by Aaron Margolis, August 28th, 2008 at 02:46pm
Governor Deval Patrick is concerned about the safety of his buddy, Barack Obama.
Gov. Deval Patrick, one of Barack Obama’s closest political allies, says he’s concerned for his friend’s safety in light of an alleged racially fueled threat to the presidential candidate but thinks race won’t be a major factor in the election.
“Of course,” Patrick said when asked if he was personally concerned about Obama. “It’s not so unlike my own election. Race is with us. But I think the American public is a lot further along than the media gives them credit.”
Responding to reports that three Colorado men were plotting to kill Obama because he’s black, Patrick said, “It’s not unfamiliar to me. But you just keep going.” The governor declined to elaborate or say if he’s been the target of any race-based threats here or at home.
Amid reports of the Democratic National Convention being a secure fortress, and Obama’s Secret Service protection, what does Patrick have to fear? Is this a genuine concern, or is this meant to drum up racial sympathy?
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick
by Aaron Margolis, August 28th, 2008 at 01:01pm
While Deval Patrick is basking in national limelight following his prime time speech at the DNC, his lack of political influence and support from members of his own party at home is quite embarrassing for guy who allegedly raised the roof in Denver. Patrick’s influence is so poor, he had more support from Republicans on Beacon Hill for his vetoes than from members of his own party.
Gov. Deval Patrick got more support from Republican lawmakers than his own party when it came to slashing pork from the state budget this year, according to a Herald review.
Republicans backed Patrick’s $250,000 cut for bullying prevention and $511,634 targeted for osteoporosis education while Democratic legislators overturned more than 70 of his vetoes.
“He was wrong on those,” said Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen) when asked why he didn’t support vetoes from the first Democratic governor in the Corner Office in 16 years. “We would have done more (overrides) if we had more time.”
All told, the largely Democratic House and Senate voted to override 74 of Patrick’s 116 vetoes, approving $56 million in spending as watchdogs sounded alarms about the state’s fiscally stormy outlook.
“I was pretty surprised that no one stood to defend the governor, let alone vote with him,” said Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield). “It’s embarrassing that (Patrick) couldn’t coerce anyone to give him any support.”
It’s pretty sad considering the paltry number of Republicans on Beacon Hill.
Now that I think of it, it is appropriate that Governor Patrick gave such a high profile speech at Barack Obama’s convention. They both have the exact same number of accomplishments: zero.
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, Richard Tisei, Steve Baddour
by Matt Margolis, August 27th, 2008 at 09:43pm
Mike Dukakis, who is battling with Deval Patrick for the label of the worst governor of Massachusetts, was on with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes after Bill Clinton’s speech to the Democratic National Convention, and when challenged by Hannity to name a specific accomplishment of Barack Obama between his years in the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate, he could come up with a single thing. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
It was classic. I hope you caught that one.
UPDATE: The Massachusetts Republican Party issued the following statement in response to John Kerry’s speech at the Democrat National Convention.
US Senate Candidate Jeff Beatty said, “America can’t afford to have Barack Obama and John Kerry bringing their remakes of the same, tired failed liberal policies of the past to Washington at a time when so much is at stake. Barack Obama is not ready to lead and John Kerry never has.”
Beatty added,“As a U.S. senator, I’ll draw on my experience as a business executive to develop and support comprehensive National Economic policies that pass the “common sense” test and I will use my leadership experience as a former FBI Special Agent, CIA counter-terrorism officer and member of the Army’s elite Delta Force to pursue National Security policies that will truly secure America’s future at home and abroad. We don’t need a weaker America with Barack Obama and John Kerry, we need a stronger America with John McCain and Jeff Beatty.”
Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention, Michael Dukakis
by Aaron Margolis, August 26th, 2008 at 10:38pm
Governor Deval Patrick gave his prime time speech at the Democratic National Convention. MassGOP Chairman Peter Torkildsen responded to his remarks via press release:
Tonight, Deval Patrick spoke in Denver, but he might have well as spoken in Hollywood, because what he talked about had no basis in reality and no relation to his own dismal record of broken promises. Having an eloquent, but extremely inexperienced Governor is bad enough: an eloquent, but extremely inexperienced President would be much worse. The bottom line is this, Barack Obama is not ready to lead and not ready to govern.
For a transcript of Deval Patrick’s remarks at the Democratic National Convention, please see the extended entry. (more…)
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, MassGOP, Peter Torkildsen
by Aaron Margolis, August 26th, 2008 at 02:55pm
Coming to a Starbucks near you (about 30 in the Boston area) are new high-tech machines that will brew “customized cups of coffee.”
Starbucks Corp.’s luck could change with the help of a clover, but not the four-leaf kind. Instead, the Seattle coffee giant is seeking a boost from the Clover brewing system, a sophisticated machine that turns out customized cups of coffee at a premium price.
The system is being tested in Boston and Seattle, but the company is expected to say today that it is rolling out more Clovers in the two cities and will introduce them in San Francisco.
About 30 Starbucks shops in the Boston area will get the machines, compared with 10 in Seattle and an undisclosed number in San Francisco. They will debut Sept. 9 in Boston and today in Seattle. The San Francisco date has not been finalized.
The Boston market is of special importance because it allows Starbucks to test Clover against its major competitor, Canton-based Dunkin’ Donuts, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic Inc., a Chicago consulting firm. Starbucks has about 200 stores in Massachusetts, while Dunkin’ Donuts has about 1,100.
Dunkin’ Donuts declined to comment.
How does a cup of coffee from Clover machine compare in cost to the regular Starbucks brew?
The price can vary from store to store, but the Starbucks at 1 Charles St. - one of the Boston pilot stores - charges $1.65 for a regular “tall” coffee and $2.25 for a Clover brew of the same size. In general, Clover coffee ranges in price from $2 to $4, the company said.
I’m intrigued…but in time where consumers get excited that gas is getting down to $3.55/gallon from the over $4/gallon we were used to earlier this summer, will others be willing test this special brew at such a premium?
“We are making bold moves toward transforming our business for the long term and at the same time making the tough decisions to ride out this extremely challenging economic environment,” said Joe Dallacqua, Starbucks’ vice president of regional operations. “The Clover delivers a one-of-a-kind brewed coffee experience that fits with Starbucks’ long history of coffee expertise.”
Clover customers will be able to choose from a new collection of small-batch coffees, some of which may be rare and available for a limited time. It takes about a minute to brew a cup, depending on the type of coffee and customer preferences.
Perhaps it’s all the brewing method that will make the taste of the coffee speak for itself.
With a Clover machine, brewers can set the time and temperature of the selected coffee to accommodate the characteristics of the bean selected. Vacuum-press technology pulls the coffee through a 70-micron filter in which “every hole is like a hair’s breadth,” said David Latourell, formerly of Coffee Equipment Co. and now a Starbucks employee. The Clover “really brings coffee back into focus” for Starbucks, Latourell said.
The Clover’s “unique sort of extraction” allows flavors to come out of the coffee, said Anthony Carroll, who selects coffees for Starbucks.
“The flavor is already there. Clover really helps just accentuate them,” Carroll said. “You’re going to discover a whole bunch of different flavors in their coffees that you didn’t know would or should be there.”
As an everyday Starbucks customer, I’m ready to try it. If it is as good as people are suggesting it is, I will be more than happy to pay the premium for a customized cup of coffee.
Tags: Starbucks
by Aaron Margolis, August 26th, 2008 at 12:22pm
While the news shouldn’t be shocking, it still is. Attorney General Martha Coakley has approved a ballot question to reinstant the 1913 Marriage Law that was recently repealed by the Legislature.
In her ruling, Coakley said the question’s supporters, MassResistance, had met the necessary technical requirement for filing a ballot question. The group must now gather 33,000 signatures by the end of October to appear on the November 2010 ballot.
Coakley differentiated between her official duties and any personal feeling she may have on the issue.
“Our decision that this referendum meets the constitutional requirements as to subject matter does not mean that it has our support, but simply that the constitutional requirements are met for the proponents of the referendum to obtain further signatures,” Coakley said in a statement.
In Massachusetts, differentiating between official duties and personal feelings is a rarity. The will of the people has been brushed aside by the Legislature time and time again, and yet, somehow, these buffoons on Beacon Hill keep getting reelected.
When this question comes to a vote, and the 1913 Marriage Law is reinstated, how long do you think it will be before the legislature ignores the will of the people?
Tags: Martha Coakley, MassResistance
by Matt Margolis, August 25th, 2008 at 07:35pm
Last week, the Boston Herald reported that Deval Patrick’s transportation secretary, Bernard Cohen, has given his his own staff 195 pay increases, even after he pressured MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas into rescinding pay raises to his own employees.
The state transportation chief who pressured T general manager Dan Grabauskas into rescinding pay raises this week said he won’t halt 195 pay hikes he granted his own staff.
“I think it’s pretty hypocritical for the secretary to look at other agencies and departments and grandstand when he has different standards in his own shop,” said Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield).
Transportation secretary Bernard Cohen asked Grabauskas to halt the raises the T chief gave 273 employees this week as an effort to “leave no stone unturned in restoring fiscal health to all transportation agencies.”
But at his own transportation agency, Cohen granted pay hikes ranging from 1 percent to 7.5 percent last year. Some of the annual raises far exceed the hike given to Grabauskas staffers, who were supposed to get a 3 percent raise each of the next three years.
[...]
The annual raises, which Cohen has final say over, are based on merit and performance evaluations. Employees must be in the bottom half of the agency’s salary range and produce exceptional work in order to get more than a 6 percent raise.
Grabauskas granted an automatic 9 percent raise to non-union staffers to keep them in line with a recent union pay hike last week, but then rescinded most of the raises when Cohen leaned on him. News of the pay hikes broke shortly after Grabauskas hinted at a potential fare increase unless the state helped with an $8.2 billion debt load.
Adding insult to injury, the Herald reported today that the state payroll has exploded, even with the current economic downturn.
Gov. Deval Patrick has added almost 2,000 new workers to the state payroll in the past year even as he warns of dire budget cuts in the face of a $1 billion deficit, a Herald review shows.
And his administration continues to dole out millions in overtime, with nearly 80 prison guards raking in more than $100,000.
A mid-year Herald payroll analysis reveals that since July 2007, the number of state jobs has jumped by about 1,900, many of them new hires in the Department of Correction and MassHighway.
The soaring payroll comes at a time when the state is stepping in to bail out a debt-ridden Mass Pike and being asked to do the same for the MBTA, and the governor is requesting special powers to cut the budget this fall if the local economy continues tanking.
“It’s very worrisome,” Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, said of the hiring frenzy. “It’s a problem, given that we’re probably heading into a recession, and we’ve been borrowing extensively.”
Barbara Anderson, of Citizens for Limited Taxation, told the Herald it’s time for state officials to get off “the gravy train.” They’re riding the gravy train alright… and Deval Patrick is the engineer.
Tags: Barbara Anderson, Deval Patrick, MBTA
by Matt Margolis, August 22nd, 2008 at 05:46pm
Jeremy Jacobs at PolitickerMA reports:
U.S. Sen. John Kerry agreed Friday to debate primary challenger Ed O’Reilly, according the Kerry campaign.
There will be one debate, set to take place on WBZ-TV and it will be hosted the station’s political analyst, Jon Keller Further details are still be finalized.
O’Reilly has made his debate proposal a major part of his campaign, repeatedly charging that Kerry was ducking his debate challenge. The final agreement falls well short of O’Reilly’s original proposal, which called on the candidates to meet in each of the state’s 14 counties, each University of Massachusetts campus and on four television networks.
Tags: John Kerry, Jon Keller
by Aaron Margolis, August 21st, 2008 at 12:56pm
In a pathetic attempt to redirect blame for his 2002 vote to authorize force in Iraq, Senator John Kerry blamed Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, for his decision.
In a phone interview with conservative talk show host Ken Pittman on WBSM Tuesday afternoon, Pittman asked Kerry (D-Boston) to explain how he at one time voted for the use of force in Iraq and then came to vehemently oppose the U.S. operation there. Kerry welcomed the opportunity.
“Absolutely, I’d be delighted to do that,” he said. “I spent a long time on the telephone with Colin Powell on the Sunday before the vote and Colin Powell assured me they were going to do all of the planning necessary, they were not going to rush to war. He assured me that they were going to do all the inspections and exhaust the remedies of the United Nations and finish the diplomacy.”
Kerry based his vote “largely on the conversations with Colin Powell,” believing that the administration would not rush into war. Kerry didn’t place all of the blame on Powell, however, saying that he too was given faulty information.
“In fact,” he said, “if you were to talk Colin Powell today or [then Deputy Secretary of State] Richard Armitage…they’ll tell you - they misled Colin Powell. And through him the rest of us were given evidence that never would have passed scrutiny.”
So Kerry and others were given evidence that would have never passes scrutiny…? Kerry continued his pointing the finger game.
“I spent a lot of time trying to understand precisely what the extent of that evidence was,” he said. “What has not been written about a lot is the due diligence that I did leading up to that vote. I went to the United Nations Security Council and I met with every single one of our Security Council ambassadors in a meeting. I am the only senator, I think, that took the time to do that. I spent two hours with them learning from them what their perceptions were from their countries about Saddam Hussein’s weaponry. They agreed that [Iraq] undoubtedly had weapons and that there needed to be some kind of inspection process put in place. And they believed that they needed more time to put that in place. Ultimately we were going have to hold them accountable.”
Kerry also said that he went to the Pentagon before the vote and looked at the intelligence photographs of buildings that were believed to house Hussein’s weapons programs.
It sounds like Senator Kerry did more than any other senator to scrutinize the evidence, and still voted to approve the use of force. So which is it senator? Did Colin Powell give you evidence that would not have passed your scrutiny, or did you not fully understand the evidence you reviewed yourself before voting to approve the use of force?
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t vote for something before voting against it, and you can’t blame Colin Powell for misleading you with evidence when you proudly admit that you “spent a lot of time trying to understand” the evidence yourself and did your “due diligence” before the vote. If that is your claim, you can only blame yourself for your vote.
Tags: Colin Powell, John Kerry
by Aaron Margolis, August 20th, 2008 at 12:27pm
A Middlesex Superior Court Judge has denied a request for a civil rights injunction against state Senator James Marzilli. The injunction would have barred him from harassing all women in the Commonwealth.
Massachusetts Republican Party Executive Director Robert Willington responded, saying “Today, the taxpayers of Massachusetts paid Jim Marzilli $180.10.” Since Marzilli was indicted 50 days ago, taxpayers have paid him over $9,000. There are still 134 days left before his pension increases.
For more information, visit MarzilliWatch.com.
Tags: James Marzilli, Massachusetts Republican Party, Robert Willington
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