A roundup of some Democratic National Convention coverage, from friends DCist and Blue Mass Group: A conversation with Lt. Gov. Tim Murray. [BMG] DNC gets "bumpin'." [DCist] Thoughts on Kennedy's speech. [BMG] Day 1 highlights. [DCist] Chat with State Rep. Jamie Eldrige. [BMG]......

--Find out where to meet up on March 6 to ask Rep. Ed Markey (aka "Biz Markey") to support Cape Wind. [Blue Mass Group, more on Cape Wind from Bostonist] --Holy crap. This guy eats a Big Mac in one bite. Honest. Where is Morgan Spurlock when you need him? [Andy Eats via Menu Pages] --Following a more highbrow food track, Le Cordon Bleu is opening in Cambirdge on April 7. [Beantown Bloggery] --Apparently Barstool......

--Now that Spatch has been rooming with a CW celebrity, perhaps he thought that another CW reality show, the mother-daughter beauty pageant extravaganza Crowned, might be as good. He was wrong. [Derspatchel] --VickieVictoria encounters "Wookie porn," as in the Star Wars holiday special. [VickieVictoria] --While the return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is like a holiday gift, not everyone is happy about it. The writers' strike is still going on, and "it's not funny......

Governor Deval Patrick pitched his casino proposal yesterday at the State House. In his full speech, the text of which is available here, Patrick painted a "softening revenue picture." Enter the casinos, which he believes can bring in new jobs and a steady revenue stream. Patrick's speech was largely reassuring and addressed the major counterarguments--that casinos would be demeaning and tacky and that the maintenance costs would wipe out the new revenue. He said they......

--Former Massachusetts Speaker of the House and radio host Tom Finneran cries. Conveniently, a camera is there. [Boston Herald] --Equally conveniently, the Herald finds someone to analyze the supposedly hot new trend of men crying. How come we never get asked to discuss this stuff? They ask if guys can cry, too. Uh, they have tear ducts, right? [Boston Herald] --Another winter day, another snow collapse, this time for a gas station canopy in Worcester.......

--Were there enough police out to handle traffic in the major intersections during Thursday's snowstorm? [Blue Mass Group] --Mike Mennonno has a message for those who complained about how the city handled the snow storm: "… why didn't you avoid all this frustration by just seeking out alternative transportation for the day? Yes, you would have had other frustrations to deal with, but they would have been fairly minor in comparison to five or six......

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Mitt Romney has decided to reassure voters about his Mormon faith in a speech. He typically diverted questions away from his faith in interviews--but former Arkansas governor, the folksy Weight Watchers posterboy Mike Huckabee, is posing a surprise challenge. Politico is already calling the speech a "huge gamble," but it might help. Romney's faith is the one thing he hasn't flip-flopped on. It's sad that some people can't leave......

Romney didn't endear himself to anyone when he answered a question about whether or not he would appoint a Muslim to his fantasy presidential cabinet. Here's Mansoor Ijaz, who asked that question of Romney and wrote about the response for the Christian Science Monitor: I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the......

Our neighbor, New Hampshire, is indulging in primary one-upmanship by moving its presidential primary up to January 8 to beat Michigan's January 15 date. For Boston, this means an endless parade of presidential candidates on television, a lot sooner than we're used to now that the states are trying to get a slice of the money the primaries will bring. The early primaries force the candidates to put the pedal to the medal and automatically......

--Spectacular photos of Matt Damon in 2005, brought back in honor of Damon's selection as People's "Sexiest Man Alive." [Lolita Parker Jr., who also did the great "Escape From MBTA" pictures] --The secret to Dane Cook's success is simple. [Derspatchel] --How to make your own turducken--if you dare! [Menu Pages] --Wolf Blitzer gets savaged after the Democrats debated in Las Vegas. [Blue Mass Group] --We're bad about typos because we're slobs without a copyeditor. Surely,......

--Veterans come home, but the trauma of war follows them. [Boston Globe] --The story behind the sculpture of an Iraqi soldier made out of 70,000 ball bearings. [Blue Mass Group] --Veterans Day closings for Monday. The Globe put liquor stores second on its printed list, third on the online list. Just so you know, liquor stores are open. [Boston Globe] --Ratings for local talk radio are sucking, and local radio stations are trying to......

--After a series of positive experiences, Urban Paramedic has reconsidered the Guardian Angels: "People may disagree over the value of Guardian Angel patrols, but they certainly deserve credit for believing in what they do." --The Food Monkey has an epiphany thanks to Jacoby Ellsbury's winning a free taco for America. --On Common Ground evaluates the Globe's choices for this year's Top 25 Most Stylish People and finds this year's list to be an improvement over......

Update: Keller's editor, Michael Flamini, has provided the following defense to the Herald--“‘The Bluest State’ is a lively and controversial work” and “more akin to an op-ed piece than to a work of historical analysis or an academic treatise.... It is unreasonable to expect extensive footnotes for each and every quote, or a lengthy bibliography." Wow. How hard is it to print footnotes? And how stupid does Flamini think Keller's audience is? This statement makes......

--Neighbors for Neighbors is concerned about what T Radio is going to do to the buskers who perform every day at various stops and provides a list of who to contact if you want to do something about it. --At Blue Mass Group, the president of NECN displays an obvious fear of bloggers. Yeah, we're really scary. --Susie thinks that her "obsession with all things pumpkin" will get out of control this fall. --Fabulously Out......

If you're in East Boston, it's time to vote for State Representative of the First Suffolk district, the seat vacated by Anthony Petruccelli when he won a State Senate spot. Here are the candidates, all Democrats: Carlo Basile - Basile is officially a Democrat, but he is more of a moderate - or an undercover elephant - in that he endorsed Romney in the past and worked for Kerry Healey's failed attempt to be governor.......

--Everyone's got an opinion about Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. Dan Kennedy at Media Nation, who also cross-posts at Blue Mass Group, has been taking the anti-casino view and offers an interesting post about how the new revenue Patrick has been discussing is just "rearranged money." --Britney Spears still will not go away. Onward Charles has discovered video trance remixes of that weird "Leave Britney Alone!" guy. Where does he she* find this stuff? It's......

The Cambridge Chronicle and Blue Mass Group are reporting that Anthony Galluccio won the State Senate seat vacated by Jarrett Barrios in today's special election. While Tim Flaherty had the most backing and Galluccio was saddled with a drunk-driving record, Galluccio also had the name recognition since he has been involved with Cambridge politics for so long. The only thing that matters is getting people to the polls and having them remember your name once......

Today, some Massachusetts residents will be voting on a replacement for State Senator Jarrett Barrios, who left the Senate to make some bucks working for Blue Cross. The following candidates for his position are all Democrats: Timothy Flaherty - Former assistant DA and son of Charlie Flaherty, who used to be speaker of the Massachusetts House. Definitely has the most badass campaign photo. Also has the most endorsements (Globe, Cambridge Chronicle, Blue Mass Group). Anthony......

Welcome to "Series of Tubes," in which Bostonist rounds up developments among local bloggers over the past week. If you want to make sure your blog is on Bostonist's radar, please e-mail caroline@bostonist.com or leave a link in the Contribute section. --David at Blue Mass Group describes the horrible conditions animals must endure at the Wonderland and Raynham dog tracks. His post and the facts described within are more than enough to make a person......

According to official record, Middleborough is going to get a casino. On Saturday, voters said that they want the casino offered by the Mashpee Wampanoags. Here's what the town will get in exchange for the casino: "At least $11 million a year plus $250 million for road, sewer and other infrastructure improvements." But, although they approved the casino from the Wampanoags, they voted down bringing casino gambling into town. The "yes" vote was binding. The......

Lawmakers voted down the proposal to add a measure to ban gay marriage on the 2008 ballot. The vote was 45 for adding the ban to the ballot and 151 against. WBZ has also posted the roll call vote so you can find out who to send a thank-you card. Or a nastygram, depending on the case. Now that Pride has wrapped up, it couldn't have happened at a better time. A whole lot......

Last weekend, Deval Patrick marched in the Pride parade. And he has vociferously opposed adding a ban on same-sex marriage to the 2008 ballot. Supporters of gay rights have many reasons to feel good. But today is going to be nerve-wracking because the Legislature might vote again on the ballot measure at the constitutional convention. In the winter, the Legislature approved adding a ballot measure that would give voters the option to define marriage as......

Academia never seemed like the kind of setting for straight-up catfights, but UMass appears to be the exception. Not everyone is happy with the shakeup of the state's education system, which involved UMB chancellor Michael Collins moving to U-Mass-Worcester to be interim medical school chancellor and Keith Motley taking his spot. Yesterday, at the UMass medical school, physiology professor John Walsh and deputy medical school chancellor Richard Stanton let off some steam. Walsh had said......

Just when you think Governor Deval Patrick is out of surprises, he comes out with another one - his chief of staff, Joan Wallace-Benjamin, is leaving, and Patrick already has a replacement on deck. Doug Rubin, whom the AP describes as "one of the chief architects of Patrick's winning campaign strategy," will take over the post. Blue Mass Group quickly called Rubin "a very good choice." The entire change suggests that even when a politician......

We can't make fun of Senate President Robert Travaglini, lovingly known as "T-Vag," anymore. T-Vag (not to be confused with "T-Weed" of I Love New York fame) has announced that he's leaving that he is leaving the guv'mint for a higher-paying job. $90,000 dollars a year wasn't enough for him, so he's moving on to bigger and better things. The Globe says T-Vag will launch "a lobbying company that would help clients navigate the political......

Yesterday the folks over at Blue Mass Group included in a post a YouTube video of Mitt Romney back when he was running against Ted Kennedy for a senate seat. It seemed like the race was closer than it should have been, especially given what we know about Mitt now. But maybe it's just because when Romney was running for Senate he was also just telling us what we wanted to hear. The Boston Globe......

The Legislature passed the proposed amendment to ban on gay marriage on the 2008 ballot. Even though 134 legislators don't want the ban on the ballot, all it takes is 50 legislators to move the amendment forward, and 62 legislators voted "yes." This is a setback, not just for those who deserve the right to marry whomever they want but also for Deval Patrick, who took a strong stand against the amendment, using tough......