Blue Mass Group

(crossposted from my main blog)

March 19 marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The Brandeis Chapters of Democracy for America, Students for a Democratic Society, Amnesty International, and the Democratic Party set up a day of anti-war events, culminating in a vigil and rally. This is a photo report:

Students woke up today to a transformed Brandeis:

Behold…the couch of Apathy!

All photos taken by Rivka Maizlish. To see the whole set of photos she took today, go to this flickr photoset.

many more pictures below the fold…

Hillary Clinton’s calendars as First Lady were released today. So what’s the first thing some enterprising AP reporter does? Cross-reference dates with the Ken Starr report to discover when Hillary was in the White House at the same times Monica Lewinsky claimed she was having encounters with Bill Clinton. This is journalism? That’s all. I just had to vent…

From the MA Municiple Association Website:

Local Option Taxes

The governor’s plan would authorize cities and towns to adopt a local sales tax on meals in addition to the current 5 percent state sales tax. Local acceptance of the tax and the rate, up to 2 percent, would be voted by the municipal legislative body, generally town meeting or the city council with the approval of the mayor. The MMA also has filed legislation to allow a local meals tax. For fiscal 2006, the state’s 5 percent sales tax on meals raised almost $600 million for state coffers.

The partnership plan would allow municipalities to increase from 4 percent to 5 percent the maximum local room occupancy excise in addition to the current 5.7 percent state excise. With almost all eligible cities and towns imposing the 4 percent maximum rate last year, the local room tax raised almost $82 million. The state also requires an additional 2.75 percent levy in six cities for convention center financing.

The Department of Revenue would collect both the state and local portions of the new municipal tax, as it does now. Twenty-five percent of the local portion of any of the new local taxes imposed after July 1, 2007, would be transferred to a special state fund to be used to reimburse cities and towns for property tax abatements under clauses 41, 41B and 41C of Section 5 of Chapter 59. The balance would be distributed as general local revenue to cities and towns that accepted the tax in proportion to the dollar amount of sales of taxable meals and room occupancy in the municipality.

The local tax would take effect quarterly for cities and towns that accepted the tax at least 30 days prior to the first day of the quarter or for such other quarter that the municipality might designate.

The option for cities and towns to increase meals and room occupancy taxes imposed on hotels and restaurants has been largely accepted as a good thing by most BMG readers.  I would like to revisit the issue.

City-Wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic & Racial Diversity Spring Dialogue Series Starting 3/26/08 Barack Obama talked to us honestly about race. Boston residents can do the same next week with fellow residents at a new dialogue series starting the evening of March 26 at a location adjacent to Back Bay Station. Read on… Break Barriers & Make New Friends in a new dialogue series beginning March 26 at a location one block from Back Bay Station on the Orange Line (location provided when you register). We’ll engage in honest, respectful discussions that go beyond the superficial to discuss the difficult past and present as well as our visions for the future in a richly diverse city and country. We’ll talk about living & working together, plus inclusion, safety, changing neighborhoods, gentrification, etc. This series begins Wednesday, March 26 and will meet for four consecutive Wednesdays, until April 16. All dialogue sessions will meet 6:30-8:30pm. Register online at www.bostondialogues.org or call 617-318-1257. Participation is free but advance registration and a commitment to attending all 4 sessions is requested. Group size is limited to 20 diverse participants, so register ASAP to assure a seat. If this group becomes oversubscribed, City-Wide Dialogues will [...]

That’s what I’ve heard. It’s defeated, at least for now, as are those who’d like to do serious harm to Massachusetts. It’s a two vote victory, because to get a recommendation a bill must have a majority of the votes in a committee. There was also one abstention. There’s still moves that pro-casino forces could make, but they’re all likely doomed to failure at this point too. Kudos to all who called their legislators, visited their offices, or did anything they could reasonably do to make sure our state did the right thing, because it looks like reason has won out yet again. Our job isn’t done, so we can’t exactly rest, but at least we know the momentum is on our side.

In a Globe op-ed John Sasso predicted that Sen. Hillary Clinton would beat Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and go on to win the general election. I don’t know if he’s right, but I think his reasoning is important:

Today Clinton has forged herself into a formidable political leader. She has undergone a remarkable journey. In the face of unending autopsies on her personal and political past, unrelieved targeting at both Democratic and Republican debates, the punishing demands imposed on a woman candidate, she is still standing unflinchingly in place…. This is the mark of thoroughbred candidates. They take the fire. They survive the wounds.

It’s the autopsies, targeting, and punishing that stand out for me here. Clinton has taken everything that could be thrown at her, from the vast right wing conspiracy to her own husband’s infidelity. She’s been knocked down, but she gets back up again. Her poll numbers may fluctuate, but there won’t be an October surprises.

No such luck for Obama. Up until now, his candidacy has been a love affair with the press and the country. He hasn’t been roughed up much. It’s not his fault. He’s a new comer. He’s exciting and charismatic as hell. But up until now, he’s only felt the love. He’s been idealized so long that the inevitable drag of reality can exert a vortex of downward momentum. Time will tell if Obama’s poll numbers continue to descend, but right now, things aren’t looking good.

Why are his numbers on the slide? I think because the rose-colored glasses are coming off. I don’t mean to say that Obama isn’t a great candidate. He is. But he’s not the second coming. He’s a real person, and people aren’t used to that fact. The last few weeks have revealed the fact that he has associated with sleazy people like Tony Rezko. The politician without a sleazy friend or two is the exception not the rule. But Obama was supposed to be the exception.

Worse for Obama, I think, is his connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is a bullshit issue, this connection, but it’s the kind of bullshit issue that American political campaigns are made of. How many Catholics love their church in spite of the idiocies spoken by the pope and his bishops? How many times have belove priests said stupid or disagreeable things on the pulpit? Rev. Wright isn’t any different, except that he has been critical of America, and his criticisms are particularly those of the African American community. Obama’s pastor problem is that the good reverend reminds America that Obama is black. And the Republican Noise Machine is on the job. This news story is not Clinton’s fault.

If you would like a clear and precise treatise on the development of talk radio and its influence on the political dialogue may I suggest strongly that you pick up a copy of the Steve Elman and Alan Tolz book, Burning Up The Air – Jerry Williams, Talk Radio and the Life In Between.Specifically, I would direct you to what I believe is the period of time in which talk radio came in to its owns – 1968 and was subsequently taken over by exterior forces by October 1976.

Jerry Williams said “Hello America” to 38 states on the evening of July 29,1968 behind the powerhouse clear channel station microphone of the Westinghouse owned and operated WBZ Radio in Boston. Talk radio would never be the same again.

The Vietnam War was raging.  Martin Luther King was assassinated in April and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June, police riots broke out at the Democratic convention in Chicago. It was a year made for the voice of Jerry Williams. He told his audience to “Wake up America” and they did for the next 8 years on WBZ until . . .

Well, I tried getting into the hearing yesterday, but I got there a little late and the Gardner Auditorium was stuffed to the gills.  Anyway, here's what I've been thinking … The Governor does indeed sound resigned to the fact that it's not going to come up in the House, complaining “I believe that the people of Massachusetts expect more from us than they are getting.” Now, maybe it's because Sal DiMasi and Dan Bosley have tomato soup for brains and didn't listen to facts. Maybe it's because they're stubborn. Maybe it's because they have intractable moral objections to casino gambling and no amount of rock-solid information could have persuaded them. (That might describe me, after all.) Or maybe the Governor didn't do a good job getting his information straight, and didn't make a modest, credible case for his casino proposals. I doubt he ever would have gotten me to go along with his plan. But he might have peeled off folks who were a little more on the fence if he'd had some solid backup on his claims. He continued to claim that his proposal would create “a minimum of ten thousand construction jobs”. This figure is in serious [...]

Wednesday, March 19- The Judiciary Committee Chaired by Representative Eugene O’Flaherty and Senator Robert Creedon held a Public Hearing on Deval Patrick’s CORI Reform Bill #4476. Over four hundred people overflowed the hearing room, representing dozens of organizations and thousands of concerned citizens.

I own a 2000 Hyundai Elantra. I could reliably travel 300 miles on a tank of gas until the switch to the ethanol mix.

The effect was immediate — and worsening. At first, I could eek out maybe 220-250 miles per tank. Now I’m lucky if I hit 200.