It may be inevitable that the working public (hereafter referred to as Main Street) ante
up to rescue our botched national economy — though it’s difficult to believe that our money is the only real money available.

But who could possibly be surprised that your average citizens, who feed so far down on
the fiscal food chain that they've never even seen a menu, are suspicious of the bail-out

In my recent Phoenix article, “Blunt Object,” regarding Commonwealth marijuana reform, I guessed that Attorney General Martha Coakley would decline to scold the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association (MDAA) for allegedly publishing lies on its web site about the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) and its Question 2 ballot initiative.

First of all, shana tova. 

The opponents in happier days (for Wilkerson, at least)

I’m trying to be as objective as possible with this Wilkerson vs. Chang-Diaz showdown. I recognize merits in both candidates, and I absolutely believe that the former has the right to continue fighting for her seat; even if she lost the primary election.

I never thought I’d write such a thing, but Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art is a damn sweet place to party. Views stretch across the harbor; young folks come dressed to undress; and the third floor bathrooms make it possible to go about your post-dinner business privately.

To be honest, I’ve even had fun there without alcohol; so when I heard that Cambridge multimedia geek squad SoSoLimited was hosting its first ever presidential debate remix party dubbed ReConstitution at the South Boston monument of minimalist excess, and that they would be serving booze, beer and wine, I figured the evening would even impress jerks like me who are eternally skeptical of the intersection where politics and pop culture collide.

SCARE TACTICS

5 years ago

September 26, 2003 | Reporter David S. Bernstein pondered the recording industry's random subpoena flare-up.

"EVERYONE CLAIMS innocence when subpoenas appear, but in this case it’s a fair bet that Judith Sabatino, a nurse at Winchester Hospital, had neither the time nor the inclination to download 1167 files of songs ranging from the Beastie Boys to the Notorious B.

What with John McCain suspending his campaign and all, it’s a good time to explore what his campaign is really thinking. Let’s do that through the lens of the letters his campaign and the Republican National Committee sent out last week, begging for money. In the process, he and the RNC demonstrated how thin their grasp is on reality, truth, and integrity.

As you may have heard, John McCain suspended his campaign yesterday in order to be in Washington to deal with the financial crisis. Originally, he was supposed to go on the Late Show with David Letterman, but he canceled as part of that suspending of the campaign (fittingly, Keith Olbermann replaced him).

Okay, do we get it yet? Last night, George Bush went on national TV and begged taxpayers to channel $3 trillion to his cronies in the banking industry. While he tried to make it seem as if he was suddenly, if reluctantly, converting to socialism, the ruse was sadly transparent. They robbed us. "They" being the banks, the big corps, and the bazillion middle-men/women who waste space on Wall Street.

Dianne Wilkerson’s Jamaica Plain and Beacon Hill supporters who are unfamiliar with the Grove Hall area likely had no problem finding the senator’s first post-primary rally last night. No matter which direction people arrived from there were hordes of red-shirted Wilkerson enthusiasts greeting folks and hoisting signs as if the eight-term incumbent hadn’t lost to political newcomer Sonia Chang-Diaz less than one week earlier.

It seems like Democrats these days love few things more than accusing Senator McCain and his supporters of being racists. Not necessarily cross-burning, hood sporting Bible belt bigots, but rather the type of out-of-touch crackers who prefer not sharing golf courses and neighborhoods with minorities.

So when the Wall Street Journal printed yesterday that former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele – a black man – was playing Barack Obama in McCain’s preparatory debates, lefty bloggers jumped on it like a Google-sponsored convention buffet.

There are three types of trend pieces: articles that aren’t about real trends at all, but that are instead attempts to pass off single bizarre occurrences as trends; articles about actual trends that show up every few years in your local arts section (did you know that people are forming book clubs again?); and, finally, articles about ordinary things that editors dream into trends for the sake of filling newspapers.

September 19, 2003 | With the Dalai Lama set to visit a Buddhist temple in Medford, Chris Wright talked to Hank Peirce, the man charged with welcoming the holy man to town. At the time, Peirce was having some trouble finding a gift to present to the visitor.

" ‘I’m driving myself nuts,’ he said.

Of all the comedians who launched their skyrocketing careers from Boston, of all the Ding Ho legends and all the Harvard Lampoon superstars and all the innovative comedians who have helped develop this city into a place where material can blossom from festering slop to tightly-woven tapestries of comedy gold...

Not that I think I'm special or anything, but when I heard the news about the Fed's AIG bailout, I thought immediately that Bush's "privatize everything" philosophy was about to turn on its head into "nationalize everything." And sure enough, Cenk Uygur over at HuffPost had the same thought - plus, he argues the point more fully and more convicingly, in his post, "Bush Becomes A Socialist