Left In Lowell

I’m going to try an experiment and liveblog the State of the Union address tonight. Besides, allowing myself to make snide comments in real time will help me get through watching Bush lie lie lie. There’s probably hundreds, if not thousands, of such “live threads” for the SOTU, so if you pick mine, welcome and please leave your own live comments!

[UPDATE: Andy at MassRevNow does a great job liveblogging. One Smoot gets drunk. Under the Golden Dome has a good wrap up. ]

And away we go… (more…)

Mimi will once again cover City Hall tonight, and I will liveblog the State of the Union address (Mimi absolutely insisted she could not watch Bush. I will do my best to slog through it myself).

Also, there’s a subcommittee meeting tonight, 5:30pm, (not televised, goddamnit) on the [other 4] bridge proposals that Mr. Cox failed to bring forth years ago (you know, he kinda talked to maybe one or two councilors, the decision was made, to hell with that thing called the democratic process). This is important; but unfortunately I will not be able to attend. So I hopefully will have time to talk to those who do and get the scoop on what happened.

Tomorrow, it’s Drinking Liberally time again! 7:30pm, the Brewery Exchange, 201 Cabot St, second floor.

Oh and as an aside, if you are not a registered Democrat and so won’t be attending the caucuses on Saturday (because all you registered people WILL be, right?), you can visit Western Ave Studios for First Saturdays (a monthly open studios event), noon to 5pm, 122 Western Ave. This is the first time us fourth-floor people will be able to participate (though I won’t be there). We are going to be 50+ artists strong when everyone gets a chance to move in! It’ll be spectacular.

So…the race for the high-profile position of Middlesex D.A. is going strong. We have three candidates - Jarrett Barrios, Mike Festa, and Gerry Leone. Two (Festa and Barrios) have solid progressive creds. The third, Leone, (as I understand it) is the conservative of the three. One of these days I’ll attempt to get some conversations in with him (he probably doesn’t even know I exist…)

Frankly, I’m not sure I’ll be able to make an endorsement for the DA race. I really like both Festa (who enthusiastically greeted me at Saturday’s Kennedy campaign kickoff event in Lowell, kudos to him for his enormous sign-waving presence there) and Barrios.

A lot of bloggers, readers, and various and sundry say that Barrios is running because of personal ambition. Middlesex D.A.’s often go on to bigger and better things (see Martha Coakley). I can only tell you what I know personally. I believe completely that Jarrett is running because he wants the job. You can practically see his mind racing ahead of himself when he’s talking about his ideas about transforming the office with progressive policies and programs. He’s extremely personable, though that’s not odd I guess if you’re going to be a candidate for anything…but he does strike one as genuine. It is my estimation that his head will be in the job 100%. If he has ambition to move up to higher and higher office, I don’t begrudge him that, and if this is a calculated step, it’s also the case that you will not find a more enthusiastic officeholder so long as he holds the office.

Except, maybe, for Mike Festa. He certainly matches Barrios in enthusiasm for his campaign for D.A.-ship. I’ve met him now I think three times, and despite the fact I always end up talking to him too long (when I should be, say, working the room for Deval) I really enjoy our conversations.

Mike has more creds in terms of background in law enforcement then Jarrett, and as Mike will tell you, he knows how to speak the language of the people on the ground - police, attorneys, judges. His progressive creds are less emphasized but he does have them. He isn’t immune to idealism (which Jarrett has in spades) in attempting to transform the office of D.A., though Jarrett talks more about new programs he’d implement than I’ve heard Mike speak of. And I was especially impressed by Mike’s ability to not care if, in casual conversation, his passion squeaked out in the form of a mild swear word.

So, there’s my dilemma. I really like both of them. I think they’d both do a spectacular job. They have different strengths, and subtle differences, but you have two great progressive, hard-working candidates to choose from. And I know they are interested in meeting you, so to that end they will at some point be invited to come and have a pint with us at Drinking Liberally (and they are free to email me any time if they want to take the initiative).

This is what democracy is all about, kids! Good candidates, good choices. In these two contenders, you might find that someone you believe in…don’t be afraid to stick your neck out there and volunteer or donate to either of them. Meanwhile, I’ll try to make up my own mind.

Tomorrow, February 1st, Congress will take a final vote on a bill called Budget Reconciliation. If passed, this bill will cut $12.7 BILLION dollars from student loan programs (creating about $2000 in additional debt for every student each year).

This will be the largest cut to student aid in history!

This will make it even harder for us, our younger siblings, and all our friends to get a college education.

There is something you can do to alter this, and the best part is it’s totally free.

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY!!!

Join all of us from across the country in our National Day of Action by calling your Representative TODAY to tell her/him to “Stop the Raid on Student Aid!”

Dial: 1-800-574-4243.

Phone Script: Hello, my name is _____ and I am a student at _____. I am calling to urge Representative _____ to vote against budget reconciliation because it will force students and parents to pay thousands of dollars in additional interest on their student loans. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your support.

For more information on this issue, and to find out who represents you, please look at these two websites:

Campaign for America’s Future: http://www.ourfuture.org

United States Student Association: www.usstudents.org

STOP THE RAID ON STUDENT AID!!!!

While driving to work in Lowell on Friday morning, I noticed a hand-painted sign that read EVOLVE. It is made of painted black wood, and it is about 5” x 12”, with large white stenciled lettering and a red shadow around the letters. The sign was nailed eye-level to a pole, on the right side of Gorham Street, traveling North, right before the traffic lights at Elm Street.

This morning I saw the same sign going South on Gorham, nailed to a pole on the right side of the street near the intersection with Moore. These signs could have been there for a long time but I just noticed them. Now everywhere I drive in the city I will be on the lookout for this same sign.

I wished the artist had signed his/her name. Well if the person who put this up is not an artist they certainly have the soul of one. As thousand of people wait every day in traffic at these busy intersections, it may give them inspiration or maybe even courage to evolve.

I hope to meet this motivational wanderer.

So, we had this nice 4-way in the Lt. Governor race (see left sidebar), with good candidates who are all working hard to win votes. So what does Reilly do? Piss everyone off by deciding to choose a running mate - building a “ticket” even though technically, the Governor and Lt. Governor races are separate affairs. First, rumors and leaked information circulate about Reilly’s talks with rich-guy insider Gabrieli. Then, Gabrieli throws in the towel on the day Reilly is supposed to make an announcement. Now, Reilly apparently went ahead with choosing - someone else, Marie St. Fleur, a Haitian-American state Rep.

Not that I have an issue with having an African-American woman in the race…personally, we see far too few minorities and women in politics here. But if it was a bad idea to pick Gabrieli for the reason that it screws with the democratic process that’s supposed to happen vis a vis the Lt. Governor race, then this is just as much an affront to the efforts of candidates who’ve been in the race as individuals as having a Reilly/Gabrieli ticket. We aren’t supposed to have a “ticket.” We’re supposed to be able to choose candidates for each office on whatever merits we want to judge them by - not because the top of the “ticket” told us to. And now, this makes the Lt. Govornership a 5-way race, which is not only unwieldy, but is not good for the Democratic party as now there will be more money spent on this one race and likely create bad blood such that a united front come November will be harder to pull together.

And personally…I think all the talk in the media about “two white guys” on a “ticket” makes this Reilly move look…rather opportunistic. You know, run with a token black woman so you can look like a diversified sort of guy (after being criticized). And David at Blue Mass Group has taken an initial look at her background…her career took her through former AG Harshbarger’s office, though she’s been in the House since 1999. Okay…two prosecutors running together. Wonder how that will play?

I always used to get a slimy feeling when watching Paul Begala, and to a lesser, but still strong extent, James Carville, back when they haunted the halls of CNN’s crappy show Crossfire. I mean, if we Democrats really want to move back to our core values and start winning elections on the issues we care about (as does the majority of the country) Begala and Carville are the last hacks we want fronting the movement.

One of the things I hated about them on TV was their lack of in-depth analysis - the show was full of partisan hackery on both sides, spewing worthless talking points and never getting to the heart of any issue. God, that show was vacuous. And so, apparently, is their new book, Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, which American Prospect’s Charles P. Pierce skewers quite nicely.

These are two guys with permanent seats at the Beltway Cool Kids table, but they can publish an entire chapter — and cite my friend Eric Alterman in doing so — on how conservatives “work the refs.”

This is in a book in which Tucker Carlson is “a good guy.” And Gary Bauer is “a good guy.”
…
Crossfire is — or, rather, was — the problem. Remember that Begala was as gobsmacked as Carlson was when Jon Stewart declined to play his assigned role. Being the opposing meat puppet to Bob Novak, a truly evil presence in American journalism, isn’t engaging the issues. It’s being an accessory.

These people, and their Democrat hack colleagues, are irrelevant. I don’t care how much institutional knowledge they claim to have; the institution keeps losing elections. This is one place to throw the baby out with the bath water and start all over again.

Yesterday, the Sun had an above-the-fold, front page article regarding Congressman Marty Meehan’s office rewriting his biography in Wikipedia.

I like Wikipedia and use it frequently. But I realize that it allows its readers to post definitions, explanations and biographical information without verification. Some of the details are not accurate or complete. I learned that the hard way.

The information that Meehan’s Chief of Staff had asked an intern to delete dealt with his $4.8 million campaign war chest and his promise to serve no more than 4 terms.

Why are these two issues still a major point of concern that they would want to suppress it? They should not be. We all know that out of all the members of the House of Representatives, Congressman Meehan has the largest campaign fund. We also know that he said he would not seek reelection after serving four terms and he changed his mind. How we feel about that is a different issue but we are all aware of those facts.

After the Sun posted the story on its website around midday, someone submitted to Fark.com. This is a humorous site that daily highlights 10 media stories submitted by readers. The Sun story on Meehan won a category and was posted. According to the site, the Sun story received 13,166 hits. There were 184 comments posted and none of them complimentary of Meehan and his staff. Some of them are quite funny and creative.

Although I had read the story in the Sun that morning, I did not think it was a major issue. I just thought someone should tell Meehan’s office that the web site is called Wikipedia not Hagiopedia. Later on the day, when I saw a post in Dan Kennedy’s media blog with a link to Fark, I realized that the story had spread.

Obviously the person who submitted the story to Fark is not especially fond of Meehan and at the same time wanted to promote the Sun. It just struck me funny that the Congressman was scheduled to accompany Tom Reilley in his visit to the Sun yesterday. I wonder how he felt when he was greeted with that front page story. His letter to the editor in today’s edition states that he did not know that this was done and he thanks the Sun for bringing it to his attention. I wonder who he needs to thank for bringing it to the attention of Fark.

Political junkies and Mass blog readers have probably been following the story about Patrick, the board of the parent company of Ameriquest Mortgage Co, and the 49-state “$325 million settlement with Ameriquest…regarding Ameriquest’s predatory lending practices” as David explains in his post on Jan 23rd. It’s generated a lot of discussion on the blogs (particularly Blue Mass Group) because Reilly and the media were having a field day with the fact Patrick is a member of that parent company’s board.

Bloggers were demaning a strong response from Patrick to address this before it became a similar debacle as the much-blustered-for-nothing story about Reilly and his phone call the the Worcester DA to protect the autopsy report of the daughters of a friend (Reilly really boffed handling the media blitz on that one, another reason he’d make a bad candidate in the general election in my opinion…it’d be Kerry all over again).

And this is the reason so many bloggers (and voters!) love Deval Patrick - he listens to what people (bloggers or not) are saying. Here are some exerpts from his statement, released today, about his Ameriquest involvement:

I also want to let you know about an important issue. A few days ago, Ameriquest Mortgage Company and the attorneys general of 49 states announced a settlement of serious unfair lending claims. I had a central role in getting this result.
…
I am proud to have been a part of the solution. I joined the board of ACC Capital Holdings, the parent company of Ameriquest, in mid-2004, after the attorneys general investigations were already underway. I was asked to join largely because of those investigations.

I am no newcomer to fair lending enforcement. My involvement in these issues goes back to leading the charge against predatory lending in Massachusetts more than a decade ago on behalf of elderly Black borrowers. In the Justice Department I led the most far-reaching fair lending enforcement program in American history. In fact, when I was there we took on the predecessor company of Ameriquest itself. I know what rigorous oversight and enlightened practices can do to put the dream of homeownership within reach of more people.

…I serve as the Board’s point person for the company’s ongoing efforts to improve its oversight and internal controls. I was briefed by the negotiating team regularly, and helped guide the company to an effective and practical result. This week’s settlement makes Ameriquest — and the entire industry — better.

Sometimes, to solve a problem, you have to be willing to get your hands dirty, to get into how and why a problem arises as a path to getting to the best solution. I was taught that getting involved is a more effective way to fix a problem than standing on the sidelines. When you choose me as Governor, you ought to know you are getting a leader who is ready to roll up his sleeves.

Thanks for listening, Deval.

This is your chance to change politics in Massachusetts.

But how? you ask. Well, we need you this weekend if you are a Deval Patrick supporter. Tomorrow at 11am we will be hosting a phone bank for Patrick. If you have a cell phone, you can join us. We’ll get some pizza and make some calls! Lowell resident or not, registered Democrat or not, you’re invited. We have plenty of cell signal and space. To get details, location, directions, etc, email me at lynne at leftinlowell dot com (replace the approprate bits and get rid of the spaces).