May

29

State House Follies & 5th CD Again

May 29, 2007 |

Listen in on this week’s podcast to hear Mike and Ryan go at it on crazy homophobic “witnesses,” casinos in Massachusetts and a whole host of issues. Midway through the segment - at exactly the half hour mark - Sco joins us to talk the fifth congressional race. He’s got a great understanding of the race. We go over the essential issues, what kind of chances each of the candidates have and how they plan on winning. Some planning on winning by winning big in certain regions. Some on money and name recognition. Some on endorsements and machine power. Heck, even being the lone conservative democrat in the race is one person’s strategy for victory.

Who will win? Who knows. However, Sco certainly is as in tune in this race as anyone else is. sco (Steve) joined us about 31 minutes in for the 5th CD update. He sees the peculiar timing of the election as strongly in favor of Niki Tsongas. While she doesn’t have the experience of several other candidates, her family name recognition is very high. The primary campaign will go over the summer with a low-turn-out election just after labor day. The best hopes for other candidates are 1) collect a pile of contributions and go to broadcast ads (no one can visit the whole spread out district), and 2) hit a differentiating notes that sets him or her apart of the other candidates.

He has a lot more on this race on his blog, .08 Acres (and a Donkey).

Blogs of the Week

Mike’s post of the week was from Massachusetts Liberal. In Fish or cut bait, the call is to House Speaker Sal DiMasi to stop playing the traditionally Republican ploy of spending without funds. DiMasi is so intent on showing Gov. Deval Patrick that ole Sal controls the budget that he is trying to spend the state rainy-day fund for current items.

The post asks, “…if you aren’t for closing corporate tax loopholes or legalizing casino gambling, what is your plan for bringing Massachusetts the dollars it needs to protect and educate its residents?” It cites DiMasi’s illogical approach and then asks moreover, “So if tax law changes and new revenue sources are not an option, what is? Dipping into our savings until they are gone? We’re waiting Mr. Speaker.”

Ryan’s Blog of the Week is a diary front-paged at Blue Mass Group, written by Representative Dan Bosley. Entitled “Why I Have Opposed Casinos in the Commonwealth,” the representative goes over a whole host of reasons on why they just plain old don’t make sense. They won’t benefit our economy - and could make it far worse. They won’t give us lots of revenue. Don’t only read it, but look for his many comments in the thread as well - there’s lots of important nuggets of information everyone should read so they can be informed citizens on the casino issue.

Update: In cased anyone is having trouble listening in below or downloading, here’s a link that definitely works. We’ll get the tech stuff fixed soon.

Update update: The podcast gods are back in heaven and the malformed link is behaving. Click away, eager listeners.

icon for podpress  The Great Divide [73:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Charley on the MTA on May 30, 2007 9:32 am

    Hey, the link doesn’t seem to be working. Is it me?

  2. MassMarrier on May 30, 2007 5:29 pm

    Well, CotMTA, wave a dead chicken. There are three and they all seem to be working. Maybe that BMG was down. ;->

  3. Ryan on May 30, 2007 6:27 pm

    Hmmm

    I’m not entirely sure because this computer doesn’t have volume right now (my speakers are in the car), but I don’t think it’s working on my computer either. I’ll check my laptop downstairs in a second, because that does have sound.

  4. MassMarrier on May 31, 2007 4:20 am

    Okay, moron, I. I fixed the audio link. The URL and such were right, the same link on our archive page and the right sidebar worked, but the embedded one did not produce sound.

    I replaced it with the same file and all is well.

    Thanks to Mr. Bandy for finding it. Once I understood that the “link” was to the audio, the game was afoot. I’ve been a tech writer too long.

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