The DiMasi Indictment And Deval Patrick

The corruption indictment of Sal DiMasi, according to the Boston Globe, “contains what critics are calling an unflattering behind-the-scenes look at Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, depicting its officials as bowing to political pressure to award a $13 million computer software contract that was allegedly rigged.”

But hey, that was the hope and change Deval Patrick promise wasn’t it? The sad fact is that this is par for the course in Massachusetts. Every election cycle the Democrats gain more seats, and in 2006 they decided to completely remove checks and balances from state government. The people of Massachusetts are to blame. Michael Graham nails it here:

Bay Staters are among the nation’s most affluent and well-educated. About 75 percent of our high school grads go to college. Almost 40 percent of adults have degrees. Our median income is 25 percent higher than the national average.

Yet these “brilliant and amazing” citizens repeatedly vote themselves one of America’s most corrupt and incompetent governments.

Three indicted speakers – and counting. Empty legislative offices with fulltime paid staffs. Pension perks for incumbents so lousy that they’re finally forced out.

What sort of voters put up with this?

Meanwhile, our pols don’t hide from corruption, they celebrate it. When they re-elected Sal DiMasi speaker, everyone knew he was under investigation. But only seven Democrats withheld their votes. The rest were with Rep. Jim Fagan, who bragged, “We are direct descendants of patriots and heroes!” – a comment that must have had Sam Adams drinking in his grave.

It up to the voters to change the state’s government. Deval Patrick came is an outsider, and became part of the corrupt machine.  Empty campaign rhetoric about hope and change doesn’t make you a leader, it doesn’t mean you’ll do all the glorious things you said you would do. Deval’s dismal approval ratings prove that a good campaign speech doesn’t make a good governor. True accountability can’t come until checks and balances are restored. One party rule is crippling the state, and the worst part is that it happened with the consent of the governed.

She & Him

Another round of Michele McPhee vs. Gov. Patrick.

The next time you notice a bumper sticker that reads “Honk If You Paid For This Sweet Ride”; or maybe one that says “My Other Car Is The One You Didn’t Pay For,” pay attention. Because it may be very likely that there is a welfare recipient behind the wheel of the donated vehicle who got the car for free — along with a year subscription to AAA; taxpayer-funded insurance; free excise tax; and who knows, maybe even one of those free Fast Lane toll paying mechanisms that the lawmakers and politicians drive around with.

Free for them, that is. The vehicles cost Massachusetts taxpayers $500,000 — not to mention the salaries of the people who oversee the hackarama bureaucracy that doles the cars out.

Apparently, this is the reform Deval Patrick has been referring to. He is going to lay off police officers, firefighters and teachers across the state and give people who don’t pay taxes new cars. This is as absurd as giving pink slips to Registry of Motor Vehicle workers making less than $50,000 a year so that he can hire career hack Eddie Jenkins.

Maybe Patrick needs to become familiarized with the term “reform,” which the dictionary describes this way: “to make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices.”

Isn’t it an injustice to expect Massachusetts taxpayers to pay a new sales tax; while continuing to face the highest gas tax in the country; while paying $7 bucks to get off the island of Eastie? I would say yes.

I am bewildered by the foot-dragging that is going on with the part of the reform definition that describes making changes for improvement. Because nothing has improved for us.

UPDATE: More from the Globe and Herald.

SECOND UPDATE: From the Globe, Herald, NECN and Michael Graham.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Scot Lehigh, WBUR, the Globe and Herald.

Interesting

What is Gov. Patrick up to now?

Governor Deval Patrick, who once headed the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department, plans to appeal a federal court ruling that allows minority police officers to pursue a civil rights lawsuit challenging the state’s promotional exam.

The Patrick administration filed notice Monday that it will appeal an April 7 ruling by US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Tauro rejected the Patrick administration’s motion to dismiss the suit by 44 black and Hispanic patrol officers from seven departments who contend that the written civil service exam for sergeant is discriminatory.

“We are shocked that Deval Patrick is continuing to defend these exams and opposing our efforts to reform this discriminatory promotional system,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan of Boston, the lawyer for the officers. “With Deval Patrick as the governor, you’d think he’d be trying to fix this problem, rather than throw away the state’s money litigating it.”

Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Patrick, said in a statement that the governor “believes that all citizens in the Commonwealth should be afforded the same opportunities for employment.” Nonetheless, the administration, represented by Attorney General Martha Coakley, is seeking dismissal of the claims because the officers are employees of cities and towns, not the state, Sullivan said. Tauro rejected that position.

The lawsuit, which the officers unsuccessfully asked the judge to certify as a class action claim, is scheduled to go to trial next month.

At issue is a multiple-choice promotional exam prepared by the state Human Resources Division and used by about 200 police departments across the state, said Liss-Riordan. The 44 plaintiffs are patrol officers who took the exam since 2005 but have not received promotions. They work in police departments in Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Springfield, Worcester, and the MBTA Transit Police.

The officers say that the exam, which relies heavily on rote memorization of facts about law enforcement, discriminates against members of minority groups and has prevented advancement within the ranks. As a result, they said, supervisors in departments do not reflect the diversity of their communities.

In Lawrence, where minority groups make up three-quarters of the population, only two of the 39 police supervisors were members of minority groups, the officers said when filing the suit in September 2007. Methuen, which is more than 10 percent minority, had no minority members among its 25 supervisors, the suit said.

UPDATE: More from the Herald and Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: From Michael Graham.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Holly Robichaud, Mass. News Platoon, the Seattle Examiner, Somerville News, New Hampshire Business Review, the Herald and the Globe.

FOURTH UPDATE: From the Globe and Herald.

Michael Graham’s Campaign School

Democracy works best when the citizens are given a choice. When incumbent failures are re-elected without challenge, it is all of us who lose.

Michael Graham of WTKK is ready to do his part to bring democracy back to the Commonwealth with his free campaign school on Saturday, April 25th from 8am to 10am at Ken’s Steak House in Framingham. Find out more about Michael’s free campaign school at his blog, the Natural Truth.

Lipstick Politics As Usual

WTKK’s Michael Graham is calling on you to drop off a lipstick with him so he deliver the message to the Obama campaign.

Sick and tired of the trashing of Sarah Palin? Heard enough accusations that she’s a bad mother, bad parent, bad wife, a “dominatrix,” a “fundamentalist Muslim” and a Nazi?

Fight back! Drop of a lipstick at our Greater Media offices at 55 Morrissey Blvd in Boston (02125), or bring one by the parking lot of Ken’s Steak House on Rte. 9 in Framingham today between 5-7pm. I’ll be there collecting them, and I’ll keep collecting them until Friday at noon.

I will personally deliver your Lipstick Politics message to the Obama campaign, to make sure that they get the point. Or at least the lip gloss.