Saturday's jumbled rings

Well, while Romney may have put his foot in his mouth about the Olympics, after watching the opening ceremonies on T.V. I may have to detract the criticism of his criticism, at least as to the opening.

I will go along with the "visually brilliant raves", might have been good to be able to also add coherent   Hey, what can I say, it just didn't do it for me.

New Bedford, with a apparently strong assist from Fairhaven and Acushnet found its stolen police rifle.  The details on the recovery are a bit less sketchy than the "loss".  Maybe at some point those particular details will come out.

Massachusetts has been going through its own version of "Parking Wars" lately.  If you aren't aware, the Boston Herald was seeking to obtain the records for state legislators for use of the parking facilities available to try and determine if the per diem they are paid for travel was being abused, i.e. did they actually go to Boston for the days they were paid.  The records were denied under the public safety exception of the public disclosure laws.

What makes the thing most interesting to me, the paper was told by our Governor, if you want to see who uses the garage go out and take their pictures (to that effect).  Well apparently when camera person(s) were in fact stationed at the garage entrance, they were threatened with arrest for taking pictures.  

Enlightening?  You would think when the Guvnor gives you the okay to do something publicly, you might be okay.

The S-T has had several pieces lately also dealing with the matter.  You might find yesterday's helpful.

Open and transparent government is a big thing of late.  It should be.  What this particular little issue highlights is the fact that at the state legislative level and in too many aspects at the state level, government simply is not open and not transparent and the main reason for the same, is at that level, they have exempted themselves.

I get a big kick out of all the attempts to change open meeting laws and public records disclosure for everyone except our state legislators.  Discovering how many days an elected official has traveled to Boston to do her or his duty shouldn't be an issue that needs to be debated.  It shouldn't require editorials, news articles or even much thought about how to get the information.

You get paid by the taxpayer to travel back and forth, the taxpayer has a right to see the records to substantiate that fact.  How many "employers" are forced to take the word of their employees about their travel records?

Apparently in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts around 6,600,000.

Locally, and as one of the last career pols I actually liked put it, all politics is local,  seems the little blurb about next April's election piqued the interest of a couple of you.   It is too early to name names in that no one has officially expressed interest.  So I don't intend to crown anyone as a candidate.  

If someone comes out and openly states their intention, or if there are a few more public displays without an official announcement than specific comment will be warranted.  Until such time, it is all conjecture.

What is still in the realm of conjecture is the Brown vs. Warren race for senate.  the polls have these two neck and neck with the most recent one showing Warren with a two point lean (40% to 38%).  With a 4.4% margin of error, and a wide number of those polled undecided or for neither, this one has the making on paper as a nail biter.

I will be surprised if it turns out that way, to be honest (the nail biting that is).  That 22% not picking one or the other is just too big in this state, at this point in time.  It falls into the category of I know who I am voting for but it is none of your business. 

Call it a gut hunch, which it is, but I estimate at least half of that 22% has all ready decided, and I am guessing in the end it won't be close.  Someone has all ready grabbed that brass ring.