Below is the text of the press release issued this morning by the Patrick campaign. But before we get to that, a few preliminaries.

In the wake of Bob Reich’s 2002 campaign for governor, PDM set out to establish a statewide network of activists who could provide a base of active support — in effect, a standing field organization — for whomever emerged as the logical choice for progressive, reform oriented Democrats. The candidate turned out to be Deval Patrick — and PDM has become the organization it set out to be. I am proud to have been one of the founders, and am currently a member of the executive committee. I have come to understand that it is not enough to know about candidates and then vote. Or even to volunteer for candidates. There is no substitute for making activism in electoral politics a part of our lives as citizens. If we don’t, we abandon the playing field to the monied interests, campaign consultants and TV ad agencies. Deval Patrick is the candidate of the engaged citizenry, as the PDM endorsement rationale makes clear. The document is now available on the PDM web site.

The endorsement press release is also featured on the Deval Patrick campaign site.

————

Proving that his focus on the issues that matter to voters is connecting with grassroots activists, Deval Patrick has today been endorsed by The Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts. A unanimous vote of the PDM coordinating committee, representing progressive voters and volunteers from all over the state, is putting all of the organization’s efforts behind Deval Patrick’s historic candidacy.

“We are proud to be one of the first organizations to endorse Deval Patrick for governor,” said Peter Dolan, chair of PDM. “We not only enthusiastically support Deval Patrick’s candidacy, but we pledge to work hard to ensure that he is the Democratic nominee – and the next governor of Massachusetts.”

The PDM endorsement comes on the heels of endorsements by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, as well as that of Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA). PDM is committed to building both on Patrick’s 2000 volunteers from all over the state, as well as on his campaign’s fundraising efforts which recently topped a million dollars and have engaged over 10,000 people.

The grassroots fervor created by Reich’s 2002 Democratic primary campaign for governor was the moving force behind the founding of PDM. It has since built a network of dedicated and knowledgeable activists across the state to provide a base of support for progressive Democratic candidates.

“It is said that in politics, whichever side has the best ground game wins,” said Frederick Clarkson of Northampton, a member of the PDM coordinating committee. “We bring to the Patrick campaign a statewide network of seasoned, knowledgeable and dedicated activists who are able to work together in a way that is far greater than the sum of its parts.”

Patrick released his “Moving Massachusetts Forward” economic development and jobs plan last week, including 10 ideas to grow the state’s economy and create jobs. He will be continuing to talk about the plan this week at a number of events.

Religion and politics is a hot topic these days. And one of the very best places to talk about it online will be a new site called Street Prophets. Some of the names over there will be familiar to readers over here. Its the first of a promised series of “spin-off” sites related to The Daily Kos, and the effort is led by pastordan, who is also one of the founders of Talk to Action, which is still inching along to launch into a fully interactive site that will function much like Street Prophets.

So what’s the difference?

“Street Prophets is a place to talk about faith and politics,” writes pastordan. “That’s it. You’re welcome to hang around here, on the condition that you’re not a jerk or a hater.”

At Talk to Action, we will focus on the religious right as a political movement, and what to do about it. That’s it. (We will have somewhat more detailed site guidelines, although avoiding jerks and haters will be important over there too.)

Street Prophets lists this blog and Talk to Action as among the “friends of the blog.” And indeed we are.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts (PDM) had produced a remarkable document and sent it to the statewide membership. “We are,” wrote state chair Peter Dolan in his cover letter, “nearing a decision to endorse Deval Patrick for Governor. Before we make our final decision, we want to share with you the process and the thinking that are leading us to this decision, and hear your thoughts.”

The document was a detailed rationale that included this succinct summary of the candidate’s position on health care. The entire document is now posted on the PDM web site.

Health Care

“Single payer is my medium-term destination. Where I want to go is single payer.” But of the proposals now out there, he is currently supportive of Health Care for All, with some modifications. On the way to our destination, “…. we have to do what we can do now. It’s immoral to have this number of people [1/2 a million] who go to bed every night worried about getting sick. It’s hard to ask these people [the uninsured and the underinsured] to wait for the stars to be aligned for Single Payer. Health Care for All is the most attractive and ambitious proposal that we can do right now…. but where I want to go is single payer.”

He spoke of the problem of multiple meanings of Single Payer — ranging from a single clearinghouse for bill paying to a government-managed delivery system. His focus will be on inclusiveness, transportability, simplicity, quality and real cost savings (e.g. cutting the 30% administrative costs of the current system).

“A politics of hope means universal health care in our state. This is a unique moment in time. No one is happy with the current system – not employers, not doctors, not the hospitals, certainly not the uninsured and underinsured. Even if you have health insurance, you know how hard it is to get to the care you need. If no one is happy with the current system, why don’t we change it? It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take hard work and vision. It’s going to take bold and creative leadership and it’s going to take a governor not afraid to take on some political risk.”

A few days ago, I wrote a piece about the then-upcoming star-studded Katrina benefit concert hosted by Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Over at The Daily Kos I added: “Benefit concerts are always about compassion, but sometimes they also surface deeper concerns and higher aspirations — and inspire political involvement. This may be one of those times.”

The event itself, broadcast on NPR, PBS, and BET, among other outlets, did indeed surface anger and outrage, higher aspirations and I believe, political inpsiration. A story written by Associated Press Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody, captures some of this. She reported that the

“Higher Ground” hurricane relief benefit concert Saturday night….[was] stirring for the emotionally charged performances and speeches that assigned blame for the tragedy.

“When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country…. it revealed one,” actor and activist Danny Glover said in a speech with Harry Belafonte in which both criticized the government, not only for the response to the hurricane but for the conditions prior to it.

“Katrina was not unforeseeable,” Belafonte said. “It was the result of a political structure that subcontracts its responsibility to private contractors and abdicates its responsibility altogether.”

Robin Williams poked fun at the administration during his standup routine, in which he imagined an ethnically named Hurricane and its attitude: “I’m going to go to Kennebunkport and see if they respond any quicker!”

The Bush family compound is in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Bill Cosby played it straight as he called on the American people to hold government accountable.

“This happened to the people. The constitution says of the people, by the people, for the people,” he said. “But the people who got the office, got into office and forgot about the people.”

Elvis Costello, who performed with jazz giant Allen Toussaint, said he heard conservatives were worried about Katrina’s rebuilding cost: “I just hope we keep in our minds that an effort like this can never be too expensive.”

Jazz singer Jon Hendricks best summed up the tone of the evening. After singing one tribute, he said: “That’s the way I feel about New Orleans; This is the way I feel about the country right now.”

Then he launched into the angry song “Tell Me The Truth,” singing lines like “Nowadays, wrong is right, down is up, black is white, bad is good, truth is a lie” before defiantly singing, “Somebody tell me what’s right,” to applause.

But some of the most poignant moments didn’t need a political agenda.

Young jazz trumpet player Irvin Mayfield of New Orleans played the melancholy tune “Just A Closer Walk with Thee,” and dedicated it to the rebuilding of New Orleans and “to my father, who is still missing.”

Successful political movements have great music. The labor movement; the civil rights movement; the peace movement (Vietnam), and even the Christian right, has had terrific music that speaks to and from its participants.

I wonder what music(s) will emerge from the vast, gathering movement for social change of which the disaster of New Orleans is but a further catalyst?

Can you feel it gathering? Gathering with the political strength of a hurricane that will sweep away Bush’s congressional majorities in 2006?

Can you feel it?

You know the campaign season has really started when straw polls are held at political party functions. The results of straw polls are far from scientific samples of popular opinion — but they can be strong indicators of activist strength. Its a full-year before the 2006 Democratic Party primary and there will undoubtedly be lots of straw polls. But it will be interesting to see if this first one was a fluke, or an early sign of an historic upset.

Deval Patrick beat front-runner Tom Reilly by 3-1 in the first straw poll of party activists a local democratic party fundraiser at the Weymouth Elks Hall on September 16th. “The straw poll is an early indication about the support of the leading Democrats who are vying to be the next Governor of Massachusetts,” said Jim Cantwell, Chairman of Co-op 8/South Shore Democratic Caucus, the group which held the straw poll.

The group was asked: If the election were held today for whom would you vote?

Deval Patrick 46
Thomas Reilly 16
Undecided 8
Bill Galvin 1

The South Shore Democratic Caucus is made up of the communities in the Plymouth & Norfolk State Senate District including the towns of Cohasset, Duxbury, Hingham, Hull, Marshfield, Norwell, Scituate and Weymouth.

Welcome to Health Care Week on the MA political blogs!

Here are three posts I have spotted so far on the first day.

Wonk Not! writes “my suggestion at the start of this ‘health care week’ is that we be bold and try to get beyond the usual players, the usual mindsets and the usual ruts that prevent progress. Despite our denial when we are healthy, in our shared vulnerability, we are all in it together.”

Charley on the MTA at Blue Mass Group has a reading list of books and articles — with links.

Cape Cod Works has a post about a proposal being developed for a Cape and Islands health system.

The effort is being led by Blue Mass Group, Left in Lowell, and Wonk Not!

Be sure to stop by and thank them for their leadership on this.

Richard Land, a honcho over at the Southern Baptist Convention has been a pivotal figure in the building of the theocratic movement in the United State for a generation. But in a recent speech reported by The Baptist Press, noted by the fine legal blog Religion Clause) he has also made a significant contribution to the wider culture by his high-profile use of an oxymoron.

Dr. Land’s distinct, albeit inadvertent, contribution to the culture is not entirely original. Dr. Bruce Prescott of Mainstream Baptist reports that several speakers used the term. However Land gets the credit, because I happened to realize its significance when I read his use of the term. Land’s contribution joins the list of such classics as jumbo shrimp, final draft, saying nothing, hot chili, industrial park, junk food, plastic glasses, working vacation, computer jock, incomplete stop, natural additives and, of course, cheap gas.

Drum roll please:

badda badda badda badda badda badda badda badda boom!

Secular Fundamentalist

Ta Da!~

The occasion for Dr. Land’s contribution to our culture was his twistedly preposterous argument that “The greatest threat to religious freedom in America are secular fundamentalists who want to ghetto-ize religious faith and make the wall of separation between church and state a prison wall keeping religious voices out of political discourse.”

There is no suppression of religious voices in American political discourse. This is variation on the same strawman the Christian Right has been relentlessly knocking down for a generation. What Land and his theocratic cohort don’t like is religious equality and separation of church and state. For government to be the protector of the rights of all in religiously diverse society, it cannot be in the business of forming alliances with various sects and coalitions of sects to promote their interests; or promoting religion or religious practices.

Land and the theocratic movement are desperate to claim that there is religious persecution in the U.S. and the stifling of religious expression. This desperation is well-exemplified by their use of term “secular fundamentalist,” which is being used to tar the values of those who actually stand for religious freedom; and to reinterpret the Constitution and American history to advance their contemporary political and religious goals.

Deval Patrick has been doing a lot of listening since he announced his insurgent campaign for governor of Massachusetts.

While some have waited impatiently for him to make specific pronouncements on pet issues, he has spent time figuring out what he wants to say instead of spouting what he thinks people want to hear. One result is a ten-point economic program which is now available on the campaign web site, and is certain to get alot of attention in the political community and in the media over the next few days.

“If you share my vision and support these ideas, or have better ideas,” Patrick writes, “join us by signing up at www.devalpatrick.com. And in the style that has marked his campaign from the beginning, Patrick is soliciting comments and feedback.

Unlike most pols, Patrick sees politics — and indeed, governance — as an ongoing conversation. He knows that people are bored to death by wonkitude. Its not that people think public policy is unimportant; quite the opposite. But we all yearn for pols who speak in plain English about what they want to accomplish and how they want to accomplish it. We want pols who have a biggervision — and the skills and realism it takes to get there.

Patrick’s vision, skill and realism shows in his campaign. Starting early and with zero name recognition, he has systematically been speaking with and listening to people all over the state. Considering where he began, he is making tremendous progress. One of the innovative features of his campaign, continues to be his outreach to bloggers — few of whom have large readerships, but all of whom are engaged in turning this nascent media into a powerful engine of civic activism and democratic renewal. Patrick’s latest bloggerview was with The Progressive Blog, which describes itself as “an outlet for Progressive Students and Thinkers residing in and around Lynn/Boston.” Each bloggerview tends to have a ripple effect. Each one is written about by at least some fellow bloggers, thus reaching more readers and continuing the statewide conversation.

For example, Sco has some observations on Patrick’s latest foray into the blogosphere, and Left in Lowell has highlights.

Meanwhile. Patrick’s more traditional campaign appearance in Burlington was the subject of a major article in the Burlington Union.

Upstart liberal candidate Deval Patrick…. who is looking to become the first African-American governor in state history, made his pitch to voters here last weekend, touting an aggressive platform of education expansion and health care reform, while vowing to infuse the Democratic party with energy and hope.

“If the Democratic party doesn’t stand for anything, we will lose and deserve to lose,” said Patrick, …. “We need to stiffen our backbones and become the party of hope and opportunity again.”

One highlight of his appearance was the way that he underscored the difference between his view of government and that of the rightist cabal running the Bush administration. The Union continued:

“Patrick later blasted the federal government’s sluggish response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster but stopped short of saying it was the result of racism.

“What’s on display is the failure of a political philosophy, and that’s a philosophy that says everyone is on their own, particularly the poor,” said Patrick. “And I think that philosophy compounded to make both class and race factors in the [hurricane] recovery.

“If you want a closer look at the vision of government urged by the right, turn on your television and look at what’s going on on the Gulf Coast.

“You can’t say to people evacuate and not take account of the fact that some may not have the means by which to evacuate, and then say it’s up to them to do so,” he continued, adding that if a similar disaster befell Chicago when he was a child, “”It wasn’t a question of my family being able to hop in the car and dash out to O’Hare Airport and high-tale it out of town.” Patrick also criticized President Bush’s actions in the days immediately following the deadly storm.

“It’s important for leadership to show up,” he said. “I was astonished when I read that the president flew over [the region] in Air Force One. Someone asked me what I would have done differently, I said I would have gotten out of that airplane.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center is hosting an extraordinary Katrina benefit concert on September 17th, “Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert.” This important event will be broadcast live on PBS and NPR and other outlets, and a benefit CD will be produced from the event.

Wynton Marsalis, the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center has important things to say not only about the role of New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz (and his hometown), but the role of jazz as a fundamental expression of American democracy. I think he is right about that. And I remember him saying similar things in the course of his extraordinary interviews in Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on the history of jazz a few years ago. Here is his statement from the JLC web site:

New Orleans is the most unique of American cities because it is the only city in the world that created its own full culture – architecture, music and festive ceremonies. It’s of singular importance to the United States of America because it was the original melting pot with a mixture of Spanish, French, British, West African and American people living in the same city. The collision of these cultures created jazz and jazz is important because it’s the only art form that embodies the fundamental principals of American democracy. That’s why it swept the country and the world representing the best of the United States.

New Orleanians are blues people. We are resilient, so we are sure that our city will come back. This tragedy, however, provides an opportunity for the American people to demonstrate to ourselves and to the world that we are one nation determined to overcome our legacies of injustices based on race and class. At this time all New Orleanians need the nation to unite in a deafening crescendo of affirmation to silence that desperate cry that is this disaster.

We need people with their prayers, their pocketbooks, and above all their sense of purpose to show the world just who the modern American is and then we’ll put our city back together in even greater fashion. This is gut check time for all of us as Americans.

In a country with the most incredible resources in the world we need the ingenuity of our best engineers to put the cultural heart of our nation back together. To put it together with 2005 technical expertise and with 2005 social consciousness, which means without accommodating the ignorance of racism, the deplorable poverty, and lack of education that have been allowed to fester in many great American cities since slavery.

We’re only as civilized as our level of hospitality. Let’s demonstrate to the world that what actually makes America the most powerful nation on earth is not guns, pornography and material wealth but transcendent and abiding soul, something perhaps we have lost a grip on, and this catastrophe gives us a great opportunity to handle up on.

Hat tip to Tom Reney who read Marsalis’ statement on the air during Jazz a la Mode on WFCR in Amherst, MA this evening.

Politics is changing fast in Massachusetts. And the movement for progressive, Democratic reform is getting boosts due to the record and behavior of leaders in both major parties.

On the Republican side, the vice-chair of the state party — and former treasurer — has been indicted for laundering drug money. Meanwhile, Governor Mitt Romney has been testing the waters for president — and failing the test. His popularity in the state has been tanking as he criticized his own state in front of conservative Republican audiences in the south and west. Nevertheless, rumor has it that he may run for reelection after all.

Meanwhile Attorney General Tom Reilly, who has been running for governor for years as the candidate of the oligarchic wing of the Democratic Party — raising $3 million along the way — is losing support over his controversial ruling to allow an initiative to place an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. The Reilly-certified initiative, which he says he personally opposes — is the new focus of antigay forces in the state in the wake of the defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have revoked same sex marriage rights, but recognized civil unions. The amendment lost by a vote of 157-39. Some of those voting against it were conservatives who do not support civil unions and were, along with Governor Romney, supporting the new initiative. But there is little disagreement that same sex marriage is widely accepted in Massachusetts, and those who oppose it are on the wrong side of history, of decency, and of the law.

The Brockton Enterprise reports that

“Local attorney and Republican Party leader Lawrence Novak was caught in taped conversations mapping out plans with a jailed drug suspect to launder $107,000 in illegal drug profits, federal officials allege.

“You need to clean the money,” Novak told the suspect, also a federal informant, according to papers filed in federal court Tuesday.

Novak, 54, state vice chairman of the Republican Party and a councilor-at-large candidate in Tuesday’s city primary, was arrested and charged with federal money laundering offenses Tuesday, minutes after depositing drug money at a Brockton bank, authorities said.

Novak told the bank teller that “he had found the money,” court papers said.

The head of the city’s Republican committee was arrested at his…. home following a three-month investigation by federal agents into allegations he offered to file false paperwork in court and launder drug money for a client.

Tim O’Brien, Republican Party executive director, said the charges are unrelated to Novak’s GOP role. Novak served as the party’s treasurer in the late 1990s….

“This is very strange and very unexpected,” Mayor John T. Yunits Jr. said. “He is not known…. as an underworld lawyer who would be dealing in drug money.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General Reilly claims that he is just following the law — but his reasoning seems highly dubious to many. Interestingly, he sided with the argument of the Massachusetts Family Institute, the state political unit of one the top Christian Right organizations, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. In a letter to opponents of the initiative, Reilly claimed that the petition does not overturn the court decision that legalized same sex marriage, but that the constitution allows for an initiative to amend the constitution in response to the court’s declaring unconstrained a statute. Many critics see this as a distinction without a difference. Some see it as a radical failure of moral leadership.

A former top Reilly aide, Mary Breslauer, writes in The Boston Globe

“….this attorney general has consistently hid behind existing order, even when it is blatantly discriminatory. Reilly is vigorously defending a 1913 law which was created to perpetuate discrimination and was ignored for decades until same-sex couples from out-of-state came to marry here. I think he’s forgotten that civil rights advances occur when people, including attorneys general, challenge bad laws rather than stand behind them.

Reilly said last week that even though he’s personally opposed to the ballot measure, the state Constitution required him to certify it. But when pressed by reporters whether that meant he would personally work to defeat it in the Legislature or use the bully pulpit of the governor’s office to fight it, he said that was a question for another day.

I can tell you what gay families heard. They heard the attorney general waffling yet again on a very basic question of fairness and equality. And the waffle came after the kick in the stomach.”

While Reilly has sought to present his decision as a profile in courage, calling it as he sees it, The Boston Globe reported that

“Reilly’s decision triggered immediate condemnation from the state’s gay and lesbian community, as well as sniping by a fellow Democratic candidate for governor, Deval Patrick. It also prompted Barbara Grossman, the wife of Steve Grossman, Reilly’s campaign treasurer, to withdraw her support. She not only endorsed Patrick, but donated $500 to his campaign.

“In the core of my being, I believe it is a civil rights issue,” she said Friday. “I certainly don’t want to inflate my importance in any way, but I could not continue my support for Tom Reilly in light of this.”

For his part, Deval Patrick said: “I am disappointed in the Attorney General’s decision, but not surprised. He has had more than one chance to show leadership and political courage on this issue over the last few years and he has failed every time. The [Supreme Judicial Court] got it right. By ruling in favor of same sex marriage, the Court affirmed that everyone comes before their government as equals. Equality before the government and the law is a central value of our society.”

Blogger Nohomissives writes about the rally on the steps of city hall in Northampton yesterday — and has the exact language at issue in Reilly’s ruling.

“It was a moving event — songs, speeches, stories, etc. A great moment was when Peter Vickery took out his copy of the Massachusetts constitution — a document, he said, that trumped Reilly’s — and read the section on citizen-initiated constitutional ammendments.”

Governor’s Councilor Vickery, according to The Springfield Republican, “blasted Reilly.”

“His job is to apply the clear language of the constitution,” Vickery declared, “and the constitution says that you should not use a ballot initiative to reverse a judicial decision.”