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Special Friday (late pm) redirect

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Greg Sargent of the WaPo‘s Plum Line notes that the White House is floating out there that Bill Clinton was sent to speak to Joe Sestak (who defeated Arlen Specter in the D primary for US Senate) about “other options.” Floating Bill Clinton’s name on Friday morning while saying that they might be saying something else later in a Friday pm… Friday pm on Memorial Day weekend… strikes me as synonymous with: Guys, there is a bad story we are trying to redirect. Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he’d be open to other alternatives, according to sources […]

Protecting Our Inalienable Right to Subsidized Golf

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Sometimes you wonder what is going on up on Beacon Hill. In the midst of the Senate budget debate, there was a proposal to put certain state assets like golf courses and swimming pools out for operation to private managers. As we’ve noted before, the results of doing this for skating rinks has been an across the board win — continued affordability, greater access, more capital investment, and less burden on the state budget. But Senator Timility has other ideas: I rise in opposition to this amendment…. I’ve played Ponkapoag for years. It’s on the farmland of Henry Pearson. When they donated the land in 1894, they said it would be open and free to the commonwealth forever. Ponkapoag pond, […]

Opponents of Reform: Infinitely Resilient

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The state’s plan to water down the MCAS test teaches us once again that those with an interest in opposing reform are infinitely patient and resourceful. That is why they very often win. We learned this, for example, when the MBTA instituted “management rights” in 1980. A great victory — until 18 years, in 1998, when many of these rights were gutted in a new contract Governor Cellucci approved during his campaign against Scott Harshbarger. I learned this in covering Amtrak for many years. The Clinton administration approved a plan that was to make Amtrak self-sustaining by 2002. The Bush-43 administration implemented some cost-saving measures proposed by the Amtrak Reform Council, and would not approve increased federal funding without state […]

It's official: VA declines to participate in RttT

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Olympia Meola of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia is quitting the Race to the Top. Why? It does not want to jettison its “Standards of Learning.” In a pointed letter to federal education officials relaying why Virginia will not reapply for the Obama administration’s grant program, Gov. Bob McDonnell said the Obama administration’s strong push for states to adopt common standards as a key part of the Race to the Top competitive program “is overly prescriptive and disregards individual state initiatives and progress.” States, like Virginia, that were not awarded grants in the $4 billion program’s first round could try again by June 1. Virginia sought $350 million the first time. The budget for its second bid is now […]

38 days in, we need a laugh

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While I am glad that BP has not taken up some home remedies, such as corks and pillows, their response and the government’s to what is an unmitigated disaster are anything but funny. We’ve crossed into millions of gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf and the wholesale destruction of species, estuaries and a way of life. We don’t have any sense as to the full damage caused. If you are the laugh rather than cry type, check out the Australian comedy team Clarke and Dawes as they give their take on an oil spill resulting from the front falling off an oil tanker down under. Some folks actually took this to be a real interview with a real politician.