Friday, March 17, 2006

Friday Odds and Ends

It's another Friday, so it must be time for me to clear out my backlog and post some of the things that I found interested but haven't posted yet. Feel free to add your own!

  • Mike Festa endorses Gerry Leone: On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Festa officially endorsed Gerry Leone for Middlesex County District Attorney. Festa had dropped out of the race for DA himself earlier this year siting a fundraising gap with his opponents. Check out The Alewife for pictures from the press conference.

  • Mihos Caught Fudging His Web Bio: Christy Mihos, who once claimed that he was never handed anything, has now changed his website's biography. A sentence claiming that Mihos paid his own way through college by playing music at Greek weddings has been removed and Mihos now says that his parents actually paid his tuition, though he did do some jobs for spending money.

  • Googling for Grades: Check out this Google ad campaign by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. They graded every New York State legislator on their 'middle class' voting record and for the next month, whenever you Google their names, you'll see their grade as one of the sponsored links. I tried it with my old state Senator, Majority Leader Joe Bruno, and he got a "D". This is a really creative idea, and I'd be interested to see what the click-through rate is on those ads once the campaign ends.

  • Shorter Joan Vennochi: We took down John Kerry, and you're next, Mitt.

  • Kennedy Opponent Collects Signatures: Republican Ken Chase, who last ran unsuccessfully against Congressman Ed Markey in 2004, was out collecting signatures by himself at the Waverley Square Shaws in Belmont on Wednesday. If either Chase or former Wakefield Selectman Kevin Scott get enough signatures to get on the ballot against Ted Kennedy, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will be able to spend money in Massachusetts. Of course, that money won't go to trying to unseat Senator Kennedy, but will probably go to pay state party field staff to help drive up turnout for the gubernatorial contest.

  • LNG Plan Dies: The plan to put an LNG terminal on Outer Brewster Island has been shelved. The proposal had a lot of hurdles to go through, needing a two-thirds vote in the legislature, since the facility would be on parkland, plus approval by state and federal regulatory agencies. I still think that it's a better place for an LNG terminal than Everett, but since the Everett terminal wouldn't be going away if the plan were enacted, I'm not particularly upset.
There's lots of other stuff going on, so I'm sure that I left out something important. What's on your mind?