The talking heads are calling this year's snafus in the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act Obama's Katrina, likening it to the FEMA debacle in responding to the deadly 2005 hurricane that wasted Louisiana. I think the handling of the ACA roll-out is worse. Katrina is a code word for an epic bureaucratic screw-up, a failed response to …
Continue reading If ACA is a turkey, then Obama’s a lame duck
Still-a-state rep Marty Walsh appeared yesterday on Channel Five's On the Record. The candidate who, in debates and interviews, was unprepossessing at best, often awkward with rhetoric trending banal, is looking more and more mayoral. His presentation was comfortable, and he came across as focused and transparent even while skillfully avoiding being pinned down on specifics (as in, what …
He’s affable, charming and seems to be getting things done. Setti Warren is running for second term as mayor of Newton. He is on a mission, he says, of building a sustainable, livable community, a model city for the 21st century. In the preliminary, he beat challenger Ted Hess-Mahan by a more than three-to-one margin, …
Continue reading Setti Warren pursuing vision as Newton mayor
I can't remember ever being happier to be wrong! There will be tons of words written about the first Red Sox win in Fenway in 95 years. None will be enough, nor will mine adequately express our collective joy. As CNN's John Berman, a Red Sox fan, said this morning outside Fenway: worst to first, …
When my husband and I visited the Terezin [also known as Theresienstadt] concentration camp outside of Prague in 1990, we could only begin to imagine the horrors the Nazis visited upon the political prisoners and Jews housed there. The barracks where human beings were packed in, disease rampant, prisoners starved, worked to death or killed, hundreds of thousands kept for months or …
Continue reading Terezin Music Foundation touches core of humanity
Don’t believe the hype: Ted Cruz and Tea Partiers weren’t big losers. Most other people were. The recent partial shut-down and near default of the US government led by rogue deficit hawks cost American taxpayers at least $24 billion (according to Standard & Poor's), paid furloughed workers not to work, cut economic growth and, as …
Continue reading Washington artful dodgers postpone responsibility
Local writers (e.g., Dan Shaughnessy) have reveled in the image of Boston Police Officer Steve Horgan raising his arms in a celebratory pose as Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter fell over the bullpen wall chasing David Ortiz' grand-slam homer. It was certainly a joyous moment for all of us Red Sox fans in an extraordinary moment …
Massachusetts Republican Party grande dame Polly Logan, 88, died on September 30, a day when the national GOP showed again how it has become the antithesis of what she stood for. Polly, who lived on the South Shore, was a former Republican National Committeewoman, State Committeewoman, head of the Massachusetts Republican Club and more. She was a …
Please pass the salt and pepper. I'm about to eat some crow. Last July, I wrote how nervous I was when the Red Sox were in first place at the All Star break. Looking back over 20 years' records, I was pessimistic that the home team could sustain the performance that found them in first …
Boston's mayoral election is still up for grabs, but the selections may be crystalizing. Four days with no computer has left me grappling impressionistically with the 12-person field, but things are looking slightly more clear. Thanks to Davcoh Computer Services and a brand new computer, I can return to the task of sorting out this …
