Blue Mass Group

Just off the front page of Boston.Com[http://www.boston.co...] Can't find the words for the disappointment.  What a waste to spend time and money on a candidate whose words couldn't be further from his actions…reminds me of the other guy who recently left the corner office.  So much for the bottom-up, new day, and getting rid of “politics as usual”.  Growing a false economy at the expense of people, families and communities is sick.  

This fall, it seems likely the House of Representatives and the Senate will work on the over haul of DSS.  House Speaker Sal DiMasi is the prime sponsor of a 68 page omnibus bill that seeks to radically change how child welfare law operates in Massachusetts, at least in some areas.

A .pdf of the bill is located at:  http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht04pdf/ht04191.pdf 

Interesting. Today, I am proud to announce my endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton as President of the United States. Senator Hillary Clinton has earned the support of millions of Americans in her campaign for president — and today I am pleased to count myself among them. The world has reached a critical point, and we need a leader in the White House with the courage, intelligence and humility to navigate through many troubling challenges to our security at home and abroad. I believe Senator Clinton is that leader, and I whole-heartedly endorse her for President of the United States. Senator Clinton and I share a worldview in which diplomacy is the best first-strike tool in our arsenal; in today’s complicated global system, the United States should be making more friends than enemies. Never before have so many Americans had our well-being so closely tied to world events. Our economic and national security has become more complicated than ever before, and we deserve a leader who draws on wisdom, compassion, intelligence and moral courage — in short, we need Hillary Clinton. She is tough but fair, a rock-solid leader equal to the many weighty challenges ahead of us. He’s not running, [...]

Another nugget from Alan Greenspan’s book, courtesy of Bob Woodward (HT tblade): Without elaborating, he writes, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Well, that ought to cause a few heads to explode.

Globe says… One person was injured when shots were fired this afternoon on Langdon Street in the city’s Roxbury section. Police said the victim, a male, was taken to Boston Medical Center. But no further information was immediately available on his identity or condition. Homicide detectives and canine units were sent to the scene. The shooting occurred about a block away from the Emerson Street playground and across the street from a community garden called “The Food Project.” No word yet whether the shooting occurred “near” any train or trolley tracks.

This just in: Niki Tsongas today called on her Republican opponent Jim Ogonowski to ask the leader of his party in the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, to retract remarks made on CNN from Baghdad on Wednesday where he stated, “we need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop Al Qaeda here.”  Boehner was responding to the following question posed by CNN host Wolf Blitzer, “How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the cost is going to endure? The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?” “House Republican Leader John Boehner’s remarks demonstrate an appalling characterization of the sacrifice being made by thousands of men and women serving our country, as well as the tremendous sacrifices being made by their families.  There can be no justification for belittling the price paid by the 3,776 brave Americans who have already given their lives.  There is no greater [...]

We are currently watching StarTrek Next Generation on German cable.  As far as I’m concerned, the best TV series (not mini-series, more on that later) were Twilight Zone and the first StarTrek series. Why Twilight Zone?  I was on the order of 10 years old, but it clearly illustrated the irony of the human condition at my early age.  Broadcast at 10PM on Sunday nights, I longed for the Monday holidays.  Authors like Rod Serling, Richard Matheson and others doing adaptions of stories like Damon Knight’s To Serve Man (yes, we’ve had a copy of the text for decades) Why the original StarTrek series?  It was the first series (as far as I know) that did not belittle science and engineering.  Virtually all of the earlier movies belittled science and cast a warning off of it.  (Remember Fantastic Planet?) Roddenbury’s StarTrek did not, and that was why it was ground-breaking. The “more on this,” I sincerely do not understand why NBC does not release the miniseries Martian Chronicles 1980 or so, on DVD.  It actually was an excellent miniseries–the last excellent miniseries broadcast by a US sender.  Does anyone know why they don’t?  Is there a copyright problem?

The latest in ConleyGate: Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis gave Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley detailed reasons yesterday for why his department should retain control of all Boston homicide investigations and suggested that Conley should focus on the safety of the public…. Davis said the prosecutor’s plans to have State Police investigate killings on MBTA and state property will create confusion. In his letter to Conley, Davis persuasively argues that Conley’s move will only create problems. “You state ‘in the event of an apparent homicide or sudden death that occurs on or near a train or trolley track’ State Police shall be the investigative body,” Davis replies to Conley. “As you are aware, there are train and trolley tracks on many major thoroughfares throughout the city of Boston.” … “What do you define as ‘near’ a train or trolley track?” In a curious wrinkle, Conley has finally got someone backing him: the outgoing chief of the MBTA Police, Joseph Carter, who will shortly take over as Governor Patrick’s new head of the MA National Guard. Meanwhile, the Globe’s editorial board has finally chimed in. [I]t is especially disappointing that Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley is escalating his feud [...]

In regards to the Petraeus ad, i'd point out I have no problem with it. I've seen alot worse in the past from the opposition.    Don't like the name Betrayus?   Then maybe the opposition should have thought of that when they used some very nasty names for Hilary, when they used lots of nasty names for John Kerry and when they used some very nasty names when I had the nerve to protest the Viet Nam war.  Compared to the names I was called back then and the names Hilary and Kerry have been callled, Betrayus is very mild. Oh and a note to the people protesting in Washington DC today: protesting a war you disagree with is not treason despite what some protestors will try to tell you.  

This is pretty remarkable.  Alan Greenspan, lest you forget, is and always has been a solid Republican.  Emphasis mine. Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, in a long-awaited memoir, is harshly critical of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican-controlled Congress, as abandoning their party’s principles on spending and deficits…. Mr. Bush, he writes, was never willing to contain spending or veto bills that drove the country into deeper and deeper deficits, as Congress abandoned rules that required that the cost of tax cuts be offset by savings elsewhere. “The Republicans in Congress lost their way,” writes Mr. Greenspan, a self-described “libertarian Republican.” “They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose” in the 2006 election, when they lost control of the House and Senate…. He praises President Bush for letting the Fed stay independent of political pressure, saying he was scrupulous in not trying to interfere with monetary policy – which he contrasts sharply with the pressure exerted by his father, George H. W. Bush, in the early 1990s. For years, the first President Bush has blamed Mr. Greenspan for contributing to his defeat in [...]