Blue Mass Group

I know you don’t need a link but here you go. Mr Edwards was a very bad boy. Imagine if he had actually won the Dem nomination and THEN this came out. That is outright asinine for him to withhold from the party. I don’t know… Edwards doing the blond and lying to everyone on so many occasions, oil prices coming down, market doing well, American deaths severely declining in Iraq, a possible American/Iraq agreement on when we leave Iraq… things are looking better and better for November. If we could just lift this economy a little BO wouldn’t have a prayer. And this is another one of those times where I ask for honesty (which just about insures nobody will respond)… Do you really think MSNBC, CNN and the mainstream media would not have hopped on this story if we replace John Edwards with say Mitt Romney? You know they would have been all over it.

Cross-posted at Project Vote’s blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns and Nathan Henderson-James

We spend a lot of time in these news updates showing how charges of voter fraud are used to discredit voter participation efforts and prime the pump for voter suppression efforts, such as the passage of voter ID bills, pushing for proof of citizenship, engaging in draconian voter purge efforts, and imposing sever restrictions on voter registration drives. We have also spent a lot of time carefully delineating the politics behind these efforts, starting with our March 2007 report The Politics Of Voter Fraud and continuing on in these diaries to name but two venues.  

The Kerry camp’s strategy these days is to avoid debate on meaningful issues, and instead have surrogates take absurd potshots at Kerry’s primary challenger. Here’s the latest from Politicker: A local union has questioned Ed O’Reilly’s “working class guy” campaign persona, charging that O’Reilly has neglected to hire unionized workers. In a letter to O’Reilly (D-Gloucester) earlier this week obtained by PolitickerMA.com on Friday, the local chapter of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, a branch of the AFL-CIO, sharply criticized O’Reilly for not hiring unionized painters to paint his campaign office. “You have made efforts to reach out to organized labor and yet when you painted your campaign office in Amherst, you chose to hire a non-union painter,” the letter, which is dated Aug. 4, states. “This action can do little more than raise the question of whether or not you are sincere in your pronouncements to support the issues important to working class men and women in this country.” … The letter, signed by John Laughlin, the union’s director of political and public relations, also calls for O’Reilly to release his tax returns for the last five years to the public. First of all, for anyone [...]

From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion comes this plug for PolitickerMA’s review of Barack Obama for Beginners: Barack Obama for Beginners is thoroughly enjoyable as it chronicles Obama’s successful political career. Neer insisted, however, that despite his political leanings, he set out to write the book in an “even-handed way.” … Ultimately, the book provides a stress-free way for voters to bring themselves up to speed on Obama’s background – just in time for the election. Rush down to your online bookstore and get yourself a copy before they are all gone!

PolitickerMA reports that the National Popular Vote bill did not make it through the legislature last week: “Last Thursday night, as the midnight deadline drew closer, the measure was passed out the Senate and sent to the House of Representatives. It passed out of the House as well, but had to return to the Senate to be enacted, at which point it would have been sent to the governor. The bill stalled in the Senate as it fell in line behind votes on several bond bills.” According to the website of its supporters: “The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee a majority of the Electoral College to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would reform the Electoral College so that the electoral vote in the Electoral College reflects the choice of the nation’s voters for President of the United States.” This is a no-brainer for any state with a relatively large population, like Massachusetts. Unsurprisingly the Republicans, who have benefited in recent years from the disproportionate power states with small populations have in the Presidential election, led local opposition. From Politicker: Sources in the legislature said [...]

I'm so sick of this crap. Just hideous on any number of levels. If there's no actual law being broken, can we just go back to ignoring people's personal lives? Seriously … I just don't want to know any more. Update: Edwards issues a statement. Not really much to say.

PhRMA is freaking out over the possibility of gift restrictions to docs, and urging the Gov to amend or veto S.2863, the big fat Act To Promote Cost Containment, Transparency, and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care. There's no way around it — one person's cost containment is a threat to another person's revenue stream. And if you think health care's too expensive … that means you want to not spend as much money on it. Right? And while we hear the predictable responses from the Mass. High Tech Council and MA Biotech Council, I'm baffled as to why this isn't a bigger priority for the non-pharma businesses. Look what happens when oil prices go down. That's bad for the oil industry — and therefore bad for America, right? Actually, the stock market likes it. Hmmm … I don't understand why health care cost control shouldn't be the same kind of thing. Industry in Massachusetts (and across the country) is stunted by our enormous health care costs. Other businesses have something to gain from not having to pay as much to give employees their drug benefits. Rather than nibbling around the edges with the kind of cost-shifting we [...]

You have to see this to believe it: police have released surveillance video that allegedly shows Middlesex Register of Probate John Buonomo opening up copiers, looking around to make sure no one is watching, and then grabbing the cash.  Unfortunately WBZ does not allow you to embed video, so you have to follow this link. Come on, folks: there must be a way to avoid reelecting this guy.  Is a sticker campaign the only way?  If so, what candidate will step up, hopefully with the full support of the party? Via Jay.

Cross-posted from Media Nation.

When you hire a consulting firm that makes its living from casino gambling, then you can be pretty sure it will tell you casinos are a good thing. That’s the message of the Spectrum Gaming Group’s report to Gov. Deval Patrick, which has been touted as giving a boost (Boston Herald) to Patrick’s casino dreams, even if the three he has proposed wouldn’t bring in quite as much money (Boston Globe) as the governor had claimed.

The real eye-opener, though, is a Cape Cod Times story by David Kibbe, who reports that Spectrum says the state should act in large measure because the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has the right, under federal law, to open a gambling casino in Southeastern Massachusetts. The Mashpee, as we know, propose building the world’s largest casino in Middleborough.

Much was made here about John McCain and his funds from the oil industry.  But lo and behold, who is Exxon Mobil’s(and BP’s, and Chevron’s) favorite candidate?  Drum-roll please, Barack Obama. The Democratic National Committee may be trying to get some mileage out of recent news about oil industry contributions to Republican Sen. John McCain, launching a web site spoofing the idea of McCain sharing his presidential ticket with Exxon. But they may have found an unwelcome surprise in a just-released analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Turns out, the biggest recipient of contributions from Exxon executives and employees during this campaign is not McCain. It’s Obama. The non-partisan center writes: “Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to McCain’s $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and Obama edges out McCain with BP $16,046 vs. $11,500. Yub Barack Obama, tool of the oil companies.  Damn things those facts. Oh and before you get all huffy about the Amtrak guy and his wife, it seems that the McCain campaign is doing a prett good job of self policing. Can we cue up the next manufactured controversy please?