editor’s note: After I blogged about the Holden Police Dept., I got this note:
“Where are you from? Holden police are known … You had the dog, but he had the gun. Be glad he didn’t say you were speeding.”
- Jay Tyer
via the Internet
editor’s note: a message from Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts:
Dear friends,
Welcome to our campaign’s weekly e-mail update. We’re off to a fantastic start, and I wanted to welcome new supporters and old friends with a quick message about the incredible opportunity that we face, even in the midst of great crises.
On Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill the sellouts continue apace - to health insurance giants, Wall Street banksters, war hawks and climate spoilers. Business as usual is still taking a heavy toll on our jobs, health, communities and environment, pushing us towards the brink. More than ever, there is cause to rise up for justice, survival and the future we deserve. We have an unprecedented opportunity to tip the balance in 2010 towards a healthy, just, sustainable future –in Massachusetts and beyond.
This campaign will be a vehicle for our shared vision that grows more essential with every passing year: vibrant, secure local economies, community-based green jobs, alternative clean energy and local agriculture (two of the fastest growing sectors around), an end to needless, cruel home foreclosures, and Medicare for all. Click to continue »
New report cites harm to local aid and tax base as reasons against casinos
A new report says predatory gambling proposals in Massachusetts will hurt local aid to towns and cities and divert millions in discretionary income from the state and its taxpayers.
The report also says that predatory casinos and slot machines will push more people deeper into personal debt, burdening social service networks and taxpayers. Click to continue »
By Rosalie Tirella
… she shouldn’t run for governor of Massachusetts.
I have known and worked with Grace Ross for a while now. InCity Times endorsed her for governor last time around (I put her on our cover and ran a huge story, too!). I also endorsed her for Worcester City Council three years ago, when she ran for an at-large seat. She would have made a great at large city councilor. I mean, look who we ended up with instead: a totally incompetent nabob - Mike Germain.
I remember going to her “support Grace meetings” when she ran for that at large seat council seat - when she really had a chance of winning (until Mayor Joe O’Brien’s wife, Lisa Weinberg, began her smear campaign against Grace, calling her anti-semetic - the last thing Grace would ever be). Grace had so many great folks backing her then - all the city’s neighborhood activists, it seemed! She was so inspirational when she spoke! You just wanted to get up and clap after one of Grace’s beautifully worded speeches. Click to continue »
By Rosalie Tirella
Scott Brown, our new US senator, is being touted by some as a Capra-esque figure. That he, like Jimmy Stewart, in Frank Capra’s classic movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” is some naive, small-town bumpkin with sky-high ideals and an undying love for the little guy/gal. Someone who, like Jimmy Stewart, will go down fighting for the common man.
Bull shit.
I’ve listened to and watched Scott Brown. He is no innocent idealist - he is a wily politician who has played this great state for a sucker. He has turned my beloved state into a stage for him to play out his twisted political version of “American Idol” - starring Mass politicians. Starring Scott Brown! After all, only one contestant - I mean politician - can win! Only (Brown) can pull at the voters’ heart strings! Only one can just pour his soul out to the voters - who love him, love him, love him! Only Scott Brown can sing voters a loud, sappy version of “This Land is Your Land.”
But Woody Gutherie, upon hearing Brown desecrate his holy lyrics, would have driven a pitch fork through his phony heart Click to continue »
By William S. Coleman III, Independent Candidate
I am a candidate for the United States Senate. I truly believe the United States of America is the greatest country in the world. Opportunity for any persons dream is only limited to the self imposed borders of ones own imagination. This is what is great about America and what separates us from other countries.
But the America we live in is not and was not made to be perfect. The founding Mothers and Fathers of our country instilled in us an American work ethic that encourages us to make America better and stronger. Click to continue »
By State Senator Robert L. Hedlund, minority whip
I didn’t consider myself an “animal protection” person. I wear a leather motorcycle jacket. I sometimes eat meat. And I oppose forming a union for pigeons that “act” in movies, as one of my colleagues is pushing for.
Yet, I am now and have been for several years, one of the Legislature’s leading advocates against cruelty to elephants, and other animal protection issues.
I owe it all to members of the South Shore Humane Society, who brought to my attention one day the physical and mental abuse leveled against non-domestic animals that are forced to perform as part as circuses or traveling exhibits. Click to continue »
By Rosalie Tirella
I was glued to the TV this past weekend, watching history unfold before my eyes: the wake of the late, great US Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, the funeral mass of Ted Kennedy, the goodbyes to Ted Kennedy. From folks in Boston, Massachusetts, from his colleagues/staff in Washington DC., from people all over the country. The entire American pageant.
I only cried at the end, when I had wisely switched to CSPAN for the gravesite ceremony. Thanks to CSPAN, there was almost complete silence as Kennedy was carried to his grave in Arlington Cemetery. No commentators bloviating, no melodramatic music piped in by the news channels to seduce you into a mood. You simply saw the silent end - heart-rending. To be put into the ground. To be covered with dirt. To be locked in the earth, darkness, forever. Even with the flag draped over Kennedy’s coffin, all the flowers at the cemetery, the “eternal flame” at the grave site, and brothers Jack and Bobby waiting silently in the earth nearby, you felt: Teddy will never see a tree again - or the sky. Oh, the exquisite pain! Click to continue »
By Rosalie Tirella
This Sunday Worcester City Clerk David Rushford whined about his reputation being sullied via the news rags. Bull shit! Rushford has brought this tsunami on himself.
And let’s give him the benefit of the doubt: OK, David, you only charge $50 per marriage. Let’s do the math. $50 x 950 marriages (the number of couples you married last year) = $47,500.
$47,500!
That’s what you pocketed last year, if we go with the conservative number.
Now let’s take you pal Jordan Levy’s statement - that you usually perform half that number of marriages, that last year was atypical. Half of 950 marriages is 475. Let’s do the math with 475 marriages and the $50 fee:
475 x $50 = $23,750.
Why should the taxpayers of Worcester pay you a nice little sum of $23,750 on top of your base salary of $131,000?
The money belongs to the City of Worcester. That $23,750 could go towards the hiring of a city youth worker - someone who can work with city gang members, some young kid fresh out of college who needs a job, needs a break. That’s the trouble with Worcester - the same people keep giving themselves and their relatives/pals break after break.
Let’s not allow City Clerk David Rushford to be yet another Worcester hog at the municipal trough.
P.S. Rushford lives on Regent Street - the street before Mass Ave.
By William T. Breault
To our state legislators:
You are considering important legislation - HB 2160 - that would establish a “medical” marijuana program in Massachusetts. There have been many half truths and mis-perceptions swirling around this controversial issue. It’s important to set the record straight.
Who really uses “medical” marijuana?
Advocates of the legislation claim that “medical” marijuana helps seriously ill people with cancer or AIDS or glaucoma. They paint a picture of elderly ill people who need it for pain relief. However, “medical” marijuana patient records from California show that 62% [of patients] were between 17 and 35 years of age; and 71% were between ages 17 and 40. Only 2.05% of customers obtained physician recommendations for AIDS, glaucoma or cancer. An extremely high number of people were using “medical” marijuana for other purposes. Source: Report from the San Diego County District Attorney
The bill makes it very easy to get marijuana.
This legislation makes it very easy to get marijuana. If you are over age 18, you can obtain marijuana by claiming to have a “medical condition” and pain or spasms or nausea and receive a medical marijuana card from a physician after a quick examination. Click to continue »
