As you can all see, memo madness is setting in again. This one is about excessive force in an arrest of a UCLA student at a protest. He is anti Marlyn Manson because his music is anti christian.

Since the memo madness is setting in that means that the Pandora station is set to the Temptation. Every time “Second that Emotion”comes on I want to sing “Don’t file a Second Motion”. Thanks prof civ pro!

Anyway, Since this is a busy work night, although aren’t they all?, I am making myself a salad which is quick. I ran out of Brie which is upsetting. I might make another mini pizza tonight since it takes no time and have it for lunch tomorrow. Maybe make the other law students envious? Also, observation: my heart burn flares up when I have nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans etc). Beginning to think that there is something to this. We will see. It was really bad during Civ Pro today. Might have to tweak my mid afternoon snack a bit.

Also, watching very sadly the election returns from Massachusetts. I had the opportunity to see Martha Coakley several times last spring when I worked at the Massachusetts State House. She is an incredible, well spoken women (not to mention, she is a fierce dresser). I am wondering what went wrong. I don’t think its about health care or about Obama, which many national pundits point to. For one thing, Massachusetts already has health care for all its citizens.  I think it probably has more to do with backlash against state democrats, which is sad. At least when I was in the state people were becoming very opposed to Deval Patrick and there were several situations with members of the state senate or house leaving amidst public scrutiny resulting from questionable ethics. These situations slowed down the pace of the legislature. Not to mention that Gov. Patrick seemed to be trying to vie for public favor by fighting with the legislators. I get the feeling that the result in Brown v. Coakley is more local backlash to MA Democrats than many national figures are making it. We have to remember: Obama is not a magic potion. He cannot just show up and make things happen. Him not “winning it” for her doesn’t reflect on him. I think it reflects more on the way her campaign was managed and the fact that Dems tend to take victory over Republicans in Massachusetts for granted.

With all this being said, I’m no expect but I have been around Massachusetts and at least spent 20 hrs per week for a semester in the State House. I am mostly sad that we aren’t getting another women in the Senate. The gender and race disparities in our government are very disheartening to me. If this topic interests you, you might also like this article from Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31680.html.

Finally, Scott Brown’s politics are much more conservative than what I think most MA residents tend to favor. As Keith Olbermann put it: “In Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”