This week’s on-line bonuses (bonii?) are some select images from Cracked.com. Enjoy!

All righty, I’ve had some time to digest the results of the primary, so let’s take a look at what happened in a couple of the key races.
As you know by now, incumbent Lance W. Lambros is now out of the running for the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners, which was a big surprise…or was it?
There were a lot of factors in the race working against all the candidates, not just Lance – the fact that there were five people fighting over the same slices of pie did no one any favors – but I can’t help but wonder if the controversy over the Barnstable County Human Services Department undermined Lance’s campaign.
Lance took a lot of heat for his role in the department’s recent restructuring, and more than a few critics accused him of trying to kill the department outright (I will not debate the validity of that charge here). More than a few e-mails originating from movers and shakers within the human services community floated through my inbox, all of them urging people to hit the polls, and specifically to weigh in on the county commissioner race and support pro-human services candidates.
Generally speaking, incumbents do not get the boot unless they do something to seriously cheese off their constituency, and I think that may be the case here.
The other kinda-sorta surprise was how well Timothy R. Madden did in his write-in campaign for state representative of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district. Mr. Madden already had a guaranteed spot on the November ballot as an unenrolled candidate, but tried to hedge his bets by nailing the Democratic nomination as a write-in.
While that tactic did not succeed, Mr. Madden came in third overall (ahead of formal Democratic candidates Roger W. Wey and David Moriarty) thanks to his dominance among Nantucket voters; he received three times as many votes on Nantucket as all the other candidates combined by playing the hometown candidate card.
However, it must be noted that Mr. Madden barely registered outside his safety zone; he received all of 12 votes in Falmouth and the Vineyard.
The stage is now set for what could be an even wilder and woollier general election contest. With Wey, Moriarty, and Timothy Lasker out of the picture, where will their supporters throw their votes now? Will Mr. Madden be able to successfully sell himself to voters outside of Nantucket?
And what about Republican voters? They have no party candidate to vote for, so where will they go? Melissa C. Freitag and Jacob Ferreira, the two unenrolled candidates who aren’t blowing their Democrat-at-heart horn, could have the advantage here as they could more easily sway hardcore GOP voters to their side.

Carey M. Murphy’s next “Coffee With Carey” session is next Friday, October 3, at The Corner Café in Pocasset. Voters are invited to stop by between 8 AM and 9:30 AM to meet the unenrolled candidate for state rep of the third Barnstable district. The Corner Café will also host the following session on Friday, October 17.

Glenn S. Paré, candidate for state representative of the fifth Barnstable district, has posted an updated list of endorsements of his official campaign website.
This list includes: Governor Deval L. Patrick, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Clean Water Action, the Coalition for Social Justice, MassEquality, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, Massachusetts Democratic State Committee, the Cape & Islands Democratic Council, and the Mashpee and Sandwich Democratic Town Committees.

A reminder on behalf of Mr. Paré’s opponent, incumbent Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich): his lobster and clam bake fundraiser is coming up next weekend (Sunday, September 28) from 2 PM to 5 PM. That’ll be held at American Legion Post 188 in Sandwich, and the food comes courtesy of Joe’s Lobster Mart.
The cost is $50 per person, and the proceeds go to benefit Mr. Perry’s re-election campaign. For more information, call 508-888-3094.
In addition, Mr. Perry announced this week that the family of the late US Marine Corps Private First Class Daniel McGuire, a Mashpee High School alum killed in action over the summer, will lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the event. Also, Mr. perry will host a 50-50 raffle to benefit Cape Cod Cares For The Troops, and will welcome 4-year-old Joseph Longueil to perform the National Anthem.

Political news, events, and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

In case you’re one of the 10 people in the world who hasn’t seen this…

The primaries are done! Onward to Election Day!
The body count is on the high side thanks to the jam-packed Democratic primary races for state representative of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district and the Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners.
The casualties in the former race are Dave Moriarty, Timothy Lasker, and Roger Wey, in the latter J. Gregory Milne, Thomas P. Bernardo and – this was a serious shocker – incumbent Lance W. Lambros.
The hearty survivors — Daniel J. Larkosh, Mary L. (Pat) Flynn, and Sheila R. Lyons — now kick their campaigns into high gear because they each have multiple opponents to overcome in November.
Also, Priscilla J. Young fell in the race for Republican nomination for Barnstable County Register of Probate; Oliver P. Cipollini Jr. came up short in the primary for governor’s councilor of the first district; and Edward J. O’Reilly put up a good showing in the US Senate primary against John F. Kerry, but could not overcome Kerry’s mighty support base and campaign war chest.

By the way, does anyone know how one might get ahold of James A. Feeney of Harwich, who is allegedly running for the registry of probate gig? He doesn’t have a website, he’s not listed in the phone book, and even the mighty Google is shooting blanks.
I’d like to be fair and interview the dude, but between his uber-low profile and the fact that (according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance) he’s got all of $100 to his name for campaign funds, I rather suspect Mr. Feeney isn’t going to make much of a show against Anastasia Welsh Perrino and Eric T. Turkington.

The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, a non-partisan environmental advocacy group, has formally endorsed State Representative Matthew C. Patrick (D – Falmouth) in his re-election bid. The group called Mr. Patrick “a representative who understands the need to leave our children a healthy world.”
Mr. Patrick is one of only two Cape-area state rep candidates, along with Sarah K. Peake (D – Provincetown) to receive the MLEV endorsement.

Mr. Patrick’s opponent, Carey M. Murphy, is hosting a fundraiser in Osterville next week. Join him at Wimpy’s Seafood Café on Tuesday, September 23 from 6 PM to 8 PM. The suggested donation is $50 per person or $75 per couple, and the proceeds will benefit Mr. Murphy’s campaign.
Barnstable Town Councilor Richard G. Barry and Lindsey Counsell are sponsoring the event, which will feature free snacks and not-free drinks (hey, booze is expensive, people).
You’ve probably missed this morning’s “Coffee with Carey,” but fret not, for there are three more on the horizon! Mr. Murphy will be at The Corner Café in Bourne on October 3 and 17 (from 8:30 AM to 10 AM both days), and at Persy’s Place in Mashpee on October 24 (from 8 AM to 9:30 AM). Go and meet the candidate, and be sure to tip your waitstaff well!

State Representative Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich) has announced some new endorsements from local and county elected officials. Among them: Richard J. Anderson of Bourne, Thomas F. Keyes of Sandwich, Marcia R. King of Mashpee, all of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates. Assembly Speaker Charlotte B. Striebel of Yarmouth is also giving Mr. Perry her stamp of approval.

A quick hello to Melissa B. Freitag (unenrolled candidate for that busy state rep of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district race), with whom I sat down last week for some casual chat about the coming general election. During that conversation she informed me a recent TV interview, which is available for viewing on-line. Give it a look-see here.

I leave you with a couple of on-line bonuses, the first one courtesy of The Onion:


Political news, events, and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

One of the ballot questions voters will be asked to consider this November is a proposed repeal of the state income tax.
According to the question backers at the Committee For Small Government, this is a wonderful, magical initiative that will put, on average, $3,700 a year back in your pockets and cause state government to slough off inefficient programs, wasteful spending habits, and patronage jobs like dead skin cells.
If you’re actually buying into this claptrap, I pray someone bashes you across the back of the skull with a two-by-four lest you spread your madness to others.
Now, look, I would love it if I had an extra three grand or so in my bank account. Who wouldn’t? That kind of windfall would take are of nearly a dozen car payments. So, yes, money good, me like.
But this proposal is deeply flawed and potentially disastrous. Having sifted through several news stories, reports, position papers, analyses, messages scrawled on brick walls in hobo signs, it seems clear to me that the Libertarian masterminds behind this initiative have not thought everything out. Their sales pitch is an overly simplistic, “If we achieve action A, result B will follow” that does not consider unfortunate realities of the political game, or at least the concept of unintended consequences.
I briefly interviewed Carla Howell, chairman of the Committee, for a story in this week’s paper (which is two days from publication as I write this), and hit her with the question: How do we know for a fact that the Committee’s envisioned outcome is what we’re really going to get?
I was hoping for a straight, succinct answer. It would have been very easy for Howell to say, simply and truthfully, “There is no guarantee.” What I got was a rather circuitous response that maintained that, no matter what happened afterward, taxpayers who supported this question would walk away with extra spendin’ cash. She was adamant that that money wasn’t going anywhere except where the voters wanted it to go, be it into a CD, to the MSPCA, or toward a groovy new widescreen TV with resolution so sharp you can see every pit and pockmark on Edward James Olmos’s face.

(Sorry, I’m just getting antsy for “Battlestar Galactica” to start up again.)

When I pressed her, Howell told me that she would not speculate as to the Legislature’s response to the loss of the tax money, even though that is exactly what she is asking the public to do: speculate that state lawmakers won’t just turn around and take their $3,700 through other means.
Our income taxes account for more than $12 billion of state revenue, or just under half of our state budget for FY09 (about $28 billion). The Committee’s theory is that without this cash, the state will respond by cutting all its wasteful spending, and ostensibly, leave all the “good” government offices, agencies, and programs to chug along merrily.
Have these people met our elected officials? Do they really think that the pure and noble motive to serve the public interest will overrule years of cronyism and special interest influence? If that were the case, Mitt Romney would have fixed that problem back when he had the Corner Office. He wanted to do much the same thing, and he was blocked by…wait for it…the Legislature! Earlier this year lawmakers flattened a similar attempt. Why would a little thing like the loss of $12 billion would force the Legislature’s hand on this matter?

There are many other possible and, I dare say, more probable responses to the loss of income tax revenue than sweeping government reform. Assuming lawmakers honor the will of the voters — which isn’t a guarantee, as our 5.3 percent tax rate will attest — they have countless options for recouping that lost revenue; increasing the sales, capital gains, corporate, inheritance, excise, meals, rooms, gas, and/or cigarette taxes is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
And what happens if any such increases fail to completely patch the gap? Then the burden is passed onto the towns, and their main source of revenue? Property taxes.
New Hampshire, which does not have an income tax, has a median property tax rate of $16.33 per $1,000 of property valuation, almost double Massachusetts’ median property tax of $8.23 per $1,000. New Hampshire receives 43 percent of its revenue from property taxes, Massachusetts gets 26 percent, though that could well change if the income tax is struck down.
Essentially, if Question One passes, we’re facing the likely prospect of a zero-sum game in which we have to take the money we save on our income taxes and pay it out somewhere else. The Committee is refusing to acknowledge this. They’re relying on our time-tested Pavlovian response to the siren call of the tax cut and, by dint of convenient timing, the pressure many families are facing in the depressed economic climate to get this measure passed. An extra $3,700 is a mighty tempting life-preserver, and too many people are willing to clutch at it without considering the consequences.

Jeff Perry remarked to me that voters might use this opportunity to send a message to the State House, expressing through Question One their frustration with the Legislature and its spending habits, as well as its rock-steady refusal to unfreeze the voter-approved income tax rollback (now in its sixth year of suspended animation).
This is not the way to send this message; killing off the income tax will not change lawmakers’ deeply ingrained habits or sever ties to those outside influences that pad their campaign war chests. Voters can send a much stronger message at the ballot box by kicking out the old guard that cheerfully maintains a dissatisfactory status quo and bringing in some new blood.

The question that’s been thrown my way a lot over the last couple of weeks: “So, Mike, who do you think is going to win [insert race here]?”

My answer has always been a noncommittal mumble and shrug, or maybe an offhandish “Eh, I’ve got some ideas,” but the truth is I almost always have a strong hunch as to who will win any given political race, and I’ve a near-flawless track record of calling the winners. I just keep that stuff to myself in the off-chance I’m wrong; I don’t relish the thought of seeing a candidate after an election and having to mea culpa my butt off for publicly predicting his flaming defeat.

In other words, don’t expect to see any predictions here. I’ll fess up to my predictions after the fact, so check back later this week.

This week’s on-line bonus/reality check: McCain is the pig, Palin is the lipstick. I mean, my god, if Bill frakkin’ O’Reilly is telling everyone to let it go…! To wit, his response to the remark:

“There is exactly zero history of Obama ever being mean spirited, including in his camapign when the Clintons came at him pretty hard, plus they know that any attack on Palin that seems mean spirited or unfair hurts them (Obama.) No fair minded person could think that Obama meant to call Palin a pig.
McCain has already run an ad based on this, which is mean-spirited and obviously intended to twist Obama’s words. That ad should actually hurt McCain.
No matter whether you support Obama or not, if you think he’s stupid – you’re stupid. He would have to be stupid to have said that and aimed it at Palin.
And if Palin was a person of integrity and wanted a truly high level campaign, she would go out on her front lawn and tell the press – I was not insulted and no one who knows Barack Obama could ever believe that comment was a personal attack on me. Move on.”

And Republicans, remember this silly kerfuffle should McCain even make a reference to an Obama presidency as, say, “dark times ahead,” because your pig/lipstick uproar WILL come back to haunt you.

Now, some clarification/explanation regarding my interview with Dave Moriarty, Democratic candidate for state representative of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district.
I wrote in my piece last week that Mr. Moriarty painted himself as “the only true Democrat” in the primaries. Mr. Moriarty called to disagree with that, and I’ll state for the record that that passage was not a direct, verbatim comment on his part (so if you’re giving him any grief about it, you can stop now).
There’s a trick to this political reporter gig, and it’s taking interviews that last between 90 to 120 minutes on average and hit on dozens of topics, and distilling them down to a digestible format. This means taking long conversational threads and crunching them down to a paragraph or two, and sometimes my interpretation doesn’t jibe with what the candidate meant.
During my interview with Mr. Moriarty, he spoke at length about his lifelong involvement with the Democratic Party and made several on-the-record comments about other (unspecified) candidates in the race who had switched political allegiances in their lifetimes. I boiled this down to what I thought accurately represented the thrust of that conversation: other candidates were fair weather Democrats, not diehard loyalists like him.
Mr. Moriarty disputes this interpretation and I will concede a bad call on my part.

All right, folks, here’s my brief diatribe about the primaries. Skip ahead if you don’t feel like being lectured to.
A lot of you are going to skip out on the primaries and wait for the Big Game in November. Well, don’t. We’ve got some local races that need your input, so get off your cans and go to the polls Tuesday.
There’s been a lot of talk this year about changing the way government does business, and while that yammer is coming mostly from the Presidential race, that philosophy applies to local politics, perhaps even more so; change happens just as well from the bottom up as from the top down.

Want to hear what some of our local candidates have to say about themselves? Then pop in for a special candidates’ forum at the Upper Cape Regional Technical School on Wednesday, September 24 at 8 PM. State Representatives Matthew C. Patrick (D – Falmouth) and Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich) will be there along with their respective opponents, Carey M. Murphy and Glenn S. Paré.
State Representative Susan D. Williams Gifford (R – Wareham) will also be there, but probably only to enjoy the free grub since she has no opponent this year.
The forum in sponsored by the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce.

Ricardo M. Barros has launched his new website in support of his campaign for Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners. If it looks passing familiar, that’s because it’s damn close to the same website he had when he ran for state Senate a couple years ago. The new version is tidier and a bit more colorful, but that’s about it.

Anastasia Welsh Perrino, Republican candidate for Barnstable County Register of Probate, has added a fresh endorsement in the form of Troy G.B. Clarkson, a former Falmouth selectman and current…um…well, I’m sure he’s doing something.
Mr. Clarkson also endorsed Mary Pat Flynn, his former colleague on the Falmouth BoS, for county commissioner.

Sheila R. Lyons, Democratic candidate for Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners, has also received a fresh endorsement, this one from Congressman William D. Delahunt. Mr. Delahunt is the special guest at a Sunday fundraiser in Brewster, and you can find out more about that at Ms. Lyons official campaign website.

Jacob Ferreira, unenrolled candidate for state representative of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district, has spruced up his campaign website a titch in anticipation of the upcoming general election.
One of his opponents in November, Timothy Madden, has also tweaked his website, adding a little video (like, 14 seconds little) encouraging voters to plunk his name in the write-in spot on the ballot Tuesday.

A reminder: State Rep. Perry’s lobster and clam bake is coming up on Sunday, September 28 from 2 PM to 5 PM. That’ll be held at American Legion Post 188 in Sandwich, and the food comes courtesy of Joe’s Lobster Mart.
The cost is $50 per person, and the proceeds go to benefit Mr. Perry’s re-election campaign. For more information, call 508-888-3094.
Mr. Perry also announced some fresh endorsements this week, from James M. Cummings, Barnstable County sheriff; Scott W. Nickerson, Barnstable County’s clerk of courts; Barnstable County Register of Deeds John F. (Jack) Meade; and Frederick P. Claussen, the retiring Barnstable County Register of Probate.
One more item: Mr. Perry has posted on his website a little video of him making with the door-to-door campaign action. Obviously at least a semi-staged proceeding, but interesting nonetheless. I present it here now:

Did you miss the debate between US Senator John F. Kerry and primary challenger Edward O’Reilly Sunday? The video is on-line on the WBZ-TV website.
The candidates touched on continued military action in the Middle East, how to fill the void should US Senator Edward M. Kennedy have to leave office, campaign fundraising, and energy issues (including the Cape Cod Wind Farm). Moderator Jon Keller thought O’Reilly handled himself very well, but ultimately fell to Kerry’s superior experience and knowledge.
Go watch the 20-minute video and judge for yourself.

Political news, events, and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

Spotted today at Coffee Obsession in Falmouth:

Tom Brady’s injury is not and should not be the top story for any media outlet. He’s an athlete who suffered a serious injury, which is part of the game (literally and figuratively). There are much more important things going on in the world, things that really do affect each and every one us us in a very real way; Tom Brady’s injury has a real impact on a very small circle of people, and we aren’t in that circle, so FOCUS, you dolts! Prioritize!

So, Mike, you may be asking, where’s your post on Sarah Palin?
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure I was ready to even begin commenting on Palin. Like many Americans, I don’t have the slightest clue who the hell she is (which is a criticism unto itself), so I felt ill-suited to start squawking about her.
The pregnant teenage unmarried daughter thing feels almost too easy a target, and I think the GOP knows that, because look how quickly they’re all going, “Hey! Leave her family alone! Let’s focus on the issues here!”
This isn’t an issue? To me it’s another example of the rampant hypocrisy prevalent in the Conservative Right as of late: preach righteousness, and if/when you get caught, say, with your homosexual lover or your pregnant jailbait kid…well, you have four options, three of which have already come out of the Republicans’ toolbox:

1) The Diversion, in which the defender tries to dismiss the problem as a non-issue or point out something the other guy’s doing that is, in theory, far worse
2) The Righteous Indignation, in which anyone who dares to point out the elephant in the room (so to speak) is lambasted for his insensitivity and the inappropriateness of his remarks
3) The Sympathy Spin, in which the defender cops to the problem but paints it as a a spiritual trial and an exercise in building character
4) The Throw The Poor Sod Under The Wheels Of The Bus So We Can Show Everyone Who Appalled We Are

The extra layer to all this: were this happening to a Democrat, were it one of Obama’s kids now sporting an illegitimate baby bump, no way in hell would the GOP and their allies (lookin’ at you, O’Reilly) back off and let it lie. It’s a classic case of The Difference Between An Outrage And No Big Deal: if it happens to one of your guys, it’s an outrage; if it happens to one of our guys, it’s no big deal.

Then there’s the experience debate, which is becoming increasingly silly. Palin’s 20 months as governor trumps Obama’s nearly three years as a US Senator because it provided her with “executive experience”? She has superior foreign policy experience because Alaska is adjacent to Russia? HubbaWHAH?
And isn’t it funny that Karl Rove once regarded the idea of Obama picking Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as a running mate as purely political, this opinion based on Kaine’s lack of experience? Kaine, FYI, has been the governor of Virginia for three years, and before that was the mayor of Richmond (population: 20 times that of Wasilla, Alaska).

Of course, she holds to the usual standards of Conservative inconsistency: she’s anti-abortion but pro-capital punishment. Sorry, people, that doesn’t track: if all life is sacred and should be preserved, then ALL life is sacred.

So yeah, I’d heard all the squawking about these and other more important issues (and non-issues), but what’s the one that lights my fuse?
Book banning.
From the New York Times:

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.
Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.
The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.
In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were “rhetorical.”

“Rhetorical”? I so call BS on that. You don’t go to your town library just to hold a hypothetical conversation on what books to ban based on “objectionable content.” That’s the kind of topic you broach when you plan to do it, and I dread to think what titles Palin might have tried to exorcize. Maybe she had this list tucked in a pocket.
Anyone who has the brass to call themselves an American and would for even a second entertain the notion of censoring ANYTHING because it doesn’t jibe with their particular worldview is a liar of the highest order. Our Constitutional right to free speech is designed to protect all forms of expression, especially those that might be considered controversial and unpopular, and Palin should thank her precious Christian God for that, because I’m pretty sure there are millions of people in this country who don’t want to hear word one coming out of her mouth.
All we need to cap this discussion off is a visit from the Irony Fairy, and that comes to us courtesy of Mitt Romney, who said this during his RNC speech:

“It’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!”

Yep. Sure is. Way to goodthink, Mitt. Unfortunately, thanks to Palin, the GOP is looking pretty damned Orwellian about now.

I lead off with something from the “Credit Where It’s Due” file.
Over the course of the campaign I’ve often used Oliver P. Cipollini’s website as a prime example of how not to do a website. I’ve not at all been charitable.
Well, the candidate for governor’s councilor of the first district has overhauled the site in a BIG way! Truck on over to see the new, eye-pleasing layout, a little added content, and (my favorite touch) a map of the first district, complete with a list of first district towns and a handy link to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s “My Election Information” page.
The only downside: now that Mr. Cipollini’s site is good, I have to find a new crappy website to pick on. Sigh.

Mary Pat Flynn has repurposed her Falmouth Board of Selectmen campaign website as her new Barnstable County Board of County Commissioners campaign website. There’s nothing special about it — it’s quite threadbare, really — but there’s a shot of Ms. Flynn getting cozy with our governor. Do I sense scandal? Do I?
No? Oh, well, maybe next time.

Speaking of the county commissioners’ race, this section will sport next week a whopping total of five profiles for the Democratic candidates for that post, and it looks like the pending elimination of three of them has roused one of their Republican counterparts.
William B. (Brad) Crowell of Dennis, a former member of the Cape Cod Commission, formally launched his campaign Wednesday with a brief thingee (that is the technical term) at the Barnstable County Superior Courthouse.
Mr. Crowell will be joined on the ballot by fellow Republican Ricardo M. Barros, but Brad definitely had the upper hand already, because his campaign committee chairman is long-time (and departing) County Commissioner Mary J. LeClair. Also on his campaign committee: County Commissioner William Doherty, and former state reps Shirley Gomes and Tom George.
Dang. Talk about your Dream Team, huh?
What’s more, his campaign website is rockin’! A couple pages are still under construction, but its got a clean, sharp design; a really neat function that lets you stick a “virtual campaign sign” on a map of Cape Cod; splashes of humor (how often do you see that?); and a currently blank page tantalizingly titled, “Political Foolishness.”
I think I’m gonna dig this guy.

Get your headphones on (or, for younger readers, your earbuds in), because it’s time for a listening party! Woo!
State Representative Jeffrey D. Perry (R – Sandwich) recently posted a new radio ad on his website, which you can find at his website; and Jacob Ferreira, unenrolled candidate for state rep of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district, posted a link to a WBUR story on the race on his site.
You can also access that RealAudio file and the transcript directly here.

Sick of the aural media? Need a little video? Then keep your eyes peeled for what may well be the only debate between US Senator John F. Kerry and his primary opponent, Ed O’Reilly. The tentative plan, according to O’Reilly’s camp, is for WBZ-TV’s Jon Keller to moderate a 20-minute debate that will be recorded in-studio and broadcast this Sunday.
Mr. O’Reilly has been pushing for a series of live, public debates between himself and the incumbent, but the Kerry folks have balked, citing Kerry’s busy schedule. Uh, doing what?
Sorry, people, I think Kerry is getting a little complacent, and you know what? It’s our fault. Voters are terribly susceptible to political inertia and we often wind up voting for the incumbent simply because he’s the devil we know.
When you Democrats go to the polls on September 16, I strongly urge you to consider, if only for a moment as you stare at that ballot, whether you’re going to vote for Kerry out of habit, or because you legitimately feel he’s the best man for the job.

Last week I mentioned that Glenn S. Paré, Democratic candidate for state representative of the fifth Barnstable district, got the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s blessing. Well, the AFL-CIO has also formally endorsed incumbent State Representative Matthew C. Patrick (D – Falmouth), and those gents are the only two Cape-area candidates to earn the labor group’s official thumb’s up (so far).
“These candidates have thoroughly demonstrated their solid commitment to working families through a series of vetting processes, such as questionnaires, candidates nights, interviews, and in their performance fighting for workers in offices they’ve held,” Robert J. Haynes, AFL-CIO president said in a press release.

Meanwhile, Daniel Larkosh, Democratic candidate for state rep of the Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district, picked up another endorsement from 1199 SEIU - United Healthcare Workers East, which represents hospital workers, nursing home workers, and personal care attendants.

Timothy R. Madden, unenrolled candidate for the above-mentioned race, received an endorsement from the publisher of the Nantucket Independent last month. In an editorial piece, Daniel Drake not only gave Mr. Madden his stamp of approval, he urged Island residents to vote for the candidate in force so that Nantucket could have “a direct voice in the Legislature,” which strikes me as something of a dig at the departing Eric T. Turkington.
FYI: Nantucket lost its seat in the Legislature in 1978 when the districts were juggled around, and both Islands were made part of the current Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket district.

Last week US Senator Barack Obama showed us how unimaginative (if strategically savvy) he is by unleashing Joe “The Animal” Biden on the unsuspecting public. This week, US Senator John McCain threw us a curve ball by picking Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his VP pick.
The choice was met with the usual amount of “What a great choice!” from the Republican-friendly pundits, peppered with a few “What the –?!” reactions from unexpected sources (when Pat Buchanan gushes over Obama’s big speech AND poo-poos the Palin decision in the same week, you know we’ve all tumbled through the Looking Glass).
So: was this a blatant attempt to cash in on disaffected Clintonites? An effort to appear as progressive as the Dems were in 1984 when Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro? Or is there a lot more substance to this move the media has yet to discover? And will they discover it, or will they get sidetracked by the shiny object that is the revelation that Palin’s teenage daughter is knocked up?
Boy, there’s a real poser for you…
On that note, this week’s on-line bonus is only going to appeal to a certain crowd, but here it is anyway:

Does your brain hurt from trying to make sense of the Presidential candidates’ claims and counter-claims?
Then let me direct all of you to a couple of sites I’ve haunted a lot lately. The first is www.factcheck.org, a non-profit and nonpartisan site that calls shenanigans on politicians when they misspeak, intentionally or otherwise. The site offers summaries of recent campaign ads and explains point-by-point where they got it wrong.
For quick hits, go to www.politifact.com, which lays out how accurate claims in attack ads are, how accurate self-aggrandizing claims are, and my fave, the “Flip-o-Meter,” which charts how much or how little the candidates have strayed from previous positions.
Sadly, Obama does not fare well on the Flip-o-Meter, which indicates complete reversals on his stances on tapping the nation’s petroleum reserves and public financing, and a partial flip on offshore drilling.
Meanwhile, McCain makes a poor showing on the Attack File, with most of his claims against Obama falling short of complete accuracy. The men look about even on the Truth-o-Meter, each claiming their fair share of hits and misses.

Political news, events, and announcements may be e-mailed to Michael Bailey, senior political reporter, at bailey@capenews.net

I’ve been writing up police logs for the Mashpee Enterprise for 10 years now, and there are several things I’ve learned about people’s behavior, of the criminal and just plain stupid varieties. I share the top 10 with you today:

• The vast majority of single-car nighttime accidents are due to a black dog darting across the road
• The typical drunk driver has consumed only two beers prior to being pulled over
• The best way to convince a cop of your innocence is to swear to God you didn’t do anything wrong
• The second best way is to call the arresting office several obscene names before threatening to “get” him
• The third best way is to declare, “You don’t know who you’re messing with!”
• Fighting with a cop is acceptable; the cop fighting back is police brutality
• Drugs are magical creations that can pop up in a person’s car, even in their pants pocket, without notice or the suspect’s knowledge
• People believe in the inherent goodness of humanity, which is why they feel safe leaving laptops, digital cameras, and surprisingly large amounts of cash sitting in plain view in their unlocked vehicles overnight
• Racial profiling accusations apply even when the arresting officer is the same race as the suspect
• The most popular way for arrestees to express their dissatisfaction with their treatment is the alternate between screaming incoherently and banging their head against the cell door

I’ve also learned that a suspect’s chances of fighting with a cop are in inverse proportion to the likelihood the cop can kick his can up one side of town and down the other. The older cops, the doughy guys who are within arm’s reach of their pensions? Who couldn’t cross the street without getting winded? Almost never messed with. The guys built like Panzers? They’re the ones suspects always scrap with.