My Takeaways from the Brown-Warren Debate

While there was no clear knock-out, it's helpful to look at the debate by questioning just how well each side reinforced their message.

Warren's message these days is that Scott Brown's votes hurt Massachusetts, and unlike him, you can count on her to be on the side of Mass residents all the time.

Brown's entire campaign is based on the fact that he's nice, works well across the aisle, and makes people feel all tingly inside. 

Warren, by linking the Senate campaign to the national level and by continually beating up on Brown on the fact that he's all about protecting the obscenely wealthy on taxes -- even at the cost of the 98% of us -- scored well on her fronts.

Brown's petulant, nasty personal attacks hurt him.

If he goes out to the rest of the debates like that, he's going to lose the election, as each debate wakes more and more people up to the fact that he's not nice at all.

One other comment

Scott Brown, during the first question at the debate:

Professor Warren claimed that she was a native American, a person of color, and as you can see, she's not.

There's something deeply offensive about Brown's notion that there should be some sort of heritage litmus test based on whether or not someone sufficiently "looks" like that ethnicity, which is exactly the point he made when he attacked Elizabeth Warren on her Cherokee-ness. 

She didn't "look" Native American, and therefore -- according to him -- is lying. In a country that's becoming increasingly diverse, there's more and more interracial families. Not all of the children in those families will look like the minority (or both of the minorities, in many cases). 

Is Darren Criss of Glee not half Filipino, because he looks Irish? Is Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians not half black, because he looks Italian? Is Patrick Chung of the Patriots not part Chinese, or Jamaican for that matter, because he looks black?

My extended family happens to be very diverse, but it's not always clear if all you did was look at the color of their skin, or the shape of their eyes. Scott Brown's notion -- that they somehow don't get to claim their heritage because they don't 'look' the part -- is, or at least should be, a disqualifying statement for office in the 21st Century.

Questions for Mitt

I just had Martin Bashire on, who mentioned that 61% of the 47% figure Mitt mentioned pay payroll taxes and were the working poor, many working 2 or even 3 jobs to keep a roof over their heads. How would Mitt explain that they're not "taking personal responsibility of themselves?"

Or what about the 10%+ of the country who are seniors, on Medicare and SS, but don't earn enough to pay income taxes? What does he say to them, who have paid into the system their entire lives, some in nursing homes or otherwise sick or not as mobile as they used to be. Are they not "taking personal responsibility?"

How about people with disabilities? Or who've sent out a hundred resumes in a hundred days? Are they not taking personal responsibility?

Lynne talks about many of these same issues here, and asks what Scott Brown thinks about it. Every Republican should be asked the same question. Do they stand with Mitt? Are the working poor, disabled and seniors of the country 'moochers,' or people who deserve our respect?

Gotta Love it: Patrick Stumps for Warren

Can anyone ask for a better advocate than Deval Patrick? The Governor's enthusiastic endorsement and support for Elizabeth Warren is going to make a difference, adding to Liz Warren's great day.

That $210 million fine on Capitol One? Thank Elizabeth Warren

From MSNBC NBC News:

WASHINGTON -- Capital One Financial agreed to pay $210 million to resolve charges by U.S. banking regulators that its call-center representatives misled consumers into paying for extra credit card products. 

The enforcement action, announced on Wednesday, is the first by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which said it unearthed the activities through an examination of the bank. 

And who created the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau? That's right. Liz Warren.

It's amazing to see the CFPB already have this much impact on protecting consumers. Let's hope it's just a small example of what's to come.

Today's LeftAhead Podcast w/BMG's David on ACA Futures

BMG's David Kravitz, with all his constitutional law background, came on for a special LeftAhead episode on the Affordable Care Act. The show's below, or you can download it at the above link, iTunes or other podcast aggregators.

Listen to internet radio with massmarrier on Blog Talk Radio

Romney's Lies Have Finally Caught Up to Him

No matter how skilled the habitual liar, if they do it long enough, they're eventually going to get to the point where they can't come up with a new lie to cover the old ones.

As BMG makes clear, Romney's now there. Welcome, Mittens.

Let's look at this tangled web.

He claimed to be retired from Bain from 1999-2002 to the SEC/IRS, but Bain claimed he wasn't to the SEC, critically paying him a salary as chief executive. So, was Romney lying to the IRS, or was Bain lying to its investors and the SEC?

Now, Romney claims that his status as CEO of Bain from 1999-2002 was just technical jargon and wasn't his real position. In fact, he says he was totally removed from Bain and had no intention of coming back, despite the fact that he was still attending board meetings for companies Bain owned.

That's his answer to voters and his defense against what he listed on his SEC/IRS claims, but that's not what he was saying to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he insisted his time in Utah was just a leave of absence and that he always intended to return to Bain -- as his basis for why he should remain eligible to be Governor of Massachusetts.

This latest claim of his undermines his previous claim, that he was never going to go back. It's all the more serious a lie because, without it, it's likely he wouldn't have ever been Governor of Massachusetts.

So, what are we supposed to believe? What Mitt told the SEC and IRS? What Bain told the SEC? What he said to explain away the divergence of what he said to the IRS and what Bain said to the SEC? Or what he told Massachusetts, in order to be eligible to run for Governor?

Each claim is slightly different than the next, and undermines the others more and more. All that's left is the facts: whatever he says, he was on salary to be the chief executive officer of Bain and, contrary to his insistence that he had nothing to do with the company, was regularly flying in to Massachusetts on Bain business, even while living in Utah.

The bottom line? Other people go to prison for the kind of lies Mitt Romney habitually makes.

Brown's Continuing to Waste our Time

Elected to represent us, the time he spends in DC is as much our time as it is his.

So when he fails to keep student loans affordable, refuses to pass a single, solitary jobs bill and spends his time going after every uterus in the country, if its owner has a boss, I guess we should be happy when our Jr. Senator is wasting time instead of trying to ruin lives across the Commonwealth.

Yet, the Senator using all his energy to pass bills meant to pander to the electorate, instead of fix real problems effecting millions of people in the Commonwealth alone, isn't exactly inspiring. This is doubly so when the Supreme Court just ruled the Senator's time-wasting pandering piece of crap bill unconstitutional.

If ever there was a perfect example of why we need to elect Elizabeth Warren, this is it. Her entire career and life have been devoted to serious issues, effecting millions of families who are struggling to get by. We can't allow the Brown to get 6 six years to waste (or worse), not when there's an infinitely better alternative.

Five Things to Remember this November

Every time I think of why people shouldn't vote for someone like Scott Brown, Mitt Romney or Richard Tisei, my mind immediately goes to great lengths to come up with things about complicated policy reasons people aren't going to remember. Sometimes, it's the simple things that count -- and will allude to the more complicated things anyway.

Here's five simple things that you should tell your friends, family and neighbors for this November. 

• If a candidate has a Swiss bank account, a Cayman Islands bank account and a bank account in Bermuda, one he kept secret while in office, you should probably vote for the other guy.
• For as much as Republicans politicians like to rail against government, it's amazing just how much they love it when it comes to extracting everything they from it for their Wall St. friends. Wars they can't pay for (or finish)? Check. Bailing out the banks and giving tax loopholes to Fortune 500 Companies? Check. Then, when all the money's gone, they'll try to use your Social Security funds to pay for it.
• If a candidate's entire campaign is based on how nice his family is, he doesn't have anything to to run on. If he does so while talking about how much time he spends with his family during the daytime as an office holder, that means he wasn't doing his job.
• If a candidate runs on being a moderate, but will vote for John Boehner or Mitch McConnell, he's lying.

Today's Globe: 6 *more* pages of Scott Brown fluff

After taking a whack at Elizabeth Warren for an entire month with near-daily headlines about manufactured racial bating stories, what would the Boston Globe have in store for Scott Brown, now that they've decided we're into electoral politic's hard hitting journo season?

Fear not, dear readers, the Globe had six entire pages dedicated to Scott Brown today, covering

• the scandal about how Senator Brown's dead set against health care reform, while his daughter benefits from it and even Chief Justice Roberts ruled for it 
• the Senator's reluctance to debate in New Bedford or Worcester to answer questions relevant to those communities, even while his opponent agreed to one of his radio debates 
• why Senator Brown's saying he's for keeping student loan rates affordable, when he's the principal guy behind blocking current efforts in the Senate

Oh, hell, what did it cover? 

For Brown, campaign an all-out family affair 

Senator's wife and daughters now helping to soften image of the man with the truck 

WRENTHAM — Scott Brown is at the stove, preparing bacon and cheese omelets, tossing eggshells into the sink with scarcely a glance, each one a perfect shot. Gail Huff is at the breakfast table, reminiscing about her early days as a TV reporter, talking up her husband’s cooking. But the star of the show is the fridge. 

A standard issue side-by-side ­model, nearly every inch of its face is plastered with snapshots and magnets, children’s drawings and certificates of achievement, ticket stubs and local press clippings. The collaged photos show daughters Ayla and ­Arianna through the years — Girl Scouts, Little League, prom night, college — but there are glimpses of Brown and Huff, too. 

One shows him a decade ago, a ­little-known state legislator in full Gene Simmons makeup and giant shoulder pads, one more anonymous KISS fan rocking with his tongue out. Another from 2010 shows how much their lives have changed: Huff hugs the real Gene Simmons, after he invited them backstage because he wanted to meet Brown, the man who wrested Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat from the Democrats.

That's just the first three paragraphs. Dear god, help us all.

On the off chance that there's anything important happening in Massachusetts or the country at large -- oh, I don't know, like a jobs crisis or hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts citizens being under water on their mortgages -- I sent a letter to the Globe's writer of this fluffenuttery goodness. Here were my last few words for him.

He's running an entire campaign dedicated on steering the campaign away from any kind of serious issue or problem facing Massachusetts or the country, constantly engaging in Straw Mans and issues that have no bearing on regular people. Why is the media enabling him? 

There are serious issues in this race and the voters of Massachusetts deserve a media that's going to hold our Senators' feet to the fire, especially during political campaigns. That is your responsibility as a journalist. Please live up to it.

Pretty please?

Meanwhile, it's time to resurrect the Fake News tag, because when there's critically important stuff going on in Massachusetts and around the world, stories like this are a steaming pile of crap.

Tierney at Salem Pride

Nice shot. Wished I got one at the march.

Why we're celebrating the Supreme Court "Obamacare" Victory

It saves lives.

Scott Brown Heard Your Question, but isn't Interested

Bay State Liberal nails it. 

Health care's future is on the line but what did Scott Brown focus during his "debate" with Dan Rea? Yep, CherokeeGate. 

A few hundred miles away in New York, Elizabeth Warren sought refuge on an equally partisan stage, trying to talk substance about underwater mortgages with Rachel Maddow.

While Elizabeth Warren constantly tackles problems that are actually effecting voters across Massachusetts, our Jr. Senator (rightly) thinks talking about the actual issues will cost him the election. It's all faux heritage-gate and innuendo until November... if the Senator gets his way.

If there's any shred of decency left in the organizations we formerly called the Boston Mainstream Media, they'll start to lay the smack down and demand he'll address his record and the issues. Don't hold your breath.

Until that happens, he'll deftly stonewall any serious questions and quickly pivot to how he's such a great dad or how Elizabeth Warren is a secret marxist foreigner and other assorted BS.

Activists and the netroots have a roll to play. We need to be loud enough so the media hears what we're saying and actually covers this race like journalists.

The MBTA "Bailout" is 1/4 the road appropriation bill

When roads and bridges need funding, we call it an appropriation. When the MBTA needs state funding, we call it a bailout.

House and Senate lawmakers have approved an MBTA bailout and a second bill to maintain the state's roads and bridges.

Worse is the fact that the roads were "appropriated" $200 million, while the state forced on the MBTA deep service cuts and a 23% fare hike to get a measly $50 million.

If only the MBTA ran on four wheels and carried fewer than four people per vehicle, it would be rolling in the state's dough.

Video: Scott Brown's Royal Blunder

Scott Brown's two years of lying on the stump may not stay in the news as long as the faux heritage gate 'issue,' but in the end it could be more damaging. It changes the perception of Scott Brown. No longer is he the guy people want to have a beer with, now he's the guy people are laughing at.

A Presidential Boston Oopsie

Just got a local press pool report. Highlighted the funny part, only the names have been changed deleted to protect the [somewhat] innocent.

Emphasizing the wrong crowd? Check. Missing likely satire? Check. Then again, maybe this was just the Globe making their snarky submission to the press pool in an attempt at dry humor -- and the President's people whiffed when they sent it out.

In all seriousness, it looks like tonight's been a big success. Can't wait to see all the clips.

Galapagos Tortoise Lonesome George Dies

As the only species capable of either destroying the Earth, or making it a better place, we have a responsibility to do the latter. There's going to be a lot more Lonely Georges if we don't get our acts together.

Best Video Yet on Scott Brown's Kings and Queens

"Kings and Queens" was a longstanding part of his stump speech, and only blew up now because voters and the MSM had such limited access to him.

The guy thought the most important thing he could do was try to impress voters by making him sound important, in ways an 8 year old may think sounds important, instead of trying to talk about all the things he was doing to grow jobs and make Massachusetts a better place.

Perhaps that's understandable, given the fact that he wasn't doing anything to grow jobs or make Massachusetts better.

An absolutely appropriate question

"Which kings and queens and prime ministers have you had private meetings with?" 


After all, he's now talked about them at least five times.

Scott Brown's Royal Meetings

I don't need to comment on the Brown-Kennedy flap, do I?

Actually, yeah, I do. Because, Scott, we all have this thing called a voice. And we get to use it.

Decent people don't try to restrict the voices of other decent people in the public sphere, and they certainly don't take those people hostage over something like a debate proposal from a widely respected, non-partisan institution, designed to give voters an insight into the candidates running for office. Heaven forbid.

Good for Vicky Kennedy for having the strength and decency to say no.