Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  4. now if he could stop prefacing most of his attacks with praise for McCain, thereby wasting the best part of low-info voters short attention spans.  

    • Kerry Healey ran a shameless campaign filled with negative ads and fear-mongering tactics. Yes women, be very afraid of random attack rapes and so you should vote for Healey!   Besides the fear tactics, Deval Patrick still finished 20 points ahead of Healey.

      • that the people of Massachusetts agreed with Kerry Healey on a majority of the issues. But she lost. That’s the point I was making. Sorry I had to spell it out.  

  6. Mr. Biden, you’re full of it.

    <

    p>Your own acceptance speech was thin soup when it came to explaining how you would achieve any of the boiler-plate promises you and your running mate made.

    <

    p>It was long on reproach, short on ideas.

    <

    p>You’ve got a lot of damn gall, Mr. Biden. And a big mouth to boot.
    Let’s see how well it serves you in the debates.

  7. in the way that music sometimes can.

    <

    p>It’s the total impact of truth, substance, and passion — big contrast with the teleprompter candidates on the other side.

  8. From a previous post on richardhowe.com:

    <

    p>Bush isn’t running for reelection, but McCain has sold out to the same crowd that pulled Bush’s strings for the past 8 years. And what has that got us?

    <

    p>1. An increase in federal debt in excess of $4 trillion.
    2. A Trade deficit exceeding $9 trillion, increasing at over $700 billion per year.
    3. A reincarnation of “stagflation”, where the economy goes down the tubes and prices accelerate upwards.
    4. A change in foreign policy to advocate the concept of preemptive war, and executed under false premises.
    5. “Borrowing” (robbing) the Social Security Trust Fund of $200 billion a year, with no realistic chance of paying back this now $2.3 trillion debt.
    6. Taking the money they “borrowed” from future Social Security recipients and providing excessive tax breaks to the rich, one of the great wealth transfer sins in our history.
    7. Tax policies that enable our rich investors to launder their money through the Cayman Islands, making that small nation the 4th biggest creditor of the United States.
    8. Quadrupled the price of oil, while asking for more drilling, yet not validating the existing supply reports which are used to drive up prices.

    <

    p>If the ordinary people don’t speak up now and throw these bums out for good, we can kiss the American dream goodbye forever.

  9. Regulators probing oil supply data: report

    <

    p>Thursday, September 4, 2008; 4:17 AM

    <

    p>(Reuters) – Commodity market regulators are probing whether energy market players are injecting false crude oil supply data into the marketplace, the Wall Street Journal said.

    <

    p>Regulators are concerned that companies may be reporting inventory levels that benefit their own trading positions but may not be accurate, the paper said, citing people familiar with the probe.

    <

    p>Unexpected drops in oil inventories reported each Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration can spark price spikes on the main oil futures benchmark on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    <

    p>The report noted a company could theoretically underreport barrels in its tanks to suggest oil is scarcer than it really is, and then sell its physical oil at a premium when oil prices jump on misleading news.

    <

    p>The regulators — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — may have been tipped off on unexpected big market moves by sources in the oil trading world, the Journal said.

    <

    p>The CFTC is taking depositions, or testimony, about some of those periods, lawyers told the paper.

    <

    p>No-one at the CTFC was immediately available for comment.

    <

    p>(Reporting by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty in Bangalore; Editing by David Holmes)

  10. Not to belabor McCain’s VP choice, but I especially enjoyed this little gem from last week:

    <

    p>http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/…

    <

    p>

    Sarah Palin’s speech to the convention Wednesday night energized conservatives, allayed concerns of some nervous party insiders – and inspired excited Republicans to donate a cool $1 million to the Republican National Committee’s effort to elect John McCain.

    …

    UPDATE: Bloomberg reported that Palin’s speech was even better for Democrats-Barack Obama has raised $8 million since Wednesday’s speech.

    <

    p>

    • …it has to be the way she’s contributed to unity in the Democratic Party!  Thanks for nominating an anti-science, domimionist, creationist, power abusing, personally vindictive, earmark loving woman, Republicans!

      • Nothing like having a corrupt, dominionist freak show a breath away from the Presidency to unite all the sane, rational people.

      • People are hurting all over the US. Maybe it’s all the money they keep sending to Obama for the election. How much “regular” people have sent money? They must have extra money to be sending that much. Also, how does Biden deal with “that usual Washington crowd” when he was not only ONE OF THEM but he was one of the more powerful Senators? Is he that ineffective as a Senator?

        <

        p>Dems will love to blame Bush for the deficit… but the Congress makes the budget not the President!

        <

        p>Sarah’s coming and she will kick Joe’s ass! We just love her.

        • 6 years of Republican dominance, 2 years of with a slight Democratic majority.  

          <

          p>What’s your point, exactly?

        • The Republicans can still block legislation in Congress, and cause gridlock in the Senate.

          <

          p>The average donation to the Obama campaign is $75. That’s a strain on some people’s budgets, but obviously they feel strongly enough about Obama, and the fact that your President has ruined this country, to donate money. The argument that you made-blaming the poor and middle class for their plight because they donated to Obama-is so stupid that I shouldn’t have even addressed it.

          • is a standard republican tactic, isn’t it? Because, you know, no poor person would ever care enough about their country to make a sacrifice to help put it on a better course (or frankly in the case of 2008, avert the existential disaster of giving the nuclear football to McCain-Palin).

  11. His knowledge on foreign policy and domestic issues is impressive. I am really glad that you are able to support a truly good choice for VP, in spite of his vote for DOMA. It does show that are capable of weighing positions on various issues. Perhaps you might consider that your blanket rejection of your own Senator, who was one of 14 to vote against DOMA. He has been every bit as good as anyone making the case for Obama over McCain.

    • Obama and Biden would represent all of America.  They are great candidates and specifically in regards to glbt rights are the best we’ve ever had.

      <

      p>In regards to Senator Kerry however, that’s a completely different story.  He represents Massachusetts where it’s actually politically incorrect to not support marriage equality.  There’s no reason whatsoever, politically or otherwise for him not supporting it.  His time has come to move forward on civil rights and if he can’t make that step then I won’t be able to support him.

      • How can Biden be better than Kerry when Kerry has a 100% HRC record and voted AGAINST DOMA? Here is Biden’s record:

        <

        p>101st Congress (1989-1990): Overall Scorecard Rating 90%
        102nd Congress (1991-1992): Overall Scorecard Rating 91%
        103rd Congress (1993-1994): Overall Scorecard Rating 89%
        104th Congress (1995-1996): Overall Scorecard Rating 78%
        105th Congress (1997-1998): Overall Scorecard Rating 83%
        106th Congress (1999-2000): Overall Scorecard Rating 86%
        107th Congress (2001-2002): Overall Scorecard Rating 100%
        108th Congress (2003-2004): Overall Scorecard Rating 63%
        109th Congress (2005-2006): Overall Scorecard Rating 78%
        http://www.outindenver.com/hom…

        <

        p>The best source I could find on Kerry, showed 100 for all years they had. (1995 – 2006) (Obama got an 89 for 2005-2006, the only statistic on Obama) – http://www.votesmart.org/issue…

        <

        p>It would be fair to say you like Obama and Biden better or you like the way they talk about it better – but Kerry has the better record.

        <

        p>He represents MA in the US Senate, where he was one of only 14 to vote against DOMA. In the Senate he has been a leader on many issues that affect gay rights – far more than Biden.

        • has a better HRC rating than Biden.  Biden is running to be Vice President of America.  Kerry is running to represent Massachusetts in the Senate and so of course Kerry should be more attuned to the view of Massachusetts voters rather than American voters as a whole.

          <

          p>You can talk about Kerry’s DOMA vote all you like.  Heck, that’s probably more reason why he should support marriage equality.  However, he does not support marriage equality and has no reason for doing so except personal bias.  That’s the point.  You can see my newest post on it here.

          • My comparision was to the last nominee. I assume that was his ticket was one of the implied comparisions.

            <

            p>Even if the reason he does not support gay marriage explicitly (you could say that saying it is settled law supports it implicitly), his position is such that in his job as US Senator there will be no vote where he will vote “wrong”.

            <

            p>What would really change tommorow if John Kerry made a statement 100% in favor of gay marriage? Absolutely nothing – unless you feel that he has the ability to push for changes that no one else has come close to getting. If that were true, it’s a very good reason to keep him in the Senate.  

            • The minds of others in public life and in the community.  He could be a leader helping us increase others’ comfort with equal marriage and protections for glbt families.  He could help prepare the way for future expansion of these protections beyond Massachusetts and California; instead he gives cover to our opponents.

              <

              p>I honor Kerry’s past support for glbt issues, and I gave him a pass during his presidential run, but there’s no good excuse for his position now.  

              • That’s the exact same take I have on the issue.  Kerry’s time is well past due to support marriage equality.

  12. We got the good one on our ticket, while the Republicans are trying to make Lieberman officially one of them.

    <

    p>

    “I would like to see him vote with Republicans in September,” Specter said. “He’s practically there. That would have the consequence of giving us a Republican Senate.”

    <

    p>Nothing will bolster the “we have zero power, and weren’t anywhere near dirty government argument like taking control of the Senate two months before the election thanks to the defection of a consummate Washington player in a back room deal.

    • Isn’t Specter’s statement simply Not True?  (The Senate has been organized and can’t be reorganized by a simple majority.)  Or maybe he is referring to the unlikely hypothetical that the Republican/Lieberman coalition fails to lose any seats in the coming election?

    • Given that it takes 60 votes to move anything to a vote on passage. And the Democrats don’t have 60 votes. So anything the republicans can unite on, will be blocked.

      <

      p>Not the same as a republican holding the Majority Leader gavel, but sufficient to block progress on anything.

      <

      p>I wonder whatever happened to “upperdown vote” anyway?

Archives