Blue Mass Group

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BMG exclusive! The July 4th parade in Beverly

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Thanks to our statewide network of secret operatives, BMG is pleased to present some highlights from the July 4th “Horribles” parade in Kerry Healey’s hometown of Beverly Farms.  Looks like the locals weren’t exactly out in force for the Republican candidate for Governor.

Here’s the float which, we are told, won the coveted first prize:

Reportedly, there was a sign on the back of the float (not visible in this picture) saying “Beverly could not have been wrong twice,” referring of course to the two landslide losses Healey suffered in her 1998 and 2000 attempts to represent Beverly in the state legislature.

Here, Kerry addresses the adoring crowd:

And here, Kerry indulges in every politician’s favorite activity, while clutching the book that she hopes will guide her to success in the corner office:

(More photos are available here.)  You might also be interested in a leaflet that was handed out at the parade by the “Committee to Eject Kerry Healey,” entitled “Vote for Kerry Healey: Rich, Bored and Ready to Govern.”  Download the leaflet here (pdf) and distribute it to your friends!

UPDATE: The Mass. Dems have helpfully posted a video of the float making its way through Beverly Farms, along with some interviews with representatives of Billionaire$ for Healey, Mitt Romney, and of course Kerry herself.  OK, maybe our report on the parade wasn’t quite as exclusive as we thought.  Still, no one else has posted the leaflet!

FURTHER UPDATE: Gaah!  KH-OoT has got more pix of the parade.  But we’re still the only ones with the leaflet!

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE: Just got an email from the Healey campaign: “As you know, Independence Day is a key date on the campaign calendar and both Kerry and Reed participated in multiple parades this past Monday and Tuesday.  The lieutenant governor took part in the Gloucester’s famous Fish Town Horribles Parade on Monday and didn’t slow down a bit on Tuesday marching in Fourth of July parades in Chelmsford and Wakefield.”  Funny…nothing about Beverly…why would that be, d’ya think?

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Comments

  1. I hate to burst your bubble David but I just saw one of these pics somewhere.  However, yours are more exhaustive which I guess creates exclusivity.

    • Believe it or not I saw the picture in an email from the state party!  I was impressed by the email because the party seems to be taking good shots at the Republican party lately.

  2. I really needed a laugh today and you provided it by sharing these hysterical photos and witty commentary. 

  3. Call me crass, but the fact that one of the contribution amounts is “shitload” just cracks me up!

    • Having been a Billionaire for Bush on many occasions, this rocks.  Glad they’re doing local stuff.

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      To Peter, I see your question, and I don’t tend to think that badly done drag is very funny in general.  But it also doesn’t have the same history as minstrelsy.  Cultural symbols get their power from the history through which we interprety them, and a dude in a wig and heels just isn’t the same as a white guy in blackface.  I do think that there’s an edge of sexism to it, and they could have done just as well with a woman playing Healey and not run into those issues.  But it’s just not the same.

  5. I read my first comment there and feel a little bad.  I came across with more sass then was intended.  And BMG should get lots of credit b/c having the leaflet is a big thing b/c as David suggests, we can all hand it out!  That is certainly a scoop worth noting.

  8. Billionaires for Bush have been our of work for a while, and I don’t assume they continued getting money from the DNC all this time.  How much did the Mass Dems throw their way for the float and antics?

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    Quite a hoot considering how many of the Dem candidates are, ahem, not poor.

    • I am the guy the posed as Mitt. We were not paid by anybody and the float was our own idea.  We had watched the parade in Beverly Farms for over a decade and decided last summer to do a float this year.  When Healey decided to run for governor…well, it was fate.

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      We reached out to the Mass Dems and other groups to help out with press coverage and they were kind enough to help us out. Thanks again!

      • Its nice to see people stepping up & having fun at the same time 🙂

    • It is not appropriate to troll-rate a comment with a “3” (“worthless”) simply because you do not agree with what the comment says.  Troll ratings should be reserved for abusive, ill-informed, or off-topic comments.  Please read our “Rules of the Road.”  Thank you.

      • I gave the comment a 6 only b/c it was clear that the 3 was unwarranted.  I didn’t want to see the comment disappear or for the commenter to lose any “mojo” for a comment that was completely harmless.  There are a few abusers out there that need to drive responsibily on the BMG highway.

      • I gave a 3 because I felt that he was lying, which seems an appropriate use of 3 (worthless).  If you think I’m a troll them give me whatever you want.  I really don’t care.

        • On what basis did you think he was lying?  If you think he was lying, make the accusation directly, and back it up.  If you can’t back it up, perhaps it doesn’t have much merit.

        • I’m not lying, we were not paid.  I’m not sure how I can prove that…  And on the subject of ratings, I don’t think that folks should be giving low scores to comments they suspect are lies.  Should I give your comments a “3” because I know that, in fact, you’re completely wrong?  I won’t.

    • You’re right, pers-1765, some of the Dem candidates do have money… but you’re missing the point.  Kerry Healey’s money is not the problem.  The problem is her policy which favors the rich and will continue to stratify the population.  It seems to me that Patrick or Gabrielli would work to close the gap, rather than widen it. They would try to improve public education more aggresively to lessen the socio-economic disadvantage which, sadly, many kids are going to be forced to overcome.  Healey on the other hand has sat idly by while the public high school in her town (Beverly) has literally crumbled and faces losing is accreditation.

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      It’s not the amount of money that a candidate has, it’s who they will try to protect when in office.

    • I can tell you from past experience that the Billionaires for Bush are not funded by the DNC.  The New York Billionaires have raised some money through shows and merchandise sales, but that mostly goes into production, and pretty much none goes to the chapters like Boston.  The Boston Bills have a wee bit of money through selling pins and such, but it’s negligible.  The amount of time and resources that volunteers put into it is remarkable.

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      As for your assertion that they’ve been out of work for a while, I’d check their website at http://bostonb4b.blogspot.com/ .  Looks pretty active to me!  I’m noticing that there isn’t any mention of the parade ont here–wonder if this was a different group using the Billionaires motif?  Anyone there who can let us know?

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      And finally, pers-1765, I have to agree that rating that response a 3 was pretty tacky.  It clearly wasn’t trolling, abusive, offensive, or obscene.

  9. I hate to use this post to stoke a smouldering brushfire here at BMG, but doesn’t our enjoyment of this material kind of draw a tight boundary around our commitment to civility? If civility is merely a strategy to maintain unity during the primary and preserve room for productive debate, then fine. But often it’s presented as an ethical principle; and if it’s that, then it should apply to the other party’s candidates too. No one should claim to be seriously offended by satire, raillery, and ridicule aimed at their candidate if they are willing to direct it at Romney and Healey. The objection should simply be on the grounds of strategy, not ethics. I like this stuff, it makes political discourse colorful and creative. But if we think it’s necessary to ban it from primary debate, let’s not use its polar opposite — moralizing — to justify that.

    • I agree that the reasons for keeping nastiness out of the primary is more about strategy, as well as the idea (if we buy into it, which I know I personally do in this race) that any of the Dem candidates would be better than Healey.

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      One other note, though, is that satire and raillery are different from ridicule.  I wouldn’t mind seeing some good satire of different Dem candidates, though I’m not sure if BMG is a productive place for it.  But good satire takes work, and it’s far different from some of the exchanges we’ve had on here, which seem to go something like, “My canddiates’s awesome and yours sucks!”  And no, “Taj Deval,” while more clever than many similar comments, doesn’t qualify as creative satire.

    • I hear you, but if the Repubs did something outrageous and funny, I’d probably link to it, too. I linked to Hub Politics “Fluff Alert”, for instance. Satire and silliness are all game.

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      I mean, no one said that Healey was a baby-eating crack-addicted anti-Semite or anything.

      • Charley – to be sung to the tune of the Haberna, from Carmen – (you know, that famous tune in Carmen) –

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        DiMasi took the Speaker’s Chair
        Kicked Out Old Leaders He Found Standing There
        Brought In Progressives As His Team
        So They Could All Pursue their Noble Dream…

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        “Let’s Get That Cash Right Out of Hock
        And Spread Around on Legislaaaaative Schlock!
        How Can A Blue State Still Survive
        Upon A Tax Rate Less Than Five-Point-Five?

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        We’ll Spend It All, To Show We Care,
        To Debt We’ll Just Pile On Another Layer!
        A Balanced Budget? Don’t You See…
        Those Cuts Will All Come From
        Mitt Rommmm-neeeey!”

        • But it’s “Habanera” (with no tilde).

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          speaking of Carmen… to the tune of “Toreador”

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          Oh Governor —
          On a national tour
          Don’t let the door
          Hit your derriere…

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          While dreaming of the White House in ’08
          You’ve left us quite a muuuuuuddle!

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          But never mind the state —
          Oh Governor
          Your pompadour looks great!

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