More Kerry Krap

From the NY Post comes this piece on John Kerry's impromptu conversation with four US Marines at a Wendy's restaurant along the campaign trail. To put it mildly, the Marines weren't exactly impressed with the candidate.

Kerry was treating running mate Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, to a Wendy's lunch in Newburgh, N.Y., for their 27th wedding anniversary - an Edwards family tradition - when the candidate approached four Marines and asked them questions.

The Marines - two in uniform and two off-duty - were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a "yes, sir" or "no, sir."

But they turned downright nasty after the Massachusetts senator thanked them "for their service" and left.

"He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands," one Marine said, adding, "I'm 100 percent against [him]."

Original link via Instapundit...with lots of added links. Check 'em out.

Blogs for Bush has the pic here. Caption with "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM !!!?"

Buried in the article is this little bit of utter hypocritical horseshit from the clueless senator of Louisburg Square:

Kerry also employed Paul Revere's famed midnight run and imagery of Bunker Hill to bash President Bush over U.S. intelligence failures.

"These are the places where people dared to stand up and put their lives on the line - to take a risk - for something they believed in very deeply," Kerry said of the Boston neighborhood where he was speaking.

Kerry made no reference to the fact the reason these people were able to stand up for what they believed in was the fact that they were part of an well-armed citizenry - a group of ordinary people who owned and knew how to use "military style" weapons of the day. If Senator Kerry and his ilk had been in charge back then, the United States of America would not exist today.

The liberty and freedom that Americans (except for those in liberal la-la land) enjoy were made possible by ordinary citizens, in MASSACHUSETTS of all places, standing up to a tyrannical government that sought to deprive them of their arms and ammunition and tax them into oblivion. Sound familiar?

Or as Teddy Kennedy stated so eloquently in his speech at the DNC "...the shirt 'round the world" .

John Kerry, Rule #1 personified

You don't bring a knife to a gunfight, and you don't fight maniacal Islamic terrorist assholes with "threats of force", sanctions, or diplomacy.

(found over at SondraK's place)

Kerry for President? I really don't think so.

I'll have more on the vacuous speech by John Kerry later on if I feel like it. But, hey, did you know? Apparently he was in Vietnam. Who'd have known? In the meantime, here's one for all the whining, Bush-bashing liberals who babble on and on about how we "can't afford the tax cuts", while ignoring (or refusing to acknowledge) the current unprecedented growth in the economy.

NEWS FLASH: Lowering the tax RATE is not the same thing as lowering the tax REVENUES. If I may have the floor:

Say you're the governor of a small state with 10 factories whose tax revenues (at, say 10% tax RATE) bring in a million dollars annually each, your tax REVENUES for the year, generated by that industry, are currently $10M. If the math is getting too hard, let me know.

Now, let's say the people in your state listen to the doom and gloom of the national media and the Michael Moore's of the world and decide to swallow all this "Hope is on the way" horseshit being spewed out by all the Clinton/Kerry/Kennedy wanna-bes and actually elect one of them to take your place (God forbid).

This new leader sees that $10M as free money for the state to be spent as he or she sees fit, so by applying the math skills and logical reasoning of a six-year-old child, he decides that the tax rate should increase by half to 15%, because obviously monies generated x tax rate = tax revenue, and this seems like a sure fire way to increase revenues by 50%. What better way to generate money for the "common good". It's so easy! Right?

Wrong. Let's say 2 out of these 10 companies, now faced with a tax burden considerably higher than the previous years, look elsewhere to set up shop, as to remain here would force them out of business. They find a neighboring state with a lower tax rate. The output of the eight factories that remain goes down 25% as they were forced to lay off some employees, and forego pay raises just to stay in business.

So the $1M/yr each factory made before is now $750K/yr. Only eight factories remain, making a total of $6M that year, taxed at the higher rate of 15%. Your tax REVENUES for the year are now $900,000 - a DECREASE of 10% from the previous year. How can that be?

What other benefits did your little "tax the rich" plan bring about?

Well, let's say each factory employed 60 workers. The year before, you had 600 people employed in your factories. Two factories skipped town rather than pay your higher taxes. There go 120 jobs. The remaining eight factories had to downsize by laying off 25% of their workforce. There go another 120 jobs. You just eliminated 40% of your workforce in that industry. What a proud Marxist liberal you must be, sticking it to the "rich". Why is this like rocket science for some people to understand?

Yeah, John Kerry for president...I don't think so.

And yes, I realize this is a hypothetical situation, and you can manipulate the numbers in such an example any way you want in order to make a point (something the loony left is quite fond of) but I challenge anyone to come up with a scenario based on this model where the tax increase results in a stronger economic climate for the state without requiring everyone to become devout socialists and without imprisoning people who try to leave your state to live and work elsewhere.

So, I'm a Rush nerd...sue me.

Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, Geddy Lee.
Happy birthday to you.

Rush vocalist and bassist extraordinaire, Geddy Lee turns 51 today. Coincidentally, that's also the reported length, in minutes, of Kerry's upcoming speech tonight AND the grand total of electoral votes he'll have in his column come November.

Massachusetts SJC Strikes Again

As a follow up to this earlier post concerning the current shortage of public defense attorneys, comes today's ruling by the Massachusetts SJC:

BOSTON (AP) The state's highest court ruled Wednesday that a shortage of defense lawyers caused by low pay is violating the constitutional rights of some indigent defendants, and said criminal cases must be dismissed against those who go without a lawyer for more than 45 days.

Oh, great, Joe Crackhead gets busted, and all he has to do is claim poverty and sweat it out for 45 days in the clink and he's free and clear of all charges. That's just fabulous.

The Committee for Public Counsel Services said there are more than 50 defendants in western Massachusetts who have been denied their right to consult with an attorney because the agency was unable to find private attorneys to take the cases.

The CPCS has about 110 staff lawyers not nearly enough to handle the more than 200,000 cases involving indigent defendants each year. So the agency relies heavily on private lawyers to represent poor defendants. The agency says finding these lawyers called "bar advocates" has become increasingly difficult because the pay is not enough to cover their overhead costs.

Again...that is just shocking that people would object to the government asking them to give away their services to people who, I would wager, for the most part, can afford cable TV, fast food, liquor and cigarettes.

I believe, that under the provisions of the Miranda warning, a person being charged with a crime has the right to a publicly-provided attorney IF he or she cannot afford one on their own. Now how many of these people languishing in jail awaiting legal representation do you honestly think would tell the courts, "That's OK, your honor, I can afford legal counsel. I'll just cancel my cable TV and maybe only smoke ONE pack a day to come up with the money for it."?

The more you offer something for nothing, the more you'll have to keep on paying for it as more and more people look for the free lunch. How about we start by auditing these people to determine their true financial situation? Granted, there are some truly destitute folks out there who will need a public defender, but there needs to be some accountability to curb what I'm sure is a healthy amount of abuse inherent to this system.

Stay tuned for next week's SJC ruling where they determine that supermarkets' policies of charging consumers for products discriminate against poor people, and order that all prices on food items be cut in half across the Commonwealth.

Sound ridiculous? Can you say "minimum wage"? Same. Fucking, Concept.

And, of course, I have to add this bit.

"The continuation of what is now an unconstitutional state of affairs cannot be tolerated," the court said in its ruling.

Any chance they were referring to Massachusetts firearms laws here?

Blogroll Update

I guess it's about time to do a little blogroll maintenance. Regrettably, this includes removing the link to Rachel Lucas' blog. She has once again retired from the blogosphere, and will be missed. In her honor I will do my best to use the words 'assbiscuit', 'asshelmet', and 'assknob' as much as possible when referring to people on my "Wouldn't waste a perfectly good mouthful of spit on" list.

Here are some new entries you might want to check out:

Armies of Liberation
Heartless Libertarian
The Kallini Brothers
Leaning Towards the Dark Side
Libertarian Leanings
Obscurorant
One Hand Clapping

I'd put the links directly in the post here, but it's not that much of a stretch to click on the them in the blogroll (hint: it's that list on the left there). If you would like your blog added to my meager site's blogroll, send me a link. Members of the Tinfoil Hat Coalition (THC) need not apply.

UPDATE: Rachel Lucas Channels John Kerry

She started blogging before she quit blogging before she started blogging again before she quit blogging. Well, guess what. She's back! A big "THANK YOU" to Analog Mouse at One Little Victory for bringing this to my attention.

Senator Splash Strikes Again

OK, click here if you have the intestinal fortitude to handle being exposed to the text of the speech given tonight by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. There are five pages to click through if you actually want to read the whole thing. I found it hard to get through the first five paragraphs without feeling queasy.

I dare not post the entire text here for fear of inflicting permanent retinal scarring and/or irreversible brain damage on those individuals who would otherwise choose not to see it, but here are a few paragraphs. Hope you haven't just eaten.

Welcome home for the ideals born in Boston and strengthened by centuries of service and sacrifice.

Did I, er, um, mention that John Kerry served in, er, uh, Vietnam?

Ideals like freedom...

especially for those who have entered the country illegally from some third world shithole

...and equality...

unless you're a gun owner

...and opportunity...

Unless you're a white male between the ages of 18 and 65

...and fairness...

unless you're one of those rich folks making more than $35,000 a year

...and common decency for all...

unless you're name is Mary Jo Kopechne.

- ideals that all Americans...

and illegal aliens

...yearn to reclaim.

or just simply claim, no thanks to (hic!) yours truly.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This blog just writes itself sometimes.

These fundamental ideals light the fire in each of us to do all we can and then more to see that next January, John Kerry has a nice new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Yeah, that's what Kerry needs, a NICE home. I mean, come on, since he sold the villa in Italy, it's hard to find a nice place to sit and relax and watch the Red Sox play football.

It was no accident that Massachusetts was founded as a commonwealth, a place where authority belongs not to a single ruler, but to the people themselves...

as long as they're Democrats and have managed to get themselves elected to the State Legislature, or appointed to a judgeship

...joined together for the common good.

Hmmm..."the common good". Now where have we heard that one before?

The old system was based on inequality. Loyalty was demanded, never earned. Leaders ruled by fear, by force, by special favors for the few.

Under that old...

Old, you say? Like 1969, perhaps?

unequal system, the quality of your connections mattered more than the content of your character.

Or the contents of your Oldsmobile for that matter. I'll give the old douchebag credit here, though. I mean, he IS speaking from experience.

That's all for now. I need a scotch. Put it on the senator's tab.

Ow, my eyes!

Franken: Yeah, I think that IS the guy from Men at Work.
Moore: Hmmm...no hit singles since Bush was selected? Sounds more like Men Out of Work if you ask me.
Franken: Oh, Michael, you big silly!

Pop Quiz

Pay attention, kids. You will be graded on this. If you would like a study guide, read the previous post below outlining several recommendations being made by Massachusetts wildlife officials.

Question #1: You go out to the backyard one day to see this...



...which of the tools below would be the best one to use to deal with this uninvited guest. You can only choose one.

A. Pots and pans
B. Garden hose
C. Air horn
D. Remington 870 12 ga. shotgun

So, how did you do?

More Mass. Mentality

OK, this one's been on my back burner for a while, but this past week there was an item in the Boston Herald that just makes too perfect a companion piece for it.

Recently, in towns across Massachusetts and elsewhere, coyote sightings in residential neighborhoods are on the increase as more and more housing is being built, displacing them from their natural habitats. Now, in most normal parts of the country, the presence of a wild animal in one's yard wouldn't require a whole lot of thinking in order to remedy the situation. Well, here's the "Massachusetts Solution" (slightly editorialized by yours truly):

If a coyote is in your yard, make loud noises, bang pots and pans or buy a shotgun marine air horn from a local gun hardware store -- and blast it at the animal. If close enough, squirt the coyote with a handgun garden hose. Coyotes are eliminated timid when confronted by armed people. Do not let the animal survive get comfortable in your territory.

And here are some differing opinions on this brilliant strategy:

"We need to tell people to harass the animals," said Marion Larson, information and education biologist for MassWildlife. "We don't want people to be afraid. This is one animal that instead of standing there and watching it take a nap, go give it a lesson."

"I don't picture a lot of people taking matters in their own hands," said Natick Animal Control Officer Keith Tosi. "A lot are parents with small children and some of the males can be on the larger size and can be intimidating."

Got that? If you see a wild carnivorous animal that looks like a coyote in your backyard, run out like a jackass flapping your arms like a chicken while banging two saucepans together. What's the worst that could happen? Well...this, for one thing.

The searing pain of a wild fox's bite on her bare foot sent Kathy LaPerrier's adrenaline soaring.

"The first bite is like, `Wow,' and something kicks in and you don't think about that," the elementary school computer teacher said yesterday from her Freetown home.

"I guess I was thinking, `This can't be happening.' He latched onto my foot and he wouldn't let go," she said.

LaPerrier beat the fox off her foot, but before she knew it, he had grabbed onto the thumb of her 18-year-old daughter, Katelyn.

"It was scary," LaPerrier said of the Wednesday night terror.

Yeah, getting attacked by a rabid, wild animal would be, I suppose.

Turns out what she thought to be a cat fight was actually a battle between two foxes.

Freetown police officer Mark Fornaciari was among the first on the scene to search the neighborhood.

"We heard a weird chortling sound, rattling through the bushes, so we shined the light and there was the fox coming at us," he said. "We shot it."

But, Officer, that's not what you're SUPPOSED to do. Oh, that's right, these were foxes, the banging of pots and pans strategy is for coyotes. My bad. Well, I'll be sure to keep a copy of "The Field Guide to Feral Mammals" by the back door from now on so I can properly determine the exact species of the wild animal in question and determine the appropriate plan of action.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Tests results from the lab revealed the fox was rabid.

The LaPerriers have taken their first in a series of five rabies inoculations.

"We're doing fine," LaPerrier said.

No you're not. You're deluded, you idiot. You're perfectly happy to accept wild animal attacks and rabies shots as business as usual - merely part of the price you pay to live in a state where guns are evil and scary, and the government is here to protect your children for you.

Well, I'll pass on that Utopian vision if you don't mind.

Back in Beantown

Yippee...i'm back.  Try not to get bowled over by my enthusiasm there.

There's a lot to catch up on an blog about.  That's the #1 redeeming quality of living in Massachusetts - never a shortage of utterly ridiculous shit to write about.  Stay tuned.

OK, one more quickie.

A co-worker just sent me this one.



Have a good week!

Going on Vacation

I'll be taking the next week off, so no new posts for a while. Your assignment while I'm gone is to peruse my blogroll and visit three sites that you might not have previously seen.

Meanwhile, I'll be here...



...as of Saturday around noon, kicking my feet up and enjoying a glass of Guinness or Midleton Irish Whiskey over a game of cribbage on the porch.

Buy This Man a Blue Ribbon

This guy kicks ass.



Let this story serve as another potent reminder of Rule #1 and its variants.  In this case: Don't bring a BB gun to a hammer fight.

A 68-year-old Ardmore business owner armed with a claw hammer overpowered an armed robber forcing him to drop both the stolen cash and his pistol a little before 7 p.m. Tuesday. Ardmore police officers arrested the suspect, Christopher Ray Smith, 22, shortly afterwards. Although the store owner didn't know it at the time, Smith's weapon was a BB gun.

All things considered, a wonderful story with a happy ending.  But of course there's the usual line of BS from the local law enforcement.

"We don't encourage it," said Lt. Rickey D. Lawrence of the Ardmore Police Department about McMahan's behavior. "There are times when things don't go right. Realistically, it's best for citizens to get a description and a direction of travel and let us find the subject and put him in custody."

Realistically, it is extremely difficult for a citizen to provide that information to the police when he's lying face down with a .38 slug in his head, or a six-inch shotgun-induced chest cavity.  That's pretty much an indisputable fact.

"The risk isn't worth it," Lawrence said. "It's just property. It's not something that can't be replaced."

Sorry, Lieutenant, but if someone comes into my place of business brandishing a handgun and demanding money, I'm going out on a limb and wagering that the gun isn't there for dealing with an uncooperative Slim Jim display, or for shooting up the Ho-ho's.  The intended target of a firearm in this situation is the person it's aimed at, whether it's the store clerk, or the bad guy in the case of an armed citizen defending himself.

Quote of the Week

Despite what others might think about GWB's intellectual capabilities, one thing I can't fault him on is his balls-on, accurate assessment of the Bay State mentality. From a campaign stop this past weekend in York, Pennsylvania comes this beauty:

"Senator Kerry is rated as the most liberal member of the Senate," Bush said. "And he chose a fellow lawyer who is the fourth-most-liberal member of the Senate. Back in Massachusetts, that's what they call balancing the ticket."

For maximum effect, read aloud in your best Jeff Foxworthy voice.

Kids have ALL the fun, dammit!

From the website of the Southampton Police Department comes this page with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Large Capacity Weapons Roster.

Notice the title of the page at the top of screen...



Lucky kids!

The Adventures of Gadgetman

OK, so the novelty of the "Crappy 80's Song of the Week" feature seems to be wearing off. It's like putting out weekly reasons not to vote for John Kerry - so much material, so little time. Crappy 80's music will still be featured in the future should I deem it relevant at any time.

Now, allow me to introduce to you the newest semi-quasi-regular series of installments you will find here at mAss Backwards: The Adventures of Gadgetman. I love gadgets. Nothing unusual there. 99.99% of American men love gadgets. From drills to grills, bring it on! So without further delay, here is this week's Gadgetman offering:

The HUSKY Folding Lock-back Utility Knife ($9.97 at Home Depot)

With assured cutting and a wide variety of uses, this locking blade combines neatly combines the versatility of a utility knife with the convenience of a pocket knife. Using a patented snap lock and sliding mechanism, the blade is easily changed. The anodized aluminum handle won't rust and the pocket clip keeps it handy. Folds to 3-1/2 in. when closed. Accepts all standard utility blades. (10 Blades Included).

When my Leatherman Wave (SUPERB piece of gadgetry indeed) went MIA, I picked up one of these on a recent trip to Home Depot.

Blade dull? No problem, just flip it around (or pop in a new one).

When locked in the open position, this knife offers you 4.75" of a pretty solid grip. Would be quite adequate if needed in any kind of up close and personal self-defense situation. Best of all, it retails for (ever so slightly) less than ten bucks. This meets the requirements for "no special spousal permission required" for tool purchases - for those of us with such spousal/budget restrictions.

Another Massachusetts Gun Control Success Story

Out of respect for the dead horse that's been beaten, flagellated, and dragged through a ditch full of broken glass on this and many other sites, I will keep my comments on this story to a minimum. I think this piece speaks for itself.

A Chelsea man who leaped from a third-story balcony to escape a man advancing on him with a knife suffered severe injuries Saturday night when his leg became impaled on an iron fence.

Thank God Mr. Mendoza lives in a state where his right to armed self-defense has been prohibited or restricted to the point where it is out of reach for us "common folk". Imagine that, when firearms aren't available to the criminals (or the law-abiding citizenry) the bad guys still seem quite able and willing to obtain deadly weapons and attack defenseless individuals with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

So much for the crime-free utopia these deluded shitheads on Beacon Hill (and City Hall) have been dreaming of. When you take away the right of self-defense from the law-abiding citizenry, you create...

Oops, almost got carried away there. Sorry, Horse.

Molesterchusetts

As a follow-up to this previous post (and others) concerning the warped sense of priorities this state when it comes to dealing with its convicted child rapist population, we get this piece from today's Boston Herald:

While the state scrambles to track dangerous sex fiends, at least two state agencies are housing perverts in residential neighborhoods, sparking outrage in two towns and calls to stop the unregulated practice.

Yes, some people in this state continue to believe it's more important to protect the rights of convicted sex offenders, and provide them with government-subsidized housing than it is to keep the children in these communities safe from these dangerous individuals.

"I feel that it's problematic that there's absolutely no notification or policy that would prohibit placing group homes with Level 2 or 3 offenders in residential neighborhoods with kids," said Sen. Scott P. Brown (R-Wrentham).

"Problematic"? Well, that's putting a gentle spin on it, Senator.

(DMR spokeswoman Donna) Rheaume said the agency avoids "saturating" any one neighborhood with sex offenders.

Well, isn't that just ducky.

Johnny B. Nasty

Seems the Kerry camp has adopted Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" as the "official" Kerry/Edwards campaign theme song. Whether at a nightclub in New York...

Kerry tried - if somewhat awkwardly - to boost his cool factor with the kids, bounding onto the club's stage while "Johnny B. Goode" blasted from the sound system.

...during a speech to the Service Employees International Union convention...

Kerry ended his 40-minute speech to cheers from the more than 2,500 union members and quickly shed his suit coat and put on an SEIU union jacket as the sound system blared out Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

...or on a bus tour through the Midwest battleground states.

Kerry was accompanied by his two daughters; Doyle and Obey rode with him during a long stretch of the trip. "Johnny B. Goode" blared at almost every stop.

Seems only fitting. A Kerry presidency and it's effect on our nation would be quite analogous to some of the lesser-known antics of Chuck Berry.

There's a homemade video featuring a certain Rock Legend, urinating on a long-legged blonde. When she (understandably) flinches from his #1 hit, he orders her to open her eyes and mouth, asking her if it's "nice and salty." Afterwards, she says she loves him, and asks whether he won't seal this act of love with a kiss. "I can't kiss you, baby," comes his reply, "you smell like piss."

Yes, the rock legend in question is none other than Chuck Berry ("My Ding-a-Ling" being his only #1 hit). More info here:

CHUCK BERRY- Arkansas 1/1/94…54 min (rare privatly shot show)
- Milan, Italy 2/21/97…42 min (rare privately shot show)
- Atlanta, GA 8/20/03...62 min XA
- XX home video footage…30 min (One of the greatest rock n’ rollers of all time sure has his fetishes. This footage has Chuck urinating in his woman's mouth, farthing, taping his woman going to the bathroom., doing the 69 position with his woman, and much more depravity)

Nice role model for America you've got there, John.

File under WTF

From today's Boston Herald:

State social-service workers are investigating the family of a 4-year-old Whitman boy who allegedly attacked his 10-year-old neighbor with a butcher knife during a game of whiffle ball.

Where the hell does a four-year-old learn this kind of behavior? Two words...

Shitty parenting. End of discussion. Please drive through.

The story ends with a strong nominee for "Understatement of the Year".

"I think he needs help," MacIver said. "Somebody needs to step in before something awful happens."

Ya think?

Hi, Kettle? This is Pot calling.

It looks like we have the makings of a new daily feature here at mAss Backwards: "Whiny Massachusetts Liberal du Jour". From today's Boston Globe:

Minutes after Governor Mitt Romney appeared outside his State House office yesterday to criticize vice presidential candidate John Edwards as too liberal, Massachusetts Democrats vowed to file formal complaints against Romney for allegedly violating laws that prohibit the use of public property for political activity.

Yes, the Governor's office was contacted by several media outlets for a comment on the recent selection of John Edwards as Kerry's running mate. Romney responds by addressing the issue at a small, impromptu press conference. And, as is becoming all too predictable, the Democrats come out screaming like a bunch of babies who just had their Tele-Tubbies privileges revoked.

Romney, continuing to develop his role as a chief Republican critic of home-state Democrat John F. Kerry, staged an afternoon press conference flanked by five aides and the state flag to complain that "John Kerry is more liberal than the people at large, and I think John Edwards falls from that same mold."

God forbid someone should express any opinions that might run contrary to those of the tyrannical Democratic regime running the Commonwealth.

Representative J. James Marzilli Jr., an Arlington Democrat, said the use of the state flag and the State House "leads an unknowing public to believe that this is the position of the Commonwealth, rather than the opinion of one politician."

Yeah, "Representative" Marzilli, we're ALL that naive. After all we're just a bunch of commoners who don't know our asses from our elbows. Please share with us little people the bounty of your vast font of knowledge and intellect. What a wanker.

But, NOTHING could possibly top this quote of the day from Sen. Jarrett Barrios (emphasis mine, obviously) courtesy of the Boston Herald:

"They cannot use this building for their bully pulpit for politics. They need to go outside the State House like everyone else."

Memo to Senator Barrios: Go fuck yourself. Hypocritical arrogance or arrogant hypocrisy? I report, you decide.

So, lets recap. Democratic legislators in Massachusetts are allowed to do pretty much anything they want, with little regard for the wants and needs of the citizens of the Commonwealth. If a Republican, or even a wayward Democrat, dares to speak out against the liberal establishment, or even tries to create a sense of balance in the political landscape, he or she must be drawn and quartered, and hung out to dry. Yep, that sounds about right. So much for dissent being patriotic.

OK...back again.

I hope you all had a good holiday weekend. I celebrated Independence Day with the family by leaving Massachusetts (if only for three days). We spent the relatively uneventful weekend at our camp in Hiram, Maine where "on-line" means the laundry's drying. So needless to say I have a lot of catching up to do concerning current events.

I'll post more later on today regarding the usual shenanigans of our local politicians, and to chime in with my thoughts on the Kerry/Edwards ticket. And last, but not least, I will be getting back up to speed with the "Crappy 80's Song of the Week" installments.

Carry on.

Beacon Hill-billies (continued...again...)

Gotta roll out the old Dead Horse Beating Alert for this one.

Some days...well, OK, every damn day, I find myself overcome by the urge to throw a bucket of warm, fermented horse piss all over the arrogant pieces of shit up on Beacon Hill who have the nerve to refer to themselves as "stewards of the people" - if only that wouldn't be a waste of an otherwise perfectly good bucket of warm, fermented horse piss.

BOSTON - Much has been said about the near-Olympian powers of House Democrats in Massachusetts, where the party commands all but 23 seats in the 160-member chamber.

Many say they abused that power this week when they took a series of votes to effectively create three new legislative days in one 12-hour period, allowing them to swiftly push through legislation that will determine how Sen. John Kerry's successor is chosen if he wins the presidency.

Or to determine Teddy Kennedy's successor after the bloated, red-faced windbag keels over from cardiac arrest on the floor of the senate while babbling incoherently supporting a ban on some kind of made-up-in-his-Chivas-soaked-head satellite-guided, laser beam powered, anti-aircraft handgun ammunition that any third-grader can buy at Walmart using his library card and a piece of string.

In other words, the Democrats simply voted - three times - to declare it a new day, allowing them to sidestep cumbersome rules requiring three votes on three different days in order for a bill to be passed.

"And here I thought God created the days," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause of Massachusetts, a government watchdog group. "This was a brazen example of what can happen when one party or interest has such complete control."

Back in 2002, the voters of the Commonwealth voted overwhelmingly in favor of English immersion programs in our public schools. Gee, requiring kids to learn and speak friggin' English - what a bunch of cold, heartless, fascist bastards we must be. The state legislature, essentially decided to tell us to go pound sand, implying that we are too stupid to be deciding these matters, so they just went ahead and threw a bunch of bilingual education measures into the 2004 state budget anyways. Why? Just ask Bill Clinton - because they could.

I wonder if that whole "learning English" concept wasn't going to go over to well in Tommy Finneran's Mattapan/Dorchster (read: heavily minority) district. I can certainly understand his reasons for doing what he did, though. The more English these people learn, the more they're going to realize how badly they've been getting the business from their elected officials without even the common courtesy of a reach-around .

"Stewards of the people" my ass! Champions of the people? Up yours!

With the Legislature scheduled to end its formal sessions at the end of July, many lawmakers who are not in lockstep with the leadership say they have to be on constant guard against legislative shenanigans during the quiet summer and fall months.

"We have to be vigilant at all times," said Rep. Jay Kaufman, D-Lexington. "As a rule, there is a group of us that makes it a point to have one of us in the chamber at all times for precisely that kind of eventuality."

How fucking sad is that when you're job description has to include the line "It is your responsibility to maintain 24-hour vigilance so that you will be ready when your P.O.S. colleagues try to ramrod some politically-motivated, power-grabbing, horseshit through the legislative channels, which they WILL do, by the way."

A spokesman for House Speaker Thomas Finneran, D-Boston, defended the disgusting level of arrogance of our elected officials creation of three new legislative days last Tuesday, arguing that everything was done by the rules, out in the open, and with full roll call votes.

That's the problem, you obnoxious little fuck! You do whatever the fuck you want to do, as long as it solidifies your monopolistic control of the state. But hey, as long as your constituency swallows that bullshit about you actually caring for them and looking out for their best interests, that's all that really matters, right Tom?

Why they keep voting your ass back to Beacon Hill is beyond my level of comprehension. Maybe there's something to that whole "screw the voters, they're to stupid to know what they're doing" crap.

Seems that all that's left of the Birthplace of Liberty is some afterbirth, a pile of feces-stained bedding, and a ransom note that reeks of Johnnie Walker Black, postmarked Hyannis.

Anyone know where I can get a bucket of horse piss cheap?

EEK! Scary guns in Massachusetts...RUN!

Seems that Christmas came early for the Asland Police Department courtesy of money seized during drug busts.

ASHLAND -- Police officers will soon be able to choose between the shotguns they normally carry in their cruisers, and new military-style rifles the chief says are needed in case of a terrorist attack.

[snip]

The department bought 10 Bushmaster .223 caliber semiautomatic carbines, which look like the M-16 rifles used by the military. Melnick also bought 36 new .40 cal Glock semiautomatic handguns. The Glocks will replace the officers' Smith & Wesson handguns, which the chief said are old and some are malfunctioning.

I wonder if they plan on assigning a police officer to every family in Ashland in the event of such an attack to protect them. Or maybe the terrorists will be issuing a six-month advance notice before they attack so that the citizens of Ashland can go through the state's burdensome licensing process to buy their own Bushmasters. Seems to me that the state would want its citizens to own such an effective anti-terrorist tool.

The police certainly endorse them for this purpose.

Melnick and other area police chiefs said the rifles are more accurate, hold more ammunition and shoot farther. As criminals become better-armed, so must police, they said.

But it's impossible for criminals in Massachusetts to have such weapons...they're illegal. How can that be? Have they no respect for the law?

Marlborough Police have two semiautomatic rifles, and Leonard said he would like to get more once more officers are trained to use them. Southborough, meanwhile, is looking into buying rifles to replace its shotguns, according to Police Chief William H. Webber.

The shotguns, Webber said, could be dangerous to bystanders if, for example, there was an incident at the commuter rail station in town that required officers to shoot a criminal.

So, the "scary looking" "assault rifle" is safer to use in certain self-defense situations than a shotgun might be. But Sarah Brady, Dianne Feinstein, et al keep telling me that these weapons are designed solely to kill a lot of people in as little time as possible.

And to think, John Kerry went out of his way to make sure he got his picture taken while hunting with one of these "lead-spraying street-sweepers". What was he thinking? What about the CHILDREN, John?

"I think based on what I know it would be best to give officers out on the street the option of which weapon to use," Melnick said.

No such luck for the people looking to make that choice. For some reason, our leaders on Beacon Hill insist that a law-abiding citizen with a Bushmaster in his gun safe is a bigger threat to society than a violent street criminal armed with a .22 pistol.