Edward Maximus' Institute & Library

is being dedicated today with appropriate Dignitaries in Attendance. Wisely the executors and founders of this Institute have build in a heavy educational component into the experience, this is a very necessary thing, kids today are not being taught much in the way of civics and are not encouraged to see themselves as legatees of a Great and Living Democracy. And the consequences of that can be seen in places like Indiana where ideology-drunk politicians are trying to remarginalize homosexuality in a sort of sneaking cowardly fashion. I despair of this generation of politicians they are by and large intellectually corrupt, maybe something can still be done with the oncoming generation. At least Edward M. Kennedy's heirs are willing to give it a shot, health to their efforts.

Senator Ted Cruz (R Texas) is Running For President

his qualifications for office are few and may be summarized as follows, he is a graduate of Harvard Law, he occupies a safe senate seat from a state honeycombed with rotten boroughs and he hates President Obama with a paranoid inflexibility that is a continuing sugar high to the Tea Partei. This is ironic as Cruz is taking a very important page from the Obama presidential paybook, ergo not letting the enervating dust of the US Senate settle on him before goin' fer the gusto. Like Barack Obama Cruz has racked up two years in office...and figures "Fie On This Quiet Life Give Me Work". I doubt he will win, what thrilleth the Tea Partei definitely sounds like grating gaffery to the rest of the nation, but Ted Cruz could well push Jeb Bush to the right over the short term, his effect on Scott Walker will likely be negligible due to the Wisconsin Republican's recent and move loved wingnut bona fides. If I was handicapping this I'd pay closer attention to any movement rightward on Jeb's part regarding immigration or Obamacare....two topics that'll get lost in the din ere' long.

Okay so now the big idea on the part of the Pro Olympics Faction

is to gin up a ballot initiation that'll give a public stamp of approval to their bid for sponsorship before the IOC. We should have expected something like this given the bad publicity engendered by the project these last few months. Sad to say this might well be their path to success, gaming a ballot initiative or just buying the referendum outright is well within the comfort zone of almost all concerned...and believe you me, they have the money and access to the political talent necessary to pull this off. It'll be casino gambling all over again, the antis have a base but no money and that almost never prevails when it comes to a ballot question where one side has plenty to spend. All I can say is that I hope whoever is counter-bidding us is pushing in all their chips, free hookers, free crystal meth...whatever it takes but please Ghod let this cup passeth Boston.

The Boston Globe very desperately wants

Senator Warren to run for President in 2016, they devoted a considerable amount of column space Sunday to the project. As a Simple God Fearing Democrat, I urge the Senior Senator from Massachusetts to resist all such blandishments. The Globe has never been a very honest actor in these situations, they depend on local democrats to enact liberal kamikaze martyrdom either in the presidential primaries or in the general election to provide front page news and in uninterrupted flow of fodder for it's famously second rate collection of feature columnists. In other words, its a win win situation for them, win or lose. So given that, Warren should give it a pass, she is doing superlative work in the US Senate we are lucky indeed to have her. And at the end of the day, it ought to rebound to Elizabeth Warren's credit to be taken at her word.... "No Means No!"

Last week...

some fourth grade students from Hampton NH got a very rude awakening from the state legislature when an innocuous bill they had drawn up as a civics project was churlishly voted down amid a certain amount of insulting byplay...while the kids were watching from the galleries no less. Now...from the inception of the republic a certain amount of derision at the workings of congress and the various state legislatures has always been built into the discourse. Many a "Morning Zoo" radio jobber holds his sinecure secure on naught but making jokes about congress. But this incident up in NH, so very crude and so very...public indicates that in New Hampshire the constituents and the representatives hold each other a very singular state of mutual contempt. And indeed why not? The electorate doesn't authorize any salary for their representatives as they seem to believe nothing the legislature does is worth paying for, meanwhile the legislature turns in the sort of surly half assed work one associates with very reluctant volunteers at a church rummage sale. And so things spiral downwards, with no salaries on the line, the legislature fills up with the oddest collection of time servers imaginable, literally people who can afford to hold the job thanks to sources of outside income. Which is turn a huge downward driver in natural selection as well as a clear invitation to conflict of interest. I mean, it just says something about the overall quality of the representative body in question that a Fourth Grade Civics Project ends in a contemptuous dismissal, "Leave Us Alone, We are Working for Free" is the clear vibe here. In elementary school (if it is well run I mean) everything is a teachable moment and I just hope these children have teachers who remind them they are legatees of a great tradition future citizens and voters who can indeed get their reps to sit up and pay attention at the ballot box.

Kudos to Former Governor Patrick...

For heeding some obvious advice and declining any renumeration for his participation on the Boston Olympics Committee...its a small gesture but I will take whatever I can get. Y'know it occurs to me, that the core membership of said committee...Romney, Patrick et al, have more then enough brains, talent and connections to submit to the Governor a plan to fix the MBTA that might actually really work and have a chance at passing the legislature. Instead....the lot of them have gone whoring after the Brass Crown of the Summer Olympics...Sad...but smart people are oft beguiled by shallow shiny things just like the rest of us. But....from my perspective, smart or stupid, we as MBTA patrons and taxpayers SHOULD NOT have to shoulder the fiscal and physical burdens of the 2024 Summer Olympics in order to get the god-damned overclass of the state to do what they SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING ALL ALONG, which is fixing public transportation! I can put it no starker terms.

As you may have heard...

The Many Wived Donald Trump is forming an Exploratory Presidential Committee. But who are we kidding? Donald Trump isn't getting elected President of Jack Shit, Omarosa has a better chance at this point and likely better polling numbers. Trump makes his living these days from "The Celebrity Apprentice" and various complicated real estate partnerships that amount to little more than Endorsement Deals that require little or no investment capital from him. Moreover if the rumors are true, The Donald is no longer a billionaire and might have to fundraise if he was ever serious about running for President...and what serious donor is gonna pony up for a gaffe generator like Trump? No...I say this is all Brand Enhancement, Newt Gingrich perfected the art of making money off of Issuing Presidential Noises every four years, there was almost always a new book or website or some damn tchotchke that could be piggybacked onto that process. No I still say the ones to watch are Scott Walker (who admittedly is gaffing all over the place but it's nothing that will register with electorate over the long term) and Jeb Bush (off to the usual Bush Family Slow Start). The rest are either weird, out of position or poor too register at this point.

"Scorched Earth Works"....

is my big takeaway from the Israeli Election yesterday. Netanyahu stayed "on message" regarding security, casually burned down his standing in the White House and promised to prevent Palestinian Statehood, and just as I predicted, he won. His opponents couldn't shift the discussion over to the very real economic issues in Israel what with all Benjamin's apocalyptic screaming 24-7....please recall John Kerry couldn't do likewise in 2004. But recall please my mantra going back to this blog's inception "Win Ugly, Govern Ugly", and believe me, Netanyahu "won ugly" yesterday a state of affairs that never ever wears well over time, just as Richard Nixon if'n yew don't believe me. So ahhhh...is Secretary of State John Kerry gonna get asked to address the Knesset as a peacemaking gesture? HA! Don't wait up for that one.

I still say,

that in the end, Netanyahu will squeak in or else assemble some creaky self destructive coalition that will allow him to stagger along as Prime Minister of Israel. If he somehow loses, it will be because Israel's currently lamentable security situation has become entirely secondary to economic concerns. But I stress...I think Bibi will win thru in the end, he has that Nixonian quality to him.

Lets face it...

these days, with the 24 news cycle & perpetual "opposition research", politicians can't afford to be funny. One man's gaffe is another man's Wow Gag. So it follows that natural selection imposes this maxim on the political genepool and produces ever more unfunny politicians. If that is the case then WHY perpetual the Annual South Boston Parade Breakfast? The jokes are so lame they need wheelchairs and the tellers of jokes are at best stumblebums in the arena of humor, jobbers, cannon fodder in a word...unfunny. It didn't used to be like that, Abraham Lincoln was considered a humorist of sufficient means to warrant his favorite stories publication under the title "Old Abe's Rib Tickklers", Adlai Stevenson was cut dead at the polls but his wit never failed him and even a stiff like Eisenhower could joke in front an audience with some assurance. These days? Forget it the job no longer prizes wit (it tracks along with the decline in general of the art of political oratory) so we no longer produce politicians that are witty. Overall its a loss, but as a excuse to shut down that damned Saint Patrick's Day Breakfast it works like gangbusters.

Alex Beam from the Invulnerable Fastness of his column in

Today's Boston Globe has called Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Day in Court "A Show Trial" a'la Joe Stalin. For reals Folks, Alex Beam can go F*ck Himself. That jobber wouldn't know a "Show Trial"if it took a five pound chunk out of his ass! I would LOVE to see how long Beam would hold up against Andrei Vyshinsky or Roland Freisler. Seriously all I know is, Tsarnaev is getting a fair trial and if he hangs, So Be It, He is owned a Fair Trial in Open Court nothing more. As for Alex Beam one of the things I didn't wanna do after my long hiatus was start critiquing the op-ed page of the Globe again, but rubbish such as this is simply too much a provocation. The whole damn op ed page is stuffed with bloviating jobbers and BORING ONES at that! Time for a change sez I, end the madness end the sheer embarrassment!

Oh by the way

John McCain has already backed off on the "Senate 47" letter to Iran characterizing it as "Unhelpful" if I read the news summaries correctly. Of course he passed over in Sacerdotal Silence the fact that HE SIGNED the god-damned thing and at the behest of a Twitchy Gimpy Freshman US Senator as well. This is how the mighty fall mah frenz...John needs to throw in the towel take that younger hot wife of his off to some quiet retirement west of Flagstaff, he is good for nothing else. This "Cowardly Lion Act" McCain is doing in the US Senate is officially shaming the entire US Congress which admittedly is Some Doing for a Man His Age. Out John...You've tarried too long for the Good Thee Hath Done... Maybe those stab wounds in John Kerry's back will heal up without a scar, ya never know.

Let me get this straight...

Senator John McCain signs a truculent and possibly legally actionable letter (along with 46 other deluded souls in the US Senate) threatening the Iranian Mullahs and undercutting the foreign policy prerogatives of the US President...at the behest of some twitchy Freshman US Senator??? Tom Cotton dreamt this wingnut wetdream up as a means to further embarrass the President and possibly ruin nuclear arms negotiations with Iran...but along the way he has wrecked the reputations of a entire Senate Cohort the so called "grown ups in the room"...Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch and of course John McCain. All of whom fell over themselves in a compulsive bid to ingratiate themselves with a creepy little demagogue from Arkansas, one Tom Cotton, who is clearly bidding on being chamber's next Rick Santorum. Its a sad day for the US Senate...trafficking with the Mullahs in a crude hapless fashion...I've never quite seen the like quite frankly. And by the way, please notice the letter itself is also a bitter rebuke to Secretary of State John Kerry a veritable stab in the back and an open pretext for Iran to quit negotiations, signed by dozens of men who were once his honored colleagues and in particular by John McCain who claims to be Kerry's friend. That part the casual betrayal of John Kerry by his bestie John McCain...is plainly disgusting. But lets face it we can weaponize shame to our hearts content and it will motivate these dismal pricks not one jot, no what they answer to is the loss of their majority and or the forceable ejection from power at the ballot box.

The Price of Mediocrity Has Doubled...

By that I mean, that the total cost of required maintenance & technological upgrades required by the MBTA just to run at the current normal service levels has gone from three billion USD to over Six Billion USD since 2009. What this says to me is that the MBTA is steadily losing ground in the battle simply to maintain the elementary deliverables as promised due to aging rolling stock and support systems dating back to the Imperial High Noon of Frank Sargent. "Ba-ad Karma" to quote the Late Raoul Duke. Keep in mind the cost of "biting the bullet" on necessary public works projects always goes up and up never down, so not doing anything now always means you'll pay more later one when the go code is given. At this point, I've pretty much given up on a bipartisan "Come to Jesus" moment on Beacon Hill, everything I hear indicates that both sides of the aisle AND the Governor are basically gonna run their mouths, do nothing, wait for the snow to melt and hope the MBTA can somehow blunder on thru the year without imploding. In other words, same old same old. At this point I'm down to hoping for Leadership on this Issue From Somewhere...but realistically my best option will be getting a job as a night manager at a Starbucks in Arlington, something where I can walk to work....

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Defense Team

Has made the entirely sensible decision not to contest his complicity in murder & terrorism for the Marathon Bombings. Apparently they are gonna argue he was too much a devoted toady of his elder brother Tamerlan and thus make a play for mitigation. There is a touch of Darrow's "Leopold and Loeb" defense to this thinking, I suspect it is immeasurably helped by the fact that Tamerlan is dead (ironically run over by his younger brother in a bid to escape a firefight with the police), whether or not "My Big Brudder Made Me Do It" will keep him out of the Federal Death Chamber is an open debate, the prosecution is gonna hit on the heinousness of the crime on an hourly basis. As for mitigation, its probably the best bet the defense has at this point. Frankly maybe Tsarnaev should be executed, that is a harsh thing to write I know...his death will purchase us no deterrence among other home grown terrorists, but it will take one evil little player off the face of the Earth and keep his name off any lists of Hostage Takers Demands should he get life in the slams. Harsh...I know but he willfully committed a harsh crime.

On Second Thought....

If Iran wanted to f**k Israel's PM Netanyahu in the wake of yesterday's big speech in Congress, they could do no matter than to fold their hand and agree to every last stipulation put to them by Secretary Kerry. All of it, pull a "South Africa", fully denuclearize out front and in public, cop to evasion, cave on all forms of verification and presumably watch as Likud goes off an electoral cliff. Ah but stiffing Netanyahu probably isn't one of Iran's Long Term Foreign Policy Goals...On the other hand, maybe his presence in DC yesterday wasn't so unwelcome as far as the executive department was concerned. Maybe....

Well Thanks for Dropping By Prime Minister Netanyahu...

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...thanks for being part and parcel of a New Low in U.S. Politics it's something we will no doubt survive...but it was still a pretty appalling display all in all. It is hilarious though, to recall that Speaker John Boehner has all but abdicated his Leadership in the US House and is now somehow seeking to make his mark in the area of foreign policy much akin to a US President who has been rebuffed in the midterm elections. I'm inclined to think well of Israel (any nation that "puts the man before the dollar" in a democratic framework is aces high with me), but ruthlessly "weaponizing shame" and calling the incumbent US President & the Secretary of State a pair of dupes and impugning their loyalty all to win a election....I mean yipes. There are limits to my regard folks. And I wanna congratulate Secretary Kerry and President Obama, they've had their patriotism questioned by a foreign leader...like I said, a new low.

It is one of the Wonders of the Modern World...

that a pathetically weak and indecisive specimen such as John Boehner can somehow perpetuate himself as Speaker of the House given all the sheer needless mishaugas he routinely sires. Last week the poor dumb bastard hit rock goddamn bottom, compelled to go hat in hand to Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in order to pass very temporary funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It would hardly look good for the US House to permit DHS to go unfunded when Israeli PM Netanyahu was about to harangue all and sundry about diresome International Security Threats. So I guess we can thank Bibi for the seven days of funding at least... The Wall Street Journal spells it out in plain english today, by going to Pelosi, Boehner effectively makes the Minority Leader Co-Speaker of the House...and at this point it is well worth remembering that Boehner may well retains his job simply because his most active opposition is too willful and stupid to gin up an alternate and depose The Speaker's Fat Ass. Sheer Obama-hatred, proclaimed by soiled vengeful jobbers elected from classically rotten boroughs, persons who have climbed out too far on the limb to GOVERN effectively are pretty much what has laid the US House Low. And you know what? I'm fine with it. In the absence of an "accountability moment" at the ballot box this is probably the best we can hope for. My only worry at this point is that John Boehner stupidity, ineptitude, cowardice and all is still only two heartbeats away from the Presidency. It is enough to advise that Congress swiftly revisit the terms of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947...or I would if I wasn't sure they'd make a disaster of that as well.