Blue Mass Group

After seeing Michael Moore’s “SiCKO” earlier this evening, my mind immediately went to the special election for our 5th Congressional District. I’m left with many questions that I will try to answer but also want the collective mind (you will be assimilated) of BMG to take a stab at.

Questions first, answers below the fold.

1. What impact, if any, will the film have on the national healthcare discussion?

2. Will the film prompt a public opinion sea-change, along the lines of what followed “An Inconvenient Truth”? (And no, I don’t think that the movie alone is what has changed the climate change discussion, but I believe it played a significant role.)

3. How, if at all, will this play into the MA-05 race?

  For new comers that are trying to figure this BLUEMASSGROUP ( similar to me at one point),,I just want them to be aware of things! I am a volunteer for the Ed O’Reilly campaign to un -seat john kerry. Ed is A progressive Democrat!,,his website is: www.edoreilly.com ,if you like  his views ( on his site,,updated computers have him the main photo,, otherwise scroll down a little til you see Ed standing and in a suit then click on that photo),,That is during his Declaration on Candidacy, at Amherst at the Democratic Convention last month,you will see and hear what he has to say. I am asking that if you like what you see and hear, please donate $20 ( more if you want) You can do it right on his site!!. And if you like what you see,,,please forward it to everyone you know, and have them do the same. Thank You for taking the time to read this. Paco

Hi, my name is Nathan and I want to introduce you to the next state senator from the Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex district, Jeff Ross.  I support Jeff Ross to replace Jarrett Barrios in the state senate special Democratic Primary election on Tuesday, Sept. 11.  I ask for your support.  Please join me at the polls on Sept. 11 and vote for Jeff Ross, the progressive Democrat. As a member of the Board of Advisors for the Boston Young Professionals Association and Director of Publicity & Promotions for the organization, I have focused on the grass roots issues. I am Chair of the Boston Nightlife Coalition and a former council member on the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Young Bostonians where I also served as Chair of the Housing Sub-Committee. I am a member of NARAL Pro-Choice of MA and a student at the University of Massachusetts Boston. I tell you all this so that you see that I believe Jeff Ross supports the issues that I work hard to protect and I have closest to my heart. Jeff Ross is the progressive candidate in this race and I am working hard to make sure he replaces the retiring senator who [...]

I’m surprised that this community seems to spend some time on Romney’s dog. Out of all the things that were exposed in that in depth series of articles on Romney, the dog is the least of it. A look at part three of the series should show you why.

In Part 3, we learned that Romney’s success is business took a lot of sweat, and that he and his friends look like robots with money sticking out of them.

But Romney’s cowardice with regard to his reputation is much more interesting.

When Bain was looking to create Bain Capital, the organization took a big risk on its strategies to retool other companies with their model. Bain picked Romney to lead in this project.

After all, Bain & Company was taking a big risk. If Bain Capital-run companies failed, using the “Bain way,” clients might well reconsider paying big fees for Bain & Company’s consulting services.

In early spring of 1983, with the sun pouring into his office in the Faneuil Hall marketplace, Bain offered Romney the job that would make his career. Romney balked, catching Bain off guard.

Why did Romney “balk?” Well, it’s a big risk. I can certainly understand that it would be a major shift in his career and it would make or break his reputation. This sounds about right:

Romney explained that he didn’t want to risk his position, earnings, and reputation on an experiment in investing. The offer was appealing, Romney recalled in a recent interview, but he wasn’t going to make such a decision in a “light or flippant manner.”

So Bain sweetened the offer. He guaranteed that if the experiment failed, Romney would get his old job and salary back, plus any raises handed out during his absence.

Romney had one more concern: the impact on his reputation should he prove unable to do the job. In the end, Bain agreed to craft a cover story if necessary, promising to bring Romney back to the consulting firm and explain Romney’s return as a matter of his being more valuable to Bain as a consultant.

“So,” Bain says, “there was no professional or financial risk.”

Let me get this straight – Romney was asked to lead an experimental business team which could potentially make the company and Romney millions of dollars if he’s successful. If he’s not successful, not only will his financial situation not change from where he started, he’d actually be making the raises he would have gotten otherwise. And if it’s not successful, Bain would lie about why Romney was leaving the team.

Let me repeat that: if Romney failed, they’d lie about Romney’s shortcomings.

What?

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about venture capitalism, and I certainly don’t know much about business practices in the 1980s. But this strikes me as absolutely insane and sleazy.

Please, somebody correct me, but I thought that venture capitalism was all about using the large amount of capital at the company’s disposal to take risks that businesses could not otherwise take. And what people respect venture capitalists for is their ability to take a financial risk on a client. What risk did Romney personally take? It wasn’t financial – it was the company’s money. It wasn’t his reputation – they’d lie about why he failed, if he failed.

How is this not a story? Or am I getting worked up over nothing?

With hearty thanks to all who participated in my fundraising challenge for Patrick McCabe‘s state rep campaign, I am delighted to report that I am now maxed out for 2007!  I will happily send my $500 to the campaign today. Don’t forget that an anonymous donor has pledged to match an additional $250 in donations, so there’s still time to double the impact of your contribution. This strikes me as an excellent start to the McCabe campaign, and an excellent demonstration of netroots-y commitment to changing the MA legislature.  Again, thanks to all who participated, and also to everyone who is supporting the McCabe campaign in other ways.  There’s a lot to do, so keep it up.

Lots of people have already chimed in on the Globe’s story of Mitt Romney’s horrifying decision to strap Seamus, the family dog, to the top of the car for a long, long 12-hour drive.  Potroast noted it first here; Adam Reilly’s and Ana Marie Cox’s take are also well worth reading.  Cox has been merciless (rather as Romney was) — she’s posted at least three items on Time.com’s “Swampland” blog, as well as one that (I think) will appear in Time magazine rather than just on the blog.  Cox also went to the trouble of digging up the MA animal cruelty statute, and requesting comment from animal rights groups.  Here’s some of what she found: Massachusetts’s animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal “in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon.” An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the situation saying “it’s definitely something I’d want to check out.” The officer, Nadia Branca, declined to give a definitive opinion on whether Romney broke the law but did [...]