Blue Mass Group

Here’s the audio from today’s noteworthy speeches not given by President Obama: Ray Allen, Bill Russell, and Deval Patrick. Some of it is a tad hard to hear – sorry about that. Obama’s speech is about 30 minutes, so I’ll chop it up before posting.

David just liveblogged the President as saying this: “We used to have the best infrastructure. The best stuff…. And now, we go to Beijing, and we marvel at their airports. And we go to Europe, and we marvel at their trains. That’s not the American way.” Recently, the corrupt new governor of Florida turned down a bunch of federal money for high-speed rail. Now that money is getting spent in Massachusetts and elsewhere, although for projects a lot less glamorous. You know what trains ought to be like? Here’s the TGV in France; Translated, TGV stands for “Wicked Fast Train.” This train goes 357 miles per hour, folks. I’ve taken the Eurostar from London to Paris, through the Chunnel. It’s … awesome. And then there’s the new Japanese Maglev train; traveling regularly at 310mph. Just imagine if the Tea Party had been ascendant back in the 1950s. There would be no interstate highway system. “Big government”, they would have howled.

Ask Boston City Council that they use Case CATalyst http://www.stenograph.com/category.aspx?id=40001 and LiveNote http://west.thomson.com/products/services/livenote along with Closed Captioning for folks with hearing loss. Support open government. Improve City Council Communications from the stenographic machine at Boston City Council. Make available the deliberations of the public meeting of the City Council with Case CATalyst and LiveNote. Make available the words of Councilors in the public meeting for public feedback, comment, questions, suggestions. The capability for this is already available if the will is truly to be more transparent. City Stenographer services, budgeted for with public funds, more complete than only minutes, easier to read through than watching video, using all the features of the technology would make available more readily the transcript of Councilors’ deliberations in the public meeting of the City Council, all the words of the Councilors in the public meeting for public feedback, comment, questions and suggestions. See also Diamante Writer in Blue Ice http://www.stenograph.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=100001&subid=6140001&prodid=45001

From Historian on Scott Brown’s voting to keep massive giveaways to oil companies that so, so need them: The League of Women Voters made him do it Their charge that he put polluters first was so outrageous a falsehood that he had to vote to protect tax breaks for oil companies to show what he is really all about. Brown 2012–Make Big Oil Happy! Yes, yes, clear as day that Scott Brown has never put polluters, or Plutocrats — Pollute-o-crats, if you will — before jes’ folks. Never. etc.  

I’m sitting in the press pen (and it is actually a pen) in Boston’s Cyclorama for today’s fundraiser, featuring President Obama, Celtics legend Bill Russell, and 3-point machine Ray Allen.  Check out the live-blog below, and please chime in with comments either on the live-blog itself, or via Twitter (use hashtag #obamabmg). Obama/Celtic-palooza

The House Budget seemed to buy in the the complaint by the District Attorneys that too much is spent on defending citizens accused of crimes – and ignored the reality that about 35% of the costs of private attorneys appointed by CPCS are for attorneys who represent children taken out of their homes by the Department of Children and Families, and other civil cases mandated by statute or case law.  Here is the link for those interested:  http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=mg2homepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=massgov2 Well, the State Senate Budget came out today, and it is even worse. That budget mandates that at least 50% of all cases are to be handled by attorneys employed by the state by 2013.  That is too much change, too fast – and it will cost jobs and destroy small law firms and solo attorneys all across the Commonwealth if enacted.  It contains a “sop” – if you have accepted court appointments in the past, supposedly you are at the head of the line to hire.  What this ignores is that the private attorneys who take appointments do work for their friends and neighbors as well, and may not want to do only one kind of case for the rest of [...]

Seriously, that seems to be the message from a study that was commissioned (and largely funded) by the church. The sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church was caused by the influence of sweeping social changes and increasing “deviant behavior’’ of the 1960s and 1970s on priests who were inadequately trained, emotionally unprepared, and isolated, according to a new report commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops…. The report, titled “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010,” appears to deflect most blame for the crisis away from the church. However, the study acknowledges that there was little evidence before 2002 “that diocesan leaders met directly with victims.’’ Instead, church leaders focused on the abusive priests rather than on their victims. And here’s an especially sad part: Abusive priests have often been branded pedophiles, but the report — in a declaration that appears destined to stir controversy — insists that fewer than 5 percent actually met that definition. In the process, however, the study’s authors seem to redefine what constitutes pedophilia. Major associations of psychiatrists typically define pedophilia as interest in children 13 and younger, calling them “prepubescent.’’ But to reach their [...]

Two Scott Brown items to report today.  First, Brown is bravely standing by his clearly-stated, principled position frantically backing away from what he said just a couple of days ago regarding Paul Ryan and the Medicare Destruction Act of 2011. Senator Scott Brown will not disclose whether he supports a GOP budget plan that includes sweeping changes to Medicare, despite saying to a business group last week that he will vote for the measure when it comes up in the US Senate…. [Brown spokesman Colin] Reed said that Brown’s comments in Newburyport were merely an observation of political gamesmanship in Washington, not a commitment to vote for the measure or for the politically charged measures within it. Ah, of course.  To refresh your recollection, here’s what Brown actually said in discussing Ryan’s budget: “The leaders will bring forward (Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s) budget, and I will vote for it, and it will fail,” he said. So, obviously, when Brown said “I will vote for it,” what he meant was “I might vote for it, but I’d rather give the Senate a chance to work out a bipartisan compromise first.”  How foolish of all of us to have missed the [...]

CAP SPEAKS: Congressman Mike Capuano thinks he could win the Democratic US Senate primary but doesn’t know if he could beat Scott Brown, and is still looking for “an honest path to victory.” ( Somerville Journal) Meanwhile Newton Mayor Setti Warren continues to be explosive. (WL) LALLY LAND: Former Cognos sales agent and accused corruption conspirator Joseph Lally takes the stand today in the trial of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi ( WBUR). Yesterday the jury heard testimony on DiMasi’s financial woes (Herald, Globe) and how a Speaker can basically get inexperienced lawmakers to do whatever they want ( AP). BUDGET: The Senate releases its budget plan today ( Globe). The T&G looks at Senate Ways and Means Chair Stephen Brewer’s “frugal” approach. BUMMER: VP Joe Biden will not be coming to UMass Lowell to enthrall graduates with a speech about public rail and budget negotiations. (Sun) Read the rest of the MASSterList, including the Mitt Monitor, today’s legislative headlines, transportation news, new health care headlines, today’s Best of the Blogs and more by signing up for daily email at MASSterList.com  

Wednesday afternoon, as you may have heard, President Obama is coming to town to raise some bucks. He will be joined by Celtics superstar Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell, and current 3-pointer-machine Ray Allen. And I’ll be there to live-blog the event! I’ll try to do a sort of play-by-play of what’s going on, and I’ll also post photos and other media as time and resources allow. Tune in starting at around 4 pm.  And please join in the fun, either by commenting directly on the live-blog, or via Twitter. Use the hashtag #obamabmg so I can see your tweets.