Betting on Dry Weather

State spending news from today’s Boston Globe:

[Administration and Finance Secretary ] Kirwan downplayed the significance of the short-term borrowing…But she said the factors that led to the increased borrowing - like a shortfall in lottery revenues - could mean the state has to use reserves to balance the books at the end of the year. She would not predict how much may have to be taken from the state's rainy day fund…

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, one of the state's leading fiscal watchdogs, yesterday predicted the state will have to use $300 million to $700 million in reserves to balance the budget at the end of the year because of increased health and pension costs and declining lottery revenues. Next year, he said, the shortfall could skyrocket to $1.5 billion because of built-in, escalating expenses.

Widmer’s estimate of drawing $300-700M from reserves compares with last year when the Patrick Administration drew $225M from reserves, including $175M from the “rainy day fund”.

Of course the “rain” of an economic downturn hasn’t even started. But does anybody need a new Gazebo this year?

Faint Praise for Hillary

Joan Vennochi writes damningly faint praise of Hillary:

Now that inevitability is no longer succeeding as her main campaign theme, the Clinton strategy for victory seems harder to pinpoint…In an interview in Concord with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Clinton said she takes nothing for granted. But, she also declared that the nominee "will be me." In the interview, Clinton sounded like she really doesn't believe a rival can steal victory from her. She should believe it; her supporters do.

Yes. And everyone who is not a supporter prays fervently that they do.

Boston Globe Catching Up on Tavares Story

The Boston Globe newsroom is beginning to catch up to the Herald in reporting the Daniel Tavares case, but they aren't caught up yet.

Yesterday the Globe published the transcript of the hearing that resulted in Tavares’ release without bail. A valuable public service. Well done.

A column by Scott Lehigh quotes former Mass Attorney General Tom Reilly:

"I got notified [sic] by the State Police several months ago that Tavares had been released from prison and that he had threatened to kill me and Romney, and that he had my home address," Reilly told me. "The State Police sent me his photograph in case either I or my family saw him."

Mitt Romney's story is supported by a Democrat! Lehigh asks:

HAS EVERYONE on Beacon Hill fallen fast asleep?...we need something else that's been lacking: a real sense of urgency.

Tell the Globe newsroom, Scott.

Today’s Tavares story by Shelley Murphy and Megan Woolhouse is here:

Finally the Globe editorial page wrings its hands over the matter today:

A JUDGE'S decision to release Daniel Tavares from the Massachusetts prison system shouldn't be fodder for cheap shots among Republican presidential candidates, but it does point to systemic problems in a fragmented criminal justice system.

Problems indeed!

These problems are so serious that Massachusetts deserves its role as the state most reliably serving up “fodder for cheap shots among Republican presidential candidates”. How could they resist? It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. If the Globe wants them to stop making fun of the state, then Massachusetts should modify its behavior so that we no longer deserve the treatment.

Serve the Customer?

Jay Tea at Wizbang is a delightful Boston Globe critic and goes after Derrick Jackson for a column bemoaning the fact that Toyota makes not only the righteous Prius but also SUVs.

...the primary duty of a business -- the key to its survival, in fact -- is is offering people what they want. There's a term for businesses that actively choose to ignore that and instead offer people what the business thinks they need. It's called "failed."

Not surprising that this concept is unfathomable within the Globe Op Ed cloister, JT.

Report No Evil

Imagine newspapers reporting on the 1960s urban rioting in the US without even mentioning race. But today the International Herald Tribune reports on “Rampaging youths” in France in an article that has absolutely no mention of their religion or ethnicity, or of the ethnic and religious roots of their situation.

Do stories like this represent any kind of honest journalism?

UPDATE: The New York Times Company's flagship paper does exactly the same type of non-reporting as the IHT on the French riot in their story here.

UPDATE2: The Boston Globe's AP story today dares to dance a bit closer to the facts:

...the violence was a reminder of the tensions that drove weeks of unrest in 2005 in poor neighborhoods with large minority populations. Investigators were still trying to piece together what happened in the Sunday afternoon crash in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public housing blocks that is home to a mix of Arab, black, and white residents in the French capital's northern suburbs.

No New York Times company report is now using the "I-word" to describe this violence.

Is Martha Coakley Coming Unglued?

The lawyers among readers may be interested in this story on the prosecution of the company that sold less than $13,000 worth of glue to the $15,000,000,000 Big Dig project and is now the only company being prosecuted. Their lawyers will argue:

..at a Dec. 5 hearing that Coakley should not have gotten involved in the prosecution because her office had previously launched a civil case seeking millions in damages for the ceiling cave-in from Powers and other companies. Because she was also seeking civil damages, she could not be a "disinterested prosecutor," a right guaranteed by the US Constitution and federal and state law...

The fact of the Commonwealth is prosecuting a only glue vendor on a $15B project that employed professional engineers, contractors, quality control specialists, and consultants by the hundreds is inexplicable and repugnant.

Is it Bias or Experience?

In an editorial intemperately entitled “Smokescreen for antigay bias” in support of the “modest and reasonable” goals of the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Boston Globe editors pooh-pooh the concerns of some congressmen:

Inevitably, opponents also tried to suggest that the anti-discrimination bill would, by some feat of judicial-activist voodoo, lead to same-sex marriage.

Mock such fears of “judicial-activist voodoo” if you will, but it is a fact that the 1989 Massachusetts state gay anti-discrimination law was cited as the reason for the Goodrich decision by members of the Massachusetts SJC, despite numerous assurances of its modest and reasonable goals when it was proposed, including this one from the Boston Globe editorial page.

...it is sobering to realize how bitter a fight had to be waged to win so modest an array of rights. The bill does not legalize "gay marriage" or confer any right on homosexual, lesbian or unmarried heterosexual couples to "domestic benefits." Nor does passage of the bill put Massachusetts on a "slippery slope" toward such rights.

Good News from Iraq? Please Not NOW!

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has some fun noting the Democratic presidential candidates' present silence concerning the recent improvements in Iraq.

THE NEWS from Iraq has been so encouraging in recent months that last week even the mainstream media finally sat up and took notice. Can the Democratic Party be far behind?... can Democrats be so invested in defeat that they would abandon even a war that may be winnable? With developments in Iraq looking so hopeful, this is no time to cling to a counsel of despair.

They are too busy right now, Jeff, courting the netroots and Michael Moore Democrats for their primary votes. Once the nomination is settled, expect the winner’s vision to “grow”.

Globe Reporters AWOL from Tavares Story

The Boston Globe has badly neglected to report the story of accused murderer (and Massachusetts fugitive) Daniel Tavares. The Boston Herald reporters, on the other hand, seems to have at least assembled a few facts and relevant documents concerning why Tavares was released without bail in Massachusetts and what he was supposed to be doing while under the supervision of the Massachusetts Department of Probation.

The Globe website has 4 Tavares stories today, but 1 is from AP focused on the presidential primary campaign and 2 stories by Globe reporter Brian Mooney also focus on the Giuliani-Romney angle (here and here). The only other Globe report is a zero-content story from an “no comment” interview with judge Tuttman, who set Tavares free on personal recognizance.

No details of the process leading to Tavares’ release have been published in the Globe. One might suspect that the Globe reporters are researching their information by having it spoon-fed to them while riding on New Hampshire campaign buses. They could at least read other newspapers.

The Herald’s reporters, for example, have found and reported on documents and facts concerning the circumstances of Tavares’ release.

Michele McPhee and Jessica Van Sack Saturday November 24:

Tuttman is under fire for releasing Tavares, 41, who had just served 16 years for slashing his mother to death with a carving knife, over the objections of Worcester County prosecutors who warned her of his violent history.

“Not only did he just finish a manslaughter sentence . . . he had a robbery charge and he had an assault charge (before he killed his mother),” Worcester Assistant District Attorney William Loughlin said, according to a transcript of a bail review hearing in front of Tuttman on July 16 after Tavares was charged with assaulting two prison guards.

“So he has a history of crimes of violence, and he committed crimes of violence while he was even serving for a crime of violence,” Loughlin said. “High cash bails are needed.”

But Tuttman chose instead to overrule a District Court judge’s decision to hold Tavares on $50,000 cash bail and she set him free, saying it was unlikely the convicted killer “poses a flight risk.”

Prosecutors also asked Tuttman to put a monitoring bracelet on Tavares, citing his “significant history of violence,” but the judge refused to do that, too, according to the transcript.

“It is the Court’s view that Mr. Tavares has wrapped his sentence on the underlying offense,” Tuttman said from the bench. “He doesn’t have a history of any defaults on the record. And there is no indication . . . that he is a risk of flight, other than the nature and circumstances of the charges.”

Those charges included accusations that Tavares, using a cast on his arm, punched a correction officer and spit on another prison guard while snarling: “I’m going to kill you, (expletive)! I’ll break your (expletive) arms off!”according to court records.

Tuttman ordered that Tavares be put under the supervision of the Department of Probation, which required him to check in with a probation officer three times a week, maintain employment as a welder and live with a sister in Dighton.

Yesterday, probation spokeswoman Coria Holland refused to say if Tavares fulfilled any of his court-ordered obligations. Tavares failed to show up in court on July 23. He moved to Washington to marry his pen pal, Jennifer Freitas, who began writing to the con after answering his personal ad on www.inmate.com.

Tavares confessed to murdering Beverly and Brian Mauck in the newlyweds’ home on Saturday with a .22-caliber gun he wrapped in a towel, according to Washington court records.

Also Michele McPhee Saturday November 24:

Tavares, neighbors said, told a tale about killing his mother during an argument over his daughter being molested. It is unclear if Tavares has a daughter, but he does refer to one in a series of threatening missives, reviewed by the Herald, that he sent to his father from jail.

Michele McPhee and Jessica Van Sack on November 22:

As part of the conditions for his release, he was ordered to report to a probation officer and work at a company called Davon Steel, said Probation Department spokeswoman Coria Holland.

Holland refused to answer if he checked in with the probation office, and no record of Davon Steel could be found last night.

Even Tavares’ court-appointed-attorney, Eugene Lumelsky of Shrewsbury, questioned Tuttman’s decision. He had asked Clinton District Court Judge Martha Brennan for $10,000 after she originally held Tavares on $50,000.

“They shouldn’t have done something like that,” Lumelsky said. “I’ve never seen anything like $50,000 to personal recognizance.”

Herald Columnist Margery Eagan sums up the question well Sunday:

Under terms of his probation, Tavares was required to check in three times per week and live with a sister in Dighton. Obviously, he wasn’t in Dighton. Probation will not say whether he fulfilled its other requirement, though we do know he failed to show up in court barely a week after his release. We do know that failure to show up generally results in a warrant issued. We do know that quite regularly in this huge, dysfunctional system there are thousands of outstanding warrants for criminals who have also failed to show up, but nobody’s looking for them, either.

CORRECTION: I said there was nothing in the Globe about the release of Tavares. Actually next to nothing is correct. Yesterday's Globe had a story with this:

Tavares was three days away from his release date on his sentence for killing his mother when he appeared before Tuttman on June 11, charged with assaulting correction officers, said his lawyer, Eugene Lumelsky of Lawrence. Prosecutors asked Tuttman to hold the convict on $50,000 bail for each of the two charges, and Lumelsky requested about $5,000 bail, he said. In July, Tuttman released Tavares on his own personal recognizance.

"I'm stumped," Lumelsky said yesterday of Tuttman's decision.

Tavares fled and turned up next in Washington, where he lived with a woman he had met online while behind bars. The Massachusetts State Police suspected that Tavares was in Washington state and warned Romney to be on the lookout for Tavares when he campaigned in Seattle on Monday, Fehrnstrom said. About the same time, Tavares was arrested on charges of killing the Maucks.

Regardless, the Herald has done more and better reporting on this matter than has the Globe, despite (or perhaps because of) the Globe's "above the tabloids" manner.

Blow Up Your TV

Scott Lehigh pens an anti-TV column in the Boston Globe today. He recalls on a cab driver in Hawaii who had given up TV for the Internet:

And not just as an idle browser. He frequently posted under a nom de plume on a leading conservative site, whose readers, if you run afoul of their cherished tenets, will take you to task in the sort of language an 18th-century squire might have employed in challenging you to a duel. Yet I would count that transition from passive TV viewer to active Web poster as distinct progress…..there's very little on TV that can compare with the pleasures of a good book, or time devoted to a hobby, or stimulating conversation or doing something active…So try it for a week. Or even just for a couple of nights. Switch the set off. Stop watching. Start living.

Sound advice. Network TV does for the mind what smoking does for respiration. The providers of the product promote and profit while their customers slowly and willingly damage themselves in exchange for a short-term pleasure. But unlike the tobacco industry, the concentrated ownership of media content has been unwinding at an increasing rate since the web came to be. In 10 or 20 years there will simply be no network TV, but in its place millions of online media streams that consumers will choose at will.

John Prine was right, way back in the 1970s!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Jane Christo: Still Spinning the News

A recent correction in the Boston Globe concerns Jane Christo, who for years reigned as führer at local PBS affiliate radio station WBUR. The Globe’s Names column somehow swallowed the heavy spin put on this story by their source:

Here is the November 3 ‘Names’ item:

Christo honored

At least someone appreciates Jane Christo's efforts on behalf of Albania. The former general manager of WBUR was recently awarded the "medal of gratitude" by Albanian president Alfred Moisiu, who commended Christo for training Albanian journalists and her "professional assistance in organizing the free press of Albania." Ironically, after Christo stepped down as the radio station's GM in 2004, BU said it was investigating whether Christo padded the 'BUR payroll with patronage hires, including more than a dozen employees from Albania. How did we hear about the award? From Christo's husband, Van, president of the Frosina Information Network, a cultural and information resource for - who else? - Albanian immigrants.

And the November 21 correction:

Correction: Because of a reporting error, an item in the Nov. 3 Names column misstated when Boston University began investigating allegations of wrongdoing at WBUR. The investigation began before Jane Christo resigned as WBUR's general manager in 2004.

Late Night Holiday Humor

Blogger Professor Richard Landes asks a perceptive question:

Assuming the allegations in the New York Times article are true, what is more disturbing- that the AP would be so careless with their background checking that they would employ Mr. Hussein, or that the work of an Iraqi insurgent does not immediately stand out among AP’s other reports?

“Mass Killer” Was Actually AWOL from Mass Parole

The headline of a grim story on page B6 of today’s Boston Globe reads:

Mass. killer is charged in deaths

These deaths were the execution-style murders last Saturday of a newlywed couple in Washington State. But you have to read 2/3 of the way through the article to learn (by implication) that Daniel Thomas Tavares was actually on parole from Massachusetts:

Daniel Tavares, who was released from prison this summer, also is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. He was forbidden to have a gun as a condition of his parole. He served 16 years in Massachusetts for manslaughter in the 1991 stabbing death of his mother.

Tavares had skipped parole when released in Massachusetts this summer. The Herald story on the murder provides these details:

Tavares finished his sentence on June 14, but was immediately re-arrested on a warrant charging him with two counts of assaulting Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center prison guards during his troubled stint behind bars, Department of Correction officials said.

Worcester prosecutors requested $50,000 cash bail for each of those charges, an amount approved by Clinton District Court Judge Martha Brennan, according to court documents.

But Tavares appealed the bail and on July 16, Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman released him on personal recognizance. Tavares was freed and fled the state to marry and live in a Washington trailer with Jennifer Lynn Tavares, who met the convict at Walpole after answering an inmate personal ad. He defaulted on a July 23 court date, prosecutors said.

Personal recognizance is clearly not a concept Mr. Tavares respected. One week after his release he reneged.

So chalk up another two violent deaths for our permissive and inept criminal justice system, and one more story you’d never know about if you only read the Boston Globe.

Christmas Comes Early -- Swift Boat Stories Return

A return of the Swift Boats? Is it Christmas already for John Kerry’s opponents?

The Boston Globe reports:

T. Boone Pickens, a Texas financier who helped to fund the original Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, offered $1 million to anyone who could prove that any of the group's assertions were wrong. Kerry accepted the challenge last week.

No doubt the Globe’s Editorial Board can once again ride to the rescue of our Junior Senator, as they opined 3 years ago at the height of the 2004 campaign:

AN ANGRY group of swift boat veterans has vowed to continue airing its odious ads attacking John Kerry's military service even after many of its claims have been discredited.

This blog has noted many times the fact that press accounts carry a mantra-like description of the Swift Boat charges as “discredited”, but never report what the claims actually are and how they have been “discredited”.

See for example this post on April 21, 2007 (with a link to a more complete story), or these others:

February 20, 2007
November 2, 2006
November 15, 2004
August 15, 2004

Perhaps the first question we could ask the senator is where Kerry spent that Christmas? Vietnam or Cambodia?

By the way, Boone Pickens is not best described as a financier. He engages in what Texans call the “Awhl Bidness”.

Details, Details

From the Boston Globe corrections page:

An item in the This Day in History feature in Saturday's Sidekick referred to the dedication of the Iwo Jima Memorial in 1954. The monument, which depicts a significant battle in World War II, is the Marine Corps War Memorial, honoring Marines who have died in defense of the country throughout history.

Perhaps they were confused by a recent proposal for a similar "Iraq Memorial"

Some Mass Drivers are Indeed "Special"

Massachusetts auto insurers have announced new rate structures now allowed under the Patrick administration’s move toward “managed competition”. The average state insurance rate will drop by 7.7%, but what we are really seeing here is the gradual unwinding of subsidies imposed during 30 years of government price control. And (of course) we also observe a rebirth of marketing and promotion in auto insurance.

Arbella Mutual Insurance Co. of Quincy, the state's third-largest automobile insurer, said it broke its customers down into five groups: safest, good, careful, standard, and special. A company spokesman said those defined as the safest drivers would receive an average rate reduction of 19.4 percent next year, while good drivers and careful drivers would receive average reductions of 14.5 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. The Arbella spokesman said standard and special drivers would receive average rate increases of 4.7 percent and 8.3 percent, respectively.

Arbella calls their highest risk customers “special”. How very sweet. Most other people probably just call them “Massholes”.

Note also that Arbella’s average customer will see a price decline of only 6.2% according to the Globe’s graphic. But the lowest risk group sees their premium drop by over 3 times that amount.

I wonder if they offer a discount to drivers who use their turn signals?

A well written story (as usual) by the Globe’s Bruce Mohl.

Questions of Fact, Not Women's Experiences

It had to happen eventually. Today in her Boston Globe Op Ed guest column Anita Hill writes on the 16^th anniversary of the 1991 confirmation hearing that defined the practice Democrats now call “the politics of personal destruction”. Awkwardly, Hill assumes rather than explicitly claims that her testimony was true, but instead writes about its historical significance for women:

As the hearing opened, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Joseph Biden, declared: "This is not a hearing about the extent and nature of sexual harassment in America." It is convened "to air specific allegations against one specific individual." Yet, from day one, for many women and men, the hearing was a test of whether elected public officials understood not just my experience but the experiences of working women throughout the country.

No, Ms. Hill.

The hearing was not a test of whether public officials “understood your experience” but an examination of whether or not you were telling the truth.

“Perjurer” is now the politest possible term for Hill, in my judgment.

PC Sports Coverage

Boston Sports Media Watch notes that a Boston Globe sports article yesterday used the term “gypped” in early print editions. The word was later replaced with “short-changed”. This is a less accurate word in the context of the story, but one without an ethnic etymology. The online dictionary does not note any vulgarity for the term “gyp”.

It must be difficult for them to keep up with the cutting edge political correctness of the Globe style guide!

What Really Matters Over at Massport

Sorry, folks, I found the Boston Globe a boring read today. Didn’t find any howlers, though. Let’s give credit to the folks on Morrissey Boulevard for making one day's paper a howler-free zone. If they keep it up, this blog is out of material. No worries.

There was one delicious tidbit of purest folly from a reliable source of this -- Massport. Since next week brings the Thanksgiving travel crush:

Massport is trying to keep travelers from being stressed out while traveling to and from Logan. Its board voted yesterday to charge economy-lot parking rates for the 14,100 spaces in the more expensive airport garages that are closer to the terminals, offering each driver a $6 daily savings. The $18-per-day economy rate will apply to the Central Parking Garage, Terminal B Garage, or Terminal E parking lots between 3 a.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. the following Sunday.

Massport is discounting the price of a scarce resource at the exact time when demand is highest. The parking lots would be 100% full regardless, even if Massport charged their normal price. So this 6-day discount is senseless from a fiduciary standpoint, an economic resource allocation standpoint, and a customer convenience standpoint. It is just done for public relations.

That speaks volumes about the priorities at Massport.

Is AP the Bearer of Bad News?

After reading “Bunker Hillary” it seems somebody should study which Boston Globe stories about Hillary are written by Globe staff reporters vs. AP reporters. It seems to me that the AP stories are the ones that report bad news for Clinton.

Today’s AP story is no exception. Governor Spitzer has withdrawn his licenses-for-immigrants plan, but not too early for the topic to go away.

Spitzer: "The federal government has lost control of its borders... and now has no solution to deal with it…"

Clinton: "I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

“Undocumented people”. Note the new euphemism for the word immigrant.

Life indeed imitates Scrappleface.

Conveniently, the 2008 election is a whole a year away. Candidates still have plenty of time to discuss the specifics of “comprehensive immigration reform”.

Discussing the specifics of this issue will be very uncomfortable for the mommy party, regardless of who is their presidential candidate.

Finally…He’s BACK! The aptly named Mr. Dan Payne returns the Globe Op Ed page today:

Shrinkage. After running a much-admired, bloodless, Brinks truck of a campaign, Hillary's lead is shrinking. Because Bill is the Clinton who Democrats love, her campaign sent him out to spank her primary opponents. He went overboard, warning that they were making Democrats "vulnerable to a Swift-boat kind of ad." If the shrinkage continues, Bill might get medieval on her critics. He does, after all, owe her.

Thank you for sharing, Dan.

Press Stays in Hillary's Bunker

Today’s must-read story is found on TNR where Michael Crowley yesterday published an article (“Bunker Hillary”) discussing how the Clinton campaign plays Dominatrix to the campaign press corps assigned to report on it.

The press certainly responds to the rough treatment, though. Here is a howler from today’s Boston Globe story on Hillary (“Democratic rivals take aim at the Clinton years”), emphasis mine:

She is also more frequently dispatching the former president as her chief surrogate on the stump, with solo appearances by Bill Clinton in Iowa last Thursday, South Carolina on Monday, and New Hampshire this Friday.

While offering generous praise, as other candidates' spouses typically do, he has also been noticeably vocal in defending her against a succession of attacks since her stumble in the Oct. 30 debate.

"Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it," he told college students in South Carolina.

Just like any other candidate’s spouse. How touching.

How contrived.

Bay State Clergyman Performs Polygamous Marriage

Blogger Miss Kelly reports that a Massachusetts clergyman has already performed plural marriages in the Bay State. The reason for the disclosure is that one of the blissful fivesome is unhappy and is now seeking divorce.

Not to worry, though. In this case the clergyman and the polygamists are followers of Islam. So as our legislators showed us earlier this year, it is shortsighted for the Commonwealth to impose one value system on everybody, and these laws restricting legal marriage to a monogamous form need to become more inclusive. We don’t want to send anybody to jail over this, do we?

Miss Kelly’s original post is here.

Updates here and here.

It may be a while before you read about this in the Globe.

The UnClinton

A Boston Globe story headlined “Methodical style sets Romney apart from GOP rivals” begins this way:

Mitt Romney made millions in business with meticulous planning, serious salesmanship, and shrewd execution. As a candidate for president, he is applying the same techniques, courting voters with a tightly mapped strategy that governs nearly every step of his campaign.

"Methodical"? In business you call this strategy plus execution. Which may be just how Mitt is…and how he would act as president.

Mitt may be a centrist, like our 42^nd president, but temperamentally Mitt Romney is the UnClinton.

Pope Misses Hub!

Only in the Boston Globe could a headline read:

Pope will bypass Boston in US visit

Instead Benedict XVI will visit the villages of New Amsterdam and Tidewater.

Canellos Sees No Forest, Only Trees

Boston Globe Washington Bureau chief and political analyst Peter Canellos writes:

No candidate in recent memory has embodied the deepest hopes of so many Democrats. Yet it's hard for some to watch the Illinois senator without also thinking of their fears - the fear, frankly, that Obama is too vulnerable to Republican attacks to be a safe choice for his party's nomination.

By all means, Peter! Stick with a well-liked candidate whose record could not possibly become grist for Republican attacks – like Hillary Clinton.

Heh.

Do otherwise sane Democrats simply lose their powers of reason on a 4 year cycle?

Saving Metco from its Racial Quota System

Author Richard D. Kahlenberg writes on METCO in the Boston Globe Op Ed page:

It was breathtaking, therefore, to read that the Massachusetts Department of Education has declared Metco to be perfectly legal, requiring no changes to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Agree or disagree with the Supreme Court decision - and I disagree - Metco's program does precisely what Kennedy's opinion forbids. The Metco program sorts individual students by race. It has not explored race-neutral alternatives. And it doesn't use race merely as a factor; it provides an absolute bar to white students.

Breathtaking indeed, as this blog noted earlier Metco’s purely racial quota system:

70% African Americans
20% Latinos
10% Asians
0% Whites

The Deval Patrick administration sees no problem with this. Kahlenberg is worried Metco will be sued in court for racial discrimination. His is imperfect contrition, but better than Deval has shown. Neither Kahlenberg nor Deval is inherently troubled by racial quotas.

Another Boston Globe Employee Buyout?

I have received a single bit (literally one bit) of evidence that there are rumors on Morrissey Boulevard of another Boston Globe employee buyout in the offing for the 1^st quarter of 2008.

The previous buyout offer was announced at the end of this fiscal year in March. Is the Globe planning to reduce headcount once again before a new fiscal years starts? I’m an outsider and don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.

Or maybe the Herald can find out and report.

Saturday Fun - "Stone Age Feminism"

The Boston Globe has some Saturday fun by baiting feminists on its front page. Colin Nickerson reports on a new hypothesis for the pre-historic extinction of the Neanderthals:

But a recent study introduces another explanation: Stone Age feminism. Among Neanderthals, hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's, so it's a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency. And a high casualty rate among fertile women - the vital "reproductive core" of a tiny population - could well have meant demographic disaster…

"All elements of [Neanderthal] society appear to have been involved in the main subsistence pursuit" of hunting large animals, Kuhn said. "There's not much evidence of classic female roles. "Putting the reproductive core of the population - pregnant women, mothers of infants, children themselves - at such danger could have put Neanderthals as a whole at serious demographic disadvantage," he said.

Unlike the Neanderthals, Homo Sapiens has developed a diverse set of cultures, many of which regard the tenets of feminism as strange, laughable or absurd. So while feminism might threaten the extinction of certain cultures, it does not threaten Homo Sapiens as a species.

Casino Deval Part 14: State Monopoly Rights

Deval Patrick’s gambling proposal would criminalize all Internet gambling by Massachusetts citizens, except for games run by state-licensed casinos. Today’s Boston Globe reports:

Patrick's provision, which is described in three paragraphs of the bill, applies to anyone in Massachusetts who places or receives a wager of any type using a telephone, cellphone, Internet, or local wireless networks. It also applies to anyone who knowingly installs equipment for transmitting wagers. The provision also specifically exempts the proposed casinos from the law.

This provision stinks to the outspoken and candid Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA):

"I believe in personal liberty," Frank said. "Adults should be able to do what they want. I wish my fellow liberals would not be so inconsistent on this issue."

Deval’s inconsistency on this issue has nothing to do with liberalism. It results from his objective to expand state spending as much as possible without increasing taxes. State revenue maximization requires this monopolistic behavior by the state. Personal liberties are far less important to our Governor.

You Expected Good Service for $500M?

The Boston Globe editorial page complains today that the new $500M Greenbush commuter rail line makes only 2 stops each morning at the JFK/UMass Boston stop which (they admit) is right next to the Globe.

Welcome to the T, folks, and to its legendary quality of service. Never mind the schedule. You are lucky just to find an empty parking place at your commuter rail station.

"Steps have been taken"

On page B1 of today’s Boston Globe, we read that a Patrick Administration official pressured Republican appointees to resign early in an attempt to gain control of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency.

[Housing and Economic Development Secretary] O'Connell said "steps have been taken to ensure protocols are followed in the future," but he refused to detail those steps…No apology was forthcoming yesterday, and the governor's office did not comment.

Together We Can intimidate.

And do you suppose such a story would make the Globe’s front page if Mitt Romney’s administration had done this? As did the all-important story about the employment choices of the groundskeeping company Mitt had hired for his home?

Could You Please Explain?

A Boston Globe editorial today complains about the looming relaxation of auto insurance regulations but is utterly silent about why the Globe editors believe Massachusetts should subsidize both auto ownership and public transportation for young urbanites.

It's the Border, Stupid!

This quote astounds me:

"The debate to date has been a debate about corporate interests, ag (agriculture), the tourist industry and advocates of immigrants," he said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "This is a debate in which the rest of America is left out. This is a values issue. How does a superpower not have control over its border? You have to enforce the rule of law as it relates to the border and you have to enforce the rule of law as it relates to benefits. Then the American people will be open to resolving the issue as it relates to what industry needs and what immigrant advocates need."

What is astounding is its source. It is from an interview with Representative Rahm Emanuel, (D-IL), Chairman of the House Democratic caucus, as reported by liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Emmanuel was finance director for the 1992 Clinton campaign and a West Wing consigliore for both terms of the Clinton administration. Rahm is to the Democratic House what Newt Gingrich was to the insurgent Republicans in the past. He is just as focused, but with better personal, organizational, financial, and political skills.

Emmanuel gets it.

Immigration will be the critical values issue of the 2008 election unless Iraq either explodes again into large scale violence or breaks into singing Kumbaya as a nation.

The pith of the issue, though, is not illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a consequence of our porous border which has remained in that condition for years because it has not been a priority to the political class of either party. Yet the illegal immigration that results has now made immigration and the border an issue of “law n’ order” (as George Wallace called them in 1968) that resonates deeply among swing voters and segments of both parties.

The famous sign that hung on the wall in the 1992 Clinton campaign War Room read “It’s the economy, stupid!”. The candidate who wins the next presidential election will hang a sign that reads “It’s the border, stupid!” Of course no candidate from either party will stand for a policy of a porous border. But the successful candidate will articulate a clear strategy for securing the border, stopping illegal immigration, and dealing with illegal immigrants – in that order, as Emmanuel suggests. That strategy will be specific and measurable. The candidate will promise to be held accountable for its implementation. And the strategy will have enough credibility to shift most law n’ order votes to his (or her) side and thus away from other candidates with less credible “strong border” strategies.

That is why Hillary Clinton’s continuing equivocations on questions about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants have become important in the campaign. If you don’t believe me, then go back up and re-read what Rahm said one more time.

Slick Hilly

From an interview of Hillary Clinton by CNN’s Candy Crowley yesterday afternoon:

CROWLEY: Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, you have said you broadly support what the governors are doing. Let me narrow that question down. If I wrote a story that said: "Absent a broad illegal immigration bill, Hillary Clinton agrees about giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants," is that correct?

CLINTON: No. What I have said is that I support what governors are trying to do. And governors are on the front lines because of the failures to get comprehensive immigration reform.

There are already eight states that issues driver's licenses without any verification of citizenship. That is a decision that the governors and legislatures and the people of those states have made. I understand ...

CROWLEY: But you see why people think ...

CLINTON: Well, but you know, Candy...

CROWLEY: ... that you are not answering the question.

Exactly as this blog predicted last Friday when the Clinton campaign issued a so-called clarification after the debate.

The Latest Fashion in Dictators

I’m skipping the Globe today.

It’s too depressing a prospect to read the Boston Globe Op Ed page after reading a writer-thinker-columnist the caliber of Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post. Why can’t the New York Times Corporation bankroll one or two Anne Applebaums? It might slow down their circulation decline.

In her WaPo column yesterday (“The New Fellow Travelers”) Applebaum observes the 90^th anniversary of the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The enthusiasm of the American left for the 1917 Russian Revolution has faded (very gradually) since then. But just as John Reed breathlessly praised the Russian Revolution, left-leaning Hollywood celebrities are still making fawning photo-op visits to whatever anti-American tyrant is currently in fashion (as Venezuela’s Chavez is now). The mantle of fashion has been passed over time to Chavez from the likes of Saddam Hussein, Daniel Ortega, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Mao, Stalin, and Reed’s hero, Lenin.

Anne writes:

Just as the sympathetic foreigners whom Lenin called "useful idiots" once supported Russia abroad, their modern equivalents provide the Venezuelan president with legitimacy, attention and good photographs. He, in turn, helps them overcome the frustration Reed once felt -- the frustration of living in an annoyingly unrevolutionary country where people have to change things by law.

This feeling of frustration with well being is one that Robert Frost skewered with satire in his 1922 poem, “New Hampshire”

The glorious bards of Massachusetts seem
To want to make New Hampshire people over.
They taunt the lofty land with little men.
I don't know what to say about the people.
For art's sake one could almost wish them worse
Rather than better. How are we to write
The Russian novel in America
As long as life goes so unterribly?
There is the pinch from which our only outcry
In literature to date is heard to come.
We get what little misery we can
Out of not having cause for misery.
It makes the guild of novel writers sick
To be expected to be Dostoievskis
On nothing worse than too much luck and comfort.
This is not sorrow, though; it's just the vapors,
And recognized as such in Russia itself
Under the new regime, and so forbidden.
If well it is with Russia, then feel free
To say so or be stood against the wall
And shot. It's Pollyanna now or death.
This, then, is the new freedom we hear tell of;
And very sensible. No state can build
A literature that shall at once be sound
And sad on a foundation of well-being

This spectacle which today manifests itself as a celebrity sharing a photo opportunity with a fresh new dictator is nothing new. Though more visual and less verbal than it once was, it is every bit as foolish and naïve as John Reed’s gushing over Lenin’s revolution turned out to be.

0% Quota for Whites is OK With Deval

METCO is a 40 year old program that places inner city students in suburban Massachusetts schools, and has a waiting list of 15,000 students competing for 450 openings per year. METCO uses a quota system to allocate places in the program. Here is the formula used:

70% African Americans
20% Latinos
10% Asians
0% Whites

According to a story in today’s Boston Globe, Rhoda Schneider, general counsel to the Massachusetts Department of Education said yesterday that in her opinion METCO’s racial criteria do not violate recent US Supreme Court rulings. Governor Patrick (in a statement not available on the web) agreed.

It seems their message to poor white people is that they should not “try to go where they aren’t wanted”. Your quota is 0%, Whitey. You gotta problem with that, boy?

By the way, don’t call this quota names like "Apartheid". Today’s term for this behavior is “progressivism”. It is purest racial discrimination, but now done in pursuit of a higher social good.

Hat Tip: Deval Patrick Watch

UPDATE: Here is some text from the US Supreme Court decision that Schneider and Patrick could see no conflict with:

"To the extent the objective is sufficient diversity so that students see fellow students as individuals rather than solely as members of a racial group, using means that treat students solely as members of a racial group is fundamentally at cross-purposes with that end...The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race"

Peter Canellos is Iowa Dreaming

Boston Globe’s Peter Cannellos delivers another imaginative political analysis. Speaking of the 2004 presidential campaign in Iowa, he blames Dick Gephardt’s negative campaigning not only for the meltdown of Howard Dean’s campaign, but for Gephardt’s failure to advance. Who knew?

But in the process of taking down Dean, Gephardt shattered what was most attractive about his own candidacy - that sense of maturity and measured judgment - and plunged to the bottom of the pack…Gephardt, who was much closer to Kerry, was apparently too tainted by his negative campaigning.

A simpler explanation is that Gephardt was never considered a first choice by most voters. My impression of Gephardt is of a vain perennial on the presidential campaign scene, despite a chronic lack of encouragement from primary voters. Think of Joe Biden and you get the picture.

But Canellos keeps digging:

There are many reasons to believe that Clinton won't collapse like Dean.

And also many reasons unmentioned here to believe that "Her Inevitableness" just might.

She's a far more disciplined candidate. And unlike Dean, who was a new face to most voters, Clinton is the best-known person in the Democratic field. Her supporters seem to know what they're getting.

Yes, supporters and detractors alike know what we’d be getting. A candidate with none of her husband’s charm but all of his honesty. We’d also be getting political pragmatism as the sole and highest value, and a candidate whose statements require more careful parsing than Pravda did in its heyday. It’s 1992 all over again, but this time there is an Internet that talks back. Media infatuation with the Clintons, though it still exists, will not be a sufficient shield for them in 2008.

But if she falters, Obama - not Edwards - is the most likely to benefit.

That would benefit the Democrats, I say, speaking as a stubbornly registered Republican.

Long Distance Hurling

Stan Abrams, a US ex-pat working for 8 years in Beijing hurls while reading the cliched H.D.S. Greenway column about China in today's Boston Globe.

If I read the words "coming-out party" one more time within the context of the Olympics, I might hurl. Seriously.

We also find out that China . . .(are you ready?) . . . is purchasing commodities from Africa! What a freakin’ scoop that is, eh?

Greenway is always insufferable. Today he concludes his column with this breathtaking pooh-pooh of human aspirations for freedom and democracy:

Chinese wonder at the Bush administration's zeal to promote democracy, even by force - prompting a Chinese friend to say that there were only four ideology-driven countries left in the world: Cuba, North Korea, perhaps Iran, and the United States. Desire for a more representational form of government may still beat in China's breast, but for the moment China's energies are concentrated on catching mice.

FDR and Churchill were also zealous promoters of democracy, even by force. And prisoners in the Gulag were always busy catching mice, too...not as Mao would have it (see Greenway's column regarding mouse-catching) but simply so that their starvation diet would include some meat.

Boston Globe Loses 6.5% Circulation in 1 Year

From Editor and Publisher, here are the latest Boston Globe circulation numbers and the numbers from six months ago:

Daily Paid Circulation -- 360,695 -- 386,417 – (-6.66%)
Sunday Paid Circulation -- 548,906 -- 587,289 – (-6.54%)

In the aggregate results for the 690 largest newspapers daily circulation was down 2.5% and Sunday down 3.5%.

The Globe has lost 6.5% of its circulation in just the last 6 months, but some parties on Morrissey Boulevard may still feel righteous about continuing to antagonize conservative readers. Surely it does not bother Pinch Sulzberger.

CORRECION: Ooops. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago, not 6 months. Sorry.

Boston Globe Adopts New Web Design

Not much news to report in Monday’s Boston Globe, save for the sports page.

Gay rights lobby Mass Equality is now targeting provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and is recruiting plaintiffs, though they are supposedly undecided about whether to lobby Congress or sue in federal court.

Also Globe guest columnist Anita Hill dumps on affirmative action foe Ward Connerly (who is the driver behind multiple state ballot initiative wins for the concept of color-blind law). Maybe the Globe should run columns by Anita Hill and Sandy Berger on the same day and designate it as a “Liar Rehabilitation Day”.

The biggest change in the Globe is that today the web version of the Globe is switching to a newer, whiter story template (above). The template is prettier, and my only beef is that it lacks the “single page” version of the story, which is what this blog usually links to. No big deal.

Hillary's Thin Skin

Boston Globe reporter Scott Hellman on Hillary’s thin skin:

"It gets tiresome after a while," says Paul Pezzella, a Massachusetts political operative who is a veteran of four presidential campaigns - and a Clinton supporter. "Campaigns are all about drawing distinctions. That's completely legitimate."

What's more, that stratagem contradicts a central part of Clinton's own message: The notion that she is a battle-tested veteran ready for anything the Republicans can throw at her. If so, she should prove it by engaging with her rivals and defending her positions…

Or by actually taking some positions.

Avoidance of clear language is a trait shared by both Clintons. Even Clinton’s supposedly clarifying “endorsement” yesterday of the Spitzer plan did not explicitly declare her support of the plan, but instead expresses support for Spitzer:

“Senator Clinton supports governors like Governor Spitzer who believe they need such a measure to deal with the crisis caused by this administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform,’”

Police for Free

Today’s Boston Globe article reporting that Governor Patrick will consider using contracted flagmen instead of police officers at highway construction sites lacks the clear reporting of an AP story the Globe ran yesterday:

The state's detail system has been a political hot potato in the past. While the state does not have a law requiring police officers to guard road construction sites, police unions have held a stranglehold on the jobs because of their lucrative nature.

Unions argue that communities get an expanded police force for free, since utility companies and private contractors pay the detail fees on their projects. But critics note that utilities and contractors pass on that cost to consumers.

Et tu, Kerry?

John Kerry:

"The presidency is largely about character. It has to be influenced by your value system and beliefs."

Is even John Kerry engaging in “the politics of piling on”?

The Immigrants Formerly Known as Undocumented

Advocating issuance of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, the Boston Globe editorial board further obscures their legal status:

But state action will never suffice. The federal government has to craft a policy that creates more paths to legalization so that the formerly undocumented can get licenses.

In what sense are these folks “formerly undocumented”?

Hillary's not hedging. She's "preserving her options".

Boston Globe reporter Marcella Bombardieri performs the Globe’s Hillary-coddling role today in a front page article headlined “Clinton careful to preserve options”. She writes:

Yet a closer look reveals one thing Clinton has been quite explicit about - that as she campaigns, she is being careful to preserve her options as president if she goes on to win. While her speeches, debate performances, and policy prescriptions often feature hedging, Clinton has been startlingly straightforward about her refusal to be pinned down.

Again the generous Clinton personality comes through. Hillary is being evasive so she can help us even more when she gets power. Doubtless that goes double “for the children”.

If Pravda say so, it must be true. All hail!

Casino Deval Part 13: Casinos Have Social Benefits!

From today’s Boston Globe casino story:

"Gambling and other forms of entertainment associated with resort casinos can also provide social benefits associated with increased social stimulation and reduction of isolation," particularly among the elderly, [Health and Human Services Secretary Judy Ann Bigby] said.

Anyone who has watched seniors hypnotically feed quarter and nickel slots can testify to the truth content here.