Geez I guess they must've been

spies after all, otherwise why would the Russians want their pin up girls and chowderheads back?
This is an old intelligence game that must have a few greybeards at the Central Intelligence Agency sweeping tears of nostalgia out of their eyes, "we'll give you six of your mooks back for the two snitches you caught".
Nonetheless, I feel bad for the kids they found out their parents are espionage agents and are now gonna have to finish off high school in Moscow.
I mean like Yeesh.

Brown v. Kagan

The Globe is all a dither over which way Former State Senator Scott Brown is gonna vote in the upcoming nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.
I got it down pat, if it is a close vote, Scott will vote no with a horrible little smirk on his face in full view of the TV cameras from FOX and CNN, if it is a blow out he will vote no and slip away quickly for a two week vacation up on Winnipesaukee til the dust settles.
Scott Brown is a conservative, and today's conservative is corrupt and thoroughly untrustworthy in every way, he has nothing to declare but his bad intentions to paraphrase the late William S. Burroughs.
His word ain't worth shit, not with Grover Norquist telling how to screw you on a deal....

***
Meanwhile when did this oaf become pro-choice? The above linked article claims on no substantiation that Brown is just that, last time I checked, Scott was for abortion only to save the reputations of his daughters or some such rubbish like that.
If he is pro-choice then why were groups like "Priests for Life" all squealing for joy and shaking their pom-poms when Scott won in January?
Well?

"Chasing Mamacita"

Down in Rhode Island, the staties have the authority to arrest alleged illegal aliens and bind them over for deportation hearings.
Today's Globe outlines the whole process in detail.
My question is, in a state where organized crime allegedly has all kinds of chummy links with the state legislature is this a good allocation or law enforcement resources or is chasing down Liam and Bridget and Pablo and Rosita merely a red herring while local Don's double bill the Public Works Commission?
So of course, a idea like this has seized the noggins of Tim Cahill and Ziplips Baker with a death grip, they want the staties in the Commonwealth to round up the wogs too!
Because rounding up the pool man and the au pair is sooo much more important than State Law Enforcement dealing with this trivial situation....

Willfully craven versus willfully ignorant

On the front page of Saturday's Globe Sasha Issenberg had an article entitled "Faith Still Sticky Issue As Romney Mulls Run".

I can't link to it, it's three days old, take it on faith so to speak that Mitt's high command is inured to the notion that there is cohort within the GOP base he cannot reach because they have problems with his Mormonism.

Fair enough but we can also say that Romney dealt with this sectarian resistance by promising said cohort power beyond imaging over their fellow citizens, the right to fag bash, to exclude, to loot the Federal exchequer on behalf of their individual tabernacles, and more atop that as long as they overlooked his religion and voted for Romney.

Why should they take even a lucrative deal like that? Their very own slave in the Oval Office.

Well, the truth of the matter is, Mitt Romney could promise them all free hookers and unlimited book burning privileges and they wouldn't go for it. Because it only partially his religion, mostly it is about them establishing a religious qualification for the GOP Presidential nomination, Mormons need not apply.

True they couldn't hoist that giddy lightweight Huckabee onto the ticket, but they were willing to compromise on McCain and not with Romney.

Why should these these book worshippers dicker with Romney? They sandbagged him good in Iowa and New Hampshire packed the dirt down good on his political grave. Nothing has changed within the GOP to alter that dynamic except that the base has drifted even rightward into areas where the famously malleable Romney dares not go.

Frankly if Mitt wants the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination, he may need to change his religion, otherwise he can run as a disgruntled independent or flip to the dems with a Hail Mary pass in 2016 on a ticket with Joe Lieberman or Arlen Specter.

Okay pure speculative fiction I know.

I don't think Romney quite grasps the situation, if he did he'd realize he and country have bigger problems than any looming Presidential contest...The sort of problems a man would need to ponder, alas pondering ain't Mitt's strong suit.

 This is all vaguely akin to the situation last winter with the special US Senate election, whereas Romney thought he could buy off the religious right in the GOP Primary, AG Martha Cloakley chose to pretend that there is no glass ceiling in Massachusetts politics and she kept pretending just that until she smashed into it head on and was knocked sprawling.

Which approach is better? Truckling or willful ignorance? Well you can judge both by their respective outcomes, dead losses both of them with no prospect of doing better in a subsequent election.

So Humble Elias' point is (and he has one for once) it is best for candidates to address the Big Unspoken Bad early and decisively, because the two other options just don't work.

40,000 unemployed here in Massachusetts just got

left in the lurch because our well compensated painfully high minded Junior Senator refused to extend their benefits in a US Senate vote this week.
Apparently he had his jockey's all in a bunch because the extension wasn't "funded", although last week he was desperate to pass along the cost of financial regulatory reform to the American People rather than levy any taxes on the bankers and financial profligates that touched off the current recession.
Well you can't say Scott Brown isn't consistent, he was been all about "I got mine Jack" from the moment he was elected, why a churlish move like this should amaze anyone is beyond me.
Still 40,000 is a plurality in a tight election, so if any of those unemployed unfortunates wanted to pick up and say set up a "holiday weekend shanty town" down in Wrentham this weekend, just to nudge the Former State Senator in the ribs well, I'd say godspeed and good luck.

One Small Step for the State Senate, One Giant Leap for Penury...

The Upper House on Beacon Hill votes for a Casino Bill that forbids smoking in gaming rooms and enjoins all notional gambling houses from employing illegal immigrants.

Humble Elias shits you not, that was one of the amendments tacked on yesterday, no lung cancer and no pit bosses named Liam or cocktail waitresses named Rosita from "Arizona".
Sheer genius, the greybearded solons in our State Senate have pondered deeply and at length and this is the path they've discerned that'll lead Massachusetts back to prosperity.
And not for nothing, but the State Senate spent almost a month polishing this turd to a high Marine Corps Shine, meanwhile not one hearing has been called to answer allegations of boodling, chiseling, kickbacks and payroll padding at the Probation Department.
Not One!
Hell I'm ready to flee to the Baja, at least the crime and corruption there is served straight up without any sugary hypocrisy or blovation about prosperity.
I say this with sorrow, I didn't see a spot of blood on the moon last night, nor any other harbingers but some of these people in the state legislature are gonna lose their phony baloney jobs this fall, and casinos will be their lifelong gift to the Commonwealth as a consequence.

Governor Patrick signs an austerity budget...

to which Charlie Baker carps that the budget should've been tighter while Tim Cahill sez that he loves that austerity budget and wishes he could sign it.
Meanwhile Former State Senator Scott Brown simply breathes a sigh of relief that he interdicted 160 million in Medicaid payments destined for Massachusetts and thus preserved the Commonwealth from the tentacles of Socialism.
It is gonna be hot as hell this weekend per the weather, but if you can head down to Wrentham Scott Brown's prideful swelled head provides nearly everyone with cooling shade.
How is he polling in New Hampshire?
Ten points up on the Former Viceroy I will bet.