This Roland Burris business is getting ridiculous. Today, Burris was informed by the Secretary of the Senate that his credentials were "not in order" because they did not comply with the Senate rules.
The trial balloon that CNN reporter/Dr. Sanjay Gupta is being considered for Surgeon General should be shot down immediately. Anyone who watched Gupta make a laughable idiot of himself in connection with Michael Moore's Sicko knows he is not qualified for this job (video after the flip).
You don't have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore "fudged his facts", when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong.
I think we've all had enough of people who ridicule their opponents rather than engaging them in substantive dialogue. That's not the approach Obama ran on, and it's not what we need in a Surgeon General. This country has many wonderful doctors who are models of service, compassion, and thoughtful leadership. Choose one of them as Top Doc. Gupta should stay in, and on, the idiot box.
Here are the highlights (press release, no link, but you can find the whole thing at this link).
Tougher Penalties
* Increase the maximum punishment for bribery to $100,000 and 10 years imprisonment. The current penalty is up to $5,000 and to 3 years imprisonment.
* Increase the maximum penalties for conflict of interest law violations involving gifts and gratuities, revolving door violations and other abuses to $10,000 and 5 years imprisonment. Currently, penalties are up to $3,000 and two years imprisonment.
* Increase penalties for a civil violation of the conflict of interest laws from up to $2,000 per violation to up to $10,000 per violation. For bribery, the civil penalty would increase to $25,000.
* Increase the civil penalty for a violation of the financial disclosure law from $2,000 per violation to $10,000 per violation.
* Increase the criminal penalty for violating registration-related lobbying rules to up to $10,000 and 5 years imprisonment. Currently, offenses are a misdemeanor punishable by not less than $100 and not more than $5,000, with no possibility of imprisonment.
* Grant the Secretary of State authority to suspend or permanently revoke a legislative or executive agent's license.
Stronger Lobbying Laws
* Define lobbying to include strategizing, preparing and planning related to a communication with a public official for the purpose of influencing legislative or executive policy.
* Expand the revolving door provision to apply to members of the executive branch.
* Reduce the amount of allowable incidental lobbying from 50 hours in each 6-month reporting period to 10 hours in each 3-month reporting period.
Expanded Enforcement Authority
* Make compliance with the Ethics Commission's summons mandatory.
* Grant the Ethics Commission rulemaking authority to implement the ethics laws.
* Increase the amount of time the Ethics Commission can proceed on an ethics violation from 3 years to 5 years.
* Grant the Secretary of State rule-making authority to implement the lobbying laws.
* Give the Secretary of State authority to impose fines and to have the same civil enforcement authority over lobbying violations as the Ethics Commission has over ethics violations.
* Give the Attorney General concurrent jurisdiction with the Ethics Commission to enforce civil violations of the conflict of interest laws.
Significant Investigative and Enforcement Tools
* Expand law enforcement authority to record conversations in public corruption investigations. Current law requires that the case involve organized crime.
* Impose penalties for a new statutory obstruction of justice offense.
* Authorize the convening of a statewide grand jury with jurisdiction extending throughout the Commonwealth.
Aside from wondering about the extent to which you can actually regulate "strategizing, preparing and planning related to a communication with a public official for the purpose of influencing legislative or executive policy" (imagine the inquiries: "did you, or did you not, lie in bed awake the night before you met with Rep. So-and-So thinking about what to say to him?"), these all seem sensible to me. Your thoughts?
Hello friends. I hope everyone had a relaxing and safe Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.
Today, the Joint Committee on Transportation held its 4th in a series of hearings aimed at reforming our transportation system. The process began in November, when Governor Patrick announced his intention to enact toll increases of up to $3.50 at the Harbor Tunnels. I believed at the time, as I do now, that before any such steps are taken, we owe it to the tax- and toll-payers to explore every possible opportunity for reform before adopting new revenues.
During this series of hearings, we have had the opportunity to hear from members of non-partisan think tanks, various interest groups, union officials, Mayors, State Representatives and State Senators just to name a few. I have always believed that before any decision is made, it is important to hear all perspectives, and to get input from all seats at the table. Now it is time to hear from you! Please use the "comments" section to share any thoughts you have regarding transportation in Massachusetts, and how you think we should move forward.
The New Organizing Institute is committed to helping build the progressive movement to work in the pursuit of a fair, just, and sustainable society and for a transparent, participatory democracy. ... We are seeking to fill an urgent need among progressive organizations and campaigns. Right now, they're hitting a brick wall when trying to fill new online organizer or Internet director positions. A network of talented, sophisticated and experienced operatives simply does not exist in the field of online organizing the way it does in the established areas of field organizing, fundraising or campaign management.
Rep. Dave Torrisi, a DeLeo soldier, showed real ones the size of beach balls when he told Sal, in person, he was taking a solo leap off the S.S. DiMasi.
He didn't articulate his reasons well and it will be lonely for him for a little while, but I like it.
Questions.
1. Is this all about DeLeo? Was the drama meant to be a watershed moment resulting in Sal not be re-elected as Speaker on Wednesday? Deleo's chances get worse as time marches on. Especially if he gets caught up in this Cognos stuff.
2. Is this all about Torrisi? Is Torrisi simply planning to run state wide in 2 years. Something should be opening up. Perhaps Congress or just plain ole state senate. He will be the Ed Markey of 2010. Desk in the hallway type of thing.. Maybe he's sees himself as the alternate candidate for speaker?
3. Is this about Sal? Torrisi does not need the job. His family has a very successful business. And guess who the long time accountant has been for that business? That's right, Dick Vitale. The guy that came across in the Globe the other day as the world's biggest mensch. (That's Yiddish for a fucking great guy) The same guy who is vedy vedy close with Torrisi's father. The same guy who may be more of a patsy then a sleaze.
Whatever the reasons it is a fun way to start the new session.
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Nice move by Vitale's lawyer today in delaying the arraignment until after Sal's re-election.
(Listening to Yoo's arguments is a form of torture-by-idiocy. - promoted by Bob)
You may remember John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and author of the atrocious "torture memo." Yoo was one of the cheerleaders for an expansive definition of presidential power, in particular, the notion that the president has an absolute "commander-in-chief" power that allows him to do as he pleases. Or as Frank Langella says: "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Well, the Democrats are in charge now, and surprise! Yoo has changed his mind about the limits of presidential power. He and John Bolton have just written an op-ed in the NYT insisting that the Senate reclaim its power to ratify or reject treaties, particularly those involving national security and foreign affairs!
Lots of news today. A couple of items that caught my eye:
Tufts Medical Center is trying to get tough with Blue Cross, claiming that their reimbursement rates are not as high as what Partners got unreasonably low. This is almost certainly part of the fallout from the Globe's exposé on the Partners/Blue Cross "handshake." Much more to come, no doubt; in the meantime, though, these two players need to work it out pronto.
Charter schools scored big in the latest study, significantly outperforming pilot schools; pilot schools, in turn, actually underperformed the "traditional" public schools in some respects. Cue Jon Keller and the Pioneer Institute ... now!
But seriously, folks, if these results stand up (and the Boston Foundation, as far as I know, doesn't really have an ideological bent on this issue), they should be serious food for thought on Beacon Hill, no? Here is the Globe's graphic summarizing the results:
Sal DiMasi will almost certainly be the next House Speaker. He's apparently averted a constitutional showdown with the Ethics Commission by agreeing to release some of the records they were looking for in exchange for their dropping their lawsuit against him, and there's as yet no indication that either John Rogers or Bob DeLeo has any intention of actually taking on DiMasi. So there you have it.
Roland Burris goes to Washington today. Just seat the guy for God's sake, and spend your energy on Al Franken. (I know it won't happen, but I can dream, can't I?)
I'm always looking for effective tools for organizing, growing Democratic organizations, and moving people towards activism. I recently joined Facebook and see that it could potentially be useful. Last fall we discussed blogging and activism. I've used yahoo groups for years. And of course there are web sites. We also discussed this at the bloggers gathering at Lynne's last spring.
Given limited resources, what brings the highest return on investment for actually moving people to activism? How would you rank these in usefulness for a Democratic Committee or any group working to promote a cause?
Now that I'm learning facebook, I keep wishing that I had joined it before this last cycle. But does it really work to actually get someone to knock on a door or pick up a phone? I heard anecdotal stories from Barack's campaign. But was that facebook, or was it the campaign itself?
I've always felt that if you had a choice between investing time in maintaining a website or in sending out a regular e-mail, that a group is better off with e-mail rather than a website. Do other people feel that way?
It's true -- when asked what he'd do if the results showed him down by a few votes, here's what he said:
If you're asking me what I would do, I would step back. I just think the need for the healing process is so important, the possibility of any change of this magnitude in the voting system we have is so remote, that would be my judgment.
Oh, but wait, that was two months ago, when the initial count showed Coleman ahead by under 600 votes. Now, when a more accurate count shows him behind by about 250 votes -- and when there is virtually no "possibility of any change of this magnitude" as a result of further challenges -- he's singing a much different tune.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Watch Coleman's original "healing process" comment:
(The Pell Grants are a fine legacy. He also authored the legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. - promoted by David)
You made it possible for a lot of people to obtain a college education. Including me.
Really, this is very interesting, so I want to goad you all into a discussion about it. We've been quite skeptical about the pick of Jim Aloisi as the state's new Secretary of Transportation. We took the opportunity to ask Governor Patrick about it yesterday, and, as already noted, he had a twofold explanation. One:
I'll tell you that in all the conversations I've had with all the potential transportation heads, the one with the most ideas and creativity, bar none, is Jim Aloisi. And I also think that the practicality of achieving the MassTrans vision that we've been talking about ... requires so much delicate politics because of so many investments that individual legislators and individual legislative leaders have in this or that agency, that we're going to need somebody who understands that, and can help us navigate it.
OK, that's all fair enough. None of us was there for the interviews, so we'll take the Gov's word that Aloisi is the guy who came to the table with the best ideas, and no one disputes that Aloisi can function as a navigator.
(Congratulations to Council President, and frequent BMGer, Mike Ross! - promoted by David)
This morning, I had the honor of being unanimously elected president of the Boston City Council.
On Boston Daily, I’ve written about what I plan to accomplish this year. The financial crisis is hitting Bostonians hard, and I will make sure the council does its part to keep the city on track during these trying times. I’ve proposed that the Council:
Tap into the area’s brain-trust by holding an economic summit, which will be comprised of leading business, non-profit, and economic leaders;
Hold several of its formal sessions in the community, at night, to allow greater public access to local government;
Make all Council documents available online.
I’m also proud to relaunch my website, mikerossboston.com. There you will find several new features, including a constituent request form and a Suggestion Box that residents can use to tell us what they love about Boston, and what they think the Council can do to improve the city. Every month, we’ll post the ten best suggestions or comments, even if we don’t agree with them.
Overcoming the challenges of today is a daunting task, but I can’t wait to get started. I look forward to hearing what you think about my proposals and what the year ahead holds for the city on both my website and in the comments here on Blue Mass Group.
I wouldn't have expected this, but a National Journal blogger poll in which I participate came up with some interesting results when it asked whether the Senate should seat Roland Burris.
Left-Leaning (18 votes)
Right-Leaning (18 voters)
Yes: 56%
Yes: 78%
No: 44%
No: 22%
...
Right-leaning bloggers:
Dan McLaughlin, Baseball Crank; J.R. Hoeft, Bearing Drift; Betsy Newmark, Betsy's Page; Bob Parks, Black And Right; Bookworm, Bookworm Room; D.S. Hube, The Colossus Of Rhodey; Doug Lambert, Granite Grok; Robert Miller, JoshuaPundit; Soren Dayton, The Next Right; Walter Olson, Overlawyered; Daniel Pipes; Steven Taylor, PoliBlog; Debbie Hamilton, Right Truth; John Hawkins, Right Wing News; Rob Port, Say Anything; David Gerstman, Soccer Dad; Martin Solomon, Solomonia; David Kopel, The Volokh Conspiracy
Left-leaning bloggers:
Sean-Paul Kelley, The Agonist; Michael Shaw, BAGnewsNotes; Dean Barker, Blue Hampshire; David Kravitz, Blue Mass. Group; Brian Leubitz, Calitics; Greg Dworkin, Daily Kos; Howie Klein, Down With Tyranny!; Digby, Hullabaloo; Robert Farley, Lawyers, Guns And Money; Barbara O'Brien, The Mahablog; Taylor Marsh; News Hounds; Chris Bowers, Open Left; Mark Kleiman, The Reality-Based Community; Tracy Viselli, Reno And Its Discontents; Lee Papa, Rude Pundit; Susie Madrak, Suburban Guerilla; David NYC, Swing State Project
Some of the comments were pretty much four-square with my post from a couple of days ago.
"Roland Burris is not Rod Blagojevich. Nor is he mentioned in the Fitzgerald papers, as far as I know. He may not be the strongest pick, but if we believe we are a nation that follows the Rule of Law, then the assumption is that he should be seated unless the Senate has reason to act differently or the Illinois Legislature removes Blago. A better solution would have been Illinois maneuvering to have a special election. That did not happen; this is the result." Greg Dworkin, Daily Kos
"The appointment is legal, and refusing it will only create an unnecessary circus. Further, it would set a dangerous precedent if they refused him. Just do it, and back someone in a primary against Burris next year." Chris Bowers, Open Left
...
"At the end of the day, the rules are the rules are the rules. And until Blago's not the governor, he gets to make the pick. So the Senate should just get on with business." Lee Papa, The Rude Pundit
Meanwhile, Harry Reid continues to talk tough, though he has clearly left the door a bit ajar. On Meet the Press this weekend, Reid said that it would be "difficult" for Burris to become a Senator, but that there is "always room to negotiate." Whatever that means.
Reid should be keeping his powder dry for Al Franken, who has won the race in Minnesota, but who probably won't be seated for some time, unless the Dems can find a way to block a promised Republican filibuster against seating him. Here's one idea on how to do that. That'd be fun.
Now that two years of Governor Patrick's first term have elapsed, I was very interested in hearing the Gov's candid assessment of how the exciting but difficult project of "grassroots governance" was going. The Governor was candid in confessing error, and had some pointed advice for his friend the president-elect.
Back when the Governors Readiness Plan was revealed one of the big questions was how would it be funded? Well the Readiness Finance Commission has released their report on how that might happen.
The contentious nature of some of the proposed initiatives in the plan now coupled with savings and revenue generation proposals should make for some interesting fodder. I'll leave my opinion for the comments...
Here is a summary of the recommendations pulled from the report with some paraphrasing. The report does provide some level of detail into how these cost savings could be accomplished and what they might save.
A lot of folks are interested in Governor Patrick's request to Congress as part of the Economic Recovery Act. Here is the preliminary list as reported in the Boston Globe on December 18.
While many states, including Massachusetts, have put forward preliminary lists, it looks likely that the House will vote on the bill in the next two weeks.
Based on this preliminary Massachusetts list, the Bay State's request is the most balanced compared to other states, with almost half of the request dedicated to public transportation, bike and pedestrian modes. Massachusetts is also the only state requesting its entire road and highway funds for repair and maintenance, with no new roadways funded under the preliminary plan.
My questions for Governor Patrick during our mid-term conversation today (see earlier post below by Charley about Aloisi, bodies, and the importance of proper burials) focused on philosophy and the Big Picture: where he wants to lead the state, how two years in office have informed his thoughts about the role of government, and the likely impact of the economic crisis on his plans. He began his answer with a reference to Proverbs 29:18 the first portion of which reads: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
Bob(Convoluted and inarticulate question about the difference between the theory and practice of leadership, and where the Gov. wants to lead the state over the next two years -- the importance of "words, just words," and the contrast between the top achievements of 2007-08 listed on his website and the 2008-09 agenda given the economic crisis):
Gov. Patrick: I still think that without a vision the people perish. The reason that language matters is because it sets a broad vision. I have never thought that words alone were enough. They are important for helping people organize, and for motivating around the why. ... We want the reason we do things, at least in government, to be bigger than some small-minded personal grudge, or similar kind of factor: we want it to be about the common good, and about the common wealth. So I think that everything we do, even when we get off into the details of restructuring Big Dig debt, has got to be about the common good. I think that the reason we are able to have conversations now about revenue -- which was the kind of off-limits thing ... the thing political consultants used to tell candidates like me, you can't possibly say anything about that, because it's a political third rail -- the context now of the common good and what kind of commonwealth we want ... I think that's enabled those kinds of conversations.
We're having conversations now about pension reform. It sounds very dull, if all you are focused on is the policy of pension reform. But the fact that it's not just the employer's point of view, it is labor's point of view that is at the table, constructively trying to come up with what works, and what is going to be better for the common wealth, is about people organizing around the common good. And I think whether it is clean energy or life sciences or education, or any of these other [major issues], that's the body, that's the guts, under this notion of what kind of community we want to live in, and how do we make that community serve the common good.
Going forward, the economic stuff may seem prosaic in some way but people need to eat and they need to pay the bills. I've met folks who told me they were not looking forward to the holidays when their kids come home from college, because they were going to have to tell their kids they couldn't afford to send them back for the the next semester. That's humiliating for a parent, especially a parent who has done everything he or she thought they were supposed to do to prepare to put their kids through college. ...
Frankly, one hope I have out of all this is that the middle class will begin to see common cause with poor people, who have been worrying about this stuff even when everybody else was talking about what good times we were experiencing ... will begin to see why it is that people do such desperate things when they feel desperate -- which is part of what I think has to be appreciated to get movement on the public safety agenda.
I think what we have been about, what I ran on, is what we are governing on, which is how to build an intact community where people see a stake in each other's dreams and struggles. It's one of the opportunities in the current economic crisis: to ask people to rally again, and lean on each other, and understand that that is how a community not just survives -- but thrives.
Bob:Have the two years in office left you feeling discouraged or encouraged. ... the fact of the nitty-gritty. ... I am sure it can grind one down. ...
I have my days, but I love the job, and on my worst days I still think I am incredibly fortunate to have my job. I had so many questions during the [Presidential] campaign about whether I would bail and go to Washington if Obama won. I was unequivocal about staying in the job because I enjoy the job. I'd get an almost uniform rolling of the eyes from the reporters who would ask this. People just don't believe that you are telling the truth. But I worked too hard to get this job to give it up. And I didn't expect it to be easy. The whole point of the campaign was to ask people not just to see their governor differently, but to see government differently -- that we should be about trying to take on big issues, transformative kinds of challenges, not things that fit neatly into a sound bite and just get you a good photo-op, but things that can really make a difference in somebody's life over time. I talked about some of the legislative accomplishments. The Speaker himself, who has been around long enough to say, says that the session that just ended in July was the most productive legislative session in 30 years. I think that's pretty darn good for a newcomer to this world in the first two years of the term, and we've got a lot more to go.
Good stuff: a strong reminder of why the Gov. won election so handily, and a stark contrast to the "devil take the hindmost" ideology -- emptier than the G.O.P.'s side of the aisles on Beacon Hill -- of the modern Republican party. Coming tomorrow: thoughts about working with the legislature, sustaining the grassroots, health care, and lots more.
This list from the NYT is for those worthy readers of this site who have questioned if alternatives superior to the estimable Caroline Kennedy exist. Personally, not that it's any of my business (although that's the beauty of a blog), I'd choose CAROLYN B. MALONEY for her ability, experience, and judgment.
Indeed. As David mentioned below, we talked with Governor Patrick tonight. We related that the general sentiment on the blog about new Transportation Secretary Jim Aloisi was less than ecstatic. What could Gov. Patrick tell us to make us like, or understand the pick? Here's the transcript of that section, highlights bolded by me:
CHARLEY: [Regarding Aloisi], what can you tell us to make us think that he is not yet another representative of the Big Dig Culture, he's not another hack, and that this is the guy to make transportation bureaucracy clean and efficient, on time and under budget, to the end of all days?
GOV. PATRICK: [laughs] And can leap tall buildings in a single bound, as well! ... Well, I'll tell you that in all the conversations I've had with all the potential transportation heads, the one with the most ideas and creativity, bar none, is Jim Aloisi. And I also think that the practicality of achieving the MassTrans vision that we've been talking about ... requires so much delicate politics because of so many investments that individual legislators and individual legislative leaders have in this or that agency, that we're going to need somebody who understands that,and can help us navigate it. You know, it's not up to the Transportation Secretary, at the end of the day, to come up with a vision for MassTrans -- that's my job. And we've done that; we know where we want to go.
We are frankly surprised that there's appetite in the legislature for taking a bigger first step than we thought. You know, our first step was simply to abolish the turnpike and take the metropolitan highway system and put that at MassPort, and bring the western part of the 'Pike into MassHighway. But there's a surprising level of interest in going to the endgame in a single step, or at least authorizing us to do so, right up to and including considering what new funding sources there may be, and by that I mean the gas tax, but I don't mean just the gas tax.
So I think it's a very exciting time; it's a very delicate series of negotiations for reasons we can get into, that you probably appreciate as much as anybody, and I think Jim appreciates that. You know, I've had some pretty blunt conversations with Jim about ... things like the way the debt was managed, and where it was placed, and why; and I understand the justifications, and I did before I talked to Jim. But the fact is that all that stuff has come home to roost, and we're going to have to be much more candid, not just with the public, but with each other in state government, about how big these challenges are, and what the realistic solutions are over the long term.
DAVID: ... Is there some sort of pithy thing to say about Jim Aloisi that we don't know[?] ... It would be great if there was something that people don't know about him, but should.
GOVERNOR PATRICK: ... One thing that is helpful to me is that he knows where the bodies are buried. And you know, the sad reality is that we have to dig up a lot of those bodies, and bury them properly. You know, I wish it were more glamorous, but this is an unbelievably complicated thing. I mean, the financing is complicated enough! But you have layered on that all kinds of politics. You know, there are some agencies ... where the nickname is that of their legislative sponsor. And people in communities know that if you want something from that agency, like a job [for a relative] ... There are all kinds of guardians and old relationships, and arrangements that were arrived at to solve some problem that you can't know about unless you were there. All that stuff needs to be unwound and brought into the sunlight. And it is so helpful to have someone who understands all that to be on the team and to be on our side.
We also talked about other things: Obama, grassroots governing, ethics ... we'll be posting about these issues later.
