Wow, I can't believe the number of people from outside of Massachusetts who have been sending me messages about how much they appreciate the way our state voted on Tuesday. The whole country, if not the whole world, was watching our humble state to see whether we would start a second American revolution just like we started the first one over 200 years ago. Once again, we in Massachusetts have distinguished ourselves as champions of liberty, and may the light of freedom shine in the coming months, not only in our own country but the entire world.
However, the chorus of praise for our electorate is not universal. Paolo alerts me to this appraisal of the Bay State by Alexander Cockburn:
A year after his inauguration Obama has disappointed so many constituencies that a rebuke by the voters was inevitable. Yesterday it came in Massachusetts, often categorized as the most liberal in the union. This is entirely untrue. It's a disgusting sinkhole of racism and vulgar prejudice, as five minutes in any taxi in the state, listening to Talk Radio or reading the local newspaper will attest.
Ouch! However, I must say I approve of Cockburn's last paragraph:
A final note on Coakley. She rose to political prominence by peculiarly vicious grandstanding as a prosecutor, winning a conviction of 19-year old child minder Louise Woodward for shaking a baby to death. An outraged judge later freed Woodward, reducing her sentence to less than a year of time served. Then Coakley went after headlines in child abuse cases. Innocent people are still rotting in prison as a consequence of Coakley's misuse of her office. For this alone, regardless of the setback the Democrats richly deserved, I rejoice in her humiliation.
So do I.
Assorted Stuff
I've been doing interviews lately. One was with Dutch journalist Tom-Jan Meeus on the Brown/Coakley race. It's about time they started reading about me in Europe! I'll pass along the link when something surfaces from that. Also here's a picture of Michelle, a UMass grad student who interviewed me about my life story for a project she's doing. More about that later.
Early this morning on my way to cooking pancakes for the homeless, I ran into Republican/Masslive dude Greg Saulmon in downtown Northampton. He's smiling despite having just been given a parking ticket.
Bird's is one of my favorite Northampton/Florence stores. Going inside is like stepping into a time tunnel.
My neighbor's psychedelic sled.
Dr. King in a window in downtown Hamp on his birthday.
Yesterday morning I went to vote at the quaint New England building that serves as my voting place. It was snowing out on and off all day, but turnout was high.
A number of people commented over the last several days about seeing signs for Scott Brown around Northampton. Normally it is rare for signs to be seen for Republican candidates in Hamp, if you can even find somewhere to get them. This Brown supporter painted their own.
Yet despite the unexpectedly high enthusiasm among Hamp's Brown supporters, it didn't translate into many actual votes for their candidate. Martha Coakley carried Northampton with just shy of 80% of the vote. Yet even that total was topped in Amherst where 84% went for Coakley, tying the results out of Cambridge.
Overall the entire Pioneer Valley supported Coakley, but Republicans did manage to show growth in a few parts of the Valley. Longmeadow, which has been trending Democrat in recent years, solidly returned to the Republican fold yesterday, and the same can be said for Wilbraham, as well as a surprising win for the GOP in generally Democratic Ludlow.
Democrats appear nervous about what happened at the polls, and with good reason. The results are a warning as loud as a thunderclap - NO SEAT IS SAFE! Without a doubt other candidates will now be looking to use Brown's victory as a model to making further Republican inroads in Massachusetts. Tom Wesley, one of two challengers (so far) to Congressman Richard Neal, released a statement today that sounded like it was very much modeled on the Brown playbook:
We knew when we launched our campaign against Richard Neal that it would be a tough fight, but we also knew that the people were ready. Scott Brown’s victory now proves this.
Richard Neal continues to be part of the problem. He has been left unopposed and unaccountable for too long. He has taken his position for granted. He no longer represents the people that originally elected him. I plan to give the people of the Second Congressional District an option in November of which they can be proud as I seek to serve as their congressman in Washington.
However, Neal himself appears unfazed by the Brown victory, in fact he urged a continued commitment to a leftist agenda, at least according to this quote in Politico. The alarm clock has gone off," said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Ways & Means Committee, who called for a sharper and more confident leftward tack. "We fell into the trap of post-partisanship," he said. "I'm all in favor of being post-partisan as long as the other party is post-partisan."
Maybe Neal said that after seeing the Northampton results, which is where one of his opponents, Dr. Jay Fleitman lives. Neal may feel he needs to shore up his liberal creds in order to help prevent Hamp voters from bolting to the hometown favorite should Dr. Fleitman win the nomination.
I think one of the things that has made the Democrats loss so stinging is that their defeat was at the hands of an opponent they had once laughed at. But it was not just Democrats who were underestimating Brown. Back in early December I described Scott Brown as "a political unknown with no money who probably has no chance of winning."
I am now happy to eat those words with ketchup. Congratulations Senator Brown, you really did the impossible. What a ride!
Is there anything to talk about except the election tomorrow? Is there anything left to say? Really the only thing left to do now is the voting. Still, here are a few final thoughts on the campaign:
- No matter how it turns out, at least the campaign wasn't the snoozer everyone predicted it would be. For sheer entertainment value political junkies have to harken back to the Weld/Kerry 1996 battle of the titans to find any race with similar excitement in Massachusetts politics.
- But this is even more interesting because Scott Brown is no Bill Weld. Brown is a nobody who came from nowhere to come within grasping range of the prize. Whether you support Brown or not, it is always a thrill to see the longshot underdog come from behind.
- Martha Coakley ran an arrogant campaign in which she acted like she was entitled to the seat. I remember years ago in Springfield when Frankie Keough ran for State Senate against Brian Lees. I attended a meet the candidates forum at the Pine Point Library, and Keough spent the whole time ignoring Lees and talking as if he were already elected. On the way out after the forum I heard an elderly man walking ahead of me tell his wife, "I don't know anything about Brian Lees, but I wouldn't vote for that arrogant bastard Keough if he was the only person on the ballot!" On Election Day, Lees won an upset victory. Nothing angers the electorate quicker than a candidate that behaves like they take the voters for granted.
- Today on the bus I overheard a guy tell his friend that Martha Coakley "seems just like the type of female boss I would hate to work for." Kind of an irrational reason to vote against her, but such personal impressions often carry far more weight than the most detailed policy position paper.
- On the other hand, I won't believe that Scott Brown is the next senator until I see it in the vote totals. Despite final polls showing Brown comfortably in the lead, this is still Massachusetts.
Fresh Snow
Newly fallen snow on the woodland way this morning.
The snowplow knocked these paper boxes every which way.
Strange chalk being.
Jimi in the window of Faces.
Happy Valley Song
Here's a delightfully strange video that's sorta kinda like a tribute to our region. How many Pioneer Valley landmarks can you identify?
Here's the psychedelic version of the same song that was aired recently on Amherst Cable TV.
U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown was campaigning for Tuesday's showdown for Ted Kennedy's old seat in Holyoke this morning, as seen in these Kyle Burns photos.
Among the visiting dignitaries was the Westfield Knapiks, mayor and state senator. That's Longmeadow's Mary Rogeness in back wearing red.
This supporter wants to make sure everyone knows that he is not paid to be there, like many of those onstage at rallies for Martha Coakley.
A new definition of blue and red.
A worker proudly in defiance of her union's demands.
The red, white and blue Brown bus arrives.
The next senator from Massachusetts?
Tom Wesley, one of the candidate's running to defeat Congressman Richard Neal.
Earlier there was a Brown rally in West Springfield along Riverdale Road.
Neal's other challenger Dr. Jay Fleitman and his wife.
He ran for Governor, and was defeated. Victim Number Two was Tom Reilly:
He also ran for Governor and was defeated. Third victim - Martha Coakley?
She is running for Senate and is behind in the polls.
A political curse appears to have haunted the political careers of everyone who played a major role regarding the notorious Massachusetts Fells Acres child abuse case. The innocent Amirault family was railroaded into prison and held there by ambition crazed politicians in what is now considered to be one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice in modern American history. An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal recounts the terrible injustice. The accusations against the Amiraults might well rank as the most astounding ever to be credited in an American courtroom, but for the fact that roughly the same charges were brought by eager prosecutors chasing a similar headline—making cases all across the country in the 1980s. Those which the Amiraults' prosecutors brought had nevertheless, unforgettable features: so much testimony, so madly preposterous, and so solemnly put forth by the state. The testimony had been extracted from children, cajoled and led by tireless interrogators.
Gerald, it was alleged, had plunged a wide-blade butcher knife into the rectum of a 4-year-old boy, which he then had trouble removing. When a teacher in the school saw him in action with the knife, she asked him what he was doing, and then told him not to do it again, a child said. On this testimony, Gerald was convicted of a rape which had, miraculously, left no mark or other injury.
Violet had tied a boy to a tree in front of the school one bright afternoon, in full view of everyone, and had assaulted him anally with a stick, and then with "a magic wand." She would be convicted of these charges. Cheryl had cut the leg off a squirrel. Other than such testimony, the prosecutors had no shred of physical or other proof that could remotely pass as evidence of abuse.
Because the charges were so utterly unbelievable, it is hard not to conclude that those involved in prosecuting the case, Scott Harshbarger and Tom Reilly, as well as those who fought to keep the Amirault's behind bars, such as Martha Coakley, could not have been unaware that they were destroying innocent lives. Yet so great was their personal lust for power that apparently they were willing to purposely allow an injustice to occur simply to advance their own careers with all the publicity the case gave them.
But a funny thing has happened to the Fells Acres politicians whenever they tried to cash in on their crime. At the polls the voters have consistently put an end to their careers just as they reached for the pinnacles of power. Scott Harshbarger, chief prosecutor of the case, was defeated when he ran for Governor. His former assistant, Tom Reilly, also found voters slapping down his ambitions when he tried to run for governor in 2006. Now Martha Coakley is attempting to go to the Senate, and if the polls are accurate, victory seems once again to be slipping out of the grasp of a key Fells Acres figure. As the Wall Street Journal explains: If the current attorney general of Massachusetts (Coakley) actually believes, as no serious citizen does, the preposterous charges that caused the Amiraults to be thrown into prison—the butcher knife rape with no blood, the public tree-tying episode, the mutilated squirrel and the rest—that is powerful testimony to the mind and capacities of this aspirant to a Senate seat.
Those who profited from the Fells Acres scandal have repeatedly found their political ambitions destroyed. It will be interesting to see in the election next Tuesday whether, like Harshbarger and Reilly before her, Coakley too falls victim to the Fells Acres Curse. POST ELECTION UPDATE 2010 - Coakley was soundly defeated as she so richly deserved.
UPDATE 2014 - The Amirault Curse has struck for a fourth time as the arrogant opportunist Coakley goes down to yet another well deserved defeat, this time in her race for governor.
Hanging Out
Yesterday I was at Look Park in Northampton with one of my 25 cousins. Here is a view of the covered bridge, looking quite beautiful this time of year.
The view from on the bridge itself.
Back in Northampton it was time to warm up with some hot coffee at LaFiorintina's.
By the way, the other night I had the chance to stop at The Ugly Duckling Loft at The Whistling Swan, 502 Main Street in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
Trust me, it is well worth the extra drive to check it out.
Zombie Pub Crawl
How did I miss hearing about this? Last fall there was an event where people dressed as zombies staggered - first pretend and then perhaps for real - from bar to bar in downtown Northampton. Fortunately Dann Vazquez was onhand to seek out the undead, even if he was strangely unaware of where Sam's is. Yet with the help of his friend Cher Love he was able to get some video coverage of The Night of the Living Lush:
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.
I'm sorry to report that political hack Martha Coakley has won the senatorial primaries to select two candidates to compete for the seat once held by Ted Kennedy. One might have thought that the opening of the seat, which was held (if you count the years brother John had it) by a Kennedy for over a half a century, might have resulted in an exciting campaign battle. On the contrary, the race was a snoozer, with no first-class contenders on the field.
Drug warrior Coakley handily defeated drug law reform advocate Rep. Mike Capuanao, while also sweeping aside a vanity campaign by Boston Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca. Also defeated was Alan Khazei, who was considered a clueless liberal even by Massachusetts standards. Now it is up to Scott Brown, the feisty but little known Republican contender, or Libertarian Joe Kennedy to block the Coakley threat in the final election on January 19, 2010.
Who are these people who went flocking to Coakley? Unfortunately I suspect many were voting for her simply because she was the only woman in the field. Voting for people because of their physical characteristics is the shallowest and most foolish form of voting, as we learned the hard way nationally last year when many voted on the basis of skin color.
What matters is character, and by that measure Coakley flunks miserably simply on the basis of her villainous role in the Fells Acres child abuse scandal, as concisely summarized by this poster on Blue Mass Group:
Gerald Amirault reunited with his family - no thanks to Coakley.
Martha didn't prosecute that case but she was Middlesex DA when Cheryl Amirault Lefave's first trial was found to violate her Constitutional rights and so won a new trial on appeal. In fact Cheryl and her mother Violet were let out of prison by Martha to await a second trial. Violet died of cancer and among her last words were, "Don't vote for Scott Harshbarger." who was Martha's former boss and the DA who put Violet, Cheryl and the brother Gerald in jail.
Martha didn't give Cheryl another trial. Instead she released her on parole with some extraordinary parole agreement terms requiring Violet not to talk about her case for ten years. Can you imagine a parole agreement that was more unconstitutional, a direct violation of Cheryl 1st amendment rights? She had to agree to not exercise her free speech about government injustice (she, her mother and her brother have always maintained their innocence) in order to remain free on parole. I wonder if she wouldn't have preferred a trial.
When the parole board recommended (unanimously 5-0) that the Govenor commute Gerald's sentence after 12 years of incarceration, Martha beat it down with a stick. She held a press conference and had the then teenage victims, who were 3-5 years old at the time of the alleged incidents talk about their grief.
So why did Cheryl not get her second trial, be subjected to parole terms that are on the face unconstitutional, and yet allowed out of prison by Martha while Martha fought hard, tooth and nail, to keep Gerald in jail, and she did. They were found guilty of the same charges and yet Cheryl was released under Martha's watch and Gerald was kept for three more years in prison.
Even the Wall Street Journal knew the case was a complete miscarriage of justice but Martha stuck to her guns.
Those who persecute the innocent for their own political gain have no place in high office. Now it is time for those who love justice to unite as one to prevent Coakley from winning the Senate seat.
Snowday!
Here's the view out my bedroom window this morning.
Lots of snow fell overnight! Nothing brings out the beauty of the pines like snow.
This is Cooley-Dickinson Hospital. I hope no one had to go there because of the storm.
My server stats show me that a quarter of my readers come from outside New England. Therefore not all readers would know what this contraption is attached to this fire hydrant.
The red disc on a pole is meant to enable fire fighters to locate the hydrant once the snow gets too high to see it.
In downtown Northampton the streets were a mess.
Nothing to do but slip down this alleyway and in the backdoor of the Haymarket for some steaming hot coffee.
Someone sent me this photo of downtown Springfield as it appeared this morning.
