Chuck Hagel to the Defense Depart...this would be Senator Chuck Hagel, once a reliable vote for Senator McConnell's Minority Leadership AND a GOP filibuster stalwart. There is something awful and wrong about the fury of losers. McConnell himself is a humorless corrupt virtuecrat who presides over a caucus composed to paranoid reactionary fantasists, to do anything else but turn on a friend is probably impossible without losing his job. Well, that is how it is played inside the beltway these days, but to the rest of us, the Death of Senate Collegiality is a degrading spectacle to watch from afar. One good thing that may come of this is maybe the democrats at both end of Pennsylvania Avenue will at least realize that the "BI" in "BIPARTISANSHIP" implies that there is a negotiating partner who can at least engage in good faith. Without that...what is the point of all this feel good bipartisan soft soap..it makes Congresspersons feel good about their innate crapulence I guess.

Time in thy flight....

The rumor is, Time Warner is putting all it's newsweeklies up for sale, this includes, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and...Time Magazine. Oh Caesar what power hath laid thee so low? Lord but Time was a "haughty little rag" in it's Empire Days (to quote the olde misanthrope), they shamelessly translated newspaper copy into snarky biased "Timespeak" and raked in the millions. At it's height Time was equally hated by left and right, the William F. Buckley's of the republic loathed the chesty newsweekly for finking on Barry Goldwater in 1964, the left never forgot Time's loving backstabbery on Adlai Stevenson from 1952 til the day the Former Governor of Illinois went to the Throne of GLory. Now it's is all up for sale like a big glossy flea market...sad really. No it is hilarious who am I kidding? Supposedly there is an offer on the table to buy all and sundry, I'm gonna guess the mystery buyer is Rupert Murdoch because he seems to be the only remaining press lord out there stupid enough to double down on floppies. And anyway if Time was biased enough wait til Rupert gets thru with it, topless gun worshippers on the inside cover every week. Y'know it is funny, Time Warner is ditching it's very namesake, but they are keeping "DC Comics" quality weekly publishers of paper comic books...thus demonstrating that Superman still commands more market presence than Henry Luce's entire newsweekly empire. Th' irony is killin' me....

SOTU 2013...

Does the Congressional GOP stage an offsite workshop every winter to school Capital Hill Republicans in the unsubtle art of applauding tepidly?

North Korea has detonated a third nuclear weapon...

What do they have to show for it, but misery, terror, want and fear? But at least The Bomb gaurantees The Kim Family can perpetuate all that in North Korea sans interdiction. And that is what The Bomb is good for these days, military-diplomatic special effects, it upholds sovereignty and poverty all at the same time. It keeps The Americans Out and the Starvelings behind barbed wire. That is the legacy of "Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy" in the seventh decade of Assured Annihilation...they prop up totalitarian regimes very nicely. Of course I get the North's notion of their strategic dilemma, a detached "enabler" to the North and a Historically antagonistic alliance to the South. Frankly I'm surprised they didn't spring for The Bomb sooner...of course White South Africa had nuclear weapons (albeit secretly built & deployed) and they did that regime exactly no damn good when Nelson Mandela started walking the streets. Remember that going forward.

Papal Abdication?

I'm all for it. Look these guys take their papacies deep into their own physical and mental dotage, its a stressful job to be sure almost every Pope in my lifetime has stayed on the job at least three years too long. Nonetheless this IS the ex-Cardinal Ratzinger we are talking about a reactionary and the perfect Vatican Insider, so I very much doubt they haven't got the coming Conclave all fixed up. Undoubtedly The Pope has a successor in mind...as for who it may be, well remember technically, The Vatican is a sovereign government and such institutions love secrecy.

Over at the Red Mass Group

all and sundry are in high dudgeon over the Governor's order to close the roads at the outset of the current blizzard here in the Commonwealth. This is ironic to me as the civil defense statute invoked by Governor Patrick clearly dates back to the Cold War when the jittery conservatives of 1955 were anxious to make sure the State's Executive Department had the legal tools to deal with a nuclear attack and or an invasion. And indeed on Friday the State was invaded, by a killing blizzard, not Soviet ICBMS. So by the standards of the cold-war conservatives of 1955, Governor Patrick acted promptly and correctly. Today's conservatives are a weaker and whinier breed by and large, they won't permit or honor what their stalwart grandparents put on the books...these conservatives don't do much conserving do they?

Fox News?

Scott Brown is allegedly negotiating with Fox News for a contributor's slot. THAT is the former state senator's big post electoral idea?? A cush gig with the cable news network that is little more than a welfare program for washed up conservative hacks?? You read news like this and begin to wonder if Scott really did simply get lucky in 2010...skipping off to Fox News and part time phony baloney job with some law firm is hardly the sinecure that befits a leader in exile. Moreover as David Bernstein has pointed out, these are the sort of commitments that quietly rule out any statewide political plans thru 2014. So maybe just maybe the curtain has fallen abruptly on the "Scott Brown Era", a Giant Slayer and a Future President in 2010, a porch climber and a jobber in 2013.

Dan Winslow?

HE is running for the GOP senate nomination...a State Rep? Wow. I guess Scary Kerry Healey couldn't get up the money from her paper route eh? Cuz its fer damn sure her hubbie isn't bankrolling another kamikaze statewide campaign.... *** Winslow hardly piled into this race with Wagnerian howls, he has "formed an exploratory committee", which sounds like he is looking for an out if someone with money and name recognition announces. Nonethless Winslow has an interesting resume he has been a judgement, a lackey for Governor Romney and a state rep giving him some diverse bullet points on his resume. Moreover, we have learned from bitter experience that GOP unknowns and outsiders can indeed prosper in a special senate election so I advise all and sundrey to take Winslow's potential seriously. Of course the full and complete modalities of the upcoming campaign have not yet presented themselves to us...I for one am not sure that others may get into this race in due course, although, lets face it the clock she is-a tickin'.

Tagg we hardly knew ye....

A charming will o' the wisp vanishes as Tagg Romney declines to run for the US Senate after what appears to be a mere six hours of mirthful speculation. the kid had money (none of which he earned) and name recognition (of the worst kind) and in the end he bailed just like Weld, Tisei, Baker, hell who else is gonna say no to it? What we are witnessing here is the absolute implosion of the State GOP, once an impregnable Fastness home to Calvin Coolidge and Frank Sargent and now little more than a fundraising flag of convenience and sort of outreach program for the inept and resentful. Sad. No it's hilarious, in just forty eight hours they went from playas to punks, Scott Brown crammed his own state chair candidate down their throats, flipped off the senate race and since that moment last Friday we have again and again witnessed just how thin the ranks of the state republicans have gotten. Ray Shamie would have found a candidate, hell Ray Shamie would have announced by now. They may be simply holding fire and saving resources for the more salubrious 2014 gubernatorial contest, but they are doing it in the worst and most embarrassing way possible.

Oh and the latest rumor is...

That TAGG ROMNEY is thinking about running for John Kerry's vacant senate seat! Yowza! Thats a new one. If that is the case it likely comes about as a result of Bill Weld and Scary Kerry Healey backing off the race...so literally the last Republican with name recognition and the MONEY to give it a try is Mitt Romney's dumbest most notoriously sycophantic son. Politics is amazing, the state GOP went from a playa in this senate election to...digging up a grinning useless hack like Tagg Romney in less that forty eight hours. Of course...all this is depends on the rumor being true...

Just wante to add my voice (however tiny)

to the President's when he calls on the Boy Scouts of America to rescind their ban on homosexuals. I am a proud Eagle Scout and I stand with the Honorary President of the BSA on this matter... The Boy Scouts used to stand for a bumptious but serviceable Rotarian brand of toleration & equality, but they got wrapped up in a lot of confusing gender issues in the 1970's and allowed the Baptists, Catholics and Mormons to dictate some of their social views. I am hoping that the National BSA can find their way back to a policy they once espoused, it is way past due as far as Humble Elias is concerned. AND IF said ban is rescinded can someone please give James Dale back his Eagle Medal? The kid worked hard for the honor and had it unjustly taken when he decloseted himself, he deserves reconciliation and restoration.

As some of you may have hard...

Former State Senator Scott Brown will not run in this year's special election to fill John Kerry's seat in the US Senate. Well that was a surprise to say the least...felt for sure he'd a made the race. Well the logic of the decision is simple, if Brown piled in, he'd be locked into a political situation where he'd a run for the US Senate as a candidate or incumbent four times in five years and in a race that officially became the most expensive as of 2012 with no end in sight for rising campaign costs. A daunting prospect to be sure. My guess is, Brown may be thinking about running for Governor in 201 where he'd have a better chance to establish his independent bona fides unburdened by the wingnuttery of the National GOP. Or he could just wanna cash in and be done with it all, although cramming his own personal State GOP Chair candidate down the party's throat this month seems to suggest he has some political plans in the future... As for who the State GOP gins up I cannot say. Clearly the current darling of the local punditariat is still Former Governor Bill Weld, who might make an interesting race although the man is famously easily bored which is no strong recommendation for an office that has it's share of utter tedium. Richard Tisei and Charlie Baker have both said they aren't running, Scary Kerry Healey is said to be interested. She might make a good candidate, the glass ceiling is clearly breached in state politics and she has some fundraising prowess...then again this is Scary Kerry we are talking about she has poor judgement and is perpetually tarred with being Mitt Romney's toadying Lieutenant Governor....but at this point that makes her a front runner.

In about nine minutes...

Former State Senator Scott Brown is issuing a statement clarifying his intentions regarding the upcoming special senate election, my colleagues at the Blue Mass Group seem to think this means Scott ain't running this year. Hum!! Thats a surprise, I wonder if Stephen Lynch has some foreknowledge of this, because clearly from this point on, he'll be running as the a "Scott Brown Democrat" in this race. AND IF Brown does decline to run I think it's a lock that he wants to run for Governor in 2014 unburdened by the wingnuttery of the national GOP, Charlie Baker beware you read it here first.

I thought....

Chuck Hagel and John McCain were pals, fellow Vietnam Veterans and long serving Republicans....guess not. Cuz' yesterday McCain (true to his short fuse as always) tried to rip Hegel a new one during Chuck's SecDef confirmation hearings. Ghod as painful and impotent as "the Wrath of McCain" may be, it is nothing compared to the burdens of being this mook's friend. Is it me or does McCain just lust to avenge his 2008 loss one last time? Which is the man's downfall IMHO, he has certain attractive qualities and he is desperate to live up to his own reputation, but his temper and sudden whimsical willingness to play the wingnut game destroy him every time. I doubt yesterday's verbal pyrotechnics will derail Hegel's chances...they just illustrate the sad reality show vibe that in the modern US Senate. Much as I hate to say it, maybe John Kerry got out while th' getting is good.

Mo Cowan...US Senator??

I mean congratulations, but then again where is the love for Mo' Cunningham? Or for that fact, Moe Howard?? *** Okay I get it, once again Governor Patrick is a man of his word, he said he was gonna pick a minority with no great power base to their name, someone who would not be tempted to run in the primary...and by ghod he did so. Still it woulda been a nice gesture to Former Governor Dukakis to name him to the interim sinecure...but I guess the Governor's Mind is Made Up. Still and all that I wonder, would this "snub" ever push Barney Frank into the race for the US Senate? THAT would be a game changer boy howdy! The debates alone (Markey v. Lynch v. Frank) would be worth it.

If you want a good hearty malicious laugh...

then check out Scot Lehigh's column in today's print edition of the Boston Globe. He has suggestions for Mitt Romney to "stay relevant" in today's GOP, chiefly he wants the Former Governor to start up a big shiny Moderate Republican Think Tank something to galvanize the dust of Leverett A. Saltonstall and reanimate the very Ghost of Lowell Weicker. Scot's trance state of bliss at the mere mention of "moderate republicanism", is an old and mirthful story, but I swear here in this column Lehigh is hitting Mitt Romney up for a job. I mean kinda, it sure reads that way, think tanks go on and on, while newsprint faces naught but the very gotterdammerung...why not make the transition now and be done with it? Scot Lehigh has always wanted to believe in the coming moderate republican eschaton, he could go on believing for as little as 200,000 a year at the notional "George W. Romney Institute for the Future" (or whatever the hell it is...). My only problem with all this mishaugas is an old one, who the hell ever convinced Scot Lehigh that Mitt Romney was a moderate???? Whoever it was, they did a damn good job, not facts nor the blindingly obvious have ever dissuaded the Globe columnist from this touching bit of'fiction. Willard Mitt Romney is out for himself start to finish and he will not erect a vast think tank apparat to his father's glory, especially when it celebrates and attempts to revive a branch of the republican party that rotted and died off twenty years ago. Mitt Romney did not get to the two hundred million dollar mark by writing checks for doomed projects like this one believe me. It is "Brand Romney", first and foremost, not "Brand Moderate Republicanism".... Besides, he'd never stick with it, one angry phone call from Gary Bauer and Mitt would slink off into the night and leave his Staff Director Scot Lehigh holding the bag.

Congrats (sigh) to the Senior Senator from Massachusetts John Forbes Kerry

On his confirmation to the office of Secretary of State, the score was ninety six to three in the weary wicked end. Meanwhile rumor has it, Scott Brown has a twenty point lead on Ed Markey in a hypothetical general election match up. Hence he is now allegedly "leaning towards" a run in the special election this year. This after a weekend devoted to rumors that Brown was dithering on making the race..."CoughBULLSHITcough!". I will say this a dozen more times over the course of this primary and possibly beyond, Ed Markey has his work cut out for him, he must transcend...Dunno if he has the capacity for all his virtues. Oh and it'll be a contested democratic primary, Stephen Lynch (the pride of Castle Island) seems hell bent on getting into the race, he has many many union supporters and a long history of agreeing with Scott Brown on various policy points, his general election prospects against Brown are likely bleaker than Markey's.

Back on November 11th 2012

I suggested that the GOP had two choices open to it, either make some ideological and policy changes in order to cohort rising minority voting cohorts OR double down on voter suppression in a quest to create a majority by legal diktat. And wonder of wonders as of last week it looked like the GOP was opting for BOTH choices...Down in DC John McCain et al were talking up serious immigration reform while out in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker was musing over gerrymandering the electoral college (itself a gigantic voter-suppression boondoogle that dates back to the Founding Fathers). Allocating electoral votes by congressional district outcomes, advantages the GOP to a certain point over the short term, but implementing such a measure in states like Texas, North Carolina or Georgia would only strengthen the electoral hand of the many many undocuemented immigrants that John McCain is trying to enfranchise. In other words what we lose in California we'd pick up in Texas. That having been said the whole thing is a bad idea leading to a succession of elections where the popular vote and the electoral college vote would be at variance thus delegitimizing US elections to an appalling degree. Frankly the electoral college ought to be abolished, the proof that the GOP is hellbent on voter suppression as a strategy lies in the fact that there is no public calls on the right for the abolition of said institution. They wanna corrupt it and place it in their service, not get rid of it.

A Death in January...

A sad obit over at Channel Zero.

"Whatever"...

Ex Senator Scott Brown tweeted some oddments in the proverbial wee small hours of the morning... I mean its a disjointed thread to say the least, I'm gonna suggest that the Ex-Senator put a cork in it and head off to bed or else not share his password with Gail or Ayla or whoever. After all supposedly he may be running for Senator sooner than we think, although The Globe Almighty is tossing around the notion today that Brown will let the special senate race slide in favor a flyer on the Governor's race in 2014. THAT Is a consummation devoutly to be wished! A nice long primary battle with Charlie Baker and then a nice bruising campaign with whoever we'll see how well he holds up under those conditions won't we? Under that scenario the GOP is down to either Bill Weld (the darling of Morrissey Blvd even if he doesn't sound interested at all) or else in the third string, Scary Kerry Healey is allegedly intrigued at the notion of a senate race this year. Healey isn't such a laughable notion at first glance, she is a woman and the glass ceiling has just been sundered well and thoroughly...California has two female US Senators why not Massachusetts? Her main drawback is her now lamentable link to Mitt Romney as his toadying Lt Governor although I'm guessing she still has some junk in the trunk fundraising-wise.

You take Secretary of State Clinton's

testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday as a veritable preview of a hypothetical 2016 Presidential campaign. Senators Johnson and Rand (themselves good GOP Presidential Prospects of one type or another) ranted and raved & wallowed in innuendo, and then got flattened by Secretary Clinton. It was like watching Muhammad Ali go to work on a pair of old scarecrows. The political graveyards of this country are rapidly filling up with ambitious know-nothings who think Hilary Clinton is a jobber. I'm liking the notion of "Hilary in 2016" more and more, she is clearly feared and hated by America's enemies abroad and yet still knows how to handle twitchy little freaks like Rand Paul. The question is, "Does she want it?" Well let me ask you all this, what else is she supposed to do with what amounts to a sixty seven percent approval rating as the USA's "Most Admired Woman"?

So I guess...

Joe Biden really wants to run 2016 huh? Geez y'know all gaffes aside, I like Joe Biden a lot, he reminds me of Hubert Humphrey in that his mind is made up as to whose side he is on in any given policy debate. And what the hell he is a likable guy, when he isn't saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Nonetheless he'd be seventy four if he won in 2016, that is older than Ronald Reagan when he got in back in 1980...The actuarial aspect of it all starts to get kinda long when someone hits their seventh decade. But that only brings us back to square one as to who can inherit and hold onto the "Obama Coalition"? The President has a lot of unique qualities as a leader and a politician, chiefly the ability to commune so to speak with his base in a way denied to most other office seekers. I'm not sure Joe Biden is quite the guy to preserve and expand said coalition...I'm not saying he shouldn't run, but we as democrats are entitled to a full and fair debate in a diversely peopled presidential primary. Just sayin' thass all...

It might be time folks...

Dunno that was an eloquent if fiesty inaugural addy from The President Yesterday. New battle lines are being drawn as The Chimes At Midnight enters it's tenth year of "sarcastic rant driven chatter". This has been awfully fun but ten years is a long time to bloviate in extremis, it might be time for a change. No blog lasts forever, hell I thought this, The Little Blog That Cried, would go on for maybe eighteen months and then it's quietly expire. It might be time...it just might, leave on a high note, that has it's attractions.

Guest Blogger: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

(In which the Activist & Minister discusses the malady of maladjustment) "There are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted until the good societies realize — I say very honestly that I never intend to become adjusted to — segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence. But in a day when sputniks and explorers are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence…"

I've seen some amazing things in my life

but I will never ever tire of this image right here:

Tim Murray...

per the Worcester Telegram, is not running for Governor next year. So THAT is why Capuano bailed on running for Senate...why buck John Walsh and Ghod Knows Who when you can get in on the ground floor of a free-for-all gubernatorial primary? *** This is not so crazy an idea folks, Capuano started out as the scrupulously honest Mayor of Somerville before he cracked the US Congress... **** I guess this is it for Murray, unless of course, Patrick plans on resigning...but that seems contrary to the Guv's "stick it out" nature...I HOPE. Meanwhile I feel bad for Murray some of his issues were not of his own making, he was an effective advocate for cities and towns and a loyal team player, "He was never a breaker of proverbs and he will give the devil his due". Undoubtedly a lot of people on and off Beacon Hill are looking into the mirror and seeing themselves as the Commonwealth's next Governor...Grossman, Coakley, Bump, Capuano...Lynch and that is just the democrats by ghod.

Aaron Schwartz RIP

I grieve for the kid, he was clearly a gifted programmer, one with a serious agenda of some benefit to the general public. And his suicide at the tender age of twenty six, is such a sad unnecessary thing, peace to his ashes, succor unto his loved ones. *** That having been said, he broke the law and tried to conceal that lawbreaking and bid on evading it's consequences. Bad karma all around. Schwartz had a great technical gift and a worthwhile agenda, but he clearly lacked the rhetorical component to give it all proper and eloquent expression over and above grubbing around in MIT's computer closets. Thus for once Joan Vennochi and Humble Elias are in accord.... "Nihil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio"

Overheard at a Wake...

A largely retired journalist, someone with many more serious affiliations than poor Humble Elias, and this guy was sighing with pleasure at the thought of Bill Weld running for the Senate this year. I've never understood Bill Weld's enduring appeal to yuppies and baby boomers, but it is standing firm despite his abandonment of both governorship, residency and his very wife. No matter, Bill has to but mention his zeal for low taxes and his Monkish love of the First Amendment and Journalists sober and drunk fall to their knees in sheer worship. I would love to see the Former Governor come in for just half the relentless and adversarial press scrutiny Mike Dukakis got at the end of his administration or just a tenth of what Lt. Governor Tim Murray is getting right now. Well lets face it a lot of this is vaporware, Weld dare not run with Brown in the game...its mostly a nostalgia trip for him and his worshippers.

Old Photos (first of an occasional series)

Tip O'Neill at a summer function at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, circa July 1974 being dogged by reporters in respect of the pending impeachment of President Nixon.

Struck Dumb...

Much was made of a wintery little joke Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas cracked before a live mike at a public hearing the other day. Apparently this is the first time Clarence Thomas has condescended to say anything in a public Supreme Court hearing in over five years. The standard liberal blogger line of attack is to impute Thomas' intelligence, however my own thinking is that his Mind Is Made Up long before any arguments are heard therefore little can be said in the context of oral arguments to change his his mind. And in truth, the Conservative Movement in the USA is run by people like Clarence Thomas whose worldview is built around a resistance to persuasion, debate or factuality. There is a difference therefore between Stupid and Stubborn....and Clarence Thomas is Stubborn to a fault.

You Rate a Pretty Big Obit Indeed...

When you are the only Cowboy a-workin' in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. RIP Rex Trailer, King of the Wide Prairie and of Local Children's Programming.

I am liking what I see of the Governor's proposal

to phase out patronage & graft ridden local housing authorities in favor of regional entities that will hopefully driven by civil service protections. Of course likely it is too good a proposal for the State Lege to pass sans tinkering and other forms of legislative abuse...ah but it is this sort of conflict is the reaon why we elected Patrick Governor in the first place to put some tension into executive-legislative relations in this state. And closing down local housing authorities which are rich sources of patronage, graft and their creepy fast-talking little brother fundraising...is a good start on said tension. As long as the patronage aspect is taken off the table and those in need of public housing gets some simplicity and efficiency in the bargain, I am all for it.

If I had to design a democratic candidate for the US Senate

in the upcoming special, I'd want someone with some notable accomplishments outside the political milieu, someone with a strong populist message (and the rhetoric gifts to make their case if possible), someone with some outsider credibility...someone not necesarily associated with the day to day of democratic party politics. The mood of the electorate is populist and largely unfriendly to corporate financial interests, but that doesn't necessary rebound to the credit of the democrats since the electorate is also famously suspicious of successful "statewide democrats" who are perceived as having a sense ot entitlement towards higher office. Beating some twitchy bum the GOP tossed into the AG's race doesn't make you look like a "candidate of destiny" in the eyes of the voters in other words. Thus a straight matchup with Scott Brown under those circumstances, that aforementioned suspicion will trump policy and party registration to Brown's advantage. So my point is to beat Brown message and messager must lock in metaphoric lock step. As to who this notional democrat would be, yer guess is as good as mine.

Senator Barney Frank?

Could me in, that is if Mike Dukakis is not available. Ahhh but lets face it, making Barney Frank interim US Senator from Massachusetts is just too cool to ever happen for real. Moreover since this is the second iteration of the senate succession law in two years I get the sense that Governor Patrick is very serious about appointing a democrat with a short resume and low profile, someone who would not be tempted to change their minds and start barnstorming the state. Or "Barneystorming" as the case may be. It is interesting however to note that neither the Governor, the Current Junior Senator from Massachusetts or Ex-Congressman Frank have made any endorsements in the upcoming special senate primary election...that murky matrix could we be a factor. So IF the whole thing is still up in the, let me assure the Governor that Humble Elias satisfies all the constitutional requirements to serve as Interim US Senator from Massachusetts....just sayin' thass all.

Dunno kids...

It feels like it might be time to shut er' down. Next month I will have been blogging away here at the Chimes at Midnight for ten very full years. That is a long time to strenuously ride a limited selection of hobbyhorse doncha think? Besides the day of the single combat blogger are effectively over, the good ones have become brands the mediocre or the luckless have simply retreated to social media. Why should Humble Elias persevere in the name of less than a hundred click throughs per day? It has been fun don't get me wrong, lots of fun, but I think I'm starting to repeat myself and that mah frenz is deadly. On the other hand a lot of good local politics is coming up, might be hard to walk away from some potentially big time political brawls. So I'm a bit conflicted, feel free to drop me a line at the addy below if you have something sensible to say...

"Does he even live here anymore?"

Former State Senator Scott Brown wasn't even out of office at all before he started snarking off at his potential competition on talk radio (as usual). This time he was stirring up old canards about Congressman Ed Markey's residency status. This is a lame ass opening gambit to be sure, but Ed Markey and anyone else bidding to run against Brown had best pay heed, Scott Brown is not a nice guy he has demonstrated a preference for devisive wedge issues and the politics of personal destruction. In that he has been well schooled by his favorite source of information, talk radio...his opponents had best work up some sharp responses because they will be sharply used to be sure.

A lot of people are working hard behind the scenes

to make Congressman Ed Markey into a torpedo that can sink the "S.S. Scott Brown"....Their chief idea being make sure Ed has a easy uncluttered primary. The same cannot be said of the down ticket effects of a Markey victory in the 2013 special senate election...a seat would open up in Congress and I can easily see twenty or more politicians piling into that once in a lifetime democratic congressional primary. If it happens it'll be the political fight of a lifetime, a battle not for the heart and soul of the Mass Seventh Congressional District, but a ticket to ride in the nation's safest democratic congressional district. Shee-it I can name something like a dozen state reps and senators from around the district that'll be in with both feet withing ten minutes of a Markey victory. HELL I might run! (My price to get out to be named later of of course, hell is is Massachusetts!) I mean IF Markey wins, and I'm thinking that might not be a done deal by any means....but for the moment it is the season of fantasy up and down the congressional district.