Just have to relate a personal anecdote from the weekend. Made possible — excuse me, nearly impossible — by the MBTA. My family and I were planning on taking the commuter rail from West Medford to North Station for the rolling rally. We heard that the MBTA commuter rail would be running a normal Saturday schedule. Hmmm. We got there well in time for the 9:33 train. Lots of Bruins fans there! Families with kids, like us. Many had Bruins shirts, some had face paint. Ages 0 to whatever. Awesome. Ride the train to the parade. Nothing came. At 10am a train whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn’t stop. Another train whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn’t stop. The electronic message board said there was a train leaving north Billerica. We waited. Train #3 whizzed by, blowing its horn, didn’t stop. I called the MBTA: the person I talked to had no idea which trains would stop or when – indicating that there had been no communication between the conductor and customer service. Finally at 10:45am, the message board said a train was leaving Winchester. At 11am, we were on the train, having had been there since 9:20. We had [...]
Former state Sen. Barrios ousted at GLAAD over commercial endorsement
Politico’s Ben Smith (at <http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith> reports former Cambridge State Sen. Jarrett Barrios is out as GLAAD’s president in the wake of an article detailing how the organization endorsed the AT&T/T-Mobile merger after AT&T gave it $50,000. Additional coverage at Huffington Post, Washington Blade, et al.
Patrick/Brown Books Eerily Similar Stuff
I recently finished the memoirs of Massachusetts two most popular political figures; the Patrick book describes a childhood of near poverty only alleviated by the presence of his maternal grandparents and the good fortune of caring teachers and academic scholarships to escape a volatile Chicago. The Brown memoir also speaks of a low-income and often hungry childhood that involved divorce an absentee father, alcoholism and the saving grace of maternal grandparents. This common background is what resonates with voters in modern America speaks of the possibility of the long lost American Dream through hard work, dedication and perseverance. The Deval Patrick, Scott Brown similarities do not stop at the completion of their formative years, they both married strong women that had overcome early life adversity and have successful, confident daughters. Governor Patrick and Senator Brown each came out of nowhere to win elections to major statewide offices with next to no name recognition and in the process defeating well known and well connected career politicians to boot. Their philosophies on government and public policy are not as far apart as most would think a Democrat and a Republican would be, even in a state like Massachusetts which is decidedly liberal, [...]
