Archive for January, 2010

I have one question for the diarist at the Daily Kos who said this…

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in elections, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…in the first paragraph of his diary post:

You may or may not have heard: Massachusetts Democrats are waging a dynamic, all out effort for Martha Coakley in the final days of the campaign.

In the last 72 hours I have been to Brown and Coakley events and will be covering the president today. There are a lot of words that could be used to describe the democratic “effort” in this race. Dynamic would not be one of them.

Common decency prevents me from describing the Democratic effort in the most accurate terms available in the English language.

If morning mass and the coffee shop were the electorate…

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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…then this race would be as over as you can get. There was not a person in sight who had a good thing to say about Martha Coakley. If you so much as say the words “Scott Brown” in the restaurant people want to shake your hand.

When I mentioned to a group of people that Stacy was a reporter covering the race, a woman quietly asked, “is he for Brown?” When I told them yes they insisted on shaking his hand and talking to him.

I really don’t want to get my hopes up but I think we might be in the bottom of the first of Game seven with the Sox up 2-0.

It’s as if every conservative who has held their tongue for decades in this state has finally found their voice and is unafraid to speak it.

Stacy will have a more detailed update soon at the American Spectator Blog.

Update: Former Massachusetts republican Steven Den Beste doesn’t want to get his hopes up either:

Still, I’m trying not to get my hopes up. This is Massachusetts, where the Angel of Death could run for office as a Democrat and get elected. Not even the legendary “dead girl or live boy” could make a difference there.

Dissing Fenway Park, however? Maybe that’s a different matter.

We will likely know in under 60 hours.

Update 2 Stacy’s post is here.

A current and former president demonstrate America’s greatness

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news, personal
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Friday night as I awaited the arrival of Bill Clinton I struck up a conversation with two Chinese exchange students doing graduate work at WPI. Both had been the US for 6 months and absolutely love it. They both hope to be able to find jobs to stay here, if not they will go back to China.

There they stood, two young men from a country that is our greatest rival and one of our potential enemies both about to be only 10 yards from the man who exactly one decade prior was the most powerful person in the entire world.

After they started moving forward I talked to a union steward who was there to support Martha Coakley. As we were both Italian we talked and had an awful lot in common. It was a pleasure to share his company and we both commented on how great a country it was where two guys like us could be just a first down away from the former president. We agreed that if we told our grandparents this, they wouldn’t believe us.

It was even greater than than he knew.

Consider, ten yards from me a man who was once the most powerful in the world was going to ask me to do something, and I was going to refuse with absolutely no fear that he would attempt to compel me otherwise.

Today after Mass (yes Adrienne he’s coming with me don’t get your hopes up) we are off to Boston to see the most powerful man in the world who will ask, not order ask me to do something that he really wants me to do for the sake of an agenda that he really believes in…

As on Friday I will refuse. As on Friday I will do so with the safe assurance that he will not attempt to compel me nor order others to do so. In fact even if he DID order others to do so, I have the certainly they they would refuse such an order.

That is the greatness of America, that is the freedom of America, that is the compact between the government, represented by President Obama and the Governed, represented by me.

Today I will be in the presence of a politician that I considered unqualified for his position, a product of a corrupt Chicago machine. A man I have criticized and ridiculed many times in the past and likely will criticize and ridicule many more times in the future. I will also have the great honor to be in the presence of the elected leader of my country, my president. I see no conflict in any of those statements. That is America!

Update: The Obama rally has been pushed back a few hours, good thing too because there was plenty to post about this morning.

Barnicle is on the money

Posted: January 17, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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in this report from Friday’s rally; and not just because he grew up in Fitchburg:

Given the often contrived and polarizing conflict that dominates the cable-TV landscape, it would be easy, on the outside looking in, to slap a Tea Party label on Brown’s supporters. But most of those lunging for his hand were not lunatics from the fringe, merely Democrats and Independents feeling bruised, ignored and taken for granted by people in power.

If you want me to hire you to spend my money, you not only have to ask, you have to ask nicely.

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