Democrats Frightened

Coakley Candidacy Collapsing

Greg Saulmon took this funny picture outside the WGBY studios in Springfield where the Western Mass debate is being taped today between the candidates to replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate.

 



The truth is Brown IS a Bush-style Republican, but pathetically that is actually less scary than the prospect of Martha Coakley. Meanwhile, as evidence of how far the panic over Coakley has spread, my liberal friends at MoveOn.org are sending out the alert nationwide about the increasing prospects for a Brown victory:

Dear MoveOn member,

In 11 days, we could lose progressive hero Ted Kennedy's Senate seat—and with it, any hope for passing major progressive legislation this year.

A new poll Tuesday showed Democrat Martha Coakley's lead in the special election to succeed Kennedy is at the edge of the margin of error, and the non-partisan Cook Political Report now says it's very competitive.

A Republican victory here would be a catastrophe—Democrats would lose their 60th vote in the Senate, health care could die, and the Republicans could block pretty much anything they want.

Well, of course the loss of one seat would not allow the GOP to "block pretty much anything they want." Democrats would still hold a 59 out of a hundred seat majority. But it would hopefully be enough to kill the health care takeover bill, and that alone is reason enough to back Brown with more enthusiasm than perhaps he deserves.

You tell 'em Arnie

Health care reform, which started as noble and needed legislation, has become a trough of bribes, deals and loopholes. You've heard of the bridge to nowhere. This is health care to nowhere. California's congressional delegation should either vote against this bill that is a disaster for California or get in there and fight for the same sweetheart deal Senator Nelson of Nebraska got for the Cornhusker State. He got the corn; we got the husk.

- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

The Next Step

A great column appeared in the Framingham paper yesterday:

New Year's Day marked the first anniversary of marijuana decriminalization in the Commonwealth. The statistics aren't in yet, and when they emerge different spins will be put on the impact of the new law. However, a glance out the window assures us that the sky hasn't fallen, despite the warnings of the 2008 initiative's shrillest critics, mostly self-serving career "public servants."

To their great credit, 65 percent of our fellow citizens saw through the old bromides and found the courage to declare that we gain nothing by wrecking people's lives for small amounts of pot, and we can't afford to waste scarce law enforcement resources that ought to be focused on real, predatory, crime.


Time Flies

Wow, the first week of the decade has gone by already! I didn't go to the big shindig in downtown Northampton last week. "Amateur Night" as we alkies like to call New Year's Eve, is something I'm not into anymore as a non-drinker, but fortunately Jim Neill was there to video all the drunken madness in the streets. 

Through the Window

A topless and armless mannequin in the window of Zanna, an Amherst dress shop.

In Northampton, the Ninja Turtles are still popular in the city of their birth. 

Oh no! The Democrat's anti-business policies claim another victim. 

I hope that what this Buddah in a Hamp window says is true for us all. 

Today's Video

This bit of weirdness about stalking and violence was filmed entirely in the UMass Library.