Left In Lowell

This must strike fear into the hearts of Obama’s opponents (bold mine).

Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.
…
The nucleus of that effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.

Millions more made up the volunteer corps that organized his enormous rallies, registered millions of voters and held countless gatherings to plug the senator to friends and neighbors. On Election Day, they served as the backbone of Obama’s get-out-the-vote operation, reaching voters by phone and at the front door, serving coffee at polling stations and babysitting so parents could stand in line at voting precincts.
…
Once Obama is sworn in, those backers may be summoned to push reluctant members of Congress to support legislation, to offer feedback on initiatives and to enlist in administration-supported causes in local communities. Obama would also be positioned to ask his supporters to back his favored candidates with fundraising and turnout support in the 2010 midterm elections.

Sounds like President-Elect Obama is taking a page out of Governor Patrick’s book, though I would say that Patrick has found it harder to achieve than he may have thought. Though citizen governance is a difficult thing in times like these (people are so busy trying to make ends meet they can’t take the time, you lose supporters once you make some decisions because you can’t please everyone, etc) I think it’s a worthy use of the mandate that Obama has achieved. Sign me up! (I already am, of course.)

And, as an aside, how sweet it is to add the category, “Obama Administration”!

(Bumped and edited. GOTV!! –Lynne)

There is a Lowell Phone Bank set up for Obama, and we need your help!

When: 11/2 (tonight) 5pm to 8pm
11/3 (tomorrow today) 5pm to 8pm

Where: ERA Morrison Real Estate
61 Market St. Lowell

What: You’ll be calling folks to remind them to get out an vote on Tuesday, November 4th

Please email me, if you wish to volunteer sitcawich at (replace w/ the “at” symbol) att.net

Looking forward to having you with us!

(cross-posted at Blue Mass Group)

It seems that the RNC and DNC settled the DNC lawsuit on the GOPs plan to use foreclosures to challenge voters at the polls.

The Michigan Messenger:

Here is the text of the joint statement released by the parties in the case:

“Obama for America, the Democratic National Committee and individual Macomb County residents have alleged that the Republican National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party and the Macomb County Republican Party were planning to use foreclosure lists to challenge certain voters on Election Day. The Republicans have denied the allegations and have stated that they never intended to challenge voters based on any such list. To clarify the matter for all voters, all parties are pleased that they agree that the existence of a person’s address on a foreclosure list does not provide a reasonable basis for challenging the person’s eligibility to vote and that none of these parties will challenge any voter’s eligibility on that basis.”

Both sides agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be re-filed.

But here is the sticky wicket:

Michigan law does not require the challenger to reveal the source of the information on which a voter is challenged, which means the GOP can simply incorporate the foreclosure lists into a larger challenge list and use that larger list at the polls to challenge voters. The DNC’s attorney seems to think they wouldn’t dare do that now after agreeing in court that this is not a valid reason to challenge a voter. I’m not convinced.

What do you think? Would they dare? I’m betting that weeks after the election, someone will either find (either from outside investigation or internal leaks) that there was a ‘mistake’ in that the foreclosure list wasn’t successfully perged from the overall list.

I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand, something needs to be done. On the other, I’d rather it be from the bottom up, not rewarding from the top down, when those same people got us into this mess.

THIS is the opportunity of a lifetime, Democrats! I say let’s produce a bill that tries to help as many eligible (with caveats) homeowners, which will help those bad loans not go bad, vote to rescind the tax cuts for the very wealthy (not even the wealthy, just the very wealthy), and also reenact a tax on capital gains to pay for a second, more restrictive, smaller, less reward-the-thieves bailout.

I guarantee you Main Street will happily see taxes raise on the fat cats on Wall Street. Especially the ones who took their golden parachute out in the last year or so as the banks failed around them.

Update: Meteor Blades agrees, and elaborates:

Moreover, it’s easy to understand the bind the Democratic leaders were in. Most of them hated the Paulson plan but felt constrained in how much they could adjust and add to it and still get enough votes to pass it. They sought to reach a compromise in the bipartisan fashion that Republicans always say they want but rarely act on since GOPspeak for “bipartisan” roughly translates as “kowtow to us and shut your frakkin’ piehole.” And they had the added obstacle of John McCain fluttering around, mostly silent, while trying to figure out which side to come down on in order to take credit for whatever eventually would happen. As it turned out, McCain came down on both sides, proving once again what a two-faced, impulse-fueled jackass he is.

Ultimately, the compromise failed. Doesn’t matter whether you think that’s good or bad. It’s dead.
[…]
But the defeat offers the Democrats a chance to rethink this whole shebang, to look at some of the ideas from people who got ignored the first time around.
[…]
One of those so far unlistened to is economist Brad DeLong. Although he reluctantly supported the bailout version we saw go down today, as did Paul Krugman, he’s all along thought the 1992 Swedish plan makes more sense, as does Krugman.

Here’s what he had to say on the subject today:

Nationalization has the best chance of avoiding large losses and possibly even making money for the taxpayer. And it is the best way to deal with the moral hazard problem. […]

Someone else who should get some face time among the Democrats is economist Nouriel Roubini.

On Sunday, he explained that any systemic banking crisis requires recapitalization to avoid a massive contraction in credit. “But, purchasing toxic/illiquid assets of the financial system is not the most effective and efficient way to recapitalize the banking system.” He points out that a recent study by the International Monetary Fund of 42 banking crises found that in only seven instances did the governments in question buy the toxic assets.
[…]
He calls the now-defeated bailout “socialism for the rich, the well-connected and Wall Street. And it is a scandal that even Congressional Democrats have fallen for this Treasury scam that does little to resolve the debt burden of millions of distressed home owners.“

The post is quite long, I recommend you read it.

Last night I regained some faith in the democratic process. Last night, I saw a roomful (not smoke-filled) of party activists carefully select the best candidate available for Register of Probate.

What’s more, the clearly unqualified quickly (by MA Dem party standards…balloting moved relatively smoothly) fell off the ballot and three talented candidates emerged.

In the end, Tara DeCristofaro won the day resoundingly on the fourth (I think?) ballot. Tara clearly had the most Probate management experience (she would be, after all, an inside promotion), and spoke in the most detail about the job in her 2 minutes. She talked like a technocrat, not a lawyer or a politician.

The conclusion I reached is that the delegates took their vetting job very seriously, and most had NOT made up their minds, or could be pursuaded on the merits to change them walking in the door.

I think we did get a better candidate than we would have gotten via the primary process. Certainly the delegates looked more closely at the 12 candidates standing for this low-priority office than the voters EVER would have had the opportunity to, thanks in part to voter apathy, aided and abetted by poor media coverage.

On another note, I learned that blogging by PDA (which I am doing right now, waiting for my oil to be changed) is an exercise in patience and should be your choice of last resort, but that some internet access is better than none at all. And that in this brave new world will create a whole new economic sector: hand massaging.

Like it or not, tomorrow night a select group of delegates from the Democratic town and ward committees will choose the Democratic replacement for Buonomo on the November ballot. As Dick reported, our allotment of 28 Lowell delegates appears to be full. (A bus has been commandeered for easier transportation to Waltham tomorrow.)

I am not a delegate, but will be going to observe and cover the event. Should be interesting. If there are any good audio tidbits I’ll be sure my digital recorder has fresh batteries! I’m actually glad not to go as a delegate, as it gives me an opportunity to put on my blogger/citizen reporter hat.

This has been sort of fun to watch!

First, the list of known candidates (disclaimer: might not be totally accurate or comprehensive).

I’ve gotten messages from Maria Sheehy, Asst City Solicitor for Lowell and Bob Colt, longtime Democratic activist from Winchester that each of them intends to be a candidate.

My local paper also mentioned a candidate named John Panica of Newton, but I don’t know anything about him.

By my count that’s at least six:
Sheehy
Colt
Panica
Concannon
O’Donovan
Pablo of BMG

Pablo (not sure yet if he has declared or announced his real name to the world, but he’s a prolific progressive writer at BMG) posted his interest and enumerated why he thinks he can do some good in the position. Bob Colt has posted a comment in the BMG Registrar of Probate open thread about his qualifications. I’m sure that some people can chime in here about Lowell Assistant Solicitor Maria Sheehy (I won’t, as I don’t know her).

So, start threading the 2008 Middlesex Democratic Registrar of Probate Convention news!

Sco asks the question.

Now that Middlesex County Register of Probate John Buonomo has stepped down from office in the face of theft charges, it is worth spending a little time discussing what might happen if Buonomo wins the primary, but then withdraws his name from the General Election ballot.

Sco has experience with this, as something similar happened (a late withdrawal) in his district. Sco is Watertown Chair of the DTC (Dem Town Committee). Basically, the local Democratic party has the opportunity to meet to choose a candidate for an upcoming general election if they have no candidate due to late withdrawal. He tells us the following (with the caveat that he is not a lawyer and could stand to be corrected):

As the newspapers are reporting, it is too late for Buonomo to withdraw his name from the primary ballot. Since his is the only name that will appear and this race is so low-profile, it is not inconceivable that he will get more votes than any write-in challenger. WBUR this morning was reporting that should he win the primary, Buonomo would withdraw his name from the general election. Democrats throughout the county would then be able to fill the ballot line via a caucus, as provided for in Mass General Laws chapter 53, sections 49 and 14.

He goes on to tell us how he thinks this would work under party rules. (Worth the read, I won’t quote the whole thing.) Lowell would be alloted some 24 delegates (divvied up to its 11 wards). And this is all on a severely short timetable:

Keep in mind that all this must happen between the time Buonomo withdraws from the ballot — no sooner than the morning of September 17th, the day after the election — and September 25th at 5PM, the Secretary of State’s deadline to fill vacancies.

If this does go to a caucus under these rules, Lowell shouldn’t be left out (and neither should its neighbors). Due to the largely defunct Lowell Democratic City Committee (yes, defunct, as much as I personally like some of its members, there is, in effect, only an LDCC on paper, not in reality), we may well fail to be represented at any county-wide caucus…if things go as I bet they will.

Of course, as sco says, it is a low-profile position. “I’m wondering exactly how many people I’d be able to convince to show up on one or two days notice to pick delegates for a caucus that would decide such a low-profile position. My guess is very few… My hunch is that this will be true in communities throughout the county.”

Indeed. Given my above complaint about the nature of our local Committee it’s even less likely that Lowell will even send one delegate in such a case. A rather unfortunate situation if you ask me.

Look, it’s the home stretch. We need to win in the fall if we’re to make progress on health care, the economy, jobs, sane foreign policy, Iraq, Afghanistan, the global climate crisis, women’s rights, civil rights, preserving the Constitution, stopping the torture policy, and to gets our childrens learning.

So, it’s time to go listen to some music.

I’ve bought my ticket (hint: it wasn’t the expensive seats but it weren’t the cheap seats neither), and am all set to head out this Friday to Boston and the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall for “National Anthem,” the fundraiser organized and starring Blue Mass Group’s David Kravitz and Charley Blandy, along with other amazing singers and musicians. Even Mr. Lynne is making a cameo appearance where they need him to help with percussion in the orchestra.

The concert takes place this Friday, September 12, 2008 at 8:00 p.m., again, at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall at 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston. There’s a list of pieces on the program (subject to change). You can buy tickets in advance from the website (they use ActBlue) and it is strongly advised you do so, as it makes it easier for the organizers who are adhering to campaign finance rules. (If purchased at the door, I assume they will have to have people fill in all relevant data that you fill in when donating via the web, slowing down the line I’m sure.)

If you aren’t there, I will know about it, and you’ll never hear the end of it.

Debunked. I really hate the traditional media. Please, can we finally boycott Tweedy?

But irrelevant is not how the protesters will be portrayed by a media that has been salivating over the possible disruption of the Democratic convention — by angry, broom-riding succubi! — for weeks. Never mind that there were probably no more than 50 shouting PUMAs. Never mind that every national political convention in modern history becomes a locus for vocal agitators. Never mind that over the weekend, antiwar protests had been larger. Never mind that in three days in Denver I had not spotted a single PUMA or Hillary protester until I found where Chris Matthews was broadcasting. Never mind the guy in the toilet outfit. To hear Matthews, and the talking heads at CNN tell it, these demonstrators were “ground zero” in a rift that could potentially destroy the Democratic Party and ruin its national convention.

Read the rest, really good. (HT: Mr. Lynne)