Blue Mass Group

In response to jimc, I would suggest that Kevin Drum speaks wisdom: Honest to God, Republicans must all be sitting in their back rooms and just cackling like hell right now. Think about it. They developed a strategy to hamstring the president completely — a strategy that’s bulletproof thanks to our country’s Constitution — knowing that it would rally their base but also hoping that it would cause moderates and lefties alike to become disgusted with Obama’s weakness even though we all know who’s really responsible for what’s going on. And it worked! In fact, it’s worked better than they could possibly have imagined. They can probably barely keep from spitting up their beers right now. We are such chumps. We don’t have the luxury of disillusionment. The change that we seek — that we need — will take generations, not just electing one president. If you’re not up for scrapping for incremental change, if you thought it was all going to happen immediately … just get the hell out of the way. At least fuss at the right people. Analogy: You’re driving on a dirt road, late at night, in a driving rainstorm, in a station wagon. A tree [...]

It would be swell if, when you get to the bottom of a long page at BMG comments full of insight and badinage, there was a handy link back to the home page like there used to be.

According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Irene will be sitting directly atop Berkshire County at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday Afternoon.  We’re talking about a 75 mph wind and torrential rain slamming into Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed. And what about the 2:30 concert on Sunday? The concert is on. “The musicians will be playing, so use your tickets or lose them.” (Cancelled at 11:10 a.m. Saturday. Look under the fold for some interesting posts placed on the BSO Facebook page, including “The BSO will not cancel due to weather.” – BSO post Thursday at 11:32 a.m.) Nice to know that Lenox is exempt from the governor’s state of emergency.

[Cross-posted. Edited for less-Lowell-centricness.] I am getting a lot of Irene in my Facebook feed, and some of it is complaints that the media is overdoing it, or that “you’d think it was the end of the world” for all the warnings and coastal evacuations and such. Sure, showing the probable storm track every 5 minutes (when nothing has changed) and sticking some poor schlub out on the Outer Banks of N.C. right in the middle of the thing is annoying…and while I agree, the media really loves this stuff, and reports on it incessantly days out from the storm itself, thinking it sells newspapers/TV ads/radio spots, I think we should take a moment to actually take some of this seriously. You can do some simple things today and tomorrow (withOUT running out to the packed supermarket in a panic) to make sure everyone stays safe. (MEMA also has a web page full of tips.) The two things that are the most damaging for us inland folks in such storms is flooding from steady torrential rain, and wind damage.

Cross-posted locally. If you had asked me, in 2008, for a list of items that would make me stop supporting Barack Obama, it would probably look like this, not necessarily in this order. – Failure to close Guantanamo Bay and/or follow due process of law for the prisoners there. – Continuation of some obvious abuse of power (for example, appending “signing statements” declaring himself immune from some laws). – Betrayal of a core Democratic principle. – A series of corruption scandals. – Failure to act on healthcare; not failure to pass, but failure to act or an obviously half-hearted attempt at getting it done. – Failure to end or significantly wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. – Continued use of questionable contractors like Blackwater (or whatever they call it now) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hmm. Looks like I can’t support Barack Obama. He hasn’t hit the entire list –- this administration has been remarkably free of ethics scandals –- but he’s well over a majority of it. I don’t think I’m a purist. None of my items are especially liberal. Some of them would save money and could arguably be called conservative. But I am a liberal, and [...]

STORM: Irene’s coming (MassLive/Republican). The storm is forcing our elusive governor to make an appearance at the Framingham bunker today. But wait – a Patrick siting! (Globe) SUPP: Of course I kid, since the gov has been busy this whole time preparing a supplemental budget. (Globe, Ledger, Taunton Gaz.) MITT MONITOR: Texas governor Rick Perry critisizes that state’s health care reform law (Hill, Globe). But does former governor Romney care? No, he’s too cool for that. (Herald) CRAZY: Scott Brown wants nothing to do with this twitter nonsense. (PI, Sun Chron.) Read the rest of the MASSterList, including the Mitt Monitor, today’s legislative headlines, transportation news, new health care headlines, today’s Best of the Blogs and more by signing up for daily email alerts.

The drought in Texas is huge, long, and heartbreaking. It’s been going on for many months; NPR had a couple of reports this morning, describing almost biblical suffering by cattle and wild animals, and the withering of the ranching industry itself. The New York Times tries to connect the dots: Even though one can’t pin one weather event, or even one year’s worth of weather events, on climate change, climate change could be making such events a lot more likely. (Analogy: Baseball players have always hit homers, steroids or no. But steroids made for a lot more homers.) “We can’t say with certainty whether this particular drought is in and of itself a product of climate change,” said David Brown, a regional official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, Dr. Brown added, these kinds of droughts will have effects that are “even more extreme” in the future, given a warming and drying regional climate. … Drought and high temperatures are consistent with climate-change forecasts for Texas. According to John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist who was appointed by Gov. George W. Bush in 2000, about 80 percent of the models that were run for a 2007 report by the [...]

Guess what? David sent me a link to a site that lets punks like me make make their own polls. So i have two. One is serious. One is not. The serious one concerns Elizabeth Warren and Deval Patrick. Who has the better chance to beat Brown? (the link goes to the poll. I’m trying to embed it and the other one. The site says you can. I am not having success. Perhaps the editors may help me?) [Delighted! Polls embedded below. Details forthcoming. -David] Right now we are in a holding pattern as Warren finds her stroke in the batting cage. Unlike others I believe we have plenty of time. I am waiting to see the candidate Warren and willing show patience. If she runs a few voters will notice before next summer and most won’t know her name until after Labor Day. None of that should stop her from winning. What will stop her from winning will be if she is a bad candidate. If she is a bad candidate how awkward will it be to move her to the side for Deval? This too important a job to watch go up in smoke. If by Veterans Day [...]