Blue Mass Group

At the Atlantic, James Fallows wonders why there’s been so little mention of the fact that Peter Orszag has left his post as Budget Director for a multi-million dollar position at Citigroup. This is how Washington works right now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon launched into a vociferous defense of congressional earmarks, branding Republicans “hypocrites” and pushing back against President Obama. Faced with the prospects of having to literally read the full 1924 pages of an omnibus spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) chose on Thursday night to pull the measure in favor of a continuing resolution to keep government funding.

As tired as you might be of your public radio station's pledge drive, there's a pitch you might want to grab — one that goes for marriage equality and gay rights. One well known and one outrageously famous guy will double donations to GLAD and Freedom to Marry through this month. Those matching fellows would be the couple Sean Eldridge and Chris Hughes. Eldridge is political director of Freedom to Marry. Hughes is co-founder of Facebook, former head of Barrack Obama's online 2006 campaign, and founder and executive director of Jumo. (The screen cap from GLAD's video clip shows Hughes left and Eldridge right.) Through this month, they are matching donations to up to $50,000 total for GLAD and $100,000 for Freedom to Marry. You may well wonder what, beyond sexual identity, would inspire them to cough it up for the cause. Specifically, what would what inspire the well heeled Hughes to bother with good works and the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders? You can grab the one-page GLAD newsletter piece on the pair. You can also go to the video on the site to hear Hughes give some background. There he was, a Harvard student in 2002, when [...]

Keith Olbermann reported last night that Bradley Manning, who is the source for the latest round of Wikileaks has been held in solitary confinement pending his trial.  I am among those who say that if there were prosecutable action here it is against Manning rather than Julian Assange, but there’s no excuse for this. This is the best I can do for a link.  Click on “Quantico the new Gitmo” on the scroll of stories.

The latest version of Mitt Romney is here (for those of you having a hard time keeping up, this is Mitt 2011.0).   Among the changes:  Mitt now thinks that the whole system of unemployment insurance has got to go.  Here’s his rationale:     The system is … not designed for a flexible economy like ours in which some employees move from job to job for short periods, and are therefore ineligible for unemployment compensation when they are faced with a protracted spell without work. The idea of scrapping the entire unemployment system is a redesign from Mitt MG (Massachusetts Governor Edition). Mitt MG would have kept the system, with changes to ensure that many more employees who move from job to job for short periods and are then faced with a protracted spell without work would be ineligible for unemployment compensation.         The new version moves moves Mitt closer to former Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller, who’s of the view that unemployment insurance might be unconstitutional, thereby closing daylight between Mitt and Joe Miller patron and Mitt rival, Sarah Palin.       Unchanged from earlier Mitt versions is the principle that, in the “flexible [...]

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I believe the one thing liberals and the tea party can find common ground on, it is the need to bring our jobs back home.  

If you REALLY want to combat high unemployment, tell these AMERICAN companies to bring their manufacturing facilities back to the U.S.A.

Right now the only things we are making in this Country are big heavy machines that are too costly to ship over the ocean, instruments of war, and financial instruments which do not add to the wealth of this country at all.  The corporations are sitting on tremendous wealth because of this outsourcing.  The profits they make sit at the top and never trickle to the American worker, because the American worker is no longer there.

Although I believe the role of government should be to protect American workers along with protecting us from foreign threats, there are some that do not.

http://raymedeiros2010.blogspo…

The people in factory towns across this nation are becoming increasingly aware that if “we the people” do not stand up and fight for our jobs, nobody will.  

One factory town, Taunton, Massachusetts understands this very well.    They are taking to the street to fight against a large corporation looking to increase their profits at the peril of the people’s livelihoods.  Esterline Technologies, a Bellevue, Washington aerospace firm, plans to move about 100 jobs plant in California and an even lower-wage plant in Tijuana, Mexico.

The Taunton plant, which makes silicone gaskets for aircraft, has been consistently profitable and productive. Yet Esterline is in a rush to sell off the plant’s equipment and get production rolling in the other facilities.

Although Esterline Tech made $119.8 million profits last year, they announced that it needed to sell off the machinery to cover the cost of severance payments. It quickly announced plans for a December 12 auction to dispose of the equipment.   When is enough profit, enough for these companies?  They will seek to increase their profits with little to no regard for the lives they will destroy.

http://raymedeiros2010.blogspo…

by Boston City Council President Mike Ross and Cambridge City Councillor Leland Cheung

(Cross-posted from Councilor Ross' blog.) Metropolitan Boston and Cambridge have a long history of innovation and progress. Boston is home to America’s first subway system, first public high school, and first public library. Cambridge is home to the nation’s first college, Harvard University, which predates the founding of this country. Cambridge was the center of Patriot activity during the early years of the American Revolution. Together, our communities were the heart and soul of the abolitionist movement and the first to recognize marriage equality. Our companies continue to push the boundaries of science and technology. Our residents continue to lead the nation in opportunity, education, and innovation.

However, in this time of national economic crisis we can’t just sit back and hope Cambridge and Boston will continue performing as strongly. Although we are doing better than the rest of the country, residents in our region continue to struggle with unemployment and underemployment. Because we are doing better than the rest of the country, other regions are trying hard to unseat us and challenge what we’ve built.

For example, this past spring the Atlanta Development Authority came to the area, rented a hotel conference room, and one by one interviewed CEOs and employees from local corporations. One of our life-science companies (AiHeart Medical Technologies) has already moved its headquarters to Georgia. This means fewer life science jobs, fewer patrons at local restaurants, and decreased revenues. And that’s only Atlanta.

During the current debate over the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, I heard a senior military officer testifying that there were homosexuals in his combat unit, and that the unit was always able to deliver ordinance to the target.  That means drop the bomb on the bull’s eye. You have to wonder where we might get if we took half the energy we’re now spending debating whether homosexuals can kill as effectively as heterosexuals and used it to figure out how we can all kill less.

So it has come to pass that Elizabeth Edwards has died.

Despite having more things thrown at her than anyone I’ve ever had the chance to support in my entire political life, she managed to represent, in her very presence, a sense of grace and kindness and concern for those who were looking to have a better life than the one they had now, and I don’t know that I could ever live up to the quiet courage she showed as her life came to an end.

And, bless her heart, it appears that she took the time to make sure that her kids knew her, and that she helped them put away enough “past” to, hopefully, ease some of the pain of the future.

But now the time has come to look beyond death, and, John…that’s why I want to talk to you today.