Murphy's Law

Burlington state rep Charles Murphy is anxious to grab off a few votes in the magickal suburb of Arlington during this, the fourth Middlesex special state senate election.
So anxious in fact, in his current mailer he makes it very clear he wants to work "to ensure the historic Jefferson Russell House remains a historic treasure of Arlington".
There is one problem with that promise, there is no "Jefferson Russell House" in Arlington.
None
Zilch
Nada Senor.
Rep. Murphy must no doubt have in mind the "Jason Russell House", which contains a very fine museum devoted to part played by Arlington (then called Menotomy) in the Revolutionary War. For the record, Humble Elias can discern no great threats to this "historic treasure" that would require the intervention of the Massachusetts state senate...but it's nice to have friends in high places I guess.
If former Arlington selectman Charlie Lyons really wants to help his pal Murphy out, he can start by QA-ing all the Arlington centered mailings for howlers like the above noted item.

That by the way also points to another intriguing and seldom commented upon aspect of this race, the apparent division of the democratic "regulars" in Arlington.
Charlie Lyons, once a wheel on the Board of Selectman has lined up with Burlington representative Charles Murphy. On the other hand the current wheel on the Arlington board, Diane Mahon and senator Havern's longtime familiar spirit George Laite have lined up behind the novice candidacy of ex-firefighter Kenneth Donnelly.
It will be interesting to see how much business Lyons, Laite & Mahon can drum up for the candidates.
Splits like this in the party are bad things generally, but this does leave the liberals, progressives and independents to be potentially scooped up by Jim Marzilli...and there are a lot of those in Arlington.
Whether or not that can swing the primary Jim's way remains to be seen.

The quiet from out Lexington Mass. (and other news)

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Ma 04 state senate special election has been the attitude and posture of Lexington state representative Jay Kaufman...or more precisely, his lack of any attitude and posture in respect of the contest to succeed Robert Havern.
A lot of factors could be at play here, Kaufman was known to be interesting in making the race earlier this fall despite his lack of residency in the district, Lexington's own candidate Bob Peters has only recently withdrawl from the race then there is the fact that Jay serves in the state house with three of the four announced democratic candidates for Havern's now vacated seat. And two of those guys (DiNatale and Murphy) are quickly building up some props out there as pugilists...seems like keeping a low profile might a good idea when punches are being thrown.
Still and all that, Jay Kaufman and Arlington's Representative Jim Marzilli are known to be allies within and without the statehouse...seems strange that Jay would keep silent in a unique race like this...normally he is the most opinionated of men.
Just sayin' thats all.
***
In other news, former Arlington selectman Charlie Lyons has ringingly endorsed Burlington Rep Charles Murphy in the coming primary. It is thought that Lyon's big rolodex might give Murphy some traction in Arlington, but then the word on the street is, that Charlie's core constituency is aging and no one has seem him around town since his DUI conviction back in the day....so the endorsement might be a bit of a wash despite Charlie's prominent photo in Murphy's latest mailer.

A Big Chimes at Midnight Congratulations goes out to

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for collecting a Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for his enviromentalist crusading.
For once it is downright pleasurable to think of the screeching shit-fits the radio talk show wingnuts must be throwing...right about...now.

For once, Al is having the last laugh...

Hell this will certainly hearten the disparate collection of democrats and progressives that are trying to tempt him to run for President in'08.
Don't think Gore will do it as it is all part of that "last laugh" vibe don'cha know.

Grace Notes from Outer Space:

Peggy Whitson has flown off to the International Space Station and take command, the first woman so honored in the history of the ISS.
My how things have changed in the exploration of space, I can recall with the simplest nostalgia that Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space, reached the Soviet's Salyut Space Station allegedly only to be handed a frilly apron by Cosmonaut Ledbedev.
Now...Commander Whitson gets to hand out the aprons...to whomever she damn well pleases.
The Russian launch crew marked the moment by handing her a little bull whip to keep the dopes in line when she assumed command upstairs.

Symbolism indeed.

Ummm...

According to this, liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz has tied with Bill O'Reilly in audience size...so how come Ed isn't on in Boston?
To listen to almost any Boston radio talk show or live& local or national, is basically to listen to the same thing day after day...Where does Michael Graham differ with say Howie Carr on any substantive point anyway?
Yet someone with at least as big a radio audience as Bill O'Reilly remains unheard in this alleged land of democrats and liberals...seems strange.
For that fact, when is CNN or MSNBC gonna give Ed his own simulcast show?
(Answer: When hell freezes over)

4th Middlesex state senate special election....

There is a rumor out there to the effect that Bob Peters will be bowing out of the race very soon. Bob was running as a progressive thus a potential split in the liberal base has been avoided for the moment. This is good news for the arlington-based Marzilli campaign as their message and ground game are expected to do well in Lexington.
For what it is worth, Humble Elias thinks Bob is doing the right thing, this is going to be a tough, tight fight and progressives and liberals will need all the unity they can get.

Whenever

someone runs amok with a firearm and racks up a nice appalling body-count, the gun worshippers inevitably insist that "if only someone else in that situation was armed & trained in the use of firearms, the massacre might never have happened".
Yet in Wisconsin, All Deputy Sheriff Tyler Peterson's training accomplished was to make him a better more efficient mass murderer.
So of course, for the gun-worshipper's logic to work in this case, fourteen year old girls would have to be packin' heat for a sleepover.

Anyone else get the picture here?