Archive for the ‘elections’ Category

Answer: Because my 85 year old New Dealer mother is actually going to city hall to re-register as a republican because of them.

Posted: December 23, 2009 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news, personal
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Q: How do we know the following take from Bill Kristol is correct:

First: the reaction to the deal-making. One friend e-mails, “uncharacteristically, I’m getting calls from relatives who want to talk about all the unseemly deals being cut to get the health bill through…that seems to have hit a nerve, as much as the price-tag.” That’s my sense too.

The belief that the fix is in is so contrary to the American concept of fair play that it’s going to make a huge difference. Sarah Palin closed her facebook post today with this:

The administration’s promises of transparency and bipartisanship have been broken one by one. This entire process has been defined by midnight votes on weekends, closed-door meetings with industry lobbyists, and payoffs to politicians willing to sell their principles for sweetheart deals. Is it any wonder that Americans are so disillusioned with their leaders in Washington?

This is about politics, not health care. Americans don’t want this bill. Americans don’t like this bill. Washington has stopped listening to us. But we’re paying attention, and 2010 is coming.

When an 85 year old lifelong democrats expresses an intention to go to City Hall to change their registration over this in the bluest of blue states that means trouble.

This is going to implode this congress.

All you need to know about election 2010…

Posted: December 17, 2009 by datechguy in elections
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…is revealed in the last paragraph of Michael Barone’s column in the Washington Examiner today:

it’s interesting that when Massachusetts Democrat Michael Capuano, fresh from a second-place finish in the primary for Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat, was asked to tell the Democratic caucus what he had learned on the campaign trail, he replied in two words: “You’re screwed.”

That’s about it.

I read this post from the Recovering Liberal on Sarah Palin 2012 with some interest…

Posted: December 13, 2009 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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…it was a good post, but I left a comment pointing out two considerations:

#1. Sarah Palin is young. She doesn’t have to run in 2012. She will be a viable presidential candidate for the next 20 years.

#2. 3 years is a lifetime in the political world. There are a dozen things that can go right for the president and that same dozen things could go wrong for Sarah Palin.

Both of these considerations are valid but thinking on the subject two others have come to mind that deserve their own posts:

3. There are quite a few republicans who will also want that 2012 nomination, particularly if President Obama is as successful in the insuring 3 years as he has been in his first. They will consider it the chance of a lifetime and will pull out all the stops to get that nomination. Mitt Romney the (thankfully) former governor of my state of Massachusetts is one of them. He have few political core beliefs except victory and he has the experience of one failed campaign to help steer him right. The primary issue in 2012 is also going to play to his one legitimate strength and success as governor: Fiscal responsibility.

4. The Democratic (read Soros) money machine that helped get Obama elected is going to be spending a TON of money in the REPUBLICAN primaries. If at all possible they will run some kind of Palin look alike in terms of positions and will make sure said look alike is well financed and has at least one greatly exploitable skeleton in his or her closet. If they can’t find such a candidate then they will back whichever republican is less likely to either win or effect actual change.

In my opinion there are an awful lot of folks who have an awful lot to lose from a successful Palin candidacy, some of them are Republicans. These people are not going to just sit back and let their money and power go away.

If we Palin fans naively forget or ignore these facts, we will not only lose, but we will deserve to.

Bah Humbug! No Christmas Lights for Fitchburg

Posted: December 11, 2009 by datechguy in elections, local stuff
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The mayoral election is over and Mayor Wong won by 30+ points, that is a mandate and a half. Her first decision since the election. No Christmas decorations for Fitchburg! Even the Sentinel & Enterprise is not on board with this one:

Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong — who earlier this year decided to save money by turning off more than 60 percent of the city’s streetlights — announced last week that the city would not put up Christmas lights or other holiday decorations, and instead encouraged residents to donate money to the Fitchburg Senior Center.

“We’re going to focus more on getting people out to the downtown, and getting people to donate, and less on the holiday display,” said Wong, following a Wednesday press conference.

Her announcement likely stunned and angered many residents and business owners, as it did us, even as it comes in the wake of many puzzling decisions made by the mayor during her first term.

Even worse our hated rival next door Leominister is doing even better.

The timing of the announcement must have been particularly infuriating for Fitchburg residents because it came at the same time Leominster officials announced they were spending $20,439 to install their Christmas decorations, including new energy-efficient LED light strands.

That’s gotta leave a mark! The comments have been, shall we say, lively?

My take, if the city has decorations in storage that are not lights there are no reason why they can’t at least go on the common, but I can see see her point, if we can’t afford street lights which are a matter of safety, I really couldn’t justify the Christmas lights which is a matter or morale. (and mayor they are Christmas lights, not holiday lights.)

Two really sad things about this. If we didn’t have to have the city counsel primary to get one guy eliminated that would have saved more than enough to put up the lights and have cash left over.

In addition thanks to Ted Kennedy refusal to resign and a State Legislature desperate to give Harry Reid one more vote for obamacare we are paying for two extra elections, this weeks primary (can someone explain to me why that couldn’t have taken place in November on election day?)and Next months election to replace him. The cost of either one would have paid for the Christmas lights.

Ironic, The Champion of the little guy Ted Kennedy’s final legacy for those little guys who voted for him year after year is to help keep Christmas dark. Fitting isn’t it?

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