Blue Mass Group

Awesome 100-meter medley. We really are the most awesomest country. Not to mention #1 in beach volleyball! Hats off to the Aussies however. Talk about punching above one’s weight for a country: with 21 million people, they are less than 1/15th the size of the U.S. and less than 1/50 the size of China. That’s like a 20-pound one year old taking out a 300-pound linebacker and a 1,000-pound gorilla simultaneously. They get the silver medial for most athletically awesomest country. How about Jason Lezak for Vice President? Obama-Phelps? They’ve got my vote.

Just watched 38 year-old Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania win the women’s Olympic marathon and 41 year-old Dara Torres take the silver in the 50 meter freestyle swim.  Forget nationality, I’m now rooting for my generational cohort – all the athletes old enough to remember the 1970′s – and the women’s movement. Speaking of how women rock, how is it that PDM’s half dozen for 2008 only includes one woman, and excludes Sara Orozco, who is running a key race against Republican Scott Brown?   (The six selected are Carl Sciortino, Jamie Eldridge, Astrid af Klinteberg, Ken Donnelly, Doug Belanger, and Jim O’Donnell.)

How many times have you had a conversation about open government and had the other person reply, “I didn’t know that?”

Even I admit that sometimes it’s too easy to fall for rumors and corporate media lies. And heaven knows that those emails make it very easy too.  (snark tag)

I fall into that trap sometimes, and I know I’ve spoken to many others who listen to the media but still don’t get a sense of what their Congresskritter is doing.

So I’ve decided to put the information that I know into a short diary but ask that others please contribute their favorite resources and their own suggestions on how to make the research easy and better yet, how to become the media.

So I guess…follow me below…

is on.  First up is Obama for an hour, than McCain for the 2nd hour.  You can watch here (but it took forever for the page to load for me…)

Here are some videos being written about and against John McCain. First up, a video that nicely ties John McCain to President Bush:

Anyone interested in getting involved or making a donation can send them to                        PO box 245                       Rowley Ma. 01969 Website should be up shortly. Until then Damien is making his rounds to local Dem. town meetings and functions. Lets get behind a solid Democract this time. Just remember who was on the stage in boston and all over tlevision representing Mitt Romney on election nite. Someone said he is entrenched in office. Yeah, thanks to our fellow Democracts who support a Republican who stood shoulder to shoulder with Mitt Romney and Kerry Healy. Enough is enough. I say if Cousins wants our Democract support the come back over to the Democratic party other wise go play golf with Mitt and Kerry. How great would it be for the Employees of the Essex County Sheriff Dept. not to have to contribute all that money each and every year just to keep your position or get a promotion. Anketell has pledged, and will publicly ask Cousins to do the same thing. Being that this is a law enforcment orginization no [...]

Hello!  I’m writing briefly to update everyone at Blue Mass Group about our campaign here in Leominster.  As you may know, our State Rep, Jen Flanagan, is running for the Worcester and Middlesex Senate seat.  I’m proud to be a candidate in the Democratic primary contest to take her place as Leominster’s State Rep and hope to carry the Democratic nomination into the November general election.  First, though, I need your help to win the primary on September 16th!  More below about how you can help out…

Baracky II starts us off: fired up, and ready to go: Next up, Bush the Lesser waving our flag backwards at the Olympics. Olbermann: “It is the best summary of his presidency, which is: everything looks perfect from his point of view” (Flag etiquette here, for those who are interested). Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Ben Alper: John Buonomo, the Middlesex register of probate, who was caught on videotape stealing thousands of dollars from copy and change machines at the Registry of Deeds, is still running for reelection. Here are some possible campaign slogans: … Lesser registers of probate would’ve claimed they strained their backs lifting the cash and applied for disability. … Where’s the video of me making a fresh pot of coffee every morning? A group of vandals broke into Plimoth Plantation, damaged fencing, and stole beaver pelts and furs. Authorities are warning citizens to be on the lookout for anyone trading animal hides for maize. Gov. Patrick is moving forward with a plan to replace some paid police details with civilian flaggers. However, some issues need to be worked out: Who will train the flaggers to drink coffee and talk on their cell phones? Will flaggers get a [...]

It’s an old campaign tactic.  Come out with some news a day ahead of your opponent and lure a gullible reporter into writing a story favorable to your side. Sure sounds like the formula that resulted in Foon Rhee’s story in today’s Globe (A 16) “McCain’s Fund-raising machine rolling along.” By gosh!  McCain raised $27 million in July! It has a terrific quote from McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, to the point that, “McCain is consolidating the Republican base, attracting disaffected Democrats, and putting together the broad base of support he has typically had.” So McCain raised $27 million in July and had $21.4 million in cash on hand with approximately 600,000 donors. Sounds great.  Except for one thing.  Obama raised more than $51 million in July. His campaign began August with $65.8 million on hand and has had more than 2 million donors. Now the Globe could have waited a day before running a breathless story about McCain’s fund-raising success (with photo, yet). But keeping to its motto: “Owned by moguls, written by interns” we get nothing of the sort, just the usual journalistic embarrassment, which the Globe folks are, by this point, way beyond. And while the McCain [...]

In a week, we'll be smashing our modest advertising piggy-bank and jetting off to Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention. And since there's not really any real meaningful party business at the convention anymore — platform? there's a platform? — we've got to consider how to take advantage of being there in person. We got some good suggestions when we first announced our credentialing in May; I'd like to revisit the topic, and again get the community's input in the comments.

Although I consider the actual wording of the platform prit-near irrelevant, I think there's a tremendous amount to be done on issue preparation going into next year. The way I see it, progressives should be especially focused on an agenda of four issues, in no particular order:

• Global warming/Energy
• Health care
• Iraq/National security/international (Russia and Georgia will be on everyone's mind, of course.)
• Economy (what is quaintly referred to as “economic justice”; and what I call “not getting screwed”)

These aren't the only important things. One might justifiably add any number of issue areas — like, say, restoring the Constitution.

The point is that I want to show up with an agenda and a chip on my shoulder, so that if I'm able to buttonhole someone important, I've got something to say and something to report back to you. And I also want to look for opportunities to work with people from other states on these critical issues. Even with a President Obama, I worry that his cautious nature leaves a lot to be determined by the prevailing political currents come 2009. So we'd all better row — now.