By Harvey Silverglate

When Massachusetts residents elected Deval Patrick governor just over a year ago, it was a sign that this state had finally become fed up with sixteen years of Republican pols who treated the office as part plaything, part stepping stone to higher electoral office. For some of us, a liberal administration in the State House – who had previously been an Assistant Attorney General for civil rights in the Clinton administration – was a sign that Patrick would act as a “freedom governor” as well as a “compassionate liberal.

By James F. Tierney

In the bill intended to authorize three casinos in Massachusetts, Deval Patrick has quietly slipped in a provision that would ban online gambling – and subject players to “jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines”. Over at his blog Media Nation, Dan Kennedy explains Patrick’s cynical ploy to protect future state tax revenue – and why Connecticut’s casinos will implement their own anti-competition measures.