Health Care for All has posted a number of materials regarding the new affordability rules for health care: clipped from blog.hcfama.org Affordability – summary Affordability – schedule Affordability schedule spreadsheet Memo summarizing proposal from Connector staff (posted on WBUR’s Commonhealth Blog) Draft affordability regulations Memo on affordability regulations Spreadsheet showing who would be exempt from affordability standards Commonwealth Care regulations on hearings and eligibility I’m hearing that the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, which was extremely concerned about the effect of the personal mandate on those of modest income, is basically pleased with the result. They’ll have a press conference tomorrow, possibly hosted by the Governor. If it’s basically good news, the Governor will want to be there to take credit for it.
“Black girls just wanna get f___ed all night, I just don’t have that much jam”**
No, that is not the latest Don Imus quote. Because of the Imus controversy, people are trying the old “rappers demean black women all the time and no one is outraged about that double standard!” defense. But why pick only on hip-hop?
Chances are you listen to misogynistic or drug glorifying music; it is not the exclusive perview of hip-hop. No, this is not a post to say “Hey, the Band X sang misogynistic songs so lay off hip-hop”. This is just to give some context – rap did not invent the objectification of women in music. Sure, it is too prevalent and inexcusable, but, as I said before, misogyny in hip-hop isn’t so much the problem, its more of a symptom or example of the crisis in masculine culture, a crisis with no color line.
This is an all to brief survey in recent musical misogyny. I’m not extremely musically literate, but I can point to a few songs non-hip hop fans enjoy that explore many of the same themes derided in hip hop.
Look below the flip to find lyrics and links to some a few misogynistic and drug glorifying songs I thought of off the top of my head.
DiPaola drops out of MA-05 race
Via Dick Howe and LiL, we read in the Lowell Sun that Middlesex Sheriff Jim DiPaola has dropped out of the MA-05 race to replace Marty Meehan. Dick has some thoughts on what it means for the race. And if anyone has his finger on the pulse of that race, it’s him.
Iacocca, Iacocchissima!
Who’s drunk the moonbat juice? Lee Iacocca: Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.” Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators [...]
Citizens’ Legislative Seminar
Today I completed the 64th Citizens’ Legislative Seminar at the State House. The Seminar is run twice a year and consists of 5 sessions that run once a week from 9:30 to 12:30. The seminar is designed to allow citizens to learn about the legislative process including how the budget is prepared, how public hearings are conducted (with a mock public hearing), what a caucus is and how they are conducted and lots more. The final day of the seminar concluded with a mock Senate session in the Senate chambers with a real debate (banning hand held cell phones in cars). The session was presided over by no less than the new Senate President, Therese Murray (a graduate of the 2nd Citizens Legislative Seminar). The seminar truly exceeded my expectations and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get more insight into how the Legislature works. I’d like to thank Director Anne Ziaja and Deputy Director Susan A. Wojtas of the Legislative Education Office for the absolutely fabulous job they did in running the seminar as well as Senator Jehlen for sponsoring me. The next seminar will be run this fall. The best way to get involved is [...]
Meehan endorsing Tsongas (w/ poll)
Well, it wasn’t Marty, but it might as well have been: BOSTON – U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan said he could not endorse any candidate in the race to succeed him in Congress because of his pending move to academia, but his wife did the next best thing on Wednesday, announcing her support for Niki Tsongas. Ellen Murphy Meehan, a health care consultant and native of Lawrence, said she was backing the widow of Sen. Paul Tsongas because “she has a keen sense of the district and a passion for the issues that I believe in.” OK, let’s get some opinions on this: on a scale of 1-9, how much does this help Tsongas? 1 would be “Tsongas is now the shoo-in”, 9 would be “destroys her candidacy”. Take the poll.
Waking up a sleepy DTC
BMG-ers, I’m looking for some suggestions for speakers to help wake up a sleepy DTC. I live in a town north of Boston that’s a textbook case of declining Democratic registrations and increasing unenrolled voters. Some of us who worked on the Deval Patrick campaign are interested in trying to revitalize the DTC – bring in speakers, try to register more Democrats, raise some money. It will be an uphill push against long time members, including the chair, who are content to meet once a quarter and not do much else. Can anyone offer any suggestions for speakers who are dynamic, would draw in local progressives and who would possibly come to our town (since we don’t have the $$ to offer a speaker’s stipend) from the goodness of their big blue hearts? I’d prefer a panel – two or three views on a single topic – to make for a livelier meeting.
11th Norfolk Update
We are now less than a week away from the Special Primary Election in the 11th Norfolk District. Most of the discussion so far on myDedham has been about the race and I encourage you all to check it out.
In particular, I’d like to point you to a post by Eric in which he discusses how much they have each raised. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to make the jump to our blog, I’ll present his information and then my thoughts after the jump on BMG.
(D) Stephen Bilafer
Subtotal $31864.00
Expenditures $16435.87
Ending Balance $15428.13
(D) Joanne Flatley
Subtotal $14859.00
Expenditures $9541.83
Ending Balance $5317.17
(D) Cheryl Schoenfeld
Subtotal $12995.00
Expenditures $1295.95
Ending Balance $11699.05
(D) Thomas Boncek
No report filed
(R) William McKinney
Subtotal $3925.00
Expenditures $1491.69
Ending Balance $2433.31
(R) Douglas Obey
Subtotal $14811.16
Expenditures $11762.41
Ending Balance $3048.75
(I) Paul McMurtry
Subtotal $26034.48
Expenditures $8442.96
Ending Balance $17591.52
House Ways & Means budget: free money! Whee!
The House Ways & Means Committee has released its budget. Here’s the early take from the indispensable Mass. Budget & Policy Center (emphasis mine): The budget proposal released by the House Ways and Means Committee increases unrestricted local aid for education and aid for higher education by more than was proposed by the Governor. In other areas, however, the budget provides less funding than the amounts proposed in House One: it does not adopt the Governor’s public health initiatives to increase the state’s investment in smoking prevention and to provide new vaccines to protect children from rotavirus, meningococcal conjugate and human papilloma virus. Perhaps the most significant manner in which the House Ways and Means Committee budget proposal differs from the Governor’s is that it does not include the Governor’s initiatives to reform the corporate tax code to reduce tax avoidance. The cost of continuing to allow these forms of tax avoidance would be approximately $300 million in FY 2008, and more in future years. The House Ways and Means budget does not make up for this forgone revenue with new taxes or spending cuts. As a result, the budget contains a structural budget gap of over $300 million that [...]
GIC: sco speaks truth to Patrick
Regarding DiMasi’s more ambitious proposal to fold municipal unions’ health care into the state system (GIC), sco can’t see Patrick refusing: I would have to imagine that he would sign a bill that did not include the collective bargaining language. First, Governor Patrick has hitched his wagon to his package of municipal reforms and he needs a policy victory. Stymying a stronger version of one of his proposals would be a serious blunder, even if it means upsetting public employee unions. They’re already upset with him over his proposal to force underperforming pension funds to be taken over by the state. In any case, this could also be a good opportunity to compromise with DiMasi. Would the speaker soften his stance on local option taxes or closing the telecom loopholes in exchange for Patrick taking the heat from the unions? If so, the cities and towns of Massachusetts would benefit. [my emphasis] Take the deal, Governor.
