Dorchester Day Signs

This Sunday I was down at the beginning of the Dorchester Day Parade, with floats from all of Boston's communities, from lion dancers to ragtime bands. Along the parade route I noticed tons of Michael Flaherty and Mayor Menino signs, but none from any of the other candidates. That's strange, because on Friday night into Saturday there was a broad array of signs up. Could it be that supporters of Flaherty and Menino went around tearing down signs? Would they do such a thing?

Maybe the signs just walked away on their own.

The Life and Times of the Mass Dems Blog

Blue Mass Group notes that the Mass Dems blog isn't doing so well lately, and postulates it may have something to the discontent about the convention, wondering about the cryptic last post on the blog.

I believe that there is a bit of confusion and disorder about what to do with bloggery and this wild two-way communication phenomenon, but another large element is that Charles Fisher, the tech guru they hired and who set up the blog, has taken a leave of absence from the MDP. Don't worry--he's staying involved in Massachusetts Democratic politics.

More later....

Menino, Mayor of Miami?

I'm starting to detect a trend here in the election-year initiatives Menino is latching onto as he trundles toward yet another term: an obsession with sun, sand, and sea. As the Globe reported today,

In a move his election rival described as a bid for the ''poolside vote," Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced yesterday that the city will dramatically speed up the approval process for residents who want to add swimming pools, patio decks, or garden sheds to their properties this summer.

I see this connected to another one of Menino's one-time-only city improvement iniatives, his hiring of 55 sweepers in April to clear out the sand deposited on the city during the snow season. Where did all that sand go?

Methinks Tom is planning to announce the formation of the Seascape Urban Renewal Force (SURF), to which any homeowner can apply for the rapid installation of pool, wave machine, and beach-like landscaping.

DFA Boston rocks the house

The meetup on Wednesday was great--the trailer for Wal-Mart: The Movie spurred a lot of great discussion and Susan Passoni, District 2 City Council candidate, was well received. Lee Mintz talked about the history of tribulations at Democratic State Conventions past, Cos presented the Civil Liberties resolution effort organized by the ACLU, and Jennifer previewed DemocracyFest in Austin, TX.

Then, tomorrow Jim Dean will be in town for what will certainly be a great party and Saturday will be the statewide organizing conference for DFA-Massachusetts. Whew!

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

Robert Greenwald, the director of the 2004 guerilla documentaries Outfoxed (about FOX News) and Uncovered (about the Iraq war) is setting his sights on what might be the biggest target: Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price looks at the company with 1.5 million workers, 3500 stores, and $10 billion in net profits.

Greenwald is profiled in the New York Times in Taking on a Giant (Whistleblowers Welcome). The making and distribution of this film is unusual, if not unique; it's being shown in November in homes, churches, and local businesses across the country on DVD, organized by a coalition of groups including CLUE, AAMIA, Interfaith Worker Justice, Sojourners, MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats of America, Campaign for America's Future, the National Education Association, the Sierra Club, Business Ethics Network, Americans for Health Care, Global Exchange, SEIU, UFCW (with the Wake Up Wal-Mart campaign), ACORN, LAANE, the Petroleum Manufacturers Association of America, and the American Independent Business Association.

Mumbling Along

The Boston Phoenix points us to The Official Mumbles Menino Website, the meanspirited Howie Carr's online paean to Boston's famously mealy-mouthed mayor. The Menino campaign registered a number of variants of "mumblemenino.com" but failed to register http://www.mumblesmenino.us, so Howie stepped in with his collection of Menino mumblings.

The Menino Machine Marches On

Menino is certainly a master of city machine politics.

The Globe reports:

Payroll records show that 187 city workers, including the heads of Property Management and of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, plus most of the Neighborhood Services department, took a one-day vacation on May 3, a Tuesday and the first day to gather signatures for the mayor's race. Ditto for 30 employees at the Boston Water and Sewer Commission....

''Those who are there want to be there," said Janine Coppola, who spent most of May 3 canvassing in the North End.

For her part, Coppola said there wasn't anywhere else she'd rather be vacationing. ''We have a good mayor," she said. ''I want to make sure I do my part to keep a good mayor in office."

Some departments were affected more than others. Nine of 24 employees in the mayor's office were out. Four of the eight employees of the Small & Local Business Enterprise Office, including its director, took vacation, while one of two employees of the Women's Commission was gone. Seventeen of 22 employees at the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services took vacation time.

The city's director of Human Resources said every employee is entitled to take earned vacation days with the approval of their manager or department head, who are required to keep sufficient staff in the offices. ''To my knowledge, no city services were affected," Vivian Leonard said.

Guess those neighborhood services aren't really needed.

Activists and the Massachusetts Dems

In Lost Weekend Adam Reilly writes:

In terms of sheer drama, this spat — coming at the tail end of a remarkably uneventful convention — was a welcome development. But as far as the overall health of the Massachusetts Democratic Party goes, it did not bode well. For the Democrats to retake the corner office next fall, the candidate, whoever he or she is, will need to squeeze every vote possible out of an electorate with a demonstrated affinity for Republican governors. If frustration prompts the Democratic left wing to lose interest — or to look to a third-party candidate, as happened with the Greens’ Jill Stein in 2002 — only the Republicans will benefit.

It's not just the "Democratic left wing"--it's the Democratic grassroots. And that includes everyone from dyed-in-the-wool liberals to disillusioned ex-Republicans who want to find a home with a party that stands for fiscal responsibility and social justice, to McCain-type independents who want open and honest government--all people who are willing to fight for what they believe in as long as the party apparatus is willing to work for them. And until that day, I guess we'll still need Democracy for America.

More Conventionalia! Successes and Failures

Soon I'll be posting pictures from the Convention, with Democratic luminaries from Barney Frank to Howard Dean. But first, the success:
This past weekend the Massachusetts Democratic Party has joined the Democratic parties of New Mexico and California in committing to work to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

The resolution, passed on May 14 in Lowell, resolves that the Democratic Party of Massachusetts :
- Supports our troops,
- Opposes the continued military occupation of Iraq ,
- Urges the U.S. government to announce a timetable for the rapid withdrawal of its military forces from Iraq , and
- Calls for the U.S. government to reject plans for a long-term presence in Iraq, except for those plans associated with normal diplomatic relations and a commitment to reparation for war damage.

From PDA:

In Lowell, members of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and other activists gathered 842 signatures from delegates to place the resolution before the convention, where it passed with unanimous consent.

PDA members also played a lead role in passage of similar resolutions in recent weeks in California and New Mexico. PDA plans to work for passage of additional resolutions by other state Democratic Parties, and is collecting signatures on a petition to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urging him to oppose the occupation. On May 31st, PDA and other peace and justice organizations will ask their members to call Congress in support of Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's resolution (H. Con. Res. 35) calling for an exit from Iraq.

"PDA is proud to be helping to lead this important effort to put Democratic state parties on record in support of ending the war and occupation and in favor of efforts in Congress to turn these resolutions into reality," said PDA Director Tim Carpenter. "PDA will continue, state by state, to harness the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans who want to see our troops brought home and the occupation in Iraq ended."

For more on the failures, read the Boston Phoenix's Lost Weekend: Apathy! Smugness! Dysfunction! The Massachusetts Democrats take Lowell.

State Convention Wrap-Up

The AP and the Boston Globe wrote the pre-written stories about gay marriage, the gubernatorial candidate speeches, and Dean's made-for-headlines attack on DeLay (when he said the jail sentence line, I turned to the delegate next to me and said, "That'll make the news").

The lede in the Globe actually managed to imply that the lack of debate on the platform vote had something to do with support for gay marriage, which is utter tripe.

The voice vote on the platform was pro forma. There was no debate on *any* of the platform changes on the floor.

And yes, the gubernatorial speeches were interesting.

But what were the interesting stories--the ones that actually had to do with the delegates and the nature of the MDP?

1. Progressive delegates successfully entered a plank into the platform to call for a timetable for ending the occupation of Iraq. [UPDATE: It wasn't a platform amendment that passed, but an independent resolution.]

2. The MDP pushed through charter amendments with deep implications for the party structure and governance into the future. The charter amendments represent bold action to accrue and consolidate power and reduce accountability and openness in the Democratic State Committee and the party at large.

3. The party leaders in theory understand the need for openness, grassroots participation, and comity in order to win the governorship. This was a consistent message from speakers like Dean and Kennedy. However, the only practical problems they identified were 1) making personal attacks instead of running on issues and 2) not having a competitive ground organization.

The leadership is fundamentally incapable of recognizing that the closed, exclusive, and distrustful structure of the party is the central problem. Voters recognize the sickness of the institution when they vote against the institution (and for the Republican) in the governor's race.

More discussion of the business of the convention is taking place on the PDA-MA mailing list and online at DSC.com. More discussion of the speeches is at the great Mass politics blogs .08 and Frederick Clarkson.

Boston Candidate Questionnaire Request for Comments

Here's the first draft of the candidate questionnaire for mayoral and city council candidates in Boston. Please comment!

1. Describe the appropriate balance of powers between the mayor’s office and the city council. Do you feel that the balance of responsibility between the Mayor and the city council is about right the way it is? If not, what would you like to see change?


2. The city of Boston is suffering from a housing crisis. Many individuals and families are forced out of their homes due to increased rent, and even more are unable to reside in the city due to the high cost of housing. How would you work to alleviate the housing crisis in Boston? What would you do to prevent families from being forced from their homes?
If reintroduced would you vote for the Community Stabilization Act?


3. Since 9-11, six states and over 370 cities, towns, and counties in the US have passed “anti-Patriot Act” resolutions affirming their support for civil liberties and constitutional freedoms, and instructing city services, including libraries and police departments, to protect those freedoms. Most of the major cities in the US, New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, have passed these resolutions. Even cities such as Dallas and Denver have done it. Boston is conspicuous in its absence from this list. A resolution for the city of Boston has been drafted.
Would you support introduction and passage of the resolution? Furthermore what actions will you take to ensure the safeguarding of civil liberties in the City of Boston?

4. Boston has many residents and communities that have traditionally not been included in city politics. Recently, many of these communities have been participating in greater numbers. - What specific steps have you taken, or will you take, to stimulate greater political involvement from all of the city's residents, and to keep them involved in the long term?
- What barriers to political participation exist in the city today?
How do you propose to tackle those barriers?


5. What problems do you see with the city's tax and revenue structure
as it now is, and what changes would you like to make?
guidelines about what kinds of changes you would support, and under
what circumstances?


6. Do you support equal marriage rights?

7. Education? (not sure about language yet)
- something about specific deficiencies in our schools
- then what is your proposal to deal with those deficiencies
- also what are goals, how to measure progress?

8. Institutional Development tax exempt status for universities

9. Transportation (again ideas for language?)
- what kind of role should the city council take in dealing with MBTA?
-

10. BU Bio lab. Are you in favor or against it?

11. Please address the following environmental issues. If there are other important issues we have left out, please feel free to address them as well.
- city-wide recycling (especially working with MBTA)
- fuel-efficient, low emission transportation in the city
- city-wide air quality
- encouraging the use of public transportation

DFA Boston in the Phoenix!

DFA Boston and its present Meetup host/general factotum, Brad Johnson (me) is featured in Boston Phoenix!

TWO YEARS AGO, a nationwide army of disgruntled lefties and idealistic twentysomethings united to make former Vermont governor Howard Dean’s presidential candidacy the most intriguing political insurgency in recent memory. Dean — now safely ensconced as chair of the Democratic National Committee — has since become part of the establishment, but his army lives on. And it has a new goal: winning grassroots races around the nation and building a movement that will give tired, unimaginative, and conventional candidates — and the special interests they cater to — something to think about.

Adam Reilly goes on to describe our May meetup:

THE POLITICAL potential of the DFA Boston meet-up (known, as all such gatherings are, by the meetup.com Web site that makes them possible) was on full display on the evening of May 4. At 6 p.m., a bevy of Boston City Council candidates — Kevin McCrea, Matt O’Malley, Joe Ready, and Sam Yoon, all of whom are running at large, and Gibran Rivera, who’s challenging incumbent John Tobin for the right to represent West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain — arrived at the United South End Settlements’ Harriet Tubman House to make their cases. Mitch Kates, the campaign manager for at-large incumbent and mayoral challenger Maura Hennigan, kept quiet but watched the proceedings intently; so did Mel Poindexter, a Democratic State Committee member who supports Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick. For two hours on that Wednesday night, the small, sterile room where the DFA Boston meet-up took place was one of Boston’s political hot spots.

My quote:

During a recent interview with the Phoenix, Johnson argued that DFA has, at the very least, the potential to transform the fabric of Boston politics. "There hasn’t been a very healthy participatory-politics scene in Boston," Johnson said. "You definitely, on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, have degrees of activism and such. But if you look at the official political structure of the Democratic Party, Boston might be the only city in Massachusetts which doesn’t have a city committee that meets. So that’s one less political horse that the power brokers in Boston need to deal with." As Johnson sees it, DFA can help fill that void — by disseminating information on council candidates, say, or pressuring Menino to debate Hennigan between now and Election Day, or merely fostering what he terms a "sense of connectedness."

Read the whole article!

Welcome to Blog for Boston!

Welcome to Blog for Boston, Democracy for America: Boston's blog about taking back Boston from the grassroots! We'll be talking about the political and community life of Boston, with an especial eye to helping people get involved. This is YOUR blog, so jump into the comments and submit post ideas!

For those of you new to the "blogosphere", a "blog" is short for "weblog". A blog is just an online journal--and it can be about anything, from the Red Sox to motherhood.