Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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Heck of a game going on right now between Colorado and San Diego — it’s a one game tiebreak to determine the National League wild card.  It’s on TBS, if you’ve got the standard cable.

What are you watching?

UPDATE: NL wildcard game is going into extra innings.  Never mind the Pats game — it’s over.  Baseball postseason is where it’s at.

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  3. It appears here:

    Part of the displeasure with Congress stems from the stalemate between Democrats and the White House over Iraq policy. Most Americans do not believe Congress has gone far enough in opposing the war, with liberal Democrats especially critical of their party’s failure to force the president into a significant change in policy. [Emphasis added]

    Americans favor the liberal Democratic position:

    Overall, 55 percent of Americans want congressional Democrats to do more to challenge the president’s Iraq policies, while only a third think the Democrats have gone too far. [Emphasis added.]

    A favorite conservative talking point has been to compare Congress’ approval rating with Bush’s. What that ignores is what public opinion is saying:

    By a 2 to 1 margin, those who see little accomplishment in Congress’s first nine months blame the inaction on Bush and the GOP more than they do the majority Democrats. Fifty-one percent place primary fault with the president and congressional Republicans, and 25 percent on the Democrats. Among independents, 43 percent blame Republicans, 23 percent Democrats and nearly three in 10 blame both sides equally. [Emphasis added]

    I quote all this not to gloat at conservatives — however enjoyable that may be, but rather to point out that huge gains can be made in the next election. There’s room not only to defeat Republicans but, with polling like this, to defeat Bush Dogs. Bush Dogs are part of this problem.

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    Mike Pera for Congress! Pera’s primary opponent, the incumbent, votes for the war, on the wrong side on FISA, is anti-choice, is against stem cell research, supports Arctic drilling, and represents a solidly Democratic district.

  4. Don Orsillo (Red Sox NESN broadcaster) is calling the SD-Colorado game.  Nice to have a friendly voice on the air – and he calls a great game.

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    Too bad Wally the Green Monster couldn’t follow. 

    • He’ll be doing more games during the playoffs. Didn’t know he was going to do this one–nice national platform for him–but he and Remy had been talking about the fact that he’ll be doing playoff games.

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      Only first round, I believe, until all games go to Fox.

  6. This game is great. I’m glad I’m not a Rockies or Padres fan so I can actually enjoy this.

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    Jorge Julio has just come in for the Rockies — I remember seeing him down in Baltimore during his rookie season and (seeing him throw close to 100 mph) thinking that he’d be an consistent All-Star in this league.

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    I was wrong. (I’m sure you’d all agree that it’s the first time THAT’s happened, right?)

  8. …the 2d disk of the 2d season of HBO’s series Rome.  The series has been very good, albeit a bit gory.

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    We do have cable, but our basic cable out here in Wellesley only includes the local broadcast stations plus NECN.  It costs about US$9/mo.  The next step up that includes TBS, SciFi (all serpents, all the time) and so forth goes for US$50, and isn’t worth the price. 

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    We rent disks from Blockbuster’s online service.  It is not only much more afordable, but if you return a disk to a Blockbuster store, you get to take out a disk from the store at no cost.

  10. Last week, and now this.

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    It ends tonight, and if you haven’t seen any of it – please do.

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    My dad liberated Gusen and Mauthausen, so tonight will be tough to watch.

    • He could do a twenty part, fifty hour film on the evolution of electrical wiring, and it would be good.

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      I think that this one may be his best, though I have not seen The Civil War in many years.

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      Thank goodness for public television, eh Peter?

      • Highlight from the Barnicle/Burns event at the Kennedy Library last Friday –

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        Youngish man comes to mike and announces that as an aspiring high school teacher, HE could not use this as a study tool, as there were not enough mentions of blacks, Hispanics, etc.  Ken Burns lost it (a little) and pointed out he had devoted LOTS of time to black units and soldiers, and that those who were Hispanic didn’t identify themselves as such, but just as ‘Americans’ – as did virtually ALL of the soldiers who came to give him their memories, regardless of ethnicity.  (For myself, I had nver known we had race riots in Springfield, MA about black men doing fatory work with white women until I watched this).  Young twerp was forced to admit he hadn’t actually gone to the trouble of WATCHING the series before condeming it, but there weren’t many blacks in the PREVIEWS!

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        THIS is what will be teaching history to our grandchildren, Dad.

      • It’s like the History Channel or Discovery Channel, only 10x better and no commercials (much of the year). And free.

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        This is where I think free market ideology is good. Competition begets innovation. PBS competing with the basic cable channels from the Discovery group has raised, IMO, the quality of PBS programs. Now if only more people watched.

        • PBS kicks ass! It’s like the History Channel or Discovery Channel, only 10x better and no commercials (much of the year). And free.

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          PBS sucks.  Over in our little hovel in a western suburb of Munich, we get, via cable, a number of cable channels that I need to use fingers on two hands to count.  ARD (Das Erste–Amtliche Rundfunk Deutschland), ZDF (Zweite Deutsch Fernsehen), BRD (Bayrische Rundfung Deutschland), NDR (Nord Deutsch Rundfunk), WDR (West Deutsch Rundfunk), BR-Alpha (Bayrische Rundfunk Alpha), Phoenix, ORF (Austrian–Oesterreicheste RundFunk) and numerous radio programs. 

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          All of which, unlike PBS and NPR, really are commercial free.

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          There are commercial senders over there, but they usually have relatively lame US programs–dubbed–and some decent US movies.  But they are even better than US senders, since there aren’t as many commercial interruptions.

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          BTW, BR-Alpha has a number of real science programs, unlike PBS.  My favorite is their SpaceNight series, which includes 15 minute segments on a number of science topics.  Do you understand Einstein’s theory of General Relativity?  They actually had a segment on that a few years ago, and they described it pretty well.  I’d post a link (the segments are archived for download over the Internet), but unfortunately, the program is in German.

    • I’m dying here.  I do a daily Google search on:

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      Tsongas site:surveyusa.com

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      Hoping to get a hit on an unlinked web page.  Nada…

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