Blue Mass Group

In case you missed the news: Representative Anthony D. Weiner, an influential Democrat who had been considered a leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York City, said Thursday that he was resigning from Congress following revelations of lewd online exchanges with several women. “I’m here to apologize for the personal mistakes I have made and the embarrassment that I have caused,” Mr. Weiner said, adding that he had hoped to be able to continue serving his constituents. “Unfortunately,” he said, “the distraction I created has made that impossible.” Not a great couple of days for Democrats who have solid policy positions but whose behavior is sorely lacking in other respects.  And before everybody jumps down my throat about “equating” Weiner (who is a fool but not a criminal, as far as we know) and Sal DiMasi (who is both), settle down: I’m not equating them.  But I am saying that in both cases, people who could have done a lot of good for the causes they believe in instead squandered their once-promising political careers, thereby depriving the public of an effective advocate on important issues.  And also, perhaps, harming the causes themselves by changing the subject and, in DiMasi’s [...]

Given that the Governor has ten days to review whatever budget the Conference Committee creates, and the House and Senate pass, and that a new budget needs to be in place as of July 1, 2011 – or interim budgets must be passed to avoid embarassing shut downs…6/20/11 seems to be the outer limit for completing that budget and today is 6/16/11. Remember House One, and the idea that the Commonwealth could save money by hiring 1000 lawyers and support staff (lets say 1500-1700 state employees)?  No matter that this would put small law firms either out of business, or force them to layoff 100s of privately employed people like secretaries, clerks, and paralegals. No matter that legislation was never filed to dismantle an agency that has done the job well for more than 20 years.  No matter that there was not a single hearing.  No matter that there was never any public comment.  No matter that there has not been any economic impact study or testimony.  Just who is behind this sudden, secretive plan, really? Anyway, so the Governor’s proposal for line item 0321-1510 is “1500+ jelly beans in the Jar”. The House proposal is “200+ jelly beans in the [...]

I could have used any number of sources, but ThinkProgress is as good as any. Haven’t figured out how to embed a link in a word or phrase like on Soapblox so the full URL is http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/16/246887/anthony-weiner-resigns-prostitute-enthusiast-david-vitter-continues-to-be-embraced-by-gop-leadership/.

When Sec. Galvin joked at the Democratic Convention this month in reference to Sarah Palin storming New Hampshire the day of Mitt Romney’s announcement with “Did you ever think you’d feel bad for Mitt Romney?” I thought it was a joke. Segments this week on The Rachel Maddow Show, however, have me thinking twice. I think we went over this after Scott Brown’s election – if Mitt Romney sold his house in Belmont and owned houses in New Hampshire and California, why was he voting in Massachusetts? Romney or a spokesman said that he was registered to vote at his son’s address in Belmont. That didn’t seem right then, but we had a lot of mixed emotions after the special election, and 2012 seemed far away, so I guess it wasn’t pursued. Well, Rachel Maddow and Republican Presidential Candidate Fred Karger have picked up the slack. Karger filed a complaint with the Mass. Elections division and Maddow has featured the story on her show twice this week – including plans for the basement that the Romney’s are supposedly residing in. Never saw Mitt and the Misses as the unfinished basement types, but who knows? Karger hasn’t heard back from Galvin’s [...]

Expanding School Choice through METCO Non-partisan Research Groups Urge Lawmakers to Expand Minority Students’ Access to Proven Program BOSTON, MA – Pioneer Institute, in collaboration with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) at Harvard Law School, two research institutes that are often on opposite sides of public policy issues, today published a review of the nation’s second longest running, voluntary, choice-driven, school desegregation program, the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity. METCO sends Boston and Springfield to public schools in the surrounding suburbs. METCO Merits More: The History and Status of METCO, co-authored by Susan Eaton, research director at CHHIRJ, and Gina Chirichigno, a post-doctoral researcher at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, is the first comprehensive review of the program in nearly a decade.  It includes data on student enrollment, performance, demographics, graduation and college attainment rates, waiting list, and funding. Read the rest of the press release. Check out today’s coverage in The Boston Globe. Listen to this audio clip from The Callie Crossley Show on WGBH radio:  

To continue yesterday’s interesting discussion of Rep. Capuano et al’s lawsuit against the president for waging war in Libya without congressional approval. Personally, I think much of this discussion misses the point. First, since the development of ICBMs and nuclear weapons (remember them? no one seems to talk much about them any more), we have given the president the power to destroy the world on 20 minutes notice. Under the theory of the balance of terror and mutually assured destruction, it would be suicide to adopt a policy that forbids nuclear retaliation absent Congressional approval because that would tempt an opponent to annihilate us in a first strike. All that would be left would be our submarines and whatever bombers were in the air. Maybe that would be enough, and the president shouldn’t be followed around by a chap with a briefcase and a button, as it were, but at the moment he is, and that is our policy. Around 8,500 support troops and a few thousand bomber sorties over Libya seems trivial by comparison. Second, if Congress is serious about protecting its privileges it don’t need no stinkin’ War Powers Act: it can just cut off funding. In any [...]

You really are. No two ways about it. What’s that? Why are you a dick? Well for one thing it is not because you were an eagle scout, or that the only things listed in your official biography are your college, religion, Republican State Committee and The Council on Hemispheric Affairs. (Whoa, where did that one come from? The NY Times calls this group a liberal think tank.) Not because you’re 26 or 27 and tout yourself as being a  ”public policy consultant and advisor” right out of undergrad. No sireee. You my friend are a dick because you ratted out your aide to the local paper. No need for me to link to it. Christ, I don’t even know the chick and I feel obligated to protect her. Unlike you she is not a public figure, nor did she put her name on the ballot, nor is her name in Wkipedia, nor is she a Congressman Weiner http://www.malegislature.gov/People/Profile/P_A1 look alike. Nope, she is just a chick you hired. Is it true you asked for her resignation? Rep. Weiner, rather Adams, is another one of these socially retarded, inflated ego, tea party, boy scout (in this case literally) new Republican types that filled the vacuum when normal people realized they couldn’t run [...]

THREE-PEAT: Perhaps you’ve heard, but former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi was found guilty on seven of the nine charges he faced yesterday as the verdict was read at his public corruption trial.Verdict news from the AP, Commonwealth, WBUR, Globe andHerald. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. (AP) REAX: Everyone’s got something to say about DiMasi becoming the third consecutive House Speaker to be convicted in federal court: The GOP (Herald), Lots of Lawmakers (AP, Globe, Herald), North End residents (Globe), Gov. Patrick and last but oh-so-certainly not least, Speaker DeLeo. (CW) SHENANIGANS: Guess who’s thrilled that no one’s paying any more attention to his own little scandal. No one but hislocal press, the one his constituents read. 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 emails.  

Game 7 was awesome.  Exciting, but not unnecessarily so (I know some were hoping for a double-OT thriller … me, I didn’t need the stress).  And Tim Thomas … my goodness.  A 37-year-old goalie from Flint, drafted no. 217 in 1994, who spent a good chunk of his career in the AHL and overseas, and who wasn’t even the Bruins’ starting goalie at the beginning of this season, ends up the hero of the series.  What a fantastic story.  Especially against Vancouver, what he did has got to be one of the great playoff performances in the history of Boston sports.  Eight goals (a couple of which were inconsequential) over seven games, including two shutouts, one of which was game 7 on Vancouver’s home ice, against the team that led the league this year in goal-scoring?  Insane. There’s endless news coverage of Boston’s first Stanley Cup in Boston since 1972 – take your pick.  I did particularly like this bit, which seems to show how all-consuming this particular series became, whether you were in a sports bar with a million other screaming fans, or not: Even while the din of excitement rang, some parts of the city were eerily quiet [...]

In honor of the ongoing Civil War sesquicentennial (the war started in 1861), which will be commemorated periodically here on BMG, here is six minutes of American historian Eric Foner on Lincoln’s faith and approach to governing, which is interesting in light of present politics, among other reasons. Foner’s latest book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for History. Massachusetts sent 146,730 troops to fight in the war; 13,942 perished from battle, disease and other causes, according to the Massachusetts Civil War Research Center.