Blue Mass Group

Deval Patrick plans a public event tomorrow, Saturday, March 24, at 2 pm, at which he will, among other things, announce the launch of the new and MUCH improved DevalPatrick.com website.  You can watch a brief video preview at this link. Charley and I had the pleasure of getting together with Charles SteelFisher a little while back.  Charles gave us a little preview of what the new site is going to be able to do.  Wicked cool.  Very much in the spirit of what the campaign was all about.  Don’t miss it. Here is a statement released today regarding the new site: Applying innovative internet capabilities, Governor Deval Patrick is set to launch the revised www.devalpatrick.com website on Saturday. The new site, the first of its kind, is designed to engage citizens directly with the Governor by facilitating coalitions around issues that matter most to residents of the state. “Any Massachusetts citizen, with any issue, large or small, on the municipal or state level, can log-on and make his or her voice heard,” said Governor Patrick. “Using this technology allows citizens to build coalitions around issues without the conventional boundaries of space and time.” All Massachusetts citizens are invited to [...]

I know that I’m not the most respected person around here but I thought those of you that are supporting a non-Lowellian in the 5th District would like to see this analysis.  Please forgive my parting shot at the Congressman, I’m having trouble coming to grips with not having Marty Meehan to kick around anymore.  Old habits die hard…… crossposted to RMG

Worst kept political secret: The Hon. Martin T. Meehan III is leaving congress to take the chancellors job at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.  Why hasn’t he submitted his letter of resignation?

The clock starts towards a special election immediately after a letter of resignation is submitted.  The clock is 145-160 days.  Marty is probably getting pressure from the Lowell political machine to wait until May 30, 2007 to resign.  Why May 30, 2007, because it is exactly 160 days before the Lowell City Council election on November 6, 2007.  The Lowell Machine, yes you Senator Panagiatakos, is looking for two things: 1. to ensure Eileen Donoghue is the nominee, which is more likely with a primary on the date of the Lowell City Council Primary; 2. to ensure more people in Lowell vote than in the district to give Eileen a better shot at winning the general.

Resigning now would level the playing field and cause an election to happen in mid to late August, according to the New York Times

Thus, if Meehan were to file a letter of resignation shortly after his expected appointment becomes official, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick would set the special election for a date between early and late August.

Congressman Meehan has already resigned in public, just not with a formal letter:

I’m honored to have been selected by President Jack Wilson to be the next Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.  If my nomination is approved by the Trustees, I plan to accept the position and to leave Congress in July.  I’m grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by the members of the search committee and President Wilson.

That sounds like a resignation letter to me, albeit not official.  Congressman Meehan should do the right thing and send a letter of resignation, today.

Good Day, all. I have recently joined your blog, and make it quite clear in my profile that I am pretty much an unabridged conservative, politically speaking. I have a Western perspective, and though from the Pacific Northwest (aka the “North Left Coast”), tend to flop around in this liberal environment as a fish out of conservative water. I hope you will tolerate my ” neocon voice crying in the liberal wilderness,” from time to time. (I am sure you will, because your founding statement and policies say so!)

In posing the following questions, I do not seek vitriol, I seek real answers, honesty and truth. Without dialogue, how do we each know who the other is?

Why do liberals in general continue to support Gun Control when all the evidence points to its direct correlation with violent crime? I hear minor criticism regarding “flawed” statistical sampling methodology by John Lott and Gary Kleck, but even if that were true (doubtful), the overwhelming evidence is that liberalized gun laws reduce crime. Good places to start finding corroboration for this:

http://www.johnrlott…

http://www.guncite.c…

Via MyDD, this press release from Senator Kerry: In a speech delivered to the New England Newspaper Association this afternoon, JK spoke out about a strengthened FOIA which includes support for bloggers. WASHINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry today announced his support for a legislative initiative designed to assist the freedom of the press. The bill would make the federal Freedom of Information Act more powerful, primarily by making it harder for the Administration to deny or delay the release of information…. In addition, the legislation would help bloggers, because it would prevent agencies from denying them a waiver on fees just because they are independent or not affiliated with any institutional news organization. In the past, the need to pay fees for FOIA requests discouraged many bloggers or independent journalists from pursuing FOIA requests. Probably headed for a veto if it makes it through Congress, but it’s still a good idea.

Gaelic Blessing Deep peace of the running wave to you….. Deep peace of the flowing air to you……. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you……… Deep peace of the shining stars to you……. Deep peace of the gentle night to you…… Moon and stars pour out their healing light on you…… Deep peace of Christ, of Christ the light of the world to you….. Deep peace of Christ to you. God bless and keep you all

Sure, we all knew it was coming.  But now it’s official: the board of the MA Council of Community Hospitals has authorized the initiation of negotiations with a lawyer for MA Senate President Robert Travaglini (D-E. Boston) for Trav to become the Council’s leader. With this much information leaking out, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that a deal won’t be reached, and soon.  The only possible stumbling block, it seems to me, is that apparently the Council will have to substantially increase the dues it charges its member hospitals to pay for the large salary needed to reel in Trav, and at some point the hospitals, who are generally not in great financial shape, might start to balk.  Still, one assumes that they’ll figure something out. All of which means that, by all accounts, Sen. Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) will soon be the Senate President.  Murray, to her credit, voted against the anti-marriage amendment, so the presumed chair of the next ConCon is one of the good guys in that respect.  There are, however, some other concerns out there about Murray, though unless something new emerges I doubt they’ll keep her out of the President’s chair.  Rumor has it that she’s got [...]

There’s a nicely done article on the front page of the LA Times today.  It starts out by explaining how Josh Marshall and his various Talking Points Memo operations (especially TPM Muckraker) may well end up driving Attorney General Alberto Gonzales out of office.  TPM, more than any other single media institution, is the driving force behind the burgeoning US Attorney scandal.  Anyone who claims that what the TPM crowd did on the US Attorney story isn’t “journalism” is, well, wrong. What’s really interesting about the LA Times story is how attentive it is to what makes bloggers doing journalism different from MSM journalists. All of this from an enterprise whose annual budget probably wouldn’t cover the janitorial costs incurred by a metropolitan daily newspaper. “Hundreds of people out there send clips and other tips,” Marshall said. “There is some real information out there, some real expertise. If you’re not in politics and you know something, you’re not going to call David Broder. With the blog, you develop an intimacy with people. Some of it is perceived, but some of it is real.” Marshall’s use of his readers to gather information takes advantage of the interactivity that is at the [...]

(Update:  Keep it going!  The goal is now 500,000 signatures.  Per the latest Al Gore email,  lolorb):

Your response was amazing. By Saturday morning – because of you – we exceeded our goal! In fact, as I write this email, our total has risen to 405,758. Thank you!

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I usually ignore the canned emails in my inbox, as I’m sure most people give them a cursory glance or just don’t read them.  However, I did receive Al Gore’s email message this morning and did take the time to read it:

On March 21st, I will testify before Congress on the immediate action that needs to be taken to end the climate crisis. At the hearing, I will deliver the 294,374 messages you signed, demonstrating that hundreds of thousands of people share my sense of urgency.

Seems to me that the number of signatures he has received is not good enough.  I’m asking everyone I know to bump that number by going here to sign his petition.  If you haven’t done so already, please consider taking a minute to add your concerns to the list.

John Edwards says in an e-mail I received today,

Yesterday, I delivered a speech in New Hampshire where I laid out an agenda of transformational change to guarantee universal health care, stop global warming, close the education gap and end poverty at home and around the world.

Now that’s quite an ambitious agenda!  It seems that every day the impeccable utopia that John Edwards promises becomes still more perfect than the day before.  Naturally, John Edwards never proposed universal health care when he was in the US Senate. 

But, which “education gap” does Edwards propose to close?  Is it the gap between the educations of the rich and the poor?  Or the gap between the educations of rich Americans and poor Somalis?  This certainly is a revolutionary goal, but why didn’t he propose it during his six years in the US Senate?