Blue Mass Group

I'm waiting for the candidates…Hilary, Obama, et al to denounce this incredibly profane attack by a radical left wing orginization upon  a General officer of our military's integrity and patriotism . …this is beyond disgusting. I believe a vast majority of Americans including those against the war, are sickened by this  

… as channelled through the mind of John Hodgman on the Daily Show. Check out the pithy graphic at the end … “So long as you refuse to ever acknowledge failure, success becomes eternal — a downward curve always approaching failure, but never quite reaching it. And that way, it’ll all go on forever.”

“As a comedian, you need to start strong and finish stronger.  That's the secret to success.  You can't be like pancakes — all exciting at first, but by the end you're f***ing sick of 'em.”

What's true in stand-up comedy also applies to most types of public speaking and persuasion, including political advertising.  Tonight's lesson is courtesy of Jim Ogonowski. 

I had seen Ogonowski's “Congress is teh bad” ad on NECN tonight, and a couple images stuck in my head.  I decided to watch it on his website a coupla times to see if I saw what I really saw.  A couple screencaptures later, I find I did see that.  In two instances in 30 seconds, Ogonowski's lists end with his best argument.  And in both cases, that most important and heartfelt message is don't trust Republicans.

Yesterday, the City of Worcester held a preliminary election to cut the number of at-large City Council candidates from 18 to 12, and from 3 to 2 in each of two district councilor races. Under the city charter, at-large candidates running in the November general election are automatically candidates for mayor, unless they opt out. Even so, 4 of the 18 at-large candidates had declared that they were running for mayor despite the fact that the mayoral race wasn’t on yesterday’s ballot. All 4 made it past the preliminary hurdle, but the results may have changed the dynamic of the race.

Turnout was wicked low, at about 14%

According to today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette, two declared mayoral candidates (Dennis Irish and Mike Perotto) said that they may reconsider, opt out, and run solely for the at-large seats. Irish finished fifth and Perotto finished eighth. That would leave current Mayor Konnie Lukes, who finished second overall, and Rick Rushton, who placed fourth overall.

[Crossposted from Left in Lowell...I thought this post would have some wider appeal for "Mass media" junkies. --Lynne]

Liberal media my backside. Check this out. Media Matters has done a comprehensive study (apparently one that has not been done before) on syndicated columnists run in newspapers across the country. MM surveyed 96% of American newspapers to confirm their use of syndicated columnists. They found:

• Sixty percent of the nation’s daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.
• In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 152 million.
• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the number of papers in which they are carried include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.
• The top 10 columnists as ranked by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published also include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.

Originally posted on Immigration Orange

(Picture from Mother Jones)

Migrants are literally dropping dead from the terror in U.S. Maxsuel Medeiros, of Brazilian descent, was only 25 years-old when he died from a heart attack in Massachusetts State Police custody.

According to the Boston Globe, Medeiros was the passenger in a car that was stopped for a lane change on Interstate 495 in Andover, Massachusetts. After the Mass. State Police determined he had two outstanding state warrants — something that probably wouldn't have happened if Medeiros knew his constitutional rights — they detained him and placed him in a cell. He became ill later that night and eventually died from what appeared to be a heart attack in Mass. General Hospital yesterday.

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm a big Pats fan.  They have a formidable record of achievement, won in large part by players willing to work hard and give up individual interests for the team as a whole.  In many ways they set an example of how big individual egos can work together without the excesses of so many other NFL teams.  Coach Belichek set the example of leadership coming from a lot of hard work and talent, rather than flash and trash talk.

So the charge of cheating seems worse to me that many of the cheating allegations against other teams and players.  Even worse is the kind of “everybody does it,” “oh, well,” and “too bad they got caught” responses from the general public.

So your guy lost. Don't worry. Galluch will cast many progressive votes. Probably not as many as you will like but he won't totally disappoint. More importantly the district has a state senator who will actually work for the district. I suspect Galluch will have great constituent services. The last senator was all about lip service and public relations. And Flaherty would have been just too lazy and soft to work the job like it has to be worked. The last senator allowed his Cambridge rep district to get carved up so Cambridge lost a rep. It's about the district. The best man won. IMO

I can't even enjoy my first coffee in the morning anymore without being subject to the Satanic memes of mainstream American “media”.  ”Bush plans to announce 30,000 troop withdrawal from Iraq”, yeah, plans to announce, and withdraw when.  Note the Orwellian doublespeak here, the planting in the minds of simpletons still half awake that there is some slight glimmer of hope. After that “announcement” appeared I had a followup discussion with my son about marketing techniques and memes, he is a senior in high school. My problem is that things have been so f**$ed up for so f#&%ing long that it has become institutionalized into every area of life.  United Health Care, one of the largest health insurance providers regularly scams people by denying benenfits causing the “insured” people to then fight back.  The company was sued under the RICO status several years ago but United with boatloads of money for legal fees has it buried in the courts for years.  And that is only one example of such widespread governmental non-functioning hubris which has spread from the federal all the way down to state and local governments. My thought of the day is that some major disaster might well [...]

My union endorsed Grace but the State Senate special kept us from doing much more then sending a letter. With Grace making the final election – and finishing ahead of two incumbent councilors I am told – my union will be more active. Congrats Grace Ross.