Blue Mass Group

From Conservapedia‘s rather partisan front page, we learn: The recent HCR Act is just like (just like!) the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 also pushed through by the Democrats — and it triggered the American Civil War! A 38 second YouTube clip of Alcee Hastings is all we need to know to accuse Democrats of making up rules as “we go along”. They’re full of happy anticipation about the effort to recall Senator Menendez They cannot quote ABC News directly but must quote Michelle Malkin quoting ABC News: It has to be vetted by a conservative before they can believe it! In any case, there’s an article from February on the ABC site that asserts that $2B of stimulus money has gone to Chinese wind energy firms. Visiting Michelle Malkin directly we learn how disgusting Democratic gloating is. RMG has some of this sentiment. Taking a stand against gloating, Free Republic has a post encouraging their readers to sign the DCCC-sponsored thank you card to Nancy Pelosi. At NRO, Bill Bennett is convinced that the HCR bill will affect the 2010 election which will be a “clearing of the jungle”. I think that phrase was meant to go with the complaint [...]

Several months ago, Republican Senator Jim DeMint famously said that if Republicans could stop the health care bill, it would be President Obama’s “Waterloo.”  Well, look who failed to stop the president’s health care bill.  And now, one well-known conservative is saying that last night was, indeed, a “Waterloo” moment — for conservatives and Republicans.  Here’s David Frum.

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

All fair enough.  But what’s really interesting about Frum’s piece is where he lays the blame:

Now comes the hard lesson: A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

Well, DO go on, Mr. Frum!

I think we're entitled to a bit of a victory lap. Then finance and climate. No. Sleep. Til Brooklyn 2012.

The Republican’s Waterloo? Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says that while he opposes the health care reform plan, its passage is a major defeat for the Republican Party. In his words, it will be the GOP’s “Waterloo.” Frum points out “radical” Republicans like Jim DeMint who made the decision to not negotiate with President Obama, and instead they all focused on a strategy of obstruction, failed the Republican Party. As a result, Frum says, Democrats will be able to claim full credit for passing a bill with many popular provisions, leaving the GOP out in the cold. Frum’s analysis is right, and if this makes it through the Senate, it may well be that the 2010 election will actually increase the Democratic majority in Congress, just like during the first term of the FDR presidency

From Randy Neugebauer, the guy who shouted “baby killer” during Stupak’s speech:

Neugebauer insisted in a statement that he was not referring directly to Stupak but to the agreement that the Michigan Democrat helped work out with the White House. That 11th-hour deal, under which President Obama said he would issue an executive order pledging that no federal funds be used for abortions, helped seal the last votes Democrats needed to pass the bill.

Neugebauer said his exact words, referring to that agreement, were “it’s a baby killer.”

Um yeah, sure.

Weatherization Barnraising Saturday, April 10th 12:30-5:00 p.m. Cambridge YWCA Emergency Family Shelter 3 Bigelow Street, Cambridge Pitch in to help 10 homeless families who live at the shelter Lower vast energy bills for the shelter so it can help the families more Learn skills that can save you $$ at home Fight climate change Share food & celebrate after a job well done No skills necessary – training on the job!! Work includes: • An easy and cheap way to fix old vinyl replacement windows so they easily close again • Air-sealing an incredibly leaky attic • Using caulk and sprayfoam to stop air leaks • Saving water and electricity • Installing programmable thermostats • Masonry, plastering, and more Sign up today by web, email or phone!! www.heetma.com heet.cambridge@gmail.com 617-491-6761 Organized by HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team), a Cambridge-based co-op that brings neighbors together to weatherize our homes and take the energy future into our own hands. Co-sponsored by Cambridge Energy Alliance

Dear Friends, I am running as a Democrat for Governor and I am asking for your support. I am asking you to join me in reclaiming our Commonwealth. Join me on Tuesday March 23 at 10am on the steps of the State House where I will formally announce my candidacy for the corner office. As you know, Massachusetts in many ways stands at a crossroads: the Scott Brown election underscored what I feel is legitimate anger among regular people. We are facing the worst economy in our life-time – we have lost 300,000 jobs, with 10s of thousands losing their homes through the foreclosure crisis and our state losing roughly $58 billion in two years from our economy. Add to that a completely solvable health care crisis that is sinking financially our cities & towns, small businesses, residents not to mention our state government; we simply need responsive state leadership willing to shift to uniquely American solutions like Medicare for all. I have entered the race as the only person who has lived on their own wages and shares the same problems as so many of us who are frustrated. As you also know, I bring the ability to engage [...]

Kum-ba-yaaaaa: America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation — rather than bringing us together, ushering in a new kind of politics, and rising above raw partisanship, he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends. He promised better; we deserved better. [It goes on, and how.] Well gosh … you know what Mitt gets from me? A big, big, very sincere and honest THANK YOU for constructively engaging on the health care issue back in 2006. (Yeah, there was some political do-si-do and CYA, but that's forgivable.) Mitt, we couldn't have done it without you. Thanks.

and creates a storm thousands of miles away. Maybe. In any event, it seems inconceivable that last night's historic vote could have ever happened without the experience of Massachusetts' experiment with near-universal health care, passed in 2006. It was a bipartisan achievement: the legislation itself was mostly Sal DiMasi's project, but constructively engaged and signed by former Gov. Romney, with an assist from Senate President Travaglini. But as David Bernstein recently reminded us, they and the other “stakeholders” might never have come to the table without the threat of a health care ballot initiative. Pushed by the ACT! coalition, an organization-of-organizations that included Health Care for All, SEIU locals and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, the ballot question would have created a “pay-or-play” employer mandate and insured thousands of people.  About the time we started this blog, I was volunteering with GBIO on that ballot question, getting signatures, and learning about policy from John McDonough, then the head of HCFA. We went to hearings, talked to pols, applied pressure. Sensing the issue running away from them, legislators and the governor got out front, and actually produced a plan that was far from perfect, but achieved a lot of what we set [...]

Where I grew up there was no dominant nationality (as we use to call them.) There were probably more Italians (as we use to call Italian American’s) than Irish and tons of everyone else. (Well, not everyone. By everyone I mean specifically from land in between a few longitudes and latitudes that just happens to cross at points in Europe, with some exceptions of course. We had French and Poles and Armenians (goddamn Turks) with a smatterin’ of Greeks and African Americans and who knows what else? And Jews. You wanna talk Jews?  I’ve been to both Torfs. I can match any goy on here for number of times a yarmulke has been on the head. Note I said “on here” BMG reader. And I have turned off electric lights after the sun went down on Sabbath for members of the tribe. In fact, as a kid I would on occasion accompany another goy friend whose job it was to turn off the synagogue lights on Friday nights. We didn’t screw around either. Not like when we were altar boys. Boy did we screw around then. Okay, what else? Lots of intermingling. When I was a kid I was in [...]