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Don’t be in such a Rush

Mar 6th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

Supposedly, talk radio megamouth Rush Limbaugh is the best weapon Democrats have. Democratic strategists James Carville and Paul Begala said they discovered in polls conducted last fall that Limbaugh was “deeply unpopular,” particularly among young people. Even more unpopular than “God-damn-America” Jeremiah Wright.
So, when Limbaugh famously said recently that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail, they figured they’d hit the motherlode. Unpopular radio guy attacks incredibly popular president. Put it out there, call Limbaugh the real leader of the Republican Party and watch the GOP brand sink into oblivion.
Well, maybe. But, maybe not. It is possible - just possible - that the reason so many people, especially young people, don’t like Limbaugh is because they have never really listened to him. They have seen and heard only the caricature, only selected soundbites from his sworn enemies, only the venom coming from the Bill Mahers and Keith Olbermans of the world, who don’t have an audience even close to that of Limbaugh’s.
So, the more they promote what they believe are the missteps of the Great Satan of the Right, the more likely it is that everybody, including young people, will hear more than a soundbite. They might actually hear what he says in context. They may realize that, agree with him or not, he puts forth his views in coherent ways. That his attack on the president is about his policies, and is not personal. That his wanting Obama’s agenda to fail is no different than Democrats wanting President Bush’s reform of Social Security to fail. That he has the guts to speak plainly, unfiltered by all the handlers and scripters that now surround Obama, just as they surrounded Bush and every other president of the modern era.
In short, Carville, Begala and the rest of the Obamanites might expand Limbaugh’s prodigious audience even further. They might not want that for a guy who could crush them both in a debate without breaking a sweat.

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Bulletin: Dissent no longer patriotic

Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

Remember, not so long ago, when dissent was “patriotic”? Remember when Democrats who favored immediate withdrawal from Iraq - who hoped the U.S. would lose the war because it would make President Bush look bad - would throw tantrums if anybody called them on it, because, they said, this was an unfair questioning of their patriotism.
What a difference three weeks makes. Now, with Democratic President Barack Obama in office, long-time Democratic strategist Robert Shrum is accusing Republicans who won’t roll over and blindly vote for Obama’s $840 billion “stimulus” package of being “Taliban Republicans.”
So, now that power has changed hands, it is not only just fine to question the patriotism of administration critics, it is fine to label them as sworn enemies of the United States, bent on inflicting mass casualties through terrorist acts.
Apparently, the rules of political debate are whatever Democrats say they are.

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Big Brother Deval

Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

I didn’t expect, for a moment, that Gov. Deval Patrick would bring anything resembling tax relief to Massachusetts. He never really promised to, anyway. If you listened to what he said during his campaign, it was that if the income tax was reduced to 5 percent after 18 years of a “temporary” surtax, then property taxes would have to increase to make up the difference. Some people took that to mean that if the surtax remained, property taxes would decrease. But, that was just “Together-We-Can” wishful thinking. He made no promise of a reduction in anything.
So, it is no surprise that Patrick wants increased taxes and fees on everything from candy to gasoline.
But, what I didn’t expect was that his photo would be a candidate for placement next to “Big Brother” in the dictionary. Within his proposed plan to raise gasoline taxes by anywhere from 5 cents to 29 cents per gallon is word that the governor is moving toward tracking every mile you drive, with the assistance of a chip implanted in your inspection sticker. Not right at first, of course - it will just be a “free” FastLane or EZPass unit for everybody so they can use “open tolling” on the highways. But the technology is in the works for more - much more. No wonder he’s talking about eliminating toll booths on the turnpike - he won’t need them. This would make every road in the state a toll road. Not only that - if he can track every mile you drive, he can also track where you drive. Say goodbye to your few remaining shreds of personal privacy.

Posted in Pension Tidal Wave, State issues, Taylor Armerding, Uncategorized | Comments

Politics of fear reloaded

Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

How disgusting is it that President Bush is still trying to ram things through Congress with the same, tired old politics of fear? I mean, first it was the weapons of mass destruction, and now it’s that we’re going to sink into an irreversible depression if we don’t hand him $840 billion for some kind of alleged “stimulus” that won’t really kick in before the economy has bottomed out naturally. First it was trying to scare us with national security and now it’s trying to scare us with economic security. If we don’t roll over for this, he claims a crisis will become a catastrophe, No Democratic president would ever stoop to such cheap scare tactics. When we send Bush back to Texas, there will be no more politics of fear …
… Oh, this is a Democratic president? That was President Hope-and-Change-Yes-We-Can Barack Obama saying all that?
Uh, never mind.

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Ethical clouds? What ethical clouds?

Jan 28th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

If you had any lingering doubts about the Statehouse being a palace of delusion, listen to some of your elected representatives defend their vote for Sal DiMasi as House Speaker, just three weeks before he resigned under an ethical cloud that grows blacker by the day. Read about it here.
Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem: “I don’t think it’s a black eye.” Keenan said he supported DiMasi because of his work on health care reform, support of gay marriage and blocking casino gambling. Gee, that sounds as good as making the trains run on time.
“I don’t feel like it’s a climate of corruption,” said Mary Grant, D-Beverly. Let’s see - DiMasi is the third speaker in a row to resign because of ethics problems. But Grant sees no need for political climate change.
Joyce Spiliotis, D-Peabody, said she voted for DiMasi because nobody else was in serious contention. Same for Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers. So, there were at least two other reps drooling for the job - one of which has now gotten the job. No other options?
Nobody mentioned the obvious - that as long as DiMasi was speaker, he had the power to reward his supporters and punish any wayward rebels. Nobody mentioned the gladhanding love-in that preceded the vote, with everybody tripping over themselves to drone on about what a towering servant of the public DiMasi was. Hey, what’s wrong with allowing some influence peddling on the side?
Nobody should be surprised, I guess. Nor should we be upset, unless it is at ourselves. We’re the ones who voted for these people.

Posted in Massachusetts politics, State issues, Taylor Armerding | Comments

The money is in contracts, not ‘efficiencies’

Jan 5th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding

I agree with those who say that the few thousand bucks area school districts spent last November sending their superintendents and some school committee members to a conference on Cape Cod (read about it here) was no big deal - at least when it comes to breaking budgets. The top outlay of $4,500, which Methuen spent, doesn’t even register as a percentage of budgets that run into the dozens of millions. Or, in the case of Lawrence, well over $100 million.
But I was amused by the comments many of them, including Andover School Committee Chairwoman Debra Silberstein, who mentioned a presentation on cost savings and efficiencies that she said would result in bringing back, “the value well in excess (of the $2,209 that Andover spent) to the district.”
Silberstein also paid her own way to the conference, which is particularly laudable.
But even if the seminars result in savings of $50,000, let’s say, which would be “well in excess” of what they spent - hey, it would be more than 20 times what Andover spent - it will still have a negligible impact on a budget of $60 million.
None of these people should need a conference to tell them where the real money is - it is in teacher contracts. If they took a much harder line at the bargaining table, they could save their communities millions, not thousands. The only worthwhile conference is one that would teach them to do that. I wouldn’t care if each one of them spent $5,000 or more for a weekend, if they brought back that kind of value.

Posted in Local politics, Municipal meltdown, Taylor Armerding | Comments

Cooler means warmer, said the Mad Hatter

Dec 15th, 2008 by Taylor Armerding

Lots of stories this week on how President-elect Barack Obama is going to have to do something about global warming in a hurry, because we’re already tipping past the tipping point, according to all credible scientists.
The most interesting factoid came late in these apocalyptic reports, however, where it noted that 2008 was going to be slightly cooler than 2007. But don’t get complacent. This only illustrates, the story said, how fast the world is warming.
Uh, OK. What I’m wondering is, what would it mean if 2008 had been warmer than 2007. Would that have meant the world is cooling?

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Merry Whatever

Dec 15th, 2008 by Taylor Armerding

I guess among the things we’ll be bidding farewell as 2008 draws to a close is the Christmas party. Not the party, of course, just the label. Yes, we’ve been trained to say “Happy Holidays” now for the better part of a decade, so as not to offend blah blah blah. But it seemed like the Christmas party was still hanging on. Not so much, apparently. I heard about more than a dozen parties this past weekend, and all but one was called a Holiday party. The other one was called a Glow Gala.
So, start getting ready. In a few years - maybe 10, maybe less - we won’t have Dec. 25 off any more. And then it will take less than a generation for people to remember why we even had it off in the past.
Hope that gives all the diversity disciples a nice warm feeling.

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Say Blagojevich five times fast

Dec 10th, 2008 by Taylor Armerding

I’m just guessing here, but I think it’s a pretty good bet that before Tuesday, the number of Americans who could pronounce Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s last name was something below 5 percent. And after today, it’s probably better than 95 percent.
Oh, and you might have to search in some mainstream media accounts to find it, but Blagojevich is, uh, a Democrat.

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Unhappy with a vote? Take a day off

Dec 9th, 2008 by Taylor Armerding

That’s a great idea that the gay marriage jihadists have. It’s not enough, in the wake of the democratic referendum in California to preserve traditional marriage, for them to harass and threaten the Mormon church or hurl insults at African Americans that would get anybody else branded as McCarthyite. The next big protest is for this Wednesday, Dec. 10, labeled a “Day Without a Gay.” Backers of same-sex marriage are being urged to skip work by “calling in gay,” to demonstrate how much America relies on gays.
This is terrific. But why let gays have all the fun, and get all the time off? I think the rest of us who are on the losing side of any democratic vote should do the same thing. Everybody who is unhappy that Barack Obama got elected should “call in Republican” - you know, just to demonstrate how much America relies on Republicans. Or, everybody in Massachusetts who was unhappy with the vote to preserve the 5.3 percent state income tax should “call in overtaxed,” just to show how much the state relies on people who are staggering under the tax burden.
It could go on and on - everybody who was unhappy that Deval Patrick got elected governor should “call in no-we-can’t.” I’m sure you can think of others. After all, democracy is so unfair, it ought to at least provide us all with a few more days off.

Posted in Massachusetts politics, Taylor Armerding | Comments

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