January Freeze

Cold!

This sign in Sam's in downtown Northampton says it all.



Veteran's Park in downtown Holyoke.



My neighbor's bike.



At UMass the campus pond has frozen to the point that the ducks are confined to this small area.



However they don't seem to mind the cramped quarters.



A great Greg Saulmon shot of the site of the former Hotel Charles in Springfield. The historic structure burned in the 1980's in a never solved case of arson believed to have had political overtones.



It's a safe bet that the truth behind that fire will never be known.

Horror Show:



Coming this winter to C-SPAN:

The true story of 535 politicians picked to live in two houses, work together and their lives taped to find out what happens when Congress stops being polite and starts secret, detailed negotiations on a sweeping, transformative health care reform bill.

This is the real Real World DC.

Featuring Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Charles Rangel, Robert Byrd, Barney Frank, Max Baucus - and billions of taxpayer dollars.

Wake Up Young People



Young people need to figure out that the big government policies of both parties in recent years are particularly disastrous for them. Big governments kill job opportunities, kill new industries, kill innovation, kill dynamism, and kill growth. The young need to stand up and defend themselves against the fiscal insanity in Washington, else they will be crushed by a tidal wave of taxes never seen by any generation in American history.

-Chris Edwards, Cato Institute.

Senate Race Update

Here's a funny picture from the campaign trail - a Brown sign waver wearing a Michael Jackson glove!



Meanwhile the evidence keeps pouring in that the Democrats are letting this race slip through their fingers, but the Public Policy Polling Group reports that Democrats still have a chance:

At this point a plurality of those planning to turn out oppose the health care bill. The massive enthusiasm gap we saw in Virginia is playing itself out in Massachusetts as well. Republican voters are fired up and they're going to turn out. Martha Coakley needs to have a coherent message up on the air over the last ten days that her election is critical to health care passing and Ted Kennedy's legacy- right now Democrats in the state are not feeling a sense of urgency.

This has become a losable race for Democrats- but it could also be easily winnable if Coakley gets her act together for the last week of the campaign. Complacency is the Democrats' biggest enemy at this point and something that needs to be overcome to avoid a potential disaster.

Fire Show

A special concert was held a few nights ago to raise money for those who lost stuff in the string of arsons in Northampton. As you can see from these photos by S.L. Pomeroy, the event was a sellout.



Here's a video from the event.