Blue Mass Group

Jonathan Turley in the LA Times has picked up on something that, if true [see the Updates below for more on that], does actually call into question whether John Roberts can effectively serve as a Supreme Court Justice – or, really, as a judge of any court. According to sources present in Roberts’ courtesy call chit-chat with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Durbin asked what Roberts would do if the law called for a ruling that, according to the dictates of Roberts’ faith, was immoral.  Let’s pause for a moment and note that the "right" answer, of course, is: "Well, Senator, matters of faith are personal and quite distinct from my duties as a judge.  Of course I would vote to uphold the law regardless of the Church’s view on a particular moral question.  Part of being a good judge is being able to recognize that the law sometimes requires a result that may run contrary to the judge’s personal beliefs, and to rule accordingly in those instances." Roberts, however, took quite a different approach.  His answer: he would have to recuse himself. Whoa – stop the presses.  If he’s serious about that, it seems to mean that Roberts would have [...]

Curiouser and curiouser.  Supreme Court nominee Judge Roberts’ apparent non-membership in the Federalist Society (the conservative networking group for lawyers, membership in which has become de rigueur for right-leaning lawyers who want to get ahead) has raised eyebrows on both the left and the right.  Everyone assumed he was a member; then the White House started calling reporters to insist that he wasn’t; and no one really knows why he didn’t join. Now, however, the WaPo reports that Roberts is listed as a member of the steering committee of the Federalist Society’s Washington DC chapter in 1997-98, when he was still a partner at Hogan & Hartson.  Oh, no problem, says a FedSoc VP – formal membership in the organization is not required in order to serve on a steering committee.  But of course, the FedSoc regards its membership rolls as confidential, so they won’t say whether he ever actually joined. What in the hell is going on here?  Before this all began, no one would have been surprised to learn that Roberts was a FedSoc member – in fact, everyone assumed he was, which is why the fact that he supposedly isn’t and never has been made the news.  [...]

I hereby apologize to every reader of this blog. Here goes: (To the tune of "The Ship That Never Returned"/"Charley on the MTA") 1. Let me tell you the storyOf a man named RomneyOn a tragic and fateful dayHe put a dollar in his pocket,Brought his high-priced handlers,Went to ride on the M(B)TA. Romney handed in his dollarAt the Park Street StationAnd got off at Downtown Cross-aingWhen he got there the reporters told him,"One more quarter."Romney could not get off that train. Chorus:Did he ever return,No he never returnedYou know, it’s not his "regular commute" (oh no Romney)They don?t take Visa Platinumfor a 14-second ride,No, the guv?nor never returned. 2. Now all night longRomney rides through the tunnelsSaying, "What will become of me?How can I afford to seeMy wife in BelmontInstead of dealing with the cat lady?" Now his handlers go downTo the Park Street stationEvery day at quarter past twoAnd through the open windowThey hand Romney a canapeAs the train comes rumblin’ through.Chorus 3. As his train rolled onThrough Greater BostonRomney looked around and moaned,"Well, I’m not a T ridah –I?m goin? back to CarolinaWhere they made me feel right at home." Now you citizens of Boston,Don’t you think [...]

As you are undoubtedly well aware, Deval Patrick recently undertook a massive blog outreach effort, giving interviews to .08, Eisenthal, and the three of us here at BMG.  His campaign also approached Left in Lowell and Cape Ann Dem, and possibly others, and we look forward to seeing the results of those interviews as well. We wondered whether other campaigns might be interested in doing the same thing – after all, Howard Dean does seem to have shown that you can generate a lot of money and a lot of interest by undertaking a sophisticated internet-based campaign, and the phenomenon of internet-based activism, whether via blogging or otherwise, is only going to grow in importance.  So we sent an invitation to Tom Reilly’s campaign a couple of weeks ago wondering whether he might be interested in holding a similar conversation.  So far, nothing.  [cue crickets chirping] In addition, in an effort to find out more about the candidates for the Second Middlesex Senate seat, earlier this week we sent a brief questionnaire to the four major Democratic candidates (Pat Jehlen, Paul Casey, Michael Callahan, and Joe Mackey) asking them to elaborate on three issues important to the "progressive" community (health [...]

Cookbook author Julie Powell writes an op-ed in the Times decrying the supposed gastronomic and class snobbery of those who buy organic food, finding herself "uncomfortable" in Whole Foods and "longing for the nonjudgemental aisles of low-end supermarkets". While acknowledging that buying organic food is a reasonable and ethical if expensive choice, she claims that those who buy it are snobs, with this pivoting statement: "When you wed money to decency, you come perilously close to equating penury with immorality." Well, no. (Going back to high school math-class logic, that’s the inverse error, i.e. If buying organic food is good, then not buying organic food is not good. FALSE.) I wonder if Powell has friends who cluck their tongues at her "Honduran family at the discount grocery" buying what they can afford. If so, she needs to get new friends. If she doesn’t know real people who feel that way, she should stop making up bogus arguments to rail against. Luckily, even organic food doesn’t necessarily cost more than ordinary supermarket stuff: We have a "share" (that we then share with another couple) in a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Lincoln called The Food Project. You pay your money and [...]

And while we’re on the subject of petroleum-based reality… Congressman Joe Barton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a fully-owned subsidiary of the oil lobby has requested the congressional equivalent of a police raid from Michael Mann of the University of Virginia, who created the influential "hockey stick" model of global warming six years ago. Here is part of Rep. Barton’s request, which gives you an idea of what kind of witch hunt this is: To assist us as we begin this review, and pursuant to Rules X and XI of the U.S. House of Representatives, please provide the following information requested below on or before July 11, 2005: 1. Your curriculum vitae, including, but not limited to, a list of all studies relating to climate change research for which you were an author or co-author and the source of funding for those studies.2. List all financial support you have received related to your research, including, but not limited to, all private, state, and federal assistance, grants, contracts (including subgrants or subcontracts), or other financial awards or honoraria.3. Regarding all such work involving federal grants or funding support under which you were a recipient of funding or [...]

ExxonMobil seems to be feeling the heat of its own making: A coalition of environmental groups have called for a boycott of the most stubborn, recalcitrant global-warming-profiteering company out there. ExxonMobil finances "pay-to-play" propaganda studies questioning global warming. So naturally, ExxonMobil would like to draw your attention to their cute mascot, a "charismatic mega-fauna", the tiger. Their usual "op-ad" on the NY Times op-ed page a few days ago says they’re sponsoring a campaign to save tigers in India. Great. What about saving our skins? I harbor no animus for the local owners of ExxonMobil stations. But I’m not going to buy their products. ExxonMobil as a corporation may only be one of the worst of the bunch, but they richly deserve their embarrassment. I hope the boycott works, and sooner rather than later.

Both the Globe and the Herald are reporting Mitt Romney’s howlingly funny PR disaster of trying to reassure T riders that public transit in Boston is still safe by taking the 14-second Red Line ride from Park Street to Downtown Crossing (yeah, I’m sure that really reassured the riders who spend 45 minutes on three different lines twice a day).  First, asked by reporters how much a token costs, Romney got it wrong.  He said it costs "a buck."  Oops.  That was your T board that raised it to $1.25, Guv.  Informed of his error, Romney apparently flipped a quarter into the crowd, as if to say, "a buck, a buck and a quarter, who cares?  The extra 25 cents really doesn’t make any difference to a rich guy like me.  I flush quarters down the toilet every day as a way to keep my mansion’s plumbing running smoothly – it’s like roughage for pipes." Anyway, to add insult to injury, the crazy cat lady then started harassing Romney, screaming that he had killed her cats.  And asked when the last time he had actually ridden the T was, he came up with this gem: ”Let’s see it was, we [...]

Well, all this John Roberts for the Supreme Court business has been interesting.  But let’s face it – he’s going to be confirmed, and probably in a walk.  The requisite interest groups will make the requisite loud noises about it, and Senators will ask some tough questions, but at the end of the day, he’s in.  And he’s not as bad as some of the others on Bush’s short list, so let’s count our pathetic blessings, such as they are, and move on.  (Move on – get it?  Heh.) To what, you ask?  To this, for example: Bloomberg will run this story tonight reporting that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are both under investigation for having given false testimony to the Novak-Plame-gate grand jury.  Which would mean, of course, that both of them are candidates for perjury or obstruction of justice indictments.  Mmmm…indictments….                 Anyway, as I was saying, word on the street is that Bush rushed his announcement of Roberts because the heat on Rove was becoming unbearable.  And sure enough, Novak-Plame-gate (which I should maybe rename Rovegate) has been out of the papers for a couple of days.  Well, it’s time for that [...]

We interrupt our wall-to-wall John Roberts coverage to remind you (and ourselves) that other important stories continue to percolate along. The field in the Second Middlesex Senate race has narrowed considerably.  What looked for a while like a free-for-all is now down to four major Democratic candidates, Rep. Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville), ex-Rep. Joe Mackey (D-Somerville), Rep. Paul Casey (D-Winchester), and Governor’s Councillor Michael J. Callahan (D-Medford), along with Bob Publicover about whom I know nothing.  Today’s Globe has this interesting piece on Mackey’s innovative use of technology – a CD containing a brief movie about him – in his campaign.  Also on the technology beat, Mackey and Pat Jehlen both have set up spiffy websites; Casey and Callahan have not, though Casey told the Globe he’s planning to (Callahan was mum on his technology plans). It’s shaping up to be a very interesting race.  Jehlen, of course, has lined up a slew of endorsements from "progressive" interest groups, liberal-ish unions like SEIU and the Teachers’ Union, and left-leaning individuals, and is clearly banking on that crowd’s ability to get out the lefty vote.  Mackey has also positioned himself as a "progressive" candidate, though he hasn’t had the success with obtaining [...]