Watching them like a hawk...

Massachusetts remains Blue...

It was not to be that the citizens of Massachusetts would turn over the DEMS.....I can say that I am truly disappointed in the electorate....

Tim Cahill cost Charlie Baker a chance at being Governor. There's no other way to put it.

The Alcohol tax was repealed but the sales tax lives on....

What will it take to get the people of Massachusetts to understand that the POLS up on Beacon Hill think that the taxes we pay are their own personal piggy bank??

I hope that the National swing to the right will be enough to make sure that some sanity is interjected into the fight to bring Government back to the middle....

Like I had said before, the new POLS we would elect can't be any worse than those who are in there now....

The image above is centered left for the specific purpose of showing we stay left here when common sense would tell most to GO RIGHT.....


Republicans’ revolution fades in Massachusetts
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff November 3, 2010 - Boston Globe

So much for the Scott Brown revolution, at least in his home state.

He was a national inspiration and a local hero — an against-the-odds winner from Wrentham — who inspired Republicans up and down the ticket to challenge the state’s powerful Democratic establishment. He campaigned throughout the state last weekend, telling sign-holding Republicans at rallies that he was getting “flashbacks’’ to his own improbable US Senate victory.

Yet 10 months after that seismic result, Massachusetts turned decidedly blue again. All statewide elected offices, including a closely fought governor’s race, and the entire 10-member US House delegation remained in Democratic hands, despite a national tide that left Republicans celebrating large gains last night.

“I don’t know how they view this as anything but a total disaster,’’ said Peter Ubertaccio, a political science professor at Stonehill College in Easton. “I just don’t know what a political party does if all indicators across the nation, across the state, all point to a Republican year and they can’t win any races of note.’’

To make a significant statement that Massachusetts has become a true two-party state, the GOP would have had to claim the governor’s office, at least one US House seat, perhaps a constitutional office or two, and at least a dozen new seats in the state Legislature.

The party didn’t come close.

Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, despite a poor economy, dispatched a GOP candidate, Charles D. Baker, whose arrival in the race last year had been heralded as a coup for the party. Baker had been the darling of Beacon Hill when he served as the sharp aide for two Republican governors in the 1990s and then went on to private sector success running Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

The Republicans’ top nemesis in Congress, US Representative Barney Frank, won easily. And, in the race for the state’s only open US House seat, Democrat William R. Keating bested Republican Jeffrey D. Perry in a district that Brown had won by 20 percent.

The party’s only major victory came in the state Legislature, where Republicans appeared to have increased their membership to 34. They currently hold 20 of the 200 House and Senate seats.

“It will continue to be a blue state until Republicans are able to make a case for the kind of changes that they campaigned on,’’ said Dennis Hale, a Boston College political scientist. “They didn’t make the sell.’’

By just fielding several credible candidates and forcing Democratic incumbents to campaign harder than usual, Republicans tried to claim a modicum of progress for the long-dormant party.

“Changing the color of Massachusetts to purple won’t happen overnight,’’ state chairman Jennifer Nassour said in a statement, emphasizing the legislative victories. “The important fact is that entrenched incumbents, who often fly beneath the radar, had to stand up to public scrutiny this election cycle.’’

But Massachusetts Democrats, with most power preserved, may now feel a renewed sense of invincibility after withstanding the Republicans’ best shot, even as the Democratic Party felt sweeping losses elsewhere in the nation.

“The campaigns run by most Republicans were beneath the dignity of a democracy, and I am delighted they were repudiated,’’ Frank said in his victory speech, sounding a defiant note after a race that forced him to campaign harder than he had in years. But Frank, and the rest of the delegation, will nonetheless lose significant clout in Washington, where Republicans gained control of the US House.

Since Brown’s upset victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley, Republicans have been dreaming big. Maybe, just maybe, Massachusetts would begin feeling like a two-party state.

National factors — a weak economy, an unpopular Democratic leadership — combined with local factors — a series of scandals on Beacon Hill and one of the largest pools of Republican candidates in decades — gave a renewed sense that the party could regain relevance.

Baker’s entry into the race last year energized many in the party. The momentum continued when US Representative William Delahunt decided to retire, leaving an open seat in a congressional district where Brown won big; and even the unexpected turned Republicans’ way when US Representative John Tierney’s wife pleaded guilty to federal tax charges.

Conservative talk radio was abuzz last week at the prospect of reshaping Massachusetts politics, continuing to remake the state that had long been associated with the Kennedy family. Yet there was also a strong sense of anxiety. What if the party fails, despite all the favorable conditions? Would treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent running for governor, siphon just enough votes from Baker to preserve the slim lead Patrick held in public opinion polls?

And there were other signs that years of exile had left the GOP with a weak bench of candidates, and thus, unable to take advantage of all the opportunities. Coakley, for example, despite showing political weakness on a national stage, would have gone unopposed in the general election, if not for a last-minute write-in effort from James McKenna, a first-time candidate who qualified in the primary.

Likewise, when Tierney faced the unexpected guilty plea of his wife, Republicans had already locked in a candidate, Bill Hudak, who was best known for putting a sign on his lawn comparing President Obama with Osama bin Laden.

“They missed an opportunity to nominate someone who could have benefited from that late breaking news about Tierney and his family,’’ Ubertaccio said.

And as much as the Brown victory motivated Republicans, it also inspired some Democratic activists. Sydney Asbury, Patrick’s chief of staff, said recently that when she woke up after Coakley lost, she was determined never to feel that way again. The feeling was not just that the party had lost, but that it had not given its all, like an overconfident basketball team that rests its starting players before the final buzzer sounds, only to realize the other team never gave up.

Despite the national mood that seems to favor Republicans, the state party has tried to keep its public expectations more modest, noting that the party has been steadily losing seats in the State House for most of the last two decades.

“The revolution is occurring if the pendulum starts going in the other direction,’’ said Brad Jones, the House Republican leader.

Jones said he would be “thrilled’’ to increase its count to 17 or 20 House seats, a gain of no more than five, and that 30 seats in the 160-member chamber would constitute a “huge wave.’’

Before the results were known last night, Nassour said a defeat would require serious consideration. “We have to figure out what we did wrong,’’ she said. “Maybe we took for granted some feelings of the electorate and we just have to work harder and produce better candidates and work on our field organization and our farm team.’’

Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.

Pulling back the curtain on the arrogance of our Imperial President.....

The conventional wisdom is that we will see an Arse-Kicking of epic proportion this Tuesday...I have been writing about it based on going back to the election of Scott Brown into the Senate from my home state, Massachusetts. The "2nd Shot Heard Round The World" gave us an inkling into how people felt back at the beginning of 2010 regarding POTUS and his Presidency.

NOW, 10 months later, the anger has simmered to a full boil. People are fed up with his arrogance, Obamacare, Pelosi, Gietner, Napolitano, Biden and the attitude that they have all displayed towards the American Public who has rejected their views.

The arrogant smug attitude displayed by POTUS was never more on display than when he came to Boston to support his buddy, Deval "Spend-it-all" Patrick.

The enclosed article highlights what he said while in Boston:

In Boston on Oct. 16, Mr. Obama said, "People out there are still hurting very badly, and they are still scared. And so part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared."

No, Mr. President, we are thinking VERY CLEARLY about what you say and how you treat the majority of Americans who want to tell you where to go, and will do so with their votes on Tuesday.

As an aside, the fact that POTUS will be heading overseas for an extended trip immediately after the election to escape the onslaught of "change" that will be arriving at his front door shows the character of an insolent spoiled teenager. When confronted with challenges, he would rather stamp his feet, take a powder and turn tail than stand and take the medicine he richly deserves. What a joke.

Whoever advised him that going overseas right after the mid-term elections would be a good political move is sadly mistaken or maybe it was the decision of a inadequate President deluding himself further.....

You can run, Mr. President, but you cannot hide.

KNIGHT: Pulling back the curtain on Obama's audacity
Americans are witnessing an imperial presidency
By Robert Knight
-
The Washington Times
6:59 p.m., Friday, October 29, 2010

One of the most memorable scenes in "The Wizard of Oz" is when Toto yanks on the curtain to reveal the bogus wizard faking a larger-than-life image. In 2008, the media played the role of the curtain, shielding Barack Obama. Not enough Americans saw his thin resume, lifelong radical connections, sealed college records or brief U.S. Senate voting record, which the National Journalpegged to the left of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Democrat.

At the time, the terrier gamely pulling the curtain was the conservative media, including talk radio, websites, magazines and a few editorial pages.

Now, the curtain is nearly open, with President Obama himself pulling the cord. Facing an almost certain king-sized rebuke tomorrow, he has abandoned any pretense of the moderation that fooled so many in 2008.

Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Judge for yourself whether these recent statements meet the haughtiness test:

In Boston on Oct. 16, Mr. Obama said, "People out there are still hurting very badly, and they are still scared. And so part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared."

If he keeps this up, he might get real good at talking down to us, especially those of us "clinging" to our guns and religion.

Speaking on the Spanish-language TV network Univision on Oct. 25, Mr. Obama urged viewers to "punish our enemies."

On Oct. 23, he warned Republicans not to get in his way. Speaking at the University of Minnesota, he blamed the GOP for driving the nation's "car" into a ditch:

"And all the time the Republicans have been standing on the sidelines. They've been looking down, fanning themselves, sipping on a Slurpee [read: mint julep], kicking dirt down into the ditch, kicking dirt in our faces. But we kept pushing. ... And now we get the Republicans tapping us on the shoulder, saying, 'We want the keys back.' You can't have the keys back - you don't know how to drive. You can ride with us if you want, but you've got to sit in the back seat."

Not everyone thinks the car is being fixed, however. The Associated Press reports that Mr. Obama's approval rating even among college students is 44 percent, down from 60 percent a year ago.

When he's not demonizing the opposition, Mr. Obama is working on his imperious image. His trip to India on Nov. 6 should finish that job. His entourage will spend enough to bankrupt a small nation, which might be a nice change from his bankrupting our large nation. Wait - it's all our money.

"[T]he president's team has booked the entire Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants," the Economic Times reports. ". . . 125 rooms at the Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and the Oberoi hotels."

Add to that Air Force One, two more jumbo jets, security jets, 45 cars and several U.S. Navy vessels, and the cost of this vacation, oops, state visit, will soar into the tens of millions. For a president who says he's looking out for the little guy, it must be hard to see him from those mighty heights.

In a wonderful new book by the late constitutional attorney John Armor, "These Are the Times That Try Men's Souls," Thomas Paine's works are uniquely arranged by topic with Mr. Armor's commentaries in the margin. In the "On Tyranny" section, Mr. Armor notes that Paine was well ahead of "The Wizard of Oz" in skewering executive privilege. Writing in free verse, Paine targeted King George III. But listen to his words while imagining the Obama junket:

"What is called monarchy, always appears to me

A Silly, contemptible thing. I compare it to something

Kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity;

But when, by any accident, the curtain happens

To be open - and the company see what it is,

They burst into laughter."

If only it were that funny. Paine, who first used the term "the United States of America," could not abide tyrants of any kind, no matter how they came to power. He warned, too, about the possibility of an imperial Congress.

If Paine had been asked what he thought of Nancy Pelosi and company tucking into Obamacare a provision forbidding future Congresses from overturning portions of the law, he might have responded with a quote from his essay "The Rights of Man": "The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies."

Unless tomorrow's election begins a serious rollback, our grandchildren will be paying for Mr. Obama's and Mrs. Pelosi's extravagant spending well beyond the grave. And it could be curtains for our self-governing republic.

Robert Knight is senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union and author of the newly updated "Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Toward Socialism" (radicalrulers.com, 2010).

© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC.