Blue Mass Group

Some important, though largely below-radar, elections are happening on Tuesday.  In East Boston, four candidates are competing in the Democratic primary for the 1st Suffolk state rep seat.  (There are no Republicans running for the seat, though Basile comes close.)  We’ve endorsed Gloribell Mota, and her campaign could really use your help on election day.  Just call them up (617-567-9200), or head over to their election headquarters at 20 Meridian St., 4th floor, right near the Maverick T stop. Also on Tuesday, there’s a preliminary election for the District 7 and District 9 seats on the Boston City Council (there is no at-large preliminary election this year).  Tim Schofield is running for the District 9 seat, and we hope you’ll support him if you’re in his district.  Tim’s an old friend on BMG — I believe he’s the first candidate we endorsed for anything, when he ran for the Allston-Brighton state rep seat now held by Mike Moran.  He’s a solid progressive and would be an excellent addition to the City Council. Anything else going on?

You’ve probably seen the news reports surrounding President Ahmadinejad’s upcoming speech at Columbia University. Ahmadinejad will be in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

Reaction to Ahmadinejad’s appearance has been predictable. Almost everyone whose reaction I’ve read has urged Columbia to cancel the speech. Some (e.g., Christine Quinn, the President of the New York City Council, or our mild-mannered friend Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League) have focused on Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel rhetoric and his history of Holocaust denial. Mayor Bloomberg was more dismissive, saying simply, “I don’t care about what he says.”

Politico.com (www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5978.html) is reporting that Senator Evan Bayh, former Democratic contender for President, will endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton on Monday, Sept. 24. Do you think he is vying for the VP nod with the possibility of turning midwest from red to blue… If Clinton wins the nomination, how could she bypass Richardson (with the resume and the western state appeal)for Bayh? One thing is fairly certain. Obama has as much chance as Kucinich to be tapped for VP.

If the Administration wants gambling revenues to support essential services in the Commonwealth, I (facetiously) propose Socialized Gambling. Why lose the big bucks to the middle man? If the Patrick Plan recommends 27% of casino revenues go to the state coffers, why aren't we going for the Big Enchillada and strike gold with Socialized Gambling?

I have Tuesday off and I’d like to know what you think of that. 

When the school calendar was set for the year, the school committee decided that it was risky to have voters coming and going freely while school is in session:

I stumbled across this video on Youtube.  I found it compelling as I, a Hillary supporter, have a very dear friend with the Obama camp. We give each other the business from time to time, but both know that we’ll be united once one of our candidate’s cinches the nomination.

From PZ Myers Hmmm. Estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq range from $4.4 to 7.1 billion per month. If I assume about $5 billion, it looks like we’re throwing away about $7 million per hour in that effort; so it looks like a little bit more than a half-hours worth of bloody war costs us $4 million. So let’s just stop for about 40 minutes, OK? What was the point of that calculation? The government is threatening to shut down the Arecibo Observatory unless they can cough up $4 million dollars for its operating budget for the next three years. Wow. citing the Washington Post Radio Telescope And Its Budget Hang in the Balance By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 9, 2007; Page A01 ARECIBO, Puerto Rico — In the tangled forests of Puerto Rico’s steamy interior, suspended by steel cables strung from 300-foot towers, an array of antennas hangs above an aluminum bowl 1,000 feet in diameter that gazes into space. Arecibo Observatory, the largest and most sensitive radio telescope on Earth, looks like a secret outpost built by aliens. In fact, one of its missions is to search the galactic frontier for [...]

You are ALL invited. Where:  19 Prentis Street, Arlington   Sons of Italy Hall  [Prentis St. is next to a store called  "Paper & More"] When:  4:00 PM – 6:00 PM today  Sunday – 9/24/07 I have known J. James Marzilli since 1985, and believe he would be an effective state senator.

Two slow-motion dramas being played in Asian dictatorships this month: Burma and Pakistan.  In both cases, a newly vigorous and assertive opposition clearly feels that it is gathering steam, but in both countries they’ve felt that before.  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind a more vigorous and assertive opposition in this country, but that’s another post…

Regardless, Burma is a pretty clear-cut case of good versus evil, and as for Pakistan, we seem to have evil, more evil, and less evil.  For anyone interested, is a brief primer below.

Those words were spoken by — *gasp* — a lobbyist!  Specifically, a lobbyist for — *shudder* — the insurance industry!!  The very industry whose PACs and lobbyists — *tremble* — contributed to Barack’s Senate campaign!!! That’s right, folks.  As Scott Helman reports in today’s Globe, when Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator, he actually got something done — he was instrumental in getting a health care law passed.  And he worked with lobbyists for the insurance industry to do it, even writing “three successful amendments, at least one of which made key changes favorable to insurers.”  Lobbyists praised Obama for taking the insurance industry’s concerns into consideration…. During debate on the bill on May 19, 2004, Obama portrayed himself as a conciliatory figure. He acknowledged that he had “worked diligently with the insurance industry,” as well as Republicans, to limit the legislation’s reach and noted that the bill had undergone a “complete restructuring” after industry representatives “legitimately” raised fears that it would result in a single-payer system. “The original presentation of the bill was the House version that we radically changed – we radically changed – and we changed in response to concerns that were raised by the insurance [...]