Clintoned

Deja-vu All Over Again?



In 1993 the newly inaugurated President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, announced that the top priority of his administration would be "health care reform." The Clinton Administration set deadlines by which congress must take action, but month after month went by and despite bills emerging from committee, in the end nothing was ever brought to the floor.

With all the delays 1993 turned into 1994, a re-election year for Congress, and the members became fearful that passing controversial legislation for which there was a lot of public opposition might be dangerous to their political survival. They were right, but too late. That November the Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress and the Clinton presidency was essentially over, with national policy being set by Newt Gingrich and the other Republican leaders in Congress.

Will President Barack Obama get "Clintoned" in the same way 16 years later? Democrats are concerned over the growing feeling that they've seen this show before - a popular president enters office on a wave of "change" only to find the public revolting against that change and shutting down the president's agenda in the first mid-term election. And no one has forgotten that the issue that triggered the Democrat bloodbath of 1994 was healthcare.



Yet even if Obama ends up being "Clintoned" in 2010 it may not be the end for him personally. Bill Clinton managed to get re-elected despite the healthcare debacle and the bloodbath of '94, because upon taking over Congress the Republicans immediately passed a wave of pro-business legislation that caused the economy to boom. Clinton then rode that good economy to re-election in 1996. If returned to power in 2010 the Republicans would probably once again pursue economic revitalizing policies that Obama can then try to claim credit for.

Therefore Democrats can still cling to the crumb of comfort that even if 2010 is a repeat of 1994, like Clinton before him the loss of congress may only mean the end of the President's policy agenda, not the end of Obama's political career. Especially if the Republicans repeat the mistake in 2012 that they made in 1996, when they put their weakest candidate forward in the form of Bob Dole.



The Globe on Matty

There is a must-read article in the Boston Globe today by Kevin Cullen about Springfield's former District Attorney Matty Ryan, who died last month.



Matthew J. Ryan Jr. was district attorney in Hampden County for 32 years. He was DA longer than anyone in any county ever was and probably ever will be. They don’t make DAs like Matty Ryan anymore. Then again, the world he occupied simply doesn’t exist anymore.

He was more powerful than any mayor, any congressman, anybody in all of Western Massachusetts. He was like a sheriff in the Wild West. Over a huge swath of land, on either side of the Connecticut River, the only law was Matty Ryan’s law. There was a lot of good in that, and there was some bad.

To read the whole article click here.

Amherst Signs

There was a gay rights demonstration at UMass, but by the time I got there the rally was over and the protest signs trashed.



Thieves beware!



Amherst Parade

These are some pictures I didn't use in my previous Amherst 250th birthday coverage. Here are some Amherst vets.



This guy was dressed to honor the veterans of the Civil War.



The Army National Guard Band waiting to march.



A woman dressed for the 1700's.



Kids marching for the Amherst Survival Center.



Granville Beauty



Longtime Springfield troublemaker Michaelann Bewsee (above) took some nice pictures in nearby Granville recently. Frankly, this time of year it's hard not to capture great images of the magnificent New England foliage, like this scene from the Westfield River.



Autumn teaches us that there is beauty even in decline.



So treasure every day of Autumn as precious.



Today's Video

Come back unchanged, your demons all tamed and your flowers uncut.

Augusten is Back

From his Tour


Burroughs and dogs at home in Amherst

Amherst's literary homeboy Augusten "Running With Scissors" Burroughs is back in town from his national lecture tour. On his blog he tells how his first night back Burrough's dog did #2 in his bed - with Burroughs going to sleep without knowing it - and with predictably yucky results:

So yeah, home. The first night back, Bentley had a night-poo on the bed, which we of course did not see. Pity us restless sleepers. I will let your imagination fill in the sordid details. Take comfort knowing your imagination is dead right.

When not rolling in dogshit, the world famous literati has been drooling over wedding cakes, in particular this one:



I love the wedding cake above because, imagine bending over and opening your mouth right on the edge, on top of a clump of white frosting roses

Does this fascination with wedding cakes mean that Augusten and his longtime boyfriend Dennis have a forthcoming announcement to make? Anyway this is the cake I personally would like to have give me a sugar overdose by the same confectionery artist:



Always the contrarian, Burroughs defends sugar from modern society's attacks:

Our society's vigorous anti-sugar mentality, which is primitive and incorrect, only serves to incite prejudice and fear. If we must hate something, let's agree to hate yeast. Or ham.

When not salivating over cakes, Augusten and Dennis are trying to score a dinner date with national media personality (and former Pioneer Valley radio star) Rachel Maddow. So far it isn't going well:


Rachel Maddow and Bill Dwight

So four weeks ago, Dennis -who won't even let me use my name when making a restaurant reservation because he thinks it's pretentious and loathsome- made a special trip downstairs to my office and said, “You need to invite Rachel Maddow over for dinner.” He suggested I contact her “people.”

I just looked up at him and blinked.

And he asks me now each week, “So, how's that letter coming?” Meaning, my letter to Rachel Maddow inviting her to dinner.

I tell him, “I'm working on it, I haven't forgotten.” What I have not confessed is that each version of the letter begins like this:

“Dear Rachel, I know this is kind of creepy and stalkerish but I think we both live in the same general area of Massachusetts and...” So it's the “I'm your neighbor not your stalker!” approach. I just can't figure out the segue from “We're your neighbors” to “come over for dinner with your girlfriend.” No matter how I phrase it, it comes out sounding odious. Like I want to know her because she's famous or I want to be on her show.

To read more about the dinner date seduction of Rachel Maddow as well as more about our Valley's most eccentric author's opinions about dogs, pigs, cakes and other matters click here.

Bipartisan Guilt



Remember, everything Obama's doing, Bush started last year. If you're going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama's first two, three months. ... If the Republicans can't break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012. ... The current system is so sick, so out of touch and so arrogant that you're going to have a nationwide rebellion at the polls of people in both parties who are just fed up."

-- former Congressman Newt Gingrich speaking at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, March 31, 2009.

Remembrance

These flags appeared outside the Student Union today, each one representing 5,000 deaths in the Nazi Holocaust.



I think there should be a similar display commemorating those who died in the Socialist Holocaust. There would be at least ten times as many flags required.

Old Shirt

Here's an official UMass shirt from 1992. (courtesy of Andrea Murray)



New Pizza Joint

Hillside Organic Pizza has opened on Route Nine!



I predict it will be a big success.

Today's Video

Garcia near the end.



There were days
and there were days
and there were days between
Summer flies and August dies
the world grows dark and mean
Comes the lighting of the moon
on black infested trees
the singing man is at his song
the holy on their knees
the reckless are out wrecking
the timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
than anyone can see
anyone can see

There were days
and there were days
and there were days besides
when phantom ships with phantom sails
set to sea on phantom tides
Comes the lightning of the sun
on bright unfocused eyes
the blue of yet another day
a springtime wet with sighs
a lonesome candle lingers
in the land of lullabies
where headless horsemen vanish
with wild and lonely cries
lonely cries

There were days
and there were days
and there were days I know
when all we ever wanted
was to learn and love and grow
Once we grew into our shoes
we told them where to go
walked halfway around the world
on promise of the glow
stood upon a mountain top
walked barefoot in the snow
gave the best we had to give
how much we'll never know
we'll never know

There were days
and there were days
and there were days between
polished like a golden bowl
the finest ever seen
Hearts of Summer held in trust
still tender, young and green
left on shelves collecting dust
not knowing what they mean
valentines of flesh and blood
as soft as velveteen
hoping love would not forsake
the days that lie between
lie between

World That Fails

To the world that works.



Gee Republicans can be dumb. I can't believe that they are trying to tar Barack Obama with the scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Unless there emerges a direct link between Obama and the Governor's apparent wrong-doing then the Republicans only make themselves look opportunistic and partisan by implying there is a connection without producing any evidence. This is exactly the politics of personal destruction that has turned off the voters to the Republican party.

Liberals are also displaying stupidity with their recent attacks on Obama for not appointing more fire breathing leftists to his cabinet. That is so typical of why the American Left is always so ineffective, the minute they get any power they immediately lunge for each other's throats. Excuse me, but regarding Obama can the guy actually get sworn into office before we declare him a disappointment? Just a thought.

Some good thoughts are coming out of Newt Gingrich these days. By many accounts Gingrich is contemptible on a personal level, but at the same time I would say he is one of the foremost political geniuses of our time. Even if you disagree with him, smart people pay attention to what he says.



Question: What do (D), convicted Senator Ted Stevens (R), failing public school administrators, and the 80 percent of retiring California Highway Patrol chiefs who apply for disability have in common?

Answer: None of them is honest, and all of them are part of America’s already vast and rapidly expanding government. The idea that big government is inherently corrupting is as old as America itself. It was part of the Founders’ case for casting off the chains of the British monarchy.

More recently, the principle that big government breeds big corruption was perhaps expressed best by humorist P.J. O’Rourke, who said:

“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”

The shocking case of corruption in the office of the governor of Illinois by Rod Blagojevich is just the most obvious manifestation of this tendency for dishonesty to grow as government grows.

When the Detroit public school system continues to take money for the 76 percent of students that it fails to graduate on time or at all, its administrators aren’t being honest. When 80 percent -- 80 percent! -- of California Highway Patrol assistant and deputy chiefs claim a disability at retirement to inflate their pensions, they are not being honest. (Also see this shocking story from yesterday’s New York Times).

When at least 25 percent of the $50 billion of the taxpayers’ money spent each year on Medicaid in New York is likely due to fraud, waste and misuse, it’s not only the individuals defrauding the system that are being dishonest, but the government officials allowing this travesty to continue are dishonest as well. The list could go on and on.

It’s examples like these that have caused Americans to lose faith and trust in their government. It was Republicans who paid the price for this in November, but in reality, all of us are paying. And we’ll only pay more as the federal government moves further and further into part-ownership of America’s insurance companies, banks, financial institutions and, most likely, Detroit’s auto industry.

That’s why I believe that the most important words in rethinking government in the next decade won’t be vague promises like “change” or massive government attempts at make-work “stimulus.” The four most important words in rethinking government in the years to come will be these:

Honesty

Effectiveness

Productivity

Creativity

But note one thing: Each of these words emphatically do not describe hulking behemoths like bureaucracies, bloated labor unions, or massive corporations.

Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity don’t describe Washington. They describe places like Silicon Valley. They describe the lean, agile and innovative companies and institutions that are making American better every day. Honesty, effectiveness, productivity and creativity describe the world that works rather than the world that fails.



Speaking of the world that fails, I love the editorial in yesterday's Springfield Republican about the gang of incompetents that are holding up essential legislation necessary for Springfield to be returned to self-government. Dig these excerpts.

State Rep. Benjamin Swan, a prominent city tax scofflaw, told our reporter that he is freezing progress on the bill until the state inspector general completes a review of the city's decision to terminate a contract with one of his pals in the towing business. Pay your tax bill, Rep. Swan....

Reps. Sean F. Curran and Angelo J. Puppolo Jr., along with the tax scofflaw, amended the bill in October to remove any control a new financial manager for the city would have over the city's school department budget. That means that instead of a trained financial professional being involved with the school department's budget, personnel policies and contract bargaining, the Springfield School Committee would do that.

Curran and Puppolo agreed to be the teachers union pets in this one. And with that amendment, the teachers union would return to its days of playing the School Committee members like puppets.

Once again some of Springfield's elected officials have proven that they cannot be trusted to look out for the bests interests of the city as a whole or to manage its finances in a professional way. It appears to us they are building another good case for the state to keep the Finance Control Board in place.

Sad but true. It is time for Springfield to be freed from state control and to stand on its own two feet, but it is discouraging to see how little has changed in the political culture of gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. The city's so-called leaders continue to play games with Springfield's future for selfish, short-term gain.

At the heart of the problem is the ignorant voters. The Control Board has made the hard decisions and necessary reforms, but the electorate has refused to change the political leadership. Incumbents are routinely returned to office, often with no opposition, while nothing short of a criminal indictment cause anyone to resign - and even then pols like Chris Asselin have been known to resist. I don't know what the answer is. Isn't there anything that will anger the voters of Springfield sufficiently to inspire them to clean house?

To read the entire Springfield Republican editorial click here.

Me and Jay Libardi, shortly before his death.



My neighbor has turned his pine tree into a red, white and blue holiday ornament.



Northampton's historic Wiggins Tavern has plenty of lights up this year, none of which one would have seen when Wiggins celebrated its first Christmas in 1786.



Finally, here's some classic footage of a freshman arriving at UMass in 1969.



In a small New England town, the owner of a new bar/tavern licence started construction of a building to house his business. The local Catholic church started a campaign of public prayer vigils to block the bar from opening. Work progressed however right up till the week before opening, when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the bar
owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building's demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he lamented, "I don't know how I'm going to decide this! It appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn't!"