Blue Mass Group

Scott Brown has seemed to positioning himself with the far right wing recently. Over the past few weeks Scott has repeatedly blocked jobs bills and obstructed appointments that have garnered bipartisan support. First, Scott Brown voted to filibuster President Obama’s job bill, which granted was a party line vote. Scott Brown was quoted noting that the bill was a charade and they could instead pass portions of the bill that had bipartisan support. Not my first choice, I would rather that we pass a robust jobs bill: called the push by Senate Democrats for a vote on the entire bill “a charade” and “political posturing.” Brown had urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to instead pull out elements of Obama’s bill that both Republicans and Democrats could agree on and pass that. Harry Reid did just that, he promised to force Republicans to display their obstructionism over and over again by breaking up the jobs bill and force votes on popular bipartisan proposals. The first of these votes was a key portion of the jobs bill, which would have provided states $35 billion to hire or retain teachers, police and firefighters. Scott Brown got what he asked for, how did [...]

Here is the link to Occupy Oakland:   http://www.occupyoakland.org/ Some press coverage: 1.  EastBayIndependent Media: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/25/18694892.php 2.  Gassed, rubber bullets, 700 police at 4:30 AM – now that is courage, see Oakland Tribune: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_19188125?source=most_viewed 3.  Photos, complete with gas cloud enveloping the peaceful camp – all of these pictures were taken in Oakland, America: The phone number for Mayor Quan of Oakland is:  510 238 3141 if you wish to let her know you read about her actions, and find them unacceptable, even shameful. I say again, the occupy movement constitutes patriots taking a stand, and assembling peacefully here and abroad; Citizens United was a tipping point in the United States, judicial activism going beyond the case and controversy due to a political agenda – as is the wealth consolidation and ever increasing control of money over elections and thereby, of government itself. In Albany, New York, the police refused to destroy and arrest Occupy Albany.  Again, it is shameful what was done at 4:30 AM under cover of darkness against peaceful Americans assembled to protect democracy in Oakland California, see above.  As for Albany, NY: See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/24/1029620/-BREAKING There is no honor in Oakland’s office of the mayor today,  Marine Corps Sargent [...]

The Boston Globe is reporting that, “Following a one-week public comment period, the redistricting panel voted on Tuesday to accept the proposed maps with a handful of revisions, including one aimed at strengthening the voting power of the Latino community in Chelsea.” So, what are the revisions that made it to the redistricting? Where are they listed?

Setti Warren, who left the MA-Sen race a couple of weeks ago, announced today that he has chosen his candidate. “Although I have ended my own campaign, I still believe, as strongly as ever that Scott Brown has made the wrong decisions for Massachusetts and has hindered our progress as a nation on vital issues like putting Americans back to work and moving our economy forward again,” Setti Warren wrote in an email invitation to the endorsement announcement, provided by his campaign. “This Thursday, I will endorse the only candidate I believe can beat Scott Brown in the fall of 2012 – Elizabeth Warren.” Also, in an email (no link), Senator Al Franken (D-MN) has announced he is supported Warren as well. When a passionate, principled, progressive reformer like Elizabeth Warren decides to run for the U.S. Senate, the first thing to do is to get really, really excited. We’ve all seen what Elizabeth can do with her smarts — and her guts. I’ve been impressed with her tenacity for years. She took on Wall Street before anyone else would and pushed consumer protection to the top of the financial reform agenda. We know she’s tough and fiery and even [...]

Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren told The Daily Beast in an interview published yesterday that she supports the Occupy movement: “‘I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do,’ she says. ‘I support what they do.’” Scott Brown’s Republican Party, which has already positioned their candidate as a Red State champion, attacked immediately. Glenn Johnson in the Globe: “Warren’s decision to not only embrace, but take credit for this movement is notable considering the Boston Police Department was recently forced to arrest at least 141 of her Occupy acolytes in Boston the other day after they threatened to tie up traffic downtown and refused to abide by their protest permit limits,” NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh wrote. Brown’s campaign, led by self-confessed Internet dirty campaigner Eric Fehrnstom, has apparently endorsed these slash and burn tactics.  It recently purchased the QueenElizabethWarren.com attack site. The problem with positioning Brown as a Red State radical is that a majority of Americans support the Occupy movement: 54 percent according to Time, including 56 percent of non-college-educated whites, according to the National Journal. In New York, which has voted with Massachusetts in the last several national elections, 87 percent of the population is fine with the Occupy protesters, and 81 percent of Democrats [...]

The League of Conversation voters has issued a new ad highlighting Scott Brown’s perfect fidelity to polluters and big corporations over individuals. Accompanying press release: Senator Brown scored an abysmal zero percent on the League of Conservation Voters 2010 National Environmental Scorecard. He voted to cripple the Clean Water Act and weaken the Clean Air Act as well as prevent the EPA from addressing dangerous global warming pollution. In May, he voted against a bipartisan Senate majority to repeal billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the nation’s most profitable oil companies. He has received $152,100 in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies over the course of his career. Two weeks before his May vote to protect oil industry taxpayer subsidies, he received contributions from Chevron for $5,000 and Conoco Phillips for $1,000. Exxon contributed $2,500 less than a week before the vote.

Mass-Care and Massachusetts Physicians for a National Health Program today released a comprehensive new report on the outcomes of the Massachusetts Health Reform law, as well as analysis of 5 years of media coverage of the law. The results will surprise many: while Massachusetts reform has had some important beneficial impacts, covering about half of the uninsured and modestly improving access to care, these gains have come at a price: Claims that health reform was a “shared responsibility” are disingenuous: rising costs after health reform have been disproportionately shouldered by lower-middle class families, letting the wealthy off the hook. Small businesses have been particularly hard hit by health reform: quality health care coverage for small business employees all but disappeared in the years following health reform, and reform led to premiums for small employers rising more rapidly than in other states (7 percent faster for individuals and 14 percent faster for families). Health reform accelerated the growth of administration in the Massachusetts health care system, by adding additional complexity to an already expensive and fragmented system. Underinsurance has increased rapidly after health reform, with high-deductible plans tripling between 2006 and 2008. Health reform and subsequent policy decisions have led to [...]

Is “Obamacare” the son of “Romneycare”? The newest installment of CommonWealth magazine’s “Face to Face” video conversations features two of the people best qualified to discuss that topic, which continues to be one of the most persistent questions Mitt Romney faces on the campaign trail. We asked Tim Murphy, who was Romney’s secretary of health and human services and the point-man for the administration in crafting the 2006 Massachusetts law, to talk this question over with John McDonough, who was then director of Health Care for All, the state’s leading health care advocacy group, and went on to serve as top policy adviser to Ted Kennedy’s US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, where early work on the national law took place. Check out their conversation here. Michael Jonas Executive Editor, CommonWealth

MA Sen. James (Jamie) Eldridge did not throw up his hands last year when the SCOTUS passed Citizens United by five to four. He proposed commonwealth and federal fixes to unlimited, undisclosed campaign and advertising contributions under the guise of corporate free speech. You can head over to his website for the overview or the details. You can also click the player below for a half hour show in which he describes his two bills and his call for a U.S. Constitutional amendment. Many of us were outraged by or despondent after learning the corporations-are-people and money-is-free-speech ruling. Eldridge apparently is high on the outrage but very low on being paralyzed by despair. He gave it a go last year here and reintroduced two bills to set up the rules for MA-chartered corporations. They are advancing through the hearing process and he’s working for quick acceptance.

To: The Honorable Michael Moran and the Honorable Stan Rosenberg, Chairs, Massachusetts Joint Committee on Redistricting From: Cheryl Crawford, Co-Executive Director, MassVOTE Date: October 25, 2011 Dear Chairmen Rosenberg and Moran, The new proposed maps for the State House and State Senate dramatically increase the number of majority-minority seats, while keeping many communities together. A few small changes may be appropriate to make the maps even better, but, substantially, these maps mark a major step forward for the cause of voting rights, and I urge you and your colleagues to pass them into law. As a young girl, I remember family members marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a black woman, a community activist, and a resident of Dorchester, voting rights have always mattered to me.  When district lines are drawn to prevent communities from having their say, voting itself means little. That is why the redistricting process has been so important to MassVOTE, and why I am so pleased with the new maps.