Blue Mass Group

and unless something fairly dramatic happens fairly soon, she’s going to be the Democratic nominee. Clinton was, I thought, by far the most proficient in actually coming up with some substance in a minute, and even in the absurd 30-second round.  She consistently answered the questions accurately and well.  Edwards, the second-best, wasn’t bad in that respect, but he was less good than Clinton.  Richardson, of whom I’ve been a fan, was distressingly weak tonight, especially in his disastrous response to the AIDS question.  He’s got to get his act together if he wants to avoid Kucinich-land in the polls. Obama wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t great either.  Short-answer formats don’t play to his rhetorical strengths; instead, he can come off as overly wordy and a bit rambly.  That’s how he struck me tonight. Clinton, like it or not, is the default choice right now — she wins as long as she doesn’t lose, and she not only didn’t lose, she actually won tonight (IMHO).  Unless she stumbles, or some other candidate dramatically steps up his game, it’s hard for me to see her not winning, especially in light of the heavily front-loaded schedule. Am I overstating the case?

Deval’s presentation is short: Points out that it’s not enough for Dems that folks are disenchanted with the GOP.

Why did Gravel get all that applause?

I have to say, I’m not much of a Tavis Smiley fan … seems awfully impressed with himself.

Question: Is race still the most intractable problem in the US?

Hillary hits Katrina, and today’s SCOTUS decision. I hate that “Work is yet to be done” refrain, but otherwise a clean, strong and fluent answer. Biden hits Alito and Roberts, touts his tough questioning. Richardson points out convincingly that he is also a racial minority.

Edwards says “finally we can talk about inequality in America” — a smooth and non-contrived transition into his Two Americas riff … which I don’t like stated so baldly. He doesn’t need the gimmick.

Obama’s got an interesting line to walk, as an African-American but not a descendant of slaves. Says black America must help itself, within a broader social contract to help.

Kucinich talks about education, getting rid of NCLB. Don’t know how specific that is for this crowd.

Gravel passionately speaks against the war on drugs and its terrible effect on the African-American community. OK, lolorb, I get it. Gravel fever!

Dodd speaks against SCOTUS decision … talks about “the barrios, the ghettos, the reservations” — to a crowd that may well be from none of these.

Today ActBlue marks its 3rd Anniversary. Seriously, 3 years? I know- time flies. Back in 2004, our founders Matt DeBergalis and Benjamin Rahn thought they could build something that would change Democratic fundraising- making it, well, more democratic. The two of them, living off of savings and limited investment, set out to build a platform that would end up changing our Party. Working out of their homes, they built the first generation of ActBlue. This innovative, secure, and groundbreaking way to give money to Democrats was launched in June of 2004 before the end of the fundraising quarter. The earliest adopters, the blogosphere, helped push $250,000 into federal campaigns that summer. Printing $1 million in checks out of Matt’s living room by the end of 2004 was an accomplishment for the start-up. ActBlue caught the eye of Democratic campaigns, organizations, and establishment investors and it was time to grow. And grow ActBlue did. You can see it for yourself in the numbers. Total Raised for Democrats through ActBlue: $24,167,741 # of fundraising pages on ActBlue: 4,204 # of people contacted in just 3 weeks via ActBlue’s new Spread the Word tool: 3,751 # of active entities in ActBlue’s directory: 3,739 [...]

TO WATCH TONIGHT’S PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE WITH FRIENDS:

THERE IS A DEBATE WATCH PARTY

WHERE:  Porter’s Bar & Grill
  173 Portland Street, Boston

WHEN:  6/28/07 at 8:00 PM

Intro by State Democratic Chairman John Walsh

The zombie hand of America’s undead, its corporations, rose in a power salute over Washington after the Supreme Court’s other major announcement today: companies, for the first time in 96 years, are now free to set minimum prices under some conditions. So much for the free market. Hello corporate communism. According to the New York Times, the justices found the following reasoning from the bought and paid for big business shills regressive Bush administration and the economics faculty at the University of Chicago convincing: The Bush administration, along with economists of the Chicago school, had argued that the blanket prohibition against resale price maintenance agreements was archaic and counterproductive because, they said, some resale price agreements actually promote competition. For example, they said, such agreements can make it easier for a new producer by assuring retailers that they will be able to recoup their investments in helping to market the product. And they said some distributors could be unfairly harmed by others — like Internet-based retailers — that could offer discounts because they would not be incurring the expenses of providing product demonstrations and other specialized consumer services. As if. If Best Buy wants to start charging admission to its [...]

While draft Gore enthusiasts have been meeting in Massachusetts for more than a year, the movement formally organized in New Hampshire about a month ago and in this short time is making a difference. 

A new 7NEWS-Suffolk University poll of likely voters shows that with Gore in the 2008 race, he would edge out Hillary in the New Hampshire primary 32 percent to 26 percent, and handily defeat the rest of the Democratic contenders. “Gore is the only Democrat who can instantly melt the field,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center which conducted the survey.

Draft Gore organizers were in force at both the recent NH state convention and DFA’s “Democracy Fest.”  Favorable media coverage of these events helped spread the word that a Gore draft movement is real and underway.  With Gore’s new book a runaway best seller, and his Live Earth concert event just around the corner, Gore has become the uncandidate who keeps on giving.

I’d just like to follow up, disgracefully late, on Charley’s excellent write-up of our May chat with State Treasurer Tim Cahill. The majority of our conversation focused on Cahill’s spring visit to India as an Eisenhower Fellow. The Treasurer, already familiar with the importance of internationalization to our economic well being, was impressed and sobered. The scale of development in India, he said, is staggering. Their infrastructure needs are enormous. The connections with Massachusetts are substantial. The opportunities are immediate. “Globalization is here,” he said. “We have to lead it, not just chase and follow it.” I am not sure I can properly explain how important I think it is for our top government officials to have this kind of understanding of the world economy and our role in it. Foreign countries today are in many ways like other U.S. states were to Massachusetts in earlier times: sources of students for our universities; places for our firms to invest; opportunities, and challenges, across the spectrum. From immigration to investments, the state’s policies with regard to places like India and China, not to mention Mexico and Canada, are as critical for us today, in my opinion, as our integration with New [...]

By a predictable 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court today called into serious question public schools’ ability to consider race in the course of trying to counter the effects of both de jure and de facto racial segregation.  The several opinions — which together are 185 pages long — are available here (pdf — large file).  I haven’t come close to reading them yet.  Instead, I will simply quote Lyle Denniston’s summary at the always-excellent SCOTUSblog: Concluding its current Term with a historic ruling on race in public policy, the Supreme Court divided 5-4 on Thursday in striking down voluntary integration plans in the public schools of Seattle and Louisville. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., wrote the majority opinion in the combined cases. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy did not join all of the majority opinion, but joined in the result. Kennedy suggested in a separate opinion that the Chief Justice’s opinion, in part, “is at least open to the interpretation that the Constitution requires school districts to ignore the problem of de facto resegregation in schooling. I cannot endorse that conclusion.” “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of [...]

This post is by way of public apology for remarks made in haste in a previous dairy. I sincerely apologize to Col. Bateman for those remarks, and hope the text below the fold, which I forwarded to Col. Bateman via email, will explain my views with a little more light than heat. The apology is as sincere as the passions that drove the original remarks.

Chuck

My Dear Col. Bateman,

First, let me profusely apologize for remarks made with far more heat than light. Second, as we travel extensively, and do not always have time to address specific issues or formulate responses in a more rigid schedule, let me also apologize for my tardiness in response to your note, which occurred in my dairy as it was being removed from the active blog. Please accept this poor offering as a lame substitute.

Is it a coincidence that on Monday Blue Mass Group readers learned that Leominster mom Mary Jean won her case in federal court and then on Thursday the T&G’s Richard Nangle brings it to a wider readership? Maybe. Here are excerpts from today’s story: June 28, 2007 Judge Upholds Woman’s Right to Post Video Online By Richard Nangle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF rnangle@telegram.com A federal judge’s ruling that a Leominster woman could continue to post a video of a state police arrest on her Web site has been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a case that attracted the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. The case moved to the First Circuit last summer with then-Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly contending that U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV erred when he extended a restraining order that bars state police from forcing Mary T. Jean to take the videotaped arrest of Paul Pechonis of Northboro off her www.conte2006.com Web site. Had Ms. Jean been convicted of unlawfully posting the video, she would have faced up to two years in prison. … … Ms. Jean posted the video on her Web site in January [...]