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(Wow. I'll be interested to see what David says about this -- apparently the judge's ruling was a real thrashing. This is a placeholder - anyone go to Copley?
Also -- YAY. - promoted by Charley on the MTA)
The Proposition 8 Perry v. Schwarzenegger federal court decision will be released between 1 and 3 pm Pacific time today (4-6 Eastern). In brief, it is a challenge to the constitutionality of California's Prop 8 constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Chris Geidner has written up an excellent FAQ on the details and ramifications of the case. The decision will be posted online here.
A list of Day of Decision events can be found here. The Boston plans are as follows
BOSTON: 6 p.m. | Copley Square @ Copley T stop on Boylston St
Campaign managers and staffers should consider enrolling in the New Organizing Institute's "Campaign Management 101" online course. The first one-hour class starts tonights at 8.00 PM. The program runs through 2 September at 9.00 PM. It costs $15 per class for 10 classes, and could win a lot more votes than $150 worth of bumper stickers.
This course is built from our Campaign Manager training, and will deliver the top modules in our 4 pillars - Money, Message, Mobilization and Management. The course is designed for managers and aspiring managers, but will provide valuable tools for individuals at any level, working in any type of campaign or organization.
NOI is a non-profit: "We want to live in a world in which people have decent, healthy lives and meaningful opportunities to pursue happiness. We want to build an organizing culture and set of practices that not only wins campaigns and improves people's lives in the short-term, but builds stronger communities, people, and democracy in the longer-term." Some of their people are listed here.
I attended a real-world conference they organized, on behalf of BMG, and found it excellent.
(Senator Brown seems a bit befuddled these days, if his voting record is any indication. - promoted by Bob Neer)
The last major hurdle in clearing the state aid package for cities and towns, schools and Medicaid funding has passed with the 61 - 38 filibuster vote. The Globe is reporting that senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins were the two Republicans who voted to stop debate.
The legislation, a $26 billion national aid package, is paid for by spending cuts and a tax hike on multinational corporations. The bill prevailed over a Republican filibuster by a vote of 61-38. Sixty votes were required to overcome the GOP's procedural roadblock. Two Republicans broke ranks and supported the measure: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine.
Unfortunately, Scott Brown voted to filibuster state aid funding.
The bill is funded by spending cuts and the closing of a loophole that allowed multinational corporations to get tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. Scott Brown was apparently unhappy with the funding of the bill and spending cuts. Instead, Scott Brown wanted to move numbers around and pretend that the bill is funded. Brown supported using unspent stimulus dollars, while never detailing exactly how those stimulus dollars would be offset.
Spending is spending Scott. Very poor all around for our Jr. Senator.
("Ross is a politician but not cowardly or overly slick." Well, that is a start I guess. - promoted by Bob Neer)
Boston City Council President Michael Ross spoke candidly with Left Ahead! on everything from who has power in town to youth violence to bike lanes.
Click on the player on the jump for the show.
Note: He was up at the state house for a command performance at the beginning and joins us just after 33 minutes into the show.
As one of the young, aggressive, innovative group of councilors from the 90s, Ross has been an unflagging advocate for change in the city. He spoke with us about what that's meant in the existing political structure and what should change.
(Key quotation from Mark's argument: "From a policy point of view, education should reconsider Deming's 14 Key Principles of Management. This view puts a premium on steady, continuous improvement, not radical, drastic transformation. It regards employees, not as cogs in a machine, but as workers to be continuously improved through training and teamwork." - promoted by Bob Neer)
In the 1980s, Japan's economic success sent America into one of its conniptions of nativist introspection. Forty years earlier, America had conquered the country, and now it was threatening to surpass us. Its cars were better made. Its savings rate was high. It was holding $100 billion in American securities (and financing our deficit). It was buying up American real estate at a fast pace. Its products were flooding our stores. There were minor protests. Ron Howard even made a bad movie about the tension.
One benefit of the immoderate fear of the Japanese was the attention given to W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician that taught Japanese managers many of the keys to good management and product quality. (It may be hard for younger folks to imagine, but the words "MADE IN JAPAN" were once synonymous for cheap and bad quality). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, total quality management was a full-blown conceptual fad in business and education.
I don't know where business is these days with the ideas of Deming, but if educational policy-makers ever learned anything from him, they have forgotten it. The ideas driving education policy today from Massachusetts education reform to the Duncanation of the national education policy are managerial throwbacks to a different age, an age where incentives, negative and positive, are considered the most important tools for improving educational quality. Employees are most of the problem, not part of the solution; recalcitrance to embrace reforms cooked up by management is treated as a matter of greed.
("This is a press release from Boston Workers Alliance 8/1/10." - promoted by Bob Neer)
On the last day of the 2009-10 formal session, the Massachusetts state legislature gave final approval to an overhaul of the state's criminal background check system. Intended to improve access to jobs, housing and other vital services for those with arrest records, reforming the Criminal Offender Record Information-known as CORI- has been an area of interest by community and labor organizations for nearly a decade.
First introduced as a state legislative proposal in 2005, a broad array of stakeholders
including major law enforcement and business associations has since joined efforts to
update the laws. Motivated by the budgetary and public safety consequences of leaving ex-offenders unable to work, CORI reform gained bi-partisan support in the legislature as
a "smart on crime" measure.
For members of the statewide Commonwealth CORI Coalition, the reforms are the fruits of a relentless campaign led by those suffering under the current CORI regime.
(An important decision, no doubt. - promoted by Bob Neer)
For those of us who have been working for years to oppose the expansion of predatory gambling in Massachusetts, the last few months and weeks have brought a strange combination of horror and satisfaction. Horror, because we have seen so many otherwise reasonable -- and progressive -- legislators accept the misleading or downright false information that has been force-fed to them by lobbyists, racetrack owners, and secretive billionaires. Satisfaction, because the whole tawdry process -- of closed meetings, illogical argumentation, self-delusion and unfettered greed -- is finally being aired on television and the newspapers every day.
The arguments about the damage slot machines will inflict on individuals, small businesses, and local communities are starting to sink in, so that even long-time Democrats who have tended to think of gambling as a question of personal choice are starting to feel a groaning sensation in their guts. They are starting to remember that the Democratic Party officially voted at their June 2009 convention against slot machines in Massachusetts. And no wonder: the numbers are horrific.
With the big news of the last few days being what is going to happen with the expanded gambling legislation currently sitting on the Governor's desk, I thought MiddleboroReview's excellent comment digging up some actual numbers - rather than wild estimates - about the number and types of jobs that can be expected from expanded gambling was highly relevant.
Maybe candor is required
The Casino Cheerleaders have relentlessly repeated the false buzzwords so that most folks accept and believe them with little consideration.
The number of jobs the proposed legislation would create has been wildly exaggerated. We are told that two casinos and four racinos will net about 16,000 construction and permanent jobs. But in Indiana it takes 10 riverboats, one casino and two racinos to generate 16,000 current jobs and Louisiana requires 18 casinos to employ 17,268, according to the American Gaming Association.
Michigan's three casinos net 8,568 permanent jobs and New Mexico's five racinos employ less than 2,000 people.
In Las Vegas, it takes 266 casinos to bring in $11.6 billion in gross revenue, which translates into $924 million in tax revenue. Even the $300 million to $600 million now estimated here is a stretch based on that data.
We need good jobs that provide a future, that we can be proud to work.
Slot Barns provide low wage dead end jobs.
The unions brought 3 members from Atlantic City to testify at the Senate Ways & Means Committee Hearing. They spoke of the great benefits derived from union membership and wonderful wages.
One Senator listened quietly and finally asked what the starting pay was.
The panel looked like deer in the headlights!
They sputtered and hesitated until finally one panelist indicated the starting pay was ABOUT $10 an hour.
The round-the-clock nature of casino work, coupled with a lack of enough safe, affordable child care, affects the ability of employees with children, particularly single parents, to maintain their jobs. Finally, the low-skill service jobs available in casinos or other industries may not provide enough income to escape poverty. Residents often noted that they or someone they knew held two or three casino jobs in order to make ends meet.
Las Vegas' crime rate is 1,040 percent higher than Branson's and 15.7 times higher than Bloomington's, Grinols reported, although both destinations draw far more visitors per resident than does Las Vegas.
(Awful. (And -- 102 degrees in Moscow?? How often does that happen??) - promoted by Charley on the MTA)
Putin walks the devastation and makes promises - to rebuild entire villages before winter, $33,000.00 if a family member died. These photos are gripping.
Grain producing areas larger than Kentucky going up in smoke. Already stressed food production going down. Grain prices maybe doubling or more in some places that can ill afford them. Russian TV and media are as full of this story as the USA's media is of the Gulf Oil Disaster. The BBC reports entire villages reduced to ashe, stunned survivors, and Premier Putin standing in the ashes promising the villages would be rebuilt "before winter." 18 of Russias regions declared as in a state of emergency
Maybe we could lend some of those unemployed firefighters to help those Russian firefighters. But seriously, the human costs and suffering are enormous and this disaster is affecting air quality even here, and may affect how this winter plays out. Moscow was 102 degrees today. Not many people or workplaces are engineered there to handle that sort of heat, and there has been two weeks of it. These pictures were taken by a group of patients and staff fleeing a hospital that exploded into flames
You know, there just might be weightier concerns for the human race than casinos - even if casinos killed the economy of the state of Nevada and are to prudent revenue as crack is to a prudent life style. As John Adams' character so famously sang in the movie/play 1776
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care"
2000 Russians have drowned, trying to beat this heat wave.
I have already thanked my representative and senator. If you agree with how your legislator voted - say "Thank YOU" - they don't hear it often and those may be the two most powerful words in the English language.
If you do not agree with how your legislator voted, well, it is your job as a citizen to let them know that, as well.
I will say it again: What is needed is a cleanup of the "tax expenditure budget" and honest, long term revenue planning, not expanding predatory gambling which will destroy businesses and local jobs, and degrade our state based on unreal estimates of new jobs.
We cannot cut taxes in good years, and cut services in bad years indefinitely. Like Joseph's advice to Pharoah, at least as reported, you save up in the good years to take care of citizens in the bad years. You do not gorge in the good years, and starve to death in the bad years with good long term planning.
(Another wrinkle in a story that just won't go away. - promoted by David)
Wendy Murphy has a column in the Patriot Ledger rehashing the inconsistencies in Republican Congressional candidate Jeff Perry's version of how he handle the supervision of a sexual predator when he was a police sergeant.
Buried in the column was an assertion that I was not aware of and, if true, the voters of the 10 Congressional District deserve some serious answers.
Murphy writes:
(Perry) reportedly asserted his right to remain silent in response to questions during legal proceedings. If everything he did was "by the book," what "incriminating" information had to be shielded by the Fifth Amendment?
Perry took the 5th? OK, nothing wrong with that--when you're involved in a criminal investigation, every American has the right to exercise their constitutional rights. No problem. I get that.
But we're not talking about a criminal investigation today. We're talking about sending someone to Congress and voters deserve to know IF Perry took the 5th with regards to this case. If he took the 5th, it certainly undermines Perry's assertion that he did everything by the book.
So I was doing some online research ... OK, OK, I was Facebook-stalking Bill Hudak, the Republican running against John Tierney in the 6th congressional district. :D Anyway, I noticed something funny about some of his Facebook friends. Most of them are what you'd expect - supporters, ideological allies, etc. But what about these ...
The decision we make to expand gaming in Massachusetts will impact our state for decades. We have to get it right. Destination resort casinos will bring thousands of new jobs and increased economic development. Slots parlors will not....
I believe that the bill before the Legislature provides for more licenses than the market can bear, and will therefore not produce the job creation and economic benefits that destination resort casinos would provide. In addition, the inclusion of two slots facilities for the tracks brings social costs without the benefits, and amounts to a "no-bid" contract for the track owners. I have been clear from the beginning that is not something I can accept....
If the Legislature insists on sending me their gaming bill in its current form without addressing these concerns, I will send it back for amendment. The amendment will largely be the full text of the destination resort casino bill passed by the Senate last month, which is similar to and based on the legislation I filed in 2008.
This amendment keeps faith with my convictions about the best long-term interests of the Commonwealth and with our shared interest in job creation. I hope the Legislature will see their way to enact the amendment. However, if the House and Senate choose to send back a bill with two slots facilities and without a truly open and competitive licensing process, I will veto that measure.
In case you are not familiar with MA's unusual "return for amendment" procedure: the Governor has (basically) three choices when a bill comes before him: sign it, veto it, or return it for amendment. The third, which is what Patrick is talking about here, means that he doesn't sign the bill but instead returns it to the legislature with a different proposal, saying, in effect, "I think this would be better." Unlike a veto, there is no override procedure whereby the legislature can make a law despite the Governor's objection. Rather, when a bill is returned for amendment, the legislature must enact another bill in the usual way; of course it is up to them whether to enact the same bill they enacted before, the one suggested by the Governor, or some other bill. That newly-enacted bill then goes to the Governor, who then has only two choices: sign or veto. (In other words, he can only "return for amendment" once.)
Under the present circumstances, though, unless the legislature decides to come back into formal session (which Terry Murray has already ruled out), returning for amendment has basically the same effect as a veto: it kills the bill. There is no way a casino bill can get through in informal session, since there are a lot of "no" votes on this bill and a single legislator can prevent it from passing.
Three cheers for Governor Patrick for standing firm against the lousy bill the legislature sent him. His entire statement is on the flip.
The first section of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - one of the most important statements of equality and human rights ever enacted anywhere on this planet - reads as follows.
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
I support those in Congress who are considering a constitutional amendment that would end the practice of granting automatic U.S. citizenship to immigrant children who are born in this country. The concept of birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and removes incentives for people to pursue becoming an American citizen through legal means.
All due respect, Jeff, this is crazy talk. I know you're Mr. Tough On Illegals and all. But the right way to address the immigration issue is with sensible legislative reforms, not reactionary and drastic changes to one of the most important constitutional provisions that sits at the very heart of our liberty. Heck, this proposal is even a bridge too far for our differently-winged friend Rob Eno, the proprietor of RMG, who in most other respects toes a pretty hard line on illegal immigration.
Bluster all you want about illegal immigration or whatever, Jeff. But don't fuck with the Fourteenth.
(The view from ... wherever Ernie sits. - promoted by David)
The blame game will start and the easy accusations of incompetence by our governor and legislature will be thrown around like Snookie throws F-Bombs. (Ya like that? A Jersey Shore reference. Man, I am so fresh)
The fact is this piece of legislation that will be voted on tomorrow should the be the subject of some piondexter's doctorate dissertation at the JFK School. For it to get anywhere all the interests, which by the way have staked out their positions for the past 30 years(except Plainridge )had to be satisfied or there would not be enough votes to get it approved. The solons from the western part of the state wanted a casino, so did the southeastern/Bristol County boys. George Carney has a boatload of votes from members whose districts need/had jobs from/at the nearby track. Same too for East Boston/ Winthrop/ Revere/ and by the luck of the roulette wheel the Speaker of the House is from Winthrop.
So everyone is satisfied here. Charley Sarkis and Joe O'Donnell et al. will bid for a license as a joint venture and Carney and Plainridge will either join up or go head to head in bidding for that second license. Most likely join forces and they've probably already shaken hands. Without all these things happening a bill would not get the full support of the more finicky Senate.
(Bumped. Initial reports were accurate: three casinos, and two slot licenses for the tracks. Gov's statement:
"I respect the Speaker and the Senate President and the teams that have so ably and thoughtfully worked to compromise on an expanded gaming bill. Although we have not yet seen the details of the Conference Committee report, I am nonetheless disappointed that it includes more than one slot facility and that there is no provision for open, competitive bidding for the slot licenses. I cannot support this bill in its current form."
Excellent. Stand firm, Gov. - promoted by David)
The Globe reports that the House and Senate have tentatively reached a deal:
The deal would authorize three resort casinos and would allow the state's four racetracks to compete for two slot parlor licenses. The deal does not meet Governor Deval Patrick's demands. He said Thursday he would accept creation of one slot parlor as part of the expanded gambling bill, if legislators agreed to break a legislative logjam on Beacon Hill.
The governor reiterated today that he wants to authorize only a single slot facility.
Sounds like a loser to me. First, slot parlors are a bad idea. Second, if we are going to have them, restricting bidding on them to existing racetracks is a really bad idea. No-bid contracts (or, in this case, absurdly restricted-bid contracts) just generally suck - there's no way around that.
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he would accept creation of one slot parlor as part of the expanded gambling bill, if legislators agreed to break a logjam that has halted other major business on Beacon Hill....
The governor attached one other condition to accepting a slots parlor: Bidding for that license must be open to facilities beyond the state's racetracks. House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo wants only the race tracks to be able to operate slot machines.
He reiterated in a campaign email that he was willing to accept "an open bidding process to build one slots-only facility." Obviously, one does not equal two, nor does restricting bidding to existing tracks equal "an open bidding process."
The Gov should stop this "deal" in its tracks (get it? tracks? oh I slay myself) before it gets to his desk.
"A lot of security at the wedding, a huge security detail, and that's just to keep Bill from the bridesmaids." -David Letterman
"Facebook now has more than 500 million users, which may help explain why unemployment is around 10 percent." -Jimmy Kimmel
"Whiny Tony Hayward - you know the cry-baby BP CEO guy - he says life's not fair and that sometimes you step off a curb and you get hit by a bus. You know, if life was fair, that bus would have been driven by an unemployed Louisiana shrimp boat operator." -Jay Leno
"BP CEO Tony Hayward complained that he was unfairly 'demonized' in the U.S. over his handling of the Gulf oil spill. In response, demons complained that they were unfairly compared to BP CEO Tony Hayward." -Jimmy Fallon
"An American named Bob Dudley is BP's new CEO. Nice to see an American taking a job from a foreigner for once." -Jay Leno
"Vice President Joe Biden has declared that the heavy lifting is over for the year, and it's time to begin campaigning and talking about the White House's accomplishments. The heavy lifting might be over, but it sounds like the heavy shoveling is just beginning." -Jay Leno
"There's a report that Kate Gosselin and Sarah Palin are taking their families camping together in Alaska. And it must be true, because Sarah Palin hasn't refudiated it yet." -Jimmy Fallon
The Massachusetts economy expanded at more than double the rate of the national economy during the second quarter of the year, boosted by federal stimulus programs, demand for technology products and the strongest job growth since the so-called miracle years of the 1980s, the University of Massachusetts reported today. The performance in the three-month period that ended June 30 was the fourth consecutive quarter that the state has outpaced national economic growth, UMass said in its quarterly journal, MassBenchmarks.
Or, for those who are graphically inclined (click for larger image):
Interesting that in every quarter since the economy started growing again, MA has outpaced the US. I wonder why that would be - I mean, Charlie Baker told me that Deval hates business and jobs and all, and loves taxes and stuff. Weird.
Bill Hudak Continues Fundraising Momentum with $141,656 in Second-Quarter Contributions...
Hudak Raises More Contributions from Individuals than Congressman John F. Tierney
John Tierney has raised less money from average individuals this quarter than our campaign
So let's look at those numbers, shall we? Our friends at the FEC helpfully supply the required documents.
Hudak
Tierney
Total contributions from individuals in 2010 Q2
$141,656
$132,546
Hey, maybe Hudak is right! But wait - he left out a critical piece of information, namely, how much of his own money he's including in those numbers. Let's expand the table just a bit.
Hudak
Tierney
Total contributions from individuals in 2010 Q2
$141,656
$132,546
Total contributions from the candidate in 2010 Q2
$57,249
$0
Total contributions from individuals other than the candidate in 2010 Q2
$84,407
$132,546
Ah.
Look, having raised over $84,000 from individuals in the second quarter is perfectly respectable. But it's awfully silly for Hudak to then go off and claim to have outraised Tierney from individuals without bothering to mention that one of those "individuals" was himself, to the tune of nearly $60,000. (By the way, the $57,249 last quarter brings the total amount of Hudak's personal wealth that he has donated to his campaign to $215,628, nearly half of the total amount he has raised. Tierney so far has not self-funded at all.)
I hope you'll be able to join us for our Boston Super-Canvass and Volunteer Thank You Party this Saturday. Click here to get the details and to sign-up if you can join us - it promises to be a fun time. Our team has really enjoyed canvassing door-to-door in the 9th Congressional district. We've decided to share with you a few of the more interesting stories. If you're able to come canvassing with us on Saturday, maybe you'll have a hilarious or heart-warming story of your own to share!
JACQUETTA
I was canvassing along a street in West Roxbury on a hot Thursday evening. People were just getting back from work, so I was starting to get a really high contact rate. One gentleman came to the door and became particularly animated when I mentioned Stephen Lynch's name. He told me that he'd known "Stevie" for a long time and worked tirelessly to get him elected in 2001. He said that he felt personally let down now that Lynch was "voting like a Republican." He believed that the hard working people who supported Lynch and even volunteered to help get him elected deserved better. He was happy to hear that someone was challenging the Congressman in the Democratic primary and, although I felt bad for this voter, I felt good when I marked him a solid "1" for Mac.
