Politics (aka Election 2008)  

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  • 12/5 4:58pm   Speaking of prisons, I'm sure everyone is happy that Overdue Justice has finally caught up with OJ Simpson. I would imagine that at his age, if there's a prison football team, he can't be a running back anymore and he'll be probably be forced into being a wide receiver.
    - PA

  • 11/29 1:26pm   Rumor is that the four year old at the post office had just visited a children's room reading session at the Public Library, featuring I.P. Daly's classic "The Yellow River." Police are now investigating whether the head librarian will be charged with inciting indecency. This would not have happened if Sarah Palin's policy of a nationwide purge of libraries had been pursued.
    - DA

  • 11/28 10:12pm  

    One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench.

    He finally approached the U.S. Marine that was standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

    The Marine looked at the man and said, 'Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

    The old man said, 'Okay', quietly, and walked away.

    The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

    The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

    The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

    The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

    The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?'

    The old man looked at the Marine and said, 'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.'

    The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow, sir.'

    (Quoted from Kate Donaghue's Dispatch)

    - DR

  • 11/27 11:12pm   The postal "pee police" are obviously an arm of Homeland Security. This Orwellian occurrence can only be evidence that the Patriot Act has finally reached the sleepy town of Norfolk in the waning days of the Bush Administration.
    - DA

  • 11/27 11:12pm   The 21-Nov-2008 Boston Phoenix had an article about Bruce Fein (a Reagan-administration lawyer and lifelong Republican) who has been advocating the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. You can read the article at [article link]
    - DV

  • 11/27 11:06pm   My note about zip+4 prompted a reader to email me:

    A zip+4 number is assigned to a "block face". The idea is that if delivery routes are changed so that at a corner the mailman turns and goes down a different block, or a block is moved from one route to another, the changes won't happen in the middle of a block, so all the mail sorted to the same zip+4 code will continue to be on a single route. For the residential parts of Norfolk all the houses on the same side of a street between two intersecting streets should share the same zip+4 code.

    Didn't know that; thank you!
    - Wm.

  • 11/21 12:49am   [... continued from Main page] Honestly, although the spin stops with him, I think some people around town are watching way too much Bill O'Reilly.
    - MHC

  • 11/21 12:38am   That Zogby disclaimer about their Ziegler poll is quite cleverly worded -- it basically says, "Hey, they paid, so we asked their questions. They're not our questions, don't blame us. It's not a push poll if it's just some harmless fun. The poll is what it is, and what it is anybody can see."
    As to the premise, that this survey was to test media effects, that's hokey -- Obama supporters would naturally listen closer to their candidate's points scored against the opponent. Without also knowing how McCain voters, more attuned to less liberal media sources, would have rated, the results obtained are a literary curiosity, but statistically useless.
    Which leaves: a publicity stunt.
    - Wm.

  • 11/20 5:01pm   Regarding the proposed bailout for the auto-industry, I hope you are all as dismayed by this as I am. I am tired of all of this nonsense. We as taxpayers need to let our government know how we feel about this. I encourage you all to email Barney Frank and let him know your thoughts.
    You have to realize that we as a town will be facing some serious financial peril next year. We will already have to bail out our own town with perhaps higher property taxes and/or user fees at schools and other places. I am so tired of the ``sky is falling'' propaganda that has been spread regarding all the bailout scenarios. I have not seen my 401K go back to anything near where it was even after the infusion of what, 400 billion dollars to the financial industry. Now they want to give the automakers 25 billion? Outrageous. I wish we had a vote on this--but we don't. So we need to contact Frank and let him know. Our voice is important. Here is the contact info: [White House Rep contact list]
    Our zip code is 02056-[****]. Because he covers our district--he has to respond to us, his constituents.
    Our power is in the pen (or keyboard, if you will).
    - JN

    [Update 11/21 1:04am: It was pointed out to me that zip+4 is nearly house-specific, so giving out a nine-digit zip code pretty uniquely pinpoints a poster. - Wm.]

  • 11/20 12:25pm   In a number of legitimate surveys (as opposed to the other kind) conducted over the past five years it has been shown that as high as 70% of Americans polled believe that the nation of Iraq and Saddam Hussein were directly responsible for the attack on this country on 9/11/01. Now that's TRULY frightening and far more dangerous than not knowing which party is controlling Congress or the name of someone else's elected Representative to that same body. And I do not think it would be a stretch to assume that the vast majority of these geniuses (if not every single one of them) comprising that 70% not only voted to stick us with Bush (twice!!), but learned absolutely nothing from the blunders, disasters, and embarrassments of the last eight years and voted accordingly on November 4th.
    - TEM

  • 11/20 12:16pm   To TC: Ok, I agree and the creator of the poll said that a McCain question could/should have happened. But the items you chose about McCain compared to the questions that were asked of the Obama supporters. 12% knew who controlled Congress, ask your McCain friends that. Not many knew who Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid or Barnyard Frank was. They knew that Sara Palin had a pregnant daughter and the RNC spend 150k for clothing. They point of the poll was to illustrate that the mainstream media outlets focused on the wrong topics. In other words, the media wanted Obama and did not give accurate reporting about the Dems. Aka: the liberal media got him elected.
    I would enjoy a poll that asked McCain supporters the same questions. I am sure there are morons out there that believe he is a muslim, wasn't born in this country and many other falsehoods. All the questions asked in the poll were right to ask. Every responsible American should know how the government is structured. Thank the schools for that.
    - PJT

  • 11/19 7:35pm   Hi Wm, Is there a reason why you haven't posted my earlier emails?
    - PJT

    [They're up now, just hadn't had a chance to get to my email earlier. I'm leaving half un-posted for now as it is, and will try to finish up around midnight. - Wm.]

  • 11/19 7:32pm   PJT: Please tell me you're not serious! That is hysterical. I am sure with minimal effort you could create the very same thing to describe how W. was elected, and why people voted for McCain. Sure, there was an Obama frenzy, and some just went along for the ride. But these people's ignorance speaks much more to an undereducated and uninformed electorate than to Obama's meteoric rise. I "interviewed" McCain-voting friends right here in town who had no clue that McCain would tax employer-sponsored health plans, that he dumped his first wife, berated his current wife in front of reporters, and flip flopped all over, from self-proclaimed maverick willing to stand up to religious intolerance to pandering, quasi-evangelical. Uninformed people vote in every election, for every party, and it is alarming. But implying Obama's win was a result of people not knowing what they were doing is a ridiculous stretch. It was, however, a very funny video and I enjoyed watching it!
    - TC

  • 11/19 7:25pm   Hi good people of Norfolk. Barney Frank needs you to call him @ 1-202-225-5931 and let him NOT to support the bailout of the Big 3 automakers. These companies need to into bankruptcy and restructure all their contracts, unions included. He is protecting the unions with his support. These companies will be much better off if they start from the ground up.
    If we give them 25 Billion dollars, they will just be back in 2 more years asking for more. Yesterday, the CEO's of the big 3 took private jets, costing $20k apiece to travel to DC and beg for a bailout. Disgusting.
    [article]
    - PJT

  • 11/19 7:21pm   To Wm, Actually the link that I placed in the post also has the same article link on it. They article is hit piece on Zogby.
    Zogby also defended itself against that article. Read below. [zogby link]
    - PJT

    [Update 11/20 5:36pm: oops, I inadvertently mangled the link, just noticed it. It should click through to the correct page now - Wm.]

  • 11/19 7:10pm   PJT - What I find truly troubling is that the people in the video were simply repeating Sara Palin's responses in the Couric interviews. Let the inauguration happen and then complain for heaven sakes, he's not even president yet.
    - MJD

  • 11/18 9:20pm   Here something to ponder. Check out how many people actually knew who they voted for. Very troubling.
    howobamagotelected.com
    - PJT

    [Here's an interesting article on the creation of that "study" - [article] - Wm.]

  • 11/16 9:55am   Here are two other clever "news reports" from the Onion News Network:
    Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
    Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President
    - DR

  • 11/7 7:57pm   Hilarious Onion video: Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are [page link]
    - AR

  • 11/7 7:24pm   How about some fun music, instead of the sounds of the stock market crashing! [youtube page]
    - JN

  • 11/6 10:56pm   I inadvertently truncated the post 11/6 12:10am when adding it to the page and dropped a sentence. The last paragraph should have read:
    Now he and his supporters need to begin the task of patching things up with the other side. The divide is greater than ever. I for one will never forget being called a racist for the vote I cast yesterday.
    - Wm.

  • 11/6 6:52pm   All joking aside, here is a reminder of the last eight years. It hasn't been pretty. Let's hope the next 4 are better, regardless of political affiliation (or obsession, I might add).
    - JN

  • 11/6 6:42pm   This is pretty funny, all you Obamamaniacs out there. [link]
    - JN

  • 11/6 12:17am   Some very ecstatic posts concerning the Obama victory. We have all had Bush fatigue and were certainly due a change. My best wishes to the president-elect as he faces huge domestic and global challenges. I sincerely hope that he follows through on his promise to bring a new kind of politics to Washington - one that unites vs. divides.
    - DA

  • 11/6 12:10am   Looks like the Warmonger party carried Norfolk yet again. I hope that the thin margin of victory for Kerry and Frank are messages heard loud and clear that there is at least one town in the state that has had enough. And just a theory, but... I'm going to say that the culprits of the stolen Obama signs are just as likely to be Obama supporters who would like to keep them as a little bit of nostalgia considering the historical signifigance of the election (similar to the nostalgia of Kennedy in 1960) as opposed to members of the Warmonger party. Glad to see that the name calling isn't reserved for CNN and MSNBC web sites.
    Congratulations to Obama. Hopefully his supporters can win with as much dignity and class as he displayed last night.
    Now he and his supporters need to begin the task of patching things up with the other side. The divide is greater than ever. I for one will never forget being called a racist for the vote I cast yesterday.
    - BC

  • 11/5 5:43pm   Maybe Obama sent around civil servants to scoop up all the signs once he realized he was on the winning side of the election. This very well might be part of his first move to get people back to work!
    - BHS

  • 11/5 2:51pm   No need to worry about showing your ID at the poll, folks. The good people from ACORN were overseeing the entire operation.
    One interesting sight last night... The Rev. Jesse Jackson, tears in his eyes, watching President Elect Obama. Was Jackson wondering why he said Obama "acting like he's white" or was he thinking about the time he said he "I want to cut his nuts out." At least there were no Rev. Wright sightings!
    - PA

  • 11/5 2:36pm   What I did last night... I cried and laughed!! JOY!! Photos I took from my TV last night! JOY!
    - PRR

  • 11/5 2:34pm   What a great day for America. I, personally, as a white American woman, am thrilled that I lived to see the day that a Black person would become President of the United States. What a momentous occasion!!!! My husband and I made calls to people in a swing state on Monday to encourage people to vote. I want my grandchildren to know that their grandparents did that in 2008! I am a proud American.
    - JHR

  • 11/5 12:11pm   Yes We CAN!!! Bravo to our new President Elect, Barack Obama & First Lady MIchelle Obama November 4th , 2008. Photo taken of TV Screen.
    - PRR

  • 11/3 11:58pm   An observation on this nonsense about "redistributing the wealth."
    The federal budget is $3,000 billion dollars. There are 0.3 billion residents in the country. Thus the equitable share of the cost of running the government is $10,000 per person.
    A two-earner family with three kids has $50,000 as their share, regardless of income.
    Not tax children? That makes people without kids pick up the slack -- a redistribution of wealth.
    Not tax quite as much someone who's earning less? That leaves the higher earner paying more, a redistribution of wealth.
    Not tax non-earners? That's a redistribution of wealth.
    Not taxing home mortgages, health benefits, food, clothing, business expenses -- all a redistribution of wealth.
    Neither side has suggested doing away with any of these fundamentals: redistributing wealth by shifting around who pays how much in taxes.
    So to portray a minor disagreement in small details as some kind of Socialist revolution is hypocritical and deceptive.
    - AR

  • 11/3 11:57pm   DA: I read you post and tried to figure out what your point is. I'm not sure I found it. Did you actually watch the film I referenced, or were you just commenting on the very short description I posted? The point of the film "The End of America" is that we are very fortunate to have our constitution. The Bush administration has violated the constitution and tried to override parts of it and take away rights that it gives us. There are precedents for this. The film describes how similar actions were taken in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy and how those actions led to the oppressive societies that we had to defeat in World War II.
    Because you are writing on Norfolk Net, I'll assume that you are an intelligent person. Allow me to suggest that even an intelligent person such as yourself might benefit from actually watching the film and thinking about the issues it raises (with which you might still disagree, but at least you could state the basis of your disagreement).
    With respect to your curiosity, I found several acts which describe themselves as "The Fairness Act". One seems to deal with employment discrimination. One seems to deal with fair compensation for women. One seems to deal with requiring broadcasters to give listeners both sides of political issues so voters can make informed decisions. Is it the latter to which you are referring? If it is, then to satisfy your curiosity, I wasn't previously aware of this proposal. However, it does seem like a good idea to require organizations that use the public airwaves to use them fairly, i.e. to present both sides of political issues. But the unfairness of conservative talk-radio doesn't pose nearly the same threat to the country as the Bush administration's undoing the protections of our constitution.
    - DR

  • 11/3 11:55pm   For anyone still undecided at this late date, or worrying about the impact of the candidates tax proposals on their bottom line, check out this analysis on CNN.com. [article]
    Too bad this wasn't more readily available for all those who've been crying Socialism these past few weeks.
    - TC

  • 11/3 2:09pm   Vote the MON way! As a testament and furthering of political justice!
    MON's Picks O' the DAY
    Question 1-YES-send a message to the Hacks, Unions and Weird Politics as Usual-They will tell you how it will "hurt" -THEM
    Question 2-YES-send a message to the alcohol lobbyists that they are not alone and to stop damaging people's reputations
    Question 3- YES, Stop exploiting animals-We should race politicians around racetracks instead of dogs.
    State Senator- Orozco a YES-Anybody but S. Brown.
    Representative- ROSS-but on the condition he actually does something for Norfolk
    Congress-Get rid of Frank. Look at your 401K lately?
    President- McCain and Palin- Just don't tell us if he dies in office.
    That should do it.
    - MON

  • 11/3 9:26am   Spending your children's interitance $1,000,000,000,000 at a time. Your help makes it possible. Vote Warmonger Party.

    Big Business: your tax dollars at work. Continue to redistribute the wealth -- Vote Warmonger.

    - AR

  • 11/3 9:26am   The path to independence lies in occupation. Help foster independence. Vote Warmonger.

    One million dead Iraqis can't be wrong! Vote Warmonger Party.

    Fallout adds such lovely color to a sunset... Help enhance the environment. Vote Warmonger Party.

    - AR

  • 11/2 5:17pm   Peace through brutality. Wisdom through ignorance. Vote for peace. Vote for wisdom. Vote Warmonger Party.

    Democracy is the best form of government -- after the Unitary Executive. Vote for our continued rule! We know best. Vote Warmonger Party.

    - AR

  • 11/2 4:32pm   DR - the loss of civil liberties? Worked up over the Patriot Act's unconscionable ramifications on your sleepy little town I guess (the jackbooted thugs posted at the roundabouts? the secret detention camp in the woods behind MCI Norfolk? those evil postal clerks on Main Street prying into your mail? the town webcam and its Orwellian surveillance of the public's coming and going from the library?) I am sure that Senator Obama will usher in a Pax Americana and assuage your fears. (Are you likewise upset with the ironically named Fairness Act, which would stifle political dialogue that dare question Democratic policies? Just curious.)
    - DA

  • 11/2 4:28pm   JN: I actually wasn't responding to your cartoon. Just the endless chants from the McCain camp that Obama is a socialist. I'm all for a good laugh, at anyone's expense. Why I even enjoyed McCain on SNL last night, though I must confess to feeling badly for him. It's hard to imagine a race for the highest office in the land has been reduced to SNL skits.
    Can't wait until this is over. Whatever happens, I am hopeful the next president will start addressing some of our very real problems. The rest of this is just noise at this point. I feel like the entire country is sorting their collective sock drawer while the house is on fire.
    - TC

  • 11/2 12:50am   I recommend the film "The End of America" which you can (currently) watch at no charge at [snagfilms.com]
    The End of America is a new documentary from award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Trials of Darryl Hunt, The Devil Came on Horseback), based on Naomi Wolf's 2007 book of the same name. It details the ten steps a country takes when it slides from an open to a closed society. It's an historical look at trends (in once-functioning democracies) that are being repeated in our country today. It gives the viewer a much-needed history lesson and constitutional refresher. Most importantly, it puts the recent, gradual loss of civil liberties in the U.S. in a historical context.
    - DR

  • 11/2 12:45am   TC: Calm down, it was just a cartoon. Geesh......
    Here's another one--reminds me of all the angry liberals. Deep breaths, please. You make it sound like if McCain wins it will be Armageddon.
    - JN

  • 11/1 3:34pm   I find it totally bizarre that people are calling Obama and his proposed tax policy socialist. It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Was Bill Clinton a socialist? All Obama is attempting to do with his tax policy is to reverse the Bush tax cuts that favored the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and FAILED! (Check your 401K statements! This isn't about giving money to lazy slobs who won't work; this is about an entire economic policy that failed the majority of Americans and put us all on the brink of financial crisis, whether you made $40k a year or $200k. WAKE UP!)
    Obama is not a socialist; in fact he's quite centrist. All these people freaking out about Obama sending goons to their door to "take their stuff" are getting stoked by fear-mongering media personalities (thanks Jay Severin and Michael Graham, just to name a few.) People making over $250k will go back to paying 39 % tax rate-3% more than most currently do, before factoring in the myriad deductions we take that cut that rate significantly. This is the rate paid during the 8 years of peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton when our economy soared as well as our investments. (socialist? I think NOT!) Anyone making less will see a tax DECREASE. You should all just relax. Obama buys his arugula at Whole Foods for heaven's sake! Your goodies are safe with Obama, no one is coming to the door to steal your kid's toys or your designer duds. Chances are that whatever extra we pay in taxes will bring benefits in other ways, like improved health care, education, public safety, protection from skyrocketing fuel prices, etc. (And remember, this matters even if you already have all these things taken care of. Insurance companies and many others set their rates with a "reverse" socialist philosophy; those of us who have health care, for example, pay high premiums to cover those who don't. Corporate welfare or socialism should be unacceptable too!)
    This is the most important election of our time. We have the chance to move forward with courage and unity to face the challenges of the world, or to dig in our heels and cling to failed policies that have landed us where we are today: a country more divided than since the Civil War, in two unending wars, and on the brink of a Depression.
    - TC

  • 11/1 10:31am   JN - thanks for the laugh. The cartoon was priceless. (Even if Obama's proposed programs at the national level aren't).
    - DA

  • 11/1 10:26am   I just received another Sara Orozco leaflet in the mail. (It will be "swimming" with its sisters and brothers in the transfer station paper recycling bin tomorrrow.) This one has adopted the insipid "The Change We Need" mantra of Big Brobama's presidential campaign. If voters want to further feed monolithic one party rule in Massachusetts and at the national level, then they deserve what they get. Go ahead and stifle healthy political discourse - I don't think the end result will be the kind of change that most of us earnestly crave.
    - DA

  • 10/30 2:53pm   RH and CS, Thanks for the posts. I saw the committee listing, but do they meet ever? Or is this a committee on paper only? Perhaps I need to consult my Organization Flow chart. I think a new committee to study the line items and ways to reduce costs is important. But will the BOS support such a committee? Does it matter if they do? If they don't I will form my own and report back to Norfolknet regularly. After all, if you can't beat em' go around them.
    One comment on the Scott-confronting-the-school children issue. It is a shame it was the most visible political act he has been associated with in Norfolk in a long time. I struggle with DAs comment that he has represented Norfolk well. But here is food for thought. Do you think our town and the others represented by Republicans are being neglected by our Democrat government? It sure seems that way. Democratic Walpole gets 4x more money in prison mitigation funds than we do in Norfolk, and is relatively prospering. It points to the fact that Republicans and their constituents are treated like mutant children chained underneath the basement stairs. So vote for Orozco, she can do no worse.
    - MON

  • 10/30 9:57pm   Here is a funny Halloween Cartoon.
    Happy Halloween!
    - JN

  • 10/30 9:56pm   MJD: I watched the video link you posted. It is a weird video that is so edited that you cannot follow a conversation. If you thought this was bad, you have obviously not watched enough local politics here on Channel 22!
    I am still not convinced a neophyte, as nice as she seems, should be elected at this time. I am also not sure that our entire state (nor our country) should be run solely by democrats. Our founding fathers showed the wisdom of balance, and I think that is a mighty good policy.
    Interestingly, no one is talking about the race between Ross and that other guy from Medfield. I can never remember his name. He is another up and coming young politician. I think he is more of a moderate independent. He seems worthy of a look. Not that I have anything against Ross.
    It seems like in local politics, we keep voting in the same players, even when they are not effective and are even prone to criminal acts. It is like they are an extended family member that we really don't like, but keep inviting to Thanksgiving dinner anyway because, well, he's family, even though we really do not like him much, he has rude manners and is prone to a nasty outburst occasionally. I mean, how else can you explain Sal DiMasi and Diane Wilkerson?
    - JN

  • 10/30 9:53pm   MJD: That video was unbelievable! After reading other posts here, I was beginning to think perhaps I'd judged his behavior at KP too harshly, given it was about his daughter and as a parent I too would be ready to go at someone who insulted my child. But that body language piece was downright creepy! I can't decide if it indicates a a general tendency toward hot-headedness or total dismissiveness of his opponent, perhaps both.
    Did anyone attend their debate last night? I would love to hear a recap of that event.
    - TC

  • 10/30 10:40am   AR - I want to take issue with your comment about the well oiled Obama campaign machine being a presage of an effective executive branch. I concede that he has run a masterful campaign fueled by a well organized grass root base and a bottomless war chest (he is the epitome of old school Chicago machine politics elevated to the national level); however, I don't believe it's a given that will necessarily translate to effective stewardship of government. Deval Patrick, who was guided by Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, came to power due to a similar ground swell of enthusiasm. However, the bloom is long off the rose of Gov. Patrick's administration despite some apparatchiks who claim he has been a resounding success as governor.
    - DA

  • 10/30 10:39am   Scott Brown's service to this district has been commendable. Dragging out the episode at KP where he called out some cyberpunks for their scurrilous online remarks amounts to an attempt at character assassination only days away from voting.
    Orozco, like another candidate whose last name begins with an "O", is a neophyte. We have a seasoned solon who has done well by our town and who represents a voice of restraint and commonsense, but what the heck, if this year's election cycle is all about "change," then vote for the new face.
    - DA

  • 10/30 10:37am   Just a quick thought that seems to have been dismissed from the media concerning the assassination plot against Obama... does it not bother anyone that those kids intention was to kill 80 kids and behead at least a dozen. Sorry, but that seems to be more of a disconcerting thought. That part of the plan was more realistic. That could have been accomplished. Two kids trolling around for Obama seems a little far fetched.
    - LB

  • 10/30 10:28am   PJT - First of all, you would not have had the opportunity to address an assembly at the school because someone picked on your child. You are a regular person without power and privilege. When Senator Brown took it up on himself to address the assembly at KP, (he was supposed to be there to discuss another topic) he over stepped his role as a legislator and because a crazy, angry parent who felt someone has been mean to his kid. Brown abused his power. You really can not argue that even if you think you might have wanted to do the same.
    We need a cool head on Beacon Hill, someone who will be respected and can control her emotions. Check out this link. This a video that the Metro West Daily News put together of Brown's bad behavior during an interview between he and Orozco. It really shows his inability to act like a grown up. Vote Sara Orozco for State Senate!
    - MJD

  • 10/30 10:25am   PRB and TC: I think Senator Brown acted like a Dad. An angry, upset Dad who made a bad decision and a bad mistake. I do not think it was an abuse of power, nor do I think it should cost him this election. He was pretty contrite afterwards. Now Diane Wilkerson, on the other hand....
    Anyway, I am not so sure that this is the best time to be electing a woman who has absolutely no experience at all. I mean, come on. Zero to State Senator? I don't think that she is such a prudent choice. I am sure she is a lovely person, but perhaps she should run for a local position in Needham first. Isn't she from Needham? What can you tell me about her experience that could possibly change my mind? Her web-site does nothing to impress me.
    I know the MNA (Mass Nurse's Association) is endorsing her--they hate Brown, but the MNA word is not always one that the nurses follow.
    - JN

  • 10/29 3:38pm   PRB: Thanks for reminding voters what Scott Brown can really be like, underneath his "Mr. Cosmopolitan Magazine" good looks. Normally, I'd give someone a pass for showing their anger when their child was verbally assaulted online. But, given his position, and the fact that he was in a school setting, he should have been able to control himself and shown better judgment. His public response should have been measured and mature, not vulgar and angry. That is not true leadership, certainly not the kind we want modeled for our kids. When that story broke, I wished for an alternate candidate for our district. I believe we have one in Sara Orozco. Brown must fear the same, since he refused to debate her publicly until tonight in Attleboro!
    - TC

  • 10/29 3:35pm   To PRB, I believe the Senator was confronting the vile hateful speech that was directed his way by certain members of the class. I would have done the same thing. There is no place for the foul things said about one's family. I hope that the students who send the trash learned a lesson. It was unfortunate that the students that did nothing had to hear it. Hopefully a lesson was learned.
    Did anyone attend the forum in Sherborn last night with our congressman. I was unable to attend, but would have love to asked him a few pointed questions. Did anyone put him on the spot? Did he show up? Did he blame everything on the crazy right wing? Like he always does.
    - PJT

  • 10/29 3:22pm   SO - I applaud you for an extremely well written, descriptive story of days past. Fortunately, I did not have "that word" used in my house growing up, but I do recall visiting with friends and "that word" was used freely and openly during normal conversations.
    I feel we, as a country, have progressed and personally, I have not heard that word used in conversation in years. Maybe I am naive, maybe I am ignorant, but I feel that we have moved beyond it.
    I think the story that broke yesterday of the 2 men arrested for plotting an attack against Senator Obama is completely reprehensible. These 2 bigots should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and there is absolutely no defense for what they were planning.
    Here's my concern with your post.
    Your last sentence states "Vote how you please." HUH? What does that mean? I'm not sure how your story relates to my vote.
    I don't want to jump to conclusions or try to put words in your mouth, but I have a problem with that statement. The liberal media has made this election about race and I am so frustrated by that. Does it make me a racist because I do not support Senator Obama? Isn't it ok for me to vote for Senator McCain because I agree with his policies and what he stands for and not because of the color of his skin? There are many, many commentators and experts who are making me feel that way. Again, I don't want to put words in your mouth and I'm not implying that you are saying that...I am just curious about your comment.
    Finally, 2 quick points that are somewhat related to your story. First, let's not forget the movie that was produced and shown at the Toronto Film festival this summer that depicted a bloody assassination of President Bush. Before anyone gets upset or accuses me of comparing a fictional movie with a foiled plot to assassinate Senator Obama, that's not what I am saying. I'm instead stating that there are disturbed, angry people out there and I am (in my humble opinion) justified in being upset about a movie like that being produced and released. Second, in no way shape or form am I justifying the use of "that word" ever being used. But I find it hypocritical of Senator Obama's supporters who continue to show up at his campaign rallies with t-shirts using "that OTHER word" to describe Governor Palin. Some would consider "that other word" just as hurtful to women as "that word" is to African Americans.
    - BC

  • 10/29 9:03am   Something to think about in the upcoming elections. This happened in 2007 at KP to our kids. Some say that Senator Scott Brown abused his power. What do you think? [Globe article]
    - PRB

  • 10/28 10:25pm   [Personal anecdote about bigotry in the family removed on request - Wm.]

  • 10/27 11:05pm   MyFairElection is a project to help make the vote fair and accessible this November 4th. To participate, simply sign up (instructions below) to rate your experience of voting this year.
    Did you encounter specific problems such as long lines, confusing ballots, broken machines, or closed polling places? Or, was the process of voting quite pleasant and easy?
    As thousands of citizens rate their voting experiences, MyFairElection will produce a real-time "weather map" of voting conditions across the country. This map will allow viewers to see where it is easy to vote, and where people have encountered obstacles. Journalists, advocates, officials, and citizens can use this map to address obstacles to voting in real time.
    So, go to this link: myfairelection.com and sign up, and then rate your voting experience on election day.
    MyFairElection.com is a project of MyFairElection and ABC News. ABC News will feature the heat map as part of their election day coverage. ABC News journalists will use the information that you submit to help identify and report on election day ballot problems.
    Here are more detailed instructions.
    [. . . continued]
    - DR

  • 10/27 2:26pm   And in a twist to the shocking news that the Boston Globe endorsed Sara Orozco the Boston herald has endorsed Scott Brown. If fiscal responsibility is what you are looking for, please continue to send Scott Brown to Beacon Hill. scottbrown.com, scottbrown4senate.com.
    [Herald article]
    - PFD

  • 10/27 9:50am   The Boston Globe today weighed in on just a few state election races, endorsing Sara Orozco for State Senator in our district. While acknowledging that Scott Brown "knows this serpentine district" that stretches from Wayland to North Attleboro, the Globe Editors believe Sara Orozco is more committed to the "fiscally responsible course" to successfully represent our district in the next few years. Please read for yourself what the Boston Globe says about Sara Orozco, and go to her website at www.Saraorozco.com to learn more about this exciting opportunity to have great representation in the Massachusetts State Senate. [article]
    - MHC

  • 10/25 9:15pm   DA - I think you are afraid that you don't know what to ask. You have just absorbed the Republican talking points and blame Congressman Frank and the Democrats. Study up and I'll see you in Sherborn. I'll wear a blue carnation.
    - MJD

  • 10/25 5:14pm   Can I bring tar and feathers to Barney Frank's forum?
    Why the Sherborn Community Center? Wasn't the Peace Abbey available?
    - DA

  • 10/25 10:30am   One skill needed for a leader is that of organization. Judging by the focused, smart and extremely effective campaign he's waged, Obama has the makings of a tremendously able chief executive.
    "He has the best political organization for a presidential campaign that I have ever seen here [Florida]," Tom Slade, a former state Republican chairman, said of Mr. Obama. "Bar none. He has run a phenomenally good campaign."
    [NYT]

    On Wednesday, a top Republican campaign official told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on the condition of anonymity that the Obama campaign is on a roll. "This is the greatest ground game they've ever put together," he said. "It's scary."
    [ABC]

    - AR

  • 10/24 3:41pm   PJT and DA -Please see the invitation to meet with Congressman Frank on the main page. If you are not satisfied with his letter to you, go speak to him in person in Sherborn on Tues the 28th and tell him that. I am pretty sure he will be returning to Washington whether or not you cast your vote for him so best if you voice your opinion to him face-to-face.
    - MJD

  • 10/24 2:01pm   Sounds like a bit of CYA from Barney on CRA and the subsequent malfeasance on behalf of government and corporate entities. He won't be getting my vote on November 4th nor will John Kerry for that matter. Time to break out the brooms and sweep the floor of the House and Senate clean.
    - DA

  • 10/24 1:45pm   Hi JC, I got the same form letter when called to voice my displeasure with his poor performance... twice
    - PJT

  • 10/23 9:09pm   For what it's worth, the following is a letter I received from Representative Barney Frank in response to letter I sent him via email voicing my opposition to the bailout. Having read it, the problem is much deeper than the Community Reinvestment Act(addressed by Frank in the letter) referred to by PJT's post today. Here it is.
    I am writing in response to your comments about the financial crisis facing this country, and the economic stabilization legislation Congress recently passed in an effort to address those difficulties. [...]

    Because this is such an important topic, I thought it would make sense for me to send the following comprehensive explanation of my views and actions, and what I believe we should do going forward. [...]

    [. . . continued on this page]

    - JC

  • 10/23 5:46pm   Apparently there is a far more reasoned and reasonable attempt to explain the sub-prime mess, the mortgage crisis, and the related crash, and it has nothing to do with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, Jimmy Carter, a past or present partner of Barney Frank, ACORN, minorities, progressives, liberals, or the many horrors of creeping socialism as described in the Boston Herald.
    Lobbying, the resulting deregulation, and the delusion that a free unchecked market corrects itself were the green lights that led to the rampant greed, unrestrained aggressiveness, and flat-out irresponsibility of mortgage brokers, realtors, real estate attorneys, appraisers, and thousands of related industry executives. Period! I really wish people would stop implying or suggesting that the borrowers are at fault here. Stop blaming the victims. For those who insist, however, I ask that you try to tear yourself away from all those right-wing blogs and read this article: [article here]
    - TEM

  • 10/23 5:45pm   Talk-show-host economic theory... It omits any mention of collateralized debt obligations, which seem to be a critical central component of the crisis. Let me see if I got it: "The Democrats passed laws that forced banks to lend to people they knew couldn't repay the loans, which was really hugely profitable for them but they got carried away and went bankrupt!"
    - AR

  • 10/23 9:24am   An intersting bit of insight into how tactical decisions shape history...
    [In 1959 Fidel Castro came to power and the US] was hostile towards the Cuban revolutionaries' victory from the very start ... At that time Castro was neither a communist nor a Marxist. It was the Americans themselves who pushed him in the direction of the Soviet Union. He needed economic and political support and help with weapons, and he found all three in Moscow. [Burlatsky 1991, page 169]

    by Fyodr Burlatsky, one of Khrushchev's speechwriters and close advisors

    as quoted by Martin Hellman (yes, the famous cryptographer) in Asia Times
    - AR

  • 10/23 9:22am   Interesting insight into campaigning philosophy... why facts don't matter, why mud-slinging works, and why completely bogus campaign claims nevertheless sway voters: [from the WSJ]
    here are the words of Ronald Reagan's pollster, Richard Wirthlin, as recorded in one of the main Reagan strategy documents from 1980: "People act on the basis of their perception of reality; there is, in fact, no political reality beyond what is perceived by the voters."
    - AR

  • 10/23 9:16am   Hi Fellow Norfolk residents. I just read this piece on newsbusters.org I hope you all will read it.
    Dear Friends:

    My name is Joe Porter. I live in Champaign, Illinois. I'm 46 years old, a born-again Christian, a husband, a father, a small business owner, a veteran, and a homeowner. I don't consider myself to be either conservative or liberal, and I vote for the person, not Republican or Democrat. I don't believe there are 'two Americas' but that every person in this country can be whomever and whatever they want to be if they'll just work to get there and nowhere else on earth can they find such opportunities. I believe our government should help those who are legitimately downtrodden, and should always put the interests of America first.

    The purpose of this message is that I'm concerned about the future of this great nation. I'm worried that the silent majority of honest, hard-working, tax-paying people in this country have been passive for too long.

    [. . . the full version is on many web sites and forums, for example this one - Wm.]

    - PJT

  • 10/23 9:15am   A Democrat-Housing timeline. Please read.
    1977: Pres. Jimmy Carter signs the Community Reinvestment Act into Law. The law pressured financial institutions to extend home loans to those who would otherwise not qualify. The Premise: Home ownership would improve poor and crime-ridden communities and neighborhoods in terms of crime, investment, jobs, etc.

    Results: Statistics bear out that it did not help.

    How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market? Answer: Bill Clinton wanted it that way.

    [. . . continued; has been posted to many forums, like this one]

    If you doubt any of this, just click the links below and listen to your lawmakers own words. They are condeming! [youtube] [youtube] [youtube]
    Postscript: ACORN is one of the principle beneficiaries of Fannie/ Freddie's slush funds. They are currently under indictment or investigation in many states. Barack Obama served as their legal counsel, defending their activities for several years.
    - PJT

  • 10/21 11:46am   Well, it does seem like Obama will win this election, and that is ok. I like him, but am wary about his inexperience and ``wealth re-distribution'' plan. I suppose, if you don't have any wealth, you have nothing to lose. Others feel differently. We will see if it really helps America. I hope it does.
    I am also a little concerned about the Democrats controlling everything. I always thought that some balance was a good thing, and no one group should have absolute power. That scares me a little. Pelosi scares me a lot.
    I am also trying to educate myself on Obama's tax plan to see how it will affect my family and me. I keep hearing 95% of Americans will get a tax rebate. Well, 44% of Americans do not pay taxes, yet they still get a tax rebate. Huh? This tax plan is not so great for our family, but at least we are ``patriotic'' in Joe Biden's eyes. Gee, I thought all of the monetary donations and volunteer work I have done made me somewhat patriotic. Now that he is taking care of that for me by taking my money, then I guess I won 't have to donate and volunteer anymore. I need a rest anyway. Maybe I will spend a portion of the money we usually donate and take a warm vacation to Tortola or lovely Paris, it is beautiful in the spring. Hey, they love Obama in Paris. I will redistribute my wealth there on some good French wine and pastries. Oh, and shoes. I am so exhausted after this election campaign cycle that has lasted, what, 2 years now, that a spa trip may be in order as well. Perhaps I will put it all on credit, then cry poor and let someone else carry that burden for me. Working hard and paying off all those pesky bills on time is so 2003, isn't it! It never dawned on me that I could simply not pay. Now, that is something new I learned.
    Oh, and Ben Bernanke has endorsed Obama. [article] Oh, good. Sucking up so that he can stay and mess everything up again for 4 more years. I hope Obama gives him the boot, I mean, really.
    Well, this article from the Wall Street Journal was helpful (I don't like the title of the article, but I didn't write it) to me to help me understand the tax stuff Obama and Biden have been speaking about.
    WSJ.com - Opinion: Obama Talks Nonsense on Tax Cuts [fixed link]
    - JN

  • 10/20 2:56pm   DA: Ironically, isn't it W who put this country on the socialist path? Granted, it's just socialism for the rich, but...

  • 10/19 9:30pm   Over 100,000 in St. Louis to see Obama. I heard he had to pull a loav es and fishes miracle to feed the multitudes who hunger for change. As Colin Pwell said, Obama is a "transformative" candidate. Let's hope that a triumvirate of Pelosi, Obama, and Reid don't transform the country into a socialist workers paradise.
    - DA

  • 10/19 12:54pm   This was a good weekend for Barack Hussein Obama (Hussein; get used to it) -- General Colin Powell's endorsement, a really huge turnout in St. Louis, and $150 million contributed in September from over three million individuals putting their money where their mouth is.
    - AR

  • 10/19 12:52pm   Interesting observation on how the nation and Wall Street fare under the two parties --
    During the 20th century, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.3 percent per year on average under Republican presidents. Under Democrats, it rose 10.3 percent - which means that investors gained a whopping 41 percent more. And the stock market declined further during George Bush's two terms.

    Moreover, according to research from Professor Larry Bartels of Princeton, real middle class wage growth is double when a Democrat is president, contrasted to that growth under a Republican president.

    Since World War II, Democratic presidents have increased the national debt by an average of 3.7 percent per year, and Republican presidents have increased it an average of 10.1 percent. During the same time period, the unemployment rate was, on average, 4.8 percent under Democratic presidents; it was 6.3 percent under Republicans.

    [article]
    - AR

  • 10/17 10:15pm   TC - A classic democratic response when challenged, Whine race, gender, homophobe, or any other crazy eight card. I didn't attack anyone's race, sorry you're so sensitive. I didn't pick either as my governor (neither did the Norfolk majority) or as a Presidential nominee. The fact both happen to be people of color (can I say that) is inconsequential to me, sorry - I'm color blind. But brood anyway. I am attacking their lack of credentials, experience, and record (do either have one - Obama was "present" a lot and Patrick wasn't present at all, must be out campaigning). Nothing can explain Barney Frank's US bankrupting actions - he's just not that dumb - but a lot of campaign money certainly came his way from his then domestic partner's employer FNMA. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid. And, by the way I love Jay Severin (sorry I exceeded my limit).
    - PC

  • 10/17 9:52pm   For people interested in the accomplishments of Gov. Deville. devalpatrickwatch.com
    I give him credit for getting rid of most police details... and that's it.
    Everything else on that list, either he didn't do, such as gay marriage, a judge did it. Or won't be done, no money.
    Yes we can... bla bla bla
    - PJT

  • 10/17 5:02pm   PC: Wow! In under 100 words you managed to convey racism, hatred, and homophobia. Not to mention an alarmingly oversimplified view of our current circumstances, locally and nationally. There must be some sort of recognition for such concise communication. Perhaps the "Jay Severin Award for the Most Offense Conveyed in the Fewest Words."
    - TC

  • 10/17 10:05am   PC - Here is a list of the top 20 accomplishments of the Patrick administration. I am very proud of our Governor and the things he has managed to accomplish in a short span. I assume, based on your past posts, that you will be less impressed than I but for the record, here goes...
    1. Making Massachusetts a national leader on clean energy. ...
    2. Marriage equality for all Massachusetts residents ...
    3. $1 billion life science initiative ...
    4. The readiness project ...
    5. Civic engagement ...
    6. Successfully implemented health care reform... ...
    7. Closed corporate tax loopholes ...
    8. Increasing access to state government ...
    9. Foreclosure prevention initiatives ...
    10. A concerted commitment to job creation ...
    11. Instituting real reforms and long-term change ...
    12. Making our communities safer ...
    13. After 16 years of neglect, made long-term investments in our roads and bridges... ...
    14. First-ever five-year capital spending plan... ...
    15. Governor of the whole state ...
    16. Passed parts of the municipal partnership act... ...
    17. Appointed reform-minded leaders... ...
    18. Moving an agenda to affirm human dignity ...
    19. Investing in the state's DC office... ...
    20. Governor's role as the state's chief salesperson... ...
    - MJD

    [Source is this pdf. From the intro:
    People inside and outside of the Patrick-Murray Administration were asked to offer the top three accomplishments of the Patrick-Murray Administration to date -- this is a compilation of the top 20.
    - Wm.]

  • 10/17 12:40pm   TC - Do not defend a useless governor. Deville Patrick is the same kind of creation as Barry Hussein Obama. Its the new Democratic model. Find someone with less experience (or history) than your average weak-kneed state rep and "create a story". You were sold a story by "Yes We Can". He has done nothing - name one accomplishment, other than some "swell" campaign promises. By the way once we wind down Fannie and Freddie the Iraq and Afghan wars are going to look like a bargain - thanks Democratic Hse Chmn Barney Frank and FNMA boyfriend Herbie his love bug
    - PC

  • 10/16 10:16pm   PC: Isn't everyone saying, "No I can't" to at least some expenditures right now? Whether or not you agree with his cuts, Patrick is doing the responsible thing and tightening the state's budget given the current economic circumstances. Too bad Bush hadn't had the courage to say "No I can't" a few times these past eight years. Maybe then we would not have a $10 trillion dollar deficit. Just a thought.
    - TC

  • 10/16 9:25pm   Wait, let me see if I follow: backers and opponents alike do not dispute that it will result in better wages and benefits and will grow the middle class. One candidate believes this is a good thing, the other doesn't.
    I have to agree, that's a striking difference.
    - AR

  • 10/16 8:54am   With all of the talk in Massachusetts regarding unions lately, here is something that is a striking difference between our presidential candidates:
    The Statement: In a speech Monday, Oct. 13, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain took on Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama's stance on unions. "Senator Obama is measuring the drapes (in the White House), and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to ... take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections," he said. Get the facts!

    The Facts: McCain is referring to a plan supported by labor unions. Currently, workers must get at least 30 percent of their colleagues to sign an authorization form to ask for union representation -- then hold a secret-ballot vote to finalize it. The change Obama supports would let a union be recognized by the National Labor Relations Board immediately after the majority signs the authorization. Supporters of the change, including the AFL-CIO and other unions, say it would cut down on the ability of employers to pressure their workers to vote against a union. Business groups, meanwhile, say the opposite -- that the secret ballot allows workers who don't want to unionize to publicly sign off on the plan, pleasing union leaders, then privately vote against it. The change is part of the so-called Employee Free-Choice Act, which Obama co-sponsored. The plan is designed to make it easier to create unions in the workplace, and both supporters and opponents agree it would increase the number of union members in the United States. Backers say it will lead to better wages and benefits for workers and grow the size of the middle class, while opponents say it will hurt businesses by costing them more at a time when profits for many are already thin. The bill passed the House last year by a vote of 241-185. It was also supported in the Senate, 51-48 -- but that didn't reach the 60 votes that would have been needed to survive a filibuster on a final vote. That's also not enough to override a veto by President Bush, who is against it. Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden voted on June 26, 2007, to move the bill forward, while McCain voted against it.

    Verdict: True. McCain accurately represents Obama's stance, although the candidates disagree on the merits of the plan. Organized labor backs Obama's position, while business groups and some non-union workers support McCain's.

    - JN

  • 10/16 1:08am   I guess Gov. Deval "Yes We Can" Patrick should change his name to "No I Can't."
    - PC

  • 10/13 6:42pm   American Paul Krugman wins economics Nobel Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of trading patterns. [article]
    In the article, note this quote:
    Krugman has been a harsh critic of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in The New York Times, where he writes a regular column and has a blog called "Conscience of a Liberal."

    He has come out forcefully against John McCain during the economic meltdown, saying the Republican candidate is "more frightening now than he was a few weeks ago" and earlier that the GOP has become "the party of stupid."

    - RH

  • 10/7 10:58am   There was an interesting recent New York Times Op-Ed column by Paul Krugman titled "Health Care Destruction" at [article]. It isn't really a comparison of the Obama and McCain health care plans. It makes passing references to the Obama plan, but primarily it focuses on the McCain plan. The assessment of McCain's plan is positive, if you believe that we shouldn't have a health care system. It is negative if you believe that health care should be available to everyone including low income people and people with health problems.
    - DR

  • 10/7 10:56am   AR: Yes, under the McCain health care plan, any employer-supplied health care benefits (such as health insurance) would be reported as W2 wages. If someone is slightly below the threshold for the AMT (alternative minimum tax), the McCain health care plan might force them over the threshold and make them file and pay AMT taxes.
    - DR

  • 10/7 8:25am   Here is an interesting editorial from the Wall Street Journal this morning: [article]
    According to the media, the sky is falling, the stock market is crashing, soon everyone will be hungry and homeless and without healthcare, and the world may implode. Meanwhile, I think I will go for a walk!
    - JN

  • 10/7 8:24am   So if McCain makes health benefits count as taxable income, would that add to the reported W2 wages and push those upper-middle-class earners on the threshold of the AMT (alternative minimum tax) into its much higher bracket?
    Gee, thanks; just what we needed -- another tax-and-spend conservative.
    - AR

  • 10/7 8:23am   The 10/16 issue of Rolling Stone has an in-depth look at the character and backgrond of John McCain, including insights from his contemporaries and fellow Vietnam War POW's. [article]
    The John McCain his peers know is a very different man than the one projected by his campaign; an unprincipled, womanizing spolied brat; a foul-mouthed and ill-tempered bully; a reckless gambler and inside-dealing influence peddler; a zealous new convert to Neoconservatism and one of the strongest agitators for the attack on Iraq; a man wined and dined by Charlie Keating in the Bahamas and whose wife and father-in-law invested $350,000 in the 1980's in a Keating real estate venture; a man whose fierce ambition forced him to make a bargain with the Devil and turn his back on the principles he trumpeted throughout most of his career.
    In the end, the essential facts of John McCain's life and career -- the pivotal experiences in which he demonstrated his true character -- are important because of what they tell us about how he would govern as president.
    It's quite long, but a fascinating read.
    - AR

  • 10/5 12:15pm   DA: Sometimes neither "yes" nor "no" is the right answer. Needing to say "yes, but ..." or "no, but ..." isn't being noncommittal. As AR pointed out, when McCain voted against funding for the troops, he probably would have wanted to vote "yes I'm for the funding, but no I'm against the timetable for withdrawal" if he could have.
    Clearly, there has to be middle ground between thought and action. Someone who thinks all the time and never acts will never accomplish anything. Someone who acts impulsively and never thinks about alternatives or consequences will get us into a disastrous mess, just as Bush has (yes, I agree with you that Bush's stewardship has been sorely lacking).
    I fear that McCain's temperament is too impulsive. (A very recent example is injecting himself into the debate about the bailout. When he arrived, he didn't seem to know what was going on and his "help" had the effective of disrupting the negotiations. When he got out of town, the negotiators were able to get back to work and strike a deal that he supported.)
    Obama certainly has a bias for action, but it is action taken after considering alternatives and evaluating consequences. I don't agree with all of Obama's decisions and positions, but I feel a lot more comfortable with someone who thinks about what he is doing rather than just shoots from the hip.
    - DA

  • 10/4 9:52pm   DR - so you are substituting pensive/contemplative ("thoughtful") for casting a vote that signals being noncomittal? Are we looking for a philosopher king a la Plato's Republic? Or a decisive, down to earth leader? Just curious. I think we'd both agree that Bush's stewardship has been sorely lacking.
    - DA

  • 10/4 9:41pm   It seems to me that McCain's healthcare plan approaches the issues a little differently but in the end I think we end up in the same place, with the emergency room as primary healthcare for the nation's poor.
    Currently, the average family insurance plan costs about $12K a year. At that rate, the family that's making $30K is not going to be able afford health insurance. The $5K tax credit they will get at the end of the year, is not going to help with the up-front costs or the $7K that they have to come up with out-of-pocket.
    McCain wants to tax employer-based health insurance as income, and remove the incentives for employers to offer health insurance to their employees. It stands to reason that employers will stop offering health insurance as a benefit, forcing everyone to buy private health insurance, or live without. This will result in higher costs and fewer options for the poor, the old, and the sick. You know, the people who need health care. Young, healthy, people with good incomes won't be affected--until they get old, sick, and subsequently poor.
    - MJD

  • 10/4 12:21pm   A reader pointed out that I'm incorrect in stating that the McCain health care plan would not tax health benefits. I double-checked, and under the proposal the benefits would remain tax deductible for corporations, but not individuals. [article] I must have misunderstood the analyst being interviewed. My apologies.
    - Wm.

  • 10/4 10:22am   Voting "present" requires just as much thought voting "no" -- no indecision there. It's a way of saying "I don't disagree in principle, but I don't support this specific bill."
    It can be a useful synonym. For example, had the option been available in the US Senate, McCain could have used it to indicate his dislike for the withdrawal timetable without having ended up voting "no" to funding the troops.
    - AR

  • 10/4 10:19am   I must tell you all that I am not one that is typically interested in politics. I find it stressful and I don't pretend to be versed on all the issues that you are discussing in this forum. However, I must share that I was dissapointed with Gov. Palin's performance at the vice presidential debate. As a "hockey mom" who is married to a "Joe six pack", I was embarrassed for her. She seems to me like the prototype for Vice Presidential Barbie. Is she a real meteorologist? or just the bombshell weather girl? I realize that her supporters admire her for her "folksy ways". I am one of those regular Jane's and I personally did not enjoy listening to her dumb down the debate. I may just be a SAHM... but I am not an idiot. When I ever heard her use the terms "Soccer moms and Joe six pack", she completely lost my attention. After I picked my jaw off the floor, I burst out laughing (not in a good way)... Utterly classless. Who talks about beer and soccer at the vice presidential debate?
    Who cares about Todd her "first dude"? He sounds like a clown! It gives me the impression that she is not taking this seriously. She fits right into that woman stereotype. She is not helping our cause. I just went backwards with my 16 year old son. He has made negative comments about women in the White House. How can you teach them that there are strong, intelligent, capable women out there when we are listening to this? It was not a presidential debate, it was a pageant. I'm suprised her answer for everything was not "World Peace" (reference to that wonderful Sandra Bullock movie). If Gov. Palin is really knowledgable and capable... she sure doesn't show it. People are saying that she didn't embarrass herself? What low expectations! She embarrassed me as a woman! It seems as if they hired her to be just a media distraction from the real issues.
    OK... now I will shut up about politics issues since I really do know nothing about it all (I'm serious). I just thought that I would share an opinion from a regular Jane Hockey Mom. Not all of us have fallen under her "adorable" spell. I think her biggest downfall is that she doesn't know when to "turn it off "and be serious. She's over the top. I bet she'd be fun to hang out with though...
    - MW

  • 10/4 9:15am   I was interested in this business of Obama voting "present" in the Illinois State Senate (129 times out of roughly 4,000 votes he cast). This is what I found out. To register a vote in the Illinois General Assembly, lawmakers have a choice of three buttons on their desk. The "yes" button is green. The "no" button is red, and the "present" button is yellow. "To insinuate the 'present' vote means you're indecisive, that you don't have the courage to hold public office, that's a stretch" said Illinois State Rep. Bill Black (Republican), a 22-year veteran of the House and his party's floor leader. Voting "present" is used for several purposes. It's most important use is as a signal - to the other party, to the governor, to the sponsor -- to show a willingness to compromise on the issue if not the exact bill, to object to certain parts of a bill, even though you may agree with its overall purpose, to question the constitutionality of the bill, because you have a conflict of interest on the bill, or because you have you have unresolved worries about the bill.
    The "present" vote is used, especially by more thoughtful legislators, not as a means of avoiding taking a position on an issue, but as a means of signaling concerns about an issue.
    - DR

  • 10/3 10:57pm   AR - Obama voting "present" in the Illinois State Senate is merely a matter of appearances? It would appear to be indicative of no commitment either way on an issue. In this neck of the woods, that is called "sitting on the fence" or "having it both ways."
    - DA

  • 10/3 10:50pm   AR - Voting "present" may be a legitimate vote, but I have to disagree with your analysis that it shouldn't garner attention. I think it speaks volumes about the candidate. It exemplifies an inability to make a decision. There has been countless times during the campaign, dating back 18 months now, where his stance on issues has been delayed. He constantly has taken a step back, stuck a finger in the air to test the winds, and, after judging popular opinion, finally commits to a position. I do agree on one part of your statement...it is indeed a reflection of our times. It appears that politics have become so partisan, especially in an election year, that our representatives at every level of government wait to see what direction their party (or the media) is leaning and then fall right in line. Both sides are guilty.
    On another note...By living in Massachusetts, we are not the focus of the candidates for the presidential election. That's not to say our vote doesn't count or doesn't matter, but Senator Obama has Massachusetts wrapped up. So unfortunately, we won't have the benefit of both candidates campaigning here. We are removed from the battle ground and we must depend on the media to report how things are shaping up in the battle ground states. (Although we do get a small glimpse from New Hampshire, but neither candidate is terribly focused there) However, we have the unique benefit of living in Norfolk, which happens to fall in the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts. We have an opportunity to let our voice be heard loud and clear across the entire country. We can do so by not rubber stamping a 15th consecutive term to Barney Frank. His actions of the past several weeks are completely reprehensible. As Chairman of the Financial Services Committee he has blood on his hands for the melt down on Wall Street. His arrogance and lack of accountability are embarrassing to our congressional district.
    So I propose the people of Norfolk to let your voice be heard. 28 years in office is enough. Let's truly vote for "Change" and elect Earl Sholley to represent us in Congress. If not Sholley, then I suggest sending another message to Barney Frank. When casting your ballot for Congress, leave it blank. Don't vote for either candidate. After all, isn't that equivalent to voting "present"? And isn't that a "legitimate" vote? Either way, I think the message would be delivered loud and clear to Barney Frank that his constituents are fed up.
    - BC

  • 10/3 10:42am   Interestingly, in IL voting "present" is a legitimate vote, and counts toward the outcome. Thus voting "present" instead of "no" is just a matter of appearances. That this has gotten so much attention, for so little cause, is a reflection of our times I suppose.
    - AR

  • 10/2 11:51pm   TC - you are hung up on Palin's qualifications for the #2 spot? By the same logic, why aren't you troubled by the dearth of experience at the top of the Democratic ticket? Granted Obama is a US Senator, but he hasn't spent a full term in Washington, and he has spent most of his time in that office waging a campaign. When he was in the Illinois State Senate he had a propensity to vote "present" rather than a clear Yes or No. Prior to his political posts, he was a community organizer, which, while laudable, hardly gives one the budgetary skills of say a mayor or governor. This preoccupation with Palin is myopic - the likelihood that Biden or she would become the president in the next four years is slim. If you don't like McCain's positions that's one thing, but I'm baffled at your logic here. Look what putting a neophyte at the top of a ticket did to the Commonwealth.
    - DA

  • 10/2 9:44am   TC: Didn't mean to put you on the defensive, but you really were beginning to sound a little crazed. I do not disagree with anything that you said. I guess we can never really know how anyone will act once they are placed into a position of power. Sometimes they are great, and many times, not so much. I don't think it always depends on a resume or an elite education. Sometimes it just takes someone who is willing to listen and to simply get things done. That is not an endorsement of Palin, this is just the way it is, in my opinion. I also do not have anything for or against Nancy Pelosi; I was just making a point.
    This election will soon be over and then the real work begins. I hope that that is not the time that the American public decides to start watching Dancing with the Stars and the media goes back to Britney reporting and other nonsense. After the election is over is when we all should be paying closer attention, especially to what our Senators and Representatives are doing. And we really have to start focusing on what affects us here at home. If the state tax is repealed, what does that mean for our schools, public safety, etc.? This will be an important ballot question that could in fact put us in a position of higher property taxes, which will place the burden directly upon us; it really does not matter who the President is regarding that particular issue. I do not hear any chatter about this at all. I find that interesting.
    - JN

  • 10/2 12:39am   JN: I don't really have an opinion about Nancy Pelosi. Nor is Palin's pro-life position my main objection to her. I don't share her views, but I am a middle-aged woman who knows that issues of choice are very personal, and I don't fault anyone for their personal beliefs. I do believe in a right to privacy, and choice, but honestly, I am pretty pro-life myself. I just don't presume to know what is right for everyone in every situation. Is it a visceral hatred? I hope not. It sounds so horrible and mean-spirited. But, perhaps it is. I am so deeply offended by her selection that I find it hard to get past it. It is so preposterous and reckless. I simply can't believe it. I am sure she's a bright, ambitious, able politician. And I can imagine she'd be a gas to have a glass of wine with. She's funny, and can deliver a great line. So, I guess I'd find her interesting to be in a book club with, or to have as a neighbor, or even as a mayor. But VP? Now? No way. She's in over her head, and the stakes are too high. It isn't about Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, or really even Barack Obama. It's about her. She's not up for the job, and putting her in it could be a devastating mistake.
    - TC

  • 10/1 6:37pm   TC: It is obvious that you have some sort of visceral hatred for Governor Palin. However, I would bet that you think that Nancy Pelosi is just great. Have you ever checked out her rise to Speaker of the House? I may add that she, Pelosi, is only two heartbeats away from the presidency--and everyone wants to kill George Bush and Dick Cheney has had like 7 Myocardial infarctions and has an ACID implanted, so her chance of getting the top job these past two years was probably statistically higher than McCain's hypothetical demise.
    Nancy Pelosi only has a BS degree. She was appointed to a political position after someone died. She never really ran anything in her life. So what makes her, beyond her experience, after all, she is 24 years older than Palin, so special? My guess is that it is the pro-life agenda that Palin has and is not afraid to talk about that has everyone up in arms. I wish people, instead of running her down, would just admit that.
    Just my thought. Not trying to fight with you. I agree that she has not been very impressive in her interviews.
    - JN

  • 10/1 4:59pm   Our Congressman, [article] He makes me so proud .SIG PC

  • 10/1 2:38pm   DA: I regret the sexist tone of my earlier post. I forget that this is anonymous and that I am speaking to people who haven't a clue about me. I am not a sexist. Far from it. If you knew me, that thought never would have crossed your mind . Clearly, I should have been more careful. I am a genuine feminist. And as wonderful as it would be to have a woman President/VP, I think Palin would be an unmitigated disaster as vice president. She simply is not qualified. In general, I am not a supporter of Affirmative Action, especially for the second most important job in the country.
    As for Barney Frank, I really haven't looked in to all these allegations about him. But I will now.
    - TC

  • 10/1 12:24am   PJT's youtube link seems to make a more salient point concerning a cancer far more dangerous to the body politic than melanoma - the failure to heed calls for regulatory oversight of Freddie and Frannie. Barney Frank was literally and figuratively in bed with these entities - check out his relationship with Herb Moses. Furthermore, trace the history of Franklin Raines, a key Obama advisor who has been sullied by this mess. Who needs William Ayers or the Rev. Wright to derail Obama's ascendancy? Looks like this issue involves a round of Molotov cocktails not beers at the local tavern. Tomorrow is October 1st - perhaps the proverbial "October Surprise" came a tad early in this election cycle. Stay tuned.
    - DA

  • 10/1 12:23am   TC - the sexism is palpable in your derisive post on Palin. As governor and mayor, she had to make fiscal decisions. In contrast, community organizers don't have experience in such matters, but I'm sure they are vociferous advocates of affordable housing (and the junk mortgages that are the end result of social engineering run amuck.) On the subject of McCain's previous bouts with cancer, you need to look at the life insurance industry's actuarial tables to determine the longevity of man his age and with his health history. You might be surprised to find that he is not the ticking time bomb you fear him to be. Ageism seems to be the root of your paranoia here.
    - DA

  • 9/30 8:39pm   DA: Please, with all due respect... You must be referring to Palin's presumed knowledge of how to grocery shop and balance her checkbook. Despite her years as Governor and Mayor, she seemed shockingly unable to discuss the economic crisis in anything resembling common sense. In fact, she revealed a complete lack of mastery over the issues, let alone even an understanding. My 88-year-old mother did a far superior job of articulating what was happening, and she is still shocked that a cup of coffee costs more than .50! Why is it that people want an average Joe running the country? Would you hire an average Joe to perform your heart surgery? Do your estate plan? Don't you want someone who knows more than you about things you aren't qualified to handle, or at least someone who has the intelligence to access the information when needed?
    Conservatives are dismissing their own Palin detractors as "intellectuals." OHMYGOD! They're actually proud of the fact that they have such disdain for people who think? No wonder no one gives a damn about education in this country. We hate smart people! They're too uppity. We prefer to have our beers with people who don't challenge us or make us feel insecure.
    JN: Immigration has slipped off the radar, and it too is important. So has education, environment, social security, and lots of other things. But, Paris is burning. There is no perfect plan out there for health care, just like there is no perfect bailout plan. What we should be looking for in a leader is someone willing to try to find one, not someone refusing to admit it's broken. Trickle down economics has failed the majority of Americans. That philosophy applied to health care, education, Wall St., and other the other urgent problems facing this nation will fail as well.
    As for Dan Quayle, well, now I actually miss him!
    Lastly, while it is impolite to be discussing McCain's health so publicly, the facts are what they are. He's 72 years old, and has had melanoma. It is relevant. He himself said he'd only seek one term. Do you really think Palin should be President in four years, or worse, sooner? It is a reckless, irresponsible thing for him to have selected her. It alone should deem him unfit.
    - TC

  • 9/30 8:33pm   To all good people of Norfolk who might cast their vote for Barney Frank this November.
    Please view this. [youtube link]
    Earl Sholley for Congress.
    - PJT

  • 9/30 8:19pm   DA - During the debate, John McCain did not address his opponent by his first name because he could not remember who his opponent is as demonstrated by this video [youtube link]
    - MJD

  • 9/30 8:32am   Correction to my post: Re: Shonda Schilling, she had stage II melanoma, same as McCain. Not stage 4. That was a typo.
    - JN

  • 9/30 8:28am   This current administration proposed and nearly passed the biggest tax increase in U.S. history.
    The proposal was a bandaid. It may have gotten credit flowing again but only until borrowers hit their credit limit again.
    Money will flow again when energy prices come back down to earth. At a cost of getting gas to the pump in the area of 1.45 +- including taxes, it's grand larceny what the consumer is being charged.
    Maybe they should focus on the oil market as well as the securities market. Oh, I forgot, Jethro & Jed are free market guys.
    - JC

  • 9/29 10:37pm   TC - Palin might be the only one of the 4 candidates with a grasp on the economics of "everyman." Her work as mayor and governor dealt with budgetary decisions we all make, especially in these tough times. That should comfort you not scare you (unless you've been reading the outlandish witch hunt story swirling about Gov. Palin). Do think Biden will call her "Sarah" like Obama dissed McCain with his addressing him as "John"? I hope she goes for the kill and "field dresses" Biden on Thursday night. (Why hasn't SNL done a Biden skit? - his gaffe about FDR going on TV in 1928 is ripe for parody).
    - DA

  • 9/29 10:36pm   TC: Here is a link to a nursing web site that reviews each candidate's health plan from our perspective. Most nurses and some MD's that I know think that both plans fall short. Obama's health plan, similar to what we have now in Massachusetts that Romney enacted (which is MUCH more expensive than anyone thought, and may not be sustainable), is better for the uninsured. McCain's plan works well for those already insured. [page]
    Considering what is happening now with the bail-out plan, there isn't going to be much money for anything promised by either candidate. I remember when Hillary was going to give us a better healthcare program. That failed and I am sure that any other attempt at socialized medicine in this country will fail as well. So, really if you look at that way, it has been 16 years of failed health care policy.
    Also, people seem to not mention the effect that illegal immigration has on healthcare costs. I will tell you from my own experience, illegal immigrants get primo healthcare and it is all free to them. That is absolutely the truth. You would be amazed. Here I have a patient who has insurance, but has to pay, pay, pay. And one who is from Brazil, who is free care. I am not saying they do not deserve healthcare, they do and we treat them the same. I am simply saying that it costs a lot of money. We also need immigration reform in this country as well.
    I am still at a loss to understand why you think that it matters to many people that Palin is under qualified. The vast majority of her supporters do not care. You said that you were upset that McCain never mentioned the middle class. Well, Palin is the middle class. The middle class republicans like that. They also voted for Bush Sr. when he had Dan Quayle a heartbeat away. And you know how that worked out.
    BTW, as a hospice nurse, I was appalled at the commercial regarding McCain's melanoma. He has released data on that. Melanoma is not always fatal. Just ask Curt Shilling's wife--she had stage 2. I can see going after him on his policies and promises, but scaring people onto thinking he may die is way over the top.
    BTW, our state's congressmen were divided on the bail out vote. I was sure it would pass today. Now they all left because of Rosh Hashana? What? They just leave? Unreal.
    - JN

    [Update 9/30 8:32am: Re: Shonda Schilling, she had stage II melanoma, same as McCain. Not stage 4. That was a typo. - JN]

  • 9/29 8:32pm   TC - Regarding McCain's "sin of omission" - not specifically mentioning the middle class in Friday's debate demonstrates his lack of empathy? That's quite a reach. On the subject of Barney Frank - he was literally and figuratively in bed with Fannie and Freddie. Google "Herb Moses" and check out his association with our reprehensible representative. In contrast, McCain was a proverbial canary in the coal mine on the mortgage industry's problems in 2005.
    - TC

  • 9/29 8:21pm   JN: Your story sure does put it into perspective. The Republicans have had 8 years to address health care, and they've done absolutely nothing. Health care costs are out of control, and you're right, they are breaking a lot of people. That is just morally wrong. Obama's plan will have its pitfalls, no question, but at least he HAS a plan. McCain's is to give a tax credit to those forced into the "free market" of health care, and to tax the health benefits of everyone else. Given how many people receive health care through their employers, that is a lot of people getting a tax increase, and it does nothing to address the spiraling costs and decreased access. Clearly, the brainchild of anti-regulation, let the market do what it will, Republican.
    While I am grateful for the break from the 24/7 news of Sarah Palin, it's seems very dangerous that people might forget this woman could really be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency. Her candidacy is entertaining, but she is a menace! I know some will say I am being a snob, or a liberal elite, but this woman is not smart enough to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. As funny as all the Tiny Fey/SNL skits are, this is quite serious. She knows nothing about foreign policy, nothing about the economy, nothing about health care. This election will decide if we spend the next 20 - 30 years at war in the Middle East. It will decide if, and in what style, us 40-somethings retire. It will decide how we will afford health care as we age. I do hope people wake up. I thought once the sky was actually falling they might, but apparently that hasn't done it either.
    - TC

    [I believe the latest version of the McCain health plan would not tax healthcare benefits, but still gives the $5000 tax credit. Not clear how the resulting $300 billion bugdet item will be covered - Wm.]

  • 9/29 4:58pm   TC and JH: Also don't forget to factor in healthcare costs. Many foreclosures happen as well because people cannot afford to pay medical bills. I talked to a patient yesterday who pays about 15K/year for health insurance; now that a loved one is ill, the services they need for home care are not covered. So now, in addition to deductibles and co-pays, plus the premium, they have to pay for private help as well. It is crazy. They are barely scraping by.
    The healthcare plans that both candidates are suggesting are not a panacea. The healthcare insurance companies are gouging us. Charging more and more and giving us less services. And most people do not even know what benefits they are entitled to, until they are ill and need them. Then they find out they are not covered. It happens all of the time. They are not talking about this, either. It was really mind-blowing to be at the home of a patient listening to CNN talk about this huge bailout for wall street, while they cannot afford to pay for needed healthcare services. It really puts things into perspective.
    - JN

  • 9/29 12:19pm   JC: You raise a very important point, and one that, surprisingly, has been left out of the equation. Of course people are going into foreclosure when the cost of heating their homes has quadrupled, food prices have skyrocketed, property taxes are making up for lost and/or inadequate funding for schools, roads, and infrastructure, and wages have declined (once inflation is factored in). I am dismayed that, once again, the level of discourse has been dumbed down to sound bites, and huge factors impacting our economy are being ignored. While this bailout, er rescue, may stablize the markets in the short term, it will do little, if nothing, to address the underlying economic disparities that have been institutionalized during this administration.
    I realize that each campain in the race for the White House using any and every little thing to batter their opponent, and sometimes it is quite ridiculous. But, I think it is telling that McCain didn't mention the middle class once during Friday night's debate. He's admitted himself that he is "divorced from the reality" that everyday people face, but to not even acknowledge the burdens most people are shouldering is truly offensive. And, shortsighted, as JC points out. That hate-radio jocks were all over the bailout this morning, blaming Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi, and, unbelievably, claiming that deregulation and lack of oversight had nothing to do with this financial meltdown. Once again, a crisis that will impact our lives, and the lives of our children, for generations to come, has been hijacked by political extremists and used to further polarize an already horribly divided nation. If there ever was a time for change, this is it.
    - TC

  • 9/29 8:24am   The bailout really only takes into account one aspect of this economic downturn, bad loans associated with mortgages. "W" had nothing but praise for those loans, made possible under his administration's keen oversight, a few years ago and noted how those loans had brought home "ownership" to an all time home high.
    I will argue that energy prices can not be ignored during the talks.
    The following compares fuel costs in 2004 (gas 1.65/gal, heating oil 1.30/gal) vs those of 2008 (gas 3.90/gal, heating oil 4.30/gal).
    It now costs Americans somewhere around an additional 10 cents per mile to get to work than it did in 2004 (based on 22.5 mpg). Americans drove 1.4 billion miles less (1.8%) in April 2008 (77.8billion miles driven) than April 2007 (79.2 billion miles driven) based on Department of Transportation figures. At 10 cents/mile, Americans spent an extra 7.8 billion dollars on gas in April 2008 vs equivalent miles in 2004. That works out to 94 billion dollars annually. In addition to gas prices, prices for fuels to heat and/or cool the 115.9 million homes(2000 US census)in America have also escalated. Thats an additional 139 billion dollars based on the average household spending an additional $1200 annually (400 gal at $3/gal additional cost) for heating and/or cooling. In total, Americans have in the vicinity of 233 billion dollars less annually in their pockets as a result of out of control energy costs. Is it any wonder houses are going into foreclosure?
    If passed as proposed without energy policy and energy market reforms the bailout will be short lived. It doesn't take long to burn through 700 billion dollars.
    Americans can not be productive if they can't get to work nor businesses be productive operating on a shoe string. Any American can understand that. To paraphrase John McCain, Americas strength is in its workers.
    If only our leaders understood the importance of energy pricing vs cost.
    - JC

  • 9/27 10:36pm   Just to inject some political humor, David Letterman's top ten surprises in the Presidential debate. [article]
    - JN

  • 9/27 6:04pm   Quick impressions from the McCain / Obama presidential debates:
    - Obama came across as having a nuanced understanding of the topics, McCain as repeating rough outlines
    - Obama needs to dumb down his sentences to have them penetrate. "They dropped the ball" works better than "insufficient attention was paid to the mission objectives"
    - I was surprised how hawkish Obama sounded; he seemed ready to go bomb Iran himself
    - I was completely dumbfounded that McCain doesn't know the difference between "strategy" and "tactic". Steps taken to achieve short-term objectives are tactics
    - and finally, it's a tax credit, not a dividend. Now, McCain may be personally more familiar with dividends than tax credits, but that doesn't make them interchangeable
    - AR

  • 9/24 7:49am   Well AR, no, I am a Hillary supporter, so you figure it out. I also like Ron Paul. But let's be fair. McCain and Palin are not treated the same as Obama/Biden. That is a fact, my friend. I am simply pointing that out. Sorry to make you feel that I was baiting you or anyone else.
    I was home sick yesterday and watched C-span. I don't think that the ``winner'' of this election gets any prize. Of course, on the bright side, things couldn't get worse, could they?
    Warren Buffet just bought 5 billion dollars in Goldman Sachs stock, reminds me of the scene in ``It's a Wonderful Life'' when Potter is buying everything because everyone is panicking. Except of course the old savings and loan. Where is Jimmy Stewart when you need him?
    - JN

  • 9/23 10:40pm   JN, does this mean it's time-in, end of the plea for peace and harmony and everyone may bait people once again?
    For someone who professes to like both candidates, you seem to spend a lot of energy defending McCain/Palin and reporting uncomplimentary things about Obama/Biden. Would it be safe to assume you're getting closer to deciding how you're going to vote? :-)
    - AR

  • 9/23 10:38pm   60,000! A big crowd. Or maybe 25,000. A lot of people at any rate.
    Mike Tucker, a local fire marshal, estimated 60,000. But reporters on the ground, including AP's Brendan Farrington and my colleague Ken Vogel, would only say "tens of thousands," suggesting the marshal's estimate was on the high side. The St. Pete Times's Adam Smith had another fire official in the crowd say it was about 25,000.
    [source]
    - AR

  • 9/23 8:15pm   Here is a link to Katie Couric's interview with Biden in which he incorrectly states Franklin Roosevelt went on television to explain the problem to the American people. [cbs news page]
    Yikes. I'm not in corner of Obama, but I assume many of his supporters are disappointed he didn't tap Sen. Clinton to run with him.
    - BC

  • 9/23 8:03pm   Here's the link. [Biden blunder article].
    You left out the end of my post:
    By the way, Hoover was in office then and his VP was Charles Curtin. Guess who the Secretary of the Treasury was then? Allen Mellon. My dad always talked about the great depression. He talked about it a lot, so I have always been an avid reader of that particular time in history. It is fascinating and scary that we are now living through perhaps a similar moment in history. Bet McCain wishes he had Romney as his VP now instead of Caribou Barbie. And Biden is no prize either, Blundering Botox Bob.
    - JN

    [Indeed I did, my apologies. It's back. - Wm.]

  • 9/23 3:40pm   All this talk about Palin and the media is ignoring Biden. Good thing because his gaffes are unbelievable. If Palin had made this stupid remark, she would have been crucified; if McCain had made it, they would have said he was senile. You never read anything bad about Obama/Biden. The media and Hollywood are trying to just tear McCain and Palin down. I worry that that particular strategy will backfire.
    Anyway, here is what Biden said. Talk about a dope.
    Biden garbles Depression history

    Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.

    He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

    "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

    (Several bloggers) point out and say : "And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'"
    [article]

    By the way, Hoover was in office then and his VP was Charles Curtin. Guess who the Secretary of the Treasury was then? Allen Mellon. My dad always talked about the great depression. He talked about it a lot, so I have always been an avid reader of that particular time in history. It is fascinating and scary that we are now living through perhaps a similar moment in history. Bet McCain wishes he had Romney as his VP now instead of Caribou Barbie. And Biden is no prize either, Blundering Botox Bob.
    - JN

    [Added the link and restored the omitted closing paragraph -- my apologies. - Wm.]

  • 9/23 12:09pm   AR: You speak about foreign policy experience in one of your last posts. Here is a quote from Hillary Clinton regarding Barack Obama's foreign policy experience: (back when she was a contender)
    Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living in a foreign country as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. ``Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face,'' Clinton said. ``I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to and has confidence in.''
    - JN

  • 9/22 10:09pm   TEM - An article from the Huffington Post on Palin - please. Arianna Huffington's organ of liberal outrage isn't exactly a balanced forum. Even if some of the vitriol (quite offensive stuff from supposedly "progressive" folk who heretofore claimed the moral high ground with regard to the feminist fight) spilled at a protest in Anchorage is from local Alaskans and not from out of state zealots using frequent-flier mileage to land in Palin's backyard, the people who matter reside in the lower 48 states - specifically those high population swing states where people "cling to religion and guns." Furthermore, the politicized rants on display at last night's Emmy Awards only further alienate these key swing voters. It's all about electoral college math.
    - DA

  • 9/22 8:47pm   TEM: Sorry to burst your bubble. ``Palin Draws Crowd of 60,000 in Florida.'' [article]
    Just FYI. This does not reflect my opinion of her, just thought it was interesting.
    - JN

  • 9/20 10:08am   The inevitable backlash of women rallying against Palin is growing nationwide. Check out this protest in Palin's very own backyard. It has been described as the biggest political rally in the history of the state.
    See [article]
    - TEM

  • 9/19 8:09pm   JN - My high school actually offers Mandarin Chinese. We live in a global economy.
    AR - Some labeled the purchase of Alaska as Seward's Folly. Similarly, some may think that Palin is only fool's gold; however, if Obama loses in November, will the silver-tongued Community Organizer be known as Dean's (as in Dr. Howard Dean) Debacle?
    - DA

  • 9/19 5:40pm   AR: Obviously, you choose to ignore my pleading for peace and harmony and continue to bait people. Focus needs to be on domestic issues now, not foreign, or we will all be speaking mandarin soon. So stop it.
    - JN

  • 9/19 3:19pm   It's not Sarah Palin's limited experience that's the problem, it's the demonstrated and repeated abuse of her power when entrusted with authority.
    Though I must admit it is odd for a politician running for national office to not be familiar with at least the fundamentals of our foreign policy; it makes them appear ignorant.
    Sunni? Shia? What are those?
    - AR

  • 9/17 9:15pm   TC: I was only surprised at the clip I heard because Obama has always seemed like such an eloquent speaker. That is all. I am not talking about substance here, only style.
    I think that there is way too much nastiness going on in this election. Politics is so personal and I think that this particular race has brought out some pretty intense emotions for everyone. I mean we are confronting head-on, really, for the first time, topics that we normally dance around. We are confronting race, working women vs. stay at home roles; we are addressing elder issues and patriotism. We are not just blue states and red states. I am tired of labels. We are individuals with our own ideas of what is right and wrong. Some people firmly believe the wealthier should give some of their money to the folks making less. The wealthier say I have gotten here by working hard, so why should I give it to people who do not want to work hard. But I think somewhere there is a middle ground, and we all know that. The women say we should have equal rights as men, others say we should be taking care of home and hearth. But we still try to do it all and I must say that we have come a long way, baby. But the fighting continues and is fueled by ten-second sound bites that pose as real news that are clearly out of context because they want to make a candidate look bad and to achieve good ratings. There is no real news anymore. Just ``gottcha'' moments. (I am now strictly watching the food network and HGTV and may soon be posting some recipes.) This election and all of its ``reality TV'' nonsense has me wishing that it were all over already. (Tune in tomorrow so you can witness the latest humiliation we have captured on tape!!!)
    So here we are in a financial crisis and what are our ``leaders'' of both parties doing? They are pointing fingers at everyone else and no one seems to know the real answer. Some say---okay, many say, that Sarah Palin is not experienced enough to be president (even though she is not running for president, but I digress). Well, my goodness, I think at this point any one of us can do a better job than some of these jokers in Washington. I am sorry, but where the heck did common sense go? Does anyone in Washington have any common sense anymore?
    Anyway, we all need to take a deep breath and stop attacking one another. At the end of the day, if you are having a tough time, who really comes through for you? Your government? No. That is laughable. I will tell you who. It is your neighbors and your friends and your family. So let's stop all the nonsense and remember that this is an election to select a new President. We do it every 4 years. Let's not make this into more then it is. It is not a fight to the death. We all worry about global warming, we all want the war to end and we all want the economy back on track. We all hate poverty and the fact that many have no health insurance. But we all still have to get up each morning and get dressed, get our kids off to school and ourselves to work and worry about dinner and our kid's homework and who they are having a playdate with and life still goes on. When the election is over, do you really want to have alienated your friends and neighbors? What ever happened to agreeing to disagree? Whatever happened to civility? I know that people feel strongly and that is okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And everyone gets to vote. So why are we all fighting?
    [article]
    - JN

    [Update 9/19 8:59am: added link to article - Wm.]

  • 9/17 6:05pm   JN: Isn't it more important what people say that how they say it? I realize we live in a superficial world, and speaking style goes a lot further than the actual substance of one's remarks. But wouldn't it be great if we could pay attention to what's being said, promised, and what it all really means?
    Yesterday I had the privilege of explaining to my nine-year-old why the man on the radio was being so "mean and nasty." We were in a store, and the owner was listening to the Jay Sevrins show. His delivery was excellent, very compelling, authoritative, full of enthusiasm and energy. What he was actually saying, however, was chilling. He was telling a caller that Democrats are really all poor people. The kicker was him saying, and I quote, "These people want our stuff! They want us to work and make money, and then give them all our stuff." My child asked, "What stuff, like our TV? Who is he so mad at?" It would have been funny, except for the fact that this fool caller was yes-ing him to death, as if he were some religious figure leading her to enlightenment. Given the popularity of this show, there are many callers like her, entertained or riled up by what amounts to a crazy rant disguised as some insightful advocacy. Look at what this guy is actually saying! It's the most ridiculous stuff! I know, what he means, of course, is that he is against taxes, government programs, universal health care, regulation, etc. But, the fact that he dumbs it down and people still eat it up and think it's brilliant because he delivers it well is damn scary!
    - TC

  • 9/17 11:34pm   As I was driving home tonight, I was listening to talk radio and they were playing an audio clip from a county fair in Colorado where Obama was speaking. He had no teleprompter and I was stunned to hear how poorly he spoke. I was embarrassed for him. No wonder he needs a teleprompter all of the time, even when stumping in small towns, and refuses to do any town hall meetings with McCain. He is really bad at the off the cuff stuff, so it seems.
    - JN

  • 9/17 7:10pm   TEM - Your comment about the bogus Obama quote being mean spirited and racist is quite a reach. The poster accurately captures a typical unscripted Obama "moment." You might be offended by the caricature because of your affinity with the candidate, but there isn't anything implicitly or explicitly racist about this. It merely reflects the inverse of his opponent's presentation skills - McCain doesn't shine in speech mode, but he is more comfortable in an extemporaneous town hall meeting exchange. Barack's mellifluous MLK speech delivery stands in stark contrast to his stilted on the spot responses. In a similar vein, I laughed at the SNL sketch of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, but never once did I express outrage that it was anti-feminist assault. In short, don't reach for the race card when it's not even in the deck.
    - DA

    [I can't imagine Obama conjugating incorrectly even if unscripted. I too got a strong sense 'ghetto' when I read it; lots of aspiration, y'all foks no whut I mean? - Wm.]

  • 9/17 3:31pm   I found the bogus quote attributed to Barack Obama in the post of PJT (see 9/16 5:07pm) mean-spirited and racist. It shocks me that it survived the screening of NorfolkNet's very able moderator/webmaster, who has stated in the posting guidelines that he wishes to "maintain a certain level of civility" and will "reword or remove comments likely to offend."
    - TEM

  • 9/17 2:31pm   This is a very good article from the BBC, Washington division. [article]
    I now get my news from the BBC. The news here is either biased, completely wrong or poorly written. I just want the facts, please. I am sick of blathering nincompoops telling me how I should think. Although I do watch Jon Stewart. He is perhaps a bit biased, but it is funny. And when he called Charles Gibson, in his interview with Palin, ``Gepetto'', I laughed so hard, I cried.
    Here is what The Independent and the NYT says about Jon Stewart:
    Mr Blair is booked to appear on Comedy Central channel's flagship programme. He will be interviewed by Jon Stewart, the man recently described by The New York Times as the most trusted man in the American media. Despite the comic bent of The Daily Show's reporting, its producers have proved to be remarkably incisive jokers, keeping a close eye on the often ridiculous machinations of American politicians and the press corps that covers them.

    Stewart's satirical programme has become so influential in the United States that many viewers claim it is their first port of call for news coverage. He has interviewed five former or current heads of state, among them Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the Bolivian President, Evo Morales, and the former Mexican president Vicente Fox. In September 2006, Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, was the first sitting head of state to appear on the far side of Stewart's expansive desk.

    Intersting, isn't it? He has more foreign policy experience than both Palin and Obama.
    - JN

  • 9/16 7:06pm   PJT: True, the Bush Doctrine has been used to describe several different aspects of Bush's foreign policy, but in almost all instances the phrase describes the go-it-alone, my-way-or-the-highway, bring 'em on, reckless cowboy behavior of the Bush administration. That said, the phrase most often refers to his preemptive war philosophy, and Palin was clueless when asked. You're being way too kind to suggest she was seeking clarification of a nuanced concept, although another might have deserved that leeway.
    The Bush Doctrine has as much, if not more, obvious meaning than "liberal elite" or "media elite." Who on earth are we really referring to when we say that? People who read and watch news other than FOX?? This whole "liberal media" business is infuriating. The media was asleep at the switch for the past 7 years, regaling us with tales of Brad and Angelina's ever-expanding brood while the country was going to hell in a hand basket. The fact that the press is starting to stir is a good thing, but if you ask me, the "media elite" (liberal or not) are as responsible for the multitude of problems we are facing as is the government.
    I am not going to try to sing the praises of Obama's resume. I agree it's thin. But, he's got the smarts to understand complex problems, and his overall outlook on government is to put it to work for all the people, not a select few. Clearly, McCain is the same old, same old. His anti-regulation stance will do little, if anything, to reign in the greed that has sent the entire world into a financial tailspin. This is what happens when you let the markets dictate unchecked, and he will do nothing to change that.
    - TC

  • 9/16 7:06pm   PJT: Right, O'Reilly. My second error of the day!
    Re: Ross. I was just hoping to hear about Rep. Ross from people who have been directly affected by what he has done or not done for the town. I am attempting to be open-minded. I much prefer to vote based on performance. And I have not heard all good things. Nor have I heard all bad. But, I do think that Thomas Roache deserves to be heard. And Ross did not vote for the seniors regarding protection from overrides. That bothered me. He should be questioned about that. What has he done, specifically, that earns him your vote? Besides being Republican? I am asking to learn, not to seem like I am criticizing or baiting you. I am trying to learn all that I can so that I can make an informed decision.
    - JN

  • 9/16 5:11pm   Oops. Detroit wasn't a state last time I looked at a map. My bad. I meant Michigan.
    - JN

  • 9/16 5:08pm   Foe all those good citizens looking to cut through the media bias try reading this website on a daily basis: [newsbusters.org]
    And there is media bias, 80% are in the tank for Obama.
    - PJT

  • 9/16 5:07pm   TC: Which Bush Doctrine do you subscribe to? Maybe you should read this: [article]
    This was written by the guy who first used the phrase "The Bush Doctrine" as noted in the Wikipedia entry you enclosed on your post.
    Don't get started on experience. Obama has less than Palin in terms of executive experience. Besides, she is not on the top of the ticket. Obama should try and focus. I'll use his words,
    Oh, um, oh, well, you see, I have um, experience um but you know uh well, I bee a Senator for uh almost 4 years know, spent 2 running for an office I know idea how to run, uh um oh uh um. Where is the teleprompter when you need it?
    When it comes down to it, Obama is a socialist, nuff said.
    JN: You mean Ed O'Reilly right? Not O'Brian. Rep Ross is a fine public servant, unfortunately he is fighting an uphill battle at the State House, this being a 1 party state. But we need a Republican voice. Please support him, as well as Senator Scott Brown.
    Retire Kerry, he is useless.
    - PJT

  • 9/16 5:02pm   TC: One additional thought. I also read the article this morning by David Brooks of the NYT. If you look at it differently, it is not only speaking about Palin, but also of Obama and his lack of experience. He doesn't say it, but it is implicit.
    I also read the news from my old hometown in Pennsylvania. Make no doubt about it, we can go on forever arguing over Sarah Palin, failed Bush policies, Obama, McCain, Biden, the elite vs. the everyman. But the truth is, it doesn't matter what we think. Massachusetts will of course go into the Democrats' win column. It will be states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, and Detroit that decide this election. Not us.
    I really do think we would be better served to look at how, even if Obama wins, we will be saddled with the prospect of higher property taxes in the coming years. Our schools will still need more money. So will our town. There is no panacea offered with this presidential election, regardless of the outcome. Not really. So, we need to try to solve this locally. There is no Easter bunny coming to fill our baskets with everything we need. We, the taxpayers of Norfolk, have to get to work to try to solve our own issues. First thing is to look at who is representing us and if they are doing what we elected them to do. That is a good start. Then we must look for ways to raise revenue for our town. Yes, even the dreaded earmark. We need to attend Town meeting so that we can vote on issues that impact our every day lives. We need to go to school committee meetings. We need to pay attention to what our Selectmen are or are not doing. We pay a lot of lip service to these things, but we are really not rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. We let a few people willing to volunteer their time to helping our community, and then we sit back and complain, without offering any actual service or advice. It is time to get involved ourselves. Our elected and appointed officials need to hear from all of us on issues that are important to us. And we need to be able to have full disclosure and a healthy dialogue.
    `` No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.'' -Winston Churchill
    - JN

  • 9/16 9:07am   PJT: I agree about O'Brien. No one is even paying attention to the local politics here. Too much focus on the national scene. We need to pay attention to our state issues as well. No one has responded on this blog regarding my questions about Rep. Ross. Some have emailed me personally. Most think he has not done a good job and that Thomas Roache, running as an independent, should be given serious consideration.
    TC: I can remember all the fuss the democrats made when the elder Bush chose Quayle. They called him inexperienced, ``a heart-beat away'', and tried to make him look stupid all the time (it wasn't hard). But look at that outcome. I think the Obama campaign should focus on McCain. Remember him? He is actually running for President. Today, as America continues to reel from the horrible financial news, Obama is off to California for a multimillion-dollar love fest with the Hollywood elite. I like Obama, but think he is making a huge mistake here. He wants to win over votes from the ``everyman'', this will not do it. This will only make Palin seems more appealing to them. Why can't he see that?
    I am starting to take another look at Ron Paul. Both candidates are making me sick.
    - JN

  • 9/16 9:05am   PJT/DA: Very insightful article by David Brooks, a conservative, in today's NYTs. He makes some timely observations about the liberal elites v. populist everyman division, and its impact on governing. While admiring and praising her for all of her strengths, he barely stops short of saying Palin isn't ready. You don't have to work hard to get the point he's making. And he's right. Check it out. It's a well-reasoned and interesting perspective from an otherwise reliable Republican apologist. [article]
    - TC

  • 9/15 11:07pm   PJT: Yes, I do know what the Bush Doctrine is, as do most people who have paid attention to this administration's foreign policy. In case you think it's just the imagination of us crazy leftists, visit any of these sites for a short description of it. [boston.com] [AIE.org] [wikipedia]
    Gibson didn't have to edit to make Palin look bad; she did that all by herself. Editing, in fact, would have helped. Didn't those seconds while she searched her mind in vain for an answer seem to last a painfully long time? I hardly think it's asking a lot for our VP to be versed in the overriding foreign policy philosophy of the past eight years, particularly one that represents such a radical departure from our historic foreign policy and one that has costs 4500+ American lives and billions of dollars. You wouldn't hire a surgeon who hadn't mastered basic anatomy, would you?
    DA: I wasn't meaning to be derisive of religion per se. Hardly. I respect all religions and one's inalienable right to worship as one pleases. Call me crazy, but that old concept of separation of church and state is one of the American values I am particularly fond of. I don't believe in a "Christian litmus test" for public office. We're no better than other religious fanatics when we invoke God to justify a war, or pray for a pipeline. It's just wrong. Obama's resume may be thin, but he's demonstrated a genuine and complete understanding of the complexities facing the nation, and the world. Palin, not so much. And for a good Christian, she lies a lot.
    - TC

  • 9/15 8:51pm   TC - how is it that we should be questioning McCain's judgment on the Palin pick for the VP slot (you label her as a neophyte) when Sen. Obama's record of accomplishment is as thin as the topsoil on the Moonscape downtown?
    Charlie Gibson's probing of Palin on the Bush doctrine is yet another attempt to paint this ticket as the 3rd term of GW - well it isn't. Much to moveon.org's chagrin, the "Hitlerian" regime isn't running this time around.
    Your derisive dismissal of Gov. Palin's religious beliefs (TC, why don't you burn your money - after all, it proclaims "In God We Trust"?) and her culture (hunting like our forefathers did) are where the Obama-Biden ticket could run into trouble. Those folks who "cling to guns and religion" are a key swing constituency. This election will be won or lost in the heartland where salt of the earth types, not liberal elites, will voice themselves at the ballot box. Don't be surprised if Obama wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote. (And don't forget the states that Hillary Clinton won in the final months of the primary season. McCain-Palin never was going to convert entrenched right to choose liberals, but enough moderate Democrats and Independents could very well come their way to make a difference.)
    Finally, I find it deliciously ironic that women in the post feminist era recoil at someone who has such a well-rounded life experience in the public and private arena. The venom directed at the Republican VP choice has reached the hysterical level of Howard Dean's famous howl in 2004.
    - DA

  • 9/15 8:11pm   Hey TC, Do you what the Bush Doctrine Is? Where is it written? Are there several media versions of it? Gov Palin was 100% correct to ask Gibson to clarify his question. That interview was edited to make the Governor look bad. ABC should have done an interview with no edits, like Bill O'Reilly did with Obama last week.
    BTW, please vote tomorrow and vote for Ed O'Reilly, time to retire Kerry.
    - PJT

  • 9/15 10:14am   Interestingly, the taxpayers are not bailing out the home buyers, just the corporations that made the bad loans. The home buyers are getting only a short-term moratorium on foreclosures.
    As to responsibility -- it is impossible for borrowers' inability to say no to cause a mortgage crisis. That's not how the market works -- too many foolish consumer purchases never force the store to go bankrupt.
    - AR

  • 9/13 12:46am   My husband and I were very disappointed to find out from our children that 9-11 was not mentioned in their schools (both F/C and HOD). Children were not encouraged to remember the significance of the day during the moment of silence nor did their teachers talk about the importance of the day. Remember the statement "We shall never forget"? How will we remember when we don't teach, acknowledge and remind our children of this terrible day in our nation's history. Hundreds of firemen and thousands of innocent civilians perished that day from this act of terror. This attack on our country was what prompted our troops to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. Isn't this important for our children to know why we are in a war for the past 7 years? Does this bother any other parents?
    - JM

  • 9/12 6:09pm   So, the savior of the Republican ticket, the person who could become president should her 72-year-old, cancer-surviving boss pass away in office, has no idea what the Bush Doctrine is? No big deal, just a pesky little detail about whether or not the U.S. should invade other countries without provocation, destabilize regions of the world, send young enlistees to their deaths, and potentially cause death and destruction around the globe.
    Perhaps that's for God to worry about, not the potential vice president of the U.S. Iraq was God's task, after all. She doesn't presume to know his will, or speak his words, unless of course, it suits her. (In a email Palin wrote to her friends and family after the birth of her last child, she said ``Children are the most precious and promising ingredient in this mixed-up world you live in down there on Earth.'' She signed it, "Trig's Creator, Your Heavenly Father." Was she having an out-of-body experience?)
    So, it seems experience does count, as does one's ability to master information. Judgment is high on the list of qualifications, too. Despite his many years in the Senate, McCain demonstrated not only a lack of judgment putting this neophyte next in line to lead the free world, but managed to insult women at the very same time. Are us gals really supposed to be satisfied that she's an attractive, well-spoken beauty queen who can bring home the bacon after hunting it too than we are concerned that she hasn't a clue what a VP does, hasn't really thought about Iraq, and has never met a head of state? McCain dumped his first wife for Cindy, a rich trophy wife who he has slandered and verbally abused in public. Now he demonstrates that same shameless lack of respect for all women by thinking Miss Alaska is going to be enough for us. This is sexism at its worst. Women should be outraged.
    - TC

  • 9/12 12:45am   Not to change the subject away from the delightful and warm-hearted discussion regarding our national election; but did you all receive a visit from a campaigner for Thomas Roache running as an independent for State Rep against Richard Ross? Since this affects our town directly, I am curious to hear anyone's support/scorn/whatever of Richard Ross or anyone's thought on this particular race. What has Ross done in the past two terms (he is now running for a third, was he unopposed last election??) for us here in Norfolk and is it likely we need a change? I am just asking. I really have not followed exactly what Ross has done here. I have met him and he is very nice. I know that he runs a funeral home in Wrentham; I have called that funeral home in my work as hospice nurse, they are very nice and professional there, I might add.
    No one is running against him as a Democrat. Interesting, as this seems like it would be the year of the Democrat.
    I am not trying to bait anyone; nor do I have an opinion either way, yet. I am just curious to know what people think. Please do not attack me. Thanks.
    And a sad and sincere bow and, yes, prayer, to all of those innocent victims and heroes that lost their lives on this day 7 years ago. I get chills every time I think about that new mom who was from Wellesley that went on her first business trip after the birth of her child. I was haunted by what she must have been thinking while stuck on that doomed flight. How sad for all of them; but this one struck me to the core, my daughter being only 2 at the time.
    - JN

  • 9/10 2:33pm   Wm: A valid story, true, but not worthy of all the attacks.
    You specifically called the author dishonest for omitting the next day's back-pedaling. I disagreed; if quoted accurately the unrehearsed off-the-cuff Wednesday comments stand stand on their own, and are a fair topic for commentary.
    Since she's a rather obscure political figure and the comments fairly recent, only two years old, it's not all that dead of an issue, either.
    - Wm.

  • 9/10 7:42am   AR: I agree with what you say totally. However, peoples inability to say no has to be taken into account as well. That is all I am saying. The sub-prime market and the greedy mortgage companies who took on their debt are clearly to blame, but lets not let the consumers off so easily. If some guy making 40K thinks he can afford a house that costs 400K because a salesman tells him he can is a fool. Even if he is promised that he will be able to re-finance. Financial prudence did not play a part in any of these decisions.
    But take heart, the hard-working taxpayers will bail them out and all will be well. Right? Meanwhile, they are reporting on the news that some people who were foreclosed on are now buying new homes that are at a much lower, bargain price. I know that many cannot do that, but when I heard about that, I was like, what? Crazy, I tell you.
    Well, hopefully the market value of our homes will start to rise again and there will be some regulation going forward. Just keep chanting, January 2009, January 2009.
    - JN

  • 9/9 11:46pm   JN, not quite. Foreclosures (obesity) are caused by borrowing too much (eating donuts). Personal responsibility.
    The mortgage crisis is Dunkin Donuts going bankrupt for selling its donuts below cost.
    Home mortgages are a product like any other, and pricing those mortgages (donuts) according to their true risk (cost of production) is a corporate responsibility. The price of a loan is the interest rate.
    People signed for those loans because they were great deals; it was to their every advantage to sign. They lost nothing -- they got a house, and if they defaulted, they're back to renting again.
    In a free market system it's not the role of the buyer to ensure the long-term viability of the seller. Keeping the system sustainable was the responsibility of the people who understood it and who set the rates and sold the loans. The borrower does not set rates, and is not expected to understand collateralized obligations or the role of insurers or reinsurers -- the lender is.
    Ironically, in the end the free market found the perfect free market solution to the problem: someone else's money. The taxpayer's. The government has bailed out lenders, will bail out more to come, and has just taken on the risk of the losses from defaulting home loans. Because it's too important not to, and they're -- well, banking on it.
    - AR

  • 9/9 9:42pm   JN - Sorry to hurt your feelings. I was not being pious or mean and I do not spit, it is impolite. I do however, feel strongly that the Palin/McCain ticket is bad for the country for the many reasons I have mentioned in this forum. The idea of 4 more years of the direction in which we are currently headed horrifies me. MJD
    - MJD

    [Revised wording 10:46pm]

  • 9/9 5:01pm   AR: Saying the mortgage crisis was caused only by the mortgage companies is like saying that the obesity problem is caused by Dunkin Donuts. People signed for those loans. There has to be some personal responsibility as well. Come on.
    - JN

  • 9/9 4:56pm   MJD: Oh, please. Give me a break. Don't be so pious. Oh, I forgot. You spitting-mad left leaning liberals cannot possibly see past your own rhetoric. Your anger is simply unwarranted towards me. You have no way of knowing how I will vote or what my beliefs are. So back off and look at the bigger picture for once. I am merely having a discussion of the issues. Gee... you guys are way too mean. It helps no one.
    - JN

  • 9/9 4:25pm   Re: The mortgage crisis was not only caused by predatory lenders but also by the people who want more, more, more.
    I think that describes the increase in foreclosure rates, which are indeed due to spending beyond personal means.
    The mortgage crisis, however, was a lucrative scam beyond the reach of individual home buyers; it was caused by lenders knowingly extending credit to unqualified borrowers because they knew they could in turn resell the risk, and the other investors would be left holding the bag. As long as they could round up more warm bodies willing to sign, they were minting money.
    To have you take all the risk and I get all the reward is generally a bad idea.
    Related to this are the economic stimulus checks - many people don't realize the magnitude of the crisis that was narrowly averted. The stiumulus checks were to help tide over the crisis, which had the potential to cause cascading bank failures and a significant economic collapse like in 1929.
    - AR

  • 9/9 1:33pm   Gee whiz, JN, I am so happy that you can feel better about Palin/McCain now. I, on the other hand am worried about losing the right to control my reproductive health. I am also concerned that Palin is a global-warming naysayer and that we'll be living in houseboats in the next decade or two. God's blessing of the Iraq war and the natural gas pipeline [youtube link], ties to big oil, banned books and even the suggestion of teaching Creationism in the public schools gives me the willies. Oh and BTW, we Protestants also believe in redemption so there is still hope even for the most misguided social conservative.
    - MJD

  • 9/9 11:33am   Wm: A valid story, true, but not worthy of all the attacks. There are so many other issues to attack. This seems a dead issue. At least for me, if McCain/Palin do win, I can feel better, at least where this one issue is concerned.
    - JN

  • 9/8 4:44pm   All of this talk about Palin being a creationist was disturbing to me and to my husband, who is a scientist. So we did some digging and found this. The media only tells us things that ignite sensationalism. Plus, I didn't think that McCain was that stupid.
    But this is going to be a point of attack for the left, as Wired Magazine's Brandon Keim demonstrates in this article: McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School [ref]
    Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin wants creationism taught in science classes.

    In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, the soon-to-be governor of Alaska trotted out [ref] the usual creationist education canard: ``Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.''

    Teaching evolution and creationism in a scientifically balanced way is simply impossible. Evolution is accepted by scientists as driving the development of life on Earth. Creationism, which puts a (Christian) God in the engine room of life, is unsupported by science. Its arguments have been roundly dismissed by scientists -- many of whom, it should be noted, believe in God. They're just sensible enough to understand where science ends and religion begins.

    This is all true as far as it goes, but it's a bit dishonest of Keim not to quote the rest of Palin's statements in the article he linked: `Creation science' enters the race [ref]
    In an interview Thursday, Palin said she meant only to say that discussion of alternative views should be allowed to arise in Alaska classrooms: ``I don't think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn't have to be part of the curriculum.''

    She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum. Members of the state school board, which sets minimum requirements, are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature.

    ``I won't have religion as a litmus test, or anybody's personal opinion on evolution or creationism,'' Palin said.

    I think all of the players in this election should be judged on their merit. Although, I must say that I heard Biden trot out some Catholic stuff on Meet the Press this Sunday. Something about how ``we Catholics believe in redemption''. But I won't judge him on that, even though I am protestant. I did notice that his forehead didn't move---what is with all the botox heads lately. I like foreheads to move. John Kerry's doesn't move either. Do they really think it makes them look younger? Maybe they will make that the next issue in politics, plastic surgery. Does he, or doesn't he? I think it makes them look spooky.
    P.S. by the way, Comedy central replays the Jon Stewart show an the Colbert Report (two of my favorites) at 8pm on channel 61 on comcast. I can't stay up past 11 anymore.
    - JN

    [If the "rest of Palin's statements" were in a separate interview Thursday, it's legitimate to analyze Wednesday's impromptu comments -- they're in context and in their entirety. Lots of people may regret their choice of words the next day, it's still a valid story. - Wm.]

  • 9/6 11:43pm   This is priceless! Another norfolknetter sent this link to me today. [comedycentral.com link]
    - MJD

  • 9/6 8:49pm   Sarah Palin is attractive. She reminds me of a cross between Tina Fey and Karen on Will and Grace. She is also funny, in a sarcastic, caustic kind of way. I like that kind of humor on T.V.; not in the White House. I want a serious, well-educated, compassionate, democracy-focused, committed, and fair-minded team in Washington, not more of the same snarky, double-dealing, war-mongering, sell-your-grandmother-to-make-a-buck or gain political advantage type of leadership. Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." A McCain/Palin administration is like electing Bush/Cheney all over again. No one in the administration will even need to clean out their offices. The place will stay the same. When Chelsea Clinton campaigned for her mother, the media claimed she was being "pimped out." Chelsea is an adult woman who can make her own choices. That little baby boy of Palin's has been made the poster child for the Pro-Life agenda, as has her pregnant teenage daughter and her baby's young father. Sure, I know a few people whose shotgun weddings turned out OK twenty years later, but very few. Most have divorced and their children and their families suffer bitterly for these decisions. Palin's shameless use of her children as leverage for her political positions proves that she is just more of the same.
    When the news came out about the young women in Gloucester and their pregnancies, Jay Severin, Michael Graham, Laura Ingram, and other far-right leaning talk show hosts said things like, "What happened to shame as a deterrent for teen pregnancy?" "I am tired of paying for the care and keeping of bastard children." "These girls go and get knocked up and are welcomed back to school with free daycare centers and condoms." Wow, has their tune changed in the last week! Now, magically, it is actually a virtue to be a pregnant teen. I am honestly surprised that they did not try to float a virgin birth scenario.
    So, Palin may be a pitbull with lipstick, but her policies and the policies of her political pals are more akin to a putting lipstick on a pig. Same stuff, different day. Slap a coat of paint on it, and it's new and shiny for a while. Once that lipstick wears off, it's Republican politics as usual. Nice try boys, but no sale! I'm a soccer mom. I wear chapstick with SPF 50. (There's a hole in the ozone, or haven't you heard?)
    - MJD

  • 9/6 8:44pm   Regarding the energy bill: Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.3335 )
    Guess who did not show up to vote, leading to its defeat?
    Not Voting - 6
    Kennedy (D-MA)
    McCain (R-AZ)
    McCaskill (D-MO)
    Obama (D-IL)
    Rockefeller (D-WV)
    Wicker (R-MS)
    McCain and Obama. Sad, but true. For all the talk, no action, by either candidate. I will give Kennedy a pass since he has a terminal brain tumor, and John Kerry voted yes. So did Biden. Must give him credit for doing what he says he believes in.
    This is a stalemate now. I think that it may stay that way until after the presidential election. Politics gets in the way of doing what is right. Why doesn't the government run more like a business? Because they don't have to. The shareholders, American citizens, do not demand it. We do not pay attention. It is so complex that we cannot understand a lot of it, I will say that. But for all the talk about new energy sources and drill, drill, drill; basically, nothing is going to happen. Unbelievable that there is no outrage about this.
    - JN

  • 9/6 8:43pm   JN - As far as the economy and the mortgage crisis is concerned. I suggest downloading an excellent podcast from This American Life with Ira Glass. It was an amazing production that includes interviews with banking/mortgage professionals at all levels as well as mortagees facing foreclosure. It is a gripping explanation of the way the market was built and how it was manipulated to make a few people a ton of money. The episode is called, "The Giant Pool of Money" and can be downloaded from itunes. It is the best explanation I have heard about the crisis and how it all happened. It is absolutely worth the hour!
    - MJD

  • 9/6 8:41pm   BTW, here is some info on the energy bill. We really should be paying attention to the actual work being done on this bill.
    [Senate.gov page]
    Senator Domenici serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The committee's jurisdiction includes oversight and legislative responsibilities for: national energy policy, including international energy affairs and emergency preparedness; nuclear waste policy; privatization of federal assets; territorial policy (including changes in status and issues affecting Antarctica); Native Hawaiian matters; and Ad Hoc issues. The committee has four subcommittees Energy, National Parks, Public Lands and Forests, and Water and Power.
    Senator Domenici's focus has been to reform and update America's energy infrastructure. During his tenure as Chairman, he led Congress to pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was signed into law by President Bush during a visit to Albuquerque, NM in August of that year. This landmark bill made significant strides to diversify America's energy supply, promote renewable technology like wind, solar, and biomass, and promote clean nuclear energy. It also took steps to make America's electricity grid more reliable.
    What are our senators doing to help with the energy crisis? Kerry is up for re-election, where does he stand? How about his opponent? Will we blindly re-elect Kerry without looking at what he has been doing for the past two years? I know that I have not paid attention. But I am going to start.
    - JN

  • 9/6 8:39pm   ``Facing what seemed like a similar situation in 1992, Clinton ran on the promise of a multibillion dollar stimulus package that would generate jobs, mainly through public works spending. He withdrew the proposal after winning the election, however, at a moment when employment was rising and the unemployment rate gradually declining.'' Hmmmm.......
    And now: ``The economy expanded in the second quarter at a healthy annual rate of 3.3 percent, a response in part to families spending their rebate checks from the first stimulus package and to a surge in exports as the dollar weakened ``
    So says the NYT.
    Seems that the ``economy'' is based, sadly, on what people are willing to spend. And people are not spending anymore. So, the answer is to give them more money so that they can spend more and stores and services can expand and create more menial jobs and drive the employment rates up again and then all seems well? I don't know. That doesn't seem to work, either. I do not think there is a perfect answer.
    I grew up in a small town, in Western PA. One would think that Norfolk could be considered a small town, but we really aren't. More like a bedroom community to Boston. I didn't really want to believe that there is this huge urban and small town class divide, but I see that there really is. Growing up, my parents believed in hard work, saving money and living beneath your means. The eschewed credit cards. They believed that if the times were tough, you made do. People from where I grew up still believe in the same thing. And they like to bowl and drink beer and enlist in the army and I suppose they like hunting and fishing and they really look out for one another. They believe that the government is there to help them and they do cling to their religion, especially in tough times. But they still are divided as well between these two candidates. Most of it has to so with the same things that I mentioned before, taxes and the war. Issues like abortion rights come into play, but not as much as in urban areas where women are more liberal and speak out. I guess being able to put food on the table trumps issues like global warming, gay rights and abortion.
    People lose jobs all of the time, not only in election years. People struggle even under democratic presidents. I did volunteer work for the Grow Clinic in Boston (a clinic for malnourished children). They had their record number of admissions to the program under Bill Clinton's watch. So it really is a problem that we always have, poverty, and it is not really ever addressed properly. The middle class struggles are sad, but not like poverty. Real poverty. Which we have plenty of in the USA.
    I wish the candidates would get rid of their advisors and just talk. Real talk. Everything is so scripted, on both sides. They are just trying to win votes. I am not sure that either one can do all they say. I am not sure they even really believe everything they say. I think both VP picks are simply window dressing. And I think that either presidential candidate will be better than what we have now.
    I any event, the fact that this election has interesting players may actually cause folks to shake off their inertia and become engaged in the process. That in itself is exciting. I know that Gov, Palin has many shortfalls, but it really would have been politics as ``yawn'' usual if he had picked a career Washington insider to run as VP. No one is that excited about Biden, let me tell you. No one wants to say it, but Biden is the ``same old, same old''. (Can you tell I do not like Joe Biden?)
    I do have to say that I like John McCain and I like Barack Obama. I also liked Hillary. Too bad they cannot work together. That would really shake things up. That would be good for America. But, party lines are party lines. Almost makes me want to vote for Ron Paul.
    However, we cannot solely rely upon the President to act as a panacea for all of our ails. We have to look to our house and senate as well. The Dems control both and things have only become worse in America. They hold some blame as well. We need to pay attention to that as well. We need to really pay attention to what they are doing, or not doing. All politics are local, do we even know what our reps are voting for or working on? How about John Kerry? He is up for re-election as well. Has anyone looked at his competition? Does anyone care?
    We say that we are engaged. But listening to sound bites from a pep rally is really not tuning into what is really going on.
    - JN

  • 9/6 8:34pm   JN writes: The mortgage crisis was not only caused by predatory lenders but also by the people who want more, more, more.
    JN, I think you're describing the increase in foreclosure rates, which are indeed due to spending beyond personal means.
    The mortgage crisis, however, is a lucrative scam beyond the reach of individual home buyers; it was caused by lenders knowingly extending credit to unqualified borrowers because they knew they could in turn resell the risk, and the other investors would be left holding the bag. As long as they could round up more warm bodies willing to sign, they were minting money.
    To have you take all the risk and I get all the reward is generally a bad idea.
    - AR

  • 9/6 1:35am   How can McCain/Palin preach change with a straight face while talking trickle-down Reaganomics at the same time? It was change when Reagan first introduced this "Reverse Robin Hood" scheme (tax the poor, return money to the rich), but now, after 20 years of it, it's just the same old, same old.
    I guess if the public wants change, it's called change no matter what it is that they're selling. "Change you want, mister? I got just the change for you, right here, brand new, nice shiny change! Came in just this morning! Hardly used!" Buyer beware.
    Oh, and that bridge to nowhere that Palin so eloquently rejected, "thanks, but no thanks" -- wasn't she herself in favor of the project? And didn't she keep the pork-barrel funds the state got? At times the more things change, the more they stay the same.
    - AR

  • 9/6 12:40am   TC, your observations are extraordinary. It came as no surprise that last night's sermonette from McCain also did not offer a single solution or plan that addressed the enormous problems facing us all. It was all crowd-pleasing rhetoric and patriotic fervor, containing absolutely no proposals whatsoever. It is becoming obvious Palin was selected to do the same and carry out the same tiresome strategy (two more months of it). Her positions on a wide range of issues including choice, abortion, gay rights, favoring the teaching of creationism in the schools, opposition to cell-stem research, opposition to sex education in the schools, privatization of health insurance, antiquated views on global warming, and her justification for the war in Iraq are extremist and far to the Right. To suggest as some would like us to believe (including JM on this very site) that the "average" woman or a majority of women in this country are in agreement with her or would toss aside their own best interests to support her is wishful thinking on the part of McCain, as well as being grossly inaccurate. I do believe, however, that Palin will make the race closer (for all the wrong reasons) but, ultimately, further exposure and debate will reveal just how extreme, rigid, and fanatical she really is, a reality no amount of smiles or lipstick will mask or soften.
    - TEM

  • 9/6 12:29am   I really think that Americans will be focused on two things in this election, beyond the historic significance of our candidates. Those are the war and taxes. Seems the candidates agree on other things, like climate change, immigration reform and the like. They disagree on Roe v Wade and gay marriage, but those are well-entrenched party ideologies. I do not think that those two issues will decide the election, although they are important.
    TC mentioned the Washington Post. Here is what they had written regarding taxes:
    ``Democrats, including Clinton and Obama, have said they want to keep the social-relief provisions, as well as income tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 a year, to help strengthen the middle class. By taking tax cuts away from the rich, the candidates suggest that they will generate cash that could be spent elsewhere.

    But that is not technically true. The middle-class tax cuts also reduce revenue -- by about $800 billion over the next decade, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

    "They said President Bush was fiscally irresponsible for enacting the tax cuts, but on balance, they would increase the deficit by just as much," said Len Burman, the center's director. "All of the campaigns understand that, but they've collectively decided they can't recognize the reality that we're spending beyond our means."

    Of the three candidates, budget analysts said McCain has been most aggressive at identifying ways to reduce spending. "We have to cut spending everywhere," said McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin . But McCain's proposals come nowhere near generating the sums necessary to meet the costs, analysts said. ``

    So there seems to still be a lot of debate about this. One thing is for sure; Americans have to stop spending beyond their means and then expecting the government to bail them out. I for one think there has to be some personal responsibility here. The mortgage crisis was not only caused by predatory lenders but also by the people who want more, more, more. Bush just recently sent out a tax rebate to millions of middle class Americans; I did not see that help the economy at all.
    And this is what the NYT reported on Palin and ``Librarygate'': ``Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.'' One thing is clear; this will be an interesting 60 days!
    - JN

  • 9/4 10:34pm   Palin is one tough woman - articulate and poised under pressure (she's had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at her in the mainstream media and the liberal blogs). Her comment about hockey moms and pit bulls was priceless (I look forward to her duel with Sen. Biden). Concerns about her ability to deal with foreign policy seem disingenuous given that Sen. Obama is a neophyte in that area (his responses to the Georgian crisis underscored this). As governor she has ultimate control of her state's national guard, which isn't only patroling Alaskan airspace in close proximity to Russia but has likely seen duty in Iraq. She seems to have a handle on the energy arena as well. Alaska may have famously been dubbed "Seward's Folly" when it was purchased from Russia, but I think that just like that real estate deal literally struck gold, John McCain's choice of Palin has unearthed a diamond in the rough. Like that gem, she has sparkled and demonstrated her toughness. By comparison, she makes our own governor look like Mr. Milquetoast.
    - DA

  • 9/4 10:34pm   Palin's speech last night was very impressive. She is perhaps the most savvy selection of an attack dog (err, I mean "pit bull with lipstick") that McCain could have made. Her arrival on the stage was a genuine relief after the angry, fear-mongering, nasty, hateful speeches by Romney and Guiliani. How disappointing to realize she is just another mean-spirited ideologue, albeit in a dress.
    The fact that she didn't actually address most of the issues, or propose any solutions to the problems facing the country is troubling. Health care? Social Security? Mortgage crisis? Education (save a nod to school vouchers)? No Child Left Behind? The ones she did address she got wrong. For example, Obama's tax policy repeals the Bush tax breaks on those making $250K per year; 95 percent of all Americans make less than that and would receive tax relief! Others studies indicate Obama's plan would raise AFTER TAX INCOMES for middle class families by 5%, or $2,200 annually; McCain's plan would increase after tax incomes for middle class families by 3%, while extending BILLIONs in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and wealthy corporations. Those corporations include oil companies, whose profits have reached astronomical levels ($40 billion+ for Exxon Mobile), while gas and fuel prices have overburdened taxpayers at the pump, grocery stores, furnace, why right down to the cost of school lunches here in Norfolk!)
    Palin's hugely choreographed introduction was well done, no doubt. But was it really anything more than a cheerleading rally for the same old, same old? She has some brilliant lines, and delivered them beautifully, but where is the substance? The names of countries sprinkled through her text did little to convince me that she has one iota of ability to handle the complex foreign policy challenges of our times (despite Alaska's proximity to Russia).
    Today, the Bush crowd is madly briefing Palin on foreign policy issues. Should McCain die in office, and Palin get the 3 a.m. phone call, you can expect the same as you have gotten for the past 8 years. They might as well call Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, or Paul Wolfowitz. This is the "change" we need?
    Look who this woman really is. In a recent commencement address, she referred to our efforts in Iraq as doing the work of God? She actually promoted the concept of a "true Christian Mayor" during her campaign in Alaska. (Does she really speak to and for the average woman, or just Christian women?) She fired a librarian for not agreeing to censor books in the Wasilla library, only to rehire her after public outcry. On Tuesday, the Washington Post ran a story that said, as mayor of Wasilla, Palin secured more than $27 million in federal earmarks for a town with only 6,700 residents! No pork??
    As for the double standard regarding Michelle Obama, I think not. The Obamas are not out there promoting the standard Republican family values platform. I make no judgments about working or non-working moms, nor about dads doing child care. As Palin said last night, and I paraphrase, there is no typical family (as long as they're heterosexual!). Unlike the Republicans, I believe that whatever works for one's family is what they should do, and it's their choice, all around.
    - TC

  • 9/4 1:29pm   Palin's speech last night was better than I had expected. I am really looking forward to the debates! Hopefully, more people will become engaged in the election, as this year is a really exciting one. Sorry, to disagree with you, TC, you do make some good points, but I do not think that women have come very far if other women are questioning their decision to be a working mom. After all, the dad will be there. What about Obama's kids? I don't see Michelle at home baking cookies and driving the carpool. What about quality time with her kids? From what I read, her mother is the primary parent. Double standard?
    And by the way, choice is, well, a choice. Palin and her husband standing there with her beautiful Down's syndrome child was not a political statement. Actually, I wish that abortion was not so politicized; it is, after all, a medical procedure. I do think that women are not just focused on that issue alone. The last thing that I would have thought last night was that she was holding her baby up for political reasons; perhaps she is simply a proud Mom. I think you are off the mark there.
    Scrutiny is one thing; attacking someone because his or her daughter made a bad choice is in poor taste. The media will look for anything to try to sensationalize the news. A huge ice shelf just dissolved, and they are still focusing on trivial matters. I am starting to watch our news less, BBC more. At least they report the facts.
    I think Palin will have a lot of appeal to women in general. Not liberal, left wing Hillary fans, but the average woman, who, I would venture to guess, is the majority. I did like Hillary; too bad Bill carried such baggage for her. Obama would have been elected hands-down if she were his running mate. Now he is stuck with Bob Barker. Oh, God help us if Obama gets assassinated, I would rather have Palin than Biden as President.
    - JN

  • 9/3 9:40pm   Who knew the lovely Spears sisters would play such a role in the 2008 election! It's so American! First it was McCain's celebrity ad, linking Obama to Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears, suggesting he was as vapid and superficial as they. Today, we see a picture of Brittany's sister Jamie Lynn, the most well-known teen mom in American, side by side with the unfortunate daughter of Sarah Palin. They've become the poster children (no pun intended) for children having children. Amazingly, Focus on the Family and their gang have found these circumstances quintessentially American, and suddenly quite virtuous. No wonder they don't want condoms in school!
    I disagree that Palin is being vilified; she's being scrutinized. Right or wrong, that is fair game in our political system. If Obama's association with Rev. Wright, his preference for arugula, and his lapel pin are relevant to the electorate, then so is Palin's association with the religious right, her support of abstinence education (sorry, but the irony is there!), Troopergate, and anything else that reveals her beliefs and how she might govern.
    I, too, am a 40-something working mom, but I don't see myself reflected back when I look at her. Instead, I see a woman willing to hold her developmentally challenged infant son up to all the women in the country who may have faced similarly wrenching, extremely personal choices, and claiming to have made the better one. I see a woman who clearly has no plans to administer daily care to her infant son; working parents with non-special needs children have a hard enough time juggling it all. What chance does the developmentally challenged son of the Vice President of the U.S. (or Gov. of Alaska for that matter) have for quality floor time with mom? I see a woman who laughed aloud but said nothing while a radio shock jock called her competitor/nemesis and cancer-surviving Alaska Senate president fat and "a cancer." In the next breath, this person, who also questioned the woman's commitment to her own children since she worked so hard in the Senate, offered to help Palin in any way he could. Laughing right along, Palin graciously accepted any help he wanted to give her. That is hardly the behavior of someone who understands women's issues.
    I don't disagree that McCain has a long, storied political career. In fact, until this election season, I was comforted to think that if we had another Republican administration, at least it would be McCain. Sadly, the depth of his experience and his integrity were eclipsed by his shocking sell-out. That speaks to his judgment, and sometimes that is more important than a long, impressive resume.
    It is horrifying to think that with the economy in shambles, a full-scale health care crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unending conflict in the Middle East, and the widespread erosion of America's reputation and leadership around the world, the conversation is going to be about Palin's 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy. I admit the hypocrisy of it all is thoroughly entertaining, but Obama, JN, and others are right. Who really cares?
    - TC

  • 9/3 9:35pm   TC - you are hysterical!! I couldn't agree more with what you wrote. I am calling her Miss Alaska from now on - too funny. The thought of Sarah Palin negotiating with terrorists, the Russians, North Korea or anyone for that matter scares the hell out of me. This woman in not qualified to be the leader of the free world should something happen to John McCain. His choice is so obviously pandering to the Hillary Clinton voters that it's an insult to women. If her "credentials" were on a man... he would not be McCain's running mate. I was afraid JM might pick Romney, now I wish he had. I'd feel a little safer with him getting the 3 am phone call than Miss Alaska. Let's hope Obama wins!
    - LL

  • 9/2 5:23pm   For the election page: (boo on the election page--it should all be on one page, in my opinion. :-))
    Now Palin's daughter is pregnant. I just think it does not get any better than this. Now real issues that real people have will have to be talked about and confronted. I think it is the best thing that ever happened to this country. No more white washing things.
    Personally, I think they made a quick choice with Palin and did not do all of their homework, but I read that everyone in Alaska knew about the pregnancy, it was not a secret. I personally feel it is a non-issue. The Democrats can't really make it an issue because Barack's own mother was18 and unwed when she had him. Forget about conservatives and liberals for a moment and just focus on people. We al have different beliefs, but we all walk through this life together and have many similar issues and problems and joys, for that matter.
    I just find it all fascinating.
    Hopefully, at some point, they will get down to the nitty-gritty and we can leave Peyton Place and hear about real issues. Like the war, the economy, etc....
    Oh, I wish Tim Russert were still alive. He would have LOVED this!!
    - JN

  • 9/2 2:58pm   TC - "Reading these candidates backgrounds should be required to vote." You're correct that people need to make an informed choice in November. Have you really looked at Sen. Obama's background? It's thin gruel compared to the substantial resume of Sen. McCain.
    What McCain lacks in mellifluousness, he more than compensates for in experience - one that is based on substantial bipartisan initiatives. Furthermore, Sen. Biden is an odd choice for a presidential candidate who claims to espouse change. In contrast, Sarah Palin offers a refreshing shift from the same tired politics.
    You may disagree with her on some social issues, but who can argue with her record of reform? She actually delivered on property tax relief for her constituents, something that I'm still waiting for from Deval Patrick. Ironically, I think her experience as an executive (mayor and governor) charged with making decisions bests the community organizer/indecisive state legislator from Illinois (who had a propensity to merely vote "present" during his tenure). Sen. Obama certainly has run a wonderful campaign, but that's far different than running a country.
    - DA

  • 9/2 2:44pm   Not to be cranky about this but the best thing about Sarah Palin is that she reminds me that a certain Barack Obama really has no qualifications to be president except that he makes nice speehes
    - DL

  • 9/2 2:39pm   Regarding Palin: What I find most interesting is that Senator Obama gave this wonderful speech about the American dream. How we should all be able to achieve it. So here is this woman who did in fact do it! She achieved the American dream. And from what I have read, she has done it with smarts and determination. So what does she get from America? She's vilified. So, it seems to me that we only believe in the American dream when it suits our purposes and our own beliefs. There are probably more woman in America who believe in what she does than we care to think about, gals. But I am just talking achievement here, that is all.
    Our beloved current VP has more experience in foreign affairs than anyone, and look where that has gotten us. So that's a useless yardstick. (That used to be my argument for supporting Barack, but I guess it applies to Palin, too)
    I guess the bottom line for me is, although I do not believe in all she appears to stand for (and I hope that she gets a chance to tell us all what she really stands for instead of just getting sound bites from Entertainment Tonight, er, I mean CNN) I really like seeing my own self reflected back to me (meaning 40-something working mother) instead of just middle-aged white men. It is nice for once. Hillary just isn't my demographic. That's all. It probably won't sway my vote, but like it. I really like it. But, who knows, she may be better than any one of us expects. People surprise me every day.
    - JN

  • 8/31 10:16am   What I find hilarious about all the people raising issues with Sarah Palin's "readiness" is that they are totally ignoring the fact that Obama has never run anything bigger than his Senate office. Why does four years as a US Senator, running a staff of 50 or 100 people, qualify you to be president but actually being the Chief Executive of a state disqualify you. If you set aside their beliefs and their policies and want to base it on management experience only, then Palin is much more qualified to be president then Obama. Remember folks, this is the first time in many years that our choice for president will be made from two men whose government experience is entirely legislative. This means that their chief qualifications are making speeches and raising money. At least Sarah Palin has actually run something, however small and however briefly.
    - DL

  • 8/31 7:48am   Sarah Palin's selection has left me speechless! I didn't think I could be more offended by McCain's shameless tactics. All this nonsense about Country First, blah blah. To put this neophyte a heartbeat from presidency is not only preposterous, it is downright reckless. She may be an impressive person in her own right, but hell, lots of people are. That doesn't get you the #2 spot as leader of the free world! OMG! Harriet Meyers, anyone? Makes her seem quite qualified by comparison. It's Rovian dumbing down at its worst. It's insulting to women that they're supposed to be lured because she's female. She's a neo-con, creationist, anti-environmentalist, who has overseen a town with a population of 5,000 people! That's fewer than Norfolk! Can you imagine her negotiating the peace process in the Middle East? Commander in Chief? It's positively shocking. I agree, JN, this election is riveting. The stakes have never been higher, and I wish more of our Norfolk neighbors we're paying attention. I am shocked by the casual conversations I have in which it is clear so many people are not paying attention. Reading these candidates backgrounds should be required reading in order to vote. Palin is quite scary. Like Biden or not, I'd much rather he get the 3 a.m. call than Miss Alaska.
    - TC

  • 8/30 10:06am   JN - Tina Fey is a good call, I'm sure SNL will have fun with this one, but, my first impression was Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.
    - PC

  • 8/29 9:09pm   No discussion about Sarah Palin? Interesting choice. Does she or does she not remind you of Tina Fey. I for one find it all terribly interesting. Did not anticipate Palin. Never even gave her a thought. But liked her speech. She seems like no BS. I like that. Not so much some of her views, but I like her strength. I hated Joe Biden last night. He reminded me of Bob Barker or some used car salesman. And I almost cringed when he pointed and said, ``Love ya''. Yuk. But I did like Obama's speech. Politics have not been this exciting in decades. I am riveted.
    Will this comment be exiled to the ``political page?'' Too bad. There is this huge election coming up in like 63 days. Might be fun to see how Norfolk feels about our two candidates and their running mates.
    - JN

  • 5/28 10:27am   Is it just an election-year play for the "Commander in Chief" vote, or one last attempt at spiking the price of oil to $300 per barrel?
    NEW YORK - The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months ...

    Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

    Details provided by the administration raised alarm bells on Capitol Hill, the source said. After receiving secret briefings on the planned air strike, Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, said they would write a New York Times op-ed piece "within days", the source said last week, to express their opposition. Feinstein is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
    [article]

    Naturally, a strike on Iran will be a "last resort" -- just like with Iraq: first the attack date was picked, followed by half-hearted negotiations, then bombing. Would it make the situation in the Middle East worse? Of course! Would it be expensive and unpaid-for? You betcha! That's why it's important to have a leader who makes strong gut decisions, without letting the facts get in his way. Bloodletting and pillaging is the God-given right of the mighty. Vote more war!
    ... Would he really go through with it? He has only two months to prepare the groundwork, so watch for any increase in White House propaganda about the evils of the regime, comparisons to Hitler, terrorist threat to our nation, plus the usual redbaiting of aid to Iraqi resistance groups (unproven) and work toward nuclear weapons (disproved). Nothing is as pliable as a worried electorate.
    - AR

  • 5/27 5:42pm   Hello Norfolk residents,
    If you believe, we as a country, should be exploring for oil and other energy resources on our own soil and not importing oil from countries that hate us. Please read and sign this petition. It might not help us right now, but think of the future.
    If Bill Clinton didn't veto this legislation in 1998, we wouldn't be in this bad situation. Fell free to call Barney Frank, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy's office and let them know how you feel about this.
    [link to page]
    We, therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States, petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries.
    Thank you,
    - PJT

  • 5/13 10:09am   We were forwraded an article from the NY Times about Barney Frank, who is apparently bridging the left-right divide in Congress [NY Times: A Liberal Wit Builds Bridges to the G.O.P.]. He has been working on gathering support for helping homeowners at risk of foreclosure.
    With relations between the White House and the Democratic Congress growing more acidic as the presidential election approaches, Mr. Frank, 68 and in his 14th term, has emerged as a key deal-maker, an unlikely bridge between his partys left-wing base and the free-market conservatives in the administration, particularly Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.

    In the process, Mr. Frank has won praise, even from some Republican colleagues in the House who generally disagree with his politics but say he has treated them with a fair hand and an eye toward compromise.

    Within the administration, where some high-level officials privately refer to him as scary smart, no one is underestimating him. After the House approved his bill on Thursday, though without enough votes to override a veto, Mr. Frank quickly went on the offensive, seeking to undercut the administrations argument that homeowners in trouble should have known better.

    No dumb people got America into this problem, he snapped. You had to be really smart to understand collateralized debt obligation derivatives.

    Mr. Frank, who holds degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School, understands collateralized debt obligations.

    - Wm.

  • 5/12 10:37pm   The 'sheriff' is going to be busy in the North End while the Cheeseman is 'tied up' for awhile. Somebody's gotta make these beefs go away.
    - PA

  • 5/12 9:26pm   PA, if by "fairness" you mean that the sheriff is going to divert time away from his official duties to pursue more well publicized personal vendettas against local business owners then, bravo, we need more fair-minded people like the sheriff!"
    - ART

  • 5/12 6:08pm   PA - Now I understand. So that's why he had to leave the Board of Health?
    - DL

  • 5/12 2:22pm   TP - re 5/12 12:20pm Does anyone have a recommendation for an honest and reputable house cleaner. The first one which comes to mind is Rob Garrity
    - PC

  • 5/11 2:11pm   Two interesting tidbits which suggest that former candidate and superdelegate John Edwards (D-NC) is endorsing Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for President:
    First, as noticed in the LA Times, he may have made a slip in an MSNBC interview by referring to whom he voted for in the state primary as a "him"
    "I just voted, I just voted for him on Tuesday," he said. ...

    Ah, but we've all come to recognize Edwards' Southern accent lo these many months of debates and sound bites. It could have been: "I just voted for 'em on Tuesday."
    [LA Times]

    But he was also quoted on AP has having said on CBS's Face the Nation, talking about Hillary Clinton's new tack of suggesting that Obama is losing the White vote:
    "But I think the one thing that she has to be careful about ... going forward, is that, if she makes the case for herself, which she's completely entitled to do, she has to be really careful that she's not damaging our prospects, the Democratic Party, and our cause, for the fall"
    [AP News]
    This is a more subtle comment, but Edwards' caution clearly implies that Clinton's approach to building up support for her candidacy can hurt the Democrats' chances in November. That can happen either by turning voters away from Obama, or turning voters away from herself, or both. Now, Clinton and her advisers must weigh in advance the potential impact of her words -- she would not say something self-defeating that hurt her chances more than it hurt Obama's, or if it impacted her overall electability.
    Senator Edwards must know this -- thus we can infer from his comment that he believes the impact would be on Obama's support, and as saying that weakening Obama would weaken the Democratic Party's prospects in the general election. This would only be the case if Obama were the Democratic Party's chosen Presidential nominee. By voicing a caution Edwards is implying not only that he believes this to be so, but that interfering with it is undesirable: an endorsement.
    - AR

  • 5/7 11:06am   As far as a recount of the election results, if we go forth with that, Norfolk will soon be labeled as a town with electile dysfunction.
    - PA

  • 4/19 7:44pm   Re Election Page Post - TC, well said. I wonder if the Lone Ranger knows what we are paying for gasoline and home heaing oil, these days. One of his cowhands should give him daily updates.
    - LAW

  • 4/19 3:37pm   Bitter, anyone? A bad mood around tax time for those of us who have to write a check is not a surprise. But somehow the juxtaposition of writing a large check to the Feds while "bittergate" is playing out in the press has been particularly irritating. I am not philosophically opposed to taxes, and believe in civil society we all contribute to the greater good; paying taxes is the most obvious way. However, what I find much more shocking than Obama's poorly chosen words to make a valid point is the fact that it's taken almost 8 years for people to become "bitter," or angry. Talk about asleep at the wheel!
    The policies of this administration have created the greatest income gap in decades, the largest national debt, the greatest depreciation of home values in more than 40 years, and much more economic uncertainty. (I won't even start about the war.) At the same time, the average person's energy bills have tripled (gas, oil, electricity), the cost of food has skyrocketed, as has the cost of health care and essentially every other necessity of life, putting the average middle- and upper-class people in a total bind, while the richest 1 percent of of our population has seen the largest increase in personal wealth in our nation's history. (And no, middle class doesn't refer to those making $200k per year, as last Wednesday's debate moderators mistakenly said; talk about out of touch!)
    Add to the fact that the tax burden has fallen essentially on the middle class, services they they/we depend on most have been reduced or cut. Right here in Norfolk, public education funding continues to shrink, so the children are suffering; property taxes are skyrocketing to make up the difference; and those same middle-class taxpayers who are shouldering an disproportionate amount of the cost of the war and enriching the country's wealthiest people, are scraping together an extra few hundred dollars here and there to support the public school system, allegedly one of the foundations of democracy and a truly free, capitalist economy. Things have never been more upside down. Ironically, pundits predicted this very scenario in 1999, when the oil men threw their cowboy hats in the ring for the presidency.
    So, while I am not clinging to religion, or loading up a shotgun, I am bitter! Not un-American, unpatriotic, or anti-religion. It's just time someone said what is true: The average American has been royally fleeced these past 8 years. Nothing good happens from complacency. It's about time people got angry, or bitter. Please, don't vote for the person you'd most like to have a beer with. Vote for the person who is most likely to serve the interests of ALL the people of this country, not just a few. Have a beer with your real friends!
    - TC

  • 4/8 10:22am   US forces to Darfur? I thought the national policy was to send US forces to Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq and Iran, but to only bomb Sudan -- especially if they operate pharmaceutical factories.
    Foreign aid is a meritorious subject, one much neglected in this country, but with the disasters that he will have to attend to first, Obama will not have the time or opportunity to make any meaningful changes. I'm much more interested in how the US Presidential candidates would deal with the important issues that impact life in *our* country: pointless unending war, looming economic cataclysm, trampling of the Constitution, looting of the national wealth, destruction of the civil service -- these are my important considerations, not foreign aid.
    - AR

  • 4/7 4:50pm   If the phone at Town Hall is ringing at 3a.m., Rob Garrity is the guy I want answering it.
    - PA

  • 4/3 6:22pm   Okay, back to the future: Where will Obama's foreign policy lead us? What will his policy on Israel be? Will he stop financial and military aid to the country? Will he allow the Arabs to destroy the Jews and the State of Israel? What will his policy on Africa be... will he send US forces to Darfur?
    During his post-Wright speech, he stated that he can not disown Wright any more that he could disown the black community - a few days ago on The View television program, he stated that he would have disowned Wright had he not resigned from the racist church where Obama attended for 20 years.
    - JPB

  • 4/1 12:20am   Today, the first of April, was enacted National ________________ Party Day in Congress. In a landmark example of bipartisan collaboration, both ends of the political spectrum set aside their differences and signed legislation nominating one day of the year on which to honor the accomplishments of the political parties. In an effort to be inclusive, it was agreed that the party name itself be left blank -- both to be politically sensitive to those belonging to more obscure parties, and to demonstrate flexibility and forward thinking on the part of lawmakers, allowing any party name to be filled in the blank space.
    The President has signaled that he is unhappy with the bill, being reluctant to sign any "blank check" legislation. Our sources within the White House tell us that the final decision has not been made yet, but the President is displeased that an unruly Congress has seen fit to pass such undisciplined legislation. The Commander in Chief's gut feeling is that it is the majority party's natural prerogative to lend its name to such high-profile national recognition. There is a real possibility that the seemingly benign legislation will be vetoed to send a sharp message to an unruly Congress. Meetings are scheduled, however, with the Vice President and the Texas lobbying and market research firm of Apreil and Feule LLC to decide on the prudent way forward.
    - AR

  • 3/28 8:26pm   I guess we all have our concerns for our country. One can worry about the White House guest list and a retired Black minister who gave fiery speeches; one can worry about the abuse of our Constitution and the rule of law. As voters, we find unity in our concern for the nation's welfare.
    Come November we can vote for more of same, or we can vote for the other guy. After eight years, we know all too well what more of same is like. Personally, I'm ready for something different.
    - AR

  • 3/27 9:40pm   I too know little of being black in America. But I am a subject-matter expert on being white in America; and Obama and his network of racists are not who America needs in the White House in the 21 Century.
    Obama is articulate and talks a good game, but his only track record is his association with Wright, his racist church and connections with the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan. Obama meant what he said during one of the early debates when he slipped and stated that he would invite our adversaries (Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah?) to the White House for talks - even though he later spun it. Wright is not a hero! He is a racist pig who Obama has supported financially and otherwise for 20 years and refuses to disown. He is Obama's mentor - not my words but Obama's.
    Obama is also likely to abandon Israel - after all that's the anti-semitic trash that he has been listening to at church for 20 years and refuses to renounce.
    - JPB

  • 3/27 10:45am   No JPB, the issue at hand is not Obama (and certainly not Rev Wright). The issue at hand is the future of our country, and the critical need to recover from the disaster that Bush/Cheney have perpetrated on the nation. Budget. Economy. Debt. Trade deficit. Government institutions. Military readiness. International standing. Natural resources. Consumer protection.
    Since I know nothing about being Black in America, I wouldn't presume to be able to meaningfully instruct Obama in counseling Blacks regarding proper attitude. Also, mandatory reconciliation is an odd notion, not likely to be taken seriously.
    Out of the remaining candidates, one aims to continue the policies of Bush/Cheney, another has steered a politically expedient course and went along with Bush/Cheney. My top candidates did not make it to the final cull, but nevertheless I don't see the remaining contenders as interchangeable.
    And that is the issue at hand.
    - AR

  • 3/26 6:24pm   Timothy McVeigh served in the military also. I suspect Wright's hate inspired statements began toward the end of his service or after because such racists are not permitted to linger on the vine in the US military - they, unlike Obama, understand the importance of getting past race for the benefit of the nation.
    - JPB

  • 3/25 7:46pm   While the photo below of the anti-white and anti-Jewish reverend Wright's (Obama's pastor for 20 years) visit to the White House at the invitation of Bill Clinton is interesting, it more importantly offers insight into Clintons' list of misjudgments in that Wright later would say that he, Clinton, has done nothing for black folks; and say that Clinton was riding-dirty - that Clinton did black folks like he did Monica. At any rate most voters are already aware of the poor judgment of Bill Clinton: his actions with Monica in the Oval Office (while his wife was in the building and Arafat was waiting on the other side of the door); later perjuring himself about it under oath; and pointing his finger at us and lying about having sexual relations with Monica.
    The issue at hand, however, is Obama - not Clinton, Cheney or Bush. While we will live with their legacy for a long time to come; they will soon be history.
    The conversation on race that Obama and his racist allies wish to have consists of blacks talking about past atrocities and how that gives them the right to make hate-riddled racist statements while others must site quietly and take the abuse. No, no, no - if Obama truly wishes to move our country beyond race he must acknowledge not only that these criminal acts happened against blacks and the offenders were white, but he must likewise insist that for the good of our country; blacks move beyond the legitimate anger and hate that these acts caused. He has thus demonstrated no desire to do that - which is further proof of his bad judgment.
    - JPB

  • 3/24 11:29am   Regarding an important quote from our Vice President, I saw the interview on TV and was shocked by the man's arrogant disregard for the opinions and thoughts of the American people, some of whom voted for him. A search for the interview found the exchange below. Please, readers, keep the following quote in mind when reading the exchange, and whenever thinking about politics and politicians:
    A quote from the first Baron Acton (1834-1902).
    The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
    "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
    An example of that was seen in the news recently, when an ABC News reporter interviewed Vice President Cheney, who is said to be very arrogant for an elected representative of the people:
    RADDATZ: "Let me go back to the Americans. Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting, and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives."

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: "So? "

    RADDATZ: "So -- you don't care what the American people think? "

    THE VICE PRESIDENT: "No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."

    More...
    - RH

  • 3/24 10:51am   While I have always beieved in Teddy Roosevelt's maxim of "Walk softly and carry a big stick", I am dead set against the pro-war machinations of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, plus Rice. I don't want to see my kids or grandchildren, or anyone else's, go off to fight terrorists where they are blown up by Improvised Explosive Devices, etc.
    For information, American casualties as of 3/21, 10 AM EDT were:
    Operation Iraqi Freedom: Total Deaths: 3891. Wounded in Action, returned to duty: 16,281. WIA, not RTD: 13,170.
    Operation Enduring Freedom: (Afghanistan): Total Deaths: 483. WIA, RTD: 742. WIA, not RTD: 1156. (Ref URL [defenselink.mil pdf])
    The war in Iraq has cost $505,103,680,000. to date, (3/23, 10 PM), money which should be spent here at home on schools and all of the other things which are being shortchanged. The cost is $341 Million per day. (Ref URL [link]) All of these figures are simply a snapshot in time, as the casualties continue every day, and the monetary costs continue every day.
    I've still got a closet full of Army uniforms, everything from fatigues to dress blues, even though I'll never wear them again. I hate to see what Bush and Cheney are doing to the services, especially to the Army that I served in.
    - RH

  • 3/23 7:09pm   More on whether Obama will bring Rev Wright into the White House: oops, too late, he was beaten to it by Bill Clinton. Clinton hosted Reverend Jeremiah Wright at the White house back in 1998. [found here]
    Also, something I hadn't come across before: Wright served six years in the military, both the Marines and the Navy. A hero of our nation, no less!
    - AR

  • 3/23 11:32am   Re: It will be interesting to see who Obama has as guests in the White House if he is elected
    Indeed it will, but then we may never again find such things out. If the new administration follows existing precedent, the vice president will issue the invitations and will absolutely refuse under executive privilege to release the guest list.
    However, civic figures and African heads of state don't rank very high in US politics. Given the current geopolitics, it will most likely once again be oil industry lobbyists, fine-tuning the country's energy policy.
    - AR

  • 3/22 6:44pm   Where do I send my check for slavery reparations (aka payment for "the sins of my fathers")? Or will that be part of a new "sin tax" levied by the federal government under President Obama? Talk about audacity...
    - DA

  • 3/22 4:47pm   Obama's judgment:
    (1) Remain for 20 years in an anti-white, racist church that plans to bestow a lifetime achievement award on Louis Farrakhan, the anti-white and Jewish leader, of the Nation of Islam.
    (2) Use the title of a sermon from his racist pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as the title of his book.
    (3) Use the words "typical white person" disparagingly in referring to his grandmother, who raised him and ensured he got a great education.
    (3) Pull US troops out of Iraq as fast as possible so the price of oil doubles - then send them back in after al-Qaeda regains a strongholds (Mistakes made by the Bush administration aside and stipulated).
    It will be interesting to see who Obama has as guests in the White House if he is elected: Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Muammar Gaddafi? After all, Wright did go with Farrakhan to Libya to meet with Gaddafi (or perhaps they will just continue the good guy - bad guy routine).
    It seems that Obama's associations indicate that he is a typical black nationalist in sheep's clothes; which means redistribution of wealth and accepting black racists' comments and hostilities against whites as simply the truth and acceptable because of past pain inflicted on blacks historically. Obama will surely look after the needs of blacks - but thus far has demonstrated little sensitivity to the feelings of whites who are offended by the statements of his mentors.
    [related National Review article]
    - JPB

    [Update 9:10pm: Obama's name was inadvertently mis-spelled, corrected - Wm.]

  • 3/19 2:58pm   Bush, speaking to U.S. military and civilian personnel in Afghanistan:
    "I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

    "It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.
    [Reuters]

    - RH

    [It seems his own efforts at helping a democracy when he himself was younger left a lasting, if remarkable, impression... :-) - Wm.]

  • 3/19 10:50am   Happy Cakewalk Day! March 19 makes five years that the US has been in Iraq on a brief, almost trivial mission described as "cakewalk" and "costing at most $60 billion;" a short, Bush/Cheney style "Three Hour Tour." A million dead, 4.5 million refugees, 1/4 million veterans applying for disability benefits and $3 trillion in costs later, the end is still nowhere in sight.
    The "surge," primarily an arming and paying the Sunni insurgents so they won't shoot at US troops, is keeping the carnage at bay for the moment, but none of the underlying political dynamics have changed. The US is still the only authority in Iraq that matters, and all the Iraqis know this. The various groups are biding their time, waiting for the US to leave to fight for their place in the power hierarchy.
    Of course, "Iraq posed an imminent, urgent, and immediate threat to the United States, its people, allies, and interests."
    Oh, and I lucked into a terrific investment bargain! I just put down a deposit on a primary thoroughfare spanning a river in a major East Coast metropolis.
    - AR

  • 3/15 7:15pm   Now we know where Michelle LaVaughn Obama, Harvard Law School graduate and $250K/year attorney; the wife of Barack Hussein Obama, learned her distasteful vocabulary as regards America. The country that is approximately 70 % white and 14 % black; which has given rise by voting and massive support to the 1st person of color (a minority), to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.
    Ms. Obama recently stated that she is proud of her country for the 1st time in her life (now that her husband has been anointed by the masses). Obama spinsters later interpreted what she meant - even though her statement is on video and the meaning clear. The Obamas' Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright; is clearly an anti-white racist who call's for God to Damn America. The Obamas attended his church, Trinity United Church of Christ; on Chicago's south side for almost 20 years and Barack has called Wright his spiritual mentor.
    Three observations: (1) One does not sit in the midst of any gathering for 20 years and not internalize such racial hatred. (2) One can not distance oneself from this sort of racist after having a 20 year relationship with the institution and the man. (3) Wright appears to be another Louis Farrakhan but uses Jesus instead of Mohamed as a cover to spew his hatred.
    Questions: (1) Is Obama a wolf in sheep's clothing? (2) Could you vote for someone who financially supported a racist for 20 years; and as a public figure would not condemn the racist for his hate inspired words? (3) Was Obama in church during these speeches... similar speeches?
    Recommend: Google the man (Wright), his church and watch/listen to the videos - recorded by his church members - watch the joy throughout the congregation as he spews his racial hatred against whites. Notice how he slams the Clinton's - even after all the tireless work they have done for minorities over the years - Bill even apologized on behalf of America for slavery while he was president. Link: [abc news story]
    PS: The tax exempt status of his church should be revoked as it has crossed the line from a religious organization to a political one and all such video and audio tapes should be confiscated now as evidence to support same.
    Please pass on this very important information.
    Happy St Patrick's Day!
    - JPB

  • 3/14 11:28am   A recap, perhaps?
    - BH

  • 3/13 9:39am   For those interested, there will be a going away party at Scores in NYC for Eliot Spitzer on Friday night.
    - PA

  • 3/12 12:52pm   So Admiral William Fallon, head of Central Command in charge of the East Africa/Middle East/Indian Ocean military theater, has "resigned."
    Fallon gained notoriety by strongly opposing a military buildup in the Persian Gulf for the purpose of threatening Iran, and by conducting his own independent fact-finding mission in Iraq concluding that a sharp draw-down of troops was warranted. He also caused a stir with his deep-seated and vocal dislike of General Petraeus, in part for the latter's insistence on focusing troops in Iraq when they were more urgently needed in Afghanistan and on the Pakistan border. Fallon was known to be against any further military adventures while the armed forces are so severely strained by the two on-going wars, and has been quoted as saying that an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch." [read more]
    Well, his watch is over, time for the show. It may have been the public policy dispute on Iraq, of course. Or perhaps a nice little election-year extravaganza, complete with fireworks, smoke and mirrors -- a rerun, but a popular one. Stay tuned.
    - AR

  • 3/11 11:24am   Memo to PA: Actually, it did not work for Slick Willie. Ultimately, it was a major contributing factor in his party's loss of the White House and a brutally cruel and unusual eight-year punishment we are all paying for in countless, unfathomable ways (as well as wasting trillions of dollars). And there's still 314 more days of it to go! And, by the way, the last time I looked sex between two consenting adults is legal; sex with a prostitute is not.
    - TEM

  • 3/10 7:09pm   Memo to NY Governor Eliot Spitzer: Get on live TV as fast as you can, look into the camera, wave your finger at the public, and declare: "I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
    It worked for Slick Willie, it can work for you.
    - PA

  • 2/21 1:53pm   A lunar eclipse - that explains the Moonbat mantra of "Yes We Can" chanted in unison by the Druids of Obama. The initial symptom of succumbing to this infectious siren song is a tingling sensation running down your leg. (Just ask Chris Matthews!)
    - DA

  • 2/10 6:10pm   I read some of the Hillary excerpts - if they are true it only underscores the venom that inspires her run for the White House.
    However, I find the high road discourse of Obama equally troubling. His platitudes are a type of Orwellian Newspeak meant to obscure a very liberal agenda. At least locally, Deval's "Together We Can" has run into a legislature grounded in fiscal discipline. I'm not so sure that will be the case at the federal level with a Democrat in the White House. At least in McCain, there is a long standing record of his disdain for pork barrel spending. Do you want to keep some change in your pocket or vote for "Change" only to fund the next round of Democrat Dreams the scope of which has not been seen since the Johnson Administration?
    - DA

  • 2/10 2:24pm   I was under the impression that NBC is hosting Keith Olberman because their ratings were sagging. Media stars who rant political hot air draw big audiences, and the conservative angles were already all taken. I've only read one piece by him, but I found it okay -- somewhat over the top, but funny, and factually sound.
    Odd, all this political correctness in pushing for "balance" in the news. Call me a contrarian, but I want my news to be accurate and complete, not "balanced." I will temper the facts with my own judgement, thank you.
    And Rush... ahh, Rush. I listened to Rush a bit back in 94, until one day I found him bravely spouting forth on something he clearly didn't understand. He apologized the next day. Well, apologized for not knowing what he was talking about, but not taking the next logical step and admitting he was wrong... ``My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts.''
    Rush is an icon; icons aren't wrong if they don't care to be. I expect Rush has never been wrong afterward, either, and I'm confident that he has successfully evaded confusion as well :-)
    - AR

  • 2/10 2:17pm   This is going around the internet and is backedup by Snopes. [...] Everyone should be entitled to know who they are voting for. The Snopes site is included so everyone can check it out for themselves.
    The language that Hillary uses is terrible in this e-mail but everyone should read what the real Hillary is all about. I am just passing it on.

    Subject: PLEASE BEWARE OF THIS POLITICIAN WHAT A LADY !

    [Snopes: "Hil Da Beast" ill-tempered and profane quotes attributed to Hillary Clinton]

    - MG

  • 2/5 5:08pm   To RH, Have you ever watched FOX News. Have you ever listened to Bill O'Reilly. When he speaks, he uses facts not personal beliefs.
    Keith Oberman is the biggest fib teller I have ever listened to. MSNBC is the lowest rated network on cable for a reason. I can't speak for Rush, because I don't listen to him. It is proven by 2 separate non-profit organizations that FOX is the most balanced news outlet today. And the Factor is the highest rated show on cable for years. I know many of independents and conservative democrats that watch him on a regular basis. He truthful and he tell's it like it is, no spin. He is a true traditionalist and I admire him.
    Then again, I am not for socialized healthcare and cradle to grave government.
    - PJT

  • 2/4 11:56pm   TC:
    1/24 10:14am Don't know the first one; the second would be... umm, this week? Ever since the US presence in Iraq collapsed the Iraqi government and enabled terrorists to enter and find haven in the country, the US has been under fairly steady attack from terrorists.
    Now, here's another little question: when will the US elect the first president who's a former cocaine user? Only two guesses -- the first one and the correct one.
    - AR
    - JPB

  • 2/1 1:59pm   Speaking of Exxon, $10 out of every $45 fillup (or $120 on every heating oil delivery) is a war tax, courtesy of Mr. Bush's adventures overseas.
    Oil industry analysts estimate that the tensions in the Middle East have added $20 to the price of a barrel of crude oil, which results in higher heating oil prices, higher gasoline prices ...and higher oil industry profits.
    A former oil industry executive, driving up oil industry profits. What an amazing coincidence.
    - AR

  • 2/1 1:57pm   Re ``September 11, 2001'' Interesting. So the weaponized anthrax attacks or the Muhammad and Malvo rampage don't count either? Or were you asking specifically "how many 9/11 terrorist attacks have occurred since 9/11/2001?"
    - AR

  • 2/1 1:53pm   TC, DV, AR: Is there any chance of drafting you folks to run for some public position? If not in a national election, how about a state election or a Norfolk election? You have very good comments and ideas about various issues, and good people are difficut to find. It would be interesting to get your ideas together in position papers on various subjects and see how government could be improved locally, statewide, or nationally.
    There are so many kooks in the media spewing their ideas that some folks actually believe the wild ideas of people like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Bill Krystal. Fox News, or Fox Noise as some call it, is the outlet favored by the Bush administration, and as such has become neoconservative and untrustworthy.
    An opposing outlet, MSNBC, has commentators like Keith Olbermann, who tend to support the Democratic party and a more realistic way of examining the issues. The ploy of "signing statements", appended by the administration's lawyers to bills passed by the Congress and waiting signature by the president, are often unconstitutional because the administration notes that the proposed laws will not be enforced. The reason given often is that the "powers of the executive" are being encroached upon by the proposed law. Thus the president picks and chooses what he will enforce. These instances and many other will have to be reversed by the Congress and a Democratic president.
    - RH

  • 2/1 11:31am   MG: I am guessing that those who complained vocally that Dr. Scott's compensation package is excessive would argue she is not at all a socialist, but rather a self-serving capitalist (not my opinion, mind you, just venturing a guess.) Many disagree with her handling of Mr. Matez, myself among them, but that hasn't anything to do with Canada's universal health care. Your evidence of what makes one a socialist evades me. Again, no offense, but if youur world view is being shaped by Fox News, you might want to tune in to another news source occasionally, just to hear some different perspectives. Fox is notorious for oversimplifying complex issues and dumbing them down into incendiary sound bites that bear little resemblance to the truth. That style of reporting (and I use the word loosely) is an insult to all of us. As for Hillary's "radical" attempt to socialize medicine in the U.S.," may I offer that even the insurance companies and the AMA, who historically opposed anything resembling a single-payer or government-subsidized system, are now advocating additional government involvement in the delivery of health care. Even they see that the system is broken, wasteful, and morally wrong.
    I, too, disagree with the economic stimulus package (approved with bipartisan support in the House, mind you) but for opposite reasons. It is patronizing to hand people a few hundred dollars so they can buy a DVD player made in China, or pay their oil bill and ensure Exxon continues to make "corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007 (see [CNN article])! Putting two- or three- weeks worth of grocery money into one pocket while the cost of health care, oil, groceries, property taxes, and everything else is hemorrhaging money out of their other pocket is a total scam. (Also, the non-taxpayers are people who make too little to pay taxes, not tax-evaders.) It's insulting, and it's anything but socialist.
    - TC

  • 2/1 11:27am   JPB: Re: Clinton and Obama experimenting with drugs. What's your point? George W. Bush discussed openly the other day his battle with alcohol, and it is widely known he had a problem with cocaine as well. A friend who attended Yale with him says Bush's substance abuse and lackluster academic performance was legendary among their Skull & Bones buds. "Alcohol was beginning to compete for my affections," was how he described it to a fellow addicts at a home for people in recovery. Like many who battle addiction, he turned to a "higher power;" and good for him for taking on that battle. (Too bad the higher power that got him sober also told him to launch an unnecessary war, creating a culture of death instead of the "culture of life" he claims to promote.) Lots of middle-aged baby-boomers experimented with drugs, most without becoming addicts. Please don't be pious about drug experimentation. Using that as a litmus test for political office is meaningless, not to mention hypocritical.
    - TC

  • 1/31 9:31pm   To TC, I didn't mean to imply that socialists have taken over this country. There are socialists who are involved, and Hillary Clinton is one. She tried to put through socialized health care. Listen to Fox News where they talk about the government people who are socialist. We have the head superintendent of our Norfolk schools who is here on a green card who comes from Canada where socialism if a fact of life. The superintendent fired a good teacher because he was teaching the three R's and the kids loved him. Where was the power of the people to save his job. I also have friends who left the school system because the right way of teaching was no longer allowed. The proposed Democratic tax plan for refunding $600.00 to everyone, which includes those who don't pay taxes, is a form of socialism. Taxpayers like you and I, who are paying taxes, are giving a free gift to non-taxpayers.
    - MG

  • 1/31 5:46pm   President Clinton and Sen. Obama have both admitted to experimenting with drugs as well.
    How horrifying!
    - TEM

  • 1/30 11:09pm   Answers:
    1) John F. Kennedy in 1960 (47 years ago) He is the only practicing Roman Catholic to be elected President. Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, and early events of the Vietnam War.
    2) September 11, 2001
    PS: President Clinton and Sen. Obama have both admitted to experimenting with drugs as well.
    - JPB

  • 1/29 10:04pm   AR - Obama is so clean because of his dearth of experience. (How ironic that Joe Biden, arguably the most experienced of the original Dem. pack, was roundly chastised for saying that Obama came across as a "clean" candidate). The JFK comparisons are dead-on for his charisma, articulate speech, and promise for the future; however, JFK served as a Congressman and Senator for 14 years before he ran for the country's highest office. Obama's is in his first term, winning his seat largely because his competition imploded in scandal. JFK's worldview was tempered by his service in the WWII and his government service in the Cold War. His experience served the country well in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Obama is a Johnny-come-lately to the war on terror, who can conveniently disconnect himself from the morass that is Iraq. Can we afford a "Together We Can" style presidency - full of platitudes but short on substance?
    - DA

  • 1/28 6:51pm   Although I'm an independent, unattached voter, I will be voting in the Democratic Presidential Primary next week. At this point, I remain undecided (regarding the three candidates), but found the Caroline Kennedy op-ed piece in the New York Times [link] of considerable interest and am passing it along for those voters who may not have read it. A number of political scribes, uncertain of the effect of the Ted Kennedy endorsement nationwide, are still maintaining that it will probably make the Clinton-Obama race much closer in the Commonwealth.
    - TEM

    [Update 1/29 10:16am: The link works from a Google search page, but not when clicked here; I've made a local copy until I can locate a working version - Wm.]

  • 1/25 11:36pm   Pretty sad state of affairs, I agree. Then again, the reason is easy to see -- Hillary has always kept a careful eye on the long view, which is 43% - 25% - 15% right now, and that's not her at the front.
    I find it ironic that Obama is so clean they've resorted to making stuff up. Couldn't they dig up something worse than calling his cricism of her vote on the Iraq war ("poor judgement") a personal attack? $1 trillion in cost, nothing to show for it -- what else is that but poor judgement.
    - AR

  • 1/24 10:17am   AR - The Clintons appear to be taking a page from the Lee Atwater playbook by double teaming Obama. Bill isn't just carrying his wife's carpetbag, he's pummeling Obama with it. Might be a sage strategy for the primaries, but it sounds like a recipe for a general election implosion if you ask me.
    - DA

  • 1/24 10:14am   Don't know the first one; the second would be... umm, this week? Ever since the US presence in Iraq collapsed the Iraqi government and enabled terrorists to enter and find haven in the country, the US has been under fairly steady attack from terrorists.
    Now, here's another little question: when will the US elect the first president who's a former cocaine user? Only two guesses -- the first one and the correct one.
    - AR

  • 1/22 10:24pm   I have two questions:
    1) When was the last time a U.S. Senator was elected president without having first been vice-president?
    2) When was the last time the United States was successfully attacked by terrorists?
    - JPB

  • 1/22 9:27pm   DA, I hear where you're coming from regarding my poking the Republican establishment. But you've got to admit, their behavior of late has been pretty outrageous.
    I'm glad you don't dispute the essence of my remarks: that the institutional changes the Bush administration is making to our government's structure are fundamentally un-American, and that the systematic dismantling of checks-and-balances and undoing legal protections undoes what made our nation historically unique.
    As to your specific points --
    There is a difference between government harassment being illegal and just not wide-spread. I agree it's not wide-spread, but surveillance and detentions have been made subjective, secret, and not subject to legal oversight. Without a rigid legal framework, the only protections left are old-guard bureaucrats nearing retirement who still hold principle above political expediency.
    It wasn't Rove's philosophy, but his tactics and end-goals that were questioned. Democracy is not a slogan, but a way of life. From all indications, Rove is not a believer in democracy, but in single-party rule.
    And finally, opportunistic corruption, even if endemic, is not equivalent to systematic limits on access.
    - AR

  • 1/18 10:12pm   K street is a two way street - both major parties are in bed with the lobbyists. On a separate note, I hear Dick Cheney plans to write a tell-all book about his days in the Bush White House that reads like a modern day version of Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon...
    - DA

  • 1/18 7:26pm   I had grown accustomed to Bush being equated with Hitler, but now Karl Rove has become an acolyte of Karl Marx?! The line between liberty and tyranny may be a thin one, but the line between the Democratic Party's ideology (as appropriated by moveon.org types) and the lunatic fringe appears to be blurred... (insert Howard Dean screech here).
    - DA

  • 1/18 7:22pm   AR - those "radical instruments of control and oppression" that the jackbooted thugs in the White House have instituted have really cramped my style. Their long reach has really impacted life in Norfolk. Those armed checkpoints at the roundabouts are a real drag, not to mention the machine gun nest in gazebo on the town hill. I hear that in the woods between MCI Norfolk and Walpole, there's a secret detention facility for the those who are against the Patriot Act. The CIA has been using the old municipal airport to fly offenders in at night for transfer to this clandestine camp...
    - DA

  • 1/18 12:34am   I was discussing politics the other day, and the notion of "freedom" came up. This started me thinking about the difference between "free" and "non-free" societies.
    Communism as practiced in Eastern Europe, with which I have more than a passing familiarity, was a system with a unitary executive, and the ruling party enjoying a permanent majority in the legislature. The courts were staffed by hand-picked loyal party members, and access to the system was controlled by powerful quid-pro-quo network not unlike the K Street Project. Domestic surveillance was wide-spread, national identity papers were mandatory, and police checkpoints were commonplace. All to better protect the citizenry from the nation's enemies, of course.
    Thinking back over the headlines of the past eight years, it's startling how ordinary, even sought-after, these abhorrent anti-freedom concepts have become. One might have thought that all American organizations would struggle against the very concept. It is sad irony that it was the supposedly freedom-loving conservative political party that re-discovered and is instituting these radical instruments of control and oppression.
    Then again, maybe Karl Rove wouldn't have found Communism all that bad. Very effective at what it did -- making the ruling elite richer.
    The new Red party -- not your father's riff-raff. Come election time, be careful what you wish for, you might get it. The line between liberty and tyranny is a subtle one.
    - AR

  • 1/13 11:06pm   AL - Don't worry, Governor Patrick pledged property tax relief for towns and cities. Ooops, I forgot - he's currently too busy to address that campaign pledge because he's trying to circumvent the legislature and the will of the people by investigating ways to offer a tuition break at state colleges for illegal (I'm sorry - the euphemism is "undocumented") immigrants.
    - DA

  • 1/10 11:52pm     Today's Boston Herald includes a story on Gov. Patrick investigating a way of unilaterally instituting (aka circumventing the will of the the people and our elected representatives) a tuition break for illegal immigrants attending state colleges. Is anyone else outraged at this?? How about a state tax break for my 529 Plan contributions earmarkded for my daughters' future college costs?
    - DA

  • 1/8 6:33pm     I feel a profound sense of deja vu with the meteoric rise of Obama. It's playing out like Deval's "Together We Can" campaign - lots of nebulous rhetoric with little substance (What has the gov. accomplished to date? Has anyone received that promised property tax relief?) Obama is certainly an affable, positive candidate, but like the old Wendy's commercial - "Where's the beef?" I fear it's in the form of a whopper (I know I'm mixing fast food metaphors here!) tax increase to "feed the beast" of his liberal agenda. I'm still befuddled by the rejection of the most experienced Democratic candidates - especially Joe Biden. On that note, Hillary's experience pales in comparison even to Bill Richardson's. Her dreams of being the next Evita Peron seem to be fading fast... "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"!
    - DA

  • 1/8 2:28pm     I'd like to know if BO and JE have made a deal... I'm loving their strategy - beheading the Queen (at least she thinks she is) ...thoughts anyone?
    - PC

  • 1/7 9:07pm   HRB - You raise some good points. I think we're going to learn over the next day or so that Giuliani was briefly married to himself in 2005.
    - PA

  • 1/7 7:56pm   To PA: Please don't tell my wife that the object of the game is to "control (your) husband" ! Certainly the Clinton's have at least a tiny edge on some GOP candidates in that they have each been married once (to each other). That gives pause (or should) to McCain's tawdry divorce. And Fred Thompson's and Rudy Giuliani's marital histories--how can we even mention them? And I know enough about the Book of Mormon to know that Mitt Romney's wife doesn't "control" him. So where does that leave us? Janet Huckabee doesn't "control" Mike. Not Biblical. Ron Paul, maybe? Who knows? I'm not supporting Hillary, but your post suggests that marriage counseling might be a helpful option.
    - HRB

  • 1/7 7:53pm   PA: Is one really meant to "control" one's spouse? How frightening!
    - TC

  • 1/6 10:35pm   Two random thoughts.
    #1 - I can't believe for a second that Roger Clemens had no knowledge his close friend (and former team-mate) Andy Pettitte was using HGH.
    #2 - How can we expect Hillary to run our country when she can hardly control her spouse?
    - PA

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