Here is something you can do to help the team- if you haven’t already, donate to Martha Coakley. Between you all here and Scott’s gang at Bill In Exile (NSFW), we are almost to our ten k goal:
Great job!
Balloon Juice and Friends for Coakley
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[…] see there are some first time visitors heading over here thanks to the Balloon Juice link — don’t be afraid, we’re just a bunch of friendly gay boys {and the friends of […]
PaulW
If only Coakley had run a more open, upbeat campaign, none of this would be necessary.
And still, it’d be insanity if Brown were to win.
DZ
I did my $200
Comrade Mary
I’m Canadian and can’t give, but I did click on the Bill in Exile link.
NSFW indeed. Wow. Not that I’m offended, as I do approve of friendly young men enjoying themselves.
SGEW
I hate to say it, but I kind of have to:
If you have spare cash lying around, and can only give to one cause this week, give it to Haiti. Please.
Dungheap
@SGEW: Yeah, I’m donating money to Haiti and my time to the Coakley campaign.
Dr. I. F. Stone
A donation to help Haiti would be far more beneficial than support to this absolutely awful woman, Coakley. Also, why waste your money on such a total shit when you could actually help people in dire and desperate need.
SGEW
On the other hand, Dr. I. F. Stone‘s sentiments make me want to contribute to Coakley, just to piss off all the right wing assholes.
Randy P
I know what SGEW is saying, but this Senate seat is critical for the long-term health of our own country and our neighbors like Haiti. Haiti is first, but you can give to more than one thing.
I gave $25 to Coakley with a 5% tip to Act Blue. I have donated to the Red Cross for Haiti also, and I’ll be giving to Medecins Sans Frontieres.
r€nato
I know this is juvenile, but will you good folks help me even out this poll (grading Obama so far)?
Midnight Marauder
I’m good for $10, Cole.
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
Stay classy, Joe Klein.
Randy P
Did the edit feature just die? I tried to edit my previous comment and was told after I tried to save that I didn’t have permission. Nor could I bring up an edit window after that.
Huh. But I can edit this one.
What I was going to say was that Act Blue shows we’ve raised $9250 against John’s $10k goal, according to the summary page for Martha Coakley.
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/22931
Comrade Mary
Maybe.
EDIT: No, it’s still here for me (Firefox 3.5 with NoScript and a bunch of Greasemonkey crap on Windows XP).
Paul L.
@SGEW:
Donate to the Martha Coakley who worked tirelessly to keep a innocent man Gerald Amirault in prison after he was railroaded by Acorn white washer/Apologist Scott Harshbarger.
The Other Steve
Unrelated. But I noticed over on MSNBC the headline story is about Looters in Haiti.
What are they looting? Are they running into electronics stores and taking televisions and stereos? Nope, they’re people going into grocery stores and getting what food they can.
I find that a fascinating bias. Cause let me tell you, here in crazy white suburban Eden Prairie if we got hit by an Earth Quake such that the various buildings collapsed and everything was in chaos with no water or electricity.
I’d be over at the grocery store with a 12-gauge taking as much as I could carry. And the news would be reporting it as self-reliance, not looting.
SGEW
Just the fact that Paul L. responded to one of my comments makes me feel dirty. Gross.
Fergus Wooster
Gave my $50, but I think that’s all I can muster for Coakley.
My other surplus dollars (after all the medical expenses Aetna declines to cover) will go to Haiti, methinks. I saw the chainsaw amputation of the little girl’s legs this morning. The mind boggles.
Shell
Re: Looting. It’s been a little creepy how the network news anchors keep going on about it , as a possibility. It’s almost as if they’re hoping for it, as some juicy TV action.
The Moar You Know
OT – more on topic for the last thread – FDL is helpfully testing Republican push-polling HCR talking points.
They’re not at the edge of the cliff, they’re about ten feet past. Hopefully soon the inevitable will happen and they’ll wonder where the ground went.
Phlip
I think at this point the campaign probably needs more boots, not bombs.
kay
@Paul L.:
Paul L., the next time conservatives put up a former prosecutor, are you prepared to have each case he handled reviewed?
Coakley didn’t even bring the day care case, and in the case where you’re accusing her of leniency, it looks like the grand jury didn’t indict. She’s both overzealous and lenient?
I just want to set the ground rules. Conservatives were screaming when Huckabee was judged on his one commutation.
If a career prosecutor runs, from the Right, is it fair game to look at each and every case and highlight the outliers?
I’ll remember that.
Keithly
Kicked in my $50. Coakley may be a machine hack, but Brown is just all kinds of awful, in my opinion. YMMV.
eastriver
@SGEW:
Yes. Well put.
jeffreyw
Saw the same bias in photo captions after Katrina, white folks were “foraging for food” and the blacks were “looting supermarkets”.
celticdragonchick
@Dr. I. F. Stone:
This.
After reading about her excreable work in the preposterous convictions in the Fells Acres case…I wouldn’t put her out if she were on fire.
Sentient Puddle
Y’know, think I’ma have to agree with @Phlip here. We’re close enough to the election, so extra money has a pretty limited effect, especially compared to the GOTV efforts.
Bob In Pacifica
The numbers seemed to have moved 20 points in a week. I know that Rasmussen is garbage but not sure about other polls.
What gives?
If any of this shifting is real, it means that the very liberal Massachusetts is not happy with either Coakley the candidate or with Obama et al in Washington. I would be interested from someone explaining what gives. Is it liberal backlash to the very unfortunate health care reform that’s in play? Is it a lack of actual success at alleviating the social dislocation of people? What’s up?
SGEW
Anyone have any good links for GOTV efforts for Coakley?
Lolis
Coakley seems to have run an awful campaign but I gave her money. This isn’t about her. She will be a solid Democratic vote and Brown will be a lock-step Republican.
Sentient Puddle
@Bob In Pacifica: I’d have to wait until after the election to feel safe in my assessment (I think it’s halfway plausible that the networks call it a minute after the polls close, and will be forced to look stupid, sitting on their hands and using up their allotted time trying to explain how a 20-point win squares with their “toss-up” coverage leading up to the election). But the short of it is that it’s Coakley. Nobody’s really enthused about her, and she coasted after the primary.
There’s pretty much no basis to the “even the liberal Massachusetts hates health care” framing.
jwb
@Bob In Pacifica: I think the shifts in the polls have more to do with the way in which likely voters are being identified. Until recently, everyone had this safely in the bag for Coakley. Consequently, my guess is that likely voter polls were finding that many on the left weren’t really planning to vote. Now that the race looks much closer, I’m guessing a lot of those folks will actually vote, especially if Coakley has a decent GOTV.
The thing that has really perplexed me is the way the national media is framing this as Brown running against HCR, which, as I understand it, would affect Massachusetts about the least of all states, since whatever comes out of congress will look more like the current Massachusetts plan than anything else. This leads me to believe that the dynamics in the race are quite different than they are actually being characterized by the national media.
Max
Gave a little more. Between Coakley and Haiti, my monthly shoe budget is shot, but it’s totally worth it.
Ed in NJ
Nate Silver does a good job of dispelling the notion that Massachusetts always elects Democrats in a landslide. The Kennedys have worked hard to earn their political invincibility in MA, but the state has alot of independent voters, and many statewide elections have been close and some have been won by Republicans.
Hopefully, Coakley wins this thing but also sends a wakeup call to national Democrats that they need to start acting as a party and promoting their agenda, instead of sitting back and trying to weather this teabag movement and the media’s desire to create the story of Democrats in freefall.
Betsy
@Lolis:
My feelings as well. She is most assuredly the lesser of two evils. I’m a broke grad student with a possibly-soon-to-be-unemployed partner, so I don’t have too much spare change to give, but I gave what I had to Haiti relief efforts. I live in MA, though, so I’m going to volunteer for GOTV efforts this weekend or on Tuesday.
lol
@The Other Steve:
It depends on what color your skin is. Katrina proved that black people “loot”, white people “find”.
Paul L.
@kay:
Not how I remember it. Michelle Malkin and Hot Air were merciless.
Violent felon granted clemency by Huckabee now sought in Lakewood, WA police ambush
As for reviewing the cases of a career prosecutor fair game right or left I have no problem with bringing up Mary Beth Buchanan’s overreaches/abuses if she runs against Jason Altmire.
Shell
Just heard this… a 5.7 earthquake’s hit Venezuala?
What the fuck’s going on??
Dungheap
@SGEW:
For those interested in donating some time to the Coakley campaign go here and sign up.
geg6
@r€nato:
Done. He gets a B from me. And that was pretty generous, seeing as I hate his stance on HCR, Afghanistan, and rule of law/civil liberties. But I do like his foreign policy and environmental issues quite a bit. And even though I think Arnie Duncan is a hack, I like what the DoE has done in making the financial aid process simpler. So a B it is.
jwb
@geg6: Honesty in responding to intertube poll?
kay
@Paul L.:
I read the link. She’s overzealous in Fells Acres parole board (granted, I agree), while at the same time you guys are slamming her for failing to get an indictment in a case where you’re claiming curling iron abuse? And an elaborate conspiracy involving a police officer? So, which is it? She’s a loony on child abuse in Fells Acres, but recklessly lenient in curling iron abuse cases? Make up your mind.
All you’re doing is insuring no career prosecutor can survive an election. There is not going to be a long prosecutorial career without controversial cases.
I think this tactic is stupid and short-sighted.
Xenos
How can Coakley be considered a ‘machine hack’?
We have tons of machine hacks here in this commonwealth, but Coakley is not one of them. If she were, she probably would have wrapped this up by now. But then, she would be a guy, and all the massholes would not hesitate to support her.
There is a reason why Mass has never had a female Governor, Senator, or even representative (correct me if I am wrong on that… I can’t think of any at the moment.) Coakley seemed proper enough and coolly competent enough to pull it off, but now it is all her fault for being a cold fish. If she had turned up the intensity one degree the masshole independents would be rejecting her as a whingey bitch.
The key is to keep the independents from voting. Coakley has some strong negative ads, but it may be too late. I am appalled it has gotten to this point.
Randy P
Re: Haiti.
Wow. This is yet another Rorshach test for bigots, isn’t it? Why are they so blatant all of a sudden?
I responded to the Red Cross’ appeal to send money via text message (text HAITI to 90999 if you live in the US). Does anyone know how soon that money actually gets there? The Red Cross says it goes through an organization called mGive.com, and mGive’s website says that their mobile donation mechanism takes 90 days.
But the Red Cross themselves say they’ve already gotten $3 million. So is mGive shortening their usual process? Anybody know?
twiffer
@Shell: you often get smaller quakes following a big one in the same area of tectonic activity. convergent boundries between the caribbean plate and both the north and south american plates. the inital temblor allows tension to release at other points along the nearby faults.
a volcanic eruption in the caribbean within the next few months would not be surprizing at all (recall the aftermath of indonesia).
in other words, geology is what is happening.
Paul L.
@kay:
She did not railroad him either. But her hands are not clean.
Is Martha Coakley committed to justice?
dr. bloor
@Bob In Pacifica:
Obama’s approval ratings are currently in the 57-59% range in MA per current polls. What we’ve got ourselves here is a lousy candidate running a lousy campaign.
Although I did hear some radio ads today tying Brown to the lunatic fringe Repubs in DC and highlighting some of his stupider notions. Right idea, maybe too late.
Paul L.
@Xenos:
So says the guy who defended Scott Harshbarger who railroaded innocent man Gerald Amirault.
zzyzx
Off topic, but I just posted this to Daily Kos. Legalizing pot is polling VERY well there. Like up 20 points well. Insane!
KDP
Only $90 to go.
Florida Cynic
@kay: I’d be perfectly happy if career prosecutors couldn’t survive elections. From either party.
John MacNeill
I doubt any amount of money is going to help Martha Coakley. What’s she going to do with it? More TV ads? The more the voters see of her, the worse her poling gets. Her problems have very little to do with Obama or HCR, they’ve got everything to do with her reputation as an aggressive prosecutor who doesn’t let things like facts or truth get in the way of a high-profile conviction.
For the Amiraults, the Souzas and for Louise Woodward; I will be staying home on Tuesday.
kay
@Paul L.:
Right, Paul, I get it. Coakley lobbied against release. A shocking position for a prosecutor.
Look, Brown is a lawyer, correct? Can we go through each and every case and make ridiculously over-broad statements about a “commitment to justice” or “clean hands”?
I recognize this as a potent political tactic. I just think it sucks.
JoshA
Put in $50…think we’re about $20 away.
BTW, anyone else not having the thermometer work right? I can see the real number on ActBlue, but on Balloon Juice I still have it at zero.
Paul L.
@kay:
The child abuse in Fells Acres was prosecuted by her friend/colleague Scott Harshbarger.
The curling iron suspect was a cop.
She acted in a way to protect/defend the Good ol’ boy network.
Like the Chicago police not charging officer Anthony Abbate for beating up bartender Karolina Obrycka until after the outrage sparked by the release of the video.
geg6
@jwb:
If I have a fault (well, I have lots, but…), it’s my honesty. Even on the Interwebz.
kay
@Florida Cynic:
Okay. Just prosecutors, though? Get ready for no defense lawyers either, because any defense lawyer who has practicing longer than a year is going to have a treasure trove of politically useful incidents and clients to mine.
This is a mistake. You’ll regret it.
jwb
Obama’s going to go campaign for Coakley on Sunday. I figure this means the WH thinks Coakley will win so long as turnout is reasonable—otherwise I don’t see them risking it.
jwb
@kay: No they won’t regret it. They’ll simply forget it. You have to remember such rules only apply to Democrats.
Alex S.
Coakley isn’t a machine politician. In fact, she was the first candidate to declare her candidacy to get a headstart against the machine guys, Capuano, Pagliuca and Khazei. Khazei was endorsed by Michael Bloomberg and Caroline Kennedy. Either Capuano or Pagliuca was endorsed by the Clintons.
kay
@Paul L.:
As I said, I read the link. I know the story you’re trying to tell with the two cases. The curling iron case doesn’t fit the narrative, unless we add the “Old Boy Network” angle.
I think I could go through any career prosecutors cases and tell any story I wanted to tell, Paul. I also think you’ll find that out, when this is used as a tactic.
The idiots on the Left who are seizing on it will find this out when they put up a defense lawyer, but they’re not smart enough to figure that out.
kay
@Alex S.:
I think Andrew Sullivan started the “machine hack” meme, or that’s the first place I read it.
How he knows this, I have no idea, since no one from the state seems to agree with him.
He’s a menace.
Chat Noir
@Bob In Pacifica: Lawrence O’Donnell talked about the MA special election on Countdown last night. It helped make things a little clearer for me anyhow.
BR
Reading about Scott Brown and his pro-torture views has given me more motivation than anything else I’ve read to call everyone I know to support Coakley:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/brown-on-torture.html
kay
@jwb:
Look, I completely disagreed with the insane rash of child abuse cases that were brought during the Fells Acres period.
However. Coakley didn’t initiate that insanity, and she didn’t bring the case, and those cases were brought all over the country, trumped up by media.
Laertes
This “inconsistency” business is silly. It’s perfectly consistent for a prosecutor to overzealously prosecute most defendants but let cops off the hook for outrageous abuse. I’d be surprised to find one without the other. It’s typical law-and-order horseshit.
Are you honestly confused by the sight of an overzealous prosecutor who thinks cops can do no wrong?
slag
Bravo, John Cole!
Florida Cynic
@kay: You’re broadening your terms. You said career prosecutors, now you’re going to widen include 1st year defense lawyers? That’s just silly. I’ll stand by what I said.
Tonal Crow
@Florida Cynic:
I agree. The public is far too concerned with the “tough on crime” mantra and far too unconcerned with criminal-justice fairness. We don’t generally appreciate that indicting a person brings the entire power of the State against her, decimates her reputation, and wrecks her finances, irrespective of the outcome of any trial. The power to bring an indictment needs far better supervision than it receives. And one way to improve that supervision would be to refrain from nominating prosecutors for higher office, thus reducing the incentives to grandstand for political gain.
jwb
@kay: I don’t disagree with you except that I think your sparring opponents here are being completely cynical. Consequently, I don’t think they’ll ever be in a position of regretting holding the positions they espouse here, because they’ll simply forget that they did, deny it, or, if pushed in a way that they care, draw a distinction.
kay
@Florida Cynic:
You’re setting up any lawyer who runs with his or her entire case career as fertile ground for political attack.
No one will survive that, particularly the defense.
Come on. This is not hard. How well would a the defense for terrorists or drug dealers or (god forbid) child abusers fare under these rules?
Not well. Turn it around. A less zealous AG? Can I cherry-pick one case where a state AG lost or declined t bring charges and claim “soft on crime?”
You bet I can, and conservatives will. They have.
JenJen
Just checked… $10,150 as I type this.
We did it! And Obama’s headed to Mass to stump for Coakley. This thing can be turned around yet.
Laertes
A crazy, overzealous law-and-order prosecutor who turns a blind eye to police abuse will be a crazy, overzealous legislator who turns a blind eye to police abuse.
Why should that terrible character flaw be ruled out of bounds?
Defending scumbags is a defense attorney’s duty. Harassing innocent defendants and forgiving police abuse is not a prosecutor’s duty. It’s a smokescreen to pretend that it is.
kay
@jwb:
I can wholly disagree with her decision on Fells Acres without making the leap to she has no “commitment to justice”. I can do that because it’s one case, with one set of facts.
Just like I agreed with Huckabees decision to commute the sentence of the (then juvenile) offender who re-offended. I didn’t think he was missing a “commitment to justice” either.
kay
@Laertes:
Now she’s a crazy prosecutor who turns a blind eye to police abuse? One case? One that she didn’t even bring?
Express train to “a defense lawyer who loves terrorists”
sgoode
Anyone else get an email from ‘Organizing For America’ on behalf of Coakley? Mine came from (ostensibly) Elaine Marshall, current NC AG and ’12 US Senate candidate, asking me to make 10 phone calls for Coakley. I was willing but when I linked from the email to the OFA website and tried to log in, the app hung and has been stuck for several minutes now. Hopefully, this means the response has been so great the servers can’t handle it. OTOH….who knows? One not-so-encouraging sign is the fact that OFA had bad data in some of my personal info fields. Considering that I was a multiple donor and canvassed for the compaign, seems odd that they wouldn’t manage the data better than that. Is the DNC in charge of the OFA list now?
Xenos
@Paul L.: It is hard to defend Fells Acres, but at the time there was a fair bit of hysteria on the issue. I don’t recall anyone, liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, of any prominance whatsoever, who got out in front of that issue when it happened.
Still, Harshbarger could have faced up to it after the fact – it would have been the right thing to do, and it would have made a difference. I always thought Janet Reno, who prosecuted a 17 year old boy who was working at a day care center for changing some diapers, to be necessarily unfit for that.
So touche’, then.
Or am I supposed to say ‘backatcha’ at this point?
Florida Cynic
@kay: Any lawyer who runs already has their entire career as fertile ground. If they can’t defend their actions, then they aren’t going to survive. I’d also point out that defense attorneys as a group don’t seem to have quite the same level of political ambition that career prosecutors do.
Your entire argument for not calling out Coakley on some pretty egregious behavior seems to built around the idea that it will somehow prevent Republicans from using a “terrorist loving defense lawyer” line of attack, which strikes me as willfully naive.
jwb
@kay: Again, I’m not disagreeing with your assessment or your views. I just don’t think the conservatives you are debating here are at all concerned about consistency of their views on these matters.
Laertes
@kay:
There you go again, pretending that a defense lawyer doing his job is the equivalent of a prosecutor failing to do his.
Bender
Yes, please donate to the woman described by Democrats as “a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign.” After all, if you can’t get behind the woman who
— imprisons innocent people for years for her political gain
— says that Catholics shouldn’t work in emergency rooms
— denies lifesaving heart transplants for political reasons
— refuses to shake hands with her constituents “in the cold”
— has her goons rough up the media asking her questions
…then who can you get behind?
We all know that Democrat operatives will try to steal this election. They tried to cheat against Scott Brown once, and he still won. Let’s see if he can beat the ACORN/Dead Voters Party again.
She is your candidate. This is your party. If you support her, you are clowns, just like her… and we’ll never let you forget it!
Popcorn!
Bender
@jwb:
Yep, just like the Chicago Olympics.
Laertes
@Bender:
To be clear, as much as I loathe her, I still support her. As vile as she may be, she’s better than a Republican.
I mean, what kind of idiot would I be if I got so angry at a Democrat for being sort of a law-and-order douchebag that I supported a Republican, for whom law-and-order douchebaggery is a religion?
kay
@Florida Cynic:
Well, no.
It’s also based on the fact that it was a single high profile case that she didn’t bring, and that there were a string of cases like Fells Acres all across the country in that time period.
We’re going to disagree. You’re saying prosecutors are unfit for electoral office once they act as prosecutors. I disagree with that. I don’t want to exclude that whole field.
Tonal Crow
@Laertes: A good point, but it should encourage us to stamp out “law-and-order” douchebaggery whereever we see it.
kay
@Laertes:
She didn’t fail to do her job. She argued against release. I disagree with that decision. I don’t know that my disagreeing with her decision means she “failed to do her job”. Did she conceal exonerating evidence? I don’t how she could have, she didn’t bring the original case. Did she somehow game the jury who convicted? Again, she didn’t bring the original case.
Again, let’s be clear on what happened here. She argued against release. That’s all she did. Is there some kind of misconduct inherent in that? I don’t know that the national hysteria on satanic ritual child abuse (which is what those cases were based on) should be laid at Coakley’s door.
Blue Raven
@Bender:
Kindly kiss your shiny, metal ass.
jwb
@Bender: No, there was little downside to going to Copenhagen and not getting a bid that no one really thought Chicago had much of a chance at. There’s quite a lot of downside to going to Massachusetts if Coakley loses a race that by all rights she should have had in the bag. There is no doubt that Obama has raised the stakes rather considerably, and I can’t imagine that he’d have done it if he believed there was a good chance she’d be defeated. This leads me to believe that they believe Coakley’s general poll numbers are fine but are concerned with shoring up GOTV.
kay
@Laertes:
The irony here is that the satanic ritual child abuse cases were a product of right wing religious hysteria, and used to scare and demonize working women, by media.
But, sure, lay that insanity on Coakley. That’s fair.
Tonal Crow
@kay: A prosecutor doesn’t do an ethical job if she fails to stand against hysteria. That said, I don’t know enough about the Fells Acres case or Coakley’s role in it to judge what she did.
Paul L.
@Laertes:
OTOH this is Massachusetts, Brown might turn out to be a RINO like Lincoln Chafee and drive the wingnuts crazy.
Wiki
slag
@Tonal Crow: I wish there were more law-and-order douchebags in Congress who would hold certain members of the executive branch accountable for their law-and-order-less actions.
jwb
@Blue Raven: Didn’t you get the memo? This is what Democrats do, steal elections, because we all know that they can’t win elections with, you know, poll numbers that are still better than Goopers despite everything. Besides Bender said so, so it must be true.
kay
@Tonal Crow:
I know a lot about that whole particular prosecutorial fad, because I do a lot of abuse, neglect and dependency defense.
It was based on this lunacy that took hold all across the country that people were involving children in satanic ritual. It happened all over. They coerced the children during interviews, and children are vulnerable to suggestion, and they repeated what social workers told them to say.
Media played a huge role in stoking the hysteria. There was a nasty undercurrent to the whole thing, in my view. It became a scare tactic for working women who used day care, to beat them over the head with guilt. This case was just one of many.
It was mass hysteria. People had bumper stickers “I believe the children”.
Legal issues involving children seem to bring about the craziest results. People seem to be unable to approach children with anything remotely resembling common sense.
There’s a new prosecutorial fad. It’s juvenile offenders being labeled “sex offenders”. Again, it involves children, so common sense is going out the fucking window, as usual.
Tonal Crow
@slag:
I think you’re really wishing for more prosecutors who do their jobs — which are to seek justice — irrespective of politics. Those are almost the polar opposite of “law-and-order” douchbags.
Bender
The genius of the Coakley campaign continues with the momentum of a runaway freight train.
Her first attack ad this week misspelled “Massachusetts.”
Then, as a symbol of corporate greed and corruption for a TV ad, the DSSC used… wait for it… the World Trade Center.
As Obama said, running a campaign is leadership experience, and a sign of how good a job you will do if elected.
Yep.
Tonal Crow
@kay: I know about the fad, certainly, but next to nothing about Coakley’s relationship (if any) to it.
Which one is that? The craziness that has teens who email provocative (and not necessarily even pornographic) photos of themselves to their friends, being prosecuted for producing child pornography?
Paul L.
A guy who bashes Palin and Prejean does not like Coakley.
<a href=”http://www.popehat.com/2010/01/15/liberal-fascism-the-not-so-secret-history-of-martha-coakley/”>Liberal Fascism: The Not-So Secret History Of Martha Coakley
@kay note this part.
geg6
The fact that so many of our resident trolls are weighing in on this thread leads me to the conclusion that Coakley should have no trouble winning. They only raise their ugly heads when they are in trouble.
Paul L.
Link did not post.
Liberal Fascism: The Not-So Secret History Of Martha Coakley
@kay note the part where he talks about the only time she uses discretion was for the police officer.
jwb
@Paul L.: And your point is that this somehow implies that Brown would make a better Senator?
Bender
@jwb:
That’s not factually true. Chicago was the slight favorite over Rio going in, and was the betting favorite at every house in London. The evident embarrassment of finishing dead last was noted the next day in the worldwide media, and was indeed regarded as a political loss for Obama.
Losing the Kennedy Seat would be a rejection of Obama’s policies, not just his personal charm, so yeah, it would be worse. No argument there. I still think it’s 50-50, despite Brown’s lead in the polls. I’m sure Obama is going there not only to give a campaign speech, but to tell the Democratic Machine to do “whatever it takes” (wink wink, armed Black Panthers at the polling place, wink wink, I found a box of 100% Coakley ballots in my car trunk!) to get their “terrible candidate” elected. Will that be enough? Who knows…
kay
@Tonal Crow:
Oh, God, no. The craziness that has right wing law ‘n order legislators writing sex offender classifications that apply to a 19 year old who dates a 15 year old. As unwise at that may be, I’m not sure it makes one a “sex offender”.
With “reporting requirements” that last 25 years, and life-long stigma of sex offender status.
That craziness. Going on now.
kay
@Paul L.:
Oh, bullshit, Paul. She was a county and then state prosecutor and the “only time” she used prosecutorial discretion was in that one case?
She used it every day, in a myriad of different ways.
Look, if you don’t understand the first thing about that job, why are you weighing in on her execution of that job?
The satanic ritual child abuse cases were yet another instance of child-related hysteria in the storied annals of American law. Holding Coakley responsible for what was national generalized insanity is just silly. There was wide public support for prosecuting the day care child abuse cases, and thousands of people made reports of indications of child abuse. Now, with hindsight, we’re going to call Coakley to account for this?
kay
@Paul L.:
I have to say, I love, love, love how conservatives are all of a sudden concerned for the rights of defendants, now that they have a Democratic prosecutor in the cross-hairs.
Welcome aboard! Where the hell you been? Can we take this as an indication of a new-found commitment to the Rule of Law?
Mattsky
Governor Jane Swift. But she was never elected as Governor. She was elected as the Lieutenant Governor and ascended to Governor when Paul Cellucci stepped down to become Ambassador to Canada.
Coakley being overzealous or under zealous as a prosecutor doesn’t really fit her. I think calculating political opportunist does. She has managed to make gaffs that have pissed off both Red Sox fans and Catholics this week. That constitutes a lot of people in MA.
What is telling in the race beyond the polls which people will discount is the differences in the enthusiasm of supporters of Coakley and Brown. What you read here seems typical. She is seen as a crappy candidate but we are stuck with her. Brown on the other hand has people fired up and that may over come the obstacles a GOP candidate has in the Bay State. Well those are my observations from Cape Cod.
A note to John Cole:
I am sorry to read about your shoulder. I wish you a speedy recovery.
PS: Did you folks bury MUP? Send it off to the glue factory perhaps? Just wondering when / if the facade of hope and change vanished. Has that tingling up your legs turned into a rash?
kay
@Paul L.:
Andrew Sullivan? Find me one female American politician or office holder Andrew Sullivan supports, or has ever supported.
Remember: Margaret Thatcher doesn’t count.
celticdragonchick
@kay:
Considering that she tried to keep the travesty going…
It’s part of her record and raises some pretty awful questions about her judgment and character. OTOH, her opponent is on the as saying that waterboarding is not torture.
What does this say about the health of our polity?
celticdragonchick
@kay:
He has been supporting Kirsten Gillebrand in New York over Ford.
jwb
@Bender: No, Chicago was not considered a favorite going in; Chicago only became a favorite in the betting houses when Obama announced he was going. Thus proving that bettors are no better at predicting outcomes than the rest of us. (Not sure why you even brought that factoid up.)
Tonal Crow
@kay: Next Paul L.’ll be donating 10% of his salary to the ACLU…..not.
Paul L.
@kay:
Not Andrew Sullivan, The guy at popehat I linked to.
You have a point. The discretion comment was Hyperbole.
Gerald Amirault was convicted in 1986.
Dorothy Rabinowitz exposed his case in 2001.
Coakley lobbied against his release in 2002. All 5 members of the parole board voted for it.
kay
@celticdragonchick:
He announced Coakley was a “party hack” which the people who live in that state and post here dispute. What is he basing that on? Wait! I know! She’s female, so she probably didn’t earn her position as AG, right?
I get a little tired of Andrew Sullivan and his knee jerk negative response to nearly every woman who runs for something or holds office, or any power at all, actually.
I think he should support Brown. Supporting conservatives has worked out so well for him.
kay
@Paul L.:
Paul, I’m not disputing she opposed his release. You’re accusing her of prosecutorial misconduct. Unethical behavior. The fact is, the AG doesn’t have any duty to support the release of anyone.
She has one duty: follow the rules, and not lie to the defense. That’s how she “furthers the cause of justice”. We have an adversarial system, and she’s on the state side. Them’s the rules.
If you can point me to some instance where she violated the letter or even spirit of proper prosecutorial conduct I think you should bring it. She doesn’t have a duty to undo a conviction by making a recomendation to the parole board. She can make a bad call, and it doesn’t indicate anything other than a bad call. How far does this duty you’re claiming extend? Does the judge in that case have an independent duty to re-open? How about the jury? Can we call them back in?
You haven’t made your case. You have to show me she’s corrupt.
Rabinowitz makes a fine case for a newspaper editorial page, but she’s not a judge, and either is Coakley. Coakley is an advocate, and she’s on the other side.
kay
@Paul L.:
Too, Paul, I love how this national hysteria that resulted in thousands of charges against day care operators and staff all across the country has now been pinned on one bad actor: Coakley.
You know, I followed it at the time, because I recognized it as a freaking crazed witch hunt, and I remember a lot of public support for “tough on child abuse” law ‘n order types.
People were clamoring for convictions. Coakley didn’t have any role in that.
Has Rabinowitz gone after any other prosecutors? There was a ludicrous case in California, that started the whole thing.
Xenos
@kay: Actually, Kay, at the time Coakley was District Attorney for Middlesex County (the exact office that had prosecuted Amirault), so by opposing Amirault’s release she was well with her institutional role, by defending the prosecutors working for her. It is akin to Leon Pannetta defending the CIA within the administration – he runs the department and looks out for it even when there may have been something shady going on.
For Coakley to have supported Amirault’s release would have unleashed a huge shitstorm, and probably would have ended here career. So maybe she failed to be a profile in courage, but the voters and the system got the decision they wanted out of her.
Tonal Crow
@kay:
This overstates the case. The prosecutor’s charge is to seek justice, which can include supporting the release of a person who, upon diligent examination, appears to have been convicted or held unjustly. Certainly if a prosecutor discovers evidence that a convicted person is innocent, she must disclose it to the defense. I am not sure how much such evidence is required to trigger a duty to investigate, nor at what point the discretion to decide whether to support a convict’s release becomes a duty to do so. (That’d require more research than I can spend on this). But there is a point. Did the Amirault case reach that point? I don’t know enough to say.
kay
@Xenos:
Thanks so much, Xenos.
Svensker
@Paul L.:
I don’t think Lincoln Chafee likes torture like Mr. Brown apparently does.
kay
@Tonal Crow:
I think it’s the defense job to raise the issues, at trial, after conviction, or anywhere else anyone will listen, and the courts job to remedy a bad conviction, on appeal.
Making “justice” turn on the (next) prosecutor’s presentation to the parole board? I just think that’s a huge stretch.
I just don’t know that I’d run around depending on the state’s lawyer’s careful review of the evidence used to convict, and their advocacy of early release at a parole board hearing. That seems a tad naive. It also conveniently skips the whole court process that went before she even entered the picture on this case.
Will
I donated to Haiti and Coakley today.
Tonal Crow
@kay: I agree that it’s the defense’s job, in the first instance, to raise (and keep raising) questions of innocence, even beyond appeal and into habeas. That said, when the evidence of innocence reaches a certain level, the prosecutor is ethically required to flip and petition for release, judicial exoneration, etc. Once again, I am not arguing Amirault or Coakley’s role in his case, but prosecutorial ethics in the abstract.
Cat Lady
Late to this post, but Brown is my senator. If you want a glimpse into the kind of phony poseur he is, his office at the State House has several glamour shots of HIMSELF. I know this to be fact.
celticdragonchick
Just fucking brilliant.
It seems Coakley is also one of those “Investigate the pain clinics fer oxycontin addled addicts!”
Yep. Those of us who have to go to pain clinics and submit to their regulations (I had my visit today to get my prescrip refilled!!!!!!) to deal with ongoing and constant pain really need this sort of Inquisitor in the Senate making us even more miserable.
Christ on a crutch.
celticdragonchick
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31413_Page2.html#ixzz0citxMaRT
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31413_Page2.html
Lisa K.
@celticdragonchick:
That doesn’t count. That is akin to supporting electrocution over a firing squad.
Anyway, who gives a rat’s ass what Andrew Sullivan thinks?
Lisa K.
@celticdragonchick:
I would read the back of used toilet paper before I would click on any link to Politico.
kay
@Lisa K.:
Coakley doesn’t meet the purity test.
No one with a job or prior record or associates of any kind is going to meet this purity test, but never mind that.
celticdragonchick
@Lisa K.:
\
The author is Radley Balko, who is usually found at The Agitator or Reason Online. Go find him there, if you like. If you are just going to pout about the source without actually dealing with the substance, than you are falling into the same logical fallacies as the Palinistas who ignore any news that doesn’t come from WorldNutDaily or Newsmax.
Her election could have actual negative consequences for me and other chronic pain sufferers if she takes this retrograde law enforcement attitude to the Senate.
celticdragonchick
@kay:
You mean like actually seeing what positions they take on issues and examining what they have done??
Oh, that would be unfair. Looking at your past to see how you are qualified for office is now…wait for it…a purity test!
Anne Laurie
@Bob In Pacifica:
No, the state’s health care reform is more popular now than ever — hanging in the high-70% favorable range. The national Scaife/Mellon outlets have been moneybombing the excrable Scott “Cosmo Boy” Brown because they’d give their shrunken testicles for a Rethug win here in Eventheliberal Massachusetts. Especially since they could spin it as a rebuke to Governor Deval Patrick, who they’ve set up as the shadow-Obama. Apart from slavering to turn Teddy Kennedy’s seat over to a “dependable” rightwinger, putting a new male Palin in the Senate gives them a simple parable to tell the Baggers and Birthers about decent (white) Real Amurkins(tm) overthrowing the scary liebruls and dark-completed “interlopers”.
kay
@celticdragonchick:
Gotta love that Andrew Sullivan. How many times do you think he’s gonna get rolled by conservatives, and repeat their bullshit talking points?
On July 8, 2009, Coakley filed a suit,challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. The suit claims that Congress “overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people.”Massachusetts is the first state to challenge the legislation.
He’s far too pure to support this “party hack”.
Anne Laurie
@celticdragonchick:
If you think Scotty “Whatever my puppeteers tell me is the correct attitude this week, I’m for it” Brown is going to come out in favor of decriminalization, you may need to cut back on those pain meds because you’re hallucinating.
celticdragonchick
@Lisa K.:
Beats me. Why do folks here whine about him so much??
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
(not meaning you, Lisa, just directed at the somewhat unhinged anger directed at Andrew I see here from time to time)
Tonal Crow
@Anne Laurie: Quite. As a typical GOPer, he’ll almost certainly be as bad (or worse) on that score (and on many others) than Coakley. Still, no politician should be exempt from examination and criticism. But we should also do it in a way that doesn’t cause us to elect the more evil of two evils.
celticdragonchick
@Anne Laurie:
What the hell are you talking about?
Weed clinics?
The issue discussed was her willingness to harass pain clinics in a witch hunt for “addicts” to prescription meds in her role as
persecuterprosecutor. Balko describes her admission that she is not a medical expert while she blithely dismisses medical evidence based on her “experience” (read: her need to rack up some easy press with “pill pushing docs”).These sort of grandstanding DA office antics make it nearly impossible for chronic pain sufferers to get access to pain management care. Pain specialist doctors know that cops and prosecutors (with no medical knowledge or thought for patient needs) are willing and eager to destroy their practices and licenses as a part of “the war on drugs”.
People like me who live on pain medication (I have degenerative disc disease, among other problems) need competent care, and we need ethical officials and politicians who will not harass and arrest us and our doctors for trying to live a somewhat functional life.
As far as I can tell, both candidates are vile, and I cannot for the life of me see anything good coming from either one if elected.
kay
@celticdragonchick:
I love the double standard on lawyering, by the way.
Isn’t Ted Olsen one of Sullivan’s heroes? For his stellar work advancing liberty and the Rule of Law in Bush v Gore? Or his work as Bush’s solicitor general, arguing against every progressive position?
Nah. In those cases, he was just doing his job.
Why the double standard for Coakley?
burnspbesq
@Paul L.:
Look, dumbass, do you have any idea – even the smallest conception – of what is at stake here? Yes, it’s terrible that those people got railroaded. But there are 47 million Americans without health insurance who will be well and truly fucked if Brown gets elected.
Get your fucking priorities straight.
Mary
Coakley just went over a million on Act Blue. She was at less than $200K a couple of days ago. Yay.
burnspbesq
@John MacNeill:
That makes you a fucking moron. As I said to your fellow fucking moron, get your priorities straight.
celticdragonchick
@burnspbesq:
Yep. Can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs…and if our gal just happened to fuck over innocent people accused of a horrible crime that was never committed in the first place, than what the deuce? Hell, as long as they aren’t anyone I know right? Ethical considerations are just so…so…1994 Pearl Jam, dontchaknow.
BY all means, let’s put our person in, because party is always over principle when we really want it to be.
bago
Just want to say that Radley Balko rocks. Sure his term as the editor of reason has mostly been promoting teabaggery, but he has put in the time on police misconduct and has made a difference. The whole Cory Maye story deserves an award.
Mattsky
Did you know that Massachusetts likely voters oppose ObamaCare by 15% margin?
There is a reason that even in the very blue state of Massachusetts people are against it. Because the Dems in the House and Senate don’t have their priorities straight and Obama Care is terribly flawed.
kay
@celticdragonchick:
Oh, baloney. Sullivan’s got a post up where he breathlessly reveals that….Coakley is to the Right of Ted Kennedy on criminal justice matters!
No shit. She was a county prosecutor and then an AG.
Ted Kennedy didn’t have a whole lot of opportunities to try cases for the state, and he wasn’t getting 911 calls from panicked Massachusetts residents.
It’s a dumb-ass comparison, and typical of the purity police.
celticdragonchick
@kay:
Why are you worried about what Sullivan is saying??
I like his blog, but crikey! I don’t run my opinions and quotes around whatever he is doing at the moment! If you are pissed off at him, email him by all means. He does actually print dissents, especially well written ones.
When I want to quote somebody, I usually go for Jared Diamond (Guns Germs & Steel), geopolitical reporter Robert Kaplan or Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan).
kay
@celticdragonchick:
Forget it. But celticdragon? If Teddy Kennedy had been a county prosecutor he would have been pro-law enforcement too.
Because that’s how they are. They’re on the state side. They run on that.
Svensker
@celticdragonchick:
Look, I understand how you feel. We just went through an election with Corzine vs. winger Christie. I loathed Corzine for being a corporatist, suck up asshole who didn’t do jack but who made damn sure his Goldman friends were well taken care of.
But I went out and voted for him. Why? Because Christie is worse. There are folks now in NJ who KNOW they will not be able to get married now for at least 4 years because a bunch of people like a lot of my family and friends couldn’t be bothered to go out and vote for Corzine because he wasn’t a good enough Democrat. Good for them. They got to be pure and their neighbor doesn’t get to visit his husband in the hospital when he’s dying.
Do you understand the phrase “lesser of two evils”? Or did you vote for Nader in 2004, as well?
Mattsky
Svensker you just blindly vote for who ever has a D next to their name. You’re one of the sheep the DNC loves. It doesn’t matter how corrupt they are they can always count on you. In NJ they know corruption!
celticdragonchick
@Svensker:
Since I am a moderate “Republican”(a nearly extinct species), I certainly did not vote for Nader. I am still in penance for that Bush vote :(
In any event, I now reluctantly conclude that Coakley is the lesser of two evils. That she would hypothetically get my grudging vote in no way entitles her to a dime of my money or minute of my time. She didn’t earn that.
Barbara
I donated to Haiti and to Coakley. For those who feel torn, you can forego donating to Haiti right now because, in truth, what Haiti really needs are people who will be there when the immediate crisis abates and most people turn their gaze to the next crisis somewhere else in the world. Consider organizations like these that are committed to making life in Haiti better in between as well as after disasters:
http://www.oursoil.org/
Ihttp://www.fonkoze.org/
Jackie
I simply don’t understand the “I’m withholding my vote” mentality. You are getting one of these two people. Which one is up to you. Your perfect paragon from the primary is obviously not one of your choices. Or were they all
too impure to get your vote then? The lesser of two evils is still less evil. Which one will push more things the way you want them pushed?
This election decides a United States Senator in a time of great crisis. Stand up and make a choice.
asiangrrlMN
@Mattsky: Ha! Any Republican who talks about sheep is to be laughed at and mocked. Ha ha!
@Jackie: Yup. I’m with you on this one. I actually believe that the lesser of two evils is…the lesser of two evils. I don’t have to like Martha Coakley to know that Brown winning would be disastrous. Just as I didn’t particularly care for Gore in 2000 (how I wish the real Gore had run, you know, the funny, self-deprecating one), but I knew that he would be WAY better than W.
Mattsky
asiangrrlMN you are sheep who bought the whole bag of hope and change lies. BTW I’m not a registered with any political party.
svensker
@Mattsky:
Actually, the first Democrat I ever voted for in my entire life was for Lautenberg after he replaced Toricelli in 2002. But at this point my general feeling is that a corrupt or even dead Dem is better than 99.9% of Republicans, seeing as how the sane Repubs have all been run outta the party.
As long as the Repubs are talking about how great torture is, blocking gay marriage, are against health care, make fun of global warming, and hold up people like Sarah Palin as role models, any Dem is better. I’m hoping for better Dems but that doesn’t happen by electing Repubs
Mattsky
Jon Corzine ran NJ into the ground and left an $8 Billion gap in the budget. Is that’s what you wanted for your state svensker? Please note that Obama is against gay marriage but you’ll forgive him I bet. No political party is worthy of the loyalty you are giving the Democrats.
Steeplejack
@Max:
Off topic, but I find the phrase “monthly shoe budget” fascinating. I know you’re a woman, and I’m a man, but still. My “monthly shoe budget” consists of occasional new inserts for my two pairs of disintegrating but still wearable shoes. But I am woefully underemployed at present and living on a tight budget.
That is all.
vheidi
@The Other Steve: i was just saying the same thing- what is this “looting” of which the nyt speaks? I sort of think private property starts to lose meaning in this situation, but I am of course a dfh
vheidi
priorities: $100 to MSF + $10/month, $25 + 1.25 to Coakley and Act Blue.