No ill will for Dan Grabauskas

(yet) it isn't his fault that the MBTA was defunded and screwed up beyond hope of recognition before he ever got there. Nonetheless as someone who logged a lot of time in a state of suspended animation on the Red and Green Lines I can't say I'm sorry to see him go.
How many times a day have we heard his earnest voice intoning "Safety is our number one concern here at the T" ?
Aye, because mere timeliness is a hopeless fantasy I would always add silently.
The job was too big for him, no shame in that.
On the other hand, I do think as of today old Dan is making candidacy noises, perhaps he dreams of the Lieutenant Governor's sinecure, maybe he wants to take flyer at the big job in the corner office.
To get there, he has to recast himself as a martyr and the current controversy is a first step in that direction. My question is though, how confortable will the GOP's base be with a gay man running statewide? Grabauskas could sidestep that whole mishaugas neatly and get on Tim Cahill's ticket...no fuss no bother no primary. I doubt Dan would do it, but it's fun to think about in the dawg days of August.

Thought for the day

Ever notice how, in a recession, as soon as the democrats start talking about national health insurance of any type, the economy immediately starts bouncing back?
Funny how that works eh?

Congresswoman Nikki Tsongas

came in for some hard use at a health care forum in Chelmsford last week, she going to be in Hudson Mass tomorrow night for yet another discussion, the details can be found below:
Tuesday, August 11
Town Hall Forum with Rep. Niki Tsongas
Hudson High School, 69 Brigham Street, Hudson
Please try to arrive at 2:00!
The forum is from 5-7 p.m.
Organizers want folks to show up early so that some of the wingnut's potential intimidation tactics can be prepared for in an appropriate law abiding fashion.
My advice, bring yer cel phone camera, see if you can prove that out of state muckers are being bussed in to create chaos at these meetings.
Otherwise the whole mishaugas seems like desperation to me, if you have neither counter proposal nor a working majority in congress you fall back on screaming incoherently...seen it happen a dozen times.

If I was Jeff Jacoby

I'd come down a lot harder on the whole "birther movement" instead of taking a false position of moral equivalence as he does in today's Sunday Globe column.
Everytime one of these yaps goes into a fugue state on camera about phantom improprieties on President Obama's birth certificate it drives tens of thousands into the democratic camp.

By dragging the rightwing ever rightward they only isolate the remnants of movement conservatism completely from the center thus giving the President a priceless opportunity to co-opt moderates and independents. So please scream some more Obama's coalition will reap a rich harvest going forward count on it.
Trust me the birthers (Who are the GOP base to a "T" with their palpable air of menace) are a worse threat to the GOP than any coalition of 9-1 conspiracy crazies were to the democrats....

Lee and Ling get Sprung

two US journalists sentenced to hard labor in North Korea get snaffled out of trouble thanks to the Great Cajoler himself, Former President Bill Clinton's intervention.
Pyongyang never had a chance, Bill made his bones rolling similar styled ideologues like Newt Gingrich in DC back in the 1990s.
Meanwhile Jeff Jacoby and the rump of the war party will be livid, last weekend Jeff was baying for war with North Korea...of course two weeks ago he wanted war with Iran and next week likely Socialist Canada or perhaps Provincetown.
Remember with the war party it isn't about our honor or interests mostly it's about any war they can scream up that will momentarily still the pangs of insecurity and inadequacy.

Note to the Laity,

Humble Elias is on vacation this week, posting will be capricious and erratic.

Try not to take it personally.

All well and good Joanie...

Ms. Vennochi at the Boston Sunday Globe has taken time out of her busy schedule to chastise Charlie Baker for his fatuous "no new taxes" pledge last week.
I mean fine but didn't Humble Elias say the exact same week? And does this mean I'm only one puny week ahead of Joan Vennochi?
Must be a slow news week indeed if the Globe's columnistas are reading blogs again.

Well, nothing left to do but try and put more distance between me and they....