If Bulger has been in contact with his brother over the last 15 years he should be tried and if guilty his pension revoked. Hopefully the FBI are checking the California apartment and phone records.
Please share widely!
Reality-based commentary on politics.
But I’m pretty sure Whitey would be sharp enough to protect his brother by not disclosing his location.
All this talk of taking away pensions is another reason to transition from defined benefit to defined contribution plans for new hires. I’m fine with it as long as new hires are fairly compensated and matched.
The idea that someones retirement can just be taken away – regardless of who their brother is or what they’ve done – just doesn’t make sense to me.
When a powerful local political figure and sitting public university president tells a grand jury, under oath, to go stuff themselves, I think he should forfeit any pension received from the government he betrays.
In my view, a retiree who is convicted of stealing from his or her former employer should forfeit any pension from that employer. William Bulger betrayed his office and every citizen when he helped his brother evade capture. I would like to see every penny he ever earned recaptured in a clawback, but that will never happen.
This family is a black mark on Massachusetts. Each of them — James, William, and William’s son Christopher. They all belong behind bars.
and collaborators who were in high places in the federal, state and local law enforcement, and who may have known where he was all along and facilitated the transfer of a couple million of “walking around money” , will be revealed.
While I do believe they should be prosecuted like Catherine Gregg for harboring a criminal, I’m afraid that it will further erode the public’s confidence in our law enforcement agencies. Of course most of them are retired themselves, or dead.
Carmen will have a mess on her hands.
The public’s lack of confidence in law enforcement and Beacon Hill stem, in part, from the total secrecy in which both choose to operate. Beacon Hill MUST be subject to open meeting laws. There must be a return to open debate, and Lobbyists must not be a favored tribe that operate in secret. Tribal loyalties must not trump the rule of law any longer. Plain and simple. People like me who watch and listen very carefully are very sceptical of the official dialogue these days.
…that you now offer this non sequiter. Yes, if there’s a case to be made against William for aiding and abetting his brother, then it should be made. However, this is entirely a personal and family matter, not political. If William helped his brother the case against him would be the same whether he was Senate/UMass President or always employed in the private sector.
the capacity of ordinary citizens, or their (gasp) lobbyists, to monitor the process — meaning be there during all the deliberations, take careful notes and pass them on to the ordinary citizens who have the time to read and analyze them, comment on them and distribute their comments and take action.
Amber you often tell us you do not have the time to participate in this kind of activity because of your professional demands.
I wish Mass PIRG, Mass Common Cause, CLUM to name ONLY three of my favorite trusted “public interest” groups had the financial resources to cover and report on every committee meeting promptly, and I wish the Legislature had the budget to print the minutes promptly, just as I wish you had the time to digest at least a hundred pages a day.
Got any constructive suggestions?
As you know, despite the tone of your comment, I attended every single one of the hearings leading to the overhaul of the child welfare system, provided a white paper, did an analysis comparing the legislation that issued, and the current legal scheme, and testified on that, too. I gave up several work days to do that, made some impact on the ultimate legislation, and was not paid one dime as well as losing substantial income. That area is one where I have “deep knowledge” both intellectual and experiential and contributed that knowledge – as far as I could see I was the only person with legal experience actually representing parents and children who did so outside of the agency stakeholders.
What I cannot do is close my office, eat 2-4 hours travel time (depending on where I am appearing, traffic, and travel time) and give up whole work days EVERY week. As you do seem tired of hearing, I am the sole income for four people, I do not receive any “W2 income” or benefits, and have to manage my sole employee – myself – with care. None the less, I write letters on behalf of causes I believe in – as you have reason to know.
If voice recognition software, use by all stenographers pretty much these days was used to create online transcripts of hearings, in any area where I have interest and sufficient knowledge, I would read and respond. I provide letters and white papers on quite a few bills, but cannot do them all of course and zealously represent my clients and support my family.
I do not consider my concern that NO open meeting requirements apply to the Legislature either a meaningless crusade, or deserving of ridicule – and were hearings posted enough in advance for mere citizens to schedule their time, and transcripts of hearings available online, you might just be surprised at the increase in citizen activism and involvement.
Well-meaning lobbyists taking notes are better than nothing – that is if an honest transcription of those notes is actually available (rarely the case) – but no substitute for having reasonable open meeting laws and use of current technology to post transcription via voice recognition software.
But even so, without knowing what is going on, how to know when to make time for what is going on? Or when to watch? Thus, notice of hearings, posted transcripts, and posted legislation and avoiding secret, backroom deals are needed to both protect the public, and avoid the kind of temptations that have led to three indicted Speakers in a row.
Or are you comfortable with the notion that three House Speakers are now convicted criminals?
See my comment, above. It may be that without realizing it, Judy has so identified with the guild of lobbyists as to be opposed to more openness, having ALL Committee hearings posted AT LEAST a week in advance, and voice recognition software used to create prompt transcripts. I hope not, becaue I like Judy and I really do think she means well.
I reiterate though, that transparency is only as good as the capacity of citizens willing and able to read all the stuff and take action on it by writing their own “white paper” if they wish to do so.
By the way most committees post their hearing schedule weeks and sometimes months in advance. On the web. I suspect there was a thousand pages of testimony and comments and research papers sent into the Committee on the child welfare bill you were following so completely.
How do you know what to read if you don’t know what is happening? And could the Commonwealth make it any harder to understand what is happening with its Government?
Two comments:
1) The Legislature has a pathetic website that makes it difficult to do simple research on upcoming bills, etc.
2) Why can’t the Legislature show via live feed each and every House and Senate meeting and at least Joint Committee hearings? Local School Committee meeting are more readily availavle than House and Senate meetings.
What’s up with the “white paper” thing? Both Amber and myself would argue that citizens of the Commonwealth want to know what is happening with their government. They are not interested in writing “white papers.” As they say, “sunlight is the best disinfectent.”
1) The Legislature has a pathetic website that makes it difficult to do simple research on upcoming bills, etc.
2) Why can’t the Legislature show via live feed each and every House and Senate meeting and at least Joint Committee hearings? Local School Committee meeting are more readily availavle than House and Senate meetings.
1) The Legislature has a pathetic website that makes it difficult to do simple research on upcoming bills, etc.
2) Why can’t the Legislature show via live feed each and every House and Senate meeting and at least Joint Committee hearings? Local School Committee meeting are more readily availavle than House and Senate meetings.
…I remember “back in the day” the only place the so-called “Rogers Commission” on indigent defense posted was a single sheet on the 4th floor, Senate side, taped to the wall near the men’s bathroon – I had a staffer looking for me, I could not comb the building every day! (No, I am NOT kidding)
It varies. It truly does – though “some” committees have gotten better about posting on the new (and annoyingly hard to use) legislative website.
So, glad we are agreed that having “more openness” would be good; I still say that “openness” needs to be eliminating the statutory exclusion of the legislature from Open Meeting laws, just for a start.
As to having citizens make use of the information should openness someday occur, well, that initiative to BRING BACK CIVICS EDUCATION would help, don’t you think?
…what this diary has to do with transperancy in government. What William knew and when he knew it about his brother is a family matter, not a political one.
You feel that it is a private, family matter that the host of the 2000 presidential debates may have had information that would lead to the capture of the murderer of victims being uneearthed right down the road?
…but I’m guessing UMass was the site of one of the 2000 debates (actually that sounds vaguely familiar)? However, I don’t see what one has to do with the other, and as far as I know William has always claimed that he has not been aware of Whitey’s whereabouts. I for one have no evidence to contradict that claim.
You are right. Other states do it a lot better, with bigger budgets, incidentally. But one day at a time they add new stuff.
Here’s where you find the the schedule of hearings
http://www.malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings
Here’s the new search site.
http://www.malegislature.gov/Site/WhatsNew#ImprovedSearch
Televising the sessions and committee hearings costs money, and the legislature’s budget can’t absorb it. Local school committee’s and selectman’s meetings are usually done on local public access cable I think.
How true. So don’t trials in Federal and State court. It also costs money to telecast SC meetings. We piss away a lot of money in the Commonwealth. Spending a few dollars on keeping citizens informed is hardly a bad thing and may get a few more people in tune with the nonsense that happens on Beacon Hill.
…does indicate that some of the hearings have been recorded.
Why not all? I have an interest in the Joint Comm on Education hearings. I’ve been advised that I am more than welcome to attend. Wouldn’t it be easier for folks like myself that have an interest to have the option of watching live or watching a taped meeting? Certainly the answer is yes and I don’t buy the notion that these telecasts are expensive. At a time when state government has little credability, one wonders why the status quo. I also wonder when the good reps and senators from both parties stand up and insist on change. Must suck working hard to do the right thing and have your reputation dragged into the gutter simply due to the fact that “leadership” refuses to step into a more transparent world.
My son reads lips. It was always great when he came with me and we were in the gallery – great on CNN too, but the ENTIRE cost for CNN coverage was pin money, and largely covered by commercials!! The scanty web casts with one camera that avoid the conferences around the Rostrum like the plague are NO substitute. But, yes, it was Sal who did not get the cameras replaced and dropped CNN cable of sessions…as things have played out one does have to wonder.
There are lots of great young people in both parties that hopefully get fed up with the tired and obstructionist ways of today’s Mass Legislative leaders. Here’s hoping that the taint of DiMasi being found guilty gets a few of these more open minded folks to put pressure on DeLeo, Murray, et al to actually listen.
Amber and Dave agree! Cool.
I doubt the CNN I’m thinking of would spend a lot of time on a state legislature. Didn’t WGBX channel 44 do CSPAN style coverage, at least for plenary sessions? I don’t recall if they ever did committees. I wonder if either the cable providers in state could create a Massachusetts CSPAN or if CSPAN itself could expand its network to create state affiliates. Keep in mind CSPAN gets no public funding, so it is doable without that factor.
…it was Sal who dropped the contract. I remember watching it a lot when I had my hip replacement after being hit by a car, T-boned in the middle of a left turn and all, in 2006.
For those interested; http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-cop-is-credited-with-cracking-Whitey-Bulger-case-124560164.html