Blue Mass Group

As to back story, the Father in a case I had is an honorably discharged veteran who was the veteran of the year in the state where he now lives.  That was the year after Massachusetts terminated his parental rights to his first born child despite a stiff fight on his behalf. He is happily married and raising two other children – with the same mother.  But Massachusetts took one – Dad and Mom “got out of dodge” when she was pregnant again.  They shook the dust of this state off their feet and left, forever. I wish I could tell you that things are getting better for the working poor in this state then they were for this hard working father – but it would not be true if I did tell you that. The name of the game here is “Not MY line item” ! So many mean-spirited, short sighted cuts will cost more later – among those short-sighted, mean-spirited cuts are the elimination of Guardian Ad Litems for Education by the Administrative Office of the Trial Courts with no prior notice on 11/14/08. Another example of a cut that will have a cascade of costs downstream is [...]

Boston, MA – Environment Massachusetts praised the economic recovery proposal released by the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations and Ways and Means committees today as making bold investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. “This economic recovery proposal will not only help keep the lights on across America but will make them greener,” said Environment Massachusetts Field Organizer Winston Vaughan.  ”Investments in clean energy and energy efficiency will put Bay Staters, and all Americans to work in good jobs building a new clean energy economy.” The committees’ plans included the following proposals lauded by Environment Massachusetts: extending the renewable energy production tax credit and making it “recession proof;” investing $6 billion in efficiency and conservation renovations in federal buildings; investing $6.2 billion to help low income families weatherize their homes; and providing $6.9 billion in community block grants to fund state- and city-run efficiency programs. Environment Massachusetts released a report earlier this week outlining investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and public transportation that could cut America’s global warming pollution by 10 percent, provide the power equivalent of 170 coal power plants, and save the oil equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road each year  ? while creating [...]

Washington, DC – America can reduce global warming pollution by nearly 10 percent annually, replace the power equivalent of 170 coal fired power plants, and create or sustain more than 3 million jobs by making investment in clean energy and transportation a cornerstone of our economic recovery plan, according to a report by Environment Massachusetts. “Our nation can no longer afford the toll dirty energy is exacting on our environment and economy,” said Winston Vaughan, Field Organizer at Environment Massachusetts. “Clean energy can protect our environment and rev our economic engine to generate a brighter future for Massachusetts.” Environment Massachusetts’ report, Clean Energy, Bright Future, estimates the environmental benefits of $150 billion in investments in clean energy such as wind and solar power and green infrastructure such as public transit. These investments will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the leading cause of global warming, by 670 million tons per year when fully implemented.   This would represent a significant step towards reducing the nation’s global warming pollution by what scientists say is necessary to avert the worst impacts of global warming. “If we continue with business as usual – dirty energy and highways to nowhere – we will be laying the [...]

If you've been holding on to something for, say, eight years or so, maybe now's the time to let it out …

Here is the link:  http://masslegislature.tv/?l=s…

Beats going into the sub zero weather – at least for me.

[transcript below the fold -- Charley]

Video here — embedding still doesn’t work. — Charley

Today, Attorney General Martha Coakley joined a lawsuit to block new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rules being pushed through by the Bush administration before its time runs out. The ACLU calls the rules Bush’s “parting shot against women’s health.”

From Bloomberg News Service we learn that: Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. plunged as much as 25 percent in New York trading on concern the bank may be forced to seek more government assistance on top of the $45 billion of U.S. funds that it already received. “Citi’s got their hand out from now ’til the end of time,” said Peter Kenny, a managing director in institutional sales at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey. But wait. Citi is doing something really important, selfless, and civic minded! It’s the Speakers Series, 2009, at the Wang Center, titled (no hyperbole here) “Minds That Move The World.” This includes (be still, my beating heart): Bill Maher and Ann Coulter March 10); Charlie Rose Interviewing James Carville and Karl Rove (May 27) ; Soledad Obrien Interviewing Al Sharpton, Lisa Ling, and John Quinones June 9). And the capper, Al Gore (March 30). Please, take a moment and think about this lineup. What was Bill Maher thinking-much less Al Gore)?  Oh yeah, the money. Carville and the rest we know about.  Money? Please rush and get your tickets now. One seat in Row “L” is only $118 plus $14 “service charge” [...]

Blogger Matt Stoller asserted a “rootsgap” in his farewell post at OpenLeft last week. He co-founded the site last year (he is off to work on the Hill). “A rootsgap occurs when a leadership is dramatically out of step with its base or the public at large,” he wrote. He added: While there are great people around our leaders, what is striking is how politicians are considered to be ‘over there’ making decisions, and activist movement people are considered to be outsiders and reactive to these decisions.  This doesn’t make sense; cooperation can benefit everyone involved. I thought immediately of the line Valerie Jarrett drew in her email yesterday about the Citizen’s Briefing Book between the “experts and advisors” who talk to the President-elect and the ‘roots. And I suspect the Obama administration is not even who Stoller has in mind. Are our leaders out of touch with the ‘roots? And if they are, is that just wise politics — maybe we are not as powerful as we think! heaven forbid! — or is it a serious mistake by leaders unwilling, or unable, to recognize a fundamental shift in U.S. politics wrought by a new communications medium at least as [...]

Nick Kristoff reports from among the refuse pickers at a dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in today’s New York Times: Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough. He continues: “I’d love to get a job in a factory,” said Pim Srey Rath, a 19-year-old woman scavenging for plastic. “At least that work is in the shade. Here is where it’s hot.” Another woman, Vath Sam Oeun, hopes her 10-year-old boy, scavenging beside her, grows up to get a factory job, partly because she has seen other children run over by garbage trucks. Her boy has never been to a doctor or a dentist, and last bathed when he was 2, so a sweatshop job by comparison would be far more pleasant and less dangerous. Of course, trade agreements with labor standards aren’t so much about ending sweatshops as they are about protecting U.S. jobs (at least, in my opinion). By that standard, Kristoff rather [...]